Apr 09

Today’s News 9th April 2024

  • "We Cannot Cope": Police Scotland Deluged With Politicized Hate-Crime Reports
    “We Cannot Cope”: Police Scotland Deluged With Politicized Hate-Crime Reports

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    Entirely as predicted, Police Scotland has been deluged with vexatious and politically-driven ‘hate crime’ reports, with one top official complaining “we cannot cope.”

    Didn’t see this one coming.

    Under the new legislation, anyone deemed to have been verbally ‘abusive’, in person or online, to a transgender person, including “insulting” them could be hit with a prison sentence of up to seven years.

    That instantly led to a flood of bad faith reports, including from conservatives making a mockery of the system and from deranged left-wing activists trying to punish their ideological adversaries.

    David Threadgold, Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said that the new legislation was being exploited to pursue personal and political vendettas.

    “Police Scotland have gone public and said that on every occasion, reports of hate crime will be investigated,” Mr. Threadgold told the BBC. “That creates a situation where we simply cannot cope at the moment.”

    “When you have vexatious complaints, people who look to weaponise this legislation or who make these complaints for personal gain or political point scoring, then that creates a problem for the police which can affect public satisfaction in my organisation,” he added.

    As we previously highlighted, Police Scotland admitted that the new law could create “additional demand” and create a “resource implication” for police.

    This followed a trial of a separate program set to be implemented across the country to stop investigating crimes like theft and criminal damage, which authorities acknowledge will help criminals.

    As we reported yesterday, out of the more than 8000 reports police have received under the new ‘hate crime’ law, less than one per cent are leading to investigations.

    Police Scotland are having to pay officers in their control room “hundreds of thousands” in overtime to deal with the onslaught of frivolous reports.

    However, that’s still nearly 800 new investigations in a single week for a police force that already has stretched resources.

    It’s been a complete disaster, but they can’t say nobody warned them.

    *  *  *

    Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/09/2024 – 02:00

  • NetZero And Human Rights Are Mutually Exclusive
    NetZero And Human Rights Are Mutually Exclusive

    Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

    (Featuring: The Three Big Lies of “Climate Action”)

    Everybody talks a good game when asked about environmental concerns. But they underestimate what real “climate action” will cost them, personally, and they’re prone to balking when they figure it out.

    In 2018, The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago conducted a survey of 1,202 people asking them if they thought climate change was an issue, and if so, how much were they willing to contribute, out of their own pockets, towards “fixing it”:

    • 71% of the respondents said that climate change was a reality, and most of those thought human activity was largely responsible for it.

    • 57% said they’d be willing to spend $1/month, or $12 annually.

    • 23% were willing to go big: $40 a month, in order to “fix” climate change.

    A more recent study of ten European countries in 2021 found that most people feel as though they are already doing their part to live a climate conscious lifestyle – and further – they are individually doing more than those in the media, or their governments (hold that thought).

    In other words, while most respondents believed that there was an impending climate crisis, they also believe they had already made all the personal lifestyle adjustments they’ll need to make in order to address it.

    These attitudes are pretty typical of a populace who has already undergone massive conditioning by the media and academia around climate alarmism, but who otherwise live largely insular, bubble-wrapped lifestyles and think food comes from Uber Eats.

    They have no idea that  that climate targets, like “netzero” or Agenda 2030 will cost more them more than a few hundred bucks a year, per person, to “fix”.

    Even with carbon taxes becoming more prevalent – citizens think the extent of the impact on their lives are the economic pressures of them inexorably rising (here in Canada, the carbon tax went up 23% on April 1st, the same day all federal Members of Parliament got a pay raise).

    That’s bad enough – but people are still completely unprepared for what has already been decided from on high for their personal destinies:

    Climate Action requires a complete re-ordering of society and civilization itself.

    “De-carbonization” requires “#degrowth”, a euphemistic hashtag that really means forced austerity on all of humanity – save for those apparatchiks imposing it on the rest of us.

    The Big Lie of climate alarmism is threefold:

    1. That the climate goals of netzero and decarbonization can boost the economy and increase prosperity for all

    2. That achieving said goals will afford us control over the climate and alter the planetary physics of the earth itself

    3. That this is all “settled science”

    Let’s look at each of these in order:

    Big Lie #1: Pursuing Netzero will boost prosperity

    Many politicians like to gaslight us that there is a way achieve netzero targets in an economically beneficial manner. A good example, again here in Canada – is the carbon tax.

    Everybody pays the carbon tax – on gas, on flights, on heating their homes, etc. Most households get a “carbon tax rebate” – which is invariably, for less money than they have paid in carbon taxes. This is borne out in countless analyses on this, including the government’s own Parliamentary Budget Office report, which found that:

    “most households will experience a net loss of income from the federal carbon tax, even after rebates.

    Specifically, in fiscal year 2024-25, 60 per cent of households in Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba will pay more in carbon taxes than what they receive in rebates, after accounting for both direct and indirect costs of the carbon tax. By 2030, 80 per cent of households in Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. will be worse off, as will 60 per cent of households in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador.

    Indeed, according to the PBO estimates, the carbon tax will cost the average Canadian household between $377 and $911 in 2024-25—even after rebates, with Albertans being the most affected. As the carbon tax escalates annually, the financial burden will intensify. By 2030, the carbon tax’s average net cost for Canadian households will rise to $1,490 in Manitoba, $1,723 in Saskatchewan, $1,820 in Ontario and $2,773 in Alberta.”
    — Via Fraser Institute

    Yet the Trudeau government frames the rebate as “free money” for Canadians, and demonizes anybody who wants to “Axe The Tax” as though they are trying to take money away from taxpayers.

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    If decarbonization was economically viable, then it would be happening on its own, without governments and the corporate media relentlessly brainwashing us to do it.

    For example, we would probably have mini-nuclear reactors all over the place by now if private industry was given some latitude to implement it.

    Instead we have millions of hectares of wind turbines that are only “green” if you can amortize the carbon inputs over 30 or 40 years. Alas, the typical wind turbine is cooked within a decade (that’s if they don’t explode first). Apparently they can’t be recycled, either. It’s actually making the situation worse.

    Big Lie #2: Achieving Netzero will enable us to control the planet’s climate

    There has perhaps never been a more grandiose and categorically impossible vision for humanity than the one where technocrats and experts can massage the trajectory of global climate through the judicious employment of carbon taxes, personal carbon footprint quotas and forced collectivism.

    On the planetary level – it makes no difference if a country like Canada decarbonized 100% – compared to the emissions of China alone. Right now they’re lighting up two new coal fired plants every week. Wake me up when they decarbonize.

    Not to mention numerous other countries who have no intention of foregoing their shot at economic prosperity at the behest of already an affluent (not to mention overly sanctimonious), West…

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    The discrepancies in values and aims between nation states already makes the 100% conformity that climate action requires a non-starter.

    That doesn’t even account for things we absolutely can’t control like the solar system itself.

    The best and brightest minds can’t even get interest rates right, nor “manage the economy” and that’s near 100% human driven. What are we supposed to do about the elephant in the room in terms of the single most relevant driver of climate cycles here on the planet: the sun?

    Our sun outputs an estimated 6 billion times more energy per second than all of humanity generates and consumes in an entire year. It is the likeliest candidate for what drives long term heating and cooling cycles, not only here on earth – but throughout the entire solar system.

    Granted – that energy radiates in all directions – if you only count all the energy that actually hits earth, that number drops: to 100 million times annual energy usage, per second.

    Source: NASA

    No amount of carbon taxes or collectivism is going to overpower that.

    Big Lie #3: The Science Is Settled™

    Decades of propaganda and operant conditioning has browbeat the public into believing, or at least not arguing, that “the science is settled” when it comes to climate. One of the most well worn tropes around this is “97% of climate scientists agree” that “humans are causing global warming”.

    Marc Morano’s, ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide To Climate Change’, (essential reading) years ago exposed the origin of that magical number, “97%”:

    In 2013, Australian researcher John Cook analyzed 11,944 peer-reviewed papers on climate change, from which the famous, mystical 97% figure emerged. It later came out (via UN lead author Richard Tol), that of those papers, 66.4% expressed “no opinion at all” on human-caused global warming. Those were eliminated. 

    The minority of papers that were left, and did express an opinion, were mostly on the same page, and Cook took his 97% from that.

    What is actually true, however, from the study’s own numbers, is this:

    • 11,944 papers were analyzed

    • 7,930 of them expressed no opinion on AGW (66.4%)

    • 97% of the remaining 4,013 papers did

    So it turns out that 97% of climate scientists do not agree that humans are causing global warming. It was more like 32.5% (97% of 33.6% of 11,944).

    Doesn’t have the same punch, does it?

    Of course, since then, 97% became Holy Canon. So much so that any climate scientists who knew what side of the bread the butter was on, got the message loud and clear: your academic career depends on aligning with the consensus.

    So called “climate deniers” are continually deplatformed and countervailing data suppressed. This may be changing, again owing to widespread disenfranchisement with how the “experts” managed the pandemic, the public seems to be more questioning.

    The recent Climate The Movie: The Cold Truth has gone viral – and in it we see how the machinations of Big Climate may be driven more by junk science and hidden agendas than an altruistic desire to protect the environment.

    So it’s no surprise then, that the climate alarmists are turning out in full force to have it suppressed:

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    Fortunately, the genie is out of the bottle now – Climate The Movie is being circulated far and wide, even having been uploaded to the decentralized InterPlanetary File System

    After the botched policy responses to Covid, when it comes to climate,  the public increasingly isn’t buying it.  We’ll see this in action when the Canada’s Liberals, who have clearly gone “all in” on climate, lose the next election. I’ve been predicting a 1993-style blowout (when Bryan Mulroney’s deeply loathed Conservatives lost all but three seats, including their party status).

    However, the public seemingly possesses but a single lever to resist all this: the ability to vote out politicians hellbent on impoverishing them.

    But if the rabble continues in its propensity to vote the “wrong way”, how much longer will they be permitted to do so?

    As we’ll see below – this lever will have to be rescinded, because otherwise the world will end.

    Which is why the only forward course of action is political, economic and cultural tyranny.

    If the plebs won’t voluntarily accept climate action – it will have to be forced on them.

    The unpleasant truth is – if policy makers are serious about achieving netzero, it will require a massive policy of degrowth that will impoverish the masses and demolish the economy – none of which is conducive to being re-elected.

    Which means: if world governments are serious about climate action, they will have to impose a totalitarian dictatorship to achieve it.

    This has already been understood and internalized by the mainstream corporate media – after experiencing the destruction of their monopoly on “news” at the hands of the internet – have aggressively pivoted into a new business model: that of being propagandists for eco-Marxism.

    Academia is right there alongside, putting out research papers to enshrine climate collectivism into the public discourse, and freeze out any dissenters.

    In “Political Legitimacy, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change”, Ross Mittiga, a professor of Political Theory at the Catholic University of Chile (and Democratic Socialist) argues that political aspirants should not even be permitted to seek office unless they pass a “climate litmus test”;

    “Governments might also justifiably limit certain democratic institutions and processes to the extent these bear on the promulgation or implementation of environmental policy. This could involve imposing a climate litmus-test on those who seek public office, disqualifying anyone who has significant (relational or financial) ties to climate-harming industries or a history of climate denialism.”

    “More strongly, governments may establish institutions capable of overturning previous democratic decisions (expressed, for example, in popu- lar referenda or plebiscites) against the implementation of carbon taxes or other necessary climate policies.”

    In a 2023 piece via BBC’s “Future World”, the prospect of climate change and action around it was deemed “too important to be left to personal choice”, which laments,

    ”what do truly low-carbon lifestyles look like – and can they really be achieved by personal choice alone?“

    Future Labs – also out of the UK – put out a paper on the future of travel last year, that predicted mandatory “carbon passports” that would limit one’s travel based on their C02 footprint:

    A personal carbon emissions limit will become the new normal…

    These allowances will manifest as passports that force people to ration their carbon in line with the global carbon budget…

    By 2040, we can expect to see limitations imposed on the amount of travel that is permitted each year.

    Experts suggest that individuals should currently limit their carbon emissions to 2.3 tonnes each year

    This last line is important – because it puts a number to how far down the rabble is expected to ratchet down their living standards: it’s about one quarter of what the typical G20 citizen emits today – by 2040, and “experts suggest” that gets cut again by half by 2050.

    In the carbon passports article I laid out a table showing by how much individuals in each country would have to ratchet down their output to meet the personal carbon allowances, set by unelected and unaccountable experts:

    Both politicians and their appointed apparatchiks are being more open about their ideologies and decidedly collectivist aims:

    In 2023 a federal report published by Health Canada openly advocated for the dismantling of capitalism itself, equating it with white supremacy and colonialism – attributing them all as core drivers of the climate crisis. Another term for “capitalism” is “free markets”.

    The report also advocated for collectivism and decried individualism as “one of the core values of society that has to change”:

    “The hopes expressed by participants encompassed such a vision of collectivism”

    “there are 3 core values in western society, and for that matter, in global society, that have to change. One core value is about growth and materialism. The second core value is liberty and individualism, which has to be rethought because the kind of individualism that is preached by neoliberals is part of the problem. It advances the individual over the collective… it leads to a huge number of problems, and it undermines the collective process”

    “If we don’t address capitalism, if we don’t address colonialism, racism, the patriarchy, et cetera, we’re going to tread water for a long time until we eventually drown …”

    As I remarked at the time: this was not a think piece or a screed from Vox or Jacobin Magazine – it was an official Canadian government report issued in the name of “His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Health, 2023”.

    Canadian politicians across all parties have been coalescing around climate authoritarianism for decades. In 2007, Canada’s Laurentian Elite met in Merrickville, Ontario to discuss how best to advance the climate agenda – and was later analyzed via a series of interviews with the participants who comprised a who’s who of Canadian dynastic wealth, corporate power, politics – and media.

    They transcended party boundaries: Former Prime Minister Joe Clark, Justin Trudeau bagman Stephen Bronfman, Patrick Daniel (Enbridge), Stéphane Dion, former Quebec premiere Pierre Marc Johnson, WE Charity co-founder Mark Kielburger, the list goes on.

    From the “strictly confidential” briefings which are openly linked from this UCLA professor’s web page we learn how Canada’s elite ruminated about the lack of action on climate change, and how untenable the required societal mobilization would be in a democracy:

    “It is impossible to have real conservation in a democracy! What is needed is a benevolent dictator—globally, and in Canada.”

    During the proceedings…

    “…many speakers express a longing for an authoritative decision process that somehow takes the issue out of the political arena. Some express this as the need for a “benign dictator;”

    Today we have Canadian Members of Parliament attempting to advance legislation that would imprison people for speaking in favour of fossil fuels.

    This move toward climate authoritarianism is spreading throughout the neoLiberal world order – most recently in Germany a “Climate Justice” report by the German Ethics Council concluded that “restricting freedoms may be necessary to fight climate change”.

    The original is in german, although there is an english summary here, I had the full PDF run through DeepL and is here.

    From the summary, we do get the juicy bits:

    “Responsibility presupposes freedom, and freedom includes responsibility. This principle also applies for climate change; it is crucial for our free and democratic society and safeguarded and guaranteed by law. Social coexistence requires mutual restrictions of freedom, in order to provide equitable freedom for all.“

    “The inner and rationally guided realisation of the necessity for action leads to self-commitment as an expression of one’s individual freedom. This may imply that people question their former lifestyle or adapt their behaviour, for example by voluntarily abandoning certain vacation, consumption or mobility practices.”

    And the Orwell Award goes to:

    “On grounds of justice, it can be morally required to contribute to measures to tackle climate change. If one’s own exercise of freedom interferes in an unjust manner with the freedom and welfare of others or of future generations, for example through consumption that is harmful to the climate, the authorities may intervene with restrictions of freedom.

    As long as there is no regulatory obligation, it is left up to the individual to accept a moral obligation to co-operate.”

    This would be a good place to ask yourself: what do you think the relentless attacks on Bitcoin’s Proof of Work mining has really been about? It isn’t to save the environment from Bitcoin’s electricity consumption – it’s to create the pretext for asserting authority over all energy usage.

    We could probably even riff out one of those Martin Niemöller “First They Came For…” poetic reboots:

    “First they came for the Bitcoin miners (but I didn’t care because I was a no-coiner)…” (or one of those PoS retards).

    “Then they came for…” yada yada yada – guess how it ends?

    “Then they came for me, because of my heated bathroom floors”

    There’s only one other problem with all this…

    #Degrowth For Thee, But Not For Me

    It’s not bad enough that your consumption choices are being decided for you by unelected technocrats informed by garbage computer models predicting an unfalsifiable eco-Eschaton.

    What’s worse is that while you’re personal standard of living is going to be attenuated, metered, capped and regulated (this is what the coming CBDCs are all about) – the apparatchiks, functionaries and career politicians who force this on you will not ratchet back their own consumption patterns, not at all.

    When I reported on COP26’s takeaways (basically, they’re coming after your meat consumption), what stood out the most was the hypocrisy of a strategic objective emerging from an elite conclave that was arrived at almost exclusively by private jet, and whose culinary menu contained some of the most carbon heavy delicacies available. High grade Scottish haggis and venison were served,  soy protein and bugs were not.

    This is the rule, not the exception. Canada’s environment minister, who doesn’t mince words that “fighting climate change is about limiting your energy usage”:

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    But has no qualms around spending millions of dollars flying his entourage out to COP28 and staying in a $2,000/night luxury hotel suite.

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    Never forget this: whenever you hear politicians, “experts”, policy wonks and especially celebrities talking about the need to dial back consumption, energy usage, travel, meat consumption and even owning pets in order to “Save The World” they aren’t talking about their own lifestyles. They’re talking about yours.

    The Public Has Had Enough

    Earlier I mentioned how there’s basically one lever the public can use to skate eco-authoritarianism into the boards, and that’s the electoral process – which is why we wonder out loud how long those will be allowed to continue.

    Here’s Klaus Schwab navel gazing with Sergei Brin about how Big Tech and algorithms will make elections unnecessary, “because the algos will already know who is going to win” (he poses this hypothetical about a minute after he says “in ten years we’ll all be sitting here with our brain implants”)

    Back here in reality: Canada’s left-wing coalition will be ejected from power in the next election, that’s pretty well a forgone conclusion.

    The US would be headed in that direction, provided the election in November actually takes place and isn’t rigged. The stakes are so high there, it’s hard to know what will happen. I once said that Donald Trump would be the penultimate President of the United States as we know them. Meaning, whoever came after him, would be the last President of a United States. We’ll see.

    The public sentiment is overwhelmingly done with climate alarmism, wokeness, and cultural Marxism in general. The question now is, will this backlash and turning point be allowed to express itself peacefully and democratically? Or will it end up unleashing a more forceful backlash?

    This is all part of the war between centralization and decentralization, which I’ve always said is, and will be, the defining tension of our era. This will transcend left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal.

    The battle now is between people who want to decide things for everybody else, vs. people who want control over their own lives.

    The Most Important Thing You Can Do

    First – you have to help dismantle the norm that it is somehow unacceptable or immoral to reject the prevailing climate alarmism.

    When Karen the co-worker goes off on a sermon in  the lunchroom that “Pierre Poilievre has no climate action plan”, instead of internally smirking and looking forward to the next election, you have to speak up, right there and then, “Yes, that’s why everybody is going to vote for him, including me”.

    This is important because, as we saw under COVID, the tyrannical regimens continued as long as normal people were afraid to speak their minds.

    Nobody liked being arbitrarily divided into “essential” and “non-essential” workers and businesses.

    Nobody liked wearing masks, sticking PCR tests up their noses or standing on the fucking dots. But everybody did it, because the first two doctors who spoke up about how stupid it all was, had their careers destroyed – and that set the trend for the next two years.

    It was the forced vaccinations that finally put the public over the edge, and it took a near uprising by the #FreedomConvoy to finally turn the tide and put an end to it.

    The coming Climate Authoritarianism will make COVID tyranny seem like a libertarian paradise.

    In today’s landscape of internet connected everything, big data, and now AI, and soon, monetary Apartheid via CBDCs, all the ingredients will be there for a technocratic authoritarianism that netzero and degrowth requires.

    Your job isn’t to tell the government you aren’t on board with this: your job is to demonstrate to those around you that it’s ok not to be on board with it.

    That also means you will have to be able the weather the consequences of not being on board with it.

    My advice continues to be: strive for financial independence – if you have a job, start your own business on the side. If you already own a business, start, buy or invest in another one. Get yourself to the point where you can be fired, canceled, ridiculed and shunned and it not being the end of you.

    Of course, that also means, if you haven’t already, start stacking Bitcoin. It’s the one monetary asset no government, no bureaucrat and no supranational entity can ever take away from you, that gains purchasing power over time and is in general, The Big Short on clown world we’re heading into.

    *  *  *

    My next e-book The CBDC Survival Guide: Navigating Monetary Apartheid will be out soon (honest), sign up for The Bombthrower mailing list and I’ll let you know when it drops – and get a copy of the The Crypto Capitalist Manifesto in the meantime. 

    Follow me on Twitter or Nostr.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 23:40

  • Insurers Spy On Houses Via Aerial Imagery, Seeking Reasons To Cancel Coverage
    Insurers Spy On Houses Via Aerial Imagery, Seeking Reasons To Cancel Coverage

    Insurance companies across the country are using satellites, drones, manned airplanes and even high-altitude balloons to spy on properties they cover with homeowners policies — and using the findings to drop customers, often without giving any opportunity to address alleged shortcomings. 

    “We’ve seen a dramatic increase across the country in reports from consumers who’ve been dropped by their insurers on the basis of an aerial image,” United Policyholders executive director Amy Bach tell the Wall Street Journal. Reasons can range from shoddy roofing to yard clutter and undeclared trampolines.  

    Much of this surveillance is done via the Geospatial Insurance Consortium, which boasts of its coverage of 99% of the US population.

    The Geospatial Insurance Consortium provides imagery insurers use to study roof condition and look for risky property attributes (via GIC)

    In pitching its ability to provide high-resolution “imagery and insights” for property reviews, GIC says insurers can use the service to “review risk and exposure on a building such as proximity of vegetation to the structure, whether a roof needs updating, and verify the exact location for a policy.” 

    “If your roof is 20 years old and one hailstorm is going to take it off, you should pay more than somebody with a brand new roof,” Allstate CEO Tom Willson told the Journal, unapologetically and ominously adding that, where the company’s use of digital imagery is concerned, “there’s even more to come.” 

    Wilson framed aerial spying as a pricing issue, but many consumers are finding that companies are using it to suddenly drop their coverage altogether. 

    The Journal describes the experience of northern California resident Cindy Picos, who was dropped by CSAA Insurance last month, with the company saying aerial imagery revealed that her roof had aged beyond its life expectancy. She paid for an inspection of her own, which found the roof was good for another decade. CSAA wasn’t impressed, and said its decision was final. The firm also refused to share its photos, though it now says it’s changed that policy and will let customers see them — if they ask. 

    Another Californian, CJ Sveen, was dropped by AAA Homeowners Insurance after their reconnaissance discovered “clutter” in his yard. An indignant Sveen told ABC7 that he uses his yard as a workshop “Apparently they have some pictures and they noticed clutter. I find that offensive. How dare you judge me because of my stuff!”

    In AAA’s defense, clutter isn’t just about aesthetics. It could present a fire hazard, attract rodents that harm the structure, present a physical danger to visitors, and obstruct firefighters’ ability to quickly contain a fire at the premises. 

    Would you cover this house? CJ Sveen’s homeowners policy was cancelled after aerial imagery captured clutter in his yard

    Another California couple had their policy torn up by AAA after overhead photography found their swimming pool had been drained. The aging pair said they emptied it because their grandchildren had grown up and they no longer used it. Empty pools are prone to cracking for lack of counter-pressure from water; they can also “float” up from the earth, creating hazardous conditions. 

    Former Michigan Farmers Insurance agent Nichole Brink told the Journal she quit the company last year over her concern that it was aggressively using aerial imagery to chase off customers, and even using shots that were two or three years old. “It’s like they’re using anything as an excuse to get people off their books,” she said. Farmers says it gives policyholders at least 60 days to challenge the company’s findings or remedy shortcomings.

    It’s probably no coincidence that Californians are frequently targeted for non-renewal via overhead spy technology. Insurers are aggressively paring back their business in the state, as the state’s thicket of regulations has blocked insurers’ ability to adequately charge for coverage in a state cursed by wildfires and earthquakes.  

    Last year, for example, State Farm said it would no longer issue new homeowners policies in the Golden State. The, in March, the company took the more draconian step of opting not to renew 72,000 property and commercial apartment policies. AIG bailed on the state in 2022. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 23:20

  • Lara Trump: RNC Focused Like A Laser On Election Integrity
    Lara Trump: RNC Focused Like A Laser On Election Integrity

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Lara Trump said Sunday that election integrity is a top priority in the upcoming November election and the committee is focused on it “like a laser.”

    Lara Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 28, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

    During an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on April 7, Ms. Trump said that the committee will dedicate all of its resources to its Election Integrity Division “as needed.”

    “When you talk about election integrity, it is vital. It is the number one thing that we are focused on, aside from getting out the vote, which, of course, Donald Trump himself will do for us,” Ms. Trump said.

    “We are making sure that we leave nothing to chance because we have to understand the importance of this election,” she added.

    Former President Donald Trump raked in a massive $50.5 million in funds for his reelection bid on Saturday. With this funding, Ms. Trump, the daughter-in-law of President Trump, said the RNC can now afford to ensure that poll workers are trained and lawyers are present in every voting precinct.

    “Prior to last night, the largest single event fundraiser in politics ever was the one that Joe Biden had. And he needed three presidents to haul in $26 million,” she said, referring to President Biden’s fundraiser in March, which included former presidents Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton.

    “We needed one man, Donald J. Trump, one president, to double that,” Ms. Trump added.

    Ms. Trump said that the outcome of this fundraiser event reflects a shift where “people are not sitting on the sidelines anymore.”

    “They understand what’s at stake. It’s a must-win election. And from the election integrity perspective, we’re focused on it like a laser at the RNC,” she added.

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    Under a joint-fundraising agreement, funds from the fundraiser event will go to the Trump campaign, the former president’s Save America PAC, the RNC, and state GOP parties.

    RNC chair Michael Whatley, who was also present for the interview, said the committee will spend “every dollar” raised on two “critical core” missions: increasing voter turnout and protecting the ballot.

    Mr. Whatley said that the RNC is working with state legislatures, boards of elections, and secretaries of state to ensure the implementation of the rules of the road.

    The committee will file lawsuits if the rules are not adhered to, he said, adding that the RNC had filed over 80 lawsuits in 24 states “to make sure that we have the ground ready to go for safe elections.”

    The committee has also been recruiting and training thousands of observers and attorneys “to make sure that we are in the room” when a vote is cast and counted, Mr. Whatley said.

    Michael Whatley, speaks before former President Donald Trump’s arrival for a rally in Greensboro, N.C., on March 2, 2024. (Jonathan Drake/Reuters)

    “What we want are fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections. And when we have it, then we’re going to protect the sanctity of that ballot. We’re going to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” he added.

    President Trump’s campaign’s fundraiser, dubbed the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” was held in hedge fund billionaire John Paulson’s $110 million home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday.

    Thie event is a much-needed boost for President Trump, who has been routinely outraised by President Biden amid a financial squeeze due to ballooning lawyer fees and legal payouts from his criminal and civil court cases.

    Mr. Paulson told The Epoch Times on Saturday that the event has now claimed the position of being the most successful political fundraiser in U.S. history.

    “This sold-out event has raised the most in a single political fundraiser in history. This overwhelming support demonstrates the enthusiasm for President Trump and his policies,” he remarked.

    Melanie Sun, Janice Hisle, and Reuter contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 23:00

  • China Paid $250,000 To "Threat Actors" In Canada In 2018 And 2019
    China Paid $250,000 To “Threat Actors” In Canada In 2018 And 2019

    A new document given to Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission suggests that Chinese officials may have offered $250,000 to “threat actors” in 2018 and 2019, according to a new report from The Globe and Mail. 

    The Canadian Security Intelligence Service document on election interference said that prior to and during the 2019 election “a group of known and suspected People’s Republic of China related threat actors in Canada, including PRC officials, worked in loose coordination with one another to covertly advance PRC interests though Canadian democratic institutions.”

    “Some of these threat actors received financial support from the PRC,” and says “reporting indicated that 11 political candidates and 13 political staff members were assessed to be either implicated in or impacted by this group of threat actors,” the document says. 

    The report suggests the $250,000 from Chinese officials in Canada was likely for foreign interference rather than political donations.

    It describes the complex routing of these funds through various individuals to mask their origin, eventually reaching a staff member of a 2019 federal election candidate and an Ontario MPP, via an influential community leader, the Mail wrote.

    According to the document, the implicated candidates include seven Liberals and four Conservatives, with some knowingly participating in foreign interference activities, while others were oblivious due to the secretive nature of the operations.

    The federal government initiated the Foreign Interference Commission inquiry in September, led by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, in response to reports by The Globe and Mail on Chinese interference in Canadian democracy.

    The inquiry, which took place on Thursday, featured testimonies from senior officials of CSIS, the RCMP, the Department of Global Affairs, and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s electronic intelligence agency.

    Dan Rogers, a former CSE official and now the deputy national security adviser, revealed the CSE had intelligence post-2021 election about alleged fund distributions, which was shared with the RCMP and CSIS, though specifics weren’t disclosed. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme stated that no criminal investigations into foreign interference were opened for the 2019 or 2021 elections, as no intelligence received warranted such actions.

    However, an investigation into foreign interference was launched following the last general election when Conservative MP Michael Chong reported being targeted by China.

    Too bad the Biden family doesn’t do business in Canada – the PRC probably could have gotten influence a lot easier that way, though it may have cost a bit more due to the need to support Hunter’s “lifestyle” and “social agenda”.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 22:40

  • FDA Finally Takes Down Ivermectin Posts After Settlement
    FDA Finally Takes Down Ivermectin Posts After Settlement

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Social media posts urging people not to take ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 have been taken down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

    The FDA removed posts from X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn that stated: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y’all. Stop it.”

    The posts had remained up even after the regulatory agency agreed to take them down as part of a settlement in a legal case brought by doctors who said the posts wrongly interfered with their practice of medicine.

    The March 21 settlement said the FDA would take down specific posts within 21 days. The posts were made in August 2021.

    The FDA has also deleted the following posts:

    • An Aug. 21, 2021, Instagram post that said: “You are not a horse. Stop it with the #ivermectin. It’s not authorized for treating #COVID.”

    • An April 26, 2022, Twitter post that said: “Hold your horses ya’ll. Ivermectin may be trending, but it still isn’t authorized or approved to treat COVID-19.”

    The posts directed people to an FDA webpage titled, “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.” The page itself acknowledged that the FDA has approved ivermectin for some uses but said “taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous” and “currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19.”

    The agency pointed to a database of clinical trials testing ivermectin against COVID-19; some of the trials showed the drug works against the illness.

    Doctors commonly prescribe FDA-approved drugs for a range of purposes, including some outside the scope of approval. The practice is known as off-label prescription.

    The FDA’s ivermectin posts gained tremendous traction across social media and news outlets, prompting internal excitement, emails obtained by The Epoch Times showed. Millions of people saw the posts. “That was great! Even I saw it!” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the agency’s acting commissioner at the time, said in one missive.

    The FDA has not alerted its followers on social media that it removed the posts.

    2022, celebrated the development.

    The case “sets an important legal precedent which should deter them from attempting this stunt again anytime soon,” she wrote on X. In another post, she said that “the terms we were asking for were met when we agreed to settle” and “we were not optimistic about what we would get in discovery.”

    But while the posts and page have been removed, the FDA has created a new page about ivermectin and COVID-19.

    Published on April 5, it states: “One of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s jobs is to carefully evaluate the scientific data on a drug to be sure that it is both safe and effective for a particular use. There continues to be interest in a drug called ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans. The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.”

    The page repeats the statement that “the FDA has determined that currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against COVID 19 in humans,” but lacks the link to the database showing mixed results from trials.

    The page also says that “health care professionals may choose to prescribe or use an approved human drug for an unapproved use when they judge that the unapproved use is medically appropriate for an individual patient.”

    An FDA spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that the settlement was not an admission of a violation of law or any other wrongdoing.

    “FDA has not changed its position that currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19,“ the spokesperson said. ”The agency has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 22:20

  • LA 'Mansion Tax' Is Yet Another Democrat Debacle
    LA ‘Mansion Tax’ Is Yet Another Democrat Debacle

    In November 2022, Los Angeles voters approved a so-called ‘mansion tax,’ which slaps a 4% sales tax on properties sold for over $5 million, and 5.5% for those over $10 million.

    The scheme (Measure ULA), put forward by Democrats, was projected to raise roughly $672 million in its first year, to be used for affordable housing.

    Not only did the plan fall short by hundreds of millions of dollars (raising just $215 million), the measure caused residential building construction to plummet, raising housing prices even further, the Washington Examiner writes, noting that the tax doesn’t just apply to large homes in Bel Air, “but also gas stations, commercial real estate, condominiums, and apartment complexes.”

    Los Angeles real estate brokers say the $5 million threshold means the new ULA tax will hit just about any apartment complex with over 15 housing units. This has discouraged lenders from offering mortgages on, and developers from building, the very multifamily projects the city needs more of to reduce housing costs. Since nearly two-thirds of homes in Los Angeles have asking prices of at least $1 million, working-class families must often rent multifamily homes to live in. CoStar analyst Ryan Patap noted that developers are further discouraged by the city’s “broader political shift in the city that’s more supportive of restrictions on landlords and more supportive of protections for tenants.”

    Around the state as a whole, multifamily housing has trended above the national average. Whereas new multifamily housing permit authorization fell nationally by nearly 19% from 2022 to 2023, California’s only decreased by 5%. But in Los Angeles County, authorizations dropped by 19%, and in LA city, they slumped by a staggering 24%. The mansion tax appears to be to blame. -Washington Examiner

    City officials are still slapping themselves on the back, bragging that $150 million from Measure ULA revenues have helped fund programs for short-term emergency rental assistance (for whom?), as well as tenant outreach and education, tenant protections, defense against evictions (squatter defense?), direct cash assistance for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

    “The pace at which ULA is generating revenue, especially over the last quarter, is impressive,” reads a statement from Joan Ling, a real estate adviser and policy analyst in urban planning who is also the lead author of a report from UCLA, USC, and Occidental College recapping ULA’s first year.

    “ULA is enabling Los Angeles to finally meet the big structural challenges driving our housing crisis—like the skyrocketing costs of land and construction—so that we can build more homes more quickly.”

    That said, as the Examiner concludes:

    Supporters have bragged that the legislation has already funded $23 million on eviction protection and tenant outreach and $28 million on aid to distressed tenants and landlords, but neither of these programs do anything actually to lower rents for working families.

    The real protection Angeleno tenants need is from a Democratic Party that is constantly passing new regulations and higher taxes that make new home and apartment construction more expensive. Until Los Angeles voters start electing leaders whose motto is “Build baby build,” they can only expect their existing housing crisis to get worse.

    Indeed.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 22:00

  • "This Is Crazy": Fetterman Tears Into 'Squatters Rights' Laws, Soft-On-Crime Policies
    “This Is Crazy”: Fetterman Tears Into ‘Squatters Rights’ Laws, Soft-On-Crime Policies

    Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has blasted the idea of “squatter’s rights,” questioning the laws that allow interlopers on a property to claim ownership over its rightful owner, calling it a case of “just breaking the law.”

    U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) walks toward the Senate Chambers in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

    Squatter rights laws allow anyone illegally occupying another person’s property to claim ownership if they are not evicted after a certain amount of time. Also known as adverse possession laws, these laws are in effect in all 50 U.S. states but enforcement differs significantly.

    In an April 6 interview with The New York Post, Mr. Fetterman said he had extensive experience with these laws while he was mayor of Braddock in Pennsylvania. In some cases, they can come into effect after only 30 days of illegally occupying a building.

    “It’s wild that if you go away on a long trip, for 30 days, and someone breaks into your home and suddenly, they have rights,” he said.

    “This is crazy. Like if somebody stole your car, and then they held it for 30 days, then somehow you now have some rights?” he added.

    According to law experts who have spoken with The Epoch Times, police can’t help because it’s a civil matter. Under these laws, the only way to remove a squatter claiming ownership is through an eviction lawsuit, which can drag on for months or years because housing courts are severely backlogged at the moment.

    Squatter’s rights as they exist today can be traced back to the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed settlers to claim land in the western United States under the agreement they would improve it and live on it for at least five years. Over time, the concept of squatter’s rights have expanded well beyond land claims.

    According to Mr. Fetterman, “Squatters have no rights,” and during his time as Mayor, he always tried to “push back against that.”

    Another expert speaking to The Epoch Times claimed illegal immigrants could further exacerbate the squatter rights issue, although he noted he had yet to see this transpire.

    Border Patrol has encountered more than 7.6 million illegal immigrants trying to cross the border since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Many have come seeking asylum and various jurisdictions around the country are struggling to keep up with the influx of people, stretching resources to their limits in some cases, such as in Texas, Arizona, and New York.

    Fetterman Says US Needs to Be Smart and Aggressive on Crime

    Soft crime policies are being blamed for the fatal shooting of NYPD Detective Jonathan Diller during a traffic stop in Queens last month. According to authorities, Guy Rivera, who was accused of the crime, has at least 21 prior arrests for drug and assault related offenses.

    Mr. Fetterman says he has no issue giving second chances to offenders who have made a mistake. But 20 chances is pushing it too far.

    “If you have those kinds of established records, it doesn’t serve any greater goal to allow people that are offending, offending, offending and allow them to not be held accountable,” he said.

    “If this individual is convicted, then he should spend the rest of his life in prison and never have an opportunity to get out,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 21:40

  • Biden Scrambles To Buy Votes With New Taxpayer-Funded Student Debt Relief Scheme
    Biden Scrambles To Buy Votes With New Taxpayer-Funded Student Debt Relief Scheme

    After American borrowers adjusted their finances amid the mass-suspension of student loan payments during the pandemic (and the scorching inflation that followed), the Biden administration on Monday announced new student loan plans that would give borrowers up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness for balances that have grown due to unpaid interest since entering repayment, regardless of income.

    The plan is aimed at those with “runaway interest.”

    Those who qualify for the “SAVE IDR” (income-driven repayment) would have the full balance of their unpaid interest forgiven, which would benefit roughly 25 million Americans.

    What’s more, the administration is also looking to provide automatic debt relief for those who qualify under the SAVE plan, Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and similar forgiveness programs which have hit red tape when it comes to relief.

    Lastly, the plan would give relief to those enrolled in low-financial-value education programs deemed insufficient by the Department of Education, as well as those experiencing hardship in paying back loans and who are at risk of default.

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    “The Biden-Harris Administration plans to release proposed rules on these plans over the coming months. If these plans are finalized as proposed, this fall the Administration would begin canceling up to $20,000 in interest for millions of borrowers and full loan forgiveness for millions more,” the administration said in a Monday statement.

    The administration said the White House estimates more than 30 million Americans would have benefited from loan forgiveness from the plans during the past three years.

    The administration is also emphasizing how its action will help Black and Latino borrowers and those who went to community college, who are more likely to struggle with student loan debt. –The Hill

    “These actions are expected to provide significant relief to Black and Latino borrowers, borrowers who attended community college, and borrowers who are financially vulnerable because they took out debt but never had the chance to complete their degree,” according to the administration.

    So the Biden administration is taking taxpayer money to pay the banks their interest?

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 21:20

  • Xi's Production Push Set To Fan Renewed Trade War
    Xi’s Production Push Set To Fan Renewed Trade War

    By George Lei, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategist

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen implored Beijing’s top leaders during her four-day visit to refrain from boosting the country’s already vast manufacturing capacity and to focus on lifting domestic demand instead.

    That push, however, is in stark contrast to the priorities of President Xi Jinping, whose “new productive forces” slogan is now dominating the economic policy discourse. His push suggests the country’s expansion of its production capacity will likely persist and contribute to increasing tensions with the nation’s major trading partners.

    While its not entirely clear how Xi’s policy will play out on the ground, equity investors have already picked winners since the phrase was listed as the government’s top task in early March. Market reactions seem to imply that Beijing will double down on state spending to strengthen China’s transition toward high-tech, value-added production and advanced manufacturing. There is also a perception that “Made in China 2025” – a government plan to groom 10 globally competitive industries, and one that drew the ire of former President Trump – is making a comeback.

    The push for greater investments in manufacturing will likely reinforce China’s role as the world’s factory and fuel already-tense trade relationships with the US and other major economies, both in the developed and developing worlds. Over the past few months, the European Union, for one, has pushed back hard against a glut of Chinese products flooding the bloc’s market, including EVs, semi-conductors and solar and wind equipment. Frictions have also been on the rise with countries including Chile, Turkey and India in recent years.

    Beijing has also attempted to reorient its economy toward one driven by consumption, but it’s had little success. Back in 2020, Xi advocated “dual circulation,” a catchphrase calling for a greater push on reforms to build an economy with stronger local catalysts and a pivot away from export-led growth. That vision never materialized and the term has subsequently fallen into disuse, like other popular slogans during the pandemic era such as curbing “disorderly capital.”

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    Tasked with delivering 5% growth yet unable to either engineer a major housing stimulus or lend a strong helping hand to consumers, policymakers can only resort to increased manufacturing investments, Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in a tweet on Friday.

    With Xi’s motto “housing is for living in, not for speculation” surfacing from time to time in policy discourse and calls for direct cash transfer to consumers falling on deaf ears, re-balancing toward a consumer-driven economy looks like a tall order.

    As production exceeds consumption, Pettis says “trade conflict is only likely to get worse.” That probably won’t change no matter who wins the White House in November.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 21:00

  • DOJ Stonewalls Over Audio Of Biden Interview With Special Counsel Hur
    DOJ Stonewalls Over Audio Of Biden Interview With Special Counsel Hur

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reused to provide audio tapes of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, defying a subpoena by the House GOP.

    In an April 8 letter to the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee, Assistant AG Carlos Felipe Uriarte complained that despite cooperating with other aspects of the Feb. 27 subpoena, “the committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt.”

    “We urge the committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it,” he added – while working for the same DOJ that has specifically sought conflict by launching investigations and lawsuits against former President Trump.

    “It is not too late for the committees to choose a different path, to take an offramp towards the ’spirit of dynamic compromise’ that the Constitution requires of us both,” the letter continues.

    The Feb. 27 subpoena requested copies of notes, audio files, video and transcripts related to Hur’s probe, and had a deadline of March 7, according to the Epoch Times, which has obtained a copy.

    “Americans expect equal justice under the law and DOJ is allowing the Bidens to operate above it,”  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement. “Special Counsel Hur’s report outlined that classified documents Joe Biden stashed for years relate to countries where his family cashed in on the Biden brand.”

    In response to a request for audio of what author Mark Zwonitzer recorded while interviewing Biden, whose two memoirs he wrote, Uriarte said there is no need for the department to hand it over because the committees also have transcripts of the interviews.

    “To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation,” Uriarte wrote.

    “They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future.”

    Uriarte then reiterated that the DOJ has provided ample evidence to the committees.

    “The department is willing to hear more from the committees, but at this time your further requests appear attenuated from the committees’ stated purposes—with today’s production, you now have the information you requested. Given the extraordinary executive branch confidentiality interests implicated here, a specific and adequate showing of need for any additional information, tethered to the authority under which the committees purport to act, is critical,” he wrote.

    Uriarte then hilariously asked the committees not to make DOJ materials public, writing “To ensure an adequate opportunity to review these materials for suitability for public release, we respectfully request that the committees not disseminate or otherwise disclose the documents or information therein without prior consultation with the department.”

    As the Epoch Times notes further;

    ‘The Evidence Does Not Establish’ Biden’s Guilt

    Mr. Hur announced on Feb. 8 that President Biden would not be charged.

    “Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Mr. Hur wrote in a 388-page report to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

    The materials, the report stated, included “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” The FBI collected these items during a search of President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, last year.

    The FBI last year also searched the president’s home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where they also found classified materials.

    Nonetheless, Mr. Hur said that “the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” and that “prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in the Department of Justice’s Principles of Federal Prosecution.”

    The classified documents are from President Biden’s more than four-decade political career, including the Senate, the vice presidency, and now the presidency.

    Mr. Hur interviewed President Biden over the span of two days last year.

    In deciding not to charge the president, Mr. Hur said that a jury likely wouldn’t convict him, in part due to his cognitive issues.

    “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Mr. Hur wrote.

    “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

    The Afghanistan documents, which had the highest level of classification in the United States, were from 2009. These papers were in a Virginia home that President Biden rented in 2019, where he met with Mr. Zwonitzer for his two books before the classified documents were sent to Delaware.

    “Nevertheless, we do not believe this evidence is sufficient, as jurors would likely find reasonable doubt for one or more of several reasons,” Mr. Hur wrote.

    “Both when he served as vice president and when the Afghanistan documents were found in Mr. Biden’s Delaware garage in 2022, his possession of them in his Delaware home was not a basis for prosecution because as vice president and president, he had authority to keep classified documents in his home,” he continued.

    “The best case for charges would rely on Mr. Biden’s possession of the Afghanistan documents in his Virginia home in February 2017, when he was a private citizen and when he told his ghostwriter he had just found classified material.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 20:40

  • New EPA Emissions Standards Defy Reality
    New EPA Emissions Standards Defy Reality

    Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The recent stringent Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carbon emissions standards for internal combustion engines defy economic realities. The EPA would have us believe that coercing folks to buy electric vehicles (EV) will somehow reduce alleged climate change extremes. The new rules will negatively affect California and the entire nation.

    Traffic moves along Interstate 80 in Berkeley, Calif., on August 24, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    Obviously, most folks want to maintain clean air, land, and water ecosystems. However, scientists haven’t agreed on what degree human activity adversely impacts global climate change as opposed to natural causes for extreme climate events. Several dire predictions of rising seas haven’t panned out over several decades, while cooling and warming trends haven’t been too much out of the ordinary.

    The new EPA standards are part of a government plan to make EVs two-thirds of new car sales by 2032. Thirty percent of heavy duty commercial vehicles have to be emissions-free by 2032 and 40 percent of short-haul trucks by the same time frame. Emission particulates must be reduced to nine micrograms for each cubic meter of exhaust. Spokespersons from the American Petroleum Institute stated that the new regulation “threatens consumer freedom, energy reliability and national security.”

    These EPA goals are unlikely to eventuate due to several factors. First, Americans bristle when they are pressured into purchasing products that haven’t proven their worth over an extended period of time. Electric vehicles can be expensive and heavy due to large batteries that are costly to repair when they break down. They take too long to charge up when contrasted with diesel or gas refilling times. How will the grid handle millions of EVs when it can’t even cope with current electricity demands?

    Next, electric vehicles lose power in wintry weather, thus increasing the already existent range anxiety. What if an owner needs to charge up the vehicle and the charger doesn’t work at a chosen location, or it has an incompatible charger? Moreover, owners must keep in mind that criminals cut charger cables for the materials, something they aren’t tempted to do at diesel or gasoline filling stations.

    The car rental company Hertz learned a hard lesson when it purchased a fleet of EVs and hardly anyone wanted to rent them for reasons already noted. Hertz is now trying to sell 20,000 of these vehicles and adding back gasoline-powered cars. Other car rental companies will likely see the writing on the wall and follow suit. A similar scenario is unfolding with some bus and van companies as well.

    Third, purchasing these vehicles benefits China, because the PRC controls most of the rare earth minerals that go into batteries, as well as the lithium battery industry. Products that are manufactured in China might have questionable quality control standards as they move through the production process. How reliable are these heavy batteries, and how often do they catch on fire? It is unwise to surrender critical facets of our national and technological security to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    Fourth, mandating a rapid transition to EVs puts government policies way ahead of actual innovation in the free market. Consumers want choices when it comes to making big purchases, and if they want an EV or hybrid vehicle that’s fine, but buying an internal combustion vehicle ought to be an option, too. With decreasing options, the costs of energy will skyrocket and healthy competition will be stifled.

    Fifth, although the new EPA guidelines would further reduce carbon emissions, the earth needs these emissions because plants turn CO2 into oxygen. Furthermore, climate alarmists ignore the fact that fossil fuel emissions have become much cleaner over the last four or five decades due to catalytic converters and pollution controls on industry. Extracting and refining fossil fuels have undergone a purer process.

    Sixth, has the EPA thought about the pollution generated by the recycling of large batteries, car bodies, solar panels, and wind turbines? Fossil fuel energy will be needed to carry out this process, just as oil products keep the electric grid in operation. Solar and wind power are unreliable sources of energy and would result in brownouts and power shortages if petroleum products are left out of the energy equation.

    Seventh, do government officials and well-heeled climate “progressives” truly believe what they are preaching? Most of them have fine cars, big homes, and they jet around the world leaving a huge carbon footprint in their wake. Their hypocrisy is staggering as they attempt to impose a minimalist lifestyle on other Americans while they live the high life. They don’t have to face the repercussions of their shortsighted mandates, yet they want the masses to regress back to a pre-industrial stage of existence.

    Finally, America has plentiful supplies of natural gas and petroleum that could last more than a century. Transitioning to an emissions-free society will take several decades if it happens at all. Until then, cleaner and reliable fuel sources will be in constant demand to drive a modern economy and lift people out of poverty. Indeed, energy autonomy is a crucial aspect of economic, informational, and national security.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 20:20

  • Ukraine May Have To Compromise With Russia, NATO Chief Admits
    Ukraine May Have To Compromise With Russia, NATO Chief Admits

    In a rare moment following more than two years of war, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has belatedly admitted the Ukraine may have to compromise with Russia at the negotiating table.

    He made the remarks in a fresh interview with BBC at a moment he’s urging Western allies to commit to approving his proposed five-year, 100 billion euro fund for Ukraine. As we’ve underscored before, this is largely about “Trump-proofing” NATO funding for Kiev for years to come, in anticipation that he could be in the White House next year.

    AFP

    Stoltenberg is still playing up the narrative that Ukraine needs major backing from the West in order to build leverage going into any potential future negotiations. Battlefield gains enabled with strong Western support could lead to an “acceptable result” for the Ukrainian side, he said.

    “At the end of the day, it has to be Ukraine that decides what kind of compromises they’re willing to do, we need to enable them to be in a position where they actually achieve an acceptable result around the negotiating table,” he told BBC.

    He sought to clarify that he’s not urging Ukraine to offer any concessions at this point, but said that “real peace” will only be achievable when “Ukraine prevails”.

    And yet, by all accounts Ukraine forces have not made any forward advances, instead the opposite. BBC commented on Stoltenberg’s rare talk of ‘compromise’ as follows: 

    But his language is notable because President Volodymyr Zelensky has always been adamant that he would never negotiate with Putin despite some calls on him to do so, including from the Pope.

    Mr Stoltenberg refused to be drawn on whether he was concerned about the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House, saying only that he was sure the US would continue to be an important ally, whoever was in charge.

    Zelensky’s consistent position throughout the war has been to say that he’ll never negotiate with Moscow so long as Vladimir Putin is in power.

    As for Stoltenberg, he had this to say only a few weeks ago in response to Pope Francis’ position that the warring sides need to urgently find compromise and end all fighting…

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    Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stunned by asserting bluntly that “Ukraine Will Become A Member Of NATO”.  He told reporters last Thursday in Brussels, where foreign ministers met to prepare for the alliance’s annual meeting in July: “Ukraine will become a member of NATO. Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership.”

    Below is one geopolitical commentator’s reaction to this “lie” of Ukraine joining NATO…

    * * *

    But it’s the lying and level of lying which is astonishing. As Anthony Blinken stunned journalists just recently by saying that “Ukraine will join NATO” – perhaps the biggest lie ever of the entire war as western leaders know this is impossible and can never happen, without, that is the full defeat and exit of Russian forces. Actually it’s the second biggest lie. The greatest lie of all is the one about Russia having its sights on European countries to invade and conquer which is something that Stoltenberg constantly says but not one EU leader believes which is evident in their irresponsible depletion of their own missiles.

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

    Macron also plays a key role in the manufacture of these untruths with his recent success in convincing journalists to write up the “we could send French troops into Ukraine” when, in fact, he packed that statement with so many caveats that he really didn’t say it at all. What is clear is that there is a state of panic now which is palpable from the West in general and that Macron, as well as NATO leaders, are having informal talks – or at least are having talks about possible talks – with Russia over some sort of what the Americans like to call an “off ramp” for Ukraine and the West. You could call it a “white flag” which has probably left you humming the song.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 20:00

  • LA's District Attorney Sued By Game Of Thrones Actor Over Dismissed Pedophilia Charges
    LA’s District Attorney Sued By Game Of Thrones Actor Over Dismissed Pedophilia Charges

    Authored by Emma Aksalic via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is facing legal action after a “Game of Thrones” actor filed suit over dismissed pedophilia charges.

    Actor Joseph Gatt attends the World Premiere of Disney’s “Dumbo” at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 11, 2019. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

    Joseph Gatt—best known for his role as “Thenn Warg” on the popular HBO television series—is suing the city of Los Angeles, the LAPD, and the District Attorney’s office.

    The 52-year-old is seeking $40 million in damages, and says the allegations made against him were not only career-ending, but ruined his reputation by branding him as a “serial pedophile.”

    The charges stem from a 2022 arrest after Mr. Gatt was accused of engaging in sexually explicit online communication with a minor across state lines. He notes the claims were inadequately investigated prior to his felony charges being publicly announced in an LAPD press release.

    The alleged interaction resulted from a video on Cameo Mr. Gatt recorded for a fan’s 16th birthday, before being contacted by the teenage girl via social media on multiple occasions. Mr. Gatt did respond, but according to the suit it was in a manner that was “wholly appropriate and consistent with typical celebrity-fan exchanges.” The two, however, never met in person.

    Cameo is a video-sharing website often used by public figures. Users can purchase a personalized video for the individual receiving it. This gives fans a chance to connect with their favorite celebrities with a video message for any occasion. A crucial bit of information the lawsuit says backs claims that the teenage girl was an “admittedly obsessed fan of Gatt.”

    The 16-year-old went on to claim to have pictures of the supposed inappropriate conversations, but the defendants failed to “interview or even remotely assess for credibility.” Mr. Gatt was arrested in April of 2022 following a search warrant on his home. He called the act an “invasion of privacy” that deprived him of his “liberty and freedom.”

    Court records show the charges were dismissed in February of this year, after finding there was no sustainable evidence, and following forensic analysis, the minor in question fabricated the incriminating screenshots.

    According to the suit, officials allegedly withheld exculpatory information critical to Mr. Gatt’s case and failed to take action for over 20 months following his initial arrest. The complaint notes the defendants showed “reckless disregard for the truth,” while acting with the knowledge that the pictures were not “reliable, credible, or trustworthy on their face.”

    As a result, Mr. Gatt says he was fired from two movie roles he had already been cast in, with scenes being cut or reshot from movies he previously filmed in. He was excluded or disinvited from premieres and immediately stopped receiving any future business opportunities. The actor’s PR team and representatives dropped him as a client, and said death threats had become a recurrence.

    At the time of the incident, the actor took to social media vehemently denying the claims made against him, calling them “100% categorically wrong and reckless.” He pointed out errors and misleading information in the case, but was ultimately cooperating with authorities to clear his name.

    In California, if a person is falsely accused of a crime the accuser could be held liable via civil action for malicious prosecution. As a result, Mr. Gatt is requesting “compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages in an amount to be determined at trial, constituting his losses foreseeably resulting from Defendants’ misconduct,” per the suit.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Gascón has made headlines in recent months, after one of his staff prosecutors spoke out accusing him of intimidation tactics. Deputy District Attorney Tatiana Chahoian said authorities showed up to her home to deliver a disciplinary letter after blowing the whistle on a memo from Mr. Gascón telling prosecutors not to charge for crimes regarding street racing, a major issue facing the city of Los Angeles.

    In an interview with FOX, Ms. Chahoian said she feared retaliation adding her job was on the line because she “said something my boss didn’t like.”

    “Silencing people by threatening them with the police is literally a mafia tactic, and I don’t work for the mob,” Ms. Chahoian said.

    The embattled DA is up for reelection and will face off against contender and former attorney general Nathan Hochman to defend his seat come November.

    The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Gascón’s office for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 19:40

  • Taiwanese Chip-Making Giant TSMC Gets Billions In US Grants, Loans For Third Arizona Chip Factory 
    Taiwanese Chip-Making Giant TSMC Gets Billions In US Grants, Loans For Third Arizona Chip Factory 

    Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip maker, plans to build a third chip factory in Arizona after receiving $6.6 billion in grants and $5 billion in loans through US government subsidies. This is part of a massive effort led by the Biden administration to make America’s semiconductor manufacturing industry great again. 

    “Today, we continue building on that historic progress, with the Department of Commerce announcing a preliminary agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to support the construction of leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing facilities right here in the United States,” the White House wrote in a press release. 

    The White House said, “Thanks to this investment, TSMC will also build a third chip factory in Phoenix, increasing its total investment in Arizona to $65 billion and creating over 25,000 direct construction and manufacturing jobs, along with thousands of indirect jobs.”

    “It’s a national security problem that we don’t manufacture any of the world’s most sophisticated chips in the United States,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. 

    TSMC’s third chip plant will produce next-generation 2-nanometer chips, forecasted to be in production by the decade’s end. According to Bloomberg, the other two chip plants are expected to begin production in 2025 and 2028. 

    Raimondo pointed out that 2nm chips will be crucial for artificial intelligence chips that power the defense industry. 

    “For the first time ever, we will be making at scale the most advanced semiconductor chips on the planet here in the United States of America, by the way, with American workers,” the official said. 

    TSMC’s expansion in the United States will mitigate China’s influence on chip supply chains across Asia, especially Taiwan-based ones. 

    Here are some of the latest investments the Biden administration has dished out to tech firms for re-shoring efforts. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    Raimondo recently said the Chips Act allows the US to capture about 20% of the world’s most advanced chip production by 2030. As a reminder, the US once had 37% of the world’s chip production in 1990 and has since plummeted to about 12% in recent years due to the West’s globalist leaders who off-shored America’s manufacturing capacity. It’s time to bring the production back as the world fractures into a dangerous multi-polar state. 

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 19:20

  • New York Grand Jury Releases Scathing Report Against Child Protection Services Agency
    New York Grand Jury Releases Scathing Report Against Child Protection Services Agency

    Authored by Alice Giordano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The result of a six-month special grand jury investigation into the murder of 8-year-old Tommy Valva by his father has revealed another disturbing instance of abuse of power by child protection agencies and the family court system.

    A picture of Harmony Montgomery before she went missing in 2019 (Courtesy of Justice For Harmony)

    The New York boy died in 2019 from hypothermia after his father, an NYPD cop, inflicted a series of cruel punishments on him. He made the child strip naked, lay on a cold cement garage floor, and hosed him down with cold water. Michael Valva was convicted of his son’s murder in 2022.

    The grand jury report, released on April 3, is wrought with similar findings in the recent review of the murder of 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery. Details of the girl’s murder and the state of New Hampshire’s inability to account for her whereabouts for two years gripped the nation.

    It was a tragedy set in motion when Massachusetts Family Court Judge Mark Newman awarded custody of the little girl to her father Adam Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery was convicted in February of murdering his daughter.

    Judge Newman granted custody to Mr. Montgomery instead of the girl’s mother despite his lengthy violent criminal history and transient status.

    Before Tommy Valva’s murder, Suffolk County Family Court Judge Jeff Zimmerman also awarded full custody of the little boy along with his two brothers to his father Michael Valva over the boy’s mother Justyna Zubko-Valva.

    In both Harmony and Tommy’s cases, court records, which were widely publicized in both murder trials, show that neither of their mothers had any history of abuse or violence.

    In both of the children’s cases, child protection service workers went along with the court’s custody awards despite knowing that there were serious child abuse allegations and child welfare concerns pending against both men.

    In her office’s findings from an investigation into Harmony’s murder, Maria Mossaides, director of the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate, slammed the state child protection agency for what she called system-wide failures and also for “recklessly” favoring parental rights over Harmony’s safety.

    Throughout its 75-page investigative report, the New York grand jury charges New York’s child protection services system with the same kind of failures.

    It faulted CPS employees for deeming child abuse allegations by another parent as unfounded with little evidence. It also cited the system as flawed for not having any independent checks and balances with the agency over such decisions.

    According to the grand jury, the agency even refused to return its records for the investigation.

    “The failure of CPS to do so can only be interpreted as a transparent attempt to shield their own inaction from public scrutiny. Thus, the laws and rules must be changed to prevent such future injustices,” the investigative jury charged.

    In its report, it also focuses on another familiar issue raised in other states regarding the operations of child protection agencies and the family court system: the immunity that child protection workers and judges enjoy from dereliction of duty.

    Rep. Bryan Slaton presents Amendment 1 to House Bill 567, on April 1, 2021. (Screenshot courtesy of Bryan Slaton)

    “Even though immunity does not preclude a finding of criminal liability for CPS caseworkers who have engaged in willful misconduct or gross negligence, such caseworkers are still effectively impervious to any such liability in cases where reports are deemed unfounded,” the panel wrote.

    The panel discovered that caseworkers, due to not being required to substantiate their findings to the court or even a supervisor, created a shield against accusations of “willful misconduct or gross negligence.”

    “In this regard, employees of CPS have the unilateral ability to thwart criminal investigations prior to the matter of immunity even becoming relevant, by determining that a case is unfounded, or by deciding not to migrate prior unfounded reports and related materials in a new indicated investigation,” the panel found.

    At a press conference during the murder trial, Ms. Zubko-Valva talked about her many pleas for help to child protection workers and other state officials that went ignored.

    “I kept thinking about all the institutions who failed to help him, who completely did absolutely nothing … now everybody’s trying to do the right thing … but where were you when I begged you for help when you could have saved my child’s life,” said Ms. Zubka-Valva who said she also filed a complaint with the FBI after Judge Hope Schwartz Zimmerman gave custody to Mr. Valva.

    The judge awarded custody to the father after a divorce attorney complained to the court Ms. Zubko-Valva was “interfering with her access to the children,” according to a pending wrongful death lawsuit Ms. Zubko-Valva filed against the county CPS.

    Details of CPS’ alleged complicity in the court’s custody ruling are scattered throughout the lawsuit. These include accounts of the agency’s quick dismissal of a flash drive. The lawsuit stated the mother provided this drive to the agency, and it contained 320 documents and other evidence supporting the claim that Tommy and his brothers were enduring severe abuse by their father and stepmother, Angela Pollina, who was convicted last March of the second-degree murder of her stepson.

    According to the lawsuit, the evidence included several letters from Tommy’s pediatrician and therapists corroborating the abuse. It was already revealed in the lawsuit and during Mr. Valva and Ms. Pollina’s trial that the agency ignored visible signs Tommy and his brothers were being starved.

    Two years ago, the Institute for Justice (IJ) launched “Project Immunity and Accountability,” a national campaign to end immunity for government officials.

    “If we the people must follow the law, our government must follow the Constitution,” the group states as the headline to its campaign’s mission.

    CPS agencies have long been accused of using immunity to justify their troubling decisions rather than reform them.

    In a 2007 case, a child advocate brought a federal suit against the Standing Rock Child Protection Services and Bureau of Indian Affairs in North Dakota after the agencies claimed immunity for knowingly placing a juvenile sex offender into a foster home with three young children.

    “Such immunity, it maintains, is based on the agency’s policy decision to protect the privacy interests of its former ward,” the lawsuit charged. “By this argument, CPS creates a smokescreen within which to hide from liability, despite its flagrant abuse of a system that it is duty-bound to protect.”

    As part of its campaign, IJ is asking state legislators to adopt amendments to their state constitution to abolish government immunity, but so far no lawmakers have taken up the cause.

    In New Hampshire, where Harmony Montgomery was murdered in 2019, Republican lawmakers like Rep. Leah Cushman have been pushing for reform of the child protection agency and family courts.

    The state did not accept any blame for the girl’s murder even though evidence was introduced during her father’s trial that the agency failed to conduct mandatory checks on her and appeared to be unaware that she had been missing for two years.

    Recently, Ms. Cushman successfully convinced House leaders to form a special committee to investigate the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth, and Family (DCYF).

    As reported previously by The Epoch Times, the committee had only started when she was removed as chairman of the committee by the House Speaker when she initiated a voluntary oath for both victims and officials as part of the special committee’s investigation.

    She has since told The Epoch Times she believes the “real fix” is to take child protection service agencies out of the “investigation business,” abolish family courts, and return allegations of child abuse to the criminal courts where there is real due process.

    “Keeping these cases civil is being soft on crime and letting people shown to be abusive to never face justice in a real court of law,” she said.

    The NH DCYF, Massachusetts Department of Children Services, and Suffolk County Child Protective Services did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 19:00

  • China Gold-Buying Frenzy Sparks Chaos In ETFs
    China Gold-Buying Frenzy Sparks Chaos In ETFs

    For the second time in a week, trading in an ETF that owns gold companies was halted in China overnight.

    The ETF’s price had gained over 40% in the past four sessions before falling 10% after trading resumed Monday.

    “The lack of alternatives, and the fact that it’s become a lot more difficult than it was a few years ago to get your money out of China and invest elsewhere – I think that’s definitely helping gold,” said Nikos Kavalis, managing director at consultancy Metals Focus Ltd.

    “Demand is pretty decent, considering where the price is.”

    China Asset Management Co. – who run the ChinaAMC CSI SH-SZ-HK Gold Industry Equity ETF – halted the investment vehicle “to protect investors’ interests” as the fund’s premium over its underlying assets increased to more than 30%…

    As Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas highlighted: “Investors [in China] are so desperate to buy things that are not linked to their own economy/stock mkt, which has been in the gutter.”

    For context, that surge in the ETF correlated with a spot gold price near $2700…

    Source: Bloomberg

    As Bloomberg reports, the enthusiasm about products tied to gold, which has staged a record-setting rally in recent weeks, shows a desire to park money in a sector seen relatively immune to a struggling economy.

    “Gold is trading at an all time high and gold ETF demand has surged in the past week with almost $600 million of net inflows into gold ETFs globally,” said Rebecca Sin, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.

    “Demand in Mainland China could continue as investors look to diversify their holdings with commodities and foreign ETFs.”

    The ETF fervor is a fresh example of yield-hungry Chinese investors flocking to pockets of market strength as deepening property woes, volatile stocks and falling deposit rates reduce their options.

    For those wondering why buying bitcoin ETFs is not allowed there, Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas notes that “if it were, they’d be going gaga for them given how much FOMO they have been showing for gold and US stocks (btc easily outperforming both).”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 18:40

  • Russia Is Preparing For A Gasoline Shortage
    Russia Is Preparing For A Gasoline Shortage

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    Russia is seeking to import gasoline from Kazakhstan in case shortages occur on the Russian market because of the diminished refining capacity due to maintenance and damages from Ukrainian drone attacks, Reuters reported on Monday, citing industry sources.

    Russia has asked Kazakhstan to prepare to potentially deliver 100,000 tons of gasoline, the sources told Reuters.

    Russia is also ready to import gasoline from Belarus if the current domestic supply is insufficient to meet demand.

    Russia is estimated to have slashed in half its gasoline exports via railway after imposing a six-month ban on exports from March 1 to ensure sufficient domestic supply in peak demand season, while several refineries are undergoing regular maintenance and urgent repairs after Ukrainian drone strikes.

    Russia suspended gasoline exports from March 1 until August 31, 2024, to ensure supply for the domestic market in peak demand season, in a second such export ban in just a few months. In the autumn of 2023, Russia banned exports of diesel and gasoline in an effort to stabilize domestic fuel prices in the face of soaring prices and shortages as crude oil rallied and the Russian ruble weakened.

    Russia has seen its refining capacity diminished in recent weeks, due to seasonal maintenance, but most of all due to drone attacks from Ukraine, which have damaged several refineries that have shut down for repairs.

    According to Reuters estimates, the amount of Russian oil refining capacity that has been taken offline due to Ukrainian drone strikes is 14% of Russia’s total refining capacity. Calculations show that 900,000 barrels per day of refining capacity have been taken offline by drone strikes, Reuters reported last month.

    Most recently, strong spring floods have shut down one refinery in Russia as they compromised a dam in the area forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 18:20

  • Washington Offers Tehran Negotiations To Avoid Striking Israel: Report
    Washington Offers Tehran Negotiations To Avoid Striking Israel: Report

    Via The Cradle

    Iranian diplomatic sources say the US is trying to convince Iran not to retaliate against Israel for its bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month, Al-Jarida newspaper reported on Monday.

    The Israeli strike targeted a building attached to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. It led to the killing of the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy, and five other IRGC officers. A source in the Iranian foreign ministry told the prominent Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Jarida that Washington offered Tehran direct negotiations with Tel Aviv to de-escalate the conflict.  

    According to the source, Washington will guarantee to persuade Tel Aviv to stop its military operations in Syria and Lebanon on the condition that Iran commit not to retaliate against Israel for the Damascus attack.

    At the same time, a diplomatic source in Beirut told Al-Jarida that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an American proposal to pledge to stop attacks in Syria.

    The source added that Iranian leader Ali Khamenei is reviewing the US offer but is not expected to accept it if it does not include guarantees for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza and to stop all Israeli and US attacks on Iranian targets or those belonging to Iran’s allies in the Axis of Resistance.

    The source revealed that the Iranians had also previously received a verbal Israeli proposal via a Gulf state. In the proposal, Tel Aviv claimed it was ready to stop operations against Iranian targets in Syria and Lebanon in exchange for Tehran abandoning retaliation for the killing of Zahedi, whose killing was considered the most significant blow to Iran since the assassination of Qassem Soleimani.

    According to the source, the Iranian Foreign Ministry responded to the Israeli message by saying that the proposal must also include a ceasefire in Gaza.

    However, some IRGC leaders were unhappy with the foreign ministry’s response, viewing the Israeli proposal as a trap. The IRGC leaders argued that any negotiations with Israel must take place only after Iran has retaliated.

    The source stated that IRGC commanders believe that Israel’s targeting of the Iranian consulate is an opportunity that should not be missed to strike a strong blow at Israel, especially since the consular building in Damascus is considered sovereign Iranian territory and was targeted in a clear violation of international law.

    The source said that the IRGC leadership believes Washington will not enter a war with Iran even if it retaliates against Israel. They also consider that an adequately harsh strike against Israel will compel it to accept a ceasefire in Gaza and abandon any plans to invade Lebanon or escalate its bombing in Syria.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 17:40

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Apr 08

Today’s News 8th April 2024

  • NATO: It's Time To Cull The Snake In America's Garden
    NATO: It’s Time To Cull The Snake In America’s Garden

    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    This week’s brouhaha in Brussels saw the Foreign Ministers of NATO emerge from their holes in the ground looking for food now that things are finally warming up for Spring.

    And they had a message for us: more for them and less for us. They were ready to steal the food from our mouths, our children from our homes, to give Ukraine the aid it needs to beat Russia in a war only they seem to want.

    They would strangle the political process at home to make this so. They would betray their basic roles as diplomats, speaking with forked tongues, to confound the conditions for dialogue with Russia and end the fighting.

    In fact, with all the war mongering going on you would have thought this was a convocation of military commanders, not diplomats. But that’s where we are in this process.

    The message of NATO’s foreign policy is simple, “War first. Talk later.” Facts on the ground don’t matter. Budget deficits don’t matter. Plunging public support for Ukraine doesn’t matter. All that matters is what these people want.

    And they want war. But at the same time, they won’t admit that that is exactly what they are waging.

    The doublespeak has gotten to the point where even Pinocchio is looking at outgoing General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg going, “Dood. Your schnoze!”

    Then again, Stoltenberg is a year past his ‘use-by’ date. He’s even more a lame duck than French President Emmanuel Macron at this point. The problem for those who actually run NATO, they can’t agree on who to replace him with… a British Neoconservative or a Dutch Neoliberal?

    In the same week where the French and Russian Defense Ministers had a frank conversation about Ukraine, the attack in Moscow on civilians, and how quickly Russia will vaporize French troops sent into the fighting, we’re treated to the complete abandonment of all diplomatic pretense.

    And even then, that discussion was more of a diplomatic endeavor than anything coming out of Brussels, if Mark Wauck and Alex Mercouris are correct.

    Mercouris, of course, has a lot more to say, but that’s the long and the short of it. It was all a pathetic game, transparently so. The Russians were forced into this war, but now that they’re in it they’re in it to win. Mercouris sums it up:

    The Russians are not under any pressure to negotiate. They are winning the war and they know they’re winning the war. The West, if it wants to avoid a spectacular geopolitical disaster—which is what a defeat in Ukraine would be— in its own interests needs to talk to the Russians. But coming up with half baked proposals such as a return to Istanbul or a Frozen Conflict is going to get nowhere. It is only going to annoy the Russians even more. The logical and right thing to do is to ask the Russians what it is, exactly, in Ukraine that they want to achieve, and see whether it might be possible for the West to meet them halfway. I would have thought that is basic obvious diplomacy.

    It’s been so long here in the US where we’ve had a Secretary of State who wasn’t hell bent on a war with Russia, Iran, or China (or all three consecutively and concurrently) we’ve forgotten what having diplomats looks like.

    I mean think about it. Antony Blinken’s sad dog-eye technique makes you wistful for the days of Condoleeza Rice’s angry diversity hire routine.

    The difference between then and now is Putin hadn’t quite told NATO to “piss off.”

    Again, can anyone remember that as late as 2007 Vladimir Putin was invited to speak at the annual Munich Security Conference. Back then he was just as willing to tell the West what they needed to hear rather than wanted to hear as he is now, but at least we put up the pretense of listening to him.

    Blinken is only competent in the role of anti-diplomat. And why he’s worse than Rice or even *shudder* Hillary Clinton, is that he’s not even consistent. One week looking for an off-ramp after the terror attack in Moscow. This week mouthing words about Ukraine joining NATO knowing that that’s the road to a US war with Russia.

    But, Mercouris and Wauck both believe this is some kind of bluff by Blinken. I’d like to believe they are correct. Nat. Sec. Adviser Jake Sullivan cracking a rib canceling his trip to Saudi Arabia may speak to that. I mean, there’s a high probability of that when you “fall down the stairs” or whatever excuse he gave.

    As is this morning’s rumor that the US has told Iran they won’t be upset if Iran hits Israel hard in retaliation over the attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus earlier this week. Israeli citizens seem to believe this rumor, looking for the exits, stocking up on toilet paper, etc.

    Today we can see what’s fundamentally wrong with NATO in this clearly over-produced shite with an extended steady cam shot that would make Stanley Kubrick green with envy… or just green.

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

    With all respect to Macron’s right hook, who else is producing this level of propaganda? Who is always driving this bus towards the edge of the cliff? Who is going to put more pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson to pass a Ukraine aid bill that he’s held at bay from these vipers for nearly 6 months?

    Exactly who you would expect if you still have three functional brain cells and a passing acquaintance with something known as ‘history.’

    The only good thing I have to say about David Cameron’s political resurrection is that he’s no Winston Churchill.

    I don’t know about you, but I get tired of writing and saying that NATO hasn’t been fit for purpose since the end of the Cold War. If that’s the case then why did they just get shiny new headquarters, new members, and every Western leader screaming for them to have more money?

    We all know why. And that’s the fundamental problem.

    NATO is the entangling alliance that the Founders warned us about back in the 18th century. And it’s high time we crafted a way out of the trap that membership in it represents. As a deterrent against future aggression NATO can be seen as a necessary thing. But, like all organizations facing the end of its lifespan, it had to find new ways to retain its relevance after we bled out the USSR with a deft combination of defense spending and $8 per barrel oil.

    This is also why the Cold War never really ended. It just shed its skin and NATO along with it. The problem with most of the analysis about the current conflict is that we’re all stuck (including myself at times) within the nation-state framework.

    The US needs this. The UK needs that. Russia needs something else.

    But that framework is inadequate to describe the everything that’s going on unless you map the geographic unit to the dominant globalist faction within each region of the West. And they each have very different agendas and goals with respect to Ukraine and Russia.

    I wrote about that last week, quoting this month’s GGnG Newsletter. It bears repeating this week:

    Ukraine became the battleground physically for this. To the EU, the US and the UK, through their influence in Poland and the Baltics, were used to foment this war. Bankrupting them {and Russia} through war forces them back to being subjugated sources of raw materials while exporting EU laws and rules to those places which have the privilege (from their perspective) of doing business with them.

    From all three players’ perspectives if Ukraine beat Russia, then they win. Putin is eventually deposed, Russia is humiliated, and the long-desired breakup of their land-based empire would commence. Europe gets their Great Reset. The UK gets to maintain control over the maritime empire, reclaiming NATO
    control over the Black Sea, and forcing the Arab oil producers back in line. The US gets to leverage a fallen Russia to weaken China and stop the further integration of the BRICS into a competitor.

    In short, the world would go back to the 1990’s when guys like Bill Browder were running around buying up everything and the Russian oligarchs Putin beat would be restored to power. Fukuyama would finally be right.

    But, as I said, the real goal of this war wasn’t just getting Russia, they had to maneuver the US into a terminal state as well, through the costs of fighting a war we weren’t capable of sustaining. And that was the bridge too far for US interests not beholden to the ghost of Trotsky and the tears of Bill Kristol.

    NATO cannot and should not survive these stresses if its intended victims, Russia/China/Iran, fight even remotely competently.

    And they are. They all understand that this is a race against a political and economic clock in the West that is quickly counting down to zero. All Russia has to do is keep grinding out territorial gains in Ukraine, Iran to not over-react to Israel’s provocations, and China to ignore the yapping over tariffs and Taiwan.

    And all the Americans who are tired of this have to do is keep the money spigot to NATO and Ukraine closed off as much as is politically possible.

    So, this is why we’re seeing the full court press from both the UK and EU to get the US re-focused on the task at hand in Ukraine. It’s why everyone on Capitol Hill hates Speaker Mike Johnson and why the knives are out from all sides, including his own party.

    Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you Marjorie Taylor Greene….

    Because the US is clearly looking for a way to extricate itself from this mess, even if all the puff adders on K Street want to do is pivot towards China.

    The cost/benefit analysis for the US, especially in an election year, just doesn’t add up. And there is zero real leverage Europe can apply to the US other than through their bought and paid-for politicos in D.C. for more money.

    The heart simply isn’t willing anymore. Why? For all the reasons I’ve been talking about for six years here, the memories of WWII are fading. The generations of Americans imprinted with the post-WWII Pax Americana lie are dying off (Boomers) or no longer care, if they ever did (Gen X).

    The Millennials and ‘Zoomers’ aren’t invested in this mythology. They know they’re the heads are on the chopping block.

    They can see that none of this is in their best interests. The US, as a nation at war with itself, will try one last time this fall to vote its way out of Europe before it gets ugly here. Listen again to Cameron’s harangue carefully. There is an implicit threat not just in the language but the staging of it.

    Make no mistake, folks. These people are the enemy of all that’s good and decent in the world. We have plenty of snakes here in the US doing their bidding, selling us the old lies repackaged as new ones, and acting outside the bounds of the law. There’s plenty of blame to spread around here.

    But what’s becoming obvious is that the era of extra-curricular US warfare is over. A lot of people refuse to look at the cover of the TPS report for fear of ‘getting the memo.’

    Sadly, most of them work at NATO, and we’re not skimming fractions of pennies here.

    *  *  *

    Join my Patreon if that’d be great… yeah…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/08/2024 – 02:00

  • What's So Great About The Great Reset, Great Taking, Great Replacement, Great Deflation, & Next Great Depression?
    What’s So Great About The Great Reset, Great Taking, Great Replacement, Great Deflation, & Next Great Depression?

    Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

    “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 all the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.” 

    – Frank Zappa

    “In the past few years, you have been living within an escalating hybrid war. Globally, we have witnessed overt media control and propaganda campaigns; censorship, including arrests of people speaking in public; monitoring of all electronic communications and physical contact tracing; brutally enforced lock-down and masking requirements, with people being beaten, handcuffed, and arrested, even in their homes; suspension of healthcare services and weakening of healthcare systems; invasive testing requirements for employment and travel; forced quarantine of travelers; and coerced quarantine and “vaccination” of the healthy, general population.

    Governments dropped all pretense of democracy and were emboldened to open despotism. There were no functioning checks on this power. The courts provided no effective recourse to the public. Governments broadly abused fundamental human rights using as justification prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, which are, in truth, a great many, ever-present, and continually evolving. And so, this justification, if allowed to stand, assures the end of democracy and installation of openly despotic government.”

    – David Webb – The Great Taking

    After being fortunate enough to participate in a two hour zoom call with David Rogers Webb, author of The Great Taking, I was intrigued enough to download his free book and read it over the course of two days. I found David to be a humble, intelligent, thoughtful man who is deeply concerned about the future of mankind, leading him to write a book, putting him and his family at great personal risk. Using his decades of experience in the financial world and undertaking painstaking research regarding the systematic long-term rewriting of codes, laws, and regulations by those who constitute Bernays’ invisible government (aka Deep State), Webb makes a strong case the Ruling Elite/Deep State/Shadowy billionaires in smoke filled rooms have set the groundwork to crash the global financial system and abscond with all that remains of our accumulated wealth. I could feel his angst and anxiety about the future as he explained the details of their plan. After reading the book, I found myself agitated, angry, and feeling helpless.

    You can’t help but be depressed that everything you’ve worked for over the last forty years could be “legally” stolen by those controlling the levers of our financial system in an instant. My first reaction was, how can they do this and expect to succeed. Wouldn’t the citizens across the world react violently and start hanging the culprits? And then I remembered how the masses reacted to being locked down, masked, forced to not earn a living, censored for questioning the government, arrested for swimming alone in the ocean, imprisoned for protesting a rigged election, and being coerced and threatened into getting jabbed with a toxic gene altering concoction which neither protected you from contracting, spreading or dying from the annual flu (sold and marketed as the greatest deadly pandemic in history).

    The covid scandemic was nothing but a dry run to see how far they could push their agenda, using authoritarian measures and the full power of the surveillance state and regime media, in scaring the masses into compliance. It worked like a charm, with the vast majority of the global population proving to be nothing more than scared compliant sheep. The ruling elite are feeling their oats and no longer feel bound to follow any laws, constitutions, or moral code.

    They have shifted from relying on Huxley’s dystopian vision of a populace enslaved by pleasure, drugs, and technological distractions to Orwell’s surveillance, fear, and boot on the face dystopia, where the masses will do as they are told, or else. The caressing is over, and the crushing has begun. When the Great Taking commences, it will be done ruthlessly, enforced by those with truncheons and automatic weapons, sold to the masses as the only way to save humanity, and enforced through the legal machinations they have surreptitiously put in place over the last two decades.

    “People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”

     – Niccolo Machiavelli

    As David Webb lays out in painstaking detail in his book, using factual provable data and documentation, as opposed to the false narratives and propaganda spewed by those who have hatched this decades long diabolical plot to abscond with all of your hard-earned wealth, the ruling oligarchy have designed a financial system which will absolutely self-destruct when they choose to pull that lever. It has been premeditated and solidified in legal code that their scheme, through central banks and their co-conspirator financial institutions, will sweep all of your collateral (aka your financial wealth) into their grubby little hands, in order to save “the system”.

    We will be left destitute, desperate, and indebted. With no means to service your debt, they will “legally” take the assets associated with that debt. Any rational critical thinking person who has been watching its government add $1 trillion to the national debt every 100 days, driving our annual interest on that debt to $1.6 trillion by the end of 2024, encouraging and aiding millions of third world diseased mutts to stream across our borders and be shipped to cities across the country, and purposely creating massive inflation while sabotaging our energy, food, and transportation systems, has to be asking what possible purpose could there be for these insane policies and actions. It only makes sense if their plan is to crash the global financial system on purpose.

    David Webb is convinced that is the plan:

     “Inevitably following the “Everything Bubble” will be the “Everything Crash.” Once prices of essentially everything crash and all financial firms rapidly become insolvent, these collateral management systems will automatically sweep all collateral to the Central Clearing Counter-parties (CCPs) and Central Banks. The trap, into which all nations have been herded, is ready and waiting to be sprung. There will be an epic end point to the decades of seemingly out-of-control financialization, which served no beneficial purpose for humanity, but the devastating effects of which are apparent even now. It has been a deliberate strategy executed over decades. This was the purpose of inflating the global bubble entirely out of proportion with any real-world thing or activity, which must end in disaster for so many, with no pockets of resilience allowed to remain in any country.” 

    – David Webb – The Great Taking

    Your cognitive dissonance and normalcy bias tells you they could not and would not initiate such an evil plot. I know I don’t want to believe this could or will happen, because as a working professional for the last 38 years I’ve followed the rules and believed if I saved for my retirement, lived beneath my means, and invested my savings carefully, I would be rewarded with a relatively comfortable retirement. It is extremely difficult for me to comprehend how these psychopaths in suits, pulling the levers of this world, could hatch such a malevolent conspiracy, designed to cause so much misery and pain to so many.

    But then I realize what they have done since 2019 with their totalitarian lockdowns, death jabs, surveillance mechanisms, imprisonment of dissenters, stealing of elections, destruction of societal norms, perpetuation of an invasion on our southern border, and provocation of global conflict designed to start World War 3. And yes, I do believe these traitorous billionaire scum would do this. David Webb shows how they did it before in 1933.

    FDR shutdown all banks in the United States on March 6, 1933. Then Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 on March 9. According to William L. Silber, who was an economic advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Fed miraculously and suddenly in March of 1933 had the means “to supply unlimited amounts of currency to reopened banks”, which were, of course, only the banks selected by the Federal Reserve System.

    The key point is the Fed chose which connected banks would survive and which banks would be permanently put out of business, resulting in millions losing their life savings. The Fed had the resources to keep thousands of banks open and avoid the pain and suffering for millions of Americans, but they purposely inflicted pain upon millions. Why? David Webb contends the Fed created the panic, provided a solution that benefited them and their crony banks, destroyed the lives of millions, and took their assets (homes, cars, farms, appliances) on a grand scale. This was done to inflict pain, vanquish the masses and foster a facade of power, which is as true today as it was then. Webb asks the relevant questions and provides the answers:

    “Did “the bankers” need to take this property? What was the real purpose? Can you get past the idea that they were trying to help? Ask yourself: if they don’t want your money, and they don’t really want or need your stuff, and they’re not trying to help you, what do they want? What’s the point of all of their efforts? This may be difficult to hear: It was a deliberate strategy. It was about ultimate, complete power, allowing no centers of resistance. And so, it was about deprivation. It was about subjugation—and it still is, in more ways than we know. It was not about helping people then, and it’s not about helping people now. It is all part of the same deliberate herding of humanity and elimination of any pockets of resilience, which plagues us still.” 

    – David Webb – The Great Taking

    The Federal Reserve is owned by the Too Big To Trust Wall Street Behemoth Banks and does the bidding of the Deep State. The Fed is indemnified by the government (aka you and me) for any losses they incur, as they are currently sitting on $1 trillion of unrealized losses. They were a shadowy privileged institution in 1933 and have only become more powerful, shadowy, and corrupt today. They set the precedent of taking bank deposits from average Americans in the 1930s and will do it again without the slightest hesitation.

    They have rigged the regulatory system in a way that makes anyone holding cash in banks an unsecured creditor with no enforceable claim to their own cash when they decide to crash the system. They won’t bail out the banks the way they did in 2008/2009. Too messy and time consuming. They will conduct a bail-in by “shifting” all your deposits from what you thought was your safe bank account to the accounts of a “protected class” created through legal machinations by our Deep State rulers. They did a test run in Cyprus in 2013. This is what is coming.

    Since 2008 the Mega-Banks and Mega-Corps, with the patronage of the Fed, have achieved tremendous success in their endeavors to enrich themselves, while driving small businesses and small banks into bankruptcy, and impoverishing the masses they feign to embrace. Everything they do is built upon a foundation of lies, misinformation, disinformation, and propagandized narratives spun by their regime media co-conspirators.

    Today’s “Everything Bubble” was created by the Fed, using the justification of “saving the world” during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008/2009 and “saving the world” again from the Great Flu Virus of 2020/2022 by lowering interest rates to zero for the most part of 15 years. The major Wall Street banks were all effectively bankrupt in the Fall of 2008 and should have been liquidated using our existing bankruptcy laws. Stockholders and bondholders would have been wiped out, while depositors would have been made whole. Their assets would have been sold off to smaller banks who did not take world destroying risks and leverage themselves 30 to 1.

    Everything that has happened since 2008 has been nothing more than a vast pillaging operation disguised as saving humanity from a never-ending series of crises created by the very psychopaths who purposely created the crises in the first place. So why would it be so inconceivable to think they would initiate their final take down of the financial system, siphoning the remaining wealth of the masses?

    How else can we explain the seemingly insane measures undertaken by the captured and controlled politician puppets, along with the central bankers (owned by Wall Street), and sold to the masses as normal by their regime media mouthpieces? They have secretively put all the pieces in place from a legal and regulatory standpoint to drain the remaining wealth from the financial accounts of tens of millions when they initiate the next planned and executed financial “crisis”.

    Amidst the global chaos, as a wave of insolvencies sweeps the across the developed world, bloodshed from the ensuing global and civil wars scars the earth, wailing and gnashing of teeth by the victims reaches a crescendo, the Fed and their owners will not only survive, but thrive. We’ve seen this show before. During covid we needed to follow their orders so we wouldn’t die or kill our neighbors. It was all a lie. This time, with your money, investments, and assets purchased with debt in the hands of the few connected financial institutions, the fear will be putting food on the table, obtaining healthcare, and trying to survive.

    Those in control will use their regime media propaganda outlets to paint the narrative, everything they have done is to insure the survival of our system. They will act like noble caretakers of humanity, doing whatever it takes for mankind, while initiating the entire financial system demolition in the first place. They are counting on the ignorant masses to remain ignorant, fearful, and terrorized, willing to do whatever they are told to survive. According to David Webb, the CBDCs will be their solution. It’s all about power and control, just as it has always been.

    “The focus of the Atlantic Council is military strategy, not economics. And what is the Atlantic Council focusing on now? Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which is virtual money backed and issued directly by central banks. All G7 economies have now moved into the development stage of CBDC, and 18 of the G20 countries are now in the advanced stage of development. Why is this happening now globally? Is it really a desire to bring “financial inclusion” to the disadvantaged? Why would The Atlantic Council, a military strategy think tank, focus on CBDC? We are living within a global hybrid war, a component of which will be the collapse of the banking, money, and payments systems globally. War aims will be achieved by means other than kinetic war. The foremost aim of the people who have privately controlled the central banks and money creation is that they will remain in power, forever. They can risk no pockets of resistance.” 

    – David Webb – The Great Reset

    They have been setting up the infrastructure for CBDCs, just as they rigged the financial system to abscond with your wealth, for over a decade, as they plan to force you into their new totalitarian electronic gulag. When they are confident their CBDC scheme is ready to launch, they will push the demolition button on the debt saturated house of cards, known as our financial system. When you wrap your head around their evil blueprint to enslave the world, you can make sense of what you see happening with your own eyes. What is happening is not normal. It makes no sense to any normal critical thinking person, but the majority of the population are addicted to their phones and believe whatever they are told by their government, regime media, Tik Tok influencers, and Facebook friends.

    How could our “elected” leaders be adding $1 trillion to the national debt every 100 days, while jacking the interest on that debt to $1.6 trillion per year, unless they want to crash the financial system. How could our “president” (his handlers) encourage, sponsor, and facilitate the invasion of our country by millions of 3rd world, tuberculosis ridden, mutts, drug dealers, child traffickers, and terrorists, unless they want to collapse our cities and social welfare system?

    How could our government medical agencies promote the poisoning of the masses with a gene altering Big Pharma jab, the mutilation of children because they were brainwashed by mentally ill left-wing teachers who told them they can be whatever sex they choose, drugging young boys who act like boys in an effort to make them like girls, and doling out anti-depressants like candy to middle aged unhappy cat ladies who bought the entire feminism narrative hook, line and sinker, unless they wanted to create a nation of physically and mentally damaged, easily manipulated drones?

    In addition, they are attempting to destroy our energy infrastructure, our farmers, and small businesses, while attempting to ignite a civil war within our borders and a global war with Ukraine and the Middle East, to further spur a global collapse. First collapse, then controls through CBDCs.

    “The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also, we will have the technology to enforce that. In other words: CBDC means absolute control and so, if the “old” money system somehow collapses, new money will be provided by the central banks in the form of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the new and improved control system. Imagine . . . it is chaos. You have lost everything but your smart phone (If you don’t have one, don’t worry—you will be issued one.) You will download an app. You will click boxes agreeing to everything. You will become increasingly indebted with each payment you make using the CBDC you are “given” on your phone. You will be told what to do and what not to do from then on. You will comply if you want to eat.” 

    – David Webb – The Great Reset

    Deprivation and subjugation are their goals and being they are evil psychopaths; they have no empathy for you or your plight. They have moved into the Orwellian stage of power for its own sake and a boot stomping on your face forever. Webb contends the “Great Reset” is anti-human and will introduce a modern-day techno-feudalistic system, built upon a foundation of fear, scarcity, surveillance, and threats of violence for non-compliance.

    A caste system more extreme than currently exists will separate the lords of the manor from the enslaved serfs. The first Great Depression was caused by the Fed, benefited the favored Wall Street banks, created a decade of deflation, bankrupted businesses, and destroyed the lives of the poorest. This Greater Depression will be far worse, as the immense consumer credit and mortgage credit bubbles will result in tens of millions losing their homes, automobiles, and various electronic gadgets bought on credit. Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.

    “When the “Everything Bubble” is imploded, we will face a deflationary depression, which will span many years, even decades. This coming Great Deflation is intrinsic to the Great Taking. The Architects of the Great Taking have planned and prepared to use this dynamic fully, secure in their knowledge that, as night follows day, massive and prolonged deflation will certainly follow the epic debt expansion super cycle, which they created. The Architects have assured that they alone are positioned to take everything, and that you and your children are positioned on the other side of that, i.e., to lose everything, to be enslaved and even destroyed by it. People will be knocked down, and not be able to get up again. That is intentional, as the populace has been systematically encouraged to go deeply into debt.

    Whom the gods would destroy, they first cause to borrow at low rates of interest! As in the Great Depression, prolonged deflation will ensure that people who are in debt will not be able to make payments on their debts, let alone repay them. They will be trapped. All property and businesses financed with debt will be taken. With profound and persistent deflation assured to stretch over many years, debt becomes a powerful weapon of conquest. Debt is not a real thing. It is an invention, a construct designed to take real things.”

    – David Webb – The Great Reset

    Ever since reading Webb’s book my mind has been unsettled, trying to grasp how this could possibly happen, while trying to convince myself it won’t. We’ve muddled along for years and all predictions of collapse due to unsustainable debt growth have failed to materialize. My mind tells me Webb is right, while my heart hopes he’s wrong. But I know hope is not an option. No one in my financial position, or likely 99.9% of the population, will be able to avoid this accelerating train coming down the track.

    Every non-insider on the planet will be negatively impacted by the Great Taking. The best we can do is prepare and prep based on our resources, location, family situation, abilities, and attitude. Eliminating debt, having cash-on-hand, having precious metals on-hand, being heavily armed, creating a local network of like-minded people, having no cash or investments in Wall Street banks, and even owning bitcoin in your private wallet, could help alleviate some of the pain from the “Great Taking”.

    Webb recognizes we are already in a hybrid war against these psychopathic billionaire totalitarians bent on implementing their Great Reset, simultaneously with their Great Taking. It is a multi-front war waged on the financial battlefield, demographic battlefield, culture battlefield, technological battlefield, and ultimately will need to be settled on traditional battlefields across the globe. The level of malevolence required to perpetrate these heinous crimes against humanity is incomprehensible to the average person, therefore the masses don’t believe anyone would commit such acts. Webb knows these people exist and are capable of the vilest atrocities.

    “Wars have always been not so much about taking things as about subjugation of populations on all sides. Vast destruction and death are acceptable to their planners. You might ask, how could the people plotting and executing such insane schemes be held together? I suggest that it has something to do with the binding power of shared guilt, of the criminal pact. The perpetrators are each and all bound, whether explicitly or unconsciously, by evidence of shameful, treasonous acts committed against their own people. The commission of crime is a power totem among them. The more heinous the crime, the more powerful is the binding force.” 

    – David Webb – The Great Taking

    Based on my observations during the zoom call with David Webb, he struck me as a mild-mannered guy who is obviously nervous about the future of the world and can identify the culprits, based on their actions. Despite understanding their level of psychotic behavior and disregard for the future of humanity, he seems to think they can be defeated through non-violent means. I think that is a false hope, as you can only defeat power through superior power on a physical, intellectual, and spiritual level.

    I do believe they are losing control, resulting in an acceleration of their plans, ramping up of violence, blatant disregard for laws or the Constitution, and mistakes and missteps on their part. Based on their need for an accelerated collapse, I have a hard time believing we make it to the November elections without a triggering event initiating the dominoes toppling, and all hell breaking loose financially, militarily, and on a societal basis. Their deceptions are being revealed and an increasing number of citizens are angry and unwilling to comply.

    The “Great Taking” is a well thought out plan, but it is still just a plan. It can be thwarted and resisted if enough people awaken from their normalcy stupor. The odds are not in our favor, as the masses remain ignorant of what is coming, but the more people who can be awakened, the better our chances. We know the Deep State billionaire brain trust behind these schemes are heavily guarded and protected from us commoners. But these aren’t the heavily compensated apparatchik front men doing the day-to-day dirty work. These vile cogs in this machinery of destruction have names, addresses, and families. Fear works both ways. The good guys also have tech savvy individuals capable of throwing electronic monkey wrenches into the gears of the Deep State machinery.

    This entire episode is playing out during the second half of this Fourth Turning, where chaos and bloodshed reach a crescendo, as we approach the climax. The battle between good and evil couldn’t be any starker. Everyone will be forced to choose a side. I’ve spent the last sixteen years of my life trying to convince as many people as possible this nation has been on a burning platform of unsustainable choices. Instead of trying to extinguish the flames, our so-called leaders have sprayed gasoline onto the burning platform.

    We are closer than ever to seeing that platform collapse and sink to the bottom of the sea. The Great Reset and Great Taking schemes must be prevented from happening at all costs. Our moment of truth approaches. We need to meet the challenges ahead with no fear and no doubts. It’s time to channel our inner Josey Wales if we want to win. Good luck and Godspeed.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 23:20

  • UCLA Med School Forces Students To Attend Hamas Supporter's Lecture On "Housing Injustice"
    UCLA Med School Forces Students To Attend Hamas Supporter’s Lecture On “Housing Injustice”

    First-year medical students at UCLA were mandated to attend a lecture by Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, a supporter of Hamas, who criticized modern medicine as “white science” and urged them to worship “mama Earth”, according to a new report from the New York Post.

    During the presentation, which was part of the school’s curriculum, Gray-Garcia covered her face with a keffiyeh and drew parallels between homelessness and the situation in the Gaza Strip, as shown in a video posted online.

    The lecture titled “Housing (In)justice in LA: Addressing Unhousing and Practicing Solidarity” was delivered at the medical school’s Geffen Hall. Naturally, it triggered a complaint by the university’s Jewish Faculty Resilience Group.

    Gray-Garcia has, on social media, claimed that the October 7 attack was justified the next day.

    She wrote: “As we hold our relatives in Occupied Palestine, and all of Mama Earth in prayer and love, we need to make connections. For us houseless, indigenous, swept/evicted people — we [are] not separate from this struggle — we suffer from the same settler colonial terror.”

    The “lecturer” / Photo: Facebook

    She then wrote on November 1: “When you resist after decades of relentless policing, killing and terrorizing, that’s not ‘terrorism,’ that’s justice.”

    Gray-Garcia said during her totally normal, well-adjusted speech: “Mama Earth was never meant to be bought, sold, pimped or played.”

    The New York Post reported that Gray-Garcia posted on Tik Tok stating: “Not only are our bodies considered unclean in public, not only are our lives criminalized for being outside without a roof, but politricksters use us for their campaigns.” 

    The Post, citing the Washington Free Beacon wrote:

    Gray-Garcia went on to note that California spent $30 million “on the removal of our houseless bodies” and asked students to think about how many homes could be built with that money “even in these inflated, ridiculous prices of commodified Mama Earth.”

    At another point during the lecture, Gray-Garcia is said to have called modern medicine “white science” and said they were in “what the settlers call LA,” according to the Free Beacon.

    She also reportedly led students in a chant of “Free, free Palestine,” the report says. Riveting stuff.

    Fox News spoke with some students about the event, one of which called it “crazy” and added: “I was very deeply offended and disgusted…I think even probably all students who stood up [during the prayer], a good number felt unsettled regardless of your religious persuasion.”

    “I think a lot of the students have the sense that this is weird or out of place.”

    The Jewish faculty group wrote to UCLA’s Chancellor, saying it should have “never” taken place, according to the report: “If anything of that ilk managed to occur on campus notwithstanding efforts to avoid it, the immediate obligation of all administrative staff should have been to end it immediately and to support the students who have been mistreated.” 

    “Instead, staff acted exactly to the contrary of their duties.” They wrote that Gray-Garcia also once came to campus wearing a “terrorist-themed costume.”

    Tell us again how this helps doctors solve medical issues?

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 21:35

  • The Geopolitics Of Chaos: Apocalypse Scenario IV
    The Geopolitics Of Chaos: Apocalypse Scenario IV

    Submitted by Tuomas Malinen

    In this entry I will expand the analysis we presented in the March Deprcon Outlook of GnS Economics. Issues discussed:

    • ‘Craziness’ driving the world towards WWIII is increasing.
    • Geopolitics is dominating in the background, but people tend to forget it’s a two-way street and that there’s no “right or wrong”.
    • Chaos sowed across the globe does not fit any standard analytical framework.
    • Major escalations could be just around the corner.

    The craziness deepens

    On 3rd April, Presidents of Finland and Ukraine, Alexander Stubb and Volodymyr Zelenskyi, signed a defense pact with Ukraine. Finland has not signed such bilateral pacts with a war-going country since our President Risto Ryti signed a Ryti-Ribbentrop-pact in June 1944. The “pact” was actually just a personal letter from President Ryti to the leader of the Nazi-Germany, Adolf Hitler, where he vouched that he would not pursue peace with the Soviet Union (Russia). In exchange, Finland continued to receive military support and grain from Nazi Germany, which was crucial for her efforts to stop the ongoing major attack of the Soviet Union. President Ryti made the pledge under extreme pressure, as Finland was facing an imminent threat of invasion, and paid a heavy price. He was imprisoned for three years by a war crimes court (demanded by the Soviet Union) in 1946.

    So, Finland signing a defense pact with a country in a direct conflict with Russia is utterly unheard-of, since WWII. It makes absolutely no sense for the security of Finland. It’s actually a threat to her security. Some could even call it an act of high treason. The most worrying part is the statement by President Stubb, when he was asked whether Finland would be sending troops to Ukraine. His answer was: “At this point there’s no need to send troops”. This opens a door for future deployment of Finnish forces to Ukrainian soil. What could possibly be the motive for this?

    On Thursday, there was another major escalation, when the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that “Ukraine will become a member of NATO”. This was exactly what President Putin warned against in 2008, when he (allegedly) said to President Bush that if Ukraine ever becomes a member of NATO, the country would cease to exist. Why an earth are western leaders deliberately pushing against a known red line of the Kremlin?

    Europe crumbles

    The European security structure has been based on unification and stopping conflicts in their tracks through negotiations since WWII. It was highly effective during the Cold War, while we’ve seen one major regional conflict in Europe since the Second World War, i.e., the Yugoslav Wars fought from 1991 till 1999, caused by the fall of the Communist Bloc. In 2004, we had the Georgian conflict and in 2014, the Ukrainian conflict begun.

    What was notable in both Georgian and Ukrainian conflicts, was that they were caused by NATO and the EU coming too close to Russian borders in countries the Kremlin considered unstable. Simple-minded people assume that geopolitics is about fairness and justice. It’s not. It’s about security, period. China, Russia and the U.S. play ruthless geopolitical games. Just think, what would happen if Mexico would try to join a military alliance with Russia?

    Yet, what we know from history is that when the European security structure crumbles, the world should tremble in fear. WWI and WWII, the most destructive wars ever fought, got started from failure of politics in Europe. Now we are on the path to failure, yet again. The question is why? Two plausible explanations rise above others.

    Geopolitical realities

    The most plausible geopolitical explanation that I’ve seen on the Ukrainian conflict is that the U.S. wanted to eliminate the threat of the Eurasian alliance, which was forming between China, Europe and Russia. While it was a loose alliance, it was deepening. Russia provided ample raw energy, China was the production hub (factory) and Europe provided capital and know-how. Overtime, this could (would) have developed into a deeper alliance, which could very easily have risen to threaten the global hegemony of the U.S.

    Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential geopolitical scholars ever lived (he passed away on the 26th of May 2017), noted in the conclusions of his magnum opus, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997), that:

    The time has come for the United States to formulate and prosecute an integrated, comprehensive, and long-term geostrategy for all of Eurasia. This need arises out of the interaction between two fundamental realities: America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe’s central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America’s global primacy and to America’s historical legacy.

    This aim was achieved with the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war in late February 2022 (read update on 24/12/2022 on the controversy of who actually started the war). This could also explain, why the war continues. A peace between Russia and Europe would, most likely, re-start the construction of the Eurasian alliance. Perpetual war will guarantee that this does not occur, but this requires deepening escalation. We now seem to be on that road. However, the “Eurasian strategy” does not explain what is happening in the Middle-East.

    Chaos as the aim?

    Actions of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the Middle-East have been highly escalatory of late. The strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus cannot be considered as anything other than a deliberate act of escalation. Embassies are sanctuaries everywhere, and striking one simply cannot be a “mistake”. The IDF leveling hospitals is also nothing short of a war crime. Yet, the world stands idly by. Why? Moreover, on Thursday, several Iranian military bases were struck by a Jaish al-Adl, a Baluchi militant group, allegedly funded by the U.S., Saudi-Arabia and Israel. Iran has threatened to retaliate (understandably), which would lead to a deepening circle of escalation and, eventually, to a regional war, likely with very dire consequences. The United Arab Emirates also just announced that it will cut all diplomatic ties with Israel.

    The deepening escalation, by Israel and some U.S. backed forces, makes absolutely no sense, unless the aim is to ignite a regional war. One could argue that Israel could be looking to crush all threats it sees in the region in a regional war. However, the devastation to the world would likely be cataclysmic, leading to wide-spread chaos. Who could possibly want that?

    Divide et Impera

    In December, I floated the idea of a ‘group-over-groups’ pulling strings above our democratic and supranational institutions. My analysis was based on the Occam’s Razor principle, which states that when you seek a solution to any problem, you should only include the least amount of assumptions. A dark agenda by a very powerful group is a theory with the least amount of assumptions. It simply ticks all the boxes. From my piece:

    […] behind every political decision is a force, which pushes it through. In the ideal situation, it’s the will of the people. A majority of the populace in a country want something, a majority of politicians want to get re-elected (and not to upset their supporters) and so they push the legislation through, more or less representing the will of the people. This is the ideal.

    However, during the past three years, political leaders have made decisions that have been very detrimental to and/or objected to by the general populace on a global scale. These include multiple Corona lockdowns, money printing (leading to the inflation shock), two wars, sanctions hurting economies, the woke-agenda, and the de-farming agenda (see, e.g., this and this). Their combination makes no sense in a national-political sense, because they create havoc. It’s also difficult to trace all of them to the motives of any of the major hidden lobbyist groups, like the military-industrial complex on which U.S. President Dwight D. Roosevelt warned already in 1962.

    I speculated that the aim of such a group could be Divide et Impera. This ancient principle, or strategy, translates as Divide and Rule (Conquer). The main idea is to create such large divisions between political parties, or whatever dominating parties, so that they cannot rise to challenge the rule subjected upon them, usually by an outside force. Ancient Romans used this strategy many times to enforce and cement their rule over their provinces. The strategy has four key elements (from Wikipedia):

    1. Creating or encouraging divisions among the subjects to prevent alliances that could challenge the sovereign and distributing forces so that they overpower each other.
    2. Aiding and promoting those who are willing to cooperate with the sovereign.
    3. Fostering distrust and enmity between local rulers.
    4. Encouraging meaningless expenditures that reduce the capability for political and military spending.

    We can see all in play in our western societies. Ordinary people have been divided based on artificial conditions, like vaxed/un-vaxed, pro-Ukraine/pro-peace, woke/conservative and those supporting all government actions vs. those opposing (this latter has existed in human societies for quite a while). Those that obey the agendas set by governments have been given full access to societies (during, e.g., Corona times), while those criticizing have been silenced and even imprisoned. In Europe, leaders of countries that followed the orders of unelected leaders of the European Union (Commission) received high positions in the EU power structure, while dissidents are discarded and even their careers sometimes destroyed. All local rulers, who rise to challenge the commands by the EU (like Victor Orbán in Hungary), have been defamed and even blackmailed. European nations have decades long histories of neglecting their defense spendings and now propositions are being made to fund the re-armament of Europe through the EU. “Meaningless” expenditures have of course been on the rise in western societies for a very long time.

    When we subject the strategy of Divide et Impera to policies enacted across the globe, we can seen similar developments everywhere. This enforces the view that there could actually be very an influential ‘group-over-groups’ spreading its agenda of chaos (Divide et Impera) across the globe.

    Conclusions

    Forecasting has become extremely speculative in recent years. This is because the developments we are witnessing do not fit to any standard analysis framework. It’s also really strange how intelligent people seem to have forgotten the brutal realities of geopolitics. Fairness and “right and wrong” simply do not fit into it, but that’s how the western propaganda is marketing things currently (Russia naturally has it’s own war propaganda). The propaganda operations run in the West since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war have been so effective that even Josef Goebbels would have envied them.

    The question we should be asking is: while geopolitical realities are dominating developments, at least in Ukraine, is there a global agenda of Divide et Impera being played in the background? If there is, who is pulling the strings? This need not be so, but if we do not ask these questions, we risk being played by forces seeking our demise. This is no time to be small-minded and/or naive.

    The most frightening scenario is that the wars in the Middle-East and Europe will flare up within the next few months (or even weeks). Rallies in gold, oil and stocks of weapons companies suggests that something is up. Be prepared for extreme events.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 21:00

  • DOJ Seeks Prison For Ashley Biden 'Showers With Dad' Diary Culprit
    DOJ Seeks Prison For Ashley Biden ‘Showers With Dad’ Diary Culprit

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking prison time for a woman who stole the diary of Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, before selling it to Project Veritas prior to the 2020 presidential election (and after an unsuccessful attempt at selling it to the Trump campaign).

    Aimee Harris, 40, and Robert Kurlander, 58, admitted they took part in a conspiracy to transport stolen materials from Florida, where Ashley Biden had been living, to New York.

    “Harris and Kurlander stole personal property from an immediate family member of a candidate for national political office,” said Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

    And while Veritas – which was raided by the Biden DOJ in 2021 – elected not to publish the diary, the National File did – revealing a passage in which Ashley Biden writes that she shared “probably not appropriate” showers with her father, Joe Biden.

    Entries in the diary include the author revealing she believes she was sexually molested as a child and shared “probably not appropriate” showers with her father, some that detail the author’s struggle with drug abuse and the author’s crumbling marriage with multiple affairs, along with entries showing the family’s fears of a potential scandal due to her brother’s new home, and those that show a deep resentment for her father due to his money, control, and emotional manipulation. –National File

    DOJ Cracks Down

    In a Tuesday letter to Judge Laura Swain, federal prosecutors sought 4-10 months in prison for Harris, followed by three years of supervised release. Prosecutors had previously sought six months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release.

    Prosecutors cay Harris delaying her sentencing hearing date 12 times for ‘inadequate’ reasons.

    Defending Daddy Biden?

    With the diary back in the news, leftist influencer Ed Krassenstein took to X to defend the Bidens’ shower habits.

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

    Stay classy Ed.

    How Was The Diary stolen?

    In the spring of 2020, as Joe Biden was in the process of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, Ashley was living in Delray Beach, FL with said friend “who had rented a two-bedroom house lined with palm trees with a large swimming pool and wraparound driveway,” according to people familiar with the matter.

    In June, however, Ashley visited the Philadelphia area as Joe’s campaign was ramping up.

    “She decided to leave some of her belongings behind, including a duffel bag and another bag,” according to the report.

    Several weeks after Ashley left the Delray house, the friend who hosted her invited an ex-girlfriend named Aimee Harris and her two children to move in. Harris, in the middle of a custody dispute and financial woes, appears to have been a Trump supporter according to ‘social media postings and conversations.’ She learned that Ashley Biden had stayed there, and that some of her things had been left behind, according to two people familiar with the mater.

    Exactly what happened next remains the subject of the federal investigation. But by September, the diary had been acquired from Ms. Harris and a friend by Project Veritas, whose operations against liberal groups and traditional news organizations had helped make it a favorite of Mr. Trump.

    In a court filing, Project Veritas told a federal judge that around Sept. 3, 2020, someone the group described as “a tipster” called Project Veritas and left a voice message. The caller said “a new occupant moved into a place where Ashley Biden had previously been staying and found Ms. Biden’s diary and other personal items.”

    The “diary is pretty crazy,” the tipster said on the voice mail, according to a Project Veritas court filing. “I think it’s worth taking a look at.” -NYT

    Harris and Kurlander each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property from an immediate family member of a former government official who was running for national office.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 20:25

  • Appeals Court Vacates 'Disinformation' Monitoring Of Jan. 6 Defendant’s Computer
    Appeals Court Vacates ‘Disinformation’ Monitoring Of Jan. 6 Defendant’s Computer

    Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A sentencing requirement that Jan. 6 defendant Daniel Goodwyn have his computer monitored by the government for “disinformation” has been vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Courtesy of J6 Patriot News)

    The court on March 26 published a mandate sending the case back to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to remove the computer monitoring requirement he issued as part of the sentencing judgment in the case on June 15, 2023.

    “Judge Walton had no legal basis to issue the special condition,” Carolyn Stewart, Mr. Goodwyn’s attorney, told The Epoch Times in an April 3 email.

    A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the judge “plainly erred” in imposing the computer monitoring. Judges Gregory Katsas, Naomi Rao, and Bradley Garcia issued a per curiam order vacating the monitoring provision.

    Judge Walton, when imposing a 60-day jail sentence in June 2023, said Mr. Goodwyn spread “disinformation” during a broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on March 14, 2023. Judge Walton ordered that Mr. Goodwyn’s computer be subject to “monitoring and inspection” by a probation agent to check if he spread Jan. 6 disinformation during the term of his supervised release.

    The judge also referred to Mr. Goodwyn spreading alleged “misinformation,” using the term interchangeably with “disinformation.”

    Mr. Goodwyn, 35, of Corinth, Texas, pleaded guilty on Jan. 31, 2023, to one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. The charge could have meant up to a year in prison.

    60 Days Behind Bars

    On June 6, 2023, Judge Walton sentenced Mr. Goodwyn to 60 days in prison, a year of supervised release, a $2,500 fine, and a $500 restitution payment.

    Federal prosecutors had asked for 90 days in jail, 36 months of supervised release, a $25,676 fine, and $500 in restitution. The recommended fine amount represented proceeds of a GiveSendGo web page Mr. Goodwyn uses to raise funds for his legal fees.

    Mr. Goodwyn asked for a sentence of time served with three months of supervised release. He received credit for three weeks he spent in pretrial detention, but not for the 13 months he spent in home detention. He completed his incarceration at the Federal Correctional Institution at Bastrop, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2023.

    Daniel Goodwyn of Corinth, Texas, speaks with live-streamer Baked Alaska inside the Senate Wing Door at just before 3:33 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Capitol Police/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    Mr. Goodwyn said the Court of Appeals made the correct decision.

    “Judge Walton’s imposition of the computer monitoring restriction is inconsistent with American law and tradition,” Mr. Goodwyn told The Epoch Times. “It’s unbelievable, in my opinion, that he would unlawfully order feds to spy on me in direct violation of the First and Fourth Amendments, under threat of locking me back up in prison.”

    Mr. Goodwyn was arrested on Jan. 29, 2021, in Sherman, Texas. He was charged in a superseding indictment on Nov. 10, 2021, with obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

    Mr. Goodwyn said he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a citizen journalist for StopHate.com. He entered the building through the Senate Wing Door at 3:32 p.m. and spent 36 seconds inside the Capitol, security video shows.

    Prosecutors and the judge faulted Mr. Goodwyn for using a bullhorn on Jan. 6 “to incite other rioters to go into the Capitol,” and saying “we need critical mass for this to work.” They said Mr. Goodwyn evaded a police officer’s attempt to stop him from entering and initially ignored the officer’s command to exit the building.

    Ms. Stewart said her client was inside the Capitol for less than a minute, did not assault anyone or vandalize property.

    During the sentencing hearing, Judge Walton criticized Mr. Goodwyn for having the “false impression” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump. “And there is just no proof whatsoever that that was, in fact, the case,” the judge said, according to the official court transcript for the June 6 portion of the hearing.

    It was Mr. Goodwyn’s appearance on Mr. Carlson’s Fox News program that drew some of the sharpest fire from Judge Walton. He called Mr. Carlson a “lightning rod” who “has said and done things that I think clearly have been divisive.”

    Mr. Carlson gave the impression “that individuals who have been charged in reference to the events on January 6th of ‘21 have been treated unfairly,“ the judge said. ”And I see no evidence that, in fact, was the case.”

    When being interviewed by Mr. Carlson, Mr. Goodwyn “made no attempt to correct the record,” Judge Walton said. “And when Carlson suggested that all the defendant did was go into the Capitol and walk around for less than a minute and leave, that just wasn’t correct. And that misinformation that is disseminated to the American public has contributed to the discord that now exists in our country in reference to the presidential election and what occurred on January 6th.”

    The judge said Mr. Goodwyn “could have come clean and indicated exactly what he did when Tucker Carlson was minimizing the extent of what he did. Because he did more than what Tucker Carlson indicated. And he didn’t say anything to correct that.”

    Protesters clash with police and security forces at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

    ‘Monitoring and Inspection’

    The judge said Mr. Goodwyn should be monitored during his supervised release to determine if he is spreading disinformation on social media.

    “…Since he has used social media in order to provide what I consider to be disinformation about this situation,” the judge said, “I would require that he permit his computer use to be subject to monitoring and inspection by the probation department to see if he is, in fact, disseminating information of the nature that relates to the events that resulted in what occurred on January 6th of 2021.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 19:50

  • Russia Finally Says 'Nyet' To Continued North Korea Sanctions Enforcement
    Russia Finally Says ‘Nyet’ To Continued North Korea Sanctions Enforcement

    Authored by Joseph D. Terwilliger via AntiWar.com,

    Last week, a United Nations Security Council resolution to extend the mandate for the UN Panel of Experts on DPRK sanctions was vetoed by the Russian Federation, effectively disbanding the primary enforcement mechanism for the nine rounds of sanctions that have been imposed on the DPRK since 2006, in response to their repeated nuclear and ICBM tests.

    On October 9th, 2006, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted their first successful test of a nuclear weapon. In response to this, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1718, condemning the DPRK for the test, and imposing a harsh regime of sanctions on the regime. Subsequent to a second test on May 25, 2009, they unanimously passed resolution 1874, which tightened the sanctions regime significantly and established a “Panel of Experts” to “gather, examine and analyze information…regarding the implementation of the measures imposed”, for an initial period of one year. As more and more sanctions resolutions were passed in response to further nuclear and ICBM tests, the mandate for this Panel of Experts was unanimously extended each year until last week.

    Via AP

    Leading up to the vote, China and Russia had proposed a compromise to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts for one year, conditional on adding a sunset clause to the sanctions regime, as the Chinese delegate said “Sanctions should not be set in stone or be indefinite”. The Russian delegate argued that the situation in Korea had changed enormously since 2006, and that continuing the sanctions in the name of preventing the DPRK from becoming a nuclear power was “losing its relevance” and was “detached from reality”.

    It is rather ironic that the United States and its allies have been criticizing the Russia veto of an otherwise unanimous Security Council resolution as destabilizing, given that the US routinely uses its own veto power, as most followers of this site are well aware. This Russian application of its veto power has been described as a crisis for the “broader functioning of the UN Security Council and the post World War II international order”, even though it is completely obvious that we would have used our veto against any Russian or Chinese resolution to relax or discontinue the sanctions regime.

    The sanctions imposed on the DPRK obviously did not have the desired effect of deterring them from becoming a nuclear power. It is fair to ask why they failed to achieve the desired outcome, and whether continuing sanctions are likely to alter that reality.  When I accompanied retired NBA superstar Dennis Rodman to North Korea, Kim Jong Un personally explained his logic to us. He remarked that Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi had given up his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs in 2003, in exchange for sanctions relief and security guarantees that weren’t worth the paper they were written on.  As soon as the opportunity presented itself, in Spring 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joyfully bragged that we had killed Qaddafi.

    Furthermore, Saddam Hussein had allowed weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency into his country, and they failed to find evidence of WMD programs (as there were none), and yet despite this, the US launched a war of regime change in 2003, which subsequently led to the death of Saddam Hussein.  He concluded his argument by pointing out the fact that although Pakistan harbored America’s number one enemy, Osama bin Laden, the US never attempted a war of regime change there.  In his mind the main difference was obvious – Pakistan was a nuclear power.

    Given that the United States government has never been subtle about its desire for regime change in North Korea, and has refused to take first use of nuclear weapons by the United States off the table in the event of war with the DPRK, Kim Jong Un’s rationale is quite compelling.  I certainly had no counterargument.

    One must remember that the number one goal for the North Korean regime is their own survival, and Kim Jong Un’s strategic decisions (like those of any other political leader) should be evaluated in that context – obviously his priority is to stay alive and keep his job!  With that in mind, the continued pursuit of a nuclear deterrent seems like the most rational option.  Of course he wants a better life for his people, and relief from economic sanctions, but not at the cost of risking the regime’s collapse.

    It is important to clarify that long before the DPRK developed its nuclear program, the US had already nuclearized the peninsula.  Although Paragraph 13 (d) of the Korean War Armistice Agreement forbade the introduction of any new weapons into Korea, in 1958, the Eisenhower administration deployed nuclear weapons to South Korea, in clear violation of this agreement.

    This was not an isolated incident either, as the US has a long history of breaking negotiated deals with rival nations.  In 1994, Bill Clinton negotiated the “Agreed Framework” in which the DPRK would shut down their graphite-moderated nuclear reactors, to be replaced with light water reactors (LWRs) to be provided by the US, with supplies of heavy oil being provided to them to provide energy in the interim.  George W. Bush then slow-walked providing the LWRs and stopped the shipments of fuel oil, leading the DPRK to restart the reactors to supply energy to their people.

    Bush then made the aforementioned WMD deal with Qaddafi, which the Obama administration failed to honor.  Obama then negotiated the JCPOA deal with Iran, which Trump backed out of.  Trump then opened dialogue with the DPRK, but the Biden administration quickly returned to “strategic patience” (i.e. giving them the silent treatment).

    No wonder they feel the need for a nuclear deterrent when our policy changes so dramatically every four years, making any negotiations effectively pointless. As Kim Jong Un told us, the DPRK policy is always consistent, but the US changes all the time, adding that if they don’t like what is happening, they just wait four years. After we brought a team of NBA players to Pyongyang in 2014, he further remarked that in doing so, we were the first Americans who ever kept their word. No wonder they don’t trust any security guarantees the US has offered them.

    Sanctions have been referred to as war by other means (with apologies to Clausewitz), and the US now has sanctions in place against more than 20 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The most comprehensive sanctions are currently imposed against Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, with sanctions against China growing at an alarming rate. At the same time, the Chinese Yuan is being used increasingly for international trade instead of the US dollar as a result of sanctions prohibiting many countries from using the US financial system.

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

    The height of the sanctions absurdity was best illustrated when the DPRK was alleged to have sold ammunition to Russia in early 2024.  In response to this allegation, the US complained to Russia that they were violating sanctions against the DPRK, and the US complained to the DPRK that they were violating sanctions against Russia. Does the United States expect other countries to just starve to death under sanctions regimes because we said so?

    Is it perhaps more rational to imagine that our overuse of economic sanctions will inevitably create trading blocs and alliances among the countries subjected to them? Iran, Russia, China, and the DPRK have plenty of reasons to dislike one another. China and Russia have had a complex hostile relationship for centuries, with Chairman Mao seeking a better relationship with the US partially because he feared a Soviet invasion. Both China and Russia repeatedly voted in favor of all the sanctions imposed on the DPRK since 2006, because they did not want a nuclear North Korea in their backyard. Iran and Russia have a long history of tensions, as do Iran and China. And Iran and DPRK have only worked together in a partnership of convenience for the last 35 years because of their shared status as pariahs in the eyes of the USA.

    Despite the historical tensions between Iran, Russia, China, and DPRK, the sanctions regime has forced these countries into an alliance and trading bloc of convenience, and the US has nobody to blame but themselves.  It should surprise nobody that China and Russia want to get the UN out of the DPRK sanctions business. That Russia finally vetoed the continuing mandate for the Panel of Experts should come as no surprise – the only surprise is that it took them 18 years to get there.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 18:40

  • Fast Feud: Shootings At Wendy's, Chipotle Go Viral
    Fast Feud: Shootings At Wendy’s, Chipotle Go Viral

    Two shootings at fast food restaurants in Democrat-run cities went viral last week, after enraged customers went off on employees during arguments.

    On Friday night, a trigger-happy customer got into an argument with a Chipotle employee near Detroit, reportedly over guacamole.

    According to Fox2, customers were eating when they heard an argument break out between another customer and an employee. When the employee went to the back of the restaurant, the customer walked around the counter and tried to shove food in his bag, when the employee intervened.

    “Then the employee came back, and they started fighting, and then we heard a gunshot and just ran out as quickly as we could,” one witness told the outlet.

    The employee was shot in the leg.

    A customer who recorded the incident said that the suspect “took his time getting out” after firing the gun.

    “I was in my car and I saw him walk out to his car, close the door, and just drive off — he didn’t speed off or anything, it was weird to see,” he said.

    The victim was transferred to a local hospital where he was listed in stable condition with a non-life-threatening injury, Fox News reports.

    The suspect, a 33-year-old male from Detroit, was arrested near the restaurant and the firearm recovered by police.

    Meanwhile at a Chicago Wendy’s, an employee was injured when a disgruntled DoorDash driver opened fire because the restaurant didn’t have any record of the order, CBS News Chicago reports.

    Via CBS News

    When the unidentified worker involved in the incident told the driver that the order did not exist, the two began arguing. When the worker notified her manager about the dispute, the driver shot into the building – during which bullets shattered the drive-up window and left the female worker with a wound to her right arm.

    The suspect in the Wendy’s shooting remains at large.

    Know who won’t get shot (with all food behind plate glass windows and a prison-style slot delivery)? 

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 18:05

  • California Bill Would Create A Legal Right To Ignore Boss's Emails After-Hours
    California Bill Would Create A Legal Right To Ignore Boss’s Emails After-Hours

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    California Progressives seek a right ‘Right to Disconnect’ from corporate communications during nonworking hours…

    Right to Disconnect

    Please note that a California proposal would guarantee a Legal Right to Disconnect.

    The Assembly bill would grant employees a legal right to ignore an employer’s communications during “nonworking hours” except for emergencies or work scheduling.

    All employment contracts in the state would also have to clearly delineate working and nonworking hours.

    California’s Labor Commissioner could fine employers who violate workers’ “right to disconnect.”

    If an employer or a client experiences a problem on a weekend, tough.

    Managers couldn’t ask workers to help unless the problem is an “unforeseen situation that threatens an employee, customer, or the public; disrupts or shuts down operations; or causes physical or environmental damage.”

    The Labor Commissioner and courts would presumably define what is “unforeseen.”

    Matt Haney, the bill’s sponsor says “workers shouldn’t be punished for not being available 24/7 if they’re not being paid for 24 hours of work.” 

    The WSJ comments “Progressive ideas that originate in Sacramento have a habit of becoming mainstream in the Democratic Party, which is why we have to cover them.”

    If California wants to drive more businesses out of state, this would surely do it.

    California’s Deficit Is $222 Billion and the State is $1.6 Trillion in Debt

    Meanwhile, please note California’s Deficit Is $222 Billion and the State is $1.6 Trillion in Debt

    Governor Gavin Newsom bragged of a surplus, but California is seriously underwater.

    The next recession will hit the state extremely hard, and deservedly so.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 17:30

  • A Market Chart Or A Rorschach Test
    A Market Chart Or A Rorschach Test

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    A Market Chart or a Rorschach Test?

    In one way, the week was quite simple. The S&P and Nasdaq dropped around 1% while 10-year yields popped 20 bps. Rate cut projections were slightly reduced and the likely start time was pushed back a touch. All seemingly “normal.” Then why the heck did we get a chart like this?

    I’ve produced some ugly charts in the past, but this is in the running for the worst of all time. I thought about trying to fix it up, but then figured, after a week like this, why not go for the full Rorschach test?

    There are three things that I see in this chart (I am a little bit scared about what a psychologist would make of my interpretation, but here goes):

    • There was no consistent narrative between stocks and bonds. At times we saw correlated moves, but then we saw just as many inversely correlated moves. Just like the Mag 7 is dead as a rule of thumb, the “bonds and stocks are correlated” rule of thumb might also need to be put away.

    • We had a legitimate “flight to safety” trade. The Nasdaq 100 was briefly down 3% from intraday high to intraday low (which had me feeling good about my fears that we could see 10% downside far more easily than 5% upside). The plunge in stock prices, accompanied by a rally in bonds, seemed to be spurred by fears about an imminent escalation by Iran. Since the initial fighting began last fall, this is the first time that I can really point to a moment where the geopolitical risk immediately and undoubtedly impacted markets significantly. I expect more geopolitical “shocks” in the coming days and weeks, so long as the market seems to by and large not be pricing in significant risk (the oil market is ahead of stocks and bonds on that). The rally in oil, which I expect to occur on any escalation or expansion, is why I don’t think that we will see a “true” flight to safety move, because I think that yields will come under inflationary pressure.

    • Liquidity is not deep. Whatever good mood I was in, after Thursday’s rapid decline, was undone. The day started fine, as overnight we reversed a little of Thursday’s move as nothing extraordinary happened with regards to Israel and Iran. Then payrolls beat the highest expectation (which I was leaning towards), and bond yields had the good sense to go higher (again, I think now that we’ve breached 4.4%, we go towards 4.6% on 10s). But stocks, after some early gyrations, decided to rally on the strength of the economy. Reasonable, but certainly bucking the theme that higher bond yields push stocks lower. At least that was how it worked until near the end of the day. From the trading on Thursday and Friday, with fairly large moves, I take away that there is very little depth to markets (and the day traders, 0DTE options, etc. are all amplifying moves).

    That is what I get out of that messy chart!

    What I Learned Last Week

    I learned a few things:

    • Geopolitical Risk may be back, and it isn’t being priced in. See Saturday’s SITREP – Iran Prepares to Retaliate.

    • The economy, at least based on jobs, has the potential to surprise to the upside.

    • Earthquakes, even “minor” ones, are really disturbing!

    • Guest Hosting TV is difficult.

    • The U.S. seems to believe that we can come to some resolution with China on trade, where we get the trade and benefits that we want, while limiting their access to high tech and other things that we don’t want them to have. I just don’t see that happening as discussed Thursday on Bloomberg TV.

    • There seem to be far more bond bulls than bears, as we breach 4.4% (good news as a contrarian).

    Bottom Line

    I am still nervous about equity risk, and still doubt that we will get any overall rotation (Russell did far worse than the S&P 500 this week). Energy is my favorite sector as I think that there are many tailwinds, plus you get the geopolitical tail risk for “almost” free (since I don’t think much is being priced in yet).

    I think that the 10-year is now moving into the 4.4% to 4.6% range. Maybe higher as the bulk of the move to this level has been due to diminished rate cut expectations, rather than an increase in risk premium. That should be coming, and I would like to see 2s vs 10s back to -20 or even closer to 0 than that.

    Credit will likely remain dull. No obvious catalysts for a big widening in spreads, but it is also difficult to see a reason for anything more than a small pullback in spreads. I do owe readers a “rotation” report on private credit, which got delayed with the craziness of this week.

    As Seargent Esterhaus liked to say, “let’s be careful out there” as the risks are mounting, and we’ve shown how susceptible we can be to them. On that note, please see the link to register for our Academy Securities Geopolitical and Macro Strategy Webinar on Tuesday April 9th at 1pm ET.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 16:55

  • Georgia Students Shut Down Congressman In Latest "Deplatforming"
    Georgia Students Shut Down Congressman In Latest “Deplatforming”

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    We have another successful “deplatforming” of a speaker at a university this week after Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) had to be removed from an event at the University of Georgia.

    This follows incidents discussed this week involving student protests at Tulane and Maryland.

    Rep. Collins was invited to speak on campus by the University of Georgia Turning Point USA chapter and College Republicans. His remarks, however, were drowned out by protesters screaming profanities and insults.

    Collins attempted to discuss the recent death of Laken Riley, who was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant while jogging at the University of Georgia.

    One student yelled “How dare you come on this campus and exploit Laken Riley’s death to push your xenophobic, fascist, racist, agenda…people are in this country legally and your f–king cops are gonna get them arrested and deported.”

    Others just shouted profanities like “F**k you, you’re a b***h” or told the congressman to “take your white supremacist rhetoric elsewhere, your neo-nationalist rhetoric elsewhere.” Others attacked him for his support of Israel.

    Some were led out of the event by police, but the coordinated interruptions succeeded and the congressman was reportedly escorted off campus.

    Some groups like the College Democrats had called for protests but it is not clear whether these groups participated in the disruptions during the events.

    Once again, this was done by students who were shown on videotape preventing opposing views from being spoken or heard on campus. The question is whether the University of Georgia will take steps to discipline the students and any groups who coordinated this effort. As discussed in a column this morning in the Hill, preventing free speech is not an act of free speech.

    The argument that stopping free speech is free speech is nothing more than a twisted rationalization. Protesting outside of an event is an act of free speech. Entering an event to shout down or “deplatform” speakers is the denial of free speech. It is also the death knell for higher education in the United States.

    The motto of the University of Georgia is Et docere et rerum exquirere causas, or “To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.”

    That inquiry cannot occur through a filter of screaming profanities and abuse. It is good that the university had security to remove disrupters but that is not enough. These coordinated efforts often involve students who stand up in succession to keep an event from being held.

    If these “deplatformings” are to end, the university has to suspend or expel those responsible for such actions.

    Georgia must choose whether it will stand with free inquiry and free speech or whether it will yield to this entitled mob of speech-phobic students.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 16:20

  • Iran Threatens Israel's Embassies: "No Longer Safe"
    Iran Threatens Israel’s Embassies: “No Longer Safe”

    The Iranian government is apparently seeking to capitalize on the Israeli public and leadership being on edge due to continuing fears that an Iranian retaliation attack is imminent after last week’s Israeli airstrike on Iran’s embassy complex in Damascus.

    An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday has threatened to attack Iran’s embassies, or at least strongly suggested it could happen. “The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said according to ISNA news agency.

    Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

    He added that the Islamic Republic views confrontation with Israel as a “legitimate and legal right” — given that Israel has just escalated through an unprecedented attack on a sovereign country’s diplomatic facilities.

    Iranian state media in conveying Safavi’s words also featured graphics showing nine types of Iranian missiles that possess ranges capable of hitting Israel (see below).

    Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the same day announced that Israel is prepared and is ready to respond. Israel has “completed preparations for a response against any scenario that would develop against Iran,” he said. Israel’s embassies and consulates around the world continue to be on a high state of alert.

    Meanwhile, an analyst from the Middle East Institute, Jason Brodsky, observed on Friday:

    There are reports Iran’s regime may be eyeing hitting an Israel diplomatic compound in a third country via drones & missiles. Israel maintains embassies in Bahrain; UAE; Jordan; Egypt; Azerbaijan; & Turkey. I would keep an eye on Jordan.

    Currently, Israel is bracing for an inevitable response, and is reportedly calling up extra reserve forces. Hezbollah could also open up a bigger war front:

    The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said on Friday that Iran would inevitably retaliate after a strike — widely blamed on Israel — destroyed its consulate in Damascus this week, killing two generals.
    “Be certain that Iran’s response to the targeting of its Damascus consulate is inevitable,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day — an annual day of pro-Palestinian rallies held by Iran and its allies.

    At least so far, the daily tit-for-tat fighting along Israel’s northern border has remained contained, but perhaps just barely. Israeli leaders have warned that all of Lebanon could be bombed back to the ‘stone age’ if Hezbollah starts a full war. Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier spelled out that if a retaliation attack should be launched on Israel from Iranian soil, then Israel would hit back directly at Iran with a “stronger” response. This scenario would likely spiral into a major regional war, something the Biden administration says it is seeking to prevent.

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

    Meanwhile, in Gaza there’s been a surprise development Sunday. “The Israeli military says it has withdrawn its ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip, including Khan Younis, amid conflicting reports about the scale and duration of the disengagement,” writes Al Jazeera.

    “Today, Sunday April 7th, the IDF’s 98th commando division has concluded its mission in Khan Younis. The division left the Gaza Strip in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations,” the army said. One brigade has remained, and it’s unclear precisely what this means related to the planned Rafah assault.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 15:45

  • Elon Musk Says X Will Defy Order From Brazil's Supreme Court After Twitter Files
    Elon Musk Says X Will Defy Order From Brazil’s Supreme Court After Twitter Files

    Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

    Owner of X Corp. Elon Musk said on the platform Saturday evening that the company had decided to lift all restrictions on Brazilian accounts targeted by an order from the nation’s Supreme Court.

    “We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to 𝕏 in Brazil. As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit,” Mr. Musk posted, notifying of X’s decision.

    The announcement came in response to reporting by investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger, and colleagues David Ágape and Eli Vieira, titled, “TWITTER FILES BRAZIL.”

    In his reporting, Mr. Shellenberger cites records released by X, formerly Twitter, during Mr. Musk’s 2022 takeover that allegedly show that “Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice.”

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

    Sitting members of Brazil’s Congress and journalists were among those named by Brazil’s highest court for censoring, Mr. Shellenberger said of his findings, which he has shared on X.

    He named lower house members Carla Zambelli of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party and Marcel van Hattem of the NOVO party as targets of orders targeting posts the court deemed misinformation.

    According to the internal files Mr. Shellenberger shared, Twitter in Brazil was threatened with a $30,000 fine. The company had one hour to remove the Congress members’ posts or pay the court for noncompliance.

    The article reports that the justice had even been jailing individuals without trial for things posted on social media.

    According to Mr. Shellenberger, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes allegedly made demands to Twitter to allow access to its internal data, in violation of Twitter’s own policies on the handling of user data.

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

    He also allegedly ordered that Twitter deplatform the individuals responsible for the specific posts that he wanted censored, “without giving users any right of appeal or even the right to see the evidence presented against them.”

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

    Brazil’s “Twitter Files” also show that the justice “sought to weaponize Twitter’s content moderation policies against supporters of then-president @jairbolsonaro,” Mr. Shellenberger said—a similar trend to what the “Twitter files” revealed was happening to former President Donald Trump and conservative voices in the United States.

    The origin of the order to censor Brazilians’ posts was also revealed in the internal Twitter files, Mr. Shellenberger said.

    Mr. Shellenberger said Justice de Moraes, Brazil’s Supreme Court (Supreme Federal Court), and Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) declined to respond to the report.

    Last year, Justice de Moraes also ordered an investigation into executives at social messaging platform Telegram and Alphabet’s Google, who were in charge of a campaign criticizing a proposed internet regulation bill.

    The bill put the onus on internet companies, search engines, and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts, and charged hefty fines for failures to do so.

    ‘Aggressive Censorship’

    Mr. Musk said of Brazil’s Twitter Files, which he released to Mr. Shellenberger, “This aggressive censorship appears to violate the law & will of the people of Brazil.”

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

    Journalist Paulo Figueiredo, who is a contributor to The Epoch Times and censored by the court order, replied, “You’re going to save my country. We could never repay you.”

    He had replied to an earlier post urging X not to comply with the court order, saying that the independent platforms Rumble and Locals did not comply.

    “You’re powerful enough to make a difference,” he said.

    Mr. Musk describes himself as a free speech absolutist. He said at the time when he bought Twitter that it was to create a platform where “a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”

    Shortly after telling Brazil’s Supreme Court that his company would not comply with its order, he posted to X an image “For the people of Earth” of an X comprising of “FREE SPEECH.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 15:10

  • Millions Of New Illegal Immigrants Mask True State Of US Economy
    Millions Of New Illegal Immigrants Mask True State Of US Economy

    Authored by Emel Akan and Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Economists are expressing concern over the increasing number of illegal immigrants in the United States, who they believe are obscuring the actual condition of the jobs market and the U.S. economy.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images)

    For the last few years, the headline employment figure has been impressive. The country has recovered the lost jobs from the government-imposed shutdowns during the pandemic and added a few million more, despite a climate of high inflation and rising interest rates.

    In 2023, the economy added approximately 3 million new positions. To kick off 2024, more than 800,000 new jobs have been added.

    The labor market data is critical as it helps determine the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.

    Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said on March 20 that the central bank is monitoring the labor market “very carefully” and isn’t observing any “cracks.”

    “We follow all the possible stories that are out there about there being cracks, but the overall picture, really, is a strong labor market,” he noted. “Things are returning more to their state in 2019.”

    However, a closer look at the household survey of the employment report reveals a more gloomy picture. Employment for native-born Americans has been in decline over the past four years. This means that all of the job gains have gone to foreign-born workers, including both legal and illegal immigrants.

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of immigrants—legal and illegal—working in the United States grew by 3.4 million between February 2020, shortly before the onset of COVID-19, and February 2024. The number of U.S.-born workers, however, declined by 78,000 during the same period.

    In addition, during the Biden administration, there have been approximately twice as many illegal immigrants as legal immigrants entering the country, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.

    “That’s a big problem,” says economist Stephen Moore.

    “What we’re interested in is how the economy is working for American citizens. So, we’re distorting the jobs market with all of the illegal immigrants,” he told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Moore, who served as an economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, criticized the Biden administration for turning the U.S. immigration system “upside down.”

    He argued that the U.S. economy “desperately needs” more legal immigrants, who possess high skill levels or special talents, rather than illegal immigrants, who tend to be less educated.

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of immigrants—legal and illegal—working in the United States grew by 3.4 million between February 2020, shortly before the onset of COVID-19, and February 2024. The number of US-born workers, however, declined by 78,000 during the same period.

    Construction workers help build a residential building in Miami on Jan. 5, 2024. (Joe Raedle, Getty Images)

    ‘Very Troubling’

    The BLS includes illegal immigrants in the labor statistics, identifying them as “undocumented workers.” However, the agency doesn’t disclose the data publicly and instead groups legal and illegal immigrant job data together.

    Many economists have been surprised by the growing employment gap between native- and foreign-born workers since October 2019.

    The contrast in the past year is even more striking. According to the BLS, native-born employment fell by 651,000 in March 2024 from the same period last year, while foreign-born employment climbed by nearly 1.3 million.

    According to Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), it is hard to know the exact number of illegal immigrants who have recently entered the country and found employment.

    However, he estimates roughly half of the job gains among foreign-born workers have gone to illegal immigrants over the last year.

    Mr. Camarota notes that the government should know all economic activity and job creation in America, so counting illegal immigrants is not a problem.

    “What I do think is problematic is that you can see a low unemployment rate and more importantly, lots of job growth, but almost all the job growth is going to the immigrants. That’s the distortion,” he told The Epoch Times.

    There were a total of 31 million immigrant workers as of March 2024, constituting nearly 20 percent of the U.S. labor force. Mr. Camarota estimates that at the beginning of this year, roughly 9 million of these workers were illegally present.

    The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the number of “immigrants with a nonlegal or pending status” increased by 2.4 million in 2023.

    This group includes individuals who have been apprehended and released into the country, individuals who have managed to evade the Border Patrol, officially known as “gotaways,” and individuals who have overstayed their visas. The figure is modified to account for deaths, legalizations, and departures.

    According to Mr. Camarota, the rise in illegal employment conceals the true state of the U.S. jobs market. There has been a concerning decline in the labor force participation of U.S.-born working-age men from the 1960s to the present. And this decline is more pronounced among the less educated.

    Globalization, outsourcing of jobs overseas, generous welfare and disability policies, and wage stagnation are among the factors that have contributed to this drop over the years, Mr. Camarota said.

    “That decline in labor force participation, particularly among U.S.-born men, is linked to many social problems, from overdose deaths to crime,” he said.

    Hence, he argued that the government is missing the overall picture by focusing on headline data and reporting strong job growth, and not saying it’s fueled primarily by low-wage illegal immigrants.

    “That’s very troubling,” he said.

    Another issue with more illegal immigration is that it drives down wages for American workers.

    According to EJ Antoni, an economist and research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, one of the key reasons President Joe Biden is polling so poorly among voters is “because they are not the ones getting the jobs.”

    As a result of the flood of cheap labor, American workers also earn less than they would otherwise, he told The Epoch Times.

    The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, rejects the notion that illegal immigrants are hurting U.S.-born workers.

    Experts Heidi Shierholz and Daniel Costa at the Institute wrote in a recent report that “the idea that immigrants are making things worse for U.S.-born workers is wrong.”

    “The reality is that the labor market is absorbing immigrants at a rapid pace, while simultaneously maintaining record-low unemployment for U.S.-born workers,” they stated.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 14:00

  • Goldman Offers "Burst Of Bullish Coverage" On Soaring Uranium Stocks
    Goldman Offers “Burst Of Bullish Coverage” On Soaring Uranium Stocks

    As we have been harping on for the last couple of years, uranium stocks – at the center of the thesis for the very common sense solution of nuclear power – are continuing their long awaited ascent. 

    As Bloomberg noted last week, the sector has experienced a significant boost, with spot prices surging 40% over the past year due to production challenges faced by Kazatomprom, the world’s largest miner, and potential U.S. restrictions on Russian supplies.

    The price soaring has come on the back of a “burst of bullish coverage from banks including Goldman Sachs”, Bloomberg writes. 

    The rise comes as nations increasingly embrace nuclear power to reduce emissions, as we have been saying would happen here on Zero Hedge every time we got the chance.

    Recently, the sector witnessed further demand, evidenced by the Global X Uranium ETF, which jumped 6% for its best performance since early February, driven by advances in companies like NuScale Power Corp. and Mega Uranium Ltd. Cameco Corp., the largest uranium miner in North America, saw a 14% increase after receiving a buy rating from Goldman.

    Michael Alkin, chief investment officer at Sachem Cove Partners said: “Goldman’s initiation opens the whole universe up.”

    Alkin launched his fund focusing on uranium miners and physical uranium in 2018, a period when the sector was largely overlooked. Alkin notes that interest has since expanded beyond the major miners to include mid-sized and exploratory firms.

    Sachem Cove, holding stakes in Cameco and Denison Mines, also supported Premier American Uranium’s IPO in 2023, with the stock surging nearly 70% this year. Moreover, analysts are broadening their coverage to encompass a wider array of uranium stocks, even those yet to establish their first mines.

    For instance, Scotia Capital initiated coverage of NexGen Energy Ltd. with an outperform rating on April 1, as the company advances towards developing Canada’s forthcoming uranium mine, the report says. 

    Recall we noted just days ago that uranium projects were jumping back online and that uranium’s price was set to soar. Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, a nuclear industry research firm told Bloomberg on March 22: “We have reached a bottom. The fundamentals are still strong, with increased demand and supply that hasn’t fully responded.”

    According to Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Mike Kozak, there’s evidence to suggest that uranium prices have stabilized. Kozak forecasts a resurgence of fundamental buyers in the market, which is expected to propel prices upwards once more, Bloomberg wrote this week. 

    Optimistic investors are focusing on uranium’s future, driven by an increasing supply shortage and higher demand, as nations (finally pull their heads out from their a** and) seek nuclear energy solutions for climate change.

    In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, uranium mining in the United States, particularly in Wyoming, Texas, Arizona, and Utah, experienced a significant downturn.

    This decline wasn’t helped by uranium prices plummeting and nations such as Germany and Japan moving away from nuclear energy. However, as global efforts to reduce emissions renew interest in nuclear power, and as leading uranium producers face challenges in meeting demand, prices for the metal have risen sharply, a new Bloomberg report says.

    This resurgence in prices is offering previously unprofitable American uranium mines an opportunity to re-enter the market and address the supply shortfall.

    According to the report, as the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s annual meeting takes place in Toronto, attracting thousands from the mining industry, uranium will be a key focus.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 13:25

  • People Are Not Inflation Idiots
    People Are Not Inflation Idiots

    Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    (BearFotos/Shutterstock)

    Commentary

    There’s something about employed intellectuals. When they are trashing popular wisdom and perceptions of regular people, they are truly in their element.

    They love nothing better. It’s a way for them to show off their superior understanding, flash their credentials, and dazzle others with the merit of their time and expense in schooling. It justifies their social standing and income. And it assures their jobs.

    Where would we be without them? Wallowing in ignorance, no doubt.

    The trouble is that very often the popular wisdom is correct whereas the intellectuals are wrong.

    We’ve seen many examples of this recently with regard to inflation. It seems that most people think it is getting worse and going in the wrong direction. A recent poll of swing-state voters shows that 74 percent of people say exactly this.

    By wrong direction, plain English means: prices are not going down but rather still going up faster than one would desire.

    In fact, the commodities markets seem to agree. Look at the record gold and Bitcoin prices. Even the Federal Reserve is worried.

    But the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) Greg Ip explains that the notion that inflation is still bad and even worsening is “simply not true. I’m not stating an opinion. This isn’t something on which reasonable people can disagree. If hard economic data count for anything, we can say unambiguously that inflation has moved in the right direction in the past year.”

    He goes on to explain that over 12 months, the pace at which inflation is worsening is getting worse at a slower pace than previously. This is what Ip calls moving in the right direction. You can tell yourself that as you put on less weight this month than last, but it would not be a good idea to confuse this with losing weight.

    As for prices going down, Ip sniffly dismisses that idea: the price level “rarely goes down.”

    Oh.

    And if someone asks how your diet is going, you can do the same and tell them with absolute certainty that actually losing weight is out of the question.

    Mr. Ip is certain that a move from 6 percent to 3 percent inflation is a fall, even though it is really only a slower pace of rising and therefore not really an improvement. He would see this if the numbers were different. What if inflation were running at 40 percent and then rising only 35 percent? Would Ip dare go to print with an article claiming that inflation is improving? Not likely.

    Sorry but most people think that an improved and even repaired inflation would restore prices to their 2020 level. That’s not going to happen but that’s actually what most people would like. And I agree. My own sense is that many people are only coming around now to the realization that what happened to us has done permanent damage to purchasing power.

    It’s not a good sign that the Biden administration seems to think that the solution is jawboning package sizing back up!

    In any case, it’s not even necessarily true that the pace of increase is improving. The latest read of the official CPI (consumer price index) shows that it is going up higher than it did in June 2023. So even by that standard, the popular wisdom is more correct than the experts. By some measures, inflation is worsening at a faster pace.

    Also, we are all a bit gun-shy. Who is to say that the next round of brutal inflation is not waiting just around the corner, in a repeat of the 1970s?

    (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), St. Louis Fed; Chart: Jeffrey A. Tucker)

    And have a look at food prices, up 35–50 percent since 2019 and still rising. It’s not even of this world to tut-tutting people for feeling that this much of an increase in 5 years amounts to getting worse.

    (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), St. Louis Fed; Chart: Jeffrey A. Tucker)

    Or just have a broad look at prices generally. No matter what the experts say, we are daily slammed with sticker shock. Remember that people do not buy all the products and services in the CPI daily. They encounter each price increase only in the course of their usual buying habits. It it has been nothing but bad news every time you take out your wallet.

    (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), St. Louis Fed; Chart: Jeffrey A. Tucker)

    When major journalistic venues come out and say “Oh it’s not that bad, so stop complaining,” it only discredits them.

    In addition, Ip complains as follows: “By more than 2-to-1 (56 percent to 25 percent), respondents said the economy had gotten worse rather than gotten better over the past two years. That is difficult to square with robust employment growth, unemployment near its lowest in half a century, or growth in gross domestic product, which actually accelerated last year.”

    Here again, the popular wisdom is smarter than the experts.

    The jobs data has already experienced a major debunking. Full-time positions are giving way to part-time positions, mostly held by immigrant populations. This is a major factor as to why the establishment and household surveys have diverged so much over the last several years. The job market is not healthy. It is sick, with a continued lack of labor participation and worsening conditions for professional workers.

    It’s not obvious from a superficial look at the data but it is clear from a deeper look.

    Even the WSJ admits this in a separate piece: “the household employment figures haven’t just shown slowing job growth in recent months, but outright deterioration.”

    Oh!

    Another corrective comes from the Philadelphia Fed: “In the aggregate, 10,500 net new jobs were added during the period rather than the 1,121,500 jobs estimated by the sum of the states; the U.S. CES estimated net growth of 1,047,000 jobs for the period.”

    By now, you surely also know that the GDP data cannot be trusted. It is ginned up by government debt and spending, without which the United States would likely already be in recession. This little tool of analysis was invented in the 1940s and heavily informed by bad economic theory but it somehow survives as a credible estimate of output. It absolutely is not.

    Let’s return to inflation now.

    It’s not just that rising prices are bad and eat into the standard of living. It’s also the case that the current CPI is wildly underestimated. Adding in the interest-based cost of borrowing puts last year’s inflation rate at 18 percent, which is far worse than we ever saw in the late 1970s. If we add to that the way inflation used to be calculated complete with a correct estimate of health-insurance costs, we are going further still. We could be looking at 20-plus percent on an annualized basis.

    All the assurances we get from official economists that life is great achieve absolutely nothing in terms of convincing the public that what they are seeing all around them is not true. The instincts of the public are absolutely correct, contrary to the one thousand articles pouring out of the legacy media that say otherwise.

    I’ve always enjoyed Greg Ip’s writing simply because he is a trained economist and speaks the language well. It’s sad (to me) to see his writing go the direction of becoming straight-up Biden administration propaganda.

    Remember that line about how inflation was merely “transitional?” They are still saying that after three years.

    Let’s face it: many such voices have disappointed us over these past few years, as many journalists and intellectuals have put career over integrity in their jobs.

    We know this and see this every day. Still, it never stops disappointing me. Regardless, the public is not listening. Indeed, they have stopped reading, which is why the payrolls of mainstream venues keep shrinking more and more.

    Meanwhile, as the intellectuals scribble their excuses, public fury is on the rise.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 12:50

  • Intel Community Warns Of "Possible Threats To Public Gatherings" Across US
    Intel Community Warns Of “Possible Threats To Public Gatherings” Across US

    In early March, FBI Director Chris Wray warned a Senate panel that dangerous individuals had entered the United States illegally at the southern border.

    “We have had dangerous individuals entering the United States have a variety of sources,” Wray said at the annual “Worldwide Threats” congressional hearings. 

    Fast forward to Friday, an ABC News report citing a US intelligence bulletin warns that “radicals in the US might respond to ISIS calls for similar attacks in the wake of last month’s deadly terrorist attack at a concert hall in Moscow.” 

    The bulletin said “lone wolves” might be compelled to attack public venues following the attack at a popular concert hall complex near Moscow last month. It warned that individuals who are not members of ISIS could also unleash attacks. 

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

    Given this new warning, and what has the national intelligence community up at night, is President Biden and Democrat’s disastrous open southern borders that flooded the nation with millions of unvetted migrants – some of whom are military-aged men from countries that deeply hate America. 

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

    The hearing last month with Wray emphasized how the nation is more vulnerable than ever because open southern borders have allowed bad actors to infiltrate deep within the borders under the guise of ‘migrants.’  

    In late March, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned ABC’s “This Week” that human smuggling group with reported ties to ISIS will “most certainly use [their network] to move operatives into the United States.”

    Just days ago, a US counter-terrorism official told the New York Post that ISIS-K terrorists are growing “bolder,” and its members could be preparing to flood the nation through the southern border. 

    The source warned: “An attack on US soil is definitely a possibility.” 

    Meanwhile, a rogue Iranian assassin is already roaming the US, hunting for current and former government officials. 

    And, remember last month when New York Governor Kathy Hochul mobilized 1,000 National Guard troops and State Police officers, some of whom were armed with machine guns, to patrol NYC’s subway system. This kind of response by the government wasn’t due to migrants but likely terror threats. 

    All of this is happening right before the elections… 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 12:15

  • Former Hunter Biden Associate Tony Bobulinski Sues Rep. Dan Goldman For Defamation
    Former Hunter Biden Associate Tony Bobulinski Sues Rep. Dan Goldman For Defamation

    Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Tony Bobulinski, a former Biden family business associate and witness in an ongoing Republican-led impeachment investigation, has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) accusing the lawmaker of defamation.

    (Left) Tony Bobulinski, on Oct. 22, 2020. (Right) Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on Jan. 27, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Washington and first reported by The Daily Caller on Friday, accuses Mr. Goldman of repeatedly lying about Mr. Bobulinski following a heated exchange at a recent congressional hearing. According to Mr. Bobulinski’s complaint, Mr. Goldman defamed the former Biden business associate in a series of posts on social media by alleging Mr. Bobulinski “has used a Trump campaign-paid lawyer to make false allegations” and that his testimony before Congress was “Russian disinformation.”

    Mr. Bobulinski’s complaint says he has spent over $500,000 of his own money on legal fees and neither former President Donald Trump nor any Trump-affiliated entities “have ever paid” for any of those legal fees, contradicting Mr. Goldman’s assertion. The complaint also insists Mr. Bobulinski has not made any false allegations before Congress, as claimed by Mr. Goldman, nor have his claims originated from Russian disinformation.

    The lawsuit follows through on a threat Mr. Bobulinski made last week that he would seek recourse through the courts if Mr. Goldman didn’t delete his offending social media posts and publicly retract his statements about Mr. Bobulinski. The legal filing on Friday states Mr. Goldman neither responded to, nor complied with the request for a retraction.

    Mr. Bobulinski worked with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on a business venture involving a Chinese energy firm called China Energy Company Limited. He has alleged the elder Biden was aware of his son’s foreign business dealings and even personally benefited from those dealings, despite the elder Biden’s repeated public statements to the contrary. Mr. Bobulinski has shared these allegations with House Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry into whether President Biden had engaged in influence peddling to advance his family’s business dealings.

    The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Goldman made the contentious claims about Mr. Bobulinski to discredit him and the impeachment inquiry. Mr. Bobulinski’s legal team argues the lawmaker’s statements constituted defamation per se for falsely claiming Mr. Bobulinski lied before Congress, and defamation by implication for suggesting President Trump has paid for Mr. Bobulinski to bring claims about the Biden family before Congress.

    Mr. Bobulinski’s lawsuit alleges he has suffered personally from mental anguish and has endured reputational harm impacting his business ventures and professional work as a result of Mr. Goldman’s claims. He is seeking an award of compensatory, special, and punitive damages totaling $20 million.

    NTD News reached out to Mr. Goldman about the lawsuit but did not receive a response by press time.

    Bobulinski Goes on Legal Offense

    The lawsuit against the New York congressman is just one of three defamation claims Mr. Bobulinski is advancing.

    Mr. Bobulinski filed a lawsuit on March 4 against former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, alleging she had defamed him by claiming former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had handed him a folded-up note or envelope at a secretive meeting outside a Trump campaign rally in Georgia in 2020.

    Mr. Bobulinski has denied claims that Mr. Meadows had handed him anything during the 2020 encounter and argued Ms. Hutchinson’s claims were meant to cast “an innocuous interaction” between the two men as an illicit, immoral, or even illegal encounter.

    The businessman also filed a defamation complaint against liberal political strategist and Fox News commentator Jessica Tarlov last week. That complaint alleges Ms. Tarlov, who works as a rotating co-host on Fox News’ “The Five” program, defamed Mr. Bobulinski during a March 20 episode by saying a Trump Super PAC had played a role in covering Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees.

    Ms. Tarlov modified her original claim in a March 21 follow-up.

    “During an exchange with my colleagues about the hearing, I said that Mr. Bobulinski’s lawyers’ fees have been paid by a Trump super PAC as recently as January. What was actually said during the hearing was that the law firm representing Mr. Bobulinski was paid by a Trump PAC,” she began. “I have seen no indication those payments were made in connection with Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees and he denies that they were.”

    Mr. Bobulinski’s lawsuit argues Ms. Tarlov’s March 21 clarification was “half-hearted, incomplete, and unacceptable” and called on her to issue a more clear-cut apology but that she refused.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 11:40

  • Fixing FDR's Biggest Blunder: From Gold Standard To Fiat Folly And Back
    Fixing FDR’s Biggest Blunder: From Gold Standard To Fiat Folly And Back

    Authored by Jp Cortez via The Epoch Times,

    Today, states across the country are beginning to actively embrace pro-sound-money legislation, inviting a critical examination of how America abandoned the gold standard of money and racked up $34.5 trillion in debt. To understand how we got here, it’s important to understand the policy that initiated our monetary decline.

    More than ninety years ago today, April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, forever reshaping America’s monetary system.

    This controversial order marked a pivotal moment in the nation’s financial history. Executive Order 6102 banned private ownership of gold coins, bullion, and gold certificates with the penalty for noncompliance being up to ten years in prison, a fine of $10,000, or both. This draconian edict also signaled the effective end of the gold standard.

    America did not always have unbacked paper money. In fact, America’s founders spilled a lot of ink warning against the risks and ravages of fiat currencies.

    In 1786, George Washington wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”

    James Madison wrote that “paper money is unjust” and “unconstitutional.”

    To enshrine honest money, they considered gold and silver to be the foundation. Gold and silver are notably the only form of money mentioned in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 10): “No State shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.”

    The Coinage Act of 1792 established the US Mint and regulated the coinage of gold, silver, and copper coins. The dollar was defined in terms of a specific weight of silver or gold, providing a tangible link between the currency and precious metals.

    Under the gold standard, the US dollar was directly convertible to a fixed amount of gold. This system provided stability and confidence in the currency, as the value of money could not be printed ad nauseam but was tied to a tangible and finite resource.

    As the nation expanded and industrialized, the gold standard emerged as a cornerstone of America’s economic might, and the gold-backed US dollar would eventually become the world’s reserve currency. The gold standard buttressed the Gilded Age of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing a necessary, if not sufficient, condition to unseen leaps forward in economic stability, international trade, and human prosperity.

    In response to the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned private ownership of gold with Executive Order 6102, marking an important nail in the coffin of the gold standard in the United States.

    In 1933, Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act, which granted the president the power to further manipulate America’s currency by adjusting the gold content of the dollar.

    Subsequently, President Roosevelt devalued the US dollar by increasing the price of gold.

    In 1934, the Gold Reserve Act allowed the government to hold gold at a higher price, effectively devaluing the dollar and further detaching it from its gold-backed origins.

    Toward the end of World War II, a new international monetary system was created at an international conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, pegging major currencies to the US dollar, which remained convertible to gold. However, mounting economic pressures and trade imbalances eventually led to the “temporary” abandonment of the gold standard in 1971 under President Richard Nixon.

    Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

    Today’s Federal Reserve note is printed endlessly and spent haphazardly, unshackled from any restraint. As a consequence, the national debt is now growing at a rate of $1 trillion about every 100 days.

    According to economist Michael Bordo, the gold standard provided long-term stability, evidenced by an average annual inflation rate of 0.1 percent between 1880 and 1914 as compared to the average inflation rate of 4.1 percent from 1946 to 2003.

    The abandonment of sound money principles allowed for unprecedented government spending, particularly during times of war. With the ability to print fiat currency unconstrained by the discipline of a gold standard, the government financed World War II and subsequent conflicts through inflationary measures.

    The government’s ability to print endlessly has enabled endless war. This unchecked power to create currency out of nothing has not only led to an expansion of the national debt but also facilitated increased expansion of controversial and fiscally unsustainable policies, such as the literal Ponzi scheme that is America’s entitlement programs.

    Restoring sound money is an uphill battle, but significant victories are being won across the country. In 2023, the Sound Money Defense League effectively helped pass sound money legislation in Tennessee, Mississippi, Oregon, Arkansas, and Florida.

    So far in 2024, governors in Utah and Wisconsin have signed prosound money legislation into law. Other sound money legislation has already been introduced and advanced in Oklahoma, New Jersey, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, Georgia, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia.

    April 5, 1933, may be a somber chapter in American history, but one hopes for a brighter future ahead.

    Today, states themselves are actively engaged in the pursuit of sound money and its underlying principles of freedom, stability, and fiscal responsibility for a more prosperous tomorrow.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 04/07/2024 – 10:30

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Apr 07

Today’s News 7th April 2024

  • America Is Hurtling Toward A Full-Blown Hot Civil War
    America Is Hurtling Toward A Full-Blown Hot Civil War

    Authored by Justin Smith via The Burning Platform blog,

    It never ceases to amaze me at how little so many people in this country have done to train their minds to critically analyze information. They have eyes to see and ears to see, and yet, somehow the truth of any major issue still seems to evade them, or they simply refuse to recognize the truth with it standing right in front of them, slapping them in the face.

    So many things are currently plumb damned fouled up by this Biden regime and going awry on their own through the dynamics set in motion by this anti-American, lawless regime, that it’s nearly impossible to properly address them all in a single commentary. But I’ve tried to give the Reader as comprehensive an assessment as I possibly can with this piece.

    Michael Savage, a longtime renown radio host, was fond of noting that “liberalism is a mental disorder” and we’re witnessing the result of its heavy utilization for far too many years without being grounded in common sense and a certain amount of pragmatic realism. And so here we are, on the cusp of the final fall of America, short of a miracle from God or true patriots taking a firm stand with rifles in hand and refusing to give an inch of ground and any further movement towards the new world order desired by our amerikkan commies.

    It might sound quaint and out of touch with what some have now accepted as “the new normal”, but I say we should all wrap ourselves in the American Flag and send out the clarion call for a rush of strong, capable men to come to the aid of their country, in a manner as never before.

    ~ J.O.S.

    “I may be crazy. But it’s no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” ~ Ivor Browne, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University College Dublin [2017]

    In an ideal and perfect world, all Americans would be following a righteously guided conscience and their better angels, and they could trust that their elected leaders were doing likewise; but, we live in a far from perfect world or society, and the fools of the country have abandoned Christian kindness, the Golden Rule and humanity for the evil of trans-humanism. Heartwarming words advocating for true freedom and liberty are far and few between in today’s society and political arenas, in a manner not too unlike the years between 1850 and 1860 that led to the Civil War; and tho’ some on both side of the political aisle still exude goodness in a way that makes each day seem a bit brighter, by and large, the Democratic Party has been completely infiltrated by Marxist-Maoist Communists, who are driving the nation towards the darkest tyranny and bloodiest days ever witnessed in America, as they attempt to stamp out the tenderness and beauty in each person’s soul and reduce us all to mere mindless cogs in their authoritarian machine.

    Look around. Half or more of America’s citizenry have lost their minds and are six steps or more removed from reality, either due to the mind-numbing communist indoctrination they have absorbed from their “education” in the public school system, something genetic or a trauma from their life, some new maniacal drug that has them hooked and out of their minds, or a combination of all three.

    Some would suggest that we set about immediately reforming public education to promote and defend the ideas that originally built America, but we don’t have time to change hearts and minds to counter a movement that started over a hundred years ago and now sits on the cusp of being able to solidify its current stranglehold on America, if the tide swings its way in the 2024 Election or they are able to steal the election through current fraud facilitating mechanisms. Although we can still move to properly educate the next generation in a newly reformed education system or through homeschool, now is the time to organize and assemble those within the country who already know and hold to the truth of American principles and all the freedom and liberty that follow — time to gather our like-minded American patriots and those Lions of Liberty who have had enough of witnessing this America we love so well so sorely abused, put upon and assaulted.

    It doesn’t help when we have self-serving, corrupt people in high office promising to save the gullible and ill-informed from their hell and the misery it brings, if only they will support more madness to be placed in U.S. code. Vote for more economy killing “climate change” change regulations and initiatives and “we’ll put more money on your EBT cards, courtesy of Uncle Sam and the American taxpayer”. “Help us make sure the government has the final say over everybody’s children and can kill babies as they exit the birthing canal, and we’ll make certain you get privilege over all other Americans”, one can almost hear Traitor Joe whispering in some dimly lit concert hall. “You can be a champion among champions”, they say — “Let us help you change your gender”.

    And if anyone stands in your way in the pursuit of any evil, it is they who will be called evil and fallen upon by the full weight of the U.S. Federal Government.

    Oh yea. And as if that isn’t bad enough, Biden is now moving as fast as he can to forgive $144 billion more in student loans. He plans to announce this on Monday, April 8th 2024, and for anyone with eyes to see, this is simply corruption at its worst and Biden buying votes in the upcoming presidential election. What a slap in the face of Americans who couldn’t afford to go to college but now will be forced to bear the tax burden this move will bring.

    I see the immorality growing every day, the people who revel in its evil, freaks from some futuristic sideshow that bodes ill and speaks to the destruction of humanity. and with each passing day, I find myself moving farther and farther away from those with whom I have little or nothing in common with, adrift from most of humanity too. Not in any manner that lends itself to any sadness over my situation, but rather as if to say “whew” in a realization of the relief that has come by way of my separation from those I despise most.

    It’s sort of like I’m standing on the river bank watching the “ship of fools” sailing over the river falls in denial of their own mortality, thinking their crazy ideas will save them and hold them invincible, or worse, knowing they are going to die and not caring who they drag to Hell along with them. They think we’re crazy for defending America’s righteous and true founding principles and virtues and the liberty associated with them, and we think them mad for denying God, reality and the best mankind has to offer in exchange for an evil, unrestrained, immoral freedom that is no freedom at all, a bringer of Death.

    Since 1965, the communists within the federal government, Congress and many state and local governments have essentially separated us and pitted us against one another as one aggrieved group or another, some special interest and through identity politics and racial hatred. They broke us into tribes and acted as if the represented each, all the while setting in place mechanisms that made us serfs to the government, The Leviathan, and reducing us all to poverty as they have gradually destroyed the bulk of the middle class in our country. The Constitution is so degraded and eroded now that any tyrant can impose his will by way of one flourish of a pen, which Traitor Joe has done through 118 executive orders, bypassing Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

    We have a national debt that’s rapidly approaching $35 trillion and counting, that to be sure rests on the shoulders of both parties, but it couldn’t have arrived to this abysmal point without both Marxist-Maoists and RINOs accepting the tenets of the Marxist-Keynesian Modern Monetary Theory and the notion that any one nation could print and borrow an endless supply of money forever without any terrible consequence, which is currently being proven wrong. Our people struggle to pay for food and rent and new high mortgage rates have put home ownership out of reach for this new Generation Z that is coming up and expecting a successful way of life to be attainable in some form or fashion, even tho’ many of them are a great part of the problem, some thirty percent claiming to be either queer themselves or supportive of the LGBTQ sickness running rampant through American society, advocating for every known sexual perversion and deviancy one might care to mention.

    Several decades ago, I realized every government in the world was using a Keynesian debt-based system, printing money as if there was no end to real assets or backing for it. Basically, the world had gone mad, as the greed of its so-called “leaders” knew no bounds, and the various governments of the world basically accepted the use of monopoly money. The charade is ongoing and the casino open, that is, ’til those at the very top decide to call in their markers and usher in the final forced phase of The Great Reset.

    In 2008, as I watched the near total collapse of our economic system and heard George [Bush] say that we had to temporarily abandon the free market capitalist system in order to save it, I received a strong sense that America may have peaked and was as good as it was going to get from there on out. I had a feeling that things were only going to continue to decline, especially as one major corporation after the next receive a taxpayer funded bailout after being deemed “too big to fail”.

    In unbelievable fashion, when the largest economic collapse in U.S. history hit in March 2020, to be followed by the Covid Lockdowns, pushed and kept going for years by traitors to America, such as Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Deborah Birx, many of us saw it for the fraud it was. Still, whole swaths of our cultural freedoms and norms were very nearly destroyed, as a timid American people complied, by and large, because they couldn’t simply stand on their hind feet and tell the government despots “NO”. Even now, as many careers no longer exist and jobs are disappearing like cotton-candy on a rainy day, far too many, especially the communists among us, hold to the delusion that all is well and deny that out-of-control spending and massive national debt really do matter for the health of the nation’s economy.

    Who could have possibly known at the time — other than those Deep State bad actors behind the curtain — that this was a dire harbinger of things to come and but one of the first precursors to a validation of this current system of economic fascism as the preeminent and defining feature of what everyone still mistakenly calls our “free market capitalist system”. Who knew that — if one believes Obama and now Biden — the cure for debt was more debt; the cure for greed was more greed, and that envy of the neighbors’ possessions was perfectly acceptable, even if one easily walked on over to take them by force, through armed robbery. And who could have foreseen that every Marxist-Maoist of the Democratic Party would become modern day Jezebels, condemning the innocent by way of one false accusation after another, paving the way for a vile new phenomena and way of life for the misguided youth of America.

    But never in my wildest imagination did I expect to see every single government institution corrupted to its very core and heavily infiltrated by men and women seeking to destroy traditional America — to “transform America” — and bring great harm to all Americans in the process, as evil was called “good” and good was called “evil”, turning the world upside down as foretold in Isaiah 5:20, as we all witnessed in 2020, driven by the Democratic Party Communists and fascists and globalists of the country, for the most part. Never did I expect to see U.S. science so corrupted and in denial of real science, reality itself, as supposedly “educated” people were soon trying to convince the entire nation that men could really become women and women could become men — that men actually have periods and can have babies.

    And as the American people continue to fail to mount a strong and passionate rejection or effective defense against the current climate change directives from the Biden regime, the Biden regime has just recently [January 26th] ordered our international export of natural gas and natural gas extraction to be placed on hold; and it’s still on hold as of this writing [April 5th], while its impact on the environment is further scrutinized. And in the meantime, the movement towards greater control over our society by way of a digital currency is gaining momentum.

    I don’t think the Biden regime is going to be able to control much of anything once they completely destroy America’s energy infrastructure and our efficacy as an worldwide energy powerhouse, as we were under the Trump administration. It’s going to be damned difficult to control anything without electricity, fossil fuels or heat, and all hell will be unleashed once Americans start being forced to sit in the dark, shivering in the cold or sweltering in the heat.

    When I hear Rachel “Mad-Cow” Maddow and Chris “Cry-baby” Matthews talking about Republicans who support Trump being members of a cult with “crazy ideas”, I think how ironic, that they are perfectly describing themselves and their ilk. They are so insane that they don’t even recognize themselves in that description or what it is that they don’t know; they call themselves “the normal people” as their despot leader, Traitor Joe, dismantles and tears the American republic down around the shoulders of all Americans.

    In listening to many proponents of the Democratic Party Communist platform and agenda — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer for three in particular — I cannot help but wonder when did the wards for the mentally ill release all the inmates. And so here we are in America, where the inmates of mental institutions, federal prisons, Illegal Aliens, drug dealers and sexual deviants and child predators are running the country and the Oval Office today.

    I have noted in several past articles, I do believe the “united States” is currently hurling down a path on a fast track to a full blown, hot civil war. What will emerge will either be a nation squashed under an iron-fisted communist government or a people united in freedom and liberty under a limited government, restrained from ever growing or overreaching as the current Federal System has allowed and the Biden regime has done, trampling on the entire Constitution and our Inalienable God-given Rights in the process.

    Although I refuse to accept any excuse for the far-reaching, incredible and massive ignorance of so many of my countrymen in this day of the internet and information, with books aplenty in every public library too, there are an unbelievable number who accumulate scores, even hundreds, of bits and pieces of the bigger picture without the ability or the will to put them together to reach any worthwhile conclusion aimed at formulating a proper course of action to resist this current totalitarian-minded movement and save themselves, their families and communities and America herself. They do not currently seem to have any real sense of urgency, unless one looks at leadership in Texas and Florida and the current manufactured border crisis.

    Twenty-five state governors stood alongside Governor Abbot of Texas in the border dispute with the Biden regime, and the Governor of South Carolina sent his own National Guardsmen to the border to assist the Texas National Guard and Texas’s various law enforcement agencies who are in this struggle for America’s survival. So although I was speaking of the average citizen in the preceding paragraph, there are some holding key positions who see the rapidly approaching existential threats to all America and are reacting with a high level of urgency and accordingly, using everything within their power to stop this one segment of the madness emanating from the Biden regime.

    America has been cleaved into two separate and antithetical ideologies — two opposing worldviews — with the communists and radical takers of the country supporting a dark vision of tyranny and the conservatives and independent producers supporting the light of truth and a vision of freedom and liberty. They are both hanging in the balance and waiting for gravity or some monumental event to throw the lever that moves them to act and take the country by storm, with the Democrats willing to use every illegal means imaginable.

    The heavy infiltration of Illegal Aliens from many foreign countries that are unfriendly or outright enemies of America is one more dynamic and issue of concern for all who love America, since they will certainly come down on the side which is trying to destroy America. No one should be oblivious to the fact that various “sleeper cells” of Hamas and Hezbollah have been in America for several decades now. Taken in conjunction with thousands of military aged Chinese men entering the country illegally the coming chaos will be Biblical in proportion to anything we have witnessed in all American history.

    Nineteenth century French economist and writer, Frederic Bastiat could have been speaking of America today and the situation She currently finds Herself, as he once stated:

    “When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.”

    Americans from all across the country have either been complicit in this current treason to “fundamentally transform America”, into something strange and foreign to the Founding, or they have simply been so complacent as to allow the country to fall to her enemies-from-within, in a manner that’s proving fairly damned tough to counter for the moment due to a litany of reasons, from lawfare against conservative and independent patriots to the outright targeting of American patriots by the FBI and the DOJ. But basically, the nation is just about to reap the full, terrible consequences of what was sown so many decades ago, and everyone had better prepare as best as they can.

    We can’t stop what is headed down the road towards us, no matter if we stopped all unnecessary spending or the invasion at the border today — not if we outlawed all deviancy, abuse of children through gender assignment and men competing in women’s sports, or started drilling for oil and gas like crazy overnight. The die has been cast, and no one single man or woman, sitting in the Oval Office, can change what is coming, not Trump or RFK, JR or anyone else who wants to give it a try.

    All good and decent Americans, who can still remember what America used to be or who have been well taught from childhood and know what a great nation — an exceptional nation — She has been in years gone by, will soon be forced to fight against enemies-from-within and foreign enemies supported by the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, so that our friends, families and communities can survive this period and freedom and liberty shall not perish in our land. And as we fight, we must pray and hope that our side emerges victoriously from the din and cacophony of the conflagration and chaos, in order that we may purge the land of those who hate America and restore Her to a land that truly understands what “equality under the law” actually means, to be governed in a manner that actually defends and protects the Inalienable God-given Rights for all, restoring America as something better than She has been in a long, long time.

    This is the war that lays ahead of us, looming just over the horizon, and our very lives and the lives of our loved ones depend on our success. The death of America as She has stood is guaranteed, unless liberty-minded patriots rise from the ashes of the next civil war. That is the reality and the future we now must face.

    Keep ringing the bell … the Liberty Bell and the sound of Freedom from sea to shining sea.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 23:20

  • Only 59% Of Americans Are 'Satisified' With Their Health
    Only 59% Of Americans Are ‘Satisified’ With Their Health

    Tomorrow, Sunday, marks World Health Day and the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organization.

    The theme this year is: “My health, my right” and was chosen by the WHO to “champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.”

    With this in mind, Statista’s Anna Fleck looks at data to find out: how satisfied are we with our health?

    Infographic: Where People Are Satisfied With Their Health | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to the Statista Consumer Insights macro-survey, respondents in Nigeria were particularly likely to say that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their general state of health in the last twelve months (85 percent).

    By contrast, respondents in South Korea responded more negatively, with only 36 percent answering that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their health.

    It’s worth noting here that this data does not necessarily mean that the inhabitants of South Korea are in worse health than those of Nigeria, for example, but that perceptions of health may differ.

    This survey does not offer a look at the level of health of the population, but a glimpse of how people in different countries perceive their general state of health.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 22:45

  • Climate-Con & The Media-Censorship Complex – Part 1
    Climate-Con & The Media-Censorship Complex – Part 1

    Authored by Jesse Smith via TruthUnmuted.org,

    The gauntlet has been cast by the media-censorship complex. Just prior to this year’s annual globalist confab in Davos, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced that misinformation and disinformation are currently the greatest threats to humanity, with the release of its Global Risks Report 2024.

    From a list of 34 risks, the WEF report identifies mis- and disinformation as the top threats to global stability over the next two years and the fifth most dangerous threats over the next 10 years. Of particular concern is false information that could affect elections, democratic processes, and social cohesion in various countries worldwide, as well as sentiment contradicting the “consensus” narrative about climate change.

    Echoing these same concerns, the United Nations (UN), its strategic partner in advancing the climate-focused 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, has previously stated much of the same.

    In Information Integrity on Digital Platforms, a June 2023 UN policy brief recommending a code of conduct for digital platforms, Secretary-General António Guterres stated:

    The ability to dissem­inate large-scale disinformation to undermine scientifically established facts poses an exis­tential risk to humanity (A/75/982, para. 26) and endangers democratic institutions and funda­mental human rights. These risks have further in­tensified because of rapid advancements in tech­nology, such as generative artificial intelligence. Across the world, the United Nations is monitor­ing how mis- and disinformation and hate speech can threaten progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. It has become clear that business as usual is not an option.”

    All the UN’s 2030 Agenda plans, activities, and expenditures are based on the belief that we face an existential climate crisis caused by human activity and dangerous greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). This conviction is clearly outlined in a fact sheet produced by Verified, a joint initiative of the United Nations and Purpose, launched in 2020 to respond to mis- and disinformation about “intersecting crises like COVID-19 and climate change.” The document states unequivocally that:

    1. Climate change is happening.

    2. Climate change is caused by human activity.

    3. Scientists agree that humans are responsible for climate change.

    4. Every fraction of a degree of warming matters.

    5. The climate is changing faster than humans, plants, and animals can adapt.

    6. Climate change is a major threat to people’s health.

    7. Natural gas is a fossil fuel, not a clean source of energy.

    8. Clean energy technologies produce far less carbon pollution than fossil fuels.

    9. Entire countries already rely 100 percent on renewable electricity.

    10. Renewable energy will soon be the world’s top source of electricity.

    11. Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels.

    12. Solar panels and wind turbines make good use of land.

    13. The transition to clean energy will create millions of jobs.

    By stating that disinformation is undermining these supposed scientific facts, Guterres rests his entire argument on the premise that each of the above statements is absolutely, indisputably, and undeniably true. Like Guterres, all who espouse this climate narrative have no tolerance for any opinion, theory, or evidence that runs contrary to this dogged notion.

    Verified is backed by powerful globalist NGOs including the Rockefeller Foundation and Omidyar Network. It has an extensive list of major media collaborators such as Al Jazeera, Clear Channel, Facebook, Reddit, Spotify, TikTok, and Twitter. Melissa Fleming, Verified co-founder and current UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, has made it known that social media is a huge threat to climate science and other UN initiatives and is particularly bothered by Twitter/X for allowing rampant disinformation.

    It is clear from these reports that any dissent from the established climate narrative threatens the advancement of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Now, urgent calls to extinguish these threats have been issued so they can proceed with transforming the world unimpeded.

    While many of the issues expressed in the Information Integrity report are legitimate and concerning, the UN via the World Health Organization (WHO) participates in disinformation by continuing to promote COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective, when they have largely been proven to be ineffective and cause much harm. Their stance regarding climate change could also qualify as disinformation to the thousands of scientists who oppose this view but are being discredited as mere conspiracy theorists.

    The following statement from the report underscores their frustration with “climate deniers” and the platforms they use to oppose the UN’s agenda:

    …mis- and disinformation about the cli­mate emergency are delaying urgently needed action to ensure a liveable future for the planet. Climate mis- and disinformation can be under­stood as false or misleading content that un­dercuts the scientifically agreed basis for the existence of human-induced climate change, its causes and impacts. Coordinated campaigns are seeking to deny, minimize or distract from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific consensus and derail urgent action to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. A small but vocal minority of climate science de­nialists continue to reject the consensus po­sition and command an outsized presence on some digital platforms.”
    (p. 12, emphasis added)

    Globalists want conformity regarding climate change and will go to extreme lengths to marginalize, censor, and discredit dissenters. They talk a good game about enforcing universal freedom of expression, but on climate and other issues vital to their agenda, free speech is not tolerated. Though they readily acknowledge that controlling information may lead to greater levels of authoritarianism, surveillance, censorship, and the erosion of human rights, it seems they are willing to overlook these offenses to protect their precious climate agenda.

    If they can successfully shut down debate about climate change, then soon any topic that threatens their aims will be off limits. The UN deems itself a protector of human rights but plays a major role in the media-censorship complex. Its attempts at crushing opposition to the climate narrative betrays their mission and reveals authoritarian tendencies.

    COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE OR ADVOCATING SUPPRESSION?

    A recently released report issued by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) claims that new forms of climate denial have emerged. These new arguments don’t deny that the climate is changing and is caused by human activity, but instead contend that:

    • The impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless.

    • Climate solutions won’t work.

    • Climate science and the climate movement are unreliable.

    The basis for their report stems from use of “an AI based model called CARDS,” short for Computer-Assisted Recognition of Climate Change Denial and Skepticism. CARDS is designed to identify and categorize climate denialist claims in text. The researchers used CARDS to analyze YouTube video transcripts from 96 mostly right-wing, conservative leaning channels including prominent ones like BlazeTV, Jordan Peterson, and the Heartland Institute.

    CCDH has a big gripe with social media companies they believe are not doing enough to stem the tide of rising climate denial. They want to eliminate the ability for any “climate denier” spreading “conspiracy theory statements” to financially benefit from their content, as evidenced in the following statements:

    To support the global efforts to avert climate disaster, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X should all demonetize and de-amplify New Denial content. Demonetizing climate denial removes the economic incentives underpinning its creation and protects advertisers from bankrolling harmful content. Moreover, de-amplifying climate denial limits its reach and visibility, allowing time for fact-checking and other protective measures to be applied where content is clearly contrary to the well-established scientific consensus on climate change”
    p. 34; emphasis added

    CCDH polling on social media usage tested respondents’ agreement with conspiracy theory statements, including the statement: “Humans are not the main cause of global temperature increases.” CCDH found that 43% of adults and 56% of teenagers who report high activity on social media expressed agreement with that statement. This link between social media usage and conspiracist belief illustrates why urgent action is needed to prioritize information integrity on digital platforms in climate policymaking”
    p. 34; emphasis added

    Their demonetization and censorship recommendations come even after admitting that the CARDS model is only up to 78% accurate, could not perform any fact checks on the claims made in the transcripts, and that lack of punctuation caused results to be skewed.

    Image: The New Climate Denial Report, Page 40

    The CCDH is a sketchy, UK-based, advocacy group that has produced various reports inciting censorship against those they disagree with. Their efforts against “anti-vaxxers” culminated in several reports that led to the deplatforming, demonetizing, and discrediting of many individuals and organizations exposing pandemic-related fraud and COVID-19 vaccine falsehoods.

    CCDH’s The New Climate Denial report has been promoted through mainstream outlets like CNN, MSN, Yahoo, and USA Today. It could impact the cited individuals and organizations the same way it affected those targeted in its Disinformation Dozen reports a few years ago. Though their stated mission is to “protect human rights and civil liberties online,” they practice the opposite by advocating the revocation of these rights for climate and vaccine narrative challengers.

    HOW THE MEDIA-CENSORSHIP COMPLEX PLANS TO TACKLE CLIMATE DISSENT

    Two things are very clear from the recent reports issued by the WEF, UN, and CCDH. One, is that climate skepticism is on the rise. The second, is that they are threatened by the very existence of those who dare to refute their narrative. Many strategies to stem the tide of climate cynicism have already been employed with new ones currently being tested.

    If one dares to publicly question the science regarding climate change, one or more of the following tactics may be used to impede the effort:

    In addition to Verified and CCDH, other organizations utilizing these methods to silence opposers include:

    Each of these organizations are fueled and funded by many of the entities responsible for advancing the climate agenda, especially as it relates to the UN SDGs. This globalized amalgamation of media watchdogs, fact checkers, and disinformation regulators is powered by billion-dollar corporations, democratic and undemocratic governments, influential foundations, and powerful NGOs. The list includes The White House, U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), The National Science Foundation, United Nations, Poynter Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, Open Society Foundations, Omidyar Network, Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Family Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and many more.

    A plethora of legacy and social media companies also utilize the services provided by these organizations. A small sampling includes Associated Press, NPR, NBC News, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, Twitch, and LinkedIn. A look at Covering Climate Now’s list of partners provides an even broader view of the media’s enforcement of the climate agenda.

    As if governments, corporations, and organizations weren’t enough, universities such as Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, and University of Southern California also perpetuate the climate propaganda by training journalists in their institutions.

    By treating climate change as a national security threat, the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies have also been enlisted in the fight against mis- and disinformation.

    In addition, individuals within both the left and right wings of the two-party paradigm collude to curtail free speech. It is a grave mistake to believe that calls for censorship from either side of the political spectrum are beneficial. They are both integral to perpetuating the media-censorship complex.

    WHY HAS CLIMATE SCIENCE BECOME NONDEBATABLE?

    If it wasn’t apparent before, it should now be crystal clear that there is a vast empire united against those questioning the climate narrative. They are determined to perpetuate the myth that there is universal consensus on the facts.

    The truth is there is no real consensus on climate science. The UN and its network of public-private partnerships (PPP) just make it seem that way. In this regard, the UN climate stance is akin to Anthony Fauci’s claim that questioning him was like questioning science itself. Honest and open debate on the issue should be continued by allowing opponents opportunities to present their case without fear of censorship, harassment, exclusion, or cancellation. Instead, there is constant reinforcement of a fictional consensus while divergent opinions are labeled as dangerous conspiracies.

    Climate consensus figures as high as 97 and even 99.9 percent have been touted by former US Presidents, researchers, and media outlets in the past. But is this claim true? If it were, then why would there be so much effort to silence a mere one to three percent who deviate from the scientific echo chamber? Would all these battles be worth the time, energy, and money being spent on just a few dissidents, as they claim?

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    Much of what qualifies as climate research is funded by institutions that have already bought into the doomsday mantra of impending man-made disaster. The industry is rigged to favor researchers who set out to prove “official” claims. Funding and publication are often withheld from those who do not toe this line. As a result, statistics are skewed to make it seem like there is universal consensus.

    Past research has demonstrated claims of scientific consensus on climate change to be fraudulent. In a paper published in 2023, a team of researchers disproved the conclusions reached in a 2021 study claiming there was greater than 99% consensus on climate science in peer-reviewed scientific literature.

    The claims were refuted by demonstrating that studies expressing neutral opinions were misclassified and papers communicating skepticism were ignored. This clear case of academic malfeasance is not the only example where scientists used falsified research and conspired to silence those contradicting the alleged consensus. Even if the 99% consensus assertions were valid, the notion of consensus-as-truth does not pass the test for authentic scientific validation. The majority can still be wrong.

    A recent article posted by The Good Men Project, which “exposed” the climate deniers behind the recent farmer protests in Europe, proclaimed that “Scientific consensus on human-caused climate change is equivalent to that on evolution.” This statement came in response to a request from protest organizer James Melville for a national debate on climate and net zero policies. Never mind that evolution is not a proven fact. Equating climate change to evolution shows it is also unproven and can be argued against. Again, the majority can still be wrong!

    Remember when Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson made claims that their COVID vaccines were all well over 90% effective in stopping transmission? As evidenced in the following video, those proclamations did not hold up very well, did they?

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    A massive army has been assembled to ensure that rival claims will not see the light of day for long. But why is it that the powers that be would rather falsify research, smear dissenters, and spend billions of dollars to silence critics rather than continuing to debate the issues?

    An article written by Gregory Whitstone, Executive Director of the CO2 Coalition, presents a valid argument for continued scientific debate on climate change, stating:

    You have likely heard that 97% of scientists agree on human-driven climate change. You may also have heard that those who don’t buy into the climate-apocalypse mantra are science-deniers. The truth is that a whole lot more than 3% of scientists are skeptical of the party line on climate. A whole lot more…

    There are some scientific truths that are quantifiable and easily proven, and with which, I am confident, at least 97% of scientists agree. Here are two:

    • Carbon dioxide concentration has been increasing in recent years.

    • Temperatures, as measured by thermometers and satellites, have been generally increasing in fits and starts for more than 150 years.

    What is impossible to quantify is the actual percentage of warming that is attributable to increased anthropogenic (human-caused) CO2. There is no scientific evidence or method that can determine how much of the warming we’ve had since 1900 that was directly caused by us.

    We know that temperature has varied greatly over the millennia. We also know that for virtually all of that time, global warming and cooling were driven entirely by natural forces, which did not cease to operate at the beginning of the 20th century.

    The claim that most modern warming is attributable to human activities is scientifically insupportable. The truth is that we do not know. We need to be able to separate what we do know from that which is only conjecture.

    How can greenhouse gases, particularly CO2 be the sole agent causing rising temperatures when it is an essential element for all life forms? Given the growing world population, it seems that greater levels of CO2would lead to greater benefits. Plants need CO2 to thrive, yet the fight against it is accelerating.

    Scientists have now stated that cow burps and farts and even human breathing are bad for the environment because they contribute to the emission of methane and nitrous oxide, both believed to contribute to global warming. This is beyond absurd!

    We are on the slippery slope to a dystopian nightmare if the trend toward censorship and marginalization continues. There is no good reason why continued debate featuring those on all sides of the issue should not be occurring, unless of course there are other reasons for ramming this fear-based agenda down our throats.

    We’ll examine the other reasons in Part 2 of this series.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 22:10

  • These Are The World's Deadliest Behavioral Risk Factors
    These Are The World’s Deadliest Behavioral Risk Factors

    “Smoking kills” is but one of the slogans connected to anti-tobacco advocacy groups – and it’s quite true.

    When looking at behavioral risks, meaning types of risk that can largely be avoided, especially in highly industrialized nations, smoking cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products is connected to a variety of diseases responsible for 7.7 million deaths worldwide.

    As Statista’s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, based on data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington shows, no other behavioral risk factor comes close to the disease burden of smoking.

    Infographic: The World's Deadliest Behavioral Risk Factors | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Coming in second on a global level as well as in terms of risk-factor-associated deaths in the United States in 2019 is alcohol use with an estimated 2.4 million global and 137,000 U.S. deaths in 2019.

    Roughly 57 and 30 percent of global deaths associated with risk factors and connected to substance abuse and digestive diseases, respectively, can be traced back to alcohol use.

    While a high-sodium diet is connected to almost two million deaths on a global scale and therefore ranks third worldwide, the United States have a different problem: drug abuse.

    In 2019, around 105,000 people were estimated to have died from diseases connected to drug use, which constitutes a four-percent share of the overall deaths connected to behavioral risks in the country.

    This is especially striking compared to the same metric globally, where the share of deaths barely reaches one percent.

    The total number of deaths from risk factors in the United States amounted to 1.8 million, while the global number stood at 35 million.

    While the consumption of most drugs is illegal and often carries a social stigma, alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs permeating all levels of society. The risks of both are well-known and well-documented, with the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifying both as a group 1 carcinogen, which includes agents with “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans [and] both strong evidence in exposed humans that the agent exhibits key characteristics of carcinogens and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 21:35

  • Trump Accuses Biden Of Unfairly Targeting 71-Year-Old Jan. 6 'Hostage'
    Trump Accuses Biden Of Unfairly Targeting 71-Year-Old Jan. 6 ‘Hostage’

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Former President Donald Trump has criticized President Joe Biden and the Justice Department for “unfairly” targeting a 71-year-old woman dubbed the “J6 Praying Grandma” who entered the U.S. Capitol for around 10 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Rebecca Lavrenz was convicted on April 4 on four federal misdemeanor charges, including entering and remaining in a restricted building, and disorderly and disruptive conduct. She faces up to a year in prison and $200,000 in fines, with her sentencing scheduled for Aug. 12.

    Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump speaks at a rally in Laconia, N.H., on Jan. 22, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    President Trump took to social media on Friday to denounce the conviction.

    “Rebecca Lavrez, also known as the ‘J6 Praying Grandma,’ has been unfairly targeted by Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, and now faces up to 1 YEAR in prison for peacefully walking around the Capitol, and praying for our Failing Nation on January 6th!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

    President Trump said that Ms. Lavrez, a 71-year-old grandmother and small business owner from Colorado, has now become “one of Joe Biden’s J6 HOSTAGES!!!”

    President Trump has made the alleged mistreatment of Jan. 6 defendants a cornerstone of his reelection campaign, vowing to use executive power to issue pardons and free Jan. 6 “hostages” soon after taking office, if elected.

    “Crooked Joe Biden spends more time prosecuting Patriots like Rebecca, AND ME, than Violent Criminals, Thugs, Murderers, and ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who are destroying our Country. THIS IS WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST,” President Trump added in his post.

    President Biden has been sharply critical of President Trump’s statements about the Jan. 6 defendants, while Attorney General Merrick Garland has promised to press ahead with more Jan. 6 prosecutions—and to cast the Justice Department’s dragnet even more widely to include people who weren’t even present at the Capitol that day.

    “As I said before, the Justice Department will hold all January 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under the law—whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,” Mr. Garland said in a speech on Jan. 5.

    More than 1,350 people have been charged with various crimes in relation to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, ranging from misdemeanor offenses such as trespassing to felonies such as seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers.

    Of these, roughly 800 have been sentenced, with nearly two-thirds receiving some time in prison.

    ‘I Went There To Pray’

    Ms. Lavrenz, who calls herself the “J6 Praying Great-Grandma” in her X account bio, was convicted by a federal jury on April 4 on four criminal counts.

    After nearly 26 hours of deliberation, a jury found her guilty of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

    In an April 5 appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program, Ms. Lavrenz said she only spent 10 minutes inside the Capitol and that she traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 to pray for America’s future.

    “I went there to pray,” Ms. Lavrenz told Mr. Bannon. She explained that she was in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 “because I love God, my country, and my family, and I knew that something wasn’t right in that 2020 election.”

    Ms. Lavrenz was captured on video surveillance entering the Capitol building through the East Rotunda doors, walking around the building, and speaking briefly with a police officer before exiting the building, according to charging documents.

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged in the complaint against her that Ms. Lavrenz volunteered photos of herself at the Capitol on the day of the breach to FBI agents. The complaint says the Falcon, Colorado, resident “admitted traveling to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 to attend the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on the mall and ‘following the crowd to the U.S. Capitol building.’”

    In its statement of facts against Ms. Lavrenz, the DOJ said the grandmother of seven entered the building despite seeing physical barriers “indicating the U.S. Capitol building grounds were a restricted area.”

    The filing also states that she “observed people getting into physical confrontations with police” and that she “saw a woman get injured in the exchange.” Video evidence confirmed Ms. Lavrenz’s statement that she was inside the building for only 10 minutes, per the court filings.

    Demonstrators are seen at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)

    Several days before the start of her trial, Ms. Lavrenz posted a video of herself online as she entered the Capitol grounds for the first time since Jan. 6, 2021.

    “My own country is treating me like a criminal just because I believe that my—they stole my rightful president, and just standing up for my country makes me a criminal,” she said in the video. “It’s not right. It feels so weird to be here.”

    A retired register nurse, Ms. Lavrenz also owns and operates a bed and breakfast near the Rocky Mountains in Falcon, Colorado.

    She has set up a GiveSendGo crowdfunding page to help pay for her legal bills and as of Saturday had received over $82,000 in donations.

    Alice Giordano contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 21:00

  • Democrat Division Intensifies As Ex-Speaker Pelosi Joins Call For Biden To Stop Arming Israel
    Democrat Division Intensifies As Ex-Speaker Pelosi Joins Call For Biden To Stop Arming Israel

    A divide among Democrats over whether to halt defense aid to Israel is growing more fierce, causing a crisis and headache for Biden strategists ahead of the presidential election, which has only intensified in the wake of last week’s Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza, which left seven international workers dead, including an American.

    This intensifying fragmentation of Biden’s base has been on display this weekend also given former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – still very influential among Dems – has publicly come out against Biden’s policy to continue arming Israel. The issue is entering the heart of the Democratic establishment, threatening unity.

    Axios reports that she “signed onto a call by progressive members of Congress for the U.S. to stop transferring weapons to Israel over a strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza.”

    Via AFP

    The letter she signed, and which was led by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), included the signatures of some 40 Democrats.

    “In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers,” the lawmakers stated in the letter addressed to President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

    “If this strike is found to have violated U.S. or international law, we urge you to continue withholding these transfers until those responsible are held accountable,” the lawmakers wrote.

    However, a follow-up statement from a Pelosi representative to Axios has this to say: “Speaker Pelosi knows President Biden’s support for Israel and empathy with the innocent civilians in Gaza, and she respects his judgment in how to proceed.”

    This trend of the Gaza war becoming a bright red dividing line among Democrats is also on display with recent stories like the following from Epoch Times— Pro-Israel Democrat Group Endorses ‘Squad’ Primary Opponents:

    A Democrat pro-Israel group has endorsed candidates challenging incumbents who are members of the far-left congressional group “The Squad.”

    Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) announced on April 3 its backing of Westchester County Executive George Latimer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.

    DMFI did not state its reasons for backing the two other than through announcing a slate of endorsements.

    So now the ‘fight’ is on and it’s becoming a real issue with campaign money lining up on either side. Still, those voters who put the Squad members in office in the first place are more than likely to come down on the anti-Israel side. 

    Another indicator that the internal Democrat divide is accelerating is that the controversy has completely altered a long-standing White House tradition. Muslim leaders are boycotting an annual White House Ramadan gathering which marks the end of the Muslim season of fasting:  

    The Biden administration is hosting a scaled-down Ramadan gathering for Muslim and Arab Americans after several community leaders declined the invite over the unrelenting and steadfast nature of US support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

    The event scheduled for Tuesday will be in stark contrast to previous Muslim celebrations and gatherings under the Biden administration, which have seen packed ballrooms of Muslims from all over the country joining the White House festivities. 

    This year, the iftar will be confined to staffers only, and a separate gathering will take place for Muslim community members.

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    One such Muslim community leader and activist told Middle East Eye that Palestinian-Americans are “vehemently opposed to any Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, or any person who has an ounce of humanity” attending the event.

    All of this is of course a plus for Trump’s chances of retaking the White House going into November, also given the Israel-Gaza issue is much less of a divisive flashpoint issue for Republican voters.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 20:25

  • The Reality Of Vitamin D Supplementation
    The Reality Of Vitamin D Supplementation

    Authored by Sheramy Tsai via The Epoch Times,

    One in five Americans regularly reach for vitamin D supplements, yet most are unaware that they’re taking not just a vitamin –  but a hormone.

    While renowned for bolstering bone strength and immune health, vitamin D’s story is not straightforward. A blend of myth and established science invites a closer look into its true nature and impact.

    Vitamin D: Understanding Its Dual Role

    Vitamin D stands apart in the world of nutrients. It’s a sun-sourced substance acting as both a nutrient and a hormone. This dual role is significant, as hormones, which orchestrate many bodily functions, aren’t typically taken as supplements like vitamins.

    Endocrinologist Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D expert, tells The Epoch Times, “The body more effectively utilizes vitamin D when it’s naturally synthesized from sunlight, compared to standard supplement doses.”

    This difference is key to understanding vitamin D’s health role and the complexities of supplementing a hormone.

    Unlike most nutrients, the hormonal nature of vitamin D means it has a broader systemic impact, influencing not just bone health but also immune function, cell growth, and inflammation control. This understanding is crucial in guiding medical approaches to its use, including the potential risks and benefits of supplementation.

    Beyond Bone Health

    Vitamin D is more than just a bone health and immune system booster. Its multifaceted role in the body impacts everything from mood regulation to cardiovascular health.

    At its core, vitamin D is vital for calcium absorption in the gut, and essential for bone strength and health. “Without enough Vitamin D, the body can only absorb 10–15 percent of calcium,” Dr. Alex Foxman, a leading internist and preventive care specialist, told The Epoch Times. Insufficient calcium can result in weaker bones and heightened fracture risks.

    Moreover, vitamin D is pivotal for immune health. Dr. Holick observes, “Vitamin D receptors are in almost every cell, including immune cells.” Proper levels are vital for a balanced immune response and preventing autoimmune disorders.

    Dr. Nathan Goodyear, an integrative cancer physician and director of Brio Medical, an integrative cancer treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, stresses vitamin D’s essential role in immune functionality and its influence on chronic diseases, like cancer. He explains, “The immune system does not work well if vitamin D is not optimal,” emphasizing its role in cancer, where immune strength is crucial.

    Recent research, including melanoma studies, indicates that vitamin D supplementation can enhance treatment responses and prolong survival in cancer patients, even with currently insufficient daily dosage recommendations.

    Vitamin D also plays a significant role in heart health.

    Studies have linked low vitamin D levels to an elevated risk of heart disease. Those deficient in vitamin D are more likely to experience hypertension, heart failure, and strokes.

    Mental health is another arena where vitamin D plays a significant role.

    Kimberly Parker, a licensed psychotherapist, told The Epoch Times, “There’s a clear link between low levels of vitamin D and higher incidences of depression and mood disorders.”

    It also affects seasonal affective disorder, a depression variant tied to seasonal changes. “I have seen my patients have a reduction of symptoms once they started to become consistent with their vitamin D intake,” she reports.

    Vitamin D’s Journey From Sunlight to Cellular Powerhouse

    Vitamin D is vital for health, existing in different forms, each taking a unique path within our body. Grasping these forms is key to understanding how vitamin D functions in our system.

    Once vitamin D enters our body through sun, diet, or supplements, it transforms to become active.

    First, it changes into calcidiol in the liver, then into calcitriol, its active form, in the kidneys. Dr. Holick clarifies, “Calcitriol is the form that our body can use to perform various functions.”

    Interestingly, each form of vitamin D undergoes a similar conversion process in the body. The source of vitamin D might differ, but the pathway it takes in our bodies converges.

    The conversion efficiency of vitamin D can differ. The skin’s capacity to produce vitamin D3 diminishes with age and is influenced by skin pigmentation, geographical location, and lifestyle.

    Controversies in Vitamin D Testing

    The routine way to measure vitamin D levels in the body is through a blood test called 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This measurement reflects vitamin D levels from sunlight, food, and supplements. The less recommended 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D test fails to gauge vitamin D reserves, rendering it ineffective for patient monitoring.

    Vitamin D blood testing has surged, ranking as Medicare’s eighth most common lab test. Market reports pegged the 2023 testing market at $677.5 million, with projections reaching $1.06 billion by 2031.

    Once led by giants like Abbott, Siemens, and Quest Diagnostics, the vitamin D testing market is now seeing a surge in home testing kits from smaller companies. Dr. Holick recalls, “Years ago, I told Quest that this would be their number one seller.”

    “More than 10 million vitamin D blood tests are done annually in the United States, even though these tests are not recommended by major medical organizations,” Dr. Morton Tavel, a cardiologist and specialist in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease, told The Epoch Times. He references a 2020 Virginia health system study, where 10 percent of patients underwent vitamin D tests, often without medical indication.

    Beyond adults, vitamin D testing in children skyrocketed 30-fold in 15 years, as per a BMJ study, though it didn’t significantly alter low vitamin D diagnosis rates.

    This increase in vitamin D testing contrasts with medical associations’ guidelines, which generally discourage routine testing in asymptomatic, low-risk individuals.

    For instance, the Endocrine Society recommends screening only high-risk groups. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force sees insufficient evidence for universal screening. Choosing Wisely also advises against testing in low-risk groups, including the general population.

    Dr. Joel Finkelstein from Massachusetts General Hospital’s Bone Density Center, as reported in a Harvard Health blog, voices skepticism about the rampant vitamin D deficiency screening, deeming many checks on healthy individuals unnecessary.

    “Vitamin D has been hyped massively,” he states. “We do not need to be checking the vitamin D levels of most healthy individuals.” He challenges the evolutionary need for high vitamin D, noting its limited presence in natural foods and reduced synthesis in darker skin, common in sun-rich areas.

    However, many functional medicine and naturopathic doctors recommend regular vitamin D testing.

    The College of Naturopathic Medicine advises those in sun-poor climates to test routinely for better health maintenance.

    Aligning with this view, Dr. Goodyear emphasizes the tests’ relevance, particularly regarding inflammation and chronic diseases like cancer. He told The Epoch Times, “Vitamin D will always be low in the place of significant inflammation, both acute and chronic,” advocating for regular monitoring for proper supplementation.

    Dr. Goodyear draws an analogy to salmon swimming upstream against a current of inflammation, illustrating the challenges in increasing plasma vitamin D levels in such conditions. He likens this process to standard medical practices like monitoring blood pressure, emphasizing the need for a similar approach in natural therapies, “The process is to evaluate, dose, re-evaluate, and then re-dose,” he adds.

    Reflecting the views of Linus Pauling, considered to be the “father of vitamin C,” Dr. Goodyear criticizes the medical oversight of pharmacokinetics and dynamics in natural therapies. He explains that physicians learn drug dosage precision but often forget that this also applies to vitamins. He advocates for a tailored approach in vitamin D therapy, moving away from a one-size-fits-all methodology.

    Defining Optimal Vitamin D Levels

    According to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, “No consensus exists on the definition of vitamin D deficiency or the optimal level of total serum 25-hydroxyvitamin.”

    Some experts view 25(OH)D levels under 30 ng/mL as deficient. Common standards suggest 30-60 ng/mL as sufficient. Yet, many functional health practitioners advocate for an optimal range of 50–80 ng/mL.

    Recommendations according to the National Institutes for Health (NIH):

    The NIH clarifies that optimal vitamin D levels are unestablished, as they “vary by stage of life, by race and ethnicity, and with each physiological measure used.”

    Contrasting these guidelines, voices like Dr. Goodyear’s claim current vitamin D dose recommendations are too low. He labels the current U.S. recommended daily allowances as “woefully inadequate.”

    Dr. Goodyear notes that the conventional focus on preventing rickets overlooks the broader health benefits of higher vitamin D levels. This stance argues for higher optimal ranges, implying current standards don’t fully exploit the vitamin’s health potential.

    Too Much of a Good Thing?

    Vitamin D is vital, however, there’s concern about its overconsumption, particularly via supplements. Unlike water-soluble vitamins, which our bodies can quickly expel when in excess, vitamin D is fat-soluble and can accumulate in the liver and fat tissues to harmful levels, termed “vitamin D intoxication.”

    Dr. Holick cautions that vitamin D intoxication, though extremely rare, is severe. Sun exposure can’t cause Vitamin D toxicity, but excessive supplementation can. “Any excess vitamin D made by the sun is destroyed by the sun. You can never become vitamin D intoxicated from sun exposure, but you can from supplements if you take too much,” he warns.

    Vitamin D toxicity triggers excessive calcium in the blood, leading to nausea, vomiting, and weakness. If untreated, it can escalate to kidney damage, bone pain, and, rarely, death.

    Some practitioners, including Pam Schoenfeld, a registered dietitian, assert that excessive vitamin D intake can lead to the depletion of retinol, the active form of vitamin A. Ms. Schoenfeld told The Epoch Times, “The current landscape of vitamin D supplementation often neglects the intricate balance with other crucial fat-soluble vitamins.”

    In an article for the Weston Price Foundation, Ms. Schoenfeld cautions, “More astute practitioners know that supplementing with vitamin D, especially at levels of 5,000 IU per day … is not advisable unless attention is paid to ensuring vitamin A intake is optimal.” This perspective emphasizes the delicate balance between these essential nutrients, suggesting that maintaining optimal levels of both is crucial for health, particularly during pregnancy.

    Critics, like Dr. Holick, challenge this view, arguing that no substantial evidence supports the claim that Vitamin D adversely affects vitamin A levels. “It’s simply not true,” he notes.

    The Vitamin D Supplementation Dilemma

    Modern indoor lifestyles and diets low in vitamin D contribute to widespread deficiencies. Despite well-balanced diets, about 1 in 4 American adults and 70 percent of children fall short of necessary vitamin D levels.

    Given these challenges, supplementation is an important consideration. Current recommendations call for 400 international units (IU) for children up to age 12 months, 600 IU for people ages 1 to 70, and 800 IU for people over 70.

    Dr. Holick endorses supplements as a straightforward solution, especially for the sun-deprived, suggesting a total daily intake of 2000–3000 IU from diet, sun, and supplements.

    However, not all practitioners agree that supplementation is necessary for everyone. “Although many studies had linked low levels of vitamin D to an assortment of medical conditions, when scientists tried administering it as a means to prevent or treat those problems, this ‘wonder’ supplement failed miserably,” Dr. Tavel told The Epoch Times.

    Sunshine, a prime vitamin D source, can fulfill needs with minimal exposure. Dr. Tavel notes, “Your vitamin D storage generally lasts for about 10 to 12 weeks,” questioning the need for constant supplementation.

    The vitamin D deficiency debate is complex. Dr. Tavel points out that “the widespread notion that much of America is walking around deficient in vitamin D came from a likely misinterpretation of the normal levels for vitamin D set by the Institute of Medicine more than a decade ago.” This has led to overestimation of deficiency rates and potentially unnecessary supplementation.

    Yet, he explains, there are specific scenarios where supplementation is beneficial. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises 400 IU of vitamin D daily for breastfed infants. Those with medical conditions or limited sun exposure might also benefit.

    Dr. Tavel warns that excessive supplementation, linked to increased fall risk and other hazards, underscores the need for balance in vitamin D intake.

    Supporting Dr. Tavel, New England Journal of Medicine research found no fracture risk reduction in healthy adults supplementing with 2000 IU of vitamin D compared to non-supplementers.

    Vitamin D’s necessity varies. Dr. Tavel reminds us, “For much of human history, people got their vitamin D mostly from the sun,” highlighting our body’s innate ability to regulate this nutrient.

    Determining vitamin D supplementation requires personal assessment, medical consultation, and an eye on guidelines. Generally, a mix of diet, sun, and occasional supplements suffices for most, claims Dr. Tavel.

    Expanding Vitamin D Supplement Industry

    The vitamin D supplement market is rapidly growing, valued at $1,560 million in 2023 and expected to reach $2,780 million by 2033, growing at 5.9 percent annually. Drivers include an aging population, heightened health awareness, and a surge in demand for vitamin-enriched products.

    In response to consumer demand, the industry is innovating with new delivery methods and formulations, like gummies, sprays, patches, creams, and potent capsules. This variety meets diverse preferences and needs, including ease of use and better absorption.

    The industry’s growth is also propelled by robust marketing and advertising. Pharma and wellness firms heavily promote vitamin D supplements as key to health, shaping consumer views and fueling market expansion.

    While this market growth mirrors a shift in health consciousness, it prompts concerns about self-prescribed supplementation and underscores the importance of a balanced approach to vitamin D consumption.

    Best Sources of Vitamin D

    Sun exposure is key in vitamin D production. UVB (ultraviolet B) rays convert skin cholesterol into vitamin D3, later transformed into calcitriol, its usable form. Interestingly, skin-produced vitamin D remains in the bloodstream for about twice as long as when ingested by food or vitamins.

    Sunlight’s vitamin D productivity varies by time, season, and location. The best synthesis is between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. in warmer months. However, above 37 degrees latitude, there’s negligible vitamin D production from November to March.

    A 2022 study concluded, “Sun exposure can significantly make up for deficiencies in subjects who consume insufficient dietary Vit D. Compared with the extra cost and time for building habits of Vit D supplementation, moderate sun exposure appears to be a simple and costless means for the public to start in daily practice.”

    The dminder app helps users identify optimal sun exposure times for vitamin D, offering real-time data based on location, time, and weather.

    Dietary sources, though fewer, contribute to vitamin D intake. Fatty fish and UV-exposed mushrooms are key sources. Incorporating these foods can help maintain vitamin D, especially in less sunny periods.

    Supplementation, particularly beneficial for those in higher latitudes, is another method. A study showed that while both sun and oral D3 supplements raise vitamin D levels, supplements were more effective due to compliance. Simply put, more people took supplements than spent time in the sun.

    Vitamin D supplements are available as D2 (from plants) and D3 (from animals). D3, mirroring the body’s sun-induced production, is often recommended for effectively raising and maintaining vitamin D levels.

    However, Dr. Holick asserts that “physiologic doses of D2 and D3 raise vitamin D levels in the blood the same,” effectively debunking myths about their differing impacts on health. Additionally, he confirms that the kidneys equally metabolize both forms.

    Dr. Holick also touches on the regulatory history of these supplements in the United States, explaining that vitamin D2 remains the only pharmaceutical form available due to historical U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval processes. “No one ever got approval for D3,” he notes, highlighting a regulatory, rather than a health-based, reason for vitamin D2’s dominance in the market.

    Though sunlight is the prime vitamin D source, its availability is inconsistent. Diet and supplements thus serve as vital alternatives to ensure sufficient vitamin D for optimal health.

    Key Considerations for Vitamin D Supplementation

    Understanding how to optimize vitamin D supplementation and reduce risks is crucial:

    Fat-Soluble Nature

    Contrary to popular belief and many recommendations, Dr. Michael Holick argues that vitamin D absorption doesn’t depend on dietary fat. He cites studies showing better absorption from skim milk, low in fat, than from full-fat milk. Hence, vitamin D can be taken with or without dietary fat.

    Conjunction With Other Nutrients

    • Vitamin K: Studies suggest taking vitamins D and K together may enhance bone health and reduce arterial calcification risks.

    • Magnesium: Magnesium aids vitamin D metabolism, and high vitamin D doses can deplete magnesium levels. Adequate magnesium is vital for effective vitamin D use.

    • Vitamin A: Vitamins A and D, both fat-soluble, work together, but consensus on taking them together has not been clearly established.

    • Timing of Dosage: Some suggest aligning vitamin D intake with circadian rhythms, proposing daytime consumption to avoid sleep disturbances. However, Dr. Holick indicates no evidence supporting the idea that vitamin D disrupts sleep, making it safe to take at any time.

    • Choice of Vitamin D Type: While D2 (ergocalciferol) comes from plants and fortified foods and D3 (cholecalciferol) from animal products and sunlight exposure, Dr. Holick states both forms raise and maintain vitamin D levels equally.

    • Consult Health Care Professionals: Before starting supplements, consulting a health care provider is essential to determine proper dosing and assess potential interactions with other medications or health conditions.

    While supplements may be useful, integrating them with natural vitamin D sources and a balanced lifestyle is crucial for overall well-being.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 19:50

  • "West Point Mafia" Has "Systematically Destroyed The Nation's Maritime Strength" 
    “West Point Mafia” Has “Systematically Destroyed The Nation’s Maritime Strength” 

    Captain John Konrad, CEO of gCaptain, a website specializing in tracking the shipping industry, blames the “West Point Mafia” and decades of land wars in the Middle East for a hollowed-out US Navy that was entirely “unprepared” for the salvage operation of the collapsed 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. 

    Konrad explained, “Truth is bridges are an Army Corps of Engineers responsibility but they are so unprepared they gave the job to Navy Salvage to lead. Navy salvage is so broken they had to outsource it to the US subsidiary/partner of a European firm which is chartering equipment from private companies at great expense.”

    “And it’s the Army’s own fault. The West Point Mafia has systematically destroyed our nation’s maritime strength,” he said, adding that China would’ve had the Baltimore shipping channel “fully cleared in weeks,” not months (read more about the reopening timeline here). 

    Here’s more from Konrad on X and his epic rant against the “West Point Mafia”: 

    China could have the Baltimore ship channel fully cleared in weeks but yesterday @POTUS said yesterday for the Army Corps of Engineers it will take months.

    I blame the West Point Mafia and their budget demon. Please let me explain…

    Truth is bridges are an Army Corps of Engineers responsibility but they are so unprepared they gave the job to Navy Salvage to lead. Navy salvage is so broken they had to outsource it to the US subsidiary/partner of a European firm which is chartering equipment from private companies at great expense. Equipment that’s weak & small compared to what the European parent has overseas.

    And it’s the Army’s own fault. The West Point Mafia has systematically destroyed our nation’s maritime strength. 

    When I was 10 Vinzzini taught me the first lesson of war “You’ve fell victim to one of the classic blunders! Never get involved in a land war in Asia” 

    Yet in my adult life the United States fought not one but two wars in Asia. 

    How did we pay for those? By gutting our maritime capabilities. 

    With Chinese military capability growing exponentially, how do you win a war in Asia? The same way we did in WW2: with ships & marines with the Army and Air Force serving a support role 

    Except there is a problem, the current and last Secretaries of Defense are West Pointers. The SECDEF before that was a marine but he was forced out after a disagreement with the Secretary of State who was a West Pointer 

    Two decades of Land Wars in asia have decimated our Maritime capabilities as trillions was rerouted into Army coffers by the West Point mafia demon in DC 

    And now that the land wars are over is the Army Corps of Engineers helping rebuild shipyards and bridges? Is the Army rebuilding its once mighty fleet of dredges? Is it working jointly with the SeaBees and Merchant Marine? Is it rebuilding watercraft? 

    No today’s West Point mafia leader Jack Reed controls the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee & has blocked the Future of the Navy Commission That Congress created to develop a Naval rebuilding strategy 

    Now under General Lloyd Austin & Reed EVERY SINGLE navy shipbuilding project is delayed. 

    The West Point Mafia has gutted every Maritime service: 

    Navy National Guard (Naval Militia): now only a boat service in a small handful of states 

    United States Navy Armed Guard: gone 

    US Navy Reserve: zero ships in inventory 

    USCG Icebreaker fleet: down to one ship 

    US Navy salvage fleet: mostly gone 

    Seabees: cut to 7,000 active personnel 

    Merchant Marine: now less than 80 ships in international service 

    MARAD Ready Reserve Fleet: small & on average age a half century old 

    US Maritime Service: just a handful of officers at the US Merchant Marine academy 

    Marine Hospital Service; gone except the uniforms 

    NOAA Officer Corps: down to 330 officers 

    Army Corps of Engineers dredge fleet: includes ancient hulls like the 57-year-old dredge McFarland 

    Army Corps of Engineers salvage: the last SECDEF, @EsperDoD sold all Army salvage vessels in Baltimore

    Army Watercraft: gutted by at action by Esper 

    USCG: forced to cut 10 cutters this year alone 

    I could go on but I have something more important to say: 

    🚨 NOW THEY ARE COMING FOR THE CARRIERS AND SUBMARINES🚨

    (I will post the details of the carrier and sub delays in post 2 of the thread) 

    If Jack Reed & the West Point Mafia wins the next war in Asia will be lost. 

    Problem is there is nobody to stop them because the think tanks, defense contractors and DoD civil servants know who wields the power and nobody in Navy or Coast Guard uniform has the moral courage to ruin their career by calling out Jack Reed & General Austin in the media or during a senate hearing. 

    PS why am I using quotes from the Princess Bride & making light of the problem by creating the West Point Mafia Demon meme? Because it doesn’t require a PhD to see what is happening. 

    The gutting of every critical maritime capability to pour money into Land Wars is something any 10 year can see is idiotic.

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

    Konrad asks: “Why am I able to call out the Jack Reed and General Austin when NOBODY else in DC or the DOD is?”

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

    Konrad describes a colossal mismanagement of the US Armed Forces despite record defense spending. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 19:15

  • 'Animal Spirits' Update (Or Reflections On Another Fake Unemployment Report)
    ‘Animal Spirits’ Update (Or Reflections On Another Fake Unemployment Report)

    Authored by Elliott Middleton via ‘End Times Meditation’ Substack,

    The BLS is reporting the March unemployment rate down slightly to 3.8 percent, nowhere near the 4.5 percent that it will take to trigger a collapse of confidence. 

    ZeroHedge has detailed how fake the BLS’s numbers have become in a series of recent posts (yesterday’s highlights are here and here).

    When I was in academics, my research program was on the application of psychology to economics, especially the fundamental psychological law of sensitivity to adaptation level.

    Back in the 1990s, I was featured in a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on “animal spirits” or confidence levels.

    I discovered that when the unemployment level rises above a 4-year exponential moving average of the unemployment rate (in which more recent observations are weighted more heavily), confidence collapses, the unemployment rate skyrockets upward, and economic activity contracts sharply.

    This event marks the end of the business cycle.

    While the economy has been stagnating for most people recently, we have not experienced this signal event, the collapse of confidence that occurs when the recession begins.

    The post below describes my intellectual journey and was published in ZeroHedge on June 21, 2022, and is highly recommended if you haven’t read it already.

    Read full story…

    We can expect laughable unemployment reports for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, private industry sources keep track of announced layoffs.

    Via intellizence.com:

    Leading Companies Announcing Layoffs And Hiring Freezes in 2024

    The following is the list of major layoffs, job cuts, and hiring freezes announced by leading companies in 2024.

    Since January 1st, 2024, 151,943+ companies have announced mass layoffs.

    [Last update: April 01, 2024]. [emphasis added]

    The Biden administration is aware of my work and apparently will do anything to prevent the reported unemployment number from climbing to 4.5 percent before the election, which would trigger a collapse of confidence.

    The adaptation level is currently at 4.53 percent. Look at the graph below.

    There is still a gap of 4.53 – 3.8 = 0.73 unemployment percentage points, too wide for people to feel that “things are getting worse than what we’re used to.”

    The difference between the unemployment rate and the adaptation level can be flipped to be presented as a confidence level. By this metric, confidence is still quite high (though trending lower).

    Real per capita personal income is almost exactly on trend for the past 30 years.

    Consumers may have a lingering COVID-bubble-stimmy-checks-induced feeling of wealth as well, having recovered from a dip in 2022.

    The recent experience has been nothing like the years following the Great Financial Crisis.

    Unfortunately, more fake data from the BLS coming on top of all the fake data from the FDA and CDC over the past four years will only further extinguish any confidence the American people have in their government’s statistical releases. Or in their government in general.

    Perhaps the BLS will simply stop reporting an unemployment number. This is what the Chinese did with their youth unemployment series.

    Or perhaps they’ll issue a report with all the data redacted like the FDA did with their myocarditis analysis. Every page was redacted.

    The “strong” report this morning suggests that rates will stay higher for longer than many expect. Note in the chart below, showing the inflation rate and the 3-month T-bill rate, that the peak in short-term interest rates came a year after the peak in inflation, the last time the Fed was battling with inflation during the 1980-1982 recessions.

    With the WEF Cabal pursuing their goal of global famine by destabilizing oil production in the Middle East, thereby especially starving China of the means to run its economy and feed its population, a global oil shock appears to be in the making.

    Crunch coming. Will there even be an election?

    We are approaching maximum uncertainty.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 18:40

  • Next Big Mineral Trade Revealed By Morgan Stanley 
    Next Big Mineral Trade Revealed By Morgan Stanley 

    Abandoning petrol-burning vehicles and adopting low-­carbon technologies to power tomorrow’s economy are trends accelerating across the nation. To do this, access to rare earth metals, key ingredients in many of these ‘green’ technologies, must be sourced domestically – not from China, an emerging national security threat to the US. As the world fractures into a multipolar state, there is a big push domestically to revive America’s metals and mining industry and reduce reliance on Asia. 

    Morgan Stanley analyst Carlos De Alba recently conveyed his optimistic outlook for the US metals and mining sector to clients. He highlighted that investment levels in the industry have reached their lowest level in decades. He believes the sector is poised for massive investments and outlines the companies that will benefit. 

    “US reliance on import critical minerals has reached a 30-year high, and investment in the industry is near its lowest point in decades,” the analyst said, pointing out America’s heavy reliance on imported minerals from China:

    “The US government has identified 50 minerals it deems critical to the US economy and to national security; for 43 of those critical minerals, more than 50% of domestic consumption depends on imports. 

    Since 1990, the US has seen a significant increase in both the variety of imported minerals and the level of dependence on these imports. In 1990, the US was fully reliant on imports for the supply of 9 minerals, and imports exceeded 50% of consumption for 27 minerals (including all minerals, not only critical ones).

     These figures have risen to 15 and 51, respectively, as of 2022. China currently dominates the global mineral processing/refining industry, and the US is heavily reliant on China (>50% of net import reliance) for imports of 26 minerals.” 

    China’s global dominance in rare earth metals is a national security threat. Were Western leaders asleep at the wheel over the last three-plus decades to allow this to happen? 

    The analyst detailed how China dominates the global supply of rare earth minerals and cautioned against rising vulnerabilities in US mineral supply chains, especially given the ongoing tensions in Sino-US relations:

    “China is in a powerful position to influence the global mineral markets and has already started to flex its strength through mineral export restrictions. For US policymakers, the US’s mineral dependence on imports highlights the growing vulnerability of the US mineral supply chain and the urgent need to strengthen domestic supply chains. In addition, the US faces a multi-decade decline in investment in the domestic mining and exploration industry, which has fallen from ~2.0% of GDP in 1960 (and a peak of ~3.1% in 1981) to just ~0.5% today.”

    After being asleep at the wheel for decades, the bloated US government, thank former President Trump – has awakened from its slumber and realized that it must play a serious “catch-up” game with policy reform and incentives for private industry to rebuild America’s domestic mining and separation sector. 

    “US permitting reform and other government incentives will likely act as a tailwind for the domestic mining industry through encouraging the development and helping mitigate the associated risks of building new mine supply,” the analyst said.

    He said the big winner of “permitting reform” that is “geared toward promoting the development of mining projects” will be the “Junior Mining and Exploration industry.” 

    One company that stands to benefit is MP Materials, the largest US-based miner of rare earths. The analyst said this company is a “play on accelerating adoption of electric vehicles and electrification trends in wind turbines.” 

    He continued:

    “The company’s mission is to restore the full US rare earth supply chain. MP has executed on its plan of restarting the Mountain Pass mine in California and it is currently ramping a refining facility to produce rare earth oxides. The company will get into the production of NdFeB alloy flake and permanent mag-nets (critical components for electric vehicles and wind turbines) with a plant that is under construction in Texas.” 

    Shares of MP Materials have roundtripped Covid lows. 

    He said Cleveland-Cliffs Inc and United States Steel Corporation are “key beneficiaries to building ex-China supply chains given CLF is currently the only producer of electrical steel in the US and X is ramping up a greenfield electrical steel facility this year.” 

    He added: “All steel names under our coverage (NUE, STLD, CLF and X) will broadly benefit from re-shoring trends given manufacturing facilities, and the equipment to outfit them is often steel intensive.” 

    And the analyst listed a few junior miners with assets in the US that should interest investors:

    • American Rare Earths Ltd (ARR.AX | Market Cap ~A$138 million): ARR is a rare earth exploration & development company. Their 100% owned flagship project, Halleck Creek deposit, is located in Wyoming and has extensive rare earth mineralization. According to the company, the project has the potential to be amongst the largest rare earth deposits in the US

    • USA Rare Earth (Private): According to USA Rare Earth, the company owns the only scalable, sintered neo-magnet manufacturing system in the Western Hemisphere (located in Oklahoma). The company is targeting magnet production in 2024 and is aiming to supply the plant with rare earth feed stock mined from the Round Top property in Texas in late 2025 or early 2026. USA Rare Earth owns an 80% stake in the Round Top property, Texas Mineral Resources (OTCBQ: TMRC) owns the remaining 20% stake.

    • Perpetua Resources (PPTA.TO | Market Cap ~C$360 million): Perpetua’s flagship development project is the Stibnite Gold Project located in Idaho, which according to the company has one of the largest economic reserves of antimony and could supply ~35% of US demand in the first six years of production. Antimony is considered a critical mineral and is used in batteries, munitions and semiconductors. The company was recently awarded up to $15.5 million in funding for the Department of Defense to help demonstrate a fully domestic antimony trisulfide supply chain.

    • IperionX Ltd. (IPX.AX, IPX.O | Market Cap ~A$525 million): IperionX goal is to re-shore a fully integrated titanium metal supply chain to the US. The company plans on extracting titanium minerals from its Titan Project in Tennessee, in addition to producing rare earths and zirconium as co-products. The company plans on producing high-performance titanium alloys, from titanium minerals or scrap titanium

    In addition to profiting from what could soon be an explosion of investment in the mining sector, we outlined to readers days ago another big trade theme in a note titled “The Next AI Trade.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 18:05

  • SEC Forced To Halt Climate Reporting Mandate For Businesses
    SEC Forced To Halt Climate Reporting Mandate For Businesses

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) paused the implementation of its climate disclosure requirements for companies as legal challenges against the rules are pending in a circuit court.

    In March, the SEC finalized a controversial rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose any climate-related risks to their business. The SEC’s Final Rules also required some midsize and large firms to reveal how much CO2 is emitted from their operations. This led to several Republican states, companies, and business groups filing lawsuits against the regulations, asking for the SEC rule to be stayed. Two energy companies—Liberty Energy Inc. and Nomad Proppant Services LLC—sought an administrative stay on the rule, which was granted by the Fifth Circuit court on March 15.

    According to SEC rules, businesses must report on the potential impact climate risks may have on their financial condition as well as the strategies undertaken to mitigate such risks. Businesses have to disclose their climate targets and the losses suffered due to severe weather events.

    Other legal challenges against the rule were filed at the Second, Sixth, Eighth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuit courts. All the lawsuits, including the Fifth Circuit one, were consolidated into a single case, with the Eight Circuit set to hear the challenge.

    On March 26, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the Texas Association of Business, and the Longview Chamber of Commerce filed a motion in the Eighth Circuit, seeking a stay of the SEC rules pending judicial review.

    Challenging SEC

    Lawsuits from Republican states claim that the SEC breached their rule-making authority by asking public firms to disclose climate risks while such regulations have not received approval from Congress.

    SEC’s rules create costly, unnecessary “red tape” for businesses. They accused the climate rules of being part of the Biden administration’s push to make sure investment decisions in the country are driven by climate considerations rather than financial returns.

    On April 4, SEC Secretary Vanessa Countryman issued an order staying the agency’s climate rule requirements while litigation proceeded in the Eighth Circuit.

    Ms. Countryman argued that given the procedural complexities involved in litigating the multiple cases filed against the climate rules, the SEC’s stay “will facilitate the orderly judicial resolution of those challenges.”

    In addition, “a stay avoids potential regulatory uncertainty if registrants were to become subject to the Final Rules’ requirements during the pendency of the challenges to their validity.”

    Though the SEC is issuing a stay on the climate rule, the agency continues to hold the view that the regulations are “consistent with applicable law” and within the authority of the commission, the order stated.

    “Thus, the Commission will continue vigorously defending the Final Rules’ validity in court and looks forward to expeditious resolution of the litigation.”

    ‘Outrageous’ Climate Mandate

    Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, one of the Republican AGs that led 25 states to file lawsuits against the climate rules, called the SEC’s April 4 stay a “victory” that “shuts down the most outrageous climate mandate for businesses since Biden took office.”

    “The SEC’s job is to protect people from fraud. It has no business slapping companies with extremist climate mandates. We are making it clear that Biden has to follow the law like everyone else,” she said.

    “By halting this mandate, we are protecting businesses from costly red tape, securing our supply chain, and defending family farms. Next, we are going to make this win permanent!”

    In addition to Iowa, other states in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

    The SEC rule “will also require businesses to disclose climate-related risks, including higher insurance rates from weather disasters, and release a plan to adapt to climate-agenda recommendations. The plan is estimated to cost businesses billions of dollars every year.”

    SEC Votes

    When the SEC finalized its climate rules in March, agency commissioners had voted 3–2 to pass the measure. The votes were done along party lines, with all Democrats voting in favor of the rule and Republican commissioners voting against it.

    Republican commissioner Hester Peirce had pointed out that the climate rules would be expensive and burdensome for businesses while creating a large amount of inconsistent information overwhelming investors.

    “However well-intentioned, these particularized interests don’t justify forcing investors who don’t share them to foot the bill,” he said. The SEC estimates the climate rule to impact around 2,800 American firms.

    The rules adopted in March were a watered-down version of an earlier draft that contained more stringent measures, including requiring companies to report certain indirect emissions. These stringent measures triggered intense opposition from the business community.

    In an interview with The Epoch Times in June 2022, Sean Griffith, a professor at Fordham University School of Law, suggested that SEC rules enforce viewpoint discrimination since the regulations are essentially forcing companies to endorse certain assumptions about how the earth’s climate is being affected by human actions.

    “The reason why the climate rules are so problematic is that either they’re politically driven—which is very plausible—or they are driven by this desire to appease the institutional asset manager community, which has its own profit interest because they generate revenue from the assets under management of those ESG portfolios. At the end of the day, it’s not about investors.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 17:30

  • More Easy Money Will Plunge Us Into Stagflation
    More Easy Money Will Plunge Us Into Stagflation

    Authored by Daniel Lacalle via The Mises Institute,

    Thirty major central banks are expected to cut rates in the second half of 2024, a year when more than seventy nations will have elections, which often means massive increases in government spending. Additionally, the latest inflation figures show stubbornly persistent consumer price annualized growth.

    In the United States, headline PCE inflation in February will likely grow by 0.4%, compared with a 0.3% rise in January, and consensus expects a 2.5% annualized rate, up from 2.4% in January. This is on top of the already 20% accumulated inflation of the past four years. Core inflation will likely show a 0.3% gain, according to Bloomberg Economics, which means an annualized 2.8%, building on top of the price increases of the past years.

    Thirty central banks easing and seventy national governments increasing spending in an election year means more fuel for the inflation fire in a year in which money supply growth has bounced significantly from its 2023 lows.

    Central banks ignored monetary aggregates when they shrugged off the risk of inflation in 2020, and now they are, again, easing way too fast when the battle against inflation has not finished.

    Furthermore, the only real tool that central banks have used is hiking rates, because different parallel measures of money growth, including reverse repo liquidity injections, have kept money supply growth at an elevated rate even when the balance of the G7 central banks was moderating, albeit at a slower pace than announced.

    Cutting rates may come too late because, by the time it is implemented, it will cause a double negative.

    Government deficits will be cheaper to refinance, bloating an already record-high public debt yet again, but those cuts may have little impact on small and medium enterprises and families because they suffer significantly more from the accumulated effects of inflation, which means weaker margins, more difficulties to make ends meet, and impoverishment.

    We must also remember that these persistent levels of official inflation come after relevant tweaks in the calculation of the consumer price index. We certainly know one thing: consumers do not pay attention to the annualized rate of growth in prices, but to the accumulated level of destruction of their purchasing power, and everyone, from Europeans to Americans, knows that they have become artificially poorer by the insane fiscal and monetary policies implemented in 2020.

    Nobody who takes inflation seriously would even consider easing in an election year, adding trillions of dollars of deficit spending to the fire of inflation. Furthermore, the history of inflation warns us about giving up easily and too fast.

    The Fed is making a big mistake by cheering the headline economic figures that come from disguising a private sector recession with a massive increase in public debt and weakening employment figures embellished by temporary jobs and public sector hiring. Additionally, it is making a mistake by giving dovish signals that make market participants take more risk. There has been no relevant reduction in the money supply if we include the different layers of liquidity injections. Announcing forthcoming rate cuts will certainly make speculative debt rise but will hardly change the credit demand from the backbone of the economy, small businesses, and families. Since the US government has rejected any calls for normalization and instead added more deficits and debt as if rising bond yields were not a problem, citizens and businesses have already suffered greatly from ongoing inflation and rate increases. As such, the rate cuts will help an already bloated government spending and the zombie corporations that keep access to capital markets. Everyone else will be hurt both ways, with inflation and lower access to credit.

    You may think all the above problems are policy mistakes, but they are not. This is a slow process of nationalizing resources. Inflation and artificial money creation through deficits and monetization are a gradual transfer of wealth from real salaries and deposit savings to the government. You are basically becoming poorer to sustain an ever-increasing government size. The next time you read that massive deficits and monetary easing are good policies for the middle class, ask yourself why you find it harder each year to pay for goods and services. The mistakes made in 2020–2024 will cost the middle class many more taxes, even if the government promises it will only be “taxes on the rich,” the oldest gimmick to raise your taxes.

    More taxes, persistent inflation, the hidden tax, and the loss of value of your wages. That is “easing” for you. A private sector recession with headline economic figures bloated by government debt. The recipe for stagflation.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 16:20

  • Arabica Coffee Prices See Largest Weekly Jump In Nearly Three Years 
    Arabica Coffee Prices See Largest Weekly Jump In Nearly Three Years 

    As if hyperinflating cocoa bean prices and re-accelerating global food inflation weren’t enough, Arabica coffee futures hit their highest level in over a year and a half. 

    Arabica coffee futures with May delivery jumped 12.5% on the week (the largest weekly gain since July 2021), closing at $2.12 per pound. 

    The contract is at its highest level since early October 2022. 

    As for weekly CFTC data on futures and options, managed money-only long contracts hit a record high. 

    “The current move can largely be attributed to a heat wave in Vietnam affecting Robusta coffee production and as a result, providing carryover support for premium Arabica beans,” Aakash Doshi, senior commodities strategist at Citi, wrote in a note to clients. 

    Doshi forecasts Arabica coffee futures to be trading between $1.88 and $2.15 through the 2024 calendar year. He indicated prices could go higher if the physical outlook tightens. 

    Separately, Hernando De La Roche, a senior vice president at StoneX Financial Inc., told Bloomberg that dealers were caught in a vicious “short and forced to cover while funds have been adding long positions,” adding that importers were forced to abandon hedges. 

    Meanwhile, the recent surge in Brent crude prices due to the worsening geopolitical situation in the Middle East could begin to lift global food prices. 

    Food inflation is not going away. This is more bad news for central banks. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 15:45

  • Too Hot To Handle: Gold Due For A Correction?
    Too Hot To Handle: Gold Due For A Correction?

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    With gold hitting yet another awe-inspiring all-time high in the wake of Powell’s remarks reassuring markets (more or less) to expect rate cuts in 2024, a few analysts are pointing out risk factors for a correction – so is there really still room to run?

    The Wall Street Journal points out that oil price spikes driven by the acceleration of war in the Middle East could cause the Fed to reverse its position of cutting rates three times this year – especially as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has reached historic lows.

    Since Biden took office, the SPR has been drained by over 40% — ironically, as part of a desperate gambit to keep oil prices artificially low in the face of its proxy war in Ukraine and out-of-control inflation, which can only get even worse after the Fed cuts rates. Now that the SPR won’t be refilled as expected (itself a taxpayer-funded sale), Americans will feel even more of the inflationary reality when they head to the gas pumps.

    For context, the SPR was founded in 1975 and is now hovering at levels not seen since the early 80’s:

    Source: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcsstus1&f=a

    But as the conflict in Gaza and beyond continues to accelerate, the US will find more excuses to expand its own involvement as it has from the start.

    Whatever form the meddling takes, the US will inevitably need to finance it by printing money. So, as usual, the Fed is damned if they do and damned if they don’t, defeated by their own games: they need to finance the Middle East meddling with money printing, but both the money printing required to fund the war and the effects of the war itself will work together to drive oil prices up.

    Coincidentally, both factors will also work together to push gold to hit fresh all-time highs this year, unless the Fed decides to buck the Military-Industrial Complex and renege on its rate cut promises, making it much more challenging for Biden administration war hawks to keep the US involved to the extent they’d like.

    On the same topic of Russia and the Middle East, the BRICS countries’ continuing de-dollarization efforts mean that we can expect them to keep stockpiling gold as they continue to divest from petrodollar dependence. Russia says they’ll be doubling their gold and foreign currency purchases, and China’s central bank just hit a new reported record high for its gold reserves late last month.

    Still, some are skeptical, saying that gold and other metals are overbought and due for a correction, and interpreted Powell’s remarks on Wednesday as mildly hawkish. Powell did say that more progress needs to be made on inflation in order for the Fed to move forward with rate cuts. These statements added a dash of uncertainty for some:

    “We do not expect that it will be appropriate to lower our policy rate until we have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down towards 2 percent…Reducing rates too soon or too much could result in a reversal of the progress we have seen on inflation and ultimately require even tighter policy to get inflation back to 2 percent.”

    But even as Powell admitted the fight against inflation is “not done” (an epic understatement), markets were reassured that the Fed is still expecting to lower interest rates, saying that the data doesn’t justify changing the current course:

    “The recent data do not, however, materially change the overall picture, which continues to be one of solid growth, a strong but rebalancing labor market, and inflation moving down toward 2 percent on a sometimes bumpy path.”

    So is gold too overbought, or does the macro environment provide enough upward pressure to give it room to keep running?

    While short-term corrections are always something to consider during such dramatic price-run ups, I’d call them buying opportunities.

    And if the mainstream media’s reaction is to be used as a barometer, the true reality of what the skyrocketing price of gold truly means for the economy and the US dollar still hasn’t been priced in. As Peter Schiff tweeted earlier this week:

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

    The more skeptical analyses acknowledge that it will be an uphill battle for it to sustain the same awe-inspiring upward pace that it has had since the start of the year. But even they, like I, still expect a confluence of factors in 2024 to continue pushing it higher.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 15:10

  • Mexico Breaks Diplomatic Ties With Ecuador After Police Raid On Quito Embassy 
    Mexico Breaks Diplomatic Ties With Ecuador After Police Raid On Quito Embassy 

    Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is severing diplomatic relations with Ecuador following a police raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, where they arrested former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had sought political asylum in the embassy after being indicted on corruption charges. 

    AMLO announced Friday night that Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican embassy to arrest Glas. He has been hiding in the embassy since December as diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated. 

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

    “This is not possible. It cannot be. This is crazy,” Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, told local press, as quoted by AP News. 

    Canseco continued, “I am very worried because they could kill him. There is no basis to do this. This is totally outside the norm.”

    Glas, one of the most wanted men in the South American country, was recently convicted of bribery and corruption. 

    AMLO called Glas’ arrest an “authoritarian act” and “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.”

    Hours before the raid, Mexico granted Glas political asylum – something the Ecuadorian government viewed as illegal. 

    Ecuador’s Presidency wrote in a statement, “Ecuador is a sovereign nation, and we are not going to allow any criminal to stay free.” 

    On social media platform X, Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, said her team will take Glas’ detainment to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.”

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 14:35

  • World War II Didn't End The Great Depression
    World War II Didn’t End The Great Depression

    By Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities

    A principal goal of Stark Realities is to “expose fundamental myths across the political spectrum” — and few myths are as universally embraced as the notion that US participation in World War II lifted the American economy out of the Great Depression.

    This myth is dangerous not only because it leads citizens and politicians to see a bright side of war that doesn’t really exist, but also because it helps foster a belief that government spending is essential to countering economic downturns. That belief, in turn, has helped propel us to a point where the national debt now exceeds $34.6 trillion, with interest payments alone on pace to reach $1 trillion a year in 2026, inviting financial catastrophe.

    In part, the wartime-prosperity myth springs from the fact that, during conflict on the scale of World War II, broad, macroeconomic measures like gross national product (GNP) and the unemployment rate are completely untethered from the economy’s most important facet: the standard of living enjoyed — or endured— by everyday people.

    Between 1940 and 1944, real GNP rose at an unprecedented 13% annual clip. Using GNP alone, one would think the war delivered a major improvement in the standard of living, with Americans enjoying a greater abundance of goods, accompanied by a rise in quality, selection and affordability.

    The reality was the exact opposite: Americans endured rationing, shortages, declining product quality, and the outright unavailability of many new goods, such as cars, trucks and stoves. This was the inevitable result of factories and raw materials being redirected from the creation of things consumers want to building things like tanks and fighter planes that do nothing whatsoever to improve people’s lives (setting aside the separate issue of the war’s justness).

    In many respects, America experienced an outright economic devolution. In the preceding century, industrialization and the division of labor led to enormous increases in productivity. During World War II, however, shortages motivated people who’d contentedly relied on farmers to start growing their own food and canning it. The scarcity of new clothing led homemakers to redirect time and energy to sewing their own garments and resewing them to stretch as much use out them as possible.

    “Those remaining on the home front were forced to produce for themselves what they had previously been able to purchase,” wrote Steven Horwitz and Michael J. McPhillips. “The household again became a center of production rather than consumption alone.”

    GNP wasn’t the only measure falsely signaling wartime prosperity; employment numbers from the era were likewise misleading. The US unemployment rate plummeted from 17% in 1939 to 1.2% in 1944. Note, however, that military service members are not considered part of the labor force — which means that the draft extracted 11.5 million men from the denominator in the unemployment rate calculation.

    Another 6.3 million volunteered, though many signed up because they preferred to secure a role they favored rather than face the chance of being drafted as an infantryman.

    While it’s true that draftees and volunteers were “employed” by the armed forces, all these millions of men — no matter how noble their overseas missions may have been — weren’t doing anything to create prosperity at home.

    Not a prosperous path to full employment: Soldiers under withering fire on D-Day’s Omaha Beach

    That’s not to say the war machine didn’t demand laborers. With so many able men taken out of the economy, the slack was taken up by teenagers, women and retirees, many who’d have preferred to be doing other things.

    In a growing economy, more people are producing goods and services, and elevating standards of living in the process. That was far from the case during World War II. Factories were humming, but they were making bayonets, bombs and battleships. “Four-tenths of the total labor force was not being used to produce consumer goods or capital capable of yielding consumer goods in the future,” noted Robert Higgs.

    Defying conventional wisdom about “wartime prosperity,” Americans’ standard of living suffered tremendously from their government’s entry into World War II. In The Reality of the Wartime Economy, Horwitz and McPhillips tapped some interesting source material to bring the grim economic realities of American life during World War II into sharp focus.

    For example, a series of newspaper ads placed by Canton Electric Light & Power Company — a local New York State utility — present a vivid, time-lapse portrayal of rapidly declining conditions following the December 1941 declaration of war:

    • Foreshadowing anticipated shortages, a March 17, 1942 ad for appliances is headlined “You Can Still Buy Them.” The ad includes a qualifier that’s upbeat while still signaling creeping scarcity: “We have a fairly good supply.”

    • Just two months later, Canton Electric’s ad says “Now Is The Time” to buy various appliances and equipment, warning that “production of most of these items has stopped and only the supply in your dealers’ stock is available.”

    • Another two months later, a July 1942 ad indicates that some items that were briefly not available are back in inventory.

    • In November of that first year of America’s World War II participation, Canton Electric switched to warning consumers that, “due to the war emergency, it is quite impossible to get replacement motors for civilian use,” and urging them to ensure they’re properly maintaining their “stokers and oil burners.”

    • Later that same month, Canton Electric punted on advancing its retail business altogether, instead using its ad space to encourage readers to grow their own food, eat everything on their plates and comply with ration-stamp rules.

    Horwitz and McPhillips also drew on letters written between 1942 and 1945 by Saidee Leach to her son serving in the Pacific. Contrary to the image of prosperity supposedly indicated by leaping GNP or plummeting unemployment, she tells him of:

    • Conserving scarce home-heating fuel during the coldest days by wearing fur coats indoors and residing only in their kitchen

    • Having her typewriter seized by the government, and now using a lesser model she acquired from a Howard Johnson “which had to close due to the ban on pleasure driving.”

    • Making an Easter dinner centered on fried Spam, because she “could not get fresh meat of any kind,” and later noting that “potatoes have entirely disappeared”

    • Local farmers refusing to sell their turkey flocks for Thanksgiving meals at the prices set by the Office of Price Administration — illustrating the folly of government price controls.

    That is not the picture of an economy delivered from the Great Depression. Rather, “World War II institutionalized the falling standards of living of the depression through wage and price controls, and extensive rationing of consumer goods and services,” wrote Peter Ferrara. “The economic deprivation, and reduced standards of living, continued, although people perceived it was now for a good cause.”

    America’s postwar experience presents another pointed contradiction of the myth of wartime prosperity.

    As the war’s end grew closer, Keynesian economists unanimously predicted peace would bring economic disaster. For example, Paul Samuelson said America would experience “the greatest period of unemployment and dislocation any economy has ever faced.” 

    Alvin Hansen warned that the economy must be kept on a centrally-controlled wartime footing, even in peacetime: “When the war is over, the government cannot just disband the Army, close down munitions factories, stop building ships, and remove all economic control.”

    Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson, who predicted peace would bring economic disaster, taught Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, who predicted the internet’s impact would be akin to that of the fax machine

    However, that’s pretty much what happened — and Hansen, Samuelson and their fellow economic flat-Earthers couldn’t have been more wrong about the consequences. “The year 1946, when civilian output increased by about 30 percent, was the most glorious single year in the entire history of the U.S. economy,” wrote Higgs.

    This despite the fact that government purchases of goods and services collapsed by 68% between the second quarter of 1945 and the first quarter of 1946 — and upwards of a million civilian government employees were laid off and millions of service members discharged.

    As war-fighting men poured back into civilian life, millions of women withdrew from the labor force, contentedly returning to duty as mothers and home managers. Rather than soaring as predicted by the “experts,” unemployment merely edged higher, from 1.9% in 1945 to 3.9% in 1947.

    “Less than a year and a half after VJ-day,” crowed President Truman, “more than 10 million demobilized veterans and other millions of wartime workers have found employment in the swiftest and most gigantic change-over that any nation has ever made from war to peace.” (Note this happened despite — and in part because of — Truman’s failure to institute a higher minimum wage as the war ended.)

    Having been proven enormously wrong about the economic implications of peace, Keynesians scrambled to credit the war with enabling the postwar boom, arguing that it was fueled by people drawing down savings accumulated while the supply of consumer goods was sharply restricted. However, as Higgs determined by studying the data of the time, “Holdings of liquid assets did not decline at all after the war. People financed their spending for consumer goods by reducing their saving rate.”

    Once again an engine of real prosperity: In 1946, vehicles proceed along Ford’s first postwar assembly line (Ford Motor Company Archives)

    Contrary to the myth, it was only after World War II that — free from the government’s commandeering of factories, workers and resources, and saddled with fewer price controls and other federal market intrusions — America was finally able to emerge from the Great Depression.

    You wouldn’t know that if you evaluated the economy’s health using Keynesians’ preferred measure. Just as the GNP gauge provided a 180-degree misreading of wartime economic realities, it failed in similarly spectacular fashion during the postwar boom: From 1945 to 1947, GNP plummeted 22%.

    In addition to further illuminating the shortfalls of aggregate economic measures, America’s postwar economic experience delivered another broadside to the myth of World War II-fostered prosperity, and to the idea that government spending, central planning and market interventions are essential to economic achieving economic recovery.

    Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com 

    * * *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 14:00

  • "The Allegation Is False": CIA Denies Meddling In Hunter Biden IRS, DOJ Investigations
    “The Allegation Is False”: CIA Denies Meddling In Hunter Biden IRS, DOJ Investigations

    The CIA has denied a whistleblower allegation that the agency “intervened in the investigation of Hunter biden to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) from interviewing a witness,” according to a response issued to House Republicans on Friday.

    According to the whistleblower, in August 2021, the IRS wanted to interview Hunter Biden associate (who loaned Hunter $6.5 million), Patrick Kevin Morris – and that “the CIA intervened to stop the interview.“

    “Two DOJ officials were allegedly summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia for a briefing regarding Mr. Morris,” at which “it was communicated that Mr. Morris could not be a witness during the investigation.”

    CIA Denies

    Two weeks later, the CIA has responded in a letter to House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (‘obtained first’ by CNN).

    “Without confirming or denying the existence of any associations or communications, CIA did not prevent or seek to prevent IRS or DOJ from conducting any such interview. The allegation is false,” CIA Director of Congressional Affairs, James A. Catella, wrote to the Chairs.

    House Republicans push back

    In response to the response, House Judiciary Committee spokesman Russell Dye told CNN “The allegation is not false.”

    In a Friday post to X following the CNN report, the House Judiciary GOP said “The CIA is wrong. But what’s new?”

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

    Raskin POUNCES

    Following the CIA’s reply, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) slammed the Republicans for not sharing their source.

    “This is a serious charge, but you have completely ignored my staff’s requests to be allowed to review the information that you say prompted your letter and upon which your letter is putatively and entirely based,” Raskin wrote to Comer on Friday.

    Republicans have raised questions over Morris’ loans to Hunter Biden, which Morris claims has nothing to do with President Joe Biden..

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 13:25

  • Ukrainian Men Paying Disabled Women To Marry Them To Avoid Frontlines: Report
    Ukrainian Men Paying Disabled Women To Marry Them To Avoid Frontlines: Report

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    Ukrainian men are reportedly paying disabled women in the country to marry them, as a way of avoiding being drafted to fight on the frontlines of the war with Russia.

    An investigation by Ukrainian outlet NGL Media found that fighting age men are exploiting a loophole in the country’s martial law that allows them to skip military service.

    If they have a disabled dependant, they are able to apply for a deferral from military duty as well as being allowed to cross the border, at which point many are fleeing for good.

    The investigation found scores of Facebook and Telegram groups in which men are posting marriage proposals, and disabled women are offering marriage to the highest bidders.

    There are even people profiting from the practice by acting as intermediaries.

    The investigation notes that a payment of around €3,000 is usually enough to secure a sham marriage to a disabled woman.

    Yevhen Filipets, a lawyer in Ukraine, told the outlet “In my experience, out of 100 cases of servicemen who apply for discharge for family reasons, 95 cases use that topic, i.e., if their wife, their parents or their wife’s parents have a disability.”

    “To get an exemption, it is enough to have such a marriage,” the lawyer added.

    Filipets further noted that “it is almost impossible to prove the marriage is fake; it is possible only through a court decision. And one of the spouses has the right to go to court to recognise such a marriage as fake. Will he or she apply in these circumstances? I don’t think so. (…) Ukrainian people are very resourceful.”

    As we highlighted earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law that lowers the country’s age of conscription by two years to make up for troop shortfalls.

    The new legislation lowers the age of mobilization from 27 to 25 years, meaning more young men will be removed from the struggling Ukrainian economy and sent off to the meatgrinder in anticipation of another Russia summer offensive.

    Videos have previously emerged which purport to show Ukrainians who tried to avoid being conscripted being thrown off a bus and beaten by SBU, Ukraine’s equivalent of the FBI.

    The average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now over 40 years of age, the same as Russia, underscoring how the whole conflict has been a devastating bloodbath for both sides.

    Well over 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed already, forcing Ukraine to call up older personnel.

    As we previously highlighted, shocking videos have emerged showing a mentally disabled people on the front lines of the war being mocked by other soldiers.

    Last month, General Rajmund Andrzejczak, the ex-chief of the Polish General Staff, said that Ukraine is losing the war.

    “More than 10 million people are missing. According to my estimates, losses should be in the millions, not hundreds of thousands. The country has no resources, no one to fight. Ukrainians are losing this war,” said the general.

    Also this week, US State Department consultant Edward Luttwak says that NATO countries will have to send soldiers to Ukraine or “accept catastrophic defeat,” and that Britain and France are already making preparations to do so.

    *  *  *

    Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 12:50

  • Fani Opened Up To Felony? DA Willis Now Accused Of Illegally Recording Lawyer, Given Till Monday To Recuse
    Fani Opened Up To Felony? DA Willis Now Accused Of Illegally Recording Lawyer, Given Till Monday To Recuse

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been accused of illegally recording a lawyer in the Trump-Georgia case.

    During an interview with Townhall columnist and legal analyst Phil Holloway, an attorney for Trump co-defendant Harrison Floyd, Christopher Kachouroff, claimed that Willis recorded a phone call between herself and one of his colleagues in Maryland.

    “Fani did reach out to one of my colleagues in Maryland” said Kachouroff. “And was rude and abrupt with him on the phone … and she ended up recording him.“

    He further noted that Maryland is a “two party state,” meaning that both parties on a phone call have to consent to being recorded.

    “So, are you saying she illegally recorded a phone call?” asked Holloway.

    “Oh yeah, it’s a felony in Maryland,” Kachouroff replied.

    Watch:

    Maryland is one of 11 states which require two-party consent. Under the state’s Wiretap Act, recording a private conversation without consent from both parties is punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

    Harrison Floyd, the defendant, has given Fani until noon on Monday to recuse herself from the case or he “may have no other choice than to pursue all lawful remedies.”

    As Redstate notes: 

    In Floyd’s tweet, it refers to Willis providing a copy or a recording of a call to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution between herself and Carlos J.R. Salvado, an attorney in Maryland, who also represents Floyd on an unrelated matter. 

    Atlanta News First and Newsweek have reached out to Willis’ office for comment on this new allegation but she doesn’t appear to have weighed in yet. It will be interesting to see what her response to this allegation is. 

    Floyd, who served as a senior campaign staffer for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, was indicted by Willis on three felony counts stemming from his alleged efforts to help Trump overturn his loss in the state. The charges include conspiracy to solicit false statements, influencing witnesses, and racketeering. He has also been accused of assaulting an FBI agent in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFani’s wiretapping accusation is the latest debacle involving Willis’ RICO case against Trump and his allies.

    On Wednesday, special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s estranged wife filed contempt of court proceedings against him. Wade and Willis’ romantic relationship was the focal point of the disqualification efforts against the district attorney’s office. However, Judge Scott McAfee ultimately allowed Willis to remain on the prosecution so long as Wade stepped down. Wade handed in his resignation hours after McAfee’s ruling. –Newsweek

    Floyd, a former Black Voices for Trump leader, turned himself in without a lawyer or bond agreement on August 24 of last year, and was released August 30 on $100,000 bond. He is one of 19 defendants in the case. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 04/06/2024 – 12:15

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Today’s News 6th April 2024

  • World War III Is Now Inevitable – Here's Why It Can't Be Avoided
    World War III Is Now Inevitable – Here’s Why It Can’t Be Avoided

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    If you’re getting the feeling like the globalists are really pushing hard for WWIII these days, you’re not alone.

    In the past few months there has been multiple instances of European and US officials hinting at the possibility of a new military draft, the EU has talked openly about boots on the ground in Ukraine, NATO officials have stated unequivocally that they WILL NOT accept a loss in Ukraine to the Russians and the Kremlin has warned once again that nuclear weapons are on the table if western troops enter the war. The US government has recently asserted that Ukraine will be joining NATO, a red line in the sand for Russia.

    Then there’s Israel and Gaza. I warned months ago in my article ‘It’s A Trap! The Wave Of Repercussions As The Middle East Fights “The Last War”’ that the war in Gaza would expand into a multi-front conflict that would probably include Iran. I also warned that it would be to Israel’s benefit if Iran entered the war because this would force the US to become directly involved. To be sure, Iran has already been engaging in proxy attacks on Israel through Lebanon, but Israel’s attack on the Iranian “embassy” or diplomatic station in Syria basically ensures that Iran will now directly commit to strikes on Israeli targets.

    In other words, much like WWI, the situation is being escalated by the political elites despite the fact that the general public in the west is increasingly opposed to participating in the conflict. The globalists want to send us to war whether we like it or not.  Every decision they have made so far makes peaceful resolution impossible.

    One saving grace that is perhaps new in the entire history of geopolitics is that the public is far more awake and aware of the fact that it’s not necessarily their “duty” to blindly go fight when their government calls on them to do so. Social media has also given a platform for people to widely voice their concerns about war, whereas in the past objectors felt isolated.

    Obviously, some of this is based purely on fear – A large percentage of Gen Z is unequipped mentally or physically to go to war, which is why more than 70% of potential military recruits today are rejected before they even get to boot camp. These are many of the same young people who post Ukrainian flags to their social media profiles and jump headfirst into anti-Russian rhetoric, but now that they are faced with the possibility of having to sacrifice themselves for Ukraine they are angry and terrified.

    However, there is also a large contingent of capable (and mostly conservative) men with the background and the aptitude for combat that still want nothing to do with Ukraine. The reason is simple: They believe that far-left western governments and globalists want to use them as cannon fodder to get rid of them. Once they are used up in war, there will be no one left to oppose the leftist takeover at home.

    For most of us in America, Ukraine is irrelevant and we grow tired of wars in the Middle East. Whether left or right, we have no interest in fighting for them. But that’s not going to matter much, at least in terms of preventing a global war.

    European Fear Mongering

    War with Russia will depend more on European involvement than US involvement. While the US has been the largest provider of armaments to Ukraine by far, the ultimate goal I believe is to integrate European troops into the Ukrainian front, which would be an automatic declaration of global war.

    The basis for mobilization of troops from Europe is “domino theory” propaganda. We’ve heard some of it here in America but nowhere near the same level as the EU populace. Governments assert that Russia’s goal is to clear Ukraine as a pathway to invade the rest of Europe. This is the same claim used as justification for the US war in Vietnam: “If we let one country fall to the enemy, all the surrounding countries will fall also.”

    Both Ukrainian and NATO leadership suggests that war must continue in Ukraine in order to contain it. There has been no serious discussion of diplomacy, which is utterly bizarre considering the stakes involved. A peace proposal should have been broached the moment the war kicked off and there should have been ongoing efforts to come to an agreement. Instead, even limited peace talks have been thwarted before they truly begin.

    A military draft in Europe is far more likely to succeed, given the socialist nature of the population and the fact that only a tiny percentage of civilians are armed to defend themselves. Even with a public protest movement I have little doubt EU governments will be able to secure a large enough force to send into Ukraine and escalate the war.

    According to the evidence, it’s clear that some NATO troops have already been deployed to Ukraine and have been there for some time. As I’ve noted in past articles, the strategies used during the first Ukrainian counter-attack were far too advanced for Ukrainian troops and leadership to pull off without help. Anti-armor tactics in particular were very familiar; similar in execution to tactics used by US and British special forces. Not surprisingly, as soon as foreign mercenary recruit rates dropped off, Ukraine’s momentum fizzled.

    The Russians are likely well aware of this situation, but as long as smaller groups of soldiers can be sent under the guise of mercenary forces, there’s not much they can do about it. It’s the open deployment of NATO battalions that is cause for greater worry.

    There is zero basis for the domino narrative. Not once has Russia indicated since the start of the conflict that they intend to invade the EU. In fact, Putin has long stated that the war in Ukraine is about protecting the separatists of the Donbas region from Ukrainian reprisal, and about the continued escalation of NATO armament.

    My suspicions about Putin’s connections to the globalists aside, if we look at the war from a basic cost/benefit analysis there is really nothing for Russia to gain by threatening Europe.

    Then there’s the problem of logistics. If Russia is supposedly struggling in Ukraine, how could they have the means to fight on an expanded front against the combined military might of Europe and the US? The only end result would be nuclear war, which both sides would lose. But if you look at the situation objectively, there is a group of people out there that have a lot to gain…

    Attacks On Russian Interior Accelerate

    Smaller attacks on Russian supplies as well as civilians have been escalating in the past month. The terror attack in Moscow (which US intel blames on ISIS) resulted in the deaths of at least 130 people and drone attacks are threatening oil depots along with other resources. In the grand scheme of the war these attacks are inconsequential, but they will undoubtedly lead to extensive bombardment of Ukrainian cities and the further disablement of Ukrainian infrastructure. Power, water and other utilities will be destroyed and a resource crisis will ensue.

    Compared to the US invasion of Iraq, Russia has managed to keep civilian casualties in Ukraine very low. But, each new attack on Russian soil instigates a larger Russian retaliation. And maybe this is the goal – To get the Russians to crater a larger Ukrainian population center thereby giving NATO an excuse to send troops to the region.

    Iran And The Oil Imperative

    In the Middle East the primary driver for international involvement is oil. We all know this. But oil access is not the end goal to the war in Gaza, just a mechanism for getting the US involved.

    I’ll reiterate here that I don’t care which side started the fight or how far back the conflict supposedly goes in history. This is irrelevant. What I do know is that Hamas started this particular war by killing civilians in Israel and you should not start a war unless you’re willing to accept the consequences. That said, I do find it suspicious that Israel’s defensive measures were so useless that they were completely unaware of the Hamas incursion until it was too late.

    In any case the conflagration is guaranteed to bring in other larger military elements. Iran is going to enter the fray now, there’s no way around it. This might happen first in the form of economic warfare, and the Strait of Hormuz is the most likely target. Shutting down 30% of the world’s oil traffic would be disastrous for the west. So, America’s entry is thus also guaranteed.

    The Inflation Factor, US Elections And How Globalists Benefit

    Joe Biden has been struggling for the past three years to manipulate oil prices down by dumping strategic reserves on the market. By artificially keeping oil prices down he keeps energy prices down, and by keeping energy prices down he reduces the growth of CPI.

    The Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil depots have helped to spike gas prices in the past month exactly because Russian oil is still being purchased by western countries through back channels. You can’t just cut off one of the largest energy suppliers in the world without huge effects on prices at the pump. And these attacks are revealing how sensitive the oil market is to the slightest threat to supply.

    Any major conflict in the Middle East will seal the deal and gas prices will explode. Inflation is not just going to be the death knell of Biden’s presidency (assuming presidential elections still matter), it’s going to be the death knell of the leftists and globalists overall UNLESS they can delay a larger economic calamity until they have a scapegoat, or, until they can start a massive war.

    That scapegoat will either be Trump and conservatives, or, Russia and the BRICS (or both). If Trump replaces Biden in 2025 then a crash will be fast and assured and it will be blamed on conservative movements. If Biden stays in a crash will be slower but will still hit hard after it can be blamed on the widening wars.

    Then there’s the scenario of globalists securing a war BEFORE elections take place. Perhaps with the intention of preventing or delaying the vote. Perhaps with the intention of creating enough chaos that the vote can be rigged, or giving the impression that it was rigged, triggering civil unrest. Perhaps with the intention of declaring martial law.

    Obviously, this is where the globalists benefit; either by preventing conservatives from taking power or by embroiling conservatives in a global calamity that they eventually get blamed for. Keep in mind that any conservative/independent opposition to the globalist establishment can now be accused of “Russian collusion.”

    What’s the value of this? Well, it’s an age-old strategy for demonizing freedom fighters – If they are seen by the public as fellow citizens fighting for their rights, then they might be treated as heroes. But, if they’re painted as foreign assests and terrorists seeking to destabilize society, then the public sees them as villains. It’s just another advantage that explains why globalists seem so intent on creating a world war.

    I believe that the reason the establishment is pressing so hard for WWIII is partly because of the upcoming elections and also because their covid agenda failed. Covid lockdowns and the vaccine passport system were their big play to create a permanent authoritarian environment with the ability to crush conservative groups that refused to submit. And no matter how you slice it they didn’t get what they wanted. World war is the natural Plan B.

    It’s important to understand that every crisis created by globalists is meant to destroy the freedom minded. The true target is not Russia or Iran; they are peripheral. These events are designed to create an environment conducive to tyranny, they act as cover for engineered economic collapse, and they act as cover for the REAL war against those people that still defend liberty.

    You could say that WWIII has already started, at least in economic terms. I also highly doubt that the end game for the globalists is a worldwide nuclear exchange; why spend decades building a massive control grid only to vaporize it all in seconds? I do think the danger of kinetic warfare is skyrocketing and that US and European citizens will be directly affected. It will take a sizable resistance movement to change the path we are being forced to follow, and things will get much worse before they get better.

    *  *  *

    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
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 23:40

  • Solar Eclipses To Hit Major US Metros Within The Century
    Solar Eclipses To Hit Major US Metros Within The Century

    In case you hadn’t heard, a solar eclipse is happening in the United States on Monday.

    The moon will fully obscure the sun in a band that crosses Mexico, 15 states and a small part of Eastern Canada including Montreal and Toronto. The biggest metro that falls within the area for this solar eclipse is Dallas, where the event will begin at 12.23 p.m. but might be hampered by bad weather forecast for the day. The eclipse area will then move across Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, upstate New York and parts of New England. In 2017, a solar eclipse had been visible in a small band between Oregon and South Carolina, passing over Kansas City, St. Louis, Nashville and Charleston.

    According to reports, accommodation across the band has been booked solid for the upcoming Monday as many people are willing to travel to experience the event that for many happens only once in a lifetime. 

    However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, within this century, full solar eclipses will pass over more major U.S. metros.

    Infographic: Solar Eclipses to Hit Major U.S. Metros Within the Century | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    After solar eclipses that will be visible in Northern Alaska in 2033 as well as Montana and North Dakota in 2044, the next major eclipse in the United States is coming up in 2045, hitting the Miami metro and other major Florida cities as well as Northern California, most of Colorado, Oklahoma City and once again, Arkansas.

    In 2078 and 2079, dual eclipses will first hit New Orleans and Atlanta (while missing Houston by several hours) and then New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago will have to wait until 2099 for an eclipse that also hits Minneapolis and Detroit and passes by very close to the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. This makes the current century much more active for solar eclipses in the United States than the past one, which saw most events only skirt the lower 48. Eclipses passed through the Northwest in 1945 and 1979, the Great Lakes in 1925 and 1954, New York in 1925 and New England on three more occasion. In 1970, Northern Florida and the Atlantic Coast of Georgia and the Carolinas experienced another solar eclipse.

    Finally, beyond this century, in 2106, a solar eclipse is passing near Los Angeles, only closely missing Santa Barbara while also passing by Salt Lake City and, once more, Minneapolis. This means that in the next roughly 100 years, the only U.S. metros with more than 5 million inhabitants as of 2023 that will not be in the path of a full solar eclipse or at least close to one will be Phoenix, Ariz.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 23:20

  • Extremism On The Ballot
    Extremism On The Ballot

    Authored by Peachy Keenan via AmericanMind.org,

    The 2024 election is between a dangerous madman and Donald Trump…

    I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful day with family and friends on the holiest day of America’s liturgical year, the Transgender Day of Visibility. I had never heard of this blessed Federal holiday until a few days ago, but my kids loved it. We had a visit from the Easter Drag Bunny and it/they filled the kids’ baskets with all kinds of treats. Puberty blockers, dilators, lipstick for the boys, packers for the girls. She/They is risen—and you will bow down and worship Her/Them!

    Of course, Joe Biden’s Easter sacrilege was only the latest travesty that proves what you and I already know, which is that the 2024 presidential election is a contest between common-sense centrism and dangerously radical extremism. 

    One candidate is a classical liberal whose positions are squarely in the middle of the political spectrum. On nearly every issue, his views are anodyne, conventional, mainstream—positions that were the norm, nationwide, in every state, on both sides of the aisle, within recent memory (not including a few fringe strongholds in Berkeley and the West Village).

    His opponent, however, is a dangerous radical extremist; a divisive, fanatical agent of chaos who holds frightening positions that threaten to destroy America.

    To preserve what’s left of Our Sacred Democracy, the extremist must be stopped.

    Grand Unified Replacement Theory

    The radicals we are up against are so deranged that they are embracing and even leaning into the Replacement Theory they once vilified and dismissed as fake. You will recall that “replacement theory” was a taboo conspiracy only racists and bigots believed in until about 15 minutes ago. But the extremists running the country recently decided that akshally, “replacement” is the perfect strategy to finish off what’s left of what you and the country formerly known as “America.” 

    Replacement means you don’t need to worry about convincing Congress to pass new laws or give speeches or waste time governing. To get your way, just replace everyone.

    But the extremists in charge are not going to stop after replacing you with “newcomers.” They’re replacing everything not nailed down.

    Easter just got replaced with a demonic child abuse cult festival. 

    Jews are getting erased, literally chased out of cities, harassed out of college, and replaced with ululating Hamas enthusiasts. 

    Your grandchildren got replaced with fur babies. 

    Formerly great universities have been replaced with plagiarizing paperclip factories.

    Your borders have been replaced with Welcome Centers.

    Your retirement has been replaced with twenty more years of work to pay for safe injection sites for your kids and free gender affirmation surgeries for the world.

    As Elon Musk likes to point out on X, Americans are just four percent of the Earth’s population. Soon, they’ll be just four percent of their own country.

    This is, in President Biden’s own words, going according to plan. “Just like we drew it up,” he tweeted ominously. 

    The No-Brainer Election

    An explosion in robberies and violent crime. Two dangerous new foreign wars. Forced conversion therapy on normal people to make them believe children can change their sex. Rampant hate crimes and open, gleeful discrimination against people who are not “of color.” 

    Who is the extremist again?

    The dangerous tyrant seeking re-election has the full support of our bloodthirsty elites, a warmongering foreign policy establishment, virulently antisemitic academia, and the entire mainstream media apparatus. Sometimes it’s hard to even fathom what we are facing, but then you remember that they had the nerve to arrest and sentence a young man to prison for… wait for it… sharing a funny Hillary Clinton meme. That actually happened in real life.

    The humble moderate whom these frightening cretins hope to defeat this fall faces expropriation of his property to satisfy hundreds of millions of dollars in absurd fines, plus hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees to fight regime lawfare on a Hiroshima scale. The threat of prison looms. His support comes not from wealthy celebrities, titans of industry, or the tech billionaires. It comes from the peasants. The rabble. A ragtag coalition of nobodies, the working class, the powerless middle class, and a few anonymous dissidents forced to post samizdat from undisclosed locations to avoid the eye of Sauron. 

    The radical extremist we face wants to empty our treasury so he can continue to launder hundreds of billions of our dollars through the most corrupt nation in Europe, which for decades was the world’s number one producer of child pornography, among other evils. 

    He’s flirting with nuclear war, and even committed an illegal act of war by detonating an enormous oil pipeline that helped heat all of Europe. His military bosses are blackmailing brave American military families: if they don’t cough up the cash for Ukraine, he’ll send their enlisted kids to die in a hole in Siberia. Thanks to him, 13 Marines were blown up in Afghanistan, but if you’re a grieving parent who protests, he has you handcuffed and dragged to prison, as he did to one dad who dared to protest at the State of the Union.

    This extremist lunatic is also doing whatever he can to trigger another Middle East quagmire that inevitably will put boots on the ground in all the old stomping grounds. He wears Catholicism like a skinsuit, blaspheming the rosary around his wrist as he excoriates actual people of faith who want to protect the unborn. He screams for abortion through 40 weeks, for any reason.

    He sends his shock troops to arrest pro-life protestors and slanders parents as “domestic extremists.”

    He’s so extreme he thinks young children can choose to change their genders with irreversible experimental surgeries that have catastrophic rates of failure. He wants parents who don’t allow schools to secretly change a child’s gender behind their backs to lose control of their children and go to prison.

    He’s so radical that he thinks it’s funny when you can’t afford groceries, and wonders why you don’t buy the “other Raisin Bran” in order to save a dollar. He mocks you when he declares “Let them eat more chips,” as he pledges to increase the number of Doritos in each shrinkflated bag. 

    Worst of all, this crazed extremist thinks it’s good to dissolve the nation’s borders, permanently and eternally. He wants to pack the country with the excess population of Central and South America, as well as Africa and Asia, to boost congressional reapportionment numbers and make America blue forever. Any kids that get raped or murdered are not his problem. The tree of extremism must be watered by the blood of America’s daughters like Laken Riley.

    Our only hope, my fellow centrists, is to throw our entire weight behind the common-sense moderate running against Joe Biden. All he wants is to return the country to the way it was within recent memory (!):  a blessed land that enjoyed low illegal immigration, low crime, low prices, low inflation, low mortgage interest rates, and high patriotism and, imagine—optimism.

    Our demands are simple. We want a leader who will make the country a place where normal citizens can go about their lives in peace, enjoy a bit of prosperity, not have to worry about politics constantly, and not get pushed in front of a train waiting for the subway on the way to work. 

    A poll says most of the electorate is “unhappy” with their choice of candidates and wishes it wasn’t a Trump-Biden rematch.

    Get over it and get on board. You don’t have any other option. 

    The Regime’s iron grip on power can only be broken by finally calling them what they are: domestic extremists inflicting acts of terror, violence, and child abuse on innocent citizens. Their hegemony can only be broken by regular, reasonable people in the middle—in other words, you, me, and Donald Trump—exorcising them from power and driving them back into the fetid swamps from whence they came.

    The current Regime represents an existential threat to our lives and liberty. They are no longer a political party; they are a violent hate group, and the group they hate is us.

    Only God himself can show them mercy, and I doubt he will when the time comes.

    Vote for the centrist if you want to live!

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 23:00

  • AI Demand For Data Centers Is "Absurd" As The Next Trade Unfolds 
    AI Demand For Data Centers Is “Absurd” As The Next Trade Unfolds 

    We presented the trade idea that a surge in artificial intelligence demand is sparking the need for significant upgrades to the nation’s decades-old power grid as new data warehouses come online. Several of the nation’s power grids face increasing power brownout/blackout risks during high-demand periods. This overview we provided premium subscribers was published in a Wednesday note titled “The Next AI Trade.”

    Cloud-computing startup CoreWeave’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, Brian Venturo expands more on this. He spoke on Thursday at the Bloomberg Intelligence Summit on generative AI in New York.

    He said the world is “grossly” underestimating how much AI demand will expand the need for data centers across North America and the world. 

    Venturo said the cloud computing provider has seen an “absurd” amount of data center requests over the last several quarters. He noted that some companies are asking to reserve entire campuses for themselves. 

    “There are going to be some things that this industry is going to have to work through,” Venturo said, adding, “What worries me” is that there’s not enough infrastructure to handle the demand.

    He stressed, “It’s a sprint. It’s a sprint that requires all the capital in the world” to build new data centers and revamp old ones and upgrade the existing infrastructure to supply the electricity needs of data centers. This urgency highlights the need for swift action by smart grid companies and utilities that can rapidly build out the grid for the digital age. 

    “You have to build new transmission lines,” Venturo said, adding, “You have to do new substation builds. There are just a lot of physical blockers here that are hard to overcome in the short-term.”

    Reverting to our “The Next AI Trade” note, we emphasized to premium subs the potential for significant investment opportunities with companies that have high exposure to infrastructure, electrification, power grid, and energy.

    The companies, such as the ones in Goldman’s “Power Up America” basket (Bloomberg ticker GSENEPOW), will be some of the winners over the coming years.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 22:40

  • Mike Gallagher, You Left Us Behind
    Mike Gallagher, You Left Us Behind

    Authored by Citizen Soldier via RealClear Politics,

    Mike Gallagher – former Marine intelligence officer, fresh face of 2016, young idealist with enough honors to fill a trophy case – is quitting his congressional seat April 19.

    The high school valedictorian, Princeton undergrad, and Georgetown PhD was elected to the House of Representatives before his thirty-third birthday. His intellect and eloquence made him a leader in the Republican caucus, someone capable of wielding not just votes but ideas to influence policy.

    Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy acknowledged Gallagher’s status among his colleagues in January 2023 when McCarthy picked him to chair the newly formed House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Gallagher was a fervent advocate for strengthening our China policy, and his ideas and passion drove the agenda of the 24-member committee.

    Back home in Wisconsin’s eighth congressional district, voters resoundingly endorsed Gallagher. He garnered 63 percent of the vote in 2016, 64 percent in 2018 and 2020, and a whopping 72 percent in 2022.

    We’ll never know how far he might have gone; how bright his star might have shone.

    It’s unclear why Gallagher, a generational talent, is abandoning his seat halfway through his term. To spend more time with his family? Or, perhaps more cynically, to work for defense tech giant Palantir? Gallagher hasn’t said, but whatever his answer, he’s lowered the bar – as a veteran and a congressman.

    Gallagher promised to work for Green Bay, Oshkosh, and the country, and the voters believed him. While the media fixates on whether Gallagher “betrayed the party,” the truth is he betrayed the American people. Gallagher happily displayed his service medals on campaign commercials, and proudly wore his USMC polo shirt while meeting the voters. I once attended a meeting where Gallagher sipped hot tea from a green canteen cup – odd but touching, like watching a young lieutenant showing the troops he’s all in.

    Ultimately, though, Gallagher was like many others on the political stage; more actor than genuine article. Just another young, ambitious person playing the role of veteran, for as long as it served his self-interest.

    I wish him well, but wonder if the decision, for him, won’t age well.

    Beneath the T-shirts and slogans, the medals and canteen cups, are the principles Gallagher learned in Quantico, and followed while serving in Iraq. The warrior ethos is ingrained in everyone who wears the uniform. Put the mission first. Never quit. And most importantly, never leave a Marine behind.

    You fooled us, Mike, but did you fool yourself?

    Citizen Soldier believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 22:20

  • Which OECD Countries Allow Donations To Political Parties?
    Which OECD Countries Allow Donations To Political Parties?

    Less than half of OECD countries ban anonymous donations for political financing, according to data published in the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2024 released by the OECD.

    The report argues that this leaves these countries “exposed to undue influence.”

    The following chart, from Statista’s Anna Fleck, shows which countries have enforced regulations on the complete ban of financial contributions from anonymous donations, publicly owned enterprises and foreign states and foreign enterprises.

    Infographic: Which OECD Countries Allow Donations to Political Parties? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to the report, the problem with foreign donations is that they can “unduly influence candidates and political parties and lead to overrepresentation of foreign actors’ interests in public institutions rather than the domestic public interest.”

    For this reason, the OECD recommends the transparency and traceability of funds.

    Meanwhile, donations from publicly owned enterprises or state-owned enterprises can “blur the line between public and private and distort governance framework agreements between state-owned enterprises and the state”, including the “improper diversion of public funds” and risk of the idea that donations are given in exchange for “political allegiance”. Anonymous donations run the risk of the aforementioned donors circumnavigating rules.

    As the chart above shows, bans on contributions to political parties from foreign states or enterprises are common for most OECD countries.

    Only Greece, Australia, Denmark and Sweden do not have this rule. Meanwhile, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark and Sweden stand out for not having a ban on funding from publicly owned enterprises.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 22:00

  • Liberals Trying To Force Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor To Retire
    Liberals Trying To Force Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor To Retire

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Liberals are mounting a pressure campaign to force liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire from the bench so President Joe Biden, who faces a tough reelection fight in November, can appoint a younger liberal successor before the election.

    Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor poses for a photo next to a bronze bust of herself after it was unveiled at the Bronx Terminal Market in New York, on Sept. 8, 2022. (Bebeto Matthews/Pool via REUTERS)

    Democrats fear that the 6–3 conservative majority on the nation’s highest court could become a 7–2 conservative majority if President Donald Trump wins the election in November and she dies during his second term of office.

    They point out that President Trump was able to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died of pancreatic cancer complications on Sept. 18, 2020, at 87, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 election.

    Justice Ginsburg refused to step down despite her fragile health.

    Justice Barrett’s appointment, they say, helped supply the votes on the Court needed to overturn abortion rights precedent Roe v. Wade by a 5–4 vote in June 2022.

    The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization found there was no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution and returned the regulation of abortion to the states, which Roe had taken away.

    Justice Sotomayor, 69, is reportedly in good health, but activists have seized on the fact that she has had Type I diabetes since she was 7 years old and that she has had some health scares.

    They note that she is the only Supreme Court justice to have traveled with a medic and remarked she was “tired” during a talk in January at UC Berkeley Law School.

    In January 2018, she was reportedly treated at her home for low blood sugar by paramedics but was able to report for work afterward.

    Left-wing activists seem emboldened because they successfully pressured liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, now 85, to retire in June 2022, which allowed President Biden to replace him with liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, now 53.

    In an April 3 broadcast on NBC News, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), said Justice Sotomayor should consider stepping down soon.

    “Justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the Court looks and thinks like America,” the senator said.

    “We should learn a lesson, you know? And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be—that the old saying, ‘graveyards are full of indispensable people,’ ourselves in this body included.”

    Before that, left-wing commentator Mehdi Hasan published a column in The Guardian (UK) saying it pained him to argue that Justice Sotomayor should make way for a younger successor who can serve for decades on the Court because she is a good standard bearer for the progressive cause.

    He described Justice Sotomayor as “the greatest liberal to sit on the Supreme Court in my adult lifetime.”

    Mr. Hasan added that she is “the first Latina to hold the position of justice, [and] she has blazed a relentlessly progressive trail on the highest bench in the land.”

    “Whether it was her lone dissent in a North Carolina voting rights case in 2016 (“the Court’s conclusion … is a fiction”); her ingenious referencing of Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin, and WEB DuBois in another 2016 dissent over unreasonable searches and seizures.

    “Her withering observation at the Dobbs oral argument in 2021: (Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?’), Sotomayor has stood head and shoulders above both her liberal and conservative colleagues on the bench for the past 15 years.”

    Although Justice Ginsburg had already survived two cancer diagnoses, she refused to retire even though liberal voices urged her to do so, Mr. Hasan wrote.

    On her deathbed in 2020, she said her “most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” yet President Trump “nominated Amy Coney Barrett as RBG’s replacement just eight days after her death, and Senate Republicans confirmed Barrett to RBG’s vacant seat just eight days before election day.”

    With President Biden now trailing President Trump in polls in several swing states and Democrats “in danger of losing their razor-thin majority in the Senate, are we really prepared for history to repeat itself?”

    Justice Sotomayor could “easily” survive a second Trump term and continue serving until 2029, “but why take that risk? Why not retire now?” he wrote.

    Molly Coleman, executive director of the People’s Parity Project, also wants Justice Sotomayor to resign.

    “This isn’t personal. This isn’t about one individual justice. It’s nothing to do with what an incredible legal talent Justice Sotomayor is. It’s about what’s in the best interests of the country moving forward,” she told NBC News.

    The Biden administration is neutral on the issue so far.

    White House spokesman Andrew Bates said: “President Biden believes that decisions to retire from the Supreme Court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.”

    The Epoch Times reached out to Justice Sotomayor for comment but had not received a reply as of press time.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 21:40

  • These Are The Countries With The Highest Corporate Tax Rates
    These Are The Countries With The Highest Corporate Tax Rates

    In 1980, the global average corporate tax rate stood at 40.2% – a level notably higher than today…

    Over the last several decades, corporate tax rates have declined across every region, with the average now falling at 23.5% as of 2023. As tax rates have sunk lower, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others have called for a global minimum corporate tax to prevent multinationals from sheltering profits in tax havens.

    But on the other hand, some argue that lower corporate rates allow corporations to report more income and boost real business activities.

    The graphic below, from Pranav Gavali, via Visual Capitalist, shows the countries with the highest corporate tax rates since 1980.

    What are the Top 10 Countries by Corporate Tax Rates?

    Below, we show how countries with the highest corporate taxes have changed over the last four decades, based on data from the Tax Foundation:

    As the above table shows, countries clustered in Africa and South America have the top rates globally.

    Argentina, with a corporate tax rate of 35%, hiked up rates from 25% in 2022 as the country was mired in a deepening economic crisis. The country has also been a key supporter of a global minimum tax, suggesting it should be raised as high as 25%.

    Malta, the only European nation on the list, also has one of the highest rates. Yet its tax system is complex: local businesses pay a 35% rate on profits, but international firms can pay as low as 5% in Malta with an additional 10% tax paid in their originating country.

    By contrast, we can see that in 1980, countries including India, China and the United Kingdom had corporate tax rates above 50%. Since then, China underwent a series of economic reforms that included key tax reductions that helped drive the growth of its private sector.

    In the United Kingdom, tax rates were 52% four decades ago and now fall at 25%. The U.S. tells a similar story, with corporate rates standing at 46% in 1980—more than double the rates seen today. Major corporate tax cuts were seen during Reagan’s presidency during the 1980s, when rates were cut to 35%, and later in 2017 when they were further reduced to 21% under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 21:20

  • Nebraska State Senator Switching From Democrat To Republican Over Abortion
    Nebraska State Senator Switching From Democrat To Republican Over Abortion

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell has announced that he’s switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, citing his Christian faith and views on abortion.

    Ballots for the primary elections are arranged by party affiliation at the Lancaster County Election Committee offices in Lincoln, Neb., on April 14, 2020. (Nati Harnik/AP Photo)

    Mr. McDonnell made the announcement in an April 3 statement to local media outlets, citing the Democratic Party’s opposition to his pro-life stance.

    “When I ran for reelection in 2020, I was pro-life,” he said, adding that he’s Catholic and recalling that in 2016, he ran as a pro-life candidate for Nebraska’s fifth legislative district.

    “I have asked the Democratic Party to respect my religious-based pro-life position. Instead, over the last year, they have decided to punish me for being pro-life.”

    Mr. McDonnell said that, because he opposes abortion, Douglas County Democrats voted not to seat him as a delegate and not share party resources, while the state Democratic Party voted to censure him for his pro-life views.

    “Being a Christian member of the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life is more important to me than being a registered Democrat,” he said, adding that he was switching to the GOP effective immediately.

    The Nebraska Democratic Party issued a statement in response to Mr. McDonnell’s party change, expressing “respect” for his work with the party while denying that the censure vote had anything to do with his pro-life views.

    “The Nebraska Democratic Party will continue to stand up for reproductive freedom and the human rights of the LGBTQ community,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in the statement.

    “Our decision to censure Sen. McDonnell was never about him being a pro-life Catholic. Our decision was based on our party reaffirming our core values to protect women’s ability to make health decisions and to keep politicians out of our personal health decisions.”

    Ms. Kleeb said that she and her Nebraska Democrat colleagues “respect the ongoing work of Senator McDonnell on behalf of unions and his commitment to protect a fair electoral vote system” in the state.

    Mr. McDonnell’s party affiliation switch could signal that Nebraska may be headed for a major change as Republican leaders have expressed support for a move to a winner-take-all system for allocating the state’s Electoral College votes.

    Change to Winner-Take-All?

    Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, showed a willingness on April 2 to back legislation that would potentially prevent President Joe Biden from getting one of the state’s electoral votes. He did this by endorsing a statewide “winner-takes-all” system that is likely to boost former President Donald Trump.

    Unlike every other U.S. state, only Nebraska and Maine assign Electoral College votes by district. A congressional district that centers around Omaha, the largest city in the state, has sometimes gone in favor of Democratic presidential candidates, including in 2020.

    However, if the state switched to a more standard system, Nebraska’s three electoral votes would likely all go to President Trump as the former president easily won the GOP-dominated state by wide margins in both 2016 and 2020.

    In January, legislators introduced a bill to use the standard, winner-take-all system. In a social media post on April 2, Mr. Pillen endorsed the initiative.

    “It would bring Nebraska into line with 48 of our fellow states, better reflect the founders’ intent, and ensure our state speaks with one unified voice in presidential elections,” Mr. Pillen wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I call upon fellow Republicans in the Legislature to pass this bill to my desk so I can sign it into law.”

    His comment was backed by President Trump on social media, describing the governor’s endorsement of the measure as “very smart.”

    “Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, a very smart and popular Governor, who has done some really great things, came out today with a very strong letter in support of returning Nebraska’s Electoral Votes to a Winner-Take-All System,” President Trump wrote on Tuesday.

    “Most Nebraskans have wanted to go back to this system for a very long time, because it’s what 48 other States do—It’s what the Founders intended, and it’s right for Nebraska,” he continued. “Thank you Governor for your bold leadership. Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing. Nebraskans, respectfully ask your Senators to support this Great Bill!”

    In 2020, President Joe Biden won Nebraska’s Omaha-based congressional district, giving him one electoral vote.  President Trump carried the state with nearly 60 percent of the vote.

    Some analysts have said on social media that if the Nebraska bill is signed into law, it would pose a problem for President Biden because he wouldn’t have a clear path to 270 votes to win the presidency.

    Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 21:00

  • Lab-Grown Meat Isn't For Everyone
    Lab-Grown Meat Isn’t For Everyone

    Would you eat laboratory-grown meat?

    This question, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports was posed recently to respondents of their Consumer Insights survey, seems to divide opinions.

    Laboratory-grown meat, also known as cultivated or cultured meat, is produced from animal cells, often taken by biopsy. These are then placed in a “nutrient bath” in order to develop meat outside the animal. In theory, cultured meat could offer an option to those concerned about animal welfare, or the meat industry’s impact on our planet, as its production requires neither the breeding nor the slaughter of living animals.

    However, as Fleck shows in the infographic below, the idea of eating laboratory-grown meat is still not that convincing to a majority of people.

    Infographic: Lab-Grown Meat Isn’t for Everyone | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    While one in five people surveyed in India said they would be willing to try this new type of food, only 9 percent of respondents in France said the same.

    In the United States, which is one of only two countries where this meat is currently marketed (alongside Singapore), 16 percent of respondents said they were open to the idea of eating it.

    It is unlikely though that cellular meat will soon find its way onto European plates, as no authorization application has yet been filed for the bloc’s market.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 20:40

  • Judge Dismisses DeSantis From Lawsuit Over Illegal Immigrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard
    Judge Dismisses DeSantis From Lawsuit Over Illegal Immigrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A federal judge on Monday dismissed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants who were transported to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on chartered flights in 2022.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters after finding out the 2024 Iowa caucuses results at the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 15, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    In a 77-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs said that there were “insufficient facts” presented in the lawsuit to exercise jurisdiction over Mr. DeSantis and other staff members.

    “On the present record, the court cannot ascertain what actions were undertaken by whom and therefore cannot determine which, if any, of the individual defendants transacted business or caused injury here, leaving it no choice but to find that, at least on this record, personal jurisdiction has not been established,” the judge stated.

    However, Judge Burroughs stated that the illegal immigrants could still proceed with their suit against Vertol, the Florida-based company that was paid $1.5 million to transport illegal immigrants to the island.

    The court found that the facts of the case “taken together, support an inference that Vertol and the other Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiffs because they were Latinx immigrants.”

    Judge Burroughs also said that Vertol and the other defendants “were not legitimately enforcing any immigration laws” when transporting the illegal immigrants.

    “Instead, as alleged, they exploited [Plaintiffs] in a scheme to boost the national profile of Defendant DeSantis and manipulate them for political ends. Moreover, Plaintiffs’ images were captured and sent to national news media,” the judge said.

    “Unlike ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents legitimately enforcing the country’s immigration laws … the Court sees no legitimate purpose for rounding up highly vulnerable individuals on false pretenses and publicly injecting them into a divisive national debate,” she added.

    The judge stated that “treating vulnerable individuals like Plaintiffs in this way, as alleged and accepted as true for purposes of the motion to dismiss … is nothing short of extreme, outrageous, uncivilized, intolerable, and stunning.”

    Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) in Boston filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit in 2022 against Mr. DeSantis, Secretary of Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the State of Florida, and their “accomplices, challenging the fraudulent and discriminatory scheme to transport nearly 50 vulnerable immigrants, including women and children, from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Vineyard without shelter or resources in place.”

    The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a class of affected illegal immigrants, including those stranded in Martha’s Vineyard, and Alianza Americas, a network of organizations supporting illegal immigrants across the United States, according to a statement.

    The illegal immigrants, many of whom were Venezuelans, were allegedly told if they were willing to board planes to other states, they would receive social services.

    Lawsuit Will Continue

    LCR has hailed the ruling as “a major victory” for the affected illegal immigrants.

    It said that the ruling “sends a crucial message: private companies can—and will—be held accountable for helping rogue state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through illegal and fraudulent schemes.”

    “All other defendants have been dismissed, but only for now. The dismissal is ‘without prejudice,’ meaning that the claims may be reasserted and reinstated,” the organization said in a statement.

    “To be clear: the Martha’s Vineyard migrants will not stop here,” it added.

    LCR said that they would continue to pursue their claims in federal court against all defendants, “including by seeking jurisdictional discovery to prove the viability of the claims against the dismissed parties.”

    Darlene McCormick Sanchez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 20:20

  • Beer Beats Wine In Regular Consumption
    Beer Beats Wine In Regular Consumption

    Alcohol has long been portrayed as a “social lubricant”, an effect possibly explained by the alcohol myopia theory. It suggests that intoxication can result in “hyperfocus directed to emotional situations when they are sufficiently relevant to grab attention, or a reduced attentional focus to emotional events in the presence of a relevant demanding task”, according to a 2010 paper on the topic by a group of researchers from Spain and Brazil.

    On the other hand, alcohol is a drug that negatively affects psychological and physical health. As the World Health Organization postulated in a news briefing from January 2023 “alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco.”

    However, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, the ambivalent picture of alcohol consumption doesn’t stop many people from drinking regularly.

    The chart based on Statista’s Consumer Insights shows that beer is the most frequently consumed alcoholic beverage in almost every market surveyed.

    Infographic: Beer Beats Wine in Regular Consumption | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Only in Switzerland, South Africa and Sweden is wine more popular than lagers, pilsners, ales and other types of beer, with between 26 and 42 percent of respondents regularly consuming the beverage created from fermented grapes.

    In Latin American and Southern European countries like Mexico, Spain or Italy, beer is the more popular choice, being consumed regularly by between 45 and 53 percent of respondents.

    Regarding the overall beverage consumed regularly by the highest share of survey participants, coffee comes out on top in 15 of the 20 countries analyzed, reaching respondent shares of 80 percent in Brazil or 78 percent in Poland.

    In China (51 percent), the United States (61 percent) and Italy (75 percent), bottled water ranks highest, while 69 percent of Indians surveyed regularly drink tea and 72 percent of respondents in South Africa consume juice on a regular basis.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 20:00

  • Japan To Embark On An Era Of "Mass Foreign Immigration"
    Japan To Embark On An Era Of “Mass Foreign Immigration”

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    Japan appears to be transitioning from a homogenous society to embrace ‘diversity and inclusivity’ by ushering in “an era of mass foreign immigration.”

    It’s set to be a massive change for a country that was still up until recently 97.5% ethnic Japanese, according to the CIA World Factbook.

    A Bloomberg report details how rapidly declining native birth rates, an aging society and a chronic labor shortage is fueling the importation of millions of foreigners who “are changing the face of Japan.”

    The number of foreign workers in Japan has now exceeded 2 million, a 12.4% increase on 2022. The East Asian country needs at least 647,000 working-age immigrants per year to meet its 11 million worker shortage by 2040.

    “Japan is entering an era of mass foreign immigration,” said Junji Ikeda, president of Saikaikyo, a Hiroshima-based agency that sources and supervises foreign workers. “Incremental adjustments will not suffice,” he added.

    Under one program alone, 820,000 migrants will be admitted to work in the transportation and logistics sectors, a doubling of the previously agreed number, in order “to make efforts to realize an inclusive society,” according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.

    While the process is being implemented under ‘skilled worker visas’, the actual roles migrants will fill include taxi drivers, bus drivers and factory workers.

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

    The service industry will also be increasingly filled with foreign migrants, who will subsequently be allowed to bring their families to stay in Japan indefinitely.

    The Economist reports that a “glimpse at Japan’s future” looks like convenience stores being staffed overwhelmingly by migrants, highlighting “the importance of immigration.”

    The news outlet cites one such 7-Eleven store in central Tokyo where “all the staff are Burmese.”

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

    “Gearoid Reidy in an article for the Japan Times estimates that the number of overseas workers has more than doubled in the last decade, while the broader foreign community, which includes children and students, has risen by 50 per cent,” reports the Spectator.

    “Reidy envisages a time when more than 10 per cent of Japan’s population will be foreign born, putting the famously homogenous, exclusive, nation on a par with the UK, U.S and France.”

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

    Good luck with that.

    At the end of last year, the government announced that crime had risen for the first time in 20 years, a situation native Japanese people might become more familiar with in the coming years.

    A BBC News report about Japan’s previous refusal to adopt mass migration highlighted how the country was “stuck in the past,” with that past being characterized as “a peaceful, prosperous country with the longest life expectancy in the world, the lowest murder rate, little political conflict.”

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

    Apparently, affordable property prices, “refusing immigration and maintaining the patriarchy,” and the fact that “Japan still feels like Japan, and not a reproduction of America,” is being “stuck in the past.”

    However, while importing large numbers of workers, Japan does still seem to be keen to limit foreign nationals claiming to be asylum seekers.

    A new system starting in June will give the government the power to deport foreigners who have had their asylum claims rejected multiple times.

    *  *  *

    Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 19:40

  • "This Is Mind-Blowing Bad": Officials Investigate Brazen $30M Easter Heist In LA
    “This Is Mind-Blowing Bad”: Officials Investigate Brazen $30M Easter Heist In LA

    Authorities in San Fernando Valley, California are investigating a $30 million cash heist at a money storage facility on Easter Sunday.

    “This is mind-blowingly bad,” said one Garda employee, KTLA5 reports. “You would never suspect it, $30 million in the Valley — gone.”

    The March 31st heist is among the largest in LA history.

    According to the LA Times, the thieves entered the building through the roof, tripping no alarms – and there was no obvious sign of break-in on the vault itelf. Officials weren’t even aware of the heist until the safe was opened Monday.

    The thieves also cut a hole in the side off the building, which was later covered with plywood and has now been repaired, KTLA5 reports.

    Hole in the side of the GardaWorld facility on Roxford Street in Sylmar (screenshot via KTLA5)

    Both the LAPD and FBI have yet to comment on how the crew got away unnoticed.

    One law enforcement official with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau who is not on this case told KTLA that money storage facilities like GardaWorld in Sylmar have multiple layers of security and other fortified systems, including alarms and motion sensors. -KTLA

    So duh, clearly an inside job.

    According to retired FBI Special-Agent-in-Charge of the LA field office Robert Clark, investigators “will try to determine who had access to the facility, who was aware of the schedule and knew that the money would be in the facility and [for] how long, the security around the facility and how much time they would be able to have to gain access and be able to move such a large amount of money.”

    Clark thinks there’s a good chance the crew well get caught.

    “I think the likelihood is very high because you don’t move that kind of money very quickly,” he said. “It’s not like you’re grabbing a couple of checks and running out the door. To be able to liquidate [it] would be very difficult. You’ll have to have a team of individuals that do it.“

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 19:20

  • Behind EV Push, A Wealth Transfer From Red To Blue Regions
    Behind EV Push, A Wealth Transfer From Red To Blue Regions

    Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    President Joe Biden’s new EV mandates will likely prove to be a sizable wealth transfer from rural red regions of America to urban blue sections, and to wealthy Democrats who reside in them, according to reports.

    On March 20, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its tailpipe emissions rules for the auto industry starting in 2027.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock)

    These rules are the strictest in history and will effectively force carmakers to have one-third of new car sales be plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) by 2027 and more than two-thirds by 2032.

    This represents a dramatic increase from current EV sales, which were about 8 percent of the new car market in 2023.

    Climate activists cheered the EPA’s move, with the Environmental Defense Fund calling it “a day to celebrate American achievement.”

    But critics say that the measures will be particularly punitive for huge segments of the U.S. population who don’t want, can’t use, or can’t afford EVs. If carmakers go along with President Biden’s plan to shift their fleets to EVs, the cost of remaining gas-fired cars and trucks will likely escalate as demand dwarfs supply.

    “This isn’t industrial policy,” Robert Bryce, author and energy analyst, told The Epoch Times. “In reality it’s a type of class warfare that will prevent low- and middle-income consumers from being able to afford new cars.”

    And as many traditional car buyers struggle, the federal subsidies and incentives continue to flow, to the benefit of EV buyers.

    According to an October 2023 report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as much as $48,000 of the cost of the average EV sold in the United States is paid, not by the owner, but in the form of “socialized costs” that are spread out among taxpayers and electricity consumers over a 10-year period.

    These socialized costs come in the form of taxes, government subsidies, fuel economy credits paid by gas carmakers to EV manufacturers, and higher electricity bills as consumers absorb the capital costs required to expand the power grid and install new charging stations.

    The report states that “the average model year 2021 EV would cost $48,698 more to own over a 10-year period without $22 billion in government favors given to EV manufacturers and owners.”

    These dollars, which do not take into account the additional dollars that gas-car owners will likely pay for their vehicles as manufacturers are forced to make fewer of them, amount to a government-mandated wealth transfer to affluent EV owners, paid by those who often cannot afford to buy EVs.

    The new EPA mandate is “aimed at accommodating a very narrow segment of the auto-buying public: wealthy, white Democrats who live in a handful of liberal communities,” Mr. Bryce said. “EV ownership is largely defined by class, ideology, and geography.”

    Attendees examine Tesla electric cars during an expo in Washington on July 23, 2023. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

    In a February analysis of EV buyers, Mr. Bryce reported that 57 percent of them earn more than $100,000 annually, 75 percent are male, and 87 percent are white. In addition, EV buyers are overwhelmingly Democrats, with 71 percent of Republicans stating in a Gallup poll that they would not consider owning an electric vehicle.

    A 2023 University of California Energy Institute report found “a strong and enduring correlation between political ideology and U.S. EV adoption.”

    Looking at county-level data on new vehicle registrations between 2012 and 2022, the report stated that 50 percent of all new EVs were sold into the top 10 percent of most-Democrat counties, with 70 percent going to the top 25 percent most-Democrat counties, and 90 percent going to the top 50 percent most-Democrat counties.

    Twenty counties bought 40 percent of all EVs sold in this period, the report states, and “most of these counties are urban, high-income, and in Democratic states.”

    One-third of EV Buyers Live in California

    Data from the Department of Energy supports this view. As of year-end 2022, California had 903,600 registered EVs in the state, or 37 percent of all EVs owned nationwide.

    The next largest number of EV owners were in Florida, Texas, and Washington state, with 168,000, 149,000, and 104,100 EVs respectively, followed by New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

    The states on this list are home to large cities and suburbs, which are the target market for EVs. This contrasts sharply with rural states like Wyoming and North Dakota, where 800 and 600 EV owners reside, respectively.

    According to a report by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, “if you count all the EVs in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Montana, and Idaho, they account for less than one percent of the total U.S. sales.”

    A Rivian truck recharges at a charging station during a snowstorm in Truckee, Calif., on March 3, 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    Of the top 10 states in terms of EV per capita ownership, seven are “deep blue states,” the report notes.

    “By contrast, the 10 states with the smallest market penetration for EVs were all red states,” Unleash Prosperity states.

    “Ironically, Joe Biden is the worst thing that ever happened to this industry. EVs have become ‘Biden cars.’”

    The Biden administration is not alone in attempting to force Americans to switch to electric cars. A number of blue states including California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington are on track to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035, according to non profit group Coltura, which advocates for the switch from gasoline to electric cars.

    The lack of interest in EVs among red states isn’t merely a political issue, however. There are practical reasons why people are unwilling to spend thousands of dollars more on electric cars. According to a November 2023 AAA survey, the primary reasons for people not to buy electric cars are a lack of charging stations, limited range, and time to charge the battery.

    A recent Rasmussen poll found that 65 percent of Americans surveyed don’t think they’re likely to make an EV their next automobile purchase.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 19:00

  • US Intelligence Is 'Convinced' Major Iranian Response Against Israel Imminent
    US Intelligence Is ‘Convinced’ Major Iranian Response Against Israel Imminent

    US intelligence is ‘convinced’ that Iran is readying a retaliation response against Israel for the Monday attack on the Iranian embassy complex in Syria, US officials have told CBS News, and that an attack could be imminent.

    The officials say that the US “has picked up intelligence that Iran is planning a retaliatory attack that would include a swarm of Shaheed loitering drones and cruise missiles. Officials say the timing and target are unknown, but a proportional response to the Damascus attack would be to hit an Israeli diplomatic facility.”

    As for possible timing they believe it will come between now and the end of Ramadan next week. Israel has already issued firm warnings that any direct attack from Iranian soil will be met with a “stronger” response, taking the conflict to the next level.

    AFP

    CBS reports further that “A public funeral was held in Tehran on Friday for the seven IRGC members killed in the suspected Israeli strike in Damascus, including two generals.”

    One hawkish analyst from the Middle East Institute, Jason Brodsky, has noted on Friday:

    There are reports Iran’s regime may be eyeing hitting an Israel diplomatic compound in a third country via drones & missiles. Israel maintains embassies in Bahrain; UAE; Jordan; Egypt; Azerbaijan; & Turkey. I would keep an eye on Jordan.

    This is a scenario that Iranian and regional leaders might deem ‘proportionate’. The idea of a sovereign state intentionally attacking another country’s embassy or consulate was pretty much unheard of prior to Israel’s Monday attack.

    Israel, however, has tried claim to the international community – which by and large condemned attacking embassies – that what was actually destroyed was a military building used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

    A handful of publications and pundits have pointed out that the Israeli attack, which killed eleven and took out a top IRGC Quds general, is in fact a declaration of war. 

    For example, Hamidreza Azizi of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, immediately sought to underscore that the strikes which flattened a consulate next to the main embassy building “is viewed by some in Iran as a declaration of war by Israel against Iran.” 

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    He wrote further that “It represents a shift from previous engagements, directly hitting Iranian soil represented by its consulate in Syria—as opposed to targeting IRGC officers in Syrian sites.”

    Currently, Israel is bracing for an inevitable response, and is reportedly calling up extra reserve forces. Hezbollah could also open up a bigger war front:

    The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said on Friday that Iran would inevitably retaliate after a strike — widely blamed on Israel — destroyed its consulate in Damascus this week, killing two generals.
    “Be certain that Iran’s response to the targeting of its Damascus consulate is inevitable,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day — an annual day of pro-Palestinian rallies held by Iran and its allies.

    At least so far, the daily tit-for-tat fighting along Israel’s northern border has remained contained, but perhaps just barely. Israeli leaders have warned that all of Lebanon could be bombed back to the ‘stone age’ if Hezbollah starts a full war.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 18:40

  • Supreme Court Faces 'High Stakes' Decisions On Trump-Related Cases
    Supreme Court Faces ‘High Stakes’ Decisions On Trump-Related Cases

    Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    President Joe Biden issued a rare primetime threat to the Supreme Court during his State of the Union address on March 7, warning the justices that they could cause political backlash for their 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

    “With all due respect, justices, women are not without electoral or political power,” President Biden said.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images)

    In doing so, the president amplified that mounting pressure on the Supreme Court, a pressure that seems to build each week as the election nears and the queue of cases related to former President Donald Trump gets longer.

    The justices are taking up two major appeals related to President Trump, who is the presumptive GOP nominee and is leading President Biden in polling matchups, including in crucial battleground states.

    President Trump’s former advisors are also facing multiple charges, raising the prospect that some may request the high court’s intervention, as former White House advisor Peter Navarro did on March 15. The court’s denial made Mr. Navarro the first Trump White House adviser to end up in prison.

    “This is certainly a blockbuster year for the court,” Heritage Foundation Vice President John Malcolm told The Epoch Times.

    “Several of the justices, most notably the Chief Justice, have been concerned about the public’s perception of the court’s ‘legitimacy,’ so it will be interesting to see how the justices respond, especially in an important election year.”

    ‘High Stakes’

    The combination of several Trump-related cases, the potential for landmark changes to legal precedent, the vigorous calls for reform, and the coming elections have made 2024 a year of high impact decisions for the court.

    One decision has already impacted the course of the 2024 presidential campaign.

    In March, the justices rejected an effort that could have resulted in millions of President Trump’s supporters not having their preferred candidate on the ballot. During oral argument, Justice Amy Coney Barrett referenced the “very high stakes” surrounding the case, which has been described as the court’s most influential election-related matter since Bush v. Gore.

    Its landmark opinion in Trump v. Anderson foreclosed the possibility that states like Colorado could, under their existing authority, remove federal candidates from ballots.

    The Supreme Court in Washington on March 22, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    The majority opinion, however, has been criticized for lacking clarity around how Congress should act. The decision emphasized the role of Congress in enforcing the 14th Amendment, while the three liberal justices and Justice Barrett favored a more limited approach that overruled state authority over federal candidates for office.

    President Trump’s immunity appeal, scheduled for oral argument on April 25, could impact his Florida documents case and hush money trial, wherein he has requested a delay pending the Supreme Court’s decision on his D.C. immunity claims.

    The stinging criticism that followed the court’s unanimous opinion in Trump v. Anderson indicates no matter how united the justices are, they will continue to face heavy scrutiny—especially when it comes to President Trump.

    President Trump’s appeal, like Mr. Navarro’s, questions the separation of powers as well as the authority of the legislative and judiciary branches in challenging the executive.

    In Trump v. Anderson, the court avoided wading into the specifics of President Trump’s alleged wrongdoing on Jan. 6 and will likely try to do the same with his immunity appeal. But their decisions in two other cases might impact the indictment in President Trump’s federal election case.

    A challenge brought by Jan. 6 defendants against the DOJ’s use of an Enron-era obstruction charge in prosecutions will be heard before the high court on April 16.

    In the federal election case, two of those charges were brought against President Trump. If the court rules in the defendants’ favor, as some legal experts predict, that could lessen the burden for President Trump in D.C. while also provoking scrutiny of the justices’ approach to Jan. 6.

    The court’s decision in the presidential immunity appeal could similarly either upend or affirm the prosecution—likely sparking backlash from either side depending on the outcome.

    Beyond Trump

    Besides President Trump’s cases, the court is considering several major cases in administrative law—including potentially overturning the decades-old Chevron doctrine that gives deference to agencies in construing vague language in statutes. A reversal would significantly roll back the power of the administrative state.

    Former President Donald Trump talks to the press outside the courtroom at the New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Oct. 2, 2023. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

    In February, it considered whether the Justice Department legally restricted bump stocks. The case, Garland v. Cargill, was the second of three major gun-related cases announced for the term. Two—Cargill and Rahimi v. United States—could alter who owns guns and how they operate them. The third, NRA v. Vullo, could make it easier or more difficult for governments to pressure organizations like those promoting gun rights.

    The justices also heard arguments over the constitutionality of two sweeping social media laws from Texas and Florida that, combined with similar cases this term, could dramatically change the landscape of online expression.

    In striking those laws, the justices could prevent future state legislation aimed at how social media platforms moderate users’ content and the transparency they provide for censoring certain posts. If laws succeed, social media platforms could see a patchwork of rules for moderating users’ content across the United States and enjoy less discretion in how they do so.

    “These are cases that touch upon separation of powers and important constitutional rights, in addition to involving ‘hot button’ issues that will have a major impact on the law now and in the future,” Mr. Malcolm told The Epoch Times.

    Court’s Image

    With such contentious issues before the court, it seems inevitable that the justices’ decisions will upset large swaths of the American public. The justices could also be weighing how the way they phrase rulings will impact public opinion during such a high-stakes year.

    University of Michigan Law Professor Barbara McQuade previously told The Epoch Times she imagined that with Trump v. Anderson, Justice Roberts felt pressure to “maintain the credibility of the Court as an independent and apolitical institution.”

    She said “a 9–0 decision would provide the country with far more confidence than would a 6–3 decision.”

    Justice Barrett emphasized the importance of unanimity and language while appearing to offer a glimpse into the justices’ concerns. Her concurring opinion in Trump v. Anderson seemed to criticize her colleagues for lacking restraint in their opinion. She had joined the liberal justices in favoring a more limited approach but didn’t sign onto their concurrence, which had some strong words for the majority.

    “In my judgment, this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency,” she wrote. “The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 18:20

  • Canoo CEO's Private Jet Expenses Were Double The Company's Revenue For 2023
    Canoo CEO’s Private Jet Expenses Were Double The Company’s Revenue For 2023

    As we’ve been writing over the last year, saturation and competitive pricing are starting to prompt chaos and disorder in the EV space.

    EV startup Canoo is the latest to face scrutiny, after it was revealed that CEO Tony Aquila’s private jet expenses totaled $1.7 million, twice the company’s revenue for 2023.

    Despite reporting a loss of $302 million last year, Canoo paid for Aquila’s lavish travel, which included either first-class airfare or use of his private jet. Aquila, who also chairs the company, owns about 14% of Canoo. In 2022, Canoo spent $1.3 million on his air travel, according to a new report from Electrek. 

    The company, which has yet to turn a profit, generated just $886,000 in revenue in 2023.

    Canoo is focused on scaling up production of its commercial vehicles and avoiding the fate of other struggling EV startups. While it faces challenges, such as the recent need for a 1-for-23 reverse stock split to prevent delisting, Canoo received a boost with a contract from the United States Postal Service for six delivery vans.

    But, amidst a sea of competition and first movers like Tesla, BYD and legacy automakers, companies like Canoo and the near-bankrupt Fisker are struggling. Ergo, the company CEO’s spending on private jets raises concerns about how the company manages its finances, particularly given its recent stock drop of up to 38% after reporting losses.

    Reuters was first to report the massive cost/revenue divergence.

    Canoo responded with a statement: “Had Reuters called Canoo for comment we would have told them that we raised $324 million in 2022, and $288 million in 2023 and we are currently in discussions with several entities and individuals about investing in the company this year.”

    “We would have also told them that we have begun manufacturing, expect to step up our manufacturing effort this year, and have a backlog of orders. And, that we are not in the consumer market, we are in the commercial market,” the company added. 

    We wrote late last year that all of the Tesla-wannabe EV companies were running out of cash. 

    The report noted that at least 18 EV and battery startups, including high-profile names like Nikola and Fisker, face the risk of depleting their cash reserves by the end of 2024. These companies, once known for their ambitious goals to revolutionize the industry with electric trucks and SUVs, have struggled with increasing costs and manufacturing challenges.

    Names like Lordstown Motors, Proterra, and Electric Last Mile Solutions have already declared bankruptcy, the report notes. Romeo Power, a battery manufacturer, and Volta, a charging company, were sold for much less than their initial public valuations. The remaining firms are reportedly focusing on cost reduction and have secured additional funding.

    Gavin Baker, chief investment officer at Atreides Management, told WSJ: “It was by far the most insane bubble I have ever seen.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 18:00

  • Behind Election Rhetoric, Democrats Utilize Little Known Strategy To Win 2024
    Behind Election Rhetoric, Democrats Utilize Little Known Strategy To Win 2024

    Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The upcoming election will likely be less about changing voters’ minds and more about rousing the faithful and getting them to the polls.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Stock Photo)

    America’s students, who according to an analysis by Tufts University helped elect Biden in key swing states in 2020, could prove to be pivotal in this regard, both as targets and as foot soldiers in the party’s get-out-the-vote drives.

    Meanwhile, a lawsuit currently moving through Wisconsin courts appears to provide a case study for how these campaigns translate into election wins for the Democratic Party.

    In February, Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted that the government is paying college students to register voters.

    “We have been doing work to promote voter participation for students. And, for example we … now allow students to get paid through Federal Work Study to register people and to be nonpartisan poll workers,” she said.

    Ms. Harris said the Biden administration has been able “to charge federal agencies with doing the work that they rightly can do to inform the American people of their right to vote.”

    Paying students to canvass is the latest component of an initiative originated under former President Barack Obama to increase student voting. Initially this was carried out in conjunction with private nonprofit organizations such as Civic Nation.

    Founded with the support of President Obama, his wife, and Joe Biden in 2015, and led by former Obama staffers, Civic Nation now boasts a partnership with 1,700 colleges and universities and a reported budget of more than $16 million in 2020.

    Its stated goal is “fighting for gender equity, social justice, and more,” and it leads the “All In Campus Democracy Challenge” that engages with university administrators to get them to sign up student voters.

    All In runs school get-out-the-vote competitions in all 50 states. According to its website, it has partnered with 994 institutions and signed up more than 10 million students. As part of the “challenge,” schools agree to share student voting data.

    Civic Nation receives much of its funding from a network of progressive charitable funds managed by Arabella Advisors, which oversees a network of nonprofit vehicles that finance left-wing political campaigns.

    Under the Biden administration, however, the student get-out-the-vote campaign is now being run with federal funds, spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Education.

    Fayetteville State University student NAACP chapter president Ty Hamer (R) leads a call as students walk to vote in Fayetteville, N.C., on March 3, 2020. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

    Executive Order Backed by Federal Funds

    President Biden’s Executive Order 14019 compels all government agencies to take part in a nationwide effort to register voters and includes a program by the Department of Education (DOE) that pressures educational institutions to demonstrate that they have signed up students to vote.

    Following the issuance of EO14019, the DOE sent schools a “Dear Colleague Letter” to “remind institutions of higher education of the federal requirements regarding voting that are tied to participation in federal student aid programs.”

    The letter, according to the DOE, also clarifies when Federal Work Study dollars can be used “for nonpartisan civic engagement work.”

    According to a 2022 report by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), “youth ages 18–29 are the only age group in which a strong majority supported Democrats.”

    Up until 2002, the youth vote was evenly split between the two parties, the report stated, but since that time young people have shifted sharply in favor Democrats by what is now a 28-point margin. The get-out-the-vote campaigns do not target all young voters equally, however. Instead, they focus their efforts on the most reliable Democrat voters—those who attend college.

    Students walk past a polling site at the University of Pittsburgh during the midterm election, in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

    A 2020 survey by Pew Research found that the single largest voter gap in favor of Democrats was white college-educated women, of whom 62 percent voted Democrat versus 34 percent who voted Republican. Conversely, non-college white men favored the Republican Party by a margin of 32 points, with 62 percent for Republicans and 30 percent for Democrats.

    “Democrats increasingly dominate in party identification among white college graduates,” the report states. “Republicans increasingly dominate in party affiliation among white non-college voters.”

    Students Vote Like Their Teachers

    A 2020 report by the National Association of Scholars found that Democrat-registered professors outnumbered Republican-registered professors by a ratio of 10-to-1, a gap that has widened from 4.5-to-1 in 1999.

    “Research since World War II has consistently found overwhelmingly left-oriented political attitudes and ideological self-identification among college and university faculty,” the Association states. “It has also found overwhelming support for the Democratic Party.”

    The other factor that makes the college vote so attractive to Democrats is the location of college students in key swing states, where a few thousand votes can deliver a win in a tight election. For this reason it may not be coincidental that the youth turnout rate has been much higher in swing states than non-swing states.

    The CIRCLE report found that among the highest states for youth voter turnout were Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, and Georgia. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, for example, 36.5 percent and 31.7 percent of residents under the age of 29 voted in 2022.

    This contrasts sharply with neighboring non swing states such as West Virginia (14.2 percent), Delaware (18.7 percent), New Jersey (20.6 percent), Ohio (21.6 percent), Connecticut (21.4 percent), New York (20.7 percent), and Massachusetts (18.5 percent). Oregon, a reliable blue state, bucked this trend with 35.5 percent youth turnout.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 17:40

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Apr 05

Today’s News 5th April 2024

  • NATO Head Denies Alliance Is Party To Ukraine War Despite Military Aid
    NATO Head Denies Alliance Is Party To Ukraine War Despite Military Aid

    Via ReMix News,

    NATO member states have not yet decided on the structure of future assistance to Ukraine, but they have started planning for it, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday at the end of the first day of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

    At the meeting, ministers discussed how to put assistance to Ukraine on a firmer and more permanent footing in the future.

    “All Allies agree on the need to support Ukraine in this critical moment.There is a unity of purpose,” said Stoltenberg.

    He stressed that “The people of Ukraine continue to defend their country with skill and bravery” and that “the Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition.”

    He added that “We need to step up now to ensure our support is built to last.”

    The Norwegian leader of NATO said details of the initiative would emerge in the coming weeks.

    “We are now in the process of developing a more robust and enduring, institutionalised framework for support to Ukraine, that our support is less dependent on voluntary short term offers and more on long term NATO commitments,” said the secretary general.

    He expressed the hope that now that allies have begun to discuss planning, a decision on the final form of assistance could be taken at the NATO summit in Washington in July.

    Stoltenberg said that taking responsibility for aid to Ukraine would not make NATO a party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

    “NATO is and will remain a defensive Alliance. And NATO is, and will remain, not a party to the conflict in Ukraine. We need to remember what this is. This is war or aggression by Russia invading another country, violating international law. And then Ukraine has the right, according to international law, to defend itself,” he said.

    He also pointed out that Russia is receiving support for its war of aggression from China, North Korea, and Iran.

    “As authoritarian powers increasingly align, it is important that like-minded nations around the world stand together. To defend a global order ruled by law, not by force,” Stoltenberg added.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/05/2024 – 02:00

  • The Government Wants To Play God. What Does That Mean For Our Freedoms?
    The Government Wants To Play God. What Does That Mean For Our Freedoms?

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    The government wants to play god.

    It wants the power to decide who lives or dies and whose rights are worthy of protection.

    Abortion may still be front and center in the power struggle between the Left and the Right over who has the right to decide—the government or the individual—when it comes to bodily autonomy, the right to privacy, sexual freedom, the rights of the unborn, and property interests in one’s body, but there’s so much more at play.

    In the 50-plus years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, the government has come to believe that it not only has the power to determine who is deserving of constitutional rights in the eyes of the law but it also has the authority to deny those rights to an American citizen.

    This is how the abortion debate has played into the police state’s hands: by laying the groundwork for discussions about who else may or may not be deserving of rights.

    Despite the Supreme Court having overturned its earlier rulings recognizing abortion as a constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment, the government continues to play fast and loose with the lives of the citizenry all along the spectrum of life.

    Take a good, hard look at the many ways in which Americans are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    American families who have their dogs shot, their homes trashed and their children terrorized or, worse, killed by errant SWAT team raids in the middle of the night are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Disabled individuals who are being strip searched, handcuffed, arrested and “diagnosed” by police as dangerous or mentally unstable merely because they stutter and walk unevenly are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    School-aged children as young as 4-years-old who are leg shackled, handcuffed and strip searched for violating school zero tolerance policies by chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun and playing an imaginary game of cops and robbers, or engaging in childish behavior such as crying or jumping are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Unarmed citizens who are tasered or shot by police for daring to hesitate, stutter, move a muscle, flee or disagree in any way with a police order are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Likewise, Americans—young and old alike—who are shot by police because they pointed a garden hose at a police officer, reached for their registration in their glove box, relied upon a cane to steady themselves, or were seen playing with air rifles or BB guns are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Female motorists who are unlucky enough to be pulled over for a questionable traffic infraction only to be subjected by police to cavity searches by the side of the road are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Male pedestrians and motorists alike who are being subjected to roadside strip searches and rectal probes by police based largely on the color of their skin are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    American citizens subjected to government surveillance whereby their phone calls are being listened in on, their mail and text messages read, their movements tracked and their transactions monitored are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Homeowners who are being fined and arrested for raising chickens in their backyard, allowing the grass in their front yards to grow too long, and holding Bible studies in their homes are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Decorated military veterans who are being arrested for criticizing the government on social media such as Facebook are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Homeless individuals who are being harassed, arrested and run out of towns by laws that criminalize homelessness are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Individuals whose DNA has been forcibly collected and entered into federal and state law enforcement databases whether or not they have been convicted of any crime are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Drivers whose license plates are being scanned, uploaded to a police database and used to map their movements, whether or not they are suspected of any crime, are being denied their rights under the Constitution. The same goes for drivers who are being ticketed for running afoul of red light cameras without any real opportunity to defend themselves against such a charge are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Protesters and activists who are being labeled domestic terrorists and extremists and accused of hate crimes for speaking freely are being denied their rights under the Constitution. Likewise, American citizens who being targeted for assassination by drone strikes abroad without having been charged, tried and convicted of treason are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    Hard-working Americans whose bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash are seized by police (operating according to asset forfeiture schemes that provide profit incentives for highway robbery) are being denied their rights under the Constitution.

    So, what is the common denominator here?

    These are all American citizens—endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, rights that no person or government can take away from them, among these the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—and they are all being oppressed in one way or another by a government that has grown drunk on power, money and its own authority.

    If the government—be it the President, Congress, the courts or any federal, state or local agent or agency—can decide that any person has no rights, then that person becomes less than a citizen, less than human, less than deserving of respect, dignity, civility and bodily integrity. He or she becomes an “it,” a faceless number that can be tallied and tracked, a quantifiable mass of cells that can be discarded without conscience, an expendable cost that can be written off without a second thought, or an animal that can be bought, sold, branded, chained, caged, bred, neutered and euthanized at will.

    It’s a slippery slope that justifies all manner of violations in the name of national security, the interest of the state and the so-called greater good.

    Yet those who founded this country believed that what we conceive of as our rights were given to us by God—we are created equal, according to the nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence—and that government cannot create, nor can it extinguish our God-given rights. To do so would be to anoint the government with god-like powers and elevate it above the citizenry.

    Unfortunately, we have been dancing with this particular devil for quite some time now.

    If we continue to wait for the government to restore our freedoms, respect our rights, rein in its abuses and restrain its agents from riding roughshod over our lives, our liberty and our happiness, then we will be waiting forever.

    The highly politicized tug-of-war over abortion will not resolve the problem of a culture that values life based on a sliding scale.  Nor will it help us navigate the moral, ethical and scientific minefields that await us as technology and humanity move ever closer to a point of singularity.

    Humanity is being propelled at warp speed into a whole new frontier when it comes to privacy, bodily autonomy, and what it means to be a human being. As such, we haven’t even begun to wrap our heads around how present-day legal debates over bodily autonomy, privacy, vaccine mandates, the death penalty, and abortion play into future discussions about singularity, artificial intelligence, cloning, and the privacy rights of the individual in the face of increasingly invasive, intrusive and unavoidable government technologies.

    Yet here is what I know.

    Life is an inalienable right.

    By allowing the government to decide who or what is deserving of rights, it shifts the entire discussion from one in which we are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights” (that of life, liberty property and the pursuit of happiness) to one in which only those favored by the government get to enjoy such rights.

    If all people are created equal, then all lives should be equally worthy of protection.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 23:40

  • Pfizer's Own Study Confirms Paxlovid Sucks
    Pfizer’s Own Study Confirms Paxlovid Sucks

    A Pfizer-funded, peer-reviewed paper authored by Pfizer scientists reveals that the company’s antiviral COVID medication Paxlovid completely sucks, confirming what everyone’s known since it came out.

    In a randomized phase 2-3 trial of the drug conducted between Aug. 25, 2021 through July 25, 2022, 654 out of 1,296 patients were dosed with at least one 300mg dose of Paxlovid + 100mg of protease inhibitor ritonavir vs. a placebo group. The results showed that the median time until COVID-19 symptoms ended through day 28 was 12 days in the treatment group vs. 13 days in the placebo group.

    According to the authors, the result of the drug, which is also known as nirmatrelvir, “was not significant.”

    “Similar results were observed in the high-risk subgroup (i.e., participants who had been vaccinated and had at least one risk factor for severe illness) and in the standard-risk subgroup (i.e., those who had no risk factors for severe illness and had never been vaccinated or had not been vaccinated within the previous 12 months),” the authors added.

    And while 0.8% of the Paxlovid group suffered ‘hospitalization or death’ vs. 1.6% of placebo recipients, the authors also concluded that it was not statistically significant, however placebo recipients had longer average hospital stays and were more likely to be admitted to intensive care units.

    According to the authors, “the usefulness of nirmatrelvir–ritonavir in patients who are not at high risk for severe COVID-19 has not been established.“

    The trial included adults who had tested positive for COVID-19 and shown at least one symptom, had previously received the COVID-19 vaccine, and had at least one risk factor – such as being a cigarette smoker.

    Pfizer had previously announced that they were halting enrollment in the trial over “a very low rate of hospitalization or death observed in the standard-risk patient population.”

    Paxlovid was previously found not to reduce the risk of long COVID either.

    As the Epoch Times notes, Dr. Vinay Prasad, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the research, said on social media platform X that the trial showed Paxlovid “doesn’t work in vaccinated people.”

    “It was embarrassing to watch the administration and many ID doctors recommend this without any credible data,” he continued – criticizing the government for spending upwards of $12 billion for Paxlovid “without much trial data.”

    A previous Pfizer trial, which was run to assess Paxlovid’s efficacy and safety among the unvaccinated, found that Paxlovid shortened the time to sustained symptoms alleviation and reduced the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. The trial enrolled people with COVID-19, with symptoms, and who had a risk factor for progression to severe disease or were 60 years of age or older.

    Based on the results from that trial, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023 authorized the drug for both unvaccinated and vaccinated adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 who were deemed at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19. -Epoch Times

    “The benefit observed among unvaccinated high-risk persons does not extend to those at lower risk for severe COVID-19,” wrote Drs. Rajesh Gandhi and Martin Hirsch in an editorial about the new paper. That said, they also concluded that “it still appears reasonable to recommend the drug to older people and people with substantial underlying conditions.”

    What?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 23:20

  • Tuberculosis Cases Reported In Chicago’s Immigrant Shelters
    Tuberculosis Cases Reported In Chicago’s Immigrant Shelters

    Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Illegal immigrants board a bus as they arrived on a plane from San Antonio at Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Ill., on Jan. 1, 2024. (WTVO NewsNation via AP)

    Chicago’s Health Department has confirmed a few cases of tuberculosis among illegal immigrants who recently arrived in the city. However, officials say there is no cause for concern for the broader population as they believe the disease is contained.

    Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious disease caused by a bacteria that generally attacks the lungs and, in some cases, other body parts. Symptoms can include chest pain, fatigue, chills, and coughing up blood. If not treated, TB can be fatal.

    Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) officials confirmed in a media statement a “small number” of tuberculosis cases at city-run immigrant shelters but did not state which shelters or how many people are affected.

    According to a spokesperson, there is no cause for concern at this time because the disease has been contained, and the affected illegal immigrants are being treated.

    “We will continue to offer treatment to individuals as necessary and take the proper precautions to eliminate spread, but we do not consider this a matter presenting a substantial threat to the public,” the spokesperson said.

    “To date, CDPH has not confirmed any reports of TB that resulted from exposure to new arrivals in Chicago.”

    The CDPH claims an estimated 10 to 20 percent of people from Central and South America have a latent TB infection, which is asymptomatic and general not transmissible to others, but does result in a positive test. According to the CDPH, even those with active cases will likely recover if they receive treatment.

    “For those who do have active cases of TB disease, CDPH assigns a nurse case manager to each individual and performs a contact tracing investigation,” the spokesperson said.

    “TB is curable with antibiotics and is not particularly infectious, typically requiring several hours or more of prolonged close contact between individuals to spread, but CDPH continues to take cases seriously in order to keep it contained.”

    The CDPH says in an average year, it expects to see between 100 to 150 tuberculosis cases in Chicago residents.

    Alderman Calls for Immunization Standards for Asylum Seekers

    Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez said the infections were a wake-up call for the city, and that citizens should start putting pressure on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to implement American immunization standards for all asylum seekers. Chicago was also recently hit with a registered measles cases, which was reportedly the first case identified in a Chicagoan since 2019.

    In an April 3 post on X, Mr. Lopez said “performative politics and hurt feelings” have led to a delayed response to an “obvious looming disaster.”

    “Anyone who demanded action to protect our residents was called racist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant by fringe politicians. And now, here we are: measles, now tuberculosis both confirmed in Chicago,” he said.

    “Shame on every mouthpiece that worked so hard to keep this secret. I don’t expect apologies or an enlightened response from the performative deniers: those folks have never let facts get in the way of their narrative,” he said.

    According to a March 28 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cases of tuberculosis have jumped to their highest level in a decade. In 2023, tuberculosis case counts jumped by 1,295 from the prior year to 9,615, the agency said. This represents an increase of 16 percent and is the highest level since 2013.

    The United States has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis in the world, the CDC said. However, the uptick in cases means capacity should be strengthened in public health programs to carry out “critical disease control and prevention strategies.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 23:00

  • 'Cocoa Could Double From Here' – Oil-Bull Andurand Gets Greedy On Chocolate
    ‘Cocoa Could Double From Here’ – Oil-Bull Andurand Gets Greedy On Chocolate

    Oil trader Pierre Andurand suffered record losses last year in the commodities world, though the money manager has so far crushed it on the cocoa trade. 

    Bloomberg reports Andurand opened a “small, long position” in cocoa futures in early March. Since then, prices have soared as much as 73%. People familiar with the trade did not specify where the famed oil trader opened the position or whether he’d taken profits.

    Futures in New York have jumped as high as $10,300 a ton in recent weeks, surging from the $6,000 level in early March. 

    Andurand emailed Bloomberg that cocoa prices “could break $20,000 later this year.” Hyperfinlating cocoa prices are caused by drought and disease, which are ravaging the world’s largest cocoa farms in West Africa.  

    Andurand said his analysts forecast cocoa bean production globally to be down at least 18% on the year, compared to most analysts’ expectations of 10-11%.

    “This means that we will finish the year with the lowest stocks-to-grinding ratio ever, and potentially run out of inventories late in the year,” he warned.

    Per Bloomberg: 

    The firm sees that ratio — which measures stockpiles relative to annual demand — will end the 2023-24 season around 16% in a base-case scenario. That would push the indicator below the previous record low set in the mid-1970s, when prices hit $5,000 a ton — equivalent to about $26,000 when adjusted for inflation, according to Bloomberg calculations.

    Any higher cocoa prices and chocolate makers, like the US Hershey Company, will see demand destruction. Soaring cocoa prices are already weighing on the company’s stock. 

    This once-in-a-generation cocoa crisis will likely result in higher prices. Have the folks at r/WallStreetBets figured out about this trade? 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 22:40

  • Maybe The Academic Bubble Is Finally Popping
    Maybe The Academic Bubble Is Finally Popping

    Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    (Emily Karakis/Unsplash.com)

    Commentary

    Academia has fallen on hard times, most signified by the disgrace of Harvard. When high-paid, high-status professors are revealed as plagiarists, and then kept on with high six-figure salaries anyway, and when others are fired for opposing inhumane COVID-19 controls, one has to wonder.

    Such places have only their intellectual integrity; when that falls, what are they left with other than their $51 billion endowment?

    Let’s just use Harvard as a proxy for universities generally. How are they faring these days? Is the generation that is now in a position to decide to attend them—rather than develop an actual skill in a trade—and choose to give up four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars really going to take the bait?

    It appears that this is seriously in doubt. The last of the last generation born in the 20th century, so-called Generation Z, has entered college and faces the decision to continue on the path or take a different route. It so happens that skills-based trades are paying huge salaries right now. That’s because there is a massive shortage of people who know how to do stuff.

    This happens when you have fifty years in which millions have been trained to be one or another form of “intellectual” (or “mind worker”) even as the market for such “skills” has long been saturated.

    Plus the job is awful in any case, contrary to what had long been promised. Most members of the professional managerial class of highly educated desk sitters are wholly miserable people. Most of their lives are spent following orders and fitting into the bureaucracy, with little or no creativity, much less adventure. All you get is a fancy title and some social status within some circles, and even that is changing.

    As for academic jobs, truly, do you know a happy and wholly content professor or university administrator? I’ve personally never known any professional more willing to kvetch about his or her job, telling tales of amazing intrigue, perfidy, and backstabbery. One always wants to ask, “Why don’t you leave?” but we know the truth. There is nowhere to go. Academic jobs are hard to come by and extremely difficult to convert from one institution to another.

    Such people have no other skills.

    It’s about time that young people realize that there are other ways to pursue a career. We might finally have reached the point at which people are going their own way rather than following the prescribed path for the illusion of upward social mobility.

    The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports:

    “Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing to leave the college path. Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work. Growing skepticism about the return on a college education, the cost of which has soared in recent decades, is adding to their shine.

    “Enrollment in vocational training programs is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16 percent last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. The ranks of students studying construction trades rose 23 percent during that time, while those in programs covering HVAC and vehicle maintenance and repair increased 7 percent.”

    Plus, come on, how cool is it to be a welder? That’s amazing. Same with being an electrician, a plumber, a cook, a builder, or just about anything else where you use your hands. These days, the money is great to accompany the adventure. Actually doing things seems to be gaining traction.

    For the fourth year, “median annual pay for new construction hires has eclipsed earnings for new hires in both the professional services and information sectors—such as accountants or IT maintenance workers,” the WSJ reports.

    Apparently, a major factor here driving this is the pandemic lockdowns in the following sense. Lots of kids saw their parents working from home for two years during this time. Seeing them sit at the dining room table and stare at screens all day, and then interact with colleagues only through more apps and platforms, and then finding out that this is precisely what they do at work all the time, kind of drained away the romance.

    Who wants to do that? Let’s just say not everyone.

    Plus, it is not unknown to white males that they are not exactly in high demand in a professional workplace beset by diversity, equity, and inclusion preferences for anyone but them. No one wants to be in a profession in which you are discriminated against—and denounced and shamed relentlessly—based on factors you cannot change, such as biology.

    Why not get into a field that cares nothing about your sex and race and instead judges you by your skills and character? That seems far more appealing.

    The WSJ further reports: “In a survey of high school and college-age people by software company Jobber last year, 75 percent said they would be interested in vocational schools offering paid, on-the-job training. The rise of generative AI is changing the career calculus for some young people. The majority of respondents Jobber surveyed said they thought blue-collar jobs offered better job security than white-collar ones, given the growth of AI.

    “Nearly 80 percent of respondents in Jobber’s survey said their parents wanted them to go to college. Professions dominated by college-educated workers generally earn more over time. Professional and business services workers, for example, make a median $78,500 compared with $69,200 in construction, according to ADP.”

    The point about parents is interesting. I’ve been predicting for decades that the college bubble would pop. But it hasn’t. The reason is parents. They want the best possible path forward for kids. They might not know for sure that a college degree will guarantee a good life, but surely it can help. Plus a degree is something they “can always fall back on.”

    You know the line and the intuition. It’s a Boomer-born attitude that comes from the postwar experience with the GI Bill. An entire generation was led to believe that putting newly returned soldiers into college formed the basis of postwar prosperity and put millions into the middle class.

    As a result, we’ve had generations of parents who have strongly recommended college to their kids. And they have been willing to pay the big bucks to make it possible, even once it became impossible to “work your way through college.” Parents just kept paying. And then the student loan market fired up to pick up the slack from what the parents could not afford. This saddled at least two generations with six-figure debts as they started their careers.

    This entire calculation is a massive error.

    What it forgets is that giving up four years between the ages of 18 and 22 sitting at a desk rather than gaining valuable career experience is a massive opportunity cost that comes at the prime of life. Indeed, it sets you back. Then if you end up in a lucrative profession, you still have to take vocational training in the form of professional certifications—the start of your actual education about which no one prepared you.

    That’s the major cost of college: what you otherwise would be doing during those four years that you did not do. By comparison even with the dollar expense associated with tuition and books, that’s a huge cost. The ensuing debt, meanwhile, is an egregious way to start off a life.

    What exactly would pop this bubble? It would take a generation of kids who decide to defy their own parents’ wishes and pursue a genuine skill rather than waste time memorizing what professors tell them and spitting it back on tests. Is that happening finally? It seems so. Apparently, it was the lockdowns that broke the spell. Kids look at their parents’ boring lives and have decided that they want to do something more interesting.

    Good. This college stuff has been the rage since the end of World War II. Despite its persistence, it makes no sense. Before World War II, the pattern for men was to develop skills as a teen, finish one’s education with high school, and start being an adult. For women, it was the same, contrary to myth. They were typically fully employed until marriage and starting a family and then left the workplace to raise a family.

    There were outliers, of course, but the pattern generally held, and it worked. As for college and intellectual pursuits, they grew up with civilization itself, but higher education was for a subset of the population that felt the call toward what we used to call the “life of the mind.” It makes no sense to universalize that calling by force.

    There are other ways to have a good life besides being able to hang a degree on the wall. Indeed, that piece of paper might not amount to much at all, and come at too high a price.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 22:20

  • California Bill Mandating "Pregnancy Dignity" For "Birthing Persons" Passes Health Committee
    California Bill Mandating “Pregnancy Dignity” For “Birthing Persons” Passes Health Committee

    Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

    Some advocates for women’s rights are speaking out against a bill passed April 2 by the California Assembly’s Health Committee due to language in the measure that calls women “birthing persons.”

    At issue is Assembly Bill 2319—introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Wilson and sponsored by California Attorney General Rob Bonta—which says the Legislature recognizes “all birthing people, including nonbinary persons and persons of transgender experience.” The bill additionally mandates “implicit bias training” for existing medical professionals by June 1, 2025, and within six months for those opening new practices.

    A prior bill, Assembly 241 passed in 2019, also mandated such training, but an investigation by the state’s attorney general’s office found many medical providers were not following the law.

    Proponents argued the new bill is necessary to reduce black maternal and infant deaths—citing statistics that show significantly higher mortality rates for black women during birth compared to white women.

    While acknowledging that mortality rates during birth for black women are a legitimate concern, opposition witnesses took exception to the language regarding transgender and non-binary individuals.

    “They really pushed in the hearing that it was to fight the black maternal mortality rate,” Sophia Lorey, key opposition witness and outreach director for the California Family Council, told The Epoch Times after the hearing.

    “That is a portion of the bill, but they chose not to address that they call women ‘birthing people’ and that it’s also focused on non-binary people and transgender people, so that’s what we pushed in opposition.”

    She argued during the hearing that the bill is “force-feeding medical lunacy.”

    “We focused on the fact that only women can give birth, and it’s illogical to say anything different, and it’s not implicit bias to believe that only women can give birth,” Ms. Lorey said.

    Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, chair of the health committee and wife of Mr. Bonta, the state’s attorney general, concluded the hearing by declaring that transgender men and non-binary people can give birth, a comment opponents rejected.

    “They ended the committee hearing with the chair making sure that we all knew that men can give birth,” Ms. Lorey said.

    Such is not the first occasion key issues of a measure are either ignored or side-stepped during committee hearings.

    Senate Bill 59, currently under consideration by the Legislature, which would put menstrual products in men’s restrooms, was handled in a similar fashion during hearings last year.

    “We see this happen in multiple bills,” Ms. Lorey said.

    “During hearings, they chose not to refer to that part of the bill at all, and they only talked about free menstrual products in women’s restrooms.”

    California State Assemblywoman Lori Wilson speaks to the state Assembly Judiciary Committee in Sacramento, Calif., on March 21, 2023. (California State Assembly/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    She said the approach is deceptive and misleads the public, but given the controversial nature of the topic, she expects the trend to continue.

    “This isn’t the first time they’ve done this, and it’s not going to be the last,” Ms. Lorey said. “They just tend to mention the parts of bills that make them seem like great bills, and we have to come out and let people know what the bills are really going to do.”

    The section of the health code described in AB 2319 contains a $75,000 fine for a first offense if medical providers fail to comply with the implicit bias training, and subsequent instances are subject to fines of $125,000.

    Opponents argued that fining medical providers for not supporting transgender agendas is unacceptable and disregards the science of sexual dimorphism in the human species.

    “[Providers are fined] for simply not agreeing with their ideology that men can give birth, that’s what they’re trying to force,” Ms. Lorey said.

    Another opposition witness said the choice to couch the transgender language in a bill meant to improve healthcare for black women is manipulative.

    “This is how the Democrats do it,” Erin Friday, a California-based attorney and parent advocate, told The Epoch Times after the hearing.

    “They have a good aspect of a bill which is designed to ensure that black women get the maternal care that they need, but then they throw in a dose of transgenderism.”

    The method is a political tactic, she said.

    “They do this routinely in so many bills, and they change the language,” Ms. Friday said.

    “And if you don’t go along with the language, they easily call you a racist.”

    Erin Friday at the California state capital building in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Arguing that women’s rights are jeopardized by the term “birthing persons,” she said the bill is “creating a new religion of transgenderism” and that women across the state are endangered by the measure.

    “It was absolutely galling to hear them call women ‘birthing people,’” Ms. Friday said. “They’re erasing women because now we’re ‘birthing people.’”

    One committee member said he was voting for the bill to protect black people, saying that he was confused by those opposing it.

    “We have to protect all African Americans no matter what, and I’m not really understanding what the opposition is,” Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer said before voting in favor.

    After clearing the health committee, the bill will next be heard by the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee on a date yet to be determined.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 21:40

  • "Nuclear Should Be Part Of The Future," PG&E CEO Says
    “Nuclear Should Be Part Of The Future,” PG&E CEO Says

    On Wednesday, Patti Poppe, the chief executive officer of Pacific Gas & Electric, told a Stanford University forum that nuclear power should continue to be part of the state’s power generation mix as efforts to decarbonize the grid move forward. 

    “Nuclear should be part of the future,” Poppe said, noting that the state’s only nuclear power plant – Diablo Canyon – could be granted a license extension through the 2030s by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

    “I expect there will be conversations, as the five-year window comes nearer and nearer, that maybe we should extend that further,” Poppe said, adding, “I think that would be a good policy, to utilize a safe, high-performing asset for the state.”

    Bloomberg explained that California has moved “aggressively to transition to renewable power, but its heavy dependence on solar plants leaves it vulnerable to outages on hot summer evenings after the sun goes down.” 

    Electricity peak demand and energy growth rates are soaring in the Golden State (and the US as a whole) partly due to electrification trends and electric vehicles. 

    On Wednesday, we penned a note titled “The Next AI Trade,” underlining how AI data centers and industrial facilities will strain the US power grid.

    For the states that have abandoned nuclear and fossil-fuel power in favor of unreliable wind and solar, well, there will be a historic shift back to nuclear power, as this is the only way to decarbonize grids with reliable and cheap energy. 

    In December, regulators said the Diablo Canyon plant, owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, could operate through 2030 instead of 2025 to prevent rolling blackouts as the state shifts toward renewable power sources. 

    We suspect the long-awaited – and overdue – restart of America’s nuclear renaissance is finally materializing. 

    Last month, the federal government announced that it would provide a $1.5 billion loan to restart a nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan. 

    What is notable is not that the US is throwing some money at the nuclear power plant industry – since Washington sells $1 trillion in debt every 100 days, it may as well go full “Brewster’s Millions” (or rather “Trillions”) and spend it all asap; it is that this would be the first nuclear power plant to be reopened in the US, setting a precedent as atomic energy makes a triumphal comeback.

    “There is more enthusiasm toward nuclear power — in Congress, in the industry and also internationally,” said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California who has inspected nuclear plants around the world.

    Nuclear energy is in the spotlight. Thirty-four countries, including the US, pledged to use it last month to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. 

    America’s nuclear renaissance is here.

    In December 2020, we told readers, “Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze?” 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 21:20

  • The Single Wisest Thing You Can Do With Your Money
    The Single Wisest Thing You Can Do With Your Money

    Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

    There’s a great deal more to becoming rich than buying the right investments and hoping for the best. The most important element in your strategy to win the battle for investment survival is your own psychology. You’ve heard that your attitude helps your health and your golf score; it’ll also improve your earning power.

    It’s not enough to liquidate your past financial mistakes. It’s more important to liquidate counterproductive attitudes, approaches, and methods of dealing with problems. The results that someone gets in life are an indication of how sound his approach toward life is. A sound philosophy of life gives good results. People with chaotic, unproductive, unhappy lives usually don’t have anyone to blame but themselves. They rarely have a strategy for living and thus have no foundation on which to build a strategy for investing.

    There’s plenty of good advice available on the subject. Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Ben Franklin’s autobiography, Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking, Frank Bettger’s How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, and Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics are all helpful.

    One of the important things about the Greater Depression is that it will give you a chance to put your philosophy of life to the test. Almost anyone can get by in good times, but the years to come will separate the real winners from losers. Many will taste the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat firsthand; they won’t need the vicarious pleasure of Saturday afternoon TV sports to experience life.

    There is, of course, no guarantee that just because you’ve developed a workable strategy that you won’t still be a casualty in the battle for financial survival. There is such a thing as plain bad luck. But, as Damon Runyon said, the bread may not always go to the wise, nor the race to the swift, nor the battle to the strong—but that’s the way to bet.

    Tilt the odds in your favor by developing pro-survival attitudes, and the law of large numbers will take care of the rest.

    There are, of course, an almost infinite number of valid attitudes. Anything that works for you is as good as anything that works for me. But since the next step in the strategy (consolidation) deals with gathering physical goods, I don’t want to leave any false impressions.

    You may be able to salt away ten bags of silver, a thousand Krugerrands, and enough food to open a restaurant chain, but that’s not nearly as important as knowing how to get them all back again if you should lose them for any reason.

    That’s one thing no one can ever take away from you, and you can never lose: your attitude towards life.

    Scrooge McDuck had the right attitude.

    One of the most formative stories I’ve ever read was an Uncle Scrooge comic written in 1953 by Carl Barks at Walt Disney Studios.

    It finds Scrooge McDuck at play in his binful of money, diving and wallowing in it, doing what he likes best. As he leaves his bin to go out for his daily routine, it turns out that his nephew, Donald Duck, has decided to play a prank on him by putting a fake newspaper on the park bench with the headline “Coins and Banknotes Now Worthless!…Congress Make Fish the New Money of the Land.”

    Scrooge sees it and is stunned. All his cash is worthless. He plops against a tree thinking that he hasn’t even one little minnow with which to buy a crust of bread. By the next frame of the comic book, however, the courageous old duck has picked himself up and is ready to get back in the race, saying, “Well, there’s no cause crying over bad luck. I’ll get a job and start life all over again.”

    Soon we find him down at the waterfront talking to a fisherman. He offers to paint the man’s boat for a sackful of fish. Scrooge earns his fish and takes them to a clothing store where business is bad. He trades the fish for a raincoat. Back at the waterfront, he trades the raincoat to another fisherman for two sacks of fish.

    Since the fish are getting heavy to carry around, Scrooge trades the two bags to a farmer for an old horse, then trades the horse for ten sacks of fish.

    By the end of the day, Scrooge has a mountain of fish: three cubic acres’ worth. As much of the new money as he had of the old. He looks at the cold, clammy fish and asks himself…how to count the new money? By the pound or by the inch? How to keep it? And how to spend it before it goes bad?

    Sorrowfully he realizes that fish isn’t as nice to play with as his old money. Fish don’t feel good and they smell bad.

    All of the sudden, he doesn’t want to be rich anymore. He hires a trucking fleet to take the mountain of fish to Donald, who always wanted to be rich. Donald’s house is buried under dead fish.

    Donald’s joke backfired, but Scrooge proved his point: You can start from scratch if you have the right attitude and come out ahead if you play your cards right.

    Scrooge didn’t have a fish to his name when he had to start over, a lot less than you’ll have if you liquidate all your unneeded possessions. They’re costing you money, and tying you down. Transform the junk you’ve accumulated into cash, which you can redeploy the way Scrooge McDuck might.

    The next step in your plan is to start earning to add to your grubstake—that is, create more money. It was key to Scrooge’s second fortune, and it’s key to yours.

    But it’s necessary to have the skills necessary to provide goods and services to others. Scrooge made his fish fortune by his skills at business, but there are thousands of others.

    Gaining Skills

    One of the most important parts of taking control of your life as a step to prospering in the years to come is to educate yourself and gain skills. That means a lot more than just logging eight years in high school and college. Going to college is one thing, but learning to make money is something else. Most people today appear to believe going to college is necessary for getting ahead. It’s not. It may actually be a hindrance.

    A lot of people seem to think that simply going to college will bestow an education. In reality, all most people get is a diploma, which is very different. Eric Hoffer, the San Francisco longshoreman who never completed high school but has written such profound books as The True Believer, is an outstanding example of the difference between going to college and getting an education.

    Practical, marketable skills are often better acquired in trade schools, through self-teaching efforts, and through experience working from the bottom up in a field. A lot of teachers who finished first in their class couldn’t run a successful hot dog stand and are hardly in a position to help their students learn survival skills.

    It would be a tragic mistake to devote all your resources to accumulating gold, hoarding commodities, devising clever tax schemes, and speculating, to the neglect of much more basic intangibles. The government may negate a lot of your efforts through its inflation, taxes, and regulations. And even if you overcome them, market risk—a bad judgement, an unexpected development, a failed brokerage house—can wipe you out. As can fraud, theft, a fire, or a war.

    And in the environment coming up, all of those things and many others like them could be greater dangers than they have been in the past. The only thing that’s permanently secure is what you carry in your head: your attitude, your knowledge, your skills.

    Who knows what skills may be required in the years to come? What you’re doing now, be it teaching school, practicing law, laying brick, or selling insurance, may be in low demand. But preparing French cuisine, fixing autos, keeping books, or offering financial counsel may be in high demand. Or perhaps the other way around.

    The single wisest thing you can do with your money is not buy gold. It’s to take courses and acquire knowledge in other fields, as unrelated to what you are now doing as possible. Anything related to science, and particularly, technology would seem especially suitable. Computer science, medicine, mechanics, agriculture, and electronics are all going to remain in demand.

    In the TV series Star Trek, the supremely knowledgeable Mr. Spock bailed the crew out as often as anyone. It’s hard to imagine him unemployed, for that reason. More knowledge can only increase your understanding of the way the world works now, and if it stops working the way it presently does, you’ll be able to continue. It will then no longer be the end of the world if you lose your present job.

    And a lot of people will.

    *  *  *

    Most people have no idea what really happens when an economy collapses, let alone how to prepare… How will you protect yourself during the next crisis? Legendary speculator Doug Casey’s latest report will show you exactly how. Click here to get it now.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 21:00

  • Great, Now Band-Aids Pose Cancer Risk Thanks To 'Forever Chemicals'
    Great, Now Band-Aids Pose Cancer Risk Thanks To ‘Forever Chemicals’

    Major medical bandages, including from brands Band-Aid and Curad, were found to contain dangerous levels of ‘forever chemicals’ linked to cancer, according to a new report.

    The chemical, fluorine, was found in over two-dozen different bandages, the Daily Mail reports.

    PFAS chemicals are sometimes used to make adhesives, and investigators believe they are products of the normal manufacturing process. Fluorine, which is also used to make rocket fuel, can lead to skin burns and eye damage, but it is most dangerous when inhaled.

    Dr Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and former head of the National Toxicology Program who co-led the lab testing, said the fact that risky chemicals come in direct contact with open wounds was ‘troubling’.

    Once in the bloodstream, PFAS can embed themselves in healthy tissues, where they can begin to damage the immune system, liver, kidneys and other organs.

    Out of 40 bandages from 18 brands tested by an EPA-certified lab, researchers found detectable levels of fluorine in 26 of them. The testing, funded by consumer watchdog blog Mamavation and Environmental Health News, looked for PFAS chemicals in the absorbent pads and adhesive flaps of bandages sold at major retailers, including Rite Aid, Walmart, CVS and other places.

    Fluorine levels above 100 parts per million were found in Band-Aid, Care Science, Curad, CVS Health, Equate, First Honey, Rite Aid brand, Solimo (Amazon brand), and Up & Up (Target) branded bandages.

    “Because bandages are placed upon open wounds, it’s troubling to learn that they may be also exposing children and adults to PFAS,” said Dr. Birnbaum. “It’s obvious from the data that PFAS are not needed for wound care, so it’s important that the industry remove their presence to protect the public from PFAS and opt instead for PFAS-free materials.”

    PFAS substances contain bonds between carbon and fluorine atoms, creating one very resilient chemical that can remain in the environment for years or even decades.

    The chemicals are everywhere, most commonly in water and stain-repellent products, as well as nonstick cookware.

    Teflon, the kitchen staple nonstick coating is made with a fluorocarbon called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). -Daily Mail

     According to a report by the CDC, PFAS have been found in the blood of 97% of Americans. They’re also found in menstruation products.

    In January of 2023, underwear manufacturer Thinx agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over ‘forever chemicals’ found in the crotch of their underwear for $4 million.

    The Daily Mail has provided a list of bandages containing PFAS:

    Band-Aid Flexible Fabric Comfortable Protection Bandages (older sample that was likely 7-8 years old and not available in stores anymore) — 188 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pad

    Band-Aid OURTONE Flexible Fabric BR45 Bandages — 262 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pad

    Band-Aid OURTONE Flexible Fabric BR55 Bandages — 250 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pad.

    Band-Aid OURTONE Flexible Fabric BR65 Bandages — 260 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pads and 374 ppm on the sticky flaps.

    Care Science Antibacterial Flexible Fabric Adhesive Bandages — 328 ppm organic fluorine on the sticky flaps

    Curad Assorted Bandaids 4-Sided Seal — 140 ppm organic fluorine on the sticky flaps

    CVS Health C60 Flexible Fabric Antibacterial Bandages — 201 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pad

    CVS Health C70 Flexible Fabric Sterile Bandages — 124 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pad and 272 ppm on the sticky flaps

    CVS Health C80 Flexible Fabric Antibacterial Bandages — 128 ppm organic fluorine in absorbent pad

    Equate (Walmart) Flexible Fabric Bandages Antibacterial — 118 ppm organic fluorine on absorbent pad and 165 ppm on the sticky flaps.

    Equate (Walmart) SKIN TONE Antibacterial Bandages Flexible Fabric (darkest shade) — 197 ppm organic fluorine on the absorbent pad and 251 ppm on the sticky flaps

    Equate (Walmart) SKIN TONE Antibacterial Bandages Flexible Fabric (medium to dark shade) — 112 ppm organic fluorine on the absorbent pad

    Equate (Walmart) SKIN TONE Antibacterial Bandages Flexible Fabric (medium to light shade) — 120 ppm organic fluorine on the absorbent pad

    First Honey Manuka Bandages — 157 ppm organic fluorine on the sticky flaps

    Rite Aid First Aid Advanced Antibacterial Fabric Adhesive Bandages — 101 ppm organic fluorine on the absorbent pad and 181 parts per million (ppm) in the sticky flaps.

    Solimo (Amazon Brand) Flexible Fabric Adhesive Bandages — 104 ppm organic fluorine on the sticky flaps

    UP & UP (Target) Flexible Fabric Bandages — 256 ppm organic fluorine on the absorbent pad and 253 parts per million (ppm) on the sticky flaps.

    How lovely. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 20:40

  • Federal Judge Rules Millions Of NRA Members Exempt From ATF Pistol Brace Rule
    Federal Judge Rules Millions Of NRA Members Exempt From ATF Pistol Brace Rule

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

    A federal judge has blocked the ATF from enforcing its pistol brace rule for millions of members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the appeals process plays out.

    Justin Barrett, owner of Barrett Outdoors in Durant, Oklahoma, displays an AK pistol with a pistol stabilizing brace. On the counter next to him is a similar brace for an AR15 pistol. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

    It came after the NRA filed a lawsuit against the ATF, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arguing that the agency’s rule to reclassify the brace-equipped pistols as short-barreled rifles is unconstitutional.

    U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay sided with the gun rights group, arguing that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already concluded that the ATF pistol-brace rule “fails the logical outgrowth test and violates” the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and is “unlawful” under the act.

    “The court, therefore, sees no reason why it should not consider this argument and APA claim in ruling on Plaintiff’s Motion,” the judge added. “To not do so would be exalt form over substance, particularly since the Fifth Circuit has already determined that this claim has a substantial likelihood of succeeding on the merits.”

    The judge agreed with the NRA’s arguments that its members would be substantially harmed by the ATF rule, which was finalized in January 2023.

    “Compliance with the Final Rule is not discretionary, and the NRA’s members face severe penalties for their failure to comply with the Final Rule,” Judge Lindsay wrote in the ruling last week. “Accordingly, both of the final requirements for injunctive relief are satisfied because the threatened injury to the NRA’s members outweighs the threatened harm to the Defendants, and enforcement of the Final Rule under the circumstances will not disserve the public interest.”

    Pistol braces were first marketed in 2012 as a way of attaching a pistol to the shooter’s forearm, stabilizing it and making it easier to use for disabled people. However, many users found that the braces could also be placed against the shoulder, like the stock on a rifle.

    The disputed ATF rule classifies some guns equipped with pistol braces as short-barrel rifles, based on several factors including their size and weight and the manufacturers’ marketing materials. Short-barrel rifles are subject to special registration, longer waiting periods for purchase, and higher taxes because officials have claimed they are potentially more dangerous than handguns.

    “While firearms equipped with ‘stabilizing braces’ or other rearward attachments may be submitted to ATF for a new classification determination, a majority of the existing firearms equipped with a ‘stabilizing brace’ are likely to be classified as ‘rifles’ because they are configured for shoulder fire based on the factors described in this rule,” the ATF rule says.

    Because the brace-equipped firearms will have a barrel fewer than 16 inches in length, they are “likely to be classified as short-barreled rifles” that are subject to the enhanced federal regulation, it adds.

    In a 2–1 ruling last year, the Fifth Circuit found that the ATF finalized the rule without giving the public a meaningful chance to comment on it. That made it invalid under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, the panel found.

    The court at the time did not immediately block enforcement of the rule, instead sending the case back to a lower court judge who found that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

    “[T]he Court finds that the Government Defendants’ implementation and enforcement of the Final Rule substantially threatens to inflict irreparable constitutional harm upon the [Firearms Policy Coalition] members,” Judge Reed O’Connor wrote last year. “Absent injunctive relief, the Final Rule will impair and threaten to deprive them of their fundamental right to keep and bear commonly used arms as a means of achieving the inherently lawful ends of self-defense.”

    Other than NRA members, the previous Fifth Circuit ruling allowed members of the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation, and Gun Owners of America to not face ATF enforcement regarding the braces.

    In a news release last week, the NRA, which has millions of members nationwide, said that Judge Lindsay’s order represents a big win for its members. It noted that members of the group who need to use a pistol brace will be shielded from potential ATF enforcement.

    “This is a major victory for the NRA, its members, and all who believe in Second Amendment freedom,” NRA President Charles Cotton said in the release. “From day one, we vowed to fight back against President Biden and his rogue regulators—and to defeat this unlawful measure.”

    Under the rule, if a person is caught using a pistol brace that has not been registered, the weapon can be seized by federal officials and the owner could face a fine of $10,000 or prison time of up to 10 years, according to the ATF. The agency says gun owners must either remove the brace from the pistol, register it as a short-barreled rifle, remove the barrel and attach a longer one, forfeit the firearm at a local ATF office, or destroy it.

    The ATF or the Department of Justice have not yet issued a response to the ruling.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 20:20

  • New England Hospitals Stop Reporting Newborns With Drugs In System Because It "Disproportionately Affects Black Individuals"
    New England Hospitals Stop Reporting Newborns With Drugs In System Because It “Disproportionately Affects Black Individuals”

    A New England hospital system has stopped automatically filing state welfare reports when a baby is born with drugs in its system, because it “disproportionately affects black individuals.”

    Put another way, the Mass General Brigham Hospital system is disproportionately failing to protect black babies from their addict parents, in what they claim is a move to address “racial and ethnic inequities” present in healthcare.

    Instead of automatically reporting suspected abuse or neglect to the state based solely on whether a newborn tests positive for drugs, hospitals will now require written consent from said drug-addicts in order to conduct a test on the expectant mother or infant, in most cases, 10 Boston reports.

    What’s more, the testing would only be ordered if the results could change a doctor’s medical approach to their care, Boston.com adds.

    Mass General Brigham said babies born with “substance exposure” alone will no longer be immediately reported to state welfare agencies unless there are other concerns the baby is abused or neglected. People can be treated with methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, which can be prescribed during pregnancy.

    The hospital said studies show that Black pregnant people are more likely to be drug tested and reported to welfare agencies than white pregnant people. -Boston.com

    Perhaps that’s a function of the demographics of drug use?

    The new policy, announced on Tuesday, will apply to locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including obstetrics and gynecology wards at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Salem Hospital.

    The change will be implemented later this month.

    According to Mass General Brigham’s Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder Sarah Wakeman, the new policy is “based on sound science.”

    “Our new perinatal testing and reporting policy is the latest step in our efforts to address longstanding inequities in substance use disorder care and to provide compassionate, evidence-based support to families, while addressing substance use disorder as a treatable health condition,” she said.

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 20:00

  • Ethereum Layer 2s To Hit $1 Trillion Market Cap By 2023; VanEck
    Ethereum Layer 2s To Hit $1 Trillion Market Cap By 2023; VanEck

    Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

    Ethereum’s layer 2 scaling networks will hit a $1 trillion market capitalization in six years and will be made up of thousands of use case-specific chains, according to analysts from investment manager VanEck.

    Layer-2 blockchains are set to capitalize on Ethereum’s “primary challenge” — its “limited capacity to process, store, and compute data,” VanEck’s senior digital assets investment analyst Patrick Bush and digital assets research head Matthew Sigel said in an April 3 report.

    Busha and Sigel reached their $1 trillion market cap prediction by estimating Ethereum would take up 60% of the market share across all public blockchains and then estimating the volume of assets within the Ethereum ecosystem.

    There are currently 46 Ethereum L2s with $39 billion total value locked, the largest being Arbirtum with $18 billion, according to L2BEAT.

    “Ethereum’s dominance in smart contracts faces a critical hurdle: scalability,” the analysts wrote.

    “While the network offers unparalleled security and decentralization, transaction fees and processing times soar when usage intensifies.”

    Ethereum’s development is now focused on bettering its ability to process its layer-2’s transaction data, they said — evident in its recent Dencun update which helped to lower L2 transaction fees through the specialized data-saving feature, “Blobs.”

    Data publishing costs per L2 network to Ethereum in terms of Ether (ETH). Source: VanEck

    The analysts said there was future potential for “substantially more” revenues to be generated on L2s over the base Ethereum network.

    “We expect L2 revenues to exceed Ethereum’s because Ethereum cannot match the transaction throughput or user experience of L2s.”

    The “cutthroat competition,” however, left Bush and Sigel “generally bearish” on the long-term value for a majority of L2-related tokens.

    They noted the top seven Ethereum L2 tokens already have a $40 billion fully diluted valuation and “many strong projects” launching over the next 18 months will swell that to $100 billion.

    “It seems a bridge too far for the crypto market to absorb even limited amounts of that supply without massive discounts,” they added.

    The analysts forecasted a “future of thousands of use-case-specific” L2s with just “a few major players” part of the general-purpose L2 market.

    These thousands of use-specific networks would be “segmented by sector, application, or function” with some chains built for a specific purpose, like a decentralized social media-specific L2 with accompanying apps.

    The handful of general-purpose chains will be due to the network effect — where those blockchains become more valuable because there are more users, the analysts said.

    “It is also clear that most roll-ups will eventually move towards the zero-knowledge framework (ZKU) due to its many advantages,” they added.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:40

  • China Weaponizes Gallium Flows To West As US Miner Reveals New Discovery In Montana
    China Weaponizes Gallium Flows To West As US Miner Reveals New Discovery In Montana

    China dominates the global production of the rare earth metal gallium, a critical component in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced weapon systems used by the United States. 

    Since China restricted gallium and germanium flows to the US last summer – seen as a tit-for-tat response to the worsening US-China trade war – prices of the metal have doubled (around $575 a kilogram delivered to Rotterdam), according to Bloomberg, citing new data from commodity firm Fastmarkets. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    European government data shows China refines 94% of the world’s gallium, making the West entirely reliant on Chinese supply. Higher prices mean higher production costs for semiconductors, from radar systems to smartphone screens. 

    China’s throttling of rare earth minerals supplies is a national security threat and could easily be weaponized against US defense and aerospace companies. 

    Here’s a breakdown of rare earth metals used in US defense weapons. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    More importantly, Beijing’s motive to limit gallium supplies could revolve around the US supplying Taiwan weapons, like Patriot missile launchers whose targeting systems heavily rely on semiconductors made with gallium. 

    With China only shipping out 2,760 kilograms of gallium in the first two months of 2024, down from 8,865 kilograms a year earlier, the US must secure new supplies. 

    There is good news, or at least the start of it. 

    US Critical Materials announced in recent weeks that it discovered a “strategically significant” deposit of high-grade gallium on its 6,700 acres of claims in southwest Montana.

    Website Mining.com said the Pentagon is preparing to dish out first-time contracts to US or Canadian companies to recover gallium in North America. 

    In December 2023, US Critical Materials signed an agreement with Idaho National Laboratories to develop high-tech rare earth processing methods. 

    The US must build out its domestic supply chain of mining and refining rare earth minerals to break the addiction from China. This move is crucial to prevent China from potentially disrupting supplies to US defense manufacturers and jeopardizing national security. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:20

  • Blinken Bombshell: "Ukraine Will Become A Member Of NATO"
    Blinken Bombshell: “Ukraine Will Become A Member Of NATO”

    Update(1600ET): Secretary of State Antony Blinken just dropped an ultra-provocative bombshell statement which is sure rile Moscow further. He told reporters Thursday in Brussels, where foreign ministers are meeting to prepare for the alliance’s annual meeting in July: “Ukraine will become a member of NATO. Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership.”

    The meeting will mark the 75th anniversary that the alliance was established. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is meanwhile trying to get all 32 members to commit to long-term military funding for Ukraine, to the tune of $100 billion over a five-year period. He’s hoping for final agreement to be reached at the July meeting, current holdouts like Hungary notwithstanding.

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    As The Hill has noted, “NATO allies agreed at the 2023 summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, that Ukraine can join NATO when certain conditions are met, but sparked criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Baltic allies for failing to set concrete goals and a timeline for Kyiv to join the alliance.”

    For the Kremlin these are fighting words. At a moment Ukraine forces are fairing badly on the battlefield, Blinken has just needlessly poured more fuel on the fire, which follows on the heels President Macron raising the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine.

    Meanwhile, an initial solid response out of Rep. Lee…

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    * * *

    NATO members have agreed to begin planning military support for Ukraine on a long-terms basis, in but the latest indicator assuring both escalation with Russia and that the war will drag on for possibly years more to come.

    On Wednesday NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced that allies have “agreed to move forward with planning for a greater NATO role in coordinating security assistance and training.” But it will still be an uphill battle to get some of the ‘outlier’ members on board.

    Via AFP

    He also said that Ukraine’s government and military still has “urgent needs” and that “any delay in providing support has consequences on the battlefield as we speak.”

    “We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on the voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multiyear pledges,” Stoltenberg said. “The reason why we do this is the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine. It is serious … We see how Russia is pushing, and we see how they try to win this war by just waiting us out.”

    Stoltenberg’s words come the day after he unveiled a $100 billion, five-year fund for Ukraine which he subsequently pitched to alliance foreign ministers as they met Wednesday.

    It is meant to both close the gap after Biden’s proposed $60 billion has been stymied by Republicans in US Congress, and in future expectation of a possible Trump victory after November.

    Stoltenberg said a final decision on the $100 billion fund would be made at a July summit of NATO member state leaders; however, the big hurdle will be achieving the required consensus among the 32 members, 

    Hungary has already announced its “opposition to increasing NATO’s coordination role in arms deliveries and training Ukrainian forces, refusing to participate in planning, operations, or funding,” according to a foreign ministry statement.

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    Thus Brussels is in for yet another fight with its wayward Hungarian member state led by Viktor Orban, who has time and again vowed to reject any measure which could pave a path of escalation to WW3 with Russia.

    But Stoltenberg is already seeking to calm Budapest’s fears and bring it on board. “What we are discussing is not a NATO combat presence in Ukraine. We are discussing how we can coordinate and deliver support from outside Ukraine to Ukraine as NATO allies do,” Stoltenberg said. “And now when we initiate planning, I’m certain we can also address the concerns that Hungary has raised and find a way where we can have consensus.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:15

  • FedEx, UPS Adding Delivery Fees In Parts Of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago
    FedEx, UPS Adding Delivery Fees In Parts Of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago

    By Max Garland of Supply Chain Dive

    • FedEx and UPS will add surcharges for deliveries in 82 ZIP codes this month, many of which cover parts of major urban areas, according to updates from both companies.
    • The delivery area surcharge, or DAS, for the new ZIP codes will take effect on April 8 for UPS and April 15 for FedEx. The additions will impact areas in Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
    • The DAS ranges between $3.95 and $5.85 for FedEx and UPS, but that can climb higher in areas with ZIP codes categorized as “extended” or “remote.” The surcharge amount is influenced by the package being shipped via ground or air transportation and if it’s a commercial or residential delivery.

    New ZIP codes UPS and FedEx will add a Delivery Area Surcharge in

    FedEx and UPS already have a DAS in place in numerous ZIP codes across the country, but the additions will particularly sting shippers, given the dense urban areas they cover. The 82 ZIP codes impact almost 1% of the U.S. population, according to Mingshu Bates, Chief Analytics Officer at AFS Logistics.

    The emphasis on urban ZIP codes is especially apparent in California’s Bay Area, with both carriers adding a DAS to ZIP codes in the heart of San Francisco.

    The additional ZIP codes could help the carriers cover added expenses for serving densely populated areas, like tolls to cross bridges or tunnels. However, the delivery giants could also be using the surcharges to bolster their bottom lines in a soft demand environment, according to Shippingwise Managing Director Nicholas Fanelli.

    “These surcharges are huge profit centers for carriers,” he said. “It’s not surprising when volume is down that they’re trying to find new opportunities to increase profits and increase margins.”

    UPS said in an emailed statement to Supply Chain Dive that the company regularly reviews its DAS to balance evolving market dynamics with meeting customer needs. Similarly, FedEx evaluates and updates its ZIP code list “to reflect market and cost factors,” it said in a statement.

    The timing of the additions, outside of FedEx and UPS’ annual rate and surcharge adjustments, complicates shippers’ ability to mitigate the impact of the fees, said Micheal McDonagh, AFS Logistics’ president of parcel.

    “For a shipper, it’s not just affecting the shipments — it’s affecting the outlook and health of the financial statements,” McDonagh said. “You have not prepared for an off-cycle increase.”

    However, shippers do have options to minimize the surcharge’s impact, according to Fanelli. This includes consolidating packages destined for the same address into one shipment or incentivizing customers to pick up packages at less-expensive commercial destinations. The surcharge price can also be reduced in contract negotiations.

    “It’s definitely something that can be heavily discounted, especially if you have high density and high volume,” Fanelli said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:00

  • Dear Mr. President: A Vanilla Bean Shortage Could Be Nearing  
    Dear Mr. President: A Vanilla Bean Shortage Could Be Nearing  

    Dear Mr. President, the leading global supplier of vanilla has been battered by a cyclone, potentially leading to a shortage of vanilla ice cream. 

    Bloomberg reports Madagascar’s vanilla-growing farmland has been battered by Cyclone Gamane, resulting in flooded fields and high winds that stripped vanilla pods from their vines. 

    Georges Geeraerts, president of the Indian Ocean island’s union of vanilla exporters, told the media outlet that this year’s vanilla harvest could be halved. 

    “On a bad year, production is about 1,500 tons compared with a range of 2,000 to 2,500 tons,” Geeraerts said. 

    He noted, “A conservative estimate, ahead of more detailed analysis from the growing region, means that the output for the current harvest could be as low as 1,000 tons.”

    What did you say?

    And it’s not just vanilla lovers who could soon face higher prices due to tightening supplies. On the West Coast of Africa, especially across the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, drought and disease have been major catalysts for lower production, which has sent prices through the roof. 

    In recent weeks, cocoa futures in New York jumped over the $10,000 per ton mark—the highest on record. Prices have subsided to around $9,500 and are expected to trade at these high levels amid tightening supplies. 

     What’s the plan, Mr. President?

    Does the US have strategic vanilla and cocoa bean reserves? 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 18:40

  • Israel Warns Iran Of Massive Regional War If Directly Attacked
    Israel Warns Iran Of Massive Regional War If Directly Attacked

    Update(1831ET): With Israel’s embassies around the world on a heightened state of alert, and extra IDF reservists called up, and home and weekend leave for all combat troops having been abruptly canceled Thursday, the Israeli population is anxiously awaiting a response – with some reports saying residents are already seeking the safety of bomb shelters.

    Tehran has vowed that vengeance is coming soon for the Monday Israeli airstrike on its embassy in Damascus. Most pundits believe this will take the form of ballistic missiles raining down on Israeli cities. But Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly vowing that if the Islamic Republic launches missiles from its soil it will ensure “a strong response” from Israel.

    Israeli officials have told Axios late in the day that such an act would “take the current conflict to another level” — which most certainly would involve a direct Israel-Iran war and thus the eruption of a broader regional conflict. Axios adds the following observations:

    • Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza have attacked Israel but there hasn’t been an attack from Iranian soil.
    • A direct Iranian strike on Israel would be unprecedented and could lead to a regional war in the Middle East.

    Netanyahu informed his security cabinet Thursday that Israel’s forces have already been engaged with Iran “both directly and via its proxies, and therefore Israel is operating against Iran and its proxies, both defensively and offensively.”

    A statement issued by the prime minister’s office laid out: “We will know how to defend ourselves and will operate according to the basic principle of whoever is harming or planning to harm us — we will harm him.” The White House has meanwhile issued a statement shortly after Biden and Netanyahu discussed the Gaza crisis, saying “President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those [Iranian] threats.”

    There have meanwhile been unverified reports to emerge saying that the CIA has warned Israel to expect an attack from Iran within the next 48 hours, which has also been picked up in Israeli press.

    F-16 jets over Tel Aviv, IDF image

    * * *

    At this point Israel’s ties with key Gulf countries like the UAE are near breaking point, after only a few short years ago diplomatic normalization was hailed through Trump’s Abraham accords. But international and Israeli press reports are confirming the UAE has announced it is halting all coordination on humanitarian aid with Israel.

    Further, as Israeli media reports: “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a suspension of diplomatic coordination with Israel in the wake of the death of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Gaza.” Simultaneously, Israel is busy putting its embassies across the world on high security alert due to the “heightened Iranian response threat” in wake of Monday’s Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus. All of this served to send Brent soaring in the last two hours, with Brent spiking above $90 for the first time since October….

    … and sending stocks tumbling to session lows.

    With Iran vowing that its retaliation is coming at any moment, Israel’s military is scrambling for readiness, with the latest measure being to pause all home leave for all combat troops.

    “The IDF is at war and the issue of the deployment of forces is constantly reviewed as needed,” the Israeli military said.

    President Biden is meanwhile is said to be “pissed” with PM Netanyahu over the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, though Israel acknowledged that it was a “grave mistake”. 

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    So far this sounds like more mere empty words of “concern” – a talking point that’s been on repeat from the White House even as its Gaza policy continues slowly fracturing the Democratic base – but Biden is said to have pressed Bibi for “an immediate ceasefire”. 

    The call readout further said ceasefire is needed to “protect innocent civilians” in Gaza and improve the humanitarian situation. Axios writes that Biden gave his Israeli counterpart an “ultimatum” as the US president “emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 18:31

  • House Freedom Caucus Members Earmarked Nearly $1 Billion From Taxpayers
    House Freedom Caucus Members Earmarked Nearly $1 Billion From Taxpayers

    By Adam Andrzejeski of OpenTheBooks

    The House Freedom Caucus was founded in 2015. Self-styled fiscal conservatives promoted themselves as a bulwark against establishment spending that would bankrupt the nation.

    It turns out that many are better at breaking their promises than stopping spending.

    In these hyper-partisan times, we discovered 22 of the 49 Freedom Caucus members standing shoulder-to-shoulder with The Squad, whose earmarking we reported last week.

    Nearly half the Caucus members are cross-dressing as fiscal conservatives – making 210 earmark requests for pet projects in their districts. Even House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA), erstwhile Freedom Caucus member, earmarked $60 million last year and $7 million in 2024.

    Bulwark against profligacy? More like Fortress Spend.

    Earmarking is a practice that gives individual members with clout in their caucus a ticket to goodies for the folks back home – funding pet projects that otherwise aren’t passing muster despite the seemingly infinite number of federal programs.

    Incredibly, members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, the progressive Squad, and the uni-party establishment are an alliance that wasted a stunning $32 billion on earmarks since 2023.

    “There is no left or right only up or down.” – Ronald Reagan

    House Freedom Caucus members captured $957 million for their own districts using 210 earmarks scattered throughout the omnibus bills in 2023 and 2024. Download the line-by-line database here.

    Every dime of these bipartisan earmarks drains the U.S. Treasury from the left and the right.

    Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com, an organization I founded and lead, searched out their earmarks and added up the tab.

    COMPARISON VS. THE SQUAD

    Recently, our auditors quantified the earmarks doled out by the eight members of The Squad, an aggressive group of democratic socialists, who earmarked $224 million on 215 pet projects since 2023. This year, it was $13.9 million for the average Squad member and $111.4 million in total.

    In 2024, the individual hauls for the 22 Freedom Caucus members dwarf those of the Squad. These “freedom fighters” earmarked an average of $23.1 million each for a grand total of $508.9 million.

    Those Freedom Caucus earmarks cost taxpayers $4.6 million each — more than double the member average for the rest of Congress.

    With every dime borrowed against our $34 trillion national debt, this is a moral outrage.

    FREEDOM CAUCUS LEADERSHIP

    In January 2022, the Caucus laid out four principles for “restoring the people’s voice in Congress.” The fourth principle was to “institute a ban on earmarks.” Laudable!

    Over the last two years, none in Caucus leadership except Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO) took earmarks. Boebert jumped on the earmark train in the last round of 2024 spending bills by successfully requesting $20 million.

    The Caucus is led by Rep. Bob Good (VA) with Chip Roy (TX) as the policy chair. Rep. Warren Davison (OH) is the Caucus whip and Boebert the communications chair. Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) was formerly in leadership and didn’t take earmarks.

    Included in our numbers are former members of the Caucus and earmarkers Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), who earmarked $9.4 million, and Rep. Randy Weber (TX), whose haul was an incredible $432 million since 2023 (see our analysis of Weber below).

    Weber was just booted out of the Caucus last month for missing too many meetings, but NOT for his rampant spending!

    The Caucus booted Greene for allegedly talking badly about her colleagues last summer.

    Both members are included in this investigation because all their earmarks met the summer 2023 submission deadline before they were ousted from the Caucus.

    THE GOOD LIST

    A simple majority of the Caucus rejected earmarks – against all institutional force – and stuck to their principles and promises. These 27 members are highlighted below and should be thanked by every taxpayer for the courage of their convictions.

    If the House Freedom Caucus has a future, these members will lead the way forward.

    VOTING NO – BUT 22 TOOK THE DOUGH

    Caucus leadership opposed both of this year’s omnibus bills, urging lawmakers to vote “No” because the legislation was “loaded with hundreds of pages of earmarks,” many of which came from… their own members.  

    The 22 Caucus members earmarked a stunning $510 million in the 2024 bills. Last year, (only) eight members earmarked $448 million.

    Rapidly, more and more of the rank-and-file members of the Freedom Caucus are embracing pork-barrel spending through earmarks.

    Download the full database here – The Freedom Caucus Member Earmarks 2023 & 2024.

    NOTE: On March 6 for the first six bills, Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Max Miller voted “Yes.” Rep. Ronny Jackson abstained. Everyone else voted “No.”  https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202464?Page=5

    On March 22 for the next six bills, Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Max Miller voted “Yes.” Rep. Troy Nehls abstained. Everyone else voted “No.” https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024102

    PET PROJECTS

    Here is just a sample of the projects funded by members of the House Freedom Caucus:

    • $190,000 to test electric and magnetic shark repellent. Rep. Greg Steube (FL)
    • $500,000 for an elevator at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Recently, Republicans banned earmarks into museums, however, this one snuck through. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA)
    • $505,000 for equipment at Roanoke College includes a synthetic cadaver (fake corpse) for medical students. Can’t they buy their own cadavers? Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA)
    • $1.75 million for the Rural Mental Health Coalition at Texas A&M – a totally local project to brainstorm mental health solutions – No actual mental health care is funded. Rep. Keith Self (TX)
    • $2.5 million for a Coastal Conservation Hub where Floridians can “find answers to their coastal restoration questions.” Rep. Bill Posey (FL)
    • $5 million for a Naples, Florida sewer-to-septic project phrase II. Phase I was funded locally. Gov. DeSantis vetoed $1.1 million in state money earmarked for phase II. Now, Phase II is funded by federal taxpayers for $5 million — thanks to Rep. Byron Donalds (FL).
    • $20 million for an upgrade of Baltimore Ave in Ocean City, Maryland. Construction began with a $20 million estimated cost but was delayed because new estimates showed an actual cost of $40 million. So, Andy Harris (MD) earmarked the $20 million difference. You’re paying for it.

    Two members even earmarked money for their alma maters:

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earmarks

    Certain members of the Freedom Caucus argue that the federal bureaucracy is dysfunctional, so they need to hand-pick hundreds of millions of dollars into worthy earmark projects – located in their own districts.  

    Forty-percent of the overall earmark dollars from Caucus members went into infrastructure projects at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, mostly in Texas and Louisiana: $397.3 million on 12 earmarks.

    Rather than working to reform the Corps project backlog, the members are using the irregular earmark process to fund their own picks. For example, on a bi-partisan basis, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2022 – none of these U.S. Army Corps project amounts were included.

    So, when members, like Rep. Weber, say they need earmark power for critical infrastructure projects, remember that argument opens the door for The Squad to earmark their $224 million haul. And every dime is borrowed against the national debt and green-lit though an irregular process.

    Last September, Weber posted on social media that “We MUST cut the woke & weaponized spending of the federal gov & we should be reining in the out-of-control spending.” His earmarks contribute to Congressional overspending.

    The problem even extends to new Speaker Mike Johnson (LA) with his $68 million in earmarks for the Army and Air Force Reserve; or Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL) with $50 million for the Navy and Air Force advanced helicopter projects.  

    The U.S. military already secured a record $825 billion in this year’s spending package. If these projects are so important, why isn’t the military itself prioritizing these projects within a $825 billion budget? Why aren’t they funded on merit?

    Rather than working hard for reforms at the Pentagon or at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the members and now leaders just participate in the legal corruption of the system.

    (Remember, financial practices at the Pentagon are so poor that the agency can’t even account for half of its assets.)

    ACTION

    It’s time to close the cookie jar and force Congress to do their jobs – oversight, reform and appropriation. There’s no dessert when the national debt is set to cross $35 trillion and the bottom is falling out.

    Tens of thousands of regular people have signed our petition calling for a public up or down vote in the U.S. House on earmarks. It’s an election year and the American people deserve to know who is in and who is out on earmarks – the currency of corruption in Congress.

    BACKGROUND

    Earmarks were banned for 10 years by a bipartisan group led by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn and then-President Barack Obama. Three years ago, House Republicans took a secret vote and joined then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats to bring earmarks back.

    In 2024, the two omnibus spending bills contained 8,052 earmarks worth $15.7 billion. In 2023, the packages were stuffed with 7,510 earmarks for $16 billion.

    Unfortunately, House Republicans have gone hog-wild for earmarks despite the national debt pushing $35 trillion. (Last summer, at one point in the U.S. House, the top 63 earmarkers on the FY2024 spending bills were Republicans.)

    Members of Congress must disclose earmarks online, on 435 of their own Congressional websites. This makes oversight difficult.

    However, our auditors at OpenTheBooks convert the public information into easy-to-use Excel databases. Then, we follow the money.

    METHODOLOGY

    Membership in the House Freedom Caucus is secret. Some members self-disclose and others receive campaign funding through the Caucus’ political action committee (PAC).

    Just to test this secrecy, we reached out to Caucus communications staff and they confirmed:

    “We don’t publish or share our membership and never have. Thanks”

    When we asked, why? Here was the response:

    “Just the way we have always operated”

    However, in January 2023, the Pew Research Center quantified 49 members and allies of the Caucus with solid research methodologies. So, that’s the list we used for our investigation which spans 2023 and 2024.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 18:20

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Apr 04

Today’s News 4th April 2024

  • Reuters Has Ulterior Motives For Reporting That Iran Tipped Russia Off Before The Crocus Attack
    Reuters Has Ulterior Motives For Reporting That Iran Tipped Russia Off Before The Crocus Attack

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    This narrative is being pushed to deflect from the evidence tying Ukraine to the Crocus terrorist attack and to discredit the Russian security services…

    Reuters cited three unnamed sources to exclusively report on Monday that Iran had allegedly tipped Russia off about a then-impending major terrorist attack after learning about it from ethnic Tajik ISIS-K terrorists who were detained after the group’s early January attack in Kerman. The information lacked specific details, but the outlet editorialized that “It is harder…for Russia to dismiss intelligence from diplomatic ally Iran on the attack” than from the West, the latter of which they claim that it downplayed.

    Accordingly, Reuters wrote that this “raised questions over the effectiveness of Russian security services”, thus exposing the ulterior motive behind this report. The West has done all that it can to deflect from Russia’s accusations that Ukraine was tied to this terrorist attack via the evidence that its investigation has uncovered. This includes claiming that the vague warning that the US passed along to Russia was obtained from spying on ISIS-K, not on Kiev like this analysis here compellingly argues.

    By including an Iranian dimension into the emerging narrative of early warnings ahead of the Crocus terrorist attack, the West via Reuters wants to further deflect from its own and Ukraine’s involvement in what happened while simultaneously discrediting the Russian security services. This analysis here debunks the false narrative that President Putin downplayed ISIS-K threats in the run-up to the attack, yet the West is doubling down on that claim, largely in response to evidence implicating Kiev.

    To be sure, there’s a chance that one or some of those ethnic Tajik ISIS-K terrorists that Iran detained in January might have heard about the group’s plans to attack Russia, but that’s altogether different than them having knowledge of the then-impending Crocus plot. Russia already knows that it’s in that group’s crosshairs after they bombed its embassy in Kabul in September 2022. Without specific information, whether from Iran or anyone else, nothing on the home front would have changed in response to that.

    For instance, Russia, the UK, or even a random social media person could vaguely claim that ISIS-K is planning to attack the US, which American officials themselves are already aware of but wouldn’t do anything differently on the home front upon being informed of the latest rumors. Likewise, it’s unrealistic to imagine that Russia would ramp up security at all large gatherings even if Iran told them that a detained ethnic Tajik ISIS-K terrorist might have claimed that the group is planning to attack it.

    For what it’s worth, RT quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that “I do not know anything about this” when asked about Reuters’ report, so objective observers should be skeptical of it. He either wasn’t informed ahead of his media briefing that such vague information was allegedly passed along to Russia by Iran or it simply didn’t happen. It doesn’t matter which of these two is true though since it wouldn’t have made a difference either way for the reasons that were explained.

    Promoting this unverified report from anonymous sources quoted by Western media is therefore only being done for the ulterior motives of deflecting from the evidence tying Ukraine to the Crocus terrorist attack and discrediting the Russian security services. Considering the driving force behind this latest report, it can be expected that more such stories might soon follow, and everyone should be equally skeptical of them as well while keeping in mind the narrative goals that they aim to advance.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/04/2024 – 02:00

  • The Great Escape From Government Schools
    The Great Escape From Government Schools

    Authored by Jim Bovard via The Libertarian Institute,

    After enduring bullshit school shutdowns during the COVID pandemic, many students concluded that school itself must be bullshit and have skipped attending classes. Government bureaucrats are panicking since subsidies are tied to the number of students’ butts in chairs each day. Duke University Professor Katie Rosanbalm lamented that, thanks to the pandemic, “Our relationship with school became optional.”

    School absences have “exploded” almost everywhere, according to a New York Times report last week. Chronic absenteeism has almost doubled amongst public school students, rising from 15% pre-pandemic to 26% currently. Compulsory attendance laws are getting trampled far and wide.

    The New York Times suggested that “something fundamental has shifted in American childhood and the culture of school, in ways that may be long lasting.” Connecticut Education Commissioner Charlene M. Russell-Tucker commented, “There is a sense of: ‘If I don’t show up, would people even miss the fact that I’m not there?’” The arbitrary, counterproductive school shutdowns destroyed the trust that many families had in the government education system.

    The New York Times reflected the tizzy afflicting education bureaucrats across the land: “Students can’t learn if they aren’t in school.”

    Like hell.

    So kids are not enduring daily indoctrination to doubt their own genders? So kids’ heads are not being dunked into the latest social justice buckets of fear, loathing, and guilt? So kids are not being drilled with faulty methods of learning mathematics to satisfy the latest Common Core catechism and vainly try to close the “achievement gap”? A shortage of indoctrination is not the same as a shortfall of education.

    More than seventy years ago, University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins aptly observed, “The tremendous waste of time in the American education system must result from the fact that there is so much time to waste.” John Taylor Gatto, New York’s Teacher of the Year of 1991 (according to the New York State Education Department), observed, “Government schooling…kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents.”

    My view on school absenteeism is shaped by my dissident tendencies. Government schooling was the most brain deadening experience in my life. Early in elementary school, I relished reading even more than peanut butter. But I was obliged to put down books and listen to teachers, slowing my mental intake by 80% or 90%. By the time I reached fourth grade, my curiosity was fading.

    Between my junior and senior years in high school, I lazed away a summer on the payroll of the Virginia Highway Department. I came to recognize that public schools were permeated by the same “Highway Department ethos.” Teachers leaned on badly-written textbooks instead of shovels. Going through the motions and staying awake until quitting time was all that mattered. Learning became equated with drudgery and submission to bored taskmasters with chalk and erasers.

    And then came the wooden stakes hammered home in English classes. Devoting two months to dissecting Hamlet made me damn all Danes, courtiers, and psychoanalysts. The week spent on Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” story made me lust to cast all frogs and folksy nineteenth century authors into hell. The six weeks blighted by Paradise Lost convinced me Samuel Johnson was right: “None ever wished it longer than it is.” Old books, rather than sources of wisdom and inspiration, were mental castor oil—something to forcibly imbibe solely to emit the right answers on the exams.

    I spent years mentally idling while teachers droned. As long as the government provided a seat in a classroom, it had fulfilled its obligations. There was never any inkling that later in life, I would need to mobilize every iota of talent I might possess. My brain was like the mythical village of Brigadoon. It showed up once every year or two to take a scholastic aptitude test and then vanished into the mists. Teachers chronically noted on my permanent record “not performing up to potential.” Mysteries never cease. As long as I didn’t fail a grade, I slipped under the radar.

    I was never a chronic truant until my family moved to a college town just before the start of my senior year in high school. I missed practically as many classes as I attended that year, scampering over to the nearby Virginia Tech campus. I scrupulously avoided going to a notorious bar—only two blocks away—during school hours. Actually, this was more expediency than principle, since the happy hour with 10-cent beer didn’t commence until after the last class finished.

    After my class absences reached a certain threshold, I was sent to the school counselor—a  perfectly coifed 30ish guy with an air of rectitude thick enough to cut with a knife.

    He asked why I was skipping out, and I said school was mostly bunk. If I could pass classes without enduring Chinese-water-torture monotony, why stick around?

    The counselor declared my attitude unacceptable and urged me to “get involved with the student government to try to fix things.” So I should fizzle away my time propping up the equivalent of the Vichy regime in Nazi-occupied France?!? Paul McCartney’s “Band on the Run” line, “Stuck inside these four walls, sent inside forever,” echoed in my head. When misbehaving kids were compelled to stay after school, it was called “detention.” But the entire system was detention, especially for the final year or two.

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

    Boredom vanished from my life almost completely on the day I graduated from high school. My mental vitality surged after I no longer lost the bulk of my days fulfilling “seat time” requirements. Week by week, I began to regain the love of reading that I had lost years earlier.  That made all the difference for my life and writing.

    I recognize that many (if not most) of the new chronically absent students are probably putting their free time to good use. But at least teenagers have the chance to discover new books and to awaken their minds in a way that would never occur locked in classrooms. One epiphany is worth a dozen regurgitated exams.

    Maybe if politicians ceased treating kids’ minds like disposable resources, more young folks would voluntarily show up for school. But generations of young kids have been sacrificed for whatever fad sweeps political and education activists. The best solution is to enable as many children as possible to exit government schools as soon as possible.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 23:40

  • Haiti & The Dominican Republic: Contrasting Fortunes
    Haiti & The Dominican Republic: Contrasting Fortunes

    Haiti is currently engulfed in the chaos caused by violent gang warfare, triggering a major wave of internal displacement.

    Almost 200,000 people are thought to have been displaced in 2023, and several thousand since the beginning of 2024.

    Thousands of Haitians continue to flee to the neighboring Dominican Republic, with the Haitian-Dominican border currently in a state of major crisis.

    Relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, have long been complex.

    While the economies of the two countries were comparable in the mid-20th century, the Dominican economy gradually improved over the subsequent decades.

    The Republic of Haiti, long plagued by political instability, has seen its economy deteriorate.

    And as Statista’s Martin Armstrong details below, while Haiti is currently the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the situation is radically different in the Dominican Republic.

    Infographic: Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Contrasting Fortunes | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Nearly 6 out of 10 Haitians (58.7 percent) live on less than $3.70 a day, while only 4% of Dominicans are in this state of poverty.

    GDP per capita is also almost six times higher in the Dominican Republic than in Haiti.

    These differences are also reflected in the life expectancy of each country – Haiti has an average life expectancy at birth of 63 years, while in the Dominican Republic it stands at 73 years.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 23:20

  • 4 More Christians Found Guilty Over Prayer Gathering At Nashville Abortion Clinic
    4 More Christians Found Guilty Over Prayer Gathering At Nashville Abortion Clinic

    Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    It is likely that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be throwing an elderly survivor of a communist concentration camp in federal prison for sitting in a wheelchair in the hallway of an abortion business and singing church hymns.

    Pro-life advocate Paul Vaughn (C) holds a Bible on Cal Zastrow’s back as they stand with others outside the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Nashville, Tenn., minutes after they were found guilty of violating the federal FACE Act, on Jan. 29, 2023. (Courtesy of Amanda Place)

    A bench trial at the Fred Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville this past week lasted just one day.

    By the end of it on April 2, four Christians were convicted of a misdemeanor FACE Law violation. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) law prohibits anyone from obstructing, intimidating, or interfering with a woman seeking an abortion.

    They had been charged after singing hymns, praying, and persuading women not to abort their babies on March 5, 2021, at the now-defunct Carafem Health Center in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. The DOJ characterized the action as an illegal “blockade.”

    The abortion business closed after a change in Tennessee law, prohibiting abortion in most cases. It means the defendants are guilty of trying to stop what is now effectively outlawed in that state.

    The four found guilty are Eva Zastrow, 25, of Michigan; James Zastrow, 27, of Missouri; Paul Place, 26, of Tennessee, and Eva Edl, 89, of South Carolina, who was in a wheelchair on the day of the incident.

    Each faces up to a year in prison. They remain free until their July sentencing. But Eva Zastrow and Eva Edl have multiple FACE charges. They will go to a Michigan court in August, where each could get up to an additional 11 years in prison on a more aggressive FACE charge.

    In January, six other defendants were found guilty of FACE and felony conspiracy (for social media posts showing what they were doing) for the same Tennessee incident. Each of the six could get up to 11 years in prison at their July sentencing. More people are headed to trial for the same action.

    After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, President Biden formed the Reproductive Rights Task Force, a DOJ-led group that has increased enforcement of the FACE Law.

    Victim of Communism

    Ms. Edl has been a long-time, peaceful activist at abortion clinics, motivated by her traumatic childhood in communist Yugoslavia. She was removed from her home with her family. They were allowed to keep only a dish and the clothing they wore.

    She recalls being stuffed into a cattle car and shipped to a camp where she nearly starved to death, while she watched the people around her die. As a child, she watched the dead being put on wagons and then be buried in mass graves.

    “We were considered to be non-human, with just permission given for torturing and killing us by the government,” Edl told an interviewer with WJBF television in 2018.

    Our government’s legalizing abortion does not make it right or good, Edl told The Epoch Times in a 2023 interview.

    “If it is right for the American government to legalize the killing of innocent human beings inside the womb, preborn babies, then why do we condemn the Nazis who also legalized the extermination of born people—Jews, Gypsies, and others—all unwanted individuals,” Edl said.

    “If it is a good thing to kill human beings just as long as the government says so, then we have no right to condemn anybody else. But we all know deep down that these things are evil.”

    “Nobody’s life is ultimately safe in a nation ruled by someone who does not respect all human life, from conception to natural death,“she continued. ”It will just depend on who is in power, and whose whim will dictate who is permitted to live, and who is going to be exterminated.”

    She called compared abortion businesses to death camps.

    “When I was on the cattle car with all my people, and we were shipped to the death camp to be exterminated, the people around us were not in agreement with what the government did. But they were intimidated,” Edl said.

    “We have to overcome that fear and do what is right anyhow. … I wished in those days that somebody would have cared enough to go stand on those railroad tracks and say, ‘You cannot take these babies and children unless you go over our dead bodies.’

    “If more and more would just lay down their lives and be willing to at least go to jail to protect these babies, we would have more success. But then, who knows what the Lord will do. Maybe he will honor even the sacrifice of the few. I’m always hopeful.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 23:00

  • Navy Reveals Major Shipbuilding Delays As Global War Risk Elevated 
    Navy Reveals Major Shipbuilding Delays As Global War Risk Elevated 

    The US Navy released a rare assessment of its “shipbuilding challenges,” indicating that the first Columbia-class submarine, classified as the future cornerstone of America’s strategic deterrence, is facing delays, as are other next-generation vessels. 

    “The purpose of the review is to provide an assessment of national and local causes of shipbuilding challenges, as well as recommend actions for achieving a healthier US shipbuilding industrial base that provides combat capabilities that our warfighters need, on a schedule that is relevant,” the document states, as quoted by Breaking Defense.

    The document lays out the notable delays, which account for eleven years of cumulative delays across four programs: 

    • The first Columbia-class submarine, built jointly by General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII, is projected to be between 12 and 16 months late.
    • The fourth and fifth blocks of the Virginia-class submarine, also by Electric Boat and HII, are 36 and 24 months late.
    • The first Constellation-class frigate from Fincantieri Marinette Marine is 36 months behind schedule.
    • The future aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-80), built by HII, is approximately 18 to 26 months late.

    “When [Vice Adm. James Downey] and I started this review, we were looking at it from an internal [perspective]: What we were doing and how we were doing it. We weren’t just looking at the industry, we were also looking internally [at] how we were doing our business, how we were managing our relationships with our partners [military-industrial complex],” Nickolas Guertin, the Navy’s senior acquisition executive, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

    In a separate report, Bloomberg said the Columbia-class submarine program’s Northrop Grumman Corp. Sentinel ICBMs also face testing delays. 

    “A delay of that length would make it more likely for the Navy to implement its backup plan to extend the service lives of up to five Ohio-class by a little bit,” Ronald O’Rourke, a naval analyst for the Congressional Research Service, said. 

    Given the delays, the next-gen sub is now expected to be deployed in 2031, compared with the initial October 2027 deadline. 

    O’Rourke said, “There would be some cost for doing those service life extensions.”

    The delays were mostly attributed to snarled supply chains during the government-enforced shutdown of the economy during Covid. 

    Delays and cost overruns are standard with the military-industrial complex. It comes at a time when Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East are on the brink of much larger military conflicts. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 22:40

  • Wife Of Judge In Trump 'Hush Money' Trial Worked For AG Letitia James
    Wife Of Judge In Trump ‘Hush Money’ Trial Worked For AG Letitia James

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Lara Merchan, the wife of the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” case in Manhattan, once worked for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the massive $350 million civil fraud case against the former president, with the revelation reviving claims of bias and calls for the judge’s recusal.

    Former President Donald Trump sits in New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, in New York City on Jan. 11, 2024. (Peter Foley/AFP via Getty Images)

    Records reviewed by The Epoch Times show that Ms. Merchan worked for 21 years as a Special Assistant to the AG in New York, including three years under Ms. James. She changed jobs over two years ago.

    Ms. James is a Democrat who fixated on President Trump as she campaigned for New York attorney general, calling him a “con man” and vowing to shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”

    She began investigating the former president soon after taking office, eventually suing him for allegedly misleading banks and others about the value of his assets.

    Ms. James eventually won the case on Feb. 16, with New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordering President Trump and Trump Organization executives to pay $350 million in damages, and barring the former president from doing business in the state for three years.

    Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over a separate criminal trial involving President Trump in New York, in which the former president is accused of falsifying business records in order to conceal a $130,000 “hush money” payoff to an adult performer to stay quiet about their alleged affair.

    President Trump on his Truth Social platform accused Judge Merchan of bias and corruption, while labeling the case against him “election interference” and also demanding the judge’s recusal.

    The former president has also alleged that the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, has a partisan interest in the case because she leads a political marketing firm and has represented President Trump’s political opponents, receiving millions from them.

    Claims of Conflict of Interest

    Judge Merchan imposed a gag order against President Trump in the case and, on April 1, expanded it to include family members of the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

    The judge wrote in the order that President Trump’s speech “injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they, but their family members as well, as ‘fair game’ for Defendant’s vitriol.”

    Laura Loomer, an independent journalist and popular conservative commentator who on social media shared records that Judge Merchan’s wife worked for Ms. James, wrote in a post on X that this fact represents “another major conflict of interest!”

    Various conservative accounts reacted to Ms. Loomer’s post, arguing that the revelation adds to evidence that the judge should recuse himself from the case.

    “And this is why they expanded the gag order on Trump,” Paul A. Szypula, a popular conservative commentator on X with over 140,000 followers, said in a post. “It’s even more obvious how biased Judge Merchan is. He has to recuse himself now. There’s clearly at least an appearance of a conflict here. That’s enough in itself.”

    Another popular account with over 46,000 followers called “The doppelgängers” argued in a post that, “everyone knows this is all connected and they are all connected to same sources to take down Trump.”

    By contrast, Brian Krassenstein, a left-wing political commentator with a similar size following on X, pushed back on Ms. Loomer, saying the fact Judge Merchan’s wife once worked for Ms. James is not evidence of bias or conflict of interest.

    “The New York State Attorney General’s office employs more than 700 Assistant Attorneys General. It’s not as if she was Letitia James’ right-hand woman,” he wrote in a post on X. “Literally 40% of all of the staff working in the Office of the AG in NY are ‘Special Assistants.’”

    “Loomer is trying to somehow say that since the Judge in Trump’s Manhattan case was or is married to a woman who once worked in an office with 700 other people under the AG, who already won a civil suit against Trump, that Judge Merchan now has a conflict of interest,” he continued.

    Further, Mr. Krassenstein suggested that Ms. Loomer, who is a vocal Trump supporter, may even have posted about the judge’s wife at his direction.

    “If so that would likely be illegal now that a gag order is in place,” Mr. Krassenstein said.

    Lara Merchan was not immediately reachable for comment.

    Judge Merchan has already declined to recuse himself from the case.

    In the case, Mr. Bragg charged President Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records, alleging a scheme to influence the 2016 election with payments meant to bury unfavorable news coverage of the alleged affair with the adult performer, which the former president has denied.

    The trial has been set for April 15, and in less than two weeks, the first-ever criminal trial of a former American president will take place in Manhattan.

    Catherine Yang contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 22:20

  • From The Recycling Bin To The Landfill: The Major Flaw In Plastic Recycling
    From The Recycling Bin To The Landfill: The Major Flaw In Plastic Recycling

    Authored by Cara Michelle Miller via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    People may be putting plastic into recycling bins, but most of it generally ends up in landfills or incinerated.

    (Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock)

    Yet the demand for more plastic production continues—at a growing cost to human and environmental health—because of the belief that recycling offsets the associated waste and risks. A new report by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) alleges that the plastics industry knowingly caused the current plastic waste crisis.

    The nonprofit’s report claims that as the plastics industry faced mounting concerns over plastics being incinerated and piling up in landfills, they promoted recycling as a viable solution while dismissing it internally as impractical.

    “They knew since the 1970s that plastic recycling was not going to be scalable and effective in tackling the plastic waste crisis,” Melissa Valliant, communications director of Beyond Plastics, a nonprofit aiming to reduce single-use plastic use and production, explained to The Epoch Times.

    The report asserts that the efforts to sell the false promise of plastic recycling were to avoid restrictive regulations and potential product bans.

    Plastic Recycling Poses Many Challenges

    According to the report, one problem with plastic recycling is that it is not technically or economically feasible at scale. Unlike glass and metal, plastic cannot be repeatedly recycled without quickly degrading in quality. Most recyclable plastics can typically only be recycled once. As a result, most recycled plastic eventually ends up in landfills, even if it goes through an additional use cycle as another product.

    Between the 1970s and 2015, 91 percent of plastic was either landfilled, burned, or leaked into the environment, according to a global analysis published in Science Advances. Another recent report published by Beyond Plastics estimated that less than 6 percent of plastic in the United States is successfully recycled.

    These figures are based on all plastic waste generated, which includes plastics not made to be recycled and those thrown away. As for the plastic that makes it to a recycling center, there isn’t an official nationwide estimate of what percent of those plastics get recycled in the end.

    However, certain types of plastic containers—soda and water bottles (PET 1) and milk jugs (HDPE 2), in particular—are more likely to be recycled.

    The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international organization focused on improving public policies, says only 9 percent of plastic collected for recycling worldwide in 2019 was actually recycled; 50 percent went into landfills, and 22 percent was mismanaged.

    Another challenge is that there are too many different types of plastics. Recyclable plastics cannot be recycled with plastics made of different chemical compositions, and sorting the waste is infeasible.

    Decades of Misleading Messaging

    The plastics industry’s actions “effectively protected and expanded plastic markets,” the CCI report states, “while stalling legislative or regulatory action that would meaningfully address plastic waste and pollution.”

    The report, highlighting industry communications and documents, details how, beginning in the 1950s, the plastics industry’s profits soared with single-use disposable plastics, and this “shift to disposables” created the waste problem.

    In response, the industry promoted landfilling and incineration. However, by the 1980s, the plastics industry faced growing backlash and legislation to limit the sale of single-use plastics because of pollution and its environmental impact.

    The industry “launched multimillion-dollar ad and PR campaigns to convince the public consumer that this was a consumer problem; just put the right things in the bin, and all the plastic pollution would go away,” said Ms. Valliant.

    Plastic production then skyrocketed, from approximately 2 million tons of plastic in the 1950s to nearly 460 million tons in 2019, and continues to rise.

    The CCI report cites a 1986 report by Vinyl Institute, a trade association, that “recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution [to plastics], as it merely prolongs the time until an item is disposed of.”

    Eight years later, an Exxon employee warned the American Plastics Council staffers that they did not “want paper floating around” saying they could not meet recycling goals since the issue was “HIGHLY SENSITIVE POLITICALLY.”

    The report’s authors aim to hold fossil fuel and other petrochemical companies accountable by pointing out that these admissions contradict decades of messaging promoting recycling.

    Plastics Companies Cite New Technologies, Goals

    Twenty petrochemical companies, including major oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil, manufacture half of the world’s single-use plastics, according to the CCI.

    In response to the CCI report, the Plastics Industry Association characterized the report as “political attacks” and that it is based on “outdated information and false claims.”

    “This report was created by an activist, anti-recycling organization and disregards the incredible investments in recycling technologies made by our industry,” Matt Seaholm, president and chief executive officer of the Plastics Industry Association, said in the press statement.

    Similarly, in a statement published by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Ross Eisenberg, the president of America’s Plastic Makers, called the report flawed, saying it “cites outdated, decades-old technologies, and works against our goals to be more sustainable by mischaracterizing the industry and the state of today’s recycling technologies.” He also pointed to the benefits of plastics and how they can be reused to meet different needs.

    “We’ve set an ambitious goal for all US plastic packaging to be reused, recycled, recovered by 2040, and we are working towards this goal by supporting systems and technologies that remake new plastics from used plastics,” he shared.

    But many wonder: Even if the ACC’s 2040 goal is met, does it solve the wide-ranging issues linked to plastics?

    Is Recycling Enough?

    “Possibly more concerning than the environmental impacts are the health impacts of plastics on the human body,” said Ms. Valliant, who recommends consumers focus on efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle, and, when possible, refuse single-use plastic.

    The management of plastics “needs to be addressed at a higher level than the individual,” Mathew Campen, a toxicologist from the University of New Mexico, told The Epoch Times.

    When plastic is recycled improperly, it ends up not only in landfills and water sources but also in our soil, air, and even our bodies. Every day, we eat, drink, and inhale tiny bits of plastic because plastic doesn’t biodegrade over time—it simply breaks down into ever-smaller particles.

    Mr. Campen, who investigates the impact of environmental toxicants on human health, is concerned about the increasing amount of plastics, specifically microplastics, in the environment and the potential effects.

    “The truth is, governments and industry need to figure out a path to actually take care of this waste and not have it show up in our bodies,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 22:00

  • CDC Releases Hidden Trove Of COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Reports
    CDC Releases Hidden Trove Of COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Reports

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released previously hidden reports of facial paralysis and other adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 25, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    The 780,000 reports were received shortly after the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, and show people experienced a wide range of post-vaccination problems, including heart inflammation, miscarriages, and seizures.

    “Loss of consciousness and seizure immediately following injection. Went to ER by ambulance,” one person reported.

    “Diagnosed with Bells Palsy today due to left-sided facial numbness and paralysis,” another said.

    People lodged the reports with V-safe, a text-message system created by the CDC to monitor for possible side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

    The CDC, for years, declined to make the V-safe data public, instead publishing studies that described the reports as providing reassurance about the safety of the shots. However, according to data released in 2022, nearly 8 percent of the 10 million users required medical attention or hospital care after vaccination, and many others reported missing school, work, or other normal activities.

    That topline data came from check-the-box surveys.

    The same judge who ordered the release of that data ordered the agency in January to disclose free-text entries from a different section where individuals could describe their experiences. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, dismissed the government’s arguments that processing the responses and redacting sensitive information would require too much work.

    The first two tranches, comprising 780,000 reports from some 523,000 people, include dozens of reports of heart inflammation, hundreds of reports of facial paralysis, and thousands of reports of tinnitus.

    Multiple people said things were so bad that they were struggling with suicidal thoughts.

    “For 24 hrs after [the] shot I was so fatigued I could not stay awake. I also have some very strong suicidal thoughts. Zero appetite,” one individual wrote.

    Another person said they experienced symptoms of an allergic reaction. “I read where [sic] this vaccine should not be administered to anyone allergic to PEG and I am allergic to PEG. It would be incredibly reassuring if someone would call me as all I run into is dead ends,” the individual said.

    The free-text portion of the surveys was the only place for people to report adverse events, including heart inflammation, even though the CDC knew the shots might cause those events, previously released documents showed. Other documents showed the CDC became aware of the vaccines possibly causing myocarditis, or heart inflammation, and a related condition called pericarditis early in 2021 but hid the knowledge from the public.

    Judge Kacsmaryk’s order came in litigation brought by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit that has compelled the release of a number of government files since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

    “ICAN had to sue the Centers for Disease Control in order to gain access to the COVID-19 shot V-safe adverse event data, which is yet another shameful chapter in the decades-long history of federal health officials trying to cover up vaccine risks by ignoring patterns of vaccine reaction symptoms in reports made to the government,” Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times after reviewing the new data.

    “When people report the same symptoms over and over again after getting a biological product—in this case ’shortness of breath‘ and ’heart palpitations,’ which are both symptoms of myocarditis that has been causally linked to mRNA COVID shots—the public should be warned, not kept in the dark. It raises questions about what else government health officials are hiding,” she added.

    The free-text entries are not dated. Elizabeth Brehm, an attorney representing ICAN, said the group is seeking the dates of the reports from the CDC. The group does know that the entries are the earliest ones received by the CDC. V-safe was launched as the vaccines were rolled out in late 2020. The rest of the entries are expected to be produced on a rolling basis.

    A CDC spokesperson declined to answer many questions, including those related to the dates of entries.

    “V-safe participants who reported that they received medical care after vaccination were called and encouraged to submit a VAERS report. If they submitted a VAERS report and the adverse events were classified as serious (as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations), CDC attempted to obtain additional information (medical records, hospital records, etc.) about the reported adverse event,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “All data collected from VAERS is processed and analyzed for unusual patterns or unusually high numbers of rare and serious adverse events after vaccination.”

    She said the information from VAERS helped detect problems the agency now acknowledges are caused by the vaccines, including myocarditis.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 21:40

  • How GPUs Are Disrupting High-Performance Computing
    How GPUs Are Disrupting High-Performance Computing

    Graphics Processing Units, or GPUs, have moved beyond their original role of rendering video game graphics and are now used in a variety of high-performance computing applications (HPC), from AI training to zooplankton classification.  

    To help understand this pivot, Visual Capitalist teamed up with HIVE Digital to look at how GPUs differ from traditional CPUs and what gives them an edge.

    CPU vs. GPUs

    CPUs, or Central Processing Units, and GPUs, generally have three main elements:

    • compute elements—technically ALU or arithmetic logic units—that perform calculations and carry out operations;

    • a control element that coordinates the operations of the above; and

    • various levels of memory, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a kind of RAM or short-term memory used in the main memory of computers, and caches.

    CPUs, or Central Processing Units, typically have one or more extremely powerful cores, made up of independent compute, control, and cache elements. A GPU, on the other hand, has many more less-powerful cores, each with multiple ALUs that share common cache and control elements. 

    Core Values and the Value of Cores

    The number of cores is important, especially when it comes to image processing. In order to display an image on your screen, the computer has to read, process, and display data for each pixel, which on modern high-definition displays can really add up. A 1,920 by 1,080 pixel display, for example, has 2,073,600 pixels.

    Unlike CPUs, which have to go one operation at a time, GPUs can handle multiple operations like this in parallel, thanks to its multiple-core architecture. Computer scientists call this method of data-handling single instruction, multiple data (SIMD), but all we need to know is that this is why today’s computer games look so much better than 1972’s Pong. 

    Beyond Graphics

    It turns out that GPUs can do more than just render graphics. Researchers are now using GPUs to model protein folding and sequence genomes, while cryptocurrency miners rely on them to validate transactions. GPUs are also playing a critical role in the field of AI, where training datasets are only getting larger. 

    GPUs are also working side-by-side with CPUs in the world’s only exa-scale computer, Frontier, which uses a combined 8,699,904 GPU and CPU cores to achieve an impressive speed of 1.194 exa-flops per second.

    But when you consider that CPUs are still built on roughly the same von Neumann architecture from 1945, it’s perhaps no surprise that new specialized designs, like the GPU, are emerging to help us tackle some of the world’s toughest HPC challenges.  

    Learn how Hive Digital’s renewably powered GPUs are helping customers worldwide meet their high-performance computing needs.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 21:20

  • Trump Lawyers Reveal He Kept Classified Documents In Trump Tower
    Trump Lawyers Reveal He Kept Classified Documents In Trump Tower

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

    Lawyers for former President Donald Trump revealed in new court filings that the former president kept classified materials at his Trump Tower in New York City and his estate in New Jersey.

    Former President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay, Wis., on April 2, 2024. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)

    The former president kept the classified documents at those two locations as well as his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while he was in office, and also during the months before he was inaugurated in 2017, the filings revealed.

    His lawyers were responding to a deadline to support U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s proposed jury instructions.

    “You may consider evidence that government officials discussed classified information with President Trump and provided classified briefings and documents to President Trump before and during his Presidency—including inside President Trump’s private offices and residences, such as at Bedminster, New Jersey, and Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, as well as at Trump Tower in New York City,” they wrote to the judge.

    President Trump, the GOP presumptive presidential nominee for 2024, is facing dozens of felony counts related to alleged mishandling of classified documents, according to an indictment. Part of his defense centers around how he personally designated presidential files as his personal items before he left the White House in early 2021.

    In Tuesday’s court filing, his attorneys said that jurors could be told that President Trump had the legal power as president to make those documents his personal belongings.

    “President Trump acted as an ‘original classification authority’ while he was President of the United States” to declassify the records, it said, adding that it “means that all classification decisions during his term as President were based on his authority, and that he also had absolute and unreviewable authority to declassify documents and information.”

    There also is “evidence relating to former Presidents, Vice Presidents, and other public officials being authorized to possess documents containing classified information without criminal prosecution by the government after they left their positions,” his attorneys continued to say.

    “You heard evidence during the trial that President Trump exercised that authority, at times verbally and at times without using formal procedures, while he was President,” the proposed Trump jury instructions read. “I instruct you that those declassification decisions are examples of valid and legally appropriate uses of President Trump’s declassification authority while he was President of the United States.”

    The former president in a separate court filing again asked Judge Cannon to dismiss the case.

    Jack Smith’s Response

    Also Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith—who brought the charges against the former president—criticized Judge Cannon and warned her that the jury instructions rest on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise.”

    Last month, Judge Cannon had asked prosecutors and defense lawyers to formulate proposed jury instructions for most of the charges, asking the lawyers to respond to two different scenarios on whether he was entitled under a statute known as the Presidential Records Act to retain the sensitive documents he is now charged with possessing.

    The Smith team wrote that the 1978 law, which requires presidents to return presidential records to the government upon leaving office but permits them to retain purely personal ones, has no relevance in a case concerning highly classified documents.

    Those records, prosecutors said, were not personal and there is no evidence President Trump ever designated them as such. They argued that the suggestion he did so was created only after it became public that he had taken with him to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency boxes of records from the White House.

    “Not a single one had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal or that, at the time he caused the transfer of boxes to Mar-a-Lago, he believed that his removal of records amounted to designating them as personal under the PRA,” prosecutors wrote. “To the contrary, every witness who was asked this question had never heard such a thing.”

    Special counsel Jack Smith in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    As of Wednesday, it’s not clear when the trial would start. Judge Cannon last year set the case for trial on May 20, 2024, but she signaled she would reconsider that date during a March 1 hearing.

    The hearing took place as scheduled, but no replacement date was picked.

    Last month, the judge heard hours of arguments on two of the dismissal motions on whether President Trump was entitled under the Presidential Records Act to retain the classified documents after he left office and whether the Espionage Act law at the heart of the case was so vague as to be unconstitutional.

    Judge Cannon appeared skeptical of the defense assertions and, after the hearing, issued a terse two-page order rejecting the vagueness argument while permitting President Trump to raise it again later. She hasn’t yet ruled on the Presidential Records Act motion that was submitted by the defense.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 21:00

  • In Wake Of Khan's 14-Year Sentence Being Overturned, Pakistani Judges Say Intel Operatives Threatened Them
    In Wake Of Khan’s 14-Year Sentence Being Overturned, Pakistani Judges Say Intel Operatives Threatened Them

    Early this week a Pakistani court suspended the 14-year jail sentence previously handed down to former prime minister Imran Khan while allowing for appeal of his conviction for graft.

    The Islamabad High Court ruled in favor of Khan as his lawyer argued that the prior charge of retaining and selling state gifts in violation of his office when he led the country were politicized, trumped up charges concocted by his adversaries from the start.

    Via Reuters

    Despite the judge ruling Khan and his wife could be freed on bail, they remain in prison (however, reportedly at very minimal security facilities) given they are serving sentences for other convictions.

    Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which made a better than expected showing in the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections, have decried that this was all a conspiracy to prevent his return to office by the military-run deep state. There are still a whopping 170 legal cases against him.

    The Monday ruling has proven a big boost and vindication for his PTI party, with a close aide of Khan’s, Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, saying in a statement: “I have said this since the conviction that the cases against Khan and his wife do not have the legs to stand on and it was only a matter of time before they would get thrown out.”

    On Wednesday a new bombshell has emerged which appears to confirm brazen ‘deep state’ interference in Khan’s legal cases. The Guardian reports:

    Claims by senior Pakistani judges that the intelligence agencies put pressure on them in cases involving the former prime minister Imran Khan have reached the country’s supreme court, following the publication of an unprecedented letter that has created a storm in Pakistan.

    The letter from the six high court judges alleged the abduction of family members, torture, installation of cameras in their bedrooms and threats from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

    In one case the judges said they were forced to hear an appeal against Khan even after the majority of judges had decided it was not maintainable.

    Torture was also reportedly used to induce officials to make “false allegations” against Khan:

    “Considerable pressure was brought to bear on the judges who had opined that the petition was not maintainable, by operatives of the ISI, through friends and relatives of these judges. Fearing for their security, they sought additional protection for their homes. One of the judges had to be admitted in a hospital due to high blood pressure caused by stress,” the letter claimed.

    It alleged the brother-in-law of one judge was abducted by “individuals who claimed to be operatives of the ISI” and “tortured into making false allegations”.

    Meanwhile Khan’s team in reacting to the suspension of the 14-year jail sentence on appeal expressed hope for the same outcome in the array of other charges facing him. “We welcome this decision and hopefully this will be the outcome in all other cases against Khan and his wife as they are all frivolous in nature,” Bukhari continued.

    There have also been new claims that the former first lady is being poisoned while in prison…

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

    Indeed, the graft sentencing and others had made Khan legally ineligible to run for public office for a full decade, and included a fine of the equivalent of $5 million for the couple (Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi). They’ve been in prison since August of last year, which helped set the stage of miring the February elections in violence. PTI candidates were also forced to run under independent labels. The tumultuous election week had witnessed bombings at polling stations and attacks on political offices. For example the two days going into the general election day vote saw over 35 people killed and scores wounded.

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who emerged victorious while Khan had languished in jail, was seen more as the “military’s man” in Islamabad, while Khan’s legacy has sought to be erased by those same elite powers.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 20:40

  • Deep State Goes After Trump And Musk's Financial Assets… Who's Next?
    Deep State Goes After Trump And Musk’s Financial Assets… Who’s Next?

    Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

    Is America as we know it over? Are we in the middle – or perhaps the end – of the transition from a national republic to a single-party regime that rules by fiat instead of law?

    If we look at what’s happening to two, high-profile cases, the answer is less than comforting. It is becoming difficult to argue that the U.S. judicial system has not become a political arm of the Democratic Party.

    The Left Waging Political Lawfare

    Nations are either based on the rule of law or the rules dictated by the powerful. The former is meant to restrain, or better said, eliminate the possibility of the latter. But, as we’ve witnessed with the relentless political persecution of former President Donald Trump and, lately, of Elon Musk, laws only work when they’re fairly applied and enforced.

    Neither of those things are happening with President Trump or Mr. Musk. President Trump was found guilty of fraud by a left-wing judge who determined this without considering, or despite, mountains of evidence to the contrary. The New York Attorney General Letitia James accused President Trump of over-valuing his real estate to obtain loans.

    Coincidentally, Ms. James ran for the office of attorney general in 2018 with the campaign pledge to go after Trump, showing clear political animus toward President Trump. What’s more, Judge Arthur Engoron has been accused by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York of violating “political giving rules with financial contributions to Democrats as recently as 2018, and ignored a decision on the appropriate statute of limitations in the case,” according to NBC News. Ms. James prosecuted President Trump in a civil trial, which was by design; criminal court cases require a trial by jury and proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

    Somehow, Deutsche Bank was “defrauded” by President Trump into lending him hundreds of millions of dollars on a property, the value of which the bank determined by their own analysis. Talk about shifty business dealings. Then, after a period of time, the former president had the audacity to sell the property at over $130 million profit and then pay the loan back, with interest.

    Despite all of this exculpatory evidence that showed no fraud and no money loss or any other determinable damages, the judge refused to allow President Trump to give his closing argument in his own defense and found him guilty of fraud, fined him $354 million plus interest, and forced him to forfeit the profit he made on the deal with Deutsche Bank. President Trump was also ordered to pay $111,000 per day in interest. The financial penalty is excessive under the Eighth Amendment, which disallows “excessive fines,” which is the case because it doesn’t reflect the value of the “damages,” which are nil, nor the profits he made.

    What’s more, President Trump is barred from doing business or getting loans in New York for three years, and two of his children are also barred from their executive roles in the Trump Organization for two years. All of this for paying back loans on properties that the bank made willingly, according to its own value assessments, and profited from.

    Court Void Musk’s Payday

    Meanwhile, a Delaware judge voided Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla payout. The judge arbitrarily determined that the record-breaking compensation granted by the Tesla board was an “unfathomable sum” and was “unfair” to shareholders. The payout was the result of a 10-year pay plan that the board agreed to with Mr. Musk back in 2018.

    Mr. Musk is not only an entrepreneur extraordinaire, he’s also a fan of America and our constitutional right of free speech. He attracted the left’s wrath after acquiring Twitter (renamed X) and making it a bastion of free speech for conservatives who were formerly censored by Twitter and other social media outlets. In short, Mr. Musk single-handedly broke the stifling monopoly on speech and thought control the left had allegedly in close coordination with the federal government, prior to the acquisition.

    The rationale for the judge’s unlawful decision was that the board was, in some way, “beholden” to Mr. Musk. Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery speculated if the payout plan was necessary in order to keep Mr. Musk involved in Tesla and achieve the EV maker’s business goals. By that logic, the entire EV market is “beholden” to Mr. Musk since he is the single biggest influencer in the industry. There is no indication that the judge has a seat on the Tesla board or possesses expertise in the Tesla business model or investing strategies.

    So far, Mr. Musk’s response has been to begin moving his companies out of Delaware to the business-friendly states of Texas and Nevada.

    The World’s Largest Banana Republic

    As unfair and anti-American as those two prosecutions undoubtedly are, they point to a more fundamental development in our national government, which is the undeniable breach of the walls that form the separation of power between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches on which our republic was founded.

    Of course, these aren’t the only examples of unconstitutional behavior by the left. The Biden administration is still holding American citizens in jail without bail from the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and has reportedly arrested a journalist for being present, reporting on the incident, and providing evidence that conflicts with the Justice Department’s version.

    Sadly, thug rule is becoming more common, not less. So is the celebration of it in the mainstream media. Persecuting political enemies through lawfare and unlawful asset seizure is the stuff of communist regimes, dictators, banana republics, and, apparently, of the United States of America.

    Imagine, if the legal system can be used to go after a billionaire former president and the most innovative and wealthiest man on the planet without due process of law, the question that comes to mind is simply, “Who’s next?”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 20:20

  • Buzz-Free Drinking? The Rise Of Non-Alcoholic Beer
    Buzz-Free Drinking? The Rise Of Non-Alcoholic Beer

    As the brewing industry is still recovering from the aftershock of the Covid-19 pandemic, alcohol-free beer has become one of the bright spots in a troubled beer sector.

    And while buzz-free beer still accounts for just over 5 percent of global beer revenues, Statista’s Felix Richter reports that it has outgrown the alcoholic beer segment by a wide margin for the better part of the past decade, delivering double-digit growth in four of the past five years, with 2020 the only exception.

    As the following chart based on data from Statist Market Insights shows, the non-alcoholic beer segment is poised for strong growth in the years ahead.

    Infographic: Buzz-Free Drinking? The Rise of Non-Alcoholic Beer | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Having long been neglected by the industry, non-alcoholic beer is now viewed as an opportunity by brewers, which are continuously extending their selection of low and no-alcohol choices in response to growing customer demand.

    “Consumers are increasingly looking for healthy hydration and a tasty, adult refreshment with lower or no-alcohol content to enjoy on any occasion,” the world’s second-largest brewing group Heineken recently noted in its annual report.

    “As this global consumer trend for health and wellness continues, we see a great future for low-calorie and non-alcoholic beer,” the report concludes.

    Following a small setback in 2020 due to Covid-related lockdowns and lifestyle changes, which hit the out-of-home segment particularly hard, the industry is back on track and expected to see solid growth this year and in the years ahead. By 2028, Statista expects global sales of non-alcoholic beer to reach $50 billion, more than double the 2020 figure.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 20:00

  • Chicago Police Called To Illegal Immigrant Shelter Hundreds Of Times In 2023, Records Show
    Chicago Police Called To Illegal Immigrant Shelter Hundreds Of Times In 2023, Records Show

    Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times,

    Chicago police were called to an illegal immigrant shelter hundreds of times over the last year, in many cases to investigate allegations of violent crimes, records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show.

    The documents, obtained by resident Terry Newsome and reviewed by The Epoch Times, reveal that police were dispatched to the Inn of Chicago, a hotel now serving as a shelter for illegal immigrants, more than 250 times between January 2023 and February 2024.

    While many of those calls were for parking and traffic violations, a significant portion were for alleged crimes such as aggravated assault, domestic battery, child abduction, and child abuse, including sexual assault.

    In one case, a 4-year-old victim reported being “inappropriately touched” multiple times by an unknown offender living in the shelter. Another heavily redacted case involved three child victims who were transported to Lurie Children’s Hospital after alleged domestic battery and prior sexual assault.

    The increase in criminal activity at the Inn of Chicago has not gone unnoticed by residents of the hotel’s Streeterville neighborhood. The complaints have been numerous, prompting Ward 42 Alderman Brendan Reilly to call for the shelter’s closure.

    “I have heard from hundreds of neighborhood residents voicing their concerns about the ongoing issues related to the migrant shelter operating at the Inn of Chicago,” Mr. Reilly wrote in an email to constituents in October last year.

    Mr. Reilly said he and other residents had witnessed “a host of criminal activities” at the site, including narcotics sales, retail theft, and “apparent sex trafficking,” to name a few. He also said piles of trash and human excrement had accumulated in the alleys around the hotel.

    “The ‘experiment’ of housing 1,500 migrants at the Inn of Chicago has been an abject failure,” he wrote. “The conditions there are deplorable and the property is not safe for the migrant families living there who are co-mingled with hundreds of single, young adult males. Not only do I worry for the health and welfare of these young migrant families, I also worry for the safety of my constituents and thousands of tourists and visitors who come to the area every day.”

    That concern was shared by Mr. Newsome, who noted the hotel’s proximity to the city’s bustling commercial district along North Michigan Avenue.

    “It’s only a block off the Magnificent Mile. People fly in from all over the country, or world, to go shopping,” he told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Newsome, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, added that the costs associated with responding to the emergency calls would only add to taxpayers’ already hefty burden of housing and feeding the thousands of illegal immigrants in the city.

    “We have to pay for the police to come off their beat, we have to pay for the ambulance, we have to pay to take them to the hospital, put them through emergency [care]. That’s hidden costs that we don’t even have a clue,” he said.

    The Inn of Chicago’s illegal immigrant housing contract with the city was due to expire on Dec. 31, yet it remains closed to patrons. According to the hotel’s website, it will remain “temporarily closed” until July 2024, though attempts to book anything after July 1 online produce a “This site can’t be reached” message. The hotel’s phone number produces a busy signal, and an emailed request for comment received no response.

    The City of Chicago reports having taken on more than 37,000 illegal immigrants since August 2022. In total, the city has spent nearly $300 million accommodating them.

    Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson enacted a 60-day maximum stay policy for illegal immigrants in temporary shelters last month amid overpopulation concerns. The policy was originally slated to take effect in January, but inclement weather pushed back its rollout.

    The Epoch Times has contacted the Chicago Police Department and the mayor’s office for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 19:40

  • These Are The World's Most-Populated Islands?
    These Are The World’s Most-Populated Islands?

    The word “island” tends to bring up images of remote paradise – a brisk sea breeze, waving palms, and inviting beaches, all ingredients for an idyllic life.

    However, they can also be hubs for human activity, home to 730 million people, or about 9% of the world’s population.

    This chart, by creator Perrin Remonté, via Visual Capitalist, ranks the 25 most populated islands in the world, colored by their population density patterns, along with an overview of their size relative to each other.

    Data for this graphic comes from a variety of sources listed at the end of this article.

    Ranked: Top 25 Islands by Population

    At the top of the list sits Java, Indonesia’s most populous island and the most populous island on Earth. Over 150 million residents inhabit the 130,000 km² landmass, resulting in a density of nearly 1,200 people/km².

    Its capital, Jakarta—also the capital of Indonesia—is a vibrant metropolis teeming with skyscrapers, bustling streets, and a rich tapestry of traditions.

    Even historically, the island has been the political and economic center of the region: the seat of empires and also the heart of the Indonesian independence movement.

    Note: Numbers are rounded. Area source: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Population source: See bottom of the article.

    Meanwhile, Japan’s Honshu Island ranks second, home to approximately 103 million people. Honshu is the largest and most populous island in Japan, housing iconic cities like Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo—the country’s capital, the world’s largest urban area, and one of the three biggest financial centers in Asia.

    At third place, Great Britain, the largest of the British Isles, boasts of around 67 million residents, of which England alone accounts for 83% of the population.

    Back in Southeast Asia, the island of Luzon, with 64 million people, is home to more than half of the Philippines’ total population.

    Coming back to Indonesia, parts of Sumatra, population 59 million, are more along the lines of a postcard picture, from the lush rainforests of Bukit Lawang to the pristine shores of Lake Toba.

    In total, Indonesia has six islands on this graphic, with tourist favorite Bali—consistently one of the most popular places to visit—coming in at the 25th spot.

    Missing from this list is Australia, home to nearly 30 million people, which would make the top five on this list, were it not for the continent-island debate.

    Most Densely Populated Islands

    For Salsette Island (ranked 9th by population)—administratively known as Greater Mumbai —magnification is required as it appears as a dot on the scale for the other most populated islands in the world.

    Consequently it’s one of the most densely populated islands in the world; at more than 30,000 people/km².

    Singapore (ranked 20th), is similarly dense, though not quite at the scale as Mumbai: 8,500 people/km².

    Other extremely populated and dense islands in the world include: Manhattan, Haizhu, Guangzhou, and Lagos Island, but none with the total population close to Singapore or Mumbai.

    *  *  *

    Population sources:

    Creator Note: For Great Britain and the Indonesian islands, the population figures are reverse engineered from the total population of the country and the percentage share of each island, available on Statista.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 19:20

  • "Insane": US Physicians Received Billions From Pharmaceutical And Medical Device Industry, New Research Finds
    “Insane”: US Physicians Received Billions From Pharmaceutical And Medical Device Industry, New Research Finds

    Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    U.S. physicians received more than $12 billion in payments from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry over a 10-year period, according to a new analysis.

    (ElenaR/Shutterstock)

    A research letter published on March 28 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the industry made over 85 million payments to more than 820,300 (57 percent) of eligible physicians across 39 specialties from 2013 to 2022. Nearly 94 percent of the payments were related to one or more marketed medical products.

    Researchers examined data in the Open Payments database to determine what payments were made across different specialties and the medical products associated with the largest total payments. Data only included payments received for consulting, nonconsulting (such as speaker or faculty fees), travel, food, entertainment, education, gifts, grants, charitable contributions, and honoraria.

    The Open Payments database is a federal transparency program that was established in 2013 out of concern that financial relationships between physicians and the industry were unduly influencing healthcare decision-making and costs.

    The analysis found that payments varied considerably between specialties and among physicians of the same specialty. For example, the mean amount paid to the top 0.1 percent of physicians ranged from $194,933 for hospitalists to $4.8 million for orthopedic surgeons, while the payments to the median physicians ranged from zero to $2,339.

    Orthopedic physicians received the greatest sum of payments, $1.4 billion, followed by neurologists and psychiatrists, $1.3 billion, cardiologists, $1.3 billion, and hematologists/oncologists, $825.8 million. Nearly 55 percent of pediatricians and 63 percent of infectious disease physicians received payments from the industry, while physicians practicing preventative medicine received the least sum of payments.

    “From 2013–2022, pharma paid 12 billion dollars to U.S. physicians. That’s mind-boggling. Insane. That’s how silence is bought, the minds of physicians influenced, and ultimately patient care/prescribing patterns influenced,” Dr. Manni Mohyuddin, an oncologist, hematologist, and assistant professor at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, told The Epoch Times.

    Dr. Mohyuddin emphasized that the average payment received was low, but some physicians received a significant amount of money and have influence over writing guidelines, chairing committees, clinical trials, influencing opinions, and more.

    Top Drugs and Devices Associated With Payments

    The top three drugs associated with the most payments were Xarelto ($176.3 million), Eliquis ($102.6 million), and Humira ($100.2 million).

    Xarelto, jointly developed by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Bayer, is used to prevent and treat blood clots. Janssen also created the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which caused rare and sometimes fatal blood clotting disorders.

    Eliquis is a multibillion-dollar blood thinner manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. The drug in 2023 was 12 percent of Pfizer’s total revenue—second only to its Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has also been linked to blood clotting disorders.

    Humira is an immunosuppressive drug manufactured by AbbVie to treat arthritis, plaque psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. Following the top three drugs are Type 2 diabetes medications Invokana, Jardiance, and Farxiga.

    According to the analysis, the three medical devices associated with the most payments were daVinci Surgical System, $307.5 million, Mako SmartRobotics, $50.1 million, and CoreValve Evolut, $44.8 million.

    ‘Highly Targeted to Lucrative Procedures’

    “Our paper is a modest analysis. It does not explain the problem of financial conflicts of interest. But it is a lot of money. And it’s highly targeted to lucrative procedures,” co-author and cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. John Mandrola wrote in a post on Substack.

    Dr. Mandrola believes that the strong influence of the industry can be seen in the approval of numerous medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Adminsitration despite “dodgy evidence.”

    “Cardiology is a technical field. We use devices. Innovation requires some collaboration. Innovation has made cardiology better. But industry influence is way too strong,” he said. Dr. Mandrola believes the payments reported in their paper are not only for physician–industry collaborations, but are for marketing and goodwill, which helps establish practice patterns among physicians.

    The industry is profit-driven, and if direct payments to doctors didn’t work, the industry wouldn’t spend billions doing it, he added.

    Payments Can Create Conflicts of Interest

    Dr. Andrew Foy, co-author and cardiologist, told The Epoch Times in an email the analysis shows a strong relationship between physicians and industry, but there are other indicators of this relationship as well. For example, it’s not uncommon for industry ads to be featured on homepages of major medical journals or for a medical conference or meeting to bombard physicians with industry advertising.

    “When I experience this at conferences, I feel like industry is not only welcome at these events but that the event is built around industry and its involvement,” Dr. Foy said. “There’s certainly no attempt to hide these relationships. The main reason being, at least in my opinion, is that many physicians, perhaps even the majority, believe the physician-industry collaboration is a net benefit to patients and society.”

    Dr. Foy said he doesn’t necessarily share that view, but he doesn’t believe there is strong, objective evidence to support one side or the other as it relates to the overall benefits or harms of the relationship between physicians and industry.

    “At this moment in time, the profession seems only interested in transparency. ‘As long as everyone is transparent, then everything is fine.’ As if someone cannot be transparent about their conflicts and highly biased at the same time,” he said.

    Dr. Foy said he worries that conflicts of interest directly related to physician–industry payments may lead to overly enthusiastic recommendations or guidelines from medical organizations to use new products, even if they have not been sufficiently tested or where the evidence is not strong enough to recommend them over an old standard, or in some cases, nothing at all.

    Additionally, Dr. Foy said a “major problem” with physician–industry payments is that they “have a way of tilting physicians sympathy toward industry” and the industry’s “medical advancements” which encourage physicians to more willingly adopt new products for the sake of  “industry advancement,” even if they don’t have a direct conflict of interest with that particular product.

    “In a way, they become cheerleaders for industry and more open to adopting new products simply due to this attachment,” Dr. Foy told The Epoch Times.

    “I think what our paper does do is provide some numbers, which some may find shocking, and hopefully it renews interest in having conversations about physician-industry payments and conflicts of interest and perhaps facilitates more research,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 19:00

  • Pro-Palestine Group Attacks UK Defense Factory Producing F-35 Stealth Parts 
    Pro-Palestine Group Attacks UK Defense Factory Producing F-35 Stealth Parts 

    The sudden influx of unvetted migrants from around the world into Western nations poses a significant national security threat. Leftist-corporate media outlets are ignoring the mounting risks associated with unvetted migrants. However, citizen journalists on the ‘free speech’ social media platform X have outlined some of these dangers. 

    Let’s begin with the latest data from the UK that shows the number of migrants crossing the English Channel soared to a new record high for the first three months of the year, according to BBC News. 

    The surge in migrants continues despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop’ the migrant boats – though the latest data shows the PM is not doing enough. 

    Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said:

     “Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rishi Sunak keeps on telling the British people that small boat arrivals are coming down and his promise to stop the boats remains on track.” 

    Kinnock added:

     “It’s time to get a grip and restore order to the border.”

    The latest evidence of national security risks emerging comes after a pro-Palestine group attacked the manufacturing facility of defense company Teledyne Technologies in the town of Baildon. 

    X user “Palestine Action” said, “Actionists are reaching every corner of this weapons factory to bring it down for Palestine!”

    The pro-Palestine group has called for attacks on at least one Western defense company. These firms are essential for providing technologies to enhance national security across the West. 

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    There is no word if the attackers were migrants/or citizens. At least one appeared foreign-looking… 

    “The site produces components for missiles and F-35 fighter jets used by the Israeli military to commit genocide in Gaza,” the group said. 

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    Across the Atlantic, the Biden administration’s disastrous open southern borders have allowed ten million migrants from around the world into the country – many of whom are unvetted. There have already been reports of known terrorists caught by federal agencies and continued reports of at least one Iranian assassin hunting current and former senior US officials.  

    The incident at the Teledyne factory won’t likely be the last attack on the West’s defense companies as the result of open southern borders allows the enemy to attack from deep within. 

    The West is compromised – the chaos is only beginning.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 18:40

  • Judge Rejects Trump's Request To Delay 'Hush Money' Case Based On Presidential Immunity
    Judge Rejects Trump’s Request To Delay ‘Hush Money’ Case Based On Presidential Immunity

    Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times,

    New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on April 3 denied former President Donald Trump’s latest request to delay his upcoming trial, based on a presidential immunity defense that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court 10 days after the Manhattan trial begins.

    “Defendant’s motion is DENIED in its entirety as untimely,” the judge wrote.

    “The Court declines to consider whether the doctrine of presidential immunity precludes the introduction of evidence of purported official presidential acts in a criminal proceeding.”

    The defense also argued that the prosecution’s evidence related to President Trump’s official acts should be excluded based on presidential immunity, which the judge rejected.

    In Manhattan, the district attorney is prosecuting President Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records, alleging a payment scheme to kill unfavorable news stories to influence the 2016 elections.

    Trial will begin with jury selection on April 15, and in recent weeks the defense has made several requests to delay the trial, citing among other things a late discovery production of more than 100,000 pages.

    On March 25, the judge delayed trial until April 15 because of the late evidence produced, but has criticized the defense for “repeatedly” seeking delays in recent orders.

    The defense has another motion to delay the trial still before the judge, this one arguing that the sheer publicity surrounding the case would prevent President Trump from being able to seat an impartial jury.

    ‘Timeliness’

    The judge explained he decided against delaying the trial based on “timeliness,” describing the defense’s arguments as “excuses.”

    “In reviewing the excuses proffered by the Defendant for the timing of his motion, this Court finds that they are inadequate and not convincing,” he wrote.

    Justice Merchan found that the prosecutors had outlined the evidence they intended to show at trial in February, and wrote the defense should have raised the presidential immunity objections at that time, not with days to trial.

    “The Defendant had ample notice that the People were in possession of, and intended to use, the various statements allegedly made by Defendant on social media, in public, and in various interviews,” the judge wrote. “He was also well aware that the defense of presidential immunity, even if unsuccessful, might be available to him.”

    The judge noted that the defense had touched on presidential immunity last year in an attempt to move the case to federal court, yet did not argue it. He said the timing of the new motion “raises real questions about the sincerity and actual purpose of the motion.”

    “The circumstances, viewed as a whole, test this Court’s credulity,” he wrote, finding that the defense had “myriad opportunities” to raise this defense earlier.

    ‘Pressure Campaign’

    In arguing presidential immunity, the defense had also renewed arguments to exclude or otherwise counter evidence prosecutors intend to show regarding a “pressure campaign” they allege President Trump exerted over the star witness.

    Michael Cohen, formerly a personal attorney to President Trump, had made public claims that he paid off an adult actress alleging an affair with President Trump in order to keep the story out of the news. He claimed President Trump falsified business records to pay him for these alleged bribes, and prosecutors argue that the claims and case were not brought until well after the alleged payments because of this “pressure campaign.”

    The judge had rejected defense efforts to block Mr. Cohen from testifying, but the defense argued that they should be allowed to claim at trial that Mr. Cohen has never shied away from speaking about President Trump and would not have caved to the alleged “pressure.”

    Presidential Immunity

    Separately, special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting President Trump on four counts of conspiracy and obstruction for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

    Originally scheduled for a March trial, the case has ended up before the Supreme Court with an April 25 hearing on the defense of presidential immunity.

    Last year, defense attorneys had filed a motion to dismiss the case based on presidential immunity. The motion was rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in December, and the defense appealed the decision.

    An appeals panel accepted and heard the appeal on an expedited schedule, and then issued the unusual decision that the court would not allow a stay in the event of a rehearing by the appeals court. It gave President Trump a six-day deadline to seek review from the Supreme Court.

    President Trump applied for a stay from the Supreme Court, which the court dismissed, instead granting the special counsel’s request to treat the application as a request for review and scheduled an April hearing.

    The arguments will be limited to applications of presidential immunity as it relates to official acts in criminal prosecutions.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 18:20

  • Top US Egg Supplier "Temporarily Ceases" Operations At Texas Plant After Bird Flu Outbreak 
    Top US Egg Supplier “Temporarily Ceases” Operations At Texas Plant After Bird Flu Outbreak 

    The largest egg producer in the US has temporarily halted production at one of its facilities after bird flu—also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI—was detected. 

    Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. wrote in a press release that HPAI was detected at “one of the Company’s facilities located in Parmer County, Texas, resulting in depopulation of approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets, or approximately 3.6% of the Company’s total flock.” 

    “Production at the facility has temporarily ceased as the Company follows the protocols prescribed by the USDA. Cal-Maine Foods is working to secure production from other facilities to minimize disruption to its customers,” the company said. 

    Bloomberg said this is the “biggest bird flu casualty” since early December when 2.6 million birds were culled at a commercial egg farm in Ohio after HPAI was found. Cal-Maine also had a Kansas farm cull 684,000 hens the same month.

    In a mid-March note, we pointed out that data from USDA showed that Grade A egg prices at the supermarket were soaring again. 

    Unlink the previous HPAI outbreak in 2022. There are reports the virus is spreading in dairy cattle herds – and even infecting humans. This raises significant concerns about the potential impact on the food supply chain. 

    Infected Texas dairy cattle are experiencing decreased lactation and low appetite, with older cows more likely to be severely impacted. Some herds have reported pneumonia and clinical mastitis — an inflammatory disease — the Texas Animal Health Commission said by email. Most animals seem to recover in as many as two weeks with supported care, albeit with reduced milk production levels.

    Some cows may never see their milk production recover to pre-infection levels, in which case they might be culled, according to a HighGround Dairy report Monday. “The longer-term impact on supply is not entirely clear, as farmers are trying to maintain herd inventories in a time of tight cattle supplies,” it said. –Bloomberg

    There have yet to be any reports that the virus has spread to beef herds, where the US cattle herd is at seven-decade lows, and supermarket prices are at record highs. 

    Dave Kurzawski, an analyst at StoneX Group Inc., mentioned in a note to clients that discussions are happening about possible consumer demand risks for dairy products. He further said that significant risks are present, and the effect of the illness on consumer purchasing patterns remains uncertain. 

    The US food supply chain faces yet another challenge, as mysterious fires have hit food processing plants in recent years. Additionally, billionaire activists in the WEF cult advocate for a ‘reset’ in the global food supply chain, moving from beef, dairy, and chicken towards plant-based and insect-based foods. 

    Meanwhile, billionaires like Bill Gates have been quietly purchasing America’s farmland. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 18:00

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Apr 03

Today’s News 3rd April 2024

  • Every NATO Country Already Has Troops In Ukraine, Estonia Says
    Every NATO Country Already Has Troops In Ukraine, Estonia Says

    Estonia has long been no friend of Russia, and a leading anti-Moscow hawkish voice within the Baltics, and that’s why a fresh interview by Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur in European media is raising eyebrows as he issued some very revealing statements.

    The defense chief said in the interview with the Austrian newspaper Die Presse that all NATO countries already have NATO personnel stationed in Ukraine, but that they aren’t directly engaged in hostilities as they are there in advisory roles. He was responding to recent provocative statements by France’s Macron.

    “The reality is that every NATO member country already has military personnel in Ukraine, such as military attaches or people who travel to Ukraine from time to time,” the Estonian defense chief said. “What [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron said mainly related to personnel training,” he added, according to a translation in Russian media.

    Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur (right) with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Image via: Estonian MoD

    Starting in late February Macron had told a gathering of top defense officials in Paris that Western boots on the ground in Ukraine should be an option as “we cannot exclude anything” in the pursuit of preventing Russia from winning the war.

    Still, in the interview Pevkur emphasized that currently there’s no serious talk of NATO troops directly participating in fighting and that “this has already been ruled out.”

    However, he did preview a very dangerous potential plan which would certainly lead to escalation: “Western defense officials are currently planning to set up training camps in Ukraine in a bid to avoid issues with border crossings and to speed up the preparation process,” Pevkur said to the Vienna-based publication.

    Already, Moscow has accused France of having significant numbers of its Foreign Legion present on the front lines. Russia has said it has attacked their positions in places like Kharkiv.

    Some European leaders have revealed information in the recent past which shows Defense Minister Pevkur’s words to be accurate.

    For example in February British Prime Minister Sunak’s office said that the UK is not planning a “large-scale deployment of troops” in Ukraine… “Other than a small number of personnel who are in the country supporting the Ukrainian armed forces, we have no plans for a large-scale deployment.”

    Dangerously, this shows that little by little, inch by inch, nuclear armed superpowers are at this rate continuously moving toward direct conflict in Ukraine. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 02:45

  • Escobar: The Sahel's 'Axis Of Resistance'
    Escobar: The Sahel’s ‘Axis Of Resistance’

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

    The African Sahel is revolting against western neocolonialism – ejecting foreign troops and bases, devising alternative currencies, and challenging the old multinationals. Multipolarity, after all, cannot flower without resistance paving its path…

    The emergence of Axes of Resistance in various geographies is an inextricable byproduct of the long and winding process leading us toward a multipolar world. These two things – resistance to the Hegemon and the emergence of multipolarity – are absolutely complementary. 

    The Axis of Resistance in West Asia – across Arab and Muslim states – now finds as its soul sister the Axis of Resistance spanning the Sahel in Africa, west to east, from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea. 

    Unlike Niger, where the change in power against neocolonialism was associated with a military coup, in Senegal, the power change comes straight from the polls. 

    Senegal plunged itself into a new era with the landslide victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, in nationwide elections on 24 March. A former tax inspector who had just spent a fortnight stint in jail, Faye emerged with the profile of an underdog pan-African leader to turn the ‘most stable democracy in Africa,’ under French puppet incumbent Macky Sall, upside down. 

    The incoming Senegalese president now joins Ibrahim Traore, 36, in Burkina Faso, Aby Ahmed, 46, in Ethiopia, Andry Rajoelina, 48, in Madagascar, as well as future superstar Julius Malema, 44, in South Africa as part of the new, young pan-African generation focused on sovereignty. In his election manifesto, Faye pledged to reclaim Senegal’s sovereignty no less than eighteen times.  

    Geoeconomics is key to these shifts. As Senegal becomes a substantial oil and gas producer, Faye will aim to renegotiate mining and energy contracts, including the largest ones with British Petroleum (BP) and UK gold mine operator, Endeavor Mining. 

    Crucially, he plans to ditch the exploitative CFA franc – the French-controlled currency system used in 14 African states – even setting up a new currency as part of reshaping relations with neocolonial power France, Senegal’s top trading partner. Faye, echoing Comrade Xi Jinping, wants a “win-win” partnership. 

    African Sahel states

    Enter the Alliance of the Sahel States

    Faye has not yet been clear on whether he intends to kick the French military out of Senegal. Were that to happen, the blow to Paris would be unprecedented, as embattled Petit Roi Emmanuel Macron and the French establishment consider Senegal the key player when it comes to blockading landlocked Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, which have already left Paris in the (Sahel) dust.  

    The three latter states, which have just formed an Alliance of the Sahel States (Alliance des Etats du Sahel, AES, in the original French), are not only a major Paris nightmare after serial humiliations but also a big American headache – epitomized in the spectacular breakdown of military cooperation between Washington and Nigerien capital Niamey. 

    The culprit, according to the US Deep State, is, of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

    Obviously, no one in the US Beltway has been paying due attention to the Russia–Africa diplomatic flurry since last year, involving all key players from the Sahel to the new African BRICS members Egypt and Ethiopia.

    In sharp contrast to its prior regard of Niger as a staunch ally in the Sahel, Washington is now forced to present a calendar date to get its troops out of Niger – after a military cooperation deal was annulled. The Pentagon cannot be involved in military training in Nigerien territory anymore.

    There are two key bases – in Agadez and Niamey – which the Pentagon spent over $150 million to build. Niamey was finished only in 2019 and is managed by the US military’s African Command, AFRICOM.

    Operational objectives are, predictably, shrouded in mystery. The Niamey base is essentially an intel center, processing data collected by MQ-9 Reaper drones. The US Air Force also uses the Dirkou Aerodrome as a base for operations in the Sahel.

    Now things get really exciting, because the presence of a de facto CIA drone base in Dirkou, manned by a handful of operatives, is not even acknowledged. This dark base allows intel collection everywhere in Central Africa, from west to north. Call it another classic example of former CIA director Mike Pompeo’s “We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal.”

    There are roughly 1,000 US troops in Niger who may soon face ejection. The Americans are trying everything to stem the bleeding. Only this month, US Undersecretary of State for Africa Molly Phee visited Niger twice. Losing bases in Niger will translate into Washington following Paris in losing control of the Sahel – as Niger gets closer to Russia and Iran. 

    These bases are not essential to exercise surveillance over the Bab al-Mandeb; it’s all about the Sahel, with drones operating on their limit and violating every sovereign air space in sight. 

    Incidentally, a hefty delegation from Niamey visited Moscow in January. Then, last week, Putin discussed security cooperation in phone calls with Mali’s interim President, Assimi Goita, and Niger’s military junta President Abdourahmane Tchiani before talking to the Republic of Congo’s President Denis Nguesso. 

    Ivory Coast: The Empire turn-around

    Pro-west puppet regimes are dwindling fast all across the African continent. The Alliance of the Sahel States – Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – may be the vanguard of an African Axis of Resistance, but there’s more, in the form of South Africa, Ethiopia, and Egypt as full BRICS members – not to mention serious candidates for the next wave of BRICS+, such as Algeria and Nigeria.  

    Russia, diplomatically, and China, commercially, plus the full weight of the Russia–China strategic partnership, are clearly focused on the long game – counting on Africa as a whole as a key multipolar player. Additional evidence was provided once again during the multipolar conference last month in Moscow, where charismatic pan-African leader Kemi Seba from Benin was one of the superstars. 

    Pan-Eurasian diplomatic circles even allow themselves to joke about the recent hissy fits by Le Petit Roi in Paris. The utter humiliation of France in the Sahel is likely one of the drivers of Macron’s chest-thumping threats to send French troops to Ukraine – who would be turned into steak tartare by the Russians in record time – and his eagerness to support Armenia’s current Russophobic stunts.

    Historically, the fact remains, that Africans considered the former USSR much more pliable and even supportive when it came to siphoning natural resources; that goodwill has now also been transferred to China. 

    As a regional integration platform, the Alliance of the Sahel States has everything it takes to become a game-changer. Senegal under Faye may eventually join, but Guinea already offers the geographical capacity to provide the alliance with credible maritime access. That will lead to the progressive extinction of the western-controlled, Nigeria-based ECOWAS. 

    Yet, never dismiss the Hegemon’s mighty tentacles. The Pentagon master plan does not entail abandoning Africa to a multipolar Russia–China–Iran sphere of influence. Yet no one across the Sahel’s Axis of Resistance buys the US ‘terror threat’ card anymore. There was virtually zero terror in Africa until 2011, when NATO turned Libya into a wasteland, then put boots on the ground and erected military bases across the continent.

    So far, the Alliance of the Sahel States is winning the sovereignty-first information war, hands-down. But there’s no question the Empire will strike back. After all, the whole game is tied to the Beltway’s supreme paranoia of Russia taking over the Sahel and Central Africa. 

    Enter the Ivory Coast, now that Senegal may be about to start flirting with the Alliance of the Sahel States. 

    Ivory Coast is more strategic to Washington than, for instance, Chad because Ivorian territory is very close to the Sahel alliance. Still, Chad has already recalibrated its foreign policy, which is no longer Western-controlled and comes with a new emphasis on getting closer to Moscow. 

    What lies ahead for Empire? Perhaps US ‘anti-terror’ drones shared with Paris at the French base in the Ivory Coast to keep the Sahel alliance in check. Call it the humiliated Gallic rooster embracing the Hegemon in West Africa without receiving even the crumbs of a stale croissant.  

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/03/2024 – 02:00

  • Leaked Files From Transgender Association 'Shocking' And 'Horrific' Admission, Critics Say
    Leaked Files From Transgender Association ‘Shocking’ And ‘Horrific’ Admission, Critics Say

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A leaked video and documents exposing the inner workings of the organization responsible for setting the so-called “standards of care” for gender transition treatments and surgeries on children is a “shocking” and “horrific” admission, critics say.

    In a file photo, a detransitioner looks at a letter from her former doctor who authorized a double mastectomy for transitioning into a male, at her home on Nov. 1, 2022. The woman now regrets the procedure. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    The leaked files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—better known as WPATH—reveal “widespread medical malpractice on children and vulnerable adults,” according to a 241-page report disclosing emails, documents, and an 82-minute video.

    Environmental Progress, a nonprofit organization led by founder and president Michael Shellenberger that obtained the files, released them to the public in an exposé on March 4.

    “The WPATH Files show that what is called ‘gender medicine’ is neither science nor medicine,” Mr. Shellenberger said in a statement. “The experiments are not randomized, double-blind, or controlled. It’s not medicine since the first rule is to do no harm. And that requires informed consent.”

    The files are “a shocking admission” by WPATH doctors and other medical practitioners privately acknowledging they’re not getting proper informed consent from parents and children before proceeding with gender transition treatments and surgeries, prominent civil rights attorney Harmeet Dhillon told The Epoch Times.

    Ms. Dhillon, the founder and CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which is representing several women who’ve allegedly suffered harm and irreversible damage as a result of WPATH’s recommendations of transgender surgery for gender dysphoric children and young adults, called the exposé “an important act of journalism.”

    “These leaked files show that behind closed doors, WPATH members are admitting to the fact that they’re not getting informed consent for hormonal and surgical interventions from young patients, which is the very premise of our litigation for young women who’ve been mutilated by these doctors when they were children,” she said.

    The Center for American Liberty has taken on three pro-bono cases representing detransitioners Chole Cole, Layla Jane, and Luka Hein, who are suing Kaiser Permanente and doctors who performed double mastectomies on these young women.

    The Report

    WPATH advocates for children to have access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to alter their body according to their gender identity, according to the report. This suggests that children should be able to understand the full ramifications of these drugs and procedures, and that their parents can provide informed consent.

    “But while WPATH publicly supports minors and their families consenting to these hormonal and surgical treatments based on a nebulous inner sense of self, privately, some members admit that consent is not possible,” states the report. “Behind closed doors, WPATH-affiliated healthcare professionals confess that their practices are based on improvisation, that children cannot comprehend them, and that the consent process is not ethical.”

    Michael Shellenberger, founder and president of nonprofit organization Environmental Progress, in a file photo. (The Epoch Times)

    In video footage of an internal WPATH panel, Dianne Berg, a child psychologist, said experts wouldn’t expect children and youth to fully understand the effects of transgender procedures, because it is “out of their developmental range to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them,” according to the report.

    “What really disturbs me is when the parents can’t tell me what they need to know about a medical intervention that apparently they signed off for,” said Ms. Berg. She suggested encouraging patients to ask questions and offering a “real informed consent process” rather than what was happening, which is “not what we need to be doing ethically.”

    Jamison Green, an activist and former WPATH president, told the panel that sometimes patients avoid learning important information about procedures out of fear, saying, “People also are afraid many times about surgery, and so they can read other people’s descriptions about surgery, and they’ll miss details, or they’ll miss the most important piece of information for them simply because they’re afraid to read it.”

    Dr. Daniel Metzger, a Canadian endocrinologist, said gender doctors are “often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school yet,” adding that even adults have limited knowledge of many of these medical interventions.

    WPATH guidance states that doctors must inform patients about “the potential loss of fertility and available options to preserve fertility.”

    But Dr. Metzger told the panel that “it’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old, but I know I’m talking to a blank wall. … Most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of a brain space to really talk about [fertility preservation] in a serious way.”

    Less than week after Environmental Progress released the WPATH Files publicly, Britain’s National Health Service stopped the use of puberty blockers on children. NHS England said, “We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of [puberty suppressing hormones] to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”

    Meanwhile, other European countries, such as Sweden, Finland, Norway, and France are also growing increasingly skeptical of what supporters call the “gender-affirmation model.”

    ‘They’re Doing It Anyway’

    Informed consent is a well-known pre-requisite for ethical medical treatments and procedures, and yet “the so-called transgender medical community” in the U.S. continues to prescribe this “gender-affirming care” for children, Ms. Dhillon said.

    “They’re doing it anyway,” she said. “The WPATH medical practitioners are fully aware that the gender-affirming care they’re pushing is based on shaky and inadequate medical research, but they continue to push it, ignoring the growing body of scientific evidence that is distancing mainstream medicine from these procedures.”

    The leaked video also reveals that what WPATH is stating publicly is the opposite of what its members they’re saying privately, Ms. Dhillon said.

    “They know what they’re doing is wrong and that’s what they say to each other behind closed doors. They’re not getting proper informed consent. It’s not working,” she said. “We’re enabling, through WPATH’s quack medicine ideology, 9-year-olds to decide that they’re able to change their gender.”

    “Gender-affirming” doctors and politicians in California, for example, continue to push puberty blockers as a safe, effective and reversible treatments and the only way to prevent suicide among gender dysphoric youth, but the facts say otherwise, Ms. Dhillon said.

    The Center for American Liberty litigation has shed the light on the fact that puberty blockers are “absolutely permanently damaging,” she said.

    Harmeet Dhillon, founder and CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which is representing several women who’ve allegedly suffered harm and irreversible damage from transgender procedures. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    “Every day detransitioners come out and announce that they’ve been told by their doctors [they] can’t have children,” she said. “All of our clients who have this so-called ‘treatment’ have permanently altered voices. They can’t reverse that even though they stopped taking the hormones.”

    A California law even enables 12-year-old children “to run away from home and seek refuge in LGBTQ homes to emancipate themselves” to pursue medical interventions such as the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone replacement therapy, and surgery without parental consent, she said.

    “This is all being justified and underwritten by these pseudo-medical standards even when doctors privately and openly admit they don’t know all the long-term effects of “their radical procedures” or how to deal with them, she said.

    The exposé reveals a WPATH member confirming fertility and sexual pleasure could be destroyed for young patients receiving gender-affirming care, Ms. Dhillon said.

    In any other field of medicine, doctors cutting off body parts “and then saying they don’t really know what the long-term effects of that are” would be considered “completely outrageous,” but in “this sexual experimentation field,” the same standards of care don’t seem to apply, she said.

    Every doctor who knowingly lied to patients should sued for medical malpractice and exposed to put an end to these practices, she said.

    WPATH Statement

    WPATH President Dr. Marci Bowers, issued the following statement on March 5:

    “WPATH is and has always been a science- and evidence-based organization whose recommendations are widely endorsed by major medical organizations around the world. We are the professionals who best know the medical needs of trans and gender diverse individuals—and stand opposed to individuals who misrepresent and de-legitimize the diverse identities and complex needs of this population through scare tactics. The world is not flat. Gender, like genitalia, is represented by diversity. The small percentage of the population that is trans or gender diverse deserves healthcare and will never be a threat to the global gender binary.”

    Blaine Vella, executive director for WPATH stated in a memo to association members on March 5:

    “This is and will continue to be our response to any media outreach. If any of you receive inquiries from the media, we request that you do not respond, send the request to us … and our media partners will respond with the statement above.”

    WPATH did not respond to an Epoch Times request for comment about the allegations.

    A year ago, WPATH and its U.S affiliate USPATH, doubled down on gender-affirming care for minors, saying they “vehemently oppose” legislation outlawing access to gender-affirming health care to “transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people.”

    ‘A Giant Experiment’

    Erin Friday, an attorney and co-leader of Our Duty, an international group that opposes gender ideology, especially for children and young adults, told the Epoch Times the WPATH Files are an admission that gender transition procedures are “a giant experiment.”

    Ms. Friday referred to the case of a 16-year-old girl from the report who developed large tumors on her liver after taking testosterone and other medications, and an oncologist and surgeon both indicated the hormones were the likely reason for the cancer, according to the report. Many other known or potential complications and other related medical conditions were also discussed in the document, along with evidence of a lack of research.

    “[T]here have never been any properly controlled trials in the wider field of gender medicine, which also consistently lacks long-term data,” states the report.

    “Gender-affirming” doctors don’t question a patient’s comorbidities, especially in matters of mental health, even though WPATH’s recommendations state that the goal of “gender-affirming care” is to partner with transgender and gender diverse people “to holistically address their social, mental and medical health needs and well-being while respectfully affirming their gender identity,” said Ms. Friday.

    “They push aside any patient mental health issue, regardless of whether its severe schizophrenia or a dissociative disorder,” she said. “They know that these people … have severe mental health issues and they transition them anyway.”

    Erin Friday, western U.S. co-leader of Our Duty, speaks at a seminar in San Francisco on Sept. 24, 2023. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times)

    Ms. Friday, whose daughter formerly identified as transgender but has since accepted her female form, anticipates the WPATH Files will lead to congressional hearings.

    The WPATH Files reveal much more than an organization that has overstepped its bounds, she said.

    “They have admitted to medical malpractice. They have admitted to lying,” she claimed.

    Hospital boards and medical societies, Ms. Friday said, would be “well-advised” to use the leaked WPATH Files as “an off-ramp,” to move away from such harmful practices.

    Dr. Shannae Anderson, a licensed psychologist in California and Virginia who fled California nearly two years ago after her license was threatened, told The Epoch Times the WPATH Files have exposed the “horrific” agenda behind gender-affirming treatments.

    In most states, the WPATH “standards of care” are the only treatment allowed, which means puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, social transitioning, and ultimately top and bottom surgeries, Dr. Anderson said.

    “It is illegal in most states to actually offer another treatment avenue, which is crazy,” she said.

    Another “absolutely horrifying” aspect of the leaked files is WPATH’s admission “they’re conducting these radical life-altering procedures on individuals with severe mental health disorders,” she stressed.

    Dr. Anderson, now the director of psychology and co-director of ethics and advocacy for the American Association of Christian Counselors, which bills itself as the world’s largest faith-based mental health organization, said gender-affirming care policies have hamstrung therapists from being able to talk freely with patients about gender dysphoria and trampled free speech.

    But, like other critics, she expects the WPATH Files exposé will lead to congressional hearings and more litigation to restore free speech so therapists can do their jobs.

    “Psychotherapy is speech. That’s what we do. We talk,” she said. “And so when there is this ban against talking and exploring someone’s gender dysphoria, we’re not even allowed to ask questions about it or explore it.”

    WPATH doctors admitting they know children cannot give informed consent is “a huge deal,” she said.

    Dr. Anderson, a native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., confronted the board at a Conejo Valley Unified School District meeting in June, 2022, alleging that 8-year-olds were being exposed at school to sexual issues including abstract concepts like transgender ideology, which she said was beyond their level of comprehension.

    “That is actually one of the reasons why I had my license threatened in California. I spoke before a school board about how teaching children about transgender ideology is inappropriate and dangerous because they can’t begin to comprehend all that goes into a transgender identity and transformation,” she said. “And, what the WPATH files expose is that I was right, essentially, that when they undergo these gender treatments, they cannot give informed consent.”

    WPATH members acknowledged not only that children can’t grasp the scope of what’s going to happen to them with these treatments, but neither can parents, and that they’re not disclosing all the risks and dangers associated with them “because they don’t know what they are,” she said.

    There isn’t enough research to determine the long-term effects of such treatments and procedures, and the research that does exist shows that a “watch and wait” treatment is best, because the vast majority of gender dysphoric minors outgrow the condition and accept their natural bodies, she said.

    Jordan Peterson, Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, in a file photo. (The Epoch Times)

    Worst Medical Scandal in History?

    In a recent interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson, a well-known Canadian psychologist and author, Mr. Shellenberger said he was unfamiliar with WPATH at first.

    “I thought maybe people were exaggerating what was happening,” he said.

    Then, “a source or sources” gave him about 170 pages of the internal files from the discussion boards of WPATH, along with the video of WPATH leaders and members talking about some of the problems they were encountering.

    “These files put to rest any doubts anybody should have that what is happening is one of the greatest medical mistreatment scandals in human history,” he said. “It might be the worst. It’s certainly up there with lobotomies. It’s up there with the Tuskegee experiments.”

    Mr. Peterson responded, “It’s way worse than both of those.”

    The WPATH Files show “without a shadow of a doubt” that the people who are are performing these “mistreatments” are not getting informed consent, Mr. Shellenberger said.

    “And then they just sort of throw up their hands and they say, we don’t really know how to solve this problem. At no point in the video, does anybody say, ‘Hey, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this,’” he said. “There’s a basic horror to it, but then at the intellectual level, you can’t help but be slightly fascinated by these people. What is wrong with them that they’re so in the grip of an ideology that they’re doing these mistreatments and never questioning … that perhaps they shouldn’t be doing them at all.”

    Mr. Peterson referenced Dr. Ken Zucker, a psychologist whose studies showed 88 percent of 2- to 12-year-olds in two separate studies of boys and girls clinically referred as experiencing gender dysphoria—who were not socially transitioned—later reported as adolescents and young adults they no longer suffered from the condition and were comfortable with their natal genders.

    “Leave them the hell alone till they’re 18,” Mr. Peterson said. “The man who established that was Ken Zucker. He ran the best journal that dealt with childhood gender dysphoria for years up in Toronto. That was his recommendation for treatment, and the bloody radicals ran him out of business 10 years ago.”

    Now doctors are doing the opposite and are recommending the “most extreme” treatments and surgical intervention possible and telling people “that if they don’t listen, their children are going to die, that they’re going to commit suicide, which is a complete bloody lie. There was never a bit of evidence for that, not even bad evidence. It was just a lie,” he said.

    Then, they offer “this absolutely cataclysmic treatment with unimaginably dire consequences to people who don’t even understand and can’t understand what they’re agreeing to” and tell them “that’s how they’ll find their true self,” he said. “So that’s where we’re at. It’s so sickening.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 23:40

  • China Is The World Leader In Battery Recycling
    China Is The World Leader In Battery Recycling

    As many countries around the world scramble towards a green transition, a new era of electric cars is being ushered in and with it comes the need for batteries.

    While these batteries – also needed for home, industrial and grid energy storage – are being newly manufactured, Statista’s Anna Fleck reports that the market for the recycling of lithium-ion batteries is growing too, especially since it “conserves the critical minerals and other valuable materials that are used in batteries and is a more sustainable approach than disposal”, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency writes.

    Data from ACS Energy Lett cited in an article by Maria Virginia Olano on Canary Media shows how China was the leading country for this type of battery recycling in 2021, with 188,000 tons of existing and planned lithium-ion battery recycling capacity per year. It was followed by Germany and the United States, albeit with both countries lagging some way behind.

    Infographic: China Is the World Leader in Battery Recycling | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Since 2021, there have been even more plans for the expansion of lithium-ion battery recycling plants. According to researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, while the majority of lithium-ion battery recycling capacity is located in East Asia, Europe is also building capacity and could increase its recycling capacities to an estimated 400,000 tons per year by 2025.

    The extent to which policy exists on battery recycling varies greatly by country and region. For example, the European Council has now agreed to set the target for lithium recovery from waste batteries to 50 percent by 2027 and 80 percent in 2031 and has said that there will be a new rule on mandatory minimum levels of recycled content for industrial, SLI batteries and EV batteries. Olano of Canary Media argues that it’s the comparative lack of policy supporting the growth of lithium-ion battery recycling in the U.S. in past years that has held the country back in this regard, falling behind markets in Asia and Europe.

    One Bloomberg analysis says, however, that the recycling industry has “boomed too soon” in the U.S., as there are too many recycling plants and not enough discarded batteries to recycle, and “there won’t be for more than a decade”.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 23:20

  • Compassionately Communicating Life: Kristi Noem
    Compassionately Communicating Life: Kristi Noem

    Commentary by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem via RealClear Wire,

    In 2022, the pro-life movement experienced a massive victory: For the first time in 50 years, the Supreme Court returned decision-making about abortion back to the states – to the people.

    Immediately after, the left and their allies in the media eagerly continued their half-century-long disinformation campaign to confuse the American people about what the ruling actually meant. Democrats lied to the American people that abortion had now been banned entirely, that mothers receiving abortions would be prosecuted, or that back-alley abortions would suddenly become the norm.

    None of that is true.

    And in this election cycle, Democrats will once again purposefully deceive the American people on this issue. We cannot allow these blatant lies to spread and must talk about life issues with truth, compassion, and hope.

    Every pregnancy involves two lives: a mom and an unborn baby. As South Dakota’s largest healthcare provider testified to our state legislature this past February, “We recognize that each time a mother walks through our doors, we’ve been entrusted with the health of two patients: the mother and the child.”

    In my state, we showed moms we are here to help them – that they are never alone. We expanded Paid Family Leave access for state employees; provided pregnancy counseling, resources, and tips on parenting; pointed moms and families towards available financial assistance; and even offered help on adopting a child or giving a child up for adoption. We created Bright Start to match first-time moms to available nursing services during pregnancy and up until their child’s second birthday.

    There’s more to do, but South Dakota stepped up and protected mothers and their babies with significant policy prescriptions designed to address many concerns. I’m a pro-life governor, and I’m proud of what we’ve done in my state. But what we support in South Dakota may not have support in South Carolina. That’s what the Supreme Court decision actually did – turn those issues back to the people in each state so they can decide.  

    I realize many in my own party don’t want to talk about this issue. However, the national conversation about abortion will only increase as we approach the November elections. Republicans should not and cannot be afraid to defend our position to protect mothers and their babies, expose lies from the left, and go on offense to expose the radical left’s extreme position on abortion.

    The radical left claims “abortion access is being restricted,” but more abortions took place in 2023 after the Supreme Court decision than in the years prior. The left says pro-life laws will lead to higher maternal mortality, but maternal mortality actually dropped by 60% in South Dakota in the first full year after the Court’s ruling. We have to expose that every Democrat in the U.S. Senate voted to allow abortion at any time, for any reason, right up until the moment of birth, and they demanded that you pay for it. Polling by Rasmussen shows a vast majority, 86% of the American people, reject the Democratic Party’s position.

    A majority of the people clearly agree with us on this issue and many others facing America.

    It’s bad enough that Democrats can’t define what a “woman” is – they also continue to belittle us by portraying women as single-issue voters who only care about abortion. The fact is only 16% of women in Michigan – a key swing state in the upcoming election – are single-issue abortion voters. While abortion will undoubtedly be an issue in the 2024 elections, polls show women care more about how illegal immigration is making them less safe in their communities, how persistent high gas and food prices cause them to struggle to take care of their families, and how America’s decline on the world stage will shape their kids’ future.

    Simply put, the America First Conservative policies are proven to be successful – and represent the best hope for a healthy, happy, and prosperous life for Americans who are born and unborn. This is the fight, and if we’re going to win hearts and minds, we can’t be afraid to enter the ring.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 23:00

  • The Increasing Prevalence Of Autism
    The Increasing Prevalence Of Autism

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of autism among U.S. children has risen significantly in recent years.

    As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, while 6.7 in 1,000 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2000, that number had risen to 27.6 in 1,000 children by 2020.

    This means that currently 1 in 36 children in the U.S. get diagnosed with ASD, up from 1 in 150 children 20 years ago.

    Infographic: The Rising Prevalence of Autism | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    The reasons for this increase in prevalence are not fully understood and likely complex.

    Some possible factors that have been proposed include better awareness and screening for autism, changes in diagnostic criteria and environmental or genetic factors.

    …ask RFK Jr what he thinks!

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    Regardless of the reasons, this rise in the number of children with autism highlights the importance of early identification and intervention to help children with ASD reach their full potential.

    In recent years, major progress has been made in increasing awareness and acceptance of autism. Thanks to that progress, many people are now aware that autism spectrum disorders are a very diverse group of conditions, that go far beyond the often-stereotypical depictions of autism in film and television. According to the World Health Organization, autism spectrum disorders are “characterized by some degree of difficulty with social interaction and communication. Other characteristics are atypical patterns of activities and behaviours, such as difficulty with transition from one activity to another, a focus on details and unusual reactions to sensations.”

    This year’s World Autism Awareness Day, celebrated today, April 2, gives autistic people from all around the world the chance to share their perspective on how different societies are dealing with autism spectrum disorder. “Moving from Surviving to Thriving: Autistic individuals share regional perspectives” is the motto of this year’s observance, organized by the United Nations Department of Global Communications in collaboration with the Institute of Neurodiversity (ION), an organization established and run by neurodivergent people for neurodivergent people and allies.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 22:40

  • White House Does Not Mention 'Transgender Day Of Visibility' on Spanish-Language Accounts
    White House Does Not Mention ‘Transgender Day Of Visibility’ on Spanish-Language Accounts

    Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

    In yet another display of selective pandering and political hypocrisy, the Biden Administration notably did not make any mention of “Transgender Day of Visibility” on its Spanish-language social media accounts, instead only referring to it on the normal English-language accounts.

    As reported by the Daily Caller, the “Transgender Day of Visibility” was announced by the Biden White House to be on the same day as Easter Sunday, March 31st, a move that sparked widespread backlash and ridicule. While the White House’s X and Facebook accounts posted about it on Sunday, the Spanish-language versions, “La Casa Blanca,” made no such mentions of the new holiday.

    However, both the English- and Spanish-language accounts did make posts commemorating Easter itself.

    When White House spokesman Andrew Bates was asked about the discrepancy, he dodged the question completely and instead tried to turn it back around on conservative media.

    “That’s the case with most tweets from the English language account,” said Bates.

    “We’re grateful that FOX agrees with President Biden about recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, having previously tweeted, ‘Trans Day of Visibility is dedicated to celebrating transgender people. To all the transgender men, women and non-binary folx, we see you and stand with you.’”

    “As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American,” Bates said in a later statement.

    “Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.”

    The “Transgender Day of Visibility” is one of over 50 pro-LGBTQ commemorative days now recognized by the Biden Administration and multiple far-left groups.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 22:20

  • Squatters' Rights By State
    Squatters’ Rights By State

    The debate about squatters’ rights in the United States has been heating up to the point where it elicited a response from the Biden Administration this week.

    In a statement it said that it was “critical that local governments take action” and that issues over squatters’ rights were watched by the administration but considered a local issue.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, a string of high-profile squatting cases – with many centering on New York City – have made headlines recently. In February, news broke about a New York couple who had purchased a home in the suburb of Queens for long-term use of their disabled son, but was failing to evict a tenant who was a caretaker for the recently deceased former owner and had been expected to move out. However, as he had occupied the house for more than 30 days with alleged permission from the former owner, he couldn’t be easily evicted under New York City Law. In another NYC case, squatters are suspected to have killed a 52-year-old woman in March who entered her deceased mother’s apartment after having traveled from abroad to hand it over to new tenants.

    In the state as a whole, this law is not on the books. 

    Like in many states, however, New York’s squatters or adverse possession laws kick in after 10 years and allow a squatter to stake claim to a property after this time period, as seen in data published by the American Apartment Owners Association. 

    Cases of squatters earning rights in this context are rare, but not unheard of.

    In 2008, Oakland man Steven DeCaprio moved into an abandoned house in the city, fixed it up and successfully sued not only for occupancy, but for ownership in a process called adverse possession. In California, five years of continuous occupation are enough to stake a claim like DeCaprio’s but the process is arduous and includes being up to date on tax payments for the property, something that local authorities might not accept.

    Not taking into account the additional legal difficulties some claims under squatters rights face, California’s required occupancy period is one of the shortest in the country together with Montana’s.

    Infographic: Squatters' Rights by State | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Periods of seven years are on the books in Arkansas, Florida, Utah and Tennessee, even though the Florida statute will change as of July 1.

    Washington’s required period is pushed back to seven years as well if property taxes are paid and otherwise it is 10 years, like in several other states including Texas, Oregon, Arizona and South Carolina.

    New Jersey and Louisiana employ the longest periods at 30 years.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 22:00

  • Michigan Congressman Under Fire For Suggesting 'Hiroshima & Nagasaki' Solution For Gaza
    Michigan Congressman Under Fire For Suggesting ‘Hiroshima & Nagasaki’ Solution For Gaza

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) has come under fire for saying Gaza should be handled like “Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” suggesting that he was calling for a nuclear bomb to be dropped on the Strip, which could kill millions of Palestinians.

    Walberg made the comments at a town hall last week when asked about the US funding the construction of a port in Gaza, supposedly to bring in more aid. “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid,” he said. “It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.”

    Rep. Tim Walberg, via The Hill

    The genocidal comments became public when they surfaced in a video on social media. In response to the controversy, Walberg claimed he was using a “metaphor” by naming the only two cities in the world that have ever been hit with a nuclear bomb.

    “I used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harm’s way,” he claimed. “As a child who grew up in the Cold War era, the last thing I’d advocate for would be the use of nuclear weapons,” he sought to explain. 

    “My reasoning was the exact opposite of what is being reported: the quicker these wars end, the fewer innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire.”

    Israeli officials have frequently pointed to the US and Allied bombings of Germany and Japan during World War II to justify the mass killing of civilians in Gaza. Military historians say the destruction in Gaza is on par with the destruction of German cities, which are some of the most heavily bombed places in history.

    Walberg came under heavy criticism from fellow Michigan politicians for his reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including former Rep. Justin Amash, a Palestinian-American who lost family members to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.

    Amash said Walberg’s comments “evince an utter indifference to human suffering. The people of Gaza are our fellow human beings—many of them children trapped in horrific circumstances beyond their individual control.

    A video has widely circulated of Walberg’s original comments:

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    “For him to suggest that hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians should be obliterated, including my own relatives sheltering at an Orthodox Christian church, is reprehensible and indefensible,” Amash continued.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 21:40

  • White Gold: Mapping US Lithium Mines
    White Gold: Mapping US Lithium Mines

    The U.S. doubled imports of lithium-ion batteries for the third consecutive year in 2022, and with EV demand growing yearly, U.S. lithium mines must ramp up production or rely on other nations for their supply of refined lithium.

    To determine if the domestic U.S. lithium opportunity can meet demand, Visual Capitalist partnered with EnergyX to determine how much lithium sits within U.S. borders. 

    U.S. Lithium Projects

    The most crucial measure of a lithium mine’s potential is the quantity that can be extracted from the source.

    For each lithium resource, the potential volume of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) was calculated with a ratio of one metric ton of lithium producing 5.32 metric tons of LCE. Cumulatively, existing U.S. lithium projects contain 94.8 million metric tons of LCE.

     

    U.S. Lithium Opportunities, By State

     

    U.S. lithium projects mainly exist in western states, with comparatively minor opportunities in central or eastern states.

    Currently, the U.S. is sitting on a wealth of lithium that it is underutilizing. For context, in 2022, the U.S. only produced about 5,000 metric tons of LCE and imported a projected 19,000 metric tons of LCE, showing that the demand for the mineral is healthy.  

    The Next Gold Rush?

    U.S. lithium companies have the opportunity to become global leaders in lithium production and accelerate the transition to sustainable energy sources. This is particularly important as the demand for lithium is increasing every year.

    EnergyX is on a mission to meet U.S. lithium demands using groundbreaking technology that can extract 300% more lithium from a source than traditional methods.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 21:20

  • Multiple Buildings Collapse After Taiwan Hit By Strongest Quake In 25 Years, Tsunami Warning Issued
    Multiple Buildings Collapse After Taiwan Hit By Strongest Quake In 25 Years, Tsunami Warning Issued

    A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 – the strongest earthquake in 25 years to hit the island- followed by a smaller quake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck off Taiwan’s eastern coast Wednesday, according to the US Geological Survey, prompting tsunami warnings in southern Japan.

    The first quake, with a magnitude of 7.4, struck at 7:58pm ET (7:58am local time) and had an epicenter located about 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of the city of Hualien and shook buildings in the capital Taipei.

    It’s the biggest seismic event by magnitude since 1999, when the so-called 921 quake hit the island and killed more than 2,000 people, Taiwan weather authorities said during a press conference. There have been several aftershocks clustered on the island’s east coast.

    The second quake, with a magnitude of 6.5, hit 13 minutes later at 8:11pm ET, and was lcoated at almost the exact same spot as the first one: its epicenter was about 11 kilometers northeast of Hualien City.

    Hualien announced plans to shut down offices and schools Wednesday in the wake of the event. The island’s power provider, meanwhile, said nuclear power plant operations remain normal and power distribution in Taiwan had stabilized.

    People on the Chinese social platform Weibo said they felt the quake all across China, including in Shanghai and Guangdong.

    Tsunami waves reaching 1-to-3 meters were possible along some coasts of China and Taiwan, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. A tsunami warning was also issued for southwestern Japan’s Okinawa prefecture after the region was rocked by the quake.

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    Local residents were urged to evacuate from an expected tsunami of as high as 3 meters, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

    Clips posted on X showed local damage and landslides in the aftermath of the strong quake.

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    Others reported that multiple buildings had collapsed in Taiwan in the aftermath of the quake.

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    Turning to markets, the USDTWD is trading at 32.055/075, near Tuesday’s levels. Local equities are down 0.53%. New Taipei City, a satellite city outside of Taipei, has declared closure of schools and offices. Local equities and FX market remains will continue to operate.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 21:00

  • The Weaponization Of The Secret Service Has Put Bobby Kennedy's Life At Risk
    The Weaponization Of The Secret Service Has Put Bobby Kennedy’s Life At Risk

    Authored by Blake Fleetwood via ScheerPost.com,

    Fifty years ago last summer, I met Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    We were in a small group climbing on skis to a spectacular 14,000-foot pass in the snow-covered Chilean Andes. The light, fluffy, bottomless power is about eight feet deep on top of another eight feet of packed winter snow.

    We suddenly hear bullets ricocheting off a rock five feet away. The shots sound like someone quickly snapping his fingers. We look down the mountain; five Chilean Alpine troopers are spraying machine gun fire from their hips across a broad swath of the sloop.

    Bobby, about 15 feet in front of me, falls into the snow. I think he has been shot, and we are all goners. The shots keep cracking as the rest of us dive for cover into the deep snow. After 20 minutes of hunkering, we peer down the mountain to the stormtroopers. Bobby, the youngest of the group at 19, takes the lead as he stands waving a white handkerchief on top of a ski pole. 

    The troopers stop firing and motion for us to come down. Bobby goes up to the leader and starts talking to him. The gunman explains that there is going to be a change in the government, and they want to make sure that no one gets away. After inspecting our gear, they tell us to go on our way. 

    The army troopers, under the command of  General Augusto Pinochet, were supported with weapons and bullets supplied by the CIA. The army, with Henry Kissinger’s help and millions of U.S. dollars, was in the throes of staging a coup that, in a few weeks, would murder the democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, as well as more than 5,000 other innocent civilians. 

    This incident helped form Kennedy’s antipathy toward forever wars and other U.S. Empire-building adventures.

    We have remained foxhole friends ever since. The same courage Bobby Kennedy showed on top of that mountain pass 50 years ago when facing machine gun-toting thugs he is showing today in his long-shot 2024 presidential campaign.

    This is why I am so fearful about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being shot at again. 

    The Kennedy campaign made its fifth formal request for Secret Service protection in March, citing a 67-page report of repeated death threats, nutjob letters, two heavily armed intruders to a campaign event, an invader in Kennedy’s Cape Cod house, and another man who invaded Kennedy’s home twice in one day when Kennedy and his wife, Cheryl Hines, were at home. 

    President Biden’s decision to deny Secret Service protection to Kennedy seems to be based on political considerations and weaponizes the Secret Service by making it necessary for Kennedy to raise and spend millions of dollars each month for security. 

    Kennedy appears to fit neatly into the law governing Secret Service protection for presidential candidates. 

    Biden could be helped by forcing Kennedy to continue to pay huge sums for private protection to protect himself, his family, and his supporters. Security costs the campaign 30 cents out of each dollar raised. 

    Biden’s motive is not based on historical precedent, the threats and dangers Kennedy faces,  existing laws, or the slightest compassion for a political family that has suffered so grievously.

    If the worst happens, Joe Biden will be accountable. Historically, a president can order Secret Service protection for a candidate on his own, as could the Homeland Security secretary, currently Alejandro Mayorkas, after consultation with the Congressional Advisory Committee — the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives. For a comparison, lesser-known Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was provided protection a year before the 2012 election by then-head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.

    The law states that the president and the secretary of Homeland Security have “broad discretion” in granting protection, and they have repeatedly done so, politics aside. 

    Secret Service records recently revealed the agency’s conclusions that Kennedy is at “elevated risk for adverse attention,” and after reviewing credible armed threats against Kennedy, the agency assembled a group of eight teams ready to step in quickly after they get the go-ahead. But they never got it.

    The threat to Kennedy is particularly acute because of his controversial politics and his family history—his father, RFK, Sr., a U.S. senator and presidential candidate, and his uncle, John F., a U.S. president, were both assassinated. RFK Jr. has provoked and challenged some of the most powerful forces in our country, especially concerning the military-industrial complex, the CIA, and endless foreign wars that so enrich defense contractors.

    The perils to Kennedy arise not only because of his name but also because of the mainstream media’s relentless demonization of him. 

    Kennedy’s wife, Cheryl Hines, the lead actress in the popular TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm, accused Biden of “playing politics” with her and RFK Jr.’s safety.

    “Yesterday, an intruder climbed the fence at my home and was arrested,” Kennedy tweeted a few months ago. “After being released from police custody later in the day, he immediately returned to my home and was arrested again.”

    In September, a heavily armed man impersonating a U.S. marshal and the CIA, with loaded concealed firearms and an accomplice, was arrested after infiltrating a private event. 

    No wonder Hines is scared and worried. The Kennedy name is a lightning rod, a bright target for disturbed and demented individuals.  

    Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation, filed a Freedom of Information request and lawsuit to determine why Kennedy’s multiple requests for Secret Service protection were not answered. Finally, they obtained a trove of previously hidden emails. 

    “These documents confirm the bureaucratic and political runaround the Biden administration went through to ultimately deny Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the requested Secret Service protection,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “The Biden administration’s refusal to provide Secret Service protection to Mr. Kennedy is dangerous and vindictive.”

    According to the reports, higher-ups ordered the Secret Service not to talk to Kennedy’s private security.

    Seventy percent of voters do not want Biden or Trump. According to a January 9, 2024, Gallup poll, Kennedy’s favorability rating of 52% is higher than Biden’s (41%) and Trump’s (42%). According to an earlier Gallup poll, 63% of U.S. adults think that the major parties do “such a poor job” of representing the American people that “a third major party is needed.” This is a 7% increase from a year ago.

    Biden’s choice to deny Kennedy protection reflects insecurity, fearing Kennedy’s popularity and radical, transformative message have the potential to endanger his reelection. He might also worry that Secret Service protection will elevate Kennedy’s stature and give him a certain presidential aura as a credible contender among the media and voters. 

    For 55 years, every presidential administration has granted early protection to major candidates who requested it. The Biden administration is the sole outlier.

    If another Kennedy is killed while campaigning for president, it will be a long-lasting, traumatic stain on the American psyche that will scar the soul of our democracy for decades to come. Unfortunately, we live in violent, polarized times. The United States has surpassed 400 mass shootings in 2023, a record-breaking year in gun violence.

    The perils to any Kennedy running for office are self-evident. An assassination attempt would dredge up memories of 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr. were shot and killed, and George Wallace was gunned down and paralyzed, taking him out of the presidential race.

    The puzzling thing is that Biden has spent decades transfixed by the Kennedy mystique, tracing his interest in politics to John F. Kennedy. He was a long-time friend of JFK’s brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and has a bust of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy exhibited prominently in the Oval Office. Biden employs four members of the Kennedy family as ambassadors and special assistants. In fact, he admired RFK Sr. so much that he lifted some lines from one of his speeches without attribution in 1988. Perhaps Biden imagines himself as the Irish Catholic reincarnation of the Kennedys. Is it now possible that Biden resents Robert Kennedy Jr. for taking away that long-held dream? 

    President Biden, normally a compassionate man, knows that the Kennedy family has paid an unendurable, heartbreaking price for decades of enlightened public service. What  would Biden ever say to Ethel Kennedy, Bobby’s mother, if he were assassinated? Her husband and her brother-in-law were brutally murdered while serving their country. Two of her sons are already dead, perhaps from lingering trauma suffered from coping from their father’s so public assassination.

    What would Biden say to Cheryl Hines? What can he say to Kennedy’s six children and to any bystanders who might get shot and killed as collateral damage? In Ecuador recently, a presidential candidate was assassinated, and nine bystanders were injured. 

    The Biden administration has used various pretexts to justify its denial of protection for RFK Jr. The Advisory Committee that green lights  who gets Secret Service protection noted in its last rejection that federal protection should only be granted one year before the election. But now, seven months before the election, nothing has changed.

    Serious presidential candidates have routinely received early government protection. Senator Ted Kennedy received government protection in September 1979, 414 days before the November 1980 election. He was running against sitting president Jimmy Carter, who hated Ted Kennedy and deeply resented his attacks on him. But to his credit, considering the tragic Kennedy history, Carter knew it was his obligation and duty to protect Ted Kennedy and not weaponize the Secret Service. 

    Other examples of early Secret Service protection:

    • Sen. Barack Obama received protection 18 months, 551 days, before election day 2012, at the request of Sen. Dick Durbin.

    • Donald Trump and Ben Carson got protection in November 2015, a year before the election.

    • Herman Cain got protection almost a year before the 2012 election.

    • Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards each received protection in February 2004, nine months before the election.

    • Bob Dole was offered protection in March 1996, eight months before the election.

    • Pat Buchanan got protection in February 1996, nine months, 250 days, before the election.

    • Bill Clinton received protection in February 1992 after the New Hampshire primary, eight months before the general election.

    • Pat Robertson got it in December 1987, about 11 months before the election, before any of the 1988 primaries.

    • Jesse Jackson got protection in November, a year before the 1988 election.

    • Walter Mondale got protection nine months before the 1984 election.

    • Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney all received protection in February and March 2012, about 10 months before Election Day

    • Sen. Walter Mondale got protection in January 1984, 10 months before the election.

    • Ronald Reagan got protection in January 1980, 10 months before the election.

    To repeat: It is less than seven months before the Presidential election in November, and Kennedy still has not gotten the protection he and his family need and deserve. Nikki Haley, asked for Secret Service protection early this month because of increasing threats to her and her family. The Secret Service agreed to her request, even though she is no longer in the race.

    Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is outraged at the treatment that RFK Jr. has gotten, asking, “How do you address the fact that previous major presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carlson, Barack Obama, and Senator Ted Kennedy, received Secret Service protection well over 120 days before the general election?” He also said, “I ask you to act swiftly to provide this major presidential candidate the protection that his exceptional circumstances so clearly warrant.”

    Biden’s indefensible inhumane decision must be reversed before it is too late. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 21:00

  • Bring Back Gold!
    Bring Back Gold!

    Authored by Llewellyn Rockwell via LewRockwell.com,

    In these days of rampant inflation, it’s imperative that we return to the gold standard – and the real thing too.

    By this I mean the classical gold standard, not the so-called “gold exchange” standard, and with no fractional reserve banking, just as the great Murray Rothbard wanted. In what follows, I’ll discuss some of the economic issues below, but it’s important to realize that it’s a moral issue as well.

    I spoke about the difference between the classical gold standard and the fake gold standard. This might seem a technical issue, but it’s one of vital importance. Joe Salerno, the leading contemporary Austrian School authority on monetary economics and Academic Vice President of the Mises Institute, explains:

    “The historical embodiment of monetary freedom is the gold standard. The era of its greatest flourishing was not coincidentally the 19th century, the century in which classical liberal ideology reigned, a century of unprecedented material progress and peaceful relations between nations. Unfortunately, the monetary freedom represented by the gold standard, along with many other freedoms of the classical liberal era, was brought to a calamitous end by World War I.

    Also, and not so coincidentally, this was the “War to Make the World Safe for Mass Democracy,” a political system which we have all learned by now is the great enemy of freedom in all its social and economic manifestations.

    Now, it is true that the gold standard did not disappear overnight, but limped along in weakened form into the early 1930s. But this was not the pre-1914 classical gold standard, in which the actions of private citizens operating on free markets ultimately controlled the supply and value of money and governments had very little influence.

    Under this monetary system, if people in one nation demanded more money to carry out more transactions or because they were more uncertain of the future, they would export more goods and financial assets to the rest of the world, while importing less. As a result, additional gold would flow in through a surplus in the balance of payments increasing the nation’s money supply.

    Sometimes, private banks tried to inflate the money supply by issuing additional bank notes and deposits, called “fiduciary media,” promising to pay gold but unbacked by gold reserves. They lent these notes and deposits to either businesses or the government. However, as soon as the borrowers spent these additional fractional-reserve notes and deposits, domestic incomes and prices would begin to rise.

    As a result, foreigners would reduce their purchases of the nation’s exports, and domestic residents would increase their spending on the relatively cheap foreign imports. Gold would flow out of the coffers of the nation’s banks to finance the resulting trade deficit, as the excess paper notes and checks were returned to their issuers for redemption in gold.

    To check this outflow of gold reserves, which made their depositors very nervous, the banks would contract the supply of fiduciary media bringing about a monetary deflation and an ensuing depression.

    Temporarily chastened by the experience, banks would refrain from again expanding credit for a while. If the Treasury tried to issue convertible notes only partially backed by gold, as it occasionally did, it too would face these consequences and be forced to restrain its note issue within narrow bounds.

    Thus, governments and commercial banks under the gold standard did not have much influence over the money supply in the long run. The only sizable inflations that occurred during the 19th century did so during wartime when almost all belligerent nations would “go off the gold standard.” They did so in order to conceal the staggering costs of war from their citizens by printing money rather than raising taxes to pay for it.

    For example, Great Britain experienced a substantial inflation at the beginning of the 19th century during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, when it had suspended the convertibility of the British pound into gold. Likewise, the United States and the Confederate States of America both suffered a devastating hyperinflation during the War for Southern Independence, because both sides issued inconvertible Treasury notes to finance budget deficits. It is because politicians and their privileged banks were unable to tamper with and inflate a gold money that prices in the United States and in Great Britain at the close of the 19th century were roughly the same as they were at the beginning of the century.

    Within weeks of the outbreak of World War I, all belligerent nations departed from the gold standard. Needless to say by the war’s end the paper fiat currencies of all these nations were in the throes of inflations of varying degrees of severity, with the German hyperinflation that culminated in 1923 being the worst. To put their currencies back in order and to restore the public’s confidence in them, one country after another reinstituted the gold standard during the 1920s.

    Unfortunately, the new gold standard of the 1920s was fundamentally different from the classical gold standard. For one thing, under this latter version, gold coin was not used in daily transactions. In Great Britain, for example, the Bank of England would only redeem pounds in large and expensive bars of gold bullion. But gold bullion was mainly useful for financing international trade transactions.

    Other countries such as Germany and the smaller countries of Central and Eastern Europe used gold-convertible foreign currencies such as the US dollar or the pound sterling as reserves for their own domestic currencies. This was called the gold-exchange standard.

    While the US dollar was technically redeemable in honest-to-goodness gold coin, banks no longer held reserves in gold coin but in Federal Reserve notes. All gold reserves were centralized, by law, in the hands of the Fed and banks were encouraged to use Fed notes to cash checks and pay for checking and savings deposit withdrawals. This meant that very little gold coin circulated among the public in the 1920s, and residents of all nations came increasingly to view the paper IOUs of their central banks as the ultimate embodiment of the dollar, franc, pound, etc.

    This state of affairs gave governments and their central banks much greater leeway for manipulating their national money supplies. The Bank of England, for example, could expand the amount of paper claims to gold pounds through the banking system without fearing a run on its gold reserves for two reasons.

    Foreign countries on the gold exchange standard would be willing to pile up the paper pounds that flowed out of Great Britain through its balance of payments deficit and not demand immediate conversion into gold. In fact by issuing their own currency to tourists and exporters in exchange for the increasing quantities of inflated paper pounds, foreign central banks were in effect inflating their own money supplies in lock-step with the Bank of England. This drove up prices in their own countries to the inflated level attained by British prices and put an end to the British deficits.

    In effect, this system enabled countries such as Great Britain and the United States to export monetary inflation abroad and to run “a deficit without tears” — that is, a balance-of-payments deficit that does not involve a loss of gold.

    But even if gold reserves were to drain out of the vaults of the Bank of England or the Fed to foreign nations, British and US citizens would be disinclined, either by law or by custom, to put further pressure on their respective central banks to stop inflating by threatening bank runs to rid themselves of their depreciating notes and retrieve their rightful property left with the banks for safekeeping.

    Unfortunately, contemporary economists and economic historians do not grasp the fundamental difference between the hard-money classical gold standard of the 19th century and the inflationary phony gold standard of the 1920s.” See here.

    Many people think that even if 100% reserve banking is desirable as an ideal, it would never work in practice. How could banks stay in business if they couldn’t lend their checking deposits? Doesn’t the supply of money need to expand as the economy grows? Murray Rothbard demolishes these objections with characteristic force:

    “Certain standard objections have been raised against 100 percent banking and against 100 percent gold currency in particular. One generally accepted argument against any form of 100 percent banking I find particularly and strikingly curious: that under 100 percent reserves, banks would not be able to continue profitably in business. I see no reason why banks should not be able to charge their customers for their services, as do all other useful businesses. This argument points to the supposedly enormous benefits of banking; if these benefits were really so powerful, then surely the consumers would be willing to pay a service charge for them, just as they pay for traveler’s checks now. If they were not willing to pay the costs of the banking business as they pay the costs of all other industries useful to them, then that would demonstrate the advantages of banking to have been highly overrated. At any rate, there is no reason why banking should not take its chance in the free market with every other industry.

    The major objection against 100 percent gold is that this would allegedly leave the economy with an inadequate money supply. Some economists advocate a secular increase of the supply of money in accordance with some criterion: population growth, growth of volume of trade, and the like; others wish the money supply to be adjusted to provide a stable and fixed price level. In both cases, of course, the adjusting and manipulating could only be done by government. These economists have not fully absorbed the great monetary lesson of classical economics: that the supply of money essentially does not matter. Money performs its function by being a medium of exchange; any change in its supply, therefore, will simply adjust itself in the purchasing power of the money unit, that is, in the amount of other goods that money will be able to buy. An increase in the supply of money means merely that more units of money are doing the social work of exchange and therefore that the purchasing power of each unit will decline. Because of this adjustment, money, in contrast to all other useful commodities employed in production or consumption, does not confer a social benefit when its supply increases. The only reason that increased gold mining is useful, in fact, is that the large supply of gold will satisfy more of the non–monetary uses of the gold commodity.

    There is therefore never any need for a larger supply of money (aside from the non-monetary uses of gold or silver). An increased supply of money can only benefit one set of people at the expense of another set, and, as we have seen, that is precisely what happens when government or the banks inflate the money supply. And that is precisely what my proposed reform is designed to eliminate. There can, incidentally, never be an actual monetary “shortage,” since the very fact that the market has established and continues to use gold or silver as a monetary commodity shows that enough of it exists to be useful as a medium of exchange.

    The number of people, the volume of trade, and all other alleged criteria are therefore merely arbitrary and irrelevant with respect to the supply of money. And as for the ideal of the stable price level, apart from the grave flaws of deciding on a proper index, there are two points that are generally overlooked. In the first place, the very ideal of a stable price level is open to challenge. Hoarding, as we have indicated, is always attacked; and yet it is the freely expressed and desired action on the market. People often wish to increase the real value of their cash balances, or to raise the purchasing power of each dollar. There are many reasons why they might wish to do so. Why should they not have this right, as they have other rights on the free market? And yet only by their “hoarding” taking effect through lower prices can they bring about this result. Only by demanding more cash balances and thus lowering prices can the dollars assume a higher real value. I see no reason why government manipulators should be able to deprive the consuming public of this right.

    Second, if people really had an overwhelming desire for a stable price level, they would negotiate all their contracts in some agreed-upon price index. The fact that such a voluntary “tabular standard” has rarely been adopted is an apt enough commentary on those stable-price-level enthusiasts who would impose their ambitions by government coercion.

    Money, it is often said, should function as a yardstick, and therefore its value should be stabilized and fixed. Not its value, however, but its weight should be eternally fixed, as are all other weights. Its value, like all other values, should be left to the judgment, estimation and ultimate decision of every individual consumer.” See here.

    If we want a true gold standard, can we get back to it? Of course we can. The inflationary monetary policy we have today is the key to the financial elites control over us. Without it brain-dead Biden and his gang of neocon controllers couldn’t function. We must prevail, and we can prevail. As I said in 2002,

    “The power to create money is the most ominous power ever bestowed on any human being. This power is rightly criminalized when it is exercised by private individuals, and even today, everyone knows why counterfeiting is wrong and knavish. Far fewer are aware of the role of the federal government, the Fed, and the fiat dollar in making possible the largest counterfeiting operation in human history, which is called the world dollar standard. Fewer still understand the connection between this officially sanctioned criminality and the business cycle, the rise and collapse of the stock market, and the continued erosion of the value of the dollar.

    In fact, I would venture to guess that a sizeable percentage of even educated adults would be astounded to discover that the Federal Reserve does more than manage the nation’s money accounts, that, in fact, its main activity consists in actually creating money that distorts production and creates inflation and the business cycle. In fact, I would go further to suggest that many educated adults believe that gold continues to serve as the ultimate backing of our monetary system, and would be astonished to discover that our money is backed by nothing but more of itself.

    We have our work cut out for us, to be sure, mainly at the educational level. We must continue to state the obvious at every opportunity, that the fiat system is exactly what it is, a system of paper money backed by nothing of real value. We must continue to point out that because of this, our economic system is not depression proof, but rather highly vulnerable to complete meltdown. We must continue to draw attention to the only long-term solution: a complete separation of money and state based on the commodity that the market has always chosen as money, namely, gold.

    This takes us back to our original question: is the gold standard history? Is it so preposterously unrealistic to advocate it that we might as well move to on other things? It won’t surprise you that my answer is no. If there is one thing that a long-term view of politics teaches, it is that only the long-term really matters.

    There will come a time when the current money and banking system, living off credit created by a fiat money system, will be stretched beyond the limit. When it happens, attitudes will turn on a dime. No advocate of the gold standard looks forward to the crisis nor to the human suffering that will come with it. We do, however, look forward to the reassertion of economic law in the field of money and banking. When it becomes incredibly obvious that something drastic must replace the current system, new attention will be paid to the voices that have long cast aspersions on the current system and called for a restoration of sound money.

    Must a crisis lead to monetary reforms that we will like? Not necessarily, and, for that matter, a crisis is not a necessary precursor to radical reform. As Mises himself used to emphasize, political history has no predetermined course. Everything depends on the ideas that people hold about fundamental issues of human freedom and the place of government. Under the right conditions, I have no doubt that a gold standard can be completely restored, no matter how unfavorable the current environment appears towards its restoration.

    What is essential for us today is to continue the research, the writing, the advocacy for sound money, for a dollar that is as good as gold, for a monetary system that is separate from the state. It is a beautiful vision indeed, one in which the people and not the government and its connected interest groups maintain control of their money and its safe keeping.

    What has been true for hundreds of years remains true today. The clearest path to the restoration of economic health is the free market undergirded by a sound monetary system. The clearest path toward economic destruction is for us to stop working toward what is right and true.” See here.

    Let’s do everything we can to end the Fed and restore the real gold standard!

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 20:20

  • Chinese Illegal Immigrant Arrested After Sneaking Onto Marine Corps Base, Refusing To Leave
    Chinese Illegal Immigrant Arrested After Sneaking Onto Marine Corps Base, Refusing To Leave

    A Chinese national illegally in the United States was arrested last week after sneaking onto a Marine Corps base in California and refusing to leave, according to an official from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

    In a March 29 post on X, Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino confirmed that agents were called out to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California after the Chinese national entered the facility without authorization.

    “Subject was confirmed to be in the country illegally,” Bovino wrote, noting that the purpose of the incursion was still under investigation.

    That said, the Epoch Times has learned on background from CBP sources that the Chiense national tried to enter the base without authorization, and he was later transported to a nearby CBP station for further processing.

    Twentynine Palms is the largest Marine Corps base in the country.

    The breach comes amid numerous instances of Chinese nationals infiltrating US military bases over a span of several years.

    For instance, two Chinese nationals were arrested for illegally entering and taking photos at a U.S. Navy base in Florida in 2020, and a recent report by The Wall Street Journal estimates that there have been more than 100 similar incidents over the past few years.

    The head of the Border Patrol union recently warned about a sharp rise in the number of military-aged Chinese men crossing the U.S.–Mexico border illegally, which dovetails with CBP data. –Epoch Times

    According to the report, there’s been an ‘exceptionally high’ increase in the number of Chinese nationals – ‘particularly military-aged men,’ who have illegally crossed the US-Mexico border.

    Starting in February 2023, the number of single Chinese adults encountered by CBP began to rise. In February of this year, CBP agents encountered 5,455 single Chinese adults who had entered illegally – over twice the number of any other February on record.

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

    According to the Associated Press, Chinese people were the fourth most common nationality crossing the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama en route to the United States, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, and Haitians.

    Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” wrote in a recent op-ed in The Epoch Times that of the Chinese migrants making the dangerous trek north from points in Central and South America, “almost all are desperate, seeking a better life for themselves and their children.”

    “Some, however, are coming to commit acts of sabotage,” he said.

    Mr. Chang explained that many Chinese nationals fly to Ecuador, which allows them to enter visa-free. Then, they travel to the southern edge of the Darién Gap, a 66-mile stretch of jungle that separates Colombia and Panama, typically crossing on foot. Once they get to the north side, they continue their journey to the United States, often by bus, according to the China expert.

    “Some migrants are almost certainly members of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” Mr. Chang wrote. -Epoch Times

     What’s more, “These military-linked migrants, despite their affiliations, have been released into America.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 20:00

  • Another Outlandish Overreach By The CDC
    Another Outlandish Overreach By The CDC

    Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Easter weekend was lovely in every way.

    And yet I could not stop thinking about the strange manner in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has had such an outsized role in the ruination of American rights and liberties. This agency is supposed to be tracking infectious disease and finding ways out. This mandate became the leverage to allow them to impose nationwide mask mandates, a rental moratorium, a shutdown of the cruise industry, and otherwise send the whole country into fits of hysterics for two years and more.

    So it occurred to make an inquiry into how the CDC handles questions of election processes. This is rather important in a democracy. This is how we select our leaders and the central way in which we can claim that the people have some influence over the regime that rules us. It is because of elections that we can claim to be better than ancient despotisms or medieval feudalism. We rule ourselves through the vote. That’s the whole idea.

    As it turns out, the CDC had quite a large role in guiding election processes. Not that you can find the evidence on their website now. Nope, it’s all been scrubbed. However, if you look at the Wayback Machine, you can find an interesting little point. The CDC strongly recommended mail-in, absentee, and early voting as a means of disease control.

    The theory was that people gathering in a polling place would be a super-spreader event. What science did they cite to demonstrate this? None at all. So far as I know, and I’ve looked far and wide, there is not a single study anywhere that purports to show some relationship between disease spread and in-person voting. The CDC just made that up… for whatever reason.

    The day was March 12, 2020. This was the same day that President Trump went on national television in the evening to announce that there would be no more travel from the United States to Europe, the UK, and, later, Australia and New Zealand. He further said that all Americans living abroad needed to come home right away or be stuck.

    That was a pretty shocking announcement. Nothing like this had ever happened in American history, not even this broadly in wartime. It seemed to come out of nowhere, our rights to travel suddenly deleted.

    It seems that President Trump was following the advice of his scientific advisors who later turned out to be snake oil salesmen. Indeed, he seemed extremely uncomfortable making this announcement, almost like he knew that it was weird and probably unwarranted. Strange night.

    As it turns out, earlier that day, the CDC decided that the whole country really ought to be voting by mail. They went into the website and edited the page that very day and produced the following checklist.

    You can see for yourself at the Archive link. So far, the CDC has not proven itself powerful enough to scrub also its bread crumbs from the archive source, not yet in any case. The time might come. If they succeed, their role in creating the biggest voting scandal in a hundred years might never have been known by future generations.

    There is simply no way that the CDC could not have known about the uncertainties and vagaries created by absentee ballots. They are banned by half the countries in the world for that reason. Those that do allow them govern them very strictly. You have to request a ballot. They are sent to your home. You have to provide extensive identity verification. You have to have a darn good excuse. It’s only for hardship cases and never the norm.

    It was the CDC that decided to throw all that in the trash. Who even cares about the whole history of democracy, because, after all, there is a virus floating around! It’s amazing that this happened. But just as amazing is the idea of throwing out property rights, which they also did. But there it is.

    To be sure, they could not actually force this result. But they sure could grant some scientific heft behind the idea. It also helped that only 10 days later, the U.S. Congress voted $2 trillion in payments to the states, a portion of which was to implement CDC recommendations. Most states were happy to do so, again, with full knowledge that this strategy would yield results that were sketchy at best.

    As it turns out, of course, it was the mail-in ballots that might have made the difference in the election, or seemed to in any case. Everything got so much mixed up that it’s hard to say. And it’s not like people did not have warning signs of trouble. The primary season of that spring and summer yielded a slew of controversies about what was and was not true. There were more than enough controversies swirling about by the time of the general election.

    The crucial point here is that the CDC massively overstepped the bounds of its mandate by intervening in the processes by which Americans select its leaders, strongly pushing a method that was a known source of fraud. Nor has the CDC ever been held to account for this, not to my knowledge in any case.

    They were sued over the rent moratorium and the evil nationwide mask mandate. They lost both cases. But there has been no litigation against the CDC for disrupting the whole system by which we regulate elections. One might suppose that if an executive agency were to do something like this, they would have needed some permission from somebody. Surely such a gigantic change would and should require more than a low-level employee with logins to change a website text.

    Speaking of which, who actually did this and why? Aren’t these interesting questions? Why is no one asking them? Where are the investigations? Where is the outrage?

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

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 19:40

  • Attempted Suicide Rates More Than Double After Gender-Reassignment Surgery: Study
    Attempted Suicide Rates More Than Double After Gender-Reassignment Surgery: Study

    Rates of attempted suicide who identified as transgender more than doubled after receiving a vaginoplasty (surgically turning one’s dick into a vagina), according to a peer-reviewed study published in The Journal of Urology.

    (Teeradej/Shutterstock)

    The study looked at rates of psychiatric emergencies both before and after gender-altering surgery among 869 males who went under the knife, and 357 females who underwent phalloplasty (turning one’s vagina into a dick) in California between 2012 and 2018.

    While researchers found that rates of ‘psychiatric emergencies’ were high both before and after gender-altering surgery, suicide attempts were markedly higher among those who received vaginoplasties, the Epoch Times reports.

    “In fact, our observed rate of suicide attempts in the phalloplasty group is actually similar to the general population, while the vaginoplasty group’s rate is more than double that of the general population,” wrote the author of the study.

    Among the 869 patients who underwent vaginoplasty, 38 patients attempted suicide—with nine attempts before surgery, 25 after surgery, and four attempts before and after surgery. Researchers found a 1.5 percent overall risk of suicide before vaginoplasty and a 3.3 percent risk of suicide after the procedure. Almost 3 percent of those who attempted suicide after undergoing vaginoplasty did not present with a risk of suicide prior to surgery.

    Among the 357 biologically female patients who underwent phalloplasty, there were six suicide attempts with a 0.8 percent risk of suicide before and after surgery. -Epoch Times

    Aside from suicide attempts, the study found that the proportion of those who experienced an emergency room and inpatient psychiatric encounter was similar between the two groups – with 22.2% of vaginoplasty and 20.7% of phalloplasty groups experiencing at least one psychiatric encounter.

    According to the study, 33.9% of biological males undergoing vaginopasty would experience a post-surgery psychiatric encounter vs. 26.5% for biological women who underwent phalloplasty, if an episode had occurred before surgery.

    That’s a lot.

    As the Epoch Times notes further:

    Suicide Rate 19-Fold Higher

    In an interview with The Epoch Times, Dr. Alfonso Oliva, a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said research into the psychiatric outcomes and long-term follow-up of those who have sex-reassignment surgery is lacking, but an important paper is worth mentioning. In a 2011 paper published in PLOS ONE, researchers found that people who underwent sex reassignment surgery had substantially higher rates of overall mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity compared with the general population.

    “It’s hard to refute this paper because it’s a longitudinal study,” Dr. Oliva said. “In Sweden, everyone is in a database, and through diagnosis codes, they’re able to follow what happens to every citizen in terms of their medical history. They waited more than 10 years after people had surgery and found that death by suicide had an adjusted hazard ratio of 19.1.”

    You can “quibble” about emergency room encounters, but this study shows that for patients who had transgender surgery, their suicide rate after 10 years was 19-fold higher than the general population, Dr. Oliva said. Additionally, the study excluded people with psychiatric illnesses, so these are individuals thought to have no psychiatric illness outside of dysphoria. 

    Surgical Procedures

    A phalloplasty is a multistep process undertaken by a biological female who wants to transition to a male, where a penis is created using tissues from the genitals and forearm or thigh. The external genitals, such as the labia or outer labia, are used to create a scrotum, and testicular implants are inserted months later along with an implant that will cause erections.

    Vaginoplasty is the most commonly performed gender-reassignment surgery for those with gender dysphoria, with more than 3,000 procedures performed annually. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, vaginoplasty is a surgical procedure that involves removing the penis, testicles, and scrotum to create a vulva and functional vagina. Surgeons typically create a vaginal canal using the skin surrounding the existing penis and scrotum or by using a skin graft from the abdomen or thigh.

    A penial inversion is the most commonly performed procedure where the skin is removed from the penis and inverted to form a pouch that is inserted into the vaginal cavity created between the urethra and the rectum. Surgeons then partially remove, shorten, and reposition the urethra and create a labia majora, labia minora, and clitoris.

    Another surgical method involves using a robotic system that enables surgeons to reach into the body through a small incision in the belly button to create a vaginal canal. The type of vaginoplasty performed varies among patients. For example, younger patients who have never experienced puberty may have insufficient penile skin to do a standard penile inversion.

    “When you take a child who’s about to undergo puberty—and they suggest giving puberty blockers to stop puberty at age 10 to 11 1/2—and when you do that for little boys, they aren’t able to get tissue from the penis and scrotum, so creating a vagina is very difficult,” Dr. Oliva told The Epoch Times. “You have to use tissue from other areas of the body, such as the peritoneum or the colon. Some researchers in Brazil are actually looking into using tilapia fish,” he added.

    After a vaginoplasty is performed, the recovery process is extensive and vaginal dilation must be performed at varying intervals throughout the patient’s life.

    Vaginoplasty Associated With Serious Risks

    In addition to an increased risk of suicide, vaginoplasty is associated with numerous physical complications, including wound separation, vaginal stenosis, hematoma, rectovaginal fistulas, granulation tissue, bleeding, infection, skin or clitoral necrosis, suture line dehiscence (when the surgical incision opens), urinary retention or vaginal prolapse.

    According to a 2021 paper in the International Brazilian Journal of Urology, a rectovaginal fistula is the “most devastating complication” of a vaginoplasty that can occur “despite careful technique” and without obvious injury to the rectum.

    A rectovaginal fistula is an abnormal connection between the rectum and vagina that can cause fecal incontinence, hygiene issues, vaginal or anal irritation, and potentially life-threatening abscesses and fistula recurrence.

    A 2021 review in Andrology found that rates of complications following penile inversion vaginoplasty ranged from 20 to 70 percent, with most of the complications occurring during the first four months following the procedure.

    In a 2018 Clinical Anatomy review and meta-analysis, researchers reviewed 125 articles to assess neovaginal complications following surgery. After selecting 13 studies that included 1,684 patients, they found a complication rate of 32 percent, with a reoperation rate of 22 percent for non-esthetic reasons.

    “For cosmetic surgery, if the complication rate was more than 2 percent to 3 percent, you wouldn’t have any patients,” Dr. Oliva told The Epoch Times. “These are very high percentage rates that we just accept.”

    Dr. Oliva said complications with these surgical procedures are very high and he thinks this is why suicide rates are so high.

    “People think this is going to solve the problem and it doesn’t,” he said.

    A June 2018 paper on postoperative outcomes of 117 patients who underwent vaginoplasty published in the Journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that 26 percent of patients experienced granulation tissue, 20 percent had intravaginal scarring, and 20 percent experienced prolonged pain.

    In a 2017 paper published in The Journal of Urology, researchers followed patients who underwent penile inversion vaginoplasty. Of 330 patients, 95 (29 percent), presented with postoperative complications. Three of those patients developed a rectoneovaginal fistula, and 30 patients required a second operation.

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    In a 2016 study published in Urology, researchers retrospectively reviewed clinical records of 69 patients who underwent vaginoplasty from January 2005 to January 2015. Although complications during surgery were not reported, 22 percent of patients experienced major postoperative complications.

    “We’ve been transitioning adults in the United States since 2007, but where’s the data from gender identity clinics? Why is nothing published in the United States about long-term function? Why do we have nothing published on sexual function? We should be able to follow that and should be studying it and we’re not,” Dr. Oliva told The Epoch Times. 

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 19:20

  • Biden Administration Acknowledges "Challenge" With New Truck Emissions Rule
    Biden Administration Acknowledges “Challenge” With New Truck Emissions Rule

    By John Gallagher of FreightWaves,

    The Biden administration acknowledged that its aggressive push to decarbonize trucking will be costly — but that the federal government will be here to help.

    “The overarching challenge is aligning the market-driven desire from fleets to adopt zero-emission freight vehicles with the resources required to make it successful, and right now, they cost more,” said Gabe Klein, executive director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.

    Speaking to NPR before the release on Friday of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new phase-three truck emissions rule, Klein said that “cost parity” has yet to be reached that would make electric trucks as affordable. A new Class 8 diesel truck costs roughly $180,000 compared with up to $400,000 for a battery-electric truck, according to estimates.

    “That’s why the federal government is providing subsidies, to bring it down closer to cost parity,” he said. “I will also say the charging infrastructure is of course a limiting factor. So we need to make sure everybody has access, not just the big fleets and companies.”

    EPA’s “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3” final rule, which applies to model years 2027 through 2032, avoids 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions — equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline, according to the agency. EPA also estimated $13 billion in annualized public health benefits.

    “In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest working vehicles on the road,” commented EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA’s strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector.”

    Timelines loosened

    According to the rule’s preamble, the new standards for heavy-duty trucks include less stringent standards for all vehicle categories in model years (MY) 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 than had been originally proposed last year.

    In addition, while emissions standards for sleeper cabs in the final rule begin in MY2030 as proposed, they are less stringent for that year and for MY2031. However, they are equivalent in stringency to what EPA had proposed for MY2032, the preamble notes.

    While placating environmental groups, much of the trucking firmly opposes the rule despite adjustments made to the final rule.

    “The post-2030 targets remain entirely unachievable given the current state of zero-emission technology, the lack of charging infrastructure and restrictions on the power grid,” commented American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear.

    He stressed that while the final rule includes lower zero-emission vehicle rates for the initial model years, rates in the later years will drive battery-electric and hydrogen investment and limit other potential zero-emission options.

    “While we are disappointed with today’s rule, we will continue to work with EPA to address its shortcomings and advance emission-reduction targets and timelines that are both realistic and durable,” Spear said.

    Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer called the new rules “unworkable” requirements.

    “This administration appears more focused on placating extreme environmental activists who have never been inside a truck than the small business truckers who ensure that Americans have food in their grocery stores and clothes on their backs,” Spencer said.

    Daimler throws in support

    But not all companies involved in heavy-duty trucking opposed the rule, particularly companies that have been investing heavily in zero-emission technologies, like vehicle manufacturer Daimler Truck North America (DTNA). The company had lobbied EPA for less aggressive timelines when the rule was proposed.

    “We thank the agency for addressing industry concern about the challenges of the early years of the rule and we remain committed to upholding the spirit of this regulation,” commented DTNA vice president Sean Waters.

    “Ultimately, the successful transition of the commercial vehicle industry is dependent on the availability of reliable zero-emission charging and refueling infrastructure and the ability to conduct business at a reasonable cost of ownership,” he added.

    Charging availability and cost was questioned by much of the trucking industry, which commissioned a recent study estimating the cost to install charging infrastructure at $1 trillion.

    Incentives needed

    The Biden administration’s Klein pushed back on cost concerns, however, pointing to incentives provided at the federal level.

    “We’ve already invested $253 million through the Department of Transportation — that’s charging and fueling infrastructure grants — just recently,” he said.

    “But there’s also a great deal of private sector funding. And really the goal here is to supplement the private sector, not to supplant their funding.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 19:00

  • Tennessee Lawmakers Pass Bill Targeting mRNA Vaccines In Food
    Tennessee Lawmakers Pass Bill Targeting mRNA Vaccines In Food

    Following concerns over research to embed vaccines in produce, the Tennessee Senate has passed a bill which would require any food containing vaccines or vaccine materials to be labeled as pharmaceutical drugs.

    Lettuce grows under artificial lights on an automated growing rack at a farm in Nottingham, Maryland, on April 14, 2023.

    The bill, HB 1894, was passed by the Senate in a 23-6 vote on March 28 after the state House passed it 73-22 on March 4. It awaits the governor’s signature.

    The bill comes in response to a University of California-Riverside research project looking into whether mRNA which targets pathogens could be implanted into edible plants, which would then be consumed. The research was funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

    “You would have to get a prescription for that to make sure that we know how much of the lettuce you have to eat based off of your body type so we don’t under-vaccinate you, which leads to the possibility of the efficacy of the drug being compromised, or we overdose you based off how much lettuce is [eaten],” said Republican state Rep. Scott Cepicky during a House committee meeting in February, WKRN-TV reports.

    Cepicky said that the bill, which local media described as a move targeting “vaccine lettuce,” would classify foods modified to act as vaccines, as pharmaceuticals.

    “So if you want to consume them you would go to your doctor and get a prescription,” he said.

    In a 2021 press release, UC Riverside associate professor of Botany and Plant Sciences, Juan Pablo, said “We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens,” adding “Farmers could also eventually grow entire fields of it.”

    According to Pablo, “Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person.“

    Another researcher, Nicole Steinmetz, said in the same release that they planned to use nanoparticles or “plant viruses, for gene delivery to plants.”

    When asked by WKRN-TV about the status of the research, a UC Riverside spokesperson said that the project is not yet complete.

    “Research into the process of having plant chloroplasts express vaccine chemistry is ongoing. There are no definitive results to report,” said Jules Berinstein after the Tennessee bill was passed.

    Democrat Senators oppose

    During the debate on the Tennessee Senate Floor, some lawmakers questioned the need for the bill.

    “Does the sponsor know of any instances of there being food offered in the state of Tennessee that contains vaccines in some kind of a retail or public forum?” asked state Sen. Heidi Campbell.

    Rep. Cepicky hit back, highlighting in February that a Kentucky company has already been “infecting growing tobacco plants with a genetically modified coronavirus” to see if it can produce antibodies for a potential vaccine, adding that the company “can already do this right now.”

    Massie sounds the alarm

    In 2023, US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) raised concerns over the use of federal money to create “transgenic edible vaccines,” which would transform edible plants such as spinach and lettuce into mRNA vaccine delivery vehicles.

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    In September 2023 during a debate over an appropriations bill, Massie highlighted an incident in which an edible vaccine was introduced into a corn crop used to feed pigs in order to mitigate diarrhea. The corn crop, however, became commingled with a soybean crop – contaminating 500,000 bushels that had to be recalled.

    “Do we want humans eating vaccines that were grown in corn meant to stop pigs from getting diarrhea? I don’t think we want that to happen. Yet that almost happened, and it could happen,” said Massie. “There is another case where the pollen cross-contaminated another crop of corn, and 155 acres of corn had to be burned. What are the cases where we’re not discovering this? I think it’s dangerous to play God with our food.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 18:40

  • Can America's Middle Class Still Afford Homeownership In 2024
    Can America’s Middle Class Still Afford Homeownership In 2024

    Submitted by Sam Bourgi of CreditNews

    The middle class today isn’t what it was even as recently as just a few years ago. After the highest inflation breakout in nearly 50 years, many middle-class families have been priced out of the standard of living that most Americans took for granted not that long ago.

    The raging effects of inflation aren’t limited to consumer goods and services but to asset prices as well. In recent years, a growing chorus of politicians and pundits appeared to conclude that homeownership—one of the pillars of the American Dream—is no longer within reach for regular Americans.

    To put that theory to the test, Creditnews Research studied the relationship between income distribution and housing costs across the 100 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States.

    What we discovered reveals the story of two Americas: one where middle-class families can still qualify for an average home and one where they’ve been priced out entirely.

    The good news is there are still pockets of affordability across the country. The bad news is that affordable metros are declining rapidly.

    Key findings

    • In 2024, the middle class can afford an average home in just 52 of the top 100 metro areas in the United States—a decline from 91 in 2019;

    • Those in the lower-middle class are priced out of 93 of the top 100 metro areas, up from just 33 in 2019;

    • The most affordable metros for middle-class families are mainly located in the Midwest, Rust Belt, and parts of Texas. The most affordable metros in 2024 are Youngstown, OH; Toledo, OH; McAllen, TX; Scranton, PA; and Wichita, KS;

    • The most unaffordable metros for the middle class are mainly concentrated in California and the Tri-State Area—they are San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; San Diego, CA; and Honolulu, HI;

    • The top five metros that, since Covid, have seen the largest increase in housing costs are all in California; they include San Jose, CA; San Diego, CA; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; and Oxnard, CA.

    • Metros that are affordable for middle-class families are in rapid decline. 39 of the 100 most populous metros became unaffordable since Covid alone.

    Housing affordability by income tier

    There’s no single definition of the middle class, but one of the most go-to benchmarks is Pew Research’s household income percentile ranges for economic classes, which go as follows:

    • Lower-middle class: 20th – 40th percentile

    • Middle class: 40th – 60th percentile

    • Upper-middle class: 60th – 80th percentile

    Based on these percentile ranges, America’s “middle class” households fall into three main income tiers:

    • Lower-middle class: $30,001—$58,020

    • Middle class: $58,021—$94,000

    • Upper-middle class: $94,001—$153,000

    Affordability is another variable that carries many assumptions and could be approached in multiple ways.

    For this particular study, Creditnews Research assessed affordability by calculating the minimum annual income households need to qualify for a mortgage on a typical home in each metro. A home is considered affordable if the monthly mortgage and housing payment doesn’t exceed 28% of a household’s gross income.

    Although a middle-class income is essential to broadening one’s access to home financing, it’s not enough to close the gap in the country’s largest markets.

    Based on the above criteria, middle-class households can afford an average home in just 52 out of the 100 top metros in 2024.

    These 52 metros represent a diverse cross-section of America but are mainly located in the Midwest, Rust Belt, Appalachia, and parts of Texas.

    For the lower-middle class, there are only seven affordable housing metros in the top 100—while the upper-middle class can afford homeownership in 87 of the top 100 metros.

    As one might expect, the qualifying income and monthly housing costs vary dramatically by city.

    In the most affordable cities across the Midwest and Rust Belt, a household income of below $70,000 is more than enough to qualify for a home. But that’s nowhere near enough along the Pacific Coast, Northeast, the Tri-State Area, and even parts of Florida.

    In total, 41 out of the 100 metros in the study require a gross annual income of at least $100,000 to qualify for an average home. Most of these areas are accessible to the upper-middle class. But not all. Thirteen metros require a household income of more than $155,000.

    The average monthly housing cost across the 100 metros amounts to $2,180, but again, there’s a huge variance between the lower and upper end of the range.

    In the most affordable city, homebuyers can expect to pay a mere $942 a month for their mortgage and related costs. On the flip side, the most expensive metro could set you back an eye-popping $9,931.

    Two Americas

    Today’s housing market is really a tale of two Americas.

    The Midwest and parts of the South continue to offer affordable options even for middle class households, whereas the ultra-desirable coastal cities are out of reach even for affluent buyers.

    The root cause of this divide is rather straightforward: in large coastal cities, the supply of housing hasn’t kept up with demand as more people flock to those places for work or lifestyle.

    In recent years, Americans have been stymied by the largest housing supply shortage in history—a well-documented contributor to record home prices.

    That’s on top of a generational spike in mortgage rates, which has priced many average Americans out of the threshold.

    Overall, middle-class households have 52 metros in the top 100 to choose from if they are looking for a home priced within their means. The question is whether they’re prepared to move or put down roots in those regions.

    Many Americans bemoan the idea of living in the Midwest or smaller southern cities and would prefer the bright lights of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, or Boston.

    Unfortunately, these metros are the last places middle-class Americans should be going to buy a home. In fact, the same is even becoming true for the upper-middle class.

    As Creditnews Research found, a total of 11 metros have become unaffordable even for upper middle-class households since Covid. Six of those metros are located on the Pacific Coast and three on the East Coast.

    The most affordable metro areas

    With few exceptions, the majority of middle-class households (including lower-middle-class families) can decidedly qualify for a home in America’s 10 most affordable metro areas.

    Apart from El Paso, Syracuse, and Little Rock—which became out of reach for the lower-middle class—the following metros have held their own on affordability over the past half-decade.

    One state that makes several appearances on our most affordable list is Ohio.

    This is due in part to the state’s generous homeowner subsidies in the form of grants and tax credits, coupled with ongoing investments in home construction and affordable housing.

    Another catalyst has been the low down payment threshold throughout the Buckeye State, which, at $35,250, is outdone only by Iowa and Mississippi.

    Gary Painter, Ph.D, real estate professor at Carl H. Lindner College of Business, stated: “Given the relatively robust economy, a young household’s ability to afford a down payment in Cincinnati and other Ohio cities is quite high relative to regions of similar size across the United States.”

    The following cities represent the 10 most affordable metros in America, starting on the low end.

    1. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA: Youngstown shows up first in our rankings, with a monthly payment below $1,000 ($942) in 2024. To qualify for a typical home, buyers need an income of just over $40,000—well within the range of lower-middle-class and middle-class households. Youngstown’s population has fallen in recent decades but appears to have stabilized; the drop hasn’t been as drastic as peer cities Flint, Michigan, and Gary, Indiana. Housing prices are rising, but poverty in this city surpasses that of the state of Ohio.
    2. Toledo, OH: Ohio reappears in our rankings with the Toledo metro claiming the No. 2 spot. With an average monthly payment of $1,130, Toledo’s qualifying income for an average home jumps 20% from Youngstown to roughly $48,500. Average monthly housing costs in this metro soared 78% from pre-Covid (2019) levels of $635 to $1,130 in 2024. Even so, all segments of the middle class should be able to afford a house in this area. Catalysts driving Toledo’s real estate market include reasonable prices and a wide range of job opportunities across manufacturing, healthcare, education, and the public sector.
    3. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX: Rounding out the three most affordable metros is McAllen, where residents must earn just below $50,000 in income to qualify for an average home without stressing their budgets. Qualifying income has roughly doubled since 2019 when it was below $25,000. So has the average monthly payment, hitting $1,156 in that stretch. McAllen’s close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico makes it a less expensive alternative for families who prefer to live by the water. McAllen has come a long way from its beginnings as a private ranch in the late 1800s to a standout economy in the Rio Grande Valley. In a speech given in McAllen in 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott touted the state’s massive property tax cuts, which have helped to propel economic development in the region.
    4. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA: Scranton takes the fourth spot in our rankings, representing Pennsylvania’s debut on our list. Households must earn a qualifying income of just over $52,000 to afford an average home in this metro and keep costs at 28% of earnings. Monthly housing expenses in 2024 hover at $1,215, a massive 80% jump versus 2019 when they were below $700. But the entire middle class should still be able to afford a house in this metro. Scranton’s housing market has become more competitive of late, with home prices climbing 4% in Q1 2023. Scranton’s population currently hovers at approximately 376,000 but is projected to reach nearly 400,000 by 2031 despite rising property taxes. Scranton is considered among the top metros in the country for economic development in its comp set and has gained a reputation as one of the best places in the U.S. to retire, owing in part to housing options.
    5. Wichita, KS: Kansas enters the most affordable housing fray thanks to Wichita, which claims the No. 5 spot. Given Wichita’s qualifying income of $55,243, middle-class households can afford this metro without breaking the bank with monthly payments of roughly $1,300 in 2024. But it’s a far cry from 2019’s qualifying income of below $23,000 and monthly housing costs of only $532. Wichita hasn’t been able to escape the real estate market headwinds of late, which has weighed on deal activity, but economic activity in the state has been growing hand over fist. In Q3 2023, Kansas’s GDP grew by nearly 10%, fueled by a booming farming community.
    6. Pittsburgh, PA: The northeast revisits our rankings with Pittsburgh in the No. 6 spot. Pittsburgh’s qualifying income of $55,457 for an average home places it in the same ballpark as the Wichita metro. With a monthly payment of slightly below $1,300, the entire middle class should be able to afford a home in this area. But that doesn’t mean affordability hasn’t deteriorated over the years. Monthly housing costs have soared 66% since 2019 when they were below $800. With approximately 303,000 residents, Pittsburgh’s population is about half of where it was in the 1950s, the collapse of which is aligned with the decline of the country’s steel industry. Home sales in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, sank 25% between 2021 and 2023 to an all-time low amid the high interest rate and low inventory environments.
    7. Akron, OH: Demonstrating its prominence among the most affordable cities, Ohio is back with Akron—the Rubber Capital of the World—snagging the No. 7 spot. Households must earn a qualifying income of $56,743 to afford an average home in this metro, a 44% jump compared with 2019 levels. But with an average monthly payment of just over $1,300, the middle class wouldn’t feel cash strapped owning a home in this area. Akron’s housing demand remained strong even throughout the latest industry downturn, buoyed by an emerging tech hub that makes the city an attractive destination for jobs.
    8. El Paso, TX: El Paso lassoed the No. 8 spot in our rankings, strengthening the Southwest’s grip among the most affordable metros. As the first metro in our rankings to exclude the lower-middle class, El Paso’s affordability has been slipping away since Covid. The city’s qualifying income and monthly housing costs have roughly doubled to $58,114 and $1,356, respectively, since the pandemic, making it increasingly difficult to afford. El Paso’s per capita income has been on the rise, a trend that is expected to persist into 2025, with a housing market that’s been fueled of late by out-of-state buyers hunting a bargain of late.
    9. Syracuse, NY: As the first metro to represent New York, Syracuse claims the No. 9 spot in our rankings. Syracuse joins El Paso as the second metro where the lower-middle class was priced out since Covid, with the qualifying income soaring from $30,228 to $58,157 in that period. Similarly, the average monthly payment has nearly doubled from about $700 to $1,357 since 2019. But Syracuse’s days among the most affordable metros are probably limited as the housing market continues to draw comparisons to Manhattan and San Francisco. The city has become a hotbed for tech startups and jobs, including the rise of Micron Technology’s semiconductor plant in nearby Clay, NY that’s projected to create 50,000 jobs.
    10. Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR: Rounding out the top 10 most affordable metros is Little Rock, where once again the middle class is getting squeezed. Residents must earn a qualifying income of $58,286 to comfortably afford a home in this area, a whopping 41% increase compared with 2019. Monthly costs have jumped a steeper 69% to $1,360. Even with that sharp rise, Little Rock is affordable enough to make it into the top 10. While affordability has been waning in this metro, the economy is buzzing with job growth as of Q4 2023 exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

    The least affordable metro areas

    America’s least affordable metro areas won’t come as too much of a shock, with luxurious Pacific Coast metros dominating the rankings.

    Half of the metros in this category are located in the state of California. Not to be outdone, Hawaii also makes an appearance, along with a trio of metros on the Eastern seaboard.

    America’s middle class is priced completely out of each of these metro areas, including the upper end of the income range at $153,000.

    1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: San Jose takes first place with a qualifying income of $425,614 just to afford an average home. With an average home price of $1.5 million, the San Jose metro could see some relief from dwindling land on which to build. Surrounded by Silicon Valley, this metro area has been hit by a slow return to offices at tech companies like Zoom, PayPal, and X Corp, threatening to trigger a wave of out-migration and create what’s known as a “donut city” where residents and businesses relocate to the suburbs.
    2. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA: It comes as no surprise that the tech capital of California is the country’s second least affordable metro for the middle class. With an average home price of $1.1 million, average monthly payments are just over $7,200, up from $4,679 five years ago. As part of California’s Bay Area, San Francisco has a reputation as one of the country’s most expensive real estate markets. Billions of dollars in investment continue to pour into this high-tech region, making it unlikely that housing prices will retreat anytime soon.
    3. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA: Continuing with the California trend, Los Angeles rounds up to the top three least affordable metros. LA is the first city on our list to become unaffordable to the upper-middle class since Covid, with a $112,329 increase in qualifying income to $256,286. LA’s average home price hovers at $935,800, resulting in monthly housing costs of nearly $6,000. LA’s financial district is transforming into high-end apartments due to waning demand for offices.
    4. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA: With an average home price of $924,365, San Diego is out of reach for every segment of the middle class, including the upper-middle class. Monthly payments for an average home are more than $5,900. Market dynamics don’t appear to be improving. San Diego led the nearly two-dozen cities tracked in the latest Case Shiller rankings, owing to an 11.2% increase in housing prices in the 12-month period ending in January 2024. Despite having a vibrant economy and a pristine climate, the vast majority of families couldn’t make it here.
    5. Urban Honolulu, HI: Honolulu rounds out the top five, joining the list of cities that have become too pricey for the upper-middle class. With an average home price of approximately $860,000, very few households outside of the wealthy can afford property here. A one-two punch of a tourism slowdown and recent wildfires have contributed to slower economic growth in Hawaii. But that hasn’t kept real estate values from rising amid strong demand for Honolulu’s beaches, rainforests, and spectacular views.
    6. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA: Located in California’s Ventura County, Oxnard takes the No. 6 spot in our rankings. With an average home price of nearly $850,000, monthly payments have soared 77% since 2019 to $5,425. Ventura County has strict land-use rules, pressuring inventory and resulting in a shrinking population, including Oxnard’s middle class, a trend that’s forecast to persist in the coming years.
    7. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA: Representing Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle claims the No. 7 spot in our rankings. This metro’s qualifying income has more than doubled over the past decade and is no longer affordable to the upper-middle class. For everyone else in the middle class, Seattle is simply too rich for household budgets. With an average home price of $719,217, monthly payments are almost $4,600. New residents have been flocking to Seattle—the location of e-commerce giant Amazon’s corporate headquarters—for employment opportunities and income growth.
    8. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH: The Northeastern city of Boston ranks eighth on our list. Boston’s qualifying income of $181,971 reflects an increase of nearly $80,000 since the pandemic, reserving this metro for high-income households. With an average property price of $664,491, monthly housing costs are now about $4,246, up 77% since 2019. The Boston metro, which extends to Massachusetts cities Cambridge and Newton, plus the neighboring state of New Hampshire, boasts one of the highest in-migration rates among Gen Zers in the country.
    9. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA: The New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania metros make the cut as the least affordable areas. With a qualifying income of $173,786, New York became out of reach for even the upper-middle class after the pandemic. With an average home price of $634,651, monthly housing costs have climbed 65% higher since 2019 to $4,055. New York Mayor Eric Adams has made affordable housing a priority in the city, increasing financing for new construction and the preservation of affordable homes by 80% in 2023 year-over-year.
    10. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT: Rounding out our top 10 least affordable metros is Bridgeport, CT. This metro, which also extends to Stamford and Norwalk, has a qualifying income of $163,371. With an average home price of almost $600,000, monthly housing costs hover at $3,812. Connecticut has been on the receiving end of an in-migration trend, adding 81,000 residents in 2022. With Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont implementing the biggest income tax deduction that the state has ever seen and lifting a tax credit for low-income workers, the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon.

    Housing affordability: Pre-Covid vs. 2024

    The fact that housing became more expensive after Covid is hardly breaking news. The question is, by how much?

    Our analysis shows that average Americans have to earn almost twice as much today compared to pre-Covid to qualify for an average home.

    Thanks to the doubling of qualifying income thresholds, 39 out of 100 of America’s most populous metros dropped out of middle-class affordability.

    Taking into account lower-middle-class families, that figure balloons to a staggering 60 metro areas.

    Perhaps predictably, the metropolitan areas witnessing the sharpest increases in income thresholds and housing expenses since Covid eerily match the 10 most unaffordable metros in 2024.

    1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: In addition to being the most unaffordable metro in the country for the middle class, San Jose real estate has seen the largest increase since pre-Covid times. Home prices are up a whopping 73% versus 2019 levels. Average monthly payments in this metro are unnervingly close to $10,000 compared with pre-Covid levels of $5,716.
    2. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA: Not only does San Diego make the top four least affordable metro areas, but it’s also seen one of the biggest spikes since the pandemic. San Diego has experienced a 95% increase in qualifying income since 2019 to $253,157.
    3. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA: While Los Angeles was never really affordable for the middle class, since Covid, housing affordability has gone off the deep end. Between 2019 and 2024, housing costs in LA have soared by $112,329. Over that period, average monthly payments have increased by a staggering 78%.
    4. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA: San Francisco joins the other major California metros with a massive spike in qualifying income standards since Covid, rising $109,492 since 2019 to $310,000 in 2024. But although residents here command a high income, even the upper-middle class doesn’t make enough to afford the average home.
    5. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA: Oxnard is one of several California metros that have become out of reach for even the upper-middle class after Covid. Since the pandemic, qualifying income in this metro has soared almost $101,200, making it unaffordable even for those earning above $150,000.
    6. Urban Honolulu, HI: This Hawaii metro experienced a 64% jump in qualifying income since 2019 to $235,543. Over the past half-decade, Honolulu real estate has priced out even the upper-middle class with monthly payments nearing $5,500.
    7. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA: Since the pandemic, this metro’s qualifying income has increased by $88,253 to $196,971, pricing America’s entire middle class out of the Seattle market.
    8. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH: Known for its red-hot housing market, this New England city has become unaffordable for the middle-class homebuyer. In fact, even the upper-middle class has been priced out since Covid. Since the pandemic, Boston’s qualifying income has increased by $88,253 to $196,971.
    9. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT: Bridgeport doesn’t have the name recognition as other major metros on the list, but its affordability crisis has worsened since Covid. The qualifying income for an average home has increased by more than $77,400 since 2019. Monthly housing costs are up a massive 90% from pre-Covid levels.
    10. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA: Due to large population growth and close proximity to LA, Riverside’s housing market has soared over the past half-decade. Since 2019, buyers need to earn $75,114 more to qualify for an average home in this metro.

    Can homeownership become more attainable?

    This study serves as yet another piece of evidence that America’s middle class isn’t what it once was—certainly from a homeownership point of view.

    In previous generations, being able to own a home was almost taken for granted. Not anymore. And considering the steep drop in affordability since Covid alone, housing is unlikely to become more attainable anytime soon.

    The good news is that the housing affordability crisis hasn’t gone unnoticed.

    The issue is top of mind at the White House, with the Biden administration proposing tax credits and other home buying initiatives to make it easier for the middle class to enter the market.

    Some builders are also set to convert empty office space into residential units—a promising, albeit limited, plan to improve housing access.

    In the meantime, a growing number of metro areas are becoming out of reach for middle-class homeowners—thanks to elevated mortgage rates, sky-high house prices, and scarce inventory.

    When, or if, housing could become more attainable is yet to be seen.

    DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 18:20

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Apr 02

Today’s News 2nd April 2024

  • Turkey Expected To Become US' Largest Supplier Of Artillery
    Turkey Expected To Become US’ Largest Supplier Of Artillery

    Authored by Ahmed Adel via GlobalResearch.ca,

    Turkey is set to become the United States’ largest supplier of artillery shells as NATO allies have exhausted their stocks and now struggle to ship ammunition to Ukraine. Turkey’s indirect support for Ukraine is also supplemented by direct support, such as producing drones and warships, yet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offers himself as a viable partner in searching for peace between Ukraine and Russia.

    “Turkish supplies of trinitrotoluene, known as TNT, and nitroguanidine, which is used as a propellant, would be crucial in the production of Nato-standard 155mm calibre ammunition — potentially tripling production, according to officials familiar with the discussions,” a Bloomberg report said, adding: “Turkey is already on track to becoming the biggest seller of the artillery shells to the US as early as this year.”

    The surge in demand has delayed global orders and has put pressure on defence supply chains, especially for components such as TNT.  According to the outlet, to help alleviate this issue, Turkish defence company Repkon’s production lines are expected to produce about 30% of all US-made 155mm artillery shells by 2025.

    The Pentagon said in a statement about investment in Texas’ defence industry with Turkish counterparts that working with allies “is key to building a global defence industrial base.”

    Additionally, Washington purchased 116,000 rounds of battle-ready ammunition from Turkish company Arca Defense, with delivery expected later this year and further purchases believed to be concluding soon to be ready for delivery in 2025.

    As Bloomberg admitted,

    “The US and European efforts are part of a race to catch up with Moscow, whose war machine has put it in a position to produce or procure – according to some estimates – 4 million rounds this year, including shipments from North Korea. By contrast, the European Union expects to triple its production of artillery shells this year to around 1.4 million units.”

    It is unsurprising that Turkey has been awarded a lucrative contract, given the recent announcement that Erdogan will visit the White House on May 9, the first time since US President Joe Biden took office.

    The agreement with Ankara also reveals a delicate balance between the NATO allies, whose relations have been strained by the Russian military operation in Ukraine and Turkey’s months-long block on Sweden’s membership in the Atlantic Alliance. However, with Turkey greenlighting Sweden’s accession and plans to contribute to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, the country is now being rewarded with export contracts and approval to upgrade its aging F-16 fighter jet fleet.

    The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used by the Ukrainian military against Russian forces. The drone maker, Baykar, has initiated the construction of a factory in Ukraine, and the company’s CEO said in February that they aim to complete the project within approximately 12 months and produce around 120 units a year.

    At the same time, it is recalled that in February, France, Greece, and Cyprus blocked financing for the supply of Bayraktar drones and artillery shells for Ukraine, which were to be purchased with European funds. Turkey was set to be financed from EU funds for some time, but once the order was confirmed, the three countries swiftly blocked the financing.

    Although the initiative failed, the US recognised Turkey’s rapprochement with the West and is now rewarding the country with imports and exports in the defence sector. This is despite the fact that the issue of the acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 is not resolved, which is the reason Turkey was booted from the F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet program to begin with.

    Erdogan announced his offer to host a peace summit between Ukraine and Russia earlier this month following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

    “Since the beginning, we have contributed as much as we could toward ending the war through negotiations,” Erdogan said.

    “We are also ready to host a peace summit in which Russia will also be included.”

    Although Erdogan claims to have contributed as much as possible to ending the war through negotiations, his country has also contributed to prolonging it. It is also recalled that during Zelensky’s visit to Turkey, he visited the shipyard where the two corvettes are being built for the Ukrainian Navy. At the same time, Turkey is providing drones to the Ukrainian military and is now replenishing the US’ artillery stocks. This is even though Ukraine has no chance of winning the war, meaning Turkey is not an honest broker for peace.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 04/02/2024 – 02:00

  • Blaming Russia For "Havana Syndrome" Pushes The Opposite Narrative Than Intended
    Blaming Russia For “Havana Syndrome” Pushes The Opposite Narrative Than Intended

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    For Russia to have successfully used a mobile directed energy weapon over 1,500 times, including against the US’ “top 5%, 10% performing officers across the Defense Intelligence Agency,” then it must have deeply penetrated the US Government in order to discover those elite targets’ identities and locations.

    CBS News, The Insider, and Der Spiegel released the findings of their joint investigation on Sunday blaming Russia for “Havana Syndrome”, which refers to the mysterious ear and head pain that over 1,500 US Government (USG) staffers across the world claim to have experienced since 2016. It appeared timed to coincide with Congress’ plans to vote on Ukraine aid sometime later this month, with the intent obviously being to scare lawmakers into approving more funds for America’s proxy war on Russia.

    It might have the opposite effect than intended, however, since those outlets’ dramatic claims paint a picture of deep Russian intelligence penetration of the US’ diplomatic and security services that can’t be remedied by simply sending more money to Ukraine. If what they wrote is true, then Russia has created a mobile directed energy weapon (DEW) that it’s already successfully used over 1,500 times, including against the US’ “top 5%, 10% performing officers across the Defense Intelligence Agency”.

    This startling statistic comes from the recently retired Army lieutenant colonel who ran the Pentagon’s investigation into the matter. He claimed that this elite echelon of victims had all “worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well” but were then “neutralized” after their injuries. His allegations contradict the Intelligence Community’s (IC) official review from last year that no DEWs nor foreign adversaries were responsible for these “anomalous health incidents”.

    Those who take the IC’s official review at face value suspect that the prior hysteria about “Havana syndrome” was just a means of fearmongering about Russia, which they also naturally believe is the motive behind the latest joint investigation’s findings. Meanwhile, those who suspected that the IC’s official review was a cover-up take the latest joint investigation’s findings at face value, which means that they truly believe that Russia has deeply penetrated the US’ diplomatic and security services.

    There’s no credible evidence to suggest that this is the case, especially since Russia would have presumably been much better prepared for responding to America’s diplomatic and military provocations throughout the course of their ongoing proxy war if it had moles within both. Nevertheless, the only way that one can believe that it’s systematically targeting members of those institutions who had all worked against it “extremely well” in the past is if it knew who they were and where they lived.

    That in turn obliges one to believe that it must have deeply penetrated them in order to obtain this highly classified information, thus meaning that Russian spies are more highly placed than anyone had thought even after the witch hunt that followed the Russiagate hysteria. Once again, there’s no credible evidence that this is the case, and another argument against this theory is that Russia isn’t targeting any similarly prominent Ukrainian diplomats or security officials despite being at “war” with their country.

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    Reflecting on the abovementioned insight, it’s much more likely that Russia has nothing to do with “Havana syndrome” and that the latest joint investigation’s findings are just a desperate attempt to scare lawmakers into approving more Ukraine aid ahead of their planned vote later this month. Any penetration of the IC at the level that this conspiracy theory implies would have led to the past two years unfolding in a very different way and Russia not being caught off guard by the proxy war that broke out.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 23:40

  • 'Rich' Gen Z Women Are By Far The Most Optimistic About 'Getting Richer' In 2024
    ‘Rich’ Gen Z Women Are By Far The Most Optimistic About ‘Getting Richer’ In 2024

    The jury is still out on how the global economy is expected to perform in 2024, but as seen during the pandemic, economic turmoil sometimes provides opportunities for the wealthy.

    Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes the percentage of high net worth individual (HNWI) respondents who expect their wealth to increase in 2024, categorized by generation and gender, from the Knight Frank Next Gen Survey, accessible in their latest wealth report.

    The survey covered 600 global HNWIs, who are individuals with more than $1 million in assets or make more than $200,000 a year, and then categorized their responses by gender and generation.

    Affluent Gen Z Women Eye Financial Gains in 2024

    At a glance, there’s a very apparent generational difference in the expectations of getting richer in 2024.

    About half (52%) of the surveyed Baby Boomers think their assets will grow, compared to Gen X (56%), Millennials, (69%), and Gen Z (75%).

    Note: Percentage of respondents who said they expect their wealth will increase in 2024.

    There’s also a noticeable gender difference. Men tend to be more optimistic than women, with one glaring exception.

    A staggering 81% of the surveyed high net worth Gen Z women expect to make hay this year, making them the most optimistic of all the groups.

    This corroborates a trend where Gen Z women were also the most optimistic in retirement planning. As CNBC reports, a combination of newer avenues of financial resources, and an openness towards advice, has given them a more optimistic attitude than their older counterparts.

    Meanwhile, American Millennials are expected to become the richest generation ever as a $90 trillion asset transfer between Boomer parents and Millennial children begins to take place over the next two decades.

    A huge percentage of that wealth comes in the form of property assets accumulated by generations before them. This especially includes houses, whose prices have skyrocketed over the last two decades.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 23:20

  • America’s Controversial Stealth Fighter Jet Can Now Carry Nukes
    America’s Controversial Stealth Fighter Jet Can Now Carry Nukes

    Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    It was a routine Pentagon announcement during a regular briefing the Friday before the president typically submits his annual defense budget request to Congress on the second Monday in March.

    As of October, a spokesman for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) F-35 Joint Program Office told Pentagon beat writers, that “certain” Air Force F-35As have been operationally certified to carry the B61-12 thermonuclear gravity bomb.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Public Domain)

    While the revelation hasn’t drawn much interest from general news media in the United States, it has spurred extensive commentary within the defense-tech industry. And it is echoing loudly in Europe, most certainly within the Kremlin where Russian President Vladimir Putin has been openly discussing the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

    The F-35A nuclear certification and introduction of the B61-12 bomb are key components in a tactical nuclear weapons upgrade in Europe by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in response to Russian saber-rattling—and advances—in battlefield nuclear weapons.

    While NATO’s U.S.-built F-16A/Bs and F-16C/Ds and United Kingdom-built PA-200 Tornadoes are also fighter jets authorized to carry nuclear weapons, the F-35A Lightning II is now the first “fifth-generation” stealth fighter to be “dual-capable” of carrying conventional and nuclear weapons, according to the Pentagon.

    The F-35A will soon be among NATO’s primary attack-strike jets. Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey are all stocking their air forces with F-35s, with Germany explicitly doing so because it would be nuclear-capable.

    The March 8 announcement also confirmed the full-scale production of the B61-12 bomb. Their predecessors were housed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Turkey. According to some reports, they’ve been replacing them with new bombs since December 2022.

    October’s nuclear certification was two months earlier than the January 2024 deadline the Pentagon set. Although only publicly acknowledged by the United States on March 8, Dutch military officials wrote in a November X post that their F-35As had achieved “initial certification” to carry nuclear weapons.

    Since Pentagon policy prohibits the release of information about NATO partner military capacities, the announcement only addressed “certain” U.S. Air Force F-35As in Europe, with the U.S. fighter wing at Lakenheath in the United Kingdom likely among those upgrading.

    Commander of the Swiss Air Force Major General Peter Merz gestures in front of a screen during a presentation of the a F-35 A Lightning II fighter jet at Emmen Air Base, Switzerland, on March 24, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

    “A lot of this is just information warfare, SOP [standard operating procedure] and optics that we got F-35As and allies who have F-35As in Europe,” retired Army Col. John Mills told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Mills, a 33-year Army veteran and former Director for Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs under the Secretary of Defense, said the F-35A “has always been about Europe.”

    “The message is that the F-35s are now there, and they are nuclear certified, and B61-12s are in storage ready to go, ready to be used, if necessary, out of Lakenheath,” he said.

    Mr. Mills, who has spoken and written extensively on military matters, including about the F-35A in a column in The Epoch Times, said the announcement was aimed squarely at Mr. Putin.

    “Of course,” he said. “He’s the target.”

    “If anything, it does create a little bit of angst on the part of the Russians, because that means the [F-35-As] have more potential platforms, more different areas, more places for the Russians to keep track of,” said Mike Fredenburg, founding president of the Adam Smith Institute of San Diego. He writes frequently on defense tech for a wide range of publications, including National Review and The Epoch Times.

    “The F-35 has pretty good range for a single-engine fighter. It is stealth, and so you could obviously get closer to Russian air space before being effectively targeted than you could, let’s say, with an F-15,” noting that with 600 to 700 F-35s in U.S. and allied air forces, “we have hundreds of them, and at any given time, some of them are probably capable of flying.”

    Mr. Fredenburg admits: “I’m not a huge fan of the F-35.”

    So little so that for those who have followed the aircraft’s checkered development for the past 30 years, he had to quantify how truly significant the F-35A certification is. “I don’t want to say it’s insignificant. It does, I think, potentially create some more instability because nobody else has many stealth fighters,” Mr. Fredenburg told The Epoch Times.

    (Top) Australian F-35A lightning fighter jets fly past during a joint exercise at a naval base in the Philippines on August 25, 2023. (Bottom) Denmark’s Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen (R) greets a F-35 pilot at the Skrydstrup base in Denmark, on Sept. 14, 2023. (Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images, Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

    “I’d say it’d be more significant if you were putting [a nuclear weapon] on a platform that was more reliable, that you could count on. I guess I could say that.”

    A Long, Haunted History

    “First of all,” Mr. Fredenburg said, “you have to look at the history. From the very beginning, it was doomed. It was too heavy. There’s no way you can make an engine powerful enough to fly a plane that big. The plane is the largest single-engine plane in the world.”

    When first envisioned in the early 1990s, the F-35 was touted by Lockheed Martin as an all-purpose, next-generation stealth joint-force single-engine fighter that would replace up to 16 different types of warcraft, including the Navy’s F-14, the Air Force’s F-16, and the Marine Corps’ Harrier jump jets.

    That was nearly two generations ago.

    Design began in 1994. After a series of delays, dozens of F-35-equipped squadrons were supposed to be operational at a cost of $233 billion by 2010.

    “It didn’t even come close to that,” Mr. Mills said.

    By 2016, the project’s cost had doubled. It remains more than a decade behind schedule and billions over budget with mixed results, some say.

    “What they did is, you know how you ‘soup up’ your car? Put nitrate in it or something like that? Mr. Fredenburg said. “You might be able to get it around a few times before it blows up, but that’s what they did here.

    “They ‘souped up’ the F-22 engine and made it super, super hot to get the horsepower, that thrust, and there’s no way that engine was going to be durable.

    “So,” he continued, “it’s got an engine that can’t do the job. It won’t be reliable ever. Ever.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 23:00

  • M-16 Era Ends: Army's 101st Airborne Division Receives Next-Gen Assault Rifles
    M-16 Era Ends: Army’s 101st Airborne Division Receives Next-Gen Assault Rifles

    Army Futures Command announced last week that troops from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, have received the Army’s next-generation rifles and light machine guns chambered in a new 6.8mm round. These new weapons are replacing the decades-old M-4 and M-16 battle rifle platforms. 

    Military Times reports soldiers from 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell were handed XM7 Next Generation Rifle and XM250 Next Generation Automatic Rifle ahead of training in April. 

    Produced by firearm maker Sig Sauer, the XM7 is a 6.8×51mm gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle that replaces the M-4 carbine for close combat fighting. The XM250 is a 6.8×51mm gas-operated, belt-fed light machine gun that replaces the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. Both rifles are chambered in 6.8×51mm, a new round for the Army that will increase range and improve lethality against the most advanced body armor used on the modern battlefield. 

    XM7

    XM250

    The fielding of these two rifles “is a culmination of a comprehensive and rigorous process of design, testing and feedback, all of which were led by soldiers,” Col. Jason Bohannon, manager of soldier lethality for the Program Executive Office Soldier project, said in a statement. 

    Bohannon continued: “As a result, the Army is delivering on its promise to deliver to soldiers the highest-quality, most-capable small-caliber weapons and ammunition.”

    The latest figures from the Army’s fiscal 2025 budget request show a plan to purchase 111,428 XM7 rifles and 13,334 XM250 automatic rifles. The service also wants to purchase 124,749 XM157 Fire Control devices, also known as next-gen optics, which would be standard on battle rifles through 2030. 

    Both next-gen rifles “ensure increased lethality against a broad spectrum of targets beyond current/legacy weapon capabilities; increased range, accuracy, and probability of hit; reduced engagement time; suppressed flash/sound signature; and improved controllability and mobility,” the Army’s budget explains.

    The new rifles come as the threat of major conflict across the world has never been higher. Conflicts could quickly spiral out of control in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. There is also rising concern about China in the Pacific. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 22:40

  • Top Journalism School Mandating Diversity Course To Earn Degree
    Top Journalism School Mandating Diversity Course To Earn Degree

    Authored by Alice Giordano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Mandatory wokeness has crept into one of the top journalism schools in the United States.

    View of the campus of Arizona State University (ASU), a public research university located in Phoenix, Arizona (Shutterstock)

    The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is requiring students to complete the course Diversity and Civility at Cronkite (DCC) in order to earn their bachelor’s degree in journalism.

    The course, which also applies to students studying sports journalism and digital media, redefines such traditional phrases as “America is a melting pot” as race-based microaggressions and teaches future journalists to avoid assuming “unearned benefits” that come with “heterosexual privileges.”

    Examples of outdated heterosexual privileges given in the curriculum include excluding biological males who identified as female from traditional sex-segregated places like women’s locker rooms and women’s prisons.

    “To object to a man using a women’s bathroom is an example of discrimination against transgender individuals,” reads a chapter in the course entitled “Sexuality and Gender Identity.”

    Also part of the seven-unit course is required reading material entitled “A Guide to Gender Identity Terms.”

    It includes lessons that emphasize the importance of asking someone for their preferred pronouns and using them.

    “You should offer your own pronouns first and then ask for the other person’s pronouns,” the reading material states. “While it can be awkward at first, it can quickly become routine.”

    The course also teaches students to view statements like “I believe the most qualified person should get the job,” as a microaggression that translates into “People of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race,” and “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough,” as implying that “People of color are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder.”

    In response to inquiries from The Epoch Times, the state-run college described the mandatory course as “an entry-level course intended to bring thoughtful, open-minded discourse to issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, income, geography and other aspects of personal identities.”

    “The goal of the course is to help students appreciate people’s differences and to channel disagreements toward civil discussion,” the college said in a statement. “With that view, students should be better able to approach reporting and communications projects with a multicultural perspective and inspire mutual respect among students from various backgrounds and beliefs while at the university, and beyond.”

    Opt-Out Possible

    A spokesperson for the Walter Cronkite School, which is part of Arizona State University (ASU) also told The Epoch Times that students may opt out of specific discussions by sending their professor a private email requesting to do so.

    Timothy Minella, Senior Constitutionalism Fellow at the Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy told The Epoch Times that the required journalism course is especially disturbing because it is being mandated by a public, taxpayer funded college.

    “Students who decide to major in these subjects are not necessarily signing up to be progressive activists,” he said. “A public university that should be serving the entire public, not just the liberal slice of it, needs to return to its core mission of education, not indoctrination.”

    Mr. Minella, who recently wrote a critical analysis of the course after obtaining student assignments and teacher syllabuses through a public records request, said he was especially shocked by an assignment for students contemplating a career in public relations.

    The assignment, as shown by records obtained by Mr. Minella, was based on an NPR interview with Demi Lovato, a pop star who has changed her gender identity multiple times.

    It asks students: “Imagine you’re working at a PR firm and you have a client whose first album is about to drop. Your client’s gender identity is nonbinary and they use they/them pronouns. They have a massive press tour planned. How do you prepare journalists to talk with your client?”

    Mr. Minella said the designers of the course “seemingly attempted to include every aspect of leftist identity politics” they could think up.

    Pushing Diversity

    The growing controversy of state colleges pushing transgender and critical race theory has become widespread.

    On March 2, in a 84 to 30 vote, the South Carolina House approved a bill to ban mandatory diversity training for both students and staff at state universities.

    The bill also bans any diversity mission statements as part of their admissions and employment process. If passed, it would add South Carolina to 22 states that passed similar legislation.

    The issue also rages on in secondary public schools across the United States.

    Earlier this week, two civil rights lawyers filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a group made up of a Little Rock  high school teacher, students and their parents against Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and state Education Secretary Jacob Olivia, over the state’s LEARNS Act. LEARNS stands for Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking, and School Safety.

    It bans the teaching of CRT and gender ideology in public schools. The group claims the law violates their Constitutional rights to free speech.

    In other recent legal action on the issue, the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel (LC) won its battle with the Osseo Area School District in Minnesota for mandating a course for high schoolers entitled “LGBTQIA+ History and Culture Lesson.”

    In a March 28 email to LC, the school district wrote that “teacher opt-out religious accommodations will be approved” and “students may choose to leave prior to or during the lesson.”

    Mr. Minella said diversity is being pushed to extremes in schools. By his calculations, he found that in the school year 2023, more than 400 students at the Walter Cronkite school, spent more than 2,000 hours of class time learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

    According to Mr. Minella, there are at least 100 classes offered at the journalism school that includes “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion,” in its core curriculum.

    In addition to the report on the DCC course at the Walter Cronkite School, The Goldwater Institute recently filed a lawsuit against ASU on behalf of two professors who were allegedly threatened with disciplinary charges for refusing to participate in the college’s diversity training.

    In response to inquiries by the Epoch Times about the lawsuit,  an ASU spokesperson said in an email that “universities are” and that the school is “reserving comment until the board is fully briefed at its next board meeting.”

    Its journalism school is named after legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite, dubbed the “most trusted man in America” by a public opinion survey conducted in 1972.

    In a 1973 interview for Playboy Magazine, Mr. Conkrite, who died in 2009, said that “being a liberal, in the true sense, is being nondoctrinaire, nondogmatic, non-committed to a cause—but examining each case on its merits.”

    He also said in the interview that “most newspapermen by definition have to be liberal; if they’re not liberal, by my definition of it, then they can hardly be good newspapermen.

    “If they’re preordained dogmatists for a cause, then they can’t be very good journalists; that is, if they carry it into their journalism.”

    Not everyone agreed he was the most trusted man in America, including Arizona Republican and one-time presidential nominee Sen. Barry Goldwater—the namesake of The Goldwater Institute.

    Mr. Cronkite was often accused by conservatives back then of taking cheap shots at Mr. Goldwater, known as the “Grand Old Man of The Republican Party.”

    On the day of President John. F Kennedy’s funeral, the CBS newsman reported that Mr. Goldwater was giving a political speech in Indiana instead of attending the President’s funeral when the U.S. Senator was actually in the state to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.

    The five-term Senator died in 1998.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 22:20

  • In Russia Mass Deportations Of Muslim Migrants Surge After Moscow Terror Attack
    In Russia Mass Deportations Of Muslim Migrants Surge After Moscow Terror Attack

    There have been widespread reports of mass deportations of Muslim migrants from Russia in the wake of the March 22 terror attack on the Crocus City Hall venue in a Moscow suburb which killed at least 140 people and left hundreds more wounded and injured.

    This trend is said to be the result of a significant uptick in raids by authorities on apartments and dorm complexes known to house Central Asian migrants, amid concerns that Islamic radicals could carry out more attacks.

    Muslims in Russia, file image: openDemocracy.net

    President Vladimir Putin has put blame on Islamic extremists for the major attack which involved four gunmen planting explosives and randomly shooting into crowds; however, he and Kremlin officials also believe the men had assistance from Ukraine or possibly US or other foreign intelligence.

    The alleged gunmen, who reportedly tried to escape across the Ukrainian border, are all Tajik nationals. A number of other foreigners have also been arrested in the days after the attack. Washington has said ISIS-K was behind it, while condemning Moscow’s allegations that the US or Ukraine could have had something to do with it.

    The regional pro-opposition outlet Meduza has said that in the last week of March, St. Petersburg courts “received 584 cases of administrative offenses in connection with non-compliance with migration legislation.”

    The report indicated that at least 418 foreigners were then ordered to go to special holding facilities to await expulsion from the country. “Another 48 people must pay a fine and leave the Russian Federation on their own,” Meduza wrote.

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    An organization of human right lawyers who work in Russia, Perviy Otdel, observed in a statement Friday that in the St. Petersburg region, “Temporary detention centers for foreign citizens are packed, surrounded by special vehicles and buses heading to the airport.”

    The Amsterdam-based Moscow Times linked the surge in deportations to the Crocus City Hall terror attack:

    The countries where the migrants were being sent to were not specified, though it is known that labor migrants in Russia mostly hail from poor Central Asian countries.

    Bailiffs reportedly refer to St. Petersburg’s mass deportations as “Operation Anti-Migrant,” with raids targeting local hostels and apartments. Similar raids were reported in Moscow and other Russian cities.

    Anti-immigrant sentiment surged after four gunmen — who were later identified as Tajik nationals — stormed Crocus City Hall last Friday, killing 144 people and injuring 382 in the shooting and massive fire at the popular concert venue.

    The backlash against Russia’s sizeable Tajik immigrant community is expected to grow. Recent years have seen over one million unemployed Tajiks enter Russia in search of work.

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    A separate Moscow Times report has found that “Between 2012 and 2018, over 2,000 Tajik citizens joined terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, making Tajikistan the third highest sender of foreign fighters to the war on a per capita basis.”

    The report continues: “Most joined Islamic State, with some taking up key positions, including the group’s War Minister Gulmurod Halimov, who used to serve as head of Tajikistan’s OMON paramilitary police force.” This means Russia’s monitoring of and crackdown on this migrant community is likely only to grow from this point.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 22:00

  • Abigail Shrier's 'Bad Therapy' Exposes How Therapeutic Culture Harms Children
    Abigail Shrier’s ‘Bad Therapy’ Exposes How Therapeutic Culture Harms Children

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Preventive mental health therapy for children may be doing more harm than good—and there’s research to prove it, author Abigail Shrier suggests in her new book “Bad Therapy.”

    “What you might not know is that the stuff that travels under the headline ‘mental health’ is really harmful for kids,” she said at a recent book-signing event hosted by the Lincoln Club at Newport Beach. “I’m telling you that according to the best psychological research available, it’s exactly what you would want to do if you wanted to break kids down.”

    In “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up,” which hit The New York Times’ best seller list, Ms. Shrier investigates the mental health industry and its negative impact on children, and concludes that when it comes to preventive therapy—especially for children—more is not always better.

    Abigail Shrier at a book-signing event hosted by the Lincoln Club at Newport Beach, Calif., on March 20, 2024. (Brad Jones/ The Epoch Times)

    ‘Irreversible Damage’

    Ms. Shrier’s previous book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” led her to the explore the potential harmful effects too much therapy can have on children.

    “Irreversible Damage,” exposed the “social contagion” and phenomena behind the sudden spike in the number of teenage girls identifying as transgender.

    “Twenty percent of seventh-grade classes were deciding they were transgender, and the terminus of this journey, as they call it, was a double mastectomy and infertility,” Ms. Shrier said.

    She knew from talking to parents of gender dysphoric children that gender ideology was a social contagion that was spreading, and that a worldwide controversy was brewing. But, at the time, she said, liberals thought she was “picking on a tiny minority of kids who weren’t harming anyone,” and conservatives were asking her, ‘Why would you write about that?’”

    “Nobody wanted to talk about it,” she said.

    “Irreversible Damage” lit a political firestorm with the progressive left and remains a cultural lightning rod. The New York Times condemned the book in a review prompting Target stores to pull it from their shelves and triggering some Amazon employees who threatened to quit their jobs in a failed attempt to get the book banned. 

    The influential book not only shocked parents but it led them to question the gender ideology they discovered was being pushed in schools across America and sparked the parental rights movement across the nation.

    ‘Bad Therapy’ 

    Ms. Shrier began her latest book, “Bad Therapy,” with a couple of questions: “Why was the generation that had gotten the most treatment, the most wellness techniques, the most regular emotional regulation techniques, the most anti-bullying classes, the most miserable? And, why do they have no interest in growing up?”

    She decided to attend a conference about a multi-tiered system of support devoted to the mental health of children in California.

    “I thought I should go and find out what our schools were doing to support the kids I knew were in distress,” she said. “Well, by the end of the three-day conference, I learned that actually every kid is in therapy. They just call it something else. They call it social emotional learning, or anti-bullying classes, and they look a lot like group therapy.”

    Ms. Shrier also discovered a whole body of research on the known harms of therapy such as a study of burn victims who left therapy feeling worse than the control group and people who had lost a loved one feeling sadder than those who didn’t go to therapy, she said.

    “First responders responding to catastrophe have left therapy feeling worse about themselves and their lives and what they went through than those control groups that didn’t,” she said.

    It was then that Ms. Shrier began to realize the symptoms society was seeing in children are “exactly the symptoms you would see in a population that had gotten way, way, way too much therapy,” she said.

    Social Emotional Learning

    Ms. Shrier went to the schools to find out how social emotional learning, or SEL, is taught to children.

    “How do you actually teach SEL? Well, let’s start by sharing a time when you’re happy. Well, that’s boring. Nothing to teach there. Control your joy? Let’s start by all sharing the time when we felt sad, when we felt misunderstood, when we thought we might be bullied,” she said. “Now we’re on a roll. Now we have something for the teachers to teach.”

    The problem is that parents are often blamed for the child’s sadness at school because, after all, “Whose job is it to keep kids safe?” she asked.

    “So now, we’re criticizing parents,” she said. “It’s completely built into the system. And, I’m not saying that because it’s a conspiracy. I’m just saying, naturally, if you want to teach wellness and emotional regulation, the way to do it is to focus on a time when kids felt sad.”

    Ms. Shrier predicts in the book that social emotional learning would lead more children to be sad, anxious, phobic, and alienated from their parents.

    When she finished the book in October, Ms. Shrier didn’t know researchers in Australia and England wondered the same thing and were conducting experiments on wellness techniques and anti-bullying, she said.

    As it turned out, two new studies showed that “kids ended up being sadder and more anxious, more depressed and more alienated from their parents than the control group,” she said.

    Rise of the Expert Class

    The rise in the expert class to break down parental authority has been happening for generations, she said.

    Society began to regard informal relationships “as hazardous and somewhat sinister,” and instead placed their trust in “experts.”

    “So, we didn’t trust grandma as much even though she had raised good kids to adulthood, but to this parenting expert whose oldest child was five, we listened,” she said.

    But, while the overtreatment of children who don’t need therapy is causing damage, she said there are still children and adults who do need therapy.

    “There are kids who need it. But, if you don’t treat them well, you’re only introducing risk,” she said. “They stand to gain nothing.”

    Ms. Shrier stressed that she’s not opposed to therapy or medication.

    “If you have a severe phobia and are afraid to leave your house, by all means get the therapy. It will help you leave your house if it’s done right. If you’re so germophobic you can’t shake people’s hands, get the therapy. … If you have a severely anorexic kid … get your kid the help they need of course,” she said.

    Abigail Shrier discusses her latest best-seller, “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up” at a book-signing event hosted by the Lincoln Club at Newport Beach, Calif., on March 20, 2024. (Brad Jones/ The Epoch Times)

    Parents need to know that therapy for a child is “an entirely different experience than therapy with an adult, because an adult can say to a therapist, ‘Listen, I really appreciated that, but I wouldn’t call my mom emotionally abusive,’ or ‘Listen  I know you’ve said in the past that’s toxic, but I’m not going to cut off my parents,” Ms. Shrier said.

    Society now treats a healthy-minded child who is a little worried or a bit anxious by sending them to therapy, exposing them to risks such as increased anxiety, increased depression, alienation from their parents, and demoralization, the feeling that they are limited by a mental health diagnosis, and in some ways the sadness of all treatment dependency, she said.

    Children are left feeling that “they can’t do for themselves,” or make decisions, without consulting an expert or an adult, which hinders them from gaining confidence and growing up, she said.

    “We’ve never had an American generation that believes less in its ability to rise to a challenge than this one,” she said.

    ‘They’ve Been Told a Lie’

    Ms. Shrier interviewed a young woman who has received preventive, or prophylactic, therapy since she was 6 years old, when her parents divorced. The woman, called Becca in the book, never stopped going to therapy.

    Although Becca, now 17, has never been diagnosed with a mental illness, she continues to see a therapist to discuss her “anxiety,” Ms. Shrier said.

    When Ms. Shrier asked what Becca and her therapist were currently working on, she replied that the therapist was helping her prepare to make friends in college.

    “This is what we’re seeing in the rising generation. They don’t believe they’re up to the basic challenges of adulthood. They think they need a mental health day off,” she said. “They don’t want to have kids or get married either because they think they’re sick. In some ways, it’s the saddest thing of all, because they’ve been told a lie that they’re all mentally ill; it’s just a question of degrees.”

    ‘Who Objects to Wellness?’

    Policies governing therapy are almost always couched in language that makes them difficult to challenge.

    “They are always being sold as something you can’t object to, like wellness,” she said. “Who objects to wellness?”

    “That’s how all the conversion therapy bans got passed, she said. These bans were sold as a way to stop the cruel practice of trying to force gay young people to go straight, but then they slipped in gender identity language,” Ms. Shrier said.

    So now, therapists who tell a girl she’s a girl and not a boy can be accused of conversion therapy and lose their license, she said.

    Therapeutic Culture

    Therapeutic culture has worked its way into “everything,” Ms. Shrier said.

    And, while anti-bullying classes may sound like a good idea on the surface, how they’re taught and by whom has side-effects, she suggested.

    “You know what you need to do to teach kids not to bully? Teach them right from wrong: ‘Don’t pick on someone smaller than you. Don’t join in,’ and ‘I’m going to be really disappointed if you do. That’s not a behavior we expect in this house. It’s wrong.’ That’s how you teach anti-bullying,” she said.

    “You know what you don’t do? Go into a class with a school counselor and teach all the kids they’re so fragile that if anyone says anything they don’t like they’re going fall apart, because now you have kids who don’t believe they can survive anything. That’s what they’ve been told over and over.”

    The remedy is simple, she said.

    “This is the easiest thing in America to fix. We’ve got a lot of problems, but this one is so easy,” she said. “Mom and Dad can fix it tomorrow. It doesn’t even take any money. You just need to assert your authority and tell kids what’s what. That’s it.”

    Children are dwelling far too much and too long on their problems, and not learning how to perform errands and tasks that build confidence, she said.

    “If a kid takes his problem to a pastor, or grandma, or an aunt, at some point, the aunt or the grandma is going to say, ‘You’re fine. We’ve talked about this enough. Go play!’” she said. “And guess what a therapist won’t say. ‘You’re fine.’ That’s the problem.”

    Almost any activity would be better for children than social emotional learning or “talking about our bad feelings” in schools, she said. “Paint the gym, play ball—they could literally do anything—pick up trash on the side of the highway, and it would be better for them than sitting around talking about their pain,” she said.

    It’s “not fair” to children who have gone through a traumatic experience to talk about their pain right before a math test, she said.

    “You’re not helping them, but you might convince a kid who hasn’t gone through something really hard that actually they were abused, too,” she said.

    How Much Therapy is Too Much?

    Ms. Shrier told The Epoch Times in an interview that while researching “Irreversible Damage” she realized that at the core of the “social contagion” she exposed were the children’s therapists and school counselors.

    “In almost every case, a kid had a therapist or school counselor that encouraged them in the idea that they might be transgender,” she said.

    It was “obvious and disturbing” that mental health professionals had left children “worse off or introduced a new problem,” she said.

    Since too much therapy can increase anxiety and depression, “it can introduce new symptoms, like the idea that you can have gender dysphoria,” she said.

    Ms. Shrier interviewed Arthur Barsky, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and world expert on illness anxiety disorder, somatic symptom disorder, or what used to be called call hypochondriasis—the condition afflicting hypochondriacs.

    Mr. Barsky, she said, told her hypochondriasis isn’t about people imagining pain, but rather hyperfocusing on the normal pains we all feel.

    “If you make that an organizing principle of your life, the pain will magnify,” she said. “That’s what these kids are doing to their emotional lives.”

    Today’s children, many who are leading unhealthy lifestyles, think the solution must be diagnosis, therapy, or medication, but too much therapy has led them to every kind of diagnosis, including gender dysphoria, Ms. Shrier said.

    Parents ‘Terrified’

    ‘Helicopter moms,’ the term for overprotective parents who hover over their children fearing they will be traumatized at school or away from home, have given rise to a new generation of parents who are even more afraid, according to Ms. Shrier.

    “They’re frantic,” she said. “It’s much worse than helicoptering. It’s surveillance parenting.”

    These parents “are actually tracking their kids with an app on their phones,” and calling teachers demanding their children not be seated next to students who might hurt their feelings, she said.

    “They’re calling coaches. They’re calling bosses,” she said.

    And they’re convinced they must protect their child from being “called a bad name at elementary school” because if they don’t the trauma will devastate them, she said.

    “They can never look away,” she said. “They’re terrified of emotional injury. They’re terrified of bullying.”

    ‘Surveillance Parenting’

    While generations of older Americans, including conservative opinion hosts, have mocked the rising generation, often calling them “snowflakes” who need “safe spaces” and “therapy dogs” so they don’t melt over comments they find offensive, Ms. Shrier says the problem runs much deeper than thin-skinned youth.

    “It’s worse than that,” she said. “Kids are not able to deal with normal problems in adult life because they’re genuinely believing themselves sick.”

    American society has been immersed in trauma and therapy culture for more than a generation, and its effects are “profound,” she said.

    “Now kids don’t say ‘I’m shy,’ they say ‘I have social phobia.’ They don’t say ‘I’m worried,’ they say ‘I have anxiety.’ They don’t say ‘I feel sad,’ they have depression,” she said. “That is proof that they were swimming in the language of psychopathology.”

    These parents bought into the notion that preventive therapy was an innocuous intervention, “but it’s not,” she said.

    “It’s false. It’s never been true, but they believed that,” Ms. Shrier said. “Where did they get that idea? They’d all been teased, they’d all been neglected, they’d all had their hearts broken, so why did they become convinced in one generation that their children couldn’t survive that?”

    The answer: “Because the experts told them.”

    This parental generation trusted the mental health experts and believed the “trauma narrative” they were selling, she said. Some became “obsessed” with normal problems children face at school because they grew up to think everybody can use therapy like “a mental tune-up,” even though there is a body of research called iatrogenesis “when a healer introduces a harm.”

    Most parents weren’t aware of the negative side effects therapy can cause, especially for children who don’t need it, Ms. Shrier said.

    Preventive Mental Health

    Some of this therapeutic culture stems from rising divorce rates over the last few decades.

    “A lot of us went to therapy as adults and we thought that really helped, and we assumed it would be the same for a kid,” she said. “It’s not.”

    Mental health experts—the American School Counseling Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Psychological Association—that had nothing to say as children headed into the second academic year of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the lockdowns were “the most obvious detriment to kids’ mental health,” she said, “now present themselves as the cure.”

    These mental health experts behave more like groups that want to enrich themselves than people who are “actually trying” to help the mental health of children, she said.

    “Now, if you need therapy, if you have a disorder, if you have a real problem, it’s worth the risk. It’s when you don’t have a problem, that you only stand to face the risk because you don’t stand to benefit,” she said. “So, I’m not against treatment. What I’m against is what they call ‘preventive mental health,’ which has no proven track record of helping anybody. And, by the way, of course it can’t. It’s treating people who don’t have a problem.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 21:40

  • Which US College Major Is The Worst For Finding A Job?
    Which US College Major Is The Worst For Finding A Job?

    Finding a job can often be a Sisyphean task in this rapidly changing modern economy. Highly sought after skills come and go, following the greater tides of technology change, marketplace behavior, and shifting consumer patterns.

    After all, take a look at what’s happening in the tech world.

    Education plays an important role in this job hunting business of course. And some skill sets are losing their sheen, with their practitioners having a harder time than others in securing gainful employment.

    But which ones are the worst right now?

    We visualize the top 10 U.S. college majors, ranked by their unemployment rate, including their underemployment rate for additional context. These figures are of recent college graduates (those aged 22–27 with a bachelor’s degree or higher) and are sourced from the New York Federal Reserve, current up to February 2024.

    ℹ️ Underemployment is when workers are working less than full-time or in insufficient jobs for their training.

    Ranked: U.S. Majors with the Highest Unemployment Rates

    Heading the first three spots on this list are all the majors with “art” in their name.

    Nearly 8% of recent Art History, Liberal Arts, and Fine Arts graduates are unemployed, with more than 50% of them underemployed.

    At fourth place, 7.8% of recent Aerospace Engineering majors have not found a job—a surprising statistic since engineering is regarded as one of the more stable majors to study.

    In fact from same data source, Industrial and Mechanical engineers have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

    However, aerospace engineering jobs tend to be clustered around the big companies in an otherwise small industry, with additional requirements for security clearances. Tellingly, the underemployment rate for aerospace engineering graduates is less than 20%, which is the best out of this list.

    At fifth, sixth, and seventh place are History (7.5%), English (6.6%), and Mass Media (6.3%) of which the former two have also seen a rapid decline in undergraduates in the last decade.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 21:20

  • Scientists Uncover Mechanism Viruses Use To Cause Cancer
    Scientists Uncover Mechanism Viruses Use To Cause Cancer

    Authored by Emma Suttie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Viral infections are thought to be a central cause of between 10 to 20 percent of cancers worldwide, representing a significant portion of the global cancer burden.

    A recent discovery may further our understanding of how viruses cause cancer.

    Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic uncovered one of the mechanisms that a type of virus called Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) uses to induce cancer.

    The study, published last month in Nature Communications, found that the KSHV virus activated a specific pathway responsible for cell metabolism and the way cells grow and multiply. Using current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved breast cancer drugs, they were able to reduce the replication of the virus, stop the progression of the lymphoma, and shrink existing tumors in preclinical models.

    Jun Zhao, of the Cleveland Clinic Florida Research and Innovation Center, who holds a doctorate in genetic, molecular, and cellular biology is the study’s lead author.

    “Our findings have significant implications: viruses cause between 10% to 20% of cancers worldwide, a number that is constantly increasing as new discoveries are made. Treating virus-induced cancers with standard cancer therapies can help shrink tumors that are already there, but it doesn’t fix the underlying problem of the virus,” Mr. Zhao explained in a news release. “Understanding how pathogens transform a healthy cell into a cancer cell uncovers exploitable vulnerabilities and allows us to make and repurpose existing drugs that can effectively treat virus-associated malignancies.”

    Kaposi Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus

    Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, also known as human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8), is “A type of virus that causes Kaposi sarcoma (a rare cancer in which lesions grow in the skin, lymph nodes, lining of the mouth, nose, and throat, and other tissues of the body). Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus also causes certain types of lymphoma (cancer that begins in cells of the immune system),” according to The National Cancer Institute.

    According to the news release, Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus is similar to other herpesviruses in that it is often asymptomatic and stays in the body laying dormant after primary infection. However, when the immune system becomes weakened or compromised, as it does in many elderly people, transplant recipients, or those with HIV or AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), the virus can reactivate. In these high-risk immunocompromised groups, the reactivated virus “can trigger aggressive cancers.”

    Cancer cells replicate quickly and reprogram the body’s metabolism to help them grow and spread. Most viruses don’t produce their own energy or the molecules they need and therefore hijack the body’s cells to do the work for them. However, the researchers found that the KSHV virus assumes control of two host proteins (CDK6 and CAD) which causes the virus to replicate more quickly and the cells to multiply and spread out of control.

    The news release also states that KSHV-induced cancers are “fast-acting, aggressive and difficult to treat,” and that an estimated 10 percent of people in North America and Northern Europe, and 50 percent of people in Africa have KSHV, although the numbers are thought to be much higher because the virus can present without symptoms and often goes undiagnosed.

    A University of Pittsburgh article about KSHV writes, “It is highly likely that over 95% of persons who are healthy and infected with KSHV do not have symptoms and never will,” and that problems develop once a person’s immune system becomes compromised.

    Viruses and Cancer

    In addition to KSHV, several other viruses are known to cause human cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, the following viruses can cause cancer in humans:

    • Human papillomaviruses
    • Epstein-Barr virus
    • Hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus
    • Human immunodeficiency virus
    • Human T-lymphotropic virus-1
    • Merkel cell polyomavirus

    The American Society of Microbiology states that “Viruses can lead to cancer by associating with host proteins, proliferating when the human immune system is weakened, and hijacking proliferating human cells. Compared to other viruses, human tumor viruses are unusual because they infect, but do not kill, their host cells.” This process allows the human tumor viruses to initiate ongoing infections.

    The research team discovered that the combination of Palbociclib—a drug that is FDA-approved to treat breast cancer and works by blocking CDK6—and a compound that blocks CAD (the two host proteins that are hijacked by the virus) caused a substantial reduction in tumor size and improvements in cancer survival rates in preclinical models. According to the news release, “Most tumors virtually disappeared after about a month of treatment, and remaining tumors shrank around 80%. Survival increased to 100% for selected lymphoma cell lines.”

    Future Impact

    The findings could lead to new options for the treatment of KSHV-associated cancers, which include Kaposi’s sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and HHV8-associated multicentric Castleman disease. They could also potentially extend beyond KSHV-associated cancers to other viruses that cause cancer using the same or similar mechanisms.

    As for what the findings mean for the future, Mr. Zhao says, “Cellular metabolism could be hijacked by both viruses and cancers for pathogenesis. By investigating these metabolic rewiring mechanisms, we aim to find the Achilles’ heel of cancer-causing viruses and non-viral cancers. I’m excited to see what the future of this work holds.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 21:00

  • La Niña Forecasted To Fuel Explosive Atlantic Hurricane Season 
    La Niña Forecasted To Fuel Explosive Atlantic Hurricane Season 

    Hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1st—or about two months from today, April 1st. Weather forecasters have already warned that the Atlantic Hurricane season could be super active, and that’s a major problem for anyone trying to plan a vacation in the Bahamas later this year or operators of offshore oil/gas wells across the Gulf of Mexico. 

    “The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to feature well above the historical average number of tropical storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes and direct US impacts,” AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Forecaster Alex DaSilva said.

    DaSilva explained: “Sea-surface temperatures are well above historical average across much of the Atlantic basin, especially across the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and the Main Development Region [for hurricanes].” 

    Besides the very warm Atlantic Ocean water temperatures adding fuel to the fire, the development of La Niña (read: “The Coming Collapse Of El Nino And Flip To La Nina”) in the Pacific results in less disruptive winds, known as wind shear, over most of the Atlantic basin, which means tropical systems will form more easily. 

    All three Atlantic hurricane seasons, 2020, 2021, and 2023, La Niña was present and featured well above the 30-year historical average of 14 named storms. 

    DaSilva forecasts 20-25 named storms across the Atlantic basin in 2024, including 8-12 hurricanes. He expects four to seven major hurricanes and four to six storms to land on the Gulf and East Coast. 

    And, of course, corporate media will blame fossil-fuel-caused climate change for an active hurricane season while Gen-Z climate buffoon Greta instills more climate anxieties into her hopeless young followers. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 20:40

  • California's Deficit Is $222 Billion And The State Is $1.6 Trillion In Debt
    California’s Deficit Is $222 Billion And The State Is $1.6 Trillion In Debt

    By Mike Shedlock of MishTalk

    Governor Gavin Newsom bragged of a surplus, but California is seriously underwater. The next recession will hit the state extremely hard.

    Golden State Budget Fantasy

    The City Journal founder Ed Ring comments on the Golden State Budget Fantasy

    While finalizing the upcoming fiscal year’s state budget back in May 2022, California governor Gavin Newsom boasted of an extraordinary projected surplus: $97 billion. The governor immediately collaborated with an enthusiastic state legislature to spend it all. Of course, new spending on new programs and benefits tends to become permanent.

    This has happened repeatedly in California. Between fiscal year 2012–13 and fiscal year 2022–23 (the year with the projected $97 billion surplus), per capita general-fund spending doubled, from just over $3,000 per resident to just under $6,000. (All figures are in 2022 inflation-adjusted dollars.)

    The State Office of Legislative Analyst’s latest report projects a $73 billion dollar deficit for the next fiscal year. It won’t be easy to paper over this debt, but the state may use its opaque accounting system to hide the ball.

    California’s general-fund budgets are reported on a cash basis. The state’s balance sheet, however, uses “accrual-based accounting.” Without getting too far into the weeds, this is an apples v. oranges situation. Instead of the algebraic perfection of private-sector income statements, balance sheets, and cash flows, government accounting provides no easy way to reconcile what you see on the budget.

    Some watchdogs, however, have succeeded in cracking the code. John Moorlach, one of the only certified public accountants to serve in the California State Senate, just published a review of the state’s fiscal health, focusing on the balance sheet. According to Moorlach, California’s balance sheet is in trouble.

    Moorlach declared in a March California Insider interview that the state “now has the largest unrestricted net deficit in the US: $222 Billion.” In plain English, Moorlach is saying that California’s state government accounts have liabilities that exceed assets by $222 billion. No matter how creative Newsom and his financial wizards may be, someday that money will have to be paid.

    A remedy that California has turned to over the years and will undoubtedly turn to now is to accumulate additional long-term debt. Emulating the federal government, but lacking its dollar-printing ability, California’s state and local governments and agencies have racked up over a trillion dollars in debt, primarily in bonds and unfunded pension liabilities. These liabilities, too, must be paid. Since that’s all but impossible, the liabilities must be serviced with payments that, just as at the federal level, will eat up more and more of the operating budgets.

    How Much Is California in Debt?

    The above link says over a trillion. That’s being very generous to California. Click on it to discover … California State and Local Liabilities exceed $1.6 Trillion.

    California’s total state and local government debt now stands at almost $1.6 trillion, or about half the state’s GDP.

    That isn’t an alarming ratio when compared to the national debt, which has now soared to 128 percent of U.S. GDP with no end in sight. But Californians carry this $1.6 trillion state and local debt ($40,000 per capita) in addition to their share of the national debt (about $90,000 per capita).

    That article was from February of 2022. I suspect the liabilities are now close to $2 trillion.

    Cost of Running a McDonalds Jumps $250,000 in CA

    On February 4, I noted the Cost of Running a McDonalds Jumps $250,000 in CA Due to Minimum Wage Hikes.

    A blowback is underway.

    California Restaurants Cut Jobs

    On March 26, I commented California Restaurants Cut Jobs as Fast-Food Wages Set to Rise

    Proposition 103 Backfires

    Citing wildfire risk, State Farm will not renew policies on 30,000 homes and 42,000 business in California.

    Also on March 26, I commented Proposition 103 Backfires, State Farm to Cancel 72,000 California Policies

    Blame the state, not insurers.

    Congratulations to NY, IL, LA, and CA for Losing the Most Population

    People in California, increasingly getting sick of the state’s progressive madness, are voting with their feet.

    For discussion, please see Congratulations to NY, IL, LA, and CA for Losing the Most Population

    Absolute Basis Losers

    • New York: -631,104

    • California: -573,019

    • Illinois: -263,780

    California Leads the Nation in Unemployment

    The BLS metro shows unemployment rates were up in 218 of 389 metro areas. Nonfarm employment only rose in 59 areas.

    On March 15, I noted Unemployment Rates Rose in 218 of the 389 Metropolitan Areas

    Unsurprisingly, California has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 5.7 percent vs. 4.1 percent nationally.

    A Booming Economy?

    California has massive problems although the stock market is at a record high and the economy is allegedly booming. The next recession will hit California exceptionally hard, and it’s not too far off. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 20:20

  • Leaked Cell Phone Location Data Reveals 200 Mystery Guests On Epstein's "Pedo Island"
    Leaked Cell Phone Location Data Reveals 200 Mystery Guests On Epstein’s “Pedo Island”

    Data from nearly 200 mobile devices reveal the exact path taken by visitors to Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious ‘pedo island,’ which was tracked to 80 cities around the world spanning 26 states or territories.

    The data, obtained by Wired, came from recently bankrupt company Near Intelligence, which allegedly traced the phones which went to and from Little Saint James island, where Epstein allegedly ran an underage sex trafficking network.

    Near Intelligence, which rebranded itself Azira amid an internal fraud scandal and other controversies, mapped out more than 11,000 coordinates from 166 locations. Some of the locations point to gated communities in Michigan, Florida, as well as homes in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantuckett and a nightclub in Miami, according to the report.

    The coordinates that Near Intelligence collected and left exposed online pinpoint locations to within a few centimeters of space. Visitors were tracked as they moved from the Ritz-Carlton on neighboring St. Thomas Island, for instance, to a specific dock at the American Yacht Harbor—a marina once co-owned by Epstein that hosts an “impressive array” of pleasure boats and mega-yachts. The data pinpointed their movements as they were transported to Epstein’s dock on Little St. James, revealing the exact routes taken to the island. -Wired

    The tracking data, which dates back as early as July 2016, also includes routes taken inside Epstein’s ‘waterfront temple’ to toe beaches, pools and cabanas located on the 71-acre island. The surveillance data ends on July 6, 2019 – the day Epstein was arrested (for the second time).

    Of course, the report excludes “any precise location data that could be used to identify properties or individuals, to protect the privacy of anyone uninvolved in Epstein’s crimes,” however Wired suggests they document “the numerous trips of wealthy and influential individuals seemingly undeterred by Epstein’s status as a convicted sex offender.”

    The data also tracks people to Epstein’s 8,000-acre New Mexico ranch as well as his waterfront mansion on El Brillo Way in Palm Beach, where Epstein was accused of trafficking and sexually abusing numerous “minor girls” as part of his scheme.

    As Wired also reports, “Near’s data is notably missing any locations in Europe, where citizens are safeguarded by comprehensive privacy laws.”

    Several ad exchanges, according to The Wall Street Journal, have reportedly terminated arrangements with Near, claiming that its use of their data violated the exchanges’ terms of service.

    Officially, this data is intended to be used by companies hoping to determine where potential customers work and reside. But in October 2023, the Journal revealed that Near had once provided data to the US military via a maze of obscure marketing companies, cutouts, and conduits to defense contractors. Bankruptcy records reviewed by WIRED show that in April 2023, Near Intelligence signed a yearlong contract with another firm called nContext, a subsidiary of the defense contractor Sierra Nevada. -Wired

    “The pervasive surveillance machine that has been developed for digital advertising now enables other uses completely unrelated to marketing, including government mass surveillance,” according to Vienna-based researcher Wolfie Christl of Cracked Labs.

    The disgraced financier was mysteriously found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial for sexually abusing and trafficking young women and girls for years along with his partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell.

    Near Intelligence filed for bankruptcy in December amid liabilities of around $100 million, less than 12 months after being listed by Nasdaq. An independent investigation commissioned by the board concluded that multiple executives engaged in a years-long “concealed scheme” by which they allegedly cheated the company out of tens of millions of dollars. One of said executives has filed a claim against the company alleging defamation.

    Since the BK was filed, the company ‘quietly resumed operations,’ rebranding itself as newly incorporated Azira.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    A post shared by WIRED (@wired)

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    In February, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged federal regulators to investigate Near Intelligence over allegations by the Wall Street Journal that its data had been used by a third-party to geofence “sensitive locations,” which included roughly 600 reproductive clinics at the behest of a conservative group.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 20:00

  • Tackling The Difficult But Urgent Task Of Depolarizing America
    Tackling The Difficult But Urgent Task Of Depolarizing America

    Authored by Adeline Von Drehle via RealClear Politics,

    The North Hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut, acts in 2024 much like the town of Gettysburg acted in 1863: as a space to handle our differences as citizens of the United States.

    Braver Angels is one of several grassroots organizations to crop up over the past few years that places focus on the depolarization of Americans. They host debates – like the one at St. Stephen’s – where people on different sides of the political aisle can come and respectfully argue with one another under the watchful eye of a moderator. Their volunteers lead workshops, like “Skills for Disagreeing Better,” in which attendees are taught how to navigate a conversation with a political opposite. Members can attend weekly lunches and TED-esque speeches.

    “We are not trying to make everyone a moderate,” said Jessie Mannisto, Braver Angels’ director of debates. “We want to take the emotion out of politics – what we call affective polarization – while we address the difficult questions that are facing us as a society so we can function as a single country.”

    Affective polarization refers to the phenomenon where one’s feelings toward members of their own political party trend positive, while their feelings toward the opposing party become increasingly negative. Readers will be deeply familiar with the sensation, even if they’ve never heard its name before.

    It is affective polarization that leads a conservative voter to think of their liberal counterpart as a morally corrupt person, and the liberal to return the favor by slinging insults ending in “-ist” and “-phobic.” On a personal level, it can dissolve friendships and family bonds.

    While it can be unreliable to gauge how divided a society is by looking at numbers alone, polling shows a historically polarized nation.

    The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions doubled in two decades from 10% to 21%, according to Pew Research Center. In 1965, about 65% of married couples had the same party registration. Today, the figure is greater than 85%. Republicans and Democrats were asked by political scientists Lilliana Mason if they agree that members of the other party “lack the traits to be considered fully human – they behave like animals,” and about 30% in both parties agreed.

    If numbers aren’t your thing, some anecdotal evidence ought to bolster claims of a deep American divide.

    There have been three impeachment inquiries and two impeachment trials in seven years. News juggernauts like MSNBC and Fox have been written off by one side or another as completely biased. An estimated 30% of Americans believe Biden’s 2020 win was illegitimate, and about 2,000 of those people felt so strongly about this fact that they stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in attempt to stall democratic processes.

    This isn’t the most divided time in American history, though people like to say it is. Your neighbors probably aren’t ready to take up arms against you. But this growing problem feels important enough to some that they would seek out an organization like Braver Angels.

    One woman, Rachel (who preferred her last name be left out), decided to search for a depolarizing organization when she noticed she was completely surrounded by like-minded people in a world she described as “fully liberal.” She found it difficult to express her views to her parents, who live in a conservative Illinois town.

    “I would like a society where people with disagreeing viewpoints talk to each other and get to know each other,” said Rachel. “It’s so easy to demonize each other when you don’t know each other.”

    The hope is that by getting people together who disagree with one another and facilitating “repair in citizen-to-citizen relationships,” as the Braver Angels website puts it, there will be less animosity between political parties. 

    We might be able to take an example from a historical social experiment in which the psychologist Muzafer Sherif divided Boy Scouts into two camps. At the end of one week, they learned there was another group at the far end of the campsite. Each group was irrationally disgusted with the other, and the ice only thawed when they were forced to problem-solve together.

    This is kind of like what Braver Angels and organizations like it are attempting to do with the American public. By hosting events where a passionate liberal can have a calm, respectful, face-to-face conversation with their conservative counterpart, volunteers hope to mend our fraying republic.

    “One powerful thing we do is dissolving stereotypes,” said Justin Conner, a Braver Angels workshop facilitator. “Asking yourself why someone thinks differently from you can stimulate self-awareness as the listener. Then ask, where do I see truth and value in what they’re saying and where are some of my ideas flexible?”

    It is incredibly easy to dismiss a post on X or leave a nasty comment on someone’s Facebook page. It is much harder to demonize a person you have spent one or two hours having a civil conversation with, whose eyes have met your own. This is the goal of a depolarization organization.

    “It really is about creating compassion for different perspectives, and depolarization results from that,” said Conner. “Instead of trying to attack the other side, we want to have a much more healthy and robust debate of ideas, which is in many ways the foundation of the country.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 19:40

  • Just 38% Of Voters Think Biden Lives Through 2nd Term: Poll
    Just 38% Of Voters Think Biden Lives Through 2nd Term: Poll

    Just 38% of voters think President Ron Burgundy Joe Biden would survive a second term in office, according to a new poll by the Daily Mail and J.L. Partners.

    Biden – who last month was essentially found too old and feeble to prosecute by the special counsel’s office investigating his mishandling of classified information, would be 86 at the end of a second term.

    If he doesn’t make it, Kamala Harris would become the left’s new vessel to advance policies with the stroke of a pen. To that end, 36% of those polled believe that Harris will be president by the end of the term, while 29% say they “don’t know” (because they don’t understand how succession works?).

    When it comes to Trump, 54% are confident that he would be alive after another term in office, with 21% ‘not confident.’

    “Voters think Biden is too old, and they are not changing their mind,” said J.L. Partners co-founder James Johnson.

    “The difficulty for Biden is that views of him are not shaped through events such as his State of the Union address—which people who had seen it felt was fiery—but through consumption of the hundreds of viral social media clips of Biden stumbling and slurring.”

    “That solid perception that he is too old feeds through to a sense he is too weak, and it is a major problem for him going into November,” Johnson continued. “Frankly, they do not think he is up to the job—and that makes his re-election a much harder task.“

    As Modernity.news notes:

    A vote for Biden in November could be a vote for this as president…

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 19:20

  • The Implications Of Fatal Debt? Expect More Lies
    The Implications Of Fatal Debt? Expect More Lies

    Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz/gold,

    If you want to understand the direction of debt, rates, the USD, inflation, risk asset markets, gold and the US endgame, it might be better not to listen to the experts.

    In fact, Johny Cash is a far better source…

    Five Feet High & Rising

    In a classic 1959 tune by Johny Cash, the singer asks: “How high’s the water mama?”

    This question is then answered by a riff which chants, “she said it’s two feet high and risin.’”

    And with each subsequent refrain, the water level goes to three feet, four feet and then five feet, “high and risin’.”

    In short: An obvious flood.

    And when it comes to debt in the land of the world reserve currency, Johny Cash may have something to teach Jerome Powell and the other DC children drowning the US (and its debt-soaked Dollar) into a slow but steady debt flood.

    Boring?

    I’ve often said that good journalism, like honest economics, is boring.

    One has to understand “hard” indicators like bond yields (which move inversely to bond price) and the high-school level basics of supply and demand forces.

    But as I’ve also said countless times, and will say countless times more: The bond market is THE thing, because bonds are all about DEBT.

    If you understand bonds, and in particular, the Fed’s hidden (real) mandate to save Uncle Sam’s sovereign IOU’s from sinking in price, then you will be able to easily foresee (rather than date predict) the future of risk assets, gold, BTC, the USD and yes, inflation.

    The complex truly is that simple.

    How High’s the Debt Mama? 120% and Risin’

    And if you turn to Johny Cash and ask “How high’s the debt level mama?” well… the blunt answer informs just about everything you need to know.

    So, let’s keep it simple.

    Simple, Not Boring

    Debt is WHERE it all begins, and it tells you exactly HOW the American song ends.

    And just how high is the water (debt) mama?

    Ten years ago, US public debt was $17T “and risin’.”

    Today it’s $34.5T “and risin’.”

    America’s debt to GDP is 120%, its deficit to GDP is around 6%, and every 100 days we add another $1T in borrowing to our shameless bar tab of debt addiction masquerading as capitalism.

    Even our own Congressional Budget Office will confess that unless we issue more debt (and print more debased money to monetize it), our Medicare and social security piggy bank will be empty by 2030.

    Meanwhile, the USA is staring down the barrel of $212T in unfunded liabilities yet only $190T in assets.

    In other words, and based on objective math, America literally has the balance sheet of a banana republic.

    No Crisis?

    Apologists (i.e., truth and math-challenged politicos), however, will tell you there is no crisis, even as the water levels rise past our closed eyes.

    The clever ones will remind us that America’s USD comprises 85% of FX transactions, the vast bulk (80%) of international trade settlements, and is in constant “milk-shake” demand from the Eurodollar, derivative and SWIFT payment systems.

    In other words, the Dollar is gonna be just fine.

    Hmmm…

    Facts vs. “Just Fine”

    As warned from day-1 of the myopic (and suicidal) sanctions against Putin in which the US weaponized the world reserve currency, those days of a “just fine” USD simply ended.

    Not all at once, but slow and steady, like a flood’s water line…

    In just 2 years, we’ve seen undeniable signs of de-dollarization from the BRICS+ nations and an extraordinarily telling shift in the petrodollar dynamics (20% of 2023 global oil sold outside the USD), which would have been otherwise unimaginable in the pre-sanction era.

    But, if you remain convinced that America and its reserve currency have magical immunity from the de-dollarization’s slow drip greenback demise, let’s get back to the oh-so boring but oh-so honest cries of the US Treasury market.

    Why?

    Again. Because the bond market is everything.

    As important, the bond market has everything to do with debt, and current US debt is drowning the nation and diluting the USD, one slow trillion at a time.

    Sound sensational?

    Pounding A Fact-Based Fist

    For years, I have pounded my fist reminding readers and viewers that debt destroys nations and currencies. Every time, and without exception.

    And for years I have pounded my fist saying the Powell’s “war on inflation” was a ruse, as every debt-soaked nation needs to debase its currency to inflate away debt.

    And from day-1 of Powell’s claim (lie) that inflation was “transitory,” I’ve been calling his bluff. 

    For years, I’ve argued that the Fed would simply lie about inflation (i.e., grossly under-report it) in order to make it appear statistically lower than what we actually knew/felt it to be.

    Even Larry Summers, who is the classic arsonist (from his repeal of Glass-Steagall to deregulating the derivatives markets) now playing at fireman, has publicly stated that the actual US CPI scale, using pre-1983 housing methods, peaked last year at 18%, not the official 3.7% range…

    If we then tack on a US debt/GDP ratio that is 30% higher today than in 2009, we mathematically see that despite Powell’s repressive “higher-for-longer” rate polices, we’ve made zero dent in our debt—instead, we’ve increased it.

    In other words, our war against inflation is a loss; and our debts have increased.

    And in the last couple of years, I’ve been pounding my fist that Powell would pivot from rising rates, to pausing rate cuts to eventually cutting rates followed in turn by outright money printing (or rather mouse-clicking Dollars) to “pay” Uncle Sam’s debt at the expense of our currency via what Luke Gromen calls “super QE.”

    And all modesty aside, I think I/we have been right…

    Right or Wrong?

    Already, and as of last week, Powell has openly projected rate cuts in 2024, and they are likely to come by or near September.

    We’ll see.

    For now, just the promise (words) of rate cuts have been enough to send Pavlovian (Fed-dependent) markets to all-time-highs despite a real economy already under water.

    And the subsequent decline in the Market Option Volatility Estimate (“MOVE” Index) was a neon-flashing sign that the market is getting ready for a new flood of dollar-diluting liquidity…

    Where’s the QE, Matt?

    But what about my forewarned QE?

    What about that ultimate moment when Powell admits full defeat in his so-called “war” on inflation (while quietly seeking inflation) and openly does what many off us (nod again to Luke Gromen et al) already know he will do, that is: Debase the currency to “save” a rigged-to-fail (i.e., debt-based) USA?

    Clearly, it seems, I/we have been wrong about that QE, no?

    Well…Not so fast.

    Coming Through the Back Door

    In fact, Powell, along with his former Fed colleague-turned-mind-numbing Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, have been doing un-noticed back-door QE at staggering levels too complex (or obvious) for the mental midgets in our so-called main stream media to even notice.

    Shocker? Hardly…

    Facts Are Stubborn Things

    The fact is that five times in the last four years, DC has been doing QE by just another name (what I call “backdoor QE”) to avoid the embarrassment of direct QE.

    Notwithstanding the “not-QE” (which really was QE) in 2019 when the Fed bailed out a cash-dry repo market (which, by design, no one understood), the DC magicians have been doing trillions worth of QE-like liquidity measures without having to call it, well QE…

    That is, the Fed and Treasury Dept. have been pulling liquidity out of the drying Treasury General Account, the now retired “BTFP” measures, and the intentionally confusing reverse repo markets.

    More recently (and equally as well intentionally confusing to the masses), the Fed is quietly on the verge of allowing the Fed banks to use unlimited leverage to buy unlimited amounts of USTs off the Fed’s balance sheet via the removal of what the fancy lads call “Supplementary Reserve Ratios.”

    This latest trick, by the way, is just off-balance sheet QE, and yet another symptom of the big banks becoming branch offices of the Fed, as our already centralized America becomes even more grotesquely, well…centralized, which is a classic symptom of a desperate and debt-soaked regime.

    But just in case none of the foregoing tricks of backdoor QE have convinced you of what basically amounts to just QE, we can get our clearest signals from—you guessed it: THE BOND MARKET.

    That is, one of the most obvious examples of “backdoor QE” is the Treasury Department’s open yet ignored trick of issuing most of its recent debt from the short duration end of the yield curve.

    What The T-Bills Are Saying

    By issuing more short-term IOUs in the form of T-Bills, this takes the supply-push inflation pressure off the openly unloved 10Y USTs, whose price declines (and subsequent as well as fatally unpayable yield/rate spikes) not only crushed regional banks, but Uncle Sam’s wallet as well.

    OK. Yield curves and duration implications may sound, well… boring, but stick with me because this really, really matters.

    The extreme levels of T-Bill issuance (as opposed to 10Y IOUs) has immense implications and is a flashing neon sign that the US is not heading into an economic crisis, but is in fact, ALREADY in a crisis.

    Today, T-Bill issuance is at a two-decade high, and comprises greater than 85% of all US Treasury issuance.

    This short-end issuance is far more like QE, i.e. simple money printing—which, we remind you, is highly inflationary/reflationary.

    Hard to believe? See for yourself:

    The last time we saw such QE-like desperation from the T-Bill side of the yield curve was during the Great Financial Crisis and the COVID crisis.

    No Crisis? Huh?

    But according to our so-called “leaders,” we are not at all in a crisis today. As they keep reminding us, we are at “full employment” (eh-hmmm) and nominal GDP is growing at 6%.

    Then again, nominal GDP “growing” on the back of over $23T in UST issuance (bonds, notes and bills) is simply debt-driven “growth,” and debt-driven growth is not growth, it’s just debt.

    In short, and as Luke Gromen concluded far better than I: “You know the debt crisis is real when the US resorts to short-term debt issuance.”

    Summing Up

    Whenever one is dealing with truth-challenged profiles like the Fed, Treasury Dept or White House, it is far better/simpler to watch what they do rather than what they say, as the difference is approximately 180 degrees…

    All of the evidence above (from debt levels, de-dollarization trends, petrodollar shifts, backdoor QE measures and T-Bill over-issuance) screams of an open and obvious debt crisis which ALWAYS indicates a consequent currency crisis.

    Always.

    And as I have said for years, including a public discussion with Brent Johnson, the US can’t afford a strong USD because its debt levels require a weaker, inflated USD, regardless of its “relative”/DXY “strength.”

    The string cite of evidence above (and beyond just rate cuts) is simply a cleverly veiled way of the Fed and Treasury telling us they want (need) a much weaker USD to save their necks at the expense of the dollar in your portfolio, checking account or wallet.

    Gold, of course, is sniffing this out.

    So are the stock markets and BTC.

    So are the global central banks, who are stacking gold and dumping USTs at record levels.

    The COMEX and London exchanges are also sniffing this out, as physical gold and silver is going from churn motions to actual physical delivery at record levels.

    Meanwhile, even the BIS has made gold a Tier-1 asset.

    Just saying…

    The empirical (rather than “sensational”) evidence of an unloved UST and distrusted (debased and weaponized) USD is there for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

    Gold has hit all-time-highs (and will go much, much higher) simply because the USD is going much, much lower.

    But, of course, no one in DC will say the quiet part out loud.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 19:00

  • Canada Marks Most Rapid Population Growth In 66 Years
    Canada Marks Most Rapid Population Growth In 66 Years

    Thanks to an influx of immigrants in 2023, Canada has experienced its most rapid population growth in six decades, according to True North.

    As of January 1, 2024, the nation’s population reached a staggering 40,769,890, marking a 3.2% increase from the previous year, the highest annual growth reported since 1957. Canada’s real-time population clock shows that the country’s population has now broken 41 million, just months after breaking the 40 million threshold.

    In Q4, 2023 alone, Canada’s population increased by 241,494 people between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.

    “In 2023, the vast majority (97.6%) of Canada’s population growth came from international migration (both permanent and temporary immigration), and the remaining portion (2.4%) came from natural increase,” reads a report published last week by Statistics Canada.

    According to the report, temporary immigration has primarily fueled the population increase – as a record 804,901 non-permanent residents, including temporary workers and international students, while 471,771 permanent migrants also arrived in alignment with targets set by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

    According to a recent report by True North’s Candice Malcolm, the number of illegal migrants has exploded tenfold since Stephen Harper was Prime Minister. She said that the total number of newcomers in Canada is approximately 2.2 million people annually.

    Amidst this rapid growth, interprovincial migration has also seen notable shifts, with Alberta recording a significant net gain, the largest seen since comparable data became available in 1972. -True North

    That said, Ontario saw an exodus of 36,197 people to other provinces, which followed a loss of 38,816 people in 2022. 

    Marc Miller, Canada’s Immigration Minister, previously said that the number of foreign workers and international students had resulted in a system that was “out of control,” and recently announced a new target to be introduced in September that would bring temporary residents from 6.2% of the population to 5% within three years.

    Senior BMO economics Robert Kavcic suggested that this reduction could bring Canada’s population growth from more than 3% to around 1%.

    “The 400,000-500,000 range is just about the sweet spot for net immigration that provides needed long-run labour supply, while also being absorbable,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 18:40

  • Russia Voices Outrage As Death Toll Rises To 11 After Israeli Attack On Iran's Damascus Embassy
    Russia Voices Outrage As Death Toll Rises To 11 After Israeli Attack On Iran’s Damascus Embassy

    Update(1838ET): Monitors cited in AFP report the death toll from Monday’s Israeli air strike on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus has risen to 11. “The death toll from the Israeli strikes on the Iranian embassy annex has risen to 11: eight Iranians, two Syrians and one Lebanese — all of them fighters, none of them civilians,” AFP quoted the war monitor as saying.

    Regional and international reaction came hours later, with Lebanese Hezbollah — a close ally of Iran — vowing that Israel will be “punished” for the attack. As we detailed earlier (below), several top IRGC commanders were killed in the strike at a moment a high-level military meeting was taking place.

    Russia’s Foreign Ministry reacted as follows: “We strongly condemn this attack on the Iranian consular office in Syria. We consider any attacks on diplomatic and consular facilities, the inviolability of which is guaranteed by the relevant Vienna Conventions, to be categorically unacceptable.”

    However, Russia has by and large taken a back seat when it comes to responding to Israeli attacks on Syria. Israeli aircraft typically fire on Syria from over nearby Lebanese airspace, but Syrians have increasingly wondered why Moscow doesn’t use its significant anti-air systems parked in the region to defend against such attacks on its ally the Assad government. But Russia and Israel apparently reached a status quo deal years ago, which allow for the Israeli raids as long as they are ostensibly targeting ‘Iranian assets’. 

    Among the slain in Monday’s attack was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who reportedly oversaw Quds Forces operations in Syria and Lebanon. Clearly Israeli’s intelligence capabilities are significant regarding Iranian movements and operations inside Syria, given Israel clearly knew the where and when of the top level meeting.

    Abou Mahdi Zahedi, Iran’s top general in Syria and Lebanon, has been confirmed killed by Iranian state sources.

    A strike like this — against an embassy which is supposed to be ‘protected’ by international diplomatic norms upheld by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations — is somewhat unprecedented and so marks a massive escalation by Israel. 

    David Asher, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and former senior State Department official under the Trump administration had this to say in terms of what’s likely to come next:

    “This is a huge strike against Iran’s Qods Force. Expect to see Iranian missile retaliation directly against Israel. Things are moving beyond proxy war into direct conflict. Crude prices should make a decisive move higher on macro risk,” he told ZeroHedge.

    Others are currently speculating that Israel may be trying to provoke a war with Iran to get the US directly involved on its side. The Hezbollah situation along Israel’s northern border continues to be at crisis levels, given that an estimated 80,000 Israeli citizens remain evacuated from their homes. 

    Recent months have seen Israeli officials float a bold plan for a US-enforced ‘buffer zone’ which would remove Hezbollah from near the Israeli border. While the plan calls for an international peacekeeping force, those troops would essentially become an occupying force in the eyes of Hezbollah and the Iranians. But Israel likely perceives that it needs full Washington support and military backing if it were to pursue a final ‘end all’ battle with Hezbollah, which would certainly collapse all of Lebanon into chaos and crisis. Without doubt, the Netanyahu coalition government wants to see regime change in Tehran as well.

    * * *

    Update(1450ET): Tehran is vowing a “harsh” response to the Israeli attack on its embassy and consulate earlier in the day, which killed at least five to eight people, reportedly including IRGC leaders. Iran’s foreign minister slammed it as “a violation of all international obligations and conventions” while the Syrian government denounced it as a “terrorist attack”. 

    Iran’s Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari was not injured in the attack, which appeared to have occurred at the moment a high level meeting was taking place. Iranian state media has since confirmed the death of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force of the IRGC. There are further indicators that two more top IRGC commanders may be among the slain…

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    “Tasnim reported that Zahedi’s deputy was also killed in the strike,” regional media further confirms.

    Depending on Iran’s response, this could be the start of an all-out regional war. For months now, Iranian-made ballistic missiles and drones have rained down on Israel, fired by Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and Yemen. This new brazen Israeli attack on Iran’s embassy takes things into uncharted territory, and also opens up the potential for the Iranians to target Israeli embassies abroad.

    The annex or consular building next to the embassy in Mezzeh district was flattened in the strike…

    Via Reuters

    * * *

    There are emerging reports and accompanying video confirmation that an Israeli airstrike destroyed part of the complex of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital on Monday.

    Syrian state media is also reporting that Israel conducted a rare daytime strike in the vicinity of the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Video shows that the entire front of the embassy complex and drive along with a side annex building have been destroyed. 

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    However, the embassy building itself is standing and appears to have not been directly struck in the attack. Regional reports say an annex of the main embassy was taken out.

    This may have been a targeted strike on a top Iranian security official, given Reuters is now reporting that the strikes killed the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi…

    • ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE ON DAMASCUS KILLS LEADER OF IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS MOHAMMAD REZA ZAHEDI, SECURITY SOURCE TO REUTERS
    • IRAN’S ARABIC LANGUAGE AL ALAM TV SAYS IRANIAN CONSULATE BUILDING IN SYRIA HAS BEEN COMPLETELY DESTROYED

    Below is local footage showing a row of vehicles on fire in the attack aftermath:

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    Amid unverified early reports, a regional monitor has said the death toll is at eight killed in the strikes on the Iran embassy annex in Damascus.

    According to Israeli media, the attack occurred during a meeting of top-level officials:

    Initial reports citing Iranian media say senior IRGC official Mohammad Reza Zahedi was killed in the alleged Israeli strike. 

    The strike occurred during a meeting involving senior regional figures, adding a layer of complexity to the incident. New images released by Syrian media outlets depict the aftermath of the airstrike, revealing significant damage to the targeted building and its surroundings.

    Reuters cites Iran’s SSN news website, which alleges that the Israeli airstrike specifically targeted Iran’s consulate and ambassador’s residence in Damascus.

    Earlier on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed damage to Eilat navy base on the Red Sea, in what appeared to be an unprecedented targeted drone launch by Iran-backed Iraqi militia.

    Oil prices are already reacting to this increased geopolitical tension…

    This was a very high risk strike also given the Iranian embassy is right next door to the Canadian embassy. 

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    The Mezzeh area of Damascus is also lined with restaurants, malls, and bars — and also is home to an important military airport and some key government facilities.

    There’s a lot of daily foot traffic at the Iranian embassy too, given that Damascus has long been a Shia pilgrimage spot and sees a constant influx of Iranian visitors.

    An Al Jazeera correspondent, Zeina Khodr, has highlighted international law and norms regarding banning aggression against countries’ sovereign diplomatic sites in the following…

    “Killing of top Iran Quds Force commander in Damascus is a major blow … but Iranian media says bldg destroyed was part of Iranian consulate – Israel hit a diplomatic mission which should enjoy immunity – Israel has crossed red lines – how will Iran react?“

    This now opens up the possibility that Tehran could strike back at Israel’s embassies and consulates abroad, in yet more worrying and unpredictable escalation.

    Moon of Alabama writes, “Israeli officials in embassies around the world will now be forced to limit their movements in the general public as they are the most likely targets of revenge strikes.”

    developing…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 18:38

  • With 'Friends' Like Mexico's Obrador, Who Needs Enemies Like Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un, & The Ayatollahs?
    With ‘Friends’ Like Mexico’s Obrador, Who Needs Enemies Like Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un, & The Ayatollahs?

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – who prefers to be known as AMLO for short – issued to the Biden administration blackmail demands that sounded more like existential threats.

    AMLO warned the U.S. that the current influx of some 10 million illegal aliens through the southern border will most certainly continue—unless America agrees to his ultimatums.

    One, Obrador says the U.S. must now send $20 billion in de facto bribery payments to Latin American nations, many of them corrupt and dysfunctional.

    Apparently, he thinks it is America’s fault that millions of Latin Americans are fleeing these failed states northward, not the inept and corrupt governments that create such misery.

    Two, AMLO demands amnesty for vast numbers of Mexican illegal aliens currently unlawfully residing inside the U.S.

    He apparently also thinks there is no such thing as U.S. immigration law. Or, if there is, such statutes do not apply to citizens of Mexico. Can we ask Mr. Obrador to simply grant permanent visa-free, no-questions-asked residence to any American living in a vacation complex in Mexico?

    Three, he also requires America to lift sanctions against anti-American Venezuela. That communist government currently is part of the new China/Russia/Iran strategic axis. It is sending thousands of its citizens northward to enter the U.S. illegally.

    Many of them are criminals, as the recent murder of Laken Riley by a felonious Venezuelan illegal alien attests. Dictator Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan regime recently threatened to invade and annex oil-rich Guyana, its smaller neighbor to the east. Maduro’s “security forces” have routinely murdered hundreds of political opponents. This rogue state is apparently Mexico’s newest ally.

    Four, AMLO further requires the U.S. to stop its long embargo of communist Castroite-controlled Cuba, a decades-long avowed enemy of the U.S.

    And what, AMLO was asked, would happen if the U.S. were to refuse Mexico’s blackmail threats?

    Obrador abruptly snapped:

    “The flow of migrants will continue” – an admission that Obrador himself has the power to stop or turn on illegal immigrant influxes into the U.S.

    Translated, that means we can expect that another 2-3 illegal aliens will leave Mexican territory to enter the U.S. unlawfully in 2024. Or if Joe Biden is attuned to the political disaster he has created by illegal immigration for his party in November, we should expect this cynical administration quietly—in the fashion on the eve of the last midterms of cancelling student loans, draining the strategic petroleum reserve, or currently slow-walking resupplies to Israel—to send cash to Obrador to limit inflows before the election.

    In his long interview, AMLO also denied that Mexico is one of the most violent countries in the world, despite currently having the ninth highest murder rate among nations. AMLO claims further that there is no corruption in America, although Mexico also ranks among the world’s most corrupt nations.

    As far as the nearly 100,000 American deaths per year attributed to Mexican cartel-produced and illegally imported fentanyl—often deliberately disguised as both illicit and prescription drugs to mask its toxicity and increase its usage—Obrador claims that the fault is solely on Americans who take the drug. He believes Mexicans simply supply the demand regardless of its legality and in such a way to ensure thousands of accidental overdoses.

    AMLO adds quite dishonestly that there is no real drug use in Mexico. Consequently, the cartels supposedly do not threaten the stability of his government. He apparently shrugs that they are an American, not Mexican, problem, despite the cartels’ annual murdering of several hundred Mexican politicians and candidates.

    Finally, under his “Mexico First” policy, AMLO warns he will not pass any law or adopt any policy that is American-inspired.

    Much of AMLO periodic tough-guy rhetoric—in the past he has bragged of the huge expatriate Mexican community and the power it now exercises over American politics—is simply the bluster of an insecure, smaller neighbor overshadowed by its northern colossus, and both mindful and resentful of an often shared troublesome history.

    In addition, Obrador is a radical socialist. He believes a nation’s prosperity is achieved through forced state, or indeed, international redistribution from the wealthier to the poorer—not by guarantees of free markets, individual freedom, consensual government, or the rule of law. Thus, Mexico’s problem is not its misuse of rich natural resources, lack of the rule of law, corrupt federal, state, and local governments, or the cartels, but simply exploitation by its northern neighbor. Obrador never asks himself why a resource-poor Japan or Switzerland is rich and a resource-rich Mexico is poor.

    Two further questions arise in response to Obrador’s unhinged hostility.

    One, why is AMLO now so emboldened to threaten the United States with even more millions of illegal aliens leaving Mexico soil to enter the U.S. unlawfully?

    And two, how will America answer such a belligerent neighbor?

    Obrador is feisty and full of anti-American venom now for a lot of reasons.

    One, he was easily able to transit from his country 10 million illegal immigrants into the United States. He believes that with the existing 50 million foreign-born American residents, America is rapidly becoming a country of enough Latin American ex-patriates to ensure Mexico’s influence over American policy.

    In projectionist fashion, Obrador also believes that the American melting pot is dead, replaced by the tribalist salad bowl, in which ethnic groups form large, permanent, and unassimilated blocs and vie for government money and influence against rival ethnicities.

    In such a Hobbesian U.S., Latinos, Obrador believes, will come out on top and thus greenlight Mexico’s agenda. The idea that Mexican immigrants will likely quickly assimilate, integrate, and replace their Mexican identity and allegiance with an American persona, he believes, is now passé.

    More disturbingly, AMLO assumes that Biden deliberately destroyed the U.S. border in order to welcome in the world’s poor and needy en masse. Biden, he believes, is engineering the new demographics. He has enticed a constituency that will repay de facto amnesty with fealty at the polls, and in the next census, he will thus help redefine dozens of congressional districts to favor Democrats. Thus, Obrador thinks his open-border policies synchronize with the open-border wishes of the Biden administration.

    Two, Obrador sees the U.S. decoupling from China. Billions of dollars in American overseas investment are leaving China and being rerouted to Mexico. Hundreds of new factories producing everything from cheap consumer items to cars are now appearing in Mexico entirely for U.S. export.

    Obrador assumes that without such outsourcing and offshoring to Mexico, the U.S. would suffer supply chain disruption, higher consumer prices, and shortages of vital goods—and thus be forced to return to its unhealthy dependence on China. So he believes Mexican labor in the U.S. and Mexican factories at home are indispensable to the U.S. economy, and thus he can say or do what he wishes to any president he chooses.

    Three, while Obrador was for a while scared of Trump, he has utter contempt for the bumbling Biden administration in general, and, in particular, for an enfeebled Joe Biden himself. On a recent Biden trip to Mexico, Obrador beamed as he was filmed personally propping up a shaky Biden as he descended from the stage.

    In Obrador’s view, any country that would open wide its border, welcome in 10 million foreign nationals, without legal sanction, without audit, without even processing, deserves the contempt he extends to it.

    Just as he scans the world stage and sees Biden’s humiliating exit from Afghanistan, its passive response to serial Iranian-fueled terrorist attacks on American installations in the Middle East, and its passivity when China launched a spy balloon over the U.S., so too, like other American belligerents, Obrador feels Biden’s America is now there for the taking. Thus his emboldened threats that no Mexican president of the past has ever leveled.

    Finally, what can the U.S. do to reestablish its sovereignty and remind Mexico that its belligerency, its export of deadly fentanyl, its deliberate sandbagging of U.S. immigration law, its alliances with America’s worst enemies, and its greenlighting of the Mexican cartels’ anti-American, transborder mayhem all have existential consequences?

    So what should the next president do to restore mutual respect and cooperation between our once amicable two countries? Five easy steps.

    1. Quietly finish the wall across the entire border.

    2. Begin deporting to Mexico the ten million illegal aliens who have unlawfully entered and resided in the U.S. over the last three years. Let Mexico disperse them to their countries of origin.

    3. Tax at 10% the $60 billion in remittances that annually flow into Mexico from the U.S. Remittances are Obrador’s largest source of foreign exchange and made possible only by American state and federal governments’ subsidization of Mexican national residents, that in turn frees them to send billions back home to Mexico.

    4. Declare the cartels international terrorist organizations. Begin sanctioning all Mexican banks, corporations, and known Mexico officials that traffic and do business with the cartels.

    5. Deploy the U.S. military to the border, not merely to create deterrence and aid the border patrol, but to end all cartel entry into the United States and to stop all unauthorized cross-border intrusions by Mexican paramilitaries.

    Do all that, and paradoxically, Obrador will begin praising the U.S. and ask once again to cooperate in restoring a secure border.

    Like so many passive-aggressive bullies, Obrador respects the strong adversaries he slanders but he has utter contempt for the weak leaders he praises.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 18:20

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Apr 01

Today’s News 1st April 2024

  • Why Is NATO And The Kiev Regime Terrified Of Russia's 'Zircon' Hypersonic Missile?
    Why Is NATO And The Kiev Regime Terrified Of Russia’s ‘Zircon’ Hypersonic Missile?

    Authored by Drago Bosnic via infobrics.org,

    Even before the horrendous Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, the Russian military’s long-range strike capabilities were sending shivers down the spines of NATO aggressors and their Neo-Nazi junta puppets. Weapons such as the 3M22 “Zircon”, a scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, have been inducted into service in recent years and are now also being transferred to land-based platforms, specifically the K300P “Bastion-P” coastal defense system. With a 1500 km range (perhaps even more) and Mach 9 speed, the “Zircon” is over 3 times faster and its range is at least double that of the P-800 “Oniks” supersonic missiles originally used by the aforementioned platform, further enhancing Russia’s already unprecedented long-range strike capabilities (to both the Neo-Nazi junta’s and NATO’s horror, as previously mentioned).

    This has become even more noticeable in the aftermath of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, as the Russian military is now hunting for the organizers, both the Kiev regime’s intelligence services and their NATO overlords. With such a range (at least 1500 km or possibly even beyond 2000 km), the usage of “Zircon” allows Moscow to target any location on the territory of Ukraine. However, it should be noted that the Eurasian giant always had this ability. The difference now is that it can do so much faster and with far less warning time. The usage of air-launched and ground-based hypersonic missile systems such as the 9-A-7660 “Kinzhal” and “Iskander-M” is still very much relevant, as evidenced by the latest elimination of high-ranking NATO officers (although their deaths will surely be attributed to “sudden” skiing accidents).

    However, the “Iskander-M” can use a massive 700 kg HE warhead that is best used against frontline targets and higher concentrations of troops in the rear. Virtually the same goes for much faster “Kinzhal” missiles. In addition, these can sometimes be detected by NATO ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) assets, particularly airborne and space-based, giving the Neo-Nazi junta officers and their foreign “advisers” just enough time to run away (albeit not much and certainly not always). The launch of an “Iskander” can be detected by early warning systems, while ISR can pick up the MiG-31K/I deployment. This information can be relayed to the Kiev regime or any NATO personnel on the ground. On the other hand, detecting a scramjet-powered “Zircon” can be a lot more problematic.

    Then the numbers come into play:

     – Kiev: 3 minutes 30 seconds;

     – Lvov: 5 minutes 20 seconds;

     – Dnepropetrovsk: 2 minutes 30 seconds;

     – Vinnitsa: 3 minutes 40 seconds;

     – Kharkov: less than 4 minutes;

     – Odessa: less than 1 minute.

    Imagine being an officer of the SBU, GUR (Neo-Nazi junta’s military intelligence) or some of the NATO occupation forces. You’re stationed in a building, living in the illusion that you’re safe when the Russian SVR or GRU learns about your location and relays this information to units in Crimea who then fire a “Zircon” at that building. This is how much time you’d have before impact. However, let’s consider the best-case scenario and imagine that NATO ISR assets detect the missile immediately after launch (which is extremely improbable). This is how much time you’d have to evacuate. Is it possible to run away in time? Certainly, but that doesn’t mean it’s very likely. On the contrary, the sheer panic resulting from a warning would surely make the evacuation a lot more difficult. The same goes for the “Kinzhal” and “Iskander” missile launches.

    However, the primary reason why the “Zircon” is a lot more dangerous for high-value targets (HVTs) in the rear is because it has a much smaller warhead (around 300 kg), meaning that the Russian military is more likely to use it in long-range strikes. Firing an “Iskander” or “Kinzhal” could cause unacceptable damage to purely civilian infrastructure in the surrounding areas, both due to their larger and more destructive warheads, particularly in the case of “Kinzhal”, with the speed also giving it massive kinetic energy. That’s why these more destructive missile systems are far likelier to be used against purely military targets such as large troop concentrations and important hostile equipment, particularly SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems and MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) known to use PGMs (precision-guided munitions), etc.

    On the other hand, precisely because of the large-scale deployment of “Zircon” missiles, Russia has more options to strike decision-making centers in Ukraine. This explains the panic in NATO and the Pentagon, which are now in a dilemma about how to ensure the safety of their occupation forces in Ukraine. I suggest everyone watch closely for news about the “sudden deaths” of NATO officers in various “freak accidents” in the coming days and weeks. We might soon learn about American, Polish or some other NATO majors, colonels and even generals “mysteriously” and “inexplicably” dying while skiing in the Alps, falling out of helicopters, choking on croissants while having breakfast or suffocating when their throats swell from hot coffee, etc. Still, the Kiev regime insists there’s nothing to worry about, as it can “shoot down anything”.

    Namely, according to their latest claims, they’ve “shot down at least two ‘Zircon’ missiles“. Expectedly, the Neo-Nazi junta insists they’ve achieved this with “US-made missile defense systems over Kyiv, on March 25”. I presume we can proceed now that you’re done laughing and catching your breath. The report never named any system specifically, but it can be assumed that future claims will attribute the supposed “kill” to the atrociously overhyped “Patriot” SAM that has been failing everywhere for the last 30+ years, even against rather primitive ballistic missiles, but is “suddenly so successful” against the latest hypersonic ones. In addition, it’s rather interesting how they can “achieve” that, but have been absolutely helpless against over 300 P-800 “Oniks” missiles. Not a single one has been shot down, despite being 3-4 times slower and less maneuverable than the “Zircon”.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 04/01/2024 – 02:00

  • Did The COVID Psyop Fail?
    Did The COVID Psyop Fail?

    Authored by Todd Hayen via Off-Guardian.org,

    As you all know, I have not been one to believe that the tides are turning. But lots of people think they are. They cite many victories, in court, in the streets, with family and friends.

    The fact that the agenda has not sent out a second wave of horror and fear propaganda is also rather telling to these folks. Where is the next pandemic? What happened to Covid’s diabolic never-ending run of mutations, what happened to Monkey Pox? What happened to Disease X?

    Yes, all this could still happen, but it seems there have been more false starts—starts that didn’t go anywhere. But if so, you would think they wouldn’t have put them out there just to not have them continue. It’s been rather weird, like an electrical storm you see on the horizon with its threatening lightning strikes, but it never gets close enough to warrant closing the cellar door.

    How about CBDCs? And the Digital IDs? You hear a lot about these, but nothing that is concretely happening to implement them. Is it happening in other places? Australia? Germany? The UK? Of course, a lot is said about it, on YouTube, and in alt media. Lots of talking heads, but how imminent is it? Actually, I won’t dwell on this, I have no doubt all of this is coming, but has the dragon been wounded? Even a little bit? Has this march into oblivion been slowed down?

    Maybe there is no wounding of the general juggernaut of world rule by the schmucks who are claiming power. Although even that sacrosanct organization may have suffered from shell damage. Wasn’t DAVOS not all that they expected this past year? Hasn’t there been some pretty obvious whiplash from some leaders in their little club? How about the UN and the “sustainable development” circus? How is that going?

    Anyway, I digress. Although the health of the world agenda, including all of these projects I mention, are all part of it, Covid, and pandemics in general, are the specific topics of this article.

    I don’t buy any of this talk of victory for a New York minute. This is like cancer, you can’t claim victory until it is ALL gone, every last scrap of it. Remissions are nice, but if you’ve still got cancer in your body somewhere, it is only a time-out. I feel that this is similar. Even if one cell survived, it would start multiplying again and wouldn’t stop until it was big and gnarly and spitting out all the garbage this monster has been known to spit out. So, I don’t buy it…but…

    Is it possible that at least one battle was won? Maybe, but just because they have pulled the troops back doesn’t mean they didn’t still take the city and got essentially what they stormed in for. I may still say that is a possibility. I mean, what did they want as a consequence of their Covid campaign? Did they want 100% compliance, with billions of sheep bowing down to them? Did they want everyone locked up in their own little cage, ala 1984, each of us in a squalid apartment with just a giant TV in the middle of it so Big Brother could blab at us all day long? If that is true, then indeed the psyop failed, because they didn’t get that—at least not yet.

    But what if they got this: a toxic injection placed in billions of people worldwide that will kill untold millions over the course of about 20 years? Not only that, but the injection will render another untold millions sterile. Do the math here: how many people would need to be sterilized over 20 years to reduce the population worldwide by 1 billion? 2 billion? What other havoc could such a death jab wreak? What untold horrors are yet to overcome us? Your guess is as good as mine. Think zombies here, think soulless ghouls, think humans with no empathy, think lost humanity.

    And that’s just the physical consequences. What about the psychological success they have had with the Covid campaign? Sure, many participants have shot them the bird regarding more boosters, and have ignored more threats of losing jobs over vaccine resistance. Sure, the courts have ruled in Canada that the illustrious leader here performed a no-no with his reckless enactment of the Emergency Act, and as a result, lawsuits are flowing into the courts. Does all this mean that no one fell for the psychological operation? That no one was mentally affected by the lockdowns, the masks, the closure of schools, churches, and other institutions? Does it mean that we have all recovered from the trauma of those three years, and mentally and emotionally we are just back to square one—all normal again?

    If anyone reading this knows anything about hypnosis, they probably understand what hypnotic suggestion is all about. It is real, folks. What has been altered subliminally in our unconscious minds could be quite formidable. We are being programmed for better performance in future projects the agenda has in store for us. Most of the shrews reading this are safe from this brainwashing (hopefully) because we closed our eyes during the deadly meteor storm perpetrated by the fear-mongering agenda (watch The Day of the Triffids to understand that reference!) But those out there who got caught up in it and drank the delayed-reaction Kool-Aid—are all like sleeper spies from the Cold War, soon to be re-activated at some future date to continue complying with TPTB’s bidding.

    Here I go again. I am supposed to be entertaining the possibility that the Covid psyop failed, not suggesting evidence to prove its great success. Sorry. Well, maybe it didn’t go as well as they wanted it to go. It does seem there was a lot more gas in the tank and that they could have pushed it a bit further than they did. They were doing pretty well, but they just fizzled out. Maybe they did expect more people to get vaxxed, maybe that was a disappointment. They sure looked like they were going for the whole enchilada with all their “you’ve GOT to get vaccinated!!” hoopla. Maybe they got too much pushback from us shrews. So many angry shrews showed up pretty quickly. And the shrews that were already on the scene, who were not surprised with all these shenanigans to begin with, just got louder and louder. Sure, not many sheep flipped, but some did. Their booster campaign is floundering (in my opinion, only because they turned the heat down, or off entirely).

    So maybe they did get nicked a bit. Maybe a few arrows penetrated the armour, and they backed off a step or two. Maybe we did surprise the bastards with our resolve, tenacity, wit, and refusal to play the game.

    But then again, maybe not.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 23:20

  • In Easter Ruling, Judge Orders Release Of 'Border Riot' Migrants Who Overwhelmed National Guard
    In Easter Ruling, Judge Orders Release Of ‘Border Riot’ Migrants Who Overwhelmed National Guard

    A group of migrants involved in a riot at the southern US border have been ordered to be released by an El Paso magistrate judge.

    The swarm of migrants overwhelmed Texas National Guard soldiers who were trying to organize them into groups to be taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At one point, a migrant attempted to grab a soldier’s firearm, one National Guard source told the NY Post.

    Following the riot, authorities confiscated knives and shanks from some of the migrants.

    “These people were willing to assault military,” said the Post‘s source. “They were willing to assault law enforcement. They have complete disregard for our laws.“

    In an Easter Sunday decision, presiding Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta ordered the rioters released after accusing the El Paso DA’s Office of being unprepared to proceed with detention hearings for each defendant, so they should be released, the El Paso Times reports.

    “It is the ruling of the court is that all the rioting participation cases will be released on their own recognizance,” Acosta ordered, noting that they will only remain jailed if there’s a federal immigration hold blocking their release.

    The arrests were made by the Texas Department of Public Safety in connection with a March 21 stampede of asylum-seeking migrants — mostly men from Venezuela — who torn down razor wire along the Rio Grande and rushed the border fence at Border Safety Initiative Marker No. 36 in the Riverside area of El Paso’s Lower Valley.

    Some migrants face charges of assault of a public servant for knocking down National Guard troops before order was regained. The migrants had sought to surrender themselves to U.S. Border Patrol in bids for asylum.

    It was unclear if Acosta’s decision applied only to the “riot participation” charge, or the assault and criminal mischief charges related to the border incident.

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    It is unknown how many migrants were booked on the charge of “riot participation,” a Class B misdemeanor – though Acosta referred to “hundreds of arrestees,” who he says are entitled to individual detention hearings within 48 hours.

    The DA’s office requested a continuance to have the hearings at a later date, however Acosta rejected the request.

    “So if the DA’s office is telling me that they are not ready to go, what we’re going to do is we’re going to release all these individuals on their own recognizance,” Acosta said at the hearing.

    Meanwhile on Sunday, two other migrants – including a Colombian man, had separate hearings on criminal mischief charges for allegedly cutting border fencing. After being jailed with a $2,000 bond each, Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun also released them on personal recognizance bonds, however both men have immigration holds.

    Last week, Texas sent 700 National Guard soldiers to El Paso, including 200 with the Texas Tactical Border Force, to reinforce the border.

    As the El Paso Times notes further, ‘Operation Lone Star video shows troops boarding a transport plane and on the border with riot shields moving migrants back so crews could replace rolls of damaged razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande.’

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 22:45

  • PBOC's Yuan Flip-Flop Sows Confusion Among Traders
    PBOC’s Yuan Flip-Flop Sows Confusion Among Traders

    By John Liu and Zheng Wu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and analysts

    1. The use of a familiar tool to stabilize the yuan sowed confusion and touched off a debate among investors. The People’s Bank of China stepped in to halt a drop in the currency last week by strengthening the fixing, and traders said state-owned banks then proceeded to dumped dollars onshore.

    The move helped to stabilize the foreign-exchange market but it also left traders wondering about the People’s Bank of China’s intentions. Investors were baffled because the yuan’s earlier selloff had been triggered by a weaker-than-expected reference rate.

    Authorities have allayed fears of a steep decline in the currency for now. The yuan is trading near the weak end of the band allowed by the reference rate, and state banks are selling an undisclosed amount of dollars to prop up the Chinese currency.

    But the PBOC’s mixed signals have unsettled the market and the yuan may become even more volatile if policymakers relax their grip on it again.

    2. Xi Jinping’s remarks on monetary tools generated a buzz but they’re unlikely to signal a move toward quantitative easing. The Chinese leader was quoted in a newly published book as saying the central bank should increase the buying and selling of government bonds, fueling speculation that Beijing was planning to embark on aggressive monetary easing.

    A closer examination of the context in which the comments were made suggests otherwise. Xi was probably expressing a view on how the PBOC can fine-tune its market operations, not ramp up purchases of government bonds to flood the economy with liquidity, according to Bloomberg Economics.

    There is still room for the PBOC to ease policy by lowering interest rates or the required reserve ratio. On the whole, the central bank is likely to exhaust all conventional tools before resorting to QE, and any move to trade government bonds will probably be part of efforts to better manage the sovereign yield curve.

    3. Xiaomi’s stock surged 12% in the US on Thursday after the Chinese smartphone and appliance maker launched its first electric vehicle. With aggressive pricing, pre-orders for the SU7 models topped 50,000 within 27 minutes of their debut.

    Xiaomi’s ambitious EV bet arrives at a challenging time. Carmakers from Tesla Inc. to BYD Co. are engaging in a price war as sales growth slows, with the former recently cutting production at its plant in China.  To make matters worse, trade tensions are compounding the pressure on the highly competitive sector. China’s EV exports to the European Union slumped in the first two month of the year amid a probe by Brussels into unfair subsidies.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 22:10

  • Watch: Denver Official Caught On Tape Begging Illegals To Leave The City
    Watch: Denver Official Caught On Tape Begging Illegals To Leave The City

    A top Denver official was caught on tape in a local migrant shelter begging illegals to go to other cities, as Denver – a so-called ‘sanctuary city,’ can’t support them.

    “The opportunities are over,” said Mayor Mike Johnson’s political director Andres Carrera, who also serves as the city’s Newcomer Communications Liaison, in an exchange with newly arrived migrants.

    “New York gives you more. Chicago gives you more. So I suggest you go there where there is longer-term shelter. There are also more job opportunities there,” Carrera continues in the video obtained by 9News.

    “We have received too many migrants and that is why we ran out of resources,” Carrara tells a crowed inside Denver’s primary migrant shelter.

    “We are not going to block you if you want to say here,” he continues. “If you stay here you are going to suffer even more and I don’t want to see this.”

    To facilitate their departure, Denver is offering to pay for migrants’ onward bus fare to a destination of their choice, which other ‘sanctuary cities’ have decried, 9News reports.

    The migrants Carrera is seen speaking to on video arrived in Denver on March 26 on a bus organized by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to a city spokesperson.

    Abbott has bragged about flooding Denver and other so-called “sanctuary cities” with migrants who have crossed the U.S. border with Mexico.

    Denver has implemented strict limits on how long newly arrived migrants are allowed in city shelters; two weeks for individuals and six weeks for families with children.

    “You don’t have to walk anywhere, we can buy you a free ticket,” Carrera tells the group, which shows children milling around him as he speaks with their parents. “You can go to any city. We can take you up to the Canadian border, wherever!”

    A city spokesperson later said that Denver won’t buy bus tickets to Canadian cities, but will help Migrants get to US cities near the Canadian border if they ask.

    Chilly Reception

    Wrapping up his remarks, Carrera asks the crowd “Okay, who wants to travel to different cities where there is more work?”

    Crickets ensue.

    “Who wants to stay in Denver?” he then asked.

    “Todos,” a migrant replies – everyone.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 21:50

  • "Turkish People Demanded Change": Erdogan Suffers Shocking Defeat In Country's Municipal Elections
    “Turkish People Demanded Change”: Erdogan Suffers Shocking Defeat In Country’s Municipal Elections

    In a historic upset, Turks dealt President Tayyip Erdogan and his party their biggest electoral blow yet in Saturday’s nationwide local vote that reasserted the opposition as a political force and reinforced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president’s chief rival amid raging inflation and the highest borrowing costs since the president swept to power more than two decades ago.

    With most of the votes counted, Imamoglu declared victory in the Istanbul mayoral race after leading by 10 percentage points while his Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained Ankara and gained 15 other mayoral seats in cities nationwide.

    According to Reuters, it marked the worst defeat for Erdogan and his AK Party (AKP) in their more than two decades in power, and could signal a change in the country’s divided political landscape. Erdogan called the March 31 election outcome a “turning point” in a post-midnight address, and in a rare moment of public humility said the election results were not in line with his expectations, and vowed pledged self-criticism over the election results as he added that he still has 4 more years to fix his mistakes, while predicting that the positive results of the economic plan would become apparent in the second half of the year.

    Erdogan and the AKP fared worse than opinion polls predicted due to soaring inflation, dissatisfied Islamist voters and, in Istanbul, Imamoglu’s appeal beyond the CHP’s secular base, analysts said.

    “Those who do not understand the nation’s message will eventually lose,” Imamoglu, 53, told thousands of jubilant supporters late on Sunday, some of them chanting for Erdogan to resign.

    “Tonight, 16 million Istanbul citizens sent a message to both our rivals and the president,” said the former businessman, who entered politics in 2008 and is now widely touted as a likely presidential challenger.

    Erdogan, who in the 1990s was also mayor of his hometown Istanbul, had campaigned hard ahead of the municipal elections, which analysts described as a gauge of both his support and the opposition’s durability.

    Addressing crowds gathered at AKP headquarters in Ankara, the capital, Erdogan said his alliance had “lost altitude” across the nation and will take steps to address the message from voters.

    “If we made a mistake, we will fix it” in the years ahead, he said. “If we have anything missing, we will complete it.”

    Elsewhere in Ankara, thousands more supporters had earlier waved Turkish and party flags for a speech by reelected CHP Mayor Mansur Yavas, who trounced his AKP challenger in another disappointment for Erdogan.

    According to 92.92% of ballot boxes opened in Istanbul, Europe’s largest city and the country’s economic engine, Imamoglu had 50.92% support compared with 40.05% for AKP challenger Murat Kurum, a former minister in Erdogan’s national government. Polls had predicted a tight contest in Istanbul and possible CHP losses across the country.

    Yet partial official results reported by state-run Anadolu Agency showed AKP and its main ally giving up mayoralties in 19 key municipalities including big cities Bursa and Balikesir in the industrialised northwest, possibly reflecting strains on wage earners.

    In an even more shocking result, and a first in 35 years, the CHP led nationwide by almost 1% of the votes the results showed.

    AKP was set to win mayor’s seat in 23 cities, down from 39 in 2019. CHP is leading the race in 36 provinces, compared with 21 in the last election, TRT reported.

    At stake in Istanbul is control of a city of almost 16 million people with a $6.6 billion annual budget. Social aid payments from municipal budgets are critical to voters hit by Turkey’s cost-of-living crisis. How those funds are allocated are decided at municipal councils, making dominance there is just as important as winning the mayor’s seat.

    * * *

    Mert Arslanalp, assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, said it was Erdogan’s “severest election defeat” since coming to national power in 2002.

    “Imamoglu demonstrated he could reach across the deep socio-political divisions that define Turkey’s opposition electorate even without their institutional support,” he said. “This makes him the most politically competitive rival to Erdogan’s regime.”

    In 2019, Imamoglu had dealt Erdogan a sharp electoral blow when he first won Istanbul, ending 25 years of rule in the city by AKP and its Islamist predecessors, including Erdogan’s own run as its mayor in the 1990s. CHP also won Ankara that year.
    The president struck back in 2023 by securing reelection and a parliamentary majority with his nationalist allies, despite a years-long cost-of-living crisis.

    Analysts said the economic strains, including nearly 70% inflation and a slowdown in growth brought on by an aggressive monetary-tightening regime, moved voters to punish AKP this time.

    “The economy was the decisive factor,” said Hakan Akbas, a senior adviser at the Albright Stonebridge Group. “Turkish people  demanded change and Imamoglu is now the default nemesis to President Erdogan.”

    Erdogan said ending the second election cycle in less than a year will itself bring a reprive for the economy.

    In front of the Istanbul Municipality building, flag-waving supporters said they wanted to see Imamoglu challenge Erdogan for the presidency in the future.

    “We are very happy. I love him so much. We would like to see him as president,” said Esra, a housewife.

    Then again, Erdogan is not known for willingly parting with power and there is a case to be made that Imamoglu’s days as Erdogan’s challenger may be numbered: even after his second Istanbul victory in a row, Imamoglu has another battle to fight. He is accused of insulting members of the Supreme Election Council, which could result in his being banned from political office.

    Rising popular support for the Islamist New Welfare Party, which took an even more hardline stance than Erdogan against Israel over the Gaza conflict, also sapped AKP support. The party took Sanliurfa from an AKP incumbant in the southeast.
    Imamoglu was reelected despite the collapse of the opposition alliance that failed to topple Erdogan last year.

    The main pro-Kurdish party, which backed Imamoglu in 2019, fielded its own candidate under the DEM banner in Istanbul this time. But many Kurds put aside party loyalty and voted for him again, the results suggest.

    In the mainly Kurdish southeast, DEM reaffirmed its strength, winning 10 provinces. Following previous elections, the state has replaced pro-Kurdish mayors with state-appointed “trustees” following previous elections over alleged militant ties.

    Violence erupted earlier in the day, including one incident in the southeast in clashes by groups armed with guns, sticks and stones, killing one and wounding 11. In another, one neighbourhood official, or “muhtar”, candidate was killed and four people were wounded in a fight, Anadolu reported.

    Several others were hurt in other incidents while one person was shot dead and two were wounded overnight ahead of the vote in Bursa, the Demiroren news agency reported.

    * * *

    It was too early to observe a market reaction, but according to former Goldman and IIF strategist Robin Brooks, the market won’t like the election result in Turkey, as it was “hoping for an end to election-related stimulus and a return to orthodoxy. This result sends the opposite signal. Markets will see this as keeping Turkey in perpetual election mode. More pump-priming. More devaluation…“

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    Considering a Turkish Lira short has been our favorite FX trade for the past year (as we have indicated on our premium subscriber data feed for the past year) we certainly agree.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 21:32

  • PBS Segment Claims Trump Wants To "Purge" Gay People From America
    PBS Segment Claims Trump Wants To “Purge” Gay People From America

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    In a ludicrous paranoid segment on PBS NewsHour this week, the network’s White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez claimed that Donald Trump is not only planning to roll back “civil rights,” but also to “purge” LGBT people from the country.

    Barron-Lopez and anchor William Brangham made the assertions while discussing Trump’s real criticism of transgender surgery and hormone therapy being carried out on children, and biological men competing in women’s sports.

    “On the campaign trail, Trump has been talking about what he plans to do if elected in November, and that includes rolling back the rights of millions of LGBTQ people. It’s part of a wider playbook to undo many modern civil rights advances for minority groups,” Brangham asserted.

    He then introduced Barron-Lopez, who claimed Trump “plans quick action if elected,” against LGBT people.

    She then suggested that Trump and “roughly 100 right-wing organisations led by the Heritage Foundation,” have a secret plan to wipe out LGBTQ people… or something.

    What does the dastardly plan consist of? Eliminating DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) from government mandates and banning federal funding for teaching Critical Race Theory.

    OK, those things are not civil rights. If anything they are in direct opposition to civil rights because they discriminate based on skin colour.

    Barron-Lopez, who is also a CNN political analyst, then complained that Trump will “rescind health-care protections for transgender people and urge Congress to define gender as male and female, fixed at birth.”

    Without any actual explanation or evidence she further asserted that “this plan also is trying to stop any and all acknowledgement of an acceptance of gender identity and LGBTQ people, period.”

    The correspondent then quoted Professor Thomas Zimmer at Georgetown, “who studies authoritarian regimes,” noting “Trump wasn’t necessarily able to institute this in 2017, when he first took office, because he didn’t have the amount of loyalists that he plans on having across the board. And with these new loyalists, Zimmer said, he can advance a white Christian evangelical ideal of American society.”

    VT of Zimmer was then played where he stated “It is opposed to egalitarian democracy because it fundamentally does not agree that all people are equal or deserve to be treated as equal citizens. Only those who belong to the “true people,” to real America, deserve that. And so everyone else needs to either be purged from the nation or, at the very least, accept their sort of lesser place in society.”

    Barron-Lopez then stated “Professor Zimmer added that that type of purging he’s talking about takes roots in the McCarthyism of the early 1950s, where they essentially tried to sweep away anyone across American society that would deviate from perceived norms.”

    Watch:

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    So they’re saying essentially because he believes there are two sexes, that means Trump wants to root out and “eliminate”sweep away” all LGBTQ people.

    What a juicy slice of leftist kookery that was.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 21:00

  • Minnesota Law School Drops Exclusion Of Whites And Males From Diversity Scholarship
    Minnesota Law School Drops Exclusion Of Whites And Males From Diversity Scholarship

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    There is a curious resolution of a civil right complaint against University of Minnesota Law School over a diversity fellowship sponsored by the law firm of Jones Day. Despite being created by a law firm and administered by a law school, the fellowship violated federal law in excluding white and male applicants. The law school finally threw in the towel, but there remains an uncertainty over whether the school is engaging in a subterfuge by opening up the scholarship while retaining its original purpose.

    The Jones Day Diversity Fellowship launched in December 2022 to extend full tuition for three years at the law school. The scholarship also allows the recipient to work as a summer associate at Jones Day, one of the most sought-after firms for summer employment. The firm website maintains that “We aggressively pursue hiring, retaining, and developing lawyers from historically underrepresented groups and backgrounds.”

    Various conservative sites have slammed the diversity fellowship, which was the subject of a civil rights complaint by Adam Kissel.

    The September 2023 complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is now closed following a settlement to drop any “preference based on race or sex.”

    The question is what difference the settlement will make in actual awards.

    Law schools have been accused of “gaming the system” on admissions criteria for years to circumvent federal law and governing cases on the use of race or gender. Those concerns only increased after the Supreme Court categorically rejected the use of race in admissions in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina.

    Critics are still unclear on how Jones Day and Minnesota Law School will achieve its diversity goals without applying such a preference, even if the applications are not limiting on the basis of race.

    The university maintains that it will not impose threshold exclusions of whites and males but will select applicants “based on their commitment to enhancing diversity and inclusion” and “whose life experiences bring unique, extraordinary, or other fresh perspective to campus, including first generation college graduate and students from socioeconomically challenged backgrounds.’”

    This is a recurring complaint for Minnesota. It came under fire last May when the Office of Undergraduate Students created a paid internship program application to only non-White applicants.

    The question going forward is whether there is a viable basis to challenge the program on an “as applied” theory. If whites males continue to be excluded, the challengers could return to allege that nothing changed beyond the language.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 19:50

  • AT&T Reveals Easter Weekend Surprise For Customers: 73 Million Accounts Leaked On Dark Web
    AT&T Reveals Easter Weekend Surprise For Customers: 73 Million Accounts Leaked On Dark Web

    Millions of AT&T Inc. users received bad news from the third-largest US retail wireless carrier this Easter holiday weekend: Their personal data has been leaked onto the dark web. 

    In a press release on Saturday, the telecommunications giant said it has “determined that AT&T data-specific fields were contained in a data set released on the dark web approximately two weeks ago” and contains “personal information such as social security numbers.” 

    “It is not yet known whether the data … originated from AT&T or one of its vendors,” the company said, adding, “Currently, AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set.”

    The statement continued: “Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders.” 

    According to Bloomberg data, AT&T is the third-largest US retail wireless carrier, behind Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. It’s also the largest telecom company that has disclosed the theft of its customers’ personal information. 

    In 2022, T-Mobile paid $350 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over leaked data from over 50 million customers. Then, in 2023, the cellphone carrier revealed another major breach of “basic customer information” on 37 million customers. 

    Of, course, in the PR world, save the bad news for a holiday weekend… 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 19:15

  • Have We Reached Peak ESG? Corporate America Fools Around And Finds Out
    Have We Reached Peak ESG? Corporate America Fools Around And Finds Out

    Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

    “Go woke, go broke.”

    This catchphrase has become more than a clever play on words. Like all clichés that make their way into common social expression, it’s a cliché because it’s generally true, at least in its sentiment.

    It was just a few years ago that the corporate giants of America took it upon themselves to champion the woke environmental, social, and governance (ESG) “standards” of politically correct attitudes and behaviors, and apply them to their business models.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    Well, as we’re now seeing, quite a lot can and will.

    Companies Take on the Woke Yoke

    Many companies that took the ESG woke ideology to heart, that is, to their business, have seen less than ideal outcomes. Ask the good folks at Bud Light about losing money with their foray into the “S” “social” aspect of the ESG movement.

    The Disney brand is another woke company that has lost billions in a series of box office flops from films that push the ESG woke ideology, especially the LBGTQ+ social messaging, not to mention the billions lost in market value as share prices have fallen.

    Going Woke Isn’t Fatal to Big Business, but It Hurts

    The reality is that in most cases, boycotts of woke businesses won’t destroy global companies such as Anheuser-Busch or Disney, at least not in the short term. International conglomerates have multiple revenue sources, which often include long-term government contracts and other long-term business relationships that will keep them in business and likely profitable for the foreseeable future. In other cases, there simply isn’t an alternative choice.

    But there are other consequences to orienting a business model to the ESG agenda, particularly with the environment part of ESG. Seeking to force companies to continually reduce emissions even if they’re meeting current regulatory standards is a part of the ESG agenda and can also cut into profitability.

    The Woke Pushback Is Here

    But CEOs who remember what their job is are pushing back.

    No one knows this better than Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Under Mr. Woods, Exxon is suing investors who are trying to force the company to further reduce carbon emissions, presumably under the mythical belief that carbon dioxide, which comprises 0.04 percent of the atmosphere, is bad for the planet. Mr. Woods is also pushing back against the idea of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 as not possible.

    In fact, many companies, large and small, are now touting themselves as “woke-free” or having “traditional values” as a way of appealing to customers who don’t want to be told what to think by corporate America. Firms such as Exxon, Wendy’s, and Tesla are now well-known as non-woke companies.

    Elon Musk’s X Factor

    Without question, one of the biggest factors countering the woke trend was and remains Elon Musk’s acquisition of X (formerly known as Twitter). This is simply due to the fact that the ESG and woke agendas, which also include the forced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices, rely on the censorship of free speech as a means of enforcing societal compliance and adoption of those radical leftist agendas.

    The free and open discussions that X has enabled have had a huge impact on Americans’ ability to speak their minds without being canceled (another ESG/woke tactic and value), and has helped people learn more about who they’re doing business with and what companies really stand for and what they don’t.

    The ESG movement has nothing to do with business. Business is all about meeting the needs of society as expressed in the marketplace with the best products and services each business or organization can muster. That’s called competition. Competition breeds excellence, which results in sales. People will generally buy the best that they can afford, which compels most firms to streamline operating costs while providing the best they can to their target market.

    In short, people want to not just boycott brands that hate them, but also put their money where their heart is. Most don’t want to be dictated to and told that their traditional values are not important, or worse, immoral. To at least some extent, those companies that wish to do so will find their market share shrinking, if not their market value.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 18:40

  • "The US Economy Is Inverted": How The Flood Of Illegal Immigration Is Delaying The Official US Recession
    “The US Economy Is Inverted”: How The Flood Of Illegal Immigration Is Delaying The Official US Recession

    By Dhaval Joshi, Chief Strategist at BCA Research

    Summary

    • The US economy is highly unusually ‘inverted’. The constraint on the economy is not labor demand, it is labor supply.

    • Hence, the US economy has highly unusually entered a labor demand recession without entering a GDP recession.

    • Nevertheless, for the stock market, a labour demand recession implies a profits headwind, because it is only when profits come under pressure that labour demand goes into recession.

    • Against this, wage disinflation would allow long-duration bond yields to fall, which would provide a countervailing valuation tailwind.

    The pandemic might seem like a distant memory, but for the US economy the pandemic’s legacy is still the big story. For the first time in at least fifty years, US labor supply is running well below labor demand. The big story is that the US economy is ‘inverted.’

    Therefore, we must analyze the post-pandemic inverted economy very differently to the pre-pandemic economy. Normally, labor demand – being less than labor supply – is the constraint on economic output and thereby drives the cycle. But in an inverted economy, labor supply – being less than labor demand – is the constraint on output and thereby drives the cycle.

    Before the pandemic, all downswings caused labor demand to fall well below labour supply. In the subsequent upswings, labor demand gradually caught up with supply…until the next downswing caused a fresh slump in labor demand. And the cycle repeated. Importantly though, all pre-pandemic cycles were driven by the demand side.

    Then came the pandemic, and the longstanding pattern inverted. Labor supply suffered the more protracted slump, from which it has gradually caught up with labor demand. Meaning that in the last couple of years, the cycle is being driven not by what is happening to labor demand,  but by what is happening to labor supply.

    Interest rate hikes work by choking demand, which is exactly what has happened recently. US labor demand is tipping into recession. Jobs plus job openings today are less than they were a year ago. Whenever this happened pre-pandemic, the economy tipped into recession too. But for the first time in at least fifty years, the economy is entering a labor demand recession without entering a GDP recession.

    This is because in an inverted economy the constraint on the economy is not labor demand, it is labor supply. Despite weaking
    labor demand, labor supply has played catch up to demand and thereby driven economic growth.

    As labor supply has caught up with labor demand, it has narrowed the gap between demand and supply. This has created the perfect macro backdrop of robust economic growth with wage disinflation, a Goldilocks setup for financial assets. The pressing question for the coming 6-12 months is, what happens next to labor supply, labor demand, and their interplay?

    Why The US Economy Inverted

    But first, let’s tackle the obvious question. Why is US labor supply running well below labor demand?

    There are two reasons: after the pandemic, prime aged (25-54) workers left the labor force; and older aged (55+) workers retired early, generating millions of so-called ‘excess retirements.’

    The economically inactive make no contribution to labor supply. Yet they still consume the goods and services that generate labor demand. This they do by using savings or, in the case of early retirees, by tapping into their retirement assets and income early. Thereby, the plunge in prime-aged labor participation combined with excess retirements caused labor supply to fall well below labor demand.

    Subsequently, the plunge in prime-aged labour participation has fully reversed, causing labor supply to recover strongly. But the excess retirements have not reversed and are unlikely to reverse

    This means that the strong recovery in labor supply is now exhausted, with labor supply still several million people below labor demand. The economy is still inverted.

    US Labour Demand Is Already In Recession, But GDP May Dodge The Bullet

    To repeat, US labor demand has already tipped into recession. But in the inverted economy – where labor supply is the constraint on output – labor supply is driving the GDP cycle.

    It follows that a GDP recession would require one of two things:

    • Labor supply must outright contract. However, with the recent surge in illegal migration – most of which does eventually get counted in the survey-calculated labor supply – a sustained contraction in labor supply seems unlikely. Of course, this could change under a new Trump administration, or…

    • Labor demand must contract so sharply – by about 3.5 million jobs – that the economy would ‘un-invert’. Once un-inverted, contracting labor demand would once again drive GDP into recession, as in all pre-pandemic cycles.

    But if labor demand contracts more gently – as now – then the US economy could experience a sustained labor demand recession without a GDP recession, making it difficult for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to designate it an official recession.

    This ‘halfway house’ in which GDP is not in recession, but labor demand is in recession and gently ‘catching down’ with labor supply is a distinct possibility – because it is the least painful way for the Federal Reserve to steer wage inflation back down to the 3 percent rate that is needed for price inflation to stabilise at 2 percent (Chart 5 and Chart 6).

    Yet though the economy could dodge the ‘NBER official recession’ bullet, a labor demand recession combined with stagnant per capita real incomes would very much feel like a recession.

    For the stock market, a labor demand recession implies lower profits because it is only when profits come under pressure that labor demand goes into recession. Against this, wage disinflation would allow long-duration bond yields to fall, which would provide some countervailing support to stock valuations. In combination this would imply the stock market was rangebound while high-quality bonds rallied.

    But there is another factor to consider. The euphoric pricing of anything AI-related is a separate and independent risk to the stock market. Absent this risk the macro backdrop would imply a neutral allocation to stocks versus cash. But this additional risk ratchets down my 6-12-month allocation to mildly underweight.

    For those who can time this, go underweight stocks when the ‘Joshi rule’ is triggered. Or, when the rally reaches a  collapsed complexity that presages an imminent reversal.

    More in the full note available to pro subscribers.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 18:05

  • Rogan: NY Times Writers Are "Ultra Hard Left Activists Masquerading As Journalists"
    Rogan: NY Times Writers Are “Ultra Hard Left Activists Masquerading As Journalists”

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    During an episode of his podcast, Joe Rogan slammed New York Times writers, calling them leftist activists pretending to be reporters.

    Rogan played a clip of two New York Times ‘journalists’ claiming that anything Donald Trump says now has to be considered in the context of the January 6th Capitol incident, and made fun of how they feel the need to make Instagram videos explaining their ‘reporting’.

    “They don’t understand what they’re doing,” Rogan stated, adding “This is exactly who we thought was writing these things. It’s like this very effeminate guy and this woman…these ultra-liberal out-of-touch people.”

    Rogan continued, “One of the guys was talking about Donald Trump’s words being taken out of context that it would be a ‘bloodbath’ because he was talking about the auto industry and the economy.”

    Rogan further noted that the New York Times used to be populated by “hard-nosed reporters with a cup of coffee that are like f***ing chasing down leads and they’re pulling their hair out and they’re meeting people in back alleyways.”

    Now “they’re, they’re essentially like ultra hard-Left activists that are masquerading as journalists and everything has their opinion on it,” Rogan urged.

    Watch:

    As we highlighted earlier this week, The Washington Post published a report claiming that women choosing to get off hormonal birth control are doing so because of a “misinformation explosion,” and admitted to pressuring social media platforms to remove the opinions and accounts of women who have been on the pill.

    It also made a cringe TikTok video doubling down on the gaslighting.

    Rogan is right, these people are far left activists using major newspapers as their platforms.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 17:30

  • Musk Warns Ukraine May Lose Odessa & Black Sea Access If It Doesn't Negotiate
    Musk Warns Ukraine May Lose Odessa & Black Sea Access If It Doesn’t Negotiate

    Elon Musk has once again urged negotiated settlement to end the Ukraine war while warning Ukraine that seeking to keep up and expand the fight will inevitably lead to the loss of Odessa and thus Kiev’s access to the Black Sea.

    The Tesla and SpaceX CEO underscored that Ukraine’s position continues to weaken even as its leadership refuses negotiations while pressing the West for more weapons. “Whether Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea or not is, in my view, the real remaining question,” he stressed in his commentary posted on X.

    Via Reuters

    Musk was responding in agreement with David Sacks who heavily criticized prominent pundit John Spencer of the Modern War Institute at West Point. Sacks blasted Spencer for his analysis based in “neocon fairy tales about Russian weakness, and puffed up Ukraine’s chances.” Sacks also noted Spencer was “a cheerleader for the disastrous summer counteroffensive.”

    Musk reflected of the failed counteroffensive in the thread, “It was a tragic waste of life for Ukraine to attack a larger army that had defense in depth, minefields and stronger artillery when Ukraine lacked armor or air superiority! Any fool could have predicted that.”

    Musk continued: “My recommendation a year ago was for Ukraine to entrench and apply all resources to defense. Even then, it is tough to hold land that doesn’t have strong natural barriers.”

    “There is no chance of Russia taking all of Ukraine, as the local resistance would be extreme in the west, but Russia will certainly gain more land than they have today.”

    “The longer the war goes on, the more territory Russia will gain until they hit the Dnepr, which is tough to overcome. However, if the war lasts long enough, Odessa will fall too,” Musk wrote.

    And that’s when he concluded, “Whether Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea or not is, in my view, the real remaining question. I recommend a negotiated settlement before that happens.”

    Musk has been no stranger to controversy and catching flak from the mainstream media over his Ukraine-related commentary. Kiev officials themselves have at times accused the South African-born entrepreneur and billionaire of supposed ‘sympathies’ with the Kremlin; however, Musk is among those commentators who take a fiercely independent and realist approach to examining the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

    Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

    Musk has frequently defended his record – for example in February lashing out at critics during a Twitter Spaces discussion with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): “My companies have probably done more to undermine Russia than anyone. Space X has taken away two-thirds of the Russian launch business. Starlink has overwhelmingly helped Ukraine,” he said at the time.

    Johnson had during the debate underscored that “We all have to understand that Vladimir Putin will not lose this war… Losing to Vladimir Putin is existential to Vladimir Putin. Russia has four times the population and a much larger industrial base.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 16:55

  • Pandemic Whiskey Boom Turns To Hangover
    Pandemic Whiskey Boom Turns To Hangover

    Authored by Douglas French via The Mises Institute,

    Yeah, the other night I laid sleeping

     And I woke from a terrible dream

     So I caught up my pal Jack Daniel’s

     And his partner Jimmy Beam

     And we drank alone, yeah

     With nobody else

     Yeah, you know when I drink alone

     I prefer to be by myself 

    ~George Thorogood

    I poured hundreds of “Jack and Cokes” when I tended bar from the late 70’s to mid 80’s. It was beyond me how anyone could tell the difference between Jack Daniels Old No. 7 and anything else when mixed with coke or whatever carbonated cola was coming out of the gun. 

    Turns out Dr. Fauci and the Center for Disease Control did Brown-Forman, the makers of Jack, a solid by shutting down America and cooping everyone up. More than some whiled away the hours with their old pal Jack Daniels. People may have had to work from home, but without the boss breathing down their necks plenty figured “why not have snoot-full and have fun.” It’ll make the day go by faster. Besides, no customers would be banging on the door. No one will know the difference.

    “The phenomenal sales growth we saw during the pandemic was unprecedented and unpredictable but also unsustainable, and now, the spirits market is recalibrating,” Chris Swonger, the president of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said last month. Those stimulus checks could buy a lot of Jack Daniels, or cause the more frugal drinker to pay more for Jack, instead of cheaper brands. 

    Jennifer Maloney writes for the Wall Street Journal, “Some drinkers of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 – often used to make the cocktail Jack and Coke – are trading down to cheaper alternatives while others are trading up.”

    Price inflation affects consumers differently. For those drinking their whiskey with Coke, just about any will probably do, but for those imbibing theirs neat or on the rocks may spend a few more cheaper bucks for smoothness. 

    Even Jack and Coke drinker Brian Moran, a tile-setter who lives in the Chicago suburbs, told the WSJ that a client paid him to tile a kitchen backsplash with five pricier bottles of bourbon, including Stagg, Eagle Rare and E.H. Taylor. “From his first sips, Moran was enthralled,” writes Maloney.

    “I don’t know anyone who even drinks it anymore,” he said of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, which has a national average price of about $22. “You spend an extra $10 and you get something that’s so much better.”

    Brown-Forman reported dismal sales over the winter holiday season and the hangover has lasted into 2024. “Christmas stunk,” Chief Executive Lawson Whiting said on a call with analysts in early March. 

    Brown-Forman is trying to entice younger legal-age drinkers to Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 with a TV commercial set to the AC/DC song “Back in Black.” However, that song was a hit more than 40 years ago. Also the company is selling Jack and Coke in a can, attempting to appeal to young drinkers and females. The canned cocktail contains about 5% alcohol depending on the market. Reportedly there is a no sugar version. Which hardly seems possible. 

    Chairman Campbell Brown, a great-great-grandson of founder George Garvin Brown, told investors that the company has weathered Prohibition and the Great Depression, steadily building the Jack Daniel’s brand since acquiring it nearly 70 years ago. 

    It was not reported whether he has thanked Dr. Fauci. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 16:20

  • White House Approves Transfer To Israel Of More Bombs & Jets Worth Billions
    White House Approves Transfer To Israel Of More Bombs & Jets Worth Billions

    The Biden White House has approved of sending billions of dollars worth of new military equipment and ammo to Israel, The Washington Post has revealed, even amid public criticism from US officials over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s intent to soon send ground troops into Rafah, which is expected to result in humanitarian disaster in the refugee-packed southern city.

    This package is to include 25 F-35 fighter jets, sources told the Post, and additionally the highly controversial 2,000-pound bombs which have been known to kill indiscriminately in Gaza when deployed by the Israeli air force.

    “The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter,” the report indicates.

    2,000-pound bombs fitted with Joint Direct Attack Munition tail kits, via US Air Force

    “The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza,” WaPo continues. “These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly.”

    The 2,000 pound bombs have been flagged by human rights monitors as behind much of the soaring Palestinian casualties, given they can demolish entire city blocks and produce craters over 40 feet wide.

    The weaponry was approved as part of a prior authorization, but it highlights that for all the current US-Israel tensions due to the soaring civilian death toll in the Gaza campaign, Biden is certainly no closer to attaching ‘conditions’ on Israel when it comes to deployment of US-supplied weapons.

    A State Department official has explained that “fulfilling an authorization from one notification to Congress can result in dozens of individual Foreign Military Sales cases across the decades-long life-cycle of the congressional notification.”

    “As a matter of practicality, major procurements, like Israel’s F-35 program for example, are often broken out into several cases over many years,” the official added.

    A New York Times investigation in December concluded that Israel has been using 2,000 pound bombs supplied by the US on Gaza neighborhoods on a routine basis. The Pentagon has said it almost never uses these types of weapons in densely populated urban areas anymore because of the likelihood of large-scale civilian casualties.

    The Times report further said that 2,000 pound bombs had been dropped on Gaza and even inside declared ‘safe zones’ in the south, some hundreds of times.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 15:45

  • How Much Do Food Stamps, Social Security, And Medicare Support The Economy?
    How Much Do Food Stamps, Social Security, And Medicare Support The Economy?

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    Inquiring minds might be interested in a discussion of government transfer payments as a percentage of real income. I can help, but prepare to be disgusted.

    Data from BEA’s personal Income and outlays report. Real means inflation adjusted. Chart by Mish.

    What Are Transfer Receipts?

    Transfer receipts are government payments for which no services were performed.

    Transfer receipts include food stamps, subsidized housing, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, child tax credits, and other government assistance.

    Three rounds of massive fiscal stimulus during the Covid pandemic set off a huge wave of inflation that the Fed never saw coming.

    The numbers are worse than they look above as the following chart shows.

    Transfer Receipts as Percentage of Real Personal Income

    With every recession, transfer receipts as a percentage of real personal income declines.

    The three massive rounds of fiscal stimulus is unprecedented. A friend asked me today why the Fed could not see this coming.

    I explained: These guys are not wizards; they have never called a recession in real time. Bernanke denied there was a recession even after it started. He denied there was a housing bubble. They all believe in models that don’t work. And history suggests they always err on the side of being too loose. They will make the same mistakes over and over.

    The Fed never saw the uptick in inflation because their models said otherwise. Their models now say inflation will return to normal.

    I can see things models don’t: Global wage arbitrage is over. Just in time manufacturing is over. Both Trump and Biden will increase tariffs. The energy needed for AI will soar. The energy needed for EVs will grow even if transition slows. Demographic changes are huge.

    Four Reasons Transfer Receipts Poised to Surge

    1. Influx of illegal immigrants

    2. Republicans just agreed to expand Child Tax Credits

    3. Medicaid Expansion

    4. Boomer Retirements

    Influx of Immigrants

    Please note: Denver Health at “Critical Point” as 8,000 Migrants Make 20,000 Emergency Visits

    Much of that you will pay for directly with higher premiums. But the Federal government will pick up some of it via Medicaid Expansion.

    Child Tax Credits

    We have a new number on the deal the House Republicans agreed to. It’s $1.5 trillion over ten years.

    For discussion, please see How Much Will That GOP Deal on Child Tax Credits Really Cost?

    The reported numbers do not include an Affordable Housing giveaway, or aid to Ukraine and Israel, or expanded defense spending. More money and bigger deficits means more inflation.

    The tax credits add directly to transfer payments.

    Medicaid Expansion

    On March 9, I noted Medicaid Expansion Was Supposed to Pay for Itself, Instead Hospitals Are Closing

    10 states did not fall for the Medicaid expansion trap under Obamacare. The rest are suffering. Private payers (you, one way or another) make up the loss.

    Boomer Retirements

    Due to age demographics, I expect employment in age groups 60 and over to decline by about 12.5 million.

    Population stats are from the BLS. Expected Employment Loss is a Mish calculation based on the Employment Population Ratio (the percentage of people working in each age group).

    In terms of expanding transfer payments this is the biggest of the four by far.

    Boomers health care need and retirements will have a huge impact expanded Social Security payments and Medicare payments.

    And there is a shortage of 6 million workers to replace retiring boomers. This is another set of things the Fed has not properly modeled.

    As a result of demographics, transfer receipts as a percentage of real personal income will surge. And due to a replacement worker shortage, wages will likely rise and productivity decline.

    For discussion, please see In the Next 5 years, Employment in Age Groups 60+ Will Drop by ~12.5 Million

    I go over the demographic math, point-by-point. Click on the link for details.

    Conclusion: The decline in the rate of inflation is transitory. The Fed does not see this coming.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 15:10

  • Fire, Then Ice: Our Deflationary Future
    Fire, Then Ice: Our Deflationary Future

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTWoMinds blog,

    Lest you weep for those whose phantom wealth will be drained away, recall that few win when a reserve currency dies. Labor can start earning the day after the reset, but the capital lost is gone for good.

    Outside the “everything’s always fine” echo-chamber, the consensus is that easily created fiat currencies will all evaporate as the temptation to continue printing/borrowing money into existence is irresistible: the only way to keep the system from imploding is to devalue the soaring debt and interest payments with inflation, and the dial controlling inflation is money-printing / central banks buying debt and all the related tricks.

    The problem is that once the dial is turned to 11, inflationary expectations start feeding back into real-world inflation and inflation then escapes the control of central bankers and government treasuries: creating more money to devalue the currency and service the debt ends up destroying the currency via hyper-inflation.

    History offers many examples of this temptation and dynamic. The pain of debts being written off, governments defaulting on bonds and assets crashing is too great, and so we have to print more money / borrow more money into existence to stave off the painful reckoning of debt dependence and central bank hubris.

    To stave off the pain of debt saturation / over-indebtedness, monetary authorities collapse the currency and the economy it supported, unleashing maximum pain on everyone who used the currency or owned assets denominated in the currency.

    A new dollar is then introduced at a ratio of 1 new unit to 100, or 1,000, or 100,000 of the old dollars. Everyone’s financial wealth is wiped out. Tools, skills, precious metals, buildings, mines, farms, etc., still retain their intrinsic / productive value, but the monetary reset means everyone whose phantom wealth was a form of debt is wiped out.

    This dynamic makes perfect sense, and it’s a well-worn pathway for nation-states. Empires, however, might choose differently. The difference between a nation-state and an empire is generally under-appreciated. A nation-state can destroy its currency and bankrupt everyone holding its bonds / debt and start over, but an empire cannot be quite so cavalier, for the “reserve currency” of the empire is its foundation of power.

    Yes, the hard power of military power projection is a core strength, along with trade, alliances, cultural and diplomatic soft power, but if the currency evaporates, so does the Imperial Project, and those tasked with maintaining the Imperial Project are forced to calibrate pain by a different standard than politicians and central bankers.

    Inflation and the evaporation of the currency is not a solution for the Imperial Project, it is the surrender of all that is great and good. The only viable solution for the Imperial Project is deflation, the forced liquidation of unpayable debts and thus the forced liquidation of all the phantom wealth generated by ever-expanding debt.

    Just as inflation has many sources, so too does deflation. Technology can be a source of deflation, as a new technology can dramatically increase supply and durability while dramatically lowering costs. Substitution can be deflationary, as enterprises and consumers swap a cheaper, more abundant substitute for whatever was becoming scarce and costly.

    If the sum of “money” circulating in the economy contracts as credit tightens, it becomes harder to borrow more money into existence. Every dollar of debt that’s written down to zero reduces the quantity of money floating around, i.e. the money supply.

    If the money that is being created is immediately hoarded by the wealthy, it doesn’t circulate in the economy and therefore it’s the equivalent of debt being extinguished: the supply of money doesn’t expand because the new money has been hoarded, in effect buried in the backyard.

    To preserve the Empire, it becomes necessary to wipe out the debt and the phantom wealth it created, 90% of which is held by the hyper-wealthy, super-wealthy and merely wealthy. This is the class that has concentrated wealth and power to the point of destabilizing the social, financial and political orders, and so those tasked with preserving the Empire (the State within the State) will have to strip this powerful class of its phantom wealth indirectly, as the class is too politically powerful to be taken down head-on.

    Recall that deflation–the decline in the price of assets, goods and services–is beneficial to wage-earners, as their earnings go farther as prices fall. Profits become harder to come by, and those lending and speculating on ever-higher asset valuations are wiped out.

    From the Imperial point of view, this is all good: given that the only goal is to preserve the currency from evaporation, then the takedown of the hyper-wealthy class that threatens to destabilize the Imperial order is equally essential.

    Just as inflation is a hidden tax on labor, deflation is a hidden tax on capital. If commercial real estate, stocks and corporate bonds all lose value for a decade, the bottom 90% will only be affected indirectly. If whatever money is being created is funneled into spending at the bottom of the economy–those buying essentials–then the deflation of private debt and assets won’t strip the real economy of money in circulation, it will only strip the wealthy of the capital they were hoarding and speculating with under the guise of “investing.”

    Fire, then ice: as inflation (fire) threatens the Imperial currency, the Empire must choose deflation (ice) to preserve its foundation. Currency in active circulation is lumped in with the phantom wealth of debt-based assets, but they are two different things, as Aristotle observed (oikonoma and chrematistics). Just as inflation works slowly to erode the value of labor, deflation works best if it too is gradual, slowly extinguishing phantom wealth over time.

    I have endeavored over the years to explain that the concentrated wealth and power of the hyper-wealthy pose an existential threat to the Imperial Project, and the showdown between debt-created phantom wealth and the bedrock of the Imperial Project, its currency, will play out in the next 6 to 8 years.

    The “everything’s always fine” echo-chamber holds that inflation to preserve all the debt-created phantom wealth is necessary, but they are focused on serving private wealth, not the Imperial Project. What’s truly essential is to preserve the Imperial currency, and to accomplish that, both the phantom wealth and the power of the hyper-wealthy who own the vast majority of it must be extinguished. Slowly, slowly, but extinguished nonetheless.

    Lest you weep for those whose phantom wealth will be drained away, recall that few win when a reserve currency dies. Labor can start earning the day after the reset, but the capital lost is gone for good.

    There is much more to discuss here, but let’s take it one step at a time.

    *  *  *

    Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

    Subscribe to my Substack for free

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 14:00

  • Criminal White House Press Corps Has Been Looting Air Force One
    Criminal White House Press Corps Has Been Looting Air Force One

    In case you needed one more reason to despise legacy-media journalists, Politico reports that White House correspondents have been routinely looting Air Force One — to the point that they were just collectively asked to keep their sticky fingers off the taxpayers’ property.   

    After the latest discovery of missing property, White House Correspondents’ Association president and NBC reporter Kelly O’Donnell emailed members to inform them that stealing is not allowed, and that doing so harms the press corps’ reputation, such as it is.   

    White House Correspondents’ Association president Kelly O’Donnell broke shocking news to members: Stealing is wrong

    Looting Air Force One is entrenched in the press corps culture, to the extent that rookies are told to do it. As a current White House reporter told Politico: 

    “On my first flight, the person next to me was like, ‘You should take that glass.’ They were like: ‘Everyone does it.’” 

    That’s not the most disgraceful anecdote…

    “Several colleagues of one former White House correspondent for a major newspaper described them hosting a dinner party where all the food was served on gold-rimmed Air Force One plates, evidently taken bit by bit over the course of some time.”

    Others described how, when reporters disembark Air Force One, the sound of clinking glass and porcelain accompanies their descent down the rear stairway.  

    Donald Trump addresses the traveling press aboard Air Force One

    While it’s apparently been a long-simmering phenomenon, the reporters’ kleptomania on an extended West coast trip in February sufficiently irked the Air Force crew that they complained to the White House travel office. The director of press advance, in turn, told the press office that a USAF inventory found several items missing from the press cabin.

    The press office sent a gentle email to all the journalists who’d been on that particular trip, with someone familiar with the matter telling Politico, “It was like, ‘Hey, if you inadvertently wound up taking something off the plane by mistake, we can help facilitate a quiet return.’”

    The response was predictably pathetic: Exactly one of the thieving journalists demonstrated a semblance of morality. The guilty individual arranged a rendezvous next to the Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Square — across from the White House — and relinquished a stolen embroidered pillow. 

    The latest Gallup poll found that, when it comes to reporting the news accurately and fairly, a record 39% of Americans said they have no confidence in mass media whatsoever, and another 29% said they have “not very much.”

    Forget reporting...next time, Gallup should ask about the extent to which establishment journalists can be trusted not to steal your f***ing silverware.  

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 13:25

  • Rotations
    Rotations

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    “Rotations”

    We will use the term “rotation” a bit more broadly today. Yes, it will incorporate what we typically think of as rotations, but will be broadened to encompass “pivots” and “evolution” if not “rethinking.”

    The areas of focus today will be:

    • U.S. Equity Markets
    • The Fed on Inflation
    • Crypto
    • Carry Trades
    • Private Credit

    Each of these is important for overall markets and represent, to some degree, “rotations.”

    U.S. Equity Markets

    I’ve been particularly bearish on the Nasdaq 100 which, despite all the hype, closed lower to end March than where it closed on March 1st. While I’ve liked energy, I have not committed to the “laggard” trade, like we did in late fall/early winter last year. Back then we were reduced to Wayne’s World and Beavis and Butt-Head to support what was a largely contrarian (and seemingly illogical) view.

    While I’ve been struggling to become constructive on the Nasdaq 100 (IGIW in A Day for Acronyms), it certainly makes sense to revisit the broad market and the potential for another big rotation like we saw late last year.

    I’m so sick of hearing about the Mag 7, Fab 4, or whatever (Time to Retire Mag 7 Moniker) and that it is at the 22nd all-time high on this run for the S&P 500, that I’m looking for anything to steer me away from that. The Russell 2000, suddenly outperforming, is interesting.

    This has been a market driven by AI, AI proxies, and anything that has been “deputized” into the AI space. That is where the performance has been concentrated.

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

    That is where I question whether markets, investors, or even corporations have gotten ahead of themselves on what AI can deliver today, especially versus the costs of implementing it today.

    It is refreshing to see a bounce in some other areas. Energy and mining have done well of late. The regional bank index seems to be trying to break back to levels last seen before some smaller banks faced pressure and required some immediate investments.

    This is occurring while ARKK, one of my favorite proxies for “innovative” stocks, bounces around, roughly unchanged from the middle of February. That is even with a resumption of the IPO market, which I would have expected to provide a “knee jerk” bounce to that ETF. It didn’t, which is somewhat encouraging, as it could be taken (and I’m taking it this way) that there is a lot of thought going into picking stocks and sectors (yes, a LOT of the thought is to BUY AI) which seems healthy.

    Is this rotation real?

    Are we set for another period of significant outperformance by small caps? I could be convinced of that, quite easily, in fact. We’ve hit that point in the rally, where even some of the biggest bulls are seeing signs of excessive exuberance.

    But (and this is a big but), will it occur like late last year, when the outperformance occurred in a very positive market, or will it occur in a decline?

    I’m starting to eye outperformance for more sectors than just energy (which has been my focus), but while I can see energy going up, even amidst a decline in the Nasdaq 100, I’m not sure that I can see the same for the Russell 2000.
    Leaning towards a rotation, but the outperformance seems likely to be losing less, rather than making more.

    The Fed on Inflation

    Clearly the Fed seems to be getting more comfortable with some level of inflation above 2%. While they haven’t officially changed their target, they seem to be willing to ease monetary policy, even while inflation remains closer to 3% than 2%.

    The Fed’s “preferred” measure of inflation came in at 2.5% on Friday (core was slightly higher).

    There are three things I think are worth pointing out:

    • The “favorite” measure, whether by design or coincidence, has struggled to be above 2% for extended periods. It is almost like you pick a favorite measure that lets you bias policy towards easing, since it doesn’t often or naturally get above 2%. Above 2.5% is almost an anomaly for this metric.

    • Remember back when we were finally getting above 2% inflation, and the Fed “rotated” from a sort of “hard target” to an “average target?” The Fed shouldn’t react to inflation above 2% after extended periods below 2% because they have to think in terms of averages, not absolutes. If that thinking was prominent today, we would need deflation for a year or two, to get averages back to below 2% (depending on whether you are thinking in terms of 1-to-3-year averages, or 5-to-10-year averages).

    • Transitory. Enough said, other than that it highlights a propensity within the Fed towards easier money, rather than tighter fiscal policy.

    The Fed has “rotated” into methodologies and views that let them be more dovish than might otherwise be expected. That is happening right now, but their thought process hasn’t always worked.

    This “rotation” should largely be expected, but it is fully priced in. However, is the risk balanced appropriately if the data comes in “soft enough” (under their new “guidelines”) to allow for more cuts, or for it to be “inflationary enough” that the Fed winds up disappointing markets?

    On the bright side, markets seem to be moving far more on economic data (which has been strong) than overreacting to Fed jawboning. The equity market rallied strongly even as multiple rate cuts were priced out of the market.

    Really not sure what conclusion to draw from this latest “rotation” of Fed thinking, other than it seems to be their predilection to find ways to “pivot” to easier monetary policy. However, their track record for being able to follow through has been mixed.

    Crypto

    I remember back when Bitcoin was “better than money” and a mechanism for transacting (someone bought a pizza for 10 coins). I also remember when Bitcoin was an inflation hedge. I remember when Long Island Iced Tea became Long Blockchain Corp and rallied. I also vaguely remember things similar to this occurring regarding the metaverse, and of late, how everything suddenly has an “AI” component (either in its function or design).

    One thing that has been consistent about crypto is that it has always been about adoption.

    The reasons for adoption have changed, but the need for new adoption, and the ability to attract it, has been crucial to timing Bitcoin markets.

    Now, as far as I can tell, the Bitcoin argument has simplified to:

    • Scarcity. There is a limit to the number of ones and zeros that can be created. I rarely hear “use” cases any longer, so scarcity has bubbled to the surface.
    • On a more technical note, we have the “halving.” The reward for mining is cut in half, as Bitcoin makes new supply more “scarce.” The halving has accompanied rallies in the past, therefore, it will again, especially since it is tied to “scarcity” which is now the main selling point.

    So, the scarcity argument is now designed to drive RIAs into Bitcoin. Bitcoin was so “complex” that RIAs managing billions couldn’t figure out how to do it. But now, the ease of ETFs (which should be anathema to Bitcoin purists) is the ticket to adoption and success.

    Bitcoin ETF assets grew to around $55 billion late last week.

    • Bitcoin ETFs started with a massive head start as GBTC, formerly a Unit Trust, converted to an ETF.
    • Bitcoin was around $40k when the ETFs were launched and is now at $70k, helping the asset size grow.
    • So, there has been some adoption, but:
      • It has been a drop in the bucket (somewhere around $10 billion in new money) for an “asset” worth $1.4 trillion.
      • Even some big proponents have been commenting on how relatively small flows have outsized price moves associated with them.

    Maybe the scarcity, halving, and “RIA adoption” story is enough? Certainly, Bitcoiners have been awesome at creating and evolving their rationale as to why you need to own Bitcoin.

    This “pivot” or “rotation” on what is used to create FOMO is impressive, but I’m still not getting a strong sense of greater adoption. Yes, in our world, if it keeps going up, it will gather more adoption as FOMO kicks in. However, a decline seems unlikely to trigger a buying opportunity, at least in the minds of many RIAs who admit a 1% allocation is small, but also don’t see buying anything they don’t believe in.

    Finally, on the theme of rotations, Gensler rotated into approval. Part of me now wonders if, in the back end, many will rue the day that the ETFs were created. One thing that seemed prevalent in the “old days” of crypto was the inability to substantiate claims, or even sue. I wonder if that is changing?

    Wouldn’t short this here, but it seems incredibly overdone based on “scarcity,” the “halving,” and ETF adoption, which just doesn’t seem that great relative to the size of Bitcoin.

    Ethereum, and some others that are still sticking to “use” cases other than scarcity, could be more interesting over time.

    Carry Trades

    So far, with the most dovish hike ever, the Japanese Yen has retained its use for funding carry trades. There has been some concern expressed that a hawkish Bank of Japan could upset the carry trade “apple cart” but yields are still a fraction of what

    they are elsewhere in the world, they sound dovish, and the Yen is weakening, even with the potential for some intervention.
    There has been no rotation in the carry trade, but that is something to watch.

    Private Credit

    I’m extremely comfortable with private credit, but we are running out of time and space today, so that will get its own piece later this week.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/31/2024 – 12:50

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Mar 31

Today’s News 31st March 2024

  • The Era Of Informed Consent Is Over
    The Era Of Informed Consent Is Over

    Authored by Victor Dalziel via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    In a significant blow to patient autonomy, informed consent has been quietly revoked just 77 years after it was codified in the Nuremberg Code.

    (Jan H Andersen/Shutterstock)

    On the 21st of December 2023, as we were frantically preparing for the festive season, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final ruling to amend a provision of the 21st Century Cures Act. This allowed

    “… an exception from the requirement to obtain informed consent when a clinical investigation poses no more than a minimal risk to the human subject …” [emphasis added]

    This ruling went into effect on January 22nd, 2024, which means it’s already standard practice across America.

    So, what is the 21st Century Cures Act? It is a controversial Law enacted by the 114th United States Congress in January 2016 with strong support from the pharmaceutical industry. The Act was designed to

    “… accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of 21st-century cures, and for other purposes [?] …”

    Some of the provisions within this Act make for uncomfortable reading. For example, the Act supported:

    • High-risk, high-reward research [Sec. 2036].

    • Novel clinical trial designs [Sec. 3021]

    • Encouraging vaccine innovation [Sec. 3093].

    This Act granted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) legal protection to pursue high-risk, novel vaccine research. A strong case could be made that these provisions capture all the necessary architecture required for much of the evil that transpired over the past four years.

    Overturning patient-informed consent was another stated goal of the original Act. Buried under Section 3024 was the provision to develop an “Informed consent waiver or alteration for clinical investigation.”

    Scholars of medical history understand that the concept of informed consent, something we all take for granted today, is a relatively new phenomenon codified in its modern understanding as one of the critical principles of the Nuremberg Code in 1947. It is inconceivable that just 77 years after Nuremberg, the door has once again opened for state-sanctioned medical experimentation on potentially uninformed and unwilling citizens.

    According to this amendment, the state alone, acting through the NIH, the FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will decide what is considered a “minimal risk” and, most concerning, will determine:

    “… appropriate safeguards to protect the rights, safety, and welfare of human subjects.”

    Notice the term subjects, not patients, persons, individuals, or citizens… but subjects. In asymmetrical power relationships such as clinician/patient, it is understood that the passive subject will comply with the rulings and mandates of their medical masters. The use of the term subjects also serves to dehumanise. The dehumanisation of populations was a critical component of Nazi human experimentation and, as Hannah Arendt argued, is an essential step toward denying citizens “… the right to have rights.”

    This ruling also allows researchers and their misguided evangelical billionaire backers to potentially pursue dangerous experimental programs such as Bill Gates’ mosquito vaccines, mRNA vaccines in livestock, and vaccines in aerosols. This Act encourages these novel and high-risk programs, with medical studies approved as “minimal risk” by the regulators no longer requiring researchers and pharmaceutical companies to obtain patient consent. Yet, the histories of pharmacology and medicine are plagued with clinical investigations and interventions that were thought to pose no more than minimal risk to humans but went on to cause immeasurable pain, suffering, and death.

    This amendment represents merely a first tentative step as the U.S. government tests the waters to see what it can get away with. Given the lack of attention this ruling received in both the corporate press and independent media, the government is likely to feel emboldened to widen its scope. Thus, this decision represents the beginning of a chilling revisionism in Western medical history, as patient autonomy is again forsaken.

    This ruling, to be actioned by potentially corrupt scientists, health bureaucrats, and captured health and drug regulators, is another step toward a dystopian future unimaginable just five years ago. No doubt the infrastructure to implement this decree is already being constructed by the same groupthink cultists responsible for the nightmarish pandemic lockdowns, continuing to place the pursuit of profit and the greater good above individual choice, bodily autonomy, and informed consent.

    From the Brownstone Institute

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 23:20

  • Rivian Drivers Are The Most 'Brand-Loyal' Vehicle-Owners In The World
    Rivian Drivers Are The Most ‘Brand-Loyal’ Vehicle-Owners In The World

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, visualizes the best and worst car brands in terms of brand loyalty. This is measured by the % of current owners who would buy from the same brand for their next vehicle.

    Data comes from Consumer Reports’ owner satisfaction survey, which includes responses from owners of more than 330,000 vehicles.

    Car Brands With the Most Loyal Customers

    Rivian takes the top spot in this ranking, with 86% of owners saying they would buy from the brand again. The EV startup has carved an interesting niche for itself with its outdoor adventure-focused models, and despite several recalls, appears to have won the hearts of its early customers.

    It’s interesting to note that Tesla held the #1 spot in last year’s ranking.

    Car Brands With the Least Loyal Customers

    At the other end of the spectrum we have brands with the least loyal customers, suggesting that owners are less satisfied with their purchase.

    At the bottom of this table is Nissan’s luxury marque, Infiniti, with only 43% of owners saying they would revisit the brand for their next car.

    Infiniti dealerships are aware of this alarming trend, and have attributed it to the brand’s aging lineup. In a recent interview, Steve Lapin, Chairman of the Infiniti National Dealer Advisory Board, said: “Product is king. Infiniti doesn’t have the right products right now to compete in the marketplace.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 22:45

  • Behind Massive Mail-In Ballot Push Is A Little-Noticed Executive Order
    Behind Massive Mail-In Ballot Push Is A Little-Noticed Executive Order

    Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A federal effort to register voters using the government’s vast reach, including throughout the U.S. prison system, is raising concerns from critics who have said it won’t benefit Democrats and Republicans equally.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images)

    Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on March 6 alleging that agencies under the attorney general’s charge are “attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons, and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.”

    The allegation relates to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which states, “The head of each agency shall evaluate ways in which the agency can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, promote voter registration and voter participation.”

    Among other things, this order has forced U.S. Marshals to modify more than 900 contracts with prisons and jails to provide voter registration documents and facilitate mail-in voting for inmates, Mr. Watson wrote.

    “We have worked extremely hard to restore the confidence of Mississippi voters in our election process,” Mr. Watson told The Epoch Times. “To have the Biden administration and the DOJ purposefully undermine these efforts and jeopardize the integrity of Mississippi’s elections is unacceptable.”

    The secretary of state is the chief election officer in Mississippi.

    The work by the Department of Justice to register voters in prisons, critics say, is just the tip of the iceberg.

    Other agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are also carrying out campaigns to sign up new voters.

    On Feb. 26, Vice President Kamala Harris lauded a federal plan to use work-study grants to pay students to register voters.

    In addition, President Biden’s executive order directed federal agencies to select “approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.”

    President Biden’s executive order was called “visionary“ by Ceridwen Cherry, a former staff attorney on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Voting Rights Project, who said, ”In a democracy, governments at all levels should be doing everything they can to help eligible people register to vote.”

    However, critics say elections are under the purview of states, not the federal government.

    “The reason it’s such a big problem is that, with the president, it’s only one political party that’s in power,” Stewart Whitson, legal director of the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a conservative think-tank, told The Epoch Times.

    “If you allow the president to be the one to decide where all these massive resources are channeled, that’s problematic,” he said, adding that this is why the Founders gave election authority to states and not to the federal executive.

    Cook County jail detainees check in before casting their votes after a polling place was opened in the facility for early voting in Chicago on Oct. 17, 2020. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

    Implementation Questions

    The plan has been called “Bidenbucks” by some of its detractors, referencing the injection into state election programs of $400 million in 2020 from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, dubbed “Zuckerbucks.”

    “This is Zuckerbucks on steroids because instead of $400 million, it’s unlimited funding and resources and the reach of the federal government and all its offices located across the country,” Mr. Whitson said.

    Previous efforts to federalize elections through Congress have failed.

    In 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) attempted to eradicate the legislative filibuster in order to pass H.R. 5746, the “Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act,” which would have given the federal government authority over parts of state election systems, expanded voting by mail, and eliminated security protocols such as requiring voter identification.

    Democrats claimed the bill was necessary to fight “voter suppression” by state governments.

    President Biden’s executive order includes the directive for federal agencies to find ways to distribute “vote-by-mail ballot application forms” as well as assist applicants in completing the application “in a manner consistent with all relevant State laws.”

    In 2020, nearly 45 percent of voters used mail-in-ballots.

    Since the president signed EO 14019, a number of attempts have been made to obtain information about how federal agencies will implement it, particularly which private organizations it has selected to work out of federal offices alongside government officials.

    Federal departments refused to release this information, and requests were followed up with FOIA filings and subsequently by lawsuits; however, the Biden administration continues to defy the requests.

    In July 2021, the FGA filed a FOIA request regarding President Biden’s Voting Access plan. The group sought information about what federal agencies were doing to implement the plan, as well as records from planning and strategy meetings among President Biden’s staff, federal agencies, and the architects of EO 14019.

    “These documents, in any other context, would be handed over much more quickly,” Mr. Whitson said. “So this indicates to us that there’s something there the Biden administration really does not care to share, because they’ve withheld it for nearly three years now.”

    President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama step off Air Force One upon arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on March 28, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

    The America First Legal foundation, another plaintiff in a FOIA suit, characterized EO 14019 as “the president’s unprecedented effort to deploy federal agencies in support of partisan voting operations and fortify politically aligned private organizations working to circumvent state election integrity laws.”

    More than two years later, court battles over the information requests are ongoing. The administration has brought in White House counsel and the Department of Justice to fight the requests.

    How Federal Agencies Enact EO 14019

    Prominent among the many federal agencies carrying out the executive order is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which announced in 2022 that federal health centers across the nation now have the discretion to participate in activities—including voter registration—that are outside the scope of core department activities.

    “Such voter registration activities may include making available voter registration materials to patients, encouraging patients to register to vote, assisting patients with completing registration forms, sending completed forms to the election authorities, providing voter registration materials in waiting rooms, and allowing private, non-partisan organizations to conduct on-site voter registration,” the HHS website says.

    The Department of Housing and Urban Development instructed more than 3,000 public housing authorities managing some 1.2 million public housing units across the country to run voter registration drives in those units.

    The Department of Education sent a letter to universities, directing them to use Federal Work Study funds “to support voter registration activities.”

    The letter states, “If a student is employed directly by a post-secondary institution, the institution may compensate a student for [Federal Work Study] employment involving voter registration activities that take place on or off-campus.”

    The Department of Education has been particularly active in turning out likely Democrat voters, according to Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center.

    “Every college campus is massively dependent on Department of Education largesse, from Pell grants to every other kind of aid,” Mr. Walter told The Epoch Times.

    “The Department of Education in 2022 was threatening campuses that you better be registering students or you could lose your federal funds.”

    The Department of Agriculture issued letters to state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women’s Infants and Children’s low-income food program, instructing them to carry out voter registration activities with federal funds.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 22:10

  • Black Mayors Hold National Meeting On Crime – Discussion Closed To The Public
    Black Mayors Hold National Meeting On Crime – Discussion Closed To The Public

    The “Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime” gathered this week in Memphis, Tennessee to discuss the dangers of crime across the US, as well as apparent solutions to the growing threat.  The question is, was the meeting really about stopping crime, or, was it all about maintaining optics and making the public believe crime is going down when it’s not?

    It’s difficult to say because public and media access to the event was strictly limited.  In many states private meetings between public officials related to policy are illegal.  However, in Tennessee the regulations are a bit more lax in terms of what constitutes a “meeting subject to law.”  

    The Tennessee Open Meetings Act defines a “meeting” as “the convening of a governing body of a public body for which a quorum is required to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision.” A “governing body” is “any public body [consisting] of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration.” 

    In other words, a quorum is required, which means Tennessee was very carefully chosen by the Black Mayor’s Coalition (the vast majority of them Democrats) because it allowed them more legal room to hold closed door meetings.  But why not include the press and the public in this discourse?  

    Perhaps because the event is in itself an admission that crime is rising; a reality which Democrat representatives have tried to deny for the past few years.  Another reason may be because the solutions being discussed are not something the voting population would agree with. 

    In the interview below the Mayor of St. Louis, Tishaura Jones, mentions that gas stations and convenience stores attract a high rate of crime and asks how the business owners can be ‘held accountable’ for this, rather than how they can be protected from it? 

    “We have a lot of violence around convenience stores and gas stations…So how can we hold those business owners accountable and also bring down crime? Some of the things are already doing, we’re finding other mayors are doing as well.”

    In other words, how can these mayors blame businesses for the crime rate instead of taking responsibility as elected representatives?   

    There are the obvious ironies to mention here, including the fact that many of these mayors supported far-left measures to defund police departments, only to quietly remove those measures a few years later.  Then there’s the plethora of statistical tricks used by city politicians to hide real crime data. 

    This includes greatly reduced prosecution and conviction rates; in many Democrat controlled cities the conviction rate is less than 5 out of every 100 arrests.  From 2018 to 2023, conviction rates dropped over 58%, and convictions sharply declined specifically from 2020 onward.  From 2011 to 2021 prison populations dropped over 22%, despite the fact that criminal activity increased over the same period.     

    The less prosecutions, the less convictions, the lower the crime stats.  It’s that simple.  Democrats have also taken advantage of a change in the FBI criminal reporting policies which was conveniently initiated in 2020.  Because of this change, numerous US cities will not be reporting full numbers to the FBI until 2025.  This is why the FBI recently reported a “drop” in violent crime nationally – Because they don’t have complete statistics. 

    Then of course there’s the disproportionate number of crimes committed by minorities in these same cities.  Black on black crime rates in places like St. Louis are stunning.  Studies from 2022 show that 92% of homicide suspects and 86% of victims in St. Louis and St. Louis County were black.  Around 84% of them were repeat offenders.  Blacks make up 43% of the population in that region.     

    Leftist mayors have long suggested that public perception of crime deviates from the reality of crime; yet, here they are holding closed-door meetings to discuss the growing crime problem in their own towns.  Perhaps the issue is not public perception mismatching reality,  maybe the issue is political spin mismatching reality.  The populace deals with these crimes on a daily basis; it’s going to be hard to gaslight people into thinking criminal activity isn’t a problem. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 21:35

  • In 2024, Digital Is Everything In Politics
    In 2024, Digital Is Everything In Politics

    Authored by Scott Farmer via RealClear Politics,

    As the 2024 election heats up, now is the time for campaigns to invest wisely. Questions abound: Do you invest in cable news advertising? Door-to-door canvassing? Social media? Something else?

    For answers, I look back to the past. In 2000, I oversaw the South Carolina Republican Party’s history-making effort to post real-time presidential primary results online. The election night vote-counting for the epic Bush vs. McCain battle played out on screens across the world – not just in the South Carolina GOP’s vote tabulation center. On that night, the ground shifted beneath our feet.

    Over more than two decades of working on Senator Lindsey Graham’s campaigns, first as his finance director and then as his campaign manager for multiple elections, I watched digital operations transform from a backwater oddity to the beating heart of modern campaigns. To outsiders, this revolution seemed obvious, given the meteoric rise of social media, data collection, and mobile devices. However, for an industry steeped in “retail politics” that values handshakes, parades, and stump speeches, embracing the Internet’s intangible nature was a massive culture shock.

    Many candidates didn’t understand the social media platforms that can decide elections, and many still don’t. But the digitization of politics is now undeniable, with digital ad spending alone expected to increase by about 30% in 2024. Billions of political dollars are now spent on digital ads without even taking into account the organic reach of a given candidate.

    The tide turned when digital proved it could raise money. In the early 2000s, campaigns dabbled with websites and a few email donations. Digital was seen as a minor complement to traditional fundraising, not a replacement. Today, large grassroots-fueled campaigns often generate a majority of their funding from small-dollar donors. In fact, we raised a whopping 84% of Senator Graham’s record-breaking $110 million in 2020 from generous digital and direct mail donors. Again, we felt the ground shift beneath our feet.

    But fundraising is only the tip of the iceberg. The Obama campaign’s pioneering use of technology in 2008 opened the floodgates, reaching more voters, organizing more efficiently, and raising more money thanks to an unmatched digital operation. Fast forward to 2024, and digital is intertwined with every aspect of a political campaign.

    Want to recruit volunteers or distribute yard signs? Utilize your website and social media. Need to map out the most effective door-knocking routes? There’s an app for that. Want to encourage donations during a debate? Send out a text. Looking to target voters on social media and streaming TV? Digital advertising has it covered. “Retail politics” still happens in person, but campaigns are now powered by data and analytics. Digital rules behind the scenes.

    The central role of digital highlights one of its most critical values: Real-time metrics. Digital is the canary in the coal mine, detecting a message’s effectiveness long before polls or pundits reflect it. If a strategy shows early success, data quantifies and scales it. If you’re falling behind the metrics, your campaign is doomed. We saw this real-time impact in 2020 when Senator Graham raised over $5 million in only 24 hours due, in part, to standing up for then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. On that day, the ground again shifted beneath our feet.

    In 2024 and beyond, the digital team can no longer be siloed off. It must be fully integrated into every aspect of a winning campaign, so digital should be part of every strategic decision through constant collaboration. Future campaigns will be won or lost based on which candidates have digital in their DNA – and invest in it. Leaders who fail to embrace this truth do so at their own peril.

    Scott Farmer serves as chief operating officer at Push Digital Group.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 21:00

  • Deadly Lung Disease Cases Surge To 10-Year High, Children Most Affected: CDC
    Deadly Lung Disease Cases Surge To 10-Year High, Children Most Affected: CDC

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    U.S. cases of tuberculosis, a deadly infectious disease that typically strikes the lungs, have soared to their highest level in a decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with the largest relative increase among children.

    A doctor examines the x-rays of a tuberculosis patient in a file image. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

    After 27 years of declining tuberculosis rates in the United States, cases of the disease started to climb again in 2020—and they’ve continued to rise every year since, the CDC said in a March 28 report.

    In 2023, tuberculosis case counts jumped by 1,295 from the prior year to 9,615, the agency said. This represents an increase of 16 percent and is the highest level since 2013.

    While the CDC expected cases to rise, the extent of the increase came as somewhat of a surprise to the agency.

    Dr. Philip LoBue, director of the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, told The Associated Press that the 2023 case count was “a little more” than expected.

    Tuberculosis incidences increased in every age group in 2023 compared to the year prior, but for reasons unknown children aged 5–14 experienced the largest relative increase—42 percent.

    Infections Most Common Among Non-US-Born Individuals

    The vast majority—76 percent—of tuberculosis cases in the United States in 2023 were in non-U.S.-born persons.

    Among 9,573 tuberculosis cases in persons for whom birth origin was known, 7,259 occurred among those who were born outside the United States, the CDC said. This represents an 18 percent increase compared to 2022.

    Tuberculosis, which is caused by a bacteria that typically attacks the lungs, is one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world.

    Nearly 4,400 people globally die each day from tuberculosis, which is spread through the air when someone is infected with the disease sneezes or coughs.

    The United States has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis in the world, but the CDC said in its report that the uptick in cases means that capacity should be strengthened in public health programs to carry out “critical disease control and prevention strategies.”

    California With Highest Number of Cases

    As was the case in 2022, California reported the highest number of tuberculosis cases in 2023, with 2,113 infections.

    Alaska reported the highest infection rate, at 10.6 per 100,000 people.

    An estimated 85 percent of the people counted in 2023 were infected at least a year or two earlier and had what’s known as latent tuberculosis. This is when the bacteria enters the body and hibernates in the lungs or other parts of the body, and then becomes reactivated.

    Health experts estimate as many as 13 million Americans have latent tuberculosis. People with latent tuberculosis don’t feel sick or have any symptoms, nor can they spread the bacteria to others.

    The CDC says that, in order to prevent transmission and reduce fatalities, the disease must be detected quickly and treatment must be initated promptly.

    Last November, California health officials said that at least 10 cases of tuberculosis were linked to a casino in Contra Costa County.

    “TB can live inside someone for years without showing signs of its presence,” Dr. Meera Sreenivasan said of the disease, according to an earlier report from The Epoch Times.

    “That is why it’s important to take a test, even if you do not feel sick. TB can cause serious illness, but it is treatable and curable with medicine, especially when caught early,” he added.

    In another widely reported incident, an outbreak of tuberculosis cases at a migrant shelter on Cape Cod was the subject of an alleged coverup.

    Types of Tuberculosis And Symptoms

    Tuberculosis can be categorized into different types based on its stage (active versus latent) and the part of the body it affects (lungs or outside the lungs), with the two main categories being pulmonary and extrapulmonary.

    Pulmonary tuberculosis is an infection involving the lungs, though this form of the disease can also spread to other organs.

    Extrapulmonary tuberculosis originates in organs outside the lungs and never enters the lungs. This type often arises from the spread of infection through the bloodstream or directly from other organs. Unlike the type that involves the lungs, extrapulmonary tuberculosis is generally not contagious.

    While latent tuberculosis is asymptomatic, people with the active form of the disease typically have symptoms that include chills, fever, profuse night sweats, weight loss, general malaise, loss of appetite, weakness, and fatigue.

    Pulmonary tuberculosis also often involves difficulty breathing, chest pain, persistent cough lasting over three weeks, swollen glands, and sore throat.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 19:50

  • Gen-Z American YouTuber Kidnapped In Haiti 
    Gen-Z American YouTuber Kidnapped In Haiti 

    A YouTube and Twitch star known as “YourFellowArab” was reportedly kidnapped by a ruthless Haitian gang. The Gen-Zer attempted to interview gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier earlier this month amid the Caribbean nation’s descent into civil war. 

    Local media outlet Haiti24 reports Addison Pierre Maalouf traveled from his home in Atlanta to interview Barbecue, the leader of the G9 Family and Allies, abbreviated as “G9” or “FRG9”, a coalition of over a dozen Haitian gangs based in Port-au-Prince. 

    But on March 14, the YouTuber was kidnapped by a group of armed men from the “400 Mawozo” gang. 

    Haiti24 reports: 

    The incident took place when he was returning from Cap-Haïtien, accompanied by his Haitian colleague, Sacra Sean. Adisson Pierre Maalouf went to Delmas 6 to do an interview with Jimmy Cerisier, aka “Barbecue,” a spokesperson for Viv Ansanm.

    The outlet continued: 

    According to information, the kidnappers, acting under the orders of the fearsome gang leader “Lanmò 100 jou”, member of the “Viv Ansanm” coalition, demanded an exorbitant ransom of $600,000 for the journalist’s release. Despite the payment of an initial tranche of $40,000, the kidnappers demanded a much larger sum for his complete release.

    Addison makes videos about his experiences with gangsters all over the world. In one recent video, he lived with the Mexican cartel for days. He’s hunted pirates in the Red Sea and toured the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. 

    Earlier this month, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged all American citizens still in the country to “leave as soon as possible” while other embassies restricted services. The US State Department placed the nation on the “Do not travel” list for Americans. 

    Another Twitch streamer, Lalem, said on X, “Tried keeping it [kidnapping] private for 2 weeks, but it’s getting out everywhere now. Yes Arab has been kidnapped in Haiti, and we’re working on getting him out. Love ya’ll, he’ll be out soon.”

    Here are some of the YouTuber’s last posts on X:

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

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

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

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

    Youngsters will do anything for those clicks… 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 19:15

  • Payment Processor Stripe Backs Off Dr. Malone After Legal Threat
    Payment Processor Stripe Backs Off Dr. Malone After Legal Threat

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Stripe, the only payment processor Substack writers can use, has backed off a demand that Dr. Robert Malone link his bank account, according to the law firm Dr. Malone retained.

    Dr. Robert Malone in Washington, on June 29, 2021. (Zhen Wang/The Epoch Times)

    Stripe earlier in March asked Dr. Malone, who has an EpochTV show, to “link the primary bank account for your business to your Stripe account,” which would enable Stripe to review the account’s “current account balance and transactions, as well as historical transactions,” according to emails reviewed by The Epoch Times.

    The request was part of “a routine credit review” of Dr. Malone’s Substack, one email stated.

    Stripe said that if the bank account was not linked, then it might block Dr. Malone from being paid.

    The request “which deviated from Stripe’s standard operating procedures, would have compelled Dr. Malone to provide extensive financial information from his business banking activities, including transactions and account balances spanning the entire history of his business bank account,” Dhillon Law Group, which Dr. Malone hired to represent him in the matter, said in a statement.

    After the legal firm reached out to Stripe, the company rescinded the demand, the law firm said.

    “Financial service providers must tread carefully when requesting client data. It is critical to uphold the delicate balance between regulatory requirements and an individual’s right to financial privacy,” Mark Meuser, an attorney with the group, said in a statement. “We are satisfied with Stripe’s decision to withdraw its request, allowing Dr. Malone to continue his valuable work without unnecessary intrusion into his business affairs.”

    Stripe has not responded to requests for comment. A Stripe spokesperson told The Federalist, “Stripe may, in certain instances, request users to link their bank account to assess businesses’ liquidity as part of the underwriting process, but also allows businesses to submit a form with relevant information in lieu of linking their bank account.”

    That alternative was not presented to Dr. Malone, according to his lawyers.

    Dr. Malone said retaining lawyers was expensive but a move he felt he had to make after neither Stripe nor Substack provided any options other than linking his account.

    “It was a hard and costly decision to justify this level of cost and risk, but the risk of losing a business that had been developed over years of careful, daily customer service was too high to not take this seriously,” he wrote on his Substack.

    The result was the disclosure that, instead of linking his account, Dr. Malone could provide certain information on a form. The form requested information on which services Dr. Malone is selling through Stripe, and whether Dr. Malone accepts payments from customers before the customers receive the services, according to a screenshot of the document.

    “In my opinion, it is very unfortunate that Stripe and Substack are pursuing these policies, which are absolutely contrary to the principles of support of free speech upon which Substack was founded. Stripe has apparently modified those web-based resources in which they has [sic] previously indicated that this policy was being implemented in response to Federal US Government pressure to delete any reference to Federal US Government actions prompting these policies,” Dr. Malone wrote.

    Dr. Malone was referring to a recent U.S. House of Representatives report that detailed how the U.S. government is conducting surveillance of financial providers, although neither Stripe nor Substack were mentioned in the report.

    Substack responded in an automatic message to an inquiry, stating, “If you’re a journalist reaching out with a press request, a member of our communications team will be in touch.” No Substack employees ever responded to the inquiry.

    “In this case, we were able to obtain prompt revision of the Stripe/Substack action by spending considerable funds to obtain highly qualified legal representation,” Dr. Malone said. “But what of the average author who is either caught unaware by such policies or who cannot justify such legal costs? This appears to be a new normal, weaponization of finance and financial transactions to restrict and control free speech.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 18:40

  • Judge Rebukes DOJ Arguments Against Release Of Jan. 6 Defendant
    Judge Rebukes DOJ Arguments Against Release Of Jan. 6 Defendant

    Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A Jan. 6 defendant seeking to be released from prison was granted in part by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia this week.

    Kevin Seefried holds a Confederate flag outside the Senate Chamber during a protest after breaching the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

    The order, signed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden on March 26, will grant (pdf) the release of Kevin Seefried, a defendant convicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, pending the appeal of his conviction.

    This decision comes despite stark warnings from the Justice Department regarding the implications of such a move.

    Mr. Seefried received a three-year prison sentence for obstructing an official proceeding among other charges, facing a potential maximum sentence of 23 years.

    After his conviction, he appealed and requested release pending appeal, a request that gained new relevance when the Supreme Court decided to review a related case, Fischer v. United States, which could impact many Jan. 6 defendants.

    The high Court’s decision on this case may influence the outcome of Mr. Seefried’s conviction, suggesting it could be vacated depending on the justices’ ruling.

    Judge Notes Deja Vu

    The decision to release Mr. Seefried is grounded in the ongoing legal debate over the application of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c), the obstruction of an official proceeding statute, beyond the context of “evidence impairment.”

    “Seefried’s current motion is déjà vu all over again,” Judge McFadden wrote.

    This legal question is currently under review by the Supreme Court in a related case, Fischer v. United States, which directly challenges the scope of § 1512(c) and its application to the Jan. 6 defendants.

    Judge McFadden, in his memorandum order, outlined that the release is premised on two conditions mandated by 18 U.S.C. § 3143(b): a defendant is not likely to flee or pose a danger to the community if released, and that the appeal raises a substantial question likely to result in a significantly lesser sentence or reversal.

    Judge McFadden found that Mr. Seefried met both conditions, noting a lack of evidence to suggest Mr. Seefried would flee or pose a danger, and that the Supreme Court’s review of Fischer represents a substantial question of law that could materially affect Mr. Seefried’s conviction.

    Judge McFadden noted the argument of the Justice Department that, in their belief, he now knew the “day-to-day reality of confinement in prison” and was therefore “more likely” to flee than return to prison.

    Judge McFadden also noted U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’s argument of 2024 being an election year involving “what will likely be another fiercely contested presidential election” and if released, the Court “would be releasing defendant into the same political maelstrom that led him to commit his crimes in the first place.”

    Judge McFadden said those arguments were “unavailing.”

    “The riot on January 6th was the culmination of a unique—indeed, never-before-seen—confluence of events,” Judge McFadden wrote. “The Government provides the Court no evidence suggesting that any of the events that led to that riot are reasonably likely to recur. Nor does it point to any evidence that Seefried would participate in another riot if they did.”

    Furthermore, the decision reflects on the procedural aspects and standards for release pending appeal, challenging the Justice Department’s arguments against Mr. Seefried’s release.

    Judge McFadden wrote he should be released on the one-year anniversary that he first surrendered himself to serve time, which is “on or before” May 31.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 18:10

  • Outrage Ensues As Biden Celebrates "Transgender Day of Visibility" On Easter
    Outrage Ensues As Biden Celebrates “Transgender Day of Visibility” On Easter

    The White House has released a statement celebrating “Transgender Day of Visibility,” which President Joe Biden ‘proclaimed‘ in 2021 as March 31 – and which has been celebrated by activists on this day since 2014 after this individual ‘founded and organized’ it.

    According to the White House:

    “NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility. I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity,” the statement read. 

    And where Easter is typically held the first Sunday after the full moon occurs on or after the spring equinox, while “Transgender Day of Visibility” is on the same date each year, many have taken offense to the day’s proximity to the Christian holiday.

    Trending on X:

    As for the White House’s Easter egg design submission…  

    “The Submission must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes,” a flyer with instructions from the White House stated.

    But, of course, the White House is fine with this… 

    And Google… 

    Former President Trump wasn’t thrilled with the woke activism coming from the White House:

    Good question. 

    The radicals in the White House might have overplayed their hand in their crusade against Christianity, as even the most left-leaning centralists are appalled by Biden’s new declaration.

    This seems to be a miscalculated move as blowback nears.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 18:05

  • America's Ongoing Death-By-A-Thousand-Cuts
    America’s Ongoing Death-By-A-Thousand-Cuts

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    Oh Say Can You See?

    “A modern nuc can fit in the trunk of a compact car. When millions of people can walk across our border with impunity what do you think the chances are we would catch something that size?”

    – Sam Faddis, Retired CIA

    Who was not impressed seeing the sudden and total collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after getting its pylon bonked by the container ship Dali a few hours before the dawn’s early light in Baltimore harbor? In America’s ongoing death-of-a-thousand-cuts, that one literally severed a major artery, but it may take a while to know how badly the wounded colossus known as the USA is bleeding out.

    “Joe Biden” emerged from his crypt pronto to state that the federal government would pony-up the cost of building the bridge back better, meant to reassure the public, you’d suppose. But perhaps the real reason was to obviate an otherwise requisite investigation of the crash by ship-owner Grace Ocean’s insurance company — since legal wrangling over responsibility would add more years to the already years-long estimated bridge replacement time-frame. And Gawd knows what else they might discover about how the darn thing came to pass. . . rumors of a Ukrainian captain at the Dali’s helm. . . stuff that the ruling intel blob might not want to get out there, especially given the still-murky role of the joint USA-UK black-op blobs in the Moscow Crocus Theater Massacre just a week earlier.

    The Crocus op, you understand, was probably the worst clusterfuck qua Three Stooges blob operational procedure in memory, since four of the six surviving Tajiki shooters were nabbed in a car enroute to the Ukraine border (where they would’ve been whacked into silence, since they failed to martyr themselves at the scene-of-the-crime), and by now had surely sung their hearts out to persuasive interrogators of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — the take-away being that President VV Putin has got to be mighty pissed-off and itching for revenge. Was the FSK Bridge take-down the first repayment for that, lots of people inside and outside Blob Central were probably wondering?

    You’d also have to wonder, qua the bridge disaster itself, about the implied reverberations through the insurance industry. Consider that the insurance industry is a major cog in the machinery of finance and banking, since insurance company reserves are traditionally allocated in supposedly safe sovereign treasury bonds. Liquidations anyone? Maritime insurance was already groaning under the burden of all that monkey-business in the Red Sea, thanks to Houthi rocket and drone attacks on the shipping of Western Civ. Are the banks quaking harder now? Many across Western Civ were already trembling before the FSK Bridge job.

    While the awesome spectacle of the bridge collapse traumatized the country, it also brought to mind the fantastic flow of ten-thousand illegal border crossings a day, stage-managed by the “Joe Biden” Homeland Security team. Did you kind of wonder how many in that 10K-a-day flow might be the same species of Central Asian mutts who volunteered to slaughter over 150 (so far) Russian concert-goers? Nobody is checking who they are, you realize. They just step on US soil, get issued smartphones, loaded debit cards, walking-around cash money, airplane and bus tickets and, voila, there they are in your home town tomorrow, looking for something to occupy themselves. Thanks a bunch, Alejandro Mayorkas!

    Are you wondering what sort of mayhem they might be capable of unleashing any place from Bangor to Burbank in the weeks and months ahead? (And, while you’re at it, think about all the food processing plant fires, train wrecks, and other mysterious tribulations around the country the past couple of years.) Consider that this very week alone, following the FSK Bridge disaster, absolutely nothing has been done by our government to stem that flow of countless potential saboteurs into the country. The news media isn’t even talking about it (of course).

    The prospects might look a bit unnerving, wouldn’t you agree? Things catching fire, blowing up, and falling down here, there, and everywhere. . . more of those thousand cuts adding up. Just maybe, the dazed-and-confused (possibly hypnotized) American public, a.k.a., the “voters,” might put together that “Joe Biden” and the Party of Chaos that owns him, are actually responsible for the on-going take-down of our country. After a certain point — now apparently passed — sheer incompetence is no longer a plausible explanation for what you are seeing.

    Oh, one other thing, look out for on-the-ground economic reverberations from the FSK Bridge disaster. For instance, Baltimore is the USA’s top port for importing and exporting automobiles. Also, earth-moving and large farm equipment, fertilizer, lumber, coal, and steel. Other arrangements must be made, for years ahead, considering the trucking links. It’s especially an interruption for trucking between the mid-Atlantic / New England states and much of Dixieland. It will affect the transport of fruits and vegetables to the Washington-Boston corridor. Things are going to cost more and we are already in an inflationary trouble-zone. How will this thunder elsewhere through an economy which, despite the japes of “Joe Biden’s” statisticians, is actively disintegrating? The fluttering wings of this black swan already throw a chill on spring’s incoming zephyrs.

    *  *  *

    Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 17:30

  • "Long Troubled" CarePoint New Jersey Hospitals To Undergo Financial Restructuring
    “Long Troubled” CarePoint New Jersey Hospitals To Undergo Financial Restructuring

    It looks like high interest rate market shocks and the commercial real estate dumpster fire have only just begun. The latest example of volatility comes from New Jersey hospital operator CarePoint Health.

    The operator owns three hospitals, including the 261-bed Bayonne Medical Center, as well as Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital in Jersey City, according to Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance. 

    Michigan-based Insight has stepped in to try and help financially stabilize the network and then rebrand under the Insight name. 

    Dr. Achintya Moulick, CarePoint’s chief executive officer said last week: “Throughout these past challenging months, CarePoint Health has remained resolute and focused on its mission of providing excellent patient-centered care to the people of Hudson County, and our collaboration with the Insight team has been extraordinarily helpful.”

    Moulick continued: “Ensuring that our system’s safety net hospitals receive the investment they need to operate sustainably both now and well into the future remains our top priority, and we are exploring various options to meet that goal.”

    The report notes that hospitals continue to face high costs for staffing and supplies, impacting even renowned institutions. The financial strain is particularly acute for facilities like CarePoint, which serve a larger proportion of lower-income patients and consequently receive lower reimbursements from government programs compared to private insurers.

    The challenges at CarePoint serve as a prime example, Yahoo writes. The New Jersey Department of Health has provided almost $8.4 million in support since mid-February to assist the hospital system with payroll needs and to appoint a chief restructuring officer to aid in its financial recovery.

    Insight’s Chief Strategy Officer Atif Bawahab added: “We’ve been in this situation before and we do have a strong sense of optimism for these hospitals to continue to stay open. But at the same time, we do have to make changes, and those changes will take some time.”

    Insight acquired Chicago’s oldest hospital, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, from bankruptcy in 2021, preventing its closure. This move by Insight, known for its focus on neurosurgery, orthopedics, and sports medicine, was followed by the purchase of a closed rural hospital in Iowa.

    Concerned by CarePoint’s financial situation, the New Jersey Department of Health appointed a monitor in January and recently required CarePoint’s hospitals to develop emergency plans for potential closures or service halts. CarePoint reported a $68 million loss last year, and several vendors have sued for unpaid bills.

    CarePoint has faced financial difficulties for some time. Attempts to sell its Jersey City and Hoboken hospitals to RWJ Barnabas Health fell through in 2019.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 16:55

  • $935 Diabetes Jab Can Be Made For Less Than $5, Study Suggests
    $935 Diabetes Jab Can Be Made For Less Than $5, Study Suggests

    Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    It costs Novo Nordisk less than $5 per month to produce its top-selling diabetes injection, Ozempic, even as it charges nearly $1,000 for a month’s supply before insurance, according to a new study.

    In this photo illustration, boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles, California, on April 17, 2023. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    The study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, raises questions about the prohibitive cost of the popular diabetes treatment and other weight loss drugs that belong to a pricy class of medications based on GLP-1 technology.

    Those medicines work by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which stimulates the pancreas to release insulin when blood sugar rises too high, slows down the emptying of the stomach, and targets brain receptors involved in reducing appetite. Over the past year, demand for GLP-1 agonists has exploded despite soaring costs and limited insurance coverage.

    For their study, researchers at Yale University, King’s College Hospital in London, and the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders looked at the cost of manufacturing insulin and compared it with that of GLP-1 agonists. They estimated those prices by combining manufacturing costs for the weekly injection with costs of formulation and other operating expenses, plus a profit margin with an allowance for tax.

    The foundational price for a weekly dose of injectable semaglutide—the generic name for Ozempic—ranges from $0.89 to $4.73 per month, the study found. By contrast, a vial of human insulin can be manufactured at a cost between $2.37 and $5.94 per month.

    A month’s supply of Ozempic is $935.77 for those in the United States without health insurance, according to Novo’s website. The Danish company’s GLP-1 weight loss drug, Wegovy, is listed as $1,349 per month.

    Wednesday’s study concluded that GLP-1s “can likely be manufactured for prices far below current prices, enabling wider access.”

    “High prices limit access to newer diabetes medicines in many countries,” the researchers wrote. “The findings of this study suggest that robust generic and bio-similar competition could reduce prices to more affordable levels and enable expansion of diabetes treatment globally.”

    Citing the findings, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Novo to slash prices for both Ozempic and Wegovy, highlighting the price gap for the identical drugs sold in America and other developed countries.

    “A new Yale study found that Ozempic costs less than $5 a month to manufacture. And yet, Novo Nordisk charges Americans nearly $1,000 a month for this drug, while the same exact product can be purchased for just $155 a month in Canada and just $59 in Germany,” the senator said in a statement.

    “As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I am calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic—and the related drug Wegovy—in America to no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada,” he continued. “The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits.”

    In a statement on Wednesday, Novo declined to provide production costs for Ozempic and Wegovy. However, it emphasized that it invested almost $5 billion in research and development last year, and will be spending more than $6 billion to boost manufacturing to meet the soaring demand for GLP-1s.

    The company also noted that the out-of-pocket costs for Ozempic depend on a patient’s insurance coverage, noting that there are different options on its website to help patients address their affordability concerns.

    “Congress has been focused on the complexities of the U.S. healthcare system and the interplay of rebates, discounts, administrative fees, co-pays and deductibles–which all play a role in creating a situation where a majority of U.S. patients covered by commercial health plans pay as little as $25 a month for their prescriptions,” it said in a statement.

    “Still, affordability challenges are real,” the company said, adding that it supports policy changes to “improve patient affordability and access for those living with chronic diseases.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 16:20

  • Victoria White Files $2 Million Suit For Police Using 'Excessive' Force In Jan. 6 Beating
    Victoria White Files $2 Million Suit For Police Using ‘Excessive’ Force In Jan. 6 Beating

    Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A Minnesota woman beaten by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol has filed a $2 million civil suit for being repeatedly struck in the head and slammed into a concrete wall on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Victoria White is jostled and spun around by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    Victoria Charity White, 42, of Rochester, Minnesota, alleges at least two Metropolitan Police Department officers unlawfully used “deadly force” by repeatedly striking her head and face with steel riot batons and fists at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.

    The complaint—filed on March 27 by Washington attorney Paul Kamenar—names MPD Commander Jason Bagshaw and MPD Officer Neil McAllister, and alleges other unnamed officers took part in the beatings.

    It alleges violations of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S. Code § 1983. It is an amended version of a suit Ms. White filed representing herself in January.

    “The defendants willfully and unlawfully seized plaintiff by means of objectively unreasonable, excessive, and indeed, deadly force that shocks the conscience, thereby unreasonably restraining and depriving plaintiff of her freedom and inflicting physical and mental harm and anguish,” read the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.

    “Because of the senseless and unlawful beating she received at the hands of the defendants and the other MPD officers, Ms. White suffered great physical, traumatic, and emotional harm that day and continues to suffer to this day, particularly the traumatic and emotional harm,” Mr. Kamenar wrote in the lawsuit.

    Mr. Bagshaw, the suit alleges: “Repeatedly struck an unarmed and defenseless White about her head, face, shoulders, and upper body with a metal baton and his fists.”

    He is being sued in his professional and personal capacity, the lawsuit stated.

    Mr. McAllister “along with defendant Bagshaw and other police officers, physically assaulted the plaintiff,” the suit said.

    Mr. McAllister is also being sued in his professional and personal capacity.

    According to the suit, video evidence shows Mr. McAllister “slamming Ms. White up against the concrete tunnel wall, whereupon, inexplicably, his bodycam is shut off for some 30 seconds.”

    The department declined to comment on the suit.

    Acceptable force with this type of subject would involve “low-level physical tactics to gain control and cooperation,” with techniques that could involve pain but would generally not inflect injury, the MPD policy cited in the suit states.

    The suit outlines the beating first documented in The Epoch Times on Dec. 23, 2021, after Ms. White’s then-attorney Joseph McBride secured the release of previously sealed security video from the tunnel.

    The newspaper’s analysis of the CCTV video showed Ms. White was struck by police 39 times in a little over four minutes.

    A series of videos show Ms. White suffering rapid fire hits, punches to the head, a baton poked at her head, and being doused with pepper spray.

    Bodycam video released in 2023 revealed more information on the beating, including a bystander in the tunnel who begged police to stop striking Ms. White.

    At 4:09 p.m., the man said: “No, no, no, please! Please don’t beat her,” according to the video. Two minutes later, as police shouted at him to “move it, keep walking!” the man replied, “No! You’re going to kill her!”

    At the time of the first lawsuit, Mr. McBride said a special prosecutor should be named to investigate the beating.

    None of the officers allegedly involved in Ms. White’s case has been disciplined or faced criminal charges.

    “That is somebody who’s not only acting with authority but is acting with license,” Mr. McBride said, referring to Mr. Bagshaw, then an MPD lieutenant.

    “That is somebody who is acting because he has no fear that he’s going to be reprimanded for his actions. Do I think that’s criminal? There is no doubt in my mind that what that man did was criminal.”

    Jan. 6 defendant Victoria White was pushed, shoved, and beaten about the head by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshots via The Epoch Times)

    Mr. McBride filed suit on Ms. White’s behalf on Jan. 5, 2022, but she withdrew the suit in November 2022 to concentrate on defending herself against criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice for her time at the U.S. Capitol.

    That initial lawsuit identified seven police officers who allegedly took part in the beating.

    Ms. White was indicted on Jan. 26, 2022, on four counts, including felony civil disorder.

    She accepted a plea deal in August 2023 and was found guilty of the civil disorder charge.

    Prosecutors sought a four-month jail term, but U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on Nov. 22, 2023, sentenced Ms. White to eight days of intermittent jail time.

    Ms. White was featured in the July 2022 Epoch Times documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6.”

    She said the beatings on Jan. 6 gave her flashbacks to a decade of domestic abuse.

    “I’ve had those with my ex, where I’d be awake doing something as simple as laundry, and all of a sudden, I’m there, being choked to death and beat or punched,” she said.

    “This was the feeling of all that. It was like those blows, but now in the tunnel.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 15:10

  • Israel Believes Only 60-70 Out Of 134 Hostages Are Still Alive
    Israel Believes Only 60-70 Out Of 134 Hostages Are Still Alive

    Israel’s official count for the number of people still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip remains at 134 mostly Israeli citizens as well as some foreigners, which includes possibly deceased victims. Amid stalled truce negotiations in Qatar, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed that Israeli officials believe only 60 to 70 Israeli hostages in Gaza are still alive.

    “According to the IDF, a total of 134 hostages and bodies are being held in Gaza,” Haaretz wrote Thursday. “Thirty-six of the people were confirmed by the army as killed – some on October 7, when their bodies were taken into the Strip. Of the 98 living hostages, 10 are foreigners (eight Thais, one Nepalese national, and one man with Mexican and French citizenship).”

    Via BBC

    What’s more is that a month ago some of the families of the hostages were informed that 20 captives were in life-threatening condition. An unnamed source close to the crisis told Haaretz, “I hope I’m mistaken, but the number may even be lower”—suggesting there may be even fewer that are alive.

    Given the intense battles unfolding across most of the Gaza Strip, it is widely speculated that the hostages are being held somewhere within the miles of underground tunnels below, where Hamas also has command and control centers.

    There’s a possibility that some of the hostages could have been killed by Israeli’s relentless bombing campaign which has decimated entire neighborhoods. A horrifically tragic incident last December saw three Israeli hostages shot dead by Israeli forces who mistook them for Palestinian militants.

    Israeli leadership under Netanyahu has been accused by the hostages’ families of prioritizing the military operation to defeat Hamas far and above hostage recovery.

    Some recent testimony of hostages freed in last year’s truce and exchange with Hamas said the following: 

    Echoing this sense of an indiscriminate and haphazard policy, testimonies from newly freed Israeli hostages, who were released as part of exchange deals for Palestinian prisoners during a temporary ceasefire in late November, as well as from some of the hostages’ families, indicate that one of the main fears of those held captive in Gaza was the threat of being hit by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. Many of the hostages, according to these testimonies, were held above ground rather than in tunnels, and were therefore particularly vulnerable to such attacks.

    Large-scale anti-Netanyahu protests led by victims’ families have persisted in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Pressure has also mounted on Washington to strike a ceasefire. 

    Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently facing accusations from within his own government of ‘sabotaging’ the truce process with an aim to prolong the war, and also thus his political future in the top office.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 14:35

  • Republicans Score Win in Court Battle Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballot Requirements
    Republicans Score Win in Court Battle Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballot Requirements

    By Zach Stieber of The Epoch Times

    Pennsylvania rules that require mail-in ballots to be dated are legal, a federal appeals court has ruled.

    A state law that says voters must fill out, date, and sign envelopes containing the ballots is not prevented by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a majority said in the March 27 ruling.

    The act bans denying “the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration or other act requisite to voting.”

    But that provision “only applies when the state is determining who may vote,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ambro, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote for the majority of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit panel. “In other words, its role stops at the door of the voting place. The provision does not apply to rules, like the date requirement, that govern how a qualified voter must cast his ballot for it to be counted.”
    The same court ahead of the 2022 election ruled that state officials must count undated ballots but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that order. After the state’s acting secretary of state said counties should still count undated ballots, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that counties could not count mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates. About 7,900 ballots were not counted in the 2020 election because they were missing a signature or date, or had an inaccurate date, according to state officials.
    U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter later ruled that the Pennsylvania law violated the Civil Rights Act provision, meaning Pennsylvania officials had to count mail-in ballots even if they lacked dates, or contained inaccurate dates.

    “Federal law prohibits a state from erecting immaterial roadblocks, such as this, to voting,” Judge Baxter, appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote at the time, referring to the Pennsylvania law.

    According to the law, a voter casting a ballot by mail must mark the ballot, then place it inside a provided envelope. That envelope must then be placed into a second envelope, which contains the areas for the date and signature.

    “The elector shall then fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope,” the law states.

    The Republican National Committee (RNC) and other groups appealed Judge Baxter’s ruling, arguing that her conclusion was wrong.

    “This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide. Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of their mail ballots, and this 3rd Circuit ruling roundly rejects unlawful left-wing attempts to count undated or incorrectly dated mail ballot,” Michael Whatley, the RNC’s chairman, said in a statement after the new ruling was handed down.

    Groups that sued over the law expressed disappointment.

    “If this ruling stands, thousands of Pennsylvania voters could lose their vote over a meaningless paperwork error. The ballots in question in this case come from voters who are eligible and who met the submission deadline,“ Mike Lee, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. ”In passing the Civil Rights Act, Congress put a guardrail in place to be sure that states don’t erect unnecessary barriers that disenfranchise voters. It’s unfortunate that the court failed to recognize that principle. Voters lose as a result of this ruling.”

    The ruling can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the groups have not yet indicated whether they’ll appeal.

    Justice Samuel Alito has said that the Pennsylvania law did not appear to violate the Civil Rights Act provision because it did not deny people the right to vote.

    “When a mail-in ballot is not counted because it was not filled out correctly, the voter is not denied ’the right to vote,’” he said previously. “Rather, that individual’s vote is not counted because he or she did not follow the rules for casting a ballot.”

    Several other justices supported his view, offered in a dissent when the rest of the court initially said Pennsylvania counties could keep counting undated ballots.

    Continue reading on the Epoch Times

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 14:00

  • "Your Life Is In Danger": Suge Knight Warns Diddy Over 'That Secret Little Room'
    “Your Life Is In Danger”: Suge Knight Warns Diddy Over ‘That Secret Little Room’

    Imprisoned rap mogul Suge Knight opined on recent happenings involving hip-hop rival Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, whose houses in Miami and Los Angeles were raided last Monday by Homeland Security in connection with a federal investigation into sex trafficking, sexual assault, and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms.

    “We believe that there is a disturbing history of sex trafficking,” a DHS officer told The NY Post on Thursday, following the raid which resulted in the seizure of hard drives, phones and other evidence.

    “We are responding to concrete, detailed, explicit allegations. This is not random. We didn’t choose his name out of a hat. We had allegations that we’re following up on,” the officer continued.

    Knight Speaks

    In response to the raid, Death Row Records co-founder Marion Hugh Knight Jr., aka “Suge Knight,” said during a Friday episode of his “Collect Call” prison podcast (!) that Combs needs to watch his back since he has “secrets” involving a “secret room.”

    “It’s a bad day for hip-hop…for the culture…Black people, because if one looks bad, we all look bad. That’s definitely not nothing to cheer about,” said Knight.

    “But I’ll tell you what, Puffy: your life is in danger.  Your life is in danger ’cause you know the secrets, who’s involved in that little secret room you guys are participating in. They gonna get you if they can.”

    While Diddy hasn’t been charged with a crime and has vehemently denied breaking the law, Knight – who’s serving a 28-year prison sentence for a 2015 hit-and-run incident, recommended that the rap impresario ‘surrender’ to authorities.

    Listen:

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 13:25

  • US Withheld From Russia Intel On Terror Plot Due To 'Adversarial Relationship'
    US Withheld From Russia Intel On Terror Plot Due To ‘Adversarial Relationship’

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    The US did not share all the information it had about a terrorist plot in Russia ahead of the shooting at a concert hall outside of Moscow that killed over 140 people, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

    The paper said that the “adversarial relationship between Washington and Moscow prevented US officials from sharing any information about the plot beyond what was necessary, out of fear Russian authorities might learn their intelligence sources or methods.”

    AFP via Getty Images

    In response to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of information about the US withholding intelligence and cast doubt on the report. “The information of The New York Times, citing sources, is information that should be treated with great caution,” he said.

    The US Embassy in Moscow issued a public warning on March 7 that specifically warned Americans in Russia that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts” and to avoid large gatherings for 48 hours.

    The US also passed along the warning to Russia privately, which Russian FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov said was “of a general nature.”

    Sources told the Times that Russia tightened security after the warning but may have relaxed it after an attack didn’t happen in the 48-hour window. The report said it was unclear if US intelligence was wrong about the timing of the attack or if the perpetrators noticed the heightened security and decided to wait.

    ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate based in Afghanistan, took credit for the massacre, and the US has backed their assertion. Russia has pinned the blame on “Islamist extremists” but has also said there is a link to Ukraine and, by extension, the US and the UK.

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

    Both the US and Ukraine denied any involvement in the attack, but the Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday that the attackers had links to “Ukrainian nationalists.” Four Tajiks have been charged in Russia for carrying out the shooting.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 12:50

  • Watch: New York Governor Kathy Hochul Confronted At Slain NYPD Officer's Wake
    Watch: New York Governor Kathy Hochul Confronted At Slain NYPD Officer’s Wake

    New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) was confronted by a mourner during the wake for slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller Friday afternoon, after which a round of applause could be heard as she left the scene.

    Hochul, who has come under fire over New York’s controversial bail reform – which law enforcement blames for the rise in crime, could be seen in the confrontation with an unidentified man dressed in black, who clearly gave her what for as onlookers gathered outside the venue.

    Watch:

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to the NY Post, Hochul arrived at the Massapequa Funeral Home on Long Island for the second day of viewing around 1:45 p.m., after asking the NYPD, the NYPD Police Benevolent Association, and the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association about attending.

    Diller’s widow also appeared to be “telling [Hochul] off,” one witness told the Post. “It didn’t look like the widow had a kind word to say.“

    Another source suggested that Hochul made a “brief respectful visit,” and “was not asked to leave.”

    Hochul’s visit came one day after former President Donald Trump paid his respects during the first day of viewings – staying around 40 minutes, during which he spent time talking to Stephanie and the couple’s young son, Ryan.

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

    Diller’s brother-in-law shared a picture of Trump embracing a woman in the family line-up.

    Diller was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Far Rockaway, Queens on March 25. The suspect, Guy Rivera – who has 21 prior arrests and was found to have a shiv in his rectum during the shooting – shot Diller once in the stomach below his bulletproof vest. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

    Jonathan Diller

    The person driving the car with Rivera during the shooting, Liddy Jones, is an ex-con who was arrested after a second gun was found in his car.

    On Tuesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams – a former NYPD captain, slammed Albany over its approach to bail reform.

    “What’s interesting is that our practices, laws and policies are not going after these issues,” said Adams. “We’ve always had a problem with recidivism, it’s always been a problem but we’ve really never zeroed in on it with case after case.”

    Prior to the wake, Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent J. Vallelong warned City Council members not to attend.

    “Adrienne Adams, Jumaane Williams and their cohorts should stay home,” he told the Post, calling out the lawmakers who pushed the council to reject Mayor Adams’ veto on the “How Many Stops” act in January.

    “They detest cops and have no appreciation for what they do. They should stay home and not pretend they are grieving. They have caused enough heartbreak and destruction,” said Vallelong, adding that their presence at the services “is a stain on the legacy of a true hero who made the ultimate sacrifice.“

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/30/2024 – 12:15

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