• How To Solve Violence In The US? End Democrat-Run Cities And Bring Back Asylums
  How To Solve Violence In The US? End Democrat-Run Cities And Bring Back Asylums

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  One of the most common strategies used by the political left to attack 2nd Amendment supporters is to ramp up the anti-gun hype every time a crime involving a gun is committed. They don’t care much about the tragedy itself, they only care about how they can use it for political gain. However, it’s very important to understand that this is not only about removing gun rights for leftists – It’s also about creating a false association in the public consciousness that guns = crime.

  

  That is to say, they want to condition people to believe that once guns are gone, crime and murder will be gone also. But, firearms have been an integral part of American society for hundreds of years, and gun ownership has been present through times of relative peace as well as times of increased violence.

  In the case of countries like the UK with incredibly strict gun laws, muggings, rape and homicides have been rising with knife attacks in particular increasing by 80%. While it is technically more difficult to murder a person with a knife, it’s also a lot easier for larger, stronger assailants and gangs to succeed in harming people when those people have no equalizer. Disarmament makes life EASIER for criminals, not harder.

  So, if guns are not the catalyst for rising violence, then what is?  In reality, the very people who want guns taken from the hands of law abiding Americans are the same people largely responsible for the spike in homicide rates. Imagine that…

  In the US, violent crimes and murders are exponentially higher in Democrat run cities, many of them with increased gun control measures. In fact, of the top 30 most violent cities in the US, 27 of them are Democrat controlled. Wherever leftists dominate politically, violence, theft, rape and murder are sure to follow. Anti-gun proponents often try to cite high homicide numbers in certain conservative states like Texas, but the majority of those crimes are actually committed in cities run by leftists.

  The truth is, blue cities are dragging red states and the rest of the country down. According to the statistics, in theory, if the public was to replace all Democrat city politicians with conservative leadership murder rates would immediately plunge across the US by virtue of policy.

  But what is it specifically about Democrat leadership that leads to far higher crime? There are other trends to consider, such as incarceration rates in any given state or county, severity of punishment for violent crimes and repeat offenders, and let’s not forget a subject a lot of people don’t want to talk about – The separation of the mentally ill from the rest of society. Leftists often support revolving door policies for criminals, reduced sentences for violent crime (if the perpetrator is a minority) and they are adamantly opposed to incarceration for those with dangerous mental illness.

  They’re happy to take away the 2nd Amendment rights of innocent Americans, but they have no interest in keeping criminals in prison or keeping mentally unstable people away from normal society. Perhaps because their goal is NOT to reduce violence, but to use exponential violence in society as a reason to erode the constitution.

  Incarceration does in fact work, far better that gun control does. But in order to understand the incarceration rate and its effectiveness in stopping violence, we have to look at two systems simultaneously – Prison incarceration and mental asylum incarceration. The following data shows US incarceration per capita in various prison systems for the past century:

  

  The next graph shows homicide rates per capita for between 1900 to around 2010

  

  And this graph shows homicide rates from the 1960’s up to the 2020s.

  

  One issue that is immediately noticeable is that prison numbers spiked massively starting in the mid-1980s, after which homicide rates began to plunge. Also note that less incarceration in the early 1900s coincides with much higher murder rates across the nation. But what about that dip in murders from the 1930s to the 1960s? What caused that?

  Well, it’s not necessarily an economic problem as many progressive might suggest. The country was hitting peak prosperity in the 1920s and murder rates were still sky high. On the opposite end, the system was still in depression turmoil in the 1930s to 1940s, but homicide rates plunged. So, what caused violent crime to fall in that era?

  The only factor that seems to coincide with this period of relative peace is the sudden increase in psychiatric incarceration from around the 1930s onward.

  

  While prison rates remained low and mostly static between the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, the number of mental asylums holding dangerous patients was growing. And, like magic, violence in the US dropped off a cliff.

  By extension, as asylums began to shut down in the 1970s, murders jumped back once again to record highs. Without asylums and with low prison incarceration, homicides spread like wildfire and it did not stop until the mid-1980s when prison rates spiked. In other words, the prison system and the legal system had to finally pick up the slack left behind as the mental asylums disappeared.

  Finally, take note of the recent jump in homicides and violence in the past few years in graph #3 – It matches almost exactly with falling incarceration trends in Graph #1.  This has been mostly encouraged by Democrat policies in blue cities and blue states. Also keep in mind that the Democrats of today are part of a new woke cultism – They are not necessarily the same Democrats from 30 years ago. Woke Democrats want all barriers to criminal activity removed, including incarceration.

  Furthermore, mental illness in the US is on the rise. Over 42% of Gen Z has been diagnosed with at least one mental health condition and psychiatric drugs are doing little to help. We have minimal mental illness facilities in place to deal with the influx of unstable people permeating society. We are about to REPEAT the pattern of the early 1900s, with a lower prison population and no asylums, violence will likely continue to spiral out of control.

  To be sure, in the past there were some terrible practices involving mental health establishments and it doesn’t do anyone any good to repeat those mistakes. In the early days of psychiatry they caste a wide net that caught a lot of dangerous people, but they also locked up anyone with marginal mental problems as well. This led to abuses.

  That said, it’s foolish to dismiss the numbers; asylums worked. They helped to reduce murders dramatically. At least 1% of the human population has psychopathic traits (including lack of empathy) and these people cause at least 30% of all crime in the US. At least 3% of the human population exhibits psychotic tendencies, which means they are prone to abrupt violence without treatment.  Something has to be done to address the mentally unstable in our nation. Their odds of recidivism are extremely high, and they will keep committing the same crimes over and over again until they are stopped.

  This is the elephant in the room that the political left doesn’t want to talk about. They try to hide it with social justice platitudes and feel-good welfare programs, but these things are clearly useless. Separating dangerous and insane people from the rest of the population is the only sure method for saving lives in the long run and keeping civilization intact.

  The solution is simple and two-fold: Get rid of leftist leaders in major cities that set violent repeat offenders free, and bring back mental health facilities to lock up the crazies if necessary. This is the ONLY WAY to stop the avalanche of violent crime that awaits Americans as the next few years unfold.

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 23:40

• Hong Kong Set To Become Crypto Trading Hub, Opens Exchange Licensing Ahead Of Retail Trading
  Hong Kong Set To Become Crypto Trading Hub, Opens Exchange Licensing Ahead Of Retail Trading

  After years of brutal crackdowns, crypto trading is coming back to China… or at least Hong Kong for now.

  On Thursday, Hong Kong took a step toward becoming a cryptocurrency hub with the start of applications for licenses to run trading platforms and exchanges, Nikkei reported. Trading of cryptocurrencies in the Chinese territory has been restricted to institutional investors and other professionals since 2018, but Hong Kong’s new regulations will allow retail trading as soon as the second half of 2023, which means that HK will soon emerge as the conduit by which billions in Chinese retail savings mysteriously disappear into the outside world, a function that until not too long ago was served by Macau.

  

  Officials said the city’s move to welcome crypto, which comes amid global regulatory headwinds for the industry, is backed by safeguards for investors.

  “Hong Kong’s comprehensive virtual assets regulatory framework follows the principle of ‘same business, same risks, same rules’ and aims to provide robust investor protection and manage key risks,” said Julia Leung, CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission. “This will enable the industry to develop sustainably and support innovation.”

  Requirements for obtaining a license include capital of at least 5 million Hong Kong dollars ($638,000), measures to combat money laundering and the appointment of experienced managers.

  “Operators of virtual asset trading platforms who are prepared to comply with the SFC’s standards are welcome to apply for a licence,” the commission said in a May 23 notice. “Those who do not plan to do so should proceed to an orderly closure of their business in Hong Kong.”

  More than 80 companies have expressed interest in obtaining a license, authorities say. Mainland Chinese companies are particularly eager to enter the Hong Kong market, because they face a total ban on providing cryptocurrency-related services at home.

  A subsidiary of Chinese state-owned property developer Greenland Group plans to apply for a license, local media report. Online lender ZA Bank said on May 24 that it would partner with licensed companies to offer trading services for individuals.

  “We welcome the licensing guidelines issued yesterday by the Hong Kong SFC, and we are excited to offer the new investment opportunities brought by virtual assets to our users,” ZA Bank CEO Ronald Iu said.

  In Asia, South Korea and Singapore have taken the lead in regulating the crypto market, attracting some businesses that fled the U.S. and other countries. Hong Kong was regarded as being tough on the industry after China’s move to ban related services in 2021, but the city has reversed its stance.

  In October, Hong Kong announced a policy of promoting virtual currencies. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking bitcoin listed on the Hong Kong exchange in December.

  “The fact that an international finance hub like Hong Kong is setting out to create and support a crypto trading environment means a boost of investor confidence in the industry,” said Eddie Chou, a blockchain lecturer and fintech consultant.

  A cloud has hung over Hong Kong’s status as an international financial hub since China imposed a national security law in 2020 that critics say erodes the city’s autonomy.

  “Without Beijing’s approval and backing, there can be no policy change in Hong Kong,” an asset management executive here said. “They may intend to treat it as an exception like Macao, the only place in China where casinos are allowed, and use it as a testing ground” for crypto.

  That is precisely what Beijing is doing, because even in China the local elite understands that as a result of the massive Chinese capital account monetary firewall, the country needs some way to transfer some of those trillions in savings offshore.

  For now, Hong Kong regulators are promising a firm hand.

  “Our regulations will be tight,” Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said at the Bloomberg Wealth Asia Summit in May. “We will let the industry develop and innovate. We will let them create the ecosystem here, and that actually brings a lot of excitement. But that doesn’t mean light-touch regulation.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 23:20

• Family Of College Student Who Died From COVID-19 Vaccine Sues Biden Administration
  Family Of College Student Who Died From COVID-19 Vaccine Sues Biden Administration

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

  The family of a college student who died from heart inflammation caused by Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has sued President Joe Biden’s administration, alleging officials engaged in “willful misconduct.”

  

  U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officials wrongly promoted COVID-19 vaccination by repeatedly claiming the available vaccines were “safe and effective,” relatives of George Watts Jr., the college student, said in the new lawsuit.

  That promotion “duped millions of Americans, including Mr. Watts, into being DOD’s human subjects in its medical experiment, the largest in modern history,” the suit states.

  The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act allows lawsuits against certain people if they have engaged in “willful misconduct” and if that misconduct caused death or serious injury.

  COVID-19 vaccines are covered by the act due to a declaration entered during the Trump administration in 2020 after COVID-19 began circulating.

  “DOD’s conduct and the harm caused as alleged within the four corners of the lawsuit speaks for itself,” Ray Flores, a lawyer representing the Watts family, told The Epoch Times via email. “I have no further comment other than to say: My only duty is to advocate for my client. If the DOD conveys a settlement offer, I will see that it’s considered.”

  The suit was filed in U.S. court in Washington.

  The Pentagon and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.

  Watts Suddenly Died

  Watts was a student at Corning Community College when the school mandated COVID-19 vaccination for in-person classes in 2021. He received one Pfizer dose on Aug. 27, 2021, and a second dose approximately three weeks later.

  Watts soon began experiencing a range of symptoms, including tingling in the feet, pain in the heels, numbness in the hands and fingers, blood in his sperm and urine, and sinus pressure, according to family members and health records.

  Watts went to the Robert Packer Hospital emergency room on Oct. 12, 2021, due to the symptoms. X-rays showed clear lungs and a normal heart outline.

  Watts was sent home with suggestions to follow up with specialists but returned to the emergency room on Oct. 19, 2021, with worsening symptoms despite a week of the antibiotic Augmentin. He was diagnosed with sinusitis and bronchitis.

  While speaking to his mother at home on Oct. 27, 2021, Watts suddenly collapsed. Emergency medical personnel rushed to the home but found him unresponsive. He was rushed to the same hospital in an ambulance. He was pronounced deceased at age 24.

  According to a doctor at the hospital, citing hospital records and family members, Watts had no past medical history on file that would explain his sudden death, with no known history of substance abuse or obvious signs of substance abuse. His mother described her son as a “healthy young male.”

  Dr. Robert Stoppacher, a pathologist who performed an autopsy on the body, said that the death was due to “COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.” The death certificate listed no other causes. A COVID-19 test returned negative. Dr. Sanjay Verma, based in California, reviewed the documents in the Watts case and said that he believed the death was caused by the COVID-19 vaccination.

  Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment.

  Watts Took Vaccine Under Pressure

  The community college mandate included a 35-day grace period following approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a COVID-19 vaccine.

  The Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were given emergency use authorization early in the pandemic. The FDA approved the Pfizer shot on Aug. 23, 2021. It was the first COVID-19 vaccine approval. But doses of the approved version of the shot, branded Comirnaty, were not available for months after the approval.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 23:00

• Tanks, F-16 Jets Won't Be Ready For Ukraine Counteroffensive: Pentagon
  Tanks, F-16 Jets Won’t Be Ready For Ukraine Counteroffensive: Pentagon

  Ukraine continues to tout that its planned major counteroffensive is coming and is imminent, event after Russia’s significant victory over the strategic Donetsk oblast city of Bakhmut. 

  But Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley has been quoted in The Associated Press this week as confirming that US Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets which the US and Western countries have previously promised Ukraine will not be ready in time for the counteroffensive. He said the approved training on these sophisticated and advanced weapons systems for Ukrainians has begun, but that it will take “considerable time”.

  “Everyone recognizes Ukraine needs a modernized Air Force,” Milley said. “It’s going to take a considerable amount of time.” 

  

  President Biden had last month belatedly approved giving European countries the ability to transfer F-16s to Ukraine, but Ukrainian pilots – long experienced only on Soviet and Russian-made aircraft, must be trained extensively on the US-designed and produced aircraft. This could take six months to a year or more.

  According to the AP, “Milley said detailed planning on class sizes, the types of flying tactics and locations for training was underway now between the U.S. and allies such as the Netherlands and the U.K. that have already pledged to provide F-16s.”

  It’s as yet unclear whether the US itself is going to eventually provide the jets directly to Ukraine forces, or if simply it will support third party countries giving them. 

  The U.S. has not said yet whether or not it will provide jets, but President Joe Biden has said the U.S. will support F-16 training.

  As for Abrams tank training, which has already been underway, “About 200 Ukrainian soldiers began an approximately 12-week training course in Germany on the U.S. tanks over the weekend to teach them how to maneuver, fire and conduct combined arms operations with the advanced armored system,” the AP details. Support crew for tank fueling and fuel truck maintenance are also undergoing instruction, and that makes up another 200 troops. 

  In total about 300 tanks have been pledged by the Western allies, including German-made Leopard 2 tanks and UK Challenger main battle tanks. Washington is expected to deliver 31 seventy-ton Abrams tanks to Kiev by the fall.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 22:40

• The $200 Billion Electric School Bus Bust
  The $200 Billion Electric School Bus Bust

  Authored by Duggan Flanakin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Beatles once sang, “All you need is love.” But will Kamala Harris’ professed LOVE for electric school buses – plus the $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies she announced last October – be enough to usher in the new paradise?

  

  Hmm. Let’s do the math.  The $1 billion in rebates pledged is to help purchase 2,500 electric school buses in some 391 school districts around the nation.  But there are in fact about 500,000 school buses transporting children to and from school, to and from ball games and other events, nearly every school day. 

  By simple calculation, this suggests it will take a $200 billion investment just to replace existing school buses – which must be done, Kamala tells us, by the 2030 deadline or else CHILDREN WILL DIE.

  Do factories, batteries, and other raw materials exist to build (or retrofit) 500,000 school buses – and every other vehicle in America today – by 2030? By 2050? Does that much money exist? Does that much electricity exist?

  To be sure, the demand (from mostly leftist school boards) is out there. Nearly 2,000 school districts applied for the free money last year, pushing the demand SO HIGH “that the EPA had to double the amount of funding” from the initial pledge of $500 million.” Should Kamala keep her job in 2024, the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program is committed to handing out another $4 billion over the next five years.

  Nearly 2,000 school districts applied for the first round of rebates from all 50 states, including Washington, D.C., U.S. territories, and federally recognized tribes. The demand was so high “that the EPA had to double the amount of funding” from its initial pledge of $500 million, a White House official tells Parents on background.

  A total of 391 rebates were awarded, and the Vice President anticipates thousands more applications as the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program awards a total of $5 billion over the next five years. That’s 12,500 down, just 487,500 to go!

  School districts NOT getting the federal free money are faced with a much different scenario. Even the smaller electric school buses today cost about $250,000 compared with just $50,000 to 465,000 for a diesel-powered bus of the same size. The larger battery-electric buses can run from $320,000 to $440,000 versus just $100,000 for a diesel bus.

  Take the Dallas (TX) Independent School District, which has about 860 buses. To replace the entire fleet with large diesel buses would cost, therefore, about $86 million.  But those 860 buses, if battery-electric, would cost a minimum of $275 million. And that does not include the cost of charging stations and retraining mechanics. That’s over three times as many taxpayer dollars the school district would have to extract from voters.

  All this, of course, has been under the assumption that electric school buses are just as reliable as diesel-powered buses – and that they can keep children warm in winter and cool on hot days as well as buses with diesel engines.

  The Ann Arbor (MI) Public Schools Board of Education learned recently from its environmental sustainability director, that the electric school buses they bought have “a lot of downtime and performance issues” and “aren’t fully on the road.” Moreover, the infrastructure upgrades needed to use these buses, which were estimated at just $50,000, “ended up being more like $200,000.”

  To the surprise of many educators, electric school buses may break down and require towing. As with any electric vehicle, this poses risks not common to gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. One is that they are heavier – and thus require larger tow trucks (remember, tow trucks only tow the cabs of 18-wheelers, not the trailers). Towing capacity should be about half the weight of the towing vehicle, and the typical electric school bus weighs 36,000 pounds.

  Another thing the electric bussers ignore is the wear and tear on bus tires, which cost about $3,000 per set (likely higher by now, with inflation). Goodyear notes that electric school bus operators have to consider the extra weight of the buses, which makes balancing the tires for load capacity and durability even more important – and more frequently done. The extra weight also means that the tires do not last as long as on lighter weight diesel buses.

  Electric bus enthusiasts like Kamala Harris will tell you that spending an extra $150 billion or so is worth the price to theoretically save children from diesel exhaust (despite the major improvements in diesel technology and much cleaner diesel fuel mandated in recent years). But they are silent about the number of actual lives lost by children mining the raw materials for electric vehicle batteries.

  Using data supplied by Pacific Gas & Electric, Colorado journalist Cory Gaines noted that the $260,000 cost differential between diesel and electric school buses means that any school district wanting to take advantage of the predicted much lower operating costs will need major help with the huge upfront capital costs. Which means both federal and state subsidies – and higher taxes to pay for the subsidies.

  Noting that electric buses have longer downtimes and higher towing costs, plus require (again upfront) costs for installing and maintaining charging stations – and other hidden costs, the payback on the electric school bus (at an average of 16,000 miles per year, a high-end estimate) comes out to about 20 years – longer than the lifespan of the bus. And that’s if nobody dies or is injured by a school bus fire.

  Gaines, who runs the Colorado Accountability Project on Facebook, gives an additional caveat for buses operating in cold climates (like the Colorado mountains, the Great Lakes region, and Alaska, where today there is but one electric school bus).

  Unlike diesel buses that scavenge waste engine heat for passengers, electric buses have to divert battery energy into heat. On very cold days, the amount of energy needed to keep children warm could exceed the amount used to travel the route. That may not matter on short trips to and from school — but imagine a basketball or hockey team on a bus trip to a game across the state.

  Charging the battery for an electric school bus takes up to eight hours using AC power, but with a diminished range in cold weather taking children on long bus trips for any purpose might require an extra day on the road in each direction. That means an extra day each way of feeding and housing the children (and keeping watch over them).

  Or school districts could just say, Sorry, kids, no more school travel. We can’t afford it!

  Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 22:20

• AR & VR Adoption Is Still in Its Infancy
  AR & VR Adoption Is Still in Its Infancy

  In its quest to making the metaverse the next big thing in tech, Facebook’s parent company Meta unveiled a new virtual and mixed reality headset on Thursday.

  

  Starting at $499.99, the Quest 3 is much more affordable than the Quest Pro that was launched last fall, while offering performance that is far superior to its predecessor, the Meta Quest 2.

  “Quest 3 is our first mass-market offering to deliver both cutting-edge VR and MR experiences in a single device, setting a new benchmark for future headsets,” Meta said in its announcement, clearly nodding towards Apple, which is expected to unveil its own long-in-the-making VR/AR headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

  “Ultimately, our vision is to enable you to move through all realities in a way that’s intuitive and delightful,” Mark Rabkin, vice president of VR at Meta said.

  “Going beyond the rigid classifications of ‘virtual reality’ and ‘mixed reality’ to deliver truly next-gen experiences that let you effortlessly blend the physical and virtual worlds.”

  But, as Statista’s Felix Richter notes, while Meta has already invested billions in that vision, so far it remains just that: a vision that has yet to come to life.

  According to estimates from Statista Market Insights, users of AR and VR devices are still few and far between, with growth projections until 2027 nowhere near the scale that would make mixed reality “the next computing platform”, at least for now.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Statista estimates that 98 million people will be using VR hardware this year, while 23 million will be dabbling with more advanced AR technology. By 2027, both AR and VR are expected to have surpassed 100 million users worldwide, but that’s still a longshot from the billions of smartphone users across the planet.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 22:00

• Authoritarianism Keeps Surging In Western "Free Democracies"
  Authoritarianism Keeps Surging In Western “Free Democracies”

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone,

  Today in tyranny we’ve got three stories on the rapidly increasing authoritarian abuses in western “free democracies”.

  

  Let’s dig in.

  1. Grayzone reporter detained by British counter-terrorism police for doing journalism.

  The Grayzone’s Kit Klarenberg was detained by “six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officers” who “grilled him for over five hours about his reporting” upon returning to Britain on the 17th of May, according to a new report by Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal.

  British police detain journalist @KitKlarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone

  Counter-terror police detained journalist Kit Klarenberg upon his arrival in London and subjected him to a 5 hour interrogation about his political views and reportinghttps://t.co/RmxZGY8efp pic.twitter.com/YftxSR1Cl0

  — The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) May 31, 2023

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

  Blumenthal reports that Klarenberg was asked many questions about The Grayzone and his work with the independent outlet, saying police “seized the journalist’s electronic devices and SD cards, fingerprinted him, took DNA swabs, and photographed him intensively,” threatening him with arrest if he didn’t comply.

  Blumenthal writes that the police action was likely a retaliation for Klarenberg’s reporting for the outlet, which has angered British officials and establishment media figures with the inconvenient information it has reported about their behavior:

  Klarenberg’s interrogation appears to be London’s way of retaliating for the journalist’s blockbuster reports exposing major British and US intelligence intrigues. In the past year alone, Klarenberg revealed how a cabal of Tory national security hardliners violated the Official Secrets Act to exploit Brexit and install Boris Johnson as prime minister. In October 2022, he earned international headlines with his exposé of British plans to bomb the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian Federation. Then came his report on the CIA’s recruitment of two 9/11 hijackers this April, a viral sensation that generated massive social media attention.

  Among Klarenberg’s most consequential exposés was his June 2022 report unmasking British journalist Paul Mason as a UK security state collaborator hellbent on destroying The Grayzone and other media outlets, academics, and activists critical of NATO’s role in Ukraine.

  Asserting that Klarenberg did nothing more nefarious than engaging in “the same journalistic practice that the West’s most prominent legacy newspapers, from The New York Times to The Washington Post, depend on to break news themselves,” Blumenthal says it appears that “British authorities did not detain Klarenberg for any legal breaches, but because he reported factual stories that exposed the national security state’s own violations of both domestic and international law, as well as the malign plots of its media lackeys.”

  Blumenthal himself was subjected to legal harassment and intimidation in the United States a few years back, arrested and charged with having committed “assault” while reporting on imperial efforts to drive the Venezuelan government out of its embassy in Washington DC. The charges were later dropped.

  The Grayzone has been doing some of the best independent reporting in alternative media over the last few years, and should wear its now-evident status as a thorn in the empire’s side with pride.

  2. South Australia passes draconian anti-protest law.

  Reacting to recent inconvenient demonstrations by environmental activists, the state of South Australia has just rapidly shoved through legislation — without consulting the public — to exponentially increase the penalties for unauthorized protesting. Demonstrators will now face up to three months in jail and fines of $50,000 if they are deemed guilty of the extremely vague offense of “obstructing a public place” with their protesting.

  The Human Rights Law Center expresses the following:

  South Australia is the latest jurisdiction to impose severe penalties on people for engaging in peaceful protest, joining New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland who have passed anti-protest laws in the last five years. South Australia’s anti-protest laws carry the harshest financial penalties in Australia.

  The Bill is excessive and will have a chilling effect on the right to protest in South Australia. The Bill is also potentially unconstitutional and in clear breach of well-established principles of international human rights law.

  South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas acted shocked and offended that anyone could possibly think life-altering penalties for vaguely-defined protest activities might have some effect on protest activities, saying, “One of the things that I have found rather disconcerting around some of the commentary on this piece of legislation is that somehow, it curtails or diminishes people’s right to protest, which is simply not true.”

  Hilarious.

  Now would probably be a good time to repeat my periodic reminder that Australia is the only so-called democracy in the world which has no national charter or bill of rights of any kind. A lot of attention went into the Australian government’s authoritarianism when its strict Covid measures were in place, but the fact of the matter is that this country has been diving headlong into tyranny since long before Covid, and continues to do so now that the lockdowns are long over. There simply aren’t enough checks and balances in place to prevent this from happening, and not enough will from the public to fight for them while fighting is still possible.

  3. State Department dismisses questions about Ukrainian imprisonment of US citizen for speech crimes.

  State Department refuses to say whether it will negotiate with Zelensky for the release of detained U.S. citizen Gonzalo Lira: pic.twitter.com/jTD58XjYnw

  — Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) May 28, 2023

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

  At a press conference last week the State Department’s new spokesman Matthew Miller flatly brushed off questions about whether the US government was doing anything about the fact that commentator Gonzalo Lira has been arrested and charged with what amount to speech crimes by the Ukrainian government.

  Here’s the State Department’s transcript of the exchange:

  QUESTION: Thanks. Liam Cosgrove with Epoch Times. So this was a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t seen an official statement on it. A U.S. citizen who is residing in Ukraine has been arrested and that he was a California-born man; he was in the past like a Business Insider contributor, and he had a YouTube channel. He was an outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s regime. The Ukrainian SBU released a press release saying he was arrested for justifying Putin’s invasion. So ultimately, it added up to speech. And I spoke with Congressman Ted Lieu, a Democrat, and he said he urges the State Department to engage its authorities to work out some sort of negotiation to get him released. So are you guys aware of this? How do we feel about our allies detaining U.S. citizens for speech abroad?

  MR MILLER: So I will say in general that we’re aware of the report. We obviously support the exercise of freedom of speech anywhere in the world, and I’ll leave it at that.

  QUESTION: So you guys aren’t working to get him released?

  MR MILLER: I’m going to leave my comments where I just left them.

  It’s not every day a US spokesperson gets asked a question that’s so inconvenient that they just overtly refuse to answer it without even pretending to provide an explanation for doing so.

  Lira, a US citizen, is reportedly facing five to eight years in prison for having “publicly justified the armed aggression of the Russian Federation” and “publicly justified the armed aggression of the Russian Federation,” per the SBU.

  Are Americans okay with their government risking a very fast, very radioactive third world war to defend the freedom and democracy of a nation that imprisons US citizens for speech crimes? I guess we’ll never know, because nobody’s asking them.

  If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending?

  *  *  *

  My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon, Paypal, or Substack, buying an issue of my monthly zine, and following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

  Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

  Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 21:40

• US Ditches More New START Treaty Obligations After Tactical Nukes Transferred To Belarus
  US Ditches More New START Treaty Obligations After Tactical Nukes Transferred To Belarus

  The New START Treaty, which is the final nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia, continues to fall apart after on Thursday the Biden administration said it would walk away from multiple key obligations stipulated under the agreement, after Moscow already effectively ended its participation earlier this year.

  The State Department announced in a Thursday fact sheet that the US will initiate “Four lawful countermeasures in response to the Russian Federation’s ongoing violations of the New START Treaty” which it deemed “proportionate” and “reversible.” Further, Russia has been notified in advance of the move.

  

  But the fact sheet underscored that “The United States continues to abide by the treaty’s central limits, and to fulfill all of its New START obligations that have not been included within these countermeasures.”

  Crucially, the most important of the countermeasures bans all Russian inspectors from visiting US territories. This was the most important aspect to the agreement, given that among the nuclear reduction treaty’s chief aims is to ensure inspection and monitoring of each side’s nuclear arsenal by the other. However, it had already been on pause since 2020 in relation to Covid restrictions and lockdowns.

  Related to central monitoring protocols, the US is also backing away from basic information-sharing with the Kremlin. Washington will now withhold “notifications required under the treaty, including updates on the status or location of treaty-accountable items such as missiles and launchers.”

  Additionally, data will no longer be shared about future missile tests, including “telemetric information on launches of US ICBMs and SLBMs,” according to the State Department.

  All of this comes very dangerously as nuclear saber-rattling continues in relation to the Ukraine war. Russia has recently ordered tactical nukes to be hosted on Belarusian territory – a move the West has condemned.

  Russian officials have long explained that the country’s nuclear doctrine has not changed, warning that nuclear weapons can be deployed only if sovereign Russian territory and the population comes under existential threat. And yet, cross-border attacks from Ukraine have only intensified, including increasing incidents of ground troop incursions, with the use of military hardware, some it provided by NATO allies.

  Biden administration acknowledges it keeps crossing Putin’s red lines because he hasn’t launched a nuclear response yet. https://t.co/bmNOu3Ifzf

  — Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) June 1, 2023

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  Russia has at the same time accused the West of backing these brazen attacks, and has warned of continued escalation. Putin’s “red lines” continue to be crossed, almost daily at this point.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 21:20

• Federal Judge Blocks ATF Pistol Brace Rule For Major Gun Group
  Federal Judge Blocks ATF Pistol Brace Rule For Major Gun Group

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  On Thursday, Joe Biden planned to enact the largest gun ban in U.S. history—a ban on up to 40,000,000 pistols.  

  But at the eleventh hour, the executive order gun ban was gutted by three federal courts. 

  After a months-long legal battle with the federal government, Gun Owners of America secured one such preliminary injunction in Texas v. Garland, preventing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) from prosecuting any GOA members under this new rule.  

  🚨 BREAKING🚨

  GOF and @GunOwners just received the order for our Pistol Brace lawsuit and our case has resulted in a PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION for ALL GOA MEMBERS.

  When the clock strikes midnight, millions of GOA members will still be law-abiding Americans. We are thankful for… pic.twitter.com/41LD8WY1Tq

  — Gun Owners Foundation (@GunFoundation) June 1, 2023

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  Similar rulings were issued by two other federal courts to members of two other advocacy organizations as well—the plaintiffs in Mock v. Garland and SAF v. ATF.  

  In effect, the Biden Pistol Ban crumbled before it even got off the ground. 

  Without the injunction, ATF could have already begun kicking in doors and confiscating “illegal” unregistered pistols. 

  But even though the injunctions are not nationwide, it is now nearly impossible for ATF to differentiate the pistol owners they can prosecute from the Gun Owners of America members and other protected persons. 

  Notably, Gun Owners of America isn’t satisfied with this limited injunction. In fact, GOA had argued for a nationwide injunction, but the courts refused and only granted limited relief to its members. 

  In case you missed it, GOA and @GunFoundation secured a Preliminary Injunction last night against the Biden Pistol Ban for GOA Members. This means that when the rule went into effect at 12 AM ET, millions of GOA members were still law-abiding Americans. 👏

  We know there are a…

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 1, 2023

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  That’s why GOA is also urging activists to contact Congress and urge them to provide oversight and to protect all gun owners nationwide. 

  Using the Congressional Review Act, the ATF rule could be reversed, and the agency could be prohibited from ever enacting a similar rule in the future. 

  Two joint resolutions of disapproval have already been introduced. H. J. Res. 44, introduced by Rep. Andrew Clyde, has 189 sponsors in the House of Representatives and S. J. Res. 20, introduced by Sen. Kennedy, has 47 sponsors in the Senate.  

  Public calls for Speaker McCarthy to hold a vote to block the pistol brace rule have only mounted in recent weeks, with several coalitions calling for immediate action—including 27 Attorneys General currently suing the Biden Administration, 2A influencers with over 30,000,000 combined followers, and numerous members of the gun industry. 

  *   *   *

  We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 21:00

• Russia Says US Hacked 'Thousands' Of iPhones In Espionage Operation
  Russia Says US Hacked ‘Thousands’ Of iPhones In Espionage Operation

  Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Thursday accused the United States of conducting an espionage operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software.

  

  Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab says that dozens of their employees’ devices were compromised as part of the operation.

  In a statement, the FSB said that the targets included domestic Russian subscribers, as well as foreign diplomats based in Russia and the former Soviet Union, Reuters reports.

  “The FSB has uncovered an intelligence action of the American special services using Apple mobile devices,” said the FSB in a statement, adding that the plot revealed “close cooperation” between Apple and the National Security Agency (NSA). The FSB did not provide any evidence of Apple’s cooperation.

  Kaspersky CEO Eugene Kaspersky said on Twitter that dozens of his employees’ phones were compromised in the operation, which his company described as “an extremely complex, professionally targeted cyberattack” that had targeted workers in “top and middle-management.”

  Kaspersky researcher Igor Kuznetsov told Reuters that his company had independently discovered anomalous traffic on its corporate Wi-Fi network around the start of the year. He said Kaspersky did not circulate its findings to Russia’s Computer Emergency Response Team until earlier on Thursday. -Reuters

  More from Kaspersky via Twitter;

  Triangulation transmits private information to remote servers: microphone recordings, photos from instant messengers, geolocation and data about a number of other activities #IOSTriangulation

  — Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) June 1, 2023

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  We are quite confident that Kaspersky was not the main target of this cyberattack. The coming days will bring more clarity and further details on the worldwide proliferation of the spyware #IOSTriangulation

  — Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) June 1, 2023

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

  Important: The activity observed in Operation Triangulation does not overlap with already known iOS campaigns, such as Pegasus, Predator or Reign.

  — Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) June 1, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsKaspersky says that disabling iMessage will defeat the hack.

  Repeat after me: https://t.co/li3xomQY60 pic.twitter.com/HzfZgC0lkN

  — Davy Douhine (@ddouhine) June 1, 2023

  According to the FSB, the Americans had compromised diplomats from China, Syria, Israel and NATO members. 

  “The hidden data collection was carried out through software vulnerabilities in U.S.-made mobile phones,” said Russia’s foreign ministry in a statement. “The U.S. intelligence services have been using IT corporations for decades in order to collect large-scale data of Internet users without their knowledge.”

  Reuters notes that “The United States is the world’s top cyber power in terms of intent and capability, according to Harvard University’s Belfer Center Cyber 2022 Power Index, followed by China, Russia, the United Kingdom and Australia.”

  Russian officials said the plot had been uncovered as part of a joint effort by FSB officers and those of the Federal Guards Service (FSO), a powerful agency that runs the Kremlin bodyguard and was also once the KGB’s Ninth Directorate.

  Officials in Russia, which Western spies say has constructed a very sophisticated domestic surveillance structure, have long questioned the security of U.S. technology. -Reuters

  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that all officials in the Putin government knew that gadgets such as iPhones were “absolutely transparent.”

  “Using them for official purposes is unacceptable and prohibited,” he said, adding that they were free to use iPhones for private communications.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 20:40

• California State Assembly Votes To Ban Driverless Trucks
  California State Assembly Votes To Ban Driverless Trucks

  By Alan Adler of FreightWaves,

  The California State Assembly voted Wednesday to ban driverless trucks from the state’s roadways, requiring a safety driver be present. If passed by the Senate, it would leave the state where most autonomous trucking companies are based as an outlier in adopting the technology.

  

  The 54-3 vote banning autonomous vehicles over 10,000 pounds from operating without a safety driver followed similar majority committee votes on Assembly Bill 316. The measure received support from the Teamsters and other labor groups. They claim driverless trucks would eliminate thousands of good-paying jobs for human drivers.

  “The public should not be treated as a lab rat for big corporations to test their technology. Californians deserve a safety-first approach. And this bill would do just that,” Randy Cammack, president of Teamsters Joint Council 42, said in March.

  California 2024 Senate candidates U.S. Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee have voiced support for the legislation. San Francisco Mayor London Breed also has expressed support.

  Autonomous vehicle industry wants governor’s support

  “AB 316 is a preemptive technology ban that will put California even further behind other states and lock in the devastating safety status quo on California’s roads, which saw more than 4,400 people die last year,” the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) said in a statement after the vote.

  “AB 316 undermines California’s law enforcement and safety officials as they seek to regulate and conduct oversight over life-saving autonomous trucks,” said Jeff Farrah, AVIA executive director. “We encourage Governor Newsom and the State Senate to reject AB 316 so Californians will benefit from the safety and supply chain benefits of autonomous trucks.”

  In an April 20 editorial, the Orange County Register said opposition to driverless trucking is “classic union featherbedding.”

  Dozens of autonomous trucking and technology founders, CEOs, and others wrote to Newsom in June 2022. California in late August released “Driving the Future: Autonomous Vehicles Strategic Framework Vision and Guiding Principles.”

  The nine-page document concludes that “AVs hold the promise to be an important part of our mobility future.” But its added that “they are just one part of a broader set of solutions.”

  The California Department of Motor Vehicles is considering the framework that could allow autonomous vehicles over 10,000 pounds to hit the road, without consent from the State Legislature.

  Self-driving trucking software companies Kodiak Robotics, Plus, Waymo and TuSimple are all based in California. But they only operate their trucks in the state with safety drivers. That is the current practice in other states. Several states have shown willingness to eventually allow the driver to be removed from the truck.

  TuSimple is aiming to commercialize a driverless route in Arizona between Tucson and Phoenix as soon as 2024. Pittsburgh-based Aurora is planning to run driverless trucks in Texas by the end of next year.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 20:20

• Phoenix Area Restricts Construction As Groundwater Evaporates
  Phoenix Area Restricts Construction As Groundwater Evaporates

  With a surge in population growth, soaring urban development, and, of course, desert conditions, it comes as no surprise the Phoenix metropolitan area could one day run out of groundwater. On Thursday, local authorities declared the state would no longer issue building permits for new developments across the metro area unless alternative water sources can be found. 

  Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said a newly released study of the Phoenix metropolitan area’s groundwater showed a potential shortage looms. To safeguard supplies, current developments that have been approved can be constructed, but ones that have yet to be approved will have to show alternate water sources. Developers must show state officials they have an alternative “assured water supply” for 100 years from non-local groundwater. 

  

  The study found that 4% of the metro area’s demand for groundwater, nearly 4.9 million acre-feet, cannot be met over the next century. If the projections are correct, a massive water shortage could be nearing and have widespread implications for the post-Covid development boom. 

  Thursday’s announcement is a sign the water-scarce metro area, situated in a desert, has limitations in terms of the number of homes it can support. 

  “It’s going to make it harder for developments to spring up on raw desert in the far-flung parts of town where developers like to develop,” Sarah Porter, the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy, told CNN. 

  The former Phoenix mayor, Terry Goddard, said the study indicates residents are “living on borrowed water.” He added:

  “You need to be conscious of every drop. You can’t build unless you know exactly where the water is coming from.”

  Last year, Arizona’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority began reviewing a proposal for a multibillion-dollar project to construct a water desalination plant in Mexico that would pump water through a 200-mile pipeline to the border state to counter its drought-driven water uncertainty.

  

  Instead of blaming climate change, Phoenix should remember they’re situated in the middle of the desert, and the explosive population growth in the last several years draws down on finite resources much quicker. If the metro area wants to continue to expand, it might have to consider the 200-mile pipeline from Mexico. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 20:00

• US Sent Billions in Funding to China, Russia For Cat Experiments, Wuhan Lab Research: Ernst
  US Sent Billions in Funding to China, Russia For Cat Experiments, Wuhan Lab Research: Ernst

  Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars went to recipients in China and Russia in recent years without being properly tracked by the federal government, including a grant that enabled a state-run Russian lab to test cats on treadmills, according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

  

  Ernst and her staff investigators, working with auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Research Service, as well as two nonprofit Washington watchdogs—Open The Books (OTB) and the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP)—discovered dozens of other grants that weren’t counted on the federal government’s USASpending.gov internet database.

  While the total value of the uncounted grants found by the Ernst team is $1.3 billion, that amount is just the tip of the iceberg, the GAO reported.

  Among the newly discovered grants is $4.2 million to China’s infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) “to conduct dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses and transgenic mice,” according to a May 31 Ernst statement provided to The Epoch Times.

  The $4.2 million exposed by Ernst is in addition to previously reported funding to the WIV for extensive gain-of-function research by Chinese scientists, much of it funded in whole or part prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by National Institutes for Health (NIH) grants channeled through the EcoHealth Alliance medical research nonprofit.

  The NIH has awarded seven grants totaling more than $4.1 million to EcoHealth to study various aspects of SARS, MERS, and other coronavirus diseases.

  Buying Chinese Puppy Parts

  As part of another U.S.-funded grant, hearts and other organs from 425 dogs in China were purchased for medical research.

  “These countryside dogs in China are part of the farmer’s household; they were mainly used for guarding. Their diet includes boiled rice, discarded raw food animal tissues, and whatever dogs can forage. These dogs were sold for food,” an NIH study uncovered by the Ernst researchers reads.

  Other previously unreported grants exposed by the Ernst team include $1.6 million to Chinese companies from the federal government’s National School Lunch Program and $4.7 million for health insurance from a Russian company that was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

  “It’s gravely concerning that Washington’s reckless spending has reached the point where nobody really knows where all tax dollars are going,” Ernst separately told The Epoch Times. “But I have the receipts, and I’m shining a light on this, so bureaucrats can no longer cover up their tracks, and taxpayers can know exactly what their hard-earned dollars are funding.”

  The problem is that federal officials don’t rigorously track sub-awards made by initial grant recipients, according to the Iowa Republican. Such sub-awards are covered by a multitude of federal regulations that stipulate many conditions to ensure that the tax dollars are appropriately spent.

  The GAO said in an April report that “limitations in sub-award data is a government-wide issue and not unique to U.S. funding to entities in China.”

  “GAO is currently examining the state of federal government-wide sub-award data as part of a separate review,” the report reads.

  

  The Eco-Health sub-awards to WIV illustrate the problem.

  “Despite being required by law to make these receipts available to the public on the USAspending.gov website, EcoHealth tried to cover its tracks by intentionally not disclosing the amounts of taxpayer money being paid to WIV, which went unnoticed for years,” Ernst said in the statement.

  “I was able to determine that more than $490 million of taxpayer money was paid to organizations in China [in] the last five years. That’s ten times more than GAO’s estimate! Over $870 million was paid to entities in Russia during the same period!

  “Together that adds up to more than $1.3 billion paid to our adversaries. But again, these numbers still do not represent the total dollar amounts paid to institutions in China or Russia since those numbers are not tracked and the information that is being collected is incomplete.”

  Adam Andrzejewski, founder and chairman of OTB, told The Epoch Times, “When following the money at the state and local level, the real corruption exists in the subcontractor payments. At the federal level, the existing system doesn’t even track many of those recipients.

  “Without better reporting, agencies and appropriators don’t truly understand how tax dollars were used. We now know that taxpayer dollars are traded further downstream than originally realized with third- and fourth-tier recipients. These transactions need scrutiny. Requiring recipients to account for where and how they actually spend each dollar creates a record far better than agencies are capable of generating.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 19:40

• Trove Of Nearly 10K Hunter Biden Laptop Photos, Docs Appear On Organized Website
  Trove Of Nearly 10K Hunter Biden Laptop Photos, Docs Appear On Organized Website

  Nearly 10,000 photos from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop were uploaded to a new website – BidenLaptopMedia.com, which has been intermittently unavailable since launch due to overwhelming traffic.

  

  The site, which took months to complete, is the brainchild of former Trump White House aide, Garrett Ziegler, who worked as an aide to economic adviser Peter Navarro.

  “It’s taken us a couple of months to, one, go through the photos, about 10,000 of them, and redact the genitalia on the photos,” said Ziegler, adding “The number one thing we’re about… is truth and transparency.”

  “If the American people want to know what their first family is like, they’re going to get it. And we’re not going to be taking out photos that paint the Bidens in a good light.”

  The site includes;

  Pictures (with location metadata)

  Emails

  Suspicious Activity Reports

  Influence peddling

  Ashley Biden’s diary

  And lots of personal details;

  

  According to Ziegler, several photos including private data were redacted, including those containing Social Security numbers, banking information and credit card numbers – as well as multiple nude photos of Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden.

  Of the many photos found on the laptop, Ziegler provided Fox News Digital with two never-before-seen photos from the laptop. One photo showed Hunter Biden cozied up to his then-lover Zoe Kestan in 2018. The other image — featuring an array of drugs and a condom wrapper sitting on a table — was from a text message conversation Hunter had with Hallie Biden — the widow of Beau Biden and former lover of Hunter Biden — the same year.

  Providing further insight on the type of content viewers can expect on the website, Ziegler said some content that does not carry “news value” will not be featured. –Fox News

  “There are, for example, screenshots of Candy Crush games where we are fairly confident in saying there’s absolutely no news value to those,” he said. “So it’s going to be, I would say, 98% of the photos on the device, around 10,000 in total, although it’ll be slightly less than that.”

  “It’s going to be a completely authentic recounting of the photos on the device,” he continued.

  Our servers for https://t.co/zQirhFz1PJ are under heavy stress and we are working to get it fully functional and secured. Incredible engagement already in the first couple hours. https://t.co/70HD65aFyL

  — Marco Polo (@MarcoPolo501c3) June 1, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 19:20

• Launch Of New Acela Trains Delayed By Three Years
  Launch Of New Acela Trains Delayed By Three Years

  By Trains.com

  Launch of service for Amtrak’s next-generation Acela trainsets has been pushed back into 2024, the Washington Post reports, as testing and computer simulations continue to find problems, most recently with the train’s wheelsets

  

  That means the new trains will enter service at least three years late, placing increasing pressure on the existing Acela fleet that dates to 2000. Trains News Wire has learned that four of the 20 first-generation Acela sets have been withdrawn from service. Two New York-Washington Acela round trips were dropped from the schedule as of May 8; an Amtrak spokesman said this was “due to a need to perform additional maintenance on Acela equipment.”

  Alstom, which is building the 28 new high-speed trainsets, said in a statement to the Post that “modeling of the wheel-to-track interface is particularly complex due to age, condition, and specific characteristics of Amtrak infrastructure on the Northeast Corridor, and especially the existing tracks.” The company said it has been “conducting extensive investigations” to ensure the trains will operate safely and is “confident that this extensive process will demonstrate compatibility of the latest generation of high-speed technology with existing [Amtrak] infrastructure.”

  Sources tell News Wire that the computer modeling designed to predict the trainsets’ operating characteristics and enable them to reach maximum speeds over 150 mph were confirmed on the test track at Pueblo, Colo., but could not be verified on some Northeast Corridor sections. Track quality has been upgraded on New Jersey tracks between Trenton and New Brunswick, and Amtrak already hosts legacy Acela trainsets at 150 mph over portions of right-of-way upgraded in the 1990s in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, but track quality varies widely elsewhere.

  Amtrak and Alstom announced a $2.45 billion deal to build the new equipment in 2016, with a 2021 target to begin service [see “Amtrak, Alstom reach $2.45 billion deal,” News Wire, Aug. 26, 2016]. But modifications to the trains’ catenary systems — which would lose contact with the catenary wire at top speed — pushed the debut back [see “News report says debut of new Acelas will be delayed by a year,” News Wire, June 3, 2021]. A delay to 2023 was attributed to further testing and modifications [see “Alstom explains latest delay …,” News Wire, April 8, 2022].

  Amtrak told the Post last week that “further refinement of analysis, simulations and testing” are needed. Alstom said it has delivered six trainsets to the passenger operator and is preparing to deliver the seventh.

  “We want our customers to experience these new trains as soon as possible, but Amtrak cannot operate them for passenger service until Alstom has completed testing and meets all safety requirements,” Amtrak said in a statement to the Post.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 19:00

• US Asks Japan To Sell TNT For Ukraine Artillery Shells
  US Asks Japan To Sell TNT For Ukraine Artillery Shells

  In a drive to reinforce Ukraine’s arsenal ahead of a long-anticipated counteroffensive against Russia, the US government is working to buy explosive material from Japan for use in 155mm artillery shells, Reuters reported Thursday night. 

  The request is a test of Japan’s post-World War II philosophy against militarism, as well as the country’s specific restrictions on arms exports. Nonetheless, the Japanese government has assured US representatives the deal will get done. 

  

  “There is a way for the United States to buy explosives from Japan,” an unnamed person with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters. The sale of industrial TNT will clear export hurdles thanks to the fact that it’s considered a “dual-use” product, that isn’t explicitly military in nature — as opposed to, for example, an assembled artillery shell.

  At the same time, Japan’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Economy said its export rules require an assessment of the buyer’s intent for the product, including whether the intended use would undermine international security.  

  Artillery has figured heavily in the Ukraine war, with both sides firing several thousand rounds every day, and manufacturers scrambling to the guns firing. In December, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the US weapons industry would ramp up 155mm artillery shell production from 14,000 rounds per month to 20,000 in this spring and 40,000 by 2025. 

  News of a Japanese TNT deal comes on the heels of Secretary of Defense LLoyd Austin’s visit to Japan this week. If the deal closes, the explosives will be used by American ammunition manufacturers.  

  

  Echoing the sentiments of Western hawks, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has previously warned that a Russian triumph in Ukraine could encourage a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Japan has furnished nonlethal aid to Ukraine, including rations, helmets and flak jackets, and in April committed to supplying trucks.  

  With the pending TNT deal, Japan is putting its toes on the line of non-militarism. The move is bound to cause controversy. “The fact that Japan has decided to give trucks to Ukraine shows that things are changing. However, there doesn’t yet appear to be any political consensus around the issue of sending lethal aid,” the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Tsuneo Watanabe told Reuters. 

  In December, Japan announced its biggest military build-up since World War II. The $320 billion shopping list includes missiles with sufficient range to hit targets in China. Kishida and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have also made clear their desire to relax export restrictions or eliminate them altogether.  

  While the proposed Japanese TNT supplier hasn’t been identified, a Reuters review of the country’s manufacturers points to closely-held, Chugoku Kayaku as the most likely firm. In a darkly ironic twist, the company that may advance Japan’s departure from the principles of peace is headquartered in Hiroshima. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 18:40

• Fed Engages In Shocking Seasonal Adjustments To Convert $28BN Bank Deposit Outflow Into $102BN Inflow
  Fed Engages In Shocking Seasonal Adjustments To Convert $28BN Bank Deposit Outflow Into $102BN Inflow

  Tl; dr: The Fed reportts that domestic (large and small) commercial banks saw NSA flows of -$28.4 billion, while SA flows were +$102.5 billion!

  

  As if it needs to be said, non-seasonally-adjusted deposit flows are ‘actual flows’? And why do we care about ‘seasonally-adjusted’ deposits – they aren’t real assets?

  For some more context, the deposit delta (between real outflows and SA outflows) since March 1 is now $150BN+

  

  It seems The Fed is using the ‘fog of banking crisis war’ – knowing this data drops late on a Friday night – to pull the wool over depositors and investors eyes.

  hi @NickTimiraos last week you pointed out the divergence between seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted commercial bank deposit data. Will you do so this week again? pic.twitter.com/aLSYpwv060

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 2, 2023

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  *  *  *

  Following yesterday’s ugly money-market fund (accelerating inflows) and Fed balance sheet (another jump to a record usage of the Fed’s Bank Term Funding Program emergency bailout cash), expectations are that bank deposits continued to leave US commercial banks (despite last week’s unexpected rise in deposits and loans by small bank to real estate borrowers – hhmm).

  Regional bank shares have risen for three straight weeks – but the context for where they are is key…

  

  And if you wondered what’s driving that – take a look at bank exec’s insider buying (hint).

  And if everything’s so awesome, why are banks still using The Fed’s emergency bank bailout facilities so much?

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And so, according to the latest H8 report from The Fed, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, total US Commercial Bank deposits (including large time deposits) increased by $86.5 billion during the week ended 5/24…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  That is the biggest (seasonally adjusted) weekly inflow since June 2021 (and $116 billion of deposit inflows in 2 weeks).

  One can’t help but wonder if this giant surge is ‘seasonal-only’ given the timing of the prior jump.

  And this inflow occurred as money-market fund inflows hit a new record high (note that deposit data is one-week lagged to MM flows). So where is all this ‘cash’ coming from..

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Under the hood, Large Banks saw a massive $85.6 billion seasonally-adjusted inflow (biggest weekly inflow since May 2020) as Foreign Banks saw outflows (-$159 billion) which were offset by $16.9 billion in inflows to Small Banks…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  So – money flowed into bank deposits, money-market funds, and tech stocks…

  

  Sure!

  On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, all bank cohorts saw OUTFLOWS

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Here’s the direct comparison of real NSA flows and ‘fake’ SA flows…

  

  On the other side of the ledger, despite MASSIVE INFLOWS, large banks pulled back on credit extension (loans -$4.405 billion) while Small bank loans rose 7.9 billion…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  As we noted last week, despite this ‘fake’ inflow data, this is far from over as former Dallas Fed head Robert Kaplan dropped some uncomfortable truth bombs on the US banking system:

  Phase one was an asset/liability mismatch at several banks

  Phase two began with the stock market deciding to do its own supervisory scrubbing

  We are now heading into the third phase.

  Bank leadership at small and midsize banks are considering how to shrink their loan books in order to address the mark-to-market loss of capital, as well as to guard against potential deposit instability in the future.

  Bank leadership is very aware that the economy is slowing, and that we are likely about to enter a challenging credit environment.

  While asset/liability mismatches are relatively easy to spot, assessing the quality of loan portfolios is much more complicated.

  CEOs of many small and midsize banks are in a tough position.

  They can’t easily raise equity because their stock prices are down.

  As a result, they are turning to shrinking their loan books, finding places to pull back on existing loans and future loan commitments.

  This is making it much harder for small and midsize businesses to get and keep their bank loans.

  It is a quiet phase that won’t make headlines but is nevertheless relentlessly going on beneath the surface.

  Read the full interview here…

  Free to speak his mind, Kaplan concludes rather ominously, “the recent banking turmoil has highlighted the disparity between too-big-to-fail banks and smaller and midsize banks. I worry that increasing the Fed funds rate from here may create further strains on the deposit base for those smaller banks. I’m concerned that, as the Fed raises rates, it is tightening the vice on small and midsize banks and the small and midsize businesses that rely on those banks for funding.”

  So, believe what you want America – did deposits soar last week or did they continue their trend of outflows (as evidenced by money-market fund inflows)?

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And finally, the piece de resistance of Fed fuckery – for domestic (large and small) commercial banks, NSA (actual) flows were -$28.4 billion, while SA (magic) flows were +$102.5 billion!

  

  Are non-seasonally-adjusted deposit flows ‘actual flows’? And why do we care about ‘seasonally-adjusted’ deposits – they aren’t real assets?

  For some more context, the deposit delta (between real outflows and SA outflows) since March 1 is now $150BN+

  

  It seems The Fed is using the ‘fog of banking crisis war’ – knowing this data drops late on a Friday night – to pull the wool over depositors and investors eyes.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 18:40

• Judge Considers Tossing Clinton Foundation Whistleblower Case After Durham Report Revelations
  Judge Considers Tossing Clinton Foundation Whistleblower Case After Durham Report Revelations

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

  A federal judge is weighing whether to throw out a case against the IRS that alleges the Clinton Foundation violated federal law and should have its tax-exempt status revoked.

  

  U.S. Tax Court Judge David Gustafson on May 30 asked the government and experts who brought a whistleblower claim to the IRS based on a years-long investigation of the foundation to submit additional filings in light of recent developments in other cases.

  Rulings in those cases “may affect the parties’ positions as to the pending motions,” Gustafson wrote in a brief order (pdf), which was first reported by Just the News. “We will order further filings so that the parties may address those recent opinions,” he added.

  Those opinions include an appeals court ruling (pdf) in favor of the government in a case brought by a whistleblower who offered what he said was evidence a company was not paying enough taxes.

  John Moynihan, a former federal agent, and Lawrence Doyle, a tax expert, brought evidence to the IRS in 2017 that they say shows the Clinton Foundation violated U.S. law by acting as a foreign agent without registering as one.

  The IRS denied the claims after interviewing one of the people cited and determining the evidence “was not credible” due to the person’s denials. An appeal of the determination was turned down, prompting Moynihan and Doyle to take the matter to U.S. Tax Court.

  The government tried convincing Gustafson to toss the case, but in a 2020 ruling, he rejected the bid, finding that the IRS’s whistleblower’s office had “abused its discretion” by making unsupported statements in its determination.

  A new motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction was lodged in 2022 and is currently under consideration. The motion and an opposition filing from Moynihan and Doyle were not available on the court docket.

  In addition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit opinion in Villa-Arce v. Commissioner, Gustafson referenced two other rulings:

  • A ruling (pdf) by the same court found that the tax court had jurisdiction to consider a whistleblower claim but that the court correctly threw out a case brought by a whistleblower.
  • A ruling (pdf) by the tax court found that the IRS appeared to correctly deny a whistleblower award to a man who was interviewed during an investigation.

  Moynihan and Doyle did not return requests for comment. The IRS and the U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to inquiries.

  Earlier Testimony

  Appearing before Congress in 2018, Moynihan and Doyle said they uncovered evidence indicating the Clinton Foundation violated the law.

  “The foundation began acting as an agent of foreign governments throughout its life and continues to do so. As such, they should have registered under FARA,” or the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Doyle said.

  The foundation also intentionally misused funds from donors, Moynihan said.

  “The investigation clearly demonstrates the foundation was not a charitable organization, per se, but, point of fact, was a closely held family partnership. As such, it was governed in a fashion in which it sought in large measure to advance the personal interests of its principals,” he said.

  The violations mean the foundation should no longer be entitled to its tax-exempt privileges, the experts said.

  The Clinton Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson told The Hill when the claim was first sent to the IRS that the foundation has been “subjected to outrageous, politically motivated allegations that have been proven false time and time again.”

  WikiLeaks

  Files obtained and published by WikiLeaks revealed that the foundation was audited multiple times.

  One of the auditor reports said the foundation was “missing several policies/procedures that are required by law” and that “there is no established mechanism for catching problems and mistakes.”

  Another (pdf) said that some employees were unaware of policies on conflicts of interest and outside employment and recommended implementing “a clear gift acceptance policy and procedures to ensure that all donors are properly vetted.”

  Former President Bill Clinton’s top aide, Douglas Band, wrote in one email that the ex-president received income and “many expensive gifts” from some of the foundation’s donors. Some of the foundation’s employees told auditors that donors “may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for [a] gift.”

  Recent Developments

  The new order came after special counsel John Durham’s report revealed that FBI agents launched three probes ahead of the 2016 election into the Clinton Foundation, acting on allegations the foundation had carried out criminal activities.

  Top officials tried to shut down the probes but relented after receiving pushback. They still ordered agents to get approval before taking any overt investigative steps.

  The investigations were ultimately consolidated in Arkansas and ended after U.S. prosecutors there declined to file charges, according to another set of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

  The Department of Justice declined to comment on the revelations.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 18:20

• Failing Forward: Recalled San Francisco DA Lands At Berkeley Law, While Lori Lightfoot Brings 'Big D*ck' To Harvard
  Failing Forward: Recalled San Francisco DA Lands At Berkeley Law, While Lori Lightfoot Brings ‘Big D*ck’ To Harvard

  After failing so hard as San Francisco district attorney that a Democrat-led coalition of residents led a recall effort, Chesa Boudin, the soft-on-crime former ‘Soros DA’ has landed on his feet at UC Berkeley, where he’ll lead the college’s new Criminal Law & Justice Center.

  

  “A lifetime of visiting my biological parents in prison and my work as a public defender and district attorney have made clear that our system fails to keep communities safe and fails to treat them equitably,” Boudin – the child of two cop-killing communists, said regarding the announcement.

  Boudin’s adopted father, Bill Ayers, is an Obama family friend and an admitted terrorist who only regretted ‘not planting enough bombs.‘ Ayers’ Weather Underground group took credit for 25 bombings – including at the US Capitol, the Pentagon, the US State Department, the CA Attorney General’s office and a NYC police station, in an attempt to overthrow the US government.

  Boudin has also been accused of botching a response to hate crimes against Asians.

  And in today’s second case of failing forward – disgraced Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D), who once bragged about having the “biggest dick” in the city, has landed a teaching gig at Harvard less than a month after leaving office.

  

  According to Fox News, “Beginning this fall, Lightfoot will teach a course at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health tentatively titled “Health Policy and Leadership,” according to an announcement from the school.”

  The Menschel program, according to the school, “offers a rare opportunity for those who have recently served in top-level positions in government, multilateral institutions, nonprofit organizations and journalism to spend time at the school mentoring and teaching students who aspire to similar roles. Lightfoot will hold regular office hours to meet with students, faculty and staff during her time on campus.” -Fox News

  “As mayor, she showed strong leadership in advocating for health, equity, and dignity for every resident of Chicago, from her declaration of structural racism as a public health crisis to her innovative initiative to bring mental health services to libraries and shelters. And of course, she led the city through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michelle A. Williams, dean of faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, according to CBS News.

  I’ve always loved teaching, and the opportunity to get back to it is something I am excited about. Looking forward to sharing the experiences and perceptions I learned governing through one of the most challenging times in American history with the @HarvardChanSPH community! https://t.co/yepEhBn2IO

  — Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) June 1, 2023

  This is what parents are getting for $55,000 per year?

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 18:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• These Are The Most 'Over-Touristed' Cities In Europe
  These Are The Most ‘Over-Touristed’ Cities In Europe

  With the travel industry having bounced back in full force after the peak Covid-19 pandemic years, residents of favorite city-break locations are feeling the impacts of overtourism.

  

  As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, the picturesque town of Hallstatt in Austria is one such place, having captured headlines in recent weeks after the local government put up barriers to stop tourists from taking selfies and introduced daily limits on the number of buses and cars.

  

  The following chart gives an idea of just how busy some of Europe’s most popular cities can be, using annual tourism figures from 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year) to calculate an estimation of the number of vacationers to local residents.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Dubrovnik, Croatia comes first on the list with 36 tourists for every local resident. According to Holidu, the vacation home rental agency that created the ranking, the city is particularly popular in July and August. Dubrovnik, like many of the cities ranking high on the list, has a small population. That is in comparison to cities such as London, which ranks 29th out of the 35 cities analyzed, which has a population of nearly 9 million people.

  Tied in second place comes the Italian city of Venice, the Belgian city of Bruges and the Greek city of Rhodes, all with 21 tourists per inhabitant. In Venice, overtourism has been largely attributed to cruise ships in recent years, leading to the authorities eventually banning the liners from coming into the city center as of August 2021. The final two cities to round off the top 10 are Dublin, Ireland with 11 tourists per inhabitant and Tallinn, Estonia with 10 toursis per inhabitant.

  Holidu drew a shortlist of 35 cities based on The Savvy Backpacker and Air Mundo’s most visited cities lists.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 02:45

• "Migrants Will Soon Be The Powerful" – German Broadsheet Causes Uproar With Immigration Article
  “Migrants Will Soon Be The Powerful” – German Broadsheet Causes Uproar With Immigration Article

  Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

  Die Zeit deleted the social media post linking to the article after a number of users expressed their outrage at the rhetoric, although many others praised the publication…

  

  The German broadsheet Die Zeit has caused a storm on social media after publishing an article in which it claims Germany will soon be “a country in which migrants will no longer be a minority.”

  Die Zeit, the Hamburg-based newspaper widely considered to be a more highbrow read than the tabloids, posted the article highlighting Germany’s irreparable demographic change to its socials on Tuesday with the caption:

  Integration was yesterday: Germany is the second-largest immigration country in the world, and the original Germans are likely to become a numerical minority among many in the foreseeable future. And now?

  The accompanying photo showed a group of four young immigrants in a top-down flash convertible smiling at the camera with the headline: “They will be the powerful.”

  

  The article recounted a time when there used to be a “familiar homeland” before “the others” came, explaining that Germany used to have just 500,000 foreign nationals residing in the Federal Republic and the country “belonged to the Germans.”

  You knew the neighbors. One understood what they said, what they believed, what they served up in the evening. There was peace. The economy grew miraculously.

  Despite the article portraying a more peaceful era before mass immigration, the article itself is not anti-immigrant. It later attempts to persuade the reader to consider that Germany has almost always been a country of immigration, citing the Prussians who imported foreign workers — despite nearly all of these workers being European and Christian.

  The article also claimed that Germany is “now safer than ever.” Despite statistics showing crime falling overall over the last decade, murders and gang rapes are increasing, and a disproportionate share of them are committed by Germany’s foreign population. In fact, gang rapes reached a record high in 2022, with half of the suspects being foreigners.

  However, the article’s posting on social media caused a stir across the German political landscape as campaigners on both sides of the immigration debate commented on the story.

  “Please what?” Green MEP Erik Marquardt wrote on Twitter in response to the Die Zeit post.

  The social media post was later deleted and replaced with a new photo, depicting two white females and the caption, “In recent years, Germany has become the world’s second-largest immigration country without really wanting to admit it.”

  Integration war gestern: Deutschland ist das zweitgrößte Einwanderungsland der Welt und die Deutschen dürften auf absehbare Zeit zu einer numerischen Minderheit unter vielen werden. Und nun? Ein Essay von @_vanessavu https://t.co/wL2MxBeab9 pic.twitter.com/zz4XM3gHjY

  — DIE ZEIT (@DIEZEIT) May 30, 2023

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

  “This teaser is almost even worse than the old one,” commented Marius Mestermann, a journalist with Der Spiegel, a sentiment shared by a number of other self-proclaimed liberals.

  Others, however, praised the publication for drawing attention to the demographic changes in the country, an indisputable fact materialized through record levels of mass immigration under years of liberal governance.

  This trend shows no signs of slowing down, with the German government prepared to spend €36 billion on its open borders policies this year, despite growing resentment among the electorate. This public resistance is evidenced by a rise in support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

  Germany continues to experience record population growth, with nearly 1.5 million migrants arriving in 2022, and 163,000 new arrivals in the first three months of 2023.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/02/2023 – 02:00

• Senate Rubber Stamps Debt Ceiling Band-Aid; Biden To Sign Into Law 'As Soon As Possible'
  Senate Rubber Stamps Debt Ceiling Band-Aid; Biden To Sign Into Law ‘As Soon As Possible’

  As expected, Chuck Schumer’s Senate was a lock for approving the deal to raise the debt ceiling, which will be suspended until January 1, 2025 while spending will remain ‘roughly flat’ for the same period of time “when factoring in agreed upon appropriations adjustments” (oh?), and virtually none of what actual conservatives wanted came to pass.

  

  The 63-36 bipartisan vote means that the legislation will now go to President Joe Biden’s desk – who ‘looks forward to signing the bill into law as soon as possible,’ according to a White House statement.

  The Fiscal Responsibility Act suspends the debt ceiling until just after the 2024 elections, in exchange for a 3% cap on increases in military spending, and cuts to undetermined domestic programs. It will leave Medicare and Social Security intact.

  The deal largely protects Biden’s legislative achievements of last year, with Republicans having little success in using the debt ceiling to dismantle his climate, tax and health law, the Inflation Reduction Act. But it also allows Republicans to point to spending cuts, given that spending caps are enforceable for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, and the party succeeded in clawing back some funding for the Internal Revenue Service and unspent Covid-19 money. WSJ

  Passage of the bill averts a technical default, which was slated to happen as soon as June 5, when the Treasury department warned that the government would run out of money to pay its bills.

  

  “America can breathe a sigh of relief, because in this process, we are avoiding default,” said Schumer (D-NY) in announcing the planned vote. “The consequences of default would be catastrophic. It would almost certainly cause another recession. It would be a nightmare for our economy and millions of American families.”

  As the Wall Street Journal reports;

  The bill’s passage closed out a relatively smooth final chapter in Congress’s efforts to tackle the debt ceiling after months of finger-pointing. Democrats accused Republicans of irresponsibly using the prospect of default to extort concessions, while Republicans countered that the nation’s growing debt called for decisive action, while also ruling out new taxes proposed by Biden.

  The Treasury Department said in January that the nation had bumped up against the debt limit and started using extraordinary measures to keep the government solvent. Biden initially vowed that he wouldn’t negotiate on the debt ceiling, insisting that it be raised with no conditions attached. But talks between McCarthy, a California Republican, and the Democratic president kicked off in earnest last month, after House Republicans surprised many Democrats by staying largely united to pass a bill proposing deep spending cuts and rolling back parts of Biden’s climate and tax agenda. -WSJ

  Passage by the Senate came less than 24 hours after the House finally approved the measure after weeks of negotiations which left conservatives livid over the fact that they got completely schooled out of meaningful spending cuts and other demands.

  

  Under an agreement which allowed the Senate to fast-track the vote, the Senate agreed to entertain 11 amendments – all of which were rejected, as any of them would have required the legislation to be sent back to the House – which has already left town, for a re-vote.

  More via Reuters;

  Getting it through the Senate Thursday night took hours of negotiations between the two parties, with independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema shuttling in designer sneakers between Republicans lunching on the second floor of the Capitol and Democrats on and off the Senate floor.

  Ultimately, they settled on allowing uncharacteristically speedy votes on 11 amendments — all of which failed — and a pair of statements from Schumer aimed at soothing concerns about defense spending levels and other potential cuts.

  Schumer made it clear that the Senate could bypass the spending caps in the bill for Ukraine, defense and domestic priorities using emergency funding, though the Rpublican-controlled House would have to concur. 

  “I am pleased that, under President Biden’s leadership, Congress has passed bipartisan legislation to suspend the debt limit and prevent a first-ever default by the United States,” reads a Thursday night statement from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “This legislation protects the full faith and credit of the United States and preserves our financial leadership, which is critical to our economic growth and stability.”

  “A default would have caused severe hardship for American families, potentially leading to the loss of millions of jobs and trillions in household wealth, and higher financing costs for American taxpayers for years to come. The bipartisan agreement also protects against efforts to roll back the President’s core economic agenda – one that has contributed to a historically strong and resilient economic recovery. Congress has a duty to ensure that the United States can pay its bills on time, and I continue to strongly believe that the full faith and credit of the United States must never be used as a bargaining chip.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 23:48

• Escobar: The Sultan 2.0 Will Heavily Tilt East
  Escobar: The Sultan 2.0 Will Heavily Tilt East

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

  It’s not that Erdogan has a scheme to head east at the west’s expense. It’s just that the world’s grandest infrastructure, development, and geopolitical projects are all in the east today…

  

  The collective west was dying to bury him – yet another strategic mistake that did not take into account the mood of Turkish voters in deep Anatolia.

  In the end, Recep Tayyip Erdogan did it – again. Against all his shortcomings, like an aging neo-Ottoman Sinatra, he did it “my way,” comfortably retaining Turkiye’s presidency after naysayers had all but buried him.

  The first order of geopolitical priority is who will be named Minister of Foreign Affairs. The prime candidate is Ibrahim Kalin – the current all-powerful Erdogan press secretary cum top adviser.

  Compared to incumbent Cavusoglu, Kalin, in theory, may be qualified as more pro-west. Yet it’s the Sultan who calls the shots. It will be fascinating to watch how Turkiye under Erdogan 2.0 will navigate the strengthening of ties with West Asia and the accelerating process of Eurasia integration.

  The first immediate priority, from Erdogan’s point of view, is to get rid of the “terrorist corridor” in Syria. This means, in practice, reigning in the US-backed Kurdish YPG/PYD, who are effectively Syrian affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – which is also the issue at the heart of a possible normalization of relations with Damascus.

  Now that Syria has been enthusiastically welcomed back to the Arab League after a 12-year freeze, a Moscow-brokered entente between the Turkish and Syrian presidents, already in progress, may represent the ultimate win-win for Erdogan: allowing control of Kurds in north Syria while facilitating the repatriation of roughly 4 million refugees (tens of thousands will stay, as a source of cheap labor).

  The Sultan is at his prime when it comes to hedging his bets between east and west. He knows well how to profit from Turkiye’s status as a key NATO member – complete with one of its largest armies, veto power, and control of the entry to the uber-strategic Black Sea.

  And all that while exercising real foreign policy independence, from West Asia to the Eastern Mediterranean.

  So expect Erdogan 2.0 to remain an inextinguishable source of irritation for the neocons and neoliberals in charge of US foreign policy, along with their EU vassals, who will never refrain from trying to subdue Ankara to fight the Russia-China-Iran Eurasia integration entente. The Sultan, though, knows how to play this game beautifully.

  How to manage Russia and China

  Whatever happens next, Erdogan will not hop on board the sanctions-against-Russia sinking ship. The Kremlin bought Turkish bonds tied to the development of the Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Turkiye’s first nuclear reactor. Moscow allowed Ankara to postpone nearly $4 billion in energy payments until 2024. Best of all, Ankara pays for Russian gas in rubles.

  So an array of deals related to the supply of Russian energy trump possible secondary sanctions that might target the steady rise in Turkiye’s exports. Still, it’s a given the US will revert to its one and only “diplomatic” policy – sanctions. The 2018 sanctions did push Turkiye into recession after all.

  But Erdogan can easily count on popular support across the Turkish realm. Early this year, a Gezici poll revealed that 72.8 percent of Turkish citizens privilege good relations with Russia while nearly 90 percent rate the US as a “hostile” nation. That’s what allows Interior Minister Soylu to remark, bluntly, “we will wipe out whoever is causing trouble, including American troops.”

  China-Turkiye strategic cooperation falls under what Erdogan defines as “turning to the East” – and is mostly about China’s multi-continent infrastructure behemoth, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Turk Silk Road branch of the BRI focuses on what Beijing defines as the “Middle Corridor,” a prime cost-effective/secure trade route that connects Asia to Europe.

  The driver is the China Railway Express, which turned the Middle Corridor arguably into BRI’s backbone. For instance, electronics parts and an array of household items routinely arriving via cargo planes from Osaka, Japan are loaded onto freight trains going to Duisburg and Hamburg in Germany, via the China Railway Express departing from Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Changsha – and crossing from Xinjiang to Kazakhstan and beyond via the Alataw Pass. Shipments from Chongqing to Germany take a maximum of 13 days.

  It’s no wonder that nearly 10 years ago, when he first unveiled his ambitious, multi-trillion dollar BRI in Astana, Kazakhstan, Chinese President Xi Jinping placed the China Railway Express as a core BRI component.

  Direct freight trains from Xian to Istanbul are plying the route since December 2020, using the Baku-Tblisi-Kars (BTK) railway with less than two weeks travel time – and plans afoot to increase their frequency. Beijing is well aware of Turkiye’s asset as a transportation hub and crossroads for markets in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, West Asia, and North Africa, not to mention a customs union with the EU that allows direct access to European markets.

  Moreover, Baku’s victory in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war came with a ceasefire deal bonus: the Zangezur corridor, which will eventually facilitate Turkiye’s direct access to neighbors from the  Caucasus to Central Asia.

  A pan-Turkic offensive?

  And here we enter a fascinating territory: the possible incoming interpolations between the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BRICS+ – and all that also linked to a boost in Saudi and Emirati investments in the Turkish economy.

  Sultan 2.0 wants to become a full member of both the Chinese-led SCO and multipolar BRICS+.

  This means a much closer entente with the Russia-China strategic partnership as well as with the Arab powerhouses, which are also hopping on the BRICS+ high-speed train.

  Erdogan 2.0 is already focusing on two key players in Central Asia and South Asia: Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Both happen to be SCO members.

  Ankara and Islamabad are very much in sync. They express the same judgment on the extremely delicate Kashmir question, and both backed Azerbaijan against Armenia.

  But the key developments may lie in Central Asia. Ankara and Tashkent have a strategic defense agreement – including intel sharing and logistics cooperation.

  The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), with a HQ in Istanbul, is the prime energizer of pan-Turkism or pan-Turanism. Turkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan are full members, with Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Hungary, and Ukraine cultivated as observers. The Turk-Azeri relationship is billed as “one nation, two states” in pan-Turkic terms.

  The basic idea is a still hazy “cooperation platform” between Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. Yet some serious proposals have already been floated. The OTS summit in Samarkand late last year advanced the idea of a TURANCEZ free trade bloc, comprising Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and as observers, Hungary (representing the EU) and Northern Cyprus.

  Meanwhile, hard business prevails. To fully profit from the status of the energy transit hub, Turkiye needs not only Russian gas but also gas from Turkmenistan feeding the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) as well as Kazakh oil coming via the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

  The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is heavy on economic cooperation, active in a series of projects in transportation, construction, mining, and oil and gas. Ankara has already invested a whopping $85 billion across Central Asia, with nearly 4,000 companies scattered across all the “stans.”

  Of course, when compared to Russia and China, Turkiye is not a major player in Central Asia. Moreover, the bridge to Central Asia goes via Iran. So far, rivalry between Ankara and Tehran seems to be the norm, but everything may change, lightning fast, with the simultaneous development of the Russia-Iran-India-led International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), which will profit both – and the fact that the Iranians and Turks may soon become full BRICS+ members.

  Sultan 2.0 is bound to boost investment in Central Asia as a new geoeconomic frontier. That in itself encapsulates the possibility of Turkiye soon joining the SCO.

  We will then have a “turning to the East” in full effect, in parallel to closer ties with the Russia-China strategic partnership. Take note that Turkiye’s ties with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan are also strategic partnerships.

  Not bad for a neo-Ottoman who, until a few days ago, was dismissed as a has-been.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 23:40

• How The FBI Lost, Found, And Rewarded The Alleged Russian Spy Pivotal To Surveilling Trump
  How The FBI Lost, Found, And Rewarded The Alleged Russian Spy Pivotal To Surveilling Trump

  Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClear Wire,

  

  Twelve years ago, FBI agents in Baltimore sought to wiretap former Brookings Institution analyst Igor Danchenko on suspicions he was spying for Russia. But the counterintelligence analyst they were assigned to work with Brian Auten told them he could not find their target and assumed the Russian national had fled back to Moscow. 

  But Danchenko had not left the U.S., court documents show. He was living in the Washington area. In fact, he had been arrested in Maryland in 2013 by federal Park Police for being drunk and disorderly, something the FBI analyst could have easily discovered by searching federal law enforcement databases. Clueless, the FBI closed its espionage case on Danchenko. 
   
  Auten would quickly rise to become the FBI’s top Russian analyst. In 2016 and 2017, he failed to properly vet the Steele dossier, a collection of salacious allegations created for Hillary Clinton’s campaign which sought to tie Donald Trump to the Kremlin, before clearing it as the central piece of evidence used by the FBI to obtain warrants to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

  Working out of headquarters as a supervisor, Auten knew Danchenko helped Christopher Steele compile the dossier while living in the area. But instead of contacting the Baltimore agents, Auten secretly groomed him as an informant, arranging payments of $220,000 to target Donald Trump and his former aide Page.  

  One result: Danchenko, the suspected Russian spy, falsely accused Page, a former U.S. Navy office who had previously helped the FBI, of being a Russian spy in the dossier. 

  

  Auten also never informed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about the FBI’s longstanding concerns about Danchenko.  

  Like the Baltimore agents, investigators at FBI headquarters relied on Auten to build their counterintelligence cases on Page and three other Trump advisers. Auten provided the reports and memos they used to establish probable cause in each case. Auten also supported investigators working on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. 
   
  Auten’s conduct was first singled out for rebuke by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who in 2019 issued a report detailing how Auten cut corners in the dossier verification process. Horowitz referred Auten to the FBI for discipline, which does not appear to have been administered.

  His earlier and deeper connections to Danchenko have only been more recently revealed in the report issued by Special Counsel John Durham. His findings suggest that if Auten had done his job over a decade ago, chances are the now-discredited dossier never would have been created and used by the FBI to eavesdrop on Page and help launch the Russiagate probe. It’s likely that Danchenko, the main source of the dossier’s allegations, would have been deported years earlier and flagged in the system, according to the recently released Durham Report. 

  The embattled analyst was recommended for suspension from the bureau last year, and his case has been under disciplinary review for several months. Contacted by RealClearInvestigations, an FBI spokeswoman declined to say if Auten has been suspended. “In keeping with our usual practice,” she said, “we have no comment on personnel matters.” 

  According to the Durham Report, Danchenko came onto the radar of agents working out of the Baltimore field office in 2010 after two former Brookings colleagues entering the government told the FBI that he had solicited classified information.  

  The agents subsequently opened an espionage case after discovering Danchenko had previous contacts with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers.  
   
  “In particular, the FBI learned that in September 2006, Danchenko informed one Russian intelligence officer that he had an interest in entering the Russian diplomatic service,” the report stated. “Four days later, the intelligence officer contacted Danchenko and informed him that they could meet that day to work ‘on the documents and then think about future plans.’” 
   
  The next month, Danchenko contacted the intelligence officer “so the documents can be placed in [the following day’s] diplomatic mail pouch,” according to the report. 
   
  In addition, Danchenko had been identified as an associate of two other espionage suspects, Durham learned from a review of his case file. 

  In July 2010, the FBI initiated a request to obtain a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Danchenko. Auten helped research Danchenko and provided information for wiretap applications. However, the investigation was soon closed after the FBI incorrectly concluded Danchenko had left the country in September 2010. Danchenko and his wife continued to reside openly in the Washington area. 

  But the probe wasn’t completely dead. In 2012, Auten exchanged emails with one of the Baltimore agents in which they speculated whether Danchenko had actually left the country. Then in 2013, the U.S. Park Police arrested Danchenko in Greenbelt, Md., on drunk-and-disorderly charges, court records first obtained by RCI show.  
   
  Danchenko’s case was visible in the federal law enforcement database and prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, who years later, as acting attorney general, would sign one of the 2017 applications to renew a wiretap targeting Page and authorize an expansion of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. 
   
  The Russian-born Danchenko, who was living in the U.S. on a work visa, was released from jail on the condition he undergo drug testing and “participate in a program of substance abuse therapy and counseling,” as well as “mental health counseling,” the records show. His lawyer asked the court to postpone his trial and let him travel to Moscow “as a condition of his employment.” The Russian trips were granted without objection from Rosenstein. Danchenko ended up several months later entering into a plea agreement and paying fines. 
   
  Despite the flurry of legal records generated on Danchenko in the federal system, it is not clear why the FBI failed to take note of his presence in the country. What the record does show is that the bureau did not reopen the espionage case against him. 
   
  Danchenko reappeared on Auten’s radar in late 2016 as he and the FBI were using the Steele dossier he helped create on Trump to seek warrants to spy on Page. 

  Auten identified his old espionage target in December 2016 as the “primary subsource” of the document. Instead of wiretapping Danchenko, the FBI recruited him as an informant and paid him $220,000 to help the bureau continue wiretapping the former Trump aide. FBI headquarters proposed paying Danchenko an additional $300,000 even as Durham was actively investigating him as the “linchpin to the uncorroborated allegations contained in the Steele Reports.” After asking officials at FBI headquarters about the bureau’s relationship with Danchenko, Durham determined that they were unable to justify keeping him open as a confidential source, “much less making hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to him.” 
   
  After examining FBI documents, Durham discovered that Auten interviewed Danchenko over three days in January 2017 as part of a plan to recruit him as a paid informant, despite the unresolved counterespionage investigation. Working with then-DOJ official David Laufman, the FBI offered immunity from prosecution to the longtime spy suspect and invited his lawyer to sit with him during the interviews. 

  “If this recruitment was successful, the FBI planned to mine Danchenko for information that was corroborative of the damaging allegations about President-elect Trump in the Steele Reports,” Durham said in his report. 
   
  Auten confessed to Durham that Danchenko “was not able to provide any corroborative evidence related to any substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports and critically was unable to corroborate any of the FBI’s assertions contained in the Carter Page FISA applications,” according to the Durham report (emphasis in the original). 
   
  Danchenko was kept on the FBI payroll for more than three years. 
   
  In internal FBI documents, Danchenko’s handling agent Kevin Helson incorrectly stated that there was no “derogatory” information associated with Danchenko and that he had not been a prior subject of an FBI investigation. 
   
  “This was clearly not true as there had previously been the unresolved Baltimore FBI counterespionage investigation of Danchenko that was only closed because it was believed he had left the country and returned to Russia,” Durham pointed out. 
   
  Agent Helson later learned that the informant he was assigned to handle had been investigated as a suspected spy. However, Auten advised Helson that the espionage case against Danchenko was “interesting, but was not a significant” matter, according to the Durham report. 
   
  “Notably,” the report added, “Auten did not inform Helson that he had previously assisted in the Baltimore investigation.” 

   A Suspected Kremlin Agent ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’

  The Baltimore agents were shocked to learn from Durham’s office that Danchenko had been signed up as a confidential FBI source. One of them interviewed by Durham’s investigators believed Danchenko was a Kremlin agent “hiding in plain sight” in the U.S., while frequently traveling overseas to be debriefed by Russian intelligence. The other Baltimore agent said the counterintelligence case on Danchenko remained unresolved and, in her opinion, “certainly a lot more investigation” should have been conducted on Danchenko. 
   
  “It is extremely concerning that the FBI failed to deal with the prior unresolved counterespionage case on Danchenko,” Durham concluded in his report. 
   
  “Given Danchenko’s known contacts with Russian intelligence officers and his documented prior pitch [to colleagues at Democratic think tank Brookings] for classified information, the Crossfire Hurricane team’s failure to properly consider and address the espionage case prior to opening Danchenko as a CHS [confidential human source] is difficult to explain, particularly given their awareness that Danchenko was the linchpin to the uncorroborated allegations contained in the Steele Reports,” the special prosecutor added. Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for the FBI’s Russia investigation. 
   
  In an RCI interview, Danchenko’s lawyer denied his client ever spied for the Russian government. He said Danchenko feared Russian President Vladimir Putin and was concerned for his personal safety. However, Durham examined immigration records which revealed that Danchenko lived in the U.S. but traveled frequently to Russia, casting doubts about his security concerns. 
   
  Yet in sworn affidavits to obtain the FISA warrants targeting Page, FBI agents led judges on the secret surveillance court to believe Danchenko was “Russian-based” – and therefore presumably more credible as a source of the allegations that Page was a Russian agent. By 2017, Auten knew the “Russian-based” claim was untrue. Even so, he let case agents slip it into two FISA renewal requests targeting Page. And so the “Russian-based” fraud lived on through 2017. 
   
  Auten assured the court that Danchenko was “truthful and cooperative,” never telling the judges about unresolved questions that made him a suspected Russian agent.  

  And Auten’s imprimatur carried great weight. In Durham’s telling, Auten was known internally as one of the “Triumvirate of Control” in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, along with senior counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and intelligence section chief Jonathan Moffa. Some case agents working under them believed the surveillance of Page was a “dry hole,” but the “triumvirate” insisted they continue secretly intercepting his emails, text messages, and other communications, according to Durham. 

  On Sept. 19, 2016, the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team formally received a dossier report alleging that Page had held secret meetings with sanctioned Kremlin officials in Moscow earlier that summer in which they allegedly discussed lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia. That same day, an anxious Auten urged department lawyers to consider including the dossier report as part of the initial FISA application targeting Page. 

  In an email to attorneys, Auten forwarded an excerpt from the dossier report and asked, “Does this put us at least *that* much closer to a full FISA on [Page]?”  
   
  The attorneys thought it was a “close call” when they first discussed a FISA targeting Page in early August, but the dossier report in September “pushed it over” the line in terms of establishing probable cause. 
   
  Except that the dossier allegation about secret Kremlin meetings was bunk. Auten knew there were serious doubts about it yet withheld those concerns from FISA judges. 
   
  On Oct. 17, 2016, Auten received an email alerting him to a conversation an informant covertly recorded with Page that day in which Page “outright denied” meeting with the Russian officials or even knowing them. 
   
  “Nevertheless,” Durham noted, “Page’s exculpatory statements were not included in the initial FISA application signed just four days later.” 
   
  Before the application was submitted, Auten also was aware that the dossier was being funded and promoted by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

  On Sept. 2, 2016, CIA personnel briefed Auten at FBI headquarters about credible foreign intelligence they received about the Clinton campaign’s machinations. Yet Auten took no steps to analyze the intelligence and how it might impact the Trump campaign investigation and surveillance requests. Nor did he inform the FISA court about it. Asked why he failed to disclose the “Clinton plan” intelligence, Auten told Durham’s office that it was “just one data point.” 
   
  As the FBI made requests to renew its spy warrants throughout 2017, Auten continued to gloss over major holes in the dossier. He even pressured agents and analysts to back off looking into a questionable source of key allegations, according to the Durham report. It turns out that source, Charles Dolan, was also tied to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party. 
   
  Agent Helson told Durham that Auten told him to “hold off” on interviewing Dolan, who was never interviewed. 

  Auten also told a female FBI analyst working for Mueller “to cease all research and analysis related to Dolan,” according to the Durham report. She wrote a memo in September 2017 documenting Dolan’s ties to the dossier, but said that “Auten had made edits to her memorandum, some of which removed information regarding Dolan.” She said she was frustrated by the censorship and wondered if there was “a political motive” behind it. The analyst told Durham she prepared a contemporaneous timeline in case she was ever questioned about her role in the Mueller investigation. 
   
  Perhaps most concerning was Auten’s reluctance to corroborate even the existence of a ghost-like source Danchenko claimed had provided him a stream of bombshell allegations that were essential to the FBI’s case for probable cause against Page. The alleged source, Belarus-born businessman and Trump booster named Sergei Millian, actually had no connection of any kind to Danchenko. There is no evidence the two men ever met or spoke. Yet Danchenko attributed to Millian the dossier’s core allegation: that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election in a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation.” This claim, which Durham found to be completely conjured up by Danchenko, formed the backbone of all four of the FBI’s applications to the FISA court to spy on Trump. 
   
  Auten knew there were serious problems with the attribution. While debriefing Danchenko in January 2017, Danchenko was dodgy about his supposed conversations with Millian. Still, Auten made no effort to validate Millian as a source. He never examined either Danchenko’s or Millian’s phone records, for starters. 
   
  Durham did pull the call records, however, and easily determined that Danchenko never actually spoke with Millian. He also learned from Danchenko’s email records that he fabricated his conversations with Millian, which means he also made up the dossier allegation that Carter Page masterminded the Democratic National Committee email leak, a claim the FBI also vouchsafed to the FISA court to attain the Page wiretaps. 
   
  “Nevertheless, the information allegedly provided by Millian remained in the Page FISA applications,” Durham stated in his report.  
   
  Auten told Durham that he did, however, check with the FBI’s partners at the CIA to see if they had anything on file to corroborate Danchenko’s reporting in the dossier. 

  “They received no corroborating information back,” Durham said. 
   
  Durham interviewed a career counterintelligence analyst at Langley who said the dossier was transparent fiction. “Indeed, after the dossier was leaked and became public,” Durham relayed in his report, “that [CIA] expert’s reaction was to ask the FBI, ‘You didn’t use that, right?’” 

  For several years, Auten moonlighted teaching law enforcement, intelligence, and surveillance courses at Patrick Henry College in North Virginia. He was removed from the Patrick Henry website soon after RealClearInvestigations published a July 2020 story first identifying him as the anonymous “Supervisory Intelligence Analyst” singled out in 2019 by DOJ Inspector General Horowitz for cutting corners verifying the dossier. 
   
  Auten also is no longer listed as a member of the college’s Strategic Intelligence Board of Advisors. Patrick Henry’s communications director did not reply to requests for an explanation for Auten’s removal from the website. But a faculty spokesman confirmed over the phone that he is no longer teaching there. 

  He is, however, apparently, still employed by the FBI. Auten’s most recent activities that have come to light? Possibly using false information to undermine allegations of criminal activity on the part of Hunter Biden. According to a July 25, 2022, letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Auten’s “scheme” entailed using deceptive and derogatory information to derail the FBI’s investigation. 

  “First, it’s been alleged that the FBI developed information in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s criminal financial and related activity,” Grassley wrote. “It is further alleged that in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by an FBI Headquarters (“FBI HQ”) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 23:00

• Jaguar Recalls Thousands Of I-Pace EVs Over Fire Risk, Tells Owners To Park Outside
  Jaguar Recalls Thousands Of I-Pace EVs Over Fire Risk, Tells Owners To Park Outside

  Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is recalling 6,400 I-Pace electric SUVs delivered to the US because the high-voltage electric battery may overheat and catch fire. 

  The documents posted Wednesday by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the recall covers I-Pace vehicles delivered between 2019 and 2024. 

  

  The problem is centered around the EV batteries produced by LG Energy Solutions. The NHTSA is investigating LG because its batteries have forced five other automakers to issue similar recalls due to fire risk. Most notable has been the fire risk around Ford F-150 Lightnings. 

  

  According to an NHTSA filing, JLR said eight I-Pace vehicles had caught fire, but no accidents or injuries were reported. 

  Fortune said JLR sent an email to US I-Pace owners to park vehicles away from building structures until repairs have been completed. 

  South Korea-based LG said Jaguar is updating the battery-managing software on the vehicles while NHTSA investigates the fires.

  “LG Energy Solution continues to closely work with our client Jaguar Land Rover to ensure that the investigation is concluded,” it said in a statement Thursday.

  One of the consequences the automotive industry is facing as it rushes toward EVs to meet decarbonization targets is defective tech. Ford and BMW also have recalled batteries in recent years over fires. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 22:40

• Michigan Economics Professor: Boycotting Target Is "Literal Terrorism"
  Michigan Economics Professor: Boycotting Target Is “Literal Terrorism”

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  In New York, a pro-life display was declared by a professor to be an act of “violence.”

  In Colorado, a university site warned that misgendering is violence.

  It is part of a national pattern on universities where opposing views are declared “harmful” or “violent” as a justification for censorship or even violence.

  

  Now, University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers has declared boycotting the store Target over its line of LGBTQ+ “Pride” clothing is “literal terrorism.”

  Target is the latest example of a corporation that is being “Bud Lighted” over its linked with LGBTQ+ efforts. While experts on MSNBC and CNN assured viewers that these boycotts fade quickly, these companies have now lost billions. Target has reportedly lost over $10 billion. Miller Lite is also being hammered over its “Bad $#!T to Good $#!T,” ad slamming male-oriented beer campaigns.

  With these boycotts picking up steam, the coverage has turned from dismissive to alarmist.

  Wolfers told MSNBC:

  “[If] Target caves into this, then it says that the moment you threaten the employees of even a very large corporation, you get to control its policies. This is economic terrorism, literally terrorism, creating fear among the workers and forcing the corporations to sell the things you want, not sell the things you don’t.”

  Wolfers did not object to past boycotts of companies like Twitter after Elon Musk sought to dismantle its censorship bureaucracy. He did not object to boycotts of Republican states over their laws concerning abortion, election integrity, or gender transitioning.

  Most notably, Wolfers was one of the figures leading the mob against UChicago economist Harald Uhlig, who was discussed earlier.  I quoted Wolfers as one of those seeking the removal of Uhlig from a leading economics journals because he criticized Black Lives Matters and the movement to Defund The Police.

  Yet, Wolfers now claims that boycotts are “literal terrorism” because they are “forcing the corporations to sell the things you want, not sell the things you don’t.”

  Boycotts have long been an important form of political speech extending back to the colonial protests against the British stamp and tea taxes. Indeed, the left has used targeted advertisers and boycotted companies to pressure corporate officials to change their policies. Twitter was targeted when Elon Musk sought to dismantle the company’s massive censorship operation. Now, however, boycotts are acts of terrorism when used against some of those policies.

  The problem is that the media and these commentators cannot force customers to buy beer or other products. Consumers have found a way to express their views through the invisible hand of the markets. These advertising and public campaigns were designed to closely associate the brands with particular causes. That association has triggered a market response, including consumers who object to campaigns that seem more political than commercial.

  Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Bud Light, pledged to drop Bud Light’s “fratty reputation and embrace inclusivity.” She certainly succeeded in changing the entire view of the brand in less than a year on the job. Heinerscheid knew that the brand image sells the beer. That image is now unpalatable for some consumers. The social value of these campaigns is lost if consumers reject beer with the branding message.

  Even Adam Schiff creating his own public endorsement of Bud Lite appeared to backfire. It is not clear that Anheser Busch was eager to have one of its labels pegged as the beer of choice by Adam Schiff as more than Dylan Mulvaney. Indeed, the company now appears to be in a death spiral. After it tried to distance itself form the Mulvaney association, it then Dylan Mulvaney for not staying the course with its earlier campaign. Those boycotts, however, are not being denounced as terrorism by Wolfers.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 22:20

• Here's How OpenAI Plans To Cleanse ChatGPT Of False Information
  Here’s How OpenAI Plans To Cleanse ChatGPT Of False Information

  Authored by Amaka Nwaokocha via CoinTelegraph.com,

  OpenAI aims to reduce AI hallucinations in ChatGPT by enhancing math skills, as process supervision shows promise in improving accuracy…

  

  On May 31, OpenAI announced its efforts to enhance ChatGPT’s mathematical problem-solving capabilities, aiming to reduce instances of artificial intelligence (AI) hallucinations. OpenAI emphasized mitigating hallucinations as a crucial step toward developing aligned AI.

  In March, the introduction of the latest version of ChatGPT – ChatGPT-4 – further propelled AI into the mainstream. However, generative AI chatbots have long grappled with factual accuracy, occasionally generating false information, commonly referred to as “hallucinations.“ The efforts to reduce these AI hallucinations were announced through a post on OpenAI’s website.

  AI hallucinations refer to instances where artificial intelligence systems generate factually incorrect outputs, misleading or unsupported by real-world data. These hallucinations can manifest in various forms, such as generating false information, making up nonexistent events or people, or providing inaccurate details about certain topics.

  OpenAI conducted research to examine the effectiveness of two types of feedback: “outcome supervision” and “process supervision.“ Outcome supervision involves feedback based on the final result, while process supervision provides input for each step in a chain of thought. OpenAI evaluated these models using math problems, generating multiple solutions and selecting the highest-ranked solution according to each feedback model.

  After thorough analysis, the research team found that process supervision yielded a superior performance as it encouraged the model to adhere to a human-approved process. In contrast, outcome supervision proved more challenging to scrutinize consistently.

  OpenAI recognized that the implications of process supervision extend beyond mathematics, with further investigation necessary to understand its effects in different domains. It expressed the possibility that if the observed outcomes hold in broader contexts, process supervision could offer a favorable combination of performance and alignment compared with outcome supervision. To facilitate research, the company publicly released the complete data set of process supervision, inviting exploration and study in this area.

  Although OpenAI did not provide explicit instances that prompted its investigation into hallucinations, two recent occurrences exemplified the problem in real-life scenarios.

  In a recent incident, lawyer Steven Schwartz in the Mata vs. Avianca Airlines case acknowledged relying on the chatbot as a research resource. However, the information provided by ChatGPT turned out to be entirely fabricated, highlighting the issue at hand.

  OpenAI’s ChatGPT is not the only example of artificial intelligence systems encountering hallucinations. During a demonstration of its chatbot technology in March, Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot examined earnings reports and generated inaccurate figures for companies like Gap and Lululemon.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 22:00

• Virginia, West Virginia Governors Sending National Guard Troops To Texas Border
  Virginia, West Virginia Governors Sending National Guard Troops To Texas Border

  Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  The governors of Virginia and West Virginia are the latest Republican state leaders to announce deployments of National Guard troops to assist Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security efforts.

  On Wednesday morning, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced he would deploy 100 of his state’s National Guard troops to Texas.

  “The ongoing border crisis facing our nation has turned every state into a border state,” Youngkin said. “As leadership solutions at the federal level fall short, states are answering the call to secure our southern border, reduce the flow of fentanyl, combat human trafficking and address the humanitarian crisis. Following a briefing from Governor Abbott last week, Virginia is joining other states to deliver on his request for additional assistance.”

  In a Wednesday morning press conference, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice also announced he would deploy 50 of his state’s National Guard troops to Texas.

  “I know our National Guard will do incredible work, and we’ll wish them Godspeed to get home safe and sound,” Justice said. “I thank them all for their incredible bravery and for stepping up yet again to answer the call.”

  Abbott has been using Texas state resources in recent months in a mission to stem the flow of illegal border crossings into the country. In recent weeks, Texas National Guard troops and Department of Public Safety officers have been seen setting up razor fences and turning back people attempting to cross from Mexico into Texas illegally.

  Abbott has stepped up this border security effort after President Joe Biden’s administration ended the federal Title 42 immigration policy on May 11. Following the outbreak of COVID-19, U.S. officials had used Title 42 authorities to rapidly turn away and expel illegal immigrants under public health justifications.

  On May 16, 24 Republican governors signed a letter pledging to support Abbott’s border security effort, including Youngkin and Justice. Since then, several Republican governors have deployed their state National Guard troops and state police resources to assist border control efforts.

  Other States Sending Troops

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was among the first Republican governors to pledge specific resources to Abbott’s border security mission. On May 16, DeSantis announced his state would send 800 Florida National Guard soldiers, 200 Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers, 20 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, and 20 Emergency Management personnel to Texas. DeSantis also pledged five fixed-wing aircraft, two mobile command vehicles, 17 unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), and 10 watercraft.

  On May 17, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced an unspecified number of troops from the Mississippi National Guard’s 112th Military Police Battalion would deploy to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and agents along the southwest border.

  On May 24, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced he had authorized the deployment of 100 Tennessee National Guard troops to the border. Lee said these troops would patrol and provide an added security presence at the border, help staff outposts, and assist in road and route clearance, barrier placement, and debris removal.

  “America continues to face an unprecedented border crisis that threatens our nation’s security and the safety of Tennesseans,” Lee said of the deployment.

  “The federal government owes Americans a plan to secure our country, and in the meantime, states continue to answer this important call to service,” Lee added. “I am again authorizing the Tennessee National Guard to help secure the Southern border, and I commend these troops for providing critical support.”

  On May 24, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen also announced he would send 10 Nebraska state troopers to Texas to assist Abbott’s border security mission.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 21:40

• All New US Jobs Since The Covid Crash Have Gone To Foreign-Born Workers
  All New US Jobs Since The Covid Crash Have Gone To Foreign-Born Workers

  We live in a strange time, one where the formerly unthinkable – skepticism among the “very serious people” about government data veracity – has become mundane. And yet even though numerous bank analysts and strategists, and this site of course, have repeatedly raised questions and concerns about the credibility of the most important US economic data – the monthly jobs report – nothing ever changes and if it does, it comes in the form of periodic “seasonal adjustment” resets where we “learn” that all the data that guided markets and central banks, had been fake, manipulated wrong for years.

  But even if one ignores the blatant manipulation of economic data by self-serving administrations, who hope to generate political brownie points by casting the economy in a far stronger light than is merited in reality, there are still various bizarre offshoots within the data which few notice yet which are instrumental to maintaining the fake narrative.

  Such as this: readers are probably aware that according to the BLS, there are now roughly 3.3 million more jobs (155.7 million) than there were at the peak just before the covid crash (152.4 million).

  

  On the surface, this is an impressive accomplishment, as a deficit of some 22 million jobs has been erased in under three years.

  But then, if one starts digging, some peculiarities emerge, like for example that much of jobs created in recent years have gone to “multiple jobholders“, meaning that not every “payroll” has been assigned to a unique individual, but instead there are now people who hold two, three or more jobs to make ends meet.

  Or that much of the recent job creation has gone to low-paying part-time workers while full time jobs have stagnated.

  

  Or that according to the household survey there was virtually no new jobs created for much of 2022 even as the establishment survey indicated that over 2 million new jobs had been added over the same period.

  

  To be sure, it didn’t take long after we pointed out these glaring narrative “glitches” and discrepancies for the BLS to notice and to make the appropriate adjustments and historical revisions to the data to make it coherent. After all, bureaucrats are not very diligent and attention oriented, and manipulating bureaucrats are even worse.

  Yet one place where the BLS has allowed a glaring data deficiency to persist, is in what will soon be a very politically charged and sensitive data series: where have all the new workers come from.

  As noted above, if one believes the BLS, US payrolls are now a record high 155.7 million, or 161 million employed workers according to the Household survey. But if one digs a little deeper, one finds something rather peculiar: all of the jobs created since the covid crash have gone to foreign-born workers!

  That’s right: as shown in the chart below, there are currently 131.1 million native-born US workers, which is down more than half a million from the pre-covid peak of 131.7 million reached in October 2019 (data source: Federal Reserve). Meanwhile, if only looks at the number of foreign-born workers, here the data paints a very different picture: having peaked at 27.8 million in Feb 2019, the number of foreign-born workers has not only recovered its covid crash losses, but has increased by an additional 2.2 million to a record 30.0 million as of April 2023!

  

  This means that all the new job creation since the covid crash has gone to foreign workers, with native-born workers stagnating and still unable to break above pre-covid highs, even though if one merely extends the pre-covid trendline, native-born workers should have long ago surpassed their 2019 highs. Said otherwise, millions of native jobs have quietly gone to (lower paid) foreigners.

  But what if the data shown above is merely a product of uneven distribution of hiring while the labor force growth has been similar. Good question, and to answer that we have looked not at the change in absolute jobs/workers but the change in labor forces, native-born and foreign-born, indexed at 100 as of Oct 2019. The result, shown below, speaks for itself.

  

  And there you have it: both the number of native-born workers and the actual native-born labor force have stagnated, while foreign-born workers have flourished and captured market share or rather employment and wage share from native Americans.

  To be sure, there is much to analyze: unfortunately the BLS does not break down the “foreign-born” data set into legally and illegally-immigrated foreign-born workers, although considering that it was virtually impossible for legal foreigners to enter the US – let along work in it – for nearly two years after the covid pandemic broke out, it is rather safe to assume that much of the foreign-born work has gone to illegal immigrants.

  Which then begs the question: how does this impact inflation? We already know that wage inflation is supposedly off the charts, but if the bulk of new hiring has gone to foreign-born workers who, for the most part, represent a cheaper labor option for employers, does that mean that wage inflation would be that much higher if most new workers had been native-born? What will happen to inflation if, say, Trump or DeSantis makes it a campaign pledge to focus on hiring native-born workers?

  And another question: what does this track record mean for the coming presidential mudslinging campaigns – what impact will it have on the reputation of, say, Joe Biden, when he is asked why all new jobs under his administration have gone to foreign-born workers while native-born Americans have been left to stagnate?

  We hope to have the answers soon enough; for now, however, we have another jobs report to focus on in just a few hours. And if the recent track record of the BLS “accuracy and integrity” is any indication of what to expect, tomorrow’s numbers should push what are already ridiculous job numbers well into the realm of peak absurdity.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 21:16

• Here’s What Trump Has Promised If He Wins In 2024
  Here’s What Trump Has Promised If He Wins In 2024

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

  Former president Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s eying a “most spectacular” 250th birthday celebration of the United States if he is elected, coming days after he promised to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. But the former president, a leading GOP candidate, has made a range of other new policy proposals.

  

  US Celebration

  “Three years from now, the United States will celebrate the biggest and most important milestone in our country’s history—250 years of American independence,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “That’s why as a nation we should be preparing for the most spectacular birthday party. We want to make it the best of all time.”

  And Trump’s campaign said in a news release that the former commander-in-chief will hold a  White House task force known as the “Salute to America 250” to hold anniversary celebrations across the United States between Memorial Day 2025 and July 4, 2026.

  “I will work with all 50 governors, Republican and Democrat alike, to create the Great American State Fair, a unique one-year exhibition featuring pavilions from all 50 states,” he said in a video, proposing a “legendary,” special “one-time festival” in Iowa.

  “And finally, and most importantly, I will ask America’s great religious communities to pray for our nation and our people as we prepare for this momentous occasion,” Trump also remarked. “America has been a country sustained and strengthened by prayer and by our communities of faith as we chart a course toward the next 250 years. Let us come together and rededicate ourselves as one nation under God.”

  Other initiatives include the Patriot Games, an Olympic-style event for high school athletes, and the re-issuance of an executive order to restore the Trump-era National Garden of American Heroes that was ultimately blocked by President Joe Biden. That park would have honored great Americans and historical figures, Trump has said.

  The timing of Trump’s statement is no coincidence. The former president is traveling to Iowa for a tour of the state, which is important launching point during the 2024 Republican Party primary.

  “Together we will build it, and they will come,” Trump said of the proposed Iowa Fairgrounds event, using a quote from the movie Field of Dreams, which was filmed in Iowa.

  100 New US Attorneys

  Wednesday’s proposal from Trump builds on the patriotic themes that he used during his 2016 campaign and administration. Trump in 2020 established the 1776 Commission dedicated to patriotic education and history lessons, countering the New York Times’s “1619 Project” that attempts to reframe the founding of America around slavery.

  Months before that, Trump also vowed in a campaign video to fight against who he described as “Marxist” left-wing district attorneys and “overhaul” the Department of Justice in the wake of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump for allegedly falsifying business records. If elected, his administration would also appoint 100 U.S. attorneys who are the “polar opposite” of district attorneys who received campaign cash from controversial left-wing billionaire George Soros.

  “As we completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, we will also launch sweeping civil rights investigations into Marxist local district attorneys,” Trump said  in a video posted to his YouTube page, which was restored earlier this year after a two-year suspension. “And that’s what we have—they are Marxist in many cases.”

  

  End Birthright Citizenship

  This week, Trump also again vowed to issue an executive order to end birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrant parents. Several years ago, Trump signaled that he would issue the executive order, but some legal analysts have said that it would likely face significant legal challenges as birthright citizenship is essentially protected under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

  Trump’s website says that he “will again end catch-and-release, restore Remain in Mexico, and eliminate asylum fraud,” while “in cooperative states, President Trump will deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement to assist with rapidly removing illegal alien gang members and criminals. He will also deliver a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American values.”

  Death Penalty for Drug Offenders

  During his post-midterm announcement for president, Trump also proposed handing down the death penalty for some drug dealers and traffickers, arguing that such individuals are causing death and destruction

  “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” Trump said at the time. “Because it’s the only way.”

  Critical Race Theory

  Trump in January also pledged to cut federal funding to schools that teach the controversial critical race theory along with curriculum around gender identity. While speaking in Davenport, Iowa, Trump promised to keep male transgender athletes out of girls’ sports and “bring back parental rights into our schools.”

  A policy plan also calls for opening new “civil rights investigations into any school district that has engaged in race-based discrimination.”

  “As the saying goes, personnel is policy, and at the end of the day if we have pink-haired communists teaching our kids we have a major problem,” Trump said earlier this year. “We’re at the end of the list on education, and yet we spend the most, but we’re going to be tops in education no matter where you go anywhere in the world.”

  Jan. 6 Pardons

  More than two years after the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump said last month that he would pardon a range of individuals who were convicted and sentenced in connection to the incident. Those pardons, he said, will “be very early on” in his presidency.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 21:00

• Biden Speech Hailing NATO Strength Overshadowed By Serious Fall On Stage
  Biden Speech Hailing NATO Strength Overshadowed By Serious Fall On Stage

  President Joe Biden on Thursday ratcheted up the pressure on holdout nations Turkey and Hungary by saying that Sweden will join NATO “as soon as possible”. The former two countries have blocked Sweden’s entry, but recently approved Finland. 

  Biden hailed NATO unity in a speech before the US Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado Springs. “NATO is more energized and more united than it’s been in decades. It’s now even stronger with the accession of our newest ally, Finland – and soon Sweden – to the alliance, as soon as possible. It will happen. I promise you,” President Biden said. 

  

  Biden’s strong words came immediately on the heels of Blinken’s trip to Sweden wherein he said that “the perspective of the United States” is that “the time is now to finalize Sweden’s accession.”

  Especially since Finland’s formal membership acceptance in April, European and US officials have been pushing for Sweden’s entry as well – but again, Turkey has been adamant in maintaining its rejection, based on accusations that Swedish authorities allow ‘terrorist’ and Kurdish ‘dissident’ groups and individuals in its country.

  “Welcome to NATO, Finland! I hope we will welcome our Swedish friends very soon, too,” French President Emmanuel Macron said soon after Finland’s accession.

  As for Biden’s Air Force graduation speech, his important remarks on NATO or really any of the speech content for that matter were immediately overshadowed by what happened the moment he began to walk off stage…

  BREAKING: Biden takes a big fall on stage just now at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation pic.twitter.com/GxkMbpyoNo

  — Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) June 1, 2023

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

  The fall looked like a hard one, in a dangerous moment for the 80-year old Commander-in-Chief.

  Below is another angle:

  Another angle of Joe Biden’s fall on stage today. Watch the reactions. pic.twitter.com/74ChFqPafI

  — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 1, 2023

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

  Below is how The New York Times described the significant fall: 

  President Biden tripped and fell after delivering a speech and handing out diplomas to graduates of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on Thursday. Mr. Biden, who is 80 years old, was helped up and appeared to recover quickly.

  Mr. Biden’s fall was captured on video and spread on social media. He appears to trip, fall to his knees and catch himself with his hands on the floor of the stage. He was helped up by several Air Force officials and Secret Service agents, and he walked back to his seat.

  Mr. Biden had just delivered an energetic speech to the Air Force graduates before helping to hand out the diplomas. He fell after he distributed the final diploma and was headed back to his seat.

  The White House issued an official statement via its communications director Ben LaBolt, who said in a tweet quickly after the incident, “He’s fine, there was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands.”

  Biden declined to talk with reporters on the tarmac before boarding AF1 to fly back from Colorado after he fell on stage. https://t.co/S47Nv2Hr06

  — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 1, 2023

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

  Just as Biden declined to speak about the matter, mainstream media also shied away from commenting. Things were a little different a few years ago when President Trump walked slowly down a ramp (without falling)…

  And here’s Joe Biden mocking Trump for walking carefully on the ramp, to avoid a fall

  **Notice the covid pandemic death ticker on the side** pic.twitter.com/Dg9yRRVRJi

  — The Real Brandon (@BluecollarBran) June 1, 2023

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

  At a moment there’s a war in Ukraine and dangerous showdown between nuclear armed superpowers the United States and Russia, certainly Moscow is going to see Biden’s serious fall on stage as a sign of weakness and frailness from an ageing president. 

  * * *

  Meanwhile, this is likely to have significant impact on the domestic front as well, as the Democrats decide whether to go all in on Biden in 2024…

  Open the Democrat primaries and debates. This isn’t fair to anyone. https://t.co/KcW67BaR7z

  — jack (@jack) June 1, 2023

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

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 20:54

• The Atlantic Hurricane Season Starts Today
  The Atlantic Hurricane Season Starts Today

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts near-normal conditions for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season which starts today.

  NOAA is forecasting five to nine hurricanes to occur in 2023, out of which one to four could turn into major hurricanes.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, one of the factors that could suppress the 2023 hurricane season is the likely start of an El Niño phase after three years with the La Niña phenomenon, which shifts colder temperatures and stronger trade winds to the Pacific, therefore exposing the Atlantic to warmer and less linear wind pattern more favorable for hurricane formation. If an El Niño phase were to start this year, it would shift cooler and windier conditions over to the Atlantic. However, above-normal ocean temperatures in the Central Atlantic band and the Caribbean have the power to strengthen hurricanes this season. NOAA concludes the two factors could offset each other, but if El Niño failed to form despite favorable conditions, the high ocean temperatures could make for an intense 2023 season.

  While the 2022 season and its eight hurricanes – including Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Julia – was somewhat above average compared with recent years, 2020 was an extremely busy year for hurricanes. A total of 14 formed over the Atlantic basin – the most since 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina. Six of those were major hurricanes, including Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota. In 2022, only two out of eight hurricanes in the Atlantic basin were of category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is in contrast with the recent trend of 40-50 percent of all Atlantic hurricanes being classified as major ones.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While in the 1970s and 1980s, the share of major hurricanes stood at an average of around 30-33 percent of all Atlantic hurricanes, this had increased to an average of 40-50 percent per year in the 2000s and 2010s. The change translates to an average of 1.6 major hurricanes occurring per year in the 1970s and 1980s and 3-4 occurring annually today. Climate change has been identified as a reason why stronger hurricanes occur.

  More evidence that hurricane seasons are changing can be deferred from the timing of named storms. 2021’s first storm – Ana – was named on May 22 after forming near the Bahamas. This made 2021 the seventh consecutive year a named storm formed before the start of the official season on June 1. The first named storm of 2022 occurred on June 5 and none was named as of June 1 in 2023.

  2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, was the worst hurricane seasons since 1851, records from the National Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory at NOAA show. Hurricane Katrina was just one of seven major hurricanes observed in the Atlantic basin that year. 2005 was the year with most hurricanes in the Atlantic (15), followed by 2020 (14), 2010 (12, including Hurricane Sandy) and 1969 (also 12).

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 20:40

• A Debt Jubilee Of Biblical Proportions Is Coming Soon… What You Need To Know
  A Debt Jubilee Of Biblical Proportions Is Coming Soon… What You Need To Know

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

  Four thousand years ago, the rulers of ancient Babylon discovered a technique to stave off violent revolts.

  In ancient times, there was a tendency for people to become hopelessly in debt to their creditors. Eventually, they would rise up and cause instability that could threaten the entire ruling system.

  The rulers of the ancient world recognized this dynamic.

  Their solution was to enact widespread debt cancellation—a debt jubilee.

  Debt jubilees acted as a societal pressure release valve when there were no other options.

  The practice spread in the ancient world and became codified in different civilizations.

  For example, the Book of Leviticus recognizes debt jubilees as the end of a 49-year biblical cycle—seven cycles of seven years.

  I think this ancient practice will make a big comeback soon as government, corporate, and personal debt have all reached unbearable levels today.

  In fact, the debt jubilees have already started… and the investment consequences will be profound.

  

  The Biggest Wealth Transfer in History

  It’s important to note that debt jubilees do not magically create new wealth.

  They simply redistribute it.

  Debt jubilees are government decrees that amount to a massive wealth transfer with big winners and losers.

  The PPP loan forgiveness during the Covid hysteria was the prelude.

  President Biden’s student loan forgiveness took it to the next level.

  The student loan forgiveness was unprecedented. Unilateral executive action of this size has never occurred during a time of peace. Moreover, Congress, not the president, is supposed to make spending decisions of this magnitude.

  It is estimated that the immediate and deferred costs of the student loan forgiveness to be at least $590 billion.

  Biden’s student loan debt jubilee went too far for even Obama’s former chief economic advisor, Jason Furman, who described it as:

  “Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless.”

  Aside from the inflationary effects—which I’ll get to in a moment—the student loan jubilee also set a precedent that I think will be impossible to reverse.

  Consider how the people who behaved prudently feel.

  These people took different career paths to avoid student loans, cut back on their spending so they could afford college without borrowing, or paid off their student debt.

  These people are probably feeling like suckers now.

  Not only do they not get any debt relief, but they will have to foot the bill in one way or another to pay for those who had their student loans forgiven.

  I imagine these people will be angry and probably have considerable car, mortgage, and credit card debt, as many Americans do. So they will want debt relief too… and I bet they will get it.

  Amid rising prices, consumer debt is skyrocketing. It is at an all-time high of over $16 trillion, as seen in the chart below.

  With interest rates rising, the cost of servicing this record debt is becoming unbearable for many. As a result, many Americans have reached their maximum debt saturation and are hitting a financial breaking point.

  

  As Biden demonstrated, all it takes is a President’s pen stroke to wipe out hundreds of billions in debt.

  I think the political pressure to do this again will be irresistible—especially before elections—as a way to court voters.

  The student loan jubilee set a precedent.

  I don’t think it will be long before we see a credit card jubilee, a car loan jubilee, or a mortgage jubilee.

  How will the government pay for all these jubilees?

  It’s improbable they could raise taxes enough to pay for them.

  It also wouldn’t make sense to issue more debt to cancel other debts.

  That leaves money printing as the only way they can finance these jubilees. So my guess is that’s what they’ll do.

  That’s why the coming debt jubilees will pour “gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning.”

  But it’s not just consumer debt that has become unbearable. The big enchilada is the US government’s federal debt.

  The Coming Federal Debt Jubilee

  The US federal government has the biggest debt in the history of the world. And it’s continuing to grow at a rapid, unstoppable pace.

  In short, the US government is fast approaching the financial endgame.

  Here’s why…

  Today, the US federal debt has gone parabolic and is scores of trillions.

  To put it in perspective, if you earned $1 a second 24/7/365—about $31 million per year—it would take you over 1,008,378 YEARS to pay off the US federal debt.

  And that’s with the unrealistic assumption that it would stop growing.

  The truth is, the debt will keep piling up unless Congress makes some politically impossible decisions to cut spending. But don’t count on that happening. In fact, they’re racing in the opposite direction now that they’ve normalized multitrillion-dollar deficits.

  The amount of debt is so extreme that even a return of interest rates to their historical average would mean paying the interest expense on the debt would consume more than half of current tax revenues. Interest expense would eclipse Social Security and defense spending and become the largest item in the federal budget.

  Second, a return to the historical average interest rate will not be enough to reign in inflation—not even close. A drastic rise in interest rates is needed. If that happened, it could mean that the US government is paying more for the interest expense than it takes in from taxes.

  In short, the Federal Reserve is trapped.

  Raising interest rates high enough to dent inflation would bankrupt the US government.

  In other words, it’s game over. They have no choice but to “reset” the system—that’s what governments do when they are trapped.

  How are they going to reset the system?

  Nobody knows for sure. But I’d bet a debt jubilee of biblical proportions will be a big part of it.

  So then, how will the US government repudiate its impossible federal debt burden?

  My guess is that they won’t be explicit. That would look too much like a default. It would destroy the role of the US as the center of the world’s financial system.

  Given a choice, I don’t think the US government would choose immediate self-destruction. Since power does not relinquish itself voluntarily, we should presume they’ll decide to stealthily implement their federal debt jubilee through inflation.

  Inflation is a big bonus to debtors. It allows you to borrow in dollars and repay in dimes.

  And since the US government is the biggest debtor in the history of the world, it is the single largest beneficiary of inflation.

  That’s why I think the federal debt jubilee will come in the form of a massive wave of inflation.

  Here’s the bottom line.

  The coming debt jubilees could have the effect of wiping out many trillions worth of liabilities and creating previously unfathomable inflation.

  That could trigger the largest wealth transfer in history.

  Remember, debt doesn’t exist within a vacuum. It is a liability to the borrower and an asset to lender.

  Those storing their wealth in government currencies, bondholders, and creditors will be the big losers.

  Debtors and those who own unencumbered scarce assets will be the big winners.

  It’s certainly not a just outcome.

  Prudent savers shouldn’t be made to pay for the excesses of the debtors.

  But notions of what is just or not did not impede Biden’s student loan jubilee—and they certainly won’t for the coming jubilees.

  Although that will be unfortunate for many people, there is simply nothing anyone can do now.

  The debt levels have already reached a point of saturation, and the government could soon see jubilees as a politically attractive option.

  That’s why it is best to recognize the reality of this Big Picture and get positioned accordingly.

  That means owning scarce and valuable assets that are not simultaneously someone else’s liability.

  Crucially, this excludes fiat currency in bank accounts.

  Remember, fiat currency is the unbacked liability of a bankrupt government.

  Further, once you deposit currency into a bank, it is no longer yours. Technically and legally, it is the bank’s property, and what you own instead is an unsecured liability of the bank.

  In an era of jubilees in which debts are wiped clean, you won’t want to be on the other end of unsecured liabilities or IOUs of any kind.

  I suspect it could all go down soon… and it will not be pretty for many.

  Most people have no idea how bad things can get… let alone how to prepare.

  That’s why I’ve recently published a how-to guide detailing the best ways to protect your savings. It’s called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now.

  Click here to download the free PDF.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 20:20

• Investor Home Purchases Collapse Most On Record
  Investor Home Purchases Collapse Most On Record

  Residential real estate brokerage firm Redfin released new data that revealed a record-breaking drop in homes purchased by investors in the first quarter. This sharp decline is due to a combination of elevated interest rates and sliding home prices, which impacts potential future returns. With investors retreating to the sidelines, buyers in the market have dramatically shrunk, and price wars have eased. 

  Redfin data shows investors purchased 48.6% fewer homes in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. This was the most significant plunge on record. 

  To illustrate just how the Federal Reserve’s 14 months of aggressive interest hikes have chilled a major buyer of the residential real estate market, Redfin shows the record-breaking pullback in the chart below: 

  

  The brokerage said the investors still in the market have shifted to buying or flipping more affordable properties due to tightening credit conditions. Getting financing for lower-priced homes is easier, and there’s more demand. Low-priced home purchases surged to a two-year high, and a record 41.1% of investor purchases in the quarter were starter homes. 

  Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said overall, investors have “pumped the brakes on home purchases.” However, he said, “They’re still scooping up a bigger share of homes than they were before the pandemic, which can create challenges for individual buyers at a time when there are so few homes for sale.” 

  Investors made up 17.6% of the market in the first quarter, down from 20.4% a year earlier. Still, the investor share of purchased homes is near record levels. 

  

  The rapid increase in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to over 7%, not seen since the Dot Com bust, has been the main driver in cooling demand. 

  

  In a separate report, Lotfi Karoui, chief credit strategist at Goldman Sachs, offered some good news to clients that mortgage rates are expected to top around these levels and fall to under 6% in 2024. 

  

  Karoui pointed out that housing affordability has slightly improved but remains at decade lows. 

  

  And the inventory of existing homes remains extraordinarily tight. 

  

  “Beyond 2023, we expect a rebound in home prices as the impact of policy tightening subsides. While our economists think another policy rate hike this year is a possibility, their baseline expectation is that the Fed has ceased policy tightening. History indicates that home prices tend to grow after the conclusion of a hiking cycle, using 1995, 2000, and 2018 as a guide,” the Goldman analyst noted. 

  The silver lining is that investors are no longer saturating the market and sparking price wars as they did before and during the Covid era. Financing deals is becoming more challenging due to the increased cost of money, which is expected to continue to weigh on home purchases. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 20:00

• US Lacks 'Effective Tool' To Stop China’s Tech Theft: Treasury Official
  US Lacks ‘Effective Tool’ To Stop China’s Tech Theft: Treasury Official

  Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The United States lacks an effective tool to adequately combat widespread espionage and intellectual property theft being perpetrated by China’s communist regime, according to a U.S. Treasury Department official.

  

  Despite years of competition and ongoing IP theft, the United States has not developed the tools required to target and prevent the continued transfer of sensitive U.S. technologies to China, according to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Rosen.

  “We currently assess we don’t have an effective tool to target the money and sophistication with know-how that goes into these sensitive and most critical technologies into countries of concern,” Rosen said during a May 31 hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

  “We risk leaving a gap in terms of some of our national security concerns,” he said.

  Rosen added that the Biden administration was committed to “zealously” defending U.S. security interests, and would prioritize those interests over economic development if necessary, but required more tools to do so.

  “The United States will secure our interests and those of our allies and partners,” Rosen said.

  “We will not compromise on national security concerns, even when they force trade-offs with economic interests.”

  Rosen’s remarks confirm expert testimony delivered to Congress last year, which stated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engaged in anti-competitive and anti-free market practices on a global scale, and that the United States lacks adequate non-security tools to defend its interests.

  Policies That Benefited Corporate Profits

  Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the committee chair, said that the United States had fostered a system of policies over the course of several decades that had strengthened China at the expense of the American people. The nation’s current struggles to counter China, he said, are owed to policies that benefited corporate profits instead of American well-being.

  “For far too long, our policy around China catered to multinational corporations and failed working families. It destroyed local communities, it eroded our manufacturing base and international competitiveness,” Brown said.

  Brown added that U.S. policymakers “knew” corporations would terminate millions of U.S. jobs in favor of dirt cheap labor in China, but still granted the regime permanent most-favored trade status in the 1990s. Since then, he said, consecutive administrations had failed to correct the imbalance in China’s favor.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 19:40

• Pentagon Chiefs Cancel "Family Friendly" Drag Show At Air Force Base After Rep. Gaetz Pressure
  Pentagon Chiefs Cancel “Family Friendly” Drag Show At Air Force Base After Rep. Gaetz Pressure

  At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 29, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., pointedly demanded Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley why drag queen story hours were still taking place on US bases around the world, including in Montana, Nevada, Virginia and Germany.

  “Drag queen story hours is not something that the department funds,” Austin told the committee.

  Milley chimed in, asking to see the flyers for the events Gaetz was referring to:

  “I’d like to take a look at those, because I don’t agree with those,” Milley said.

  Gaetz Asks Austin and Milley Why Drag Queen Shows are Still Happening on Military Baseshttps://t.co/nG99e4tp3n pic.twitter.com/RYVx96DWzb

  — AɯƙɯαɾԃMαɱα™® (@Aspiemama_107) May 24, 2023

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

  And as NBC News reports, when Milley was informed about the event this week, he was visibly angry about the decision to host the event on base, a U.S. official and a defense official said.

  Sure enough, just days later, the DoD canceled a planned drag show at Nellis Air Force base in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to a statement provided to the Daily Caller on Thursday.

  The Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council was set to offer a free “family friendly” drag show Thursday, June 1, to kick off pride month

  “Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-Federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment,” Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for the Department of Defense, told the Caller.

  “As Secretary Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DOD resources. Our Service members are diverse and are allowed to have personal outlets. We are proud to serve alongside any and every young American who takes the oath that puts their life on the line in defense of our country.”

  Nellis AFB hosted a Pride Month drag show in June 2021, named “Drag-u-Nellis.”

  A spokesperson for the base said in a statement that it was intended to promote inclusivity and diversity.

  

  Rightly so, Rep. Matt Gaetz took a victory lap on the news…“HUGE VICTORY: The Department of Defense has CANCELED a scheduled ‘child-friendly’ drag show after I demanded answers from @SecDef Austin and General Milley!”

  HUGE VICTORY: The Department of Defense has CANCELED a scheduled “child-friendly” drag show after I demanded answers from @SecDef Austin and General Milley!

  Drag shows should not be taking place on military installations with taxpayer dollars PERIOD!

  READ:… https://t.co/YDByQihQod pic.twitter.com/vnJiuFlh2z

  — Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) May 31, 2023

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

  The question is – how many of these shows are being funded by the DoD that Rep. Gaetz is not aware of (and why?).

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 19:20

• The Suffering Is Off The Charts
  The Suffering Is Off The Charts

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  Things have taken a turn for the worse.  In recent months, economic activity has been dropping all over the nation, and that decline appears to be accelerating.  We just learned that gross domestic income has now fallen for two quarters in a row, and the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now been plummeting for 13 consecutive months.  Unfortunately, when economic conditions deteriorate it is the people at the low end of the economic pyramid that get hit the hardest.

  

  Thanks to our rapidly rising cost of living, we are seeing a dramatic explosion in the number of “working homeless” that are living out of their vehicles on a daily basis even though they are currently employed.

  In particular, the RV “communities” that are springing up from coast to coast are starting to get quite a bit of attention…

  The owner of a party bus company, Rikers Island prison guards and an Amazon worker are just some of the eclectic bunch who have formed a community of ‘working homeless’ people living out of RVs in the Astoria section of Queens, New York.

  Similar communities have formed across the US from New England to California where people have chosen a nomadic lifestyle amid a national cost of living crisis.

  Most of these people get up and go to work in the morning.

  In fact, the Daily Mail spoke to one man that actually “works for a New York City hospital”…

  Resident Paul Reevers described himself as ‘working homeless.’ He said that he has a job but the rent went up too high and he could not longer to afford a an apartment.

  Reevers, who works for a New York City hospital, said that he took out a loan and bought his RV.

  If you work at a hospital, you should be able to afford a place to live.

  But this is our country now.

  We are absolutely destroying the middle class, and as a result we now have a massive homelessness crisis on our hands…

  Insider Monkey, a finance website, revealed a list of the top 30 cities worldwide with the highest homeless population. Notably, a handful of the US cities on the list are governed by progressive leadership, which may not surprise readers. While it is evident that some unfortunate individuals are facing homelessness, a trend exacerbated by recent inflationary pressures and a drug addiction crisis, some liberal policies have enabled others to sustain their nomadic lifestyles with taxpayer funds.

  Insider Monkey found New York City is number 5 on the list, with a homeless population of about 69,000. Next is Chicago, at number 7 with 65,611. Washington, DC, is number 8 with 57,416, Los Angeles number 13 with 41,980, and San Fransisco number 14 with 38,000.

  No matter what you or I are facing right now, at least we aren’t sleeping in the streets.

  So we should count our blessings.

  Hunger is also rapidly growing all over America.  Right now, record numbers of people are coming for help at one food bank in the Seattle area…

  Since March, the food bank has broken its record three times for the highest number of people served in a day since 2019, when the organization started allowing three visits a month. More and more, people like Jones who haven’t been to the food bank in years, are showing up, Christian said.

  “That’s hard on them; they felt they had moved above the poverty line, got some stability but, ‘Here it is 2023 and here I am back in the food line asking strangers for help,’” Christian said.

  And in Boston, the line for food on one recent weekend morning “stretched the length of two football fields”…

  The line outside Boston’s American Red Cross Food Pantry on a recent Saturday morning stretched the length of two football fields.

  The number of people filing into the red-brick industrial-zone warehouse on some days now exceeds the worst periods of the pandemic economic crisis and in April it had the second highest monthly traffic since it opened in 1982, according to David Andre, the director.

  We are witnessing so much suffering all over the country right now.

  And there are so many more people that are living right on the edge of disaster.

  According to one recent survey, approximately 38.5 percent of U.S. adults experienced “some form of difficulty in covering expenses between April 26 and May 8”…

  A large swath of American consumers are facing financial hardship as they grapple with elevated living costs, record-high credit card use, and two years of negative real wage growth. This perfect storm could decimate financially fragile households in the next downturn.

  As many as 89.1 million American adults (or about 38.5%) were found to experience some form of difficulty in covering expenses between April 26 and May 8, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from the Household Pulse Survey. This is up from 34.4% in 2022 and 26.7% during the same period in 2021.

  Of course this is just the beginning.

  As I keep warning my readers, things will eventually get much worse.

  And finally, whatever happens in Washington is not going to fundamentally alter our long-term trajectory, and that means that much more suffering is coming in the days ahead.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 19:00

• Shellenberger: Why The Media Is Attacking Free Speech
  Shellenberger: Why The Media Is Attacking Free Speech

  Authored by Michael Shellenberger via ‘Public’ substack,

  Governments around the world are cracking down on free speech. What they are demanding includes the ability to read private encrypted text messages and invade homes in search of wrongspeech. Their demands thus go far beyond what the Censorship Industrial Complex was able to get away with over the last six years.

  

  And things are getting worse. Last week, the European Union announced it would punish Twitter for withdrawing from its supposedly “voluntary” censorship laws. “Twitter leaves EU voluntary code of practice against disinformation,” said the EU’s top censor, Thierry Breton, “You can run, but you can’t hide. Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation under [the Digital Services Act] DSA as of August 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement.”

  Politico begs to differ. The Censorship Industrial Complex, it wrote last week, is an “unproven conspiracy theory that a group of left-leaning academics, think tanks, tech workers and government employees coordinated to silence right-wing voters ahead of nationwide votes. To be clear (looking at you, Twitter Files), none of this has been proved, and there’s evidence that right-leaning voices have a larger, not smaller, presence online compared with those on the left.”

  But it’s not unproven. In fact, the existence, funding, and actions of the Censorship Industrial Complex are extremely well-documented at this point. Across thousands of pages of Attorneys’ General lawsuits, thousands of pages of Congressional reports and testimony, and hundreds of pages of Twitter and Facebook files themselves, it’s clear that here was a highly coordinated campaign by top White House officials, government agencies, and government-funded contractors to demand Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies censor, in their own words, “often-true” content, including about drug side effects, both to prevent the public from seeing it but also to spread misinformation on behalf of a political agenda.

  Politico did not, notably, provide any source or link to support its claim that “there’s evidence that right-leaning voices have a larger, not smaller, presence online compared with those on the left.” The reason might be that such “evidence” is a single highly selective study attempting to generalize about the whole of the social media experience through the lens of an outdated and simplistic Left-Right framework.

  

  Emails from pro-censorship journalists to Twitter demanding the de-plaforming of another reporter, Alex Berenson.

  The picture many of us have of journalists is Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in “All The President’s Men,” or the journalists in “Spotlight,” “She Said,” and “The Post.” They are dogged seekers of the truth, determined to overcome any obstacle in their way of discovering it and reporting it to the world. They advocate giving voice to the voiceless and uncovering secretive and dangerous abuses of power by everyone from senior government officials to powerful corporate executives to religious leaders.

  But the real-world behavior of many journalists today at top news media companies is the exact opposite. They plot secretly with the Aspen Institute, each other, and social media executives about how to kill stories damaging to the president. And they help former CIA Directors and “Fellows” spread ridiculous conspiracy theories, including that Russians stole the 2016 election, controlled Donald Trump through a video of prostitutes urinating on him, and had somehow stolen Hunter Biden’s laptop.

  Rather than quote from different sides, these journalists denounce their enemies. They dismissed as “racist” and as a “debunked conspiracy theory” that COVID-19 might have escaped from a Chinese lab while insisting that it was somehow less racist and far-fetched to believe the virus traveled 1,000 miles from the countryside before sickening someone at a “live wet market.”  And they demanded that Twitter de-platform disfavored voices like Twitter Files reporter Alex Berenson. 

  Why do so many journalists participate in the war on free speech, including the freest social media platform, Twitter? Last summer, Berenson released documents showing reporters from CNN and Axios, urging Twitter to suspend Berenson for criticizing vaccines. “It’s like librarians burning books,” he told Public yesterday. “Why are journalists attacking journalists?”

  …

  The picture we had of mainstream news reporters speaking truth to power is no longer accurate. More frequently than not, reporters from those same institutions speak power against the truth. The evidence for the Censorship Industrial Complex is abundant, and they know it because they are part of it. The media’s problem is not that the censorship conspiracy is unproven. It’s that we proved it.

  As such, Public is happy to announce a gathering of free speech leaders, journalists, and attorneys from around the world in London on July 22 – 23. At 7 pm on July 22, Matt Taibbi, Russell Brand, and I will speak on stage at Central Hall Westminster in London.

  

  The next day, a small group of free speech leaders from around the world will gather to form an anti-censorship alliance aimed at defunding and dismantling the Censorship Industrial Complex, fighting new government censorship efforts, and pushing for First Amendment-level free speech protections worldwide. Email us to find out more information and get involved.

  It’s time for freedom lovers to go on the offense. The problem isn’t that America is too free with its First Amendment free speech protections. It’s that other countries are too censorious. People around the world would love to enjoy the freedoms we take for granted in America, which is a big reason so many people want to live here. We are confident that when the peoples of the world, or their representatives, are forced to vote on free speech, they will tend toward the First Amendment, away from the totalitarian speech restrictions being pushed globally.

  Governments are cracking down, but we are fighting back. The regime media won’t cover the news, so we will. After all the Congressional histrionics and media denials have passed, a worldwide grassroots citizen’s free speech and anti-censorship resistance movement will be left in their wake. It is notable that the main U.S. censorship groups, which are now being sued, are trying to deny that they were, in fact, censoring anyone.

  But such lies are belied by their allies in the EU and elsewhere in the world trying to expand their censorship powers. In cracking down on speech, governments display their own lack of trust in the people, an attitude that will be increasingly reciprocated.

  …

  Subscribers can read Shellenberger’s full note here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/01/2023 – 18:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Conspirators For The Constitution: When Anti-Government Speech Becomes Sedition
  Conspirators For The Constitution: When Anti-Government Speech Becomes Sedition

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

  – George Orwell

  Let’s be clear about one thing: seditious conspiracy isn’t a real crime to anyone but the U.S. government.

  To be convicted of seditious conspiracy, the charge levied against Stewart Rhodes who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for being the driving force behind the January 6 Capitol riots, one doesn’t have to engage in violence against the government, vandalize government property, or even trespass on property that the government has declared off-limits to the general public.

  To be convicted of seditious conspiracy, one need only foment a revolution.

  This is not about whether Rhodes deserves such a hefty sentence.

  This is about the long-term ramifications of empowering the government to wage war on individuals whose political ideas and expression challenge the government’s power, reveal the government’s corruption, expose the government’s lies, and encourage the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

  This is about criminalizing political expression in thoughts, words and deeds.

  This is about how the government has used the events of Jan. 6 in order to justify further power grabs and acquire more authoritarian emergency powers.    

  This was never about so-called threats to democracy.

  In fact, the history of this nation is populated by individuals whose rhetoric was aimed at fomenting civil unrest and revolution.

  Indeed, by the government’s own definition, America’s founders were seditious conspirators based on the heavily charged rhetoric they used to birth the nation.

  Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Marquis De Lafayette, and John Adams would certainly have been charged for suggesting that Americans should not only take up arms but be prepared to protect their liberties and defend themselves against the government should it violate their rights.

  “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms,” declared Jefferson. He also concluded that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

  “It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government,” insisted Paine.

  “When the government violates the people’s rights,” Lafayette warned, “insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.”

  Adams cautioned, “A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits, blessings and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and executing laws, will justify a revolution.”

  Had America’s founders feared revolutionary words and ideas, there would have been no First Amendment, which protects the right to political expression, even if that expression is anti-government.

  No matter what one’s political persuasion might be, every American has a First Amendment right to protest government programs or policies with which they might disagree.

  The right to disagree with and speak out against the government is the quintessential freedom.

  Every individual has a right to speak truth to power—and foment change—using every nonviolent means available.

  Unfortunately, the government is increasingly losing its tolerance for anyone whose political views could be perceived as critical or “anti-government.”

  All of us are in danger.

  

  In recent years, the government has used the phrase “domestic terrorist” interchangeably with “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” to describe anyone who might fall somewhere on a very broad spectrum of viewpoints that could be considered “dangerous.”

  The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American with an opinion about the government or who knows someone with an opinion about the government an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.

  You see, the government doesn’t care if you or someone you know has a legitimate grievance. It doesn’t care if your criticisms are well-founded. And it certainly doesn’t care if you have a First Amendment right to speak truth to power.

  What the government cares about is whether what you’re thinking or speaking or sharing or consuming as information has the potential to challenge its stranglehold on power.

  Why else would the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies be investing in corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram?

  Why else would the Biden Administration be likening those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists?

  Why else would the government be waging war against those who engage in thought crimes?

  Get ready for the next phase of the government’s war on thought crimes and truth-tellers.

  For years now, the government has used all of the weapons in its vast arsenal—surveillance, threat assessments, fusion centers, pre-crime programs, hate crime laws, militarized police, lockdowns, martial law, etc.—to target potential enemies of the state based on their ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that might be deemed suspicious or dangerous.

  For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you could be at the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

  Moreover, as a New York Times editorial warns, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the police if you are afraid that the government is plotting to confiscate your firearms, if you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law, or if you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car.

  According to one FBI report, you might also be classified as a domestic terrorism threat if you espouse conspiracy theories, especially if you “attempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group of actors working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others” and are “usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.”

  In other words, if you dare to subscribe to any views that are contrary to the government’s, you may well be suspected of being a domestic terrorist and treated accordingly.

  There’s a whole spectrum of behaviors ranging from thought crimes and hate speech to whistleblowing that qualifies for persecution (and prosecution) by the Deep State.

  Simply liking or sharing this article on Facebook, retweeting it on Twitter, or merely reading it or any other articles related to government wrongdoing, surveillance, police misconduct or civil liberties might be enough to get you categorized as a particular kind of person with particular kinds of interests that reflect a particular kind of mindset that might just lead you to engage in a particular kinds of activities and, therefore, puts you in the crosshairs of a government investigation as a potential troublemaker a.k.a. domestic extremist.

  Chances are, as the Washington Post reports, you have already been assigned a color-coded threat score—green, yellow or red—so police are forewarned about your potential inclination to be a troublemaker depending on whether you’ve had a career in the military, posted a comment perceived as threatening on Facebook, suffer from a particular medical condition, or know someone who knows someone who might have committed a crime.

  In other words, you might already be flagged as potentially anti-government in a government database somewhere—Main Core, for example—that identifies and tracks individuals who aren’t inclined to march in lockstep to the police state’s dictates.

  As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies have increasingly invested in corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior.

  Where many Americans go wrong is in naively assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or harmful in order to be flagged and targeted for some form of intervention or detention.

  In fact, all you need to do these days to end up on a government watch list or be subjected to heightened scrutiny is use certain trigger words (like cloud, pork and pirates), surf the internet, communicate using a cell phone, limp or stutter, drive a car, stay at a hotel, attend a political rally, express yourself on social media, appear mentally ill, serve in the military, disagree with a law enforcement official, call in sick to work, purchase materials at a hardware store, take flying or boating lessons, appear suspicious, appear confused or nervous, fidget or whistle or smell bad, be seen in public waving a toy gun or anything remotely resembling a gun (such as a water nozzle or a remote control or a walking cane), stare at a police officer, question government authority, or appear to be pro-gun or pro-freedom.

  And then at the other end of the spectrum there are those such as Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, for example, who blow the whistle on government misconduct that is within the public’s right to know.

  In true Orwellian fashion, the government would have us believe that it is Assange and Manning who are the real criminals for daring to expose the war machine’s seedy underbelly.

  Since his April 2019 arrest, Assange has been locked up in a maximum-security British prison—in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day—pending extradition to the U.S., where if convicted, he could be sentenced to 175 years in prison.

  This is how the police state deals with those who challenge its chokehold on power.

  This is also why the government fears a citizenry that thinks for itself: because a citizenry that thinks for itself is a citizenry that is informed, engaged and prepared to hold the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law, which translates to government transparency and accountability.

  After all, we’re citizens, not subjects.

  For those who don’t fully understand the distinction between the two and why transparency is so vital to a healthy constitutional government, Manning explains it well:

  When freedom of information and transparency are stifled, then bad decisions are often made and heartbreaking tragedies occur – too often on a breathtaking scale that can leave societies wondering: how did this happen? … I believe that when the public lacks even the most fundamental access to what its governments and militaries are doing in their names, then they cease to be involved in the act of citizenship. There is a bright distinction between citizens, who have rights and privileges protected by the state, and subjects, who are under the complete control and authority of the state.

  This is why the First Amendment is so critical. It gives the citizenry the right to speak freely, protest peacefully, expose government wrongdoing, and criticize the government without fear of arrest, isolation or any of the other punishments that have been meted out to whistleblowers such as Edwards Snowden, Assange and Manning.

  The challenge is holding the government accountable to obeying the law.

  A little over 50 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in United States v. Washington Post Co. to block the Nixon Administration’s attempts to use claims of national security to prevent The Washington Post and The New York Times from publishing secret Pentagon papers on how America went to war in Vietnam.

  As Justice William O. Douglas remarked on the ruling, “The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.”

  Fast forward to the present day, and we’re witnessing yet another showdown, this time between Assange and the Deep State, which pits the people’s right to know about government misconduct against the might of the military industrial complex.

  Yet this isn’t merely about whether whistleblowers and journalists are part of a protected class under the Constitution. It’s a debate over how long “we the people” will remain a protected class under the Constitution.

  Following the current trajectory, it won’t be long before anyone who believes in holding the government accountable is labeled an “extremist,” relegated to an underclass that doesn’t fit in, watched all the time, and rounded up when the government deems it necessary.

  We’re almost at that point now.

  Eventually, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we will all be seditious conspirators in the eyes of the government.

  We would do better to be conspirators for the Constitution starting right now.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 23:45

• Where The Most Money Is Burned On Cigars
  Where The Most Money Is Burned On Cigars

  When it comes to buying cigars, U.S. adults are among the biggest spenders.

  However, as Statista’s Anna Fleck notes, while Americans of age to buy tobacco spend around $36 per year on cigars, they are only topped by the Lebanese who spent almost $37 per capita last year on the vice.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Other high rollers who like to spend big on expensive cigars are Qataris, Luxembourgers, Icelanders, the Swiss and the Brits – likely aided by the fact that these countries all have high price levels and/or high taxes on tobacco.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 23:25

• Wanted: Corrupt Stooge For High Political Office. Must Have Pulse
  Wanted: Corrupt Stooge For High Political Office. Must Have Pulse

  Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

  With only days to go before the federal government of the Land of the Free defaults on its debt, it appears that a compromise may finally be on the horizon.

  As part of the bargain, both sides have agreed to slash part of the $80 billion in new funding that the IRS was awarded last year.

  This is quite a blow to the President, who sold his plan to beef up the IRS last year by saying that the agency would capture up to “a trillion 300 million billion dollars if we hire more IRS agents.”

  A trillion 300 million billion? That sure does sound like a lot of money.

  Mr. Biden, of course, never seems to have much of a handle of arithmetic (nor anything else).

  At one point he explained that Covid-19 had taken “200 billion lives”, and then further commented that “just the outbreak, has taken more than one hundred year, look, here, the lives, it’s just, just think about it.”

  Quite sadly he even recently claimed that his son Beau died during a military deployment to in Iraq. In reality, Beau returned from Iraq in 2009, but died of brain cancer in 2015. You’d think his dad would know that.

  And this is on top of the countless videos out there of the President shaking hands with thin air, wandering aimlessly at official functions, reading instructions from teleprompters such as “repeat for emphasis”, and stopping mid-sentence with a thousand-yard stare.

  Now, Biden isn’t the first leader in history who showed signs of dementia.

  King George the III of England famously thought a tree was the king of Prussia. Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan showed signs of dementia towards the end of their terms in office.

  But there is a key difference.

  President Biden has deliberately surrounded himself with incompetent lunatics.

  For example, his Vice President’s latest inspiring quote is, “It’s very important… for us at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to seize the moment in time in which we exist in our present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past, but to the future.”

  Profound. A college freshman smoking his first joint couldn’t have said it better.

  What’s crazy is that this sort of verbal incontinence is pervasive across the rest of government.

  After a three month absence in the Senate due to shingles, 89-year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein returned to Washington and informed a reporter, “I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working.”

  The reporter asked for clarification if the Senator meant she had been working from home.

  “No, I’ve been here [at the capitol]. I’ve been voting,” she responded, before adding cryptically, “Please, you either know or don’t know.”

  And here’s a direct quote from Senator John Fetterman questioning banking CEOs in a recent Senate hearing:

  “That’s like if you have I mean like an-and they also realize that that now they have it’s an in a guaranteed, a guaranteed way to be saved by noma again, no matter, by-by-by how?”

  After an awkward silence from the men he was interrogating, Fetterman continued, “shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we sail your bank bills-in your bank? Because they seem me-more preoccupied than when snap requirement for works for hungry people but not about protecting the tax papers that will bail no matter whatever does about the bank, the crash.”

  Now, I don’t want to poke fun of someone’s legitimate medical condition. Dementia is a devastating condition. And in Fetterman’s case, he suffered a terrible stroke during his senate campaign. It’s certainly not his fault— it could happen to anyone.

  But America has become such a touchy, hypersensitive culture, that it’s considered gauche to even question whether someone who suffered a stroke, or suffers from dementia, is still fit for office.

  So if you think you’re entitled to an elected representative who actually knows where she is… well then the entire establishment closes ranks around the politician to defend them and labels you a bad person.

  The most we can possibly expect of elected leaders right now is that they have a pulse.

  

  Full control of their mental faculties? Not relevant. Backbone and integrity? Laughable.

  This is a pretty terrible trend given that the US is riddled with so many serious, malignant problems. This debt ceiling crisis is only the latest one… and they haven’t solved it. Even if their bargain is successful, they’re only punting the problem into the future by little more than two years.

  Social Security’s insolvency is looming. America’s military readiness is falling. More bank crises are looming. The dollar is in danger of losing its global dominance. Geopolitical threats are growing.

  You’d think that voters would want the best possible leaders who are at the absolute top of their game.

  But no. Instead, you just need a pulse.

  PS: If you can see what is happening, and where this is all going, you understand why it is so important to have a Plan B. That’s why we published our 31-page, fully updated Perfect Plan B Guide, which you can download here.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 23:05

• McCarthy Reportedly Gave Democrats Secret Concessions In Exchange For Debt Ceiling Votes
  McCarthy Reportedly Gave Democrats Secret Concessions In Exchange For Debt Ceiling Votes

  Update (2300ET): Hours after the House passed the debt ceiling bill, Axios reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) secret concessions to boost spending on Democratic districts in the form of “community project funding” in exchange for their votes earlier this evening, according to two senior lawmakers.

  

  One lawmaker said the deal boosts earmarks to Democrats to bring them “closer to parity” with what Republicans receive in such funds in the GOP-led House. -Axios

  McCarthy has told reporters that he didn’t cut any deals to supply the Democratic votes.

  Speaker McCarthy just told us he didn’t have to cut any deals with Hakeem Jeffries to get Dem votes to approve the rule for debt ceiling bill

  — Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 31, 2023

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

  When asked if he cut a deal, Jeffries said “House Democrats to the rescue to avoid a dangerous default and help House Republicans get legislation over the finish line that they negotiated themselves.”

  Asked if he cut a deal with McCarthy to help pass the Rule, Jeffries said over and her (not answering directly):

  “House Democrats to the rescue to avoid a dangerous default and help House Republicans get legislation over the finish line that they negotiated themselves.”

  — Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) May 31, 2023

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

  More via Axios;

  The backdrop: Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, previously had told Democrats that they would receive significantly reduced funding for projects in their districts this year, according to Politico.

  What we’re watching: The deal could further inflame far-right lawmakers already incensed about the compromise bill that McCarthy cut with Biden. They’ve accused the speaker of caving to most of Democrats’ demands and not cutting enough government spending.

  • Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), reacting to news that Democrats might have squeezed McCarthy on earmarks, tweeted derisively: “Earmarks! Sell! Sell! Sell! #NoDeal[.]”

  *  *  *

  Update (2115ET): The House has successfully voted to raise the debt limit. The legislation now heads to the Senate, where it will need (and undoubtedly receive) at least 60 votes to proceed to President Biden’s desk for his signature ahead of a June 5 deadline to avert a national default.

  

  71 Republicans opposed the measure, as did 46 Democrats, while 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats voted to back the plan.

  As we noted earlier, the bill – which as discussed here does not cut real Federal spending even in year one despite widespread propaganda that In exchange for Republican votes for the suspension, Democrats agreed to cap federal spending for the next two years – would set the course for federal spending for the next two years and suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025 — postponing another clash over borrowing until after the presidential election. By then total US debt will be $35 trillion and well on its way to unsustainability.

  Of note, in order to try and convince hardline conservatives to vote yes, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had proposed a bipartisan commission, at an expected cost upwards of $100 million, to outline future budget cuts.

  “After today, I’m going to put a commission together to look at the entire budget. This debt is too large,” said McCarthy. “We can be very serious about looking long term to solve this problem.”

  *  *  *

  Update (2115ET): The full House vote has started on the debt ceiling deal.

  Watch live:

  *  *  *

  Shortly after 4pm ET, the debt-limit deal cleared a major hurdle in the House despite growing opposition, setting up the legislation for a vote around 8:15pm on Wednesday night, a vote which despite vocal showboating opposition from various republicans appears destined to pass.

  While the House voted 241-187 to take a procedural step needed to consider the measure, McCarthy needed votes from Democrats to offset 29 Republican “no” votes, underscoring the divide within his own party over the legislation as such votes setting the rules for debate are nearly always decided along party lines.  The final vote tally suggests that the Speaker’s position is becoming increasingly vulnerable… if only there was someone willing to submit a motion to vacate.

  THE RULE for the debt-limit bill has passed. 241-187.

  Dems helped the GOP get the motion for the Biden-McCarthy bill across the finish line.

  Final vote later tonight.

  — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 31, 2023

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

  Here are the 29 Republicans that voted no on the rule for the debt ceiling:

  A) 29 GOPers voted no on rule for debt ceiling.

  1. Biggs
  2. Bishop
  3. Boebert
  4. Brecheen
  5. Burlison
  6. Buck
  7. Cline
  8. Burchett
  9. Cloud
  10. Clyde
  11. Crane
  12. Gaetz
  13. Gosar
  14. Good
  15. Griffith
  16. Higgins
  17. Harris
  18. Harshberger
  19. Luna
  20. Miller
  21. Moore
  22. Norman
  23. Perry
  24. Posey
  25. Rosendale
  26. Roy
  27. Self
  28. Spartz
  29. Tiffany

  “I think things are going as planned,” Biden told reporters at the White House, before he was due to leave for Colorado. “God willing, by the time I land, Congress will have acted, the House will have acted, and we’ll be one step closer.”

  House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, said early Wednesday that he’s sure the votes are in hand. “It’s going to pass,” he said even though he will need Democrat vote for the final passage.

  If it passes, the bill will next go to the Senate, where objections from conservatives could force days of debate. But John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said Wednesday that there could be a deal to pass the bill by Friday night, days ahead of the June 5 default deadline.

  The bill – which as discussed here does not cut real Federal spending even in year one despite widespread propaganda that In exchange for Republican votes for the suspension, Democrats agreed to cap federal spending for the next two years – would set the course for federal spending for the next two years and suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025 — postponing another clash over borrowing until after the presidential election. By then total US debt will be $35 trillion and well on its way to unsustainability.

  

  * * *

  As the deal to raise the debt ceiling works its way through the House, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (KY) is preparing for battle with Senate conservatives who are calling for amendments to the bill and threatening to delay the legislation until changes are made.

  

  As The Hill reports, the bill is likely to get over 40 Senate Democratic votes, meaning it will likely need at least 10-20 “yes” votes from Senate Republicans in order for it to move to President Biden’s desk before the June 5 “X-date” deadline set by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for the US to run out of funds.

  On Sunday, McConnell came out in favor of the deal negotiated between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Biden’s team, however he faces strong opposition from actual conservatives. Chief among them, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has threatened to use “every procedural tool at my disposal” to slow down the bill. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has similarly thrown a wrench in the gears – demanding a vote on his “conservative alternative” that would cut total federal spending by $545 billion over two years.

  “It’s time to go back to the drawing board or, even better, go back to what the House already passed,” said Lee on Tuesday – referring to the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would cut $4.8 trillion from the future deficit. According to Lee, the current bill “simply does not do what its proponents claim it does — not even close.”

  Last week, Lee said that if the bill doesn’t include substantial budgetary and spending reforms, it “will not face smooth sailing in the Senate.”

  McConnell has pledged the nation will not default on its debts but he also has a responsibility as leader to help Republican colleagues who want to amend the legislation, which could delay it past the June 5 “X-date.”   

  “The Senate must act swiftly and pass this agreement without unnecessary delay,” he said in a statement Sunday. -The Hill

  Rand Paul, meanwhile, says he won’t vote for any bill to raise the debt ceiling that doesn’t balance the federal budget in five years – which would require over $500 billion in future cuts.

  

  “To us, it doesn’t look like cuts at all. In fact, spending will go up every year under that debt plan,” he said of the Biden-McCarthy deal, adding “Mandatory spending is enormous; it’s over half of the spending every year. It’s going up at five percent a year.”

  That said, Paul says he won’t use procedural amendments to slow down passage of the debt bill, which caps federal spending for two years, and allows Congress to decide how to meet those targets at a later date.

  Also opposing the current deal are Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Mike Braun (R-IN).

  “This bill leaves us with trillions more in debt & no clear path to less inflation or a balanced budget. I appreciate the work @SpeakerMcCarthy did to try & negotiate a good deal when @JoeBiden refused to engage, but I cannot support this bill,” Scott tweeted Tuesday.

  (2/2) Now is our moment to get America back on the path of fiscal sanity. Getting serious about America’s debt isn’t something we can compromise on.

  If this passes the House, the Senate must take amendment votes and Senate Republican Leadership must stand with everyone working…

  — Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) May 30, 2023

  Braun, meanwhile, told reporters that he wouldn’t vote for the bill unless it similarly contains major changes and amendments, adding that he won’t object to speeding up the debate on the legislation if he and his GOP colleagues can submit amendments – even if they’re unlikely to pass.

  “You want amendments because you know they’re not going to pass, let’s be real here. The Democrats and the neo-cons in our party are going to get this thing across the finish line, but I want the process of being able to amend it. To me, that is a step in the right direction, because this all gives information to the public in terms of what could be done, even though it doesn’t get incorporated,” said Braun.

  Other GOP Senators on the fence include John Cornyn, John Kennedy and Mike Rounds.

  “From my perspective, there’s not really anything to support until the House passes the bill. I’m waiting to see what the House sends us,” said Cornyn.

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 23:01

• Female Athlete Retires After Competing Against Biological Men, Says Girls "No Longer Have A Fair Chance"
  Female Athlete Retires After Competing Against Biological Men, Says Girls “No Longer Have A Fair Chance”

  Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

  Hannah Arensman, a 35-time national cyclocross winner, decided to retire at the age of 25 following a loss to a transgender competitor. She shared her decision along with 67 female athletes and supporters in a recent Supreme Court amicus brief filing (pdf) in support of a West Virginia law that would keep biological men out of women’s sports.

  “I have decided to end my cycling career,” Arensman declared last Wednesday.

  In her statement, Arensman recalled her final race in the elite women’s division of the UCI Cyclocross National Championships in late December, where she finished in the 4th place, flanked on either side by competitors she identifies as male riders. “I came in 4th place, flanked on either side by male riders awarded 3rd and 5th places,” she stated.

  

  She recounted the emotional toll this had on her and her family: “My sister and family sobbed as they watched a man finish in front of me, having witnessed several physical interactions with him throughout the race.”

  Furthermore, Arensman expressed her frustration over the possibility that she might have been overlooked for international selection on the U.S. team at the Cyclocross Worlds in February 2023 due to a male competitor. “It is difficult for me to think about the very real possibility I was overlooked because of a male competitor,” she shared.

  In her detailed account, Arensman voiced her discontent over what she perceives as an unequal playing field, stating: “It has become increasingly discouraging to train as hard as I do only to have to lose to a man with the unfair advantage of an androgenized body that intrinsically gives him an obvious advantage over me, no matter how hard I train.”

  In her statement, she also expressed concern for the young girls entering the field of competitive sports: “I feel for young girls learning to compete and who are growing up in a day when they no longer have a fair chance at being the new record holders and champions in cycling.”

  Expressing her frustration and disappointment, Arensman criticized the authorities for not ensuring fair competition in women’s sports: “I have felt deeply angered, disappointed, overlooked, and humiliated that the rule makers of women’s sports do not feel it is necessary to protect women’s sports to ensure fair competition for women anymore.”

  Her statement and those from other disenfranchised female athletes were disseminated by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.

  Legal Battle

  Selina Soule, a track and field champion, has emerged as a pivotal figure in pushing for the restoration of fairness in women’s sports. With a legal battle on the horizon, Soule is rallying support from those affected by this contentious issue.

  Soule described the situation as “devastating,” expressing concern over the future of women’s sports. “It’s devastating that there are women out there who are retiring or changing their events because they are being forced to compete against biological males where those males, if they were competing in the men’s category, they would be barely mediocre. But in the women, they are dominating the field, and it’s a very, extremely frustrating situation,” she told Fox News on May 24. “It should not be happening. Women’s sports should be preserved as just women’s sports.”

  

  Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) joins Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Va.), track and field athlete Selina Soule (in pink suit) and other Republicans for an event to celebrate the House passing The Protection Of Women And Girls In Sports Act outside the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2023 in Washington. (Somodevilla/Getty Images)

  Soule’s experiences competing against biological males during her high school career have fueled her call for action. “Everybody who has encountered this issue needs to speak up and ask for fairness,” Soule said.

  In 2020, Soule, alongside other student-athletes, initiated a lawsuit against the Connecticut Association of Schools. The suit challenged a state ruling that allowed transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. Despite the judge dismissing the lawsuit on procedural grounds, Soule, backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, is preparing to appeal the ruling​.

  The repercussions of the current policy are far-reaching, according to Soule’s attorney Christiana Kiefer. “Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field, and what Selena experienced … was being sidelined in her own sport and that’s a clear violation of Title IX,” Kiefer argued during the Fox News​​ show.

  On April 6, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) released a notice of proposed rule-making on athletic eligibility for transgender students who participate in school sports. Some states recently have banned these students from participating on teams different from their biological sex.

  The Biden administration proposal, as explained in the Federal Register, “would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity.”

  

  Former high school athlete Selina Soule, who competed within the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. (Alliance Defending Freedom)

  Officially, the rule-change proposal is listed as “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male or Female Athletic Teams.”

  A national conservative watchdog group, Citizens Defending Freedom, has been encouraging people to flood the online page of the Federal Register with comments about the proposed rule change to Title IX.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 22:45

• Russian Ambassador Claims Maidan-Style Coup Attempt Unfolding In Belgrade
  Russian Ambassador Claims Maidan-Style Coup Attempt Unfolding In Belgrade

  Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko has leveled some dramatic allegations against the West in relation to both the Ukraine war and ongoing tensions and clashes in northern Kosovo, which has been focus of international media attention. 

  The Russian ambassador claimed that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s opponents are plotting and attempting to stage a “Maidan-style coup” in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. His word choice implied he things the West is involved on some level.

  Using terminology which has been familiar in Kremlin descriptions of what NATO is doing in Ukraine, Amb. Botsan-Kharchenko said, “This is part of the hybrid war. I would like to stress that anti-Belgrade forces acted almost synchronously; they operate on two fronts – this is the situation in Kosovo and attempts at a Maidan coup here, in Belgrade.”

  

  The Russian official’s words also referenced recent large-scale anti-government protests inside Serbia, some which gathered in front of the building of Serbia’s national broadcaster in Belgrade on Sunday.

  These have been billed as ‘peace protests’ but according to regional media have progressively taken on an anti-government character and anti-government slogans. Some of them have happened with slogans such as “Serbia Against Violence” – and have been focused on gun violence in the wake of recent mass casualty school shootings in Serbia – a rarity for the country’s recent history.

  The protests have been going strong since mid-May, and people are angry over what they see as government mishandling of recent crises:

  Tens of thousands of people have marched through Belgrade, blocking a key bridge in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled Serbia and left 17 people dead, including many children.

  Protesters gathered in front of the parliament building on Friday before filing by the government’s HQ and on to a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. At the head of the column was a black banner reading “Serbia against violence.”

  As the demonstrators passed the government buildings, many chanted slogans decrying Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, whom they blame for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the mass shootings.

  Additionally Russia’s TASS has described the following of recent protests in Serbia: 

  The first rally was quite peaceful, with practically no anti-government slogans. People were simply congregating in silence in front of the parliamentary building. During the second rally, protesters blocked a bridge across the Sava River and chanted anti-government slogans. The third demonstration had an anti-government character too. According to the Serbian interior ministry, more than 11,000 people took part in these rallies.

  🔴 SERBIA | Thousands have gathered despite the heavy rain in the fourth “Serbia against violence” protest that has just started in Belgrade. pic.twitter.com/xAJpidMpsO

  — Balkan Insight (@BalkanInsight) May 27, 2023

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  Serbia has long been a staunch ally of Russia, however, there’s been recent distance and tensions due to the war in Ukraine. Still, Belgrade is generally seen in the West as more oriented toward Russia. It remains that both Slavic countries have long condemned what they see as NATO aggression and expansion, particularly following the 1999 US-NATO bombing campaign over Belgrade.

  The Serbian population itself also tends to engage in large demonstrations against NATO and US policies from time to time. In particular the Serb people reject US and international recognition of Kosovo as a sovereign nation, given it historically was an ethnic Serb and Orthodox Christian heartland. This week, President Vucic has ordered Serbian troops to the Kosovo border amid unrest and an unpredictable situation, also as he’s condemned the Kosovo government for cracking down on the Serb minority there.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 22:25

• Republicans Call For Action As China Turns US Into 'Hunting Ground' For Dissidents
  Republicans Call For Action As China Turns US Into ‘Hunting Ground’ For Dissidents

  Authored by Frank Fang, Eva Fu and Joshua Philipp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The recent indictments of two suspected Chinese agents in California are examples of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is trying to turn the United States into a “hunting ground” for dissidents, according to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.).

  

  The two individuals attempted to bribe an undercover officer posing as an IRS agent, in a plot to revoke the tax-exempt status of an entity run and maintained by Falun Gong practitioners, according to the Department of Justice. They were arrested at their residences on May 26 and face charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering.

  “This is another example of just how the CCP, the Communist Chinese Party, is doing all they can to undermine our sovereignty [and] silence all dissent even in our country,” Newhouse told EpochTV’s “Crossroads” on May 30.

  While U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has characterized the case as part of China’s “campaign of transnational repression” in the United States, Newhouse gave a blunt assessment of the situation.

  “I want to be clear about what I think this really means. This is a foreign government that is committing crimes against those that it deems to be a threat, right here on American soil,” Newhouse said.

  The two suspected Chinese agents—John Chen from California’s Chino City and Lin Feng from Los Angeles—​​carried out their bribery campaign from January to May this year, according to prosecutors.

  According to a court document, Chen characterized one of the Chinese officials the two received “direction” from as someone “that is always in charge of these matters,” during an intercepted phone call. In other words, the unidentified Chinese official could be directly involved in China’s ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, possibly once having a position within the regime’s extralegal body known as the “610 Office.”

  The United States “should be a haven from persecution, not what they’re trying to turn it into—a hunting ground for an authoritarian government,” Newhouse added.

  610 Office

  Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline with slow meditative exercises and moral teachings. In 1999, the Chinese regime launched a persecution campaign against the group, throwing practitioners into prisons, labor camps, and brainwashing centers.

  Hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been subjected to torture while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, while thousands have been killed as a result of torture and abuse in police custody. Owing to strict censorship in China, the actual death toll is likely to be many times higher.

  The 610 Office was set up in 1999 for the sole purpose of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. It was disbanded between 2018 and 2019 and its functions were merged into other CCP organs, according to internal documents obtained by The Epoch Times.

  

  In June 2021, the State Department announced sanctions against Yu Hui, a former director of a regional 610 Office, for his involvement in “gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs.”

  The Chinese regime’s presence inside the United States was exposed last month, when the FBI arrested two individuals on charges of operating a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the CCP. They allegedly took orders from the regime in order to track down and silence Chinese dissidents living in the United States, prosecutors said.

  Newhouse said more and more American people, as well as members of Congress, are “seeing China for what it is” because of the “aggressive actions” that China has undertaken.

  “I’m glad that the DOJ and the FBI have been on their toes on this doing the right thing, holding them accountable,” he added. “Who knows what else is going on, that maybe the American people and members of Congress even aren’t aware of. So we’ve got to be vigilant.”

  ‘Confront China’s Repression Head-On’

  In response to the alleged bribery scheme against Falun Gong, two Republican lawmakers are calling for the government to confront China’s actions in the United States.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 22:05

• The U.S. Government's Over-Classification Epidemic: Ratcliffe
  The U.S. Government’s Over-Classification Epidemic: Ratcliffe

  Authored by John Ratcliffe via RealClear Wire,

  Classified information is a mainstay in the news these days and rarely for positive reasons. On the one hand, classified documents seem to be leaking at an unprecedented rate, often revealing not only sensitive national security information but also government impropriety. While in office, I saw this firsthand in Crossfire Hurricane, the bogus counterintelligence investigation into non-existent links between President Trump and Russia. Much of that information should never have been classified and was only tightly controlled to obscure government wrongdoing. On the other hand, overclassification of information that does not meet appropriate classification thresholds is an epidemic inside the national security apparatus. As a result, it is estimated that some 50 million documents are classified each year across the federal government.

  

  Overclassification—or unreasonable resistance to declassification—is sometimes a result of the desire to conceal embarrassing or inappropriate actions, but it’s more often done out of convenience, laziness or good old-fashioned CYA. After all, I’m not aware of any government employee getting in trouble for classifying something that didn’t really need to be classified, but there are serious ramifications for not classifying something that should be.

  In part because the executive branch has been so slow to address this issue, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has filed bills to address over-classification and declassification issues. Perhaps they are hoping to force the White House to take action, but any President should be wary of the legislative branch encroaching on their Constitutional authority to classify and control access to national security information.

  However, if we are going to tackle the pervasive overclassification problem, we must also ensure that the government has a reasonable process for handling “controlled unclassified information” (CUI)—information that is not classified but is nonetheless not widely shared by the U.S. government. This is the gray area between highly sensitive national security information and widely available or non-sensitive information that’s suitable for public disclosure.

  In a 2020 memo to the President’s National Security Advisor, I laid out how the current system came into effect: 

  For decades, agencies often employed ad hoc, agency-specific policies, procedures, and markings to handle unclassified information that requires safeguarding or dissemination controls. This patchwork approach apparently resulted in agencies’ marking and handling information inconsistently, implementing allegedly unclear or unnecessarily restrictive dissemination policies, and creating potential obstacles to information sharing.”

  This dynamic led to the Obama Administration in 2010 to issue an Executive order (EO 13556) retiring many of the various, inconsistent unclassified dissemination control markings used for this “gray area” information and replacing them all with a single marking: CUI.

  This simplified approach sounded like a good idea at the time. But like many other well-intentioned government policies, it broke down in its implementation. 

  In spite of the mandate to simplify the unclassified markings system, the National Archives and Records Administration’s Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) expanded the potential new marking system to include, as I wrote in my memo to the National Security Advisor, “over 124 categories in 20 groupings, with 60 Specified and 60+ Basic categories.”

  As a result, the new system is so complex and cumbersome that it has still not been fully implemented 13 years later. And it’s not only because it would be a complicated mess; it would also cost a fortune, requiring an estimated $1 billion or more to implement just in the Intelligence Community alone. What critical mission areas, I wonder, will be cut to build this new bureaucratic regime? Perhaps we’ll stop collecting intelligence on some of our hard targets or adversarial nations and divert that money to fund this latest iteration of government gone wild.

  Critics called my memo a “bureaucratic bombshell” in 2020, but it is nothing compared to the bureaucratic nuclear bomb of the new CUI methodology that is already wreaking havoc and driving exasperation across the government, particularly within the national security community.

  There is no question that the current marking system for both classified information and CUI has gotten way too complicated. We spend an inordinate amount of money and an outrageous amount of time training people on it—with mixed results. But it makes no sense to spend billions to create new problems rather than fix the existing ones. We need simplification. Unfortunately, the result of President Obama’s 2010 Executive order has been the exact opposite of that. And now we are just days away from a deadline, set by the Biden White House, to either revise or replace the Executive Orders dealing with both classified national security information and controlled unclassified information.

  No proponent of good government could justify spending good money and wasting more time attempting to implement a clearly broken system. As a former member of Congress, I can tell you that is why some of my savvy former colleagues on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) are already considering not authorizing funds for the Intelligence Community to implement the unwieldy CUI program come September when the next budget bill arrives. They know we need reform, from cracking down on overclassification to streamlining the handling of CUI. And pushing forward with the current plan doesn’t deliver either.

  John Ratcliffe served as the 6th U.S. Director of National Intelligence from 2020-2021. A Republican, he represented Texas’ Fourth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2020.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 21:45

• Bad News Is Now Good News In China As Market Awaits Stimulus
  Bad News Is Now Good News In China As Market Awaits Stimulus

  By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  China’s May PMI survey flashed the latest warning of mounting economic trouble, prompting investors to eagerly weigh the odds of more stimulus out of Beijing. Onshore equities have already relinquished the vast majority of their post-reopening gains, adding pressure on policymakers to move fast and aggressively to promote growth.

  The yuan, stocks and commodity prices have fallen since late April, a reflection of China’s pessimistic economic prospects, Shao Xiang and Tao Chuan at Soochow Securities wrote in their WeChat public account on Wednesday. History suggests monetary policy rarely “stands idly by” once manufacturing PMI stays below the 50 threshold for two or more straight months, they pointed out.

  

  The PBOC took actions in 2019, 2021 and 2022 when the factory gauge worsened — including reductions to the Required Reserve Ratio (RRR), the Medium-term Lending Facilities (MLF) rate and Loan Prime Rate (LPR). These actions occurred either during the same month or one to two months after the data was out, the Soochow analysts noted.

  The PMI data confirmed China’s post-Covid recovery is “far from a self-sustained one, due to a lack of confidence among corporates and households,” according to Macquarie analysts Larry Hu and Yuxiao Zhang. “Now policy is the only game changer,” they said in a research report on Wednesday.

  Beijing will either need to get its stimulus package in shape in the coming weeks or risk a sharp year-over-year downturn in the next quarter, according to Evercore ISI. The lockdown of Shanghai, which took place between April and May of 2022, weighed heavily on the Chinese economy and the low base of comparison suggests 2Q GDP will “look great” in year-over-year terms despite ongoing headwinds, analysts Neo Wang and Gin Wang noted.

  

  Consensus forecast puts the pace of expansion at 7.8% year-over-year in 2Q and 5.1% in 3Q, according to a Bloomberg survey. Evercore ISI believes “it makes more sense to announce stimulus taking effects when 3Q arrives,” while Macquarie sees an “RRR cut, acceleration in infrastructure spending and more relaxation in property policy” in the weeks ahead.

  Still, whether PBOC will cut MLF or LPR remains a close call given the expectations for another Fed hike in June, Macquarie cautions. More data deterioration may be needed before Beijing makes up its mind.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 21:25

• Randi Weingarten Has Zero Credibility
  Randi Weingarten Has Zero Credibility

  Authored by Stan Greer via RealClear Wire,

  In March 2020, a little more than three years ago, state and local politicians across America halted in-person classes for K-12 government schools with the purported aim of slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. When the school shutdowns began, few ordinary citizens had any idea how long they would last. It ultimately turned out that many school districts would remain closed until well into 2021. It’s been estimated that roughly half of America’s public schoolchildren lost a year or more of full-time, face-to-face instruction in the classroom.

  

  Not coincidentally, both parents’ willingness to make huge financial and other sacrifices to get their kids out of the government education system and public apprehensions about the viability of public schools as institutions have soared since early 2020.

  Over the course of the first two years of the pandemic, nationwide enrollment in K-12 public schools plummeted by roughly 1.2 million. The enrollment decline was typically far more severe in states where government school employees are overwhelmingly unionized, and where union bosses’ monopoly-bargaining power over teachers’ compensation and work conditions is most extensive. 

  For example, 27.1% of the entire enrollment drop occurred in just two states, forced-unionism California and New York, that were home to only 17.7% of the nation’s school-aged population (that is, 5-17 year olds) in 2020. Meanwhile, a fall 2022 Gallup poll recently cited by Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn found that nationwide public satisfaction with government schools “had dropped to 42%, a 20-year low.”

  As parental and public confidence in Big Labor-dominated government schools falls, Randi Weingarten, the camera-hogging president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT/AFL-CIO) union, personifies the problem for many concerned citizens. In the words of former Congressman and Trump Cabinet member Mike Pompeo, a particularly harsh critic: “It’s not just about Ms. Weingarten, but she has become the most visible face of the destruction of American education.”

  Many Americans understandably blame union bosses like Weingarten for the fact that most American school districts within jurisdictions where Big Labor is most powerful remained shuttered long after it had become apparent that they could operate safely. School children were suffering grave educational and psychological harm as a consequence of the lockdowns.

  But Weingarten pleads not guilty. Brushing aside countless well-documented examples of her viciously attacking supporters of reopening schools in 2020 and 2021, such as her July 2020 denunciation of then-U.S. Education Sec. Betsy DeVos’s pro-in person instruction stance as “reckless,” “callous,” and “cruel,” the AFT czar insists she was never against reopening per se.

  At an April 26 congressional hearing on the role top union bosses played in perpetuating school shutdowns, she repeated again and again that she had always wanted schools to reopen, as long as it could be done “safely.”

  This attempt at self-exoneration is laughable. Just for starters, Weingarten’s recent testimony ignored the fact that, in July 2021, nearly a year after school districts in Right to Work Florida had reopened while “avoid[ing] major outbreaks of COVID-19 and maintain[ing] case rates lower than those in the wider community,” she claimed hysterically that “millions of Floridians” were “going to die” because the state’s elected officials had refused to follow Big Labor orders to keep schools closed.

  This prediction was so absurd that Weingarten subsequently decided she had no choice but to apologize for her “hyperbole.”  But she continues to invent facts to justify her COVID-19 record.

  For example, in her congressional testimony late last month, Weingarten repeatedly cited a January 2021 study co-authored by epidemiologist Tracy Hoeg to justify the AFT hierarchy’s insistence that federal taxpayers had to fork over vast sums of money, putatively for costly new school ventilation systems and other mitigations, before safe reopenings could happen.  But as Hoeg, the study’s lead author, publicly pointed out within hours after the hearing’s conclusion, it actually showed rates of COVID-19 transmission were low in schools regardless of whether their ventilation systems were old or new.

  In the era of COVID-19 and its aftermath, the fork-tongued Weingarten has become the personification of why state laws handing union bosses monopoly-bargaining power over K-12 public school employees, which are now on the books in well over 30 states, never should have been enacted and ought now to be repealed.

  Stan Greer is senior research associate for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 21:05

• Combating The Censorship Industrial Complex
  Combating The Censorship Industrial Complex

  Authored by Charlie Tidmarsh via RealClear Wire,

  It’s been nearly six months since the first installment of the Twitter Files—the journalistic effort by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and many others to expose the myriad channels by which the U.S government cooperated with Twitter on content moderation and censorship—was first published. Twitter Files One, perhaps the mildest of more than 20 unique reports, details the social media company’s internal deliberations in the days before the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was removed from the site. Later reports have exposed the tendrils of a governmental apparatus that influenced some of the most significant media distortions in recent American history, from the fraudulent Hamilton 68 misinformation tracking dashboard to the FBI’s intimate involvement with Twitter’s content-moderation practices.  

  

  For six months, not much of consequence has happened, either in Washington or the mainstream media, in response. Those who owe us mea culpas have not provided them, tending instead to attack the individual reporters or ignore their findings. Meanwhile, some concerning developments have emerged: Congress formed the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in order to conduct its own investigation, which would have been encouraging had it not culminated in representative Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands threatening Taibbi with imprisonment for his testimony; Mark Warner’s RESTRICT Act, which would yield the federal government an enormous media-censorship leeway, was introduced in the Senate in March; Montana banned TikTok statewide; special counsel John Durham’s report on Russian interference was released and received with a profound lack of interest in the FBI’s dubious and error-laden investigation; and the Global Disinformation Index, a British NGO that ranks news outlets on a scale of “risky” to “least risky” (this website is one of the GDI’s ten “riskiest”), was shown to have received funding from the State Department (via the National Endowment for Democracy), which it subsequently lost.  

  As shocking and foreboding as these anti-democratic actions are, not many commentators are treating them as interconnected expressions of a single censorship apparatus. Michael Shellenberger and his colleagues Alex Gutentag and Matt Taibbi are now undertaking a monumental attempt at defining that apparatus: they call it the Censorship Industrial Complex. Shellenberger and Gutentag are two of the few journalists who not only take the reality of increased government censorship efforts seriously but also consider it a systemic, unified, and global threat, as opposed to a few discreet but regrettable extensions of U.S. political power.  

  The complex is founded on euphemistic, Astro-turfed neologisms—“misinformation,” “disinformation,” “infodemic,” and, absurdly, “malinformation,” which is defined by The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency as information “which is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate” (my emphasis)—and prosecuted by a coterie of journalists, academics, NGOs and nonprofits who claim neutral expertise in adjudicating what is true and what is false. World governments have eerily aligned their definitions of these terms and then cooperated with non-state actors to censor online speech in accordance, all with the stated and ostensibly noble aim of “reducing harm.”  

  Their reporting, which takes place almost exclusively on Substack and Twitter (Gutentag is also a columnist at Tablet), has called attention to the ways in which major democratic governments in Europe, Canada, the UK, and Ireland are replicating the American tactic: define certain types of speech as harmful and then empower a bureaucratic network of think tanks, research agencies, and nonprofits to enforce strict Internet censorship practices that ensure that so-called harmful speech is repressed.  

  The most thorough history of how this bureaucracy came into power was provided by Jacob Siegel, a former U.S Army intelligence officer in both Iraq and Afghanistan, writing in Tablet. Strikingly, Siegel compares the emergence of this new complex to its closest analog in American history: McCarthyism. And he locates its legislative origin on December 23, 2016, the date that Barack Obama signed into law the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act. What began as a campaign against foreign information warfare morphed into a domestic censorship apparatus in the aftermath of Donald Trump taking office. In this way, it echoes the Military Industrial Complex by leveraging wartime expansions of government authority towards domestic goals. While the primary agents are certain federal intelligence and security agencies and their cooperating NGOs1, Siegel sees the media as playing a remarkably complicit role in the last seven years. “The American press, he writes, “once the guardian of democracy, was hollowed out to the point that it could be worn like a hand puppet by the U.S security agencies and party operatives.” 

  Shellenberger and Gutentag have provided the first invaluable step in a massive project: they’ve defined the problem. “The Twitter Files gave us a window,” Shellenberger writes, “into how government agencies, civil society, and tech companies work together to censor social media users. Now, key nations are attempting to enshrine this coordination into law explicitly.”  

  In November 2022, the E.U. passed the Digital Services Act, which legally compels large online media platforms to remove hate speech and disinformation from their platforms under threat of fines as large as six percent of annual global revenue. If passed in the U.S., RESTRICT, with its loopholes and vague jargon, threatens to give the federal government unprecedented ability to spy on the online activity of its citizens. The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022, which passed the lower house of the Irish Parliament, could soon render the possession of “hateful” digital material illegal in that country. Canadian Bill C-11 has passed in the Senate, amending the former Broadcasting Act to allow the government to filter and promote streamed media. Brazil’s proposed Bill 2630, the so-called Fake News Law, will compel social media platforms to regulate “fake news” and misinformation on their platforms more strictly or face severe fines. An early draft of this bill included a provision that would allow the imprisonment for up to five years of anyone spreading content that “threatened social peace and economic order.”  

  According to Shellenberger, Gutentag, and their colleagues at the Substack Public, what tends to unify these efforts is a reliance on identical, porous definitions of what counts as bad or hateful information, as well as an emphasis on words such as “safety,” “harm reduction,” and “protection.” This is precisely what makes the Censorship Industrial Complex so insidious. No one wants truly false information to dominate our important discussion spaces, or genuine hate to crowd out constructive public discourse. But the verbiage these governments operate with grants tremendous leeway in how such speech is defined and censored. This slippage has already played out in the case of Hunter Biden’s laptop, the contents of which were almost immediately deemed “disinformation” as a justification for Twitter to remove the story from its platform in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election; we now know the material was not only legitimate but in the FBI’s possession in December of 2019. 

  Shellenberger and Gutentag are calling on any whistleblowers, journalists, or individuals with first-hand experience with this censorship regime to contact them immediately. The first official meeting of this growing anti-censorship movement will be held in London next month. Anyone with information or experience to share is encouraged to reach out on their website, censorshipindustrialcomplex.org, and support Public’s reporting on Substack. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 20:45

• These Five Niche Commodities Signal China's Recovery Faltering
  These Five Niche Commodities Signal China’s Recovery Faltering

  China’s economic recovery from draconian zero-Covid controls is faltering. Investors had very high hopes earlier this year that the world’s second-largest economy would roar back to life and help offset weakness in the global economy. However, six months later, those same hopes have faded into disappointment. 

  One of the most immediate warning signs investors are losing faith in the recovery narrative is the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell into bear market territory Tuesday, down about 20% from its Jan. 27 peak. 

  

  While equities are important to track, we shift attention to sliding commodity prices that might give further input about China’s economic growth miracle seen over the last several decades, which has yet to reemerge and ignite a spark. Maybe that’s because of an aging population or declining workforce or supply chain reset, or enormous debt loads — whatever is hobbling China’s recovery effort might indicate the days of expanding at 6% to 8% a year are over and only 2% or 3% is the new normal. 

  On the commodity front, two of the most important commodities to China’s economy, copper and iron ore, have been moving lower over the last several months. But five often overlooked commodities essential for economic growth send chilling signs of economic alarm.

  “Futures markets for items as diverse as glass, styrene and corn starch are piling on the evidence that China isn’t recovering as fast as many people had hoped, after Beijing abandoned the pandemic restrictions late last year that were crushing its economy,” Bloomberg said. 

  Glass 

  China accounts for more than half of the world’s plate glass production thanks to the rapid growth of high-rise buildings and vehicle sales in recent decades. Similar to other industries, low margins and supply gluts have troubled producers for years, forcing them to cut output in recent months.

  The situation this year looks even more challenging. Glass futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange have plunged nearly 20% in the past month, a period when demand usually picks up. The reasons include China’s teetering property market and weaker-than-expected vehicle output in April. 

  

  Trucked LNG

  China has a vast requirement for natural gas, carried by sea from mega-projects in far-flung places like Qatar and Australia, or over pipelines that stretch across continental Asia. But the last few miles to consumers is often via trucks that criss-cross China’s cities, a barometer of the immediate needs of industries from glass-makers to ceramic factories.

  That price has fallen to its lowest level in almost two years. Demand is so weak that the nation’s top importers of seaborne liquefied natural gas are even offering to resell their shipments abroad. 

  

  Styrene 

  Fewer home buyers also means less demand for the purchases that often accompany a new place to live. The price of styrene monomer, a material used for the plastics and rubber that go into appliances like fridges, has declined. China has been the world’s fastest growing market in the past decade with capacity climbing to over 40% of the global total.

  Dalian futures fell last week to their lowest since February 2021, after a near-5% drop in home appliance sales in the first quarter, according to the National Appliance Information Center. The problems are slower growth in personal incomes and a “low-frequency sales cycle” for white goods, according to Wu Haitao, a director at the center.

  

  Corn Starch 

  Corn starch has a wide variety of uses, in soft drinks, as a thickening agent for sauces and in the paper and textiles industries. China produces almost 50 million tons a year. 

  Although retail sales have outperformed other economic measurements in the months since China’s Covid Zero restrictions were lifted, they grew at a slower pace than expected in April. China’s falling population is another headwind: corn starch is a key ingredient in baby formula.

  

  Paper Pulp 

  Shanghai pulp futures went into free-fall in February after a sudden recovery in production at paper mills after the Lunar New Year holiday was augmented by resurgent imports. Domestic demand, which was also supposed to rise after China’s reopening, couldn’t keep up.

  As with many commodities, China is the biggest producer and consumer of pulp, used for packaging, publishing and household goods. But the market is so vast that a lot of pulp and paper also needs to be sourced from abroad.

  

  Meanwhile, China’s macro data has failed to show the reopening narrative coming to life. 

  

  The faltering recovery led to China’s central bank announcing an unexpected cut in mid-May to the amount banks set aside for deposits by 25 basis points, vowing to keep ample liquidity in the interbank system and better fund the real economy.

  So the question remains: What’s next for the global economy if China’s highly anticipated economic rebound doesn’t materialize?

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 20:25

• Taliban Deploys Heavy Reinforcements To Iran Border After Clashes
  Taliban Deploys Heavy Reinforcements To Iran Border After Clashes

  Via The Canary,

  Videos circulating social media on Wednesday show Taliban forces heavily reinforcing the Afghan border with Iran, after significant escalation regarding a water dispute between the two countries, which resulted in heavy border clashes between the two sides over the weekend.

  The clashes broke out on Saturday between Taliban troops and Iranian border guards, resulting in the death of two Iranian border guards and a Taliban militant, despite unconfirmed reports of further Taliban casualties.

  The outbreak of fighting came a week after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Taliban to respect Iran’s rights to water from the Helmand River shared between the two countries, under the 1973 Afghan-Iranian Helmand River Treaty. Iran has long accused Afghanistan of restricting the flow of its water to Iran and causing droughts or dry spells.

  

  Each side claimed that the other had initiated the clashes. On May 29, Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that calm had prevailed on the border but that Tehran would respond with force if the Taliban resumed provocation.

  The Taliban defense minister said on the day that the fighting broke out that the Afghan government views dialogue and negotiation as the best way to resolve issues. Other Afghan officials echoed the defense minister’s words and called for the prevention of escalation.

  Other officials and Afghan figures were seen in videos on social media making inflammatory statements. The most notable of these figures is Taliban leader Abdul Hamid Khorosani, who was seen in a video on Twitter May 28 threatening that “if the [religious authorities] allow us, we will seize Tehran.”

  “Do not test our strength. You are behind the scenes with the Westerners,” Khorosani added, addressing the Islamic Republic. Reports suggest that Khorosani had been dismissed earlier this month over differences with Taliban leadership.

  The Iranian Interior Ministry claimed on Wednesday, following the release of the footage on the Afghan-Iranian border, that those who made statements against Iran were “low-ranking” members of the Taliban who have since been “dismissed” by the organization.

  Taliban sends heavy equipment to the border with Iran as tensions escalate over water dispute pic.twitter.com/cGAModswE3

  — The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) May 31, 2023

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  Iranian media outlets have also claimed that border-crossings between the two countries are now open, despite having been closed following the outbreak of clashes. “Clashes happened based on a mistake made by the Afghan border guards. We have had several incidents like this so far. We advise Afghan authorities to justify the actions of their border guards,” the Iranian Interior Ministry added.

  Despite videos showing reinforcements on the border, Iranian media reports suggested that some “elements are trying to provoke the parties involved with rumors and fake news.”

  One Iranian report said that there is complete calm on the border. However, conflicting reports continue to emerge, with some suggesting that the reinforcements are ongoing.

  The situation at the border with Iran is intensifying as the Taliban actively moves armored vehicles, including tanks.

  Iranian border guards have requested additional support and tanks are being dispatched to assist them.

  Unfortunately, the situation is unfolding in a… pic.twitter.com/wR8zuxwEkG

  — 301 Military (@301military) May 31, 2023

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  In December 2021, brief clashes broke out on the Afghan-Iranian border between Iran’s border guards and Taliban fighters. In June of the following year, an Iranian border guard was killed by the Taliban. Iran urged the Afghan government at the time to “punish the perpetrators” and take action to prevent a repeat of such occurrences.

  Footage from the weekend border clashes…

  Clashes break out between Iran and Taliban on the border, casualties on both sides have been reported pic.twitter.com/rHVOWSKJ8n

  — The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) May 27, 2023

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  Following Washington’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the US army left behind $7.12 billion in military equipment in the country, which immediately fell into the hands of the Taliban.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 20:05

• Carbon Footprint Of Lab-Grown Beef "Orders Of Magnitude" Worse Than Traditionally Raised: Study
  Carbon Footprint Of Lab-Grown Beef “Orders Of Magnitude” Worse Than Traditionally Raised: Study

  A new study from the University of California, Davis, has found that lab-grown, or “cultivated” meat’s environmental impact is likely to be “orders of magnitude” higher than retail beef based on current and near-term production methods.

  

  The preprint study, which has yet to undergo peer review, concludes that the energy needed and greenhouse gasses emitted during all stages of production of lab-grown meat is far greater than traditionally raised beef.

  Researchers conducted a life-cycle assessment of the energy needed and greenhouse gases emitted in all stages of production and compared that with beef. One of the current challenges with lab-grown meat is the use of highly refined or purified growth media, the ingredients needed to help animal cells multiply. Currently, this method is similar to the biotechnology used to make pharmaceuticals. This sets up a critical question for cultured meat production: Is it a pharmaceutical product or a food product? –UC Davis

  “If companies are having to purify growth media to pharmaceutical levels, it uses more resources, which then increases global warming potential,” according to lead author and doctoral graduate Derrick Risner, of the US Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. “If this product continues to be produced using the “pharma” approach, it’s going to be worse for the environment and more expensive than conventional beef production.”

  The scientists considered the ‘global warming potential’ to be the carbon dioxide equivalents emitted for each kilogram of meat produced – and found that the global warming potential of lab-based meat using these purified media is up to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.

  More from UC Davis on the eventual goals of lab-grown (cultured) meat;

  One of the goals of the industry is to eventually create lab-grown meat using primarily food-grade ingredients or cultures without the use of expensive and energy-intensive pharmaceutical grade ingredients and processes.

  Under that scenario, researchers found cultured meat is much more environmentally competitive, but with a wide range. Cultured meat’s global warming potential could be between 80% lower to 26% above that of conventional beef production, they calculate. While these results are more promising, the leap from “pharma to food” still represents a significant technical challenge for system scale-up.

  “Our findings suggest that cultured meat is not inherently better for the environment than conventional beef. It’s not a panacea,” said corresponding author Edward Spang, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. “It’s possible we could reduce its environmental impact in the future, but it will require significant technical advancement to simultaneously increase the performance and decrease the cost of the cell culture media.”

  Even the most efficient beef production systems reviewed in the study outperform cultured meat across all scenarios (both food and pharma), suggesting that investments to advance more climate-friendly beef production may yield greater reductions in emissions more quickly than investments in cultured meat.

  Developing the technology that would allow the leap from “pharma to food” is among the goals of the UC Davis Cultivated Meat Consortium, a cross-disciplinary group of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and educators researching cultivated meat. Other goals are to establish and evaluate cell lines that could be used to grow meat and find ways to create more structure in cultured meat.

  Risner said even if lab-based meat doesn’t result in a more climate-friendly burger, there is still valuable science to be learned from the endeavor.

  “It may not lead to environmentally friendly commodity meat, but it could lead to less expensive pharmaceuticals, for example,” said Risner. “My concern would just be scaling this up too quickly and doing something harmful for the environment.”

  Other authors include Yoonbin Kim and Justin Siegel of UC Davis and Cuong Nguyen of the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

  The research was funded by the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health and the National Science Foundation Growing Convergence Research grant.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 19:45

• Chick-fil-A Faces Growing Backlash Over 'Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion' Efforts
  Chick-fil-A Faces Growing Backlash Over ‘Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion’ Efforts

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

  Some conservatives have suggested a boycott of Chick-fil-A after the fast-food chain was discovered to have a vice president of “diversity, equity, [and] inclusion,” or DEI.

  

  In a previously issued Chick-fil-A news release, the company said that Erick McReynolds serves as its vice president of DEI, saying: “Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding, and dignity everywhere we do business.”

  DEI is a set of principles that large corporations, government agencies, and schools have increasingly incorporated into their work environments, often mandating employees receive such training. However, these principles are rooted in Marxism, according to prominent critics including Christopher Rufo and James Lindsay, that are essentially vehicles for “left-wing racialist ideology and partisan political activism.”

  “They are designed to replace the system of academic merit with a system of race-based preferences and discrimination—which, in many cases, explicitly violates federal civil rights law,” wrote Rufo for his Substack page earlier this year.

  The Chick-fil-A announcement was highlighted this week by several prominent conservative accounts. According to McReynolds’s LinkedIn page, he was hired as Chick-fil-A’s vice president for “Diversity, Equity [and] Inclusion” in late 2021.

  “We have a problem,” wrote Joey Mannarino, a conservative host in highlighting Chick-fil-A’s prior announcement, on Twitter Tuesday morning. “Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is bad. Very bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?”

  He also wrote: “The Left is going crazy again over the Chick-fil-A boycott that conservatives are considering. They’re mad because we’ve FINALLY gotten effective at boycotts. Any company that is pushing the trans stuff on our kids or the DEI stuff, we are going to pick the worst offenders.”

  “So Chick-fil-A has a diversity, equity and inclusion division,” added columnist Todd Starnes on Tuesday. “Well, that explains the fried cauliflower sandwiches and kale salad.”

  By Tuesday afternoon, Lindsay wrote on Twitter that he agreed with the boycott calls and made demands. “We must demand that Chick-fil-A fire their entire ESG and Sustainability staff and partners (including DEI), referring to the left-wing environmental, social, and governance framework.

  “Ideally we get them to confess how they got caught up in the racket, and then we return support,” he added. “Conservatives might actually be able to pull this one off.”

  The chicken-based fast-food chain has been generally well respected among conservatives due to the company’s religious values and its prior support for religious groups. In the McReynolds DEI announcement, Chick-fil-A makes reference to its corporate purpose, which is “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us” and “to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.”

  The Epoch Times has contacted Chick-fil-A for comment.

  Backlash Growing

  In recent weeks, a number of companies have faced backlash for embracing what critics say are left-wing values or a pro-LGBT agenda. Since early April, Bud Light has seen a significant backlash after it produced a beer can with transgender activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s face and as Mulvaney suggested a partnership with the brand.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 19:25

• "See You In The Hague!": Lindsey Graham Snarks Back After Russia Issues Arrest Warrant
  “See You In The Hague!”: Lindsey Graham Snarks Back After Russia Issues Arrest Warrant

  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has hit back after Russia issued a warrant for his arrest – calling it a “badge of honor.”

  

  “Here’s an offer to my Russian ‘friends’ who want to arrest and try me for calling out the Putin regime as being war criminals: “I will submit to [the] jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court if you do,” Graham said in a May 29 press release.

  “Come and make your best case. See you in The Hague!” he continued, adding “To know that my commitment to Ukraine has drawn the ire of Putin’s regime brings me immense joy.”

  “I will continue to stand with and for Ukraine’s freedom until every Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian territory.”

  Graham, a massive proponent of the Ukraine war, stated in a video of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that “the Russians are dying,” adding that the US military aid provided to Ukraine was “the best money we’ve ever spent.“

  Ever?

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2023

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  While Graham appeared to have made the comments at separate points in the conversation, the brief video produced by Ukraine’s presidential office juxtaposed them, sparking outrage in Russia.

  Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that it was hard to imagine a greater shame for the United States than having individuals like Graham as senators. –Epoch Times

  In February, Graham said that the US shouldn’t be worried about provoking Russia by helping Ukraine.

  “The British are training Ukrainian pilots. I believe a decision will be imminent here when we get back to Washington that the administration will start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16. They need the weapons system,” he told ABC‘s “This Week” on Feb. 19.

  Putchist Lindsey Graham: “I’m not worried about provoking Putin. I want to hit him and how do you hit him? We will defeat him by giving the Ukrainians the military capability to drive the Russians out of Ukraine.” THIS CORRUPT GRAHAM WILL PROVOKE THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF UKRAINE pic.twitter.com/mmHyTFxYFd

  — Michel Petrucci ❤️ 🇮🇹 (@appolo007) February 20, 2023

  Graham has urged his fellow politicians to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, and has advocated for the US to begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s. 

  “They need the weapons system,” said Graham in the above interview, which echoed VP Kamala Harris’ claim that Russia was guilt of “crimes against humanity.”

  “So, we need to do two things quickly,” said Graham. “Make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law, which would make it harder for China to give weapons to Russia, and we need to start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 now.”

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 19:05

• University Of Colorado Declares Misgendering An "Act Of Violence"
  University Of Colorado Declares Misgendering An “Act Of Violence”

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  The University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder) is under fire this week for a statement on the “Pride Office” website stating that misgendering people can be considered an “act of violence.”

  

  The guide on pronouns is reportedly the work of students associated with the office and states that “choosing to ignore or disrespect someone’s pronouns is not only an act of oppression but can also be considered an act of violence.”

  It is a familiar position for many in higher education.

  Opposing viewpoints are now routinely declared to be violence. That allows professors and students to rationalize their own act of violence or censorship.

  The most vivid example was recently seen at Hunter College, which is part of the CUNY system. Professor Shellyne Rodríguez recently was fired after holding a machete to the neck of a New York Post reporter and threatened to “chop you up.” However, Hunter College decided not to fire her over a prior incident in which she trashed a pro-life table run by students.

  Rodríguez spotted students with pro-life material at the college. She was captured on a videotape telling the students that “you’re not educating s–t […] This is f–king propaganda. What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next? This is bulls–t. This is violent. You’re triggering my students.” Even after a remarkably polite student said that he was “sorry,” Rodríguez would have nothing of it. After all, espousing pro-life views is now “violence.” Rodríguez rejected the apology and declared “No you’re not — because you can’t even have a f–king baby. So you don’t even know what that is. Get this s–t the f–k out of here.”

  Just a week earlier, a professor stopped another “violent” display of pro-life views in New York. Professor Renee Overdyke of the State University of New York at Albany shut down a pro-life display and then resisted arrest.

  At the University of California at Santa Barbara, feminist studies associate professor Mireille Miller Young criminally assaulted pro-life advocates on campus, and later pleaded guilty to the crime. She was defended by faculty and students, including many who said she was “triggered” by a pro-life display and that pro-life advocates were “terrorists” who did not deserve free speech.

  It is that easy. You simply declare opposing views “violent” and then you can justify your own violence as a matter of self-defense.

  The Colorado controversy does not involve acts of violence over misgendering. Moreover, the guide reflects a deep-felt concern that using someone’s pronouns incorrectly, even unintentionally, leads to “dysphoria, exclusion and alienation.” There are also some positive recommendations in dealing with these difficult situations.

  However, this is a university site and there are countervailing free speech costs to characterizing of opposing views on pronouns as violence. As have previously discussed how other countries are prosecuting those who “misgender.” Schools in the United States have promised disciplinary action against any misgendering despite some court cases ruling for faculty with opposing views on pronouns. Even passing out “he/his” candies can result in a university investigation.

  Conservative sites like Campus Reform have reported on the Colorado controversy and sought clarification.

  Universities are often presented with difficult countervailing interests. On one hand, it must maintain a welcoming and tolerant environment. On the other hand, it must protect free speech values, including the right to express unpopular views or values.

  Colorado students have every right to declare misgendering as violence in their eyes, even if many of us disagree. However, the university has an obligation to clearly establish that such views are not the policy or approach of the university itself.  The site states “This information was created by students, for students. The university supports an inclusive environment.” It should state that “while the university supports an inclusive environment, the statements on this site are not official statements or policies of the university.” Otherwise, the university should address the free speech implications of declaring misgendering as a violent act.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 18:45

• Major Grocery Chain Struggles To Survive Amid Wave Of Thefts
  Major Grocery Chain Struggles To Survive Amid Wave Of Thefts

  A grocery chain which operates primary on the East Coast says it’s taking measures to stay in business amid rampant retail theft and crime across the US.

  Giant Food, which operates over 160 locations across DC, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, has begun restricting entry and exit points, beefing up store security (some armed), displaying fewer high-dollar items on shelves, and reducing the number of self-checkout items, company CEO Ira Kress told the Washington Post.

  

  According to Kress, retail theft has increased “tenfold in the last five years,” which is not “an understatement,” while violence has “increased exponentially.”

  “The last thing I want to do is close stores,” Kress continued. “But I’ve got to be able to run them safely and profitably.”

  According to Kress, the nature of shoplifting has changed such that more and more retailers are simply allowing it – like Lulu Lemon, which recently fired two employees for calling the police on repeat looters.

  “We used to chase shoplifters,” said Kress. “And you’d get the product back, and nobody would ever fight you.”

  “I didn’t worry about somebody pulling a knife or gun on me [40] years ago,” he said.

  The trend, which industry experts say is in its beginning stages, could foreshadow a further emptying of downtowns already wounded by the pandemic. Although retail vacancy rates for dense urban centers have been declining over the past decade, figures from real estate data firm CoStar show the numbers inching up in some cities. -WaPo

  “For the big box and the grocery [stores], which are trying to optimize a single-digit margin, it is very difficult to operate, and you will see more and more exits happening,” said Lakshman Lakshmanan, senior director in Alvarez & Marsal’s consumer and retail group. “We’re seeing the highest level of organized retail crime and theft ever.“

  According to Kres, thieves have moved from swiping cigarettes to other goods.

  “It’s continued to escalate,” he said. “So now it’s Tide and Dove and razor blades and Olay, or roasts or shrimp or crab legs.“

  According to the retail federation, incidents of organized retail crime increased in 2021 by an average of 26.5% – with store owners blaming organized retail crime for around half of the $94.5 billion lost that year due to retail shrink (stolen merchandise).

  Other retailers taking similar measures

  According to the report, REI – which will close its Portland, OR location next year after nearly two decades, spent over $800,000 in 2022 on additional security at that location alone. This included new windows with security glass, around-the-clock patrols, better outdoor lighting and a new security camera system, per the Post.

  While Foods has gone so far as to place fliers on shelves instructing customers to find an employee to retrieve alcohol and expensive supplements and other high-value merchandise from the back.

  

  “I was kind of surprised at the amount of effort that went into trying to mitigate the situation,” said Chris Torossian, former manager in the bakery department at the company’s San Francisco location.

  Theft occurred “pretty much daily,” Torossian added, and he frequently heard from co-workers who felt unsafe. Team members were instructed not to chase or accuse shoplifters. In one instance, someone threw a cup of hot coffee on an employee’s face after they confronted the individual for stealing the drink, Torossian said. He also heard of instances where thieves brandished knives.

  In April, the company said it was closing the location “for the time being” to “ensure the safety of our Team Members.” -WaPo

  “We have the police come to our stores … they’ll take the information, they’ll record it,” said Torossian. “But there’s really nothing being done with that, because they had two homicides that were a bank robbery and two shootings. So it’s like, where are they going to focus their time and attention?”

  In May, Target CEO Brian Cornell told investors and analysts; “Beyond macroeconomic challenges, we continue to contend with significant headwinds caused by inventory shrink, building on a worsening trend that emerged last year. While shrink can be driven by multiple factors, theft and organized retail crime are increasingly urgent issues, impacting the team, and our guests and other retailers.”

  “The problem affects all of us, limiting product availability, creating a less convenient shopping experience, and put[s] our team and guests in harm’s way. The unfortunate fact is, violent incidents are increasing at our stores and across the entire retail industry. And when products are stolen, simply put, they’re no longer available for guests who depend on them. And left unchecked, theft, and organized retail crime to grade the communities we call home,” he continued.

  Maybe stop voting for those soft-on-crime Soros DAs?

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 18:25

• How Flipping Colorado Blue Has Become Democrats' Blueprint For The Rest Of America
  How Flipping Colorado Blue Has Become Democrats’ Blueprint For The Rest Of America

  Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Colorado’s legislative session is 120 consecutive days long and during the 2023 session lawmakers introduced 617 bills. Of those, 218 passed and have been signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. More are waiting to be signed.

  

  Democrats have a historic majority in the Colorado House, a supermajority in the Senate, and control the governorship. As such, all bills passed with Democrat support—and more often than not, over Republican’s vehement objections. It’s a marked change from 2002 when the GOP dominated politics in Colorado.

  Colorado Republican Rep. Stephanie Luck is one of a handful of Colorado Representatives fighting back and trying to expose what she describes as Democrats’ Marxist agenda, where individual rights don’t matter, and the government controls every aspect of life.

  “When I first got elected and sworn into office in 2021, Governor Polis gave his State-of-the-State Address shortly thereafter and stated that it was his goal and the goal of his Democratic majority to fundamentally transform Colorado,” Luck told The Epoch Times.

  “So, the question becomes, what was the initial foundation they want to transform? And I would point us to the mission statement of the United States, which is the Declaration of Independence.

  “And basically, we could go word by word in that most famous phrase starting with ‘We hold these truths.’ We can start with the word ‘We’ and demonstrate how they want not a ‘We,’ not a unified whole, not one nation, but different tribes, different groupings, different identities, and then just go every single word and recognize that they really are advancing the opposite of that mission statement.

  “And that is what Governor Polis and the Democrats have been doing in Colorado.”

  

  The Blueprint

  Luck refers to the book, “The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care),” by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer.

  It details how, in the summer of 2004, progressive organizations and a group of multimillionaires—including Colorado’s now governor Polis—devised a plan to elect a Democratic majority. The group called themselves the Roundtable.

  “Everyone had a common goal and it wasn’t to win friends. It was to win elections. That was the measure by which they would succeed or fail,” writes Schrager. He adds that the group’s main avenues to flip Colorado blue were extensive organization, a deep understanding of data, and, arguably the most impactful, taking advantage of campaign finance reform laws.

  Dr. Joshua Dunn, a professor of political science at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, agrees.

  “There was a well-orchestrated democratic plan to take control of the state. … [The Roundtable] was smart,” Dunn told The Epoch Times. “They were smarter than the Republicans. I think the Republicans will tell you that they were outsmarted by them. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.

  “They were well organized, disciplined, and they imposed discipline on people who wanted their support. They had requirements for people—particularly in local races if you wanted to get support from them—you had to go and knock on a certain number of doors.”

  In addition to organization and discipline, Schrager notes that the group understood that swaying state politics could have an outsized impact on politics at the federal level.

  “In hindsight, it’s remarkable how quickly members of the Roundtable adapted to the new campaign finance reality. While national political groups were beginning to use 527s [527 concerns a section of the Internal Revenue Code governing a type of tax-exempt political organization] … in 2004 it was unusual for state-based organizations to understand these exotic organizations and complex rules that governed them—much less master them to the point that they could be used effectively.”

  By taking advantage of 527s, the Roundtable raised $3.6 million. In contrast, Republicans raised $845,000. With a significant war chest for state-level elections established, the group targeted Republican politicians. And they did so through targeted ads, leaflets, boots on the ground, automated calls, and a unified message that a Democratic majority was better for Colorado.

  Schrager quotes Polis saying in The Blueprint: “We really didn’t truly know how big this would become. Clearly, when we started, we had no idea. I didn’t know this would have great historical significance, nor did anybody there that we would transform Colorado.”

  But transform the Colorado political landscape they did.

  

  From 1978 to 2002, Republicans controlled both the state House and state Senate. But in 2006, Democrats took control of both chambers.

  Then, the 2010 election was the nail in the coffin, according to Dunn, and it came down to candidate quality, “This was an enormous lost opportunity for the Republican Party, and I think it’s very difficult to overstate the significance of that election or the decline of the Republican Party in Colorado.

  “That was the Tea Party election. By all rights, the Republican Party should have won both the governor’s office and what’s now Senator Michael Bennett’s Senate seat in that election, but they made two catastrophic mistakes. They nominated a Tea Party candidate for governor who was so ill-prepared that Tom Tancredo ran as a third-party candidate.

  “Then on the Senate side with Michael Bennett, again, Republicans should have won that, but they nominated Ken Buck, and he was not prepared for primetime in that race and made several significant mistakes, but he almost won.

  “If the Republicans had another good option, they easily would have won that race. So, there you have two statewide elections that Republicans should have won easily, and it was money that they just left on the table,” Dunn said.

  A ‘Marxist’ Agenda

  Colorado has since shifted to the left.

  “We’ve obviously moved to the left. There’s no doubt because there’s been nothing to put the brakes on for [Democrats],” Dunn said.

  “You saw that with this past legislative session. … There were a lot of really controversial pieces of legislation. … Even the stuff that didn’t make it through, the fact that it was being considered kind of tells you where they’re trying to go.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if Polis wouldn’t have minded Republicans controlling one house of the state legislature just to limit the bills that made it to him where he had to make a difficult choice. Either support his own party, which would require him to sign some legislation that might undermine a general election campaign for president, or veto and anger his own caucus,” said Dunn.

  Luck sees the Democrats as pushing a Marxist agenda.

  “Let’s just take the right to contract and the right to property,” she said. “These are alienable rights [meaning transferable] that our founders understood were necessary to a free people. So, the right to property is a derivative of our self.

  “And unfortunately, many of my colleagues don’t understand that property is inherent to oneself. They see property and wealth building almost through a lens of evil. Those who have are somehow inherently bad because they ‘have.’

  “So, what we have seen this last session is a pitting of employees against employers, tenants against landlords, any category of people that my colleagues think at some point have been oppressed or have been wronged, are now—through law—given extra rights and afforded extra protections that I believe are largely unjust.”

  In the 2023 legislative session, Democrats passed Senate Bill 23-184, “Protections For Residential Tenants,” that, among other provisions, prohibits landlords from considering “certain information relating to a prospective tenant’s income or rental history.” That “information” includes income and credit scores. The new law also puts a cap on how much income a landlord can require to qualify a prospective tenant.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 05/31/2023 – 18:05

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• China Critics Ramp Up Push To Limit Lobbying
  China Critics Ramp Up Push To Limit Lobbying

  Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClear Wire,

  After Russia invaded Ukraine early last year, the Biden administration decided to hit Moscow where it hurts the most — in the pocketbook.

  

  The U.S. Treasury imposed sweeping sanctions on nearly 80% of all banking assets in Russia, a move designed to have a “deep and long-lasting effect on the Russian economy and financial system.”

  Though the sanctions haven’t prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from financing the war, they have tightened the screws on Russia’s financial transactions and disrupted supply chains throughout the global economy, reverberating even on Washington’s K Street with its lucrative foreign lobbying contracts.

  Former Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, and his team at Mercury Public Affairs, a big D.C. lobbying firm, were forced to terminate a contract with Russian bank Sovcombank to comply with the new U.S. sanctions. Vitter had begun working for Sovcombank just the month before, and the bank had agreed to pay Mercury $90,000 a month for its services, according to required Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA, disclosures filed with the Justice Department.

  In his role as co-chairman of Mercury, Vitter since 2018 has maintained another far more lucrative FARA contract with Hikvision, the U.S.-sanctioned Chinese surveillance tech firm. Over the last several years, the United States has found Hikvision responsible for assisting the Chinese government’s genocide against the Uyghur Muslims through the Chinese Communist Party’s broad use of its cameras to track and surveil Uyghur populations and monitor an estimated 1 million Uyghurs forced into detention camps.

  The United States also has deemed Hikvision a national security risk and imposed wide-ranging restrictions on using, buying and selling Hikvision video surveillance products in the U.S. Yet Hikvision and other Chinese companies under U.S. sanctions can still lawfully hire D.C. lobbyists and lawyers – at least for now, though there’s a growing movement to impose new restrictions on the practice.

  Vitter and former Rep. Toby Moffett, a Democrat who represented Connecticut in the House for eight years from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, both lobby their former Capitol Hill colleagues on behalf of Hikvision. The Chinese-controlled camera and surveillance company has paid Mercury a total of $6.35 million for the service since 2018, according to an analysis of required Justice Department filings by IPVM, a U.S. security and surveillance research group.

  Mercury is just one of five lobbying firms representing Hikvision’s interests in Washington. Since 2018, Hikvision has spent a combined $25.23 million on D.C. lobbying, more than double that of Huawei, China’s biggest telecommunications firm, in the same period, IPVM found. Huawei faces nearly identical U.S. sanctions as Hikvision.

  “These former members and top staffers are all being highly paid — it’s a second career for them,” said Donald Maye, head of operations for IPVM. 

  “It’s just confounding to me that people who speak so highly of their public service are helping a Chinese company navigate sanctions designed to limit exposure of this spying technology on the American people, and the U.S. government is allowing it,” he added.

  Vitter and Moffett are hardly alone. China has vastly expanded its U.S. lobbying efforts in recent years, hiring bipartisan teams of former members of Congress and key Capitol Hill and administrative staff even as Washington has increasingly grown far more critical of China, its stepped-up military power, and growing financial influence around the world.

  Former members of Congress who have lobbied for Chinese businesses include Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley, and Rep. Jeff Denham, a California Republican and former U.S. Air Force veteran, to name just a few.

  Since 2016, China has spent nearly $334 million on its lobbying efforts and propaganda outlets in the United States, more than any other nation and twice as much as Russia, according to an opensecrets.org analysis of lobbying registration and disclosure reports.

  Those figures, however, don’t tell the whole story. Some Chinese businesses, such as TikTok, have U.S. operations and are only required to file lobbying disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate, not the more stringent FARA disclosure required by Justice Department.

  Human rights advocates and national security experts urging a tougher line on China are outraged by the revolving door of former members willing to cash in on their public service to help a U.S. adversary. During the height of the Cold War, they argue, no reputable Washington law or lobbying firm would have taken on a Soviet client.

  “It’s unconscionable that any government official would shop their connections and expertise to a foreign adversary, let alone the Chinese Communist Party,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told RealClearPolitics in an emailed statement. “If you’ve had the privilege of serving the American people at the highest levels of government, you should not be able to sell out the country when you retire.”

  Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, and Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, plan to re-introduce a bill they co-authored in 2021 that would prevent members of Congress and high-ranking government officials from lobbying on behalf of U.S. adversaries.

  In 2021, the measure died after being referred to a House Judiciary subcommittee. Gallagher and other proponents of stricter foreign lobbying laws believe there is far greater momentum for it now with growing concern over Beijing’s greater military power and spying threats, as well as increased worldwide recognition of China’s human rights abuses.

  Gallagher released his first set of policy recommendations earlier this week following the select committee’s three hearings laying out the threat posed by China and detailing the ongoing abuses against Uyghur Muslims. One report calls on Congress to pass additional sanctions to hold China accountable for its crimes against the minority group. Another report stresses the need to enhance U.S. military capabilities to help deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

  Other critics of China lobbying want to ban the practice altogether. For the first time, the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal agency that monitors religious freedom violations around the world, officially called for a federal prohibition of all lobbying groups and law firms representing the Chinese government and Chinese entities.

  The commissioners in early May called on Congress to reintroduce the Stop Helping Adversaries Manipulate Everything, or SHAME Act. The bill, which would prohibit any U.S. individual from accepting compensation for serving as an agent of or a lobbyist for a foreign adversary, is sponsored by GOP Reps. Joe Wilson, Jim Banks, Chris Smith, and Democrats Elissa Slotkin and Steve Cohen.

  “Untold profits are being raked in by lobbyists willing to whitewash the record and aims of the Chinese Community Party and government,” all nine USCIRF commissioners wrote in a statement in its annual report. “It’s time to make this activity illegal.”

  “As the commission’s report documents, the Chinese government is an equal opportunity persecutor of people of faith — Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners,” the commissioners added.

  Frank Wolf, a USCIRF commissioner and a longtime human rights champion who served 3½ decades in Congress, argues that nothing but a total ban will prevent the Chinese influence operation funds from seeping into Washington.

  “If you believe in the Reagan Doctrine, no one should represent China in the U.S. today,” he said in an interview. Placing piecemeal restrictions on lobbying for China won’t be effective, Wolf argued, because the big firms with foreign clients, such as Squire Patton Boggs and Mercury Public Affairs, will still hold fundraisers for members of Congress and get the access they need even if they abide by some new restrictions.

  In 1998, then-Rep. Wolf authored the International Religious Freedom Act, which made faith-based liberty a greater priority in U.S. foreign policy. While serving in Congress, Vitter also was known for standing up to China on human rights. In 2015, the Louisiana Republican co-sponsored an amendment requiring the Obama administration to consider countries’ religious freedom when negotiating trade agreements.

  Those bills didn’t prevent Congress from continuing permanent normal trade relations status for China, as it has done since 2000 after a years-long push by free traders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Advocates for granting China easy access to U.S. markets and vice versa argued that it would help democratize China as its citizens gained more access to U.S. goods and technology.

  “They kept saying this will change China, and they will become just like us, but that has not worked out,” Wolf recalled. The Virginia Republican cited the genocide against the Uyghurs, a crackdown in Hong Kong, and a series of repressive CCP campaigns against Christians and Catholic churches and their leaders, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, and dissidents of any kind.

  So far, at least, lawmakers have shown little shame over their lucrative contracts with Chinese entities, and the harsher Washington rhetoric and actions against Beijing have only increased the flow of Chinese money to the nation’s capital.

  Over the past two years, tensions have repeatedly flared between Washington and Beijing over China’s lack of transparency about the COVID pandemic’s origins, its new ties to Russia after the Ukraine invasion, its aggression against Taiwan, and conflict over a visit to the U.S. by Taiwan’s president. In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned trip after a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the United States.

  As the G-7 summit in Japan came to a close last week, President Biden said he predicted a coming “thaw” with China even though the meeting between top U.S. allies took several steps to tackle Beijing’s economic intimidation tactics. Afterward, China retaliated by announcing that it had warned its telecommunications companies and state-owned banks against purchasing products from Micron Technology, a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer that China said poses national security risks, a charge the Biden administration vehemently disputes.  

  Denham and Crowley, who was the No. 4 House Democrat before losing a 2018 primary election challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are lobbying on behalf of TikTok as lawmakers weigh banning the popular social media platform.

  Other former lawmakers and prominent U.S. dignitaries, including former Sen. Max Baucus, who served as Obama’s ambassador to China, and former Speaker John Boehner, aren’t required to register as lobbyists but still can accept lucrative contracts advising Chinese entities in Washington.

  Even before Obama tapped him to be the chief U.S. diplomat in Beijing, Baucus had advised the U.S.-China Policy Foundation, which was funded by U.S. branches of Chinese banks and Huawei.

  The rules governing disclosure are loose, with obvious loopholes. For instance, individuals advising a company that is technically not considered subsidized or controlled by a foreign government, such as TikTok, don’t have to register as lobbyists if their lobbying activities constitute less than 20% of their services for that client over a three-month period. The law allows the lobbyists themselves to determine the 20% filing threshold.

  In addition to TikTok, Hikvision has hired several former members of Congress and top U.S. officials to help it fight increasingly severe U.S. sanctions. 

  In 2018, Congress banned the use of Hikvision and Dahua (another Chinese video-surveillance company) products throughout the U.S. government and for U.S.-funded contracts. The following year, the two companies were two of 28 entities added to a sanctioned blacklist of firms implicated in human rights violations and abuses in implementing China’s campaign of repression against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minority groups in China’s Xinjiang region.

  The Federal Communications Commission has layered on more sanctions over the last two years, while U.S. intelligence agencies have warned of Hikvision’s attempts to circumvent the ban on sales to the U.S. government by disguising it as the source of the products.

  In early March, Mike McCaul and Gregory Meeks, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, respectively, called on the Biden administration to impose harsher human rights sanctions on Hikvision.

  A warning about Hikvision’s deceptive U.S. sales practices, which cited a Defense Intelligence Agency finding, also was part of last month’s massive trove of classified documents leaked by 21-year-old National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.

  In addition to Vitter and Moffett, Mercury hired Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions policy adviser at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions, and added him to the Hikvision account. Kucik’s 2021 hiring was announced just days after the Wall Street Journal reported on new research on Hikvision’s ties to the Chinese military. More recently, Hikvision added Pierre-Richard Prosper, an attorney for ArentFox Schiff, a D.C. law and lobbying firm, to its U.S. advocacy and legal team, although he has not registered as a lobbyist for Hikvision and may not have to according to complicated disclosure rules. Prosper served as the U.S. State Department’s ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues in the mid-2000s and previously as a war crimes prosecutor at the United Nations in the late 1990s.

  At least one former lawmaker-turned-Hikvision lobbyist cut ties to the company after a public intra-party backlash. Sen. Barbara Boxer signed on with Mercury and registered as a foreign agent for Hikvision in early 2021 but quickly de-registered after Biden’s Inauguration Committee returned her donation of $500, citing her work for the massive Chinese tech company.

  Vitter and Moffett, however, have continued their lobbying roles, with Vitter proclaiming himself as a “proud member of the Hikvision team” and disparaging Sen. Marco Rubio as “anti-China” in an audio recording of a Hikvision USA employee conference call, obtained by IPVM in 2019. 

  Vitter’s political donations also have continued to flow to several GOP members, including now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has made investigating China a top priority of his House leadership this year. Vitter sent a $1,500 check to McCarthy’s re-election committee in 2022 and another $2,500 in 2020.

  After RCP asked about the Vitter donations, a McCarthy campaign spokesman said it plans to donate the funds to charity at the end of the quarter, a sign of the growing unease about foreign influence-peddling especially by sanctioned Chinese companies.

  After becoming speaker earlier this year, McCarthy created several select committees to investigate the threat China poses to the U.S. and called the CCP “the greatest geopolitical threat of our lifetime.”

  “We need a whole-of-government approach that will build on the efforts of the Republican-led China Task Force and ensure America is prepared to tackle the economic and security challenges posed by the CCP,” he said, previewing his plans in late December.

  Aside from national security concerns, Wolf and others also say China’s egregious human rights abuses should be enough to stop the revolving door from Capitol Hill to K Street. 

  Wolf points to new well-documented evidence of CCP-directed organ harvesting from detained Uyghurs and other prisoners of conscience while they remained alive or before they were declared brain-dead, a severe violation of international ethical norms.

  Louisa Greve, the director of global advocacy for the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said every U.S. law and lobbying firm faces a clear choice on whether to help support companies involved or directly implicated in egregious human rights violations.

  “It is un-American and unconscionable for anyone — and certainly public servants who in their time promised their voters they would serve the public good and who retain the title of honorable after they serve — to immediately go and help a genocidal regime,” she said in an interview.

  In the case of Russia, it took the Ukraine invasion to force U.S. lobbyists to end their lucrative contracts and comply with the sweeping new laws.

  Does Greve think only an invasion of Taiwan will force similar U.S. prohibitions on China lobbying?

  “The red line should be genocide,” she said, “and a recognition of our strategic interest to preserve the basic framework of freedom for ourselves and our allies and anyone else who wants to join a world governed by the rule of law and peaceful trade.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 23:40

• Visualizing The World's Aging Population From 1950 To 2100
  Visualizing The World’s Aging Population From 1950 To 2100

  As demographics continue to shift in the 21st century, the world’s aging population will continue to be a focal point for many global decision makers.

  Visual Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes notes that most countries around the world have experienced population explosions, or are about to. Combine this with declining birth rates and falling mortality rates, and it’s clear that the global senior population will continue to reach new heights.

  These graphics by Pablo Alvarez use data from the 2022 UN World Population Prospects to visualize this increasing aging population across countries.

  

  The World’s Aging Population from 1950 to 2100

  In 2022, there were 771 million people aged 65+ years globally, accounting for almost 10% of the world’s population.

  This segment has been growing at an increasing rate, and it’s expected to hit 16% in 2050, and eventually 24% by 2100. Here’s what that’s projected to look like, for every country and territory.

  Country by Population Aged +65 Years	1950	2022	2100
  🇦🇫 Afghanistan	2.85%	2.39%	16.03%
  🇦🇱 Albania	6.04%	16.66%	49.08%
  🇩🇿 Algeria	3.49%	6.39%	28.83%
  🇦🇸 American Samoa	2.38%	7.27%	45.41%
  🇦🇩 Andorra	10.02%	14.98%	37.04%
  🇦🇴 Angola	2.93%	2.6%	12.07%
  🇦🇮 Anguilla	3.69%	10.71%	37.49%
  🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda	4.14%	10.63%	35.4%
  🇦🇷 Argentina	4.13%	11.92%	31.79%
  🇦🇲 Armenia	8.17%	13.15%	36.13%
  🇦🇼 Aruba	1.77%	16.15%	36.51%
  🇦🇺 Australia	8.17%	16.9%	31.38%
  🇦🇹 Austria	10.42%	19.81%	33.93%
  🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	6.89%	7.11%	30.5%
  🇧🇸 Bahamas	4.76%	8.89%	29.58%
  🇧🇭 Bahrain	2.88%	3.76%	21.89%
  🇧🇩 Bangladesh	3.9%	6.04%	32.56%
  🇧🇧 Barbados	5.24%	16.28%	33.19%
  🇧🇾 Belarus	8.24%	17.18%	30.45%
  🇧🇪 Belgium	11.03%	19.73%	32.83%
  🇧🇿 Belize	3.57%	5.09%	29.21%
  🇧🇯 Benin	7.85%	3.06%	11.03%
  🇧🇲 Bermuda	5.71%	20.41%	37.73%
  🇧🇹 Bhutan	2.53%	6.25%	33.35%
  🇧🇴 Bolivia	6.11%	4.85%	21.75%
  🇧🇶 Bonaire Sint Eustatius and Saba	14.22%	13.84%	28.94%
  🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.95%	18.4%	36.4%
  🇧🇼 Botswana	4.32%	3.65%	17.96%
  🇧🇷 Brazil	2.39%	9.88%	33.52%
  🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands	8.63%	9.95%	32.47%
  🇧🇳 Brunei	4.85%	6.17%	30.93%
  🇧🇬 Bulgaria	6.66%	22.38%	37.13%
  🇧🇫 Burkina Faso	2.01%	2.53%	13.07%
  🇧🇮 Burundi	3.22%	2.48%	13.23%
  🇰🇭 Cambodia	2.67%	5.81%	26.43%
  🇨🇲 Cameroon	3.47%	2.67%	11.89%
  🇨🇦 Canada	7.7%	19.03%	31.55%
  🇨🇻 Cape Verde	3.67%	5.55%	32.63%
  🇰🇾 Cayman Islands	6.05%	8.17%	28.75%
  🇨🇫 Central African Republic	5.%	2.51%	11.43%
  🇹🇩 Chad	4.33%	2.01%	9.64%
  🇨🇱 Chile	3.3%	13.03%	36.61%
  🇨🇳 China	5.04%	13.72%	40.93%
  🇨🇴 Colombia	3.22%	9.%	34.49%
  🇰🇲 Comoros	3.8%	4.28%	17.81%
  🇨🇬 Congo	3.36%	2.72%	11.99%
  🇨🇰 Cook Islands	2.94%	11.73%	29.75%
  🇨🇷 Costa Rica	2.97%	10.83%	36.99%
  🇨🇮 Cote d’Ivoire	2.21%	2.4%	10.86%
  🇭🇷 Croatia	7.82%	22.36%	37.03%
  🇨🇺 Cuba	4.36%	15.81%	36.31%
  🇨🇼 Curacao	5.82%	14.95%	30.46%
  🇨🇾 Cyprus	5.95%	14.83%	33.36%
  🇨🇿 Czechia	8.29%	20.64%	26.94%
  🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo	3.77%	2.92%	10.62%
  🇩🇰 Denmark	9.04%	20.49%	30.45%
  🇩🇯 Djibouti	1.99%	4.54%	19.68%
  🇩🇲 Dominica	7.67%	9.53%	34.28%
  🇩🇴 Dominican Republic	2.72%	7.4%	30.47%
  🇪🇨 Ecuador	5.2%	7.83%	31.97%
  🇪🇬 Egypt	2.95%	4.83%	21.77%
  🇸🇻 El Salvador	3.93%	8.22%	36.02%
  🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	5.53%	3.12%	15.13%
  🇪🇷 Eritrea	3.2%	4.01%	19.86%
  🇪🇪 Estonia	10.56%	20.58%	34.15%
  🇸🇿 Eswatini	2.68%	4.%	16.26%
  🇪🇹 Ethiopia	3.01%	3.14%	18.6%
  🇫🇴 Faeroe Islands	7.59%	17.92%	26.91%
  🇫🇰 Falkland Islands	8.27%	11.08%	35.86%
  🇫🇯 Fiji	5.99%	5.9%	20.6%
  🇫🇮 Finland	6.63%	23.27%	34.04%
  🇫🇷 France	11.39%	21.66%	34.23%
  🇬🇫 French Guiana	7.96%	5.98%	21.13%
  🇵🇫 French Polynesia	3.%	10.07%	37.85%
  🇬🇦 Gabon	7.21%	3.89%	16.25%
  🇬🇲 Gambia	2.5%	2.43%	16.06%
  🇬🇪 Georgia	9.35%	14.61%	31.19%
  🇩🇪 Germany	9.46%	22.41%	33.72%
  🇬🇭 Ghana	4.62%	3.55%	15.91%
  🇬🇮 Gibraltar	6.94%	20.84%	37.63%
  🇬🇷 Greece	6.8%	22.82%	37.52%
  🇬🇱 Greenland	3.06%	10.02%	29.16%
  🇬🇩 Grenada	5.12%	10.07%	30.54%
  🇬🇵 Guadeloupe	5.51%	20.04%	34.45%
  🇬🇺 Guam	1.11%	11.84%	31.19%
  🇬🇹 Guatemala	2.31%	4.91%	28.05%
  🇬🇬 Guernsey	11.96%	16.64%	35.4%
  🇬🇳 Guinea	5.39%	3.32%	14.%
  🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau	3.45%	2.82%	14.34%
  🇬🇾 Guyana	3.89%	6.28%	28.94%
  🇭🇹 Haiti	3.64%	4.54%	19.07%
  🇭🇳 Honduras	3.96%	4.27%	26.5%
  🇭🇰 Hong Kong	2.48%	20.47%	41.64%
  🇭🇺 Hungary	7.81%	20.01%	31.85%
  🇮🇸 Iceland	7.52%	15.33%	34.25%
  🇮🇳 India	3.1%	6.9%	29.81%
  🇮🇩 Indonesia	1.74%	6.86%	25.28%
  🇮🇷 Iran	5.22%	7.62%	33.72%
  🇮🇶 Iraq	2.79%	3.41%	18.44%
  🇮🇪 Ireland	10.99%	15.14%	32.48%
  🇮🇲 Isle of Man	13.9%	22.29%	31.8%
  🇮🇱 Israel	4.%	12.04%	25.97%
  🇮🇹 Italy	8.09%	24.05%	38.19%
  🇯🇲 Jamaica	3.83%	7.45%	44.05%
  🇯🇵 Japan	4.89%	29.92%	38.7%
  🇯🇪 Jersey	12.34%	16.22%	30.52%
  🇯🇴 Jordan	5.03%	3.84%	27.3%
  🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	6.47%	8.04%	19.58%
  🇰🇪 Kenya	5.28%	2.87%	16.98%
  🇰🇮 Kiribati	7.13%	3.81%	17.33%
  🇽🇰 Kosovo	5.33%	10.19%	43.35%
  🇰🇼 Kuwait	2.88%	4.93%	31.56%
  🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	7.91%	4.54%	21.08%
  🇱🇦 Laos	2.13%	4.45%	25.24%
  🇱🇻 Latvia	10.12%	21.86%	32.86%
  🇱🇧 Lebanon	7.24%	9.89%	32.11%
  🇱🇸 Lesotho	6.34%	4.2%	13.44%
  🇱🇷 Liberia	2.97%	3.31%	13.88%
  🇱🇾 Libya	5.21%	4.86%	27.77%
  🇱🇮 Liechtenstein	7.89%	19.37%	34.79%
  🇱🇹 Lithuania	8.65%	20.8%	32.79%
  🇱🇺 Luxembourg	9.71%	15.03%	31.55%
  🇲🇴 Macao	3.11%	13.%	32.39%
  🇲🇬 Madagascar	3.25%	3.35%	16.21%
  🇲🇼 Malawi	3.06%	2.61%	15.61%
  🇲🇾 Malaysia	4.91%	7.5%	30.78%
  🇲🇻 Maldives	3.14%	4.78%	35.61%
  🇲🇱 Mali	2.78%	2.38%	11.%
  🇲🇹 Malta	7.42%	19.13%	38.26%
  🇲🇭 Marshall Islands	5.68%	4.56%	17.8%
  🇲🇶 Martinique	5.85%	22.77%	37.31%
  🇲🇷 Mauritania	1.44%	3.22%	15.03%
  🇲🇺 Mauritius	3.18%	12.79%	33.76%
  🇾🇹 Mayotte	6.61%	2.88%	18.15%
  🇲🇽 Mexico	2.99%	8.32%	34.88%
  🇫🇲 Micronesia (country)	4.11%	6.16%	27.59%
  🇲🇩 Moldova	7.56%	12.98%	26.36%
  🇲🇨 Monaco	15.64%	35.92%	30.16%
  🇲🇳 Mongolia	3.87%	4.61%	26.18%
  🇲🇪 Montenegro	7.85%	16.55%	34.16%
  🇲🇸 Montserrat	7.92%	17.7%	33.05%
  🇲🇦 Morocco	2.86%	7.72%	29.97%
  🇲🇿 Mozambique	3.13%	2.57%	13.43%
  🇲🇲 Myanmar	3.21%	6.82%	23.69%
  🇳🇦 Namibia	4.1%	3.97%	15.38%
  🇳🇷 Nauru	8.98%	2.5%	15.87%
  🇳🇵 Nepal	2.74%	6.09%	29.51%
  🇳🇱 Netherlands	7.76%	20.31%	32.89%
  🇳🇨 New Caledonia	5.%	11.02%	31.61%
  🇳🇿 New Zealand	9.09%	16.31%	33.2%
  🇳🇮 Nicaragua	2.71%	5.29%	28.92%
  🇳🇪 Niger	.92%	2.4%	9.76%
  🇳🇬 Nigeria	3.%	2.97%	12.31%
  🇳🇺 Niue	4.79%	15.16%	22.55%
  🇰🇵 North Korea	2.72%	11.71%	30.49%
  🇲🇰 North Macedonia	5.87%	14.91%	36.56%
  🇲🇵 Northern Mariana Islands	2.95%	10.81%	32.09%
  🇳🇴 Norway	9.52%	18.44%	31.65%
  🇴🇲 Oman	3.05%	2.76%	23.96%
  🇵🇰 Pakistan	5.48%	4.27%	17.23%
  🇵🇼 Palau	8.59%	9.93%	21.48%
  🇵🇸 Palestine	4.77%	3.53%	23.44%
  🇵🇦 Panama	3.57%	8.77%	30.03%
  🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea	1.09%	3.19%	16.81%
  🇵🇾 Paraguay	3.73%	6.26%	26.51%
  🇵🇪 Peru	3.43%	8.41%	30.33%
  🇵🇭 Philippines	3.56%	5.44%	23.38%
  🇵🇱 Poland	5.22%	18.55%	35.69%
  🇵🇹 Portugal	7.%	22.9%	36.28%
  🇵🇷 Puerto Rico	3.63%	22.93%	48.9%
  🇶🇦 Qatar	3.5%	1.52%	15.01%
  🇷🇪 Reunion	3.81%	13.28%	32.4%
  🇷🇴 Romania	7.16%	18.64%	32.22%
  🇷🇺 Russia	4.8%	15.8%	27.86%
  🇷🇼 Rwanda	2.76%	3.2%	17.36%
  🇧🇱 Saint Barthlemy	7.3%	10.61%	43.89%
  🇸🇭 Saint Helena	8.63%	28.66%	32.61%
  🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis	5.36%	10.13%	29.79%
  🇱🇨 Saint Lucia	3.59%	9.23%	33.39%
  🇲🇫 Saint Martin (French part)	4.47%	11.14%	30.08%
  🇵🇲 Saint Pierre and Miquelon	6.34%	17.32%	33.4%
  🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	7.71%	10.86%	32.34%
  🇼🇸 Samoa	2.52%	5.22%	18.75%
  🇸🇲 San Marino	10.15%	20.47%	35.73%
  🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe	3.92%	3.76%	15.6%
  🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	3.32%	2.81%	30.28%
  🇸🇳 Senegal	3.42%	3.14%	16.54%
  🇷🇸 Serbia	6.15%	20.56%	37.55%
  🇸🇨 Seychelles	10.68%	8.16%	28.84%
  🇸🇱 Sierra Leone	3.02%	3.14%	15.52%
  🇸🇬 Singapore	2.29%	15.12%	36.51%
  🇸🇽 Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	12.03%	10.57%	34.51%
  🇸🇰 Slovakia	6.63%	16.98%	33.4%
  🇸🇮 Slovenia	7.52%	20.96%	33.59%
  🇸🇧 Solomon Islands	4.03%	3.47%	15.29%
  🇸🇴 Somalia	2.6%	2.57%	10.75%
  🇿🇦 South Africa	4.06%	5.89%	20.55%
  🇰🇷 South Korea	2.74%	17.49%	44.44%
  🇸🇸 South Sudan	3.48%	2.89%	13.11%
  🇪🇸 Spain	7.23%	20.27%	38.72%
  🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	8.76%	11.54%	35.73%
  🇸🇩 Sudan	3.03%	3.5%	13.28%
  🇸🇷 Suriname	4.09%	7.39%	25.8%
  🇸🇪 Sweden	10.19%	20.25%	31.83%
  🇨🇭 Switzerland	9.49%	19.31%	32.61%
  🇸🇾 Syria	7.66%	4.68%	24.62%
  🇹🇼 Taiwan	2.11%	16.71%	37.32%
  🇹🇯 Tajikistan	4.34%	3.47%	19.43%
  🇹🇿 Tanzania	2.2%	3.1%	14.97%
  🇹🇭 Thailand	3.21%	15.21%	39.17%
  🇹🇱 Timor	3.14%	5.21%	25.42%
  🇹🇬 Togo	4.29%	3.13%	11.77%
  🇹🇰 Tokelau	4.7%	8.66%	25.03%
  🇹🇴 Tonga	4.6%	6.22%	21.65%
  🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago	3.93%	11.52%	32.67%
  🇹🇳 Tunisia	4.4%	9.02%	31.24%
  🇹🇷 Turkey	3.77%	8.64%	33.9%
  🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	5.84%	5.15%	21.55%
  🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos Islands	5.79%	10.34%	28.25%
  🇹🇻 Tuvalu	4.98%	6.48%	16.15%
  🇺🇬 Uganda	2.87%	1.69%	14.33%
  🇺🇦 Ukraine	7.54%	18.81%	33.2%
  🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates	3.35%	1.83%	15.77%
  🇬🇧 United Kingdom	10.84%	19.17%	32.56%
  🇺🇸 United States	8.18%	17.13%	30.47%
  🇻🇮 United States Virgin Islands	7.54%	20.42%	39.11%
  🇺🇾 Uruguay	8.23%	15.58%	35.98%
  🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	5.87%	5.14%	22.24%
  🇻🇺 Vanuatu	5.65%	3.74%	16.29%
  🇻🇪 Venezuela	2.29%	8.61%	27.71%
  🇻🇳 Vietnam	4.13%	9.12%	30.02%
  🇼🇫 Wallis and Futuna	1.76%	13.47%	32.98%
  🇪🇭 Western Sahara	2.82%	5.84%	23.73%
  🇾🇪 Yemen	3.98%	2.66%	18.25%
  🇿🇲 Zambia	2.76%	1.75%	12.66%
  🇿🇼 Zimbabwe	3.18%	3.32%	14.22%
  🌐 World	5.13%	9.82%	24.03%

  Some of the places with high elderly shares today include high-income countries like Japan (30%), Italy (24%), and Finland (23%).

  The lowest shares are concentrated in the Middle East and Africa. Many countries have just 2% of their population aged 65 years and older, such as Qatar, Uganda, and Afghanistan.

  But over time, almost all countries are expected to see their older population segments grow. In just three decades, it is estimated that one-in-four European, North American, and Asian residents will be over 65 years of age.

  By 2100, a variety of Asian countries and island nations facing low population growth are expected to see more than one-third of their populations aged 65 years or older, including South Korea and Jamaica at 44%. However, it’s actually Albania that’s the biggest outlier overall, with a projected 49% of its population to be aged 65 and older by 2100.

  Passing the Generational Torch

  The challenge of an aging population is set to impact all sectors of society, including labor and financial markets, demand for housing and transportation, and especially family structures and intergenerational ties.

  One way to help grasp the nature of transition is to note the changing ratio between seniors and young children in the world population, as seen in the below crossover diagram:

  

  Dropping fertility rates, in addition to improved child and infant mortality rates, are known to have played a major role in the plateauing population of children.

  However, not all countries have witnessed this crossover yet, as it usually coincides with higher levels of economic development.

  As countries such as India, Brazil, and South Africa reach higher levels of per capita income, they will be likely to follow down the paths of more advanced economies, eventually experiencing similar demographic fates and challenges.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 23:20

• 11 Signs That Global Conflict Could Soon Spiral Completely Out Of Control
  11 Signs That Global Conflict Could Soon Spiral Completely Out Of Control

  Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

  The world seems to be gripped by a really bad case of war fever.  National leaders all over the globe are rattling their sabers, and that should deeply alarm all of us.  The last time that there was a “world war”, tens of millions of people died.  This time around, it could be hundreds of millions or even billions of people.  Today, we literally possess the ability to destroy all of humanity.  So a worldwide conflict in which nuclear weapons are used should be avoided at all costs, but unfortunately those that are running things seem absolutely determined to push us toward such a conflict anyway.

  

  Over the past couple of weeks, there have been so many alarming developments.  The following are 11 signs that global conflict could soon spiral completely out of control…

  #1 Russia just signed a deal to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus…

  The defense ministers of Russia and Belarus on Thursday signed a document on the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Defense Ministry of Belarus.

  Russia will retain control over its non-strategic nuclear weapons stationed in neighboring Belarus, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a document-signing event with his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin in Minsk.

  “Russia will not transfer nuclear weapons to the Republic of Belarus: control over them and the decision to use them remains with the Russian side,” he said.

  #2 U.S. and Taiwanese officials have reportedly been talking about bringing Taiwan under the “nuclear umbrella” of the United States.  Needless to say, such a move would make war with China much more likely…

  There seems to be a growing demand for a US ‘nuclear umbrella’ in Taiwan amid increasing belligerence by China in the Asia Pacific region.

  The desire for such a ‘nuclear umbrella’ against a potential invasion by China – which is already provided to Japan and South Korea by the United States (US) – has reportedly received support from defence experts in Taiwan.

  The US ‘nuclear umbrella’ will not see the deployment of atomic weapons in Taiwan, but will see the world’s ‘sole superpower’ respond in kind to a nuclear attack by China during an invasion of the island nation.

  #3 The Russians have just issued an arrest warrant for U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham…

  Russia’s Interior Ministry on Monday issued an arrest warrant for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham following his comments related to the fighting in Ukraine.

  In an edited video of his meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was released by Zelenskyy’s office, Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, noted that “the Russians are dying” and described the U.S. military assistance to the country as “the best money we’ve ever spent.”

  #4 A senior Taliban commander is boasting that “we will conquer Iran soon”…

  The Taliban threatened on Sunday that it could conquer Iran as tensions increase over water disputes between Afghanistan and Iran, leaving at least three people dead.

  In a video released by the Taliban, a senior commander in the terrorist organization running Afghanistan warned that the Taliban would fight the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard “with more passion” than they fought the US forces. He added that the Taliban “will conquer Iran soon if the Taliban’s leaders give the green light.

  #5 Israel has doubled the number of attacks on Iranian targets inside Syrian territory in recent months…

  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said that he has “doubled the attacks on Iran in Syria” during his several months in office.

  Gallant also revealed Tehran’s secret sea war against Israel, presenting new photographic evidence of five different ships it is using to establish another front against the Jewish state.

  #6 Hezbollah just conducted major military exercises very close to the border with Israel…

  The military exercise was unusual not only because it was made public — nearly 400 people attended, including Hezbollah supporters and several journalists — but also because it was conducted only 12 miles north of the Israeli border, just outside an area where militias are not allowed to operate under a UN Security Council resolution adopted in 2006.

  #7 Most Americans don’t realize this, but U.S. troops will soon be deployed in Peru…

  Unbeknown, it seems, to most people in Peru and the US (considering the paucity of media coverage in both countries), US military personnel will soon be landing in Peru. The plenary session of Peru’s Congress last Thursday (May 18) authorised the entry of US troops onto Peruvian soil with the ostensible purpose of carrying out “cooperation activities” with Peru’s armed forces and national police.

  #8 Violent clashes in Kosovo have resulted in more than two dozen NATO troops being injured…

  NATO-led troops and police clashed with protesters in Northern Kosovo Monday amid an ongoing standoff between ethnic Albanian authorities and local ethnic Serbs who ignored warnings not to seize municipality buildings.

  The violence comes after Kosovo’s police raided Serb-dominated areas in the region’s north and seized local municipality buildings over the weekend. The demonstrations have led to injuries on both sides, which more than two dozen NATO troops injured.

  #9 The U.S. military is building a brand new base in northern Syria.  Apparently the U.S. occupation of large portions of Syrian territory is not going to end any time soon…

  The US-led anti-ISIS coalition is building a new military base in Syria’s northern province of Raqqa, The New Arab reported, citing a source close to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

  The US backs the SDF and keeps about 900 troops (officially at least) in eastern Syria, allowing the US to control about one-third of Syria’s territory. The report said there are currently about 24 US-led military sites spread throughout eastern Syria.

  #10 North Korea is claiming that the U.S. and South Korea have just conducted an “invasion rehearsal”…

  The South Korean and U.S. militaries conducted large live-fire drills near the border with North Korea on Thursday, despite the North’s warning that it won’t tolerate what it calls an invasion rehearsal on its doorstep.

  The drills, the first of five rounds of live-fire exercises through mid-June, mark 70 years since the establishment of the military alliance between Seoul and Washington. North Korea typically reacts to such major South Korean-U.S. exercises with missile and other weapons tests.

  #11 Due to “security concerns”, dozens of “satellite phones for emergency communication” are being issued to members of the U.S. Senate…

  Amid growing concerns of security risks to members of Congress, over 50 senators have been issued satellite phones for emergency communication, people familiar with the measures told CBS News. The devices are part of a series of new security measures being offered to senators by the Senate Sergeant at Arms, who took over shortly after the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  The satellite phone technology has been offered to all 100 senators. CBS News has learned at least 50 have accepted the phones, which Senate administrative staff recommend senators keep in close proximity during their travels.

  We have never seen such a dramatic measure ever be taken before.

  Are they preparing for something?

  I wish that I knew.

  But what I do know is that we are certainly living during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and it definitely isn’t going to take much to push us over a line that will never be able to be uncrossed.

  But for now, most people in the western world simply are not paying attention to what is going on.

  Most of them just assume that our leaders are wise, competent and will be able to keep us out of any sort of nuclear conflict.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 23:00

• China Sends Fresh Crew To 'T-Shaped' Space Station, Plans Moon Mission Before 2030
  China Sends Fresh Crew To ‘T-Shaped’ Space Station, Plans Moon Mission Before 2030

  China launched the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft with a crew of three astronauts to its newly built space station for the second in-orbit crew rotation, marking yet another advancement for the country’s space program — comes at a time when the US is waging a technology war against Beijing.

  Bloomberg reported a Long March 2F rocket propelled three astronauts to the Tiangong space station on Tuesday morning from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. 

  Liftoff of the Shenzhou 16 mission, carrying a crew of three Chinese astronauts to the Tiangong space station for a six-month expedition. https://t.co/lSqanlUHVy pic.twitter.com/qgaUXIGhO0

  — Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 30, 2023

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

  The crew – Gui Haichao, Jing Haipeng, and Zhu Yangzhu will relieve Shenzhou-15 astronauts who have been orbiting the Earth in the Tiangong space station since November. State media said Shenzhou-16 astronauts are expected to arrive at the station later today.

  Tuesday marks China’s fifth crewed mission to its T-shaped space station since 2021. The new station is a three-module structure and was constructed in orbit. 

  

  China had a series of achievements in space, including being the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon in 2019, landing a rover on Mars in 2021, and constructing the Tiangong space station over the last few years. 

  In its press conference Monday, China Manned Space Agency official Lin Xiqiang told reporters the country plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030.  

  China has said it will open the Tiangong space station to all UN member states for “science experiments.” It hopes its station will outlast the International Space Station, which is set to be decommissioned in the early 2030s. Chinese astronauts are currently banned from the ISS. 

  The US and China are locked in another race, this time in space. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 22:40

• 5 Things I Truly Don't Understand About The "Inevitable Energy Transition"
  5 Things I Truly Don’t Understand About The “Inevitable Energy Transition”

  Authored by Jude Clemente via RealClear Wire,

  Please note: this article was pulled down offline from Forbes. I will let you draw your own conclusions as to why. Factually, there was no justification for it. 

  

  This list could be closer to 50 but let’s just stick to a handful of them. I literally live in this business every day, and I’m just so confused. 

  1. In a world that is apparently getting both warmer and colder because of global warming, how is it that we can increasingly rely on non-dispatchable (i.e., intermittent, usually unavailable), weather-dependent electricity from wind and solar plants to displace, not just supplement, dispatchable (i.e., baseload, almost always available) coal, gas, and nuclear power? In other words, if our weather is becoming less predictable, how is it that a consuming economy like ours can, or should even try, predictably rely on weather-dependent resources? ERCOT exemplifies this: the Texas grid operator has around 31,000 MW of wind capacity but goes into winter expecting only 6,000 MW (just 20%) of wind farms to be available to generate electricity. Again, in the marketplace, the “alternatives” you keep hearing about are proving to be far more supplemental than alternative.

  Further, good wind and solar spots are finite, based on geography, so new builds, naturally, will be forced into areas that are less windy and less sunny, lowering their already very low 35% capacity factors. And because they devour immense swaths of land, interrupting a whole host of things, that Renewable Rejection Database is mounting very quickly. If wind, solar, and electric cars too are as effective and low-cost as so many keep promising us, there would obviously be no need for government subsidies for broad adoption. Yet, there is, gigantically so. Huge amounts of taxpayer money going into this, what I call “the holy climate panacea triad,” are vulnerable to changing politics and bound to become politically untenable at some point: “Ford Is Losing $66,446 On Every EV It Sells.” Our limited financial resources are obviously very precious, so these NEVER CONSIDERED and wasted opportunity costs forcing wind, solar, and electric cars into the energy complex are truly catastrophic. Schools investing in electric buses over STEM? The $200 Billion Electric School Bus Bust. How can any of this be justified?  I’m so utterly confused. 

  2. Climate change is a global issue, so how is it that we can claim climate benefits for unilateral climate policy. For example, U.S. gasoline cars constitute just 3% of global CO2 emissions, so how will getting rid of them impact climate change? But this dose of real science doesn’t stop California leaders, a state responsible for just 1% of global CO2 emissions, from telling us that energy policy in the nine-county region of Northern California alone is “responsible for protecting air quality and the global climate in the nine-county Bay Area.” No wonder then that a Biden administration official was incoherent when asked how $50 trillion in climate spending in the U.S. will lower any global temperature rise. Indeed, despite the Sierra Club in 2014 promising us that “China’s Thirst for Coal Is Drying Up,” the Chinese Communist Party approved two coal plants a week in 2022. But, don’t worry guys, China promises to be net-zero by 2060. On climate, you don’t matter nearly as much as some want you to think.

  So, it becomes very obvious very quickly that no energy policy in northern California has any relevance in terms of changing the climate. The region could literally disappear and there would be no discernable impact on climate change. Even our climate czar John Kerry, loving the CO2-devouring life in a private jet and $250 million, has been forced to admit that the U.S. could even go to zero emissions and it would make no material impact on climate change. Talk about all pain, no gain. The real science is that incremental global emissions are “not here but over there” U.S. CO2 emissions are in structural decline regardless of what policies we pass (save 2021 and the rebound from Covid-19’s devastation in 2020). So, where is the climate benefit for Americans when it comes to U.S. climate policy? Because we’re continuously told to “believe science,” any positive answer to that question can only be deemed as anti-science. In fact, common sense and science itself tell us that unilateral climate policy can actually be really bad for climate change because it encourages carbon leakage (e.g., climate policy in the U.S. increases costs and just pushes a manufacturing firm to re-locate to coal-devouring China).

  3. Back to electric vehicles. Even green-tinted but surely practical Bloomberg admits that more than 85% of Americans can’t afford an electric car, since they are well more than double the price of oil-based cars. How can a product bring racial justice for Black Americans when the vast majority of them can’t afford it? Worse then, huge and growing subsidies for electric cars are a “reverse Robin Hood,” taking money from poor taxpayers to give to the rich ones that are, actually, in the market to buy an electric car. Forcing electric equipment over natural gas? Sorry but “gas is four to six times cheaper than electricity.” Battery costs might be much higher than expected: 1) rising global demand, 2) rising costs and unavailability of their raw materials, 3) mining complications and environmental damage, and 4) China flexing its muscles since it controls the supply chains and uses hoarding as political leverage (see Covid-19 and medical supplies). Reality check, unlike what we keep hearing about “green energy,” no technology continues to decline in cost in perpetuity: “EV battery costs could spike 22% by 2026 as raw material shortages drag on.” 

  And this one I’m really confused on. President Biden promotes his climate agenda as a way to create jobs. Besides lacking in economic literacy (i.e., jobs are costs not benefits), the truth is that electric cars, for instance, entail far less jobs because they, for one thing, have far less moving parts. And there’s all kinds of evidence that electric car life-cycle emissions could be way worse than advertised, mostly because of the massive amounts of mining required to make them. We all know about child labor and your electric car, but even pro-EV outlets are being forced to report on the mounting problems from mining, the latest on how bauxite for the aluminum needed is destroying the Amazon. And about our President’s we’ll need oil for “another decade” claim? The U.S. Department of Energy just modeled that our oil demand will actually slightly INCREASE, not decline, to over 21.1 million b/d by 2050. Reality check: planes, industry (petrochemicals), heavy trucking, and sheer Energy Inertia will have oil dominating way longer than you’re being told. 

  4. How on Earth could anybody expect those in Africa and the other horrifically poor nations to “get off fossil fuels” when the rich countries haven’t come close to doing it. Germany and California, the world’s two greenest governments, are still overwhelming fossil fuel-based and overwhelmingly dependent on imports (dangerously so in Germany’s case). This comes despite decades of huge subsidies, scores of mandates, deploying the best engineering expertise, and having low population growth and thus low incremental energy needs, all giving them a huge advantage in “going green.” The energy stat to remember most? No U.S. state will ever “try to go green” like California has over the past 20 years, yet oil and gas still supply 70% of the state’s energy, even above the national average of 65%. 

  Germany and California have shown us what these climate policies bring: Germany has the highest electricity prices in the world; and California’s are the highest in the continental U.S. and soaring out of control (Figure). How the heck can we push for “deep electrification” to fight climate change if we are going to follow policies that surge the price of electricity, while also lowering grid reliability? And rich Westerners, spare us the judgments, demands, and hypocrisy on climate change: Germany thrives on a GDP per capita per year of $51,200, compared to a horrifically sad $2,260 for India.

  5. But, perhaps I’m most confused about the whole air quality thing. The obsession over it gets attached to all energy policies. But there’s clearly a strawman to the “we need cleaner air now” demand. First, the air quality conversation in the U.S. reminds me of Voltaire’s “the perfect is the enemy of good.” Americans seem completely unaware how drastically our air quality has improved. Check data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), our criteria pollutants have been plummeting over the past many decades. The risks seem exaggerated. Let’s just take Los Angeles, which for a big city notoriously has the worst air quality in the country. Tell me, please, if air quality is such a problem and such a health concern for Americans, why is it that Angelinos have a life expectancy of 82 years, a hearty three years above the national average. Just think of all the coal that China has devoured since 2000 (I figure around 70 billion tonnes), yet the country’s life expectancy, apparently shockingly to so many, is up a very impressive six years to nearly 78 since then. Maybe it’s because Chinese GDP per capita per year has skyrocketed nearly 9-fold to over $18,500. Even for rising asthma rates in the U.S., smoking is way down, coal usage is way down, and criteria pollutants are way down. So what gives? 

  “Better air quality and environment” are not free, as attaining government standards cost businesses hundreds of billions of dollars per year. These costs are ultimately paid by Americans in the form of higher prices, lower wages, and less choices. And at some point, the cost of the regulation to achieve better air outweighs its benefit. We’ve won on water too: the water in your toilet is cleaner than what the vast majority of humans on Earth drink. For every time that we hear “environmental justice” we need to say “economic justice” 100 times. In this country for all Americans, Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos make 30% less money than Whites and Asians. Too many politicians focus on the endless pursuit of “better air quality” and other abstract, seemingly impossible to measure benefits because they have no clue on the real ways to help communities of color and other low-income Americans: help them get a better education, help them get a better job, and help them make more money. Career politicians love bottomless, money-devouring pits the most: “America’s $100 billion climate change flop.” And although its entire existence is based on never being able to declare victory (imagine a football game with no time and no keeping score), EPA should consider that it’s wealth that matters most for health equity. 

  But, that’s not its business, is it?

  Jude Clemente is the editor at RealClearEnergy. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 22:20

• 'Don't Rule Out Lab Leak': China's Former CDC Director
  ‘Don’t Rule Out Lab Leak’: China’s Former CDC Director

  The former head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention says the chance Covid-19 originated from a laboratory can’t be ruled out.

  

  That said, George Gao – who headed China’s CDC during the pandemic – also said that Chinese officials have investigated the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and found no “wrongdoing” in the lab.

  Gao told BBC Radio 4: “You can always suspect anything,” adding “That’s science. Don’t rule out anything.”

  2. “Risky”

  On the surface, Prof Gao’s comments about not ruling out a lab leak appear seriously at odds with China’s publicly stated position. Risky even.

  “We really don’t know where the virus came from… the question is still open,” Prof Gao told the BBC

  — Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 🆓 (@BillyBostickson) May 30, 2023

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

  When asked about the WIV, where US-funded scientists were genetically manipulating Covid strains to be more transmissible to humans, Gao said the lab was “double-checked by the experts in the field,” (who would never lie, we’re sure).

  “I think their conclusion is that they are following all the protocols. They haven’t found [any] wrongdoing,” Gao continued in what marks the first public confirmation from a Chinese official that an investigation was conducted at the lab.

  Last month, Gao told a London pandemic summit that there’s been “no evidence which animals [were] where the virus comes [from],” after an international group of scientists posited a laughable theory about raccoon dogs and Covid-19 in Wuhan.

  The alleged investigation was carried out by a “government” department, and didn’t involve China’s CDC, he continued, without naming said department.

  More than three years have passed since SARS-CoV-2 caused a global pandemic that resulted in some 7 million deaths, but the world is still none the wiser regarding the origin of the virus.

  One theory is that the virus originated from bats, but views differ on how it became transmissible among humans.

  Some believe the virus was passed on to humans by some sort of intermediary animal hosts, while others believe it more likely leaked from a lab, particularly the WIV, which has been researching bat viruses and is located in the centre of Wuhan, where the pandemic began.

  The Chinese regime has repeatedly dismissed the theory that the virus was leaked from the WIV, but its lack of transparency has fuelled more suspicion. –Epoch Times

  The US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic wants to question Gao and other officials regarding the origin of the virus. The committee has also asked to speak with Dr. Shi Zhengli, director of WIV’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases; Drs. Ben Hu and Huang Yanling, researchers at the institute; and Dr. Chen Wei, a general in the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army who took over the lab in February 2020.

  

  In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray announced that the bureau believes Covid-19 most likely came from a lab – a conclusion also reached by the US Department of Energy.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 22:00

• Nearly Half Of All Americans Now Have A Chronic Disease
  Nearly Half Of All Americans Now Have A Chronic Disease

  Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  It can strike at any time and at any age. When someone develops a chronic disease, it can cause debilitating, life-altering changes that penetrate every aspect of daily life.

  

  The prevalence of these conditions has surged over the past decade, creating a twofold health care and economic crisis affecting nearly half of Americans. By 2030, the number of U.S. residents struggling with at least one chronic illness is expected to surpass 170 million.

  That’s more than half of the entire country, for perspective.

  The expanding elderly population and adults aren’t the only age groups seeing an uptick. More than 40 percent of children and adolescents currently have at least one chronic illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  There’s also a tremendous cost burden. The spectrum of chronic diseases comprises a disproportionately large segment of U.S. health care costs. Of the nation’s $4.1 trillion annual health care expenditures, chronic diseases account for 90 percent.

  That’s more than $3 trillion dollars of annual direct costs alone.

  At an individual level, the price tag doesn’t look any better. Estimates for the treatment and management of chronic conditions—on average—tally more than $6,000 annually per patient.

  Some chronic disease specialists and health practitioners say that figure is spot on, depending on the condition.

  Beyond the Numbers

  “For example, if you have type 2 diabetes, you are often checking in with your provider every three months. Four visits a year, times $300 a visit, plus the amount spent for medications per month … quickly adds up,” nurse practitioner Lola MacLean told The Epoch Times.

  MacLean has worked in family and internal medicine for the past five years. In that time, she’s noticed a spike in the number of patients suffering from chronic conditions walk through the door.

  “I have seen an uptick in chronic conditions, especially those related to metabolic disorders, [like] type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression,” she said.

  Many chronic diseases require specialist care for management. Providers in these fields have also witnessed a surge in patients.

  “Indeed, I have noticed an uptick in the number of patients with chronic diseases, particularly those with respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD [Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease],” John Landry told The Epoch Times.

  Landry is a licensed, registered respiratory therapist and founder of the education platform Respiratory Therapy Zone. He noted chronic respiratory diseases often require expensive medications, frequent doctor visits, and hospitalizations.

  “I find the estimate of $6,000 USD for the annual cost of treating chronic diseases to be plausible … This doesn’t even take into account indirect costs such as time off work for the patient and their caregivers.”

  

  Landry says it’s important to remember that doctor’s visits and prescriptions aren’t the only factors in the final bill.

  “Chronic illnesses often result in loss of work productivity which indirectly increases the financial burden.”

  Conditions with some of the highest direct health care costs in the United States are diabetes at $189.6 billion in annual expenses, Alzheimer’s disease at $185.9 billion, and osteoarthritis at $115.5 billion.

  But the price of living with a chronic disease goes beyond dollars and cents. For many, it’s a daily battle that demands vigilance, patience, and emotional support.

  Uphill Battle

  For Deb Borchert, a trip to the hospital is almost as routine as folding laundry. The 47-year-old Wisconsin mother of two knows most of the emergency room staff at her local hospital by their first names.

  On March 10,  she arrived at the emergency room with her miniature medical assistance dog, Molly. Her specialist’s phone number was already on file, and she was promptly admitted for treatment without delay.

  There was no red tape or extra paperwork. Borchert was put in a bed and hooked up to IVs and machines that would help save her life.

  Because despite her outwardly calm demeanor, she was on the threshold of cardiac arrest. Again.

  “Your pulse oxygen drops, and your entire body just collapses. It can’t even function,” Borchert told The Epoch Times.

  She suffers from a condition known as hypokalemic periodic paralysis, which causes consistently low and dangerous potassium levels. It’s an illness that has landed her in the hospital more times than she can count over the past 20 years.

  For most people, healthy potassium levels are between 3.5 and 5.2. Anything below 2.5 is considered a life-threatening condition.

  Borchert was admitted on March 10 with a potassium level of 2.2.

  “I’ve had it since my 20s, but they’ve never known how to really treat it. Every time, they try different drugs, but I’m allergic to a lot of those,” she said.

  It’s a tune heard often among those suffering from chronic diseases. Lengthy, exhausting, and a sometimes dangerous trial-and-error process with treatment. Some conditions can also be difficult to manage with traditional Western medicine.

  This is the case for Julie Walters, whose 14-year-old daughter suffers from a rare form of epilepsy called PCDH19, which is caused by a gene mutation. It’s also challenging to manage with medication.

  Moreover, it causes intense clusters of seizures that can stop someone’s breathing. It’s a side effect her daughter has endured many times and, as a result, Walters’ daughter sleeps with a pulse oximeter and supplemental oxygen nearby.

  “It’s changed our entire lives,” Walters told The Epoch Times.

  Walters is co-founder of the PCDH19 Alliance, an online support network promoting early diagnosis and supporting families struggling with the condition. She also runs The Connected Parent, which is a free platform for families and caregivers that also reviews resources.

  Walters is acutely aware of how important resources are for parents who have children struggling with PCDH19 and other chronic diseases.

  Her daughter’s illness requires constant monitoring and vigilance. Family vacations, attending school, or just going out to dinner must be planned carefully since her daughter might have a seizure at any moment.

  Things like sharp corners on furniture, balcony seating, and other details most people don’t give much thought to are an act of strategy and planning in Walters’ household.

  But it’s absolutely worth it to watch her daughter grow and enjoy as good a quality of life as possible.

  Many PCDH19 patients can go years without a seizure. Yet when they return, it can be harrowing. She recalled a nightmare episode when her daughter suffered a seizure that lasted for over an hour, requiring hospitalization.

  “It’s something you’re always thinking about,” Walters admits.

  Cause and Effect

  Borchert and Walters battle conditions beyond their control, but health care professionals say some chronic diseases are the byproduct of unhealthy lifestyle choices, diet, and excessive stress.

  One study asserts that non-communicable diseases that are chronic account for 70 percent of all global deaths annually. That includes various ailments and severity, from food allergies to heart disease.

  Some of these conditions are called “lifestyle diseases,” many of which have an established cause-effect relationship with daily choices.

  Heart disease and obesity fall under this heading. And while certain illnesses may not stem directly from unhealthy life choices, they’re made significantly worse by them. Diseases like diabetes, certain cancers, inflammatory conditions, and asthma are all under this umbrella.

  “The vast majority of chronic diseases in the United States are related to lifestyle choices, and contributing factors include dietary choices, lack of regular physical activity, [and] mental-emotional stress,” MacLean said.

  The CDC says the main factors contributing to this subset of “lifestyle diseases” include tobacco use, poor nutrition, being overly sedentary, and excessive alcohol usage.

  But beyond the price tags and life hurdles, chronic diseases remain the biggest killers in the United States. They claim the lives of 7 out of 10 Americans every year.

  Further, the tidal wave of chronic diseases has occurred in lockstep with a sharp rise in ultra-processed food consumption over the past two decades.

  An 18-year study published by New York University showed that consumption of ultra-processed food climbed steadily during this period and comprised 57 percent of America’s daily calories by 2018.

  During that study period, an additional 15 million people developed chronic diseases. Medical professionals say this is no coincidence.

  Yet a more subtle shift from acute to chronic illnesses as the dominant U.S. health concern began in the 1950s. Some researchers place the blame for the current health crisis squarely on the shoulders of a lethargic medical industry.

  A 2020 study published in the National Library of Medicine summarized, “The medical profession and its leadership did not recognize or respond appropriately to the rising prevalence of chronic disease. As a consequence, a health care crisis emerged, with inadequate access to care and quality of care, together with excessive costs.”

  Finding Hope

  “It’s taken away my ability to do whatever I want and enjoy the best of what life has to offer,” Borchert said.

  Though her condition has also given her a different perspective on life. She says you’d never know how sick she was at a glance or even during a normal conversation on her good days.

  This is the case for many, including Walters’ daughter. Chronic illness is a constant battle with an invisible enemy that, for some, has no end in sight.

  But this is where Borchert found a surprising and important new mission: spreading kindness.

  “What’s most important is kindness and giving back. If I see someone struggling or having a rough day, I’ll do something nice. I’ll pay for their groceries if I’m ahead of them in line or buy their coffee,” she said.

  Over the past two decades, Borchert watched her son and daughter grow into responsible adults, which inspired her to be a better person. The loss of so many little freedoms through the veil of her disease has given her an appreciation for the little things.

  “When I was younger, I used to take those things for granted. I don’t want to be like that anymore. It’s made me more kind, more empathetic. There are so many chronic illnesses you can’t see.”

  For Walters, her fellow “medical moms” have been a critical lifeline in her family’s journey. Because it takes a proverbial “village” to tackle chronic disease, especially when there’s no cure.

  “Community, friendships, and the alliance. My daughter has friends with the same mutation, and they chat every weekend,” she said.

  “A lot of the families have created these friendships … because they get it.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 21:40

• Asia's Astonishing Gender Gap In Tobacco Use
  Asia’s Astonishing Gender Gap In Tobacco Use

  As the world prepares to observe World No Tobacco Day tomorrow (May 31), Statista’s Felix Richter looks at smoking prevalence in selected countries around the world, with a special focus on Asia and its astonishing gender gap in tobacco use.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While Indonesia and China for example, are among the countries with the highest prevalence of tobacco smoking among the male population at 63 percent and 44.5 percent, respectively, the smoking rate among women in both countries is among the lowest in the world at 2.2 and 1.5 percent.

  While there is a significant gender gap in tobacco use at the global level – the WHO reported a global prevalence of 36.7 percent among males and of 7.8 percent among females in 2020 – nowhere is the difference as pronounced as it is in Asia and the Pacific.

  

  While smoking among men is often associated with masculinity or social status in the region, it is stigmatized or frowned-upon for women to smoke.

  Meanwhile countries with less traditional gender roles, like France, Germany and the United States see significantly higher smoking rates among women, while smoking among men is often much less common than it is in many parts of Asia.

  World No Tobacco Day is a global initiative aimed at raising awareness about the risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. The day serves as a reminder of the devastating health effects of tobacco use, including various types of cancers, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory ailments. It also highlights the socioeconomic impact of tobacco use on individuals, families, and communities.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 21:20

• Native American Tribe Demands Justice For Man Shot 38 Times By US Border Patrol Agents
  Native American Tribe Demands Justice For Man Shot 38 Times By US Border Patrol Agents

  Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Yvonne Nevarez remembers her late uncle Raymond Mattia as a proud Tohono O’odham Nation member who always took a stand against injustice.

  

  He was a kind, respectful, peace-loving man, she said, making his shooting death by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents even harder to accept.

  “I’m angry. I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. Our lives will never be the same,” Nevarez said, struggling through tears.

  “He was like a dad to me. And now, he’s gone.”

  Family members say that on May 18, Mattia contacted tribal police to report illegal migrants trespassing on his property in Meneger’s Dam Village, a remote southern border community of the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation about 52 miles from Ajo by car.

  During a brief encounter with CBP agents, family members say Mattia was shot approximately 38 times for reasons as yet unknown.

  “It was literally at his doorstep,” Nevarez told The Epoch Times at a protest gathering near the Ajo Border Patrol Station in Why, Arizona, on May 27.

  

  Tribal members and supporters held another demonstration in Tucson on the same day.

  “We feel that how they took his life was unjust. There’s no justification for it,” Nevarez said.

  The family released a statement calling the shooting a “grievous” incident as “it is apparent what happened.”

  “Raymond called for help and, in turn, was shot down on his doorstep. Raymond’s rights were violated by the authorities whom we trust to protect our Nation. Improper and unprofessional actions of the agencies involved were witnessed by family members present near the crime scene.

  “Loved ones sat in agony, not knowing of Raymond’s condition until they were told that he had passed away hours later. Raymond lay in front of his home for seven hours before a coroner from Tucson arrived.

  The statement added, “In our eyes and hearts, we believe Raymond was approached with excessive and deadly force that took his life. He was a father, brother, uncle, friend, and an involved community member. Raymond always fought for what was right, and he will continue to fight even after his death. This is not an isolated incident, but it should bring awareness of the oppression our people live through.”

  

  The family has launched a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 in legal defense fees.

  So far, the effort has garnered $2,954.

  CBP Responds

  On May 22, CBP issued a statement detailing the events leading to Mattia’s death.

  The statement said that at 9:04 p.m., the U.S. Border Patrol Tuscon Sector Tactical Operations Center notified the Ajo station that the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department had requested assistance responding to a report of shots fired near Mattia’s property.

  At least 10 CBP agents met with tribal police at the local recreation center to coordinate a joint response.

  At 9:32 p.m., a tribal police officer and several CBP agents arrived near Mattia’s residence and “spread out while searching for the man.”

  “The officer and agents encountered an individual approximately 103 meters (about 337 feet) northwest of their parked vehicles, outside a residence, at approximately 9:03 p.m.”

  At that point, Mattia allegedly “threw an object” at the police officer as they approached.

  The object landed “a few feet” from the officer.

  “Shortly after the individual threw the object, he abruptly extended his right arm away from his body, and three agents fired their service weapons, striking the individual several times.”

  “The individual fell to the ground, and the officer and agents slowly approached the man,” according to the statement.

  The statement made no mention of whether Mattia was armed or whether warnings were given before he was shot down.

  

  Resuscitation Efforts Fail

  Agents began administering CPR after they could not detect a pulse and requested emergency medical services.

  However, there was no air life evacuation available due to bad weather. The agents continued administering CPR without success.

  Mattia was pronounced dead at a Pima County hospital at 10:06 p.m. The medical examiner’s office took custody of the body pending an autopsy on May 19, the statement added.

  The agents involved in the shooting will remain on administrative leave according to standard practice while authorities investigate the “use of deadly force.”

  “All three agents who discharged their weapons and seven additional agents activated their body-worn cameras during the incident.”

  The statement added the CBP is “committed to the expeditious release of the body-worn camera footage of this incident as soon as is appropriate to do so without impacting the ongoing law enforcement investigation.”

  The Tohono O’odham Police Department and FBI are currently investigating. CBP said the agency’s National Use of Force Review Board would review the incident following the investigation.

  Tohono O’odham police referred the matter to the department’s public information officer Matt Smith, who did not return a phone call or text requesting comment from The Epoch Times.

  At the May 27 protest in Why, family spokeswoman Ofelia Rivas said tribal members have reported many negative encounters with an “aggressive” Border Patrol in the past.

  “This has been going on for quite a while,” Rivas told The Epoch Times. “The Border Patrol claims to have supreme authority on the reservation.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 21:00

• These Are All The Renewable Energy And Battery Installations In The US In 2023
  These Are All The Renewable Energy And Battery Installations In The US In 2023

  Renewable energy, in particular solar power, is set to shine in 2023. This year, the U.S. plans to get over 80% of its new energy installations from sources like battery, solar, and wind.

  Visual Capitalist’s Alan Kennedy created the map below, using data from EIA, to highlight planned U.S. renewable energy and battery storage installations by state for 2023.

  

  Texas and California Leading in Renewable Energy

  Nearly every state in the U.S. has plans to produce new clean energy in 2023, but it’s not a surprise to see the two most populous states in the lead of the pack.

  

  Even though the majority of its power comes from natural gas, Texas currently leads the U.S. in planned renewable energy installations. The state also has plans to power nearly 900,000 homes using new wind energy.

  California is second, which could be partially attributable to the passing of Title 24, an energy code that makes it compulsory for new buildings to have the equipment necessary to allow the easy installation of solar panels, battery storage, and EV charging.

  New solar power in the U.S. isn’t just coming from places like Texas and California. In 2023, Ohio will add 1,917 MW of new nameplate solar capacity, with Nevada and Colorado not far behind.

  

  The state of New York is also looking to become one of the nation’s leading renewable energy providers. The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) is making real strides towards this objective with 11% of the nation’s new wind power projects expected to come online in 2023.

  According to the data, New Hampshire is the only state in the U.S. that has no new utility-scale renewable energy installations planned for 2023. However, the state does have plans for a massive hydroelectric plant that should come online in 2024.

  Decarbonizing Energy

  Renewable energy is considered essential to reduce global warming and CO2 emissions.

  In line with the efforts by each state to build new renewable installations, the Biden administration has set a goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.

  The EIA forecasts the share of U.S. electricity generation from renewable sources rising from 22% in 2022 to 23% in 2023 and to 26% in 2024.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 20:40

• Canadian Oil And Gas Producers Restart Production As Wildfires Abate
  Canadian Oil And Gas Producers Restart Production As Wildfires Abate

  By Michael Kern of Oilprice.com

  Canadian oil and gas producer Crescent Point Energy Corp on Monday said it had brought back online full production volumes at its operations in the Kaybob Duvernay play that were shut in due to the wildfires in Alberta in the past few weeks.

  

  Several other operators in Alberta have also resumed partial production after rainfalls helped stop some of the wildfires in recent days.

  Following a brief respite in the middle of May, the wildfires in Alberta began raging again last week as temperatures rose, threatening the oil sands operations in the province and forcing operators to shut in oil and gas production.  

  Earlier this month, the wildfires in Canada resulted in the shut-in of 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from the country’s oil and natural gas production or 3.7% of all output.

  Most of those shut-ins and subsequent resumption of production concerned gas output early this month, but as the situation with wildfires in Northern Alberta deteriorated, the oil sands production was threatened.

  Rystad Energy has warned that nearly 2.7 million barrels per day of Alberta oil sands production is in “very high” or “extreme” wildfire danger rating zones in the month of May.

  But at the end of last week, heavy rains helped the situation, and operators started restoring part of the previously shut-in production.

  Crescent Point Energy said today it had brought back on stream the full 45,000 boe/d of Kaybob Duvernay production previously shut-in due to the Alberta wildfires.

  Last week, Chevron Canada said it had safely resumed partial operations in the Kaybob Duvernay outside the active fire area, although it continues to monitor the evolving wildfire situation in Northern Alberta.

  Obsidian Energy said it had restored 5,650 boe/d of operated and non-operated production that was temporarily shut in due to wildfires, evacuation orders, and third-party constraints in Peace River and Pembina.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 20:20

• US Flexes With Low B-1 Bomber Flyover As Balkan Tensions Boil
  US Flexes With Low B-1 Bomber Flyover As Balkan Tensions Boil

  At a moment tensions are on edge in the Balkans over a fresh crisis between the Serbian minority of northern Kosovo and ethnic Albanians, which over the weekend saw dozens of NATO peacekeeping forces injured while trying to quell fierce protests, the United States decided it was time for some muscle-flexing.

  Two US Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber aircraft conducted a low flyover of Sarajevo and other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Tuesday. It had been pre-announced at the start of this week and described as “a sign of the strong partnership between the United States and the Armed Forces of BiH, according to a statement in the English language news portal Sarajevo Times. A US Air Forces statement cited in the publication said it would serve further as a sign of the “permanent dedication of the US to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and multi-ethnic nature of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

  

  While the US has chastised Kosovo authorities for making brash, unilateral moves which have inflamed ethnic tensions with Serbs, and resulted in Belgrade sending Serbian national troops to the Kosovo border, it seems Washington still wants to remind Serbia of US military power in the region.

  On the same day Russia, which has long been a staunch supporter of Serbian interests, called on the West to silence its “false propaganda” regarding ethnic Serbian issues and Kosovo taking away their rights.

  Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed NATO forces for exacerbating the past days of violence which started when Albanian mayors were installed over Serb-dominant communities in Kosovo. “Not only have they shown their incompetence… [they] themselves became a source of unnecessary violence, an escalation factor,” she said in reference to peacekeeping forces that clashed with Serbian protesters.

  She said that instead of protecting Serbs from the crackdown of a suppressive state, they “supported Pristina’s xenophobic aspirations, basically turning into terror accomplices” by defending local authorities.

  2 x U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer heavy-bomber aircraft conducted a low altitude flight above Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. pic.twitter.com/YjxexoD1vO

  — Clash Report (@clashreport) May 30, 2023

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

  Zakharova then in the briefing told the West to “silence its false propaganda” and to stop alleging that its Serbs provoking the clashes.

  “While looking for the guilty, mediators from the US and the EU should muster up some courage and look in the mirror,” the FM spokesperson continued. “To de-escalate, decisive steps are needed, and not half-measures like an idea proposed by the US to temporarily ‘move’ the newly-minted ‘mayors’ from municipal buildings to other facilities,” Zakharova stressed.

  Behind the latest violence is a long-running demand that Kosovo establish Serbian municipalities for Serbian strongholds in Kosovo. Pristina authorities, however, worry that this would be precursor for a breakaway statelet. Multiple dozens of NATO troops KFOR troops have been injured in the clashes.

  An official NATO statement on Tuesday said, “NATO strongly condemns the unprovoked attacks against KFOR troops in northern Kosovo, which have led to a number of them being injured. Such attacks are totally unacceptable. Violence must stop immediately. We call on all sides to refrain from actions that further inflame tensions, and to engage in dialogue.” NATO also plans to send hundreds more troops.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 20:00

• US Won't Discuss American Detained In Ukraine
  US Won’t Discuss American Detained In Ukraine

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The State Department has refused to say if it’s engaging with the Ukrainian government over American citizen Gonzalo Lira, who was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) due to his political views on the conflict with Russia.

  Lira has a popular YouTube channel and a large following on Twitter and Telegram. He is also a writer who has contributed to several media outlets, including Business Insider. Lira was born in California and is a dual citizen of the US and Chile and had been living in Kharkiv, Ukraine, throughout the war.

  

  Lira is a critic of the Ukrainian government and was arrested by the SBU on charges of justifying the Russian invasion. “After the start of the full-scale invasion, the blogger was one of the first to support the Russian invaders and glorify their war crimes,” the SBU said in a press release referring to Lira.

  The SBU also accused Lira of “discrediting the top military and political leadership and the Defense Forces of our state.” He was charged under sections 2 and 3 of Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s criminal code, which outlaws the “distribution of materials” that justify Russia’s actions going back to 2014.

  Epoch Times reporter Liam Cosgrove asked State Department spokesman Matthew Miller if the administration was aware of Lira’s detainment and how the US feels about Ukraine arresting an American for speech.

  “So I will say in general that we’re aware of the report. We obviously support the exercise of freedom of speech anywhere in the world, and I’ll leave it at that,” Miller said.

  When asked if the administration was working to secure Lira’s release, Miller said, “I’m going to leave my comments where I just left them.”

  State Department refuses to say whether it will negotiate with Zelensky for the release of detained U.S. citizen Gonzalo Lira: pic.twitter.com/jTD58XjYnw

  — Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) May 28, 2023

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

  Cosgrove also asked Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) about Lira’s detainment. Lieu said that he wasn’t aware of the case but said US citizens should “have the ability to express their thoughts and views” and that he would look into the arrest.

  Responding to the news, Greene told Cosgrove: “America is providing weapons, equipment for the defense of their country, but the Ukrainian government is not going to defend any American’s freedom of speech, and that’s a real problem.”

  Lira’s arrest received virtually no attention in Western media. One of the few outlets to cover it was the Daily Beast, which smeared the American instead of questioning the charges. According to the Beast, Lira is facing five to eight years in prison.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 19:40

• Watch: Chinese Fighter In 'Aggressive' Intercept Of US Spy Plane Over South China Sea
  Watch: Chinese Fighter In ‘Aggressive’ Intercept Of US Spy Plane Over South China Sea

  At a moment the US and Chinese militaries have halted all communications, a dangerous incident between the rival powers has occurred over the South China Sea.

  It happened last Friday, but the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) only on Tuesday revealed the incident, alleging that a Chinese fighter jet engaged in an “unprofessional intercept” of an American spy plane flying in international airspace.

  

  The US statement described that a Chinese PLA J-16 fighter flew just in front of the nose of a US RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft, and INDOPACOM further published video of what it called an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver”. 

  Based on video of the intercept, the J-16 passes so close to the RC-135 that the US aircraft’s cockpit appears to shake from the turbulence of the PLA plane’s wake.

  “The RC-135 was conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law,” INDOPACOM said. “The United States will continue to fly, sale and operate – safely and responsibly – wherever international law allows.”

  “We expect all countries in the Indo-Pacific region to use international airspace safely and in accordance with international law,” the US military statement emphasized. 

  But China is disputing this interpretation, given it regularly attempts to claim both maritime territory and airspace based on an expanse of manmade and other militarized islands in the South China Sea. Washington has rejected this interpretation of the contested territory, calling it international airspace.

  Watch the Pentagon-released footage unveiled late Tuesday…

  The US military has released footage of a Chinese fighter jet performing an ‘unnecessary aggressive’ manoeuvre, claiming the Chinese jet passed directly in front of the nose of the US Air Force plane during the intercept on 26 May.https://t.co/2lxGDKlyMP pic.twitter.com/iPS3UTAHes

  — Sky News (@SkyNews) May 30, 2023

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

  There have been several of these ‘close call’ incidents in recent years, including a February intercept where a Chinese J-11 fighter approached about 500 feet off the wing of an American P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. The Chinese jet shadowed the US patrol plane for more than an hour.

  US planes have also received messages from nearby PLA jets of late such as “No approaching any more or you will pay full responsibility” – but so far there’s been no live fire or warning shot incidents, and yet these episodes remain highly dangerous for the potential of a direct clash.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 19:20

• Faced With New Round Of Demonetization Indians Turn To Gold
  Faced With New Round Of Demonetization Indians Turn To Gold

  Authored by Michael Maharrey via SchiffGold.com,

  The Indian central bank has announced another round of demonetization with a plan to withdraw 2,000-rupee notes from circulation.

  

  The announcement led to a big jump in gold bullion sales.

  The 2,000-rupee note will remain legal tender, but they will have to be deposited or exchanged for smaller denominations by Sept. 30.

  The 2,000 rupee note ($24.19) is the largest currency denomination in India. According to Reuters, they make up about 10.8% of the currency in circulation.

  T.V Somanathan, the top official at the Indian Finance Ministry, said confiscation of the 2,000 rupee notes wouldn’t cause any disruptions “either in normal life or in the economy.”

  His assurances fall flat given history.

  We’ve seen this play before. The Indian government announced a surprise demonetization policy in the fall of 2016 meant to drive so-called black money out of the shadows and declared that all of the 1,000 and 500-rupee notes then in circulation would no longer be valid. The suddenly worthless notes made up 86% of the currency in circulation in the country at the time. The move made virtually all of the cash in India valueless.

  The government produced new 500 and 2,000-rupee notes to replace the old currency.

  Now the government is pulling those 2,000-rupee notes out of circulation.

  The government policy announced in 2016 was meant to force Indians to trade in the old notes for new ones. But there was a catch. The government placed limits on the amount of currency Indians could exchange, but no limits on bank deposits until the end of the year. The idea was to push Indians into putting their hoarded cash in the bank – thus bringing it “out of the shadows.” The demonetization policy resulted in severe cash shortages. As many as 90% of ATMs in some regions of the country completely ran out of currency.

  With more time to exchange notes this time around, the latest round of demonetization is not expected to be as disruptive.

  War on Cash

  The Indian government’s move was part of the broader war on cash. The goal was to bring “black money” out of the shadows so it can be tracked and taxed. The vast majority of transactions in India are in cash. It is an overwhelmingly cash economy and virtually every Indian has currency stashed away in their home.

  Transactions using black money mean no taxes are collected. Government estimates show that only 1% of the Indian population pays any taxes at all. By making the 1,000 and 500 rupee notes valueless, government officials hoped to force the black money into the light so they could get their cut.

  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) justified eliminating the 2,000-rupee note, saying they are at the end of their useful life and citing evidence showing 2,000 rupee notes aren’t typically used in transactions. But the real motivation for this latest round of demonetization is likely the same as the first – to better track and tax transactions.

  This war on cash isn’t isolated to India. The European Central Bank stopped producing and issuing 500-euro notes in 2018, and officials in the US have floated the idea of eliminating the $100 bill.

  More recently, governments have experimented with central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a cash replacement.

  There are also political motives for getting the 2,000-rupee notes out of circulation now.

  The move comes ahead of elections in four Indian states and a national election next spring. According to Reuters, “Most of India’s political parties are believed to hoard cash in high denomination bills to fund election campaign expenses to get around tough spending limits imposed by the Election Commission.”

  Forcing people to deposit the notes will also help boost bank deposits. Indian banks have struggled to maintain deposit levels large enough to support the country’s massive credit expansion.

  Gold to the Rescue

  When the government pulled 1,000 and 500-rupee notes out of circulation in 2016, Indians turned their “black money” into gold.

  Tax officials attempting to track black money say gold jewelry sales spiked the night of Nov. 8, 2016, after the government announced the demonetization policy.

  “Jewelers offered a platform to convert unreported cash into gold,” one official said.

  To avoid reporting the transactions, sellers simply split single transactions into multiple sales in order to keep them below the Rs 2 lakh threshold that triggers reporting requirements in India.

  After the RBI announced the elimination of 2,000-rupee notes earlier this month, local newspapers reported a similar rush to jewelry shops to exchange the notes for gold. The Hindustan Times reported a 10 to 20% increase in gold sales after the announcement.

  People scrambled to buy gold and silver in bulk in bullion markets, leading to increase in prices, dealers in several states said.”

  Gold was also a lifeline for Indians pummeled by the economic storm caused by the government response to the coronavirus pandemic.

  Indians understand that gold tends to store value and that in the end gold is money. If they have gold, they know they will be able to get the goods and services they need – even in the event of an economic meltdown or a cash crunch.

  Gold is not just a luxury in India. Even poor people buy gold in the Asian nation. According to an ICE 360 survey in 2018, one in every two households in India purchased gold within the last five years. Overall, 87% of households in the country own some amount of the yellow metal. Even households at the lowest income levels in India own some gold. According to the survey, more than 75% of families in the bottom 10% had managed to buy gold.

  It’s no surprise that when faced with the possibility of another disruption to the cash system, Indians have turned to gold.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 19:00

• Chicago Sees Deadliest Memorial Day Weekend In 8 Years Despite Hundreds Of Yellow-Vested 'Peacekeepers' In Streets
  Chicago Sees Deadliest Memorial Day Weekend In 8 Years Despite Hundreds Of Yellow-Vested ‘Peacekeepers’ In Streets

  This Memorial Day weekend in Chicago was the deadliest the Democrat-run and crime-plagued city has seen in eight years, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported Tuesday.

  One killing even happened close to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s own residence. Going back to Friday evening, “at least 11 people had been killed and another 46 wounded since early Friday evening” resulting in a death toll that was the “highest since 2015, when 12 people were killed,” according to the report. This marks 57 total casualties across the city from either shootings or knifings.

  

  The newspaper records that the prior high came in 2016: “The total number shot, however, was still far below the 71 people wounded by gunfire over the 2016 holiday weekend,” it notes.

  Last year’s Memorial Day weekend had marked a 5-year high. For the 2022 holiday weekend, 51 people total had ben reported shot, including 9 killed.

  The eight-year high in deaths occurred despite that ahead of the weekend community activists had planned peace marches. The idea was that yellow-vested ‘peacekeepers’ would fan out and have a prominent presence in “hot spots” where violence is frequent in the south and west sides of the city. The marches and activism appeared to have little effect.

  

  The initial Friday homicides reportedly happened within a few hours of each other, and included shootings and stabbings.

  As for violent incidents which happened near the mayor’s home, the Sun-Times details: 

  The homicide near the mayor’s Austin neighborhood home was discovered just after midnight Saturday in the 5700 block of West Chicago Avenue. A female, whose age was unknown, was stabbed to death and left in a nearby alley. And Monday evening, a shooting was reported about five blocks from the mayor’s home. A man, 36, was shot near the street around 7 p.m. in the 700 block of North Pine Avenue. He was hospitalized in good condition.

  As for the peacekeeping initiative, it is actually part of a formal initiative which has state funding, and has included 500 people having been hired and undergone training in conflict de-escalation. Last week into the weekend they had a presence in 102 “hot spots” in 14 Chicago communities.

  Never fear.

  Once peacekeepers are deployed throughout the City of Chicago, hey presto, crime will vanish.

  Video: @ChicagoCritter. pic.twitter.com/eFVP8No1vv

  — Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) May 29, 2023

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

  However, judging by the tragic weekend statistics – which not only matched but surpassed similar deadly weekends – there appears to have been a somewhat fruitless exercise in optics, at least for the warm holiday weekend. But other metrics suggest and the program leaders themselves say that in some locales the program has been effective.

  Below: Total Chicago Homicides per year, via heyjackass.com

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 18:40

• "Safe Harbor": New Evidence Offers Insight Into Hunter Biden & His Collapsing World Of Corruption
  “Safe Harbor”: New Evidence Offers Insight Into Hunter Biden & His Collapsing World Of Corruption

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in the New York Post on newly discovered exchanges within the Biden family over the collapsing fortunes of Hunter Biden in 2018.

  As one of the primary conduits for influence peddling in the Biden family, Hunter appeared to be in a free fall and his Uncle Jim appeared to offer him a “safe harbor” and to guarantee “all the deals are still alive.”

  

  Here is the column:

  In 2018, Hunter Biden’s world was collapsing.

  The New York Times had run a story on one of his shady deals with the Chinese and his father, then vice president, was pulled into the vortex.

  It appears that Hunter was in a free fall and his uncle Jim Biden reached out in newly discovered messages to offer him a “safe harbor.”

  The exchange is an insight into a train wreck of a life of the scion of one of the most powerful families in the country.

  However, it is also insight into a world of influence peddling where millions simply evaporated in the coffers of the Biden family.

  On their face, the messages seem to contradict public statements from President Biden on the foreign-influence peddling that used to fund Hunter’s drug-infused, self-destructive lifestyle.

  The Times story caused a panic in the Biden family.

  Despite a largely supportive media, the Bidens have long been known for influence peddling.

  Jim Biden has been repeatedly criticized for marketing his access to his brother in pitches to clients.

  Hunter knew that the Times story was only the tip of an iceberg.

  There were deals all over the world with foreign figures worth millions and some of these figures had close ties to foreign intelligence or regimes.

  As revealed recently by the House Oversight Committee, the Bidens constructed a labyrinth of corporations and accounts to transfer millions from these deals to a variety of Biden family members, including grandchildren.

  Free fall

  Nevertheless, Joe Biden repeatedly claimed as a presidential candidate and as president that he had no knowledge of any foreign dealings of his son.

  Those denials now appear patently false.

  The laptop includes pictures and appointments of Hunter’s foreign business associates with Joe Biden.

  It also includes a recording concerning a Times report on Dec. 12, 2018, detailing Hunter’s dealings with Ye Jianming, the head of CEFC China Energy Company.

  Ye would later be arrested for corruption.

  As Biden associates pushed the Times to change aspects of the story, Joe Biden called to report on the results.

  In his message, Biden ends his call to Hunter with the statement “I think you’re clear. And anyway if you get a chance, give me a call, I love you.”

  The new messages indicate that the Bidens were worried that Hunter was in a free fall as these dealings were becoming known and revenue was declining.

  Jim Biden appears to be rushing to get Hunter to work the problem with the family.

  He assures him that they can find him “a safe harbor” and that “I can work with you[r] father alone!”

  The messages may refer to the fact that Hunter’s past complaint that he was giving as much as half of his proceeds to his father and was now facing towering financial demands.

  He appears to have cut off the family.

  That is a dangerous development for a man who had a long struggle with drugs and alcohol.

  Hunter blew through a fortune on narcotics and women, including allegations that he may have used a shared credit card with his father to pay off prostitutes.

  Both Joe and Jim Biden were reaching out to Hunter to assure him that he was in the “clear” and that there is a “safe harbor.”

  However, Jim pushed him to remain in contact and in the fold: “I cannot find you, believe it or not I have been looking. I [have] driven by Hallie’s, you fathers. Called texted you. . . . I want to help all the deals are still alive.”

  Putting aside the genuine desire to protect a family member with a history of drug abuse, the unpredictable Hunter also represented a threat to the entire family.

  A panicked Hunter threatened more than family harmony. There were millions that were being generated in countries like Ukraine, Romania, Russia and China.

  The messages show that the Hunter was spinning out of control and needed money fast — a lot of money. He told Jim Biden that he could not even afford “food and gas,” including his monthly alimony to his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.

  He relays how President Biden was told that he “was in a real danger zone.”

  Classic corruption

  These messages highlight another inconvenient fact: Hunter was hardly a figure who generated confidence or cash.

  In 2018, he was an utter mess at the very time that foreign figures were funneling money to him.

  He was clearly noncommunicative with his family and still gushing money.

  He had previously complained that the Russians had blackmail material on him. He was a danger not just to himself.

  In his later book, Hunter admits that he was a crack addict and alcoholic: “drinking a quart of vodka a day by yourself in a room is absolutely, completely debilitating” as well as “smoking crack around the clock.”

  Given these admissions, why were so many foreign figures rushing to give this human wrecking ball millions?

  He not only lacked expertise in areas like energy or mining, but he was barely able to function, according to his own account.

  The answer seems abundantly clear.

  This was classic corruption. Indeed, influence peddling has long been the favorite form of corruption in Washington.

  Yet, these latest messages add a particularly sad element to this scandal.

  Joe and Jim Biden were propping up a man who was barely able to function.

  However, Hunter was still the conduit for allegedly millions in foreign money.

  He was the firebreak between the money and any scandal.This was made evident in a recent and rare sit-down interview; MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle delicately broached the scandals involving Hunter by emphasizing that it is a “personal” matter and assuring the president (and the viewers) that the still unknown charges involve “no ties to you.”

  Hunter increasingly looks like the designated defendant of the Bidens; the sin-eater who may have to take one for the team in the form of a couple tax charges.

  Yet, even now, to use Jim Biden’s words, “This can work.”

  Hunter’s new “safe harbor” may be a limited indictment that conspicuously avoided charges as an unregistered agent.

  Likewise, Attorney General Merrick Garland has seen to that by steadfastly refusing to appoint a special counsel despite references to the president getting a proposed cut of these deals and instructions to use code names for him like the “Big Guy” to conceal his role.

  Most recently, an IRS whistleblower came forward to accuse the Justice Department of interfering with the tax investigation of Hunter by “slow walking” the investigation and making a series of decisions that worked to his advantage.

  As made clear by Jim Biden, there is always a plan in the Biden family. Back in 2018, he assured his nephew that “as usual just need several months of [your father’s] help for this to work. Let’s talk about it. It makes perfect sense to me.” In the meantime, the message from Uncle Jim likely remains “stay calm and carry on.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 18:20

• The Great Student Loan Nonpayment Boondoggle Is Over And Household Spending Is About To Collapse
  The Great Student Loan Nonpayment Boondoggle Is Over And Household Spending Is About To Collapse

  In the small print detailing the end of the debt ceiling melodrama which, as we explained, is a farce as it boosts inflation-adjusted spending contrary to Republican promises, there was some actual news: the great student loan boondoggle is about to come to a screeching halt, after a three year “emergency pause” which redirected tens of billions in dollars away from mandatory student loan repayment to other forms of discretionary spending.

  According to Goldman, the agreement announced on Saturday between uniparty leaders Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy titled hilariously the “Fiscal Responsibility Act”, prohibits the Biden Administration from extending the pause on student loan repayments in place since March 2020, even if it does not block the Administration’s student loan forgiveness plan, which would wipe out up to $20,000 in federal loans per borrower and is currently being weighed by the Supreme Court (the plan was announced last year but has not yet implemented).

  Here are the details: late last year, Biden extended the repayment pause, which postpones roughly $5bn per month in student loan repayments, until 60 days after the Supreme Court ruled on the separate $400bn loan forgiveness plan the – the Supreme Court is likely to rule on loan forgiveness in June, so this likely would mean a restart of payments after August 2023.

  And now, the debt limit agreement prohibits further extension of the payment pause, but remains silent on the student loan forgiveness plan which however will be nixed by SCOTUS much to the chagrin of screaming libs and lifelong members of the “free $hit” army. Prior to the announced debt limit deal Goldman had already assumed the repayment pause would end on schedule, though there was clearly a chance the White House might have extended it once again. The debt limit agreement eliminates that possibility (“except as expressly authorized by an act of Congress”) and should result in a restart of student loan payments in September 2023.

  What happens then?

  Well, according to Jefferies, the return of monthly loan payments presents risks similar to the effects of the 2013 fiscal cliff, when tax increases led to reduced consumer spending. And in a note released Monday (available to pro subscribers), JPMorgan’s chief US economist Michael Feroli said that the end of the payment moratorium will reduce annual disposable personal income by $38 billion, which will reduce consumer spending.

  Separately, a March analysis by FreightWaves found that federal government programs boosted personal income by an estimated $2.3 trillion from March 2020 to December 2022. According to The Motley Fool, consumers received an average of $3,450 in stimulus during the COVID economy. This included direct payments into bank accounts, an expanded Child Tax Credit and an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. But one of the biggest COVID-related stimulus programs was not factored into the s numbers: student loan forbearance.

  As noted above, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the student loan deferment program will end no later than June 30, 2023, and payments are expected to resume by Sept. 1, 2023: “The amount of money we are talking about, in excess of a trillion dollars, is staggering. Student loans represent 7% of U.S. GDP” according to FrightWaves.

  Putting these numbers in context, 64% of the $1.7 trillion in student loan debt have been in forbearance for the past three years, amounting to $1.1 trillion. Many of the 25 million Americans who have deferred payments for student debt are aged 18-44 years old, one of the most important demographic groups that drive consumer spending. 

  Some more math: according to a New York Fed study, the average student loan payment is $393 per month.

  For consumers taking advantage of the program, they have deferred 39 months worth of payments, resulting in more than $15,327 in additional discretionary income during the period, much larger than the amount most consumers received from other COVID stimulus programs. 

  The forbearance program, when originally conceived, was intended to be a short-term program to protect consumers from the COVID black swan event. But many consumers made financial decisions based on this short-term cash flow boost, treating the cash as permanent. In fact, as the latest NY Fed household debt study showed, delinquency on student loans – until 2020 the highest among all types of credit – collapsed to near zero courtesy of the repayment moratorium. Expect the red line to soar higher in coming quarters.

  

  A sudden increase of $393 per month in “new” – but really old – loan repayments will force prime-age consumers (those aged 18-44 years) old to cut back on discretionary spending. Since portions of this demographic have a tendency to prioritize experiences over goods consumption, we can expect this will have a much bigger impact on services demand and spending, which as discussed previously, has been the only pillar supporting the US economy now that  goods spending has fallen off a cliff.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 18:00

• Three Years Later, No Justice For BLM Insurrection In D.C.
  Three Years Later, No Justice For BLM Insurrection In D.C.

  Authored by Julie Kelly via American Greatness,

  D.C.’s lead prosecutor has turned a blind eye to a six-month campaign of terror in the nation’s capital in 2020 so he could keep his sights on the mostly nonviolent protesters of January 6, 2021…

  

  “Our office prosecutes all acts of violence, regardless of political motivation, the same.”

  So said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves—under oath, mind you, and with a straight face – during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee earlier this month. 

  Representative Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) questioned Graves’ disparate treatment of Black Lives Matters rioters who terrorized Washington, D.C., in 2020 versus Trump supporters involved in the events of January 6, 2021.

  Although the start of both incidents was a mere seven months apart, they are a world away in terms of accountability.

  In what Graves calls the “Capitol Siege” investigation, more than 1,000 Trump supporters have been criminally charged.

  Graves, a Biden appointee, has promised to double that caseload before he’s finished. His office announces new arrests every week.

  That, however, is not the case for rioters who caused far more violence and inflicted far more damage in the nation’s capital in 2020. The rioting that began on May 29, 2020 at Lafayette Square prompted the lockdown of the White House; Donald Trump, his wife, and teenage son were ushered to an underground bunker for their safety as looters and arsonists repeatedly tried to scale the fence and break through police barricades erected outside the White House.

  And what started that night in 2020 didn’t just last a few hours, as was the case with the Capitol protest. On June 1, rioters burned part of St. John’s Church, an historical landmark across from the White House, and set ablaze other areas of the public park.

  Chaos continued throughout the summer with the president, his family, and White House staff under constant threat. Police arrested 11 people at Lafayette Square in July 2020 for various offenses including assault of a police officer. “The Tuesday night incidents that stretched over hours are the latest confrontations to transpire near the White House, where protesters have been gathering daily for more than a month to protest for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police,” the Washington Post reported on July 8, 2020.

  After Trump accepted the GOP nomination for president on White House grounds in August 2020, rioters chased Republican lawmakers, including Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his wife, leaving the event. Some assaulted police in an attempt to get near members of Congress; Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who lost both legs and a finger in Afghanistan, was surrounded and shouted down by Black Lives Matter protesters as he tried to get home.

  Elected officials weren’t the only targets of rage-filled activists occupying the heart of the nation’s capital that year. Trump supporters, including young families with children, were attacked by BLM and Antifa rioters during pro-Trump rallies in November and December 2020.

  But the violent demonstrations at Lafayette Square represent the closest comparison to January 6: clashes between federal police and protesters on federal property. An Interior Department inspector general report detailed the turbulent situation at Lafayette Square that endangered police and the president for days 

  [The] Treasury Annex building was vandalized; officers were assaulted with projectiles, such as bottles and bricks; and a brick struck a [U.S. Park Police] officer in the head, resulting in the officer’s hospitalization. USPP officers reported that some protesters threw projectiles, such as bricks, rocks, caustic liquids, frozen water bottles, glass bottles, lit flares, rental scooters, and fireworks, at law enforcement officials. Overall, 49 USPP officers were injured during the protests from May 29 to May 31, including one who underwent surgery for his injuries. The Secret Service—also reported injuries to their personnel during this time. On the evening of May 30, individuals at the protests threw projectiles at the officers and ultimately breached the first row of bike-rack fencing, thereby eliminating the buffer between the protesters and law enforcement officers.

  Dozens of people were arrested, including a man who jumped over two barriers in an attempt to enter the White House. Yet only a handful of protesters faced federal charges—in sharp contrast to January 6 protesters who all face federal counts even for low-level offenses such as “parading” in the Capitol. Nearly all the charges initially filed by the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office were dropped. (Graves did not take over the office until November 2021.)Despite his claim his office is “prosecuting a number of individuals in connection with the incidents of the summer of 2020,” that simply does not appear to be the case, particularly since Graves further confirmed to Gosar that the office “declined a number of arrests presented to it under the leadership of the prior administration.”

  But a change in political leadership does not absolve Graves from failing to bring federal charges against violent criminals who tried to destroy the nation’s capital in 2020. If Graves can indict nonviolent individuals for “seditious conspiracy” who did little more than make travel plans to attend political rallies on January 6, he could easily find more damning evidence against deep-pocketed organizers who encouraged thousands of rioters to occupy D.C. for months, threaten the president, traumatize residents and businesses, assault federal police, and intimidate Republican lawmakers and voters in the seat of American government—a legitimate “insurrection.”

  Not only has Graves not charged any suspects involved in the 2020 riots under his watch, but his office also helped negotiate a settlement between the Justice Department and Lafayette Square rioters, who sued the government for violating their civil rights during what Graves called “racial justice demonstrations in Lafayette Square.” The settlement with Black Lives Matter D.C. required Park Police and Secret Service to update their policies to protect those who “peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights.”

  First Amendment rights these days are in the eye of the beholder—or in this case, the lead government prosecutor who decided to turn a blind eye to a six-month campaign of terror in the nation’s capital in 2020 so he could keep his sights on people who participated in a mostly nonviolent, comparatively brief protest on January 6.

  Clearly, all “sieges” are not created equal.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 05/30/2023 – 17:40

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• China To Put Humans On The Moon By 2030
  China To Put Humans On The Moon By 2030

  Weeks after Russia’s former head of the Roscomsmos space agency cast doubt on the US moon landing in 1969, China announced plans to put a person on the moon by 2030.

  

  In a Monday announcement, Lin Xiqiang, the deputy director of China’s Manned Space Agency, said that the CCP’s moon landing project – part of the country’s broader Lunar Exploration Project (Chang’e Project, named after the Chinese moon goddess) – had only “recently” been kick started. The project seeks to eventually enable short-term stays on the lunar surface, as along with the collection of samples and other research, The NY Times reports.

  Chinese scientists have previously nodded at a 2030 goal in a less formal capacity; for example, the chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program said last month that a 2030 landing would be “no problem.”

  The Monday announcement came at a news conference to mark the liftoff of three new astronauts on Tuesday to China’s new space station, which was completed late last year.

  A manned lunar landing would be a major milestone for China’s, and the world’s, space exploration: No human has been on the moon since the United States’ Apollo missions in the 1960s and ’70s. And it could mark a significant achievement for China in its burgeoning competition with the United States in space. China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has said that the country should become a “great space power.”

  The announcement follows one by NASA, which announced a plan to put a team on the moon by 2025 as part of the (repeatedly delayed) Artemis program.

  

  Both Beijing and Washington want to build research stations on the moon, and to land people on Mars.

  The Times frames the announcement as a point of contention between the US and China, echoing the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

  NASA’s administrator, Bill Nelson, has said that the United States should “watch out” for Chinese attempts to dominate the lunar surface and keep Americans out. A Pentagon report last year warned that China could overtake American capabilities in space by 2045. -NY Times

  China has accelerated its space program in recent years, and is currently the only country (known) to have landed anything on the moon in the 21st century. The CCP also landed a lunar probe on the moon’s far side for the first time in history in 2019.

  If the moon is next for humans, it might be a good time to bone up on your Heinlein.

  Careful, China. You never know what’s up there!

  

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 23:30

• Remember The Fallen… And Those They Left Behind
  Remember The Fallen… And Those They Left Behind

  Authored by Brooke Rollins via RealClearPolitics.com,

  The Christmas season of 1942 was clouded by war in the small town of Waterloo, Iowa, but for Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, it was especially dreadful. A rumor was going about town, and it was about her sons. Or rather, it was about all five sons, each of whom had volunteered for the Navy — and elected to serve together aboard the same ship. The brothers meant to fight as they lived, as a team, as a family, each helping the other out — on the vast and distant Pacific as much as in idyllic Iowa. 

  The rumor that reached their mother was that their ship, the light cruiser Juneau, had sunk off Guadalcanal. But Mrs. Alleta Sullivan had received no news. 

  So, she did something very American. She wrote to the Navy. “Dear Sirs,” she began, “I am writing you in regards to a rumor going around that my five sons were killed in action in November. A mother from here came and told me she got a letter from her son and he heard my five sons were killed.”

  The next line, even softened by 80 years, still breaks the heart in its simplicity and directness: “It is all over town now, and I am so worried.”

  Mrs. Sullivan would have been entirely justified in demanding news of her boys. She would have been justified in demanding that the Navy account for them, that she did not have to endure the quiet hell of rumors of her sons. Instead, she does something remarkable, and reading it now is a window into a different — and better — America. She writes that even if her five sons are gone, she will still do her own duty. 

  “[P]lease let me know the truth. I am to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA, Feb. 12th, at Portland, Oregon. If anything has happened to my five sons, I will still christen the ship as it was their wish that I do so.”

  Stop there for a moment and re-read that. Even in the shadow of the most terrible prospect a mother can face, Mrs. Alleta Sullivan tells the Navy it can count on her to keep her commitments. She would never have said it, but here you can see from whom her five sons inherited their own sense of sacrificial devotion. 

  “I hated to bother you,” she continued as if she had anything at all to apologize for, “but it has worried me so that I wanted to know if it was true. So please tell me. It was hard to give five sons all at once to the Navy, but I am proud of my boys that they can serve and help protect their country.”

  Mrs. Sullivan did not have to wait long for her answer. Her letter went to the Navy and crossed paths with the inbound casualty notification. Her letter went out in early January 1943. On the early morning of January 11, three Navy officers arrived at the little house on 98 Adams St. in Waterloo. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan knew why they had come. The officer in charge knew he could not soften the blow.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “All five.”

  

  The story of the Fighting Sullivans is a famous one, notable for its contrast of great virtue — five brothers, on fire with duty imparted by their parents — and great tragedy, in their death together on a black day off the Solomon Islands. We have an obligation to remember. We should also remember that it is not the only tale of its kind. We today are as far from World War II as it was from the Civil War. In that war, there was the heartbreaking episode of Mrs. Bixby and her five sons, all fallen in battle, of whom President Lincoln wrote that they were “so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.” In his 2013 “The Guns at Last Light,” Rick Atkinson tells a lesser-known tale of an elderly widower in Missouri, one Henry A. Wright, who waits at his small-town train station for the casket bearing his son, killed on Christmas Eve 1944 in the Ardennes.

  He also received the remains of another son, who died in a German prison camp. He also received the remains of still another son, who died in combat in Germany, 10 days before war’s end.

  Atkinson writes that the three brothers were buried “side by side by side beneath an iron sky.”

  These stories of the grievous loss of the young, strong, brave, and parents burying their children, hit us hard. They should. If they do not, then we are undeserving of the fallen. The five Sullivans, the five Bixbys, and the three Wrights seize our attention and hearts because of the numbers. But make no mistake: the mother, the father, the brother, and the sister who lose a single son at war, do not grieve less because it is just one. 

  For them, there is the consolation in the grace that is only God’s to give.

  On this Memorial Day, we remember all the fallen — and we remember those whom they left behind. We have a sacred obligation “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” — and that obligation increases a hundredfold because the battle was borne, and the wife was widowed, and the child was orphaned, for us. “Freedom is not free” is an overused phrase, almost cliche, which does not mean it should not be said. But this Memorial Day, when you say it, think of what it means on the most human level. You live in the greatest nation, among the greatest people, in the history of the world.

  You have that privilege because, across three centuries, unnumbered Americans laid down everything for it.  

  A young man died in battle on a sunny morning on the road to Concord.

  A loving father fell in the wheatfield at Gettysburg. 

  A draftee determined to make his father proud died on the Imjin.

  A bright and eager student breathed his last at Khe Sanh.

  A young woman took her final flight over Fallujah. 

  Remember them. Let the memory steel you – to deserve them.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 23:00

• Total Farce: Real Spending Under Debt Ceiling Deal Actually Goes Up Next Year
  Total Farce: Real Spending Under Debt Ceiling Deal Actually Goes Up Next Year

  Late last week, we were the first to correctly summarize what the bottom line of the so-called “debt ceiling deal” meant for the US, for future generations of Americans, and for the ridiculous melodrama gripping Washington: a -0.2% of GDP cut in nominal spending.

  Hey @mattgaetz, the debt ceiling deal “cuts” spending by 0.2% of GDP or about $50 billion.

  Is that good enough?

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 28, 2023

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

  That’s right: that 0.2% cut in spending is what all the brewhaha was over, a cut which will not only push total debt to $35 trillion by the end of Biden’s term, but will not even put a dent in the long-term US debt trajectory which even the CBO has no problem as showing in its full, hyperinflationary glory.

  

  Still, to Kevin McCarthy who “negotiated” on behalf of America’s conservatives, that paltry, laughable nominal “spending reduction” was apparently something to be very proud of, as he repeatedly pointed out on his twitter feed…

  It is simple:
  – President Biden wanted to spend more and raise taxes.
  – Republicans fought—and won—to reduce spending and stop Biden from radical overreach.

  The systemic reforms we set in place mark the beginning of historic change in Washington. https://t.co/rjMNsSf5oX

  — Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) May 29, 2023

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

  … if only a closer look reveals that not all is as it seems.

  In its post-mortem of the debt ceiling deal published this evening, Goldman summarizes the outcome as follows: “the spending deal looks likely to reduce spending by 0.1-0.2% of GDP yoy in 2024 and 2025, compared with a baseline in which funding grows with inflation. That said, the boost to funding Congress approved late last year for FY23 was so large (nearly 10% yoy) that overall discretionary spending is likely to be slightly higher in real terms next year despite the new caps.”

  Translation: the “deal” may result in a nominal 0.1% drop in spending (just for next year, after that it ramps up again), but adjusted for inflation, spending in 2024 will be higher yet again!

  Below we excerpt several highlights from the Goldman note, first focusing on the probability of the deal becoming enacted; according to Goldman, the deal is “very likely to pass both chambers of Congress in the coming week” although there are two points of uncertainty in the House.

  • First, the Rules Committee will meet to vote Tuesday (May 30) afternoon/evening on the rule for debate on the debt limit bill, a necessary step before the vote on the House floor. The committee has 9 Republicans and 4 Democrats, but 2 of those Republicans (Reps. Roy and Norman) appear to oppose the bill, with the position of a third (Rep. Massie) unclear. If all three vote against and no Democrat votes in favor, the bill will fail. (Goldman thinks the Rules Committee is very likely to send the bill on to the House Floor, as a majority of the committee will vote for the package even if it takes Democratic support  – it is uncommon but not unheard-of for the minority party to support the majority party’s efforts in the Rules Committee).
  • Assuming Rules Committee passage on Tuesday, the House is likely to vote late on Wednesday (May 31). While it is not entirely clear how Republican and Democratic lawmakers will divide the responsibility for passing this legislation–most lawmakers likely want it to pass but few want to vote for it. As such Goldman is confident that a failed vote in the House is very unlikely. Assuming the House clears the bill Wednesday, the Senate is unlikely to vote on final passage before Friday (June 2) and procedural delays could easily push the vote into the weekend. That said, there is less uncertainty regarding support in the Senate than there is in the House, so this is more a question of timing than outcome.

  … and second, why the so-called spending cuts are a joke:

  The main source of budgetary savings in the deal is a two-year cap on federal discretionary spending. Congress appropriates this segment of spending annually and it accounts for around 25% of total federal spending, with slightly more than half dedicated to defense and the remainder to other “non-defense” spending (generally domestic programs outside of the major benefit programs). The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will estimate that the spending caps in the deal will reduce discretionary spending by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years and reduce interest expense by around $160-170bn over that period. On paper, this would reduce projected deficits over the next decade by an average of 0.4-0.5% of GDP.

  That said, the actual spending cut will be much smaller, for two reasons.

  • First, the caps apply for only two years, so most of the projected savings will depend on policy decisions made after the next election. (The description of the deal states that caps apply for 6 years, but they are only enforceable via sequestration for 2024 and 2025 and should have little effect thereafter.)
  • Second, the deal included other details that lessen the effect of the cuts, particularly in 2024. This includes counting the bill’s rescissions of unused COVID funding against spending for the coming year, pre-funding certain items so the spending is excluded from the caps, and a side agreement that $20bn in IRS enforcement funding that would have been spent later in the decade will be redirected toward domestic spending without counting toward the cap. With these adjustments, the White House has indicated it believes non-defense spending will be roughly flat in nominal terms in FY24 compared with this year.

  The chart below provides a rough estimates of the effect of the spending caps with and without the adjustments just described, compared with the White House’s initial reported offer (a freeze in discretionary spending for FY24, and a 1% increase for FY25) and the Republican bill the House passed in April.

  Other things equal, the adjusted caps look likely to reduce spending by 0.1-0.2% of GDP yoy in 2024 and 2025 (lower left chart).

  And here is the punchline: because the increase in funding for FY23 that Congress approved late last year was so large (nearly 10% yoy) some of that spending boost will spill over into FY24 and overall spending is likely to be higher in real terms next year despite the new caps (lower right chart).

  

  And just like that the uniparty has sold America down the river yet again.

  * * *

  More in the full Goldman note available to professional subscribers in the usual place.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 22:39

• "Trans Rights" Means Trans Entitlements And The End Of Civil Society
  “Trans Rights” Means Trans Entitlements And The End Of Civil Society

  Authored by Wendy McElroy via The Mises Institute,

  A “civil society” is a community of individuals who are linked together by common interests and activities. Common interests include being able to walk the streets safely (peace) and to exercise such rights as freedom of speech (individual freedom). These shared interests allow common activities to flourish, including commerce and the education of children.

  Civil society is possible only because most people want to live securely, protect their loved ones, and prosper. This laissez-faire attitude used to be a defining characteristic of Americans, but an engineered and well-financed cultural war is destroying America’s renowned tolerance. If the common interests of society break down and peace and freedom are replaced by violence and privilege, then common activities like free-market commerce and education cannot function.

  

  One movement captures the raw destruction of this culture war against civil society – a demand for “Trans rights!” blasts across America. But a sharp backlash against it has also developed, epitomized by the boycott of Bud Light beer over the company’s use of trans activist Dylan Mulvaney as a new “woman” ambassador for its brand.

  The media characterizes this backlash as antitrans hatred by conservatives, Christians, and other troglodytes. But few people care about the sexual or gender orientation of their neighbors. Critics of the trans movement are rebelling against the forced redefinition of biology, the destruction of women’s sports by trans athletes, the hijacking of children’s education, the medical experiment of gender-transitioning children, and the intrusion of penises in women-only spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, prisons, and shelters. Critics don’t want to oppress anyone; they want a return to civil society of peace and individual rights.

  To understand why the “trans rights” movement has caused such damage, it is necessary to ask three questions.

  1. What is a “transgendered” person?

  2. What are “rights”?

  3. What is produced by the actions the movement takes?

  What is a transgendered person? Already we’re in trouble. Many prominent intellectuals today can’t even answer the simpler question, What is a woman? This article uses a common definition: “Transgender describes people whose gender identity does not match their assigned gender at birth.” It is one of many gender categories being advanced by social justice. There are as many as eighty-one distinct categories, all of which are said to be fluid or constructed over time.

  Politically speaking, transgenderism and the other gender categories are a continuation of identity politics. This is a fairly standard definition of identity politics: “The politics of group-based movements claiming to represent the interests and identity of a particular group, rather than policy issues relating to all members of the community. The group identity may be based on ethnicity, class, religion, sex, sexuality, or other criteria” (emphasis added). It is an attempt to splinter society into groups and categories, all of which are at war with each other because their interests are said to conflict. What does this war look like?

  Consider a controversial example: gender transitioning. This is when a person uses reassignment therapy, hormone replacement, and sex reassignment surgery to change their birth sex. Few argue against the gender transition of adults who pay for the process themselves. But the trans movement demands the gender transitioning of children, often at taxpayer expense; that is, a tomboy might become a “boy” through methods that include irreversible surgery.

  There are at least two flash points here. One is the minimum age at which a person should transition. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health claims hormones can start at age fourteen and some surgeries at fifteen—in other words, at the height of a teenager’s sexual confusion. Recently, a licensed social worker at a children’s medical center in Austin, Texas, was reportedly recorded as saying the center provided gender modification to children as young as eight. On April 25, Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Chip Roy submitted a formal request to the center for information on how gender dysphoria is diagnosed, how federal dollars are spent in the process, and whether patients under eighteen underwent “experimental medical procedures.”

  The group war here is between a child’s right against physical abuse and trans activists’ demands for children’s access to transition. The other flash point is that transitions are often performed without parental consent or despite parental objections. The rights war here—trans activists are usurping traditional parental rights, and parents are outraged.

  The idea that the rights of one group conflict with those of another is perverse because it destroys the very basis of human rights. Human rights are universal because they are rooted in human nature. All human beings possess the same rights to the same degree. Rights are not based on secondary characteristics such as gender; they rest on a shared humanity. In other words, a trans person has the same rights to the same degree as every other person in society. No more, no less.

  The “rights” demanded by trans activists are actually entitlements or group privileges. This is made clear by the claim of historical oppression, which is used to justify many demands. What is really being claimed is victimhood, upon which their entitlements are based. For trans activists to sustain their victimhood status, however, those who oppose them must be cast as oppressors and endless haters. Conveniently, this characterization removes the need to deal with any argument the “haters” present, such as the need for real human rights.

  Again, this trans stance is a perversion. If the trans movement has been historically oppressed—and I do not argue against this—then the movement should value individual rights more than the average person. These freedoms are how an aggrieved individual rises to his or her feet. But trans activists do not want to be treated as equal individuals; they want to be a privileged group that imposes huge costs on the majority of society to their great benefit. Individual rights are an obstacle.

  Gender transition is one area in which civil society is being replaced with civil warfare, but there are many others:

  • Trans “women” housed in women-only venues, like prisons and shelters, put biological women there at risk of sexual assault. Rapes are already happening.

  • Trans curricula in American public schools indoctrinate children at the expense of teaching basic life skills, like math and literacy.

  • A prominent doctor on Fox News warned, “First-year medical students [are] exposed to woke ‘sex and gender primer’ lesson.” This shifts the focus away from medical problems; it could also damage relationships with patients who do not share woke ideology or are not in a privileged group. The same is happening in law schools.

  • The trans agenda violates constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech in myriad ways, from forcing schools to use pronouns like “xe” and “hir” to shouting down speakers or violently attacking them.

  • Draconian hate speech laws are destroying meaningful public discourse. A new bill passing through the Irish parliament, for example, outlaws communication or the possession of material that might incite hatred against “protected” classes, including gender. This is punishable by up to five years in prison.

  • The demand to include trans athletes in women’s sports is destroying the entire field.

  • Transitioned children who deeply regret transitioning are generally silenced or dismissed.

  One way detransitioners are dismissed is through studies and statistics into which little trust can be invested. An article in the Associated Press claims, “In a review of 27 studies” of transgender surgeries, “1 percent on average expressed regret.” If this is true, it is good news. But is it true? The incessant ideology pumped through academia and the airwaves is yet another cost to civil society. Academics, journalists, and so-called experts have earned the public’s scorn. Studies and research have become just one more front in this war of all against all.

  The media and authorities richly deserve this summary judgment from the public. Consider how they handle acts of violence. Every act of violence against a trans person seems to be widely reported and condemned, as it should be. But trans violence against biological women or other outsiders seems to be ignored or excused. Even the trans shooter in Nashville who killed three nine-year-old school children and three adults is protected by authorities who refuse to release the shooter’s manifesto. And media reports often expressed more concern about a backlash against trans people than about the dead children. SAVE Services, an agency that works to assure due process and fairness in schools, has an interesting page called “Stop the Wave of Transgender Violence” where many cases of trans violence are documented. In this environment, it is simply not possible to know what’s true about the levels of violence and against whom.

  I would end by asking, can a more general violence—a savage civil unrest—be far behind? I believe it is already here.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 21:50

• More Than 50,000 US Stores Will Close By 2027 According To UBS
  More Than 50,000 US Stores Will Close By 2027 According To UBS

  Over 2,000 stores across all retail sectors have closed in the past 12 months according to a recent report from UBS retail analyst Michael Lasser (available to pro subs in the usual place), and that is just the beginning. “As of 3Q’22 (latest available data), retailers shed -1,500 net stores. This number is already up significantly in ‘23 with the likes of Bed Bath & Beyond, Foot Locker, Tuesday Morning and others closing stores recently” the UBS economists wrote.

  

  “We believe this trend should continue in the years to come, with consumers consolidating their trips and shifting towards online channels. As underperforming retail stores are shuttered, it should help the store productivity of surviving locations,” the report authors said, and predicted that over the next 5 years, “another 50,000 stores will close on the current store base of ~940K stores in the US (ex. gas and food service).”

  “This simply implies that there will be -5% fewer stores by the end of ’27. As this happens, we believe this trend will benefit the large, well-capitalized retailers HD, LOW, WMT, TGT, COST) and those with unique differentiations (FND, ASO, EYE) who stand to capture a disproportionate amount of market share.” In other words, just like with US banks, the big players will only get bigger while the small ones disappear.

  To put this in perspective, UBS calculates that assuming 50k stores close over the next five years and that the average sales per store is $5.7mm, it would translate to $285b of retail sales that are “up for grabs”. Assuming that 26% of these sales go online (the bank’s ’27 estimate for penetration), it would mean that retailers like WMT, HD and COST have the potential to attract $210b in sales. This translates to $1,600 annual spend per household that has the potential to shift to the leading retailers.

  The good news for big retailers is bad news for the small ones:

  In our view, these smaller chains and mom & pops are most at risk of closures given these firms typically have less access to capital needed to invest in developing a robust omni-channel offering. As of 2020, 57% of retail stores are operated by firms with less than 20 employees and 68% of stores are operated by chains with less than 500 employees. These smaller chains shed -40K stores in the past 10 years while chains with 500+ employees added 17K stores.

  It could get even worse: the base case scenario assumes that retail sales growth continues at 4% annually which is inline with the long-term trend. However, in a downside case, the protracted US recession would put downward pressure on the UBS store closure forecast where if retail sales only grow 3.0-3.5% it would result in 70K-90K closures

  UBS highlighted several factors that are driving retail store closures. They include higher costs, which raise the bar for keeping stores open; a decline in units per store in most retail sectors; and the likelihood that store closures will disproportionately affect smaller chains.

  From 2007 to 2019, firms with less than 500 employees closed about 40,000 stores, or 5% of their base, while retailers with more than 500 employees added 17,000 stores. The overall cost of doing business rose significantly in the last 12 months, due in part to higher wages. Retail hourly wages, which are typically the largest cost component of running a store, increased about 5% over the last years, the analysts said.

  On top of that, retailers will need to increase store productivity by 4.5% annually as retail rents per square foot increase for neighborhood and community centers. “These costs will likely continue to move higher, increasing the hurdle rate to keep stores open,” UBS said.

  As RetailDive notes, about 14,000 of the estimated closings will be in the softlines sector. UBS forecasts that department stores and specialty retailers will remain net store closers. And while retailers with a heavy mall presence will continue store closings, there is a faint silver lining for off-price retailers who should grow units.

  The report also singles out consumer electronics and home furnishings as retail sectors that also need to shrink their store footprint. Consumer electronics retailers should close about 9,000 stores, while home furniture stores should shrink by about 4,000 locations.

  One change that’s become essential versus discretionary for retailers is an increasing embrace of digital investments like buy online, pay in store; ship from store; same-day delivery; and buy online, return in store. UBS says online retail spending per household was $9,900 in 2022, up from $8,900 a year ago and up from $4,000 in 2015. Companies with a strong DTC focus combined with high brand loyalty, like Nike and Levi’s, are best positioned for the ongoing shift to digital fulfillment.

  Finally, while there is much more in the full report, here are the 9 main takeaways:

  • Takeaway #1: We estimate 50K+ stores will close by ‘27 if online penetration goes to 26% & retail sales grow 4%
  • Takeaway #2: Store closures will vary by subsector
  • Takeaway #3: In 2022, there were net store closings, a reversal from strong store openings in 2021
  • Takeaway #4: We assume 4% retail sales growth until 2027, in-line with its long-term average
  • Takeaway #5: A step change in banks willingness to lend tends to be a leading indicator of an acceleration in store closures
  • Takeaway #6: Higher costs raises the hurdle rate on keeping stores open
  • Takeaway #7: Store closures will likely impact smaller chains disproportionately
  • Takeaway #8: Several sectors are at or near peak store productivity
  • Takeaway #9: Units per store declined for most sub-sectors in 2022 (trends vary by sub-sector)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Much more in the full report and slideshows available to pro subs in the usual place.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 21:15

• There Are 99 Pages Of Details In The Debt-Ceiling Deal, And A Big Trap On Republicans
  There Are 99 Pages Of Details In The Debt-Ceiling Deal, And A Big Trap On Republicans

  By Mish Shedlock of Mish Talk

  

  Semifinal Details 

  If you wish to wade through 99 pages of details, here’s the full text of the Allegedly Final Debt-Ceiling Deal.

  The Wall Street Journal has a synopsis in Biden, McCarthy Agree to Final Details of Debt-Ceiling Deal

  With some conservative Republicans in both chambers signaling initial opposition to the deal, Biden urged both chambers of Congress to approve the agreement and said McCarthy would have sufficient votes in the Republican-led House to secure passage.

  He also sought to quell concerns among Democrats over some of the deal’s provisions, such as additional work requirements for certain government safety-net programs, and rejected criticism from some progressive lawmakers that the agreement would let vulnerable people go hungry. “That’s a ridiculous assertion,” Biden said.

  Republican Dissent

  I am hearing the “deal” is for a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit. IF that is true, I don’t need to hear anything else. No one claiming to be a conservative could justify a YES vote.

  — Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) May 28, 2023

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  Essentially What the Democrats Wanted

  We will not back down, for the sake of the country. #HoldTheLine https://t.co/06NZqIwKDT

  — Rep. Ralph Norman (@RepRalphNorman) May 25, 2023

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  Trojan Horse View

  pic.twitter.com/6YpAObr4B2

  — Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) May 28, 2023

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  Democrats Got Everything They Wanted

  This pretty much says it all.

  Democrats got everything they wanted with this bill and don’t have to defend their reckless spending prior to the 2024 election. It’s a win for them. https://t.co/gtuHxQaXad

  — Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) May 28, 2023

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  Deal is Insanity

  This “deal” is insanity.

  A $4T debt ceiling increase with virtually no cuts is not what we agreed to.

  Not gonna vote to bankrupt our country. The American people deserve better.

  — Rep. Ralph Norman (@RepRalphNorman) May 28, 2023

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  “A $4T debt ceiling increase with virtually no cuts is not what we agreed to.”

  Democrats Oddly Calm

  Notice how oddly calm Democrats are for a change? This is why… 👇 https://t.co/1vnYIOqieU

  — Rep. Ralph Norman (@RepRalphNorman) May 28, 2023

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  “Notice how oddly calm Democrats are for a change? This is why…”

  Framework for a Deal

  Despite the WSJ headline, this will not be the final deal. First, the bill has to clear the House. I suspect some House revisions. 

  Even if not, the Senate is also highly likely to make changes which will then have to be approved by the House.

  Complete Surrender

  I added Peter’s “Surrender” Tweet to my post

  I missed the age lift on the Food Stamp provision. He missed the “Big Trap”

  I am sure we both missed details only Democrat lobbyists understand. https://t.co/vXPc1PYsn8 https://t.co/HczZuAFI9O

  — Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) May 29, 2023

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  What’s Currently Inside?

  1. A small cut in nonmilitary spending for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, and a 1% cap on spending increases for the 2025 fiscal year. Veterans’ health programs would be exempt.
  2. Military spending in fiscal 2024 would be roughly at the level of Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request, according to two people familiar with the matter, which would amount to about a 3% increase.
  3. A $21.4 billion reduction in funds that Congress approved last year for the IRS to boost tax enforcement and modernize its technology. [The original funding was $80 billion].
  4. A provision aimed at pushing Congress to give up its practice of funding the government through a single, omnibus bill, as it has done in recent years, and to return to the tradition of passing 12 appropriations bills that cover the various parts of the federal budget. The measure has potential to win conservative support for the deal and was pushed by an influential Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), who believes that Congress should follow regular order when conducting its business.
  5. The provision would call for the U.S. government to operate under a so-called continuing resolution at 99% of the prior year’s spending levels until the spending bills were enacted. Lawmakers were awaiting text to see the date at which the cuts would be triggered.
  6. An expansion through 2030 of the requirement that some able-bodied people without dependents hold a job or be enrolled in a job training program to receive food stamps, which is a Republican priority. [This unfortunately excludes Medicaid. And it only applies to low-income adults without dependents between the ages of 49 and 54. It will be phased in over three years. All of these are far less than the original deal passed by McCarthy] 
  7. Imposition of a one- or two-year time limit to complete environmental reviews for energy and infrastructure projects. The bill allows a project’s developer to sue if the review isn’t completed in time. [I suspect this is a huge trap, more comments below]
  8. Currently, reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 take an average 4.5 years to complete and can involve multiple agencies. The deal calls for a single agency to assume responsibility for the study. Speeding up the reviews has been a priority for Republicans. [This too is a huge trap]
  9. Expediting the remaining permits necessary to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile natural-gas pipeline between West Virginia and Virginia. 

  Understanding the Trap

  The above points are quotes from the WSJ plus my comments in brackets[].

  Points seven, eight, and nine are part of the trap. Point nine will be debated in the Senate. Expect fireworks. 

  Both sides seem to be in favor of points seven and eight. But one side is sure to be wrong.

  With Biden as President, it’s easy to see who fell into the trap. Democrats will speed up and approve every clean energy boondoggle imaginable at great speed. 

  Republicans will have every project rejected at great speed.

  This situation will reverse if Republicans win the White House in 2024. But a lot of boondoggles will be approved in the interim.

  Best Part of the Deal and Overall Analysis

  The best part of the deal are points four and five. A no earmark provision needs to be added to those points.

  But Democrats get far more out of this than Republicans.

  Hold the Line

  We will not back down, for the sake of the country. #HoldTheLine https://t.co/06NZqIwKDT

  — Rep. Ralph Norman (@RepRalphNorman) May 25, 2023

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  35 GOP House Representatives will likely vote against this deal.  Republicans only have four votes to spare. 

  Expect More Boondoggles Like These

  • Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert and Releasing Stored Carbon
  • Free Money Quote of the Day On the Next Big Thing, Garbage

  Question and Answer of the Day

  Q: Will This Pass?
  A: Yes, easily.

  Don’t be surprised if more Democrats vote for this version than Republicans. Look no further than trap points seven and eight above to understand why.

  In return for minor cutbacks in spending, and a token roll-in work requirement for food stamps, Democrats will get to rubber stamp every pet clean energy boondoggle they seek. 

  I mentioned this in a previous post and still have not seen it mentioned elsewhere. Don’t be surprised if this deal costs McCarthy his job as Speaker of the House.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 20:40

• No Laughing Matter: John Cleese Holds Line Against Calls To Cancel Scene In 'Life Of Brian'
  No Laughing Matter: John Cleese Holds Line Against Calls To Cancel Scene In ‘Life Of Brian’

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We have previously discussed how comedians have been objecting that woke activists are killing comedy. The complaint is that a group of perpetually pissed off, humorless people are remaking the world in their own image.

  It began with college campuses where comedians are now saying are dead as venues since you cannot safely make any joke that insults any group other than white straight males or Christians or conservatives. Others have objected to hate speech laws limiting comedians, particularly after some comedians have been prosecuted for “malicious communications” or insulting groups or religious figures. Six out of ten students view offensive jokes as hate speech. This week, however, activists appear to have met their match in a legend of comedy who has opposed the cutting of  a scene from the movie The Life of Brian. 

  

  No, activists are not upset with the endless jokes about Italians, Christians, and Jews. It is the scene involving a man who wants to become a women and have a child. 

  John Cleese is refusing to yield.

  A recent example of this misreporting !

  A few days ago I spoke to an audience outside London.
  I told them I was adapting the Life of Brian so that we could do it as a stage show ( NOT a musical ). I said
  that we’d had a table-reading of the latest draft in NYC a year ago…(tbc) https://t.co/VPWJGdUZtJ

  — John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 25, 2023

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  ..and that all the actors – several of them Tony winners – had advised me strongly to cut the Loretta scene.

  I have, of course, no intention of doing so

  So someone in the audience had called a journalist and misreported me. Amazingly none of the British media called to check

  — John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 25, 2023

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  Similarly, there are reports that ” Bright Side ” is going to be cut

  Untrue, for a very good reason

  We don’t want to upset Eric and it’s his only contribution to the Life of Brian script

  — John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 25, 2023

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  In The Life of Brian, the scene involves “Stan” who announces that he wants to be a woman named Loretta and have babies. 

  Activists objected that it made fun of transgender people and demanded that it be cut from the film.

  The scene shows Stan declaring “I want to be a woman… It’s my right as a man. I want to have babies… It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.” After Cleese’s protest, the character snaps, “Don’t you oppress me!”

  Some reported that Cleese had agreed to cut the scene. However, Cleese tweeted out a correction of the “misreporting.”

  What is interesting is that Rob Reiner is reportedly working on the reboot. Reiner is known as someone who is a champion of the left in Hollywood. This may be an inauspicious start for the reboot effort.

  Cleese is not alone in raising this alarm. Comedians including Chris Rock blamed the range of “unfunny TV shows” on the fact that “everybody’s scared to make a move”. Ricky Gervais objected that the BBC is now paralyzed in fear of offending anyone.  Jennifer Saunders that people now “talk themselves out of stuff now because everything is sensitive.”

  The same complaint has been made in the age of woke advertising that funny commercials seem increasingly rare as oppose to corporate virtue signaling.

  The director of the classic comedy Airplane! observed that humor is being squeezed out of Hollywood and the movie today would have virtually every joke removed. David Zucker called it the “death of creativity.”

  They are now set upon by a legion of humorless people who seek to reduce the world to their own narrow range of acceptable levity or irony.  These comedy giants are set upon by an Army of Lilliputians who have contributed little to culture beyond chilling artists and writers into obedient silence or compulsive comedy criteria.

  Of course, Cleese could always use the line from Bryan’s mother: “He’s a very naughty boy! Now, piss off!”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 20:25

• Philadelphia Crime Wave Of Burglary, Larceny And Auto Theft Spills Into Nearby Suburbs
  Philadelphia Crime Wave Of Burglary, Larceny And Auto Theft Spills Into Nearby Suburbs

  The crime wave that has been actively taking place in Philadelphia (among many other U.S. cities) is now starting to spread to the suburbs. 

  Crime statistics were up “double-digit percentages” in Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks counties – three major suburban counties that border Philadelphia county – from 2021 to 2022, according to the Delaware Valley Journal. 

  The Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System shows that increasing crimes include burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Oddly, the report notes that Chester County, usually seen as a hotbed of crime near Philadelphia, saw its numbers decrease in almost ever statistical category. 

  In other words, the crime wave that started near the middle of 2020 appears to be moving out of the city and into the nearby suburbs. Larceny and auto thefts are seeing two of the biggest increases, the report wrote:

  Taking the four counties combined, auto thefts climbed from 2,302 in 2021 to 2,834 in 2022, an increase of 23 percent. Those figures compare to a dramatic spike in auto thefts in Philadelphia. In 2022, the city reached a two-decade-long high of 14,533 car thefts, up from 11,341 in 2021. This year, however, the city is set to blow past both of those figures, as the current trend shows Philadelphia will likely surpass 20,000 car thefts in 2023.

  In the four counties, larceny counts went from 23,690 in 2021 to 30,496 in 2022. Burglaries are up 32%, 24% and 17% in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties, the report notes. 

  

  Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele’s website has focused instead on gun crimes, which don’t show in the above categories. His office’s website says he is “strategically focused on: A) homicides; B) illegal guns on our streets: ghost guns and gun traffickers putting deadly weapons in the hands of criminals; C) drug traffickers who are killing people by peddling their deadly poisons like fentanyl and other drugs; and D) those who cause harm to women and children.”

  In Bucks County, DA Weintraub commented: “One trend we’re seeing across the state is younger and younger people, especially minors, are the population rising the quickest [for] carrying firearms.”

  And Delco DA Jack Stollsteimer wrote an op-ed in January which stated: “We have reduced the gun violence homicide rate in the City of Chester by 60 percent and the overall number of gun violence incidents by 46 percent,” Stollsteimer wrote. The only other measurement he provided in the piece was to say, “Through collaboration and innovation, my team has spearheaded a 30 percent reduction in the prison population here in Delaware County.”

  The city is already starting to implement changes, electing former state representative and city councilor Cherelle Parker as the Democratic nominee for mayor, which nearly assures her win in November. Parker was seen as the most pro-law enforcement candidate of the left, running on bolstering the police’s ranks and supporting policies like stop and frisk.

  Now the only question is whether the suburbs will have to be next in addressing the issue…

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 20:05

• VDH: It Was Always Only About Power With The Left
  VDH: It Was Always Only About Power With The Left

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  Why do so many liberal climate-activist grandees fly on private jets? Or why do those who profited from Black Lives Matter have a propensity for estate living? Or why do the community-activist Obamas prefer to live in not one, but three mansions? 

  

  The answer is that calls for radical equity, “power for the people,” and mandated equality are usually mostly sloganeering for those who enjoy power and the lucre it brings, and their wish is to augment both for themselves. The result is that the issue du jour of mandated equality often becomes secondary if not irrelevant. There is neither fear of inconstancy nor hypocrisy, given the central theme that governs a leftist party line is political utility—or the ends of power always more than justify the hypocritical means used to obtain it. 

  Spout racialist nonsense for 40 years? Harass women and young girls by blowing in their hair and squeezing them too tightly? Create a family grifting syndicate to leverage foreign cash in quid pro quo fashion? Praise racial segregationists?  

  Joe Biden did all those things and more. But he also did them in service to a supposed noble cause, sort of like the current board president of the NAACP promoting a black travel ban on Florida, while he lives—in Florida!

  Keep political utility in mind and the baffling hypocrisy of the Left makes all too perfect sense. 

  January 6 vs. the “Summer of Love” 

  From all the tens of thousands of January 6 Capitol protesters a small percentage entered the Capitol itself. Of that group, an even smaller number committed violent acts. Most of those seriously injured that day were among the protesters themselves. Despite official propaganda, there were not five police officers killed on January 6 as alleged by the Left. 

  Instead, the only likely death at the hand of another was the diminutive, 5’2’’, 14-year-military veteran and unarmed Ashli Babbitt. She was lethally shot by a Capitol officer Michael Byrd for the likely misdemeanor of trespassing and—illegally entering a broken window to the Capitol. 

  Yet over a thousand protesters were arrested, tried, and mostly convicted of various charges from parading without a permit to insurrection. Many of them were sentenced to long prison sentences. Some may spend most of their remaining lives in prison.  

  The Left has justified long sentences on three grounds: One, the protesters targeted iconic government buildings as the object of their attacks. Two, the protesters were ideologically motivated and seemed bent on insurrection to warp the political process. Three, the protesters were attempting to nullify an election by their massing at the Capitol and therefore questioned the very integrity of the 2020 election.  

  In theory these were legitimate reasons to treat harshly any convicted of such insurrectionary crimes. But in reality, the Left cared little about its pretexts justifying harsh responses, much less proving their charges. What mattered were the political opportunities offered by January 6, and the chance to leverage the occasion to consolidate power.  

  Why and how can one assume that? 

  In 2020, for 120 days, left-wing mobs led by Antifa and Black Lives Matter wrought far greater destruction in nonstop rioting, arson, looting, and assault. Over 35 people died. Two billion dollars in property damage followed. Some 1,500 officers were assaulted and injured. Over 14,000 protesters were arrested. 

  Yet few were convicted of any serious crimes; fewer were sentenced to long sentences—given prosecutors, state and federal, claimed the violence was merely a result of protesters exercising their “constitutional right” of dissent.  

  Left-wing politicians and activists from then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris (“They’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.”) to Nikole Hannah Jones (“Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence.”) either excused the often violent protests or urged that they continue.  

  Far from sending in 20,000 federal troops, as occurred after January 6, the Left demanded that then President Trump not resort to such Draconian measures.  

  Note that there were lots of government properties deliberately targeted in iconic fashion. A Seattle police precinct (with officers inside ) was set afire. A mob in Washington, D.C. tried to storm the White House grounds in a fashion that sent the president and secret service agents into a subterranean bunker. A historic Washington, D.C. church was torched. Violent mobs set federal and state courthouses on fire in Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Portland. 

  Second, note these riots and violence were not random. They were coordinated and seemed to wax and wane with some sort of precise coordination—a fact deemed useful in an election year by the Democratic Left.  

  In her now notorious self-confessional Time essay, Molly Ball bragged that, “There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs.”  “The conversation that followed was a difficult one,” Ball explained, “led by the activists charged with the protest strategy . . . We wanted to be mindful of when was the right time to call for moving masses of people into the street.” 

  Third, had Trump won the 2020 election, the Left was gearing up for yet another round of violence under the pretense that the election had been stolen, in the fashion of its coordinated Washington, D.C. violence on the day of Trump’s 2017 inauguration. 

  Left-wing election denialism—and real efforts to overturn a presidential election—were certainly not new. After the 2016 election, wealthy leftists and celebrities ran television ads begging electors to reject their constitutional fidelity and the popular vote counts in their states, and instead, in insurrectionary style, cast electoral ballots for Hillary Clinton. 

  Prominent leftists from Jimmy Carter to Hillary Clinton also had been on record following the 2016 election claiming that Trump was an illegitimate president and the 2016 election had been rigged in Trump’s favor due to the hoax of Russian collusion.  

  Hillary Clinton—who paid Christopher Steele to use Clinton-related fake sources to compile fabrications and destroy her 2016 rival—later even bragged she was joining “La Résistance.” The chairman of the January 6 committee that damned Trump’s supposed election denialism, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), himself was an election denialist par excellence, who absurdly voted in the Congress to reject George Bush’s popular vote victory in Ohio that decided the 2004 election. 

  By any fair measure the violence of 2020 was a far greater and more deadly threat to the republic than anything occurring on January 6, 2021. But most of the 14,000 arrested perpetrators who were responsible for that incredible summer of violence were exempted because their mayhem was deemed politically useful—in the same fashion it was advantageous to turn the buffoonish Capitol protesters into seasoned revolutionaries. The common denominator was only the Left’s efforts to warp events to achieve power. 

  Liberalism That Loses Utility is Left Behind 

  California has been building massive solar farms in pristine deserts and rural areas. Many spread over thousands of acres and require disruptive supporting infrastructure. In the American Midwest, these new generations of solar farms are unlike anything in our recent past. Often in size larger than Manhattan, they take out of production tens of thousands of acres of prime farmland.

  What is curious about all these next-generation projects is the relative silence of environmentalists to the radical disruptions and dangers they pose to fragile and pristine natural landscapes, rare species of flora and fauna, and quality of life for surrounding rural communities.  

  In the case of hundreds of thousands of lost farm acres, prior liberal advocacy for preserving America’s heartland, and its precious family farm acreage and those who work it, likewise go out the window. 

  Yet if any clean-burning natural gas plant, affordable housing development, a border wall, retirement community, or farming operation caused as much havoc to the environment as solar—and often wind—farms, there would arise leftist outrage replete with environmentalist-driven court injunctions. In other words, left-wing environmentalism is calibrated only by whether the Left or the Right is reengineering the landscape.  

  Irina and Tamara Press, c1960s. Schirner/ullstein bild via Getty Images

  Title IX was an addendum to the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex. Through liberal lawsuits and the intervention of activist courts, the statute soon was transmogrified into a sports equity act. Title IX then began to revolutionize high school and college sports programs by demanding equity—in the sense of mandating equal budgets and facilities for women’s and men’s sports.  

  The rationale was that women’s athletics could only achieve parity with male sports if they were gifted the same sorts of budgets, infrastructure, and institutional support. Whatever the intent of the original statute, whatever the effects of activist court intervention, the result was that women’s sports did achieve a much higher social and cultural profile.  

  So how ironic, then, that a half-century of athletic transformation has been completely undermined by the current ritual takeover of the sport by biological men declaring themselves transgendered women. The transgendered have done more damage in three years to women’s sports than a century of chauvinist pigs. 

  In almost every category of competition—track and field, swimming, team sports—prior women’s records have been shattered by athletes who enjoy huge advantages in natural musculoskeletal mass, body size and weight, and innate strength. In the Cold War past, males competing as females were largely a Soviet or Eastern European phenomenon—most notably the Ukrainian sisters, Tamara and Irina Press. The communist bloc, as the Third Reich had earlier in the case of Heinrich Ratjen, scored propaganda points by using males to win “women’s” events. 

  Soon in reaction, hormonal testing and eventually DNA tests were used to ensure an equal playing field for biological women. No matter. What was once a feminist issue is now considered a right-wing hate crime of insisting that biological males not be allowed simply to redefine an entire segment of American life and culture.  

  Note that the Left has sided against feminism in its near hysterical promotion of its newest cause célèbre, transgenderism. Note further that biological women do not win many, if any, events as transgendered males, despite the shibboleth that one can construct one’s own sexual identity that will be equivalent to a biological one. 

  Finally, note that there is no transgendered effort to create a separate category of transgendered sports. Apparently a transgendered Olympics or NCAA event would not offer transgendered contestants and champions the attention and lucre they now achieve by dominating women’s sports. Again, “equity” and feminism were never left-wing positions, but simply useful malleable issues to embrace or reject depending on where and how contemporary political advantage was calibrated. 

  From Reining in Government Abuse to Cheering It 

  Read the contemporary news accounts of the 1975-76 so-called “Church Committee,” a select Senate committee formed to expose and rectify dangerous abuses of civil rights and constitutional norms by the CIA, NSA, and at times the FBI.  

  Most Democrats cheered the post-Watergate committee on, eager to virtue signal as civil libertarians and to stop the rogue and often politically weaponized antics of our investigatory and intelligence agencies.  

  But while there were true civil libertarians, Left and Right, who weighed in on the committee, the general left-wing giddiness over the investigations was predicated on the post-Watergate Democratic revival—one that ensued from ridding the nation of Richard Nixon and using his disgrace to discredit what were considered conservative institutions.  

  Fast forward to 2015-23. Over the last eight years it is hard to imagine any illegal act that the CIA, NSA, or FBI would not commit. Their directors—James Clapper, John Brennan, and Andrew McCabe—have all confessed to lying under oath. A more insidious Robert Mueller, James Comey, and Christopher Wray simply invoke amnesiac excuses or plead ignorance when asked directly about the wrongdoing of their agencies or investigations.  

  The U.S. government, along with the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, paid a foreign national to spy on a rival campaign, compile lies about a rival candidate, and then spread them through government and the media. The FBI arguably sought to alter both the 2016 and 2020 elections. 

  In this same eight-year period, a FISA court was deluded, and an FBI lawyer altered court documents. Phone records were wiped clean. Subpoenaed devices were destroyed. Key evidence that affected a current campaign was put under FBI wraps. Agents openly texted their intent to ensure a predetermined presidential election result. Americans in general were routinely spied upon. Many were framed by FBI skullduggery and had their lives ruined.  

  The extent of the lawbreaking and the warping of elections dwarfs anything discovered during Watergate. And yet the Left never objected to these violations of civil rights or the illegal freelancing of intelligence agencies. Far from it—the Left cheered on the illegality.  

  Why? Because for them hating or worshiping the CIA, NSA, and FBI—or for that matter the Pentagon, IRS, and Justice Department—was never a matter of consistent principle. Instead these bureaucracies were deemed pathological when associated with conservatism and traditionalism, and angelic when their extralegal efforts were put to use for the progressive agenda. 

  There are some grassroots leftists who are deluded into sincerely believing “equity” can be achieved by government confiscation and redistribution. But for most of the elite, the cause is a means to personal and professional power, a fact that explains why one day walking only on four leftist legs is alone correct, the next day just two.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 19:30

• 64% Of Americans Don't Work-Out At All
  64% Of Americans Don’t Work-Out At All

  How do Americans work out?

  While hitting the gym is something that around a third of those who practice sports do at least occasionally, Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes below that the Great Outdoors is also a major pull for people looking for some (light) physical exercise.

  According to a survey by Statista Consumer Insights, hiking is the most popular form of exercise in America, with 35 percent of those who do sports engaging in it at least from time to time.

  Other popular outdoorsy pursuits are hunting and fishing (26 percent of sporty Americans do this) and cycling (25 percent). Running is slightly less popular at just 21 percent of respondents naming it as an exercise of choice.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  At 29 percent, basketball is the most popular ball game or team sport on the list, followed by (flag) football (25 percent) and baseball/softball (20 percent). Another quarter of the survey’s respondents said they liked to get a workout in by boogieing down on the dancefloor (or maybe just in their living room).

  Responses picked less frequently include soccer (13 percent), cricket (11 percent), table tennis (10 percent) and rugby (6 percent).

  However, 64 percent of Americans do not work out at all according to the survey.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 18:55

• Gaslighting: The American People Are Trapped In A Textbook Abusive Relationship
  Gaslighting: The American People Are Trapped In A Textbook Abusive Relationship

  Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

  Imagine this.

  A woman, for the sake of my story, is in a marriage with a partner who does not respect her. He insults her regularly, belittles her efforts to improve herself or her situation, and minimizes her feelings.

  In fact, when she tries to stand up for herself, things get even worse. The partner calls into question her memories of the event. He dismisses the way things made her feel, calling the emotions “ridiculous” or “stupid.” He convinces her she’s overreacting and that he was only trying to do what was best for her. When she brings something up, he completely rewrites the event, causing her to doubt what actually happened because she’s in a vulnerable state due to the constant abuse.

  In a situation like this, the abused partner often feels powerless, confused, and unable to leave the situation. They are at a disadvantage because they’ve been influenced to doubt their own reality. This leaves them trapped deeper and deeper in the abusive scenario. They feel unable to escape because they’re really not sure what actually happened. Were they blowing things out of proportion? Are they, in fact, stupid, forgetful, and inept?

  Abusive relationships follow a pattern. There’s a period of breaking the victim down, isolating them from their support systems, and making them dependent on the abuser. Then, the abused partner is maneuvered into the belief that she can’t get by on her own.

  This master manipulation is how people become trapped in abusive relationships.

  And, as I’m about to show, not all abusive relationships are one-on-one romantic relationships.

  

  What is gaslighting?

  Medical News Today defines gaslighting.

  Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse in which a person or group causes someone to question their own sanity, memories, or perception of reality. People who experience gaslighting may feel confused, anxious, or as though they cannot trust themselves.

  The term “gaslighting” comes from the 1944 classic film (and before that, the play), Gaslight. In the story, a husband tries to make his wife believe she is suffering from a mental illness. Starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, it’s well worth a watch.

  Gaslighting is a form of narcissistic abuse. For a quick refresher on the definition of a narcissist and the techniques they use, go here.

  Forbes offers the following signs you are being gaslit:

  Signs to watch for include:

  The “Twilight Zone” effect. Victims of gaslighting often report feeling like a situation is surreal—like it’s happening on a different plane from the rest of their life.

  Language describing you or your behavior as crazy, irrational or overemotional. “When I asked women about their partners’ abusive tactics, they often described being called a ‘crazy bitch,’” Sweet writes in “The Sociology of Gaslighting” in American Sociological Review. “This phrase came up so frequently, I began to think of it as the literal discourse of gaslighting.”

  Being told you’re exaggerating.

  Feeling confused and powerless after leaving an interaction.

  Isolation. Many gaslighters make efforts to isolate victims from friends, family and other support networks.

  Tone policing. A gaslighter may criticize your tone of voice if you challenge them on something. This is a tactic used to flip the script and make you feel that you’re the one to blame, rather than your abuser.

  A cycle of warm-cold behavior. To throw a victim off balance, a gaslighter may alternate between verbal abuse and praise, often even in the same conversation.

  Gaslighting is a deliberate attempt to provoke self-doubt, confusion, and dependence.

  How does someone gaslight another person?

  Again, let’s look to the experts. Medical News Today provides these examples of how gaslighting might take place:

  • Countering: This is when someone questions a person’s memory. They may say things such as, “Are you sure about that? You have a bad memory,” or “I think you are forgetting what really happened.”
  • Withholding: This involves someone pretending they do not understand the conversation, or refusing to listen, to make a person doubt themselves. For example, they might say, “Now you are just confusing me,” or “I do not know what you are talking about.”
  • Trivializing: This occurs when a person belittles or disregards how someone else feels. They may accuse them of being “too sensitive” or overreacting in response to valid and reasonable concerns.
  • Denial: Denial involves a person refusing to take responsibility for their actions. They may do this by pretending to forget what happened, saying they did not do it, or blaming their behavior on someone else.
  • Diverting: With this technique, a person changes the focus of a discussion by questioning the other person’s credibility. For example, they might say, “That is just nonsense you read on the internet. It is not real.”
  • Stereotyping: An article in the American Sociological Review says that a person may intentionally use negative stereotypes about someone’s gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, or age to gaslight them. For example, they may say that no one will believe a woman if she reports abuse.

  After a period of time, this emotional barrage results in the target of the gaslighting suffering from confusion, doubt, and self-blame.

  • feeling uncertain of their perceptions
  • frequently questioning if they are remembering things correctly
  • believing they are irrational or “crazy”
  • feeling incompetent, unconfident, or worthless
  • constantly apologizing to the abusive person
  • defending the abusive person’s behavior to others
  • becoming withdrawn or isolated from others

  The Forbes article offered these specific examples of gaslighting in romantic relationships.

  “Ebony’s partner would steal her money and then tell her she was ‘careless’ about finances and had lost it herself.”

  “Adriana’s boyfriend hid her phone and then told her she had lost it, in a dual effort to confuse her and prevent her from communicating with others.”

  “Jenn described her ex-boyfriend as a ‘chameleon’ who made up small stories to confuse her, like lying about what color shirt he had worn the day before to make her feel disoriented.”

  “Emily described her ex-husband stealing her keys so she could not leave the house and then insisting she had lost them ‘again.’”

  But if you think this phenomenon is limited to women being abused by their husbands or boyfriends, you’d be wrong.

  Gaslighting doesn’t just happen in romantic relationships.

  Gaslighting is a complicated thing. While it’s common in abusive romantic relationships, it can also occur in unhealthy parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, or even workplaces. But that’s not all. It can also occur on a much broader scale.

  Racial gaslighting

  According to an article in Politics, Group, and Identities, racial gaslighting is when people apply gaslighting techniques to an entire racial or ethnic group in order to discredit them. For example, a person or institution may say that an activist campaigning for change is irrational or “crazy.”

  Political gaslighting

  Political gaslighting occurs when a political group or figure lies or manipulates information to control people, according to an article in the Buffalo Law Review.

  For example, the person or political party may downplay things their administration has done, discredit their opponents, imply that critics are mentally unstable, or use controversy to deflect attention away from their mistakes.

  Institutional gaslighting

  Institutional gaslighting occurs within a company, organization, or institution, such as a hospital. For example, they may portray whistleblowers who report problems as irrational or incompetent, or deceive employees about their rights.

  This often occurs to cover up a mistake that could result in the person who erred facing punitive consequences or to keep people “in their place.” It’s a control mechanism, pure and simple.

  Have we been gaslit by our own government?

  I don’t think it’s farfetched to say that we, the people of the United States of America, have been gaslit.

  Does this sound familiar? Lockdowns that keep you away from friends and loved ones? Losing your income and becoming dependent on handouts doled out by the government? Being censored and mocked when you say anything that is not in line with the official narrative? Being treated like a crazy conspiracy theorist who should be punished because of the harm you’re causing to others if you refuse to go along?

  When you look at it this way, it feels like the entire US government and media have colluded to abuse the people. Many of the Covid-related “truths” that were promoted by the government and the media that we were not allowed to dispute have now been proven to be false. Stories we couldn’t question about the origins of the pandemic have been proven false. In another incident of broad-scale gaslighting unrelated to the pandemic, a lot of evidence has been produced that shows the Biden family may have received money from influence-peddling, but the media tells us not to believe it.

  And like good little victims, it seems like a hefty portion of the country is refusing to believe the evidence, instead believing in the good intentions of their abusers. They’ve been gaslit, brainwashed, and are unable to break free of the manipulation.

  And it’s still going on.

  Recently Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a scathing opinion of the US government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, saying that we “have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.”

  “Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent,” he said.

  At the federal level, he highlighted not only immigration decrees but vaccine mandates, the regulation of landlord-tenant relations and pressure on social media companies to suppress “misinformation.”

  The gaslighting blowback was immediate, with breathlessly outraged headlines.

  Slate eloquently opined, “Neil Gorsuch’s List of “Civil Liberties Intrusions” Is, Uh, Missing a Few Things.” making sure to throw plenty of insulting talking points into their introductory paragraph in their attempt to liken a Supreme Court Justice who was educated at Harvard Law, Oxford, Georgetown, and Columbia, to an ignorant relative one merely tolerates. And they insinuated he was a racist.

  Gorsuch has long railed against such policies, and his opinions have taken on an increasingly shrill tone, like the Fox News–poisoned uncle who hectors you about the plandemic in 3,000-word Facebook comments. The justice’s rant in Arizona v. Mayorkas, however, hits a new low, moving beyond the usual yada-yada grievance parade to issue a thesis statement of sorts…

  …As Vox’s Ian Millhiser quickly pointed out, this sweeping claim leaves out two “intrusions on civil liberties” that any person with a basic grasp of history and sanity would surely rank as worse than pandemic policies: slavery and Jim Crow.

  An opinion piece published in the NY Times gasped, “Neil Gorsuch Has Given Himself Away,” made it seem as if the Justice was belittling every other civil rights mishap in the history of America while also blithely disregarding the folks who died during the pandemic.

  The New Republic condescendingly liberal-splained to the rest of us “What Neil Gorsuch Got Wrong About the Pandemic,” stating that “The justice’s vision of the judiciary’s role in public health may be more dangerous than any Covid-era restriction.”

  The site Above The Law literally said Gorsuch was stupid in the piece, “For An Originalist, Gorsuch Is Clearly Slacking On His Definitions And Their Historical Meanings.” The subheading reads, “Is what he said stupid? Yes. But let’s be technical here.”

  Law and Crime website also played the race card and did so right in the headline: Neil Gorsuch implies COVID restrictions were worse than slavery and Jim Crow, and the internet noticed.

  Let’s look at that definition of political gaslighting again…

  For example, the person or political party may downplay things their administration has done, discredit their opponents, imply that critics are mentally unstable, or use controversy to deflect attention away from their mistakes.

  Oof. If that textbook case of gaslighting isn’t embarrassing, it should be.  Then again, narcissists are rarely embarrassed.

  The gaslighting will escalate.

  Another thing about narcissists: they just get angry when they’re called out. They will respond by gaslighting you harder or seeking to “ruin” you. (source) They’ll punish you with a loss of “privileges,” money, material goods, and freedom. We’ve watched it happen again and again in our cancel culture media. Some of us have been unfortunate enough to have personal relationships with narcissists and learned this the hard way.

  The only way to end narcissistic abuse and gaslighting is to recognize it and remove yourself from the situation as much as you can. Obviously, when it’s our entire government and society, that becomes complicated. You may be stuck with just recognizing it. But that in itself gives you a certain amount of freedom and personal power. It helps you get off the hamster wheel, and you begin to spot the manipulations more easily.

  One thing we can be sure of is that this will escalate as more and more people say, “No, that’s not what happened.” This is something we can expect, and in some small way, maybe we can take comfort in the response. Perhaps we can smile to ourselves because we know those who were trying to manipulate us all are on the defensive.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 18:20

• Chinese Developers Resorting To "Negative Down Payment" Practices
  Chinese Developers Resorting To “Negative Down Payment” Practices

  In its attempt to reboot China’s real estate property market bubble, which burst spectacularly in late 2021 when most housing developers blew up in the aftermath of Evergrande’s historic bankruptcy amid Beijing’s ill-fated deleveraging push, and which according to Goldman calculations is the world’s largest real estate bubble…

  

  … China’s real estate agencies have been quietly resorting to some of the oldest tricks in the US housing bubble book, such as marketing homebuying with “zero down payment” or “negative down payment” so that consumers not only don’t need to pay for down payment but also can obtain funds for future renovation, according to media reports.

  Of course, with Beijing still stuck in some bizarro Schrodinger economic purgatory where the government both wants housing to reclaim its pre-bubble all time highs yet is loath to inject the massive amounts of credit required, the It didn’t take long for some local overzealous bureaucrat to spill the beans, and as the Global Times reports, the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association in South China’s Guangdong Province released a notice on Friday, cautioning local agencies to avoid participating in or assisting the illegal practices of “zero down payment” and “negative down payment,” which have sparked discussion among homebuyers.

  One real estate agency based in Shenzhen reportedly was telling clients that if a property is evaluated at 5.7 million yuan ($806,828) the owner would sell it at 5.2 million yuan, the homebuyer could then buy the property in full using a bank loan of 5.7 million yuan while using the remaining 500,000 yuan for renovation, cnr.cn reported.

  As for the so-called “negative down payment,” the report said that it is executed through developers using down payment installments and returning down payment to buyers or setting a relatively high contract price for consumers to apply for a larger bank loan.

  If the funds returned to the buyer from the developer, or the bank loan secured against the property exceed the original down payment, the a “negative down payment” is “achieved,” per the report from cnr.cn.

  The Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association on Friday issued the reminder to caution the market, stressing that the so-called practices of “zero down payment” and “negative down payment” violate China’s financial and credit policies. It warned local agencies and practitioners to strictly abide by the principle that “houses are for living in, not speculation,” calling for review and adjustment of agency management and prohibiting any form of participation in similar practices.

  If local agencies and practitioners are found to have been involved in offering assistance in implementing these illegal practices, the association will immediately report these parties to the competent administrative departments for investigation and punishment in accordance with the law.

  The so-called “negative down payment” is essentially the creation of a fictitious purchase agreement, which in turn inflates the purchase price of a home in order to fraudulently obtain a larger loan for the down payment, Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times.

  Yan stressed the importance for financial regulators to monitor the situation, aiming to prevent the emergence of financial instability or financial risk, calling for a greater effort to regulate fraudulent contracts, falsified loan materials, and lax bank audits.

  Yan also noted that the concept of a “negative down payment” is illegal and comes with high risk. The leverage will be easily raised if a home purchase is not backed by a real down payment, burdening subsequent payment pressure for homebuyers and resulting in a higher risk of mortgage default.

  Chinese authorities issued a notice in 2017, strictly banning domestic developers and real estate intermediaries to engage in illegal practices such as providing down payment financing or down payment installments.

  Earlier in May, Huizhou in Guangdong issued a notice to further strengthen regulation and on property sales tackling the aforementioned illegal practices, according to media reports.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 17:45

• South Dakota Governor Tells Higher Education Board To Remove Mandates On Preferred Pronouns
  South Dakota Governor Tells Higher Education Board To Remove Mandates On Preferred Pronouns

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem issued a letter on May 25 to the governing board that oversees the six public universities in the state. In it, she lamented about the situation of higher education in the country, and challenged the board to a series of actions to “show the nation what quality higher education is supposed to look like.”

  

  Among several points, the Republican governor told the board it should ban drag shows on university campuses, and, separately, remove all preferred pronouns in school materials, as well as remove all mandates that compel people to use preferred pronouns.

  However, what appears to be the priority is the first point of action she raised, which is that the board should aim to raise graduation rates across its six universities to 65 percent by 2028, compared to the current graduation rate of 47 percent. Meanwhile, in 2020, the national graduation rate was 63 percent.

  “At the K-12 level, we are taking steps to improve our standards and expand school choice in South Dakota so that all kids have access to a high-quality education that prepares them for whatever comes next after high school,” Noem told the board in her letter (pdf).

  “For those who choose to start attending a university after graduating, less than half are graduating. We must do better than that. I look forward to working with you all on ideas to improve our graduation rates.”

  The Epoch Times has emailed the Board of Regents for comment.

  ‘State of Crisis’

  Noem said that higher education across the United States is in a “state of crisis.”

  “For the last several decades, many states have allowed liberal ideologies to poison their universities and colleges. Once a hotbed of ideological diversity, debate, and the pursuit of truth and discovery, many institutions have become one-sided, close-minded, and focused on feelings rather than facts,” she wrote.

  “Professors have discarded reason and logic in favor of subjectivity and relativism. Higher education leaders have rejected universal truth and knowledge and replaced it with ‘individual truth.’”

  She said that students on campuses across the United States “have been taught the importance of diversity and equity and given access to ‘safe spaces’ instead of learning to tolerate the disagreement, discomfort, and dissent that they will experience in the real world.”

  “In many cases, students and their parents are not even aware of the damage these ideas have caused,” she said.

  Regarding drag shows, she wrote: “Just as other dangerous theories have been allowed to thrive on college campuses, gender theory has been rebranded and accepted as truth across the nation.

  “These theories should be openly debated in college classrooms, but not celebrated through public performances on taxpayer-owned property at taxpayer-funded schools.”

  Regarding preferred pronouns, she wrote that mandating them at some campuses has “compelled and coerced” some students to “provide speech they do not agree with.”

  “Students should have the ability to exercise their right to free speech. Colleges and universities should never compel students to speak or take a position on any issue,” the governor said.

  Noem also told the board her administration has created a new whistleblower hotline where students, faculty members, parents, or taxpayers, can report concerns at institutions of higher education in the state, by calling 605-773-5916.

  “Our children are our future, and South Dakota universities and technical colleges should best prepare them for our future,” Noem said in a post on Twitter.

  The governor noted that she recently appointed two members to the board, and will be making more appointments soon.

  Five Other Points

  Besides raising graduation rates, banning drag shows, and removing preferred pronouns and their enforcement, Noem noted that some universities have restricted speech on topics some people find “offensive.”

  “The Board of Regents should remove any policy or procedure that prohibits students from exercising their right to free speech,” she said.

  “Black Hills State University was recently challenged on and ultimately removed a policy that allowed administrators to silence opinions they disagreed with,” the governor noted, adding that colleges and universities should review and revise all policies that infringe on students’ right to free speech. The colleges should also adopt policies that “develop and strengthen resiliency among students” for when they encounter opposing ideas.

  Noem also wanted the Board of Regents to “take more steps to partner with businesses on registered apprenticeship programs and offer the lowest possible credit rates.” She noted that roughly 43 percent of students who graduated still found themselves unemployed or underemployed.

  The other three action points she presented to the board were: to cut costs to make higher education more affordable; to require a course in American Government and a course in American history as part of graduation requirements; and to remove any monetary influence, whether by funding or donations, from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

  “The [CCP] has been known to fund Confucius Institutes and other similar centers at American universities in order to provide skewed Chinese cultural training for U.S. students,” said Noem.

  “This is part of a multi-faceted propaganda effort, and money from the CCP has no place in South Dakota. The Board of Regents should reject any donations from sources and any other government that is hostile to the United States.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 17:10

• Liberal US Cities Top Global List For Highest Homelessness Problem
  Liberal US Cities Top Global List For Highest Homelessness Problem

  Insider Monkey, a finance website, revealed a list of the top 30 cities worldwide with the highest homeless population. Notably, a handful of the US cities on the list are governed by progressive leadership, which may not surprise readers. While it is evident that some unfortunate individuals are facing homelessness, a trend exacerbated by recent inflationary pressures and a drug addiction crisis, some liberal policies have enabled others to sustain their nomadic lifestyles with taxpayer funds. 

  Insider Monkey found New York City is number 5 on the list, with a homeless population of about 69,000. Next is Chicago, at number 7 with 65,611. Washington, DC, is number 8 with 57,416, Los Angeles number 13 with 41,980, and San Fransisco number 14 with 38,000. 

  

  Even with the US government spending $54 billion on several programs to tackle the homelessness crisis, hundreds of thousands of Americans are still wandering the streets. This has been made worse by inflation in recent years and an out-of-control drug addiction crisis. 

  As for the rest of the world, Manila, Philippines, ranks number 1 with a staggering 3 million homeless. Buenos Aires, Argentina, is number 2 with 198,000. Moscow, Russia, is number 3 with 100,000, and Kanpur, India, is number 4 with 81,000.

  Here’s the partial list of 6 through 30:

  6. Kolkata, India

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 68,798

  Kolkata is one of India’s largest cities. It has played a crucial role in the country’s history due to its port.

  7. Chicago, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 65,611

  Chicago is one of the largest cities in the U.S. in terms of population and one of the largest business hubs in the country.

  8. Washington, D.C., United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 57,416

  Washington D.C. is one of the most expensive places to live in America – making it unsurprising that it also has a high number of homeless people.

  9. Mumbai, India

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 57,415

  Mumbai is India’s financial hub, but it is also famous for generations of homeless who are born and die on the streets.

  10. Lagos, Nigeria

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 50,000

  Lagos is one of the largest cities in the world with more than 24 million people living in the city.

  11. Damascus, Syria

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 50,000

  Damascus is the capital of Syria and one of the oldest cities in the world as it has been inhabited for thousands of years.

  12. Delhi, India

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 46,724

  Delhi has more than ten million residents and is one of the most historic cities in the world.

  13. Los Angeles, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 41,980

  Los Angeles is the second largest city in America in terms of population. It is a cultural center place for its state and the U.S.

  14. San Francisco, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 38,000

  San Francisco is a cultural and economic hub and a city that is notorious for high housing costs.

  15. Surat, India

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 36,144

  Surat is a Western Indian city in the state of Gujrat. It is the second largest city in its state and a hub for the global diamond industry.

  16. Sao Paulo, Brazil

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 31,884

  Sao Paulo is the largest city in Brazil in terms of both its population and economic output.

  17. Mexico City, Mexico

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 30,000

  Mexico City is the capital of Mexico. It is one of the largest cities in the world with a population of 9.2 million people.

  18. Athens, Greece

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 20,000

  Athens is one of the most historical cities in the world and the capital of Greece.

  19. Auckland, New Zealand

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 18,417

  Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and has a population of 1.4 million people. It is an economic hub in its country and accounts for a large portion of New Zealand’s economic output.

  20. Tampa, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 16,000

  Tampa is a coastal Floridian city with one of the biggest ports in its state.

  21. Seattle, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 11,751

  Seattle is a highly developed city in the U.S. state of Washington.

  22. San Jose, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 10,028

  San Jose is an economic hub in the U.S. with a large presence of the technology industry.

  23. Budapest, Hungary

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 10,000

  Budapest is the capital and largest city of Hungary with nearly a million residents.

  24. Oakland, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 9,747

  Oakland is a Californian city. It is one of the busiest port cities in America.

  25. Dublin, Ireland

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 8,523

  Dublin is the capital of Ireland and the largest city in terms of population. It is also a hub for global multinational firms.

  26. San Diego, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 8,427

  San Diego is one of the most populous cities in America with a population of more than a million people

  27. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 7,865

  Rio De Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil. It also has the second largest economy in the country.

  28. Rome, Italy

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 7,709

  Rome is the capital city of Italy and one of the largest cities in the world with a population of more than 2.8 million people.

  29. Denver, United States

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 6,888

  Denver is the capital city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It has a population of more than seven hundred thousand people and is an economic hub in its state.

  30. Lisbon, Portugal

  Estimated Number of Homeless People: 3,780

  Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal. It is also the largest city in the country, with more than half a million people living in its boundaries.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 16:35

• The Great Silence
  The Great Silence

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,

  The kids are two years behind in education. Inflation still rages. White-collar jobs are disappearing thanks to the reversal of Fed policy. Household finances are a wreck. The medical industry is in upheaval. Trust in government has never been lower.

  Major media too is discredited. Young people are dying at levels never seen. Populations are still on the move from lockdown states to where it is less likely. Surveillance is everywhere, and so is political persecution. Public health is in a disastrous state, with substance abuse and obesity all at new records.

  Each one of these, and many more besides, are continued fallout from the pandemic response that began in March 2020. And yet here we are 38 months later and we still don’t have honesty or truth about the experience.

  Officials have resigned, politicians have tumbled out of office and lifetime civil servants have departed their posts, but they don’t cite the great disaster as the excuse. There is always some other reason.

  This is the period of the great silence. We’ve all noticed it. The stories in the press recounting all the above are conventionally scrupulous about naming the pandemic response much less naming the individuals responsible.

  

  Maybe there is a Freudian explanation: things so obviously terrible and in such recent memory are too painful to mentally process, so we just pretend it didn’t happen. Plenty in power like this solution.

  Everyone in a position of influence knows the rules. Don’t talk about the lockdowns. Don’t talk about the mask mandates. Don’t talk about the vaccine mandates that proved useless and damaging and led to millions of professional upheavals.

  Don’t talk about the economics of it. Don’t talk about collateral damage. When the topic comes up, just say, “We did the best we could with the knowledge we had,” even if that is an obvious lie.

  Above all, don’t seek justice.

  Where’s the National Commission?

  There is this document intended to be the “Warren Commission” of COVID slapped together by the old gangsters who advocated for lockdowns. It is called Lessons from the Covid War: An Investigative Report.

  The authors are people like Michael Callahan (Massachusetts General Hospital), Gary Edson (former deputy national security adviser), Richard Hatchett (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), Marc Lipsitch (Harvard University), Carter Mecher (Veterans Affairs), and Rajeev Venkayya (former Gates Foundation and now Aerium Therapeutics).

  If you have been following this disaster, you might know at least some of the names. Years before 2020, they were pushing lockdowns as the solution for infectious disease. Some claim credit for having invented pandemic planning. The years 2020–2022 were their experiment.

  As it was ongoing, they became media stars, pushing compliance, condemning as disinformation and misinformation anyone who disagreed with them. They were at the heart of the coup d’etat, as engineers or champions of it, that replaced representative democracy with quasi-martial law run by the administrative state.

  The first sentence of the report is a complaint:

  We were supposed to lay the groundwork for a National COVID Commission. The COVID Crisis Group formed at the beginning of 2021, one year into the pandemic. We thought the U.S. government would soon create or facilitate a commission to study the biggest global crisis so far in the 21st century. It has not.

  That is true. There is no National COVID Commission. You know why? Because they could never get away with it, not with legions of experts and passionate citizens who wouldn’t tolerate a coverup.

  The public anger is too intense. Lawmakers would be flooded with emails, phone calls and daily expressions of disgust. It would be a disaster. An honest commission would demand answers that the ruling class is not prepared to give. An “official commission” perpetuating a bunch of baloney would be dead on arrival.

  This by itself is a huge victory and a tribute to indefatigable critics.

  ‘We Didn’t Crack Down Hard Enough’

  Instead, the “COVID Crisis Group” met with funding from the Rockefeller and Charles Koch foundations and slapped together this report. Despite being celebrated as definitive by The New York Times and The Washington Post, it has mostly had no impact at all.

  It is far from obtaining the status of being some kind of canonical assessment. It reads like they were on deadline, fed up, typed lots of words and called it a day.

  Of course it is whitewash.

  It begins with a bang to denounce the U.S. policy response: “Our institutions did not meet the moment. They did not have adequate practical strategies or capabilities to prevent, to warn, to defend their communities or fight back in a coordinated way, in the United States and globally.”

  Mistakes were made, as they say.

  Of course the upshot of this kvetching is not to criticize what Justice Neil Gorsuch calls “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” They hardly mention those at all.

  Instead they conclude that the U.S. should have surveilled more, locked down sooner (“We believe that on Jan. 28 the U.S. government should have started mobilizing for a possible COVID war”), directed more funds to this agency rather than that and centralized the response so that rogue states like South Dakota and Florida could not evade centralized authoritarian diktats next time.

  The authors propose a series of lessons that are anodyne, bloodless and carefully crafted to be more-or-less true but ultimately structured to minimize the sheer radicalism and destructiveness of what they favored and did. The lessons are clichés such as we need “not just goals but road maps,” and next time we need more “situation awareness.”

  There is no new information in the book that I could find, unless something is hidden therein that escaped my notice. It’s more interesting for what it does not say. Some words that never appear in the text: Sweden, ivermectin, ventilators, remdesivir and myocarditis.

  ‘Look, Lockdowns and Mandates Worked!’

  Perhaps this gives you a sense of the book and its mission. And on matters of the lockdowns, readers are forced to endure claims such as “all of New England — Massachusetts, the city of Boston, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine — seem to us to have done relatively well, including their ad hoc crisis management setups.”

  Oh really! Boston destroyed thousands of small businesses and imposed vaccine passports, closed churches, persecuted people for holding house parties, and imposed travel restrictions. There is a reason why the authors don’t elaborate on such preposterous claims. They are simply unsustainable.

  One amusing feature seems to me to be a foreshadowing of what is coming. They throw Anthony Fauci under the bus with sniffy dismissals: “Fauci was vulnerable to some attacks because he tried to cover the waterfront in briefing the press and public, stretching beyond his core expertise—and sometimes it showed.”

  Ooooh, burn!

  “Trump Was a Comorbidity”

  This is very likely the future. At some point, Fauci will be scapegoated for the whole disaster. He will be assigned to take the fall for what is really the failure of the national security arm of the administrative bureaucracy, which in fact took charge of all rule-making from March 13, 2020, onward, along with their intellectual cheerleaders. The public health people were just there to provide cover.

  Curious about the political bias of the book? It is summed up in this passing statement: “Trump was a comorbidity.”

  Oh how highbrow! How clever! No political bias here!

  Maybe this book by the Covid Crisis Group hopes to be the last word. This will never happen. We are only at the beginning of this. As the economic, social, cultural, and political problems mount, it will become impossible to ignore the incredibly obvious.

  The masters of lockdowns are influential and well-connected but not even they can invent their own reality.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 16:00

• World's First "Battery Tanker" Slated For 2026 Sea Trials
  World’s First “Battery Tanker” Slated For 2026 Sea Trials

  Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a bold prediction in 2017: “Everything will go fully electric, apart from (ironically) rockets. Ships are the next easiest to solve after cars.” Six years later, the world’s second-richest person might be right about the next battery boom in ships. 

  Japanese battery startup PowerX Inc. revealed a 140-meter-long electric propulsion vessel capable of transporting stored electricity across oceans. The “battery tanker” will be equipped with 96 containerized marine batteries that can haul renewable energy worldwide, connecting grids, islands, and offshore wind farms. The completion of the vessel is slated for 2025, with sea trials in 2026. 

  

  “For instance, in Japan, a battery tanker can carry power from regions with high renewable energy supply potential, such as Kyushu and Hokkaido, to high-demand areas of Honshu or for inter-island power transmission,” the company explained.

  While electric propulsion vessels might be the future to decarbonize the shipping industry, there appears to be a need to haul stored renewable power to other grids worldwide via a new tanker class. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 15:25

• Taiwan Says It's In Talks On Being Brought Under US Nuclear Umbrella
  Taiwan Says It’s In Talks On Being Brought Under US Nuclear Umbrella

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  Taiwan’s foreign minister said last week that the US and Taiwan are in talks on the possibility of the island being brought under Washington’s nuclear umbrella, a step that would make a catastrophic war between the US and China much more likely.

  Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu made the comments before Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan. Wu declined to detail the talks when pressed if Taiwan had asked the US to bring the island into its nuclear umbrella.

  

  “Regarding the discussion of this issue with the United States, it is not suitable for me to make it public here,” Wu said, according to The South China Morning Post.

  Many of the US’s allies are considered to be under the protection of the US nuclear umbrella, including Japan, South Korea, and every member of NATO.

  Giving such a guarantee to Taiwan would mean the US could use nuclear weapons if China invades the island or if war breaks out by other means. According to the SCMP report:

  As Washington and Beijing ramp up their military signaling on Taiwan, the self-ruled island has started to discuss what was once unthinkable – to come under the US nuclear umbrella that has successfully protected Japan, South Korea and Australia for decades.

  The debate was set off after Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu suggested on Monday that the island had been in talks with the United States on the nuclear umbrella issue.

  Such a guarantee is unlikely to happen in the near term as it would require a radical change to US policy. While President Biden has vowed to send troops to intervene if China attacks Taiwan, the official policy on how the US would react to a Chinese invasion is still ambiguous.

  But the fact that the idea is being discussed will be viewed as a major provocation in Beijing. China has a no-first-use policy for its nuclear arsenal, but US policy leaves open the option to use nukes in response to a conventional attack.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 14:50

• DOJ, Prosecutors Trying To Claw Back Donations Made To J6 Defendants
  DOJ, Prosecutors Trying To Claw Back Donations Made To J6 Defendants

  While BLM protesters got a Kamala Harris-endorsed bail fund during the violent and destructive mostly peaceful George Floyd riots, the Department of Justice is trying to claw back donations made to January 6th political prisoners.

  

  According to AP, the DOJ is trying to seize over $25,000 raised by Texas resident Daniel Goodwyn, who appeared on Tucker Carlson’s former Fox News show where he promoted a website for political donations.

  The AP looked at over 1,000 criminal cases from Jan 6., and noted that prosecutors have been asking judges to enhance fines on top of prison sentences to offset donations from supporters.

  Dozens of defendants have set up online fundraising appeals for help with legal fees, and prosecutors acknowledge there’s nothing wrong with asking for help for attorney expenses. But the Justice Department has, in some cases, questioned where the money is really going because many of those charged have had government-funded legal representation.

  Most of the fundraising efforts appear on GiveSendGo, which bills itself as “The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site” and has become a haven for Jan. 6 defendants barred from using mainstream crowdfunding sites, including GoFundMe, to raise money.

  Were any of the BLM-linked fundraisers, or BLM itself, subject to DOJ scrutiny?

  As the AP notes, the success many J6 prisoners have had fundraising “suggests that many people in the United States still view Jan. 6 rioters as patriots and cling to the baseless belief that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump.”

  Virginia resident Markus Maly, who is set to be sentenced next month for assaulting police at the Capitol, raised over $16,000 from an online campaign. Prosecutors have requested a $16,000 fine, noting that he had a public defender and didn’t owe any legal fees.

  

  “He should not be able to use his own notoriety gained in the commission of his crimes to ‘capitalize’ on his participation in the Capitol breach in this way,” wrote a prosecutor in a court filing.

  A jury convicted romance novel cover model John Strand of storming the Capitol with Dr. Simone Gold, a California physician who is a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement. Now prosecutors are seeking a $50,000 fine on top of a prison term for Strand when a judge sentences him on Thursday.

  Strand has raised more than $17,300 for his legal defense without disclosing that he has a taxpayer-funded lawyer, according to prosecutors. They say Strand appears to have “substantial financial means,” living in a home that was purchased for more than $3 million last year. -AP

  So far in 2023, prosecutors have sought to levy $390,000 in fines against at least 21 defendants, with amounts ranging from $450 to over $71,000, per AP. Of that, Judges have imposed at least $124,127 in fines against 33 riot defendants YTD, while in the past two years, over 100 defendants have been ordered to pay more than $240,000 in fines.

  Separately, hundreds of convicted rioters have been ordered to pay over $524,000 in restitution to the government to offset over $2.8 million in damage to the Capitol and other J6 related expenses.

  We don’t recall BLM protesters being ordered to help pay to clean up cities they set on fire. Wonder why?

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 14:15

• 25,000 Traders Bet On ChatGPT's Stock Picks
  25,000 Traders Bet On ChatGPT’s Stock Picks

  Authored by Andrew Fenton via CoinTelegraph.com,

  Almost 25,000 investors have signed up to trade alongside ChatGPT as they follow the GPT Portfolio experiment from copy trading firm Autopilot.

  

  The traders have bet a combined $14.7 million on the AI’s stock picks, which would average about $600 each if they all invested after signing up. They’re hoping to take even a small slice of a purported 500% return from one of the strategies backtested in academic research.

  This is absoutely isnane 🤯

  A ChatGPT trading algorithm delivered 500% returns in the stock market.

  A University of Florida study revealed ChatGPT achieved a staggering 500% return in one investing model

  This outpaces conventional sentiment analysis models used by hedge funds… pic.twitter.com/8vxIWmpqrY

  — AI Daily (@AlexAIDaily) May 10, 2023

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

  The GPT Portfolio gets the AI to analyze 10,000 news articles and 100 company reports to select 20 stocks for the $50,000 portfolio, updated each week. The initial picks included Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, D.R. Horton and Davita Health. After two weeks, the portfolio is up around 2%, which is pretty much the same as the stock market. 

  Interestingly the bottom five picks lost more in percentage terms than the top five gained — Dollar Tree lost 17% after it missed earnings — so it might be more sensible in future to only invest in GPT-4’s best five or 10 ideas, but we’ll see how it works out.

  The smaller-scale ChatGPT Crypto Trader account is tweaking a similar strategy that gets GPT-4s advice on when to go long on Ethereum. He says it shows a profit of 11,000% backtested to August 2017, but in the real-world experiment since January, the portfolio is up by a third, while the Ethereum price has gained 60%.

  It’s worth being careful using AI for trading, however. Crypto derivatives platform Bitget recently abandoned its experiment of using AI on the platform due to the potential for misinformation. A survey of its users found 80% of users had a negative experience with the AI, including false investment advice and other misinformation. 

  Bitget Managing Director Gracy Chen says:

  “AI tools, while robust and resourceful, lack the human touch necessary to interpret market nuances and trends accurately.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 13:40

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• Escobar: Eurasian Heartland Rises To Challenge The West
  Escobar: Eurasian Heartland Rises To Challenge The West

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  President Xi Jinping telling President Putin at the end of their summit last March in Moscow that we’re now facing “great changes not seen in a century” directly applies to the new spirit reigning across the Heartland.

  

  Cue to the China-Central Asia summit last week in Xian, the former imperial capital, where Xi solidified the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Western China in Xinjiang to its western neighbors and then all the way to Iran, Turkiye and Eastern Europe.

  Xi in Xian particularly stressed the complementing aspects between BRI and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), once again showing that all five Central Asian “stans”, acting together, should counter-act the proverbial external interference via “terrorism, separatism and extremism”.

  The message was stark: these hybrid war strategies are all integrated with the attempt by the Hegemon to continue fostering serial color revolutions. The purveyors of the “rules-based international order”, Xi implied, will go no holds barred to prevent ongoing Heartland integration.

  The usual suspects in fact are already spinning that Central Asia is falling into a potential trap, fully captured by Beijing. Yet this is something Kazakhstan’s “multi-vector diplomacy”, coined way back in the Nazarbayev years, would never allow.

  What Beijing is developing, instead, is an integrated approach via a C+C5 secretariat with no less than 19 separate channels of communication.

  The heart of the matter is to turbo-charge Heartland connectivity via the BRI’s Middle Corridor.

  And that, crucially, includes technology transfer. As it stands, there are dozens of industrial transfer programs with Kazakhstan, a dozen in Uzbekistan, and several in discussion with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. These are extolled by Beijing as part of “harmonious Silk Roads”.

  Xi himself, as a post-modern pilgrim, detailed the connectivity in his keynote speech in Xian: “The China-Kyrgystan-Uzbekistan highway that runs across the Tian shan Mountains, the China-Tajikistan expressway that defies the Pamir Plateau, and the China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline and the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline that traverse the vast desert – they are the present-day Silk Road.”

  The Revival of the Heartland “Belt”

  Xi’s China is once again mirroring lessons from History. What’s happening now brings us back to the first half of the first millennium B.C., when the Persian Achaemenid empire established itself as the largest to date, stretching from India in the east and Central Asia in the northeast to Greece in the west and Egypt in the southwest.

  For the first time in history, territories that spanned Asia, Africa and Europe were brought together; and that led to a boom in trade, culture and ethnic interactions (what BRI defines today as “people to people exchanges”).

  That’s how we had the Hellenistic world first getting in touch with India and Central Asia – as they set up the first Greek settlements in Bactria (in today’s Afghanistan).

  By the end of the first millennium B.C. all the way to the first millennium A.D. an immense area from the Pacific to the Atlantic – encompassing the Han Chinese empire, the Kushan kingdom, the Parthians and the Roman empire, among others – formed “a continuous belt of civilizations, states and cultures”, as Prof. Edvard Rtveladze of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan defined it.

  This, in a nutshell, is at heart of the Chinese concept of “belt” and “road”: the “belt” refers to the Heartland, the “road” refers to the Maritime Silk Road.

  So slightly less than 2,000 years ago, that was the first time in human history that the borders of several states and kingdoms were immediately adjacent to each other along no less than 11,400 km, from east to west. No wonder the fabled Ancient Silk Road – actually a maze of roads -, the first transcontinental thoroughfare, emerged at the time.

  That was a direct consequence of a series of political, economic and cultural whirlwinds involving the peoples of Eurasia. History, in the high acceleration 21st century, is now retracing these steps.

  Geography, after all, is destiny. Central Asia was traversed by countless migrations of Near Eastern, Indo-European, Indo-Iranian and Turkic peoples; was the focus of serious intercultural interaction (Iranian, Indian, Turkic, Chinese, Hellenistic cultures); and criss-crossed virtually all major religions (Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity, Islam).

  The Organization of Turkic States, led by Turkiye, is even engaged in rebuilding the Turkic identity overtones of the Heartland – a vector that will be developing in parallel to the influence of China and Russia.

  That Greater Eurasia Partnership

  Russia is evolving its own path. A key debate was held аt a recent Valdai Club session on the Greater Eurasian Partnership when it comes to the interaction between Russia and the Heartland and neighbors China, India and Iran.

  Moscow regards the concept of a Greater Eurasian Partnership as the key framework for achieving much desired “political cohesion” in the post-Soviet space – under the imperative of indivisibility of regional security.

  This means, once again, maximum attention towards serial attempts of provoking color revolutions across the Heartland.

  As much as in Beijing, there are no illusions in Moscow that the collective West will take no prisoners in regimenting Central Asia to the Russophobic drive. For over a year now Washington for all practical purposes already addresses the Heartland in terms of threats of secondary sanctions and crude ultimatums.

  So Central Asia matters only in terms of the evolving hybrid war – and otherwise – against the Russia-China strategic partnership. No fabulous trade and connectivity prospects under the New Silk Roads; no Greater Eurasia Partnership; no security arrangements under the CSTO; no mechanism of economic cooperation like the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).

  Either you’re a “partner” in the sanctions dementia and/or a secondary front in the war against Russia, or there will be a price to pay.

  The “price”, set by the proverbial Straussian neocon psychos currently in charge of US foreign policy, is always the same: proxy war via terror, to be provided by ISIS-Khorasan*, whose black cells are ready to be awakened in selected backwoods of Afghanistan and the Ferghana valley.

  Moscow is very much aware of the high stakes. For instance, for a year and a half virtually every month a Russian delegation arrives in Tajikistan to implement, in practice, the “pivot to the East”, developing projects in agriculture, health care, education, science and tourism.

  Central Asia should have a leading role in BRICS+ expansion – something supported by both BRICS leaders Russia and China. The idea of a BRICS + Central Asia is being seriously floated from Tashkent to Almaty.

  That would imply establishing a strategic continuum from Russia and China to Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Africa and Latin America – spanning the logistics of connectivity trade, energy, manufacture production, investment, technological breakthroughs and cultural interaction.

  Beijing and Moscow, each in their own way, and with their own formulations, are already setting the framework for this ambitious geoeconomic project to be viable: the Heartland back in action as a protagonist in the forefront of History, just like those kingdoms, merchants and pilgrims of nearly 2,000 years ago.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 05/29/2023 – 00:00

• China Shadow Banking Defaults Surge
  China Shadow Banking Defaults Surge

  By Charlie Zhu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. A town builder’s last-minute bond repayment reignited fears over a potential default by such issuers. Investors are watching out for the first missed payment by a local government financing vehicle, something regional authorities are trying hard to avoid. The possibility has recently increased, as a weakening fiscal situation means authorities are less able to provide support.

  Research from GF Securities Co. shows there were 73 cases of shadow-banking defaults in the first four months, already a full-year record since data became available in 2018.

  “Missing payments in shadow banking are a signal that debt risks in a certain region have become more prominent,” GF analysts led by Liu Yu wrote in a report.

  Yields on Kunming Dianchi Investment Co.’s note due in December surged to over 20% last week, as two holders said they didn’t receive payments until after business hours for a note due this month. Premiums of three-year AA rated LGFV bonds widened to the most since March, and investors cited local-debt worries as one of the reasons behind a decline in Chinese stocks.

  

  China’s LGFVs had 13.5 trillion yuan ($1.9 trillion) of bonds in total outstanding as of end-2022, or almost half of the nation’s non-financial corporate notes, data from Moody’s Investors Service show.

  Steps by authorities “to lower LGFV debt risks will not fully resolve long-term issues,” and their refinancing ability depends on investors’ confidence in government support, especially in weaker provinces, Moody’s analysts led by Ivan Chung wrote in a report.

  2. With the financial strength of both town builders and their sponsors deteriorating, investors became more pessimistic about China’s demand for raw materials. Copper dived below $8,000 a ton while iron ore breached $100, unwinding gains since Beijing ended its Covid Zero policies late last year.

  At the London Metal Exchange’s annual Asian event in Hong Kong, participants reported lackluster activity and said that any market optimism from the National People’s Congress in March had evaporated.

  The selloff in Chinese stocks also extended, with the benchmark CSI 300 Index erasing all of its gains for the year. Now, even bulls are rethinking their calls, with Citigroup Inc.’s global allocation team cutting its overweight rating on China to neutral.

  

  3. Luckily, positive developments on China-US bilateral relations helped to alleviate some of the pessimism. Soon after President Joe Biden said he expected ties with China to improve “very shortly” after a spat over an alleged spy balloon earlier this year, top commerce officials from the two countries agreed to strengthen communications. The meeting served as a sign that Beijing and Washington are trying to prevent their relations from worsening further.

  It remains to be seen though if China’s decision to bar Micron Technology Inc. from supplying critical infrastructure leads to another round of tension. Some analysts see this as an opening shot by Beijing to retaliate, while US lawmakers want to react with putting more Chinese firms on a blacklist.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 23:30

• 'The Official Truth': The End Of Free Speech That Will End America
  ‘The Official Truth’: The End Of Free Speech That Will End America

  Authored by J.B.Shurk via The Gatestone Institute,

  If legacy news corporations fail to report that large majorities of the American public now view their journalistic product as straight-up propaganda, does that make it any less true?

  

  According to a survey by Rasmussen Reports, 59% of likely voters in the United States view the corporate news media as “truly the enemy of the people.” This is a majority view, held regardless of race: “58% of whites, 51% of black voters, and 68% of other minorities” — all agree that the mainstream media has become their “enemy.”

  This scorching indictment of the Fourth Estate piggybacks similar polling from Harvard-Harris showing that Americans hold almost diametrically opposing viewpoints from those that news corporations predominantly broadcast as the official “truth.”

  Drawing attention to the divergence between the public’s perceived reality and the news media’s prevailing “narratives,” independent journalist Glenn Greenwald dissected the Harvard-Harris poll to highlight just how differently some of the most important issues of the last few years have been understood. While corporate news fixated on purported Trump-Russia collusion since 2016, majorities of Americans now see this story “as a hoax and a fraud.”

  While the news media hid behind the Intelligence Community’s claims that Hunter Biden’s potentially incriminating laptop (allegedly containing evidence of his family’s influence-peddling) was a product of “Russian disinformation” and consequently enforced an information blackout on the explosive story during the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election, strong majorities of Americans currently believe the laptop’s contents are “real.” In other words, Americans have correctly concluded that journalists and spies advanced a “fraud” on voters as part of an effort to censor a damaging story and “help Biden win.” Nevertheless, The New York Times and The Washington Post have yet to return the Pulitzer Prizes they received for reporting totally discredited “fake news.”

  Similarly, majorities of Americans suspect that President Joe Biden has used the powers of his various offices to profit from influence-peddling schemes and that the FBI has intentionally refrained from investigating any possible Biden crimes. Huge majorities of Americans, in fact, seem not at all surprised to learn that the FBI has been caught abusing its own powers to influence elections, and are strongly convinced that “sweeping reform” is needed. Likewise, large majorities of Americans have “serious doubts about Biden’s mental fitness to be president” and suspect that others behind the scenes are “puppeteers” running the nation.

  Few, if any, of these poll results have been widely reported. In a seemingly-authoritarian disconnect with the American people, corporate news media continue to ignore the public’s majority opinion and instead “relentlessly advocate” those viewpoints that Americans “reject.” When journalists fail to investigate facts and deliberately distort stories so that they fit snugly within preconceived worldviews, reporters act as propagandists.

  Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley recently asked, “Do we have a de facto state media?” In answering his own question, he notes that the news blackout surrounding congressional investigations into Biden family members who have allegedly received more than ten million dollars in suspicious payments from foreign entities “fits the past standards used to denounce Russian propaganda patterns and practices.” After Republican members of Congress traced funds to nine Biden family members “from corrupt figures in Romania, China, and other countries,” Turley writes, “The New Republic quickly ran a story headlined ‘Republicans Finally Admit They Have No Incriminating Evidence on Joe Biden.'”

  Excoriating the news media’s penchant for mindlessly embracing stories that hurt former President Donald Trump while simultaneously ignoring stories that might damage President Biden, Turley concludes:

  “Under the current approach to journalism, it is the New York Times that receives a Pulitzer for a now debunked Russian collusion story rather than the New York Post for a now proven Hunter Biden laptop story.”

  Americans now evidently view the major sources for their news and information as part of a larger political machine pushing particular points of view, unconstrained by any ethical obligation to report facts objectively or dispassionately seek truth. That Americans now see the news media in their country as serving a similar role as Pravda did for the Soviet Union’s Communist Party is a significant departure from the country’s historic embrace of free speech and traditional fondness for a skeptical, adversarial press.

  Rather than taking a step back to consider the implications such a shift in public perception will have for America’s future stability, some officials appear even more committed to expanding government control over what can be said and debated online. After the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in the wake of public backlash over First Amendment concerns, halted its efforts to construct an official “disinformation governance board” last year, the question remained whether other government attempts to silence or shape online information would rear their head. The wait for that answer did not take long.

  The government apparently took the public’s censorship concerns so seriously that it quietly moved on from the collapse of its plans for a “disinformation governance board” within the DHS and proceeded within the space of a month to create a new “disinformation” office known as the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which now operates from within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Although ostensibly geared toward countering information warfare arising from “foreign” threats, one of its principal objectives is to monitor and control “public opinion and behaviors.”

  As independent journalist Matt Taibbi concludes of the government’s resurrected Ministry of Truth:

  “It’s the basic rhetorical trick of the censorship age: raise a fuss about a foreign threat, using it as a battering ram to get everyone from Congress to the tech companies to submit to increased regulation and surveillance. Then, slowly, adjust your aim to domestic targets.”

  If it were not jarring enough to learn that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has picked up the government’s speech police baton right where the DHS set it down, there is ample evidence to suggest that officials are eager to go much further in the near future. Democrat Senator Michael Bennet has already proposed a bill that would create a Federal Digital Platform Commission with “the authority to promulgate rules, impose civil penalties, hold hearings, conduct investigations, and support research.”

  Filled with “disinformation” specialists empowered to create “enforceable behavioral codes” for online communication — and generously paid for by the Biden Administration with taxpayers’ money — the special commission would also “designate ‘systemically important digital platforms’ subject to extra oversight, reporting, and regulation” requirements. Effectively, a small number of unelected commissioners would have de facto power to monitor and police online communication.

  Should any particular website or platform run afoul of the government’s First Amendment Star Chamber, it would immediately place itself within the commission’s crosshairs for greater oversight, regulation, and punishment.

  Will this new creation become an American KGB, Stasi or CCP — empowered to target half the population for disagreeing with current government policies, promoting “wrongthink,” or merely going to church? Will a small secretive body decide which Americans are actually “domestic terrorists” in the making? US Attorney General Merrick Garland has gone after traditional Catholics who attend Latin mass, but why would government suspicions end with the Latin language? When small commissions exist to decide which Americans are the “enemy,” there is no telling who will be designated as a “threat” and punished next.

  It is not difficult to see the dangers that lie ahead. Now that the government has fully inserted itself into the news and information industry, the criminalization of free speech is a very real threat. This has always been a chief complaint against international institutions such as the World Economic Forum that spend a great deal of time, power, and money promoting the thoughts and opinions of an insular cabal of global leaders, while showing negligible respect for the personal rights and liberties of the billions of ordinary citizens they claim to represent.

  WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab has gone so far as to hire hundreds of thousands of “information warriors” whose mission is to “control the Internet” by “policing social media,” eliminating dissent, disrupting the public square, and “covertly seed[ing] support” for the WEF’s “Great Reset.” If Schwab’s online army were not execrable enough, advocates for free speech must also gird themselves for the repercussions of Elon Musk’s appointment of Linda Yaccarino, reportedly a “neo-liberal wokeist” with strong WEF affiliations, as the new CEO of Twitter.

  Throughout much of the West, unfortunately, free speech has been only weakly protected when those with power find its defense inconvenient or messages a nuisance. It is therefore of little surprise to learn that French authorities are now prosecuting government protesters for “flipping-off” President Emmanuel Macron. It does not seem particularly astonishing that a German man has been sentenced to three years in prison for engaging in “pro-Russian” political speech regarding the war in Ukraine. It also no longer appears shocking to read that UK Technology and Science Secretary Michelle Donelan reportedly seeks to imprison social media executives who fail to censor online speech that the government might subjectively adjudge “harmful.” Sadly, as Ireland continues to find new ways to punish citizens for expressing certain points of view, its movement toward criminalizing not just speech but also “hateful” thoughts should have been predictable.

  From an American’s perspective, these overseas encroachments against free speech — especially within the borders of closely-allied lands — have seemed sinister yet entirely foreign. Now, however, what was once observed from some distance has made its way home; it feels as if a faraway communist enemy has finally stormed America’s beaches and come ashore in force.

  Not a day seems to go by without some new battlefront opening up in the war on free speech and free thought. The Richard Stengel of the Council on Foreign Relations has been increasingly vocal about the importance of journalists and think tanks to act as “primary provocateurs” and “propagandists” who “have to” manipulate the American population and shape the public’s perception of world events. Senator Rand Paul has alleged that the DHS uses at least 12 separate programs to “track what Americans say online,” as well as to engage in social media censorship.

  As part of its efforts to silence dissenting arguments, the Biden administration is pursuing a policy that would make it unlawful to use data and datasets that reflect accurate information yet lead to “discriminatory outcomes” for “protected classes.” In other words, if the data is perceived to be “racist,” it must be expunged. At the same time, the Department of Justice has indicted four radical black leftists for having somehow “weaponized” their free speech rights in support of Russian “disinformation.” So, objective datasets can be deemed “discriminatory” against minorities, while actual discrimination against minorities’ free speech is excused when that speech contradicts official government policy.

  Meanwhile, the DHS has been exposed for paying tens of millions of dollars to third-party “anti-terrorism” programs that have not so coincidentally equated Christians, Republicans, and philosophical conservatives to Germany’s Nazi Party. Similarly, California Governor Gavin Newsom has set up a Soviet-style “snitch line” that encourages neighbors to report on each other’s public or private displays of “hate.”

  Finally, ABC News proudly admits that it has censored parts of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s interviews because some of his answers include “false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines.” Essentially, the corporate news media have deemed Kennedy’s viewpoints unworthy of being transmitted and heard, even though the 2024 presidential candidate is running a strong second behind Joe Biden in the Democrat primary, with around 20% support from the electorate.

  Taken all together, it is clear that not only has the war on free speech come to America, but also that it is clobbering Americans in a relentless campaign of “shock and awe.” And why not? In a litigation battle presently being waged over the federal government’s extensive censorship programs, the Biden administration has defended its inherent authority to control Americans’ thoughts as an instrumental component of “government infrastructure.” What Americans think and believe is openly referred to as part of the nation’s “cognitive infrastructure” — as if the Matrix movies were simply reflecting real life.

  Today, America’s mainstream news corporations are already viewed as processing plants that manufacture political propaganda. That is an unbelievably searing indictment of a once-vibrant free press in the United States. It is also, unfortunately, only the first heavy shoe to drop in the war against free speech. Many Chinese-Americans who survived the Cultural Revolution look around the country today and see similarities everywhere. During that totalitarian “reign of terror,” everything a person did was monitored, including what was said while asleep.

  In an America now plagued with the stench of official “snitch lines,” censorship of certain presidential candidates, widespread online surveillance, a resurrected “disinformation governance board,” and increasingly frequent criminal prosecutions targeting Americans who exercise their free speech, the question is not whether what we inaudibly think or say in our sleep will someday be used against us, but rather how soon that day will come unless we stop it. After all, with smartphones, smart TVs, “smart” appliances, video-recording doorbells, and the rise of artificial intelligence, somebody, somewhere is always listening.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 23:00

• Race To 100 Million Users. Who Did It The Fastest? And What Does This Mean For Productivity?
  Race To 100 Million Users. Who Did It The Fastest? And What Does This Mean For Productivity?

  OpenAI’s viral ChatGPT chatbot reached 100 million monthly active users in just two months in January after launching in November, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. For some context, it took TikTok nine months after its launch to reach 100 million users and Instagram 2.5 years. 

  

  TS Lombard’s Dario Perkins told clients Thursday there are “large effects, and their macroeconomic impact could show up faster than economists anticipate – especially given the pace of technological adoption we are currently seeing.”

  Perkins, who heads the global macro desk at TD, found that the widespread adoption of the viral chatbot might spark faster innovation: 

  ChatGPT gained 100 million users faster than any other application in history, and these fast adoption rates are not confined to individual users. Major corporations, such as Bain & Company, have entered into deals with OpenAI to use generative AI in their strategy consulting business, while companies like Expedia have integrated ChatGP T through plug-ins.

  The more exciting impact on living standards, however, is likely to come from the second of our productivity channels – the pace of technological innovation. Generative AI can significantly expedite the R&D process by automating complex tasks, analysing vast datasets and predicting potential outcomes. It has already been useful in biological research: DeepMind’s AlphaFold predicted the 3-D structure of almost every known protein – a task that had been predicted to take decades of human labour (according to the journal Science, the most important scientific breakthrough of 2021). 

  This, alongside other AI breakthroughs, has led Dr. David Baker from the Institute for Protein Design to estimate that the pace of innovation in his field is now 10 times higher than it was 18 months ago. If we see rapid increases in innovation across other areas, the impact on productivity could be transformative.

  He stated AI “has huge potential to boost economy-wide productivity” and cited a recent MIT study that showed a massive improvement in productivity while using ChatGPT. Also, much of the productivity gains were seen between 21 to 40-year-olds. 

  

  Perkins mentioned “massive uncertainties about where AI is ultimately headed” from here. And he wasn’t too concerned about layoffs, unlike Goldman, who has warned about 300 million jobs could be displaced by AI in the US and Europe. 

  And AI is here to stay, unlike Zuck’s overhyped metaverse. 

  

  So the bottom line, as Perkins laid out, is that massive and rapid adoption of ChatGPT will “deliver significant productivity improvements” for society. He added, “This is a big deal for a global economy that has been stuck in a long secular productivity funk.” However, he wasn’t too concerned about jobs being displaced, unlike other macro desks. 

  “The US has had the biggest collapse of durable goods inflation in the near 70-year history of the measure. The plunge of over 20 percentage points is more than twice the previous record” – UBS

  ChatGPT will do the same to service (wage) inflation

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 26, 2023

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

  There is much more in the full TS Lombard report available to pro subs in the usual place. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 22:30

• Comedian Arrested In Beijing As Informants Become Norm Again In China, Eroding Mutual Trust
  Comedian Arrested In Beijing As Informants Become Norm Again In China, Eroding Mutual Trust

  Authored by Jessica Mao and Olivia Li via The Epoch Times,

  Recently, there is a growing trend of people informing on others secretly in Chinese society, with multiple high profile incidents occurring in succession. Current affairs analysts point out that the culture of reporting others to the authorities is a typical product of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ideology, and breeds a lack of trust between people.

  

  On May 13, famous Chinese stand-up comedian Li Haoshi used a Chinese military slogan to commend his adopted stray dogs in two of his performances in Beijing.

  The slogan he used, to “have good conduct and capable of winning battles,” was originally Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s words when he set a goal for the People’s Liberation Army.

  An audience member reported on him, saying that he had insulted Chinese soldiers.

  Beijing then police arrested Li, saying that they had opened an official investigation into his performance. Li and the comedy firm he worked with were suspended from future performances and heavily fined.

  On May 19, the Kunlun Institute, a self-proclaimed independent Chinese research institute, republished an old article from 2021 on its official website, criticizing Chinese painter and sculpture artist Yue Minjun for engaging in an “organized and orchestrated campaign of insulting the military and opposing the Chinese Communist Party” with an art museum in Shunde, Guangdong.

  In the article, Kunlun’s guest commentator, Yang Zhaoyou, posted several paintings featuring Chinese communist soldiers and others. Each of the characters has an absurdly exaggerated smile, and some of them even had horns on their heads. These characters are based on ordinary soldiers, police officers, communist model soldier Lei Feng, and communist leaders such as Mao Zedong, Stalin, and Karl Marx.

  The article said these characters are “not to be insulted” and the author “strongly requests the relevant authorities to investigate this organized insult” to the military and the CCP.

  After the article was published, some Chinese social media users also launched attacks against Yue Minjun but others felt that the criticism of Yue was too far-fetched.

  In another incident on May 22, a Chinese netizen reported in an online post that a teacher at Lanzhou University, when lecturing in a classroom, publicly discredited the CCP’s propaganda of the Korean War, which the Chinese regime refers to as “The War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.”

  According to two pictures in the teaching slides, the teacher presented the opposite view of what the CCP depicts as “aiding North Korea and defending our motherland.”

  Totalitarian System Controls People’s Minds through Informants

  Former Capital Normal University professor Li Yuanhua told The Epoch Times that authoritarian rulers are afraid of public opinion and often get increasingly paranoid about controlling people. Under communism in China, people are not allowed to think and express themselves freely, and rulers control people’s thoughts through informants and mutual supervision.

  “When words are crimes, it is actually tantamount to strengthening authoritarianism, and strengthening authoritarianism means that the authoritarians lack the self-confidence to rule, and have to resort to more controls to solidify their power,” Li said.

  Li believes that the continued development of this trend will have an erosive effect on people’s minds, and that there will be a lack of genuine trust between people. Even if they have ideas, people are afraid to express them for fear that they will be reported or ratted out by others.

  Product of Communist Culture

  New Zealand-based political commentator Ye Zhiqiu told The Epoch Times that the practice of informing on others is a typical product of culture under communist rule, which has two distinctive features.

  “One is that it does not distinguish between right and wrong, but only emphasizes political stance,” he said. “In other words, those who are reported and denounced are reported not because they have broken the law or violated social morality, but simply because their words and deeds do not conform to the views and stance propagated by the CCP. This phenomenon is also a product of decades of the CCP’s brainwashing education, which has ultimately led to intolerance of dissenting voices.”

  “Another significant feature of this phenomenon—the most serious problem—is that it usually occurs among acquaintances. The informants often report on people they know well, which destroys trust,” Ye said, adding that the CCP’s long-term brainwashing education makes people lose their humanity, leaving only the so-called communist party spirit.

  He believes that there needs to be a basic trust between people in order for society to operate normally.

  “But under communist rule, especially during the Cultural Revolution, even husbands and wives could inform on each other, and children were encouraged to report their parents’ behavior to the authorities. This eventually led to the dire consequence that people in society became enemies of each other and lost trust in each other, which made society very deformed. This is exactly what the CCP wants, because when people guard against or even fight against one another, it is difficult for them to unite and effectively join forces against the CCP,” Ye said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 22:00

• Pakistan Has The World's Highest Prevalence Of Diabetes (Not USA?)
  Pakistan Has The World’s Highest Prevalence Of Diabetes (Not USA?)

  Despite advancements in healthcare lengthening life expectancy across the world, there are still many diseases that are hard to beat. One of these growing and costly diseases is diabetes, but each country is being hit differently.

  As Visual Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes details below, one of the leading causes of death and disability globally, over half a billion people are living with diabetes today. The World Bank’s IDF Diabetes Atlas reveals that diabetes was responsible for 6.7 million deaths in 2021 alone.

  In this graphic, Alberto Rojo Moro uses this World Bank Atlas to map diabetes rates by country, highlighting the countries with the highest rates of the disease.

  

  What is Diabetes?

  Diabetes (also known as diabetes mellitusis) a long-lasting condition that affects how the body turns food into energy.

  Normally, our bodies break down the food we consume into glucose (a sugar) and release it into our blood. When our level of blood sugar rises, insulin produced by our pancreas signals the body to use excess glucose as energy or store it for later consumption.

  Diabetes restricts the pancreas from producing this life-saving insulin properly, thus causing high blood sugar levels. These high glucose levels can eventually impact the heart, kidney, and vision. There are two main types of diabetes:

  • Type 1 Diabetes: The immune system attacks and destroys the cells in your pancreas that make insulin. Causes are believed to be genetic and environmental.

  • Type 2 Diabetes: The body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. It is caused by a mix of lifestyle factors (including obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet, and smoking) and genetics.

  Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common form of the disease, making up between 90-95% of global cases.

  Diabetes Rates by Country

  With close to 33 million (31%) of its adult population suffering from diabetes, Pakistan was the country with the highest prevalence of diabetes.

  Rank	Country	% of Diabetic Population Aged 20-79
  1	🇵🇰 Pakistan	30.8
  2	🇵🇫 French Polynesia	25.2
  3	🇰🇼 Kuwait	24.9
  4	🇳🇷 Nauru	23.4
  5	🇳🇨 New Caledonia	23.4
  6	🇲🇭 Marshall Islands	23.0
  7	🇲🇺 Mauritius	22.6
  8	🇰🇮 Kiribati	22.1
  9	🇪🇬 Egypt	20.9
  10	🇦🇸 American Samoa	20.3
  11	🇹🇻 Tuvalu	20.3
  12	🇸🇧 Solomon Islands	19.8
  13	🇶🇦 Qatar	19.5
  14	🇬🇺 Guam	19.1
  15	🇲🇾 Malaysia	19.0
  16	🇸🇩 Sudan	18.9
  17	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	18.7
  18	🇫🇯 Fiji	17.7
  19	🇵🇼 Palau	17.0
  20	🇲🇽 Mexico	16.9
  21	🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea	16.7
  22	🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates	16.4
  23	🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis	16.1
  24	🇫🇲 Micronesia	15.6
  25	🇻🇺 Vanuatu	15.6
  26	🇯🇴 Jordan	15.4
  27	🇹🇴 Tonga	15.0
  28	🇸🇾 Syria	14.9
  29	🇧🇿 Belize	14.5
  30	🇹🇷 Turkey	14.5
  31	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	14.2
  32	🇧🇧 Barbados	14.0
  33	🇴🇲 Oman	13.8
  34	🇵🇷 Puerto Rico	13.3
  35	🇬🇹 Guatemala	13.1
  36	🇧🇲 Bermuda	13.0
  37	🇰🇾 Cayman Islands	13.0
  38	🇸🇷 Suriname	12.7
  39	🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago	12.7
  40	🇬🇩 Grenada	12.6
  41	🇻🇮 United States Virgin Islands	12.4
  42	🇹🇿 Tanzania	12.3
  43	🇿🇲 Zambia	11.9
  44	🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda	11.7
  45	🇰🇲 Comoros	11.7
  46	🇨🇼 Curacao	11.7
  47	🇩🇲 Dominica	11.7
  48	🇬🇾 Guyana	11.7
  49	🇱🇨 Saint Lucia	11.7
  50	🇸🇬 Singapore	11.6
  51	🇧🇭 Bahrain	11.3
  52	🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	11.3
  53	🇧🇳 Brunei	11.1
  54	🇯🇲 Jamaica	11.1
  55	🇦🇫 Afghanistan	10.9
  56	🇨🇱 Chile	10.8
  57	🇿🇦 South Africa	10.8
  58	🇮🇶 Iraq	10.7
  59	🇺🇸 United States	10.7
  60	🇨🇳 China	10.6
  61	🇮🇩 Indonesia	10.6
  62	🇩🇴 Dominican Republic	10.5
  63	🇧🇹 Bhutan	10.4
  64	🇪🇸 Spain	10.3
  65	🇦🇱 Albania	10.2
  66	🇦🇩 Andorra	9.7
  67	🇹🇭 Thailand	9.7
  68	🇹🇳 Tunisia	9.6
  69	🇻🇪 Venezuela	9.6
  70	🇳🇮 Nicaragua	9.3
  71	🇲🇻 Maldives	9.2
  72	🇵🇸 Palestine	9.2
  73	🇼🇸 Samoa	9.2
  74	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina	9.1
  75	🇮🇷 Iran	9.1
  76	🇲🇪 Montenegro	9.1
  77	🇲🇦 Morocco	9.1
  78	🇵🇹 Portugal	9.1
  79	🇷🇸 Serbia	9.1
  80	🇺🇾 Uruguay	9.0
  81	🇭🇹 Haiti	8.9
  82	🇧🇸 Bahamas	8.8
  83	🇧🇷 Brazil	8.8
  84	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	8.8
  85	🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands	8.7
  86	🇱🇾 Libya	8.7
  87	🇳🇵 Nepal	8.7
  88	🇨🇾 Cyprus	8.6
  89	🇰🇵 North Korea	8.6
  90	🇹🇱 Timor	8.6
  91	🇮🇱 Israel	8.5
  92	🇸🇨 Seychelles	8.5
  93	🇨🇴 Colombia	8.3
  94	🇵🇦 Panama	8.2
  95	🇱🇧 Lebanon	8.0
  96	🇲🇹 Malta	8.0
  97	🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	8.0
  98	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	7.8
  99	🇲🇴 Macao	7.8
  100	🇨🇦 Canada	7.7
  101	🇨🇺 Cuba	7.6
  102	🇵🇾 Paraguay	7.5
  103	🇧🇬 Bulgaria	7.4
  104	🇩🇯 Djibouti	7.4
  105	🇸🇲 San Marino	7.4
  106	🇰🇭 Cambodia	7.3
  107	🇲🇼 Malawi	7.3
  108	🇩🇿 Algeria	7.1
  109	🇨🇿 Czechia	7.1
  110	🇲🇲 Myanmar	7.1
  111	🇵🇭 Philippines	7.1
  112	🇭🇺 Hungary	7.0
  113	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	7.0
  114	🇩🇪 Germany	6.9
  115	🇲🇳 Mongolia	6.9
  116	🇵🇱 Poland	6.8
  117	🇰🇷 South Korea	6.8
  118	🇳🇦 Namibia	6.7
  119	🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	6.7
  120	🇯🇵 Japan	6.6
  121	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	6.6
  122	🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	6.6
  123	🇹🇯 Tajikistan	6.6
  124	🇧🇮 Burundi	6.5
  125	🇪🇷 Eritrea	6.5
  126	🇪🇪 Estonia	6.5
  127	🇷🇴 Romania	6.5
  128	🇷🇼 Rwanda	6.5
  129	🇸🇴 Somalia	6.5
  130	🇸🇸 South Sudan	6.5
  131	🇦🇺 Australia	6.4
  132	🇬🇷 Greece	6.4
  133	🇮🇹 Italy	6.4
  134	🇸🇻 El Salvador	6.3
  135	🇮🇲 Isle of Man	6.3
  136	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	6.3
  137	🇱🇦 Laos	6.2
  138	🇲🇨 Monaco	6.2
  139	🇳🇿 New Zealand	6.2
  140	🇫🇮 Finland	6.1
  141	🇱🇮 Liechtenstein	6.1
  142	🇲🇰 North Macedonia	6.1
  143	🇻🇳 Vietnam	6.1
  144	🇱🇻 Latvia	5.9
  145	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	5.9
  146	🇨🇫 Central African Republic	5.8
  147	🇹🇩 Chad	5.8
  148	🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo	5.8
  149	🇱🇹 Lithuania	5.8
  150	🇸🇰 Slovakia	5.8
  151	🇬🇪 Georgia	5.7
  152	🇦🇲 Armenia	5.6
  153	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	5.6
  154	🇧🇾 Belarus	5.6
  155	🇲🇩 Moldova	5.6
  156	🇷🇺 Russia	5.6
  157	🇺🇦 Ukraine	5.6
  158	🇧🇴 Bolivia	5.5
  159	🇨🇲 Cameroon	5.5
  160	🇨🇬 Congo	5.5
  161	🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	5.5
  162	🇬🇦 Gabon	5.5
  163	🇮🇸 Iceland	5.5
  164	🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe	5.5
  165	🇦🇷 Argentina	5.4
  166	🇾🇪 Yemen	5.4
  167	🇩🇰 Denmark	5.3
  168	🇫🇷 France	5.3
  169	🇧🇼 Botswana	5.3
  170	🇳🇪 Niger	5.2
  171	🇭🇳 Honduras	5.1
  172	🇪🇹 Ethiopia	5.0
  173	🇸🇪 Sweden	5.0
  174	🇭🇷 Croatia	4.8
  175	🇵🇪 Peru	4.8
  176	🇦🇴 Angola	4.6
  177	🇦🇹 Austria	4.6
  178	🇸🇿 Eswatini	4.6
  179	🇱🇸 Lesotho	4.6
  180	🇲🇬 Madagascar	4.6
  181	🇨🇭 Switzerland	4.6
  182	🇺🇬 Uganda	4.6
  183	🇳🇱 Netherlands	4.5
  184	🇪🇨 Ecuador	4.4
  185	🇦🇼 Aruba	4.3
  186	🇰🇪 Kenya	4.0
  187	🇫🇴 Faroe Islands	3.8
  188	🇧🇪 Belgium	3.6
  189	🇳🇬 Nigeria	3.6
  190	🇳🇴 Norway	3.6
  191	🇬🇱 Greenland	3.3
  192	🇲🇿 Mozambique	3.3
  193	🇸🇳 Senegal	3.1
  194	🇮🇪 Ireland	3.0
  195	🇬🇭 Ghana	2.6
  196	🇧🇫 Burkina Faso	2.1
  197	🇨🇻 Cape Verde	2.1
  198	🇨🇮 Cote d’Ivoire	2.1
  199	🇬🇳 Guinea	2.1
  200	🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau	2.1
  201	🇱🇷 Liberia	2.1
  202	🇲🇱 Mali	2.1
  203	🇲🇷 Mauritania	2.1
  204	🇸🇱 Sierra Leone	2.1
  205	🇹🇬 Togo	2.1
  206	🇿🇼 Zimbabwe	2.1
  207	🇬🇲 Gambia	1.9
  208	🇧🇯 Benin	1.1

  The situation in Pakistan is currently not expected to improve in the near future. By 2045, the country is estimated to have 62 million people suffering from diabetes due to numerous reasons including malnutrition.

  This chronic disease has also reached alarming levels in many Oceanic island countries and territories, including French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and American Samoa. Each has a diabetic prevalence above 20%, with reasons ranging from malnutrition to obesity.

  Meanwhile, African nations like Benin and The Gambia recorded the lowest prevalence of diabetes in the world. In 2021, African countries had a combined total of 23.6 million adults with diabetes, less than 2% of the continent’s population. However, this number is predicted to double to 55 million by 2045.

  Most Diabetic Countries in Absolute Terms

  In China, diabetes was prevalent in 10.6% of the nation’s adult population in 2021. While this only puts the country in 60th place in terms of prevalence rate, this is equivalent to roughly 140 million adults with diabetes because of the country’s large population.

  Similarly, India’s 9.6% prevalence of diabetes equaled 77 million adults suffering from the disease in the country, more than double the number of Pakistan’s diabetic citizens.

  A similar story follows in the Americas, where Mexico has the highest adult prevalence of diabetes at 16.9% or 14.1 million people. Though the U.S. has a lower rate at 10.7%, its higher population gives it an estimated 32.2 million adults with diabetes.

  Breaking down diabetes rates by country highlights that this a global health challenge. To address the growing burden of diabetes, we need to focus on prevention, early detection, and management of diabetes.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 21:30

• Col. Douglas Macgregor: "Bakhmut Is A Catastrophe [For Ukraine]… F-16s Won't Make A Difference"
  Col. Douglas Macgregor: “Bakhmut Is A Catastrophe [For Ukraine]… F-16s Won’t Make A Difference”

  Russia turned Bakhmut into the graveyard of Ukrainian military power, Col. Douglas MacGregor (ret.) explains ‘what comes next’ in his latest opinion piece at The American Conservative:

  

  Until the fighting begins, national military strategy developed in peacetime shapes thinking about warfare and its objectives. Then the fighting creates a new logic of its own. Strategy is adjusted. Objectives change. The battle for Bakhmut illustrates this point very well. 

  When General Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin, commander of Russian aerospace forces, assumed command of the Russian military in the Ukrainian theater last year, President Vladimir Putin and his senior military advisors concluded that their original assumptions about the war were wrong. Washington had proved incurably hostile to Moscow’s offers to negotiate, and the ground force Moscow had committed to compel Kiev to negotiate had proved too small.

  Surovikin was given wide latitude to streamline command relationships and reorganize the theater. Most importantly, Surovikin was also given the freedom of action to implement a defensive strategy that maximized the use of stand-off attack or strike systems while Russian ground forces expanded in size and striking power. The Bakhmut “Meatgrinder” was the result. 

  When it became clear that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government regarded Bakhmut as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russian military power, Surovikin turned Bakhmut into the graveyard of Ukrainian military power. From the fall of 2022 onward, Surovikin exploited Zalenskiy’s obsession with Bakhmut to engage in a bloody tug-of-war for control of the city. As a result, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers died in Bakhmut and many more were wounded. 

  Surovkin’s performance is reminiscent of another Russian military officer: General Aleksei Antonov. As the first deputy chief of the Soviet general staff, Surovikin was, in Western parlance, the director of strategic planning. When Stalin demanded a new summer offensive in a May 1943 meeting, Antonov, the son and grandson of imperial Russian army officers, argued for a defensive strategy. Antonov insisted that Hitler, if allowed, would inevitably attack the Soviet defenses in the Kursk salient and waste German resources doing so.

  Stalin, like Hitler, believed that wars were won with offensive action, not defensive operations.

  Stalin was unmoved by Soviet losses. Antonov presented his arguments for the defensive strategy in a climate of fear, knowing that contradicting Stalin could cost him his life. To the surprise of Marshals Aleksandr Vasilevsky and Georgy Zhukov, who were present at the meeting, Stalin relented and approved Antonov’s operational concept. The rest, as historians say, is history.

  If President Putin and his senior military leaders wanted outside evidence for Surovikin’s strategic success in Bakhmut, a Western admission appears to provide it: Washington and her European allies seem to think that a frozen conflict—in which fighting pauses but neither side is victorious, nor does either side agree that the war is officially over—could be the most politically palatable long-term outcome for NATO. In other words, Zelensky’s supporters no longer believe in the myth of Ukrainian victory.

  The question on everyone’s mind is, what’s next? 

  In Washington, conventional wisdom dictates that Ukrainian forces launch a counteroffensive to retake Southern Ukraine. Of course, conventional wisdom is frequently high on convention and low on wisdom. On the assumption that Ukraine’s black earth will dry sufficiently to support ground maneuver forces before mid-June, Ukrainian forces will strike Russian defenses on multiple axes and win back control of Southern Ukraine in late May or June. Roughly 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers training in Great Britain, Germany, and other NATO member states are expected to return to Ukraine and provide the foundation for the Ukrainian counterattack force.

  General Valery Gerasimov, who now commands the Russian forces in the Ukrainian theater, knows what to expect, and he is undoubtedly preparing for the Ukrainian offensive. The partial mobilization of Russian forces means that Russian ground forces are now much larger than they have been since the mid-1980s. 

  Given the paucity of ammunition available to adequately supply one operational axis, it seems unlikely that a Ukrainian offensive involving two or more axes could succeed in penetrating Russian defenses. Persistent overhead surveillance makes it nearly impossible for Ukrainian forces to move through the twenty- to twenty-five-kilometer security zone and close with Russian forces before Ukrainian formations take significant losses. 

  Once Ukraine’s offensive resources are exhausted Russia will likely take the offense. There is no incentive to delay Russian offensive operations. As Ukrainian forces repeatedly demonstrate, paralysis is always temporary. Infrastructure and equipment are repaired. Manpower is conscripted to rebuild destroyed formations. If Russia is to achieve its aim of demilitarizing Ukraine, Gerasimov surely knows he must still close with and complete the destruction of the Ukrainian ground forces that remain. 

  Why not spare the people of Ukraine further bloodletting and negotiate with Moscow for peace while Ukraine still possesses an army? Unfortunately, to be effective, diplomacy requires mutual respect, and Washington’s effusive hatred for Russia makes diplomacy impossible. That hatred is rivaled only by the arrogance of much of the ruling class, who denigrate Russian military power largely because U.S. forces have been lucky enough to avoid conflict with a major power since the Korean War. More sober-minded leaders in Washington, Paris, Berlin, and other NATO capitols should urge a different course of action.

  *  *  *

  Finally, we note that Col. MacGregor sat down with host Charlie Kirk about the grave situation in Ukraine today, as well as an in-depth discussion of current geopolitical picture relating the US and NATO.

  “…the truth is Bakhmut was a catastrophe and everyone knows it… people know the Ukrainians can’t win and now we’re acting desperately at every turn – send them F-16s, send them whatever we have; Truth is none of that is going to make any difference… the real risk now is that fools in Washington will talk about direct intervention…”

  Click the image below to go to YouTube directly (video not embeddable) for this critically frank interview:

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 21:00

• Top 10 Cheapest Beach Homes In America
  Top 10 Cheapest Beach Homes In America

  The 30yr fixed mortgage rate is back above 7% for the first time since early March. Housing affordability is the worst in decades. Those still searching for a beach home but don’t want to pay Hamptons or South Florida prices have other options that are still considered “affordable.” 

  A new report via Realtor.com reveals the top ten most affordable beach towns for homebuyers this summer. To find these affordable homes, Realtor analysts used listing data for every home put on the market in the past year located within a one-mile radius of each beach.” 

  “We then selected the most affordable beach towns by price per square foot. Only locations with at least 50 properties within a mile of the water in the past year were included,” they said. 

  Topping the list as the most affordable beach home community in the US is Gulfport, Mississippi, with an average median home price of around $225,000 within 1 mile of the beach. The median price per square footage within 1 mile of the beach was $144. 

  Second on the list is Newport News, Virginia, with average home prices within 1 mile of a beach around $220,000 and the median price per square foot around $150. 

  “The city is perched on the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula, where the James River meets the Chesapeake Bay near its mouth to the Atlantic Ocean,” Realtor said. 

  The rest of the list includes:

  3. New London, Conn.

  4. Grand Isle, La.

  5. Corpus Christi, Texas

  6. Atlantic City, NJ.

  7. Navarre, Fla.

  8. North Beach, Md.

  9. Crescent City, Calif.

  10. Shirley, N.Y.

  Most of the affordable beach towns can be found in the South, Mid-Atlantic, or Northeast regions. However, Northern California also has one reasonably priced beach town. 

  

  Affordability challenges persist, with the mortgage rates back above 7%. 

  

  The beach towns listed above are gems of affordability. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 20:30

• Washington Doctor Facing Probe For Criticizing COVID Policies Wins Emergency Injunction
  Washington Doctor Facing Probe For Criticizing COVID Policies Wins Emergency Injunction

  Authored by Caden Pearsen via The Epoch Times,

  A Washington state appeals court has granted an emergency injunction to a retired doctor facing disciplinary action from the Washington Medical Commission (WMC) over articles he wrote against the official COVID-19 narrative in 2021.

  

  Dr. Richard J. Eggleston, a retired ophthalmologist in Clarkston, Washington, faces disciplinary action over articles published in the Lewiston Tribune he wrote challenged the prevailing information and guidance regarding the pandemic.

  During the pandemic, doctors could be accused of spreading misinformation if they provided advice contrary to the official information. This included, for example, advocating or prescribing treatments such as ivermectin or disagreeing with the effectiveness of face masks and vaccines.

  The United States officially ended the pandemic emergency on May 11.

  The WMC filed charges against Dr. Eggleston, accusing him of unprofessional conduct, including spreading false information and misinformation about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its treatments. They assert that his actions violated state laws related to moral turpitude, misrepresentation, and interference with an investigation.

  In response to the charges, Dr. Eggleston has maintained his innocence and has argued that his articles are protected under the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. He sought to have the disciplinary proceedings dismissed on the grounds that the statutes applied by the WMC infringed upon his constitutional rights.

  Despite a separate, initial motion to dismiss being previously denied, the recent emergency injunction granted by the appeals court now provides a temporary reprieve for Dr. Eggleston. The injunction halts the disciplinary proceedings while the court further examines the case.

  The WMC wants to carry out the fact-finding hearing, they say, to protect public health and fulfill its disciplinary responsibilities for the medical profession “and to resolve issues of fact and credibility that require the expertise of the Commission to resolve,” according to a court filing (pdf).

  Court Commissioner Hailey L. Landrus noted in her ruling that while putting a stay on the proceeding would inconvenience the commission—as lawyers for the WMC argued—it doesn’t demonstrate harm to the public.

  ‘Chilling Effect’ on Free Speech

  Dr. Eggleston, on the other hand, argued that he sought to halt the disciplinary proceedings to assert his First Amendment right to free speech.

  Landrus favored the retired doctor’s argument, saying public dialogue by professionals receives strong First Amendment protection, and the mere fact of prosecution can have a “chilling effect” on the exercise of these rights for Dr. Eggleston and other medical professionals.

  “Dr. Eggleston has a competing interest in enjoining the disciplinary proceedings in order to seek First Amendment protection for his speech, which is the reason for the administrative proceedings in the first place. Denying a stay would, according to Dr. Eggleston, violate his constitutional right to free speech,” Landrus said in her ruling.

  “Balancing the parties competing interests and hardships favors Dr. Eggleston,” the court commissioner added.

  She found that it would be more efficient to review the trial court’s decision on the injunction instead of proceeding with a lengthy administrative hearing. Granting the injunction could potentially resolve the entire proceedings, saving time and resources, she noted.

  The court’s decision to grant the emergency injunction comes as a significant development in Dr. Eggleston’s ongoing legal battle with the WMC.

  The granted stay of the proceedings will delay hearings scheduled to commence this week, Wednesday through Friday. This delay provides a short window of opportunity for the WMC to withdraw the charges against Dr. Eggleston. However, if the WMC chooses not to withdraw the charges, the legal process will proceed as planned.

  “I’m very happy to see that this part of the legal system understands this First Amendment issue and basic rights to get accurate information from a physician,” Dr. Eggleston told The Defender.

  The legal team representing Dr. Eggleston expressed their satisfaction with the court’s ruling to grant the stay of proceedings. Todd Richardson, one of Dr. Eggleston’s lawyers, emphasized the significance of protecting First Amendment rights.

  “As Americans, if we don’t conscientiously defend these foundational rights and freedoms, we may soon wake up to realize we have lost them,” he told The Defender.

  The Epoch Times contacted WMC for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 20:00

• Lululemon Fires Two Store Employees For Calling Police On Masked Robbers
  Lululemon Fires Two Store Employees For Calling Police On Masked Robbers

  America’s descent toward lawlessness is most visible at retail stores in progressive metro areas. The latest incident occurred at a Lululemon store in Atlanta. Three masked men pillaged the store while two employees wearing overpriced yoga pants were fired by corporate for calling the police to report the robbery. 

  Local media outlet WXIA said Jennifer Ferguson, the former assistant manager of the Peachtree Corners Lululemon, and Rachel Rogers, a former employee at the store, encountered the men in “masks and hoodies” who “swiped” as much merchandise as they could before sprinting out the door.

  “No, no, no, you can march back out,” Ferguson said in a video that caught the entire robbery. One of the robbers told her, “Chill, b-tch, shut your ass up.” 

  

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

  New York Post said the thieves had robbed the store several times because Lululemon has a “zero-tolerance policy” on chasing or physically engaging with a robber. Although both employees did not physically try to stop the masked men, they called the police to report the theft. 

  “We are not supposed to get in the way. You kind of clear path for whatever they’re going to do.

  “And then, after it’s over, you scan a QR code. And that’s that. We’ve been told not to put it in any notes, because that might scare other people. We’re not supposed to call the police, not really supposed to talk about it,” Ferguson told WXIA. 

  In a Facebook post, the assistant manager’s husband, Jason Ferguson, said, “My wife was terminated from her job at Lululemon for ‘breaking employee handbook policy’ of not interfering with a burglary.” He continued:

  Lululemon representatives held a zoom call a few days after the incident to learn what Jenn knew about the policy. Then, a few days later, they scheduled a follow-up zoom call where they terminated her citing the company’s “zero-tolerance policy” in these situations. No warning. No coaching. No additional training. Just. Fired. Georgia being an at-will employment state, employers can do that whenever they wish. That is their right. But it doesn’t make it right. Especially in this situation.

  Jason Ferguson said the regional manager told his wife and the other former employee that calling the police would “look bad for Lululemon.” 

  Lululemon appears to have an open-invite policy for thieves, which puts its employees in harm’s way. Not intervening physically is probably smart because who wants to die over expensive yoga pants made in Southeast Asia? However, terminating employees for simply calling the police is upside-down clown world stuff. We hope Lululemon fixes these broken policies and puts more effort towards protecting employees and improving work conditions. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 19:30

• What A Difference A Real DA Makes
  What A Difference A Real DA Makes

  Authored by Lloyd Billingsley via American Greatness,

  Chesa Boudin, named after cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, and son of Weather Underground terrorists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, was elected district attorney of San Francisco in November 2020.

  Criminals were happy with the outcome. 

  “Chesa Boudin threw a monkey wrench into the city’s criminal justice system,” recalls Richie Greenberg, San Francisco resident and business consultant.

  “Amid a series of high-profile cases, his promise to release repeat criminals and to allow quality of life crimes to go unpunished, San Francisco descended into a scofflaw paradise.” 

  Greenberg spearheaded a recall effort and in June 2022 voters booted Boudin by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin. Mayor London Breed then appointed University of Chicago law alum Brooke Jenkins, a prosecutor in the city’s homicide division. 

  Jenkins proceeded to fire 16 Boudin loyalists, part of “important changes to my management team and staff that will help advance my vision to restore a sense of safety in San Francisco by holding serious and repeat offenders accountable and implementing smart criminal justice reforms.” 

  In November 2022, Jenkins prevailed over three rivals with approximately 54 percent of the vote. As the victor proclaimed. “I pledge that improving and promoting public safety will be my and our office’s top priority.” 

  

  The “scofflaw paradise” recently threw up a challenge. 

  On April 27, “black trans man” Banko Brown shoplifted items from a downtown Walgreens store. That drew the attention of security guard Michael Earl-Ray Anthony, who struggled with Brown. Anthony contended that Brown threatened to stab him and shot the shoplifter, who later died from the wound. No weapon was found on the decedent. 

  “Banko’s death is yet another testament to the dire need for increased advocacy for the safety of all trans people in this country, especially Black trans people,” said a statement from Tori Cooper of the Community Engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative.

  “His death comes at a time of blatant hateful, xenophobic rhetoric and legislative measures which fuel violence against our community. We can’t continue to stand idle while this unfolds.” 

  Protesters also called for Anthony to be prosecuted for murder, but San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins took a different approach. “The killing of Mr. Banko Brown on April 27, 2023 was a tragedy and my heart breaks for his friends and family,” Jenkins said in a statement. 

  After careful review of all of the evidence gathered by the San Francisco Police Department in this case, my office will not be pursuing murder charges, at this time, in connection to the shooting. We reviewed witness statements, statements from the suspect, and video footage of the incident and it does not meet the People’s burden to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the suspect is guilty of a crime. The evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense. We cannot bring forward charges when there is credible evidence of reasonable self-defense. Doing so would be unethical and create false hope for a successful prosecution. No matter the case, however, we must follow the law and the evidence, wherever it leads. We never make decisions based on emotions or what may be politically expedient.

  For Jenkins, “this wasn’t someone just walking out with an item. This is a shoplifting that became violent because Banko Brown initiated that aggressive contact with the security guard which turned this legally into a robbery.”

  The D.A. asked that “even in the midst of very intense heightened emotions that people look at the same evidence that we did, because that is what our decision is based on.”

  “We all share that we wish that this never happened,” Jenkins added, “but the facts are what they are and that is what we are limited to.” One fact missing from many reports was that Michael Earl-Ray Anthony is also black and something of a hardship case. 

  “I’ve really been on my own since I was a young teenager,” Anthony told the D.A.’s office. “Always moving, different places, different houses, different family, friends. My parents never really worked. I was the only one working. My stepdad—he was on drugs.” 

  Anthony spoke of working as a security guard since he was 18, and for a time as an armored truck driver, delivering bags of up to $600,000 to banks. The guard was distraught at killing someone and told detectives, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” Local activists cast him as a murderer. 

  “If there was a crime that was committed in terms of stealing—that is if—there was a greater crime, which was murder.”

  That was Honey Mahogany, the first black trans chair of the local Democratic Party, in a May 17 protest outside the D.A.’s office. 

  “Banko Brown was not a danger to anyone,” according to Kevin Ortiz of the Latinx Democratic Club.

  “Brooke Jenkins needs to do her job—she must be held accountable for the families she’s failed. And that starts with Banko Brown.”

  The people of San Francisco might not think so. 

  California’s 2014 Proposition 47 changed felonies to misdemeanors and essentially legalized theft of property valued at less than $950. Car break-ins and property crime quickly surged, and in parts of the city, contrary to Tony Bennett, the stench of excrement filled the air. The pro-criminal Chesa Boudin made it all worse, and voters turned him out. 

  Brooke Jenkins, by contrast, has made public safety a top priority. She follows the law and the evidence and does not make decisions on what may be politically expedient. That is good advice for district attorneys in Los Angeles, New York, and across the country.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 19:00

• Children's Hospital 'Health Hero' Award Given To Trans Democrat Pushing Child Sex Changes
  Children’s Hospital ‘Health Hero’ Award Given To Trans Democrat Pushing Child Sex Changes

  The Children’s Minnesota hospital system awarded state Rep. Leigh Finke an award last week after authoring a bill designed to promote child sex changes, the Daily Caller reports.

  

  Finke, a transgender individual, authored Minnesota’s HF146, the so-called “trans refuge” bill, which would prevent the enforcement of out-of-state laws that would remove a child from parents who cross state lines to administer transgender medical interventions, such as hormones or puberty blockers.

  “The law protects access to gender affirming care for Minnesotans and for those traveling to Minnesota from other states,” said Children’s Minnesota in a statement.

  The legislation was signed into law on April 27 by Gov. Tim Walz (D).

  Finke was also the author of a bill that would strip anti-pedophile language from the state’s existing anti-discrimination law. The law currently excludes sexual attraction to children from its list of legally protected sexual orientations, but Finke’s bill would remove language specifying that exclusion, which activists have argued could lead to pedophilia being interpreted as a protected sexual orientation.

  Republican state Rep. Harry Niska later proposed an amendment to the bill that would clarify that pedophilia is not a protected class, which was adopted unanimously. -Daily Caller

  We are pleased to announce that Rep. @leighfinke is this year’s recipient of the Children’s Health Hero award. Children’s Minnesota presents the award annually to legislators who champion child health issues at the Minnesota Capitol.https://t.co/lkzQHUjrDq

  — Children’s Minnesota (@childrensmn) May 24, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to Children’s Minnesota, it’s “the only health system in the state that cares exclusively for children” via two hospitals and 25 other facilities for primary care.

  Meanwhile, similar “trans refuge” legislation has been passed in California, after states like Utah and Florida passed legislation to restrict sex change procedures on children.

  “I am extremely honored to be presented the Health Hero Award from Children’s Minnesota. At a time when young children are exploring who they are, and where they fit in society, we need to advocate and fight for their right to discover those identities with dignity and compassion,” said Rep. Finke.

  Or maybe wait till they’re 18, when society deems people to be adults capable of making major decisions for themselves?

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 18:30

• Bill To Legalize Psychedelic Mushrooms Advances In California Senate
  Bill To Legalize Psychedelic Mushrooms Advances In California Senate

  Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

  A bill to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms cleared the California Senate May 24, reaching the halfway point in the state’s effort to legalize the drug, despite increasing opposition by law enforcement and many citizens.

  

  Senate Bill 58 was introduced in December by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who said criminalizing drug use and possession does nothing but fill up prisons with people who are addicted.

  “We shouldn’t be criminalizing people for personal use of these non-addictive substances,” Wiener said in a May 24 statement.

  If passed, the bill would allow the cultivation, transfer, and transportation of fungi or other plant-based materials that can be used as ingredients for the drugs, according to the bill text.

  Psilocybin is found in a variety of mushrooms and can be produced synthetically. The bill would only allow plant-based psychedelic drugs for use by people 21 years old and older.

  Ingesting the drug can cause sensory perception changes, including auditory and visual hallucinations. The drug’s effects after ingestion can begin within 20 to 90 minutes and can last up to 12 hours in some cases, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

  Several law enforcement associations, local California governments, and organizations are opposed to legalizing the substance, including the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, the City of Beverly Hills, the California State Sheriffs’ Association, California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, Concerned Women for America, and many others.

  The California District Attorneys Association opposed the measure, expressing concern that legalizing the drugs for recreational use is not grounded in scientific evidence.

  “While we are sympathetic to proponents who argue that the veteran population might benefit therapeutically from exploration of these substances, these drugs are Schedule I controlled substances for a reason,” the association said, according to a Senate analysis of the bill. “They have no federally accepted medical use and have a high probability of misuse.”

  The California Contract Cities Association was also against legalization and was concerned about public safety risks associated with the cultivation and transportation of the materials.

  “This means that more hallucinogenic drugs would be able to move across local jurisdictions in far greater numbers with insufficient oversight or accountability from local agencies,” the cities association wrote in a Senate analysis. “This is very worrisome from the perspective of local decision-making authorities like our member cities.”

  Support for the bill includes the Hippie and a Veteran Foundation, Initiate Justice, the Alameda County Democratic Party, the California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies, and the California Public Defenders Association. The cities of West Hollywood and Eureka are also in favor of the bill.

  Clinical trials are underway to study its use for treating depression and other mental health disorders, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

  The association determined in a 2020 study that while research is still preliminary, psychedelics show promise for treating conditions including treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder but the drugs were not ready for use as a treatment.

  Psychedelic mushrooms are still illegal under U.S. federal law. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated psilocybin, the substance found in psychedelic mushrooms, as a “breakthrough therapy,” speeding up the development and review of the drug to treat serious conditions.

  Preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over available therapy in clinical studies, according to the FDA.

  Local measures to deprioritize the policing or prosecution of conduct related to hallucinogens have passed in Oakland and Santa Cruz. Ann Arbor, Michigan, Denver, and Washington, D.C., have also passed similar measures.

  Oregon and Colorado have passed similar measures to decriminalize psilocybin and legalize it for supervised use.

  The legislation is a stripped-down version of a bill proposed by the same senator in 2021. That bill, which would have legalized plant-based and synthetic psychedelics—such as MDMA, LSD, and ketamine—failed to pass.

  In Wiener’s San Francisco district, rampant drug use has contributed to runaway homelessness throughout the city. The city passed a motion in 2022 calling for law enforcement to deprioritize investigations and arrests of adults found in possession of psychedelics.

  Last month, dozens of residents and advocates protested at San Francisco City Hall against open-air drug markets and unsafe streets. Rally organizer Ricci Wynne told The Epoch Times data showed that the most prominent issues in San Francisco stem from drug use and drug dealing.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 18:00

• Vegas Group Accused Of Cheating Casino Out Of More Than $225,000 Playing Electronic Craps
  Vegas Group Accused Of Cheating Casino Out Of More Than $225,000 Playing Electronic Craps

  A group that played digital craps in Las Vegas in November and December 2021 is being accused of cheating, allegedly racking up $200,000 in illicit winnings from what CBS/KLAS has called a “dice sliding scheme”.

  The group reportedly played at The Cosmopolitan in November and December 2021 and went on a winning streak that cost the casino more than $225,000, the Nevada Gaming Control Board confirmed.

  The cheating took place on one of the newer, electronic craps tables, which have a smoother surface than traditional felt craps tables, and sometimes fewer dealers standing by to oversee the action. 

  According to the NGC, “the cheating involved multiple suspects and occurred on the Azure Roll to Win Electronic Craps table.”

  

  Documents on the incident stated: “The cheating method involved dice sliding and sliding occurs when the shooter slides one or both dice across the table in order to prevent the cubes from rolling. The dice will be in the same position as they started, allowing the shooter to control the outcome of the game.”

  Investigators also believe cheating may have taken place at Resorts World. 

  The group “was observed both together on the table and away from it, during and after fraudulent dice sliding activities occurred,” the CBS report says, citing case records. “Before illegally sliding the dice [one person whose name is redacted in court documents] would signal the other by placing single wagers in a circle motion around the main screen [wagers].”

  All four people involved now face “cheating-related charges” and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing in early June. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 17:30

• As Interest Rates Rise, The Era Of "Deficits Don't Matter" Is Over
  As Interest Rates Rise, The Era Of “Deficits Don’t Matter” Is Over

  Authored Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  Back in 2002, then-Vice President Dick Cheney claimed “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” and went on to push for tax cuts combined with more federal spending. Indeed, the Bush administration would go on to push immense amounts of new spending, supporting a huge Medicare expansion and blowing hundreds of millions of dollars on costly and pointless occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The national debt grew by 70 percent during Bush’s eight years, but no one in Washington—Republican or Democrat—really cared. After 2003, the economy seemed to be growing and after the 2008 financial crisis hit, all that really mattered was bailing out Wall Street to “save” the global economy. 

  In fact, for more than thirty years, stern warnings about the federal debt and annual deficits have come from wet-blanket curmudgeons who insisted that running up huge debts would become a problem. They were right, but the time frame has proven to be quite a bit longer than most anticipated. Many significant global political and economic changes intervened to ease the process of incurring an enormous national debt, even as the total debt exploded from $5.6 trillion to $22.5 trillion between 2000 and 2019. These changes included rising global productivity, a new globalized work force, and solid global demand for dollars—which fueled apparently limitless demand for for US government bonds. This ensured the debt remained easy enough to manage. For a time.

  Things are changing, however, and in the coming five years we’ll begin to see how a newly accelerating debt, declining demand for dollars, and rising price inflation will finally reveal how and why deficits do matter, after all. 

  

  How Much Debt Are We Talking About?

  The US’s national debt is now projected to exceed $32 trillion in 2023. That’s up by nearly ten trillion dollars since January of 2020. Nearly eight trillion of that came in 2020 and 2021 alone. Since 2019, the rate at which the US government has taken on new debt has significantly accelerated beyond what was already a shocking rate of deficit spending. Back in 2019, I noted that the Trump administration had added nearly a trillion dollars to the deficit in a single year of what was considered an economic expansion. That was remarkable at the time. Of, cours, what happened under both Trump and Biden during the covid panic made a trillion dollars look like spare change. 

  Moreover, the debt has reached new post-World-War-II highs in proportion to the overall size of the economy. In 2020, total federal debt as a percentage of national GDP shot up to 120%. This puts the US at previously-unseen peacetime debt levels. 

  

  Comparing debt to GDP doesn’t tell us much about the government’s ability to pay and service its debt, however. A more realistic measure is total debt compared to federal revenues. By this measure, we also find debt has accelerated to peacetime highs. Total federal debt is now more than 6 times the size of annual federal receipts. 

  This Translates Into a Lot of Interest Payments 

  The problem with a large national debt isn’t that it’s big or difficult to pay off. An enormous debt can be sustained indefinitely by a government so long as it can manage paying the interest on the debt. For most of the past three decades, the US government had it very easy in this respect. It could run up huge annual deficits, incur trillions of dollars in new debt, yet interest payments on that debt remained remarkably stable and did not rise to “out of control” levels. 

  This was made possible by the fact that interest rates trended downward again and again for most of the past 35 years. If we look at the federal funds rate—which tends to trend with average interest levels paid on federal debt—we can see that debt levels surged at the same time that interest rates were falling. This fall in interest rates prevented interest payments from surging upward as well. 

  Why this rates fall? During much of the 1990s, the US grew to dominate the global economy in the wake of the end of the Cold War. This drove far greater need for dollars worldwide, and all those dollar holders put many of the dollars into buying US government debt. This pushed down the cost of issuing new federal debt considerably. Even after the rise of the euro after 1999, globalization helped sustain global demand for US debt, as did the eurodollar economy. 

  

  After 2008, interest rates on US debt were pushed down even further as the US central bank bought up nearly six trillion dollars worth of US bonds. As this artificial demand for federal bonds rose, the interest rate sank further. So, even as the federal government was adding trillions to the national debt after 2009, interest payments remained manageable.

  

  We can see how from 1998 to 2015, total debt service costs barely budged in spite of an ever growing national debt. This finally began to grow after 2017 with Trump’s growing mega deficits and efforts at the Federal Reserve to finally allow interest rates to increase over fears of price inflation. After 2020, of course, interest payments on the debt then surged above half a trillion dollars, and are projected to increase further: 

  

  Interest Payments Will Gradually Consume the Federal Budget

  It is here where we begin to see the problem with such huge debt levels. An enormous debt makes total debt payments far more sensitive to movements in interest rates. In 2007, when the national debt was at a “mere” nine trillion dollars, the federal funds rate could rise above five percent without a resulting surge in interest payments. More than a decade later, with debt levels at $30 trillion, a similar increase in the federal funds rates leads to a much larger increased in debt service payments. 

  In practical terms, this means that a government with enormous debt levels likely cannot sustain any sizable increases in interest. Under these conditions, debt payments will gradually grow larger and larger until they consume much of the nation’s federal spending. 

  We can see this in even the official federal projects for debt payments moving forward. For example, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the federal government will owe $660 billion in debt service in 2023. But this will increase to $960 billion by 2028, in five years. For comparison, we can note that the OMB also projects the entire defense budget in 2028 will be $966 billion. 

  

  The OMB’s projections are rather conservative compared to forecasts in a February report from the Congressional Budget Office. According to the CBO report, interest payments will reach nearly a trillion dollars in 2028 and will continue to climb after that. In a decade, total interest payments will exceed $1.4 trillion and will be the third largest federal “program” behind Social Security and Medicaid. At that time, interest payments will exceed defense spending by $300 billion. 

  On a per-capita basis, this is not exactly trivial. In 2030, for example, the $1.4 trillion owned in interest payments will work out to approximately $4,000 per American adult of working age (adults between ages 18 and 65). 

  In other words, within six years, American taxpayers will be forced to pony up more than a trillion dollars every year to just to cover long-past federal spending on various lost wars and failed social programs. Baby Boomers will be mostly dead or in nursing homes, but young workers will be paying for the bill incurred by their elders decades ago.  

  Keep in mind, however, that this is all a “best case scenario.” CBO and OMB estimates assume there will be no recessions in coming years, and they also assume relatively stable interest rates. The CBO estimates forecast interest on US federal debt will average about 2.7 percent in 2023, but will not increase significantly after that, rising only to 3.2 percent by 2031. 

  That’s possible, of course, but current trends suggests the CBO is too optimistic. Geopolitical realities point to a relative decline in demand for the dollar—which will also lead to a decline in demand for US bonds. The US insists on isolating itself both politically and economically as it wages sanction wars—or threatens to do so—on many of the world’s key economies. This will all drive up interest rates. As we’ve shown here on mises.org, the dollar is unlikely to disappear as an important global currency, but it is likely to face more competition. That will mean higher interest rates for federal debt as dollar demand wanes. 

  Another key development here is that the central bank no longer has the freedom to force down interest rates as it did a decade ago. Back then, the Fed could simply buy up new government debt to prop up demand and keep down interest rates. This has required the central bank to engage in large amounts of monetary inflation. For a time, that seemed to work, but then price inflation rose to 40-year highs and has remained stubbornly high.  The Fed can no longer simply print up an additional trillion dollars to buy up US government debt—and then just hope no price inflation appears. Rather, because price inflation is so politically unpopular, the Fed has to treat lightly on new monetary expansion. This ties the hands of Fed in how much it can intervene to keep interest rates low. 

  Thus, the very mild increases in interest rates predicted by the CBO may greatly understate the true risks. 

  Moreover, this all assumes that endless increases to debt service will be politically tenable ten years from now. Will voters really be convinced that they have to endure increasingly large cuts to popular government programs in order to keep paying money to bondholders forever and ever? 

  At some point, the voters are likely to say “enough” when it comes to escalating debt payments. And that’s when a country gets either hyperinflation or a sovereign debt crisis. In the meantime, that interest bill is just going to keep getting bigger.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 17:00

• Bud Light Offers $2.99 18-Pack After Sales Tumble Accelerates
  Bud Light Offers $2.99 18-Pack After Sales Tumble Accelerates

  Bud Light is offering a massive Memorial Day weekend discount: $2.99 for an 18-pack of Bud Light or Budweiser, bringing the price per can down to just pennies. This aggressive pricing strategy is an attempt by the brewer to stimulate demand as an ongoing boycott dents sales for the sixth consecutive week. 

  Twitter handle Ramp Capital spotted the promotion on Saturday that reads, “Easy To Enjoy Memorial Day Weekend … Get Up To $15 Back Via Rebate On The Purchase Of One (1) Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select, Or Budweiser Selection 55′ 15-Pack Or Larger.” 

  

  Before taxes plus the rebate, an 18-pack of beer costs around 17 cents per can. Ramp Capital said, “17 cents per beer is cheaper than water.” 

  The rebate follows Anheuser-Busch’s disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney which sparked a boycott by conservatives. Then when Anheuser-Busch pulled support from Mulvaney, it unleashed a boycott among the trans community.

  According to Fox News, citing new data from trade publication Beer Business Daily, Bud Light sales volumes for the week ending May 13 plunged 28.4%, following a 27.7% decline the week before. 

  The boycott hasn’t been limited to just Bud Light. Other Anheuser-Busch products, such as Budweiser Red, recorded a 14.9% decline for that week, and Michelob Ultra fell 6.8%. 

  On the flip side, Business Daily said beer drinkers gravitated to Bud Light’s competitors, sending sales of Coors Light up 16.9% and Miller Lite up 15.1%. 

  Beer Business Daily analysts pointed out more discounting is likely throughout the summer as Bud Light and Budweiser sales stumble and wholesalers are left with rising inventories due to lackluster demand. 

  “This could be a promotional summer the likes we haven’t seen since after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, where there was so much beer inventory backed up in the trade that it initiated the price war of all price wars,” Beer Business Daily said.

  Since Bud Light’s promotion with Mulvaney on TikTok and the resulting boycott, investors have penalized Anheuser-Busch with a $19 billion wipeout in market cap.  

  

  Bud Light’s marketing blunder isn’t ending anytime soon. And along the way, other companies like Target and North Face have yet to learn from Bud Light.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 16:30

• "What's More Tragic Is Capitalism": BLM Faces Bankruptcy As Founder Cullors Is Cut By Warner Bros
  “What’s More Tragic Is Capitalism”: BLM Faces Bankruptcy As Founder Cullors Is Cut By Warner Bros

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Two years ago, I wrote columns about companies pouring money into Black Lives Matter to establish their bona fides as “antiracist” corporations. The money continued to flow despite serious questions raised about BLM’s management and accounting. Democratic prosecutors like New York Attorney General Letitia James showed little interest in these allegations even as James sought to disband the National Rifle Association (NRA) over similar allegations. At the same time, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors cashed in with companies like Warner Bros. eager to give her massive contracts to signal their own reformed status. It now appears that BLM is facing bankruptcy after burning through tens of millions and Warner Bros. cut ties with Cullors after the contract produced no — zero — new programming.

  Some states belatedly investigated BLM as founders like Cullors seemed to scatter to the winds.

  Gone are tens of millions of dollars, including millions spent on luxury mansions and windfalls for close associates of BLM leaders.

  The usual suspects gathered around the activists like former Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias, who later removed himself from his “key role” as the scandals grew.

  When questions were raised about the lack of accounting and questionable spending, BLM attacked critics as “white supremacists.”

  Warner Bros. was one of the companies eager to grab its own piece of Cullors to signal its own anti-racist virtues.  It gave Cullors a lucrative contract to guide the company in the creation of both scripted and non-scripted content, focusing on reparations and other forms of social justice. It launched a publicity campaign for everyone to know that it established a “wide-ranging content partnership” with Cullors who would now help guide the massive corporation’s new programming. Calling Cullors “one of the most influential thought leaders in American public life,” Warner Bros. announced that she was going to create a wide array of new programming, including “but not limited to live-action scripted drama and comedy series; longform/event series; unscripted docuseries; animated programming for co-viewing among kids, young adults and families; and original digital content.”

  

  Some are now wondering if Warner Bros. ever intended for this contract to produce anything other than a public relations pitch or whether Cullors took the money and ran without producing even a trailer for an actual product. Indeed, both explanations may be true.

  Paying money to Cullors was likely viewed as a type of insurance to protect the company from accusations of racial insensitive. After all, the company was giving creative powers to a person who had no prior experience or demonstrated talent in the area. Yet, Cullors would be developing programming for one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world.

  One can hardly blame Cullors despite criticizism by some on the left for going on a buying spree of luxury properties.

  After all, Cullors was previously open about her lack of interest in working with “capitalist” elements. Nevertheless, BLM was run like a Trotskyite study group as the media and corporations poured in support and revenue.

  It was glaringly ironic to see companies like Warner Bros. falling over each other to grab their own front person as the group continued boycotts of white-owned businesses. Indeed, if you did not want to be on the wrong end of one of those boycotts, you needed to get Cullors on your payroll.

  Much has now changed as companies like Bud Light have been rocked by boycotts over what some view as heavy handed virtue signaling campaigns.

  It was quite a change for Cullors and her BLM co-founder, who previously proclaimed “[we] are trained Marxists. We are super versed on, sort of, ideological theories.” She denounced capitalism as worse than COVID-19. Yet, companies like Lululemon rushed to find their own “social justice warrior” while selling leggings for $120 apiece.

  When some began to raise questions about Cullors buying luxury homes, Facebook and Twitter censored them.

  With increasing concerns over the loss of millions, Cullors eventually stepped down as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, as others resigned.  At the same time, the New York Post was revealing that BLM Global Network transferred $6.3 million to Cullors’ spouse, Janaya Khan, and other Canadian activists to purchase a mansion in Toronto in 2021.

  According to The Washington Examiner, BLM PAC and a Los Angeles-based jail reform group paid Cullors $20,000 a month. It also spent nearly $26,000 on meetings at a luxury Malibu beach resort in 2019. Reform LA Jails, chaired by Cullors, received $1.4 million, of which $205,000 went to the consulting firm owned by Cullors and her spouse, according to New York magazine.

  Once again, while figures like James have spent huge amounts of money and effort to disband the NRA over such accounting and spending controversies, there has been only limited efforts directed against BLM in New York and most states.

  Cullors once declared that “while the COVID-19 illness is tragic, what’s more tragic is capitalism.” These companies seem to be trying to prove her point. Yet, at least for Cullors, Warner Bros. fulfilled its slogan that this is all “The stuff that dreams are made of.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 16:00

• Under Pressure From Fat Activists, NYC Bans Weight Discrimination
  Under Pressure From Fat Activists, NYC Bans Weight Discrimination

  Discriminating against fat people is now illegal in New York City, after Mayor Eric Adams on Friday signed off on a ban that will affect not only employment, but also housing and access to public accommodations — a term that encompasses most businesses. 

  We’re in safe company using the word “fat,” as champions of the cause refer to themselves as “fat activists.” With the mayor’s signature, two more categories — both weight and height — are added to New York City’s list of protected personal attributes, which already included race, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. 

  

  Embracing one of 2023’s innumerable strains of Orwellian brainwashing, Adams declared, “Science has shown that body type is not a connection to if you’re healthy or unhealthy. I think that’s a misnomer that we’re really dispelling.”

  Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say obesity is an invitation to a host of maladies, including to high blood pressure Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gall bladder disease, many types of cancer, mental illness and difficulty with physical functioning. 

  “Size discrimination is a social justice issue and a public health threat,” said Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who introduced the measure. “People with different body types are denied access to job opportunities and equal wages — and they have had no legal recourse to contest it,” said Abreu. “Worse yet, millions are taught to hate their bodies.” 

  A full 69% of American adults are overweight or obese, but our woke overlords would have us believe the real “public health threat” is a nice restaurant that doesn’t want Two-Ton Tessie working the reception desk, or a landlord who’s leary of a 400-pound man breaking a toilet seat or collapsing a porch.  

  The enticingly-named Tigress Osborn, who chairs the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said New York’s ban “will ripple across the globe” — perhaps something like what would happen if the hefty Smith College Africana Studies graduate were dropped into a swimming pool.  

  

  The New York Times reports that witnesses who testified as the measure was under consideration included “a student at New York University said that desks in classrooms were too small for her [and] a soprano at the Metropolitan Opera [who] said she had faced body shaming and pressure to develop an eating disorder.” 

  Some have dared to speak out against the measure. “This is another mandate where enforcement will be primarily through litigation, which imposes a burden on employers, regulators and the courts,” said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, speaking in April. 

  Implicitly putting the weight ordinance in the same category as Brown vs Board of Education, Abrue said, “Today is a monumental advancement for civil rights, size freedom and body positivity and while our laws are only now catching up to our culture, it is a victory that I hope will cause more cities, states and one day the federal government to follow suit.” 

  Taking effect in six months, the law has an exemption for employers “needing to consider height or weight in employment decisions” — but “only where required by federal, state, or local laws or regulations or where the Commission on Human Rights permits such considerations because height or weight may prevent a person from performing essential requirements of a job.” 

  We pray there’s a federal exemption for employers of strippers and lap dancers. 

  Think we’re joking? We remind you that the chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is named “Tigress” — and this is her Twitter profile banner photo:

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 15:30

• DeSantis Says He Would Sign Legislation To Defund "Corrupt" IRS
  DeSantis Says He Would Sign Legislation To Defund “Corrupt” IRS

  Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called IRS a “corrupt organization” and said he would welcome a bill abolishing the agency if elected president in 2024.

  DeSantis made the comments during an interview with conservative radio host Dana Loesch on May 25, a day after the governor announced his White House bid on Twitter.

  “If Congress defunded the IRS and sent such a bill like that to your desk, number one, would you sign it?” Loesch asked. “And then what would you replace the system with? Are you for like a fair tax? A flat tax? Where do you stand on that?”

  “So, the answer’s yes,” DeSantis said in response. “I think the IRS is a corrupt organization and I think it’s not a friend to the average citizen or taxpayer. And so we need something totally different.”

  “I’ve supported all of the single rate proposals, I think they would be a huge improvement over the current system,” the governor added. “And I would be welcoming to take this tax system, chunk it out the window, and do something that’s more favorable to the average folks.”

  

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Heritage Foundation’s Leadership Summit in National Harbor, Md., on April 20, 2023. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

  DeSantis

  The governor has long spoken favorably of a flat tax system. In a Q&A published by Palm Coast Observer in 2012, months before DeSantis won his first term as a House lawmaker from Florida, DeSantis said he believed the federal tax code should be overhauled.

  “I think the federal tax code is an affront to a free society in the sense that it’s 70,000 pages,” DeSantis stated.

  “I am in favor of a complete overhaul; my principle is that consumed income should be taxed one time at a low, single, flat rate.

  He added, “Now whether that’s at the point of after savings and investment income on a flat tax, or on the point of consumption which people talked about a fair tax, I think you need to repeal the 16th Amendment for that because I don’t think you want a sales and an income tax.”

  Last year, DeSantis criticized the Biden administration’s nearly $80 billion in funding for the IRS, which Republicans argue would pave the way for the hiring of 87,000 tax agents, as giving  a “middle finger to the American public.” The funding to the IRS was part of the Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022.

  “I think of all the things that have come out of Washington that have been outrageous, this has got to be pretty close to the top,” DeSantis said at the time. “I think it was basically just a middle finger to the American public that this is what they think of you.”

  He continued, “All these problems we have to deal with, and they think the way is to do 87,000 IRS agents. There’s going to be more people in the IRS than in a lot of these other agencies combined now.”

  “They are going to go after independent contractors. They’re going to go after small-business people. They’re going to go after someone that may be driving an Uber or a handyman or all these things,” DeSantis added.

  “Why would they do that? Because you’re not going to be able to contend with the audit—so they’re going to crush a lot of people by doing that.”

  In January, the House passed the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act (H.R.23) on party lines with a 221–210 vote, with the aim to rescind the administration’s new funding for the IRS. The legislation is unlikely to advance in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

  

  Former President Donald Trump speaks during an event at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Fla., on April 4, 2023. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

  2024 Race

  The 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination now includes former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, conservative radio host Larry Elder, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and DeSantis.

  Trump currently holds a sizable lead over other GOP presidential hopefuls, according to poll results.

  According to a new survey by Echelon Insights that queried 390 likely GOP primary voters between May 22 and May 25, Trump garnered 49 percent support, leading DeSantis by 30 percentage points.

  Former Vice President Mike Pence finished third with nine percent support, followed by Ramaswamy (eight percent), Haley (five percent), Scott (2 percent), former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (one percent), and Elder (one percent).

  In a hypothetical two-way matchup, Trump picked up 59 percent of support, with DeSantis trailing with 34 percent of support.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 05/28/2023 – 15:00