• Germany To Expel 30 Russian Diplomats As Spying Fears Ratchet
  Germany To Expel 30 Russian Diplomats As Spying Fears Ratchet

  Russia’s diplomatic links to Europe continue to collapse at a moment nuclear rhetoric is increasing and growing more dangerous. Simple communication among governments also continues to grow worse, making conflict de-escalation among major powers all the more difficult.

  Germany announced Saturday that it is planning to expel more than 30 Russian diplomats from Berlin. German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock indicated to local media plans for the new wave of expulsions Saturday.

  

  A German media source cited officials as saying “More decisive action must be taken against Moscow’s spies.”

  Allegations of spying have driven large-scale expulsions at various times over the past two years, put have picked up in frequency and scale particularly after the Feb.24, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

  Germany has claimed that the presence of Russian intelligence agents and officials in Berlin has greatly increased of late, with German officials asserting the embassy is now staffed even better than during the Cold War.

  Other countries which are backers of Ukraine have also continued to take punitive measures against Russian diplomats. 

  Number of Russian diplomats expelled worldwide from 2000 to 2022, by country”:

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  “Last month, Estonia expelled 21 Russian embassy staffers, saying it would host only eight diplomatic officials on its territory — matching the size of Tallinn’s team in Moscow,” Politico reports over the weekend. “The Kremlin responded by kicking Estonian Ambassador Margus Laidre out of Russia — the first ambassadorial expulsion from the country in the year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the publication added. “Tallinn then ended Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lipayev’s tenure on Pikk Street.”

  This and other Russian embassies and consulates in Europe have faced accusations of acting as ‘spy hubs’ – far beyond what’s considered the ‘normal’ presence of intel agents and officials. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 03/27/2023 – 02:45

• Zelensky Admits Ukraine Already Ran Out Of Ammo
  Zelensky Admits Ukraine Already Ran Out Of Ammo

  Authored by Andrew Korybko via TheAutomaticEarth.com,

  The US-led West’s Mainstream Media (MSM) began reporting more accurately on the military-strategic dynamics of the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine since the start of the year, but the true test of their comparatively improved integrity will be whether they raise awareness about Zelensky’s latest damning admission. In an interview with Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, he candidly told his interlocutors that “We do not have ammunition. For us the situation in the East is not good.”

  

  This is a major revelation for several reasons.

  • First, it proves that Russia is winning NATO’s self-declared “race of logistics” in the sense that its armed forces still have ammo to continue fighting while the West’s Ukrainian proxies already ran out of that which their patrons provided over the past year.

  • Second, the aforesaid aid that was already extended to this crumbling former Soviet Republic exceeds $100 billion, which makes Russia’s leading position in this “race of logistics” all the more impressive.

  • Third, Zelensky’s admission adds credence to what the Washington Post recently reported regarding how poorly Kiev’s forces are faring in this conflict, especially its “severe ammunition shortages” that one of its sources spoke about. Fourth, the preceding points drastically decrease the chances that Kiev’s upcoming counteroffensive will achieve much of anything and actually make it increasingly likely that such a move would be an epic mistake that could ultimately lead to a decisive Russian breakthrough.

  • And finally, it can therefore be expected that Zelensky and his agents of influence across the West will beg for even more aid, arguing that the failure to pay up would risking making their prior investments in this proxy war all for naught if Kiev ends up losing to Russia. The problem, however, is that no amount of money can make ammunition appear out of thin air since it requires a lot of time to scale production accordingly to meet these newfound exorbitant needs.

  The very fact that Ukraine is out of ammunition proves that the West’s defeat in its self-declared “race of logistics” with Russia might already be a fait accompli by this point since it’s clear that Kiev can’t keep pace with its opponent despite being backed by all of NATO’s military-industrial capacity. Zelensky almost certainly didn’t realize that his candid admission essentially amounted to this, but it’s presently unclear whether the MSM will inform their audience about this or not.

  On the one hand, doing so could contribute to his forthcoming begging campaign, but it could also backfire if taxpayers start asking whether it’s worth ponying up even more money if Ukraine already ran out of ammo despite the over $100 billion in aid that it’s received thus far. After all, if that astronomical sum wasn’t enough to keep their guns firing, then there’s no telling how much will be needed for Kiev to reconquer more of its lost territory like it intends to do.

  Not only that, but as was earlier explained, no amount of money can make ammunition appear out of thin air. Quite clearly, fundamental changes in the Ukrainian Armed Forces are needed in order to indefinitely perpetuate this conflict like the US is plotting to do, but its fighters can’t immediately transition to using exclusively Western equipment when they’re used to operating Soviet-era wares. This poses a dilemma since Russia keeps moving further ahead in this “race of logistics” as each day goes by.

  Objectively speaking, the military-strategic dynamics are trending in the Kremlin’s favor, which would ordinarily compel Kiev to seriously consider China’s peace plan if it wasn’t for its American overlords preventing it from doing so. The longer that Zelensky remains resistant to the very thought of a ceasefire, the greater the chances are that Russia will transform its growing advantage in its “race of logistics” with NATO into a decisive victory that could result in Ukraine losing even more territory.

  *  *  *

  Support the Automatic Earth via Patreon.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 03/27/2023 – 02:00

• It's Getting Ugly Out There
  It’s Getting Ugly Out There

  Authored by Brendan O’Neill via The Spectator,

  The shameful persecution of Posie Parker in New Zealand

  This is what it must have been like when women were marched to the stake.

  

  Yesterday in Auckland the British women’s rights campaigner Posie Parker found herself surrounded by a deranged, heaving mob.

  She had tomato soup and placards thrown in her face. She was doused with water. Huge men screamed insults and expletives in her face. The shoving of the crowd became so intense that Parker feared for her life. ‘I genuinely thought that if I fell to the floor I would never get up again’, she said. ‘My children would lose their mother and my husband would lose his wife.’

  It was a truly chilling spectacle. The mobs’ faces were twisted into masks of feral hatred. They ranted in frenzy as the diminutive Parker, her bottle-blonde hair stained orange from the soup that had been dumped on her, desperately tried to make her way to the safety of a police car. It was a ritualistic shaming of a witch, a violent purging of a heretic.

  #WATCH RNZ’s Jordan Dunn captured the moment that Posie Parker was escorted away from the rally.

  The counter-protest crowd gathered in Albert Park this morning before Parker’s speech, and made a cacophany of noise to drown her speech out.

  🔗 https://t.co/a9ZWNhKuDn pic.twitter.com/yFQm9yrJ7A

  — RNZ (@radionz) March 25, 2023

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

  Next time you’re reading a history book and find yourself wondering how Salem came to be consumed by such swirling hysteria, watch the clips of Posie’s persecution in New Zealand. This is how it happens. This is how the fear of witches can overrule reason and unleash the darkest, most punitive passions of the mob.

  And what is Parker’s crime?

  What did this witch do?

  She said, ‘A woman is an adult human female’.

  That’s it.

  Parker, whose real name is Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, is well known for her criticism of the ideology of transgenderism. She thinks a man never becomes a woman, no matter how many hormones he takes or surgeries he undergoes. She thinks if you were born male, you will die male, and in the time in between you have no right whatsoever to enter any women-only space.

  This is heresy.

  Dissenting from the gospel of gender ideology is to the 21st century what dissenting from the actual gospels was to the 15th. And so Parker must be punished. It was a modern-day stoning, so mercifully they only threw soup and water and planks of cardboard at the blasphemer.

  Parker organises public events called ‘Let Women Speak’. She has done it across the UK, in parts of the US, and for the past couple of weeks she’s been doing it in Australia and New Zealand.

  It’s a genius initiative. She knows these gatherings of women who merely want to give voice to their profane belief that sex can never be changed will draw out crowds of intolerant trans activists and their allies. She knows the ‘Be Kind’ mob will do everything in its power to stop women from speaking. And she knows it will all brilliantly illustrate her core belief: that trans activism is misogyny in disguise, misogyny in drag, if you like, and that it has devoted itself to silencing women who believe in biology.

  Australia and New Zealand played their parts brilliantly in Parker’s clever scheme. From Melbourne to Canberra, Hobart to Auckland, huge crowds of the right-on turned up to drown out the voices of the pesky women who dare to call men ‘men’. ‘Let women speak’, Parker says. ‘No’, says the mob. She incites them to confess their misogyny and intolerance in full public view. And they do. 

  Auckland was the worst. At Albert park in the centre of the city yesterday, the mob could not hide its vengeful loathing of the uppity women who disagree with its ideologies. Parker is a new kind of witch, one who willingly submits herself to a witch-trial, so that the rest of us might see just how dogmatic and unforgiving the new witch-hunters are. I am full of admiration for her. Her courage is shining a light on the visceral intolerance that advances under the banner of identity politics.

  The events in Auckland should be a wake-up call for liberals everywhere. We glimpsed the iron fist of authoritarianism that lurks in the velvet glove of ‘Be Kind’. The misogynistic streak in trans extremism is undeniable now. Watch enraged men kicking down metal barriers so that they might get closer to the witch Posie and tell me this isn’t sexism masquerading as radicalism. Witness the crowing of men who are delighted that the mob made the ‘coward TERF’ run away and tell me this isn’t chauvinism on steroids. Behold the use of megaphones and expletive-laden chants and physical menace to silence a woman and tell me this isn’t a sexist, censorious crusade against women’s freedom of speech.

  That mob in Auckland did not emerge out of thin air. No, it was a brutish manifestation of a regressive idea that has been taking hold for some years. Namely, that it should be forbidden to dissent from gender ideology. That it is bigotry to state biological facts. That it ought to be a punishable offence – whether that punishment is being No Platformed or sacked or having objects thrown in your face – to say men are men and women are women.

  To see where censorship ends up, just look at those grimacing agitators in Auckland, hatred spreading like a current through their number, as they fight with every fibre of their being to prevent the expression of a critical idea. Censorship begets bigotry. It begets violence itself. For the more we tell people that certain words will hurt them, the more we witlessly incite people to hurt those who dare to utter certain words.

  That mob was drunk on sanctimony. This is what happens when we tell people their identity is the most important thing in the world and that anything that so much as grazes their self-esteem is an outrage that must be crushed.

  We nurture a generation of navel-gazing Torquemadas.

  Posie has exposed them, yet again, and for that she deserves our thanks. This time round, the witches might just win. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 23:30

• How Much Does A Bottle Of Water Cost?
  How Much Does A Bottle Of Water Cost?

  Buying bottled water is a luxury that not everyone in the world can afford.

  

  Statista’s Anna Fleck reports that a 1.5-liter bottle of water from a local brand costs an average of $0.70 globally, according to 92 countries analyzed in September 2022 by the website GlobalProductPrices.com.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Australia and the Philippines are the markets where bottled water is the most expensive, at US$2.02 per bottle.

  Singapore, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Norway also have some of the highest prices, with between US$1.59 and US$1.74 per 1.5 liters of bottled water.

  On the other hand, countries such as Egypt and Tunisia have the lowest prices, at $0.14 and $0.20, respectively.

  In Iran and Bangladesh, a bottle of water is also available for less than $0.25.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 23:00

• Prosecutor Admits DC Police Officers Acted As Provocateurs At US Capitol On Jan. 6
  Prosecutor Admits DC Police Officers Acted As Provocateurs At US Capitol On Jan. 6

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

  A federal prosecutor admitted in court papers that three D.C. Metropolitan Police Department undercover officers acted as provocateurs at the northwest steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  

  The admission came in a March 24 filing before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that seeks to keep video footage shot by the officers under court seal.

  Prosecutors accused the case defendant—William Pope of Topeka, Kansas—of an “illegitimate” attempt to unmask the video as part of his alleged strategy to try the case in the news media. Pope filed a motion to remove the court seal on Feb. 21.

  “The defendant is not entitled to ‘undesignate’ these videos to share them with unlimited third parties,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moran. “His desire to try his case in the media rather than in a court of law is illegitimate, and the government has met its burden to show the necessity of the protective order.”

  Videos long hidden under court seal have become a major topic, especially with prosecutors disclosing in a number of high-profile Jan. 6 cases the involvement of multiple FBI informants.

  Pope is seeking to lift the court seal on the undercover video as part of his drive to obtain full access to video evidence held by the government. Pope is representing himself in the criminal case being prosecuted against him. At a hearing on March 3, Judge Contreras seemed sympathetic to Pope’s motion to unmask the videos.

  

  “The officer clearly incited that area, and we still don’t have video from all other undercover MPD,” Pope told The Epoch Times. “And as the numerous informants in the Proud Boys trial demonstrates, we are only just beginning to scratch the surface on FBI involvement.”

  The undercover video—a portion of which posted on Rumble on March 24—shows three members of the MPD’s Electronic Surveillance Unit approach the Capitol’s northwest steps. One of the men, while surveying the crowd, stated, “Someone’s going to get shot.”

  Officer 2 replied, “They’re not going to shoot anybody.”

  Along the edge of the Capitol property, Officer 2 encouraged one protester to go up to the building. “Go join ‘em then,” he said. The man replied, “No, I’ve got my bike to guard.”

  The men engaged in banter on the walk across the west Capitol lawn.

  ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’

  “This is amazing,” Officer 2 said. Officer 1, who was shooting the GoPro video, replied, “Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  Nearly 30 members of the Electronic Surveillance Unit were assigned to duty on Jan. 6, some of whom were gathering evidence on crowd activity. Members wore special bands on their left wrists to identify themselves as part of the Electronic Surveillance Unit, according to the MPD’s 96-page Jan. 6 action plan.

  Officer 1 repeatedly joined in chants of “Drain the swamp!” and “Our house! Our house! Our house!”

  A little closer to the Capitol, the video captures a protester shouting, “Joe Biden! We wanna hear you speak, you [expletive] pedophile satanist [expletive]!”

  A short time later, Officer 1 joined the crowd in a “USA!” chant, repeating the phrase five times.

  At the foot of the northwest stairs, someone leaned part of a bicycle rack against the balustrade. As a protester climbed up the makeshift ladder, Officer 1 shouted, “C’mon, man, let’s go! Leave that sh*t.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 22:30

• "This Is What Armageddon Would Look Like For The US"
  “This Is What Armageddon Would Look Like For The US”

  Biggie:

  “We get guaranteed bank deposits when there’s a bank run,” Barked Biggie Too.

  “We get energy rebates when there’s a war,” continued the Chief Global Strategist for one of Wall Street’s Too-Big-To-Fail affairs.

  “And we got stimmy checks when we had Covid,” bellowed Biggie.

  “What are we gonna get when unemployment starts heading higher?”

  And of course, you never interrupt Biggie when he’s on a roll, so I just nodded.

  “Bank activity, commercial real estate, it’s all contracting. Why couldn’t we have a big, nasty recession in the 2nd half?” asked Biggie.

  “If investors start losing faith in US gov’t credibility over the debt ceiling and the poor handling of this banking crisis, and we get the progressives screaming for stimmy checks at the first hint of rising unemployment, then we got a real problem,” said Biggie.

  “They start talking about UBI and it’s over,” he said, dropping to a whisper.

  “And let me tell you what Armageddon is. It’s a -200k non-farm payrolls report that leads to a 50bp rise in long-term bond yields. And that’s where the people running policy are leading us. To be an emerging market.”

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 22:00

• Sunday Satire: 11 Great Reasons To Stay In California
  Sunday Satire: 11 Great Reasons To Stay In California

  Via Babylon Bee,

  According to reports, hundreds of thousands of people have fled California in recent years, citing minor annoyances like aggressive homeless people, increased violent crime, and crippling taxes.

  

  Some experts believe that by 2030, the only person left in California will be Gavin Newsom – and he’ll spend half his time on his ranch in Montana.

  But all these concerns citizens have may be overblown.

  There’s still a lot to love about the Golden State.

  Here are 11 great reasons to stick around:

  1. Zillow estimates your cardboard box house will be worth $3 million in just a few years – Hoooold – HOOOOOLD!!!

  2. If you identify as black you have a decent chance of scoring millions in reparations soon – Pull a Rachel Dolezal and you can be cashing in big time any day now.

  3. There are beautiful natural sights like the warm glow of forest fires lighting up the skies – We call them “the golden lights,” and they’re magnificent.

  4. Everyone will be gone soon and then there will be no lines at Disneyland – You’ll have to push the button to start up the tea cups yourself, but no more waiting!

  5. Everything at CVS is free – Even better than no waiting – no paying for anything!

  6. When you pay your massive state tax bill, you get a sense of satisfaction that you’re supporting some hobo’s fentanyl addiction – No amount of money saved can make up for that feeling.

  7. Law-abiding citizens don’t have guns, so there is never any crime – It’s science.

  8. There’s great weather outside of fire season, drought season, and deadly mudslide season – There are three days in April without fires, droughts, or mudslides. Enjoy them.

  9. You can ski and surf on the same day, even though you haven’t done either in years – But you can be smug in the knowledge that you could if you really wanted to. (But you don’t). (But you could).

  10. You can go camping right on the sidewalk – No permit required.

  11. Best of all, the government will make all your decisions for you – This is maybe the best reason to stick around: you won’t be burdened with pesky concepts like “liberty” and “personal responsibility.” Good ol’ Gavin will take care of ya.

  Well, that’s all we can think of.

  If these didn’t convince you, then move to Texas and enjoy your lame “freedom” and “guns.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 21:00

• US "Strongly Urges" Compromise As Massive Protests Erupt Across Israel After Anti-Judicial-Reform Minister Fired
  US “Strongly Urges” Compromise As Massive Protests Erupt Across Israel After Anti-Judicial-Reform Minister Fired

  Update (2045ET): Massive protests have erupted across Israel tonight after PM Netanyhau fired his Defense Minister, a day after he called on the Israeli leader to halt a planned judicial overhaul that has fiercely divided the country.

  As a reminder, Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.

  Gallant’s dismissal signaled that Netanyahu will move ahead this week with the overhaul plan, which has sparked mass protests, angered military and business leaders and raised concerns among Israel’s allies.

  “The country is facing the greatest danger since the Yom Kippur War,” writes former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

  “I call on the prime minister to withdraw Galant’s dismissal letter, suspend the reform and begin negotiations until after the Day of Independence.

  Israel’s Consul General has resigned…

  Resignation statement in full from the consul general of #Israel in #NYC. pic.twitter.com/dEIivDnqpy

  — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 26, 2023

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

  Bibi later tweeted “we must all stand strong against refusal.”

  Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets… in Tel Aviv…

  ⚡️#BREAKING The police chief of the Tel Aviv district joined the demonstrations against Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/YoAr3qJO3S

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023

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

  … and Haifa…

  ⚡️One of the highways in Yafa pic.twitter.com/pZPTrxSzXg

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023

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

  Not everybody is protesting…

  It’s so beautiful… pic.twitter.com/TXMMYfJwW8

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023

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

  Haaretz reports that amid the unprecedented protests that erupted in Israel on Sunday night, several Likud lawmakers and ministers call to stop the highly controversial legislative process of Netanyahu’s judicial reform.

  Additionally, as Nadav Eyal notes, for the first time in history, Israel’s main union, as well as leaders from the banks and the entire business sector, are about to declare a general strike demanding that the government stop the plan to overhaul the judicial system.

  Netanyahu and Macron have much in common. Both are shaking the foundations of their corrupt regimes. pic.twitter.com/3saTWLe5A4

  — Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) March 27, 2023

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

  Finally, and more ominously, amid chatter across social media of the same, Iran has dropped the c-word:

  Will there be a military coup in Israel?

  Mutiny in the Israeli army following Netanyahu’s decision to fire the defense minister — Barak David

  — Iran Observer (@Iranobserver01) March 26, 2023

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

  The situation is definitely escalating, as Joyce Karam summarizes…

  UPDATE: #Israel in last few hrs

  • Defense Min. Gallant fired
  • Consul General in NY resigns
  • Protests across Israel,> 500,000
  • Roads blocked; Clashes w Police
  • Universities cancel classes
  • Netanyahu meeting head of Intel
  • May pause Judicial Overhaul
  • Knesset awaits

  — Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) March 26, 2023

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

  Ratcheting up the pressure on Netanyahu, Washington has chimed in:

  We are deeply concerned by today’s developments out of Israel, which further underscore the urgent need for compromise.

  As the President recently discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu, democratic values have always been, and must remain, a hallmark of the U.S.- Israel relationship.

  Democratic societies are strengthened by checks and balances, and fundamental changes to a democratic system should be pursued with the broadest possible base of popular support.

  We continue to strongly urge Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible.

  We believe that is the best path forward for Israel and all of its citizens. U.S. support for Israel’s security and democracy remains ironclad.

  Which follows a report earlier in the month of the U.S. State Department has been funding a left-wing organization in Israel that is helping to promote anti-government protest aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his judicial reforms. The Washington Free Beacon reported Monday that U.S. taxpayer funds have been granted to the Movement for Quality Government (MQG), which has participated in the protests that have rocked Israel for weeks. The protests began after Netanyahu, whose right-wing coalition won a commanding majority in recent elections, began tackling the decades-old problem of the judicial usurpation of power from the legislature.

  And finally, as the crisis is worsening tonight, Bibi has called the leaders of the ruling coalition parties to an emergency meeting on Monday morning.

  *  *  *

  Update (1415ET): In perhaps the least surprising geopolitical move of the day, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister on Sunday, a day after Yoav Gallant called for a halt to the planned overhaul of Israel’s judiciary that has divided the country.

  Netanyahu’s office did not provide further details.

  As we detailed below, Gallant, a senior member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, became the first to break ranks late Saturday by calling for the legislation to be frozen.

  *  *  *

  In a major development, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday called for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to halt its planned judicial reforms, which have prompted enormous protests and are starting to disrupt the country’s military. 

  “I see the source of our strength eroding…The rift within our society is widening and penetrating the Israel Defense Forces,” said Gallant in a televised evening speech. “This is a clear and immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state. I shall not be a party to this.”

  In addition to calling for a suspension of the reforms, Gallant also implored Israelis to stop their enormous protests, which raged even as he spoke. 

  

  The coming week could bring high drama and even more upheaval, as the Knesset is expected to hold its final vote on the first aspect of the judicial overhaul: a measure giving the government more power over Supreme Court appointments.  

  Other reforms would allow the Knesset — Israel’s unicameral legislature — to override Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority vote. Others would end the court’s practice of applying a “reasonableness” test when evaluating laws and government actions.

  Critics characterize the scheme as a step deeper into authoritarianism. Some say the moves are in part designed to help Netanyahu terminate his ongoing prosecution on corruption charges. 

  The past ten weeks have seen major public protests all across Israel. Saturday night’s crowds were reportedly the largest yet, estimated in the hundreds of thousands. 

  Tel Aviv, today. Estimated as the largest protest in the history of Israel pic.twitter.com/2CEGz4cl2b

  — Danel Lushi (@DanelLushi) March 25, 2023

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

  Gallant said the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are feeling the effects: “The events happening in Israeli society are not staying out of the military. Feelings of rage, disappointment and fear have reached heights we have never seen before,” said Gallant. 

  More pressingly, a growing coalition of Israeli service members — calling themselves Brothers in Arms — are committing to stop showing up for duty in protest of the measures.

  Some say they’ll stay home if the judicial reform passes, but others aren’t waiting — particularly among Israel’s reserve forces. On Friday, two hundred Israeli Air Force reserve pilots signed a letter saying they will not report for two weeks. Reservists are an essential part of Israel’s military, and especially its air force, which has been active in bombing targets across Syria, including the Damascus airport.  

  IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has already sounded an internal alarm, saying the dip in reservists reporting for duty is now so large that the the military is on the verge of curtailing some operations, according to The New York Times, which quoted three anonymous Israeli officials. Two of those officials are bracing for resignations from full-time service members. 

  

  Underscoring the divisions caused by the judicial proposal, far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lashed out at his fellow cabinet member, urging Netanyahu to fire Gallant, whom he condemned for “succumbing to the pressure of those [IDF members] who threatened to refuse [to report for duty] and are trying to stop the important reform.” 

  Similarly, Israel’s communications minister accused Gallant, a former navy commando, of “giving wind to a military coup.”  

  However, just minutes after Gallant concluded his remarks, two of his fellow Likud party lawmakers endorsed his plea, Haaretz reports. One is the chair of the Knesset’s security and foreign affairs committee, and the other is a person who rarely criticizes Netanyahu.  

  Israel’s agriculture minister and another Likud member reportedly favor a freeze as well. If they went as far as to become “no” votes, that quartet would be sufficient to impede the legislation.  

  On Friday — the day before Gallant’s speech — Netanyahu told reporters:

  “Surrendering to [IDF] refusal is a terrible danger to the state of Israel…The country cannot exist without the IDF. There will not be a nation, it’s very simple. All red lines have been crossed. People who were responsible for the security of the country suddenly adopted this cynicism.” 

  Gallant said he had privately shared his views with Netanyahu, who asked him to delay going public with them. Gallant cancelled plans to speak out on Thursday, but said he now felt compelled to take his message to all Israelis. 

  Netanyahu ends another humiliating foreign trip, his own defense minister urges a halt to the govt anti-democratic legislative blitz while record numbers protest across Israel; police use water cannon and far-right Kahanists counter-demonstrate @haaretzcomhttps://t.co/4Z68IFoaAN pic.twitter.com/b4azoVOtEK

  — Esther Solomon (@EstherSolomon) March 25, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 20:57

• Morgan Stanley Asks When Will Central Banks Worry More About Financial Stability Than Inflation
  Morgan Stanley Asks When Will Central Banks Worry More About Financial Stability Than Inflation

  By Seth Carpenter, Morgan Stanley chief global economist

  It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

  Major central banks have hiked rates despite volatility in markets. They collectively said that inflation clearly means it is too soon to conclude that the hiking cycle is over. The banking sector developments haven’t stopped the hiking, and indeed, I have noted that the idea of focusing on financial stability at the expense of inflation is a false dichotomy. Central banks are deliberately tightening financial conditions in order to slow their respective economies and thereby bring inflation down…while hopefully avoiding an unnecessarily painful recession. What the banks disruption does, however, is make it harder to
  calibrate the correct degree of tightening.

  Inflation is clearly the priority for central banks. On March 16, the ECB noted that it projects inflation to stay “too high for too long.” Chair Powell was similarly blunt, saying that “inflation remains too high.” And even though the BoE expects inflation to fall significantly in 2Q23, it worried that a strong labor market and an improving growth outlook could reinforce the persistence of inflation. So, what’s a poor central bank to do?

  Central banks’ main tool is the policy rate. Higher rates tighten financial conditions, which slows economic growth. That chain of causality becomes more important in the current circumstances, because while policy has tightened financial conditions, so too have disruptions in the banking sector. Ideally, central banks would separate the issues, using different tools to deal with macroeconomic issues versus financial stability, but they know an interaction exists. So, they are watching developments in the banking sector to see if continued rate hikes have an outsized or nonlinear effect on financial conditions. To date, their conclusion has been “no.”

  The ECB did not see volatility in financial markets as a reason to pause or to do a smaller hike. Nevertheless, the ECB did not provide particularly strong guidance about what the next policy move would be. It wants more tightening of financial conditions, but it also wants to understand what is in train. Similarly, the Fed followed through on its rate hike as we anticipated, and Chair Powell was explicit that credit market tightening works in the same direction as policy tightening. According to Powell, the banking sector disruption provides restraint akin to one or two more rate hikes. Thus, the dot plot did not show more hikes than in December, despite stronger incoming economic data. Instead of focusing on one objective versus another, central banks are keeping their eyes on inflation while trying to adjust to changing financial conditions.

  When would central banks worry more about financial stability than inflation? When inflation is no longer an issue, because in response to instability, the financial markets would deal such a blow to the real economy that we would experience a severe recession. If anything, the Fed told us that it was willing to absorb even more economic pain to reduce inflation than it had in the past. Not only is the Fed projecting three years of below-potential growth (2022, 2023, and 2024) to bring inflation down (almost) to target at the end of 2025, it also reduced its forecast for growth this year and next, along with a slightly higher path for policy.

  So how does it end?

  If disruption in the banking sector delays an extension of policy tightening, then a soft landing is still possible. Our banking analysts see higher funding costs and rising deposit betas combined with tighter lending standards restricting loan growth. This view is consonant with Powell’s. But the downside risks have gotten bigger. A broader, more persistent contraction in credit would cause a recession given that growth will be near zero in the best version of the world. And central banks will be ruling out the upper tail of possible outcomes. The ECB is clearly focused on inflation, so growth can be sacrificed, and upside surprises like last week’s PMIs will add to its resolve.

  January’s strong data in the US initially led Powell to re-open the door to 50bp rate hikes. The other lesson from the past two weeks is that the “no landing” notion never made any sense.

  Central banks were always going to force a landing, one way or another; the banking sector may hold the key to which kind.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 20:30

• Autism On The Rise: CDC Data
  Autism On The Rise: CDC Data

  Autism rates in US children have jumped from one in 150 in 2002 to one in 36 in 2020, or 2.8%, according to a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  

  The findings come from the CDC-funded ‘Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network,’ launched in 2000 “to collect data to better understand the number and characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities living in different areas of the United States.”

  The program spans 11 states, including Arkansas, Maryland and Tennessee.

  Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder, is a wide-ranging developmental disability that manifests in various ways – but which typically includes trouble with communication and social interactions.

  The study also found that boys were far more likely to have autism than girls.

  That said, the report also notes that the communities included in the program “are not representative of the entire United States,” while other federal autism programs are meant to be nationally representative. As the Epoch Times notes, the last nationwide autism estimate for children aged 3 through 17 was 2.9%, in-line with the latest figures from this study.

  Another new paper published by the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that more 4-year-olds were being diagnosed with autism from 2016 through early 2020 vs. the previous four years.

  One explanation: “Our best guess, consistent with the general rise in autism prevalence rates, is that it is more equitable access to evaluations and diagnoses,” according to Kelly Shaw, a CDC epidemiologist and one of the researchers, in a comment to Today.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 20:00

• 'The Real Question Is How Many': James O'Keefe Suggests He Has Multiple Insiders In Manhattan DA Case Against Trump
  ‘The Real Question Is How Many’: James O’Keefe Suggests He Has Multiple Insiders In Manhattan DA Case Against Trump

  James O’Keefe, the founder and former head of undercover reporting and whistleblower organization Project Veritas, has suggested that he has multiple insiders in the Manhattan DA’s case against former President Donald Trump – either on the grand jury, or otherwise familiar with (or involved in) the case.

  

  “NY DA Bragg likely hid exculpatory evidence from the Trump Grand Jury as their meetings have been postponed,” said political influencer Ryan Cunningham, adding “The real question is has @JamesOKeefeIII got to someone on the inside?“

  To which O’Keefe replied “The real question is how many do we have on the inside? Stay tuned.”

  The real question is how many do we have on the inside? Stay tuned

  OKeefeTips@protonmail.com
  Subscribe —> https://t.co/aXpfOC6v5F https://t.co/eYWUjszWdM

  — James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) March 23, 2023

  Trump is being investigated by the Manhattan DA over a payment made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford).

  More on O’Keefe’s new venture via The Epoch Times;

  O’Keefe founded Project Veritas in 2010. He departed the group in February after the board of directors suspended him amid an investigation into alleged financial malfeasance. His new project is called O’Keefe Media Group, or OMG.

  O’Keefe said that the new group has been sending cameras out, “which means the OMG army of exposers will soon be holding those in power accountable.”

  O’Keefe warned people who are planning wrongdoing, adding: “You’re being watched. We’re coming after you. The next time you try and take advantage of honest Americans, the person sitting next to you might have a microphone or a camera. You see, the world is watching. And if you’re lying, cheating, stealing, or scamming, you might be the next unwilling star of the internet.”

  OMG’s first story will be released on March 27, O’Keefe said.

  At least one Project Veritas staffer has followed O’Keefe to the new project. R.C. Maxwell, a former Project Veritas employee, was in O’Keefe’s new video.

  O’Keefe said in another Twitter post he’d just spent one day this week in three states.

  “Just wrapped a 20 hour day. Three states, multiple investigations fueled by so many citizens,” he wrote.

  New Model

  OMG is based on the concept of collecting funds from supporters, buying cameras, and sending them to “citizen journalists” who will capture newsworthy moments.

  News outlets “can’t hire everybody,” O’Keefe told The Epoch Times on March 16. “But what if there was a way to empower and mobilize journalists, citizen journalists, and decentralized journalism? In the same way that Uber did that for the taxi, if there was a way to do that for thousands and thousands of people? And you might say, well, that’s impossible, that’s too difficult. Well, that’s the mission that I’m embarking on.”

  People have already approached OMG, asking for cameras to record school meetings and other events, O’Keefe said.

  Asked whether the citizen journalists would be paid, O’Keefe said he wasn’t sure.

  “Most people want to do this for free,” he said.

  “I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work, we’re going to figure it out,” he added later.

  O’Keefe said being ousted from Project Veritas has turned out to be a “blessing in disguise” because it let him start the new group.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 19:00

• Will You Play It Fast And Loose?
  Will You Play It Fast And Loose?

  Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

  “How should I play that one, Bert?  Play it safe?  That’s the way you always told me to play it: safe… play the percentage.  Well, here we go: fast and loose.  One ball, corner pocket.  Yeah, percentage players die broke, too, don’t they, Bert?”

  – Fast Eddie Felson, The Hustler

  

  QT2 Master Plan

  Stopping the excess is always much harder than starting it.  But sometimes it must be done.  And done all the way.  Half measures avail nothing.

  On June 1, 2022, Fed Chair Jay Powell commenced Quantitative Tightening (QT) Part 2.  “Brace yourself,” was the advice of JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon.  Were his banker cohorts listening?

  The master plan for QT2 was for the Fed to reduce its holdings of Treasury notes and mortgage-backed securities by a combined $47.5 billion per month for the first three months (July thru August 2022).  Then, by September 2022, the Fed would start reducing its balance sheet by a total amount of $95 billion a month (i.e., $60 billion in Treasuries notes and $35 billion in mortgage-backed securities).

  Wells Fargo Investment Institute took the Fed at its word and even projected that its balance sheet could shrink by almost $1.5 trillion by the end of 2023.  Taking it down to around $7.5 trillion.

  To anyone with a memory that extends back longer than two years, it was obvious that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell the Fed would contract its balance sheet to $7.5 trillion by the end of 2023.  At the time, we remarked, “We’ll bet dollars to doughnuts this never happens.”

  Our certainty was not based on any special insight about the future.  It was merely the recognition that QT1 flamed out early.

  Specifically, it took 24 months for the Fed to reduce its balance sheet by $800 billion between October 2017 and September 2019 (in the wake of a $3.5 trillion expansion).  That was before QT1 abruptly ended in repo-madness.

  QT2 Fail

  Like all plans of central planners, the QT2 plan laid out by the Fed to extinguish nearly double the ‘assets’ in 19 months that were terminated in 24 months during QT1 was nothing but a pipe dream.  Clearly, something was bound to break well in advance of the Fed hitting a balance sheet of $7.5 trillion.

  By now we all know what broke.  Silicon Valley Bank broke.  As did Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, and Credit Suisse.  More banks could fail too, even in the face of mega bailouts being engineered by activist central banks.

  With respect to the Fed’s balance sheet, after peaking at over $8.9 trillion in April 2022, it fell roughly $626 billion through the end of February 2023.  As of March 15, 2023, the Fed’s balance sheet had jumped $300 billion.  And by the time you’re reading this, or shortly after, we’ll know how many more hundreds of billions in credit the Fed has created out of thin air to liquify the financial system.

  In short, QT2 was a complete and utter failure.  Of the $626 billion reduction that occurred, $300 billion was added back – in a matter of days.  This massive increase marks the return of Quantitative Easing (QE).  It also surfaces an important question.

  How much Fed credit creation – out of thin air – will be needed to stem the banking crisis?

  One trillion dollars, $5 trillion, $10 trillion?

  Your guess is as good as ours.  In matters like this, however, it is always best to think in big, round numbers.  So, don’t be surprised when the Fed’s balance sheet eclipses $20 trillion over the next several years.

  Inflation Deflation

  Inflation of the money supply is inflation in the truest sense.  It’s what comes first.  Asset price inflation and consumer price inflation then follow in wild and unpredictable ways.

  Are these massive new additions to the Fed’s balance sheet inflationary?

  By definition, yes.  As the inflation of the Fed’s balance sheet supplies additional credit to the financial system.  But how will this inflation impact asset and consumer prices?

  This is to be determined.

  The immediate concern is credit contraction and debt deflation.  The forces causing banks to go belly up are relentless.  As TradeSmith recently noted, the money supply (M2) is contracting for the first time in the modern era.  Liquidity has disappeared from the marketplace.

  For example, for investors holding the $17 billion of Credit Suisse’s additional tier 1 (AT1) bonds, the banking crisis is deflationary.  This includes retail investors in Asia, PIMCO, Invesco, and Legg Mason, among others.  Their investment – principal, interest, the whole nine yards – has been written down to diddly-squat.

  But what about for SVB depositors, including those with accounts above and beyond FDIC insurance limits?  Is the BTFP bailout inflationary when depositors are merely being made whole?

  Make of it what you will.  The moral hazard of it all, which rewards bankers for going hog-wild speculating with customer deposits, is a disaster.

  What is clearly inflationary, and what is explicitly driving consumer prices higher, is the massive amount of deficit spending being racked up by Washington.  The federal government has already spent $723 billion more than it collected in revenue in fiscal year 2023.  Yet the fiscal year hasn’t even reached the mid-point.

  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the FY 2023 deficit is projected to hit $1.4 trillion.  This is on top of the $1.38 trillion deficit accumulated in FY 2022.  Thus, as the credit market contracts, and banks fail, consumer prices will remain elevated.

  Will You Play It Fast And Loose?

  With consumer price inflation just off its highest levels in over 40 years, we suppose the massive deficit spending combined with the broadening scope of the bank bailouts will be a tailwind for rising consumer prices.  This is especially true as shameful opportunists like Senator Elizabeth Warren use the politics of the bank crisis to justify creative ways to inject printing press money into the economy.

  But at the moment, we expect the real action will be in asset prices.  And there’s great uncertainty in how it will all play out.

  Those expecting Fed liquidity to pump up the stock market should moderate their enthusiasm.  That time will come.  But first, there’s plenty of wreckage in the debt market that needs to reconciled, written off, or bailed out.

  This week Fed Chair Powell, following the federal open market committee meeting, hiked the federal funds rate 25 basis points to a range of 4.75 to 5 percent.  This, no doubt, is deflationary for the debt market.  It furthers the negative carry problem that banks foolishly got themselves in.

  Still, what could Powell do?  Inflation is out of control.  It must be restrained.  Shortsighted decisions made during the COVID Panic must be corrected.  Moreover, with Washington spending like drunken sailors, Powell must hold the line as long as politically feasible.

  Ultimately, it’s a losing cause.  Interest payments on the national debt during the current fiscal year are up 29 percent year over year.  Soon enough, the Fed will have to cut rates to bail out Washington – inflation be damned.

  In the interim, a hardcore stock market panic is in store.  We expect this will be one for the history books.  We also expect it will provide buying opportunities of a lifetime, which most people will miss out on.  Are you psychologically prepared to buy when the time is right?

  At the point of maximum fear, when the sky is falling, the world is ending, and shares of Bank of America trade below $8, what will you do?

  Will you play it safe?  Or will you play it fast and loose?

  *  *  *

  As the financial system falls apart and the economy slips into a recession, a great distraction will be needed to control the masses.  In this regard, is Washington secretly provoking China to attack Taiwan?  Are your finances prepared for such madness?  Answers to these important questions can be found in a unique Special Report.  It’s called, “War in the Strait of Taiwan?  How to Exploit the Trend of Escalating Conflict.”  You can access a copy for less than a penny.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 18:30

• Which Countries Hold The Most US Debt?
  Which Countries Hold The Most US Debt?

  Today, America owes foreign investors of its national debt $7.3 trillion.

  These are in the form of Treasury securities, some of the most liquid assets worldwide. Central banks use them for foreign exchange reserves and private investors flock to them during flights to safety thanks to their perceived low default risk.

  Beyond these reasons, foreign investors may buy Treasuries as a store of value. They are often used as collateral during certain international trade transactions, or countries can use them to help manage exchange rate policy. For example, countries may buy Treasuries to protect their currency’s exchange rate from speculation.

  In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld and Joyce Ma show the foreign holders of the U.S. national debt using data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

  

  Top Foreign Holders of U.S. Debt

  With $1.1 trillion in Treasury holdings, Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt.

  Japan surpassed China as the top holder in 2019 as China shed over $250 billion, or 30% of its holdings in four years.

  This bond offloading by China is the one way the country can manage the yuan’s exchange rate. This is because if it sells dollars, it can buy the yuan when the currency falls. At the same time, China doesn’t solely use the dollar to manage its currency—it now uses a basket of currencies.

  Here are the countries that hold the most U.S. debt:

  Rank	Country	U.S. Treasury Holdings	Share of Total
  1	🇯🇵 Japan	$1,076B	14.7%
  2	🇨🇳 China	$867B	11.9%
  3	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	$655B	8.9%
  4	🇧🇪 Belgium	$354B	4.8%
  5	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	$329B	4.5%
  6	🇰🇾 Cayman Islands	$284B	3.9%
  7	🇨🇭 Switzerland	$270B	3.7%
  8	🇮🇪 Ireland	$255B	3.5%
  9	🇹🇼 Taiwan	$226B	3.1%
  10	🇮🇳 India	$224B	3.1%
  11	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	$221B	3.0%
  12	🇧🇷 Brazil	$217B	3.0%
  13	🇨🇦 Canada	$215B	2.9%
  14	🇫🇷 France	$189B	2.6%
  15	🇸🇬 Singapore	$179B	2.4%
  16	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	$120B	1.6%
  17	🇰🇷 South Korea	$103B	1.4%
  18	🇩🇪 Germany	$101B	1.4%
  19	🇳🇴 Norway	$92B	1.3%
  20	🇧🇲 Bermuda	$82B	1.1%
  21	🇳🇱 Netherlands	$67B	0.9%
  22	🇲🇽 Mexico	$59B	0.8%
  23	🇦🇪 UAE	$59B	0.8%
  24	🇦🇺 Australia	$57B	0.8%
  25	🇰🇼 Kuwait	$49B	0.7%
  26	🇵🇭 Philippines	$48B	0.7%
  27	🇮🇱 Israel	$48B	0.7%
  28	🇧🇸 Bahamas	$46B	0.6%
  29	🇹🇭 Thailand	$46B	0.6%
  30	🇸🇪 Sweden	$42B	0.6%
  31	🇮🇶 Iraq	$41B	0.6%
  32	🇨🇴 Colombia	$40B	0.5%
  33	🇮🇹 Italy	$39B	0.5%
  34	🇵🇱 Poland	$38B	0.5%
  35	🇪🇸 Spain	$37B	0.5%
  36	🇻🇳 Vietnam	$37B	0.5%
  37	🇨🇱 Chile	$34B	0.5%
  38	🇵🇪 Peru	$32B	0.4%
  	All Other	$439B	6.0%

  As the above table shows, the United Kingdom is the third highest holder, at over $655 billion in Treasuries. Across Europe, 13 countries are notable holders of these securities, the highest in any region, followed by Asia-Pacific at 11 different holders.

  A handful of small nations own a surprising amount of U.S. debt. With a population of 70,000, the Cayman Islands own a towering amount of Treasury bonds to the tune of $284 billion. There are more hedge funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands per capita than any other nation worldwide.

  In fact, the four smallest nations in the visualization above—Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas, and Luxembourg—have a combined population of just 1.2 million people, but own a staggering $741 billion in Treasuries.

  Interest Rates and Treasury Market Dynamics

  Over 2022, foreign demand for Treasuries sank 6% as higher interest rates and a strong U.S. dollar made owning these bonds less profitable.

  This is because rising interest rates on U.S. debt makes the present value of their future income payments lower. Meanwhile, their prices also fall.

  As the chart below shows, this drop in demand is a sharp reversal from 2018-2020, when demand jumped as interest rates hovered at historic lows. A similar trend took place in the decade after the 2008-09 financial crisis when U.S. debt holdings effectively tripled from $2 to $6 trillion.

  

  Driving this trend was China’s rapid purchase of Treasuries, which ballooned from $100 billion in 2002 to a peak of $1.3 trillion in 2013. As the country’s exports and output expanded, it sold yuan and bought dollars to help alleviate exchange rate pressure on its currency.

  Fast-forward to today, and global interest-rate uncertainty—which in turn can impact national currency valuations and therefore demand for Treasuries—continues to be a factor impacting the future direction of foreign U.S. debt holdings.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 18:00

• Panic In Philly As Chemical Spill Sends Residents Scrambling For Bottled Water
  Panic In Philly As Chemical Spill Sends Residents Scrambling For Bottled Water

  Update (2135 ET): Philadelphia officials have rescinded their recommendation that residents only drink bottled water. Saying testing has found no contamination at the intake site for the city water system, the officials assured the tap water should be considered safe…through at least 11:59 pm on Monday. 

  In the wake of shoppers lining up all over the city to buy water, officials attempted to dissuade Philly residents from hoarding, encouraging them to use containers to stock up on two days of tap water just in case the assessment of the water’s safety changes.  

  “I want to reiterate there was never any contamination in Philadelphia Water Department’s system,” said Mike Carroll, deputy managing director for Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, at a 5pm briefing. “There was contamination in the Delaware River, but we shut off the intake to the River and we’re operating off of water that was not contaminated.”

  * * *

  Philadelphia officials warned area residents on Sunday to drink only bottled water “out of caution” following the spill of a latex product along a tributary of the Delaware River.

  

  “City of Phila recommends using bottled drinking water from 2PM 3/26/2023 until further notice for all Phila Water Department customers,” reads a text message from city officials which was sent to area residents and reported by CNN. “Contaminants have not been found in the system at this time but this is out of caution due to a spill in the Delaware River.”

  This spill will potentially affect water treated at the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant. Residents can find out if they live in an impacted area here: https://t.co/gIpeKRUptT

  — Philadelphia Water (@PhillyH2O) March 26, 2023

   Following the notice, long lines formed at ShopRite, Target and other area stores, with ShopRite limiting customers to three bottles each.

  Line at Target to buy bottled water 10 minutes after the city of #Philadelphia sent out an alert regarding a spill in the Delaware River. pic.twitter.com/4EUpoj3ZBJ

  — Ben Ames (@BenAmesWx) March 26, 2023

  Our grocery store after the City of Philadelphia announced that the drinking water *may or may not be* contaminated for a day pic.twitter.com/pCVfU5qHlG

  — Walking Philly (@WalkingPhilly) March 26, 2023

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

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js“As has been reported, on Friday night a chemical spill occurred in Bristol Township, Bucks County which released contaminants into the Delaware River,” said Mike Carroll, the city’s deputy managing director for transportation, infrastructure and sustainability. “The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) became aware of this through the Delaware Valley Early Warning System (EWS) and has been evaluating the situation since that time to understand potential impacts to the public. Although early indications have not revealed contamination, we are still monitoring the situation and conducting testing.”

  Philadelphia residents are urged to use bottled water “out of an abundance of caution” until further notice as authorities investigate a spill of a latex product that occurred along a Delaware River tributary.
  As of this time, “no contaminants have been found” in the water… pic.twitter.com/YZopVKW6HH

  — Shlomo Schorr (@OneJerseySchorr) March 26, 2023

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

  According to the Philadelphia Water Department’s website, it provides water to over “2 million people in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, and Bucks counties.”

  Trinseo is gonna be reimbursing us for all the bottled water we gotta buy now, right? pic.twitter.com/ry0iPkcp73

  — Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) March 26, 2023

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 17:00

• New Documents Expose Government Censorship Efforts At Facebook And WhatsApp
  New Documents Expose Government Censorship Efforts At Facebook And WhatsApp

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  New emails uncovered in the ongoing Missouri v. Biden litigation reportedly show that the Biden Administration’s censorship efforts extended to Facebook to censor private communications on its WhatsApp messaging service.

  In recent months, the Twitter Files revealed an extensive and secret effort by the FBI and other agencies to censor citizens on social media. I testified on that effort. Democratic members oppose efforts to investigate the full scope of this effort and even denounced those calling for greater transparency as “Putin lovers” and apologists for insurrectionists and racists. Yet, the evidence of an extensive censorship and blacklisting effort by the Administration continues to mount.

  

  Facebook (now known as Meta) is accused of working with the government to target citizens with dissenting views on Covid and the pandemic.

  According to emails obtained through discovery, Biden’s Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty pressed Facebook executives to be more aggressive with censorship. Flaherty reportedly objected that “I care mostly about what actions and changes you’re making to ensure you’re not making our country’s vaccine hesitancy problem worse…I still don’t have a good, empirical answer on how effective you’ve been at reducing the spread of vaccine-skeptical content and misinformation to vaccine fence sitters.”

  Just a few weeks ago, I wrote that the congressionally created, federally funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) had supported blacklisting efforts at the British-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI). The index was widely ridiculed for targeting ten conservative and libertarian sites as the most dangerous sources of disinformation; it sought to persuade advertisers to withdraw support for those sites, while listing their most liberal counterparts as among the most trustworthy.

  At the time, I noted that the Biden administration had played us for chumps. As we celebrated the demise of the infamous Disinformation Governing Board with its “Disinformation Nanny,” the Biden administration never disclosed a larger censorship program.

  Shortly after my column posted in The Hill, the NED wrote to me to say that it was discontinuing support for the GDI. 

  Microsoft also was forced into retreat after it was shown to be pushing the GDI’s biased blacklist.

  Then we learned of additional funding going through the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC).

  We also know of backchannel communications with the CDC and other agencies.

  It is assumed that the comprehensive effort to censor was not limited to Twitter. This is another indication of such efforts with Facebook. However, the Democratic leadership has opposed such an investigation for years. They have even refused to accept the email evidence. When I testified on the Twitter Files, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) criticized me for offering “legal opinions” without actually working at Twitter. As I have noted, it is like saying that a witness should not discuss the contents of the Pentagon Papers unless he worked at the Pentagon. It was particularly bizarre because I was asked about the content of the Twitter Files.  The content — like the content of the Pentagon Papers — are “facts.” The implication of those facts are opinions.

  Members like Wasserman Schultz will likely continue to refuse to acknowledge these new emails. However, the public has repeatedly shown in polls that they want transparency on the censorship efforts. The House may be able to guarantee that transparency as its need continues to rise with new evidence of the government’s efforts to silence dissenting views on social media.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 16:30

• WTF Headline Of The Day
  WTF Headline Of The Day

  Nobody likes getting punched in the balls… especially if you’re a woman…

  

  Image Source: NYPost

  A transgender woman has called for the dismantling of airport TSA screenings after she claimed an agent punched her in the testicles and “yelled at me for having a penis”.

  

  The flyer posted a since-deleted selfie showing her sobbing in a bathroom stall following the episode, complaining that her “balls still hurt so bad”.

  

  “I don’t want the TSA agent that hurt me fired,” she said in a separate post.

  “I want her educated and the entirety of TSA abolished altogether.”

  The Daily Mail reports that after the accusations were posted to social media, the airport said they were investigating the incident.

  “We apologize again for your experience,” it said in response on Twitter.

  “Your comments have been noted and shared.”

  We here at ZeroHedge stand alongside our trans women friends – no one should have to suffer getting punched in the balls just to get through security at airports.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 16:00

• 'Go, Go, Go! Help Them Up! Push Them Up': New Leaked J6 Footage 'Shows DC Metro Cop Encouraging People To Go Towards The Capitol'
  ‘Go, Go, Go! Help Them Up! Push Them Up’: New Leaked J6 Footage ‘Shows DC Metro Cop Encouraging People To Go Towards The Capitol’

  Authored by Chris Menahan via Information Liberation,

  

  Newly leaked footage from January 6th shows undercover DC Metropolitan Police officers pushing protesters to move towards the US Capitol and helping them climb the scaffolding outside the Capitol building.

  After climbing the scaffolding, the DC metro cop continues to encourage people to move closer to the Captiol. “Keep going” @julie_kelly2 pic.twitter.com/Suq9yQJwZD

  — 3sidedstory 🇺🇲 (@3sidedstory) March 25, 2023

  The full video was leaked Saturday on Rumble by an anonymous account named OverwatchJ6:

  From The Epoch Times, “Prosecutor Admits DC Police Officers Acted as Provocateurs at US Capitol on Jan. 6”:

  A federal prosecutor admitted in court papers that three D.C. Metropolitan Police Department undercover officers acted as provocateurs at the northwest steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  The admission came in a March 24 filing before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that seeks to keep video footage shot by the officers under court seal.

  Prosecutors accused the case defendant—William Pope of Topeka, Kansas—of an “illegitimate” attempt to unmask the video as part of his alleged strategy to try the case in the news media. Pope filed a motion to remove the court seal on Feb. 21.

  “The defendant is not entitled to ‘undesignate’ these videos to share them with unlimited third parties,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moran. “His desire to try his case in the media rather than in a court of law is illegitimate, and the government has met its burden to show the necessity of the protective order.”

  The feds worked together with the media to smear everyone involved in this protest for two years straight and bias the already biased DC juries against them but their victims are not allowed to share this footage to defend themselves?

  The fact these cases are even being tried in DC is an absolute disgrace. J6 protesters are blatantly being denied their right to a fair trial on top of being held indefinitely in pre-trial detention and tortured in prison.

  Videos long hidden under court seal have become a major topic, especially with prosecutors disclosing in a number of high-profile Jan. 6 cases the involvement of multiple FBI informants.

  Pope is seeking to lift the court seal on the undercover video as part of his drive to obtain full access to video evidence held by the government. Pope is representing himself in the criminal case being prosecuted against him. At a hearing on March 3, Judge Contreras seemed sympathetic to Pope’s motion to unmask the videos.

  “The officer clearly incited that area, and we still don’t have video from all other undercover MPD,” Pope told The Epoch Times. “And as the numerous informants in the Proud Boys trial demonstrates, we are only just beginning to scratch the surface on FBI involvement.”

  […] “This video clearly evidences undercover law enforcement officers urging the crowds to advance up the stairs and scaffolding towards the Capitol on January 6,” Pope wrote in an earlier case filing. “The government may claim that incidents like this did not happen, but the facts show they did.”

  Prosecutor Moran acknowledges such in a motion filed on March 24.

  “The specific footage, GoPro video recorded by an MPD police officer who was stationed at the Capitol in an evidence-gathering capacity, captures the officer shouting words to the effect of, “Go! Go! Go!” Moran wrote.

  

  “At other times in these videos, the officer and the two other plainclothes officers with him appear to join the crowd around them in various chants, including “drain the swamp,” “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”, and “Whose house? Our house!”

  Moran also argued against unsealing large amounts of closed-circuit television (CCTV) security video, which she said could put officers at risk.

  “There are very specific and highly worrisome risks associated with the specific videos the defendant seeks to share en masse,” she wrote.

  “Given the highly volatile nature of the discourse surrounding these cases, releasing the identities of the officers depicted in these videos—officers the defendant now claims to have instigated the entire attack on the U.S. Capitol—would surely put the lives of those officers at risk.”

  Pope told The Epoch Times that he never made such a claim. He has not yet filed a response to the government’s memorandum.

  

  Another video Pope discovered in his research shows Officer 2 and Officer 3 walking behind the late Ashli Babbitt on the northwest steps. About an hour later, Babbitt was shot at the entry of the Speaker’s Lobby by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd. She died a half-hour later.

  The only “risk” involved in releasing this footage and more from J6 is the police and feds being caught helping provocateur the event.

  House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Tucker Carlson need to get on with it already and release the 40,000 hours of footage they have to the public.

  Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter, Facebook, Gab, Minds and Telegram.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 15:30

• NYPD Overtime Budget On Pace For Record As Cop Shortage Worsens
  NYPD Overtime Budget On Pace For Record As Cop Shortage Worsens

  The New York City Police Department is experiencing its biggest officer exodus in twenty years, leading to a shortage of personnel. As a result, officers are now increasing their hours on patrols, causing the overtime budget to swell, on track to hit the highest level in a decade this year, according to Bloomberg. 

  New York City Comptroller Brad Lander published a new report outlining that the NYPD has exceeded its budget by $98 million, spending $472 million on overtime through February. Lander’s office said the department is on track to spend more than $740 million, which would be the highest in a decade. The NYPD’s fiscal year ends on June 30. 

  

  While newly-elected Mayor Eric Adams has pledged to reduce NYPD overtime spending, the department is suffering a severe staffing crisis following the protests and riots of 2020 that were sparked by George Floyd’s death. Then defunding the police movement swept in as progressive lawmakers demanded a reduction in police budgets. 

  On top of all of that, left-leaning media outlets demonized officers and led to a further exodus that continues to this day. Data from NYC Police Pension Fund found that 1,955 officers retired in 2022, and another 1,746 quit, indicating a total of 3,701 left the force just last year — the largest exodus since 2002, following the 9/11 attacks. 

  So what’s clear is that the soaring overtime budget results from officers working longer hours because of a shortage of personnel. NYPD has lowered its standards for new officers in an attempt to boost numbers on the streets. 

  Meanwhile, robberies, burglaries, felony assaults, and grand larceny are surging. How can New Yorkers rest assured that they will be protected as a cop shortage plagues the metro area?

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 15:00

• Mattresses, Social Media, Smart Phones, & Failure Of The Fed
  Mattresses, Social Media, Smart Phones, & Failure Of The Fed

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  The Fed is looking for scapegoats. It got some assistance from the Wall Street Journal…

  

  Silicon Valley Bank Scapegoats

  Please consider The Economy Changed, Regulators Didn’t

  On March 8, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were both, according to public disclosures, “well capitalized,” the optimal level of health by federal regulatory standards. Days later, both failed. 

  “The question we were all asking ourselves over that first week was, ‘How did this happen?’” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

  Banking regulators will spend months, if not years, getting to the bottom of what happened.

  What none of the regulators or bankers anticipated was how fast depositors could flee, which appears to be a new reality in the age of smartphone apps and social media.

  “The speed of the run…is very different from what we’ve seen in the past,” Mr. Powell said Wednesday. “And it does kind of suggest that there’s a need for possible regulatory and supervisory changes, just because supervision and regulation need to keep up with what’s happening in the world.”

  FDIC officials are discussing how to manage public confidence as social media expands people’s ability to “electronically panic,” a person familiar with the talks said.

  “The speed of the run…is very different from what we’ve seen in the past,” Mr. Powell said Wednesday. “And it does kind of suggest that there’s a need for possible regulatory and supervisory changes, just because supervision and regulation need to keep up with what’s happening in the world.”

  Scapegoat Nonsense

  The idea that the economy changed (it’s always changing), and smart phones and social media are largely responsible for the failure of Silicon Valley Bank is a bunch of scapegoat nonsense.  

  OK, social media increased the speed at which SVB failed, but that has nothing to do with the cause of the failure. 

  Social media did increase the speed of the failure, but smart phones played no role at all. To initiate a wire from bank A to bank B requires an account at both banks. Whether this was done by computer, a regular land line, or a smart phone makes no difference in speed.    

  “Banking regulators will spend months, if not years, getting to the bottom of what happened.“

  What a hoot, yet I have no doubt it’s true.

  In Fed Q&A Jerome Powell Wonders “How Did Bank Failures Happen?”

  “The question we are asking ourselves the first weekend is how did this all happen.”

  There is no need for a study. I outlined twelve reasons for the bank failures, none of which had anything to do with smart phones or the changing economy.

  Please consider In Fed Q&A Jerome Powell Wonders “How Did Bank Failures Happen?”

  How Did This Happen?

  1. The Fed held interest rates too low too long, once again.

  2. The Fed even wanted to make up for lack of prior inflation, initially welcoming the pickup of inflation.

  3. The Fed failed to understand how $9 trillion in QE would fan asset bubbles.

  4. The Fed failed to understand how three rounds of fiscal stimulus, the largest in history, would fan inflation.

  5. The Fed presidents believe in economic models such as inflation expectations that its own studies prove do not work.

  6. When inflation did pick up, the Fed kept insisting that inflation was transitory.

  7. Even when the Fed finally realized inflation was not transitory, it kept QE going until the bitter end, not wanting to disturb prior forward guidance.

  8. The San Francisco Fed, whose job it was to monitor Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was asleep at the wheel.

  9. The Fed considers treasuries a risk-free asset, ignoring duration risk.

  10. The Fed ignored a record concentration of long-term treasury and mortgage assets at SVB despite understanding the interest rate risk of those assets.

  11. The Fed’s forward guidance has been a disaster. It openly encouraged speculation.

  12. The Fed reduced reserve requirements on deposits to ZERO. 

  If you are looking for one item and one item only look at point 12. The reserve requirement on deposits is ZERO. 

  The discussion triggered a bunch of silly responses on Twitter but this one takes the cake for financial illiteracy. 

  Mattress Solution

  

  “Anyone in the U.S. can set up a 100% reserve account tomorrow if they want. By a big safe and stuff it with large denomination bills, gold, silver, whatever they want. But, why require everyone to have what nearly no one wants?“

  Wow!

  Try making a $1 million payroll out of a safe or a mattress. 

  Heck, try paying for anything with $10,000 in cash. You will have a quick knock on the door wondering where you got the money and more than likely it will be confiscated as drug money.

  As for “But, why require everyone to have what nearly no one wants,” it seems to me that there was a run on SVB to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars because there was amazing demand for a safekeeping bank. 

  FDIC only covers $250,000. The bank run happened precisely because there was no safekeeping by the bank. 

  Not Designed for Speed

  Why didn’t regulators blow the whistle on SVB’s problems?

  “The supervisory process has not evolved for rapid decision making. It is focused on consistency over speed. In a fast-moving situation, the system is not as well-designed to force change quickly.” https://t.co/eOlHFdKJkC

  — Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) March 24, 2023

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

  Not Designed for Speed

  Here’s another hoot from the same article.

  “The supervisory process has not evolved for rapid decision making. It is focused on consistency over speed. In a fast-moving situation, the system is not as well-designed to force change quickly.”

  Again, this has nothing to do with speed. It has everything to do with a zero reserve requirement on deposits plus a Fed that crammed about $9 trillion in deposits down banks throats while ignoring duration mismatch of bank investments of those funds.

  We do have consistency, that’s for sure. We have consistency of doubling down on failed policies and not learning from past mistakes.

  Fed Policy: It’s Not Fractional Reserve Banking, It’s ZERO Reserve Banking

  If you think we have fractional reserve banking, we don’t. We have zero reserve banking.

  For further discussion, please see Fed Policy: It’s Not Fractional Reserve Banking, It’s ZERO Reserve Banking

  Part of my proposal is admittedly controversial. I propose a 100% gold-backed dollar. But we do not even have a 100% dollar-backed dollar.

  I don’t endorse fraud, because that is what it is.

  A person deposits money and a bank lends it for a long period of time.

  Both claim rights to the money at the same time.
  It’s logically impossible and in fact legalized fraud. https://t.co/2vPW8G23QK

  — Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) March 20, 2023

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

  All SVB or any bank had to do to maintain 100% liquidity was park deposits at the Fed or in extremely short duration US Treasuries. 

  Reader Question

  My posts also triggered this question. “Are you proposing that banks stop making loans from their deposits?“

  Going one further, because SVB did not park money at the Fed, they had unrealized losses that did impact their ability to lend!

  This is a failure of SVB, the FDIC, reserve policy, QE, and the Fed.

  I blame the Fed the most.

  — Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) March 25, 2023

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  The fact of the matter is loans create deposits. And so did QE to the tune of nearly $9 trillion.

  Fictional Reserve Lending 

  If anyone thinks I am a johnny-come-after-the-fact-lately I have written about the problem many times, at least once in 2009 an again in 2020. 

  Please consider my March 2020 article Fictional Reserve Lending Is the New Official Policy

  Official policy finally caught up with reality. Reserves are fictional.

  With little fanfare or media coverage, the Fed made this Announcement on Reserves: “On March 15, 2020, the Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions.“

  What’s Changed Regarding Lending?

  Essentially, nothing.

  The announcement just officially admitted the denominator on reserves is zero.

  There are no reserve lending constraints (but practically speaking, there never were).

  When Do Banks Make Loans?

  1. They meet capital requirements

  2. They believe they have a creditworthy borrower

  3. Creditworthy borrowers want to borrow

  BIS Working Papers No 292 Unconventional Monetary

  In 2009, I referred to BIS Working Papers No 292 Unconventional Monetary

  The article addresses two fallacies

  Proposition #1: an expansion of bank reserves endows banks with additional resources to extend loans

  Proposition #2: There is something uniquely inflationary about bank reserves financing

  From the BIS

  The underlying premise of the first proposition is that bank reserves are needed for banks to make loans. An extreme version of this view is the text-book notion of a stable money multiplier. 

  In fact, the level of reserves hardly figures in banks’ lending decisions. The amount of credit outstanding is determined by banks’ willingness to supply loans, based on perceived risk-return trade-offs, and by the demand for those loans. 

  The main exogenous constraint on the expansion of credit is minimum capital requirements.

  The central bank has a monopoly over interest rate policy, but not over balance sheet policy. This raises tricky questions about coordination, operational independence and division of responsibilities. 

  Balance sheet policies can have a significant impact on the financial risks absorbed by the central bank. The extent depends on their characteristics and on how much they are relied upon. This, too, raises questions about operational autonomy and credibility, largely reflecting the impact of losses on the financial position of the central bank. 

  Read those points over and over until they sink in. I discussed that article in 2009 and again in 2020. 

  Three Key Points 

  1. Deposits result from loans and QE policy.

  2. The central bank has a monopoly over interest rate policy, but not over balance sheet policy. The FDIC is supposed to address the latter. And in the case of SVB, the San Francisco Fed was also asleep at the wheel.

  3. Social media, smart phones, and the WSJ notion “The Economy Changed, Regulators Didn’t” are scapegoats to a problem I addressed in 2009. 

  What to Expect

  Banking regulators will spend months, if not years, getting to the bottom of what happened.

  They will conclude the problems are social media, smart phones, and the WSJ notion that the economy changed but regulators failed to keep up. 

  *  *  *

  Please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 03/26/2023 – 14:30

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• Johnstone: US Officials Really, Really Want You To Know The US Is The World's "Leader"
  Johnstone: US Officials Really, Really Want You To Know The US Is The World’s “Leader”

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

  In response to questions he received during a press conference on Monday about Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin cementing a “new era” in strategic partnership between China and Russia, the White House National Security Council’s John Kirby made no fewer than seven assertions that the US is the “leader” of the world.

  

  Here are excerpts from his comments:

  • “The two countries have grown closer. But they are both countries that chafe and bristle at U.S. leadership around the world.”

  • “And in China’s case in particular, they certainly would like to challenge U.S. leadership around the world.”

  • “But these are not two countries that have, you know, decades-long experience working together and full trust and confidence. It’s a burgeoning of late based on America’s increasing leadership around the world and trying to check that.”

  • “Peter, these are two countries that have long chafed, as I said to Jeff — long chafed at U.S. leadership around the world and the network of alliances and partnerships that we have.”

  • “And we work on those relationships one at a time, because every country on the continent is different, has different needs and different expectations of American leadership.”

  • “That’s the power of American convening leadership. And you don’t see that power out of either Russia or China.”

  • “But one of the reasons why you’re seeing that tightening relationship is because they recognize that they don’t have that strong foundation of international support for what they’re trying to do, which is basically challenge American leadership around the world.”

  John Kirby really wants everyone to know that America is in charge of the world. This is from one single press conference. pic.twitter.com/HeE9uGEwrW

  — Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) March 21, 2023

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  The illusory truth effect is a cognitive bias which causes people to mistake something they have heard many times for an established fact, because the way the human brain receives and interprets information tends to draw little or no distinction between repetition and truth. Propagandists and empire managers often take advantage of this glitch in our wetware, which is what’s happening when you see them repeating key phrases over and over again that they want people to believe.

  We saw another repetition of this line recently at an online conference hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, in which the US ambassador to China asserted that Beijing must accept the US as the “leader” of the region China happens to occupy.

  US empire managers are of course getting very assertive about the narrative that they are the world’s “leader” because that self-appointed “leadership” is being challenged by China, and the nations which support it with increasing openness like Russia. Most of the major international news stories of our day are either directly or indirectly related to this dynamic, wherein the US is struggling to secure unipolar planetary domination by thwarting China’s rise and undermining its partners.

  The message they’re putting out is, “This is our world. We’re in charge. Anyone who claims otherwise is freakish and abnormal, and must be opposed.”

  US Ambassador To China: “We’re The Leader” Of The Indo-Pacific

  The way US empire managers talk about “leading” ostensibly sovereign states with ostensibly independent governments shows you they really do think they own the world.https://t.co/obSehF6xZ1

  — Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) March 2, 2023

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

  Why do they say the US is the “leader” of the world instead of its “ruler”, anyway? I’m unclear on the difference as practically applied. Is it meant to give us the impression that the US rules the world by democratic vote? That this is something the rest of the world consented to? Because I sure as hell don’t remember voting for it, and we’ve all seen what happens to governments which don’t comply with US “leadership”.

  I’m not one of those who believe a multipolar world will be a wonderful thing, I just recognize that it beats the hell out of the alternative, that being increasingly reckless nuclear brinkmanship to maintain global control. The US has been in charge long enough to make it clear that the world order it dominates can only be maintained by nonstop violence and aggression, with more and more of that violence and aggression being directed toward major nuclear-armed powers. The facts are in and the case is closed: US unipolar hegemony is unsustainable.

  The problem is that the US empire itself does not know this. This horrifying trajectory we’re on toward an Atomic Age world war is the result of the empire’s doctrine that it must maintain unipolar control at all costs crashing into the rise of a multipolar world order.

  It doesn’t need to be this way. There’s no valid reason why the US needs to remain in charge of the world and can’t just let different people in different regions sort out their own affairs like they always did before. There’s no valid reason why governments need to be brandishing armageddon weapons at each other instead of collaborating peacefully in the interest of all humankind. We’re being pushed toward disaster to preserve “American leadership around the world,” and I for one do not consent to this.

  * * *

  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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 23:30

• Asian Voters Abandoning Woke Democrats As Crime Rises In Cities
  Asian Voters Abandoning Woke Democrats As Crime Rises In Cities

  You might have heard the recent story of a CNN news crew that had their car broken into while they were filming a segment on crime in San Francisco, CA.  While the irony of this is amusing to many of us, one group of people that is not laughing is Asian-Americans in the Bay Area who are growing weary of the overall damage done by leftist social justice policies.  That CNN crew was, in fact, shooting a story on the very issue of Asian voters who say they are moving away from progressive Democratic leadership and seeking out more moderate candidates, as well as Republican candidates.

  Asian Americans to Democrats: “we want safe streets, good schools and less progressive ideology.” That’s the message and 2024 warning from San Francisco. Footnote about our unfortunate experience at the end. @OutFrontCNN story features @JoelEngardio. Producer: @jasonkCNN pic.twitter.com/6Up96sGD5H

  — Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) March 23, 2023

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  The reasons for this shift are many. 

  • First, it has long been the assumption among leftist elitists that they own American minorities as a voting block and that “only whites” are conservative.  The arrogance of this thinking aside, Democrats often find themselves confounded by the percentage of minorities that are in fact moderate or conservative in their voting habits.  While many minorities might feel compelled by social pressure and propaganda to vote Democrat, the damage that is hitting their pocket books and making their streets unsafe cannot be hidden forever. 

  • Second, while leftists often claim that anti-Asian hate crimes are caused by “racist white conservatives”, a cursory glance at video footage and the prosecution records of the majority of the perpetrators of these attacks shows this is not the case.  In New York City in 2020 during the onset of the media hype on anti-Asian hate, only 2 out of 20 people arrested in connection with Asian attacks were white.   

  • Third, it has been social justice politics in places like San Francisco that have encouraged police defunding efforts while enabling criminals.  When the worst elements of society see leftist organizations like BLM and Antifa rioting in the streets and setting neighborhoods ablaze while being applauded by city politicians, they tend to feel empowered to act on their darkest impulses. 

  In every single metropolis where woke politicians take control, the city starts to collapse.  From LA to New York, from San Francisco to Austin, from Portland to Seattle, the results are always the same, and now it’s not just conservatives pointing out the root problem.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 23:00

• No, We Don't Need More Nuclear Weapons
  No, We Don’t Need More Nuclear Weapons

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  Republicans and Democrats may quibble over how federal tax dollars might be spent on various social welfare programs like Medicaid and food stamps. But alongside Social Security, there is one area of federal spending that everyone can apparently agree on: military spending. Last year, the Biden administration requested one of the largest peacetime budgets ever, at $813 billion. Congress wanted even more spending and ended up approving a budget of $858 billion. In inflation-adjusted terms, that was well in excess of the military spending we saw during the Cold War under Ronald Reagan. This year, Joe Biden is asking for even more money, with a new budget request that starts at $886 billion. Included in that gargantuan amount—which doesn’t even include veterans spending—is billions for new missile systems for deploying nuclear arms, plus other programs for “modernizing” the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

  

  Indeed, over the past year, the memo has gone out among the usual advocates of endless military spending that the US needs to spend much more on nuclear arms. This is a perennial position at the Heritage Foundation, of course, which has never met a military pork program it didn’t like. Moreover, in recent months, the Wall Street Journal has run several articles demanding more nuclear arms. The New York Post was pushing the same line late last year. Much of the rhetoric centers on the idea that Beijing is increasing its own spending on nuclear arms and thus the United States must “keep up.” For instance, last month, Patty-Jane Geller insisted that the US is in an “arms race” with China. Meanwhile, writers at the foreign-policy site 1945 claimed Congress must “save” the American nuclear arsenal.

  Congress will surely be happy to cooperate. Such spending is an enormous cash cow for weapons manufacturers, although it has little to do with actual military defense. The US nuclear arsenal is huge, and China’s efforts to expand its own arsenal will have no effect on the already substantial deterrent effects of the US’s existing nuclear arsenal. Although the 1945 article insists that China soon “will field a peer or superior arsenal to the United States,” it’s difficult to see by what metric this is actually true.

  Contrary to claims that the US nuclear arsenal needs to be “saved” or it will soon be eclipsed by the Chinese arsenal, the US remains well in the lead of every single nuclear power except Russia. Even if Beijing increases its arsenal to one thousand warheads, as the New York Post breathlessly predicts, the Chinese arsenal will remain well behind that of the US.

  This is true even if we remove all the retired US warheads from the equation. In that case, Moscow retains the global lead with more than forty-four hundred weapons, and the US comes in second with more than thirty-seven hundred. Presently, Beijing has approximately 350 of these weapons, France has 290, and the rest of the world is well behind that.

  

  Source: Data from Our World in Data, “Inventories of Nuclear Weapons.“

  Like Moscow, Washington has a full-blown and well-developed nuclear triad, complete with a fleet of nuclear subs that can launch up to twenty missiles—each containing multiple independently targeted warheads—land-based missile silos, and bombers. Each option provides ways to deliver hundreds of warheads. The submarine fleet, of course, is constantly mobile, ensuring first-strike survivability.

  The Nonexistent Missile Gap

  This won’t stop advocates of more spending from calling for more. They’ll always have reasons why there is some sort of missile gap. Lately, the obsession is with hypersonic missiles and having various forms of delivery, as well as the claim that the current gap between the US arsenal and rival arsenal is not sufficiently large.

  There’s a reason US advocates of an aggressive nuclear posture invented the “missile gap” myth during the Cold War. It sows doubt about US security and ensures a certain level of paranoia about US nuclear capability. Nowadays, it’s acknowledged that the missile gap was always a myth, but this was much less known in the days when debates over US rocket technology were a frequent cause for alarm and debate. Nonetheless, the nonfactual basis of the “gap” was known at least as early as the 1960s, and then defense secretary Robert McNamara noted to John F. Kennedy:

  There was created a myth in the country that did great harm to the nation. It was created by, I would say, emotionally guided but nonetheless patriotic individuals in the Pentagon. There are still people of that kind in the Pentagon. I wouldn’t give them any foundation for creating another myth.

  How Much Do Numbers Matter?

  The myth persists, however, and Geller claims: “Given the hundreds of new Chinese missile launchers and other new weapons, the U.S. will need more nuclear weapons to hold these targets at risk. In nuclear deterrence, numbers matter.”

  How much do numbers really matter? Yes, in matters of deterrence, ten is certainly better than zero. But is three thousand better than one thousand, or even one hundred? That logic often works with conventional arms, but it makes little sense with nuclear arms, a single unit of which can destroy an entire city. As John Isaacs noted last year in the National Interest:

  In the nuclear age, a country that deployed 1,000 nuclear weapons rather than an adversary’s 500 is not twice as powerful since a handful of weapons could devastate both countries. But the Pentagon and political leaders did not learn this critical lesson. This is a numbers game that may have been relevant for tanks and battleships before [the invention of nuclear weapons] but is not today.

  What is key in nuclear deterrence is not simply numbers. Nuclear strategist Albert Wohlstetter identified this problem in the early 1960s and concluded that “the criterion for matching the Russians plane for plane, or exceeding them is, in the strict sense, irrelevant to the problem of deterrence.” Rather the key, Wohlstetter went on, is creating a force that is “survivable” to ensure the possibility of a retaliatory “second strike.” This is what establishes deterrence.

  Wohlstetter certainly wasn’t the only one to come to this conclusion. In a 1990 essay titled “Nuclear Myths and Political Realities,” Kenneth Waltz—perhaps the most influential scholar of international relations of the past fifty years—concludes that the total number of missiles in these enormous arsenals is of little importance for nations that are already well above the threshold for achieving nuclear deterrence.

  What really matters is the perception that the other side has second-strike capability, and this certainly exists in both US-Russia and US-China relations. Once each regime knows that the other regime has second-strike capability, the competition is over. Deterrence is established. Waltz notes:

  So long as two or more countries have second-strike forces, to compare them is pointless. If no state can launch a disarming attack with high confidence, force comparisons become irrelevant. . . . Within very wide ranges, a nuclear balance is insensitive to variation in numbers and size of warheads.

  The focus on second-strike capability is key because pro-arms-race policy makers are quick to note that if a regime’s first strike is able to destroy an enemy’s ability to retaliate in kind, then a nuclear war can be “won.”

  Second-Strike Capability Evens the Score

  But, as shown by Michael Gerson in “No First Use: The Next Step for U.S. Nuclear Policy” (2010) establishing second-strike capability—or, more importantly, the perception of it—is not as difficult as many suppose. Gerson writes:

  A successful first strike would require near-perfect intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to detect, identify, and track all of the adversary’s nuclear forces; recent events surrounding U.S. assessments of Iraq’s suspected WMD [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities forcefully demonstrate the challenges of reliable, accurate, and unbiased information. Intelligence regarding where an adversary’s nuclear weapons are located and if the state is actually planning to attack could be wrong or incomplete, and an attempted first strike based on inaccurate or incomplete information could have far-reaching negative consequences.

  The threat of a successful first strike can be countered through a variety of methods, including secrecy and the ability to shift weapons delivery channels. This is why the US, Russian, and Chinese regimes have long been so enthusiastic about the so-called nuclear triad. It is assumed that if nuclear weapons can be delivered by submarine, aircraft, and land, then it is impossible for an opposing regime to destroy all three at once and achieve first-strike victory.

  But even in the absence of a triad, an opposing regime that seeks a total first-strike victory has few grounds for much confidence. As Waltz shows, “nuclear weapons are small and light; they are easy to move, easy to hide, and easy to deliver in a variety of ways.” That is, if a regime manages to hide even a small number of planes, subs, or trucks, this could spell disaster for the regime attempting a successful first strike. Gerson explains:

  A nuclear first strike is fraught with risk and uncertainty. Could a U.S. president, the only person with the power to authorize nuclear use and a political official concerned with re-election, his or her political party, and their historical legacy, ever be entirely confident that the mission would be a complete success? What if the strike failed to destroy all of the weapons, or what if weapons were hidden in unknown areas, and the remaining weapons were used in retaliation?

  Nor must it be assumed that a large number of warheads is necessary to achieve deterrence. Waltz recalls that Desmond Ball—who advised the US on escalation strategies—convincingly asserted that nuclear deterrence could be achieved with as few as fifty warheads.

  Proceeding on the assumption that an enemy has no warheads left following a first strike requires an extremely high level of confidence because the cost of miscalculation is so high. If a regime strikes and misses only a few of the enemy’s missiles, this could lead to devastating retaliation both in terms of human life and in terms of the first-strike regime’s political prospects.

  This is why a rudimentary nuclear force can achieve deterrence even with a small but plausible chance of second-strike capability. A small nuclear strike is nonetheless disastrous for the target, and thus “second-strike forces have to be seen in absolute terms.” Waltz correctly insists that calculating an arsenal’s relative dominance is a waste of time: “the question of dominance is pointless because one second-strike force cannot dominate another.”

  The US Is Already Far beyond the Deterrence Threshold

  One could certainly debate how much the US nuclear stockpile could be cut without sacrificing deterrence. Given the enormous size of the stockpile, however, the answer is that “most of it” could be cut. Indeed, the US arsenal could be cut by 90 percent and still have hundreds of warheads available for silos, submarines, and bombers.

  Moreover, reductions in the arsenal are prudent for reasons of avoiding unintended nuclear war. As Wohlstetter noted, a prudent policy also requires “strategic nuclear forces to be not only capable of riding out and operating coherently after an actual preemptive attack against them; but also completely controllable in times of peace, crisis, and war—and especially in the face of ambiguous warning—so as to avoid unauthorized operations, accidents, and war by mistake.” Having large numbers of nuclear warheads actually is imprudent because it creates more potential for accidents, mistakes, and unauthorized use. Maintenance remains expensive and risky.

  In spite of all this, it remains popular among some to keep arguing for more nuclear expansion year after year. Surely, some of these advocates are true believers, but there is also a lot of money at stake for government contractors. Thus, in one form or another, the myth of the missile gap – and its modern variants – endures.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 22:30

• Ford's "Blue Oval City" Aims To Open In 2025, Produce 500,000 Next Gen Electric Trucks A Year
  Ford’s “Blue Oval City” Aims To Open In 2025, Produce 500,000 Next Gen Electric Trucks A Year

  Ford is getting close to unveiling its next generation electric pickup plan at its BlueOval city mega-campus in West Tennessee.

  An update from the company this week said that the new plant – which is designed to be radically efficient and carbon neutral – is “taking shape and preparing to build Ford’s next-gen electric truck, code named Project T3, in 2025”. 

  The Project T3 is being called by the company “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize America’s truck” as Ford, along with other legacy auto manufacturers continue to shift their business models from an ICE base to an EV base. 

  Slated to start production in 2025, the plant will be capable of producing 500,000 EV trucks a year at full production – and most notably the next generation of Ford’s electric truck. Here’s a sneak preview of what the second gen pickup will look like:

  Bill Ford, Ford’s executive chair said: “BlueOval City is the blueprint for Ford’s electric future around the world. We will build revolutionary electric vehicles at an advanced manufacturing site that works in harmony with the planet, aligning business growth and innovation with environmental progress.”

  “Project T3 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize America’s truck. We are melding 100 years of Ford truck know-how with world-class electric vehicle, software and aerodynamics talent. It will be a platform for endless innovation and capability,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO.

  Ford’s PR reads:

  Project T3 is short for “Trust The Truck” – a code name that stuck after the development team made it their rallying cry. The team’s single guiding principle has been to create a truck people can trust in the digital age – one that’s fully updatable, constantly improving, and supports towing, hauling, exportable power and endless new innovations owners will want.

  The assembly plant will use carbon-free electricity from the day it opens. For the first time in 120 years, Ford also is using recovered energy from the site’s utility infrastructure and geothermal system to provide carbon-free heat for the assembly plant – saving about 300 million cubic feet of natural gas typically needed each year to heat similarly sized vehicle assembly plants.

  Here’s the video stream of Ford’s update on the campus:

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 22:00

• Military Officials: Diversity Training Makes Soldiers Feel "Included"
  Military Officials: Diversity Training Makes Soldiers Feel “Included”

  Authored by Eric Lundrum via AmGreatness.com,

  Top military officials in the Biden Administration recently attempted to defend far-left “diversity” training in the military, claiming that such sessions make all soldiers feel more “included.”

  

  As the Washington Free Beacon reports, Air Force Chief of Staff General C.Q. Brown gave an interview for Defense One defending the practice of diversity training, claiming that “when people join our military, they want to look around and see somebody who looks like them.”

  “They want to be part of a team, and feel like they’re included,” Brown added.

  Brown praised the practice for its alleged efforts to build “cohesive” teams for all service members, “no matter their background.”

  Similarly, General David Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps, claimed that he has seen “zero evidence” of any negative impact from such left-wing policies when it comes to the end result of making stronger Marines.

  House Republicans are currently attempting to cut funding for such far-left practices in the military; other examples include a program in the Army for training soldiers on how to use “gender pronouns,” and a similar training video for the Navy discussing pronouns and “safe spaces.”

  Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) declared that the Biden Administration’s efforts to force politics into the military are “shaping the Department of Defense into an institution that is spearheading toxic social policies instead of restoring military strength.”

  “On the House Armed Services Committee, we are laser-focused on the threats we face and the capabilities we need to defeat them,” said Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

  The fight over the politicization of the military comes as most branches struggle with reaching the appropriate levels of recruitment numbers in recent years. Last year, the U.S. Army missed its minimum recruitment goal by 15,000.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 21:30

• North Korea Touts 'Radioactive Tsunami' Weapon Test At Sea
  North Korea Touts ‘Radioactive Tsunami’ Weapon Test At Sea

  North Korea claimed Friday to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone designed to generate a gigantic “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy naval strike groups and entire ports. Analysts were skeptical that the device presents a major new threat, but the test underlines the North’s commitment to raising nuclear threats.

  But according to The Associated Press, analysts in the West are deeply skeptical of the claims or that the weapon presents a major new threat, at a moment the Pentagon has expanded its activity on the Korean peninsula.

  

  State-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) described that the drone is designed to “stealthily infiltrate into operational waters and make a super-scale radioactive tsunami through an underwater explosion” – and that it can either be deployed directly from the coast or towed by ships.

  KCNA said that North Korea is responding to this month’s joint US-South Korea drills, which it considers a huge provocation. The state media report described an ongoing “nuclear crisis” due to Washington’s “intentional, persistent and provocative war drills.”

  Kim Jong Un has also promised to make his rivals “plunge into despair” if North Korea continues to be threatened. This week the North Korean government launched a major new recruiting drive, hosting events across the country while conducting near daily test launches of projectiles – including a test last Sunday which included a ‘mock nuclear warhead’ as a warning to Seoul and Washington.

  State media described that “youth college students from universities in various places as well as high-end middle school students from all over the country” expressed their determination “to join forces in the fight…”

  

  The KCNA report additionally cited citizens’ willingness “mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs” – in what’s also clearly a propaganda blitz and bit of signaling aimed at the south and at the west. At the same time, Pyongyang is apparently seeking to impress its enemies and the world by rolling out new high-tech weapons.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 21:00

• Taibbi: People Can Win
  Taibbi: People Can Win

  Authored by Matt Taibbi via Racket News (emphasis ours),

  

  Earlier today Susan Schmidt and I published an article about a series of changes at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a creepy sub-division of the Department of Homleand Security. It turns out that CISA, which just a week or so ago was busted for scrubbing embarrasing text from its website by the Foundation for Freedom Online, quietly eliminated its so-called “MDM” or “Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation” subcommittee.

  Just a year ago, the Department of Homeland Security was going all-in on the fight against “MDM.” The notion that America is fatally infected with “Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation” was in fact the animating idea begind the asinine plan the Biden administration announced last April to institute a “Disinformation Governance Board,” which was to be headed by Nina Jankowicz, a self-styled Mary Poppins of digital rectitude:

  America took one look at Jankowicz and at most a few fleeting moments considering the “Disinformation Governance Board” plan before concluding, correctly, that it was a beyond-loathsome expression of aristocratic arrogance that needed shutting down before the first Jankowicz presser. Characteristically, the press lied about the public reaction, claiming that the only displeasure was heard from the “GOP.” In fact, all sane people across the spectrum were instantly nauseated, their distress loud enough that the DHS hit “pause” on Jankowicz and the batty MinTruth plan after just three weeks.

  Even that might not have been fast enough, as was discovered by my co-author Sue Schmidt, who’s formerly of the Washington Post but joined Racket this month for a special report a team of us are preparing on what fellow #TwitterFiles reporter Michael Shellenberger calls the “Censorship-Industrial Complex.” (More on that later). Looking through the minutes of CISA’s subcommittee meetings last year, Sue found that the DHS’s little team of self-appointed information guardians was deeply worried about the “rollout” of their war against MDM, worrying repeatedly about how to “socialize” or “pre-socialize” various parties to the idea of a federal truth squad, realizing that just presenting the actual plan to a sentient person without lots of sweeteners wouldn’t go well.

  One subcommittee member, whose name in the spirit of our times is of course redacted, seemed to realize the concept was too hot to discuss in public. She “suggested removing mention of MDM” — this, from a member of the “MDM subcommittee”! — and “framing” the subcommitee’s efforts more in terms of “directing people to clear information about elections procedures.” Another member recommended CISA “point more to state officials and state laws to make the authoritative source of information less controversial. In other words: “Let’s make it sound like someone other than the hated us is running this thing!”

  Even two years ago, nobody was paying attention to this world and the public, if it cared at all, was probably inclined to welcome more “election procedures” (as CISA would later call them), not fewer. So the DHS, sensibly one must conclude, dissolved its incorrectly named “Countering Foreign Influence Task Force” — the group spent most of 2020 zapping domestic election posts — renamed it the MDM subcommittee, and began meeting and posting about the need to build “national resistance” to “domestic threat actors.” As Sue just reported, these folks saw “MDM” everywhere here at home, insisting “CISA should consider MD across the information ecosystem,” which included talk radio, cable news, mainstream media, and “hyper-partisan media.”

  The architects of this plan not only genuinely believed themselves above such temptations, but saw nothing wrong with asking for massive sums of money — Joe Biden’s first economic proposal sought $690 million for CISA — to captain an open-ended war on American badthink, as defined by [names redacted]. Here again, take note of Jankowicz’s lyrics:

  It’s like when Rudy Giuliani shared bad intel from Ukraine

  Or when TikTok influencers said COVID can’t cause pain

  They’re laundering disinfo and we really should take note

  And not support their lies, with our wallet, voice or vote!

  This was a group of self-described experts in an utterly fictitious “anti-disinformation” discipline who were so sure it was okay for them to tell you whom not to vote for, one of them sang about it. This, despite the fact that of the ones whose names we know, like Jankowicz, many were open swallowers of the dumbest Russiagate hokum, like the Alfa-Server story.

  I spent a long time covering the 2008 Wall Street crash, which meant devoting large amounts of energy to some of the world’s most unredeeming people. These were swindlers who sold snake-oil mortgage products that put millions out of their homes and wiped out retirement funds of people who spent decades working as toll operators, firefighters, teachers. Such predators were awful, amoral people, but all the same, I occasionally found myself writing with something like admiration. These crooks were creators of truly ingenious schemes who did what they did out of lust, greed, jealousy, and other (at least identifiably human) forms of depravity.

  These [name redacted] would-be censors are different. They have no sense of humor, no imagination, and exactly one distinguishing characteristic: they know what’s best for you. Anti-disinfo work suits them because they all have a Poppins streak that quietly gets off on binning your digital dirty bits (after the voyeuristic thrill of logging on to watch them in secret, with special credentials, which they rub with pleasure in evenings). They’re the vilest kind of snobs, and when they finally were forced to show their real selves to the public — and here I feel safe in thanking Elon Musk for making that possible, via the #TwitterFiles — the public rightfully recoiled from these arrogant power-worshipping mediocrities.

  The Governance Board was already dead, and now the whole MDM mission is being wound down, which feels like a win. Perhaps they’re just publicly retreating from the concept for now, but at this point, I’ll take that. Moreover there are signs everywhere that people are losing their fear of departing from the orthodoxy such types would like to impose, and pushing for a return to normalcy, which for the first time in ages feels within reach.

  There was a ridiculous scene at Stanford law school recently, in which a conservative judge was muffled by a gaggle of future lawyers who’d been led by an assistant Dean in a characteristically moronic shouting-down exercise. The current strain of Junior Anti-Sex League-type protesters who fill campuses from coast to coast now sure do love their “heckler’s veto…”

  The Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez was brilliant in response. Instead of doing what the heads of organizations have been doing for years in such situations, instead of doing, frankly, what I did during my own cancelation episode — frantically over-apologizing to people who have no use for or interest in apologies — Martinez sternly called the students out as clowns, reminding them in a long, serious, punishing letter that if they ever become officers of the court, they will be held to a higher standard than “lay people,” swearing to conduct themselves “at all times with dignity, courtesy and integrity.”

  Martinez went further, saying that on her watch, the school would not be doing the usual and committing itself to starter slates of political positions out of fear of reproach. “Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is not going to take the form of having the school administration announce institutional positions on a wide range of current social and political issues,” she wrote. The age of just giving in to mobs instead of insisting on our right to have different opinions and beliefs seems to be receding. It is beginning to dawn on sane, tolerant people everywhere that there are more of us than there are of them, and this still matters in a democracy.

  There’s a reason why these people are so focused on technocratic solutions, from magic AI schemes to control information to deploying packs of Boston Dynamics robot-dogs, who’ll patrol suburban neighborhoods and peer in windows for visual confirmation of Alexa-overheard transgressions. General Mark Milley just said on a podcast that armies may be fully robotic in 15 years, arousing general neoliberal giddiness (Milley quoted Dylan). These people need tech, because you know what they don’t have? Friends. Organic support. Or, ways to win them, like art, music, literature, or comedy.

  I have a theory about what happened to America in this regard. After 9/11, people were scared, and they fell for a succession of propaganda campaigns convincing them that the hole in Fortress America, the chink in our national armor, was our system of democratic rights.

  The “MDM subcommittee” members think the same way: there’s a section in one of last year’s meetings in which a former Secretary of Washington State notes that the bad countries, “such as Russia, use the First Amendment effectively.” Moreover, in general, “our adversaries… use our Constitution effectively.” They’ve been telling us this stuff ever since the Towers came down. We were told our enemies will use even our open system of justice against us, so forget the admirable streak of America never having had an in-camera criminal trial. Let’s clear the court even for deportation hearings of suspected terrorists, they said. Let’s not even tell the public the names of the deported!

  “The era that dawned on September 11th, and the war against terrorism that has pervaded the sinews of our national life since that day, are reflected in thousands of ways” the Third Circuit Court wrote in 2002, adding: “Since the primary national policy must be self-preservation,it seems elementary that, to the extent open deportation hearings might impair national security, that security is implicated.”

  It was the same with torture, rendition, watch lists, drones, whatever. To respond to terrorism, we were told, we needed to be more “nimble” than old-school democracy allowed. We couldn’t wait for congress to declare wars, or build probable cause, or afford the right to face one’s accusers. The stakes were too high for such luxuries. Even giving “enemy combatants” Geneva convention rights would confer legitimacy to the opposition it didn’t deserve, and we couldn’t afford to give that legitimacy. Our grip on safety was that tenunous.

  No: the new era of a West infected with a borderless evil returned from the 8th century needed a bureaucracy of super-empowered minders, who’d do torturing if it needed doing, and quietly make lists of who gets to fly or open a bank account. Most of all, these minders would make those terrible decisions about who gets to live and die in a drone-patrolled world. The Imitation Game from 2014, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and telling the awful tale of Alan Turing’s quest to crack the Enigma code, was a great movie, but perhaps also the ultimate portrait of the Obama-era political class, whose members all saw themselves as misunderstood geniuses quietly saving civilization through endless mathematical murder, committed from afar, by remote control, without fanfare or appreciation.

  America balked some at George W. Bush as “The Decider,” but was more than happy to let the Community Organizer head up those secret decisions. With the genial and patient-sounding Obama in office, the deciders assumed a new brand of business-casual cruelty. I vividly remember going to a ballgame with a longtime Justice source in those years, someone I liked, who casually told me in between bites of a hot dog that of course we should just drone Julian Assange, because he was a “terrorist,” and the “reality is, you just have to kill them.”

  Each year, more and more of government became classified, and we had less and less access to information about where tax dollars were being spent, or what was going on at places like the Federal Reserve. We let it happen, abandoning the democratic responsibility to govern ourselves, in the process willing the world’s smuggest aristocracy into existence. It wasn’t the worst time — a lot of good TV was made in those years — but while we were napping, these people were turning America into a secret administrative state committed to endless war, mass surveillance, social credit scoring, censorship, and other horrors, a system that’s only just now beginning to show itself.

  The managerial state was held in place for over a decade by a kind of magic spell, which works thanks to the public’s faith in the competence of our minders. That spell held by default for an extra four years while Trump was in office, but it’s been broken now, in part thanks to refuseniks like Musk (who caused all kinds of havoc by opting out of an airtight information-control cartel), but mainly because we’ve now had enough opportunities to examine up close the loathsome nanny-staters to whom we surrendered all those years ago. Whatever hold these people had on us, and it was real — I spent years worrying about regaining the favor of people who were denouncing me as a Russian asset even as they demanded my vote — it’s gone now, and we can start thinking about moving on to something better.

  This is what I choose to think, this weekend evening. We don’t have to concede to a future of always being at war somewhere abroad, and with each other at home. We don’t have to put up with a government that doesn’t tell us anything. Most of all, we can go back to enjoying life, on our own terms, without stressing over an endless succession of panics invented by politically insecure losers. We can do so much better, and we will, because this place is ours to run, a fact the singing censors should never have let us remember.

  Subscribe to Racket News

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 20:30

• Denver Suburb Caps Number Of Gas Stations To 'Promote Electric Vehicles'
  Denver Suburb Caps Number Of Gas Stations To ‘Promote Electric Vehicles’

  A suburb of Denver, Colorado has voted to ban the construction of new gas stations in order to address ‘environmental concerns with the continued use of gasoline powered vehicles and equipment.’

  The Louisville City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday in support of a 2022 ordinance limiting the number of gas stations to six – with an exception carved out for one more (for a total of seven) if big box stores such as Costco or Sam’s Club build a store that’s 80,000 feet or larger and includes a gas station.

  

  The limitation includes existing gas stations.

  A 79-page report of the ordinance issued by the City Council on the day of the vote in part states such caps on gas stations “is a growing trend for local municipalities due to health and environmental concerns with the continued use of gasoline powered vehicles and equipment.”

  The reports also states gas station “bans may also be seen as promoting the use of electric vehicles.” –Just the News

  The report acknowledges that gasoline is still required for non-electric vehicles.

  “The proposal for a cap but not a full ban on new gasoline and automobile service stations is in recognition that there will continue to be some demand for gasoline and automobile service stations as more EVs enter the market and gasoline vehicles are transitioned out of the market over time,” it reads.

  The proposal included letters from the community in support of the ordinance.

  “I strongly support and encourage you to not allow the further construction of fossil fuel refueling stations (gas) in our community. All of us, not just the citizens of our community, need to move quickly away from fossil fuel consumption,” reads one letter from resident Channah Horst.

  “If you are a climate denier then my plea falls on deaf ears. If you acknowledge the peril our planet is in then it is your responsibility to do what you can to help us make changes in the way we live. In other words–do not make it easier for me and my fellow residents to keep using gasoline.“

  Eric Lund, Executive Director of the Louisville Chamber of Commerce opposed the move, writing “If you limit the number of gas stations then competition could become an issue as our local residents will likely have to pay higher prices if open market competition is blocked by an ordinance of this type,” adding “I am not sure that there is a benefit by limiting the number of gas stations which typically also include retail stores and would be interested to understand the thought behind how this ordinance helps to support local businesses and our residents in the area.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 20:00

• US State Department Lifts 'Assignment Restrictions' Used To Discourage Foreign Recruiting
  US State Department Lifts ‘Assignment Restrictions’ Used To Discourage Foreign Recruiting

  The US State Department has lifted so-called ‘assignment restrictions’ which prevented employees – some of whom would hold top-secret clearances – from serving in countries they had immigrated from, or have family or financial relationship with, after Democratic lawmakers said it was discriminatory – particularly against Chinese and Pacific Islander employees.

  

  The move follows a 2021 bill introduced by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Andy Kim (D-NJ) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), who have discarded national security concerns to end a practice that “disproportionately impacts federal employees who can’t trace their heritage to the Mayflower and directly undermines the department’s goal of promoting diversity and inclusion,” Politico reports.

  State Department data reveals that around 1,800 employees are subject to assignment restrictions – with the top four countries being China (196), Russia (184), Taiwan (84) and Israel (70).

  According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the change came after he lifted more than half of the restrictions during his first year in office, which opened “new possible assignments” for hundreds of US diplomats.

  “Today, I’m pleased to share that after a rigorous review, I have decided that, moving forward, the Department will end its practice of issuing new assignment restrictions as a condition placed on a security clearance.”

  Those currently subject to assignment restrictions will be allowed to go through a new review and appeal process. That said, some restrictions will remain in place, such as those related to a situation “in which a foreign country may consider an employee to be one of their own nationals,” or when there are “assignments to posts rated critical for human intelligence threats.”

  Perhaps all those millions of dollars which flowed from CCP-linked individuals to the Biden family are once again paying off?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 19:00

• As We Sell Off Our Strategic Oil Reserves, Ponder This
  As We Sell Off Our Strategic Oil Reserves, Ponder This

  Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

  One of Biden’s answers to combating higher gas prices has been to tap into America’s oil reserves. While I was never a fan of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) program, it does have a place in our toolbox of weapons. We can use the reserve to keep the country running if outside oil supplies are cut off. Still, considering how out of touch with reality Washington has become, we can only imagine the insane types of services it would deem essential next time an oil shortage occurs.

  

  Sadly, some of these reserves found their way into the export market and ended up in China. We now have proof that the President’s son Hunter had a Chinese Communist Party member as his assistant while dealing with the Chinese. Apparently, he played a role in the shipping of American natural gas to China in 2017. It seems the Biden family was promising business associates that they would be rewarded once Biden became president. Biden’s actions could be viewed as those of a traitor or at least disqualify him from being President.

  The following information was contained in a letter from House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky. to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen dated Sept. 20. 

  “The President has not only misled the American public about his past foreign business transactions, but he also failed to disclose that he played a critical role in arranging a business deal to sell American natural resources to the Chinese while planning to run for President.”

  Joe Biden, Comer said, was a business partner in the arrangement and had office space to work on the deal, and a firm he managed received millions from his Chinese partners ahead of the anticipated venture. While part of what Comer stated had previously been reported in the news, the letter, cited whistleblower testimonies, as well as emails, a corporate PowerPoint presentation, and a screenshot of encrypted messages. These as well as  bank documents that committee Republicans obtained suggest Biden’s knowledge and involvement in the plan dated back to at least 2017.

  The big point here is;

  • The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was established in 1975 due to the 1973 oil embargo, is now at its lowest level since December 1983.

  

  In December 1975, with memories of gas lines fresh on the minds of Americans following the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, Congress established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). It was designed “to reduce the impact of severe energy supply interruptions.” What are the implications of depleting the SPR and is it still important?

  The U.S. government began to fill the reserve and it hit its high point in 2010 at around 726.6 million barrels. Since December 1984, this is the first time the level has been lower than 450 million barrels. Draining the SPR has been a powerful tool for the administration in its effort to tame the price of gasoline. It also signaled a “new era” of intervention on the part of the White House. 

  This brings front-and-center questions concerning the motivation of those behind this action. One of the implications of Biden’s war on high oil prices is that it has short-circuited the fossil investment/supply development process.  Capital expenditures among the five largest oil and gas companies have fallen as the price of oil has come under fire. The current under-investment in this sector is one of the reasons oil prices are likely to take a big jump in a few years. Production from existing wells is expected to rapidly fall.

  The Supply Of Oil Is Far More Constant And Inelastic Than Demand

  It is important to remember when it comes to oil, the supply is far more constant and inelastic than the demand. This means that it takes time and investment to bring new wells online while demand can rapidly change. This happened during the pandemic when countries locked down and told their populations and told them to stay at home. This resulted in the price of oil temporarily going negative because there was nowhere to store it.

  

  Draining oil from the strategic reserve is a short-sighted and dangerous choice that will impact America’s energy security at times of global uncertainty. In an effort to halt inflationary forces, Biden released a huge amount of crude oil from the SPR to artificially suppress fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections. 

  To date, Biden has dumped more SPR on the market than all previous presidents combined reducing the reserves to levels not seen since the early 1980s. In spite of how I feel about the inefficiencies of this program, it does serve a vital role. It is difficult to underestimate the importance of a country’s ability to rapidly increase its domestic flow of oil. This defensive action protects its economy and adds to its resilience. 

  Biden’s actions have put the whole country at risk. Critics of his policy pointed out the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was designed for use in an emergency not as a tool to manipulate elections. Another one of Biden’s goals may be to bring about higher oil prices to reduce its use and accelerate the use of high-cost green energy.

  Either way, Biden’s war on oil has not made America’s energy policies more efficient or the country stronger.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 18:30

• US Weighs Expanding Fed's Emergency Liquidity Program To Stabilize First Republic, Other Regional Banks
  US Weighs Expanding Fed’s Emergency Liquidity Program To Stabilize First Republic, Other Regional Banks

  One day after a lengthy meeting on the growing bank crisis by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (chaired by Janet Yellen who five years ago vowed there would be “no financial crises in her lifetime“) on the last day of a week which started with the collapse of Credit Suisse and culminated with US regional banks nursing historic losses amid speculation that First Republic Bank could keel over any moment and drag down countless other names with it, even though the FSOC assured Americans that “while some institutions have come under stress, the U.S. banking system remains sound and resilient”, Bloomberg reports that in their attempt to rescue the most trouble of regionals, authorities are considering expanding the recently introduced emergency lending facility for banks – the BTFP – in order to give First Republic Bank more time to shore up its balance sheet.

  Or they may not: after all this has been a crisis has been marked by at times puzzling second-guessing, miscommunication and lack of conviction on the part of regulators, whose actions not only precipitated the contagion from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank when they blocked potential buyers from acquiring the bank and avoiding a complete wipeout of shareholders, but where Janet Yellen has actively sought to destabilize the regional banks by explicitly refuting what Fed chair Powell was stating, the most vivid example being last Wednesday’s market crunch when stocks stabilized after the dovish FOMC only to puke after Yellen inexplicably said that US regulators were not even contemplating uniform deposit insurance.

  And sure enough, the BBG report adds that “officials have yet to decide on what support they could provide First Republic, if any, and an expansion of the Federal Reserve’s offering is one of several options being weighed at this early stage.” Meanwhile, regulators continue to grapple with two other failed lenders — Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — that require more immediate attention… attention they wouldn’t need if regulators had intervened more competently in the beginning and not waited until almost a trillion in deposits had been pulled from small banks as confidence cratered.

  Bizarrely, even without of a step, watchdogs see First Republic as stable enough to operate without any immediate intervention as the company and its advisers try to work out a deal to shore up its balance sheet, the people said, asking not to be named discussing confidential talks.

  Officials have yet to decide on what support they could provide First Republic, if any, and an expansion of the Federal Reserve’s offering is one of several options being weighed at this early stage. Regulators continue to grapple with two other failed lenders — Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — that require more immediate attention.

  Even short of expanding the BTFP, regulators reportedly “see First Republic as stable enough to operate without any immediate intervention as the company and its advisers try to work out a deal to shore up its balance sheet”; maybe those regulators should also see the stock price of FRC which has lost more than 90% of its value, and which is far less confident about the bank’s ability to evade the same forces that recently caused a trio of US banks to collapse. But while those banks toppled when rapid customer withdrawals forced them to lock in losses on depreciated assets, First Republic has remained open and independent.

  And while the BBG reporting suggests that regulators are once again indecisive at best, and may either help the bank… or not, the only actionable news here is that US officials “have concluded the bank’s deposits are stabilizing and that it isn’t susceptible to the kind of sudden, severe run that prompted regulators to seize Silicon Valley Bank within just a few days, the people said.” This confirms what we first reported on Friday in “Finally Some Good News On The Bank Crisis.”

  One way First Republic is different from other banks is that it managed to obtain enough cash to meet client needs while it explores solutions, courtesy of $30 billion in cash deposited by the nation’s largest banks this month… which of course is merely cash that was recycled after it was pulled from banks such as First Republic in the first place.

  Bloomberg also notes that a potential adjustment to the Fed’s emergency lending program is among options authorities have weighed in recent days. Of course, such an expansion of the Fed’s liquidity offerings would merely be another incremental step to institutionalizing moral hazard as it would apply to all eligible users, in keeping with banking law that says remedies must be broadly based, rather than aimed at helping a particular bank. But the change could be made in a way to ensure that First Republic benefits.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 18:00

• The Disinformation-Industrial Complex Vs Domestic Terror
  The Disinformation-Industrial Complex Vs Domestic Terror

  Authored by Ben Weingarten via RealClearInvestigations.com,

  Combating disinformation has been elevated to a national security imperative under the Biden administration, as codified in its first-of-its-kind National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, published in June 2021.  

  

  That document calls for confronting long-term contributors to domestic terrorism.

  In connection therewith, it cites as a key priority “addressing the extreme polarization, fueled by a crisis of disinformation and misinformation often channeled through social media platforms, which can tear Americans apart and lead some to violence.” 

  Media literacy specifically is seen as integral to this effort. The strategy adds that: “the Department of Homeland Security and others are either currently funding and implementing or planning evidence–based digital programming, including enhancing media literacy and critical thinking skills, as a mechanism for strengthening user resilience to disinformation and misinformation online for domestic audiences.” 

  Previously, the Senate Intelligence Committee suggested, in its report on “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 Election” that a “public initiative—propelled by Federal funding but led in large part by state and local education institutions—focused on building media literacy from an early age would help build long-term resilience to foreign manipulation of our democracy.” 

  In June 2022, Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy Act, which – citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report – would fund a media literacy grant program for state and local education agencies, among other entities. 

  NAMLE and Media Literacy Now, both recipients of State Department largesse, endorsed the bill. 

  Acknowledging explicitly the link between this federal counter-disinformation push, and the media literacy education push, Media Literacy Now wrote in its latest annual report that … 

  … the federal government is paying greater attention to the national security consequences of media illiteracy.

  The Department of Homeland Security is offering grants to organizations to improve media literacy education in communities across the country. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is incorporating media literacy into standard troop training, and the State Department is funding media literacy efforts abroad.

  These trends are important for advocates to be aware of as potential sources of funding as well as for supporting arguments around integrating media literacy into K-12 classrooms. 

  When presented with notable examples of narratives corporate media promoted around Trump-Russia collusion, and COVID-19, to justify this counter-disinformation campaign, Media Literacy Now president Erin McNeill said: “These examples are disappointing.”

  The antidote, in her view is, “media literacy education because it helps people not only recognize the bias in their news sources and seek out other sources, but also to demand and support better-quality journalism.” (Emphasis McNeill’s)

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 17:30

• "I'm A Woman": Left Wing Host Ana Kasparian Triggers Woke Mob Over "Trans-Exclusionary" Language
  “I’m A Woman”: Left Wing Host Ana Kasparian Triggers Woke Mob Over “Trans-Exclusionary” Language

  Ana Kasparian, of the left wing hosts of The Young Turks, was put on blast this week on Twitter for “using trans-exclusionary language” when she Tweeted out the obvious: that she was a woman.

  “I’m a woman. Please don’t ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is?” she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday of last week.

  “You can support the transgender community without doing this shit,” Kasparian added. “I’m sure a lot of women don’t want to be minimized to a bodily function or body part,” she said in a later Tweet.

  

  As was predicted by many in the responses, Kasparian was roasted by many “trans-allies”.

  “Those words are meant for AFAB [assigned female at birth] people as a category, not individual people. Get a grip,” transgender journalist Katelyn Burns responded to Kasparian. 

  “Who called you that? I’ve only ever heard that used when referring to a population, not an individual person,” another user wrote. “Obviously, those terms are meant to be precise to include all people who meet one of those characteristics, when needing to discuss a relevant topic.”

  

  “I respect you a lot, but this notion that the mere existence of trans-inclusive terms (rarely used in casual convos) somehow degrades women comes right out of the right’s anti-trans ‘war on women’ playbook,” added Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report. 

  “I have zero problem with inclusion. None. But there’s gotta be a better way than boiling it down to a body part, no? Especially in the context of having reproductive rights taken away from people who just see woman as a baby-making vessel. That’s all I’m saying,” Kasparian said in response.

  “Your comment section has turned into a lunatic asylum. Some people just can’t accept your remarks,” Ian Miles Cheong concluded. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 17:00

• 'Surgical Removal' Of Crypto Will Only Weaken USD Dominance
  ‘Surgical Removal’ Of Crypto Will Only Weaken USD Dominance

  Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

  A day after Coinbase received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission, industry commentators weighed in on what recent regulatory actions mean for America’s crypto future…

  

  The United States’ crackdown on cryptocurrencies and crypto firms will only serve to stifle crypto-related innovation and “weaken” the country, industry pundits say in the wake of Coinbase’s recent Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

  On March 22, the crypto exchange became the latest crypto firm to receive a “legal threat” — a Wells notice — just a month after stablecoin-issuer Paxos received its own in February. Some suggest there could be more to come.

  Mati Greenspan, the chief of crypto research firm Quantum Economics, said he believes U.S. regulators have been unfriendly to crypto “since the beginning.”

  The recent collapses of crypto and startup-friendly banks, including Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, have been viewed by some as being part of a scheme by regulators to un-bank the crypto sector, dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0.”

  Meanwhile, a March 20 economic report from the White House turned into a scathing review of the merits of crypto assets, with the paper spending almost an entire chapter debunking crypto’s “touted” benefits.

  Greenspan told Cointelegraph that the rumored action could be underway as crypto is seen as a “threat” to the U.S. dollar’s dominance in global trade — a significant and long-standing benefit to the U.S.

  Russia, China, and now crypto. Slowly but surely the United States is isolating itself from the global economy. The USD cannot remain the world’s reserve currency for much longer under these conditions.

  — Mati Greenspan (@MatiGreenspan) March 14, 2023

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  However, as more are beginning to use crypto for cross-border remittances globally, he warned a crackdown on crypto in the U.S. could actually have the opposite effect on the dollar:

  “The surgical removal of cryptocurrencies from the U.S. banking system will only isolate the United States further and weaken the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency.”

  Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Australian crypto exchange Independent Reserve, told Cointelegraph that the recent banking sector woes were not due to “any failure in crypto” but caused by banks managing their risks in an “irresponsible way.”

  “The White House would be better served to review the practices in the banking industry,” he added.

  Speaking about the most recent action against Coinbase, Przelozny said the “adversarial environment for the crypto industry” in the U.S. would push the related “jobs, investment and future innovation” offshore.

  “Singapore, Hong Kong and potentially Australia” — who are eyeing the benefits of the crypto industry — may prove a better home for it, and those countries “will reap the economic benefits,” Przelozny said.

  The exact reasons the regulator is targeting Coinbase are still unclear. The SEC has declined to comment on the matter.

  Investments in crypto asset securities can be exceptionally volatile & speculative, & the platforms where investors buy, sell, borrow/lend these securities may lack important protections for investors.
  @SEC_Investor_Ed to investors: exercise caution w/ crypto asset securities.

  — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) March 23, 2023

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  Michael Bacina, a lawyer and partner at Piper Alderman, agreed that a “regulation by enforcement model” would “drive crypto-asset innovation offshore,” adding:

  “This is a strange position to adopt given the losses many faced in the last 12 months arose from collapses involving unregulated offshore structures.”

  Bacina said for years, the industry has asked for clarity on how to comply. He pointed to the recent “telling” comments made by the judge in Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy case that “observed that there is no clear guidance from regulators.”

  He added that offshore jurisdictions would continue harboring crypto firms until governments lay out the path to regulatory compliance, “which will cost jobs and raise the risk for consumers and investors.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 16:30

• Another California Storm Is Coming
  Another California Storm Is Coming

  California has been relentlessly battered by an endless series of atmospheric river storms in the past three months. After being struck by yet another storm last week, the state now braces for the possibility of another one arriving in just a few days.

  For more on the forecast timing and impacts of the upcoming storm, meteorologist Armando Salvadore shared this report with clients: 

  In the last 30 days, the entire state of California with the exception of far southern Ca (Riverside and Imperial county) are above average to well above in terms of precipitation and even those aforementioned are just about near average. We’ve seen a substantial amount of condensed water over this winter, and there’s no signs of this letting up as we roll into yet another active week next week!

  

  Below, a potent upper-level low will look to drop southward and “bowl” itself into northern/central California. Such a mid-level disturbance will allow for a surface cyclone to manifest, and crash somewhere north of Sacramento come Tuesday midday.

  

  However, impacts will be felt later Monday because of a potent low level jet out ahead of the disturbance with strong moisture advection and forcing for ascent that transpires ahead of the impending mid/upper level low. A 40+ knot low level jet will propagate ahead of the disturbance, causing both warm air and moisture advection off the Pacific ocean allowing for rain to make landfall across northern California before the main axis shifts southward toward the Bay Area. By later Tuesday into Wednesday, the slug of rain will push further south toward Los Angeles. Along with low elevation heavy rain, heavy snow will also occur for Sierra Nevada Mountains, which by the way is already in the running for the most snowiest winter ever (currently sitting 2nd place with more than 56 feet that has fallen this winter!).

  

  In terms of moisture in the form of water vapor readily available to be condensed, we’re looking at signals of at least 0.5 – 1 standard deviation above climatology within the warm sector of the cyclone, and unsurprisingly coincides with a potent low level jet.

  

  Here we can see how the surface is represented with a mature cyclone making way toward northern/central California and heavy rain overspreading from north to south along with heavy snow impacting the higher terrain.

  

  While there still may be some discrepancy in where the heaviest rain totals occur, there’s a growing consensus for a widespread swath of at least over an inch. The only positive aspect of this system is that this falls over the course of a day, so flash flooding won’t necessarily be an issue; however, it’s areas already prone to flooding from previous events that could allow for excess runoff to nearby lower elevations or surrounding locations.

  

  While many Californians might have storm fatigue, the good news is that Gov. Gavin Newsom ended some of the state’s water restrictions last week as drought conditions dissipated. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 16:00

• Stanford Law School Suspends Diversity Dean After She Doubles-Down On Duncan Debacle
  Stanford Law School Suspends Diversity Dean After She Doubles-Down On Duncan Debacle

  Tirien Steinbach, the diversity administrator at Stanford Law School who stoked a disruptive protest of Fifth Circuit appellate judge Kyle Duncan, is “currently on leave,” according to a memo on the protest reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

  Jenny Martinez, the law school’s dean, said in a Wednesday morning memo to all law students that administrators “should not insert themselves into debate with their own criticism of the speaker’s views.” At future talks, the role of administrators will be to “ensure that university rules on disruption of events will be followed,” Martinez said.

  Martinez gave no additional details on the terms of Steinbach’s leave, stating that the “university does not comment publicly on pending personnel matters.” She also ruled out disciplining any of the students who shouted down Duncan – in part, she said, because administrators sent “conflicting signals about whether what was happening was acceptable or not.”

  Instead, the law school will require all students to attend a training on “freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession,” which will discuss, among other things, how “vulgar personal insults” can harm students’ “professional reputations.”

  That warning appears to be in reference to protesters who hurled sexual invective at Duncan, with one allegedly telling him, “We hope your daughters get raped.”

  It comes amid calls from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and others for state bar associations to investigate the hecklers, which could potentially hold up their legal licenses.

  

  As Jonathan Turley details below, this “leave” comes after Steinbach publicly responded and appears to be doubling down on her actions in a Wall Street Journal opinion column.

   

  First a short recap of how we got here.

   

  The Stanford Federalist Society invited Judge Duncan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to speak on campus. However, liberal students, including members from the National Lawyer’s Guild, decided that allowing a conservative judge to speak on campus is intolerable and set about to “deplatform” him by shouting him down.

  In this event, Duncan was planning to speak on the topic:  “The Fifth Circuit in Conversation with the Supreme Court: Covid, Guns, and Twitter.” A video shows that the students prevented Duncan from speaking from the very beginning. Many called him a racist while others hurled insults like one yelling “We hope your daughters get raped.”

  Duncan was unable to continue and asked for an administrator to assist him.

  Dean Steinbach then took the stage and criticized the judge for seeking to be heard despite such objections.

  

  Steinbach explained “I had to write something down because I am so uncomfortable up here. And I don’t say that for sympathy, I just say that I am deeply, deeply uncomfortable.” While reaffirming her belief in free speech and insisting that the judge should not be cancelled, she proceeded to attack the judge for the content of his views.

  Steinbach declared “It’s uncomfortable to say that for many people here, you’re work has caused harm.” After a perfunctory nod to free speech, Steinbach proceeded to eviscerate it. She continued “again I still ask, is the juice worth the squeeze?” Is it worth the pain that this causes, the division that this causes? Do you have something so incredibly important to say about Twitter and guns and Covid that that is worth this impact on the division of these people.”

  Dean Martinez later apologized and then released a letter with Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne that reaffirmed the commitment to free speech, but did not commit to holding the students accountable for their disruption. (The students with the National Lawyer’s Guild later complained about their names being mentioned in an article despite a campaign to name and shame conservative students).

  Dean Martinez then issued another letter with a strong defense of free speech and declared that all students (including the victims of the disruption) would be required to attend a free speech appreciation session. However, she declined any action against the students responsible for the disruption. That is a familiar pattern at universities.

  That brings us to Steinbach’s column.

  The Wall Street Journal was correct in running her account and it contains an important perspective to consider, even for some of us who were highly critical of Steinbach’s remarks.

  First, Dean Steinbach rightfully points out that she tried to get the students to allow the event to proceed. At one point, she suggested that students walk out in protest over Judge Duncan’s views. She also insists that she opposed efforts to cancel the event before it was held and continues to oppose such attempts to limit speech. She reaffirms the classical liberal view that the solution to bad speech is good speech, not less speech. That is all to her credit.

  However, the column has elements that are, frankly, less compelling or commendable.

  Steinbach appears to be responding to this admonishment by Martinez:

  In this instance, however, the failure by administrators in the room to timely administer clear and specific warnings and instead to send conflicting signals about whether what was happening was acceptable or not (and indeed at one point to seemingly endorse the disruptions that had occurred up to that point by saying “I look out and say I’m glad this is going on here”) is part of what created the problem in the room and renders disciplinary sanction in these particular circumstances problematic.

  Steinbach insists that she was simply using her training at “deescalation” and that she was asked to attend the event by the Federalist Society for that reason:

  I stepped up to the podium to deploy the de-escalation techniques in which I have been trained, which include getting the parties to look past conflict and see each other as people. My intention wasn’t to confront Judge Duncan or the protesters but to give voice to the students so that they could stop shouting and engage in respectful dialogue. I wanted Judge Duncan to understand why some students were protesting his presence on campus and for the students to understand why it was important that the judge be not only allowed but welcomed to speak.

  The problem with the column, in my view, is two-fold.

  First, in her remarks, Steinbach goes out of the way to show her agreement with the mob and indicates that she knew that they were going to stop the event. She soft pedals the attacks on Duncan and seems to blame both sides. She does not mention how the students prevented him from speaking, yelled about his being a racist, or called for the rape of his daughters. Instead, she describes how  “a verbal sparring match began to take place between the judge and the protesters. By the time Judge Duncan asked for an administrator to intervene, tempers in the room were heated on both sides.” That sounds a lot like blaming the victim. If the mob had not prevented the judge from speaking, there would have been “sparring” before the event was opened up for questions.

  She is not alone in such spins. Some like Slate’s Mark Stern suggested that Judge Duncan manufactured the controversy. Democratic members like Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) mocked Duncan as a “fragile flower.” Others at sites like Above the Law insisted, again, that silencing people like Judge Duncan is free speech.  Senior Editor Joe Patrice rejected the effort to “recast ‘free speech’ as the right of a powerful person to speak at the silent and unprivileged.” (In this case, “the silent and unprivileged” are Stanford students at an elite law school, who were invited to ask questions but asked not to prevent others from hearing from Judge Duncan).

  Second, Steinbach still chastises Duncan for his divisive viewpoints and clearly blames him in part for the controversy by refusing to yield to the sensibilities of the students — presumably by remaining silent.

  At one point during the event, I asked Judge Duncan, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” I was referring to the responsibility that comes with freedom of speech: to consider not only the benefit of our words but also the consequences. It isn’t a rhetorical question. I believe that we would be better served by leaders who ask themselves, “Is the juice (what we are doing) worth the squeeze (the intended and unintended consequences and costs)?”

  Steinbach appears utterly clueless about why this question is so offensive to free speech values. She continues to intentionally obscure her obvious desire for speakers like Duncan to curtail their speech by stating that we would “be better served” by speakers asking if their speech is worth “the intended and unintended consequences and costs.”

  Avoiding “the squeeze” means being silent on points that have such consequences. Thus, to avoid angering these radical students, Duncan is expected to be silent on certain points or, in this case, any points that he might want to share. It is an invitation for self-censorship that would apply to any conservative jurist or speaker. While supporting free speech, Steinbach is condemning the exercise of speech when it could cause “pain” and “division.” Of course, such pain and division would not arise with a liberal jurist espousing the opposite viewpoints. Accordingly, liberal jurists would be free to speak without the sense of culpability while conservatives are expected to remain silent.

  In the end, Steinbach did not “defuse” the situation but fueled the rage with her comments. To this day, she cannot understand why Duncan would persist in speaking when some take such great offense at his views. She asks “Is there a way that we can stop blaming and start to talk and listen to each other?” Yet, her answer appears to be for speakers like Duncan to recognize that their views are simply too hurtful for some and should not be voiced to avoid “the squeeze” of free speech.

  The result is the type of doublespeak that is common on our campuses. Steinbach claims fealty to free speech while denouncing its exercise. She laments “how polarized our society has become,” but added to that polarization by expressing her own concerns over the “harm” that Duncan’s speech has brought for many at the school. She asked “how do we listen and talk to each other as people” while maintaining that, by stating his jurisprudential views, Duncan might not be worth the harm (or “squeeze”) to others.

  Anti-free speech advocates often try to portray the exercise of free speech as a complex challenge. It is not. The Duncan controversy shows how the issue is stark and simple. Judge Duncan had a right to speak and others had a right to hear him. Those who disagree with him had a right to protest outside of the event and to ask tough questions inside the event. The only thing that they could not do is disrupt the event itself; to prevent others from hearing from Judge Duncan.

  [ZH: We note that Judge Duncan, a Trump appointee, delivered a speech at the University of Notre Dame last night (March 24), telling listeners that there’s a “vital tradition of free speech in this country” and that students have the right to protest him.

  “It’s a great country, where you can harshly criticize federal judges and nothing bad will happen to you. You might even get praised or promoted,” he said.

  “But make no mistake. What went on in that classroom on March the ninth had nothing to do with our proud American tradition of free speech. It was rather a parody of it.”]

  The solution is also stark and simple, though it has, once again, been ignored by an administration.

  Students who cancel events or classes on campus are taking a position that is not just antithetical to principles of free speech but of higher education. They should be suspended or, in extreme or repeated cases, expelled.

  Otherwise, the law school is not achieving any greater clarity than this column. It is professing an absolute commitment to free speech while declining to enforce that commitment.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 15:30

• 2-Mile Line Of Cars Forms Outside Trump Kick-Off Rally As City Of Waco Predicts 15,000+
  2-Mile Line Of Cars Forms Outside Trump Kick-Off Rally As City Of Waco Predicts 15,000+

  The city of Waco is estimating at least 15,000 attendees for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign kickoff rally at Waco regional airport on Saturday. While the venue is relatively small as far as airports go, the location was chosen because it’s the most geographically central point in Texas relative to large population centers.

  But this didn’t stop mainstream media from making incredibly superficial comparisons to the Branch Davidians while claiming “Waco is hugely symbolic on the far right.” The Trump campaign supposedly has a “secret agenda” – USA Today tries to claim in an absurd hit-piece based purely on speculation and zero sourcing. Meanwhile, a large pre-dawn line was already evident Saturday morning to get into the rally…

  

  Saturday in Waco marks first full-fledged rally of Trump’s 2024 campaign and it’s attracting national attention especially given the arrest warrant hanging over him, unprecedented for any ex-President.

  Trump grabbed headlines Friday by writing the following on his social media site: “What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States … and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?”

  The Trump rally in Waco begins at 2 pm but supporters of the former president are already showing up by the thousands! 👉 INFO: https://t.co/8pEw1Hjdsc pic.twitter.com/1dKJx2FUbW

  — KWTX News 10 (@kwtx) March 25, 2023

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  Glimpse of the early morning lines…

  It’s 8am in Waco, and MASSIVE lines are already forming for Pres. Donald Trump’s Texas rally.

  This is shaping up to be huge.@OANN pic.twitter.com/A2aNwSke1p

  — Daniel Baldwin (@baldwin_daniel_) March 25, 2023

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  There are local reports that the line of cars to get into the airport venue stretched to two-miles long ahead of the event fully opening.

  Texas native Ted Nugent announced, “I will unleash a fire-breathing Star-Spangled Banner” at the Waco rally today.

  I will unleash a firebreathing Star-Spangled Banner with the great president Donald Trump at the Waco regional airport tomorrow at 2PM! McLennan county is the epicenter of conservative American Dream spirit/values! See you there patriots!https://t.co/84EfP5g0PR

  — Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) March 24, 2023

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  And other big GOP names are expected to be at the rally…

  Good morning!

  I woke up in Waco, Texas today.

  I’m here to support my favorite President! 🇺🇸

  I can’t wait to see President Trump!

  Save America! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  — Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 25, 2023

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  LIVE FEED outside the venue:

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 15:00

• Stockman: Raiding The Taxpayer Piggy-Bank
  Stockman: Raiding The Taxpayer Piggy-Bank

  Authored by David Stockman via LewRockwell.com,

  Janet Yellen is one continuous anti-prosperity horror show and the reason is obvious enough. She got her indoctrination at Yale from the granddaddy of Professor Keynes’ US disciples, James Tobin, in the late 1960s and has spent most of her years since then pontificating in academia or dictating from the Fed.

  So now with the arrival of screaming evidence that the banking system desperately needs the disciplining effect of depositor flight, she comes out four-square for euthanizing the $9 trillion of still uninsured deposits in the US banking system.

  But let’s cut to the chase. Banks not disciplined by their depositors and not at risk for deposit flight are dangerous institutions. They leave bank executives free to swing for the fences on the asset-side of their balance sheets without fear that attentive depositors will move their money to safer pastures.

  For crying out loud. It was bad enough during the last several years when deposits were dirt cheap and knuckleheads like those who ran SVB decided to load up their balance sheets with 10-30 year duration assets against overnight demand deposits, most of which were uninsured.

  For the moment that allowed them to book outsized profits and reap the consequent benefit of soaring stock options, but these “profits” were phony as a two-dollar bill. That’s because they were being generated off long-term fixed income assets, the prices of which had nowhere to go except down.

  For want of doubt, here is the inflation-adjusted yield on the 10-year UST through the beginning of the Fed’s belated anti-inflation campaign in March 2022. No one in their right mind should have believed these deeply underwater yields were sustainable; and no banker capable of running even a credit union in Podunk Iowa would have matched up overnight deposits with these long-duration securities—investments which were absolutely heading for a nose-dive in value.

  Indeed, at the March 2022 bottom, the real 10-year UST yield stood at -6.4%, the lowest level in the 60-years shown in the chart, and undoubtedly the lowest rate ever—since prior to that time the nation’s central bank actually believed in sound money, zero inflation and market-based interest rates.

  In a word, anybody who bought long-term treasuries or agency securities at the bottom of the purple line in the chart below should have had their head examined. And most certainly they shouldn’t have been running a multi-billion bank.

  Inflation-Adjusted Yield On 10-Year UST, 1962 to March 2022

  

  Nonetheless, Janet Yellen and her fellow Washington clowns got themselves warmed-up last week by bailing-out $155 billion of uninsured deposits at SVB—deposits that had been wantonly put in harm’s way by reckless management on a stock-pumping joy ride.

  To wit, between 2020 and 2021 SVB’s assets nearly doubled from $115 billion to $211 billion, while the HTM (securities held to maturity) portion of that balance sheet literally exploded from $17 billion to $98 billion. And more than 95% of this massive HTM book had maturities of 10-years or more!

  Here’s the thing. These fools massively mismatched their book even without the safeguard of deposit insurance. What in the world is going to happen when deposits are 100% insured?

  More importantly, there is no substitute for career-destroying penalties when they result from the towering incompetence embodied in the blow-up of banks like SVB. Yet in that very regard it turns out that one of the senior financial officers at SVB had apparently gotten his financial training at, well, Lehman and Enron!

  So if nothing else, we need deposit flight and bank failures to purge the bad actors, incompetents and reckless cowboys from the banking industry. Yet the de facto policy is now that no depositor can loose money, no bank can fail and no one’s resume should be besmirched.

  Whatever that is, it’s not market-based capitalism. And its going to lead to massive waste and malinvestment, not bank-fueled prosperity.

  In any event, the chart below shows that the banking system is already extremely dangerous, and that compounding the risk via 100% deposit insurance would amount to lighting the match.

  In a word, over the last decade especially the Fed has flooded the financial markets with so much liquidity that the banking system has been literally drowned in excess deposits and reserves. As shown below, banking system deposits have historically been about 40% of GDP, but since the turn of the century that ratio has gone vertical, rising to more than 70% of GDP during the most intense periods of money-printing during 2020-2021.

  The flooding of the zone with deposits has been especially acute since the pre-crisis peak in November 2007. During the 15 years since then, total bank deposits have soared from $6.6 trillion to $17.6 trillion or by 6.2% per annum. And in the period since March 2020, that growth rate has accelerated to nearly 10% per annum.

  By contrast, since Q4 2007 nominal GDP has expanded by just 3.8% per annum. Yet all thing equal, savings and the resulting bank deposits would have grown at the same rate as GDP. They actually grew at almost double the GDP rate, of course, because the Fed was running the printing presses so red hot that much of the new money never left the financial system, backing up into the banking system, instead.

  Bank Deposits As A Percent Of GDP, 1962 to 2022

  

  Needless to say, all of these deposits had to be put to work, and aggressive managements quickly figured out the new banking ball-game. To wit, under the post Dodd-Frank regulatory regime the banking system was switched from one which was constrained by cash reserves (to meet a surge in depositor withdrawals) to one which was purportedly capital-driven based on the standards fashioned by the Bank for International Settlements.

  Had the regulators been content to go with plain vanilla capital ratios, the new regime might not have been a total disaster. But naturally the bank lobbies got their hands on the rule-writing process and determined that a spade was not a spade.

  That is, not all assets were treated as equal when it came to computing capital ratios. In fact, government debt was determined to be risk-free, requiring no capital backing whatsoever. So banks did what regulators implied they should do—they loaded up with government and agency debt because it required dramatically less capital backing.

  In turn, this “capital-light” regime was great for stock prices and executive stock options. Instead of plowing a goodly portion of earnings into capital for growth they allocated it to dividends and stock buybacks, instead. The gamblers in the stock markets were thrilled.

  For instance, from JPMorgan’s $258 billion of net income posted over 2015-2022 about $189 billion or 73% was paid out to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks ($102 billion) and dividends ($87 billion). During the same period, however, JPM’s total assets grew from $2.352 trillion in 2015 to $3.666 trillion in 2022.

  Since the Fed was fueling asset inflation and repressing money market interest rates during that same period, this 56% growth of total assets was the equivalent of a printing press. The bank’s net interest margin soared, causing its net income to flourish and its market cap to surge from $225 billion in 2015 to a peak of $500 billion in late 2021.

  But all that shareholder magic was not just because Jamie Dimon is some-kind of latter day financial Einstein. JPM’s half trillion dollar market cap was partially thanks to the capital-light regulatory regime.

  Thus, in 2015 JPM’s ratio of book equity to total assets had stood at 10.50%, which would be minimally safe in a world without “too -big-to-fail”. But as it happened, by 2022 its equity ratio had actually fallen to just 7.97% as the bank loaded up on capital-free government securities.

  The implication of that is straight forward. To maintain its 2015 equity ratio JPM would have needed $385 billion of book equity by 2022, not the $292 billion it actually reported. So to actually accomplish the robust asset growth that fueled its fulsome earnings gains it would have needed to retain $93 billion more of its net income over the period.

  That is to say, its payouts to Wall Street in the form of stock-buybacks and dividend would have been cut in half! The gamblers would not have been so pleased.

  Needless to say, based on this illustration it is easy to see why banks went whole hog buying long-duration governments. It drastically conserved capital, permitting fulsome payouts of dividends and stock buybacks.

  On the other hand, the Fed’s ostensible reason for flooding the financial system with cheap credit was to goose bank lending levels, and thereby allegedly fuel stronger economic growth. But again in the case of JPM it is evident that didn’t happen.

  In 2015 its loan book stood at $824 billion, which accounted for 64.4% of its $1.28 trillion of deposits. By 2022, however, its loan book at grown only modestly to $1.11 trillion, but that amounted to just 47.7% of deposits, which had soared to $2.34 trillion.

  In short, even if it was a good idea to artificially stimulate more loans, which it is not, that didn’t happen despite all of the Fed’s reckless money-printing. Instead, the new money flooded into banks, which bought government bonds and thereby aided the Congressional borrow-and-spend contingent, while at the same time enabling reckless bank managements to take on massive amounts of long-term Treasury and Agency securities at the rock-bottom of an interest rate cycle that will not be seen again for decades to come, if ever.

  Yet notwithstanding these realities Yellen last Sunday afternoon launched a campaign to drastically further weaken the banking system by essentially abolishing the last vestiges of depositor scrutiny and discipline. We are referring to the abominable bailout of all depositors at SVB and Signature Bank, but especially the so-called Bank Term Facility Program (BTFP). The latter was bad enough, since it allowed banks to borrow 100 cents on the dollar against 30-year bonds which lost 40% of the market value last year.

  But now Yellen’s gone full retard, suggesting outright guarantees of all deposits, regardless of size:

  “The steps we took were not focused on aiding specific banks or classes of banks. Our intervention was necessary to protect the broader U.S. banking system,” Yellen said. 

  “And similar actions could be warranted if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs that pose the risk of contagion.”

  As the Wall Street Journal noted this AM “the sound and fury of demands for universal deposit insurance are growing”. For instance, the chronic Wall Street whiner and entitled brat, Bill Ackman, is demanding his bacon be saved via 100% deposit insurance. But so is the usually sensible (on public policy, that is) Elon Musk.

  As the financial press breathlessly reported this AM, the Treasury Department staff is reviewing whether federal regulators have enough emergency authority to temporarily insure deposits greater than the current $250,000 cap on most accounts without formal consent from a deeply divided Congress, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

  The bolded phrase tells you all you need to know. How in the world after at least 40-years of Congress’ refusal to insure bank deposits at 100% regardless of size, can you have a legitimate decision to take on a $9 trillion liability in behalf of the taxpayers by executive decree?

  Indeed, if that isn’t a decision for the representatives of the people to make, we don’t know what is—if you want to even pretend we have a democracy.

  After all, 100% deposit insurance would mean that the $125 billion FDIC fund would be guaranteeing $18 trillion of deposits. They can say that the necessary funds—which might rise into the hundreds of billions or even trillions under certain loss scenarios—would come out of FDIC insurance premiums, but c’mon. That would be a giant tax by any other name because all 108 million US households with bank accounts would ultimately pay the premium in the form of lower rates on their deposits.

  Not surprisingly, of course, the Washington lobbies have already gotten involved big time in attempting to force thru this profoundly anti-democratic action. To wit, the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America, which includes banks with assets of as much as $100 billion, urged regulators to lift the current cap on deposit insurance, according to a March 17 letter reviewed by Bloomberg. The organization expressed concern that, if another regional lender fails, more depositors will move their money to the nation’s largest banks, regardless of the underlying health of their smaller competitors.

  So what!

  Perhaps these virtuous small bankers should have been thinking about the risk of deposit flight when they loaded up their balance sheets with higher yielding assets bearing both interest rate and/or credit risks. Absent these factors, in fact, there is no reason why a conservative bank would be at risk of deposit flight or be unable to weather a temporary flight by borrowing at the Fed’s discount window.

  That’s exactly what happened in the last week. The weekly change in discount window borrowings soared to $138 billion, nearly on par with the $180 billion gain during the traumatic first week of October 2008.

  Weekly Change In Fed Discount Window Borrowings, 1980 to 2023

  

  Of course, the crybabies in the small and mid -sized bankers brigade don’t like the discount window because there is allegedly a stigma attached to it, and because the current discount rate is 4.75%—well above their average deposit costs. In short, they want some cheap money from Uncle Sam so they can run a asset/liability mismatch, book fulsome earnings and laugh all the way to the bank account for their stock options.

  At the end of the day, we are truly getting to the end of the road with this form of crony capitalism and socialization of losses for the big guys wearing the long-pants.

  While the usual bipartisan suspects are now busy fixing to pass legislation raising the deposit insurance limit to way above $250,000, at least the House Freedom Caucus has figured out what is at stake and has come out solidly against a 100% guarantee.

  Since they won an option to call for Speaker McCarthy’s removal at the time of his election to the job, let’s hope they are ready, willing and able to use it when any semblance of the 100% deposit insurance legislation is brought to the House floor. That’s how much is really at stake.

  “Any universal guarantee on all bank deposits, whether implicit or explicit, enshrines a dangerous precedent that simply encourages future irresponsible behavior to be paid for by those not involved who followed the rules,” the House Freedom Caucus said in a statement.

  *  *  *

  Reprinted with permission from David Stockman’s Contra Corner.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 14:30

• Russia To Station Tactical Nukes In Belarus By July, Putin Says On State TV
  Russia To Station Tactical Nukes In Belarus By July, Putin Says On State TV

  Russia has reportedly struck a deal with neighboring Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory, Tass news agency quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying on Saturday.

  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin said in comments broadcast on state TV Saturday..

  “We agreed with Lukashenko that we would place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating the nonproliferation regime,” Tass quoted Putin as saying.

  Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons might arrive to Belarus as early as this summer, Putin said.

  

  Moscow is finishing the construction of a specialized storage for such arms amid repeated calls by Minsk to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the Belarusian territory, he added.

  The storage in Belarus will be ready on July 1, Putin told Russia 24 TV.

  Putin also said that Moscow does not plan to hand over control over any tactical nuclear weapons to Minsk but would only deploy its own arms to the Belarusian territory.

  He did not specify when exactly the weapons would be transported to the new storage.

  Bloomberg reports that Russia has already stationed 10 aircraft in Belarus capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, with Putin noting that Iskander short-range missiles – capable of carrying nuclear warheads – had also been sent to Belarus, and training for crews would begin there on April 3.

  There has been no response from Washington yet to Putin’s statement, but we note that Putin claimed such a move would not violate nuclear nonproliferation agreements, pointing out that the US has “long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/25/2023 – 13:59

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• Homeland Security Reorganizes, Appearing To Scrap Last Remnants Of Ill-Fated "Disinformation Governance Board"
  Homeland Security Reorganizes, Appearing To Scrap Last Remnants Of Ill-Fated “Disinformation Governance Board”

  Authored by Matt Taibbi and Susan Schmidt via Racket News,

  The Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to present a less Orwellian exterior to the public took a big step forward this week, as it disbanded a key subcommittee linked to the Department’s ill-fated Disinformation Governance Board, announced last year and quickly “paused” amid public outcry.

  

  Jen Easterly, head of the DHS’s cyber division — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA — this week convened the agency’s influential Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC), which is made up of senior executives from organizations like Twitter, Amazon, and the Stanford Internet Observatory. The agency announced an expanded roster, adding 13 new members to CSAC, including chief cybersecurity officer for General Motors Kevin Tierney and Cathy Lanier, the chief security officer for the NFL. The full CSAC now contains 34 members.

  However, amid the additions, CISA also shuffled responsibilities, making a key change. In particular, its “MDM” advisory subcommittee, for “Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation,” was scrapped.

  The subcommittee’s leaders, including chairperson Kate Starbird of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public (CIP), and Vijaya Gadde, a former top Twitter executive who was fired last year when Elon Musk took over the company, were shifted to other advisory roles.

  A spokesman for the agency said the change appeared in an unpublicized summary of a Dec. 6 advisory board meeting. The summary provided to Racket states Easterly decided late last year that the subcommittee had fulfilled its tasks and would “stand down”:

  

  But that notice appears to have only been posted on the agency website recently (the Wayback Machine captured a first image of it in late February). CISA’s unique approach to website maintenance has drawn attention of late. Last week, Mike Benz of the Foundation for Freedom Online reported that CISA scrubbed key sections of its web page about its campaign against “Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation.” Crucially, the agency appeared to remove references to “domestic threat actors” as purveyors of “MDM.”

  

  The updated page now refers to foreign actors only, and no longer makes reference to other domestic-facing programs, like an “MDM planning and incident response guide for election officials.”

  The changes come amid months of embarrassing #TwitterFiles disclosures about formal DHS involvement in the content moderation procedures of Twitter and other platforms. Two weeks ago, Michael Shellenberger of Public and the co-author of this article told a House Subcommittee about the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” among other things criticizing the “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” concept.

  “MDM” was once central to CISA’s mission. In fact, it appeared to be the inspiration for the infamous Governance Board, which was designed to be a centralized hub uniting various public and private “anti-disinformation” initiatives. As reported by Lee Fang and Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept last October, Easterly in February of 2022 texted a former CISA official, saying she was “trying to get us in a place where Fed can work with platforms to better understand mis/dis trends so relevant agencies can try to prebunk/debunk as useful.”

  

  It later came out that the DHS approved the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board on February 24, 2022. The charter for the new organization, which was announced to the public by DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas on April 27, 2022 and slated to be headed by singing censor Nina Jankowicz, spoke to the agency’s growing obsession with stopping “MDM” at home:

  DHS Disinformation Governance Board Charter

  Section1. Purpose. The purpose of the Board is to support the Department’s efforts to address mis-, dis-, and mal-information (MDM), that threatens Homeland Security. Departmental components will lead on operational responses to MDM in their relevant mission spaces.

  All of this came out after news of the Governance Board inspired a public flip-out, leading Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Josh Hawley of Missouri to send the DHS formal demands for information. The documents the DHS produced showed CISA envisioned a deepening of its partnership with Twitter. On April 28, the day after the Governance Board was announced, DHS Undersecretary Robert Silvers was scheduled to meet with Twitter Head of Policy Nick Pickles and Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.

  A briefing memo prepared for Silvers by Jankowicz advised him to discuss “operationalizing public-private partnerships between DHS and Twitter.” Silvers was to line up Twitter’s coordination with the new board, and ask it to “become involved in Disinformation Governance Board Analytic Exchanges”:

  

  The creation of the Disinformation Governance Board represented a remarkable shift in focus, away from foreign threats and toward the domestic population.

  The MDM subcommittee had actually once been called the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force (CFITF). Throughout the period of the 2020 Election, Twitter received large quantities of flags about tweets from the CFITF, notices which appear in abundance in the #TwitterFiles. These letters often originated from a regional American agency, like the Secretary of State’s office in Colorado or Connecticut.

  This was odd behavior for an agency devoted to countering “foreign” threats. The subcommittee subsequently changed its name and — briefly — adopted a more openly domestic focus.

  Last June, the advisory board recommended that CISA should work with and provide support to external partners “who identify emergent informational threats,” and find ways to mitigate “false and misleading narratives.”

  It also said CISA should fund and collaborate with partners to measure the impact of disinformation and mitigation, and do “proactive” work like “pre-bunking” emerging rumors. In a five-page memo of recommendations, the board listed a slew of aggressive ideas for combating “MD” at home (i.e. “mis- and disinformation”) that included “reducing engagement” by offenders:

  

  The tasks were enormous, advisors said. “CISA should consider MD across the information ecosystem,” including talk radio, cable news, mainstream media, and “hyper-partisan media.”

  Easterly’s response to the June recommendations focused on foreign threats. She narrowed the scope of a recommendation from the MDM subcommittee that the agency should combat mis- and disinformation that “undermines critical functions of American society and undermines response to emergencies.”

  Easterly responded by saying CISA will continue to work on ways to counter “foreign influence operations and disinformation that threatens the integrity of the election infrastructure.” She seemed to agree that the agency should work with academic researchers to measure the impact of their efforts.

  Meeting minutes from last year also show the public furor over the DHS announcement of a “Disinformation Governance Board” had MDM subcommittee members worried. They discussed delaying and toning down their June quarterly recommendations to the full CISA advisory board, with one passage suggesting members find a way to “pre-socialize” the existence of the subcommittee for key decision-makers:

  [Redacted] suggested contacting Director Easterly in preparation for the rollout during the CSAC June Quarterly Meeting, to solicit her feedback on how to pre-socialize the existence of the subcommittee with key members of congress or outside validators.

  Part of the subcommittee’s worry seemed to be that not many people knew what they were up to, or that they even existed — not in Congress or even at DHS. The group worried about how to “strategically approach MDM in the government in the current discourse.”

  The “current discourse” was a reference to the furor over the Disinformation Governance Board, which by then was being likened to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.” After an outcry, Mayorkas had to “pause” its work and asked two top Washington lawyers, former DHS Secretary Mike Chertoff and former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to weigh in on the legitimacy of the board. Within weeks the lawyers issued an urgent interim finding: It’s not needed.

  They then issued a final report in August, affirming the Disinformation Board should be abolished. The report said government should limit its involvement with social media companies. DHS, they concluded, can bring disinformation to the attention of social media companies, but “it is for the platforms, alone, to determine whether any action is appropriate under their policies.”

  Given the controversy over the Disinformation Governance Board, subcommittee members decided it would be better to jettison altogether a planned recommendation on “privacy and social listening,” which appeared to refer to the use of software that can proactively search out particular words or language. They worried this “most sensitive recommendation” could “overshadow other recommendations posed by the committee.”

  The decision this week by CISA to scrap the MDM subcommittee, like last year’s “pause” of the governance board, reflects political sensitivity to growing public concern over social media censorship. What changes would more press attention bring?

  Subscribe to Racket News

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 23:40

• "City Killer" Apollo-Class Asteroid To Buzz Earth, Visible Via Telescope
  “City Killer” Apollo-Class Asteroid To Buzz Earth, Visible Via Telescope

  The Associated Press reported that a “city-killer” asteroid, known as 2023 DZ2, is set to pass between Earth and the Moon’s orbit on Saturday. Discovered merely three weeks ago, the asteroid’s 17,000 mph flyby of Earth will be observable through telescopes or accessible via a live stream. 

  023 DZ2 is an Apollo-class asteroid measuring approximately 140-310 feet in diameter. This classification signifies that its orbit intersects Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Apollo asteroids are also classified as “near-Earth objects” because they can be “potentially hazardous.” The good news is the asteroid will pass Earth by about 110,000 miles, about half the distance to the Moon.

  

  The Virtual Telescope Project will provide a live stream Saturday evening around 7:30 pm EST for the flyby.

  Anyone with a six-inch telescope in the Northern Hemisphere might be able to observe the asteroid as it passes by Earth.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 23:20

• GOP Bill To Expand Tax-Free Health Savings Accounts To All Americans
  GOP Bill To Expand Tax-Free Health Savings Accounts To All Americans

  Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has introduced a bill that would make tax-free Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) available to all Americans.

  Currently, most Americans cannot use HSAs due to the stringent rules that govern their use: only those who pay an abnormally high insurance deductible can take advantage of the pre-tax program. In practice, this means that 90 percent of Americans are not eligible for HSAs.

  Roy’s bill, dubbed the Healthcare Freedom Act, would change the rules to make all Americans eligible for HSA accounts.

  To do this, the bill would de-link eligibility for an HSA, renamed a “Health Freedom Account” by the legislation, from health insurance requirements.

  Many patients who pay high-deductible policies—which have grown more popular among employers over the past two decades—never meet their annual deductible, meaning any money they paid on the policy was effectively wasted. Because of the increased prevalence of high-deductible health insurance policies, many Americans have had to rely on savings to cover their day-to-day medical expenses.

  Additionally, the bill would increase the maximum annual contribution to HSAs from $3,650 to $12,000, or to $24,000 for a joint contribution.

  In effect, this would allow American families to pay less in taxes annually and direct more money to HSAs.

  The bill would also expand permitted expenses under an HSA, allowing contributors to make tax-free withdrawals to pay for health insurance and associated costs, direct primary care arrangements, prescription and over-the-counter medications, and others.

  Roy told The Epoch Times in a statement on the legislation that his bill would be a win for patient choice.

  “Patients and their doctors should be driving our health care system—not politicians, and not government or corporate bureaucrats,” Roy said.

  He added that collusion between government and health care insurers against HSAs had led to increased medical costs for Americans.

  “The American people are absolutely fed up with Big Health care, government bureaucrats, and Congress destroying affordable access to the greatest medical care in the world,” Roy said. “It’s time to cut through the knot of government-corporate collusion and put power back in the hands of those who actually provide it and those who actually receive it.”

  Roy concluded, “I refuse to sit back and watch our government completely decimate health care freedom, and the Healthcare Freedom Act is a crucial step forward to saving it.”

  The legislation, which Roy also introduced during the 117th Congress, has won the praise of Americans for Prosperity, a free market non-profit.

  “Tax-free Health Savings Accounts save people money and give them more control over their health care by putting them in charge of their health care dollars,” said Dean Clancy, senior health policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity. “The fact that 90 percent of Americans can’t have an HSA is a major injustice that must be addressed if we truly want to reduce health care costs and make the health system more responsive to patients. Expanding access to HSAs is key to creating more personalized options in health care, and we applaud Rep. Roy for including this solution in his Healthcare Freedom Act.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 23:00

• "Significant" Amount Of Toxic Waste From Ohio Train Derailment Heads To Baltimore
  “Significant” Amount Of Toxic Waste From Ohio Train Derailment Heads To Baltimore

  The decision to transport a “significant” amount of toxic wastewater from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment by rail to a wastewater treatment plant located east of Baltimore City, and eventually discharge it into the local water system, might spark outrage among residents.

  

  Local media outlet WYPR obtained a letter from Contractor Clean Harbors of Baltimore Inc., which described itself as the “optimal wastewater treatment site to treat and discharge the wastewater collected from rainwater, collected water and stream water above and below the cleanup site of the Norfolk Southern Railroad derailment.” 

  

  Once the contractor obtains approval, the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore County is set to receive over 675,000 gallons of toxic water via rail transport (if you can believe it – by rail) — a fact that may concern Baltimore residents. The approval is expected to be granted imminently.

  “The water would be pre-treated by a contractor then dumped into the city-controlled wastewater system then cleaned with the city’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Dundalk,” WYPR said. 

  Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott voiced concerns about the plan to treat the toxic water. 

  “Both the county executive and I have grave concerns about the waste from this derailment coming into our facilities and being discharged into our system.” 

  Scott added he wants additional testing to be conducted before the water is released from the plant and into the water system. 

  And we wonder what water system is near the plant. Perhaps it’s the Chesapeake Bay… 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 22:40

• Don’t Believe The Hype: Woke Is Real And It’s Dangerous
  Don’t Believe The Hype: Woke Is Real And It’s Dangerous

  Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClear Politics,

  He’s woke. She’s woke. So are they, them, ey, ze, and xeir.

  

  Know what I mean?

  Of course, you do. The dominant flashpoint word in today’s political lexicon – woke is here, there, everywhere. From Whoopi’s lips to your ears. I say it all the time – way too much, according to my wife – but never once has anybody asked: what the heck are you talking about?

  The word is becoming a problem for woke-noscenti because the more people know about the alphabet soup movement – DEI, CRT, ESG, QIA+, etc. – the less they like it. What to do? Deny, deflect, and demonize, of course. Seizing on a conservative writer’s halting efforts to define the term during an interview, they are arguing that woke is a made-up, meaningless slurbrandished by the right to oppress minorities. Seeking to shut down all discussion of their movement, Touré outlawed it as the new “n-word.”

  Never mind that all language is made up – words are just symbols we create so we can talk about things and ideas – and that the term “woke” was coined by African Americans to describe the road-to-Damascus moment when the scales fall from one’s eyes and society’s allegedly oppressive structures become clear.

  Still, it can seem hard to precisely define this hydra-headed beast which seeks to redefine every aspect of human relations and understanding, from race, gender, and science, to politics, culture, family, and identity. Its tentacles are so far-reaching that even some writers who are critical of the movement are throwing up their lexicographic hands.

  Honestly, it’s probably enough to apply Justice Potter Stewart’s understanding of pornography: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material … but I know it when I see it.”

  The current insistence that woke isn’t even a word, however, provides giving-up-the-game clarity. At root, wokism hinges on the power to command perception and language. That word you know and discuss all the time, it doesn’t exist. Full stop. The consequential policy debates that consume our attention – e.g., battles over critical race theory or gender affirming care for children – are mere skirmishes in the far broader effort to control thought; once that’s accomplished, anything is possible. Hence its core demand: are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?

  To paraphrase Raymond Carver, what are we talking about when we talk about woke?

  Woke describes the ongoing cultural revolution which defines reality by its usefulness in achieving left-wing goals.

  The main weapon of the woke, who dominate society’s privileged channels of communication – academia, publishing, entertainment, and the media – is the article of faith that almost all reality is socially constructed, a creation of humanity rather than nature, to enable those in power to subjugate “the other.” Truth is not the goal of a never-ending quest to describe what is, but simply whatever they proclaim it to be. When there is no hard and fast truth, anything is possible. Facts are not stubborn things, but malleable building blocks which gain or lose authority based on their usefulness for constructing preferred narratives.

  Thus, the woke incessantly offer versions of events that are at odds with the known record. They told us that the summer of 2020 riots were “mostly peaceful;” that antifa was only an idea; that the nation is overrun by white supremacists and Christian nationalists. They insist that women earn a fraction of the pay men get for performing the same work; that unarmed blacks are shot by the police at much higher rates than other Americans; that all disparities between blacks and whites in wealth, health, and education are completely due to racism. And they assert that critical race theory is only taught in some law school classes, that mathematics is racist and sexist, men can menstruate, climate change is an existential threat, and Gov. DeSantis wants to prevent teachers in Florida from saying the word “gay.”

  The crucial dynamic is not just the assertion of fraught claims but the continued advancement of them after they have been debunked. The New York Times, for example, didn’t just declare in its “1619 Project” that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery, it pooh-poohed complaints from leading historians that this was false.

  As TV’s Dr. House observed, “everybody lies.” But woke lies have a larger purpose beyond gaining a temporary advantage. They are a strategy aimed at defining reality. Yes, people have always argued over truth, but history shows that societies governed by rigid, facts-be-damned ideology crush freedom, human dignity, and progress in order to coerce submission.

  This soul-crushing dynamic is inevitable because people aren’t blind – they can see they are being lied to. This is the chief reason why American politics has become so angry and divisive. The woke left is trying to impose a false world view. When people push back, they are silenced, demonized, and canceled. Dissent is not an option because the entire woke project depends on acceptance of their worldview.

  Woke isn’t just a word, it’s a revolution.

  J. Peder Zane is an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 22:20

• Off-Duty Pilot Enters Southwest Cockpit To Help After Pilot Suffers Medical Emergency
  Off-Duty Pilot Enters Southwest Cockpit To Help After Pilot Suffers Medical Emergency

  An off-duty pilot on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio entered the cockpit to help after one of the on-duty pilots suffered a medical emergency mid-flight.

  

  “The captain became incapacitated while enroute. He’s in the back of the aircraft right now with a flight attendant, but we need to get him on an ambulance immediately,” said a crew member in a communication to air traffic control, according to LiveATC.net.

  “A credentialed Pilot from another airline, who was on board, entered the Flight Deck and assisted with radio communication while our Southwest Pilot flew the aircraft,” said a airline spokesman Chris Perry, CNN reports. “We greatly appreciate their support and assistance.”

  A nurse who happened to also be onboard helped care for the pilot, the airline said, adding “It’s standard procedure for our Flight Crews to request assistance from traveling medical personnel during in-flight medical events involving Customers, this situation just so happened to involve one of our Employees.”

  According to FlightAware.com, the plane was in the air for around one hour and 17 minutes. After returning to the Las Vegas airport, a backup crew boarded the plane and continued to Columbus as planned.

  The FAA is investigating the incident.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 22:00

• Pentagon Leaders Say New Budget Will Help Prepare For War With China
  Pentagon Leaders Say New Budget Will Help Prepare For War With China

  Via The Libertarian Institute, 

  Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told Congress at a Thursday hearing that the Pentagon’s 2024 budget request will help the country prepare for a future war with China.

  Milley insisted the Pentagon’s massive $842 billion budget request is meant to deter war but said it will also prepare the US military to fight one. He told the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense that deterring and preparing for a conflict “is extraordinarily expensive, but it’s not as expensive as fighting a war. And this budget prevents war and prepares us to fight it if necessary.”

  

  The Pentagon identified China as the “most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security strategy” in the 2022 National Defense Strategy, and lately, US military leaders have been speaking more explicitly about how they’re preparing for a direct war with China despite the risk of nuclear war. President Biden has also vowed to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.

  Milley said China’s actions “are moving it down the path toward confrontation and potential conflict with its neighbors and possibly the United States,” echoing similar warnings made by Chinese officials.

  Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned earlier this month that if the US doesn’t change course on its military buildup in the Asia Pacific and other policies aimed at China, it will lead to “conflict and confrontation.” The Pentagon’s budget request will further expand the US military footprint in the region by funding a buildup plan known as the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.

  “This budget includes a 40 percent increase over last year’s for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to an all-time high of $9.1 billion,” Austin said at the hearing.

  “That will fund a stronger force posture, better defenses for Hawaii and Guam, and deeper cooperation with our allies and partners,” the top general added.

  For China hawks in Congress, what the Pentagon has asked to spend in 2024 is not enough. Including funding for other agencies, President Biden’s military spending request totals $886.4 billion. Congress is expected to add tens of billions more as it did with Biden’s 2022 and 2023 requests.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 21:40

• Ray Epps Hires Lawyer With Ties To FBI-Linked Perkins Coie, Threatens Tucker Carlson
  Ray Epps Hires Lawyer With Ties To FBI-Linked Perkins Coie, Threatens Tucker Carlson

  Authored by Mark Pellin via Headline USA,

  Ray Epps’s new attorney, who is demanding on behalf of his client a public apology from Tucker Carlson under threat of a defamation lawsuit, is the director of a radical anti-Trump organization, a close associate of Media Matters Democrat attack dog David Brock and a former employee of Perkins Coie, the lawfare firm behind Russiagate and the Steele dossier.

  

  Epps’s attorney, Michael Teter, sent a letter on Thursday to Carlson, demanding the Fox News host retract what Teter called “false and defamatory statements” that Epps was a J6 government plant.

  “Letters seeking retractions and apologies are often sent when lawyers are preparing to file a defamation lawsuit,” writes @alanfeuer

  — Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) March 23, 2023

  Carlson and myriad media outlets have reported on Epps’s suspect actions connected to the J6 uprising, his dubious testimony to the J6 Inquisition and his connections to federal agents.

  Teter — Epps’s new lawyer — is a former employee of Perkins Coie, the firm notorious for the grunt work and disinformation campaigns it ran for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

  The Democrat-connected law firm helped hatch the Steele dossier and actively collaborated with the FBI to push the bogus Russia collusion narrative. In the run-up to the 2016 tilt, Perkins Coie had furnished the FBI with office space.

  “We have learned that since March 2012, the FBI approved and facilitated a Secure Work Environment at Perkins Coie’s Washington, D.C. office, which continues to be operational,” lawmakers wrote to FBI chief Christopher Wray.

  And now one of Perkins Coie’s alumni is helping Ray Epps shut down Tucker Carlson.

  Perkins Coie represented Hillary Clinton and David Brock wrote the David Brock memo after Hillary lost that launched the plan to take down Pres Trump backed by big Democrat donors.

  I’m paying very close attention. I always have.

  The American people deserve the truth. https://t.co/kzW19BKlQZ

  — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 24, 2023

  After leaving Perkins Coie, Ray Epps’ new attorney hooked up with Media Matters founder and TDS fabulist David Brock. While not threatening Tucker Carlson with lawsuits on behalf of suspected J6 fed plant Ray Epps, Teter manages The 65 Project, where Brock is a senior advisor.

  The 65 Project was launched to punish lawyers who supported President Trump and to dissuade future attempts to overturn elections on illegitimate grounds.

  Via FactsFirstUSA, disgraced Dem operative David Brock joins Adam Kinzinger, the New York Times, and others as an unlikely defender of Ray Epps…

  Watch this video compilation and let that sink in…https://t.co/e6p2VVZ0A3

  — Darren J. Beattie 🌐 (@DarrenJBeattie) March 23, 2023

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 21:00

• Iran-Backed & US Occupation Forces Currently Battling In Eastern Syria, Reports Of Casualties
  Iran-Backed & US Occupation Forces Currently Battling In Eastern Syria, Reports Of Casualties

  Update(20:00ET): US forces occupying Syria’s northeast are in a high state of alert, and there are reports of ongoing gunbattles with Iran-backed militias into the night hours. It’s being widely acknowledged as the most serious fighting involving American forces there since 2019, with some of the latest rocket launches targeting Omar oil field, which has long been held by US and Kurdish forces.

  “The conflict in northeast Syria escalated on Friday as Iran-backed militias launched a volley of rocket and drone attacks against coalition bases after American reprisals for a drone attack that killed a U.S. contractor and injured six other Americans,” The New York Times reports late in the day Friday.

  🔴📹 #Syria– Iran-backed militias targeted the Conico US military base at the Omar oil field east of Deir ez-Zor in Syria with at least 20 rockets.
  American warplanes entered areas under the control of the Assad regime.
  Via @savunmaisleri pic.twitter.com/VOzba42H2I

  — Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) March 24, 2023

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

  The Pentagon claims the flare-up in fighting began the prior night with a drone attack which detonated at a US base. US officials called the self-destructive drone of “Iranian origin” – which resulted in rare American casualties.

  The White House then authorized a series of major airstrikes utilizing its aircraft out of Qatar. There were reports of fatalities and casualties among Syrian Army as well as allied Iranian troops as well.

  #BREAKING: US forces and pro-Iranian forces currently battling in Eastern Syria.

  This follows the US airstrike yesterday, in retaliation to a drone attack by Iranian-backed forces.

  Pro-Iranian forces have been placed on High Alert following their attacks on 3 US military bases… pic.twitter.com/dIJJrMvPSY

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 24, 2023

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

  Biden addressed the fighting while visiting PM Justin Trudeau in Ottawa. “Make no mistake, the United States does not, does not, I emphasize, seek conflict with Iran.” He added: “But be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people. That’s exactly what happened last night.”

  US officials have acknowledge to the Times that there was some kind of failure in the base’s anti-air systems: 

  Two U.S. officials said the main air defense system at the base was “not fully operational” at the time, raising questions about whether the attackers had detected that vulnerability and exploited it, or just happened to send the drone at that time, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

  BREAKING NEWS: US bases directly targeted by drones and missiles in oil rich northeast Syria.

  Casualties reported among the US forces. pic.twitter.com/eqyST5Bhzj

  — The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) March 24, 2023

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

  As for the raging overnight fight currently said to be unfolding, few details have emerged as to potential casualties on either side. The timing is interesting politically given the Saudi-Iran rapprochement, as well a recent failed push by Congress members to force the Biden White House to pull troops out of Syria.

  The best way to protect U.S. personnel is to bring them home. They are not authorized to be in Syria. Stop these endless occupations and wars. https://t.co/Db3ChgHjGa

  — Justin Amash (@justinamash) March 24, 2023

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

  * * *

  The United States struck Iranian-linked groups in Syria on Thursday after a US contractor was killed and five military service members and another US contractor were wounded in a purported drone strike. 

  The Pentagon said the US casualties were suffered on a base near Hasakah in the northeast part of the country, when a “one-way, unmanned, aerial vehicle” hit a maintenance facility at 1:38 pm local time. The statement said intelligence assessed the drone to be “of Iranian origin.” 

  Three service members and the surviving U.S. contractor were medically evacuated to military medical facilities in Iraq. Two service members were treated at the base. No details were provided about which military branches the service members were affiliated with, nor the identity of the contractors. 

  

  “At the direction of President Biden, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III in a statement. “The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC.”

  The violence came on the same day as reports that Syria and Saudi Arabia are on the brink of fully restoring diplomatic relations — to include reopening embassies. As we wrote just yesterday: 

  It seems the Gulf has been willing to recognize that the Syrian government won the decade-long war and move on, but not Washington. The US has continued its military occupation of northern Syria, and Israel has extended its bombing campaign, even this week with strikes on Aleppo international airport.

  The violence also comes alongside a Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which will see the long-time archrivals restore full diplomacy. An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, disappointed over the prospect of more peaceful relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, said it was the result of American “weakness.” 

  

  In August of last year, US helicopters attacked Iranian-linked militants in Syria after rockets were fired at US bases. 

  In separate statement on Thursday’s events, US Central Command said, “Our troops remain in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, which benefits the security and stability of not only Syria, but the entire region.” 

  To keep the wheat and oil out of the hands of the government and its allies. Oh, I mean protect our allies the Kurds from our allies the Turks and fight ISIS and their enemies, Iran.

  — Scott Horton (@scotthortonshow) March 24, 2023

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

  Officially, about 900 US service members are deployed in Syria, against the wishes of the Syrian government. The presence dates back to 2015, with successive administrations claiming the deployments are legal under the aging 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs). The first authorized force against the perpetrators of 9/11, and the second authorized the disastrous invasion of Iraq.  

  Earlier this month, the House rejected a resolution that would have directed President Biden to withdraw U.S. troops within 180 days. Introduced by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, it failed in a 103-321 vote. Both the yea and nay votes were highly bipartisan; 56 Democrats joined 47 Republicans in calling for troops to leave. 

  In a 9-86 vote on Wednesday, the Senate killed an amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul that would have put a six-month sunset on the 2001 AUMF.  ​​​​​“No one in Congress in 2001 believed they were voting for a decades-long war fought in at least 19 countries,” wrote Paul at Responsible Statecraft, noting that the six-month window would give Congress time to debate “where and how to authorize force.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 20:45

• Think Of The Zoomers! Democrat Activists Worry TikTok Ban Would Be 'Slap In The Face' To Young Voters
  Think Of The Zoomers! Democrat Activists Worry TikTok Ban Would Be ‘Slap In The Face’ To Young Voters

  After a Thursday grilling of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at a congressional hearing over concerns about user data and Chinese spying, Democrats have found an odd way of defending the app which may place data into the hands of the CCP…

  …banning the app – which doesn’t actually exist in China – will be a “slap in the face” to zoomers, aka GenZ.

  

  “I’m not defending TikTok as a company, I’m defending my entire generation,” said 19-year-old Harvard freshman, Aidan Kohn-Murphy, who founded a group in 2020 called TikTok for Biden (now called Gen Z for Change, having been formally incorporated as a political nonprofit).

  “If they went ahead with banning TikTok, it would feel like a slap in the face to a lot of young Americans,” he added. “Democrats don’t understand the political consequences this would have.”

  As the Biden administration considers banning the Chinese-owned short-form video platform with some 150 million U.S. users, young progressive activists and the older Democratic strategists trying to reach them are worried that the officials making the decision — very few of whom likely regularly use TikTok — have no idea how central the platform is to the lives of many in a generation that is just coming of age politically.

  Gen Z — the teens and 20-somethings born after 1996 — skew overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic. Their stronger-than-expected turnout in the 2022 midterms was partially credited with salvaging what otherwise might have been a disastrous election for the Democratic Party. -NBC News

  According to a recent poll, a majority of GenZ voters (53%) opposed a ban on TikTok vs. 34% who supported it. 49% of millennials support the ban vs. 34% who are similarly against it.

  “No doubt, Gen Z loves TikTok — it’s a source of entertainment, advice and revenue for influencers,” said pollster, John Della Volpe. “Banning it without a clear presentation of facts would be jarring; but what this survey shows is that two thirds of young Americans are concerned about Chinese threats to national security — and Gen Z is more pragmatic that many initially thought.”

  Who else defended TikTok? The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, who banged out a multi-tweet screed arguing that “TikTok might downplay its ownership by a China-based company because members of Congress keep saying it’s a secret Chinese spying machine owned by the Chinese Communist Party with zero evidence.”

  Members of Congress seem surprised by the fact that China has said it would resist the sale of TikTok. We’ve known that for three years; the government added the algorithm to an export-ban list when Trump tried to force a sale last time https://t.co/hj4F0uujHf

  — Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) March 23, 2023

  Except…

  Maybe you should read your own newspaper, Drew. https://t.co/ZFZ2WsWAoP

  — Noam Blum (@neontaster) March 23, 2023

  Hilarity ensues;

  I know!

  — Noam Blum (@neontaster) March 24, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 20:40

• Many CDC Blunders Exaggerated Severity Of COVID-19: Study
  Many CDC Blunders Exaggerated Severity Of COVID-19: Study

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

  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made at least 25 statistical or numerical errors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overwhelming majority exaggerated the severity of the pandemic, according to a new study.

  

  Researchers who have been tracking CDC errors compiled 25 instances where the agency offered demonstrably false information. For each instance, they analyzed whether the error exaggerated or downplayed the severity of COVID-19.

  Of the 25 instances, 20 exaggerated the severity, the researchers reported in the study, which was published ahead of peer review on March 23.

  “The CDC has expressed significant concern about COVID-19 misinformation. In order for the CDC to be a credible source of information, they must improve the accuracy of the data they provide,” the authors wrote.

  The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

  Most Errors Involved Children

  Most of the errors were about COVID-19’s impact on children.

  In mid-2021, for instance, the CDC claimed that 4 percent of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 were kids. The actual percentage was 0.04 percent. The CDC eventually corrected the misinformation, months after being alerted to the issue.

  CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky falsely told a White House press briefing in October 2021 that there had been 745 COVID-19 deaths in children, but the actual number, based on CDC death certificate analysis, was 558.

  Walensky and other CDC officials also falsely said in 2022 that COVID-19 was a top five cause of death for children, citing a study that gathered CDC data instead of looking at the data directly. The officials have not corrected the false claims.

  Other errors include the CDC claiming in 2022 that pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations were “increasing again” when they’d actually peaked two weeks earlier; CDC officials in 2023 including deaths among infants younger than 6 months old when reporting COVID-19 deaths among children; and Walensky on Feb. 9, 2023, exaggerating the pediatric death toll before Congress.

  “These errors suggest the CDC consistently exaggerates the impact of COVID-19 on children,” the authors of the study said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 20:20

• Miami Prepares For "Lawlessness And Carnage" Weekend As Mayor Vows To End Spring Break
  Miami Prepares For “Lawlessness And Carnage” Weekend As Mayor Vows To End Spring Break

  With spring breakers causing chaos across the South Florida area, Miami Beach is bracing for another wave of mayhem. According to the New York Post, business owners are preparing for three days of “lawlessness and carnage.” 

  “These people [spring breakers] have zero respect for any property, for anybody. Drugs, prostitution, you name it we’ve seen it.

  “You walk on the street on a daily basis and you’ve got guys coming up to you, [asking] if you want coke, if you want marijuana.

  “The people that come to Miami Beach in the last couple of years are no spring breakers… They’re adults. They’re troublemakers,” said Sebastian Labno, who co-owns several restaurants in the area.

  Miami Beach is already reeling from last weekend’s riots, shocking execution-style murders, and a number of smash-and-grabs. The violence was so bad that Miami Beach declared a state of emergency and implemented a curfew last Sunday into early Monday. 

  The identity of the spring breakers causing chaos can be seen in videos posted on Twitter.

  🚨#BREAKING: Reports of out control Spring Breakers jumping on occupied cars with fights breaking out
  ⁰📌#Miami | #Florida

  Police are responding to Numerous reports of unmanageable crowds of Spring Breakers in Miami Beach, which have resulted in altercations and instances of… pic.twitter.com/zHaR6dbw3u

  — R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 20, 2023

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

  Police say Dontavious Polk, 24, is seen on surveillance video shooting and killing a man this morning on Ocean Drive. He’s charged with 1st degree murder and is in Miami-Dade County Jail. @wsvn #SpringBreak https://t.co/Z1r2YqHAOa pic.twitter.com/5hGC1VJHAF

  — Sheldon Fox-7 News (@fox_sheldon) March 20, 2023

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

  Spring break shooting in Miami pic.twitter.com/jVgyy8LMO2

  — The NPC Show (@TheNPCShow) March 20, 2023

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

  And maybe Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber has reached a breaking point. He told Bloomberg:

  “It’s time Miami Beach gets rid of spring break.

  “Spring break is not a driver for the kind of economy we want.”

  Gelber’s potential move to end spring beak is probably due to the ultra-rich who moved to South Florida during the pandemic. 

  Officials in Miami Beach have expressed interest in ending spring break over the past several years due to the weeks of chaos that occur annually in March. However, despite enforcing temporary curfews, no permanent action has been taken to address the worsening violence. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 20:00

• Rickards: Why The Fed Keeps Getting It Wrong
  Rickards: Why The Fed Keeps Getting It Wrong

  Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

  The market’s in a highly unstable state right now. These violent swings show the inadequacy of the standard models that the Fed and other mainstream analysts use.

  The Fed assumes so many things about markets that are simply false, like that markets are always efficient, for example. They’re not. Under volatile conditions like these they gap up and down — they don’t move in rational, predictable increments like the “efficient-market hypothesis” supposes.

  The problem is that the Fed’s models are empirically false.

  

  Studies have proven how faulty their models are. The Fed has the worst forecasting record in the world. It’s basically been wrong every year since 2009.

  Equilibrium models like the Fed uses basically say the world runs like a clock and occasionally it gets knocked out of equilibrium. And all you have to do is tweak policy or manipulate some variable to push it back into equilibrium.

  It’s like resetting a clock. That’s a shorthand way of describing what an equilibrium model is. They treat markets like they’re some kind of machine. It’s a 19th-century, mechanistic approach.

  But traditional approaches that rely on static models bear little relationship to reality.

  Twenty-first-century markets aren’t machines and they don’t work in this clockwork fashion.

  The Fed uses equilibrium models to understand an economy that is not an equilibrium system; it’s a complex dynamic system.

  The Fed uses the Phillips curve to understand the relationship between unemployment and inflation when 50 years of data say there is no fixed relationship. The Fed uses what’s called value-at-risk modeling based on normally distributed events when the evidence is clear that the degree distribution of risk events is a power curve, not a normal or bell curve.

  As a result of these defective models, the Fed printed trillions of new money beginning in 2008 to ‘stimulate’ the economy, only to produce the weakest recovery in history. Need proof? Every year, the Federal Reserve forecasts economic growth on a one-year forward basis.

  And it’s been wrong every year for the better part of a decade. When I say ‘wrong’, I mean by orders of magnitude. If the Fed forecast 3.5% growth and actual growth was 3.3%, I would consider that to be awesome.

  But the Fed would forecast 3.5% growth and it would come in at 2.2%. That’s not even close, considering that growth is confined to plus or minus 4% in the vast majority of years.

  Right now the economy faces severe headwinds in the form of geopolitical instability, inflation and ongoing supply chain disruptions. The chances of recession are very high.

  The Fed needs interest rates to be between 4% and 5% to fight recession. That’s how much “dry powder” the Fed needs going into a recession. In September 2007, the fed funds rate was at 4.75%, toward the high end of the range. That gave the Fed plenty of room to cut, which it certainly did. Between 2008 and 2015, rates were essentially at zero.

  The good news, if you can call it that, is that the current fed funds target rate is between 4.75%-5%. That’s what today’s rate hike brought it up to. So, if we have a recession this year the Fed has the dry powder to fight it. But then the cycle just starts all over again.

  Here’s the deeper problem with all the Fed’s manipulations…

  The problem with any kind of market manipulation (what central bankers call “policy”) is that there’s no way to end it without unintended and usually negative consequences. Once you start down the path of manipulation, it requires more and more manipulation to keep the game going.

  Finally it no longer becomes possible to turn back without crashing the system.

  Of course, manipulation by government agencies and central banks always starts out with good intentions. They are trying to “save” the banks or “save” the market from extreme outcomes or crashes.

  But this desire to save something ignores the fact that bank failures and market crashes are sometimes necessary and healthy to clear out prior excesses and dysfunctions. A crash can clean out the rot, put losses where they belong and allow the system to start over with a clean balance sheet and a strong lesson in prudence.

  Instead, the central bankers ride to the rescue of corrupt or mismanaged banks (hello, SVB!). This saves the wrong people (incompetent and corrupt bank managers and investors) and hurts the everyday investor or worker who watches his portfolio implode while the incompetent bank managers get to keep their jobs and big bonuses.

  All it does is set the stage for a bigger crisis down the road. It certainly hasn’t helped the economy.

  In my 2014 book, The Death of Money, I wrote, “The United States is Japan on a larger scale.” That was nine years ago. Japan started its “lost decade” in the 1990s. Now their lost decade has dragged into over three lost decades. The U.S. began its first lost decade in 2009 and is now in its second lost decade with no end in sight.

  The economic damage from the lockdowns certainly didn’t help.

  What I referred to in 2014 is that central bank policy in both countries has been completely ineffective at restoring long-term trend growth or solving the steady accumulation of unsustainable debt.

  In Japan this problem began in the 1990s, and in the U.S. the problem began in 2009, but it’s the same problem with no clear solution. The irony is that in the early 2000s, former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke routinely criticized the Japanese for their inability to escape from recession, deflation and slow growth.

  When the U.S. recession began during the global financial crisis of 2008, Bernanke promised that he would not make the same mistakes the Japanese made in the 1990s. Instead, he made every mistake the Japanese made, and the U.S. is stuck in the same place and will remain there until the Fed wakes up to its problems.

  Bernanke thought that low interest rates and massive money printing would lead to lending and spending that would restore trend growth to 3.2% or higher. But he ignored the role of velocity (speed of money turnover) and the unwillingness of banks to lend or individuals to borrow.

  When that happens, the Fed is pushing on a string — printing money with no result except asset bubbles.

  That’s where we are today.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 19:40

• Defunded Austin Cops Take So Long To Respond To DUI That Driver Sobers Up, Walks Free
  Defunded Austin Cops Take So Long To Respond To DUI That Driver Sobers Up, Walks Free

  Police in Austin, Texas took so long to respond to a drunk driving incident that the driver was able to sober up and avoid charges, Fox News reports.

  

  Lacey Purciful told the outlet that she was driving with her husband Dustin and two children in North Austin around 4 p.m. on March 18, when a drunk driver cut across two lanes of traffic and hit them head-on.

  “Head on, didn’t hit the brakes, airbags deployed, screaming kids, smoke, adrenaline, we started screaming, and got the kids out of the car,” she said, adding that they quickly determined that the driver – a man in his 70s – was intoxicated. According to Purciful, the “first thing” a bus driver on the scene told her was that the other driver “smells of alcohol” and was “refusing to get out of the car.”

  @ladybug3660 Head on collision by a drunk driver. City of Austin TX police department has yet to arrive…2 Hours Later!!!!##drunkdriver##austintx##caraccident##wheresthecops ♬ original sound – Lacey Purciful

  https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js

  “He sat in the car for over 30 minutes and then when he got out of the car he fell to the ground and was making weird noises and just acting weird,” she said.

  More than 2.5 hours later, a police officer responded to the scene, telling them that only five officers were working that area. The suspect was given a sobriety test, and was let go.

  “Everyone could smell alcohol on this man,” said Purciful. “He openly admitted what he was drinking. He told my husband he was drinking High Noons. It isn’t just me making accusations he was just straight-up coming out and telling us and there was no remorse.”

  

  “He never asked if our children were OK. He never apologized. I have a video of him smiling at me as I’m calling him a drunk driver. He’s just standing there smiling at me,” she told the outlet.

  The couple has retained personal injury attorney Adam Loewy who told Fox News Digital that his understanding is typically around 25 officers would be in the area if it had been fully staffed. The 2.5-hour lag allowed the driver to avoid criminal charges by sobering up, he claimed.

  “I’ve heard this again and again where officers are telling me, look, we don’t have enough people working and so when that’s the scenario, these men and women go to different calls and there’s more calls that come in and what happens is you just wait and that’s just how it is,” Loewy said. -Fox News

  As Fox News notes, the Austin City Council slashed their police budget in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd riots across the country, while low morale and a recent move by the council to abandon a recently agreed upon contract with the PD has sparked a wave of retirements from the force.

  Democratic Mayor Kirk Watson recently assured the public that the PD would be “fully staffed” during the March 18th SXSW festival, when the Purcifuls were struck.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 19:20

• FDA Notice: Common Stroke Medication Recalled Over Cancer-Causing Chemical
  FDA Notice: Common Stroke Medication Recalled Over Cancer-Causing Chemical

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

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the recall of a commonly used stroke medication after the company discovered the presence of a potentially cancer-causing impurity.

  

  In an FDA-issued recall notice on March 22, Ascend Laboratories LLC said it is recalling Dabigatran Etcxilate Capsules at the consumer level after nitrosamine, a carcinogenic substance, was found about the “acceptable daily intake level.” The company said it hasn’t received any reports of adverse events or health problems in connection to the recall.

  “Nitrosamines are common in water and foods, including cured and grilled meats, dairy products, and vegetables. Everyone is exposed to some level of nitrosamines. These impurities may increase the risk of cancer if people are exposed to them above acceptable levels over long periods of time,” the FDA said. “The product is used as an oral anticoagulant to lower the risk of stroke and blood clots.”

  Dabigatran etexilate is a prescription medication that is used to lower the risk of stroke and blood clots in some individuals, according to the National Libraries of Medicine. Specifically, the drug is used to treat deep vein thrombosis, to prevent strokes or serious blood clots in individuals with atrial fibrillation, and pulmonary embolism in both children and adults.

  The company said that the recalled medication was distributed around the United States between June 2022 and October 2022. Lot numbers and other information about the recalled product are available on the FDA’s website.

  “Patients who have received impacted lots of Dabigatran Etexilate Capsules, USP 75 mg and 150 mg are advised to continue taking their medication and contact their physician for advice regarding an alternative treatment,” the notice said. “Consumers with questions regarding this recall can contact Ascend Laboratories LLC. using the below information.”

  But consumers should contact their doctor if they’ve experienced any adverse health events associated with the medication, the notice said.

  Other Recalls

  In October, Aurobindo Pharma USA announced the voluntary recall of two lots of blood pressure medication because of high levels of nitrosamine, according to an FDA notice. Two months later, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc. stated that it is voluntarily recalling four lots of Quinapril tablets due to the presence of nitrosamine.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 19:00

• Florida NAACP Seeks National Advisory Against Black Travel To Sunshine State
  Florida NAACP Seeks National Advisory Against Black Travel To Sunshine State

  The Florida chapter of the NAACP is asking its national organization to issue a travel advisory urging black people not to visit or move to the Sunshine State. 

  The proposal was put forth at the chapter’s state conference on Saturday, and members voted unanimously in favor of it. 

  The move is seen as a response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s education policies, including his having pressured The College Board to remove critical race theory tenets from its advanced placement (AP) African American studies course.  

  “We are going to educate the people about Florida and what Florida is doing to black peoples, that no black person should want to voluntarily come and be subjected to,” said James Muwakkil president of Lee County’s NAACP chapter. “Don’t come into racism. Stay away from it.”

  Do you still listen to the NAACP? pic.twitter.com/LNZZnfdXc9

  — Boyce Watkins, PhD – Wealth is Power (@drboycewatkins1) March 23, 2023

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  “What a joke,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Just remember, during COVID, these people would be on CNN, all this stuff, slamming Florida, saying we were so bad, don’t go to Florida. And then they would end up being spotted on the beach somewhere vacationing in Florida.”

  Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) responds to the Florida NAACP chapter asking for a travel advisory against Black Americans coming to the state since Florida initially rejected the teaching of an AP African American Studies course:

  “What a joke.” pic.twitter.com/iKSXybwRIj

  — The Recount (@therecount) March 23, 2023

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  “We are an organization that protects people’s civil rights, and this is a first step to doing that,” Hillsborough County NAACP President Yvette Lewis told the Tampa Bay Times. “People are seeing what’s happening in Florida. They’re paying attention, and I hope that help is coming.”

  Lewis said Florida’s efforts to strip blacks of their rights goes beyond education policy, and pointed to voting fraud arrests and redistricting that has split black voting blocks. She said the travel-advisory vote also reflected anger over proposed abortion limits and legislation narrowing the use of preferred pronouns in Florida schools. 

  It’s worth noting that, scouring the many interviews of Florida NAACP leaders, ZeroHedge found no indication that any of them actually plan to flee the purported bastion of racism.  

  The NAACP just told Black folk not to come to Florida because it’s not safe for us.

  Well, I’m Black and I been Black all my life.

  I been living in Florida for thirty years.

  I’ve done well for myself and lifted up my community.

  So that is some FOOLISHNESS if I ever heard it!

  — Lavern Spicer 🇺🇸 (@lavern_spicer) March 23, 2023

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  Tourism contributed $102 billion to Florida’s economy in 2021 — however, as even the Miami Herald recently noted, not all black travel in Florida is a net positive. After the latest vandalism and two more murders amidst spring break partying, the Herald editorial staff called for Miami to “drive a stake through spring break’s heart,” noting that “complicating matters is that many of the spring breakers are black.”

  Interestingly, that editorial no longer appears in searches of the Herald website, but is still visible where it was republished at Yahoo. 

  🚨#BREAKING: Reports of out control Spring Breakers jumping on occupied cars with fights breaking out
  ⁰📌#Miami | #Florida

  Police are responding to Numerous reports of unmanageable crowds of Spring Breakers in Miami Beach, which have resulted in altercations and instances of… pic.twitter.com/zHaR6dbw3u

  — R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 20, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 18:40

• GOP Can Target Suburban Swing Voters And Keep Their Base
  GOP Can Target Suburban Swing Voters And Keep Their Base

  Authored by Guy Ciarrocchi via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  In recent election cycles, the Philadelphia suburbs have been moving further into the Democratic column. To add to the challenge for Pennsylvania Republicans, more areas are resembling these communities as the state becomes more suburban. It’s a common trend in Rust Belt and East Coast states.

  

  Some analysts have argued that the answer for Republicans is to run “moderate” candidates. Admittedly, this approach is preferable to some others – either ignoring the suburban trend altogether or trying to compensate by building up super-majorities in rural Pennsylvania. Still, a moderate strategy may be too simplistic, and even misguided.

  My personal observations as a congressional candidate and former chief of staff, and as CEO of the Chester County Chamber of Business & Industry, have led me to conclude that a more important factor for Republican candidates is whether they strike the right tone and have the right temperament – and if they focus on kitchen-table issues, the ones that matter most to voters.

  Is a candidate seen as a “fighter,” for instance, as opposed to being perceived as “angry” or confrontational? There is a difference. It matters what the candidate fights for and against.

  In the suburbs, swing-voters’ default setting currently is to vote for Democrats. Fairly or not, Republicans are perceived as angry or confrontational.

  The suburbs are the most politically, culturally, and ideologically diverse segment of American society. Even in Chester County – Pennsylvania’s wealthiest county, with the most college graduates – it’s not easy to strike a balance. There are Whole Foods and gun clubs, hot-yoga studios and pro-life prayer vigils. And all these exist among registered Republicans and Independents, without even taking Democrats into account. 

  Moving too close to the center poses as many risks for Republicans as moving too far right; being too bland is as risky as it is to be too fiery. On Election Day 2022, shaking hands outside at a polling place in Chester County for over 13 hours, I was challenged by multiple moderate to right-of-center voters on a variety of issues. They were testing me to see if I would stand up for them. I didn’t for a moment think that any of them were going to vote for my Democratic opponent, an incumbent who had voted with Speaker Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time. But it was clear that many were considering whether they should bother voting at all.

  That’s the challenge for Republicans, who are already outnumbered and usually outspent by their Democratic opponents. If the GOP nominee is perceived as too far out on the fringe or too angry, swing voters will vote for the Democrat. If the nominee is perceived as too moderate or lacking conviction – lacking “fight” – some voters who are now part of the GOP base will not vote in that race.

  Let’s address the elephant in the room, on the heels of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. There is little doubt that a GOP candidate who bases his/her campaign on abortion will likely fall short. But abortion as an issue – and being “pro-life” – is more complicated than that. Pro-life candidates have had relative success in the suburbs, such as former U.S. Senator Pat Toomey and former Reps. Jim Gerlach and Patrick Meehan; Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who rates an 80% from the National Right to Life Committee, continues to win. Candidates who are pro-life have had relative success in suburban communities in purple and blue states like New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and Florida. And then there are Govs. Glenn Youngkin and Ron DeSantis, of Virginia and Florida, respectively. Not only did they win; so did their colleagues on the GOP tickets.

  This is why I believe tone, temperament, and priorities are more important for success than being “moderate.” Yes, Youngkin seemed at home in his sweater-vest, looking like a dad at a soccer game. But he talked passionately about school choice, parents’ rights, and common sense. He jumped into issues that many in the GOP would have seen as politically radioactive. In Virginia’s Loudon County, which resembles our Chester County, Youngkin lost by only 11 points. This is an impressive performance compared with that of the prior Republican candidate for governor, who lost by 20 points, and Donald Trump, who lost by 25 points in 2020. 

  Gov. DeSantis found success with an edgier tone. He has not shied away from campaigning against mask and vaccine mandates, critical race theory, and even the Disney corporation. His nearly 20% reelection victory margin included success in the suburbs and in minority communities, too.

  Both Youngkin and DeSantis made progress in the suburbs. Neither are considered moderate. Both have confronted hot-button battles of today. They are fighters, yes – but their fights have been on behalf of kids, parents, and the quality of day-to-day life.

  Most swing voters are looking for a clear, positive message. GOP candidates must build a coalition: they need to reach out to voters who want a candidate who shares their priorities and opposes radical “woke” policies. This is especially true among first- and second-generation Asian and Hispanic voters. Swing voters will tolerate and even applaud a “fighting” tone in a candidate if they sense that it’s genuine and policy-driven. If, by contrast, they perceive it as mean-spirited or reflexively partisan, they will look elsewhere.                                                                                          

  Put all those voters together, and that makes a pretty strong coalition and partnership. There’s a path forward to electoral success for Republicans. The choice is ours.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 18:20

• Earth Hit By "Strongest Geomagnetic Storm In Six Years" As Dazzling Auroras Spotted Across US
  Earth Hit By “Strongest Geomagnetic Storm In Six Years” As Dazzling Auroras Spotted Across US

  The coronal mass ejection we warned readers about days ago just blasted the Earth with solar plasma from the sun, unleashing one of the most intense geomagnetic storms in years. 

  According to the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the CME pounded Earth’s atmosphere last night with solar plasma in a G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm. A G3 Warning was in effect until early Friday morning. 

  “A severe disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field,” an SWPC warned, calling the solar storm “severe.” This caused stunning auroras in the US as far south as the Midwest. 

  

  People shared stunning photos of the auroras on Twitter. 

  Lynette Keeshan shared with us a beautiful photo of the northern lights as seen from Genoa last night! Did anyone else manage to see the northern lights? It was quite the solar storm last night! #NEwx pic.twitter.com/CCZJ5IxXKU

  — NWS Hastings (@NWSHastings) March 24, 2023

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  The dazzling Northern Lights over Lake George. Thanks for the great pics, Adam Pense.

  The auroras are a result of the interaction between charged particles from the Sun – a solar storm – and the Earth’s atmosphere near the Poles. @WTEN pic.twitter.com/xWl0bKm2IF

  — Jill Szwed (@JillSzwedWx) March 24, 2023

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  Hello northern lights 😍 we don’t often get to see them in Iowa, but there’s a strong solar storm and they’re quite visible! This was taken with an iPhone, so it’s fairly visible even to the naked eye! #northernlights pic.twitter.com/Q7QYfMHxmt

  — Everyday Astronaut (@Erdayastronaut) March 24, 2023

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  Geomagnetic storm news blog Space Weather said the severe G4 storm was the “most intense in nearly six years.” 

  This solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, has already been active, exceeding the past cycle. 

  Well, it’s official folks, solar cycle 25 is stronger than it’s previous cycle of 24. Solar maximum has not been recognised yet.
  (Based off yearly AVG SS numbers). pic.twitter.com/2pMjPknf5k

  — David I Birch (@Climate_Earth20) March 24, 2023

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  Even though auroras look stunning, these CMEs have a tremendous impact on modern society. 

  

  Recall the federal government started to prepare the nation for a space weather disaster in 2016 with the executive order signed by the Obama administration titled “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events.”  

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 18:00

• How They Convinced Trump To Lock Down
  How They Convinced Trump To Lock Down

  Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via Brownstone Institute,

  An enduring mystery for three years is how Donald Trump came to be the president who shut down American society for what turned out to be a manageable respiratory virus, setting off an unspeakable crisis with waves of destructive fallout that continue to this day. 

  

  Let’s review the timeline and offer some well-founded speculations about what happened. 

  On March 9, 2020, Trump was still of the opinion that the virus could be handled by normal means. 

  So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020

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  Two days later, he changed his tune. He was ready to use the full power of the federal government in a war on the virus. 

  I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2020

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  What changed? Deborah Birx reports in her book that Trump had a friend die in a New York hospital and this is what shifted his opinion. Jared Kushner reports that he simply listened to reason. Mike Pence says he was persuaded that his staff would respect him more. No question (and based on all existing reports) that he found himself surrounded by “trusted advisors” amounting to about 5 or so people (including Mike Pence and Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb)

  It was only a week later when Trump issued the edict to close all “indoor and outdoor venues where people congregate,” initiating the biggest regime change in US history that flew in the face of all rights and liberties Americans had previously taken for granted. It was the ultimate in political triangulation: as John F. Kennedy cut taxes, Nixon opened China, and Clinton reformed welfare, Trump shut down the economy he promised to revive. This action confounded critics on all sides. 

  A month later, Trump said his decision to have “turned off” the economy saved millions of lives, later even claiming to have saved billions. He has yet to admit error. 

  ….My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before. Jobs are flowing, NASDAQ is already at a record high, the rest to follow. Sit back & watch!

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2020

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  Even as late as June 23rd of that year, Trump was demanding credit for having followed all of Fauci’s recommendations. Why do they love him and hate me, he wanted to know. 

  We did a great job on CoronaVirus, including the very early ban on China, Ventilator production, and Testing, which is by far the most, and best, in the World. We saved millions of U.S. lives.! Yet the Fake News refuses to acknowledge this in a positive way. But they do give….

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020

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  Something about this story has never really added up. How could one person have been so persuaded by a handful of others such as Fauci, Birx, Pence, and Kushner and his friends? He surely had other sources of information – some other scenario or intelligence – that fed into his disastrous decision. 

  In one version of events, his advisors simply pointed to the supposed success of Xi Jinping in enacting lockdowns in Wuhan, which the World Health Organization claimed had stopped infections and brought the virus under control. Perhaps his advisors flattered Trump with the observation that he is at least as great as the president of China so he should be bold and enact the same policies here. 

  One problem with this scenario is timing. The Oval Office meetings that preceded his March 16, 2020, edict took place the weekend of the 14th and 15th, Friday and Saturday. It was already clear by the 11th that Trump was ready for lockdowns. This was the same day as Fauci’s deliberately misleading testimony to the House Oversight Committee in which he rattled the room with predictions of Hollywood-style carnage. 

  On the 12th, Trump shut all travel from Europe, the UK, and Australia, causing huge human pile-ups at international airports. On the 13th, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a classified document that transferred control of pandemic policy from the CDC to the National Security Council and eventually the Department of Homeland Security. By the time that Trump met with Fauci and Birx in that legendary weekend, the country was already under quasi-martial law. 

  Isolating the date in the trajectory here, it is apparent that whatever happened to change Trump occurred on March 10, 2020, the day after his Tweet saying there should be no shutdowns and one day before Fauci’s testimony. 

  That something very likely revolves around the most substantial discovery we’ve made in three years of investigations. It was Debbie Lerman who first cracked the code: Covid policy was forged not by the public-health bureaucracies but by the national-security sector of the administrative state. She has further explained that this occurred because of two critical features of the response: 1) the belief that this virus came from a lab leak, and 2) the vaccine was the biosecurity countermeasure pushed by the same people as the fix. 

  Knowing this, we gain greater insight into 1) why Trump changed his mind, 2) why he has never explained this momentous decision and otherwise completely avoids the topic, and 3) why it has been so unbearably difficult to find out any information about these mysterious few days other than the pablum served up in books designed to earn royalties for authors like Birx, Pence, and Kushner. 

  Based on a number of second-hand reports, all available clues we have assembled, and the context of the times, the following scenario seems most likely. On March 10, and in response to Trump’s dismissive tweet the day before, some trusted sources within and around the National Security Council (Matthew Pottinger and Michael Callahan, for example), and probably involving some from military command and others, came to Trump to let him know a highly classified secret. 

  Imagine a scene from Get Smart with the Cone of Silence, for example. These are the events in the life of statecraft that infuse powerful people with a sense of their personal awesomeness. The fate of all of society rests on their shoulders and the decisions they make at this point. Of course they are sworn to intense secrecy following the great reveal. 

  The revelation was that the virus was not a textbook virus but something far more threatening and terrible. It came from a research lab in Wuhan. It might in fact be a bioweapon. This is why Xi had to do extreme things to protect his people. The US should do the same, they said, and there is a fix available too and it is being carefully guarded by the military. 

  It seems that the virus had already been mapped in order to make a vaccine to protect the population. Thanks to 20 years of research on mRNA platforms, they told him,  this vaccine can be rolled out in months, not years. That means that Trump can lock down and distribute vaccines to save everyone from the China virus, all in time for the election. Doing this would not only assure his reelection but guarantee that he would go down in history as one of the greatest US presidents of all time. 

  This meeting might only have lasted an hour or two – and might have included a parade of people with the highest-level security clearances – but it was enough to convince Trump. After all, he had battled China for two previous years, imposing tariffs and making all sorts of threats. It was easy to believe at that point that China might have initiated biological warfare as retaliation. That’s why he made the decision to use all the power of the presidency to push a lockdown under emergency rule. 

  To be sure, the Constitution does not allow him to override the discretion of the states but with the weight of the office complete with enough funding and persuasion, he could make it happen. And thus did he make the fateful decision that not only wrecked his presidency but the country too, imposing harms that will last a generation. 

  It only took a few weeks for Trump to become suspicious about what happened. For weeks and months, he toggled between believing that he was tricked and believing that he did the right thing. He had already approved another 30 days of lockdowns and even inveighed against Georgia and later Florida for opening. He went so far as to claim that no state could open without his approval. 

  For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect….

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2020

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  He did not fully change his mind until August, when Scott Atlas revealed the whole con to him. 

  There is another fascinating feature to this entirely plausible scenario. Even as Trump’s advisors were telling him that this could be a bioweapon leaked from the lab in China, we had Anthony Fauci and his cronies going to great lengths to deny it was a lab leak (even if they believed that it was). This created an interesting situation. The NIH and those surrounding Fauci were publicly insisting that the virus was of zoonotic origin, even as Trump’s circle was telling the president that it should be regarded as a bioweapon. 

  Fauci belonged to both camps, which suggests that Trump very likely knew of Fauci’s deception all along: the “noble lie” to protect the public from knowing the truth. Trump had to be fine with that. 

  Gradually following the lockdown edicts and the takeover by the Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with a very hostile CDC, Trump lost power and influence over his own government, which is why his later Tweets urging a reopening fell on deaf ears. To top it off, the vaccine failed to arrive in time for the election. This is because Fauci himself delayed the rollout until after the election, claiming that the trials were not racially diverse enough. Thus Trump’s gambit completely failed, despite all the promises of those around him that it was a guaranteed way to win reelection.

  To be sure, this scenario cannot be proven because the entire event – certainly the most dramatic political move in at least a generation and one with unspeakable costs for the country – remains cloaked in secrecy. Not even Senator Rand Paul can get the information he needs because it remains classified. If anyone thinks the Biden approval of releasing documents will show what we need, that person is naive. Still, the above scenario fits all available facts and it is confirmed by second-hand reports from inside the White House. 

  It’s enough for a great movie or a play of Shakespearean levels of tragedy. And to this day, none of the main players are speaking openly about it. 

  Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute. He is also Senior Economics Columnist for Epoch Times, author of 10 books, including Liberty or Lockdown, and thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Do Norwegian Muslims 'Suffer' The Most During Ramadan?
  Do Norwegian Muslims ‘Suffer’ The Most During Ramadan?

  Ramadan started yesterday, Thursday, March 23.

  The date was determined as the first moon of a new lunar cycle was unable to be seen in Mecca Tuesday, determining Thursday as the start of the Muslim fasting month.

  While the length of Ramadan is the same for all Muslims observing it, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, the length of the daily fast certainly is not.

  Because Muslims vow to abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours, those living further north have to go without food and drink for much longer than their counterparts living closer to the equator or even in the Southern hemisphere which is celebrating Ramadan during winter.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Muslims fasting for Ramadan in Oslo theoretically have to do so for almost 16.5 hours, according to website islamicfinder.com. 

  

  Muslims in Jakarta, Indonesia, fast only for approximately 13 hours and 10 minutes. Finally, Melbourne in the Southern Hemisphere has just under 13 daylight hours depending on the exact day of the Ramadan month.

  Some Muslims in Northern countries seem to feel unfairly treated by the lunar forces that govern Ramadan and found alternative solutions. According to reporting by Der Spiegel, the town of Tromsø in the very north of Norway has adopted the fasting hours of Mecca (just under 14 hours in 2023).

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 02:45

• US Offers Slovakia Helicopters For Sending MiG-29s To Ukraine
  US Offers Slovakia Helicopters For Sending MiG-29s To Ukraine

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The US has offered Slovakia attack helicopters and Hellfire missiles as a reward for sending Ukraine Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets.

  Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said the deal would be for 12 Bell AH-1Z attack choppers, 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles, and training. The sale is worth about $1 billion, and under the offer, the US would provide $660 million in financing, and Slovakia would pay $340 million.

  

  Separately, the EU will compensate Slovakia with $213 million for providing Ukraine with the MiG-29s. Nad said the offer was still being considered but added acquiring the helicopters would “significantly increase the defense capability of Slovakia.”

  Without its MiG-29s, Slovakia doesn’t have an air force, and Poland and the Czech Republic are now monitoring the land-locked country’s airspace. Slovakia signed a deal in 2018 to purchase 14 US-made F-16 fighter jets, but they aren’t expected to be delivered until 2024.

  The US offer means that Washington must have been involved in Slovakia’s decision to send its 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine, which came after Poland announced it would provide Kyiv with the Soviet-made jets.

  The move makes Poland and Slovakia the first NATO members to arm Ukraine with fighter jets.

  A video of the four Slovak MiG-29 fighter jets being handed over to the Ukrainian pilots. https://t.co/XgbcoB6t4a pic.twitter.com/ivsk2jtLHp

  — Status-6 (@Archer83Able) March 23, 2023

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  In March 2022, the Pentagon ruled out sending Polish MiG-29s to Ukraine over concerns that it could escalate the war. NATO officials believed the provision of fighter jets could be viewed in Moscow as the alliance directly entering the war. But one year later, the escalation concerns waned.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/24/2023 – 02:00

• Seymour Hersh: CIA Planted Nord Stream Cover-Up Story
  Seymour Hersh: CIA Planted Nord Stream Cover-Up Story

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via Antiwar.com,

  Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article on Substack on Wednesday that said the CIA was instructed to come up with a cover story for the Nord Stream bombings that was fed to The New York Times and the German newspaper Die Zeit.

  The cover-up story was created to shift blame from the US after Hersh’s bombshell report published on February 8 that said President Biden ordered the attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany. “It was a total fabrication by American intelligence that was passed along to the Germans, and aimed at discrediting your story,” Hersh was told by a source within the American intelligence community.

  

  Hersh said that the CIA was ordered to come up with a cover story after President Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington on March 3. Scholz’s visit was very brief and did not include the routine joint press briefing that usually follows a meeting between the president and another world leader. Hersh was told that his report detailing how the US took out Nord Stream was discussed by Biden and Scholz.

  Hersh writes: “I was told by someone with access to diplomatic intelligence that there was a discussion of the pipeline exposé and, as a result, certain elements in the Central Intelligence Agency were asked to prepare a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press with an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2.”

  The result of the CIA’s work was published in The New York Times and Die Zeit on March 7. The New York Times report was very vague and said US officials are now claiming the Nord Stream bombings might have been carried out by a “pro-Ukrainian group.”

  The Die Zeit report claimed German investigators believe it was carried out by six people using a yacht rented in Poland that was owned by two Ukrainians. Other Western media outlets published similar articles reinforcing the cover story in the following days.

  Hersh said the information The New York Times received “originated with a group of CIA experts in deception and propaganda whose mission was to feed the newspaper a cover story—and to protect a president who made an unwise decision and is now lying about it.”

  The cover story offers a radically different narrative than what Hersh’s February 8 report alleges. Using anonymous sourcing, Hersh reported that the Nord Stream pipelines were destroyed by explosives planted by US Navy divers in June 2022 under the cover of NATO drills in the Baltic Sea. The operation was done in coordination with Norway, and a Norwegian spy plane detonated the explosives by dropping a sonar buoy on September 26, 2022.

  The last time Scholz visited Washington was on February 7, 2022. Biden vowed during a press conference that day that if Russia invaded Ukraine, he would “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. According to Hersh, the plot to destroy the pipelines was already underway at that time, and the plotters took Biden’s comment as a blatant threat.

  Biden in Feb 2022: “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

  Q: “But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany’s control?”

  Biden: “I promise you, we will be able to do that.”pic.twitter.com/e091ddF4Pv https://t.co/DHaCuETo8y

  — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) September 27, 2022

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  On Scholz’s possible complicity in the operation, Hersh said in his new article: “At this point, it must be noted that Chancellor Scholz, whether or not he was alerted of the destruction of the pipeline in advance—still an open question—has clearly been complicit since last fall in support of the Biden Administration’s cover-up of its operation in the Baltic Sea.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 23:40

• US Firms No Longer Safe In Mexico? Army Commandeers US-Owned Marine Terminal
  US Firms No Longer Safe In Mexico? Army Commandeers US-Owned Marine Terminal

  We’ve heard many heartbreaking stories of American tourists venturing into Mexico only to be kidnapped or, worse, killed in crazy cartel drug war battles. It appears these days, no one is safe across the southern border, not even US-owned companies. 

  Bloomberg reported that Mexican marines and police officers seized US construction firm Vulcan Materials’ port terminal near Playa del Carmen in southern Mexico.

  Footage from the seizure showed a long line of police and military units entering the property last Tuesday. 

  🚨 WATCH: The Mexican military seized a U.S. company’s (Vulcan Materials) marine terminal in Mexico. This is insane, @SecBlinken @JakeSullivan46

  More from Bloomberg —> “Vulcan Facility Seizure Adds to Tension Between US and Mexico” https://t.co/el9GMN1Nv8 pic.twitter.com/gvj40ziefz

  — Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) March 19, 2023

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  In a statement, Vulcan Materials claimed that Mexican officials did not possess any legal documentation to warrant the seizure of the terminal.

  “It should be clear that the rule of law is no longer assured for foreign companies in Mexico,” the Alabama-based company said in a statement. “This invasion, unsupported by legal warrants, violates Vulcan’s commercial and property rights.”

  AP News pointed out that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the company have been in a multi-year dispute: 

  López Obrador needs the dock to get cement, crushed stone and other materials into the area to finish his pet project, a tourist train known as the Train Maya. The president shut down Vulcan’s stone quarries last May, arguing the company had extracted or exported stone without approval.

  US lawmakers, including Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, voiced concern about the forced takeover of the terminal. He said this “adds to the trend of misguided and counterproductive behavior” by the Mexican president. 

  This presents a significant concern for US companies considering relocating production from China to Mexico – how can they be sure their businesses will be safe from government seizure?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 23:20

• The Road To A More Global Yuan Runs Through Moscow
  The Road To A More Global Yuan Runs Through Moscow

  By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

  Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his Russian visit on Wednesday without much progress on peace in Ukraine. China, however, has pushed for deeper trade and investment links with its northern neighbor using its own currency. That suggests the path of least resistance for yuan internationalization now runs through Moscow instead of London or Singapore.  

  China and Russia are committed to “significantly” increasing trade volumes by 2030 and pledged to steadily boost the proportion of local currency settlement, according to a joint statement released Tuesday. That might sound like cheap political talk, though a closer look at developments since the war in Ukraine shows the Chinese currency is already making major inroads in all walks of Russian financial life.

  The share of yuan in Russian export payments surged 32-fold in 2022 to 16% by year-end, according to the Bank of Russia. Its use in Russian imports also jumped to 23% from 4%. Yuan savings accounted for 11% of Russia’s total FX deposits as of January, compared with practically zero when the war broke out. The Chinese currency has also overtaken the dollar and euro as the most traded FX on the Moscow Exchange.

  Never before has the yuan — which is not fully convertible — been so widely used for trade, private savings and FX transactions in a trillion-dollar economy that regularly ranks among the world’s biggest. “Market logic mostly prevails over geopolitics until one day it does not,” wrote Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

  

  Western sanctions that sharply curtailed Russia’s dollar and euro access acted as a push factor, while booming trade with China served as a pull. Russia overtook Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest oil supplier in February while Beijing’s total energy purchases ballooned to $88b over the past 12 months, surging more than 50% from the period ending February 2022. Chinese businesses have also expanded in its northern neighbor, filling the void left by departing Western brands.

  Russia is now the 5th biggest user of the Chinese currency, with 2.3% of global yuan payments, behind Hong Kong, the UK, Singapore and the US, according to SWIFT. A year ago, the country didn’t even make the cut for the top 15: Its share in worldwide yuan payments was less than 0.3%. At this speed, Russia is poised to become the biggest yuan user outside Hong Kong in the next couple years.

  This week, the Russian central bank made it more costly for commercial lender to have liabilities in dollar and euro by raising the mandatory reserve requirements on “unfriendly” currencies. The longer the war and sanctions drag on, the more entrenched yuan gets in Moscow’s financial ecosystem. Should the current trajectory persist, Russia will probably become the first major economy where the Chinese currency has an equal standing with its American and European counterparts.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 23:08

• How COVID Lockdowns Primed The Current Financial Crisis
  How COVID Lockdowns Primed The Current Financial Crisis

  Authored by Christian Parenti via TheGrayZone.com,

  The lockdowns and the stimulus required to keep the economy alive helped drive inflation. Then the Fed jacked up interest rates. And all hell broke loose…

  

  On Friday March 10th, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) died of Covid. Alright, it’s a little more complicated than that, but Covid lockdowns followed by massive government stimulus were a critical – and massively under-acknowledged – factor in propelling the bank’s demise.

  At the heart of the crisis is the gigantic pile of low-interest debt that was issued during the height of the pandemic. While private-sector pandemic-era debt like corporate bonds also soared, US government debt like Treasury bonds piled up.

  In a nutshell, during the pandemic the government issued enormous amounts of extremely low interest government debt — about $4.2 trillion of it. But now interest rates, including on government debt, are higher than they have been in 15 years and investors are dumping their old low-interest debt. As they dump, the resale price of the old debt goes down. The more it declines, the more investors want to dump. And thus, a panic is born. 

  To understand the problem fully, the question of US government debt has to be put into its larger context, which is: the pandemic response as a whole.

  When news of the Covid virus first broke in December 2019, the 2 Year Treasury bond was being offered at 1.64% interest; the 10 year was at about 1.80%, and the resale value of such bonds on secondary markets was strong. Then, in March 2020, as Covid cases and deaths spiked, the US began to shutter its economy with panicked lockdowns that were supposed to “flatten the curve” or slow the spread of the virus and thus protect the hospitals. But Covid was politicized and the lockdowns were extended.  

  As the lockdowns dragged on, the US economy began to collapse, shrinking at a record-shattering annualized rate of 31.4% during the second quarter of fiscal year 2020.

  To avoid total economic devastation, the federal government began massive debt-financed spending. In March 2020, Trump signed into law the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill the CARES Act, or Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security. Then, in March 2021, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act which contained $1.9 trillion more in Covid relief. Finally, in April 2021, another trillion or so of Covid relief arrived in the Consolidated Appropriations Act. 

  Thanks to these laws, every industry and most people received public money. There was increased and extended unemployment payments, as well as the so-called “stimmy checks” or stimulus payments to everyone earning under $75,000 a year (about half the population). The Paycheck Protection Program spent almost a trillion dollars. The Provider Relief Fund doled out $178 billion to the healthcare system. 

  All this debt spending kept millions of people in their homes, and helped feed, employ, and care for millions more. The measures allowed hundreds of thousands of businesses to stay afloat even as many thousands of others went under. The impact of the spending on Americans’ well-being was generally positive. For a moment, the US child poverty rate was cut in half, falling to 5.2%. 

  But the economically destructive lockdowns were not necessary and did not work. Covid fanatics maintain that the lockdowns were unavoidable because the virus is so deadly. That, however, is uninformed. Last year I explained in detail how the Lockdown Left got the Covid crisis wrong. Not a single critic has challenged any of the facts I presented so there is little point in rehashing them all here. 

  Those who advocated an alternative to ham-fisted lockdowns, like the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for “focused protection” of vulnerable groups like the elderly, were viciously targeted in a reputation destruction campaign covertly orchestrated by former NIH director Francis Collins and de facto Covid czar Anthony Fauci. Never mind that the document’s authors were three eminently qualified scientists: Sunetra Gupta, professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at Oxford University; Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford; and Martin Kulldorff, formerly a professor of medicine and biostatistics at Harvard. They were portrayed as far-right cranks who were almost eager to see millions die. But now, they have been vindicated.

  Ultimately, the federal government spent $4.2 trillion propping up the economy that it was simultaneously choking to death with lockdowns. These two contradictory pressures laid the groundwork for the recent bank failures. Government mandated lockdowns hit the economy like a body blow. Factories closed, small businesses went under, ports and logistic hubs reduced operations, and about 2 million mostly older workers simply resigned. But at the same time, the federal government injected vast amounts of purchasing power into the economy, thus boosting consumption.

  These two, contradictory government moves imposed almost unbearable pressure on supply chains. As shortages mounted, prices began to surge. Put simply: lockdowns plus stimulus equaled inflation.

  Consider just one of the most important bottlenecks in the whole economy. During lockdown, many commercial driving license schools were closed. This helped create a shortage of about 80,000 truckers. If trucks do not roll supplies run low and prices go up.

  At first, the official line on inflation – parroted by the Lockdown Left – maintained that inflation was “transitory.” But it was not. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 while wage growth lagged at about 5%. In April 2020 during the worst of the lockdown, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Funds Rate sank to 0.5%. By February 2022, it had only risen to 0.8%.  

  Meanwhile, inflation was surging. By February 2022, inflation had reached 7.9%. Only then did the Fed, in an effort to tamp down prices, begin raising interest rates at the fastest pace rate in its history. The federal Funds rate was around 4.57% when SVB went under. Perhaps a massive wave of taxation could have soaked up enough liquidity to have helped cool prices, but that was a political impossibility. The more politically palatable response in Washington was for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. 

  Herein lies the problem. During the height of the lockdowns, banks bought up enormous amounts of government debt. As the Wall Street Journal put it: “U.S. banks are suffering the aftereffects of a Covid-era deposit boom that left them awash in cash that they needed to put to work. Domestic deposits at federally insured banks rose 38% from the end of 2019 to the end of 2021, FDIC data show. Over the same period, total loans rose 7%, leaving many institutions with large amounts of cash to deploy in securities as interest rates were near record lows.” Awash in deposits with not enough demand for loans, the banks bought US government securities. Their purchases surged 53% between 2019 and the end of 2021, to a total of $4.58 trillion, according to Fed data reported by the Wall Street Journal.

  Because so much debt was being issued, it carried super-low interest rates. For example, on July 27, 2020, the 10 Year Treasury was offered at an annual interest rate of only 0.55%. This is fine if you are the borrower of money, but if you are the lender (that is to say, a bank giving the federal government money in exchange for a Treasury bond), it means your income stream will be reduced to a mere trickle. If inflation rises, it essentially disappears. 

  As the yield on new government debt reached toward 5% and inflation hung stubbornly at around 6.4%, all of that old, low-interest, pandemic-era debt started to look like garbage and banks began unloading it. The more that banks dumped old debt, the less value that debt had on resale markets. The lower its resale value, the more the banks wanted to dump it. SVB lost almost $2 billion selling off Government securities. And when they announced the loss, their stock price plunged by 60%. 

  At the same time, many of SVB’s clients were withdrawing money. This was in part because rising interest rates made borrowing new money more expensive and thus incentivized the use of savings in day-to-day business operations. Also, higher inflation and higher interest rates made low-earning bank deposits less attractive and compelled depositors to redeploy their surplus capital towards higher-earning investments. So, just as SVB needed cash, deposits were evaporating.

  By the end of the week of March 10, the four biggest banks in the United States had lost $51 billion because of their panicked dumping of pandemic-era debt. Right after SVB was taken under government control, state regulators closed the New York-based Signature Bank. Before the weekend was over the Federal Reserve announced the creation of a new lending facility that would ensure that “banks have the ability to meet the needs of all their depositors.” Furthermore, the Fed said it was “prepared to address any liquidity pressures that may arise.”

  It would seem that the federal government is ready to execute another de facto partial nationalization of US banking, just as they did in 2008 via emergency “cash injections” and then the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). In this current crisis, banks can avoid losses on their low-interest debt if they do not sell it before its maturity. For that to happen, the banks need money. The Fed has said it will pour enormous amounts of money into the banks while all of the relevant officials have proclaimed that the banking system will somehow pay for this. All of this will almost certainly mean even more government debt will be issued. 

  Already, interest payments on the federal debt are one of the largest single items in the US budget – set to reach $400 billion this year. That is almost half as much as the grotesquely overdeveloped military budget. By comparison, federal spending on housing is only $78 billion.

  Shoring up the banking system is necessary because if it collapses, the whole economy goes with it. At least in the short term, Americans are hostages of the US financial system. But government intervention without any new regulations and taxes upon the financial sector will likely mean more inflation and a bigger financial bubble. By refusing to properly tax the top 1%, the federal government also commits itself to more austerity for the many and more welfare for the rich, because rising government debt means a rising portion of our taxes must go toward interest payments. 

  This system of crisis-prone, hyper-financialized capitalism seems ever more like a junkie. If it doesn’t get its regular fix of public sector help, it will simply collapse and die. 

  Even if the federal government can stanch the current crisis, the pandemic debt story is global and very likely to cause trouble for some time to come. As a 2021 report by the World Bank put it: “The debt buildup during the pandemic-induced global recession of 2020 was the largest in several decades. This was true for all types of debt—total, government, and private debt; and advanced-economy and EMDE [emerging market and developing economy] debt; external and domestic debt. In 2020, total global debt reached 263 percent of GDP and global government debt 99 percent of GDP, their highest levels in half a century.” 

  The US intelligentsia and its media elites are finally beginning to reckon with the impact of misguided and authoritarian lockdowns on student learning and the psychological and physical health of millions. But in all the discussion of the current bank runs, the pivotal role of lockdowns in priming the crisis remains overlooked.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 23:00

• 'Times Have Changed': Saudi Arabia To Reopen Embassy In Syria, Angering US
  ‘Times Have Changed’: Saudi Arabia To Reopen Embassy In Syria, Angering US

  Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad continues to be brought “in from the cold” and back into the Arab regional fold at rapid pace, with Reuters confirming on Thursday the prior rumors that Saudi Arabia and Syria were on the brink of fully restoring diplomatic ties. They will now reopen embassies – a huge step. Is a return to the Arab League next?

  “Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reopen their embassies after cutting diplomatic ties more than a decade ago, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, a step that would mark a leap forward in Damascus’s return to the Arab fold,” Reuters reports.

  

  The mutual embassy openings reportedly are the result of talks between the Saudis and a senior Syrian intelligence official. A source told Reuters they “preparing to reopen embassies after Eid al-Fitr,” in reference to a Muslim holiday in late April.

  Most recently, the United Arab Emirates hosted Assad and his wife in an official visit – the first in well over a decade. 

  The US and Israel have not been happy at these developments, and the Syria-Gulf rapprochement also comes in the context of Iran and Saudi Arabia normalizing relations. One source told Al Jazeera:

  “The prevailing attitude can be defined as, ‘times have changed, the Arab Spring is history and the region is transitioning towards a new future, with new geopolitical characteristics,'” the official, who himself recently reconciled with Damascus after defecting to the Syrian opposition in the summer of 2011, added.

  It seems the Gulf has been willing to recognize that the Syrian government won the decade-long war and move on, but not Washington. The US has continued its military occupation of northern Syria, and Israel has extended its bombing campaign, even this week with strikes on Aleppo international airport.

  Saudi Arabia will reopen its embassy in Syria, joining a list of several regional countries that reestablished ties with Damascus after failing miserably to overthrow its government for over a decade. Condolences to Israel, US and UK for failing to isolate post-victory Syria

  — Hadi Nasrallah (@HadiNasrallah) March 23, 2023

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  Far-reaching US sanctions are also still on. But regional leaders have been reaching out to Assad after the deadly earthquake which rocked Turkey and Syria, killing tens of thousands of people. 

  Saudi Arabia and allies like Qatar and the UAE had helped the US spearhead regime change efforts in Damascus. Russia and Iran came to the aid of Syria, however, in a war that took hundreds of thousands of lives and left much of the country in rubble.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 22:40

• Defense Attorneys In Jan. 6 Case Allege FBI Informant Spied On Legal Team
  Defense Attorneys In Jan. 6 Case Allege FBI Informant Spied On Legal Team

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

  Defense attorneys in the Proud Boys seditious-conspiracy trial in Washington D.C. learned late March 22 that one of their own defense witnesses who was about to testify had worked as an FBI informant for at least 22 months.

  

  They asked for an emergency hearing before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly and filed a motion to compel the U.S. Department of Justice to disclose if the witness has been spying on the defense team.

  Judge Kelly suspended the trial until March 24 and converted March 23 from a day of testimony into a motions hearing.

  Zachary Rehl, one of five Proud Boys defendants, filed a motion on behalf of his co-defendants seeking a court order to compel prosecutors to disclose any recordings or reports made by confidential human sources (CHS)—informants—about the defendants and their attorneys.

  Defense attorney Carmen Hernandez said the information given to the defense team on March 22 raises “serious and substantiated allegations of governmental misconduct surrounding the surreptitious invasion and interference of the defense team by the government through a confidential human source, at the government’s behest.”

  Judge Kelly ordered prosecutors to file a response to the motion by 1 p.m. EDT on March 23. A hearing on the matter will begin at 3 p.m.

  The trial began Dec. 19, 2022, in U.S. District Court. Prosecutors wrapped up their case on March 17.

  Defense Witness was Prosecution Informant

  After the close of testimony on March 22, prosecutors disclosed that a witness on the defense list who was due in court on March 23 had worked as an FBI informant from April 2021 through to at least January 2023.

  “During this period of time, the CHS [informant] has been in contact via telephone, text messaging, and other electronic means, with one or more of the counsel for the defense and at least one defendant,” the motion said.

  “The CHS also participated in prayer meetings with members of one or more of the defendants’ families. The CHS also engaged in discussions with one of the defendant’s family members about replacing one of the defense counsel.”

  

  Defendants in the trial include Rehl, former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, and Dominic Pezzola.

  The men are accused of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings, obstruction of official proceedings, and conspiracy to prevent certain federal officers from performing their duties at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, and Biggs face nine criminal counts, while Pezzola is charged with 10.

  Disclosure of the FBI informant demonstrates “that there are reasons to doubt the veracity of the government’s explanation and justification for withholding information about the CHSs [informants] who have been involved in the case,” Hernandez wrote.

  It was the second time in March that privileged attorney-client communication became the center of controversy.

  On March 8, FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller disclosed that investigators had been monitoring communications between Rehl and his now-former attorney, and discussing his trial strategy among themselves.

  Defense attorneys also discovered a hidden tab in an FBI evidence spreadsheet containing some of Miller’s emails, “in which the FBI agent admitted fabricating evidence and following orders to destroy hundreds of items of evidence,” according to a March 9 court filing (pdf).

  The defense motion called the discovery “a clear and flagrant Sixth Amendment violation” that “screams for a dismissal.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 22:20

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman And 'Father Of China's Great Firewall' Sound Alarm Over Artificial Intelligence
  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman And ‘Father Of China’s Great Firewall’ Sound Alarm Over Artificial Intelligence

  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Fang Bingxing – considered the ‘father of China’s Great Firewall’, are joining OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk in raising concerns regarding the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).

  

  “We’ve got to be careful here,” the 37-year-old Altman told ABC News last week, adding “I think people should be happy that we are a little bit scared of this.”

  “I’m particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation … Now that they’re getting better at writing computer code, [they] could be used for offensive cyber-attacks.”

  That said, Altman also thinks it could be “the greatest technology humanity has yet developed.”

  OpenAI is the company behind Chat GPT, which launched “GPT-4” less than two weeks ago. The highly sophisticated chatbot can reach almost perfect scores on SAT math tests, and achieve a 90% on the US bar exam.

  And it has competitors…

  Other AI-based startups are making surprising advancements in the field as well. RAD AI recently launched the first AI marketing platform built to understand emotion, and some of the largest companies on the planet are already using it.

  GenesisAI is a startup building a marketplace to allow for any business to integrate AI and automation into their business. Meaning soon AI might be just as much of an integral part of a business as employees themselves. –Benzinga

  According to Altman, however, ChatGPT-4 uses deductive reasoning vs. memorization, which can lead to inaccurate results.

  “The thing that I try to caution people the most is what we call the ‘hallucinations problem’” Altman told ABC News. “The model will confidently state things as if they were facts (but they) are entirely made up.”

  Altman thinks there is a need for regulation of AI in general.

  “There will be other people who don’t put some of the safety limits that we put on,” he said. “Society, I think, has a limited amount of time to figure out how to react to that, how to regulate that, how to handle it.”

  Also concerned over GPT-4 and similar AI is Fang Bingxing, the father of China’s so-called Great Firewall.

  According to Fang, such chatbots can lead to an “information cocoon” (as opposed to the free flow of information in China?)

  “People’s perspectives can be manipulated as they seek all kinds of answers from AI,” he told Red Star News, a media affiliate to state-backed Chengdu Economic Daily, as reported by SCMP.

  Fang, a computer scientist and former government official, is widely considered the chief designer of China’s notorious internet censorship and surveillance system. He played a key role in creating and developing the Great Firewall, a sophisticated system of internet filters and blocks that allows the Chinese government to control what its citizens can access online.

  The Great Firewall has been fortified over the past decade, blocking Chinese netizens’ access to a wide range of foreign websites and online services including Facebook, Twitter and Google. -SCMP

  Fang also warned that when AI evolves further, it could pose a threat to humanity.

  “Now it’s simply software used in an online chat-like scenario. If it’s incorporated into robots and cars, we need to stay vigilant for the potential harm they could do to humans.”

  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 22:00

• US Rejects Chinese Claim It Drove Away Destroyer Over "Illegal" Incursion
  US Rejects Chinese Claim It Drove Away Destroyer Over “Illegal” Incursion

  Early in the day Thursday China’s military said it monitored and then drove away a US warship which had “illegally” entered China-claimed waters of the South China Sea.

  The Southern Theatre Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) charged that the guided missile destroyer USS Milius entered waters of the disputed Paracel Islands before being warned and driven away. Washington and its allies have long rejected that these are territorial waters of China, after Beijing embarked years ago on the militarization of multiple island chains in the region. 

  

  China presented that it had forced the US destroyer to exit the area, however, the US Navy’s 7th fleet is rejecting the claims.

  Calling it a routine operation in international waters, the US Navy’s Lt. j.g. Luka Bakic responded by saying, “USS Milius is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea and was not expelled,” and that “The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”

  But a Chinese military spokesman is still calling it an “illegal incursion into Chinese territorial waters … without permission from the Chinese government, harming peace and stability” in the region.

  “The theatre forces will maintain a high state of alert at all times and take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security and peace and stability in the South China Sea,” the PLA spokesman added. 

  

  The Paracels are claimed by US allies Vietnam and Taiwan, making encounters among rival vessels turn into tense standoffs going back years.

  The US side in the past has presented these as ‘innocent passages’ – asserting that it is the right of all vessels under international marine law as reflected in the Convention on the Law of the Sea, which means is that permission is not required to transit. But China will continue to challenge this interpretation.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 21:20

• USA Today Again Picks Biological Man As 'Woman Of The Year'
  USA Today Again Picks Biological Man As ‘Woman Of The Year’

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  USA Today has picked a trans-identified male as it’s ‘woman of the year’ for a second time running, and this time it’s someone who advocates for child sex changes.

  

  The media outlet has chosen Leigh Finke as its ‘woman of the year’ for Minnesota. Finke was the first transgender legislator to be appointed to the Minnesota House of Representatives in November.

  Today, @USATODAY released their Women of the Year project, picking one woman to represent each state, and they have selected me as Woman of the Year for Minnesota. https://t.co/cOKwoMrD9b

  — Leigh Finke (@leighfinke) March 19, 2023

  USA Today says the awards are a way of highlighting “local and national heroines who make a positive impact in their communities every day.”

  Finke has made it a priority to ensure children are allowed to have access to gender altering surgery, recently sponsoring a bill to make Minnesota a “trans refuge state.”

  As we highlighted last week, the Democrat Governor and lieutenant governor of the state are on an executive mission to force state agencies to push “gender-affirming” health care.

  Elon Musk Hits Back At ‘Protect Trans Kids’ Democrat Lieutenant Governor

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  Governor Tim Walz has labeled efforts to halt trans surgery on children as “persecution,” vowing to “make sure that Minnesota’s place as a welcoming, loving, neighborly state where you are welcome and will be free of persecution or anything else that we’re trying to see in some other states.”

  Minnesota is also one of the states where shocking trans and gay porn books have been placed into school libraries, seemingly unbeknownst to school officials.

  Video: Mother Reads Shocking Gay Porn Material Found In Minnesota School Direct To Board Members

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  USA Today now has a habit of picking biological men as ‘woman of the year’, having last year decided that Biden assistant secretary of health and human services Rachel Levine was worthy of the award.

  Babylon Bee Suspended by Twitter Over Parody Article About Rachel Levine

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  There is a pattern developing here:

  Figures: White House Gives International Women Day of Courage Award To A Biological Male

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  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 21:00

• Muscle Car Uncertainty: Chevy Kills Camaro In 2024
  Muscle Car Uncertainty: Chevy Kills Camaro In 2024

  Chevrolet announced Wednesday, “the sixth generation Chevrolet Camaro will retire at the conclusion of the model year 2024,” indicating the last of these iconic muscle cars will leave the production line at the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan in January. 

  “As we prepare to say goodbye to the current generation Camaro, it is difficult to overstate our gratitude to every Camaro customer, Camaro assembly line employee and race fan,” Scott Bell, vice president of Global Chevrolet, said in a statement. He did not say what would replace the muscle car but added, “this is not the end of Camaro’s story.”

  

  The current sixth-generation Camaro has been at dealerships since the 2016 model year and has seen a sales slump. 

  When the current generation Camaro came out in 2016, Chevrolet sold 72,705 of them.

  But by the end of 2021 that number fell almost 70% to 21,893. –NYPost 

  Chevrolet spokesman Trevor Thompkins provided Detroit Free Press with insight on what could be next for Camaros. 

  “Chevrolet made the decision now as a part of continuously evaluating our portfolio offerings for progress toward our EV future and sales demand.”

  And what this could mean is an EV Camaro-style muscle car could be next. Chevrolet has previously teased this image. 

  

  It remains uncertain whether Chevy muscle car enthusiasts will embrace an electric vehicle future. We doubt many won’t. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 20:40

• Markets To Yellen: 'F**k Off'
  Markets To Yellen: ‘F**k Off’

  “Where’s Janet!?”

  Remember this…

  

  The Treasury Secretary tried to fix her faux pas from yesterday, editing some text from her prepared remarks

  Deleted paragraph from March 22:

  “As I said last week, the US banking system is sound. The federal government’s recent actions have demonstrated our resolute commitment to take the necessary steps to ensure that depositors’ savings remain safe.”

  New paragraph on March 23:

  “As I have said, we have used important tools to act quickly to prevent contagion. And they are tools we could use again. The strong actions we have taken ensure that Americans’ deposits are safe. Certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted.”

  But she removed the “US banking system is sound”, sparking total chaos. (Bear in mind, as we detailed earlier, that ‘the math just doesn’t work’ for any industry-wide deposit insurance scheme, so what is she going to say?)

  

  Banks saw some hope-filled pre-market gains battered lower with regional banks suffering most. Yellen’s changed remarks sparked a brief recovery, but that didn’t last long as bank stocks tumbled back towards their lows…

  

  FFWM (First Foundation), PACW, ZION, KEY and FRC dominated the downturn (with Yellen’s attempt to save the day failed)…

  

  European bank CDS (5Y) have generally narrowed somewhat since the CS debacle, we do note that short-dated CDS (more used for counterparty risk management among derivatives traders) have not declined with Deutsche Bank remaining extremely high…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  What started off as a relief-rally overnight, with multiple CNBC anchors sighing comfortably that the ‘worst must be over and that the ‘market just needed time to digest how dovish Powell was’; ended an utter shit-show.

  Nasdaq, S&P and The Dow all ramped after the US cash open, erasing the post-Powell losses. But that was all she wrote and as Europe closed, everything everywhere went just a little bit turbo as stocks collapsed below yesterday’s lows. The last 30 mins saw a bounce as 0DTE traders unwound earlier negative delta flows at a profit and the S&P bounced off technical support, but overall, all the US majors remain lower than pre-Powell/Yellen levels (Nasdaq the least ugly horse in the glue factory while Small Caps ended below yesterday’s lows)…

  

  It seems pretty clear the market wants to test Yellen and Powell to see if they will step up and bailout the next bank that goes boom in the night.

  S&P broke back below its 100- and 200-DMA (after trying to tag its 50-DMA on the morning ramp), then bounced off its 200DMA, back up to its 100DMA… a very technical day…

  

  CRE/Office REITs were hammered again today (‘Big Short 3.0 doing well since we issued on March 9th)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Credit markets were ugly today with HYG getting hit hard…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Treasuries were more mixed today with the long-end notably underperforming and short-end ripping lower in yield. After Yellen’s remarks, yields extended lower (30Y +1bps, 2Y -17bps). On the week, all yields are lower now except 30Y…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  2Y Yields tumbled back below 4.00%…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The yield curve saw a major steepening today with 5s30s uninverting…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Overall, STIRs drifted dovishly with December now pricing in rates 90bps below current levels…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The odds of a 25bps hike in May have tumbled to 26%…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Which leaves the Fed’s expected rate-trajectory dramatically more dovish than the ECB’s…

  ⚠️ Yellen’s the head fake. Remember Europe is the most crowded overweight in equity (and short in bonds). That’s where the biggest liquidation/capitulation risks lie. ECB won’t be hiking or holding if Fed is in deep easing cycle. One of these curves looks wildly wrong $EUR $USD pic.twitter.com/XilXVJXHfW

  — Viraj Patel (@VPatelFX) March 23, 2023

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

  And the market’s expectation dramatically more dovish than The Fed’s DotPlots…

  

  The dollar fell for the 6th straight day (10 of the last 11 days), bouncing a little intraday off 7-week lows…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bitcoin ripped back up towards $29,000, erasing all of yesterday’s losses, but then faded back after Yellen’s revised remarks…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold surged back above $2000…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Oil prices rollercoastered again today, with WTI rallying above $71 into the European close and then dumping back down to a $69 handle…

  

  Finally, we note it is the three-year anniversary of the COVID lockdown lows today. Bitcoin is the biggest gainer since that date, bonds are the ugliest of all with the dollar basically unchanged and gold and stocks up handsomely…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Additionally, it appears alternative currencies are gaining favor since the global financial system started showing cracks again…

  Gold has soared over the last two weeks…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And Bitcoin has dominated everything…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  No wonder the Dems have made crypto the new ‘boogeyman’.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 20:35

• Clinton Meme Trial Could Chill Free Speech for All Americans, Attorney Says
  Clinton Meme Trial Could Chill Free Speech for All Americans, Attorney Says

  Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Department of Justice (DOJ) is being accused of using obscure conspiracy laws to target conservatives.

  

  For example, violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act ordinarily would bring a year in prison. But in the last year, a host of sidewalk counselors at abortion facilities have been charged with both FACE violations and Conspiracy to Violate Civil Rights for posting to Facebook about where they would gather.

  The conspiracy charge adds a potential 10-years in federal prison.

  Douglass Mackey, 31, is on federal trial this week in the Eastern District of New York for posting a satirical meme under the Twitter handle “Ricky Vaughn” in 2016, advising voters they could vote for Hillary Clinton for president via text message or social media.

  

  The DOJ charged him five years later, in 2021, with Conspiracy Against Rights ( 18 U.S. Code § 241), which carries up to 10-years in prison.

  “This is a law that was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, designed to protect the rights of newly freed slaves in the post-civil war South to vote,” James Lawrence, attorney for the Douglass Mackey Defense Fund told The Epoch Times. “Understandably, there were threats to the physical safety of those people with respect to the Ku Klux Klan, and that’s why this is a provision from the Ku Klux Klan Act.”

  Passed in 1871, the Conspiracy Against Rights code within the Ku Klux Klan Act has two parts:

  If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution—
  Or
  If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

  They shall be fined or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

  Intent to Interfere

  There is no mention in the act of posting political memes.

  But the DOJ said in its indictment that Mackey, “together with others, conspired to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States”—that is, the right to vote.

  It is a statute that has been used historically to go after conduct that is identified in the statute, which is conspiring to physically interfere with someone’s constitutional rights.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 20:20

• The Big Apple Is The World's Most Expensive City For Business Travelers
  The Big Apple Is The World’s Most Expensive City For Business Travelers

  New York City has the highest per-day cost for a typical business trip among all destinations in the world, according to the consulting firm ECA International, which tracks expenses for accommodation at four-star hotels, meals, transportation via taxis, beverages, and other miscellaneous costs.

  ECA said business travelers in 2022 spent, on average, $796 per day in The Big Apple, increasing 8% from the prior year. Rising inflation from hotel rates to food to transportation was the primary divers in soaring costs. 

  

  After New York City was Geneva at $700 per day, then Washington, D.C., at around $658, Zurich at $641, and San Francisco at around $600.

  

  “Climbing inflation rates were a major factor in the increase in travel costs, while a pandemic-fueled drop in demand led to more affordable rates in places like China,” Bloomberg pointed out. 

  Paris was the least expensive, with average daily costs of $557 per day. 

  The good news for companies that are cost-cutting and reducing headcount to weather the inflation storm and economic downturn spurred by the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive interest rates hikes in a generation that has already sparked a regional banking crisis is the continued move towards Zoom calls rather than travel.

  In a separate report, the Global Business Travel Organization said one in five travel managers said their companies have begun to limit business travel due to rising costs. 

  Avoid travel. Take a Zoom call. Cathie Wood would appreciate that. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 20:00

• Bipartisan Senators Push To Ban China From Buying US Farmland
  Bipartisan Senators Push To Ban China From Buying US Farmland

  Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A group of bipartisan U.S. senators introduced a bill on Wednesday to ban the purchase of U.S. farmland by Chinese persons and entities.

  

  In a press release, Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), John Tester (D-Mont.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) stated their collective objective for the bill: to address national security concerns—food security and China’s threat to America’s military and economic power—over Chinese farmland ownership in the United States.

  If enacted, the ban would also apply to agricultural land leases, regardless of the lease duration. The legislation’s farmland purchase prohibition covers a person or entity “owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary,” defined as Iran, North Korea, China, or Russia. The ban excludes U.S. citizens or green card holders.

  Braun, who filed paperwork in November to run for Indiana governor in 2024, sounded the alarm about the exponential increase in Chinese ownership of American farmland: “Chinese ownership of American farmland increased more than 20-fold in the past decade,” he said in his press release. “We cannot allow our top foreign adversaries to buy up American farmland and compromise our agricultural supply chains.”

  As of Dec. 31, 2020, China owned 325,686 acres of U.S. agricultural land, according to the Department of Agriculture. While the acreage under Chinese ownership is slightly less than 1 percent of all foreign-held agricultural land, it represents a 20-fold leap from 13,720 acres in 2010.

  “Foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, should never be allowed to control Americans’ agricultural lands or our food supply,” echoed Rubio in the same press release. “We cannot allow these regimes to continue exploiting the openness of our system. This bipartisan legislation is an important step to protect our national security interests,” he added.

  The new bill also specifies land for ranching purposes as agricultural land, in addition to land used for “agricultural, forestry, or timber production purposes” as defined by the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978.

  

  Protecting US Farmland

  In recent years, China buying U.S. farmland has become a major concern in many states.

  In Virginia, a bill that bans foreign adversaries, including China, from buying agricultural land in the commonwealth has passed both chambers of the state legislature and is ready for the governor’s signature by March 27.

  In Texas and Florida, state legislators are pushing for similar bills to pass.

  The language in Braun’s bill will enable the federal government to address deals similar to two recent high-profile cases, both cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a cross-departmental panel that reviews foreign acquisitions for national security risks.

  Fufeng USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Fufeng Group, purchased 370 acres of farmland in the fall of 2021 for a corn mill project in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The proposed site is within 15 miles of the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which houses sensitive drone, satellite, and surveillance technology. In December 2022, CFIUS decided that it didn’t have jurisdiction to probe the land purchase. Before that, the project had prompted significant pushback from Republican lawmakers and locals who said it threatened both national and economic security.

  At the end of January, the U.S. Air Force warned that the project poses a “significant threat to national security.” In early February, Grand Forks City Council voted unanimously to abandon the project approved in July 2022.

  In 2016, a Chinese billionaire and former military official bought about 140,000 acres of land in Val Verde County, Texas, and planned to build a wind farm on the property. The purchased land included several ranches within 80 miles of the Laughlin Air Force Base and within some of the base’s pilot training zones.

  The project was halted by a new Texas law that came into effect in June 2021. The Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act bans Texas businesses and governments from doing business with foreign entities from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran if these transactions would provide the foreign enterprises remote access or control of critical infrastructure.

  Braun and company are but one group out of many federal legislators who want to tackle the China threat on U.S. farmland.

  Earlier this month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) unveiled a bill that would bar corporations and individuals linked to the Chinese regime from buying or leasing U.S. agricultural land. At the same time, existing owners must divest their interests under the bill or face fines and criminal consequences. Last month, Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Tester introduced a bill to ban China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from buying or leasing U.S. farmland and agricultural businesses.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 19:40

• Strong Winds Topple Huge Ship Once Owned By Paul Allen, 33 Injured
  Strong Winds Topple Huge Ship Once Owned By Paul Allen, 33 Injured

  A large research vessel, once owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, was overturned in dry dock during strong winds on Wednesday in Scotland, leading to injuries of nearly three dozen dockworkers. 

  The Telegraph reported the 250-foot research vessel, RV Petrel, was dislodged from dry dock braces by strong winds. The 3,000-ton ship tipped on its side with 50 workers on the vessel.

  Deep sea research vessel RV Petrel, has blown over at Imperial Dock (dry docks) in Leith, Edinburgh. Leaving a number of people injured. @SWNS pic.twitter.com/RpStkc8s3i

  — ARROWSMITH🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@KtLeeArrowsmith) March 22, 2023

  Images posted on Twitter show RV Petrel tilting at a 45-degree angle.  

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

  Emergency services are responding to a major incident at Leith docks- a ship has been dislodged from its holding in strong winds.
  Terrifying for those on board, my thoughts are with those who’ve been injured & hope everyone recovers quickly.
  Please avoid area. pic.twitter.com/aREtG80Gq1

  — Cllr Adam McVey (@adamrmcvey) March 22, 2023

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

  NHS Lothian said 23 workers were admitted to a hospital, some with serious injuries, while the Scottish Ambulance Service treated 12 others on scene at Imperial Dock in Leith, Edinburgh. 

  The ambulance service sent 12 ambulances, an air ambulance, three trauma teams and other resources to the scene, while the fire service also attended.

  NHS Lothian received 21 patients, with 17 being admitted to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI) for treatment and four to the Western General Hospital (WGH) in the city. A further two were taken by ambulance to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

  The health board said it was forced to cancel outpatient appointments, endoscopies and planned operations to support accident and emergency staff and free up surgeons for the influx. -The Telegraph

  The ship’s previous owner, Allen, converted it into a deep submergence research vessel in 2017 — one year before he died of complications due to lymphoma cancer. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 19:20

• Victor Davis Hanson: Questions Without Answers About Ukraine
  Victor Davis Hanson: Questions Without Answers About Ukraine

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

  Ukrainians, and many Europeans and Americans, are defining an envisioned Ukrainian victory as the complete expulsion of all Russians from its 2013 borders.

  Or, as a Ukrainian national security chief put it, the war ends with Ukrainian tanks in Red Square.

  But mysteries remain about such ambitious agendas.

  What would that goal entail?

  Giving Ukraine American F-16s to strike bases and depots in Mother Russia? The gifting of 1,000 M1 Abrams tanks? Using American Harpoon missiles to sink the Russian Black Sea fleet?

  A huge arsenal that would guarantee total victory rather than not losing?

  Russia’s cruel strategy is to grind down Ukraine and turn its eastern regions into a Verdun-like deathscape.

  So is a brave Ukraine really winning the war when it loses about 0.6 soldiers for every Russian it kills?

  

  Russia plans to leverage its extra 100 million people, its 10-times larger economy, and its 30-times larger territory to pulverize Ukraine and tire its Western patrons — whatever the costs to Russia.

  Yet why were only a few in past administrations calling for a joint Western effort to expel Putin’s forces from the borderlands and Crimea captured in 2014?

  Why are Putin’s 2014 invasions now seen as urgent rectifiable crimes of aggression in 2022, but were not regarded as reparable during the prior eight years?

  Is the United States economically capable or politically unified or socially stable enough to wage a huge proxy war on the frontiers of a nuclear Russia?

  During the last comparable multibillion-dollar military efforts — the First Gulf War in 1990-1991 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq — the ratio of American debt to GDP was respectively 40 and 50 percent.

  Today it hovers at nearly three times that figure at 129%, given some $33 trillion in accumulated debt.

  Currently, the American economy is entering a stagflationary crisis. Banking, real estate, and financial sectors seem on the brink of imploding, especially after the near-record multibillion-dollar collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, and the meltdowns of the Silicon Valley and Signature banks.

  Around 7 million illegal entries have occurred across the southern border since January 2021 alone. Millions of new impoverished foreign nationals tax social services, spike crime, and strain relations with an increasingly antagonistic Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

  An emboldened Lopez Obrador now brags that 40 million of his countrymen have cumulatively crossed the border, many illegally. He urges them to vote for Democratic candidates to ensure more open borders.

  Last year, over 100,000 Americans died of opiate overdoses. Most of the deaths were attributable to Mexican cartels’ brazen export of fentanyl across an open border.

  Nearly a million Americans have likely died of such overdoses since 2000 — more than double the number of fatalities in World War II.

  Given its shell-shocked inner cities and toxic downtowns, America is beginning to resemble mid-19th-century England that sent forces all over its global empire while novelist Charles Dickens chronicled the misery and poverty at the imperial core in London.

  Is the Ukrainian war also creating the most dangerous anti-American alliance since World War II?

  China is buying cheap Russian oil, while stealthily supplying its weapons.

  India, normally a rock-solid democratic ally, keeps buying both banned Russian oil and armaments.

  Most of the major countries in South America have not joined the sanctions.

  Clients like nuclear North Korea and soon to be nuclear Iran are empowered by overt help from Russia.

  NATO member Turkey and once-allied Saudi Arabia appear now friendlier to Iran, friendlier to China, and friendlier to Russia, than they are to America.

  In terms of combined oil reserves, nukes, population, area, and GDP, this new loose coalition of apparent anti-Americans seems more powerful than the U.S. and its squabbling friends in Europe.

  Why were those now calling for a veritable blank check for Ukraine formerly quiet when the U.S. fled in humiliation from Afghanistan?

  Why were they mostly silent when an appeasing President Joe Biden begged Russian President Vladimir Putin at least to spare some U.S. targets on his otherwise extensive anti-American cyberwar hit list?

  Or why were they indifferent when Biden said he would have fewer objections if Putin’s anticipated attack on Ukraine would be “minor”?

  Or why were they not so eager for confrontation when Putin earlier acquired the Eastern Ukrainian borderlands and Crimea in 2014 in the first place?

  Or why so subdued when the U.S. in 2015-16 refused to sell Ukrainian offensive weapons?

  Why does the U.S. discount the serial and ascending nuclear threats from Russia, but we remain careful not to antagonize China?

  After all, China sent a spy balloon brazenly across the U.S. to surveil and spy on American strategic locations.

  And why is the administration so quiet about a likely leak of an engineered deadly COVID-19 virus from a Chinese virology lab that killed 1 million Americans?

  These are Ukrainian war-related questions that never seem to be answered — but should be as the carnage rises and the nuclear threshold falls.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 19:00

• Musk Says Some Next-Gen Starlink Satellites Will Be "Deorbited" Due To Glitch
  Musk Says Some Next-Gen Starlink Satellites Will Be “Deorbited” Due To Glitch

  Elon Musk’s SpaceX recently launched the first batch of its next-generation Starlink internet satellites that already appear to be in trouble. 

  In a Wednesday tweet, Musk said there were “some issues” with “V2 Mini” satellites that were blasted into orbit last month. 

  “Lot of new technology in Starlink V2, so we’re experiencing some issues, as expected,” Musk wrote.

  The billionaire was responding to a Twitter conversation with some users pointing out “significant” altitude changes of some of the V2 Minis. 

  Musk said, “Some sats will be deorbited, others will be tested thoroughly before raising altitude above Space Station.” 

  Here’s the thread. 

  

  In a separate tweet, Starlink Insider tweeted a graph showing the decline in altitudes of some of the satellites. 

  The V2 Mini sats seem to be collectively lowering their altitude. @planet4589 is this to be expected? Trajectory is certainly uncommon when looking at other Starlink launches. pic.twitter.com/O4iwWFyyHb

  — Starlink Insider (@starlinkinsider) March 16, 2023

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

  The Feb. 27 launch of 21 next-generation Starlink satellites was on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. The V2 Minis are intended to expand network capacity as Starlink crossed 1,000,000 active subscribers in December, and some customers complain of slow speeds. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/23/2023 – 18:40