• To Understand The Globalists We Must Understand Their Psychopathic Religion
  To Understand The Globalists We Must Understand Their Psychopathic Religion

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  In the late 1800s and early 1900s the western world experienced a sudden burst of open occultism among the ultra-rich elites. The rise of “Theosophy” was underway, becoming a kind of fashion trend that would ultimately set the stage for what would later be called “new age” spiritualism. The primary driver of the theosophical movement was a small group of obscure academics led in part by a woman named H.P. Blavatsky. The group was obsessed with esoteric belief, Gnosticism and even Satanism.

  

  Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875, claiming that she had a psychic connection to beings called “the Mahatmas” or “the masters.” These creatures, she asserted, helped her write the foundational books of Theosophy, including ‘The Secret Doctrine.’

  I bring up Theosophy and Blavatsky because the movement she helped launch was primarily an elitist one – The spread of occultism in the early 1900s specifically targeted the upper classes and this resulted in many political leaders and financial leaders being involved in obscure organizations with secretive mandates. Such groups have existed in the past, from the Rosicrucians and Freemasons to the alchemists of the Middle Ages who hid their occult beliefs in coded texts. However, never before had they been so public in their efforts.

  To their credit, the early theosophists were mostly apolitical (at least outwardly) and they argued against political intrusion into people’s lives. I suspect, however, that this was because at the time western governments revolved around Christian and conservative values. As politicians became more separate from Christianity, the theosophist interest in controlling government grew and the movement became increasingly socialist in practice.

  Invariably, these spiritual systems revolved around pagan deities of the past, many Babylonian or Ancient Egyptian in origin. That said, there are also numerous mentions in Theosophy of one figure in particular – Lucifer, also referred to as “the Light Bearer, the angel of light, Prometheus (symbolically), the dragon, the morning star and Satan.” Modern luciferians will consistently deny the the name “Lucifer” has anything to do with the biblical figure of Satan, but this is a lie. Blavatsky herself treats the two figures as synonymous in ‘The Secret Doctrine.’ As she admits in her book:

  “And now it stands proven that Satan, or the Red Fiery Dragon, the ‘Lord of Phosphorus,’ and Lucifer, or ‘Light-Bearer,’ is in us: it is our Mind…”

  Blavatsky, quoting hermetic texts in the Secret Doctrine, also repeats the mantra:

  “It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god…”

  Luciferians and occultists will also argue that the Christian Bible only mentions the name “Lucifer” once, and that the two figures are not associated. This is once again a lie by omission. The Bible does in fact mention “light bearer,” the “angel of light” and “the dragon” in reference to Satan on multiple occasions, and all of these names are used by elites to describe the figure they call Lucifer.

  As mentioned in Corinthians 11:14 – “And it is no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light…”

  In other words, when any elitist group mentions terms such as “light bearer” or Lucifer, they are indeed referring to Satan. It’s not just a matter of archetypal discussion, this is in fact a part of their religion. But in our modern times some people might say “who cares?” It’s all mythical hoodoo and fantasy, right?

  I would respond with a question:  Do you think the deeply held religious beliefs of the people with financial and political power matter in how they make decisions?  Wouldn’t their beliefs help explain why they do the things they do?  If you want to know why the globalists are engaged in a very real war on the minds of the masses, you cannot overlook their religious motivations. What seems like fantasy to some is VERY real to the globalists.

  For example, many know that the United Nations building in New York has an occult library.  But few people know that it was built by a group called the Lucifer Publishing Company (later changed to Lucis Trust). Lucis Trust cites the writings of HP Blavatsky constantly as the inspiration for their organization. The UN continues to associate with Lucis Trust to this day. The very heart of globalism revolves around luciferian ideals.

  It doesn’t matter what you or I think about these things. It doesn’t matter if you see such concepts as metaphorical, or symbolic or imaginary. THEY believe, and so we must explore what these beliefs mean.

  Before the 1800s, occultists engaged in luciferianism would have been burned at the stake if discovered. I’m beginning to think that maybe this was the right way to handle such people all along. But to understand why, we have to look at the progression of the religion and why it inevitably leads to moral relativism and social self-destruction.

  For the theosophists, Lucifer/Satan is a kind of heroic figure. When they argue that Lucifer is “not Satan,” what they mean is that their version of Satan is different from the version ascribed by Christianity. In other words, imagine a group of people took a famously malicious figure such as Joseph Stalin and then devised an entirely different history for him in which he is a misunderstood philanthropist instead of a genocidal maniac. That’s essentially what luciferianism is.

  In the Theosophical magazine titled ‘Lucifer’ published in the 1880s, Blavatsky and her group spend multiple pages trying to separate the term Lucifer from the Devil, while also defending the mythology of the devil and painting him as a character slandered by Christian culture.

  In their version of the Genesis story, for example, the serpent was the “good guy” bringing the fruit of knowledge to Adam and Eve. Eve is venerated as a root figure in theosophy and in feminism (a movement the theosophists helped to create), because without Eve the serpent would have never been able to get Adam to consume the fruit.

  The fruit as a representation of gnosis (knowledge) is the key to luciferianism and the globalist cult. As many atheists I’ve encountered in the past have argued, isn’t knowledge a good thing? And if God is punishing humanity for consuming knowledge, does that not make him a villain? This argument ignores the underlying theme – Knowledge by itself is not good or evil, but evil thrives when people start to worship knowledge to the detriment of everything else. The application of knowledge without wisdom and moral discipline is dangerous.

  As Dr. Ian Malcolm brilliantly asserts in the film Jurassic Park:

  “Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

  Luciferians openly admit that the goal of their ideology is to pursue knowledge until human beings become gods. This infatuation with godhood is what leads to great evil; it is a delusion that poisons the mind and encourages morally relative behavior, not to mention a pervasive thirst for power.  Ponder the technological aspect for a moment. Consider the numerous globalist programs to expand artificial intelligence and bring about what they call “transhumanism.” This is a kind of knowledge worship that has terrifying implications for the future.

  The integration of technology into the surveillance state to rule over society is bad enough, but what happens when human beings begin integrating technology into their very biology. Will this eventually erase any semblance of what we call “the soul?” After all, machines do not feel, nor do they self reflect on their actions. What happens when humans distort themselves to become more like machines? Will transhumanism become a movement that suffocates all love and empathy, removing moral compass and turning us into a demonic hive-mind devoid of individual thought?

  Globalists assert that there is no such thing as the soul, no such thing as individual identity and no such thing as moral compass.  Form their perspective there is no danger of adopting technology as a path to godhood because nothing would be lost; and here we see the true nature of luciferianism at work. A perfect representation of this cancer is World Economic Forum spokesperson Yavul Harari – a man who says the quiet part out loud and promotes the darker tenets of luciferianism regularly.

  To grasp what luciferianism is, think of it as the anti-god; a war on nature, or a war on the natural state of humanity disguised as “enlightenment.” This is why globalists try to institute the extreme opposite view of every natural disposition. The notion of human beings as a blank slate that Yuval Harari clings to is one such false narrative. It is a philosophy that has been debunked by endless psychological studies as well as anthropological studies.

  From Carl Jung to Joseph Campbell to Steven Pinker and beyond, all scientific evidence suggests that human beings have inherent psychological qualities and characteristics from birth. Some of these are unique to the person, some are universal archetypes and ideas that the majority of people share (such as conscience and moral compass). If we didn’t have these built-in qualities, humanity would have become extinct thousands of years ago. We still don’t know where exactly they come from, we only know that without them we are no longer human.

  There is, however, a certain percentage of people (1% or less) that actually do not have these inborn character traits. They are generally known as psychopaths and sociopaths, and their behavior is very similar to that of the globalists. I have long held the theory that the globalist cabal is in fact a cult of higher functioning psychopaths.

  Their lack of empathy and conscience, their thirst for godhood and omnipotence, their drive to attain all encompassing surveillance of the population, to know everything about us at all time, to have total control over the environment and society, the narcissistic self image of a supreme ruler who is worshiped by the masses, and the delusion that they will be able to read minds and predict the future. These are psychopathic fantasies, and they are willing to chase these fantasies by any means necessary.

  But even psychopaths sometimes need a fundamentalist framework in order to maintain organization and inspire devotion within a group. It makes perfect sense that they would choose luciferianism as their religion.

  Their “do what thou wilt” philosophy of hedonism takes the idea of freedom and removes all responsibility – It is a degenerate view of liberty, rather than a principled view. Freedom, they think, is only for people like them; the people willing to desecrate everything in their path and upend the natural order.

  As psychopaths, they are devoid of natural inborn contents and are more robotic than human. So, it’s no surprise that people like Harai argue there is no soul, no freedom (for you) and that machines are capable of the same creativity as humans. An empty person with no soul or creativity is going to assume that all other people are empty. An immoral person will also be compelled to prove that everyone else is just as immoral as he is. Or, he will be compelled to prove that he is superior to everyone else because he has embraced his immorality.

  Do the elites actually believe in a real “devil” with hooves and horns and a pitchfork? I don’t know. What matters, though, is the philosophical drive of their cultism. Their goal is to convince a majority of the populace that there is no good, and there is no evil. Everything is empty. Everything is relative to the demands of the moment, and the demands of society. Of course, they want to control society, so then everything would really be relative to THEIR demands.

  If you want to see something truly demonic, imagine a world in which all inherent truth is abandoned for the sake of subjective perception. A world that caters to the preferences of psychopaths with no ethical imperative. A world where the ends always justify the means. This is the luciferian way, and the globalist way. And no matter how much they deny it, the reality of their beliefs is visible in the fruits of their labors. Wherever they go, destruction, chaos and death follow.

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 23:40

• Russia Says Navalny Died Of Natural Causes As Western MSM Anoints Widow "Newest Opposition Leader"
  Russia Says Navalny Died Of Natural Causes As Western MSM Anoints Widow “Newest Opposition Leader”

  Russian authorities have said that the opposition activist Aleksei Navalny died of natural causes while in prison in a far northern Arctic penal colony. It comes nearly a full week after Russian prison services announced he died on Feb.16.

  There’s now a public fight over his body, and the question of a funeral service, as his family and legal team have complained they are being denied access to the deceased. Condemnations have come in from various Western countries, and have pointed at the Putin government, ultimately blaming the Kremlin for his death while in custody. This has included US and European officials.

  

  Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has newly accused Russian officials of seeking to pressure her into accepting a secret burial, presumably to prevent it from becoming a major televised memorial event. 

  “Looking me in the eyes, they say that if I don’t agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body,” she said in a video posted to Navalny’s widow’s social media account.

  “According to the law, they should have given me Alexei’s body immediately,” she said. “Instead, they are blackmailing me, and telling me where, when and how Alexei should be buried.” She has reportedly filed a lawsuit for immediate release to her custody of his body.

  Navalny’s legal team has seen a death report saying his death was “natural” – however, few other specifics has been made public.

  Meanwhile, Western press has already hailed that his wife Yulia is carrying on the work of team Navalny and will lead the political “opposition” against Putin. Name recognition inside Russia is a whole different question…

  Yulia Navalnaya once avoided the limelight. Now she’s Russia’s newest opposition leader https://t.co/7DPfaMpb3x

  — The Associated Press (@AP) February 22, 2024

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

  The Associated Press and others are declaring her Russia’s “newest opposition leader” – in what appears a kind of Juan Guaidó moment to manufacture ‘mass support’ and ‘popularity’, though Alexei Navalny himself never polled more than two percent among the Russian population.

  Thus all of the below from Associated Press is a bit wishful and overdramatic, to say the least:

  Navalnaya’s new job will be leading the Russian opposition through one of the darkest and most turbulent times in its history.

  The opposition is fractured, and Navalny’s death dealt it a serious blow. The question now is whether Navalnaya can rally her husband’s troops and work with other opposition groups to mount any kind of successful challenge to Putin, who is on a path to serve another six years in the Kremlin after the presidential election in March.

  She’s already addressed the Munich Security Conference, where defense leaders and diplomats were present from around the globe, and is expected to continue to rise in prominence, in the media lens at least. Likely she’ll soon be featured at major events from Paris to London to Washington D.C.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 23:20

• Number Of Chinese Illegally Crossing US-Mexico Border Surges 500 Percent In San Diego Sector
  Number Of Chinese Illegally Crossing US-Mexico Border Surges 500 Percent In San Diego Sector

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The number of Chinese nationals entering the United States illegally has surged in recent times, with the latest data from the San Diego sector showing a staggering 500 percent surge so far this year compared to the same period a year ago.

  

  As the nation remains gripped by an illegal immigration crisis of historic proportions, there’s been an exceptionally high increase in the number of Chinese nationals—especially military-aged men—who have unlawfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

  Some border patrol officials and others have warned this poses a national security risk because, among those simply seeking a better life, there may be those with links to the Chinese military.

  Brandon Judd, the head of the Border Patrol union, recently warned about a sharp rise in the number of military-aged Chinese men crossing the southern border illegally, saying that he believes some of them may be spies working on behalf of China’s communist regime to “infiltrate” the United States.

  And now, Jason Owens, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), has revealed that, so far this fiscal year, the San Diego sector has seen over 20,000 apprehensions of Chinese nationals, over five times the number in the comparable period last year.

  “In FY24, San Diego Sector has made +140K apprehensions with +20K of them being from China (a more than 500% increase compared to last FYTD),” Mr. Owens wrote in a post on X.

  

  Some analysts say that deteriorating economic conditions in China, as well as human rights abuses and policies such as strict COVID-19 lockdowns, are likely driving the sharp increase in the number of Chinese nationals entering the United States illegally.

  Interviews with some of the Chinese border crossers indicate much the same thing, with some blaming an increasingly repressive political climate and dour economic prospects.

  However, Mr. Judd and others have suggested that for some—possibly even many—there might be a different motivation.

  “Why are we seeing this influx?” he said during a recent interview on “Just the News, No Noise” TV program.

  “At best, they’re just coming here for a better life or a better job. At worst, they’re coming here to be part of the Chinese government, and that’s what scares me an awful lot,” he said.

  Illegal Immigrants From Adversarial Nations

  In January, Border Patrol agents encountered a record number of illegal immigrants (242,587) compared to any previous January.

  At the same time, the CPB numbers showed an alarming trend in the number of military-aged Chinese nationals making illegal border crossings.

  CBP data shows that Border Patrol agents encountered 5,717 single Chinese adults in January, more than twice the number of any other January on record. In December 2023, that figure rose to a record of 7,581. The total since January 2023 stands at 64,979.

  China is designated a “country of particular concern” by the U.S. State Department, while the FBI says that economic espionage and counterintelligence efforts emanating from China’s communist regime are a “grave threat” to America’s economic security.

  Mr. Judd said in his interview on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV program that the sharp rise in the number of Chinese nationals crossing the border illegally should be looked into by U.S. law enforcement and the intelligence community.

  There are “huge gangs” in the United States linked to Chinese nationals who are involved in drugs, prostitution, and other criminal pursuits, he said.

  “They control everything that’s illegal in certain portions of the country,” Mr. Judd said. “We have to look into that. It’s very important that we understand why we are having so many people from China, especially military-aged men.”

  

  ‘China’s Shock Troops’

  At the beginning of the current fiscal year, Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality crossing the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama and heading north toward the United States, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, and Haitians, according to The Associated Press.

  Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” wrote in a recent op-ed in The Epoch Times that, of the Chinese migrants making the dangerous trek north from points in Central and South America, “almost all are desperate, seeking a better life for themselves and their children.”

  “Some, however, are coming to commit acts of sabotage,” he argued.

  Mr. Chang explained that many Chinese nationals fly to Ecuador, which allows them to enter visa-free. Then, they travel to the southern edge of the Darién Gap, a 66-mile stretch of jungle that separates Colombia and Panama, typically crossing on foot. Once they get to the north side, they continue their journey to the United States, often by bus, according to the China expert.

  “Some migrants are almost certainly members of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” Mr. Chang wrote.

  “These military-linked migrants, despite their affiliations, have been released into America,” he argued, hinting at yet another negative consequence of the Biden administration’s catch-and-release program, under which asylum-seekers are released into U.S. communities to await asylum hearings.

  

  In February 2023, the influx of Chinese nationals unlawfully entering the United States began to surge compared to historical averages. By summertime, the monthly figures had doubled compared to previous years.

  For example, in June 2023, there were 4,117 single Chinese adults encountered by Border Patrol agents nationwide, while in June 2022, that figure was 2,324, and in June 2021, it was 1,854.

  It’s estimated that more than 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Joe Biden took office.

  Republicans have blamed President Biden’s policies for fueling the border crisis, and the GOP-controlled House recently voted to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on two counts related to his management of the border.

  GOP lawmakers have called for measures such as ending the Biden administration’s contentious “catch-and-release” policy, expanding expedited removals, renewing border wall construction, and reinstating the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 23:00

• Joe Biden's EV Mandate "Vision" For America Is In Full Collapse
  Joe Biden’s EV Mandate “Vision” For America Is In Full Collapse

  Color us not surprised, but another one of the Biden administration’s “visions” for forcing people to own electric vehicles isn’t working out exactly as planned.

  This time it deals with supply chain logistics, with Bloomberg reporting this week that in the year and a half since passing the Inflation Reduction Act, automakers are finding out the hard way that the rigorous criteria for manufacturing batteries using materials from the United States and its free-trade allies could render them cost-inefficient compared to global competitors.

  Companies like Tesla are instead taking advantage of a temporary shift in the rules to stock up with cheaper batteries from countries like China.

  The Biden administration’s new rules will all but cut out China from the supply chain, however, which will make it tougher to find affordable metal suppliers.

  This, in turn, will threaten President Biden’s goal to boost the domestic electric vehicle market. Bloomberg writes that mining companies and labor unions insist that without curtailing the influx of cheaper, Chinese-subsidized materials, the U.S. can’t develop a competitive EV market.

  Meanwhile, the higher costs are driving automakers away from EVs. And as battery material requirements are set to double by 2027, fulfilling these mandates will be increasingly difficult, putting Biden’s ambitious EV strategy at risk.

  

  The demand side of the equation also looks less than favorable. We wrote just hours ago about how Ford was slashing prices on its Mach E and Lightning 150. Tesla has been slashing prices to stoke demand for nearly a year now. 

  Both Ford and GM have said they’re going to curtail their investment in EVs. General Motors, who posted better than expected earnings earlier this month, said that it plans on changing its product lineup to include more hybrid vehicles, drifting away from pure electric vehicles. 

  CEO Mary Barra said on the earnings call: “Let me be clear, GM remains committed to eliminating tailpipe emissions from our light-duty vehicles by 2035, but, in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environment or environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build this charging infrastructure.”

  Recall, a report from Consumer Reports last year found that electric vehicles have almost 80% more problems and are “generally less reliable” than conventional internal combustion engine cars. 

  But hey, what good is a “free” market if the government doesn’t have complete and total control of consumer choice, right Joe?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 22:40

• Congress Must Fight Modern Day Slavery
  Congress Must Fight Modern Day Slavery

  Authored by Callista L. Gingrich via RealClear Wire,

  On February 13, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act with a vote of 414-11. The bipartisan legislation, authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), will reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 – which expired in 2021 – and provide approximately $1 billion in funding over five years for programs that combat the scourge of human trafficking.

  

  Among the measures included in the comprehensive legislation are educational grants to provide situational awareness training and prevention for elementary and secondary students; funding reauthorization for the International Megan’s Law and Angel Watch programs; and authorization for programs that support survivors’ employment, housing, and education.

  Rep. Smith made clear how important this legislation is in the fight against modern-day slavery. “This critical legislation reauthorizes funding for FY2024 through 2028—a total of five years—to continue current year enacted appropriation and authorization levels to enhance programs, strengthen laws, and add accountability in our whole-of-government effort to protect women and children from human trafficking,” he said.

  In recent weeks, Catholic leaders in the United States have voiced their support for the Frederick Douglass Act, in line with Pope Francis’s “call to take action, to mobilize all our resources in combatting trafficking and restoring full dignity to those who have been its victims.”

  Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration endorsed the Frederick Douglass Act and called on Congress “to pass the bill without further delay.”

  As Bishop Mark J. Seitz, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said, “It is incumbent upon all of us to unite in promoting efforts that prevent the evil of human trafficking. I join our Holy Father in inviting the faithful and all people of good will to uphold and affirm human dignity and grow in solidarity with those who are vulnerable to exploitation and have been impacted by this terrible evil of modern-day slavery.”

  On February 12, days before the bill’s passage in the House, two organizations founded by religious sisters – the Alliance to End Human Trafficking and The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd – hosted a panel that called on Congress to pass the Frederick Douglass Act.

  The online event, titled “Breaking the Link Between Human Trafficking and Forced Migration: Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act,” highlighted that migrants are often at a high risk of falling victim to human trafficking. As panel moderator Sister Ann Scholz, SSND, Ph.D. said, “Desperate people become vulnerable to human traffickers.”

  Noting that the Frederick Douglass Act would “expand prevention efforts” and deter “forced migration,” Director of Advocacy for the Alliance to End Human Trafficking Marilyn Zigmund Luke said, “This is really a three-pronged approach at getting at not only trafficking within the United States, but really getting at what’s happening within the home countries of people so that they will not migrate.”

  The scourge of human trafficking is a stain on all of humanity. It invades borders, destroys communities, and robs millions of their human dignity. Tragically, the United States is one of the top destinations for human trafficking, and cases have been reported in every U.S. state.

  With the Frederick Douglass Act now moving to the Senate for consideration, every concerned American should encourage their senators to vote in favor of this important legislation to support survivors of human trafficking and eradicate this horrific evil.

  For more commentary from Callista L. Gingrich, visit

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 22:20

• "Absolutely Crazy": Vacant LA Office Tower To Be Torn Down For Just 30 New EV Charging Stations
  “Absolutely Crazy”: Vacant LA Office Tower To Be Torn Down For Just 30 New EV Charging Stations

  Kyle Bass, the founder of Dallas-based Hayman Capital Management, explained last year that the office tower segment of the commercial real estate sector is in such dire straights that towers need to be demolished as demand isn’t returning. He also mentioned converting these towers into residential apartments may not be feasible in some cases. 

  “It’s one asset class that just has to get redone, and redone meaning demolished,” Bass told Bloomberg in an interview. 

  In recent months, Vornado Realty Trust’s property near Madison Square Garden halted construction of a planned 61-floor office tower after Hotel Pennsylvania was demolished. The unfolding CRE crash forced Vornado to pause construction, with new plans of “temporarily” converting the property into tennis courts for the US Open. 

  The trend emerging for older towers is a complete tear-down. However, building a new office tower is no longer a viable option, considering the US market has years of elevated supply overhanging the market. 

  Here’s a great visual from a recent Morgan Stanley note showing how the CRE office segment is plagued with supply. 

  

  So, the trend at play is to tear down older towers, but what comes next? 

  Well, X user Triple Net Investor, citing a recent note from real estate firm CoStar, pointed out that a 68,000-square-foot office tower at 8121 Van Nuys Blvd. in Los Angeles is slated for demolition. 

  

  What comes next might be surprising. And it’s not a tower, but actually, the very real possibility of a charging station for electric vehicles. 

  “Add electric vehicle charging to the list of new uses envisioned to replace underused offices across the United States,” CoStar said. 

  This is absolutely crazy…

  An owner of an office building in LA is seeking approval to tear down the building and construct 30 EV charging stations

  I don’t know what’s crazier…this headline or seeing office properties drop 80-90% in just a few years

  The commercial real… pic.twitter.com/kTDv4dCb8h

  — Triple Net Investor (@TripleNetInvest) February 22, 2024

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

  Triple Net Investor said, “I don’t know what’s crazier…this headline or seeing office properties drop 80-90% in just a few years.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 22:00

• Vivek Ramaswamy Criticizes Koch Network For Funding Haley
  Vivek Ramaswamy Criticizes Koch Network For Funding Haley

  Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Vivek Ramaswamy, now on former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential shortlist, spoke at a factory in Aiken, South Carolina, on Feb. 21 about his support for President Trump and his worries about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley ahead of the Feb. 24 GOP presidential primary.

  

  He speculated that Ms. Haley’s donors are “preparing for a No Labels ticket that then takes votes from Donald Trump away in that general election.”

  He went further in a press conference afterwards, criticizing the billionaire Koch family’s libertarian policy advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action, for backing Ms. Haley and opposing President Trump.

  “I think it’s very disappointing that that network has thrown its support behind a candidate who does not even stand for the principles that they claim to embody,” he told The Epoch Times.

  

  He cited Ms. Haley’s stance on Ukraine funding and her call for an end to anonymous social media accounts as examples of proposals that are inconsistent with those principles.

  President’s Trump’s views, he argued, are “far more aligned with what AFP claims to stand for.”

  He also lauded Chris Maidment, a former AFP staffer who left the network after it threw its weight behind Ms. Haley. Mr. Maidment was fired by AFP for publicly speaking out against its backing for Ms. Haley.

  “Nikki Haley is totally sideways on [AFP]’s foreign policy stance. She’s anti-free speech,” Mr. Maidment wrote on X on Dec. 1, 2023, as part of a thread distancing himself from AFP’s Haley endorsement.

  “I congratulate the guys like Chris Maidment or others who have worked there who have been vocal and brave enough to criticize their own decision, saying it betrayed their own principles. It’ll be people like that that can actually restore that sanity and that sense of purpose,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.

  But he stressed that “people make mistakes.”

  “I invite them to reconsider their decision … And you know what? I’m optimistic that, with some forethought, they actually will,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.

  Mr. Ramaswamy has a libertarian past and some libertarian-inflected stances to this day. He voted for the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, Michael Badnarik, in the 2004 presidential election. In 2023, he campaigned at the Porcupine Freedom Festival, an annual gathering for libertarians in the northwoods of New Hampshire.

  

  Americans for Prosperity has been a massive contributor to Republican candidates and conservative and libertarian causes. Open Secrets reports they rank first for outside spending in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $51 million to date to a variety of candidates, Ms. Haley among them.

  That includes more than $31 million in favor of Ms. Haley and more than $9 million against President Trump. They have also spent more than $9 million against incumbent President Joe Biden, whose efforts at claiming a second term could benefit if Ms. Haley runs as an independent candidate and divides the conservative- and libertarian-leaning vote.

  In addition to taking money from the Koch network, Ms. Haley has accepted financial support from groups and donors that typically support Democrats and progressive causes, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

  Many wealthy Republican-aligned donors who previously supported alternatives to President Trump are reconciling themselves to his likely victory in the Republican primary contest. They include Wall Street executive Omeed Malik, a former supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis now donating to and raising money for President Trump, as reported by CNBC.

  Earlier in the afternoon, Ms. Haley spoke at the Palmetto Terrace Municipal Building in North Augusta, about 20 miles away from Mr. Ramaswamy’s Team Trump stop.

  She did not answer a question from The Epoch Times about whether she is contemplating a run with No Labels.

  

  Attendees of the Ramaswamy event at AGY Corp, a fiberglass yarn producer, reacted with a mixture of amusement and indifference to Ms. Haley’s presence not far away.

  Jackie and Gayle Croft both shrugged their shoulders at the news.

  “It’s her choice,” Ms. Croft told The Epoch Times with a laugh.

  “Sometimes, it’s time to just bail out,” Joyce Pennington said of Ms. Haley’s continued participation in the presidential contest.

  Both Crofts nodded their heads at the idea of Mr. Ramaswamy as President Trump’s VP pick.

  “Everything he says is right on,” Mr. Croft said.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 21:40

• Which Country Owns The Most Vehicles Per Capita?
  Which Country Owns The Most Vehicles Per Capita?

  In 2020, there were 289 million vehicles in use in America, or about 18% of the global total.

  With one of the largest car ownership rates worldwide, the number of U.S. cars on the road have more than doubled since the 1960s. But how does ownership compare to other countries, and who is seeing the fastest growth rates amid a rising global middle class?

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows vehicles per capita by country, based on data from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA).

  

  Highest Car Ownership Rates Worldwide

  Below, we rank countries based on the number of registered vehicles in use per 1,000 people, including both passenger cars and commercial vehicles as of 2020:

  Country	Number of Vehicles in Use per 1000 Inhabitants	Average Annual Growth Rate 2015-2020
  🇳🇿 New Zealand	869	3%
  🇺🇸 U.S.	860	2%
  🇵🇱 Poland	761	4%
  🇮🇹 Italy	756	1%
  🇦🇺 Australia	737	2%
  🇨🇦 Canada	707	3%
  🇫🇷 France	704	1%
  🇨🇿 Czechia	658	3%
  🇵🇹 Portugal	640	2%
  🇳🇴 Norway	635	1%
  🇦🇹 Austria	632	2%
  🇬🇧 UK	632	2%
  🇩🇪 Germany	627	2%
  🇪🇸 Spain	627	2%
  🇬🇷 Greece	617	1%
  🇯🇵 Japan	612	0%
  🇨🇭 Switzerland	604	1%
  🇧🇪 Belgium	590	1%
  🇳🇱 Netherlands	588	2%
  🇫🇮 Finland	577	1%
  🇸🇪 Sweden	544	1%
  🇩🇰 Denmark	540	2%
  🇮🇪 Ireland	540	3%
  🇲🇾 Malaysia	535	6%
  🇸🇰 Slovakia	513	3%
  🇱🇾 Libya	490	4%
  🇧🇬 Bulgaria	485	-1%
  🇭🇷 Croatia	474	3%
  🇸🇾 Syria	472	7%
  🇭🇺 Hungary	463	4%
  🇰🇷 South Korea	458	2%
  🇷🇴 Romania	438	7%
  🇮🇱 Israel	404	4%
  🇷🇺 Russia	389	2%
  🇧🇾 Belarus	387	1%
  🇲🇽 Mexico	358	4%
  🇹🇼 Taiwan	344	1%
  🇦🇪 UAE	343	8%
  🇷🇸 Serbia	330	4%
  🇦🇷 Argentina	311	0%
  🇹🇭 Thailand	277	5%
  🇨🇱 Chile	246	1%
  🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	226	-1%
  🇨🇳 China	223	14%
  🇹🇷 Türkiye	220	4%
  🇧🇷 Brazil	214	1%
  🇺🇦 Ukraine	192	-1%
  🇮🇷 Iran	183	2%
  🇿🇦 South Africa	176	1%
  🇪🇨 Ecuador	152	3%
  🇻🇪 Venezuela	149	-1%
  🇩🇿 Algeria	144	3%
  🇲🇦 Morocco	112	4%
  🇨🇴 Colombia	111	1%
  🇮🇶 Iraq	111	4%
  🇵🇪 Peru	88	4%
  🇮🇩 Indonesia	78	5%
  🇪🇬 Egypt	64	4%
  🇳🇬 Nigeria	56	5%
  🇻🇳 Vietnam	50	17%
  🇵🇭 Philippines	38	3%
  🇮🇳 India	33	10%
  🇵🇰 Pakistan	20	7%

  Clinching top spot is New Zealand, a country known for its love of cars.

  With nearly nine cars on the road to every 10 people, this figure is notably high considering that children make up about 20% of the population. The majority of cars are imported second hand from Japan thanks to a wave of deregulation in the 1980s along with the country being a major producer of right-hand drive cars.

  The U.S. falls close behind, with a clear preference for trucks and SUVs. In fact, the Ford F-1 Series has been the best-selling vehicle in America for 42 consecutive years.

  In Europe, Poland has the highest number of vehicles per person, but one of the lowest share of electric vehicles (EVs). While EVs make up nearly 16% of all cars in top-ranking country Norway, they comprise 0.1% in Poland. On average, EVs account for 0.8% of passenger cars in the European Union.

  Driven by an expanding middle class, Vietnam has seen the fastest growth in ownership. Between 2015 and 2020, the motorization rate grew by an astonishing 17% each year. Additionally, China witnessed 14% growth while India’s vehicles per 1,000 people increased 10% annually over the period.

  The Top EV Markets, by Country

  As EV sales gain momentum, here are the biggest markets worldwide, based on the number of all-EV cars in use as of 2022:

  

  Source: IEA Global EV Outlook 2023

  China is home to over half of the world’s EVs.

  Its foothold on the global EV market can be explained by its close proximity to the raw materials used in EV batteries. In fact, China produces roughly 70% of the world’s rare earth metals and has more battery production capacity than all other countries combined.

  Adding to this, China developed key government policies that specifically tackled operational hurdles, such as battery constraints, leading to innovation in core technologies. In 2023, EVs made up 31% of all car sales in China, boosted by government incentives and strong consumer demand.

  Norway is another leader in the EV market, whose government began introducing EV policies as early as 1990. By 2025, the country aims to phase out internal combustion engine vehicle sales completely. About 80% of all vehicles sales in Norway were EVs in 2022, the highest in the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 21:20

• Climate Dieticians Push Americans To Cut Beef For The Sake Of The Planet
  Climate Dieticians Push Americans To Cut Beef For The Sake Of The Planet

  Authored by Eric Worrall via WattsUpWithThat.com,

  “… Replacing beef with a different protein — even for just one meal — can cut the emissions footprint of a person’s diet that day by as much as half. …”

  

  One Simple Change to Reduce Your Climate Impact? Swap Out Beef

  Replacing beef with a different protein — even for just one meal — can cut the emissions footprint of a person’s diet that day by as much as half. 

  By Zahra Hirji
  21 February 2024 at 20:00 GMT+10

  Next time you’re out for lunch, try playing a little game: Without looking it up, can you find the most and least climate-friendly options on the menu?

  Unlike a meal’s price, the greenhouse-gas footprint of food isn’t typically spelled out. But you don’t need to ask a climate scientist to find out either. There’s one simple trick for identifying the highest impact item on almost any menu: If there’s beef, that’s probably it.

  …

  “You don’t have to become a vegan to have a big impact on your carbon footprint,” says Diego Rose, a professor and director of the nutrition program at Tulane University. “You just have to swap out beef.”

  …

  Beef’s footprint is especially outsized. For one, there are roughly 1.5 billion cows on the planet. About 13 million square kilometers (3.2 billion acres) of land is used to raise all that cattle, along with buffalo, and their food — one-quarter of all land used for agriculture, according to a 2017 paper in Global Food Security. Then there’s the methane. Cows and other ruminants have a unique digestive system that allows them to turn grass into fuel, but in the process their special gut bacteria releases methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.

  …

  “In the US, most of us eat more beef than what’s considered healthy for us,” says Stephanie Roe, a climate and energy lead scientist at the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund. “So that’s low-hanging fruit because then we can improve our health outcomes in addition to environmental ones.”

  …

  Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-21/the-diet-shift-that-makes-the-biggest-impact-on-climate-change?embedded-checkout=true

  I have a big problem with the anti-beef push.

  There is a reason cowboys herded cows in the old West, and why the African Maasai and many other peoples still do, and why beef cattle are chosen when other crops would in theory produce a much higher yield per acre.

  Cattle can be raised in harsh regions which are far too unforgiving for other farm produce.

  The suggestion raising beef is taking far more land than other food production, with the implicit suggestion that land dedicated to beef production could be repurposed for other produce, in my opinion verges on a lie by omission. I’m sure some cattle land could be used for other purposes, but a lot of it couldn’t.

  In places where beef production is the only option, abandoning beef would mean abandoning food – dramatically reducing the total food available for people to eat.

  Even in places where other food choices are available, the anti-beef push could impact food supplies. Stopping beef production would not automatically equate to increased production of other food.

  In a world where just under 800 million people go to bed hungry every night, attacking the supply of food in the name of the alleged climate emergency in my opinion should be viewed as a crime against humanity.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 21:00

• Biden Moving To Send Long-Range Ballistic Missiles To Ukraine
  Biden Moving To Send Long-Range Ballistic Missiles To Ukraine

  President Biden has just upped the ante on Ukraine aid while continuing to press House Republicans to approve the gargantuan war spending bill and its $61 billion for Kiev. Even while it’s clear Ukraine forces are being beaten back from the front lines, NBC reports this week that Biden is now closer to approving longer-range missile systems, which are capable of striking deeper into Crimea and Russian territory. 

  “After months of requests from Ukrainian officials, the Biden administration is working toward providing Ukraine with powerful new long-range ballistic missiles, according to two U.S. officials,” the report says.

  

  The advanced weapon system in question here is the long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) with a range of nearly 200 miles, significantly beyond the HIMARS systems which were already long ago provided. The HIMARS in Ukraine’s possession are commonly estimated to reach 50-60 miles.

  Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba strongly suggested progress was made on the issue during his meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich this weekend. “I just came here from a meeting with Secretary Blinken,” Kuleba had said Saturday. “I spent a very good part of the time arguing in favor of ATACMS.”

  A US official told NBC that ATACMS “would allow Ukraine to strike farther inside the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula.”

  That Biden administration officials are openly boasting that this would be a motivating factor in providing the long-range missiles takes the world into highly dangerous territory, and stumbling further toward WW3.

  The thinking still reflects the claim that Russia seeks to expand the war beyond Ukraine and into Europe. Kiev and its closest allies have been advancing this narrative hard of late, especially while trying to get Washington funds unblocked. For example in the wake of the fall of Avdiivka:

  “The era of peace in Europe is over,” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian foreign minister, told those present.

  “And every time Ukrainian soldiers withdraw from a Ukrainian town because of the lack of ammunition, think of it not only in terms of democracy and defending the world-based order, but also in terms of Russian soldiers getting a few kilometers closer to your towns.”

  Of course, the pro-escalation pundits have been out there pushing this narrative hard…

  If Biden is serious about living up to his words, there are 3 steps to take. Send long-range fires like ATACMs and fighter jets to Ukraine now. Seize the billions in Russian assets and get them to Ukraine now. The GOP cannot obstruct these actions, only cowardice can. https://t.co/qkM6NWyba5

  — Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 16, 2024

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

  Putin has already long accused the West of supplying the very weapons now more frequently being used to attack inside Russian territory. Missiles, drones, and mortars have been raining down on the Belgorod region for months now, and on oil and industrial facilities. It’s perhaps only a matter of time before a major incident involving direct NATO-Russia hostilities.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 20:40

• FDA Approves 1st T-Cell Therapy For Melanoma
  FDA Approves 1st T-Cell Therapy For Melanoma

  Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Melanoma cancer patients with solid tumors can turn to a new treatment thanks to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of a new class of immunotherapy. The new treatment may offer hope to those facing an otherwise deadly stage of disease.

  

  Amtagvi (lifileucel) is the first tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy to hit the market. The FDA granted accelerated approval to manufacturer Iovance Biotherapeutics on Friday for the drug’s use to treat patients with advanced melanoma that is unable to be removed with surgery, or that has spread to other parts of the body.

  “The approval of AMTAGVI offers hope to those with advanced melanoma who have progressed following initial standard of care therapies, as the current treatment options are not effective for many patients,” said Samantha R. Guild, president of the AIM at Melanoma Foundation, in a press release. “This one-time cell therapy represents a promising innovation for the melanoma community, and we are excited by its potential to transform care for patients who are in dire need of additional therapeutic options.”

  “Unresectable or metastatic melanoma is an aggressive form of cancer that can be fatal,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), said in an agency press release. “The approval of Amtagvi represents the culmination of scientific and clinical research efforts leading to a novel T cell immunotherapy for patients with limited treatment options.”

  Amtagvi Utilizes Patient’s T-Cells to Fight Cancer

  Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that starts in the cells that give skin its color, melanocytes. It often begins in the skin that is regularly exposed to sunlight, such as the arms, backs, face, and legs. While the exact causes aren’t clear, most research points to ultraviolet light exposure as a primary factor.

  While it starts with the skin, the cancer can spread to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body. According to the American Cancer Society, about one in 33 white people will develop it, while one in 1,000 black people and one in 200 Hispanic people will.

  The treatment is suitable for patients who have tried other forms of therapy, such as PD-1 blocking inhibitors or drugs that target the BRAF gene. PD-1 blocking inhibitors use antibodies to target specific proteins in the body to help the immune system fight off cancer cells. Drugs that target the BRAF gene help manage the growth and function of particular cells associated with skin cancer. According to the FDA, these therapies have some success with melanoma patients, but for those whose cancers have progressed, there has been a “high unmet medical need” until the approval of Amtagvi.

  Amtagvi uses a patient’s T-cells, a cancer-fighting immune cell. To create the therapy, a portion of the patient’s cancer tumor is removed during surgery. The T-cells are separated from the tumor and returned to the patient during a single infusion. While other immunotherapies exist, this is the first FDA-approved, tumor-derived T-cell immunotherapy.

  “Melanoma is a life-threatening cancer that can cause devastating impacts to affected individuals, with a significant risk of metastasizing and spreading to other areas in the body,” Dr. Nicole Verdun, director of the Office of Therapeutic Products in CBER, said in the press statement released Friday. “Today’s approval reflects the FDA’s dedication and commitment to the development of innovative, safe and effective treatment options for cancer patients.”

  Amtagvi was approved after a clinical study of 73 patients reviewed its safety and efficacy profile. According to the FDA, among those treated with the new medication, 31.5 percent of participants saw their tumors shrink. The therapy does come with side effects, including prolonged severe low blood count, severe infection, cardiac disorder, and the potential for developing worsened respiratory or kidney function. The therapy comes with a boxed warning about these risks, the FDA noted. Other common reactions included chills, fever, fatigue, fast heart rate, diarrhea, swelling, rash, low blood pressure, hair loss, infection, low oxygen levels, and shortness of breath.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 20:20

• Watch: Putin Co-Pilots Supersonic Nuclear-Capable Bomber
  Watch: Putin Co-Pilots Supersonic Nuclear-Capable Bomber

  Russian President Vladimir Putin just sent the Western military alliance a not-so-subtle message just days after his top national security official Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow stands ready to use its entire strategic arsenal on London, Washington, Berlin and Kiev if Russian territory comes under direct attack from NATO.

  On Thursday Putin entered the co-pilot’s seat in a nuclear-capable strategic bomber for a 30 to 40 minute flight, parts of which were filmed and quickly released by Russian state sources. Putin’s brief flight in the upgraded Tu-160M supersonic strategic bomber also comes ahead of next month’s Russian election, though of course we all know pretty much what the outcome will be. Watch below as Putin goes ‘nuclear-capable’…

  The Kremlin has released footage from Vladimir Putin’s flight on a Tu-160M nuclear bomber this afternoon pic.twitter.com/NYGiTFUKtP

  — Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) February 22, 2024

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

  The 71-year old is running as an independent candidate, interestingly enough, and the nuclear bomber ride also seems a signal of his health and capabilities, at a moment President Biden – a full decade older than his Russian counterpart – is facing serious questions over his apparent cognitive decline.

  According to more details of the PR flight via AP: “On Thursday, Putin, clad in a flight suit, boarded the warplane at a snow-covered airfield of an aircraft-making plant in the Volga River city of Kazan that has built the heavy bombers since the Soviet times.”

  

  “The plant has received state orders to produce a modernized version of the Tu-160 bomber that first flew in the 1980s and was code-named Blackjack by NATO.”

  Putin subsequently hailed that the new bomber he rode in was “excellent”.

  More footage:

  The AP report includes this amusing line as well: “As part of the Kremlin efforts to project an image of an action-loving and physically strong leader, Putin also took a co-pilot’s seat in an amphibious plane, flew a paraglider and drove a racing car and heavy trucks.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 20:00

• Turley: No, The Indictment Of Alexander Smirnov Does Not Exonerate Hunter Biden
  Turley: No, The Indictment Of Alexander Smirnov Does Not Exonerate Hunter Biden

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  The Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff once joked that “in America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, the Party can always find you.”

  

  Alexander Smirnov is no comedian, but he is about to discover the truth of that statement.

  Alexander Smirnov is now a defendant in federal court after being charged by special counsel David Weiss for spreading a false story about Hunter Biden receiving $5 million from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company.

  The allegation has produced a stampede of Democrats who view his indictment as a much-needed talking point as the House continues to build the case of influence-peddling by the Biden family.

  Some are using the charges to revive a previously debunked story that Hunter Biden’s laptop could be Russian disinformation. But a closer reading of the filing dispels those claims and contradicts a new effort by Hunter Biden to dismiss charges against himself.

  The filing itself is actually an argument to keep Smirnov in federal detention.

  The government points out Smirnov’s admitted contacts with Russian intelligence officials and previously scheduled meetings with such figures to argue he is a flight risk.

  However, there are a couple of aspects to the filing that undermine the claims of a “bombshell” revelation of a Russian disinformation campaign.

  First, these disclosures were not the result of surveillance or interceptions by American intelligence. Smirnov appears to have been cooperating with the United States and told his US “handler” about all of these contacts.

  Second, Smirnov’s contacts were described as “recent” and did not apparently precede 2020. They have nothing to do with the laptop or the evidence of influence-peddling found in emails on that computer. This is solely a claim of a large payment to the Bidens from Burisma.

  Third, the Justice Department states that Smirnov had expressed “bias” against Joe Biden and used “his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma” to make the bribery allegations.

  So Smirnov operated off a bias against Biden, made an allegation separate from the laptop, and ultimately disclosed his communications to his U.S. handler. He detailed conversations with the “son of a former high-ranking government official” and “someone with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service.” Reports indicate that Smirnov was not only an asset of American intelligence but on the payroll for roughly a decade as a trusted informant.

  That does not mean that the Russians were not eager to spread false claims, though it shows again how low-grade such efforts could be. It does not address hundreds of confirmed emails of Hunter Biden cashing in on an array of foreign contacts.

  Hunter Biden’s legal team is citing the filing in seeking to cast doubt on all of the allegations and even the pending charges: “It now seems clear that the Smirnov allegations infected this case.”

  They insist that the bribe allegation was key to the loss of the plea agreement that they struck with the president’s son. They argued that “having taken Mr. Smirnov’s bait of grand, sensational charges, the Diversion Agreement that had just been entered into and Plea Agreement that was on the verge of being finalized suddenly became inconvenient for the prosecution, and it reversed course and repudiated those Agreements.”

  That is not how it happened.

  Hunter Biden had received a sweetheart deal so rich as to put most defendants into hyperglycemic shock. Hunter would have avoided any jail time and been given sweeping immunity from future charges.

  The reason that the deal fell apart was not any particular allegation of bribes. The alleged bribe was not part of the case. It fell apart because the judge asked a simple question on the meaning of the immunity. The deal immediately imploded as the prosecutor was forced to admit that he had never seen a deal like this for anyone other than Hunter Biden.

  In relation to the influence-peddling investigation, this filing does not change the evidence that the Biden family made millions in shaking down foreign companies and business figures.

  On Wednesday, Capitol Hill will witness something that many thought would never come. The House is calling a Biden to actually answer questions under oath about influence-peddling. James Biden, brother of the president, will testify on his long history of leveraging the name and influence of his brother. That includes $200,000 given to him by a collapsing hospital chain company, Americore.

  Biden reportedly pitched a percentage deal with his brother and immediately turned over the money to Joe Biden to pay off a prior “loan.”

  That was not the creation of a “biased” Russian but the Biden family itself. Smirnov was not at the dinners and meetings where Joe Biden called in to chat. He was not the recipient of messages from Hunter threatening that his father was “sitting next to” him and waiting for transfers of money. He was not the source of gifts and expense accounts to cover Hunter’s lavish lifestyle. .

  Most importantly, Smirnov was not the reason that Hunter was indicted by the same prosecutor, David Weiss, who just indicted him.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 19:40

• "Should Have Never Happened": City Of Pittsburgh Blamed For Catastrophic January 2022 Bridge Collapse
  “Should Have Never Happened”: City Of Pittsburgh Blamed For Catastrophic January 2022 Bridge Collapse

  Today in “your tax dollars at work” news, the city of Pittsburgh is being blamed for the collapse of the city-owned Forbes Avenue bridge, which collapsed on January 28, 2022, resulting in several injuries.

  An investigation found that the city “did not adequately maintain or repair a bridge and failed to act on inspection reports”, according to a new report from the Associated Press.

  When the bridge collapsed in early 2022, a bus and four cars plunged 100 feet into the Fern Hollow Creek below, the report says. Another vehicle also wound up driving off of the east bridge abutment and landed on its roof, AP reported. 

  Luckily, no one was killed. 

  The National Transportation Safety Board found that “poor inspections and insufficient oversight” were likely the cause of the collapse. NTSB chair Jennifer L. Homendy commented: “The Fern Hollow Bridge collapse should never have happened.”

  She continued, noting significant deterioration in the uncoated weathering steel and noted a persistent lack of response to known damage to the bridge, which had been evident for years. 

  

  The report even says that in certain sections, the steel had decayed so severely that holes were visibly present in the structure.

  NTSB senior structural engineer Dan Walsh added: “The city of Pittsburgh was responsible for inspecting and maintaining the Fern Hollow bridge. Similar maintenance and repair recommendations were made in the inspection reports for more than 15 years leading up to the collapse. But the city failed to act on them, resulting in progressive corrosion to the point of failure.”

  The Pittsburgh Mayor’s office, under Ed Gainey, acknowledges the NTSB’s findings regarding the bridge collapse, highlighting past inspection oversights and announcing the formation of a new Bridge Maintenance Division with a 300% budget increase for upkeep.

  Efforts have been made to address critical issues across city-owned bridges, with significant progress on urgent repairs. The collapse, injuring four people hours before President Biden’s visit for an infrastructure event, has led to multiple lawsuits, including one by bus driver Daryl Luciani, who suffered severe injuries.

  The city has refrained from commenting on ongoing legal matters.

  NTSB investigations attributed the collapse to inadequate maintenance and oversight, including failure to address known drainage issues and structural weaknesses. Despite temporary measures taken in 2009, a permanent solution was never implemented, highlighting systemic failures in the city’s bridge management and inspection processes.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 19:20

• Lower Oil Prices Are Set to Hurt Alberta's Budget
  Lower Oil Prices Are Set to Hurt Alberta’s Budget

  By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

  The Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith has warned that lower oil prices will have an impact on the province’s new budget, forcing some spending cuts.

  

  During a televised address on Wednesday night, Smith said “Lower resource revenues will certainly require us to show more restraint than previously predicted.”

  “We will ensure this is done thoughtfully and with priority given to the programs and services Albertans most rely on such as health, education and social supports,” the Premier added, as cited by the Canadian Press.

  Alberta’s budget is tied to its oil revenues, which are calculated on the basis of the West Texas Intermediate benchmark. Even minor changes in the benchmark’s value can have an impact of hundreds of millions of dollars on the Canadian oil province’s finances.

  Alberta’s FY 2023/24 budget was tied to an average WTI price of $79 per barrel but for much of the year that ends this March, the U.S. benchmark has traded lower than this, meaning the budget calculations of the Alberta government had to be adjusted.

  Recently, oil prices have been on the mend amid continued tensions in the Middle East but there is no guarantee the rally will either strengthen or continue seeing as there are bearish factors at play as well. Chief among these are doubts about the strength of Chinese oil demand.

  Premier Smith has acknowledged that basing the province’s budget on oil revenues is not the wisest option, saying in her speech this week it was time for Alberta to get off the “budget rollercoaster” of oil revenues. She added, however, that the provincial government will not raise taxes to balance the new budget.

  For the next financial year, the Alberta budget stipulates an average WTI price of $76 per barrel on average, declining to $73.50 per barrel in the following fiscal year.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 19:00

• Teamsters Union Makes First Major GOP Donation Since 2004 Following Trump Meeting
  Teamsters Union Makes First Major GOP Donation Since 2004 Following Trump Meeting

  Weeks after a meeting between former President Donald Trump and Teamsters Union leaders, including President Sean O’Brien and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman, along with the union’s executive board at their Washington, DC headquarters, America’s most powerful labor union has made the first major donation to Republicans in two decades. This move has sparked huge concern that unions are losing faith in President Biden, lauded as the most pro-union president ever. 

  According to Axios, the Teamsters’ political committee donated $45,000, the maximum amount permitted, to the Republican National Committee. This was the first ‘big’ donation the union has made to the RNC since 2004. 

  This comes after Trump attended a meeting with the heads of Teamsters last month. After the meeting, Trump told reporters: “We had a very strong meeting with the Teamsters.” He added there was a very strong possibility that he would get their endorsement. 

  

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

  “Usually, a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” Trump continued, adding he was in a greater position than other Republicans and that the union “never had … a better four years than they had during the Trump administration.”

  Trump: We’re waiting because the Teamsters haven’t endorsed a Republican in many, many years, and they’re having a hard time with this. How do they endorse a man who’s a low iq individual? pic.twitter.com/XaTUvM6RjP

  — Acyn (@Acyn) February 18, 2024

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  Before January, Teamsters in Dec. 2023 donated $135,000 to the Democratic National Committee. The DNC also received $15,000 from the union in March 2023. 

  Teamsters represent about 1.3 million UPS and other transportation workers. Despite many other unions having already endorsed Biden, Teamsters has yet to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential race. 

  Trump’s and Biden’s campaigns are locked in a fight to win over blue-collar workers in crucial swing states ahead of the November elections. Biden has frequently touted his strong ties with labor unions. However, the president’s failed economic policies, known as ‘Bidenomics,’ have crushed the working class under the weight of inflation. 

  Are blue-collar unionized voters finally waking up to just how much of a disaster Bidenomics has been over Biden’s first term? 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 18:40

• ADNOC CEO: Global Energy Demand Growth Is Unsustainable
  ADNOC CEO: Global Energy Demand Growth Is Unsustainable

  By Alex Kimani of OilPrice.com

  Last month, U.S. oil and gas supermajor Exxon Mobil released its long-term global energy outlook report. Exxon has predicted that global energy demand will reach about 660 quadrillion Btu in 2050, good for a 15% increase from 2021 levels reflecting a growing population and rising prosperity. 

  

  The energy company has projected that renewables and nuclear will record strong growth through 2050, contributing around 70% of incremental energy supplies; natural gas demand will remain robust and reach almost 30% of all demand by 2050, oil demand will peak in the 2030s but only fall slightly over the next two decades while coal demand will continue to decline sharply. Interestingly, the developing world is expected to drive all of the demand growth, with Exxon predicting that non-OECD share of global energy demand will reach around 70% in 2050 while the combined share of energy consumption by the U.S. and Europe will decline from about 30% in 2021 to about 20% in 2050.

  Whereas these appear like healthy trends that might help the world ameliorate its climate crisis, not everybody is that sanguine. Al Jaber, chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and president of last year’s Cop28 summit says that the current trajectory of rapid energy demand growth is unsustainable. 

  “The energy transition will lead to energy turmoil … if we only address the supply side of the energy equation. We must be balanced, we must tackle the demand side … We cannot and should not pursue the energy transition by only looking and working on one side of the equation,” Al-Jaber has told the Guardian. 

  According to Al-Jaber, it is unlikely that global carbon reduction targets can be met unless the world cuts energy demand, adding that many governments are reluctant to look at the complex issues around this area.

  Al-Jaber’s sentiments are shared by the U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, “Saying we will, for the first time in history, transition away from fossil fuel, and adjust in an orderly equitable manner … and in accordance with the science that by 2050 [we will] accomplish net zero, means everybody has to have a plan, and that is not where we are today,” Kerry has said. Kerry has taken a veiled swipe at China and its plan to bring 360 Gigawatts of coal-fired power online, saying, “And if that happens, it will wipe out all of the gains of Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world.”

  

  Peak Oil Demand

  It’s interesting to note that in this report, Exxon Mobil sees global oil demand peaking in just a decade, though it has predicted that oil will remain the world’s most dominant form of primary energy by 2050. Last year, ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco pushed back on a prediction by Bloomberg that global oil demand will peak in 2027. 

  According to Bloomberg, electric vehicles, ever-improving fuel efficiency and shared mobility will displace a staggering 20 million barrels per day in oil demand by 2040, 10 times what they are currently displacing. Bloomberg claimed that demand for gasoline and diesel for road transport in the U.S. and Europe has already peaked while demand in China is set to peak in the current year. Bloomberg has predicted that oil demand in other major consuming nations like India will go into a tailspin in the 2030s.

  In its report, Exxon has concurred with many of Bloomberg’s points. Exxon has predicted there will be 920 million plug-in hybrids, battery electric, or fuel cell vehicles on the roads in 2050, good for 44% of the global fleet. In the near term, the company sees EV sales growing from 6.4 million in 2021 to 33 million in 2030, good for a healthy compounded annual growth rate of about 20%. 

  Exxon says efficiency gains in developed countries will be more than enough to offset energy demand growth due to population growth. However, unlike Bloomberg, Exxon has predicted that global transportation-related energy demand will grow more than 30% from 2021 to 2050, with oil supplying the lion’s share.

  Speaking at last year’s World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, Exxon CEO Darren Woods said it will be difficult to replace today’s energy system thanks to the wide availability of oil and gas, adding that the energy transition would take time.

  “There seems to be wishful thinking that we’re going to flip a switch from where we’re at today to where it will be tomorrow. No matter where demand gets to, if we don’t maintain some level of investment industry, you end up running short on supply which leads to higher prices.”

  Aramco CEO Amin Nasser noted that previous predictions about peak oil demand have failed to materialize,“This notion is wilting under scrutiny because it is mostly being driven by policies, rather than the proven combination of markets, competitive economics and technology. We need to invest, otherwise in the mid- to long-term we will have another crisis and we will go backward in terms of using more and more coal and other cheap products that are available today,” he said.

  Nasser has predicted that global oil demand will hit 110 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030, up from 102 million b/d in 2023.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 18:20

• Milei Secures Argentina's First Budget Surplus Since 2012 After Only One Month In Office
  Milei Secures Argentina’s First Budget Surplus Since 2012 After Only One Month In Office

  Not long after socialist activists flooded into Buenos Aires to protest President Javier Milei’s sweeping budget cuts and reforms, it has been announced that Argentina is enjoying its first monthly budget surplus since August 2012.  The budget fix (and $589 million positive balance) took Milei only one month in office to achieve and leaves the political left with some embarrassing questions to answer.

  Milei is considered a “far right” libertarian, but his extensive economic background has so far made him perfectly placed to begin repairs to Argentina’s long suffering fiscal system.

  

  A balanced budget is the first step towards removing the country’s economy from under the thumb of the International Monetary Fund and the organization’s $44 billion loan.  Though Argentina has a long way to go to solvency, the socialist policies of previous administrations only served to trap the population in a prison of persistent debt.  This has led to a series of stagflationary crisis events and a greatly devalued peso.  The economy is currently suffering from a 250% inflation rate. 

  Pro-establishment critics have asserted for months that Milei would “destroy” Argentina’s financial framework, but frankly, that happened long before he entered office.  As we have seen in many western nations the past decade, kicking the can down the road only leads to increasingly more volatile economic consequences.  

  Once a country is addicted to socialist subsidies over the course of decades, convincing the populace that the government handouts they have grown to rely on are a form of bondage becomes very difficult.  Milei’s methodology of tearing off the band aid and setting wholesale fire to socialized programs may be the only way to force the public to stop being dependent.  At the very least, it’s the only solution that hasn’t been tried, which is often a good sign that it will work.  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 18:00

• Lack Of Credibility Places US Deterrence Under Great Strain
  Lack Of Credibility Places US Deterrence Under Great Strain

  Authored by James E. Fannell and Bradley A. Thayer via American Greatness,

  American national security and the security of many of our allies depend upon the ability of the U.S. to deter aggression. Deterrence depends upon having robust military capabilities. These are the conventional and nuclear might of America’s military. Deterrence is also dependent upon political considerations like America’s credibility and willpower to meet aggression against American soil should deterrence fail or against the territory of our allies with whom the U.S. has an extended deterrent commitment, like Australia, Japan, and our NATO allies. Hence, deterrence is about military capabilities—they must be strong—but also political considerations. The U.S. must be credible and evince the willpower to follow through on the explicit and implicit threats to use military force, including nuclear weapons, to deter formidable conventional and nuclear powers like the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

  

  U.S. presidents should be symbols of strength, stability, and power, speaking firmly and quietly to convey credible threats that will be executed if U.S. enemies aggress, while carrying a big stick, overwhelming U.S. military might. As Air Force General Curtis LeMay said if the Soviet Union aggressed, it would be “a smoking, irradiating ruin at the end of two hours.” This was a credible threat when the U.S. had both the capabilities and demonstrated willpower to accomplish this during the Cold War.

  Viewed through the perspective of international politics, the mental incapacity of President Biden is deeply troubling because it has very clearly weakened U.S. deterrence—just ask the people of Afghanistan, Ukraine, or Israel. The president’s illness projects weakness, not strength, vacillation, not determination, and senescence rather than a crystalline strategic focus. He is not a voice of stability and strength but is an incarnation of confusion and uncertainty, compelling the world to ask who is in charge of the United States.

  In a peaceful world, this would be disheartening to the American people and of considerable concern to allies. In today’s dangerous world with a hyper-aggressive Xi Jinping, this is alarming and must be addressed. It is historically unique; never at a time of such considerable threat, when the U.S. faces a peer enemy, has a president been non compos mentis. President Woodrow Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke in the last year of his presidency, but the U.S. did not face a peer enemy in the immediate aftermath of the Great War. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was gravely ill in his last years but maintained mental coherence. He possessed the strongest military on the planet. With President Biden, the United States is in unchartered and perilous national security waters at a time when a dynamic president is needed to reassure allies and partners, inspire the American people and people of good will around the world, and convey to America’s enemies that grievous harm will come to them if they aggress.

  With the president removed from the public face of American national security, a vice president who is incapable of fulfilling that role, a secretary of state who is feckless, and a secretary of defense who is ill, it falls to senior civilian and military officials, like the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, to step into that mission. Although some may accomplish this role with aplomb, this is not their principal responsibility, and we should expect their performance to be of uneven quality. In sum, this is not normal. The U.S. has never run this risk during the wars of the twentieth century, but it does today. It is a national security risk and a grave strain on civil-military relations.

  This is why the report from Special Counsel Robert Hur was singularly damaging. Hur identified President Biden as having committed felonies but who could not be prosecuted because of his mental incapacities. This confirms for global audiences—friends and foes alike—that Biden is unable to meet his responsibilities at a time when dynamic leadership is necessary to deter PRC aggression. Of equal concern is the fact that a two-tier system of justice means that the rule of law has ended in America, which had once been known and respected for a justice system that was blind to rank, race, or creed. The implications of this for the U.S. global position are profound. It weakens the ability of the U.S. to explain to global audiences the superiority of the U.S. political system. It also suggests a great change from the position of the U.S. during the Cold War to today. This suggests to allies and enemies alike that the strengths of the U.S. system that defeated the Soviet Union have eroded.

  In a curious and even bizarre coda to a month of worrying incidents, the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), warned of a “serious national security threat” and called for information about it to be declassified by the Biden administration. This generated a panic on financial markets and great concern among the American people. The White House at first rejected this and later warmed to an indication that it related to Russian capabilities in space. There were indications that this was hyperbole to pressure the House to pass funding for Ukraine. In truth, this made a senior member of Congress, one of the key “Gang of Eight,” look like he was employing a major and imminent national security threat to manipulate Speaker Johnson and Republican House leadership to address the issue of Ukraine funding. This does not look good to allies and partners around the world. It has eroded confidence in American deterrence. If this were a one-off, this would be bad enough, but within the context of an enfeebled presidency, it may be taken as a sign that U.S. national security leadership is incapable of addressing the contemporary threat environment.

  This lack of seriousness and insouciance regarding the national security of the country cannot continue. It opens a window of opportunity for U.S. enemies. The supreme interest of the United States is to protect U.S. national security—its citizens. That requires leadership. The U.S. does not now possess it—and Beijing is using this reality in their calculations on when to strike at America in the Far East.

  James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer are authors of Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/22/2024 – 17:40

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• COVID-19 Tested Our Commitment To Freedom. Three Years Later, We're Still Failing
  COVID-19 Tested Our Commitment To Freedom. Three Years Later, We’re Still Failing

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “The remedy is worse than the disease.”

  – Francis Bacon

  The government never cedes power willingly.

  Neither should we.

  

  If the COVID-19 debacle taught us one thing it is that, as Justice Neil Gorsuch acknowledged, “Rule by indefinite emergency edict risks leaving all of us with a shell of a democracy and civil liberties just as hollow.”

  Unfortunately, we still haven’t learned.

  We’re still allowing ourselves to be fully distracted by circus politics and a constant barrage of bad news screaming for attention.

  Three years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave world governments (including our own) a convenient excuse for expanding their powers, abusing their authority, and further oppressing their constituents, there’s something being concocted in the dens of power.

  The danger of martial law persists.

  Any government so willing to weaponize one national crisis after another in order to expand its powers and justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security will not hesitate to override the Constitution and lockdown the nation again.

  You’d better get ready, because that so-called crisis could be anything: civil unrest, national emergencies, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters.”

  COVID-19 was a test to see how quickly the populace would march in lockstep with the government’s dictates, no questions asked, and how little resistance the citizenry would offer up to the government’s power grabs when made in the name of national security.

  “We the people” failed that test spectacularly.

  Characterized by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch as “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country,” the government’s COVID-19 response to the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a massively intrusive, coercive and authoritarian assault on the right of individual sovereignty over one’s life, self and private property.

  In a statement attached to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Arizona v. Mayorkas, a case that challenged whether the government could continue to use it pandemic powers even after declaring the public health emergency over, Gorsuch provided a catalog of the many ways in which the government used COVID-19 to massively overreach its authority and suppress civil liberties:

  “Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent.”

  Truly, the government’s (federal and state) handling of the COVID-19 pandemic delivered a knockout blow to our civil liberties, empowering the police state to flex its powers by way of a bevy of lockdowns, mandates, restrictions, contact tracing programs, heightened surveillance, censorship, overcriminalization, etc.

  What started off as an experiment in social distancing in order to flatten the curve of an unknown virus (and not overwhelm the nation’s hospitals or expose the most vulnerable to unavoidable loss of life scenarios) quickly became strongly worded suggestions for citizens to voluntarily stay at home and strong-armed house arrest orders with penalties in place for non-compliance.

  Every day brought a drastic new set of restrictions by government bodies (most have been delivered by way of executive orders) at the local, state and federal level that were eager to flex their muscles for the so-called “good” of the populace.

  There was talk of mass testing for COVID-19 antibodies, screening checkpoints, mass surveillance in order to carry out contact tracing, immunity passports to allow those who have recovered from the virus to move around more freely, snitch tip lines for reporting “rule breakers” to the authorities, and heavy fines and jail time for those who dared to venture out without a mask, congregate in worship without the government’s blessing, or re-open their businesses without the government’s say-so.

  It was even suggested that government officials should mandate mass vaccinations and “ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.”

  Those tactics were already being used abroad.

  In Italy, the unvaccinated were banned from restaurants, bars and public transportation, and faced suspensions from work and monthly fines. Similarly, France banned the unvaccinated from most public venues.

  In Austria, anyone who had not complied with the vaccine mandate faced fines up to $4100. Police were to be authorized to carry out routine checks and demand proof of vaccination, with penalties of as much as $685 for failure to do so.

  In China, which adopted a zero tolerance, “zero COVID” strategy, whole cities—some with populations in the tens of millions—were forced into home lockdowns for weeks on end, resulting in mass shortages of food and household supplies. Reports surfaced of residents “trading cigarettes for cabbage, dishwashing liquid for apples and sanitary pads for a small pile of vegetables. One resident traded a Nintendo Switch console for a packet of instant noodles and two steamed buns.”

  For those unfortunate enough to contract COVID-19, China constructed “quarantine camps” throughout the country: massive complexes boasting thousands of small, metal boxes containing little more than a bed and a toilet. Detainees—including children, pregnant women and the elderly— were reportedly ordered to leave their homes in the middle of the night, transported to the quarantine camps in buses and held in isolation.

  If this last scenario sounds chillingly familiar, it should.

  Eighty years ago, another authoritarian regime established more than 44,000 quarantine camps for those perceived as “enemies of the state”: racially inferior, politically unacceptable or simply noncompliant.

  While the majority of those imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, forced labor camps, incarceration sites and ghettos were Jews, there were also Polish nationals, gypsies, Russians, political dissidents, resistance fighters, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.

  Culturally, we have become so fixated on the mass murders of Jewish prisoners by the Nazis that we overlook the fact that the purpose of these concentration camps were initially intended to “incarcerate and intimidate the leaders of political, social, and cultural movements that the Nazis perceived to be a threat to the survival of the regime.”

  How do you get from there to here, from Auschwitz concentration camps to COVID quarantine centers?

  You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to connect the dots.

  You just have to recognize the truth in the warning: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  This is about what happens when good, generally decent people—distracted by manufactured crises, polarizing politics, and fighting that divides the populace into warring “us vs. them” camps—fail to take note of the looming danger that threatens to wipe freedom from the map and place us all in chains.

  It’s about what happens when any government is empowered to adopt a comply-or-suffer-the-consequences mindset that is enforced through mandates, lockdowns, penalties, detention centers, martial law, and a disregard for the rights of the individual.

  This is the slippery slope: a government empowered to restrict movements, limit individual liberty, and isolate “undesirables” to prevent the spread of a disease is a government that has the power to lockdown a country, label whole segments of the population a danger to national security, and force those undesirables—a.k.a. extremists, dissidents, troublemakers, etc.—into isolation so they don’t contaminate the rest of the populace.

  The slippery slope begins with propaganda campaigns about the public good being more important than individual liberty, and it ends with lockdowns and concentration camps.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the danger signs are everywhere.

  COVID-19 was merely one crisis in a long series of crises that the government has shamelessly exploited in order to justify its power grabs and acclimate the citizenry to a state of martial law disguised as emergency powers.

  Everything I have warned about for years—government overreach, invasive surveillance, martial law, abuse of powers, militarized police, weaponized technology used to track and control the citizenry, and so on—has become part of the government’s arsenal of terrifying lockdown powers should the need arise.

  What we should be bracing for is: what comes next?

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 23:40

• Which Lifestyle Changes Can Make You Live Longer?
  Which Lifestyle Changes Can Make You Live Longer?

  Lifestyle and habits can have a big effect on our health – and our life expectancy. A recently released study that followed U.S. veterans of the age group 40 to 99 between the years 2011 and 2019 is attempting to show just how much.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, according to mortality trends collected among 719,147 veterans and lifestyle factors assessed among 276,132, being physically active lowered the risk of death among the sample population the most – by 46 percent – opposite someone with no healthy habits and factors.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The study applied the Department of Health’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week as a threshold participants had to meet to be classified as physically active.

  Never smoking shaved off 30 percent off the risk of dying, while eating a diet that includes many plant-based foods lowered the risk of death by 21 percent. The recommendation here is to stick to healthy plant-based foods instead of just any.

  Not engaging in frequent binge drinking and getting restorative sleep of seven to nine hours (by not undercutting the hours of one’s usual sleep) could be expected to lead to a mortality risk decrease of 18 and 19 percent, respectively, according to the study. Having positive social interactions lowered the risk of dying by just 5 percent.

  The study also shows how combining different lifestyle factors can add up.

  Adopting just one led to a lower mortality risk in the study group of 26 percent on average. Adopting six positive habits even led to a decrease of 73 percent. The study also included the factors depression/anxiety and opioid addiction. Being free of either was associated with a decrease in mortality of 29 percent and 38 percent, with opioid disorder therefore scoring lower as a harmful behavior than physical inactivity.

  Adopting or being free of all eight factors was associated with a lower risk of dying of 87 percent.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 23:20

• New York AG Says She May Seize Trump Buildings, Assets If He Can't Pay $355 Million Penalty
  New York AG Says She May Seize Trump Buildings, Assets If He Can’t Pay $355 Million Penalty

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Feb. 20 that she’s prepared to seize former President Donald Trump’s buildings and assets if he can’t pay the penalty imposed in the state’s civil fraud case.

  

  The former president was recently ordered to pay nearly $355 million and barred from doing business in New York state for three years by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.

  During an interview with ABC News, Ms. James said that it was “really not my business” if President Trump doesn’t have the money to pay the penalty, while also noting that she has her eyes on the Trump Building in Lower Manhattan.

  “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek, you know, judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” she said.

  “We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day,” she added, referring to the Trump Building.

  President Trump’s attorneys have vowed to appeal the case; he and his attorneys have described the case as a “political witch hunt” and the verdict as “manifest injustice.”

  Throughout the trial, the Trump team accused Justice Engoron of judicial malpractice, and the president has asserted that he should be the one being awarded damages.

  Responding to the Trump camp’s intention to appeal and their sentiment, Ms. James expressed confidence that her office would prevail.

  “I cannot be paralyzed by fear. And I cannot allow anyone to bully me into silence. And I cannot allow anyone to have a chilling effect on the work that I do and this office does each and every day,” Ms. James said.

  President Trump’s legal team has argued that no fraud occurred and that the state attorney general failed to prove intent to defraud. He has said that there were “no victims because the banks made a lot of money.”

  In her comments on Feb. 20, Ms. James rejected such arguments, reportedly saying that financial fraud isn’t a victimless crime. The attorney general reportedly said that leveling the playing field is within her wheelhouse and that if the average person isn’t allowed to inflate the value of their assets to secure loans, then neither should President Trump.

  Ms. James brought the lawsuit against President Trump and his co-defendants in 2022. Justice Engoron found President Trump liable and ruled that he inflated his assets to get better loans weeks before the trial began.

  

  In addition to civil fraud cases, President Trump faces four criminal cases ahead of the 2024 elections. These include a case related to “hush money” payments before the 2016 elections, two cases related to his attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 elections, and a case related to the handling of classified documents.

  President Trump recently called for an end to the legal cases against him, alleging that they amount to election interference against the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner.

  “This is communism and a threat to democracy,” he declared in a post on Truth Social on Feb. 19.

  “All political prosecutions of your favorite president, me, must stop immediately. We are in the middle of an election, perhaps the most important election in the history of our country, and these radical left lunatic prosecutors and judges are not allowed to be doing this,” he said.

  During a town hall-style interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Feb. 20, President Trump once again described his legal battles as being comparable to what opposition leaders might face in a communist country, noting the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

  “We are turning into a communist country in many ways,” he said.

  Drawing parallels with Mr. Navalny’s plight, President Trump asserted that he’s facing several trials “all because of the fact that I’m in politics.”

  Amid the legal battles, President Trump has so far notched victories by large margins in crucial GOP presidential primary contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 23:00

• Biden Defies Supreme Court Again, Cancels $1.2 Billion In Student Debt From 153,000 Borrowers
  Biden Defies Supreme Court Again, Cancels $1.2 Billion In Student Debt From 153,000 Borrowers

  Demonstrating yet again that nobody is quite about the law – and the constitutions – like the Biden crime family…

  Joe Biden: “The Supreme Court of the United States blocked me, but they didn’t stop me!” pic.twitter.com/iwsxmyBEyv

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 5, 2024

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

  … months after the Supreme Court voted that BIden’s student loan relief is illegal, the Biden administration said on Wednesday that it would forgive another $1.2 billion in student debt for nearly 153,000 borrowers enrolled its new repayment program, called the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. According to CNBC, the relief will go to borrowers who have been in repayment for a decade or longer, and originally took out $12,000 or less.

  Borrowers usually get debt forgiveness under income-driven repayment plans, including SAVE, after 20 or 25 years of payments. But under the SAVE plan, those who borrowed less can get their debt canceled after just a decade.

  In January, the Biden administration said it would soon start to forgive the debt of these borrowers who had signed up for its new plan.

  “With today’s announcement, we are once again sending a clear message to borrowers who had low balances: if you’ve been paying for a decade, you’ve done your part, and you deserve relief,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

  Eligible borrowers will begin receiving emails from President Joe Biden on Wednesday and do not need to take any further action to receive the relief, the U.S. Department of Education said.

  Starting today, the first round of folks who are enrolled in our SAVE student loan repayment plan who have paid their loans for 10 years and borrowed $12,000 or less will have their debt cancelled.

  That’s 150,000 Americans and counting.

  And we’re pushing to relieve more.

  — President Biden (@POTUS) February 21, 2024

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

  After the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s sweeping student loan forgiveness plan last June, his administration has found ways to defy the highest legal entity that has not yet been corrupted by Soros’ billions and has explored all of its remaining authority to leave people with less education debt, even if it meant violating the law.

  The latest round pushes the total relief approved by the Biden administration to nearly $138 billion, benefiting 3.9 million borrowers. That number could grow as more people become eligible for forgiveness under the SAVE program, which has 6.9 million people enrolled. Administration officials have declined to estimate how many borrowers will eventually see loans forgiven under the program.

  Yet even with the latest abuse of the Supreme Court ruling, Biden’s efforts to buy votes fall short of the president’s proposal for more sweeping student loan cancellation — as much as $20,000 in relief per borrower – that was struck down last year by the US Supreme Court. That forgiveness plan was estimated to cost $400 billion.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 22:40

• 'Sue And Settle' Looks To Some Like Crony Democracy… And Under Biden's Lawfaring Eco-Politics, It's Back
  ‘Sue And Settle’ Looks To Some Like Crony Democracy… And Under Biden’s Lawfaring Eco-Politics, It’s Back

  Authored by James Varney via RealClear Wire,

  When the Biden administration announced in 2022 that it would remove some 4 million acres of federal land in Western states from oil and gas exploration, environmental groups hailed the decision as a milestone in their fight against global warming.

  

  “With the oil and gas industry bent on despoiling American’s public lands and fueling the climate crisis, this is a critical opportunity for the Biden administration to chart a new path toward clean energy and independence from fossil fuels,” said Jeremy Nichols, a director with WildEarth Guardians.

  But Nichols could just as easily have slapped himself on the back: The administration’s move was part of a private settlement of a lawsuit filed by WildEarth and others over the objections of energy consortiums, whose efforts to intervene in the matter were dismissed.

  A similar thing happened last August, when the Biden administration announced it had agreed to exclude 6 million acres of the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico seabed from exploration to settle a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club – an announcement that triggered operational delays for the industry and expensive litigation to overturn.

  Administration critics say these moves reflect the resurgence of a practice embraced by the Obama administration and rejected during Donald Trump’s presidency: “sue and settle.” The tactic is simple: An advocacy group sues a federal agency for failing to enforce laws or regulations. Agency officials and the plaintiffs then come to a private agreement and that deal is ratified by the courts via a binding consent decree.

  The practice is common at every level of government. New York City, for example, is obligated to house and feed tens of thousands of migrants because of a consent decree it entered into to settle a 1979 lawsuit brought by advocates for the homeless. But it is most prevalent in the environmental field, where well-funded groups commonly sue the Environmental Protection Agency or the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior alleging failure to enforce provisions of the Clean Air Act or regulations regarding federal leases for energy production.

  Although such consent decrees do not have the force of laws passed by Congress or regulations issued by the government that have gone through formal review and allow for public comment, they set the rules of the road. Critics say it has allowed government to advance policy goals that cannot be achieved through normal democratic channels. 

  “It’s not really an adversarial lawsuit, and with a settlement agreement and consent decree the case is never really over,” said Dave Tryon, director of litigation at the free-market Buckeye Institute. “The EPA is anxious to increase its power and control; it’s always happy to expand that.”

  The legal maneuver represents, according to this view, a return to the proverbial smoked-filled backrooms of politics. Huddled privately, without input from citizens or businesses that may be adversely affected by the decisions – let alone the public at large – lawsuits that often involve parties more simpatico than adversarial are settled. The plaintiffs and defendants are familiar to one another from years in the environmental lobbying and litigation world – and because of the “revolving door” between environmental groups and Democratic administrations. These like-minded players approach the issue seeking similar goals, a process that has only intensified with the Biden administration and leftist environmental groups sharing the belief that global warming is an existential threat.

  “Overall, it’s harkening back to the bad old days – they do this in order to avoid scrutiny and bypass the regulatory process,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, an advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research. “It’s a way to advance an agenda that may be rejected by voters. It’s a nefarious practice in which the agency and the environmental groups get what they want.”

  Sue-and-settle is part of an even broader effort known as “lawfare,” in which political parties and advocacy groups seek to achieve their goals not through elections or legislation but in the courts. This encompasses everything from President Trump’s “stop the steal” efforts to overturn the 2020 election through the courts to myriad efforts by Democrats, whose lawfare campaigns have ranged from getting courts to confiscate Trump’s businesses and charge him criminally to removing him from the 2024 ballot.

  Settlements are common in the courts. They are often welcomed as a way to avoid costly, protracted litigation while also clearing dockets. But sue-and-settle is different, said Paul Seby, an attorney with GreenbergTraurig in Denver, who often represents the state of North Dakota in energy matters.

  “Those deals where someone is asked to enforce mandatory actions – that’s all legit and there’s no real beef with that,” Seby said. “The problem is when there is footsie going on between an agency of the Department of Justice and the non-governmental organization. That’s where they make a deal in a consent decree that says a department must do something more than just comply with some deadline they missed.”

  The Western states’ suit, filed in the D.C. federal circuit, is a good example, according to critics. The lawsuit was first filed against the Bureau of Land Management in 2016, alleging insufficient attention had been paid to global warming when approving leases in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. So the BLM and the states agreed to re-do studies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and, after concluding that the leases complied with the law, the Trump administration-led agency approved the leases again. Environmental groups filed another lawsuit in 2021 and Biden’s BLM settled the case, in effect giving the groups what they wanted.

  “You can always do more ‘analysis’ as the environmental groups demand, and the usual remedy is to re-do the analysis,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, another industry consortium that sought to intervene in the case. “But instead of the small things, BLM will agree to reopen the whole resource management. In other words, BLM just agrees to do what the plaintiffs wanted.”

  The Trump administration had moved to stop the practice. In 2017, then-EPA administrator Scott Pruitt issued a memo prohibiting the agency from entering into consent decrees with non-governmental actors and also began publicizing any such suit when it was filed. “The era of regulation through litigation is over,” Pruitt declared.

  Those policies were rescinded by Biden’s EPA chief Michael Regan, who spent eight years as a vice president with an advocacy group involved in many such suits, the Environmental Defense Fund.

  One sign of how the practice has taken off under the Biden administration is the explosion in plaintiffs’ legal fees as part of settlements – meaning taxpayers foot the bill for environmental lawsuits.

  In the two years since the Biden administration lifted most of the Pruitt memo restrictions, those fees have jumped to almost $7 million, according to a January report from the fiscal watchdog group OpenTheBooks. That is nearly double the total of Trump’s four years of $3.6 million. It is also more than the $5.8 million in attorney fee payouts for suits brought under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act during Obama’s second term, OpenTheBooks found.

  The EPA disputed the characterization that it has radically changed course under Biden. While it acknowledged Regan’s “litigation transparency memorandum revoked and replaced” Pruitt’s October 2017 memo, an EPA spokesperson insisted the agency “has not discontinued or rolled back and practices under Administrator Pruitt’s 2017 directive that the prior Administration had been maintaining.”

  “EPA has taken steps to enhance public awareness of environmental claims against the Agency and to provide an opportunity for public review and comment on proposed settlement of those claims,” an agency spokesperson said.

  But the EPA did not respond to RCI’s interview requests and did not answer questions about how many settlement agreements it may have reached overall with specific plaintiffs. So the exact number of consent decrees signed with them remains uncertain.

  The EPA does have a place at its website that lists more than 500 lawsuits against it going back to the Obama administration. That shows that the significantly higher attorneys’ costs under Biden have happened with fewer settlements overall than in Obama’s second term or Trump’s term. A EPA collection of links to consent decrees is not formatted by date, and both congressional committees and attorneys for energy companies believe it is incomplete.

  “There’s lawsuits sometimes we don’t know about and there are just so many cases where you would want or need to intervene,” said Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance.

  That intervention can sometimes succeed but it is expensive. In the Gulf of Mexico exploration settlement, a lawsuit filed by the American Petroleum Institute, the state of Louisiana and Chevron managed to overturn the agreement reached between federal agencies and the environmental NGOs. That victory was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the lease sales went through in December – three months after the date initially mandated for them by Congress.”

  Most of the environmental groups RCI contacted did not respond to questions or an interview request – including the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Environmental Defense Fund. But the National Resources Defense Council defended its courtroom efforts.

  “These steps and safeguards serve the public interest,” said John Walke, a senior attorney with the NRDC. “They provide the public direct opportunity to influence the scope of federal rules and safeguards. They ensure that agencies administer our laws in ways that achieve what Congress intended.”

  Walke also noted the framework of suits and settlements is not new.

  “The practice did not stop under the Trump administration, nor did it resume under the Biden administration,” he said. “It is a long-standing, common and unremarkable feature of the federal courts themselves, not unique to federal agencies at all.”

  There is an historical irony in that the germ of sue-and-settle tactics came under Richard Nixon when advocacy groups were warning of “agency capture,” meaning the companies that various federal agencies regulate had allegedly come to control the bureaucrats charged with crafting policy. Thus, individual groups were given standing to file lawsuits against the federal government with the idea of empowering those groups that presumably lacked the political and lobbying muscle of big business.

  On the environmental front, the policy became widespread during President Obama’s second term, when the EPA was run by Gina McCarthy, who later served as president and CEO of the National Resources Defense Council.

  As McCarthy’s move from the EPA to the NRDC indicates, the players reaching the deal are generally familiar to each other. The NRDC and the Center for Biological Diversity, two litigious groups, currently have executives that previously served at the EPA or in the Obama White House in an environmental job.

  It’s a tight network of federal appointees and executives of environmental advocacy groups. In addition to Regan, Lisa Garcia, the administrator for the EPA’s Region 2 covering New York, New Jersey and other territory, was with EarthJustice after serving under McCarthy. Matthew Tejada, a senior vice president, and Christy Goldfuss, an executive director, both held positions in the Obama administration, as did Maggie Coulter, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

  This cross-pollination between environmental regulatory agencies and the litigious groups also extends to the myriad “environmental law clinics” at law schools across the country.

  “Usually, the federal government vigorously defends itself against lawsuits challenging its actions. But not always,” attorney Andrew Grossman, a partner with Baker Hostetler, testified to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government. “Sometimes regulators are only too happy to face collusive lawsuits by friendly ‘foes’ aimed at compelling government action that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve.”

  Whether blindsided by regulations the market never saw coming, or handcuffed by the blanket of inactivity a consent decree may throw over an area, the practice of sue-and-settle is a pernicious one, according to its critics.

  “The whole thing is bypassing democracy because the litigation delegates power to outside groups,” said Walter Olson, a conservative legal scholar at the Cato Institute. “Because the consent decrees can set the future course of how agencies do business, it means that behind closed doors they are tying the hands of future voters and administrators. That’s not at all how it’s supposed to be.”

  In addition, the very nature of the deals, struck between two sides firmly committed to the idea the economy should be pushed toward net zero emissions, reflects what is happening, according to critics. Given that plaintiffs and defendants share the same outlook on global warming and would like to put vast areas off-limits to oil and gas exploration, it is no surprise that is exactly what the settlements accomplish, said Sgamma.

  Some believe legislation could reign in global warming lawfare, while empowering voters and taxpayers. House Republicans held at least two hearings on the tactic in 2023, the most recent last December – though critics note that the issue has been a political football at least since the Reagan administration.

  In November, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced it would investigate the EPA’s “use of secretive ‘sue-and-settle’ practices,” and how the Biden administration is “using sue-and-settle tactics to avoid congressional oversight and implement more burdensome regulations at the bidding of special interests.”

  At the end of the year, a handful of Republican lawmakers introduced the “No Regulation Through Litigation” act that would “codify that a federal agency cannot enter into a settlement agreement or consent decree that exceeds the authority of the court,” while also prohibiting the payment of attorneys’ fees in cases that result in such deals.

  Despite congressional debate in the House, lawmakers proved reticent about discussing possible solutions to sue-and-settle. RCI reached out to all the Republicans and some Democrats on the committees who heard testimony about the matter last year, and Virginia Rep. Bob Good was the only representative to respond.

  “The Obama administration often bypassed Congress, using sue and settle tactics to accomplish what they could not via the legislative process,” Good said. “Biden is continuing that unconstitutional legacy and weaponizing the government against the people.”

  Similarly, the members of both the American Energy Alliance and the Western Energy Alliance are skittish about angering regulatory agencies and thus declined to discuss the matter.

  “The way to solve this is by bringing more people and transparency into the process,” the Buckeye Institute’s Tryon said. “Now, it’s impossible to follow all the lawsuits, and we don’t even know all the things that are happening. With more openness it could be monitored more closely because now people who are afflicted by

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 22:20

• Iran Sends Russia Hundreds Of Ballistic Missiles, Washington Powerless
  Iran Sends Russia Hundreds Of Ballistic Missiles, Washington Powerless

  Back in early 2022 just weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western officials began raising suspicions that the Islamic Republic of Iran was supplying arms, and especially kamikaze drones, to Moscow for use on the Ukrainian battlefield. This proved true, and allegations of Tehran supplying ballistic missiles soon followed. 

  Now, just days away from the grim two-year mark of the start of the major war, there are fresh reports of a dramatic escalation in Iran’s military supply pipeline to Russia. Reuters reports Wednesday that Tehran has provided Moscow with a “large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.”

  

  The report alleged an estimated 400 missiles, mostly from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, have been provided. These are mobile-launched and have a range of up to 435 miles.

  “The shipments began in early January after a deal was finalized in meetings late last year between Iranian and Russian military and security officials that took place in Tehran and Moscow, one of the Iranian sources say,” according the report.

  “There will be more shipments,” one Iranian official has boasted. “There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to.”

  Starting last fall, the US administration began getting creative on ways it could retaliate against Iran. The Pentagon at that time announced that it was sending seized shipments of illicit Iranian arms (usually intercepted in waters off the Arabian peninsula) to Ukraine’s armed forces.

  “The US will transfer thousands of seized Iranian weapons and rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, in a move that could help to alleviate some of the critical shortages facing the Ukrainian military as it awaits more money and equipment from the US and its allies,” US officials said at the time.

  In the below brief analysis, the hawkish think tank The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) had hailed this Biden policy as one which “turns the tables” on both Tehran and Moscow…

  The U.S. transfer of Iranian arms to Ukraine turns the tables on both Tehran and Moscow, which have doubled down on their defense partnership following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Tehran provides drones to Moscow and helps the Russians localize their production. In March 2023, Iran agreed to purchase 24 advanced Sukhoi Su-35 fighters from Russia, significantly upgrading the capabilities of the Islamic Republic’s air force. In 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023, Russia and Iran conducted joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman. Russia and Iran are also sharing intelligence and cooperating in a joint effort to push U.S. military forces out of the region.

  In this way there are now Iranian arms on ‘both’ sides of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. However, hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles on the Russian side means it won’t run low on missiles anytime soon.

  The Ukrainian side, meanwhile, is still hurting for more arms and manpower, as it’s being beaten back from frontline positions, especially in the east and with the latest loss at Avdiivka.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 22:00

• New York's Radical Gun Restrictions Headed To Supreme Court
  New York’s Radical Gun Restrictions Headed To Supreme Court

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  Gun Owners of America is taking New York to the Supreme Court over their mistakenly named “Concealed Carry Improvement Act,” or CCIA in our case Antonyuk v. Nigrelli.

  🚨HUGE FILING FROM GOA & GOF TODAY!🚨

  We are hopeful SCOTUS will take up our case and make NY and @GovKathyHochul fall in line with the Constitution and the Bruen decision. 👏

  They have been treading on the rights of New Yorkers for TOO LONG! https://t.co/mTNLzWG5Mt

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 21, 2024

  The CCIA represents New York’s blatant refusal to comply with the mandate set forth in the landmark case NYSRPA v. Bruen in 2022. For those unfamiliar, Bruen overturned New York’s may-issue licensing scheme for concealed carry permits. Unfortunately for New York gun owners, the CCIA’s system to replace this scheme is somehow even more restrictive than what preceded it.

  That’s because the CCIA is an attempt to nullify the Bruen decision. In the immediate aftermath of the case, New York politicians decried that decision as “reprehensible,” vowing to resist the “insanity” of “gun culture.”

  New York decided that, if the State must issue concealed carry licenses to ordinary citizens after Bruen, they would have to do whatever they could to discourage applicants. They did this by imposing novel and onerous licensing requirements, and then render any remaining licenses practically void by prohibiting carry virtually everywhere in the State by declaring a multitude of brand new “sensitive locations.”

  In New York’s defense of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, they have relied almost entirely on a few outlier laws from the late nineteenth century as justification for their new restrictions. These laws that New York uses as examples were created to disarm minority communities during the reconstruction period after the Civil War.

  Gun Owners of America sued over these restrictions and won at the district level. However, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals was eager to intervene on behalf of New York’s anti-gun politicians.

  In their ruling, the 2nd Circuit ended upholding most of New York’s law. And while GOA did manage to squash parts of the law, some of the most egregious sections remain intact, including the “good moral character” requirement.

  The “good moral character” requirement of the CCIA stands in direct opposition to the Supreme Court’s clear rejection of discretionary “suitability” determinations in the Bruen case.

  So why would the 2nd Circuit uphold so much of a law that directly defies the Supreme Court? Well, the answer may lie in a Law Review article that was cited in the 2nd Circuit’s decision.

  In the article titled “The Dead Hand of a Silent Past: Bruen, Gun Rights, and the Shackles of History,” the author refers to the Bruen decision as “unsatisfying” and lays out a playbook for Judicial responses to the law. Additionally, lower Courts are encouraged to “engage in the time-honored practice of narrowing Supreme Court precedent from below.”

  It’s clear that the 2nd Circuit means to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bruen. But the consequences of this ruling could be wide-reaching if not taken up by the high court. If lower courts ignore case law set by the Supreme Court, the consequences for any law or ruling could change based on the political alignment of the jurisdiction. It would be anarchy.

  This is why GOA is petitioning the Supreme Court to take up our case and answer the following questions:

  1. Whether the proper historical time period for ascertaining the Second Amendment’s original meaning is 1791 rather than 1868; and
  2. Whether “the people” must convince government officials of their “good moral character” before exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms in public.

  Erich Pratt, Gun Owners of America’s Senior Vice President, had this to say:

  “New York politicians just couldn’t help themselves when they quickly doubled down with their unconstitutional edicts following the Bruen decision. I’m incredibly confident the justices will take an extra close look at this case since their previous ruling was ignored by the insubordinate tyrants in Albany. We’re excited about the opportunity to serve Kathy Hochul and her cabal another plate of humble pie if the Court takes the case.”

  Sam Paredes, on behalf of the Board of Directors for the Gun Owners Foundation, added:

  “We sent the warning out to politicians far and wide following Bruen, fall in line or we will make you. Sadly, New York refused to honor the Constitution, so we have no choice but to follow through on our threat. We urge the Court to take the case and once again rebuke New York’s unconstitutional gun control.”

  The Supreme Court must clarify these questions in the wake of the Bruen decision and set the record straight for lower courts across the country.

  *   *   *

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

  *   *   *

  Here’s more on the case: 

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 21:40

• "Consolidate Or Get Eaten": Wall Street Finally Embracing Shale After $250 Billion In Oil Deals Last Year
  “Consolidate Or Get Eaten”: Wall Street Finally Embracing Shale After $250 Billion In Oil Deals Last Year

  It’s no sooner than we’ve been documenting the collapse of ESG and ‘clean green investing’ on Wall Street, than the world of finance seems ready to give a big warm embrace to shale drillers. 

  It’s almost as if money managers wind up chasing wherever the best returns are. Imagine that…

  Bloomberg wrote last week that shale is now in an ‘arms race’ with Diamondback Energy Inc.’s takeover of Endeavor Energy Resources LP announce last week capping $250 billion in oil and gas deals last year. 

  Diamondback, self-proclaimed as “the must-own” stock in America’s wealthiest oil region, saw its stock soar 11% within hours, defying the usual downturn faced by acquiring companies. This surge signaled strong investor endorsement – something the street hasn’t seen in oil for years. 

  

  Mark Viviano, a managing partner at Kimmeridge Energy Management Co. told Bloomberg: “It has become a big-company game. Now you have an arms race for operational scale and investor relevancy.”

  The report noted that as the shale industry evolves during a period where energy constitutes only 3.8% of the S&P 500 Index, despite the U.S. leading in global oil production with 45% more crude than Saudi Arabia, the sector has seen significant consolidation.

  The number of publicly traded shale companies has decreased by 40% in six years to about 50, Warwick Investment Group LLC notes.

  Kate Richard, chief executive officer at Warwick, said: “It’s kind of like Pac-Man right now: consolidate or get eaten. We’re probably going back to the ‘70s, where there were seven to 10 major players in the US.”

  Diamondback CFO Kaes Van’t Hof added: “It put us in a new weight class, which is a good thing in this business. The perception is that bigger means more durability.”

  

  Following the deal’s revelation, Diamondback now trades at 9.9 times earnings, surpassing EOG, which opted out of the current acquisition frenzy. This leap will elevate Diamondback from 275th to approximately 150th in the S&P 500 by market value, capturing the attention of major investors eager for greater involvement in the Permian Basin, the abundant oil field across Texas and New Mexico.

  Deloitte’s Teresa Thomas commented: “Big buyers are likely to spearhead a fresh wave of efficiency gains driven by technological advancements in both production and cost management.”

  Endeavor founder Autry Stephens is now set to become America’s richest oil magnate after the deal closes. Sam Sledge, CEO of Midland concluded: “He’s one of the last original wildcatters, funding things out of your own back pocket and taking risk. We’re playing a different game now.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 21:20

• South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Sending National Guard To Border 'Warzone'
  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Sending National Guard To Border ‘Warzone’

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (Emphasis ours),

  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has ordered the state’s National Guard troops to deploy to the southern border to help Texas deal with record-shattering waves of illegal immigration.

  

  Ms. Noem, a Republican, said that 60 South Dakota National Guard soldiers will deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border later this spring, on a rolling basis over a period of three months.

  “The border in a warzone, so we’re sending soldiers,” Ms. Noem said in a Feb. 20 statement.

  South Dakota was the first state to deploy National Guard troops in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s call two-and-a-half years ago for help securing the border.

  Ms. Noem said the National Guard troops will assist with construction of a border wall.

  “These soldiers’ primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America,” she said.

  The newly announced deployment will be South Dakota’s fifth since Mr. Abbott issued the call for help.

  “Texas—with the support of America’s Governors—will fight to do the job Biden refuses to do,” Mr. Abbott said in a post on X, in which he noted that the U.S. Constitution gives states the right to “secure our borders against invasion.”

  Amid a surge in illegal immigration, Mr. Abbott in September declared an “invasion” at the southern border. He then ordered the Texas National Guard and state law enforcement agencies to secure the border, including by setting up razor wire and marine barriers.

  The Biden administration sued Texas, leading the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that federal agents could remove the razor wire.

  It’s estimated that over 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Joe Biden took office.

  Texas Fights Back

  Texas officially started building its own state-funded border wall in December 2021, when Mr. Abbott alleged that President Joe Biden “refuses to enforce laws passed by Congress to secure the border and enforce immigration laws” and so “Texas is stepping up to do the federal government’s job.”

  That came after President Biden signed an executive order scrapping federal construction of a border wall, a signature project of former President Donald Trump. In a proclamation on Jan. 20, 2021, President Biden called the wall a “waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.”

  Following President Biden’s decision to axe the wall, Mr. Abbott announced he would seek funding for his state to build its own border barrier, which came as the influx of illegal immigrants into Texas swelled to near-record proportions.

  

  Roughly 450 miles of the larger border wall were built under President Trump, a project that was criticized by President Biden, though an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo contradicted this view, finding that physical barriers  are the most cost-effective tool to deter illegal border-crossing activity.

  President Biden has taken a dim view of his predecessor’s vision for a grand barrier, pledging while still a presidential candidate in 2020 that “there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.”

  On the day that he took office, President Biden issued a proclamation that rescinded the national emergency declaration that President Trump had relied on to divert some $10 billion from Pentagon coffers to border wall construction.

  The Biden administration later quietly auctioned off millions of dollars of border wall materials, for which it faced sharp criticism from Republican circles.

  

  Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) sponsored a bill in May 2023 that would force the Pentagon to allow millions of dollars worth on unused border wall parts to be used to extend the wall in Texas and elsewhere along the southern border.

  Mr. Wicker’s legislative proposal (pdf) came after an investigation by the Armed Services Committee found that the Pentagon was spending $47 million per year to store the wall panels and other elements.

  Amid reports that the Biden administration was busy selling off border wall parts rather than allowing them to be used to build more barrier, Mr. Wicker called the development “outrageous, behind-the-scenes maneuvering.”

  “This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,” he told The New York Post.

  In October 2013, the Biden administration did an about-face of sorts, waiving 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow for the construction of another 20 miles of border wall.

  President Biden explained at the time that the reason for resuming border wall construction was because the money had already been appropriated and attempts to redirect the funds to other projects failed.

  “There’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I can’t stop that,” President Biden said at the time.

  Asked by reporters if he thought border wall was effective, he replied “no.”

  

  A coalition of 27 states has formed to support Texas’s right to defend itself after the Supreme Court ruled that federal agents can remove the razor wire put up by Texas to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico.

  Other States Send Troops

  A handful of other states have sent National Guard troops to Texas to bolster local efforts to secure the southern border amid the Lone Star State’s ongoing dispute with the Biden administration over border security.

  In a recent move, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, said on Feb. 8 that his state would send 150 National Guard troops, who would work in three 50-man rotations, for a 90-day deployment to Texas.

  “Because the president will not do his job, because the federal government will not act, because Congress refuses to put in place a solid immigration plan that protects this country and allows people to come in and out of this country the way that it’s been done since the beginning, then the states are going to act,” he said at a press conference in Baton Rouge.

  

  The deployment—scheduled for March at a cost of roughly $3 million—is needed to help Texas tackle issues such as cross-border human trafficking and the fentanyl crisis, he said.

  “There are 125,000 Americans that we are losing on an annual basis due to this crisis,” Mr. Landry said, citing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent announcement that 30,000 pounds of fentanyl had been seized at the border in Texas.

  “That’s enough to kill almost everyone in the country,” he said.

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced plans to deploy even more National Guard, State Guard, and Highway Patrol officers to assist Texas in securing its southern border.

  “If we don’t have a border, then we are not a sovereign country,” Mr. DeSantis said in Jacksonville, Florida, on Feb. 1. “You either have a border, or you don’t. You’re either a sovereign country, or you’re not.

  Florida has been helping Texas secure its border since 2021, and has deployed more than 700 members of the state’s National Guard.

  Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said on Feb. 9 that he had ordered the deployment of 50 Indiana National Guard troops to Texas to assist with border security efforts.

  “I am sending 50 #Hoosier Guardsmen to the southern border to support the Texas National Guard on their security mission,” Mr. Holcomb wrote in a social media post on the morning of Feb. 9. “These soldiers will begin mobilizing for the mission immediately and will arrive in Texas in mid-March.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 21:00

• Watch: Dr. Phil Explains The Insanity Of "Gender Affirming Care" Laws That Remove Parental Rights
  Watch: Dr. Phil Explains The Insanity Of “Gender Affirming Care” Laws That Remove Parental Rights

  It cannot be denied, there has been a massive institutional effort underway in the past several years to normalize trans ideology in the western world.  Billions of dollars from corporate and NGO backers flows into a swarm of DEI programs pushing gender fluid theory and a host of state and national governments are attempting to codify the movement into law.  This includes making it a “hate crime” to merely question the validity of trans concepts.

  

  A vital pillar of the trans normalization agenda is the targeting of children as young as preschool age with propaganda, and perhaps the most important element of this is the mechanism of public schooling.  Without the involvement of government controlled schools and woke teachers unions, the trans trend would probably not exist at all. 

  The reaction by the majority of parents has been shock, followed by anger and a growing move to demand an explanation.  Instead of addressing the concerns of parents in a reasonable way, leftists have instead sought to remove them from the discussion entirely. 

  Not long ago, this agenda was denied as “conspiracy theory” by educational organizations and the corporate media.  Today, it is openly admitted.  In blue states like Washington, there are already laws in place to allow for sex change surgeries for minors without parental consent.  Illinois Democrats are trying to pass a law which would make it a crime for parents to interfere with sex change treatments or abortions for their children.  In Canada, the same laws are being implemented on a national scale. 

  The strategy operates under the guise of “children’s rights and safety” while separating parents from kids and giving the state control over children’s psychological and physical healthcare.  In other words, the mutilation of children is being established as a political imperative and concerned parents are treated as the enemy.  In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, psychologist and talk-show host Dr. Phil explains his take on the trans situation and the insanity of government interference in parental affairs.

  These are 9 of the most satisfying minutes ever!@DrPhil fully understands the madness of child transition.

  Everybody with a conscience is waking up! Our momentum is unstoppable because the truth is unstoppable.

  This abuse will come to a crashing end!pic.twitter.com/gNB7D35lOb

  — Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) February 21, 2024

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

  Only ten years ago, such a debate was unthinkable.  Today, sadly, it’s all too real.  With zero scientific evidence in support, the trans movement rationalizes the legal isolation of children from their families in the name of “gender affirming care.”  And, as Dr. Phil and Joe Rogan point out, once isolated, vulnerable children can be convinced of almost anything.  The promise of feeling “special” and accepted by the collective is a temptation for many kids; peer pressure is real.  The only thing holding them back from making terrible decisions is the wisdom and love of parents who are now being increasingly marginalized by the state.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 20:40

• Too Much Niacin May Increase Risk Of Heart Disease: Study
  Too Much Niacin May Increase Risk Of Heart Disease: Study

  Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  High levels of niacin, also known as vitamin B3, have been shown to contribute to cardiovascular disease in a recent study.

  

  The new study out of the Cleveland Clinic, published in Nature Medicine, determined there is a delicate balance between too much niacin and just enough—a sort of Goldilocks effect.

  Niacin used to be a first choice for lowering LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol. However, as observed by the Cleveland Clinic team, too much niacin creates a byproduct known as 4PY. This product circulates within the bloodstream and is associated with a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiac events. Additionally, 4PY was shown in preclinical studies to trigger vascular inflammation, damaging blood vessels and eventually leading to atherosclerosis.

  The researchers discovered this by examining data from 1,162 patients who had experienced major cardiovascular events. Just under half of the patients (442) were female. Initially, the team sought common markers that could lead to cardiovascular events. The most common factor within the pool of patients was excess levels of niacin.

  The findings led to additional studies to validate the initial research. Both cohort studies, conducted in the United States and Europe, confirmed that niacin breakdown predicted an individual’s future risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease.

  “What’s exciting about these results is that this pathway appears to be a previously unrecognized yet significant contributor to the development of cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Stanley Hazen, chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and co-section head of preventive cardiology in the Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, said in a press release. “What’s more, we can measure it, meaning there is potential for diagnostic testing. These insights set the stage for developing new approaches to counteract the effects of this pathway.”

  What Is Niacin?

  For years, niacin was a go-to supplement for preventing cardiovascular disease due to its ability to lower cholesterol. The body uses it to turn food into energy and maintain the health of the nervous and digestive systems and the skin. Most people get enough niacin through diet, especially if they follow a well-balanced one. Foods high in niacin include yeast, milk, meat, oats, and flour.

  The recommended amount of niacin includes 16 milligrams a day for adult males and 14 milligrams a day for adult women who aren’t pregnant.

  Prescription niacin, such as Niacor and Niaspan, has been used to regulate cholesterol. It works by increasing good cholesterol while flushing bad cholesterol from the bloodstream. However, research has since shown that niacin is less effective than other cholesterol treatments and is actually associated with adverse effects and higher death rates.

  “Niacin’s effects have always been somewhat of a paradox,” Dr. Hazen said. “Despite niacin lowering of cholesterol, the clinical benefits have always been less than anticipated based on the degree of LDL reduction. This led to the idea that excess niacin caused unclear adverse effects that partially counteracted the benefits of LDL lowering. We believe our findings help explain this paradox. This illustrates why investigating residual cardiovascular risk is so critical; we learn so much more than what we set out to find.”

  Dr. Hazen and his team noted that additional research is needed to determine the long-term effect of chronic high levels of 4PY.

  “The main takeaway is not that we should cut out our entire intake of niacin—that’s not a realistic approach,” he said in a Cleveland Clinic press release. “Given these findings, a discussion over whether a continued mandate of flour and cereal fortification with niacin in the U.S. could be warranted.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 20:20

• BuzzFeed Shares Soar After Sale Of Complex 
  BuzzFeed Shares Soar After Sale Of Complex 

  Corporate media is on life support. Advertising revenues are sliding, mass layoffs are hitting woke publications, and ‘restructurings’ are happening all over.

  Last month, Authentic Brands Group sent rights holder Arena Group a letter terminating Sports Illustrated’s license after failing to pay a $3.75 million quarterly payment at the end of 2023. In other words, the publisher likely wasn’t bringing in enough profit to maintain the iconic brand. Arena Group also announced mass layoffs for the brand. 

  News broke late Wednesday that BuzzFeed, facing severe financial difficulties, is selling Complex, a media start-up focusing on streetwear and pop culture, at a massive loss. 

  

  The buyer of Complex is Ntwrk, an e-commerce company backed by Main Street Advisors and LiveNation Entertainment. Ntwrk agreed to pay $108.6 million for Complex. It will also pay BuzzFeed $5.7 million to cover severance expenses for laid-off Complex employees. 

  The company also announced a planned strategic restructuring intended to reduce expenses by implementing a 16% reduction in the remaining workforce, which is expected to yield approximately $23 million in annualized compensation cost savings. – BuzzFeed wrote in a statement 

  BuzzFeed is taking a massive loss on Complex, which it bought for $294 million in cash and stock in 2021. 

  Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder and chief executive, said: 

  “The sale of Complex represents an important strategic step for BuzzFeed, Inc. as we adapt our business to be more profitable, more nimble, and more innovative.” 

  BuzzFeed’s valuation has sharply declined since its public debut in 2021. The sale of Complex will pay off more than $60 million in debt. According to financial records, BuzzFeed is grappling with $150 million in debt maturing in 2026 and another $33.8 million from a credit line. 

  BuzzFeed shares jumped more than 100% in the after-hours trading session to nearly 47 cents. 

  

  As for the rest of the industry, over 30,000 workers were laid off by media companies in 2023. 

  While corporate media has been imploding, ZeroHedge has been growing. We thank you for your readership.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 20:00

• COVID Vaccine mRNA Can 'Spread Systemically' To Placenta And Infants Of Women Vaccinated During Pregnancy
  COVID Vaccine mRNA Can ‘Spread Systemically’ To Placenta And Infants Of Women Vaccinated During Pregnancy

  Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A new report suggests vaccine mRNA does not remain at the injection site following vaccination but can “spread systemically” to the placenta and umbilical cord blood of infants whose mothers are vaccinated during pregnancy.

  

  In a peer-reviewed pre-proof accepted for publication in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers presented two cases that demonstrate, for the first time, the ability of COVID-19 vaccines to penetrate the fetal-placental barrier and reach the inside of the uterus. Additionally, researchers detected spike protein in placental tissue, indicating the bioactivity of the mRNA in reaching the placenta.

  Researchers vaccinated two pregnant women with mRNA vaccines shortly before delivery to determine whether the mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines reached the placenta or fetus following maternal vaccination.

  “The primary objective of the study was to investigate the knowledge gaps surrounding mRNA therapies during pregnancy, utilizing the COVID-19 vaccine as a foundation for future mRNA therapeutic developments, given its established use,” the study’s corresponding author, Dr. Nazeeh Hanna, a neonatologist, told The Epoch Times by email.

  Researchers Find Vaccine mRNA in Samples

  The first patient, “Patient 1,” was a 34-year-old woman at 38 weeks and four days gestation who received two Pfizer vaccine doses and two booster doses—one Pfizer and one Moderna. The Moderna booster dose was administered two days before the delivery of a healthy baby by cesarean section.

  The second patient, “Patient 2,” was a 33-year-old woman at 40 weeks gestation. She received two Pfizer vaccine doses. The last dose was given 10 days before vaginal delivery of a healthy baby.

  According to the paper, researchers found detectable vaccine mRNA in both placentas tested. The localization of the vaccine mRNA was mainly in the villus stroma—the connective tissue layer that supports the fetal capillaries and villous trophoblast. The villous trophoblast, the primary barrier between maternal and fetal tissues, supports the exchange of nutrients between a mother and her fetus.

  Researchers also detected a “notably high signal” of vaccine mRNA in the placental decidua tissue of Patient 1, who received four vaccine doses. The decidua is the specialized endometrium layer that forms the base of the placental bed.

  Spike protein expression was also detected—but only in the placenta of Patient 2. However, vaccine mRNA was detected in Patient 1’s cord and maternal blood samples, which were unavailable for the second patient.

  The authors said the expression of spike protein in the placenta of the second patient but not in the first suggests that more than two days are necessary following vaccination for the mRNA to reach the placenta and be translated into the spike protein, which is then expressed in placental tissue.

  Finally, researchers found the integrity of vaccine mRNA varied across different samples—the vaccine’s ability to activate an immune response relies upon fully intact mRNA. According to the findings, vaccine mRNA was largely fragmented in the cord blood and less fragmented in the placenta. In the placentas, 23 percent and 42 percent of the initial integrity was retained in Patients 1 and 2, respectively. In maternal blood from Patient 1, the vaccine’s mRNA had a high level of integrity at 85 percent. Integrity decreased to 13 percent in cord blood, suggesting limited bioactivity.

  COVID-19 mRNA vaccines use lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to deliver mRNA. “The findings suggest that lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are capable of reaching the placenta and releasing mRNA within placental cells, where it is then translated into the spike (S) protein. However, by the time the mRNA reaches the fetus, it is no longer encapsulated by the LNPs, leading to its degradation (only 13% of the mRNA is intact in fetal circulation),” Dr. Hanna told The Epoch Times.

  Dr. Hanna noted that the authors of the recently published paper did not evaluate the implications of transient spike protein expression in the placenta or the effects of degraded mRNA on the fetus.

  Dr. Christiane Northrup, an obstetrician-gynecologist, is an advisory board member of MyCycleStory. She told The Epoch Times in an email, the group has been studying this kind of thing since the vaccine rollout in 2021. “There is no question whatsoever that the Covid 19 ‘vaccine’ ingredients are present in the placenta and throughout the body.”

  “There have also been VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] reports of infants dying of thrombocytopenia (low platelets) following maternal vaccination, and also evidence of infants having heart attacks in the womb following maternal vaccination. None of this is new information. It has simply been widely and systematically censored,” she added.

  Dr. Dan McDyer, an obstetrician-gynecologist, told The Epoch Times in an email that he is not surprised by the “discovery of evidence of mRNA from the SARS CoV-2 injections and/or SARS CoV-2 spike protein present in fetal cord blood and placental tissues.”

  “To me, the recommendation of administering this medication to pregnant women was one of the most irresponsible actions in the history of modern medicine. I am so disappointed that the entities charged with the mission of protecting public health (FDA) and women’s health (ACOG) were derelict in their duties because it only took me about 15 minutes of online research to determine that these lipid nanoparticles were going to cross the placenta and infect the fetus,” Dr. McDyer said.

  Dr. James Thorp, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and maternal-fetal medicine physician, told The Epoch Times by email that the paper shows mRNA from both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can cross the placenta into the fetal blood entering the placental tissue.

  “These authors observed a ‘notably high signal’ in the decidua, which is the lining of the uterus. This concentrated mRNA in the decidual tissues will be translated into high concentrations of spike protein, likely contributing to a myriad of devastating effects on human reproductive function—not just severe abnormalities of menstrual periods, but infertility, multiple pregnancy complications, and severe bleeding in pregnancy and in the post-partum period,” Dr. Thorp said.

  Dr. Thorp added that despite their “horrifying” findings, the authors still concluded their evidence “overwhelmingly supports” the COVID-19 vaccine’s effectiveness in mitigating the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 in pregnant and non-pregnant women.

  Initial Clinical Trials Excluded Pregnant Women, Yet Studies Suggest mRNA Biodistribution

  Initial clinical trials for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines excluded pregnant women, so there was no biodistribution data on the mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines and its ability to reach the placenta or fetus following maternal vaccination. However, assessment reports provided to the European Medicines Agency by Pfizer and Moderna show that mRNA is distributed to various tissues, including the liver, adrenal glands, spleen, and ovaries in animal studies.

  An animal study cited by the authors of the paper shows that lipid nanoparticles of similar composition in other mRNA injections delivered functional mRNA to the placenta and other fetal organs.

  Two previous human studies by the same researchers assessed whether the mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines is present in the placenta following maternal vaccination using different methods. The first study failed to detect mRNA in maternal and cord blood or placental tissue. The researchers attributed this to the long interval between vaccination and delivery and the methodology used in the study. The second study using improved sensitivity to detect mRNA also did not reveal vaccine mRNA. However, the authors attributed this to the probe that targeted the SARS-CoV-2 gene rather than the vaccine mRNA sequence.

  In the current study, the authors used a more sensitive and robust approach which allowed them to have a more precise quantification of vaccine mRNA for superior accuracy, and a probe tailored explicitly for the vaccine mRNA, ensuring more reliable detection.

  “Animal work clearly shows the distribution of the lipid nanoparticles to several organs, including the liver, adrenal glands, spleen, and ovaries. So, reaching the placenta was not surprising. In humans, we have previously published that the vaccine mRNA can be distributed to breast milk.” Dr. Hanna told The Epoch Times.

  ‘Catastrophic on Several Levels’

  Dr. McDyer said the ability of the lipid nanoparticles to cross the placenta and infect the fetus could be “catastrophic on several levels,” impacting a developing fetal immune system.

  “Imagine this: The fetal immune system ‘learns’ the appearance of ‘self’ early on by recognizing molecules, MHCs (Major Histocompatibility Complexes), on the surface of all of our cells. This appearance of ‘self’ is most certainly disrupted by the appearance of spike protein on the surface of these cells (cell membranes) as induced by the ‘vaccines,’’’ he told The Epoch Times.

  “Additionally, fragments of spike protein will also likely appear in the MHCs on the cell surfaces. This causes a slight disfigurement of these MHCs which is likely to have an effect on the immune system’s capability to recognize ‘self,’” he added.

  Dr. McDyer said he is certain disrupting cellular homeostasis by distracting the fetal cells to produce foreign proteins, such as the spike protein, instead of the proteins necessary for a developing fetus, will have detrimental unknown consequences. He believes this explains why one of his colleagues, a pediatric neurosurgeon, has seen a few unborn babies who have had strokes, an event he says he has never heard of in his entire career until now.

  “We know that spike [protein] initiates clot formation, which can result in strokes,” Dr. McDyer said. “This is all so sad as it was completely unavoidable if normal, historical precautionary approaches were in place.”

  Dr. Hanna believes that introducing mRNA to the fetus may pose potentially plausible risks but may also yield biologically plausible benefits. “The potential of mRNA-based interventions in addressing maternal and fetal health issues is profound. Such insights could substantially advance the crafting of safer and more effective mRNA-based therapies during pregnancy,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 19:40

• Nvincible Nvidia Surges After Smashing Estimates, Guiding Sharply Higher
  Nvincible Nvidia Surges After Smashing Estimates, Guiding Sharply Higher

  It’s now officially the “most important stock on planet earth“, and thus everyone was watching what Nvidia would report after the close, with option markets expecting a 10% swing (a $200 billion delta) after hours. And while many were hoping that the company to continue its relentless meltup ways, Goldman’s trading desk was less euphoric with TMT specialist Peter Callahan warning overnight that there is “plenty of tactical debate whether this print will be a local top or a ‘break-out’ moment for the stock and for the A.I. trade (from my seat, feels like consensus is learning more towards the former). 

  In retrospect he may have been right because even though NVDA reported stellar Q4 results, they may not have been stellar enough and the stock is now sliding after hours.

  Here is what NVDA reported for Q4 earnings:

  • Adjusted EPS $5.16, smashing estimates of $4.53
  • Revenue $22.10 billion, up 265% from $6.05 billion y/y, and beating the estimate $20.41 billion
    • Data center revenue $18.4 billion, up 409% from $3.62 billion y/y, beating estimates of $17.21 billion
    • Gaming revenue $2.9 billion, up 58% y/y from $1.8 billion, and beating estimates of $2.72 billion
    • Professional Visualization revenue $463 million, up 11% from $226 million y/y, and beating the estimate of $435.5 million
    • Automotive revenue $281 million, down 4.4% from $294 million, and also beating estimates of $272.1 million

  Some more details on the revenue breakdown

  • Data Center revenue for the fourth quarter was a record, up 409% from a year ago and up 27% sequentially. These increases reflect higher shipments of the NVIDIA Hopper GPU computing platform used for the training and inference of large language models, recommendation engines, and generative AI applications, along with InfiniBand end-to-end solutions. Data Center revenue for fiscal year 2024 was up 217%. In the fourth quarter, large cloud providers represented more than half of our Data Center revenue, supporting both internal workloads and external customers. Strong demand was driven by enterprise software and consumer internet applications, and multiple industry verticals including automotive, financial services, and healthcare. Customers across industry verticals access NVIDIA AI infrastructure both through the cloud and on-premises. Data Center sales to China declined significantly in the fourth quarter due to U.S. government licensing requirements. Data Center compute revenue was up 488% from a year ago and up 27% sequentially in the fourth quarter; it was up 244% in the fiscal year. Networking revenue was up 217% from a year ago and up 28% sequentially in the fourth quarter; it was up 133% in the fiscal year

  The chart below shows all you need to know about the company’s main revenue driver

  

  • Gaming revenue was up 56% from a year ago and flat sequentially. Fiscal year revenue was up 15%. The year-on-year increases for the quarter and fiscal year reflect higher sell-in to partners following the normalization of channel inventory levels and growing demand. The launch of our GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series family of GPUs also contributed to revenue in the quarter.
  • Professional Visualization revenue was up 105% from a year ago and up 11% sequentially. Fiscal year revenue was up 1%. The year-on-year increase for the quarter primarily reflects higher sell-in to partners following normalization of channel inventory levels. The sequential increase was primarily due to the ramp of desktop workstations based on the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture.
  • Automotive revenue was down 4% from a year ago and up 8% sequentially. Fiscal year revenue was up 21%. The sequential increase was driven by self-driving platforms. The year-on-year decrease for the quarter was driven by AI Cockpit, offset by an increase in self-driving platforms. The year-on-year increase for the fiscal year primarily reflected growth in self-driving platforms.

  

  Going down the line:

  • Adjusted gross margin 76.7% vs. 66.1% y/y, beating estimates of 75.4%
    • R&D expenses $2.47 billion, +26% y/y, beating estimates of $2.43 billion
  • Adjusted operating expenses $2.21 billion, +25% y/y, below the estimate of $2.23 billion
  • Adjusted operating income $14.75 billion vs. $2.22 billion y/y, beating estimates of $13.14 billion
  • Free cash flow $11.22 billion vs. $1.74 billion y/y, also beating estimates of $10.82 billion

  Gross Margin:

  • GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins for the fourth quarter increased significantly from a year ago and sequentially on strong Data Center revenue growth primarily driven by our Hopper GPU computing platform. Our gross margins in the fourth quarter also benefited from favorable component costs

  Expenses:

  • Non-GAAP operating expenses for the fourth quarter were up 25% from a year ago and up 9% sequentially. The year-on-year increase was driven by growth in employees and compensation increases. The sequential increase reflected higher compute and infrastructure investments.
  • Fiscal year non-GAAP operating expenses were up 13% from a year ago, reflecting growth in employees and compensation increases.

  The financial results in a nutshell:

  

  Commenting on the results, CEO Jensen Huang said that “accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point. Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations.” He added that “our Data Center platform is powered by increasingly diverse drivers — demand for data processing, training and inference from large cloud-service providers and GPU-specialized ones, as well as from enterprise software and consumer internet companies. Vertical industries — led by auto, financial services and healthcare — are now at a multibillion-dollar level.

  “NVIDIA RTX, introduced less than six years ago, is now a massive PC platform for generative AI, enjoyed by 100 million gamers and creators. The year ahead will bring major new product cycles with exceptional innovations to help propel our industry forward. Come join us at next month’s GTC, where we and our rich ecosystem will reveal the exciting future ahead.”

  And while the Q4 results were stellar, it was once again the company’s guidance that blew away investors – even if it did take algos a few minutes to process it – and send the stock sharply higher after hours.

  • Revenue is expected to be $24.00 billion, plus or minus 2%, Est. $21.9BN
  • GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 71.5% and 72.5%, missing the estimate of 75.5%
  • GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $2.95 billion and $2.00 billion, vs est of $2.4 billion
    • GAAP and non-GAAP tax rates are expected to be 14.5%, plus or minus 1%, excluding any discrete items.
    • GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $2.95 billion and $2.00 billion, respectively.

  Unlike two quarters ago, when the company announced a $25BN stock buybacks, there was no such kicker this time, although judging by the market’s reaction the company probably won’t be need to repurchase shares any time soon. NVDA reported that at the end of the year, cash and cash equivalents were $26.0 billion, up from $13.3 billion a year ago and $18.3 billion a quarter ago. The increases primarily reflect higher revenue partially offset by taxes paid and stock repurchases.

  In response to the stunning earnings, NVDA stock first dumped – perhaps as the company’s guidance missed the whisper number of $25 billion and also disappointed on the gross margin guidance, but then reversed all losses and ended up spiking  about 9% after hours. But since option straddles were pricing in a 10% move in either direction, tomorrow a whole lot of put and call buyers will be left very disappointed when they see the value of their options vaporize.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 19:35

• How Do Democrats & Republicans Feel About Certain US Industries
  How Do Democrats & Republicans Feel About Certain US Industries

  Much and more has been written, in the last decade particularly, about the U.S. political sphere becoming increasingly polarized. The two main parties – Democrats and Republicans – have clashed over how to run the economy, as well as on key social issues.

  Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Democrat and Republican voters are also divided on various U.S. industries, per a YouGov poll conducted in 2022.

  Between November 7-9th of that year, the market research firm polled 1,000 adult Americans, (sampled to represent prevailing demographic, racial, and political-party-affiliation trends in the country) on their opinions on 39 industries. They asked:

  “Generally speaking, do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following industry?”

  – YOUGOV POLL.

  In this chart, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao visualizes the percentage with a favorable view of an industry minus those with unfavorable view, categorized by current voter status.

  A higher percentage means more Democrats or Republicans rated the industry as favorable, and vice-versa. Negative percentages mean more respondents responded unfavorably.

  

  Democrats vs. Republicans on Industry Favorability

  From a glance, it’s immediately noticeable that quite a few industries have divided Democrats and Republics quite severely.

  For example, of the sampled Democrats, a net 45%, found Higher Education “favorable.” This is compared to 0% on the Republican side, which means an equal number found the industry favorable and unfavorable.

  Here’s the full list of net favorable responses from Democrats and Republicans per industry.

  Industry	Democrat Net Favorability	Republican Net Favorability
  Agriculture	44%	55%
  Trucking	27%	55%
  Restaurant	53%	54%
  Manufacturing	27%	53%
  Construction	23%	49%
  Dairy	45%	46%
  Higher education	45%	0%
  Technology	44%	36%
  Food manufacturing	15%	37%
  Transportation	27%	37%
  Railroad	37%	35%
  Mining	-3%	36%
  Automotive	19%	36%
  Grocery	35%	22%
  Hotels	30%	35%
  Textiles	24%	34%
  Entertainment	34%	-17%
  Shipping	24%	33%
  Retail	31%	31%
  Book publishing	30%	29%
  Alcohol	23%	16%
  Television	22%	3%
  Waste management	15%	22%
  Education services	21%	-16%
  Wireless carriers	19%	19%
  Broadcasting	17%	-30%
  News media	17%	-57%
  Airlines	11%	3%
  Oil and gas	-28%	7%
  Real-estate	-2%	6%
  Utilities	2%	6%
  Health care	3%	4%
  Fashion	4%	-6%
  Cable	-12%	3%
  Finance	2%	-2%
  Professional sports	1%	-2%
  Insurance	-12%	-14%
  Pharmaceutical	-18%	-14%
  Tobacco	-44%	-27%

  The other few immediately noticeable disparities in favorability include:

  • Mining and Oil and Gas, (more Republicans in favor),

  • Entertainment, Education Services, and News Media (more Democrats in favor).

  Tellingly, the larger social and political concerns at play are influencing Democrat and Republican opinions about these parts of the economy.

  For example Pew Research pointed out Republicans are dissatisfied with universities for a number of reasons: worries about constraints on free speech, campus “culture wars,” and professors bringing their politics into the classroom.

  In contrast, Democrats’ criticisms of higher education revolved around tuition costs and the quality of education offered.

  On a more recent note, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, a big Harvard donor, pulled funding after criticizing universities for educating “whiny snowflakes.” In October, donors to the University of Pennsylvania withdrew their support, upset with the university’s response to the October 7th attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.

  Meanwhile, the reasons for differences over media favorability are more obvious. Commentators say being “anti-media” is now part of the larger Republican leadership identity, and in turn, is trickling down to their voters. Pew Research also found that Republicans are less likely to trust the news if it comes from a “mainstream” source.

  But these are industries that are already adjacent to the larger political sphere. What about the others?

  U.S. Politics and the Climate Crisis

  The disparity over how the Oil & Gas and Mining industries are viewed is a reflection, again, of American politics and the partisan divide around the climate crisis and whether there’s a noticeable impact from human activity.

  Both industries contribute heavily to carbon emissions, and Democrat lawmakers have previously urged the Biden transition to start planning for the end of fossil-fuel reliance.

  Meanwhile, former President Trump, for example, has previously called global warming “a hoax” but later reversed course, clarifying that he didn’t know if it was “man-made.”

  When removing the climate context, and related environmental degradation, both industries usually pay high wages and produce materials critical to many other parts of the economy, including the strategic metals needed for the energy transition.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 19:20

• Study Dismantles Link Between Preterm Birth And Autism
  Study Dismantles Link Between Preterm Birth And Autism

  Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Contrary to previous research and popular belief, premature birth alone does not lead to autism.

  

  A new study out of Israel shows there is no significant link between premature birth and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), reaffirming that the exact cause of autism is much more complex.

  The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, initially found a strong link between preterm birth and autism. However, after considering other factors, including ethnicity, maternal age, and the size and sex of the infant, the significant association vanished.

  The findings were presented during The Pregnancy Meeting, an annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine on Feb. 14.

  Researchers looked at records from hospitals and community clinics for almost 115,000 deliveries in Israel between 2005 and 2017. The data included mothers and infants who were Jewish, Muslim, and Bedouin, a Muslim minority group. Just over 93 percent of the births were delivered at term, defined as 37 weeks or more. Only 1.2 percent were preterm, while 6 percent were late- or moderately late-term.

  Rather than preterm birth being linked to autism, the research team believes that multiple factors likely account for a child developing the developmental condition.

  “The exact cause of autism is complex,” Dr. Sapir Ellouk, lead author of the study, said in a press release. “But based on our data, a single obstetric factor is unlikely to be the cause of ASD. A more plausible theory involves the simultaneous presence of multiple factors.”

  Research into the cause of autism, particularly research aimed at investigating the possible link between preterm birth and autism, has been controversial.

  Some previous studies have suggested that preterm birth can increase the risk of a child developing autism substantially and that the risk is correlated with the gestation period. One study found that eight in 657 (1.22 percent) preterm babies born before 28 weeks developed autism, while 80 of 13,108 preterm babies (0.61 percent) born between 33 and 38 weeks did.

  However, even previous research noted that differences in sex and other environmental factors could potentially play a role in a child’s potential for developing the disorder.

  Autism Rates on the Rise in the US, Early Signs

  In 2020, in the United States, one in 36 children had autism, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with the developmental disorder at a rate of four in 100 versus one in 100 for girls. Autism is also more prevalent in black, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander children than white, the CDC reports. These rates are higher than those reported in 2000–2018.

  The definition of ASD is vague because researchers still don’t have a firm grasp on how the disorder develops. Additionally, the disorder presents in myriad ways from person to person. Individuals with ASD might behave, communicate, learn, or interact in ways that are different from others, but often, there is nothing else that sets them apart. In fact, the skill sets of those on the autistic spectrum vary wildly; some people may have advanced language and conversation skills, while others may be nonverbal.

  According to the CDC, ASD typically begins to show around age 3 and often lasts throughout an individual’s life, though symptoms can improve. Some early signs include the child missing certain developmental milestones, such as:

  • Not responding to their name at 9 months old
  • Lack of facial expressions of emotions at 9 months old
  • Not playing simple interactive games at 12 months old
  • Using few or no simple gestures at 12 months old
  • Lack of common interests with peers at 15 months old
  • Not showing empathy when others are hurt at 24 months old
  • Not playing with other children at 3 years old
  • Not engaging in pretend play at 4 years old
  • Not singing, dancing, or acting at 5 years old

  Other related characteristics include delayed language, movement, and cognitive or learning skills; hyperactivity, impulsiveness, or inattention; epilepsy or sleeping disorders; unusual eating habits; gastrointestinal disorders; unusual mood or emotional reactions; anxiety; and lack of fear or more fear than expected.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 19:00

• US Court Ruling Sends Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Bonds into Collapse
  US Court Ruling Sends Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Bonds into Collapse

  By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

  A day after a New York court ruling that Venezuelan law would determine the validity of bonds issued by state-run PDVSA oil company, Bloomberg reports that bonds have “collapsed”, slumping on questions over their validity. At stake is $2 billion in PDVSA bonds, and PDVSA notes dropped 17 cents following Tuesday’s ruling, according to Bloomberg. 

  

  On Tuesday, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled on the matter after Venezuelan opposition, which controls the state-run oil company’s U.S. assets, said the bonds set to mature in 2020 were invalid because they had not been approved by Venezuela’s National Assembly. The New York Court of Appeals ruled that validity must be determined by local law in the place of issuance. 

  Venezuela’s opposition is seeking to have the bonds invalidated because they are backed by a 50.1% stake in Citgo Holding, the holding group that gives state-run PDVSA ownership of Citgo. In turn, bond invalidation would prevent creditors from seizing Citgo, Reuters reports.

  In mid-October, PDVSA bonds soared after the Biden administration moved to allow U.S. investors to buy the bonds in line with a sanctions relief package for Venezuela. The removal of those restrictions led to a 10-cent jump in Venezuelan government bonds immediately, along with a doubling of the price of PDVSA bonds. Bloomberg reported. 

  The bonds are highly attractive to U.S. investors because of their price and hedging that relations between the U.S. and Venezuela will eventually normalize. 

  “The lifting of the trading ban is likely to unleash significant pent-up demand from US persons,” London-based EMFI’s senior strategist, Guillermo Guerrero, wrote in a note carried by Bloomberg in October.  “This, alongside the general optimism that these developments will inevitably bring, guarantees a significant rise in bond prices.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 18:20

• Israeli Jets Attack Damascus Apartment Building, Killing Two
  Israeli Jets Attack Damascus Apartment Building, Killing Two

  Several presumed Israeli airstrikes rocked a residential area of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday. A wave of initial strikes reportedly activated Syria’s anti-air defenses, but there was at least one direct hit on an apartment building. 

  “Israeli strikes hit a neighborhood of the Syrian capital on Wednesday morning, killing two people and causing material damage, Syria’s state TV said,” according to the Associated Press.

  

  Hours after this initial attack, new explosions were reported in regional media, however few details were given on the presumed second round of strikes. Several missiles hit the western neighborhood of Kfar Sousseh, reportedly near what’s being described as an Iranian school.

  “The strike damaged the fourth floor of a 10-story building, shattered window glass on nearby buildings and also damaged dozens of cars parked in the area,” the AP continued. “An empty parked bus for the nearby Al-Bawader Private School was also damaged and people were seen rushing to the school to take their children.”

  Likely Israeli officials will seek to justify the new aggression by saying Iranian officials were being targeted. It follows a major December airstrike on a suburb of Damascus which killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi.

  Israeli attacks on Syria have grown more frequent of late once again after a temporary lull last year. Syria for its part in the weeks after Oct.7 had launched missiles on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. 

  Things are also heating up in nearby Lebanon, as Israeli attacks in response to daily Hezbollah rockets and drones increase and are getting deeper into Lebanese territory. Syria’s President Assad is seen as a staunch ally of Hezbollah and the Iranians. Israel has long warned about the Iranian presence on Syrian soil, after a decade-long proxy war there.

  On Tuesday an Israeli Knesset member said a Hezbollah drone fell on his residential property…

  🇮🇱HEZBOLLAH SENDS DRONE TO ISRAELI MINISTER’S HOUSE

  He wasn’t too happy about the “present.”

  Moshe Davidowitz: “In broad daylight, Hezbollah sends a drone near my yard. This is not escalation, this is war.”

  Source: News Cabinet pic.twitter.com/7MZQQXQFmb

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 20, 2024

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

  Many analysts expect that if broader war opens between Hezbollah and Israel, the conflict could engulf the whole region, given also the Hezbollah presence in Syria.

  At the same time pro-Iran Iraqi militias have in recent months launched major attacks on US bases in the region, resulting in a few waves of US missile attacks, in retaliation for the killing of three US Army soldiers along the Syria-Jordan border.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 18:00

• Bankruptcy Judge Allows Rudy Giuliani To Appeal $148 Million Defamation Verdict
  Bankruptcy Judge Allows Rudy Giuliani To Appeal $148 Million Defamation Verdict

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A New York bankruptcy judge has allowed Rudy Giuliani to appeal a $148 million defamation verdict so long as he uses pre-approved donors for legal expenses.

  

  U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane, in his order on Tuesday, specified that such fees and expenses must not be paid from Mr. Giuliani’s current assets.

  “Any fees and expenses incurred by the Debtor and his advisors in the Freeman Litigation in connection with any Post-Trial Filings and the Notice of Appeal shall not be paid by, and shall not result in a claim against, the Debtor or his estate,” Judge Lane wrote.

  The former New York City mayor filed for bankruptcy protection late last year, one day after he was ordered to immediately pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers. Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Moss, sued him for defamation while he was working as a lawyer for former President Donald Trump.

  In early January, Mr. Giuliani asked the New York bankruptcy judge overseeing his case to lift the automatic stay, a legal provision that pauses certain proceedings during bankruptcy, for the “limited purpose” of filing post-judgment motions to modify the judgment.

  Judge Lane, from the Southern District of New York, granted the limited relief on Tuesday.

  The judge’s order permits Mr. Giuliani to file a notice of appeal and post-trial motions in the Freeman case.

  However, Judge Lane stated that the former mayor must obtain the judge’s consent for any external payment of legal fees and expenses, which can’t come from Mr. Giuliani’s current assets.

  Furthermore, any parties paying such fees or expenses are prohibited from seeking reimbursement from Mr. Giuliani or his estate until the court approves such payments.

  According to the order, Mr. Giuliani is required to provide at least five business days’ notice to the Objecting Parties and the official committee of unsecured creditors before filing any post-trial motions, except for any motions filed on Feb. 20.

  “For the avoidance of doubt, the automatic stay is modified solely as set forth above and the Post-Trial Filings shall be adjudicated in the discretion of the District Court. Except with respect to the filing of a Notice of Appeal, any appeal of the Freeman Litigation shall remain subject to the automatic stay,” Judge Lane wrote.

  Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss sued Mr. Giuliani for defamation and emotional distress, alleging he spread false claims about their conduct during the 2020 election.

  A widely circulated video clip after the 2020 election implicated the election workers in allegedly mishandling ballots, damaging their reputation. Although later cleared by a Georgia Elections Board investigation, the women argued that the harm was already done. The pair claimed they were subject to relentless abuse.

  Attorney Michael Gottlieb urged the jury to award significant damages, emphasizing the need for punitive damages to send a message that Mr. Giuliani’s actions wouldn’t be tolerated.

  The multimillion-dollar payout the women were seeking would spell “the end” for Mr. Giuliani, his attorney, Joseph Sibley, told the court, equating it to be “the civil equivalent of a death penalty.”

  One day after being ordered to pay $148 million to the Georgia election workers, Mr. Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $10 million in assets.

  In a Dec. 20 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, supported the two election workers’ claim that Mr. Giuliani lacked immediate financial means to pay them after a 30-day delay on the payouts was lifted.

  Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss raised concerns with the court that Mr. Giuliani might possibly “alienate or dissipate“ assets during the 30-day payment delay. Judge Howell cited Mr. Giuliani’s ”uncooperative” behavior, mounting debts, and numerous legal battles as reasons to believe he might hide financial assets from future judgments.

  On Dec. 11, the day the defamation damages trial commenced, Mr. Giuliani backed his statements about the former election workers, asserting to reporters that “everything I said about them is true.”

  Mr. Giuliani acted as President Trump’s legal adviser in 2020.

  Apart from facing financial difficulties, Mr. Giuliani is one of 19 individuals, along with President Trump, who have been indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia. The indictment is related to their efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

  Tom Omizek contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/21/2024 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• The 2030 Agenda: The Totalitarian Trojan Horse
  The 2030 Agenda: The Totalitarian Trojan Horse

  Authored by Daniel Lacalle via The Epoch Times,

  Upon perusing the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals included in the well-known 2030 Agenda, one may conclude that they are all harmless and entirely reasonable goals.

  Who could be opposed to reducing poverty and hunger or advancing infrastructure, innovation, and industry?

  

  The trick, akin to the tale of the Trojan Horse, is that those goals have been appropriated by the most heinous interventionism, and bureaucrats with a foundation of conceit and stupidity use it to impose governmental control over every aspect of the economy.

  They are attacking farming, agriculture, and nearly any private activity in a Europe that is beginning to resemble a society suffocated by a predatory state and zombies close to the government, à la Chapter 9 from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”

  First, they destroyed the very industry that the 2030 Agenda is purportedly committed to strengthening.

  The most interventionist politicians are really attacking the 2030 Agenda because, despite their pretenses to the contrary, their policies invariably have the opposite effect of what they seem to support.

  The socialists in all parties have taken over the 2030 Agenda, which does not advance industry, growth, equality, or the fight against poverty or hunger.

  This exploitation of the 2030 Agenda’s objectives is exactly like the Trojan Horse that conceals people who will destroy the city beneath the guise of an impressive and lovely gift.

  The number of farms in the European Union has drastically decreased in recent years. According to Eurostat, there were 9.1 million farms in 2020, a projected 37 percent decrease, or roughly 5.3 million fewer than in 2005. This trend has only worsened since 2020.

  According to the European Commission itself, the EU’s agricultural land is predicted to shrink by 1.1 percent between 2015 and 2030, primarily due to the declines of the two main groupings (agricultural land and farming), which are forecast to decline by 4.0 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. This implies ruining our future and increasing Europe’s dependence and poverty.

  It is not acceptable for the industrial fabric to be destroyed. According to the International Energy Agency, businesses are now paying twice as much for electricity and natural gas as they would in China or the United States due to an energy strategy that is incorrect and enforced by activists who lack industry knowledge. And how is it justified by the bureaucracy?

  “The breakdown analysis reveals that the lower economic growth in the EU in relation to the world had the greatest negative impact on the contribution of its manufacturing sector,” according to a study published by the European Commission.

  It’s not that they are destroying industry, so don’t worry. It is just that the EU is growing far less than before. Fascinating (note the irony). As if the decline in competitiveness isn’t already a contributing factor in stagnation.

  A report from the European Round Table for Industry (Vision Paper 2024–2029) states that the market share of European Union industry in the globe has plummeted from 21 percent in 2001 to a pitiful 14.5 percent. The paper also offers positive remedies. The U.S. proportion, which had a 21 percent share during the same period, decreased less significantly, to 16.5 percent. They reaffirm that “business is the lifeblood of a robust economy.”

  “The EU’s industrial sector contributes 16 percent of its GDP. It creates millions of jobs indirectly and 25 percent of direct employment. It is essential for advancing innovation and enhancing the capabilities of the labor force in addition to creating income and jobs. Its potential to promote growth and prosperity is enormous, given the correct conditions. These factors make it clear that Europe needs to increase its appeal to foreign investors.”

  Furthermore, what has been accomplished? Taxes, restrictions, and bureaucracy are increased, destroying the very thing they claim to safeguard.

  Why do people accept the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda which are redundant as free-market capitalism would achieve all of them without the need for propaganda? Interventionism has denigrated capitalism and free markets while positioning itself as the answer to the mistakes brought about by extensive intervention. The only ways that any of those goals will actually be met are through increased capitalism and economic freedom. Socialism not only falls short of all these goals, but it also adds a secret number 18: the cancelation and persecution of complainants.

  It is not anti-European to criticize this agenda’s incorrect imposition. It is in favor of Europe.

  Many of us were labeled anti-Europeans years ago for supporting nuclear energy. The EU made agreements recently to create new reactors in large quantities. When we criticized the fiscal plunder and bureaucracy placed on farming, agriculture, and industry years ago, we were labeled anti-Europeans. Many governments are realizing now how grave a mistake they made.

  Similarly, criticizing the digital euro does not mean attacking the euro; rather, it means arguing that it should continue to be a store of value and maintain its purchasing power.

  Being pro-European does not mean accepting every interventionist policy put out by a committee of bureaucrats. We must reject socialism and central planning if we are to protect Europe. Despite decades of financial support, East Germany is still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by central planning.

  Centralized planning does not work.

  It was never successful. However, there are always those who believe that if they put it into practice, it will work because they do not have to pay for the repercussions.

  What is the ruse behind this latest attack on liberty?

  The usual “good intentions” to target and penalize those who produce and create jobs, using goals that appear innocent and that we all defend. Thus, if you disagree, some may claim that you are opposed to ending poverty, hunger, and inequality if you publish a piece like this one or warn against the risks of central planning. Can you spot the ruse? In actuality, it employs the same tactic as Leninism, which is to create an oppressive government while hiding behind a cause that everyone supports.

  The people who have stocked this Trojan Horse with warriors ready to mercilessly slaughter the city’s populace once they are behind the wall are well aware that their scheme will fail so they must enforce objective number 18, which establishes the only connection between reality and the fallacy of central planning. What does objective number 18 mean? Suppression and annihilation of personal autonomy, impoverishment, and elimination of demand. It’s not even a hidden target. This set of self-proclaimed European saviors is aware that imposing a contraction in demand is the only way to make the equation of corporate destruction and declining supply square, rendering us less free and poorer.

  The first thing we should do is give up on socialism and stand up for the promotion of individual freedom if we want to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals without the covert eighteenth of poverty and elimination of individuals’ rights.

  The only way to accomplish the goals that the 2030 Agenda purports to support is to take these policies out of the hands of socialist and extortionate interventionism and give Europe greater economic freedom, more robust businesses, and regulations that are straightforward, predictable, and conducive to investment. There should be less poverty redistributors and more manufacturing, farming, and agriculture.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 23:40

• Did The India Bubble Just Burst
  Did The India Bubble Just Burst

  In its latest US Equities Weekly Rundown note, Goldman Sachs wrote that In international markets, the desk continues to field demand for India as investors move capital out of China ETFs; the result is that INDA (iShares MSCI India ETF) has seen consistent inflows this past year, while MCHI (iShares MSCI China ETF) redemptions persist.

  And yet, the stellar rally in Indian equities that’s made them an investor favorite has run into headwinds that go beyond elevated valuations, according to Bloomberg market live reporters Abhishek Vishnoi and John Cheng. The commentators note that earnings misses, the attractiveness of rival markets amid expectations of a dovish policy shift by the Federal Reserve and a nascent recovery in Chinese equities “are casting doubts over India extending a rally that saw the nation’s main gauges posting a record eighth-straight year of gains in 2023.”

  Recently, Citigroup and Societe Generale SA have downgraded India, while foreigners have sold a net $3.8 billion of local shares so far this year, the highest in emerging Asia outside of China. Multi-asset investors are favoring rupee bonds over the South Asian nation’s equities, and some even refute Goldman’s observations, saying that the money flows out of China may be slowing as the country steps up its market rescue efforts.

  “India is the best longer-term story, but we are taking a bit of profit” due to high valuations, said Sean Taylor, chief investment officer at Matthews Asia. “I will be trimming more of India into Fed cuts on a relative basis because I need to put more capital into places like Korea and Taiwan.”

  

  Despite the short-term profit-taking, the longer-term outlook for India remains intact thanks to the nation’s fast economic growth, an expanding middle class and rising manufacturing prowess.

  “Even though there’s a valuation concern, India is in a sweet spot,” said Joohee An, chief investment officer at Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. in Hong Kong. “We’re looking at India with a longer-term approach than other emerging markets.”

  Still, a slew of earnings misses in the latest earnings season on top of already stretched valuations, weak consumer demand in some pockets of the $3.4 trillion economy and a still-hawkish central bank have put some investors on the back foot for now.

  Indian stocks remain near their most expensive levels ever against battered Chinese peers, just when Xi Jinping’s administration is unveiling measures to prop up the market and boost confidence. That may prompt some investors to rethink their asset allocations across the region.

  

  The S&P BSE Sensex Index is valued at 20 times 12-month forward consensus earnings estimates, higher than its 10-year mean and the most expensive in Asia. China’s mainland benchmark CSI 300 Index, which hit a five-year low earlier this month, trades at little over 10 times future earnings.

  “We’ve been underweighting the country because we’re value investors and we struggle in this market,” said Vicki Chi, a Hong Kong-based portfolio manager at Robeco. “We like dirt cheap, but there’s hardly anything in India.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 23:20

• Seattle Activists Declare 'Homosexual Intifada'
  Seattle Activists Declare ‘Homosexual Intifada’

  Authored by Jason Rantz via mynorthwest.com,

  As if “Queers for Palestine” wasn’t enough of a self-parody, keffiyeh-donning gay activists in Seattle have declared a “homosexual intifada.”

  

  After another pro-Hamas/anti-Israel march and rally that took over city streets that Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell ceded, the extremists plastered their signage around downtown Seattle. That’s when we started seeing a new flyer showing two men with faces covered with keffiyeh while embracing in a kiss. The pink-hued message says “Homo-sexual Intifada” in all caps.

  Seattle’s homosexual intifada flyer is a stark oxymoron as brazen as it is ignorant. It signals LGBT Seattle activists are willing to become more violent in support of a terrorist organization that would order them tossed from the highest rooftop the moment they accuse someone of misgendering them.

  LGBT Seattle activists support violent Hamas with more violence

  Hamas, the governing body in Gaza since 2007, is as welcoming to the LGBT community as it is to Jews. And their track record is hardly rainbow-colored. Under Hamas rule, being openly gay isn’t just a social taboo; it’s a fast track to execution. LGBT people face arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings based purely on sexual orientation. And these views against the LGBT community are not merely those of Hamas.

  The situation is not much different in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, where there are no LGBT rights. Palestinians in Gaza are as hostile, with, ironically, gay Palestinians fleeing to Israel for refuge. Israel is the only Middle East country with constitutional, employment, and other codified LGBT rights.

  Pro-Hamas activists, in and out of Seattle, routinely and purposefully ignore the fact that Hamas hates the LGBT community. Yet, they continue to stay silent so that they may use all their hot air to attack Jews defending Israel against an existential threat.

  Is the Seattle homosexual intifada trying to send a different message?

  Is it possible the Seattle homosexual intifada flyer is meant to envision a world in which gay Palestinians fight back in Gaza? Are they trolling us with their flyer? Not likely. The pro-Hamas faction of Seattle activists has consistently downplayed or ignored Hamas terrorism against Jews because they believe “resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

  Generally, Hamas’ dangerous hostility to the LGBT community is ignored. But in the rare instances in which it is not, progressive activists use their hatred of Jews to gaslight. Radical Swarthmore professor Sa’ed Atshan dismissed Hamas and Gazan homophobia as if it’s no different than anywhere else. In an interview, Atshan tries to explain why there’s “queer solidarity” with Palestinians without having to mention it’s driven by blatant antisemitism, historical ignorance, or both.

  Atshan noted, “Homophobia is not unique to Palestinian society. It exists in most parts of the world, including in Israeli society, as well as here in the United States.” He even manages to blame Jews for homophobia in Gaza, falsely claiming they participate in a brutal military occupation of Gaza.

  “It’s very dangerous to pathologize Palestinian society as uniquely homophobic or that homophobia is endemic to the society without this broader context, as well as without understanding the ways that life under brutal military occupation exacerbates homophobia within Palestinian society as well. In order for us to deal with questions of how queer people are treated in Palestine, we have to address the broader landscape of the denial of freedom to Palestinians more generally speaking,” he said.

  This is all pretty simple, just not simple enough for Progressive Seattle activists

  Palestinians are not synonymous with Hamas. But only a fool pretends there’s no overlap for a significant portion of the Palestinian people in Gaza. It doesn’t matter, though.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 23:00

• Putin Gifts Kim Jong Un A Luxury Russian Limo 
  Putin Gifts Kim Jong Un A Luxury Russian Limo 

  Russian carmaker Aurus, best known for producing President Vladimir Putin’s new bulletproof limo, delivered a new limousine to the North Korean dictator on behalf of the Russian government. 

  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the limousine was delivered to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He said the vehicle was a gift following Putin’s visit last year when Kim took great interest in the limo. 

  

  “When the head of the DPRK [North Korea] was at the Vostochny cosmodrome, he looked at this car, Putin showed it to him personally, and like many people, Kim liked this car,” Peskov said when asked by reporters about the gift, who The Guardian quoted. 

  ‼️🇷🇺🤝🇰🇵 Vladimir #Putin gave Kim Jong-un an Aurus

  And we saw in detail how the first acquaintance with this car took place pic.twitter.com/pPCNemntbu

  — Maimunka News (@MaimunkaNews) February 20, 2024

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

  “So this decision was made,” Peskov said, adding, “North Korea is our neighbor, our close neighbor, and we intend, and will continue, to develop our relations with all neighbors, including North Korea.” 

  North Korea’s state-run media outlet KCNA also confirmed the Russian-made limousine arrived in Pyongyang. 

  KCNA quoted Kim’s sister, who said, “courteously conveyed Kim Jong-un’s thanks to Putin to the Russian side, saying that the gift serves as a clear demonstration of the special personal relations between the top leaders.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 22:40

• A Stunning 10 Million Illegals Have Entered The US Under Biden; Tucker Warns They Are "Destroying" The Country
  A Stunning 10 Million Illegals Have Entered The US Under Biden; Tucker Warns They Are “Destroying” The Country

  A record 7.3 million illegal aliens have crossed the southwest border under President Biden’s watch, a number which according to Fox News.is greater than the population of 36 individual states.

  That figure is sourced from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has already reported 961,537 Southwest land border encounters in the current fiscal year, which runs from October through September, and if the current pace of illegal immigration does not slow down, fiscal year 2024 will break last year’s record of 2,475,669 southwest border encounters — a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico.

  The total number of southwest land border encounters since Biden assumed office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP data shows.

  

  That number is larger than the population of 36 U.S. states including: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

  In fact, the only states that are not in danger of being “replaced” are the blue ones.

  Compared to the largest U.S. states, the 7.3 million number is about 18.7% of California’s population of 39 million, 23.9% of the state of Texas and its 31 million residents, 32.3% of the population of Florida and 37.3% of New York. It’s more than half the size of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.

  As Fox News graphically describes, were the number of illegal immigrants who entered the United States under President Biden gathered together to found a city, it would be the second-largest city in America after New York.

  Shockingly, that total does not include an estimated additional 1.6 million illegals who entered the US at other locations, nor 1.8 million known “gotaways” who evaded law enforcement, which would make the total bigger than the population of New York.

  Taken together, over 10 million migrants have crossed into the U.S. illegally during the Biden administration, a record Biden’s critics assert could only be achieved by intentionally refusing to enforce the law.

  “This unprecedented surge in illegal immigration isn’t an accident. It is the result of deliberate policy choices by the Biden administration,” said Eric Ruark, Director of Research for Numbers USA, a nonprofit that advocates for immigration restrictions.

  EXCLUSIVE VIDEO:

  Late last night in Darién Gap Panama, I spotted a migrant bus transporting a bus full of invaders from Africa. The bus stopped in front of the San Vicente Migrant camp in Darien Gap to drop someone off. While the door was open, I hopped on the bus and started… pic.twitter.com/WFGLTrboSm

  — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) February 21, 2024

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  While some republicans and anti-illegal immigration activists have for blamed Biden for allowing the current overwhelming surge of migrants by reversing former President Donald Trump’s border policies – a fact clearly visible in the chart above when comparing alien entrants under Trump and under Biden, the White House has denied responsibility for the crisis and pointed to external “push” factors like violence and economic instability in South and Central America as the culprit responsible for vast waves of migration to the U.S.

  Meanwhile, the president’s critics say migrants face more of a “pull” factor in the form of job opportunities and government benefits because they know they will not face deportation under Biden’s lenient policies.

  “The administration has refused to enforce existing immigration law and taken every opportunity to aid and abet illegal border crossings — through policies such as catch-and-release, mass parole, and offering temporary work permits to tens of thousands of foreigners who make dubious claims for asylum,” Ruark told Fox News Digital. “In actual effect, the United States government is completing the human smuggling and trafficking process for the Mexican cartels.”

  Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said migrants have learned in the last three years that they won’t face deportation for entering the country illegally.

  “They have sent the signal that if you come to the U.S. illegally, if you abuse the asylum system, you’ll be released into the country and allowed to remain here, in most cases given work authorization,” Mehlman said. “Even if you neglect to show up for your hearings, the odds of you being removed are negligible. The president claims he doesn’t have the authority to enforce our laws. He absolutely does. He is deliberately not enforcing those laws.”

  There is another reason why the Biden admin has refused to crack down on illegal immigration: as we first revealed, all of the jobs since 2018 have gone to non-native born workers, which primarily means illegal immigrants.

  

  Since then establishment economists and lunatic idiots such as Paul Krugman and Jerome Powell have claimed that these illegal immigrants are actually beneficial for the economy as they take jobs that Americans are “too lazy” to take and have helped push down wage inflation; meanwhile the CBO has taken this grotesque stupidity one step further, and projected that the surge in illegal immigration will boost the US labor force significantly more than previously forecast…

  

  … with CBO Director Phill Swagel, going so far as predicting that “as a result of those changes in the labor force, we estimate that from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenue will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.”

  Got that? The surprise increase in immigration is largely responsible for an anticipated extra **$7 trillion** boost in GDP.

  — Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 8, 2024

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  “Got that?”, the Washington Post in-house propaganda appartchik asked rhetorically: Illegal immigration is not only not bad, it’s great for the country, as it enables Americans to remain lazy, it reduces wage inflation and ends up boosting GDP by trillions. In fact, the only thing preventing the US from entering a new golden age of growth is that instead of a mere 10 million illegals, the US should gladly accept 100 million or more, and be thankful to the Biden regime, which alone could come up with this absolutely brilliant theory of common sense, sanity – and of course population – replacement.

  Of course, for a far saner take on what is really going on, listen to the latest Tucker, who in his latest video note says that “mass immigration is completely destroying our country.”

  Mass immigration is completely destroying our country. Why is no one doing anything about it? Because they’re afraid of ending up like Lydia Brimelow. pic.twitter.com/B5B0bh6t5O

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 20, 2024

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  Listen to it before Tucker is also taken out by a CIA magic bullet.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 22:20

• Gamification Of Trading Apps Creates Rise Of Teen Stock Traders
  Gamification Of Trading Apps Creates Rise Of Teen Stock Traders

  Teens are becoming increasingly addicted to the gamification of stock and options trading, allowing them to buy and sell ‘meme’ stocks and trade zero-date options directly from their smartphones through well-known trading apps like Robinhood. 

  A new study from Fidelity Investments, titled “2023 Teens and Money Study,” reveals more than half of the respondents (ages 13 to 17) received a smartphone around the age of 10. By eleven, they spoke with their parents about opening a brokerage or checking account. 

  

  One thing the post-Covid world has created is younger and younger gamblers. 

  

  And why is that? Well, one word: gamification of trading apps. 

  

  During Covid, for example, Robinhood experienced an unprecedented surge of young traders that entered the stock market casino. Thank the government-enforced lockdowns that kept everyone on their couches and the Federal Reserve’s monetary bazooka that led to the greatest stock market bubble ever. 

  Everyone was a genius when stocks only went vertical. Until they don’t…  

  

  In a separate report, The Wall Street Journal said custodial accounts for teenagers at Schwab reached  200,000 in 2022, an increase from around 120,000 in 2019. This number soared past 300,000 in 2023, partly due to Schwab’s acquisition of TD Ameritrade. 

  

  Other brokerage firms such as Vanguard, Fidelity, and E*Trade by Morgan Stanley have also seen a rise in custodial accounts in recent years. 

  To sum up, Western society is turning out even younger degenerate stock traders than ever before through the gamification of stock trading apps on smartphones. 

  Maybe the kids should put down their smartphones and go outside. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 22:00

• VDH: Delusions, Alternate Realities, & The Biden Consortium
  VDH: Delusions, Alternate Realities, & The Biden Consortium

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  Hunter Biden has a train of a dozen lawyers defending him on felony indictments ranging from several counts of tax fraud to gun violations. From time to time, the contents of his laptop come up, both in these criminal trials and in civil suits. The information on the laptop is, of course, incriminating and useful to various prosecutors and litigants.

  Yet Hunter himself is suing the computer repairman with whom he dropped off his laptop and never retrieved—and never paid—despite signing a waiver relinquishing ownership if and when in default of payment and claim.

  But the weirdest element of the Biden labyrinth of illegality is that both Hunter and his attorneys footnote their writs and statements with the inexplicable notion that the laptop is not necessarily Hunter’s own—but then again, it could be.

  In other words, they are not presenting evidence to show that either the photographs, texts, or emails are concocted, even while they are suing various parties for defamatory dissipation of the sort of true, sort of false contents. Translated: The surreal truth is that Hunter is very mad that what he did illegally in part is evidenced on his own laptop, and he wants that information either suppressed or disowned, but without perjuring himself by stating the material on his laptop is not his own—because of course it is his.

  

  The same alternate universe surrounds Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. To prove that the Biden administration’s appointed special counsel was unprofessional and in error by referencing proof of Biden’s dementia, Biden gave a sudden and unusual press conference.

  But almost immediately, he lost his temper. Biden lied numerous times in contradicting the evidence of the special counsel’s report, falsely claiming many files in question were not classified. He lied that the files were securely stored in locked cabinets when they were sloppily strewn around in boxes in a rickety garage. He falsely asserted that he had notified authorities once he discovered that he had classified files in his possession, although he did not do so for roughly another five years—just days before his administration was to appoint Jack Smith to investigate Donald Trump for many of the same alleged crimes that Biden might also have been guilty of. And inter alia, he referenced President Abd el-Fattah el–Sisi of Egypt as the president of Mexico—apparently as part of his public demonstration of his own mental cogency.

  Biden further misled by damning the special counsel for supposedly prompting Biden about the date of the death of his son, the year of which Biden did not recall. But in truth, Biden himself, not Mr. Hur, brought up Beau Biden’s passing voluntarily to Mr. Hur—although again without the ability to cite the year in which he died.

  Furthermore, it is President Joe Biden who serially raises the tragic death of Beau (who died in a Washington, D.C., hospital from a glioblastoma brain tumor), often among grieving gold star families, by falsely stating variations of “We lost Beau in Iraq.”

  Note Biden’s general disconnect: serial lies about special counsel Hur’s report; lies that Trump’s once secure border is somehow responsible for Biden’s by-design open border; lies that Trump caused the Putin invasion of Ukraine on Biden’s watch that never occurred on Trump’s.

  

  In the last week, Biden’s circle—press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democratic Congress representatives and senators—have all publicly emphasized not just that Biden is alert but vigorous, hale, and more dynamic than most in his briefing sessions.

  That alternate reality is at odds with 70-80 percent of the American people who variously poll in surveys that their president is not fit to serve and should not run for reelection.

  The more Biden flaks insist the President is dynamic, the more he restricts his schedule to a three-day work week, forgets where he is and what he is to say, and confuses names, dates, and people daily.

  Since January 2021, the southern border has been destroyed. It no longer exists as a protective bulwark of American sovereignty. Some 8 million illegal entrants have made their way into the US—illegally, without audits, criminal background checks, English fluency, or skills to become self-supporting.

  No matter: for the last 1000 days, Americans have watched on their televisions and computer screens thousands swarming the border every day, juxtaposed with assurances from recently impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Kamala Harris, and President Biden that the “border is secure.”

  Now with an election looming, the Bidenites are no longer either indifferent to or preening about their accomplishments of allowing (“surging”) millions illegally into the U.S. but instead scrambling to blame their suddenly declared “secure border” on Donald Trump or Republicans in Congress. Even more bizarrely, they are blaming the Congress for not giving them new laws and more money to resecure a supposedly already declared secure border, even though Donald Trump left office in 2021 with a genuine secure border and without any need for more appropriations or legislation.

  President Biden keeps bragging about Bidenomics and its role in lowering inflation (January 2024: 3.1% rate of per-annum increase) and his massive deficit spending since January 2021 of perhaps $10 trillion dollars in borrowed money that spiked interest rates threefold.

  Yet Biden ignores the fact that since he was elected, the average price of consumer goods has risen 17.2 percent. Even that increase does not represent the reality that most important consumer purchases such as staple foods, appliances, automobiles, rent, mortgages, building supplies, and home purchases have soared about 30-40 percent in the last three and a half years and have neither abated nor been matched by commensurate increases in wages.

  The analogy to Biden’s fallacious argument that inflation is nearly licked might be that of a victim who suffered a near-fatal, unhealed wound and is then supposed to be relieved that subsequent additional wounds were relatively minor – even as he suffers permanent injury from the initial lesion. So the more Biden praises his fiscal policies, the more the public polls reflect the fact that in just three years, accustomed consumer goods are now unaffordable.

  A final example of these strange disconnects is the Biden administration’s courtship of Iran. The more it has lifted sanctions on Iran, begged to restart the Iran deal, restored funding to Iranian surrogates like Hamas, or taken the terrorist Houthis off the terrorist list, the more Iranian satellites have butchered Israelis and attacked 170 American installations. In response, the more the United States offers the boilerplate that, while Iran may have supplied such aggressors, there is no direct evidence of Iranian skullduggery to justify an accounting from Teheran.

  So everyone knows Iran is at the heart of the exploding Middle East, and everybody knows that they are not supposed to say they know, lest it lead to holding Iran accountable.

  What explains all these alternate realities?

  In a word, we are witnessing the meltdown of an entire American presidency. It was born in a 2020 Faustian bargain in which a cognitively challenged, ethically compromised candidate agreed to run by offering a pseudo-moderate veneer in exchange for the support of the far left, which in turn owned his agenda.

  Since then, the Biden apparat has tried to square the circle of packaging and promoting a far-left menu that the American people did not want, delivered to them by someone who, by any fair standard, would not be able to serve as a teacher, Uber driver, or lawyer. The result was the present construct of a supposedly dynamic president promoting a traditional Democratic agenda that has succeeded brilliantly here and abroad.

  And to sustain that myth requires constant deception and falsehood.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 21:40

• Nevada Residents Shocked To Discover They Voted In Primary
  Nevada Residents Shocked To Discover They Voted In Primary

  ‘Numerous’ Nevada voters were shocked to discover that they voted in the Feb. 6th presidential primary, despite not having done so – the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

  

  Las Vegas resident and registered Republican Daphne Lee told the outlet that her family checked the secretary of state’s website on Sunday to look up their voter history after hearing about the issue. The site showed that she and her family had voted in the primary despite none of them having done so. She attempted to opt out of future mail-in ballots and was unable to do so – with a message saying she was not currently registered to vote, and that her voting history no longer existed.

  “It’s just so frustrating,” Lee said, adding “This makes everyone uncomfortable.”

  The secretary of state’s office claims that it has identified ‘possible technical issues’ relating to Nevadans’ voting history, and that elections and IT staff immediately began collaborating with county clerks and registrars Monday morning.

  According to the report, the systems used by some counties require additional steps to ensure that voters who did not actually vote, don’t have a voting history, the SoS office said, adding that some of these steps were not taken.

  “Our office has been validating new files from each county and moving them into production as soon as the accuracy of the data is verified.”

  It determined that the problem resulted in some counties not taking the proper steps to upload their voter registration. Every night each county uploads their voter registration to the secretary of state’s database, which executes code to create the statewide voter registration file that Nevadans see when they log into vote.nv.gov, according to the secretary of state’s office. –Las Vegas Review-Journal

  The SoS added that the data should be fixed within 48 hours, and they will produce a comprehensive report to detail what happened.

  “Again, this is an error that relates to the code used for when a voter is sent a mail ballot and does not return it; it has no connection in any way to vote tabulation,” the office said in a statement, adding “The top-down Voter Registration and Election Management System (VREMS) project at the Secretary of State’s office will go live prior to the June 2024 election, and remove the need for these outdated processes.”

  According to Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), the secretary of state’s office is working to resolve the issues.

  In a Monday statement, the Nevada Republican Party said it received reports from numerous registered Republican voters who did not participate in the presidential primary that their mail ballot was received and counted by the state.

  The Nevada Republican Party is in communication with the secretary of state’s office to conduct an investigation into the issues, the Nevada GOP said in the statement. -LVRJ

  “We take these reports very seriously,” said Chairman Michael McDonald, who has previously expressed doubt over the validity of the 2020 election. “The cornerstone of our Republic is the trust and confidence of the American people in the electoral process. Any indication of irregularities must be thoroughly investigated to ensure the integrity of our elections.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 21:20

• Public Schools In Portland Face Civil Rights Complaints Over Diversity Efforts
  Public Schools In Portland Face Civil Rights Complaints Over Diversity Efforts

  Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

  On Thursday, Portland Public Schools (PPS) were sued by an education advocacy group over claims that the school district’s push for diversity in disciplinary actions constitutes a violation of civil rights.

  

  As reported by the Daily Caller, the watchdog group Parents Defending Education (PDE) accuses PPS of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, as well as other civil rights law, with its “Student Support and Discipline” policy. The policy forces teachers and staff members to address “disruptive student behavior” by taking into account the offending student’s identity, including race, gender, and sexual preference, before handing out punishment, if any. In addition, the policy orders the district to assign teachers based on race and gender.

  The policy clearly states that staff members “must take into consideration the impact of issues related to the student’s trauma, race, gender identity/presentation, sexual orientation, disability, social emotional learning, and restorative justice as appropriate for the student.”

  The district is forbidden from transferring a teacher from one school to another if it would ultimately “decrease the building’s percentage of under-represented male or female or transgender/nonbinary/gender non-conforming professional educators to less than thirty percent,” or if it would otherwise “decrease the building’s percentage of minority teachers to less than the student minority percentage in the building or below the percentage of minority professional educators in the District.”

  “Portland Public Schools has enacted several concerning policies that treat students and educators differently based on race and gender identity,” PDE states in its lawsuit.

  “For instance, Portland Public Schools is disciplining some students and not others, solely based on immutable characteristics.”

  In addition to the disciplinary policy, the district also requires all of its schools to hire a “School Climate Team,” which runs “ongoing training in implicit bias, antiracism and culturally responsive practices.”

  PDE’s lawsuit comes in an environment where many legal actions are being taken against school districts across the country in the wake of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a landmark decision by the Supreme Court last year. In the case, along with the concurrent Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the court ruled that the practice of affirmative action – accepting student applications and other hiring decisions based solely on racial identity – was unconstitutional, and ordered it banned at a national level in universities and colleges across the country.

  Although the Supreme Court kept its focus to higher education, many lawsuits and other complaints have cited this decision as a basis for similar actions against lower school districts and other entities which similarly discriminate based on race, gender, and other arbitrary identities.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 21:00

• China Suspends Quant Fund For Dumping $350 Million Shares In 1 Minute
  China Suspends Quant Fund For Dumping $350 Million Shares In 1 Minute

  To appreciate how “sensitive” Beijing has become to any sharp and/or continued selling of Chinese stocks, now that public sentiment is adversely impacted by China’s relentless rout, look no further than major quant fund Lingjun Investment, which on Tuesday was suspended for three days amid broader regulatory efforts to revive market confidence. The fund’s transgression: it broke rules on orderly trading. Or, stated simply, at a time when it’s no secret that selling of Chinese stocks is frowned upon, Lingjun took it to the next level when the fund dumped a combined 2.57 billion yuan ($357.4 million) in A-shares in a minute between 9:30 a.m. and 9:31 a.m. on Monday, the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses revealed in identical statements on Tuesday, and said they would strengthen monitoring and analysis of quantitative, especially high-frequency trading. Such trading “has obvious advantages over small investors in terms of technology, information and speed” and could at times contribute to market volatility, the exchanges said.

  The orders from Lingjun to dump stocks in early trade on Monday coincided with rapid declines in the benchmark indexes, the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges said, adding they would restrict the hedge fund’s trading until Feb. 22. The implication was clear: anyone who likewise aggressively sells stocks, is next.

  Lingjun is one of China’s biggest quant funds, and according to its website, it manages more than 60 billion yuan (supposedly that include the 2.5 billion the fund just dumped). The fund later apologized for the negative impact in a statement on its website on Wednesday, saying that the firm said it “holds long-term bullish views on Chinese stocks and will stick to long positions,” adding it will review the problems existing in transactions.

  And just like that, selling stocks in China – especially in a brisk manner – is de facto banned.

  Chinese quant funds, which use derivatives and data-driven computer models, have already suffered from a steep market sell-off this year and government curbs on short-selling. China’s blue-chip index dropped to five-year lows early this month but has since staged a powerful rebound as Beijing has vocally sought to prop up Chinese markets.

  “Regulators are sending a clear signal that money should be handed to managers who profit from long-term investment, rather than swift trades,” Yang Tingwu, vice general manager of Tongheng Investment, said. Which means that investors such as RenTec, Citadel and Millennium whose investment horizons are measured in the milliseconds or minutes at best, are no longer welcome to China.

  Ironically, Tingwu said the punishment could accelerate redemptions in quant funds as investors would ask: “Who’s next?” The only problem with redemptions is someone has to sell something, which could be a problem in China these days… so expect a whole lot of gating to take place in the next few weeks.

  A hedge fund manager who declined to be named told Reuters that a three-day trading halt was not a huge problem for Lingjun, but was a further blow to confidence in quant funds as regulatory scrutiny intensifies.

  As regulators seek to revive market confidence, China’s securities watchdog, led by newly installed chairman Wu Qing, held a series of seminars with market participants who proposed tighter scrutiny.

  Chinese quant funds already attracted the attention of regulators last year after criticism, including from smaller investors and long-only funds, of a sector able to profit from share price falls and volatility. The industry has also been blamed for its role in causing the boom-and-bust of Chinese small-caps.

  China’s quant hedge funds totalled 1.26 trillion yuan at the end of 2021, according to the latest official data. The industry has grown rapidly over the last few years, and has attracted foreign players such as Two Sigma and Winton.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 20:51

• China Markets Eye More Housing Support After LPR Surprise
  China Markets Eye More Housing Support After LPR Surprise

  By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  China slashed its five-year loan prime rate, a key reference for mortgages, by an unprecedented 25 basis points to a record-low 3.95% on Tuesday. While the move sends a strong signal from Beijing of aid for the property market, analysts caution that further monetary easing isn’t guaranteed and more support measures are needed for a turnaround in the housing sector.

  Tuesday’s reduction signals Beijing’s continued preference for targeted easing and its desire to shore up the housing, Oxford Economics said in a research report, noting that one-year LPR, which doesn’t have any mortgage implications, is left on hold. The size of the cut reveals “a genuine concern” among policymakers that the “slow-drip of easing” implemented thus far “has had little impact,” Louise Loo, the firm’s lead economist, wrote.

  While none of the 12 analysts polled by Bloomberg foresaw such a big LPR cut, the PBOC won’t necessarily lower other interest-rate benchmarks in a similarly aggressive fashion, according to JPMorgan. Uncertainty around the Fed’s next steps — with some speculation even of a hike — may prompt Beijing to pause further easing until more clarity emerges from Washington, according to Haibin Zhu, JPMorgan’s chief China economist. Any additional easing will also depend on the PBOC’s assessment of the consumer-price outlook, which appears more sanguine than that of markets, the US bank said.

  Since early 2022, the PBOC has cut the five-year LPR by 70bps, while average mortgage rates have fallen by 152bp — thanks to bigger reductions early on by local banks. This is almost the same as the total reduction of 153bps in a five-year benchmark rate for all loans in 2008, but the difference is the speed of cuts, according to Pantheon Economics. Back then, mortgage rates dropped over a three-month period from October to December, resulting in a swift boost to market confidence.

  

  With mortgage rates drifting down over two years, a slow, grinding housing recovery remains the most likely scenario, Pantheon concluded. Moreover, the full effect of the LPR reduction could be limited as local lenders —now facing already thin margins — might choose to pass only a fraction of the latest cuts to potential home-buyers, wrote Ting Lu, Nomura’s chief China economist.

  Beijing, therefore, will have to “do much more” to salvage housing projects and stabilize the market, the Japanese bank said. Moreover, the vast majority of borrowers will only feel the full impact of lower rates in 10 months time, Nomura noted. There are about 38 trillion yuan ($5.28 trillion) outstanding mortgages that reference the five-year LPR and by contract, rates are not going to reset until Jan. 1, 2025.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 20:31

• Supreme Court Could Set Landmark Precedent In Trump Jan. 6 Case
  Supreme Court Could Set Landmark Precedent In Trump Jan. 6 Case

  Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  For the second time this year, the Supreme Court could hear oral arguments on a relatively untested area of constitutional law as it relates to former President Donald Trump and set a landmark precedent that could affect the 2024 presidential race.

  

  Chief Justice John Roberts showed interest on Feb. 13 in reviewing former President Donald Trump’s request the prior day to halt a ruling against his presidential immunity claims in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

  Special counsel Jack Smith responded on Feb. 14, telling the court it should deny President Trump’s request.

  Earlier this month, three D.C. Circuit judges rejected President Trump’s claim that the doctrine of presidential immunity shielded him from Mr. Smith’s prosecution related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

  Mr. Smith had asked the Supreme Court to fast-track President Trump’s immunity appeal, but in December 2023, it declined, letting the D.C. Circuit tackle the issue first.

  The appeals court set up a tight timeline for President Trump to request the Supreme Court’s review before the district court continued its recently forestalled pre-trial proceedings. Initially scheduled for March 4, that trial is one of many that could interfere with President Trump’s campaign schedule and raise questions about the judiciary’s relationship with American democracy.

  The presidential immunity issue also raises questions about how presidents may contest election results, the threats they could face from future administrations, and whether the Constitution’s separation of powers precludes courts from weighing in on certain presidential actions before Congress.

  As President Trump noted to the Supreme Court, the case presents a novel question that could have enormous consequences for future executives.

  The “claim that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts presents a novel, complex, and momentous question that warrants careful consideration on appeal,” President Trump’s Feb. 12 brief to the Supreme Court said.

  The ‘Outer Perimeter’

  Presidential immunity from judicial review has been broadly upheld since Marbury v. Madison in 1803. Although the case established judicial review over executive branch decisions, Chief Justice John Marshall’s majority opinion criticized the idea that courts had jurisdiction over a president’s discretion.

  “The province of the court is, solely, to decide on the rights of individuals, not to inquire how the executive, or executive officers, perform duties in which they have a discretion,” he wrote.

  

  Presidential immunity’s contours, however, are blurry in part because the Constitution doesn’t explicitly define the doctrine. Instead, a series of court decisions and DOJ opinions have interpreted the Constitution to provide a general outline of how presidents should be shielded from prosecution.

  President Trump’s brief cites two Supreme Court decisions—Mississippi v. Johnson and Nixon v. Fitzgerald—in which the judiciary used suits against former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon to define the limitations of judges in reviewing presidential actions.

  In Mississippi v. Johnson, the court denied Mississippi’s request to prevent President Johnson from enforcing the Reconstruction Acts because, the court said, it had “no jurisdiction of a bill to enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties.”

  The court also distinguished between ministerial duties, or a straightforward adherence to the law, and discretionary duties, which involve the president’s exercising his judgment as to how he should carry out responsibilities assigned by Congress. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase’s majority opinion quoted Chief Justice Marshall in describing meddling in the executive’s “prerogatives” as “an extravagance, so absurd and excessive.”

  Former Justice Lewis Powell went further in Nixon v. Fitzgerald by ruling that President Nixon had “absolute immunity” from civil liability related to “official acts” within the “outer perimeter” of his authority. How far that “outer perimeter” extends is the subject of debate. In this case, the Court ruled that that authority included dismissing a federal employee—A. Ernest Fitzgerald—who alleged unlawful retaliation for testimony he gave to Congress.

  

  That decision left open the question whether a president could face criminal charges, but it distinguished criminal and civil matters.

  The court said: “When judicial action is needed to serve broad public interests—as when the Court acts not in derogation of the separation of powers, but to maintain their proper balance … or to vindicate the public interest in an ongoing criminal prosecution … the exercise of jurisdiction has been held warranted.”

  Even that distinction, however, is under question with President Trump’s response to the 2020 election. The D.C. Circuit ruled in December 2023 that he wasn’t immune from civil lawsuits related to Jan. 6 because he had acted in his capacity as a presidential candidate, not exercising his official duties as president.

  In his criminal case, President Trump maintained that the DOJ was attempting to charge him for actions that fell within his “official” duties and that he therefore should receive immunity. President Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, attempted to convince the appellate court in January that the Constitution requires Congress to impeach and try a president for his official acts before he can be charged criminally in a court of law.

  Because the Senate already acquitted President Trump, Mr. Sauer argued, prosecuting him would violate the principle of double jeopardy.

  The appellate judges rejected those arguments and ruled: “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”

  According to the judges, President Trump had misread Marbury v. Madison and the Constitution’s separation of powers. “Properly understood, the separation of powers doctrine may immunize lawful discretionary acts but does not bar the federal criminal prosecution of a former President for every official act,” the court said.

  In legal memos from 1973 and 2000, the Justice Department opposed indicting or criminally prosecuting a sitting president. Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated allegations of Russian collusion by then-candidate Trump’s campaign, cited the 1973 memo as a reason why he couldn’t indict President Trump. Those memos, however, don’t bind the Supreme Court in its determination of whether he can be indicted as a former president.

  

  Potential Supreme Court Rulings

  The Supreme Court generally has an array of options available when it decides cases, making its decision often difficult to predict.

  First, the justices will need to decide whether or not to grant President Trump’s requested stay, which could effectively prevent the district court trial from proceeding.

  In its Feb. 6 decision, the appellate court said it would withhold its mandate for the district court proceedings to continue if President Trump notified the court by Feb. 12 that he filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which he did.

  Appellants generally can seek en banc review, or a separate hearing with the entire circuit, if they lose their initial appeal. The three appellate judges said President Trump’s request for an en banc hearing wouldn’t delay the district court’s proceedings unless his request was granted by the circuit.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 20:20

• Yemen's Houthis Now Have Drone Submarines, Likely From Iran
  Yemen’s Houthis Now Have Drone Submarines, Likely From Iran

  Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthis have already been deploying both aerial and sea drones (or boat/surface drones) against international vessels and warships in the Red Sea, alongside ballistic missiles. The last several days have seen direct hits on commercial tankers, as we’ve detailed. 

  But there are new reports the Houthis have yet another ‘toy’ in their arsenal, with help from Iran, and it has been used in attacks this past weekend: an unmanned submarine. “The U.S. conducted what it called self-defense strikes on five targets in the Houthi-controlled area of Yemen after the Houthis employed an unmanned submarine for the first time since attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden began, the Pentagon said,” according to ABC, detailing events which happened Sunday.

  

  So far, the US-led coalition has had to defend primarily against surface boat drones, which are easier to spot, but now the Houthis have something harder to detect in their ongoing war on Red Sea shipping in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

  ABC News national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy, who formerly worked at the CIA and the Pentagon, has described that the Houthis are escalating their efforts to strike a US warship.

  “The Houthis and the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] are adjusting their strategy, apparently because they haven’t been successful in striking a U.S. naval vessel,” Mulroy said. “If one or more of these weapons get through and kill U.S. sailors, Iran should expect to be held directly responsible.”

  “The Houthis are not likely capable of manufacturing these weapons on their own, so they are probably coming from Iran,” he explained, and went on to describe the Houthi strategy as seeking to “overwhelm the ship’s defenses” in a “swarm attack.”

  Thus it appears the Houthis are now capable of mounting more sophisticated, multi-dimensional attacks by air, water’s surface, and from under the water.

  It was only in December of last year that Iranian state media unveiled the domestic development of the country’s first underwater drone (UUV): 

  The homegrown UUV, also known as an underwater drone that can operate without a human occupant, was unveiled in an exhibition of the Iranian Navy’s achievements on Saturday.

  The underwater vehicle can discover and terminate various underwater mines by carrying a wide range of equipment. The Iranian UUV can go as deep as 200 meters with an endurance of 24 hours.

  Since the Persian Gulf is relatively shallow, it may contain a series of underwater mines laid at depths of 10 to 50 meters, which could cause serious damage to vessels as heavy as 250 tons.

  #BREAKING HOUTHIS HAVE SUBMARINE DRONES

  US CENTCOM: “The Houthis used a drone submarine for the first time since the start of their attacks.”

  Source: AlArabiya#Yemen #Redsea #Gaza #GazaGeniocide #Houthi #HouthiDrone #UAV pic.twitter.com/h13ClO6eXL

  — Dailyfusenews (@dailyfusenews) February 18, 2024

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

  Recent reports from the region say that Iran’s navy has at least one spy ship operating in the Red Sea area. Previously US officials said the spy ship is likely assisting the Houthis with targeting information. 

  If these fresh reports that Tehran is supplying the Houthis with underwater drones are true, there’s a likelihood that the drones could be assisted from Iranian reconnaissance assets in the region.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 20:00

• Ozempic Users Slash Snack Buying At Supermarkets, Survey Finds
  Ozempic Users Slash Snack Buying At Supermarkets, Survey Finds

  America’s anti-obesity craze, courtesy of GLP-1-based weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, produced by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, continues to create anxiety among the food-industrial complex after a new study cited by Morgan Stanley shows households on the weight-loss drugs are spending less at the supermarket. 

  Market research provider Numerator’s new survey shows households using GLP-1 drugs decreased monthly supermarket spending by 6% to 9% versus non-GLP-1 households. 

  Many GLP-1 households increased purchases of fish, vegetables, and yogurt while sales of snacks, pastries, and ice cream fell. 

  MS noted the Numerator survey from January used data from more than 90,000 households, with 12.3% of households indicating they were on GLP-1 drugs, up from 11.4% in October. 

  The main driver of GLP-1 has been weight-loss treatment, and MS pointed out more and more consumers are paying out of pocket for the drug. 

  Last year, we asked if America’s anti-obesity craze courtesy of GLP-1 drugs would trigger a “food revolution.” And quickly, Wall Street analysts took notice by downgrading some junk food companies, such as Krispy Kreme, citing GLP-1 impacts. 

  Wall Street is losing faith in Fat Americans.

  Truist Securities downgraded Krispy Kreme saying it has a difficult time recommending the stock until the impact of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs becomes more apparent.

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 30, 2023

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

  Last August, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said shoppers who pick up appetite-suppressing medications at in-store pharmacies are spending less money on food:

  “We still expect food, consumables, and health and wellness primarily due to the popularity of some GLP-1 drugs to grow as a percent of total in the back half.” 

  And portion sizes at Thanksgiving 2023 were much smaller for the folks who could cough up $1,000 per month for the weight-loss drugs. 

  

  In a separate note, Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham recently said weight loss will trigger a “wardrobe replacement cycle.” 

  

  Despite the decline in GLP-1 mentions on earnings calls… 

  

  Wall Street is still piling into Goldman’s GLP-1 Obesity drug basket to capitalize on slimming down Americans while trimming companies with potential downstream risks related to obesity drugs, as indicated by the Goldman Sachs Global HLC GLP Risk index. 

  

  Make America Skinny (again). 

  

  Hmm. 

  No Ozempic, no fancy gym equipment, no knowledge of modern dietary ‘science’ and yet no fat people.

  Processed food is poison. https://t.co/J3lndjbMMJ

  — Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) February 11, 2024

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

  Maybe consumers should ditch vegetable oils.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 19:45

• Russia Appears To Comply With OPEC+ Production Pledge
  Russia Appears To Comply With OPEC+ Production Pledge

  By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

  Russia appears to have complied in January with its pledge to reduce crude oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) this quarter, anonymous sources with knowledge of Russian energy ministry data, which is not public, have told Bloomberg.

  

  At the latest OPEC+ meeting at the end of November, Russia said it would deepen the export cut to 500,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2024 – with May and June 2023 being the reference export levels for the cut. The cut this quarter will consist of reductions in exports of 300,000 bpd of crude and 200,000 bpd of refined products.  

  In crude exports, Russia is estimated to have exported 4.59 million bpd both via tankers and pipelines last month. The decline from the May-June average, used as a baseline for the export cut, is equal to around 307,000 bpd, according to Bloomberg calculations and conversion of data in tons into barrels. 

  In seaborne crude shipments only, the four-week average of Russian exports was just over 3 million bpd in the four weeks to February 18, perfectly in line with the Russian pledge to reduce exports by 300,000 bpd, according to tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg. 

  However, issues with sales to India as the West is tightening the sanctions enforcement could have dented Russian crude oil shipments more than Moscow originally intended.

  As many as 15 million barrels of Russia’s Sokol grade – initially for deliveries to India – are sitting on idle tankers off South Korea and Malaysia, per ship-tracking data Bloomberg analysts have compiled.

  Some of the tanker owners have been sanctioned by the U.S. after loading crude for India, while other cargoes are being held up by banks refusing payments due to either the price of oil exceeding the G7 price cap or a lack of clarity who the ultimate owner is, according to Indian officials who spoke to Bloomberg.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 19:40

• Watch-Dealer In Philly Rebuts 'Russian Oligarch' Label By Fake News Media After Buying Trump Sneakers
  Watch-Dealer In Philly Rebuts ‘Russian Oligarch’ Label By Fake News Media After Buying Trump Sneakers

  Legacy media, resembling a pack of demented wolves, quickly labeled an American immigrant from Ukraine, who had served in the US military, as a ‘Russian oligarch’ following his purchase of $9,000 “Never Surrender” sneakers signed by former President Trump at Philadelphia’s Sneaker Con on Saturday. 

  

  The Daily Mail falsely accused luxury watch dealer Roman Sharf of being a Trump-supporting “Russian oligarch” after buying the Never Surrender sneakers. 

  

  On Monday, Sharf went on the offensive against legacy media outlets who falsely called him a Russian oligarch. He said this on X: 

  The headlines say: “Russian Oligarch CEO spends 9000 dollars on a pair of sneakers to support Trump.” 

  Sounds catchy, but I came from Ukraine (back when it was still the Soviet Union) as a refugee with my dad. The man had 4 dollars in his pocket. 

  I busted my ass since I was 13 years old, worked every dirty job you can think of to get to a point where I can splurge on a $9000 pair of collectible sneakers, served in the US Military to shown my honor and gratitude for the opportunity to do so… 

  But I guess that headline would not have gotten clicks by saying “Russian Refugee,” or “Ukrainian Refugee,” or perhaps… just a man. 

  I wasn’t trying to make a political statement by buying the shoes, but still received a ton of messages saying, “You support Trump, therefore you lost a follower and client.” 

  Here, I thought clients bought watches from Luxury Bazaar, due to our 21 years in business and our personalized service. 

  What a confirmation of how divided this country is. 

  With that said—no mean tweet, comment on IG, or newspaper article will stop me from being a patriot of this great country. 

  This is great country that once took in a poor immigrant and gave me the opportunity to be where I am today. The country that stands to give us all a fighting chance. 

  I love this country, and I am proud to be an American. 

  You wanna hate me for wanting this country to be thriving and unified as one—go ahead and judge this sneakerhead for my politics. 

  But just know that no matter what, I do pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

  Thank you, and God bless America! 

  The headlines say: “Russian Oligarch CEO spends 9000 dollars on a pair of sneakers to support Trump.”

  Sounds catchy, but I came from Ukraine (back when it was still the Soviet Union) as a refugee with my dad. The man had 4 dollars in his pocket.

  I busted my ass since I was 13… pic.twitter.com/jodtOA4WT2

  — Roman Sharf | CEO of Luxury Bazaar (@romansharf) February 19, 2024

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

  This is yet another instance of legacy media spreading Russian misinformation and disinformation. They just can’t help themselves ahead of the presidential election. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 19:20

• Biden To Okay Year-Round Sales of Higher-Ethanol Gasoline From 2025
  Biden To Okay Year-Round Sales of Higher-Ethanol Gasoline From 2025

  By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

  The Biden Administration will soon allow year-round sales of E15, gasoline with higher ethanol content, but only from 2025, to avoid potential regional spikes in gas prices ahead of the presidential election in November, sources with knowledge of the talks have told Reuters.

  

  The Administration is prepared to approve by the end of March a request from Midwest governors – whose states are some of the battleground states in the presidential election – to allow year-round sales of E15, gasoline with 15% ethanol content.

  Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has an effective ban on E15 fuel sales for the summer season because it contributes to smog, but in 2022 the ban was lifted for the summer sales in an emergency waiver to lower prices at the pump.  

  Back in 2022, governors of Midwest states asked the EPA in a letter to issue a regulation applying to all fuel blends containing gasoline sold and supplied in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The governors urged the EPA to issue a permanent fix and allow the sale of E15 year-round annually.

  E15, or Unleaded 88, is a mix of regular gasoline and 15% ethanol, a plant-based fuel typically made from corn, and is cheaper for consumers, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said at the time.

  Last month, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) and seven additional Midwest renewable fuels groups asked the Biden Administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to finalize the Midwest Governors’ Year-Round E15 fix, which has now been delayed for a year and a half past the legal deadline, with the final rule sitting at the OMB for over a month.

  “Quick adoption of the rule will ensure that motorists do not face fewer options and higher prices at the pump this summer,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw.

  The Biden Administration is inclined to approve the year-round sale of E15, Reuters sources say, but only from 2025 onwards, due to concerns that potential issues in supply logistics this year could raise the risk of regional shortages and higher gas prices just before the November election.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 19:00

• Cybertruck Engineer Addresses Legacy Media's Claims About "Rusting" 
  Cybertruck Engineer Addresses Legacy Media’s Claims About “Rusting” 

  Lead Cybertruck engineer Wes Morrill addressed the surge in legacy news articles last week that claimed “Cybertrucks Are Rusting.” 

  • Barron’s: “Tesla Cybertrucks Are Rusting” 

  • Wired: “This Is Why Tesla’s Stainless Steel Cybertrucks May Be Rusting” 

  • CBS News: “Tesla Cybertruck owners complain their new vehicles are rusting” 

  “A lot of MSM coverage about rust. None show actual photos, usually a good indicator to question the accuracy. Side by side with a painted vehicle, this is surface contamination,” Morrill wrote on social media platform X. 

  He added: “Tesla SS actually has a PREN value (resistance to pitting corrosion) higher than 316L “marine grade.” 

  A lot of MSM coverage about rust. None show actual photos, usually a good indicator to question the accuracy. Side by side with a painted vehicle, this is surface contamination.

  Tesla SS actually has a PREN value (resistance to pitting corrosion) higher than 316L “marine grade” pic.twitter.com/sxZNl8wfzL

  — Wes (@wmorrill3) February 20, 2024

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

  Legacy corporate media traditionally goes bananas over anything potentially negative for Tesla and or Elon Musk (remember this). 

  According to Bloomberg data, legacy media outlets published over 100 “Cybertruck Rust” articles in just a few short days last week. 

  

  “The MSM all copy each others articles, it’s not like they all found rust… it’s just a big propaganda machine,” one X user said. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 18:40

• Goldman Boosts Physical Uranium Trades Amid Soaring Prices
  Goldman Boosts Physical Uranium Trades Amid Soaring Prices

  By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

  Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, and some hedge funds have boosted physical trading and options trades in uranium amid soaring prices, as many countries look to increase nuclear power generation to meet their climate goals while reducing the need of fossil fuel imports.   

  

  Goldman has been increasing trade in physical uranium and has created a derivative of uranium trading by writing options on physical uranium for hedge funds, sources at hedge funds and the trading industry familiar with the deals have told Reuters.

  While investment banking giant Goldman Sachs is mostly doing business with hedge funds and other financial clients, Macquarie has been stepping up trading uranium output from miners, a source who has done business with both banks told Reuters.

  Uranium is in a bull market as many economies look to use more nuclear power generation in a renaissance for the technology after the energy crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

  At the COP28 climate summit at the end of last year, the United States and 21 other countries pledged to triple nuclear energy capacities by 2050, saying incorporating more nuclear power in their energy mix is critical for achieving their net zero goals in the coming decades.   

  “The Declaration recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and keeping the 1.5-degree Celsius goal within reach,” the U.S. Department of State said.

  As a result of the nuclear energy resurgence, uranium prices spiked early this year to a 16-year high after Kazatomprom—the largest uranium miner in the world—said in January that sulfuric acid shortages and construction delays at newly discovered deposits could lead to the company missing production targets—challenges that could remain into next year. 

  Uranium prices have doubled over the past year to over $100 per pound amid tighter supply, and Western miners seek to boost output.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/20/2024 – 18:20

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• The Rise And Fall Of The Second Amendment
  The Rise And Fall Of The Second Amendment

  Authored by Donald Jeffries via I Protest,

  Everyone has undoubtedly heard about the shooting during the Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City. These victory celebrations always bring the potential for trouble, what with all those young males consuming prodigious amounts of alcohol. And they draw the worst elements; the seemingly perpetually armed gang-bangers.

  

  The shooting has triggered the yawningly predictable response from the “Woke” crowd. Which at this point means nearly our entire government and corporate leadership. One marvels at how many times clueless celebrities can breathlessly tweet out, “We have to do something about this!” or “We are failing the children!” It’s odd how the inanimate object- the gun- is always the Oswald-style patsy in these incidents. Often the names of those wielding the inanimate objects for no good are barely mentioned. Quick; name the Parkland school shooter. The Pulse gay night club shooter. It’s the guns, racist! The tweets in response to this most recent shooting, especially those emanating from the dying embers of Hollywood, are examples of insipid mindlessness. Digital postcards from the Idiocracy.

  The text of the Second Amendment itself reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” In my book Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics: 1776-1963, I devoted a section to the very clear comments by all the Founders, regarding what the Second Amendment actually meant. It would have been nice if they’d worded it better, so there wouldn’t be an opening for the usual suspects to interpret it to suit their agendas. But each and every one of those who ratified it, even the odious, bankers’ stooge Alexander Hamilton, left no doubt in their public comments, that the Bill of Rights protected the individual’s right to keep and bear arms.

  It’s ironic that the word “militia” is in there, seeing as how that term has come to be demonized, especially since the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, when Bill Clinton exploited it like a poster child for muscular dystrophy. All the state controlled media has to do at this point is claim some poor sap was associated with some “militia,” and its de facto evidence of guilt. Of something. Anything. James Madison, considered the father of the Constitution, noted in The Federalist Papers that “a standing army….would be opposed [by] militia.” He wanted State governments to have the ability to “repel the danger” of a federal army. You know, like the Military Industrial Complex, which he could not have foreseen in his wildest dreams.

  Thomas Jefferson in particular was vehemently opposed to a standing federal army. Like the rest of the Founders, he believed it was the responsibility of a citizens militia of ordinary Americans to defend their state, or in the rarest of circumstances, the entire country from an outside threat. He also made it clear that an armed citizenry was the best defense against government tyranny. As president, Jefferson slashed military spending. He noted, “Standing armies [are] inconsistent with [a people’s] freedom and subversive of their quiet.” In 1789, the author of the Declaration of Independence wrote, “There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors….Such an instrument is a standing army.” No wonder he’s now a hopeless dead White “racist.”

  By the time of Lincoln, our first imperial president, a national military was an unquestioned reality. No more fears about a standing army. Honest Abe instituted the first unconstitutional military draft, resulting in the bloody riots in New York. The immigrants du jour of the day, the Irish, quite naturally objected to being forced to participate in a senseless slaughter they had no historical or cultural association with. Lincoln’s federal army cut a deadly swath through the south, raping, destroying crops, burning homes, and engaging in the boldest larceny in the history of warfare, as they stole every valuable that wasn’t nailed down. For this, all Americans pay homage today. They were great American heroes.

  The power of the national military grew, and we eviscerated George Washington’s warnings about “no entangling alliances,” and John Quincy Adams’ admonitions that we not “go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” World Wars I and II were something Jefferson and the other Founders would have mortified by. They would have led chapters of the America First Committee. Another modern hero, Franklin Roosevelt, would have had them “cancelled” and perhaps imprisoned. That precedent had been set when Lincoln imprisoned his dissenters without any due process. Once the Pentagon was built, and the unconstitutional intelligence agencies established, we had something more than a standing army. We had an Occupying Force.

  So this clash between individual firearm owners and a national military was inevitable. Individuals were not necessarily going to agree with the policies and actions of this national army, especially when it was given authority to run roughshod over American citizens. Look at what happened to the World War I “Bonus Army,” veterans of that senseless conflict, who naturally objected when their promised “bonus” was denied them. They set up tents on the Capitol, and U.S. forces, led by future superstars Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, defeated them as easily as William Sherman defeated the women and children of the Confederacy. So if you’re in our glorious federal military, don’t complain if they break a promise.

  The distinction between Jefferson’s vision of a well armed citizens’ militia, and the modern Military Industrial Complex couldn’t be more obvious. Conservatives, however, generally adore this federal army, and the intelligence agencies that accompany it. They also worship our militarized police forces, and were ecstatic over the implementation of no-knock SWAT team raids on private homes. Until they raided Mar-a-Lago, that is. But all that’s been forgotten. The FBI was not abolished, and the Right seems cool with the Occupying Force again. Exactly how different is a gun aficionado saying “Thank you for your service” from a masochist saying “Thank you, may I have another?”

  The individual right to bear arms conflicts with armed (and militarized) police officers, and certainly with the armed forces of the United States, the largest military the world has ever seen. When a citizen has an encounter with a law enforcement officer, regardless of the nature of the “law” they’re enforcing, the Second Amendment disappears. You’re not going to find a case where an armed citizen shot a cop in self-defense, without being prosecuted. It doesn’t matter how unjustified the officer was, the officer is by default considered to be in the right. If you don’t like it, take it to court. Where you will unquestionably lose. The courts are always going to be the final arbiter in any battle between armed citizens and the Occupying Force. And you know what side they’ll be on. Every single time.

  It wasn’t until 2008 that the Supreme Court first ruled that the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right to self-defense in his own home. This hasn’t stopped some unfortunate homeowners, like Byron Smith of Minnesota, from being convicted of murder; he shot two home invaders who proved to be unarmed. Others in similar situations have been charged as well, while in some cases reason still prevails and the homeowner is considered to have acted understandably. From what I’ve heard, you are always considered justified in shooting someone if they are setting fire to your home. How this differs from robbery is something only our esteemed judges can fathom. So if you have a home invader, throw him some matches, and urge him to commit arson. Maybe he won’t understand the nuances of the law.

  So here we are today, in America 2.0. The battle lines have been drawn. In this corner, you have the challenger, the Second Amendment. An antiquated notion dreamed up by long dead White “racists.” And in the other corner, you have the Occupying Force, hailing from Washington, D.C., undefeated and untied. Second Amendment activists today concentrate on simply keeping their own weapons. Being able to hunt legally. To go target shooting. There is no emphasis on protection from government tyranny, which was the motivation behind the amendment in the first place. The Occupying Force knows it has nothing to fear from “gun nuts.” They remember the victories at Ruby Ridge. And Waco. And the Bundy ranch, to mention just a few examples.

  If all the gun enthusiasts that Hollywood frets over really had government tyranny in mind, like the Founders did, they would have reacted differently during the unconstitutional COVID lockdown. I must have missed all of the standoffs between armed small business owners and the Occupying Force, which was denying them the right to earn a living. Or between concealed carry owners and authoritarian officers demanding they wear a mask, or stop letting their children play in a park. Presumably, the vast majority of those who came to the January 6 Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. were gun owners. And yet, the authorities couldn’t find a single gun anywhere. That’s not only an odd way to conduct an “insurrection,” it’s indicative of the mindset of most gun activists. Just let me hang my weapons on the wall.

  Now, please don’t think I’m suggesting that gun owners take up arms against the government. The military industrial complex would make such a thing impossible, regardless. But if your primary issue is the Second Amendment, you ought to at least acknowledge that its purpose was not to protect your right to hunt, or to target practice. It was as a safeguard against an encroaching, corrupt government. I think that, if enough small business owners had let the authorities know they were armed and ready to defend their livelihood from an out of control Occupying Force, that perhaps the lockdown wouldn’t have been quite as successful. How about armed pastors, defending their right to conduct religious services? You had one half-assed protest in Michigan, which was demonized over a Confederate flag or something.

  While the Left wants citizens to be subjected to the mercy of kind-hearted, well-armed police and soldiers, some on the Right want to arm teachers, for instance. Now, having looked at enough TikTok videos to see just how many teachers today are fortunate that the mental institutions have mostly closed, these are the last people on earth I want to be possessing firearms. In school. While my kids are compelled to be there. Can you imagine an unstable, purple haired “educator” becoming irate at a MAGA hat or something? Do you really want that person to have a gun handy? Somehow, I don’t see more guns in schools making things safer.

  As always, we didn’t reach this stage overnight. That’s why I focus so much on hidden history. The “loyal” unionists should have realized that by permitting a despot like Lincoln to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and shut down over two hundred newspapers, they were paving the way for future government tyranny. The people who sat idly by while Eugene Debs and the other WWI protesters were ludicrously portrayed as “yelling fire in a crowded theater,” made possible the Orwellian concept of “Hate Speech” which we know and love today. That same generation accepted the ridiculous, anti-liberty figure of “Uncle Sam,” and allowed it to symbolize the growing unconstitutional federal government. The Occupying Force. Really, how different is our Uncle Sam from Oceana’s Big Brother?

  World War II- the “good” war. The “greatest generation.” Read what I wrote about their true conduct in Crimes and Cover-Ups. The Korean “conflict,” like every nonsensical American interventionist escapade since then conducted without a declaration of war by Congress, as they’re constitutionally required to do. Now, we’re permitting billions to flow into a Zionist dictator in Ukraine, while American citizens are living in tents and shitting in the street. But all this was possible because the government- through its military industrial complex and its localized police forces- has “the meat,” to quote the Arby’s commercial. There is no limitation on their firearms. No one will accuse them of “stockpiling” weapons, or possessing “illegal” weapons. And our brave police officers must be able to protect themselves. It’s an “officer safety” thing, you wouldn’t understand.

  Any discussion of “gun control” from todays Left begins and ends with individual ownership. They don’t talk about “responsible” gun ownership on the part of police forces. Like shooting deaf people in the back when they don’t respond to your orders. Or our increasingly “Woke” military forces. Like killing that wedding party in Yemen was pretty irresponsible, I think. If some lone, deranged individual plowed down a wedding party, do you think he’d ever see the light of day again? But military atrocities are rarely acknowledged, let alone prosecuted. Look what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing to the brave soldiers who played soccer with decapitated heads, or killed a family of civilians. Instead, it was then Bradley Manning, who exposed the atrocities through Wikileaks, that was punished. Along with Julian Assange, who will still probably feel the wrath of a justice-free legal system.

  Hollywood doesn’t really have anything against guns. After all, every blockbuster action movie throughout history has featured guns of all varieties front and center. The hero- often played by a hypocritical “liberal” that pontificates about gun control while being protected by armed personal security- can’t beat the armed bad guys without arms of his own. I think that’s kind of what Thomas Jefferson was talking about. If the police and the military are going to have guns, the citizens should be allowed to have them, too. Must be allowed to have them, as all the Founders carefully noted for posterity. That’s one of many reasons the Founders are ignored today, other than to be castigated as worthless, “racist” relics from the stone age.

  I would love for there to be a way to destroy every gun in the world, starting with all those controlled by governments. But that isn’t possible. We can even create them on our own now, with those incomprehensible 3-D printers. And how many gun control laws are already on the books? The big cities, where the most gun violence occurs, have the strictest gun laws. As the conservatives accurately point out, the criminals aren’t buying guns legally, and will always find a way to get them illegally. So any restrictions on firearms impacts law abiding citizens exclusively. You know, the ones who are no threat to ever commit a violent crime. And yet, the “Woke” mantra, from Democratic Party politicians to their sycophants in the entertainment world, is that something must be done. For the children! Who they are in favor of aborting or “transitioning.” That’s the only kind of “choice” they support.

  That something, of course, is to ban individual ownership of firearms. These “Woke” activists want only the police and the military to have them. Not you. If that doesn’t reflect the most naive trust in authority imaginable, I don’t know what would. And it contradicts the whole spirit of our own fight for independence. The Minutemen. Give me liberty or give me death. Obviously, we could never have seceded from British rule (and yes, that is the proper term), without the possession of firearms. The Shot Heard Around the World couldn’t have happened without a weapon to fire it. King George could have decided to enslave all the colonists, not just the Black ones. And without guns, what exactly could the colonists- our ancestors- have done about it?

  I’ve never been a violent person. I don’t understand violence, so I certainly can’t comprehend gun violence. I love peace. Give me the Summer of Love again, without the drugs and the government infiltrators. But the gun “debate” isn’t going to go away until either the Second Amendment is officially abolished, or a majority of the citizens make it known that they will accept no more restrictions on their constitutional right to bear arms. If nothing else, having a well-armed citizenry makes the criminal government think twice before launching yet another unconstitutional act. It’s bad enough living under an Occupying Force when millions of Americans do own firearms. Consider what it would be like without them. Again, I am not advocating violence of any kind. But we must speak out while we still can.

  Subscribe to “I Protest” by Donald Jeffries

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 23:30

• Tucker Carlson Goes Shopping: Russian Economy Well Intact Despite Sanctions
  Tucker Carlson Goes Shopping: Russian Economy Well Intact Despite Sanctions

  Western populations have been hearing for the past two years that NATO sanctions would have a devastating effect on the Russian economy, so much so that Vladimir Putin would be forced to back out of military operations in Ukraine almost immediately.  The removal of Russia from the SWIFT network and the suffocation of its exports was going to cripple the nation’s banking sector and send it into an economic death spiral.  Corporate media economists and Biden Administration representatives alike compared the financial warfare strategy to a kind of “cancel culture” action on a global scale.  The very first modern cancellation of a country.

  Well, needless to say, sanctions did not turn out the way the establishment expected.  Initial reports in US and European media claimed that Russian businesses were struggling to stay afloat and some argued that the Russian populace might even revolt against the Kremlin in anger.  But this was all a farce, much like the majority of reports suggesting Ukrainian victory was imminent. 

  Rather that imploding, Russian exports and imports are thriving.  The nation printed an oil export surge at the end of 2023, as well as increased exports on a number of raw goods from oil seeds to grains in 2023.  Most of the export rise can be attributed to closer trade ties with Asia, a move which western government should have expected.  In fact, the NATO tactic of using Ukraine as a proxy battleground has only driven eastern governments like China and India closer to Russia.  

  Tucker Carlson, one of the few western journalists reporting on the conflict without anti-Russian bias, took the opportunity while visiting the country to go shopping in a local retail mall.  The experiment was meant to examine how much inflation and economic hardship was punishing the Russian public.  What he found, in fact, was relatively low inflation and stable price averages compared to the US. 

  If you thought the warhawks on social media had a meltdown over Carlson’s interview with Putin, the response to the above segment was absolutely rabid.  Critics attacked Carlson, accusing him of “trying to argue that Russia’s economy is better than the US economy.”  They also ridiculed him for not taking Russian wages into account vs American wages in his analysis. 

  But, as usual, the mainstream media has missed the bigger picture. 

  While it is true that average American wages are substantially higher than Russian wages and the dollar has greater international buying power due to it’s world reserve status, the greenback is decidedly weak in its home country and this is a factor that many in the public do not yet realize.  

  The cost of living in dollars for one person in the US is approximately 400% higher across the board compared to one person living in Russia.  Individual items vary – For example, a loaf of bread is 500% more expensive in the US than it is in Russia, while a bottle of coke is only 164% more expensive.  A one bedroom apartment is 500% more expensive in the US, while a beer is only 233% more expensive. 

  Most of Carlson’s critics used the inflated average “household income” numbers in the US and compared them to single income numbers in Russia.  This is an inaccurate methodology.  US household wages average at $76,000 per year, but this involves multi-income families.  The average US single earner makes only $40,000 per year.  The point is, though Tucker Carlson may have overlooked the wage gap between Russians and Americans, the cost of living exercise in US dollars still showcases two things:

  1)  Americans have the world reserve currency at their disposal, yet, it doesn’t do them much good in America.  The value of the dollar isn’t evident to most people in the US until they travel overseas.  This is due to expansive monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve, which has greatly diminished the dollar’s buying power within the US economy and caused 30%+ higher prices since 2020 alone.

  2) The more important takeaway from Carlson’s experiment is the lack of chaos in Russian markets.  Despite the global sanctions leveraged against them, Russia has proven increasingly resilient.  With their overall inflation rate expected to fall to 4.5% in 2024, it would seem the economic war against the nation has failed. 

  For the people who were expecting the Kremlin to be reduced to smoking ruins after a financial Apocalypse similar to Weimar Germany, this must be a disappointing realization.  What we can learn from this outcome is that trade finds a way, and cancelling an entire country is not as easy as some might think.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 23:00

• China Supercharges Stimulus With Biggest Cut In Mortgage Reference Rate On Record
  China Supercharges Stimulus With Biggest Cut In Mortgage Reference Rate On Record

  After the relentless jawboning in recent days, many were expecting some further easing today from the PBOC, and Beijing did not disappoint when China cut the 5-year loan prime rate (LPR) – which influences mortgage rate pricing – and is also known as China’s Libor (or rather SOFR since Libor no longer exists) by 25bp to to 3.95% on Tuesday, while holding the 1-year rate at 3.45%. The LPR cut is the largest since China revamped its loan pricing mechanism in 2019. China last trimmed the 5y LPR by 10bp in June 2023.

  

  As UBS notes, market sentiment should get a boost from the larger-than-expected 5y rate cut, with a Reuters poll estimating 5-15bp after the PBoC-backed Financial News reported Sunday that there’s downside room for LPRs, especially for 5y as it will support the real estate market.

  Furthermore as noted earlier, Premier Li Qiang had called for “pragmatic and forceful” action to boost confidence in the economy on Monday.

  Elsewhere, the PBoC kept the medium-term lending facility (MLF) rate on hold Monday. LPRs and MLFs usually move in tandem, but UBS Economist Ning Zhang had noted that a LPR cut should a bit earlier and more than MLF rate cut, thanks to previous cuts of reserve requirement ratio and deposit rates.

  Commenting on the larger than expected cut, Derek Tay, head of investments at Kamet Capital Partners said that Chinese banks’ cut of a key reference lending rate for mortgages is “deeper than expected and shows that authorities are following through on their vows to boost the market and the economy.” It’s “also a relief that the authorities are proceeding as they have been foretelling regarding support for the economy and the market.”

  Others were a bit more skeptical:

  Hao Hong, an economist at Grow Investment:

  • Loan demand is very weak. So even if there is a large cut it won’t stimulate new demand plus the existing loans are still on the old rate
  • Now the problem is not about interest-rate levels. The real estate sector continues to ail. It is the sector that used to generate much of the loan demand. New home sales in January tanked

  Willer Chen, an analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia:

  • It’s a “good gesture from the commercial banks but now the property problem is not about the mortgage rate”
  • The move may “slightly boost the property demand but would not expect much”

  In kneejerk reaction, China rates are largely unchanged so far; 5y yield is down 0.5bp on the LPR cut. USDCNH is a touch lower as optimism builds. Funding remains tight with local paying interest; tom/next is around +1. The curve should continue to flatten given elevated funding which would support the front-end points while the back end should head lower.

  The Shanghai Composite is fluctuating with an upward trend so far this morning, while China properties are trading higher after banks cut the key reference lending rate for mortgages by the most on record.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 21:54

• Government Schools Are Propaganda Machines
  Government Schools Are Propaganda Machines

  Authored by Karl Streitel via The Mises Institute,

  In Artis Shepherd’s recent article, which I highly recommend, he aptly detailed the numerous benefits of homeschooling and data showing that homeschooled students—far from being socially stunted, academically insular young people—are actually generally high-achieving, socially adroit young adults ready to provide value in the world.

  Thus, in this commentary, I want to address a common argument against homeschooling: namely, that homeschooling is a breeding ground for propaganda—mainly “far right” political and religious ideologies—from parents and religious institutions, which is dangerous for social cohesion and democracy.

  

  The Propaganda Problem

  To begin, there is a dearth of evidence to show widespread inculcation of homeschooled students with so-called radical political or religious ideologies. The media often provide anecdotes that are supposed to represent the larger reality, but, in fact, a National Center for Education Statistics survey from 2019 showed that “a desire to provide religious instruction” was only the fifth most popular reason for homeschooling (chosen by 58.9 percent of parents) whereas the most popular reason to homeschool was “a concern about school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure” (chosen by 80.3 percent of parents, who could choose more than one reason in this survey).

  Does such a reason strike you as ideologically or religiously radical? I would be much more judgmental of parents who were not concerned about their children’s school environments.

  However, I concede it is undeniably true that homeschooled students—like any students or human beings, for that matter—can be propagandized by any type of ideology: right, left, center, or otherwise. I know of no person or teaching materials that are truly unbiased because to be so would entail having no opinions and providing all available information on a subject without any explanations. So, every teacher, parent, textbook, online course, or forum post is, by nature, biased in some way. Of course, this fact also means that government school or private school students are also susceptible to and recipients of propaganda daily.

  Moreover, such propaganda is inculcated far more effectively and efficiently via government schools that continue to churn out obedient and often intellectually incurious citizens who rarely question the morality or composition of the state that rules over them. This assertion should be self-evident through obedience to mask mandates, pledges of allegiance to flags, continued support for America’s overseas “defense” campaigns, and the strong contention among many citizens that democracy and voting are salubrious for all of us.

  Regarding this efficiency and effectiveness, let us think numerically for a moment. The plurality (23.9 percent) of school districts in the United States in 2020–21 enrolled between 1,000 and 2,499 students, with an average per-school enrollment of 555 students. The total public school enrollment was roughly forty-nine million in 2023 versus 3.1 million homeschooled students. (About 5.5 million students attended private schools.) Thus, approximately 85 percent of school-age children attended public schools last year.

  At the same time, the average number of children per family in the United States was 1.94. Therefore, the reach of a homeschool parent’s propaganda is severely limited compared to that of the government. A public school reaches, on average, 555 students while a parent reaches, on average, two. Further, we know that students in government schools are receiving information that is vetted and approved by that very government (via local school boards), so students in such schools are undeniably being propagandized to think in a certain uniform way. No such uniformity exists or should be expected among millions of diverse homeschoolers, whose “school” experiences will vary widely—thus impeding the spread of any single ideology, unlike in government schools.

  The effectiveness of this unitary government-school propaganda, furthermore, is undeniable. One primary piece of evidence for the success of government schools in this regard is the fact that most parents still send their children to government schools and never think twice about the coercive way those schools are funded—while simultaneously teaching their children that stealing is wrong. Despite the rapid growth in homeschooling since the covid lockdowns, government schools still enroll the vast majority of students, as I detailed above, and parents still generally approve of their local schools.

  Government Sets the Standard for Propaganda

  Government schools also earn an A+ for keeping people ignorant or misinformed, especially about history, government, and economics. Indeed, only half of Americans surveyed in 2008 could name the three branches of government, and only 18 percent and 23 percent of eighth graders were proficient in US history and civics, respectively, according to the 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress report.

  How many of those students also believe Pearl Harbor was an unprompted sneak attack, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, that capitalism caused the Great Depression, or that Abraham Lincoln took the country to war because of slavery? Is such misinformation not also propaganda that tens of millions of students imbibe each year? Consider also the mindlessness of pledging allegiance to a flag each morning—a pledge written by a socialist who was concerned about “every alien immigrant of inferior race” eroding American values. Ironically, the “under God” section of the pledge was added to differentiate America from “godless Communism.”

  When the state mentions God, no worries; it’s apparently only those religious people in flyover countries who are the problem.

  Finally, the government school system was established specifically to propagandize students and to encourage obedience (to Protestant ways) and uniform thinking (i.e., not diversity and inclusion). Thus, although government-school leaders may trumpet the diversity of melanin or gender, true diversity—diversity of thought—is not to be abided. This type of diversity is one in which government schools actively do not participate because it is antithetical to their mission and organization and dangerous to their propagation. Homeschoolers, on the other hand, will learn different ideas, perspectives, and information and will display a panoply of thoughts simply because they are not part of a centralized, bureaucratic, one-size-fits-none system.

  You and I may disagree with some of those ideas, but it is simply irrational to say that homeschoolers from disparate families in different areas of the country learning diverse ideas from varied curricula will somehow be uniformly propagandized at any rate even close to that of government-school students. Don’t believe me? If you went to a government school, just compare your experiences and what you learned in school to those of a friend or family member from out of state. How much learning diversity do you find on key issues? As the old saying goes, if everyone is thinking the same thing, then someone isn’t thinking.

  We also should consider that, according to Gallup polls and others, religious conviction in the United States is shrinking, not growing. In fact, according to Gallup data, between 2000 and 2022, the percentage of Americans who said religion was “not very important” to them rose from 12 percent to 28 percent.

  Unfortunately, Gallup does not ask Americans a similar question about government (i.e., if government is important in their lives), but they do ask if people think government has too much power. A majority does think so. However, a majority also thinks that government should have a greater role in seven of its functions (out of eleven provided). Such logically and morally inconsistent responses demonstrate what we might expect after twelve years of government propaganda: people will complain about government, but in the end, they support and often want it to do even more—especially if that “more” benefits their chosen groups.

  Thus, we find ourselves in a time of decreasing religious faith but static or even increasing belief in the government’s role in society, despite complaints to the contrary. We also find ourselves in a time in which over 85 percent of children attend government schools to learn about the important roles of government in society and the morality and necessity of democracy. Whose propaganda should we really fear?

  As an anecdote of the power of the current system’s propaganda, I offer an example from my time as a high school teacher. In response to an article we read in class, a sophomore wrote the following, which I paraphrase: “Nazis killed to kill; Americans kill to protect. Also, our government is completely different in political views and doesn’t lie to us like the Nazis did. Lastly, Hitler was a dictator, which we don’t have or support in America.”

  Are such beliefs any less propagandistic than whatever a homeschooler might learn? Are such beliefs more or less easily transmitted to large groups of people in the government school system versus at home?

  If we are being intellectually honest, we know the answers to those test questions.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 21:30

• Drug-Use, Robberies, & Public Sex: Cali Public Library Forced To Close Due To Rampant Illegal Activity
  Drug-Use, Robberies, & Public Sex: Cali Public Library Forced To Close Due To Rampant Illegal Activity

  In case you’re wondering whether or not libraries still have use in the age of the internet, they do. And we have Gavin Newsom’s state to thank in helping the nation get reacquainted with their new purpose.

  That use appears to now be a designated place for drug use, robberies and public sex. At least, that was the case at the Contra Costa County Library’s Antioch Branch in California, according to a new NY Post article.

  The city of Antioch is about 45 miles northeast of Oakland and is home to about 115,000 people. 

  That library has been forced to close its doors as a result of the illicit and illegal activity. 

  In a statement, the library commented: “During the closure, the Library will be working to implement further security measures so we can reopen as soon as possible.”

  

  One representative for the Contra Costa County Library System said: “We’ve also had drug activity and drug use both inside the library and on library property.”

  “People having sexual intercourse inside the library or on property in full view of patrons and staff. We found bullet casings on library property,” she continued. 

  One Antioch resident told the Post: “No one in the City of Antioch, including the police chief, was informed of safety concerns by Contra Costa County regarding the library.”

  “We apologize for the short notice and the inconvenience but the safety of our patrons and staff is a top priority,” the branch said in a statement. 

  It was ultimately the county’s decision to close the library, the report concluded. 

  When it reopens, the library will have a 2nd security officer, repaired fencing and upgraded security cameras. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 21:00

• Chicago Hit By Surging Violence From Criminals Out On Probation And Parole
  Chicago Hit By Surging Violence From Criminals Out On Probation And Parole

  By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of Wirepoints

  One thing Chicagoans can’t help but notice when scrolling through news feeds: the number of violent crimes committed by defendants while they were out either on parole, probation or awaiting trial.

  That’s not surprising given the long-term decarceration trend in Cook County that’s left the county’s jail population at the lowest level in 40 years. Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans started a no bail/low cash bail policy in 2017, resulting in a growing number of pretrial defendants out on bond who are then charged with new crimes, as we reported here. The state’s new SAFE-T Act has taken that policy even further. In September 2023, Illinois became the first state in the country to eliminate cash bail altogether, while the law also reduced the types of crimes for which defendants could be detained before their trial.

  The big question in 2024 is how will the SAFE-T Act impact crime, everything else equal. It’s still far too early to determine whether there are more violent defendants out on the streets awaiting trial and, unfortunately, the government is far behind on releasing the relevant data on that, according to a recent BGA report. 

  Nevertheless, Chicagoans have a right to be concerned considering just how many stories there are of released defendants committing mayhem. Many make the news every day, but it’s hard to know just how prevalent they are among the sea of other crimes committed.

  That’s why we’ve compiled a short sample list of defendants – those on parole, probation or awaiting trial – who’ve been accused of committing violent crimes since the start of the new year. Our source is CWB Chicago, which does a great job of tracking and publishing the city’s daily crimes.

  • January 2 – A 21-year-old man shot another man in the face while on bail for one gun case and on probation for another. According to CWB, he was the “30th person accused of shooting, killing, or trying to shoot or kill someone in Chicago in 2023 while awaiting trial for a felony.”

  • January 7 – A 31-year-old man and former CVS employee robbed a CVS while on probation for robbing and burglarizing a CVS.

  • January 14 – A 19-year-old gang member shot and critically injured another man in Little Village just three months after getting probation for head-butting a Chicago cop. Prosecutors also dropped a felony gun case on the day he pleaded guilty to the battery.

  • January 18 – A 19-year-old man killed his girlfriend while on probation for a gun charge.

  • January 27 – An 18-year-old man with gang ties gunned down an airport employee while on juvenile probation for gun possession.

  • February 4 – A 56-year-old man killed ex-girlfriend while on parole for strangling his previous partner.

  • February 6 – A 32-year-old man and previous 8-time felon burglarized a restaurant while on probation for burglarizing a nail salon.

  • February 6 – A 16-year-old male allegedly stabbed and killed a man while on parole for attempted murder. Earlier, he was found in possession of a stolen motor vehicle while on that same parole. That case was dropped.

  • February 7 – A 20 year-old man was charged with ‘brutal attack’ of a woman at Chicago Union Station after being released on similar charges under cashless bail law.

  • February 12 – A 33-year-old tow truck driver with two counts of attempted murder after he opened fire on two competitors over a job, while on felony pretrial release.

  • February 13 – A 19-year-old man was caught carrying three guns on CTA less than a month after being placed on “first-time weapon offender probation” for another felony gun case.

  • February 14 – An 18-year-old man killed an Uber driver while on juvenile probation for robbery. He also previously served time in the juvenile justice center for carjacking in 2021.

  Commit a crime. Get released, either before or after your trial. Commit more crime “while on” release from previous crime. Repeat.

  **************

  Some are expressing hope in the latest crime numbers for 2024 (through early-February), which show major crimes down 18% and murders down 30%. But with just a little over a month behind us, it’s premature to make any conclusions given the city is coming off of post-covid record-high crime numbers. 

  Major crimes in 2023 were up over by 16% over 2022 and by 55% over 2019, before covid and the George Floyd.

  

  As mentioned above, we’re going to have to wait for new data to reach any conclusions.

  But from the data we do know since the SAFE-T Act was passed – the Cook County jail population is down 15%, electronic monitoring is down 10%, and detention appeals have skyrocketed – proponents of softer crime policies are getting what they want.

  And, it appears, Chicago’s criminal class is getting what they want, too.

  Read more from Wirepoints:

  • Jail populations shrink, electronic monitoring drops and appeals opposing detention orders ‘skyrocket’: Three concerns about impact of Illinois’ no-cash bail law
  • Chicago led nation in homicides for 12th year in a row in 2023, murder rate still 5 times higher than NYC’s
  • Criminals robbing with impunity: Time to care about who replaces Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 20:30

• "Confronting The Inevitable Chocolate Crisis" – Charting The Chaos In Cocoa Markets
  “Confronting The Inevitable Chocolate Crisis” – Charting The Chaos In Cocoa Markets

  Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas, who covers energy and commodities, opined in a piece on Monday about the “coming meltdown” in the global chocolate industry following decades of under-investment across West African nations. 

  “Unlike most other agricultural commodities, cocoa hasn’t developed into a plantation business,” Blas said, adding poor farmers dominate cocoa farmers across West Africa, responsible for 75% of the world’s cocoa production. Meanwhile, he pointed out that investment only flowed into processing beans into chocolate – “not planting, growing and harvesting cocoa trees.” 

  Because of this, he warned: “We are all now confronting the inevitable chocolate crisis.” 

  The first chart Blas provided readers were cocoa futures in New York blasting into orbit. These prices now command $6,000 per ton, recently breaking the 1977 record.

  

  “At the end of 2023, cocoa was one of only a four major commodities that still traded below their price peaks set in the 1970s, the previous commodity boom,” Blas said. 

  The commodities analysts said some forecasts suggest the cost of cocoa in New York could reach as high as $10,000 per ton. 

  What’s imminent is the West African cocoa shortage will be felt across supermarkets worldwide. 

  Just weeks ago, Michele Buck, chief executive officer of The Hershey Co., warned: 

  “We can’t talk about future pricing … given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business.” 

  The four main producing countries, accounting for 75% of the world’s cocoa production, are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria.

  

  West Africa is the king of cocoa. 

  

  Blas presented a chart that illustrates the most significant cocoa bean deficit in modern history is currently underway. He said industry insiders are saying “the market is heading for a deficit of 300,000-to-500,000.” 

  

  And global cocoa inventories are collapsing. 

  

  “I’m unconvinced that climate change has anything to do with the current crisis,” Blas noted. 

  Separate from Blas, Bloomberg recently spoke with Paul Davis, the head of cocoa at major softs merchant Sucres et Denrees SA, who warned global cocoa markets will be “in a very tight balance” balance for another 18 months to three years.

  Davis continued: “There is no cavalry that’s coming to the rescue.”

  Sigh…

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 20:00

• Understanding The Trump Phenomenon: It's Not What The Elites Think
  Understanding The Trump Phenomenon: It’s Not What The Elites Think

  Authored by Lipton Matthews via The Mises Institute,

  Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and is leading in the polls to become the Republican candidate for the presidency in the upcoming general election. His status as the most likely contender to challenge Joe Biden is upsetting establishment figures who think that Trump’s ascent threatens democracy. Trump is constantly pilloried by the mainstream media as a demagogue who emboldens the racist underbelly of American society. Emotions run rampant, but Trump’s villainy has been grossly exaggerated.

  

  After winning the presidency in 2016, pundits thought that Trump would revert America to an era of racism. These predictions swayed many even though they failed to materialize. Donald Trump did not govern as a racist but rather pandered to racial minorities and women. Trump constantly pitched economic plans to galvanize the support of blacks and Hispanics. Like previous presidents he endorsed policies to promote women in science to the dismay of critics and was a relentless advocate for female empowerment.

  During his tenure, Trump collaborated with nonwhite communities and often boasted that he had done more for them than previous presidents. Racism and sexism were not the hallmark of his presidency. Trump earnestly borrowed from the liberal playbook by passionately selling his message to minorities. Being an astute politician, Trump quickly endeared himself to women and minorities, instead of pandering to the chauvinism of white nationalists. In fact, Trump bolstered his popularity in minority communities but received diminishing support from whites.

  Trump’s presidency was fixated on expanding his base of minority supporters to such a great extent that readers were frequently bombarded with stories explaining his outreach to minority communities. The gains made by blacks and Hispanics under the Trump presidency were covered extensively by the media. Unemployment rates for blacks, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and disabled individuals plummeted to record lows. Declining poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics were also consistent with the Trump presidency’s trends of progress.

  However, the benefits of the Trump presidency also extended beyond minority groups to encompass the broader American population, with low-income and blue-collar groups registering considerable wage gains. Trump presided over a buoyant economy despite the criticisms of opponents. The unjustified charges of racism and incompetence leveled against Trump reflect the derangement of critics unwilling to appreciate his mass appeal.

  Trump’s rhetoric is incendiary, but beyond his uncouth remarks, he is not vastly different from other presidents. Indeed, there are parallels between Trump and Biden. During his stint, Trump was bullish on China. His contempt for China led to the imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports; however, this proved to be a costly economic policy. Aimed at penalizing China, the policy had the reverse effect of raising prices for American businesses. President Biden has preserved elements of Trump’s antitrade policy and is equally bullish on China.

  In 2022, citing national security reasons, Biden announced a ban on the export of semiconductors to China. Further, the administration has prohibited US firms from conducting investment in some of China’s high-tech industries. Similarly, both men advocate protectionism and Buy-America requirements. Although Trump has a more free-market approach to economics, this is not what makes Trump fundamentally different from Biden.

  The primary difference is that Biden is a globalist and Trump is an antiglobalist. Donald Trump will not cede sovereignty to global institutions nor rabidly conform to the hysteria of the global environmental movement. Canceling the Keystone Pipeline to appease climate alarmists would not have been an option for Trump. This inane policy shuttered eleven thousand jobs without any serious analysis of the decision. With a Trump presidency, the ability of globalists to exert control over America’s affairs will decline, and that’s why Trump is so loathed by elites: he threatens globalism.

  International organizations won’t find it easy to manipulate Trump into doing their bidding. For example, Trump revoked America’s participation in the Paris Agreement that intended to limit warming to 1.5 degrees despite lacking a coherent economic case for doing so. Furthermore, Trump will not enslave America to net-zero targets that run into the trillions. Critics will smear Trump to dissuade Americans from electing him, but even if he is unfit to be President again, his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire indicate that the demand for Trumpism could catapult him to a second presidential victory.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 19:30

• Wawa Targets "Most Aggressive Growth" In Company's History With Huge Push South
  Wawa Targets “Most Aggressive Growth” In Company’s History With Huge Push South

  Convenience store Wawa is looking to spread its wings and officially fly south for the winter – and the rest of the seasons.

  The popular Philadelphia-area based chain – whose owners are now reportedly worth upwards of $6 billion, according to Bloomberg – has plans to add locations in every state.

  Spokesperson Lori Bruce – best known recently for trying to spin reasons as to why the chain was closing numerous Center City Philadelphia locations amidst incessant crime – commented: “We can’t wait to share our unique Wawa offer and experience with the new communities we’ve announced and look forward to serving them in the future very soon!”

  The company plans on moving to the South and Midwest, with plans to open in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia.

  

  It’ll also open 160 new stores in locations like Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote last week. 

  Wawa calls itself a “privately held, family-owned company with 200+ years in American business.” Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C., its website says. 

  Company CEO Chris Gheysens detailed the company’s plans to open about 100 new stores every year, with an eye on having 2,000 stores by the year 2030. He is calling it “the most aggressive growth” in the company’s history. 

  The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is tracking the store’s owners for the first time. The Wood family, who owns 53% of the company, is worth about $6 billion, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg also estimated the chain did about $18.5 billion in sales in 2023. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 19:00

• America's Fat Kids Now in Ozempic Marketers' Crosshairs
  America’s Fat Kids Now in Ozempic Marketers’ Crosshairs

  Authored by Ben Bartee via Armageddon Prose substack,

  Via Reuters:

  “A small but rapidly growing number of U.S. adolescents began treatment with Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy last year, a powerful new tool to address record rates of pediatric obesity, according to data shared exclusively with Reuters.

  In the first 10 months of 2023, 1,268 children ages 12 to 17 with an obesity diagnosis* started taking Wegovy, according to U.S. insurance claims data compiled by health technology company Komodo Health.”

  

  This psychological condition via framing the obesity epidemic as a “disease” with an accompanying “diagnosis” is not to be overlooked, as it provides valuable insight into how the pharmaceutical industry successfully parlays every physical, psychological, and social ailment into a medical diagnosis through a process called “medicalization” that I have previously described in great detail, which then opens the door for expensive, patented pharmaceutical interventions where they don’t naturally belong.

  Strategically placing obesity within the “disease” bucket precludes the individual (referred to as “the patient,” an object to be worked upon, like a car with a faulty transmission) from exercising any personal agency over their health. Instead, the patient’s issue becomes a medical one best left to the anointed “experts” to resolve — almost always with expensive drugs or surgeries.

  The actual disease, whether real or invented, obesity or “gender dysphoria,” is rarely resolved, but, given the financial incentives to keep the pill mills churning out product, one has to wonder whether that was ever the point from the industry’s perspective to begin with.

  Continuing:

  In 2022, only 25 children were prescribed the drug, which did not receive U.S. approval for adolescent use until December of that year. A month later, the influential American Academy of Pediatrics recommended weight-loss drugs be offered to children with obesity starting at age 12.”

  In a decent society, the American Academy of Pediatrics would be designated a criminal enterprise, if not a biomedical terrorist organization, and its ringleaders prosecuted with vigor.

  Via Influence Watch:

  “In 2018, AAP reported $121,878,940 in revenue and $62,163,314 in net assets. More than half of its revenue came from its memberships, journals, and publications. The AAP also reported receiving $20.5 million in government grants and over $12.9 million in outside contributions. That same year, AAP reported $118,478,392 in expenses, including nearly $800,000 spent on legislative lobbying.

  AAP gains a significant portion of its revenue through sponsorships at its conferences and frequent member events, though it has received criticism for its seemingly hypocritical sponsorship arrangements. In 2010, AAP hosted a conference which featured SweetSurprise.com, a corn-syrup promotion compony, as a sponsor, despite the fact that the AAP itself advocated against high fructose corn syrup and claimed that soda consumption was associated with higher rates of obesity.”

  Let’s discover together who  — in addition to the likes of Bill Gates and Google — funds the AAP.

  It’s probably deeply ethical physician’s groups and nunneries and whatever, right? The Mother Teresas and similar such do-gooders of the world.

  Surely.

  Why, spank me silly and call me Suzy; it’s none other than Novo Nordisk, manufacturer of Ozempic, itself!

  But let’s not be conspiracy theorists and allege a conflict of interest.

  *  *  *

  Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Follow his stuff Substack. Also, keep tabs via Twitter.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 18:30

• Medvedev Warns Of Nukes On Berlin, London & Washington Before Russia Would Return To 1991 Borders
  Medvedev Warns Of Nukes On Berlin, London & Washington Before Russia Would Return To 1991 Borders

  Former Russian president and deputy head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has managed to once again shock and anger Western officials (and entire populations for that matter) with his jingoist rhetoric and nuclear threats.

  Just a couple of weeks ago he warned that if Russia is attacked by NATO it would have “no choice” but to unleash nuclear “apocalypse” which would lead to “the end of everything”. Over this weekend he actually managed to top and surpass his own words in terms of nuclear ‘threat level’ and rhetoric. He has expanded on the prior remarks by saying the Kremlin stands ready to use its entire strategic arsenal on London, Washington, Berlin and Kiev.

  His fresh warning focused on Russia’s military hold on the four annexed territories in Ukraine’s east. Moscow now sees this as Russian territory and says it will never give it up.

  

  “Attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing. Towards a global war with Western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state,” Medvedev began in the Sunday statement posted to Telegram. He followed ominously with a ‘target list’…

  ‌”In Kiev, Berlin, London, Washington.”

  He further described that nuclear missiles would strike “all other beautiful historical places that have long been included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad.”

  “Will we have the courage to do this if the disappearance of a thousand-year-old country, our great Motherland, is at stake, and the sacrifices made by the people of Russia over the centuries will be in vain?” Medvedev then said: “The answer is obvious.”

  This is not the first time he’s warned of “nuclear fire” if NATO or Ukraine forces seize Russian territory. Moscow has warned could deploy its nuclear arsenal if it faces at ‘existential threat’ to its survival. 

  However, this appears to be the first time Russia has threatened nukes if its control of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia faces existential threat. Of course, this includes Crimea too.

  

  The Zelensky government has not given up on its goal of liberating all of these territories, however. Also, Kiev has even demanded that Russia give up its claim to Crimea. But this latter aspect to Zelensky’s peace formula is widely seen as a non-starter for any future serious peace negotiations to end the war.

  Certainly Ukraine will also have to give up territory if it ever hopes for peace, unless the tide of battle turns quickly, which is very unlikely at this point.

  In January, there began to be confirmation of the US preparing deployment of B61-12 nuclear warheads to Britain, specifically at RAF Lakenheath, a base in Suffolk, England.

  #Russia would regard any return of #US nuclear weapons to bases in Britain as an “escalation and a destabilizing practice,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says.https://t.co/odjTJOnSRe

  — Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) September 5, 2023

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

  Moscow has previously accused Western and NATO intelligence services of assisting with the growing space of cross-border missile and drone attacks on Russian territory.. Recently it has accused France of maintaining mercenaries in the northern city of Kharkiv, in order to mount attacks on nearby Belgorod Oblast. There are rising fears that this ‘indirect’ fighting or proxy war could drift into a direct ‘live fire’ war between Russia and NATO countries, but so far this has been narrowly avoided.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 18:00

• A Market Only A Mother Or AI Could Love
  A Market Only A Mother Or AI Could Love

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  Generally, I like to focus on what will happen, rather than what happened, because people reading this already know what happened. But I found last week so confusing/disturbing/annoying on so many levels, that I think it is worth revisiting what happened. We saw narratives come and go, turn on a dime, and shift almost “willy nilly.” Certainly, price action seemed to influence the narratives as much as the other way around. All of this came on the back of reaching “all-time highs,” which we wrote about last weekend in A Retrospective of All-Time Highs.

  On the week, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% – its first losing week in quite some time, and not without more than its fair share of seemingly obligatory “all-time high” headlines. While the drop is only mildly interesting, how it played out and how volatile it was is what really caught my attention. We will focus on the Nasdaq 100, because that was even more “fun” to watch (if your idea of “fun” is absolute torture).

  

  Let’s say we think a 20% return is a good annual number. Then 0.4% would be an “average” weekly return. We had moves of 0.4% or greater multiple times, on multiple days.

  To me, that is the sort of market “only a mother could love” because it is painful to be right or wrong by significant amounts (plenty of moves greater than 1%) so quickly. I suppose AI could love this market if some AI trading program managed to catch these moves correctly! If you could have timed this market, there was “easily” 10% to 20% to be made in a single week of day-trading. I suspect no human came close to achieving that (in fact I suspect most humans were busy trying not to get themselves all twisted into a knot), but could some AI have captured this? I doubt it, but certainly something is playing in the back of my mind. Is something out there very good at maybe not just capturing these sorts of movements, but also triggering them? That is the AI that I’m talking about in today’s headline.

  AI remains an important driver of the market in its own right. NVDA, almost a proxy for AI growth, has earnings out on the 21st and was up on the week. Apple saw a brief surge in its stock late on Thursday, as headlines hit the tape about how “Apple Readies AI Tool to Rival Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot.” AI adoption will continue to play a big role in the market, and I suspect that it will help investors of all stripes “buy” the dip.

  The Inflation Story

  CPI came in higher than expected. There are “seasonality” concerns, and ongoing concerns that housing inflation is once again being overstated as OER doesn’t seem to tie into other “real-time” data on rents. I’ve given up ranting about “owner’s equivalent rent” and how it is calculated (purposefully with a long lag) so I will just ignore the topic of conversation this time. Maybe everyone will agree that it overstates it, but after months of pulling together charts on actual rents versus OER during the “inflation panic,” I don’t have the energy to go through that drill again. It is probably overstated, but the Fed seems to think it is important.

  PPI, which I normally don’t pay much attention to, has “supposedly” become more important than CPI. I don’t see it that way, but some do, and it also came in hot.

  Bonds reacted “rationally” to both numbers – sold off and reduced the timing and number of rate cuts.

  Stocks on Tuesday fell more than I would have thought, then bounced more than seems to make sense.

  On Friday, after an initial sell-off post PPI (from a strong overnight performance), the markets seemed to shake off the PPI strength. I guess if Tuesday’s CPI surprise didn’t matter, then why should this? I would argue that two wrongs don’t make a right.

  The inflation news that caught my eye was in the University of Michigan report. Expectations crept higher for the first time in a few months. The series is volatile, and I think mostly random noise (hence referring to it as CONsumer CONfidence over and over), but the Fed does watch for shifts in expectations, and this data will not give them confidence about how they are managing expectations.

  I continue to think the COVID Bumps (detailed in An Eclectic Mix) are playing out and will place downward pressure on inflation (the services demand has peaked and data seems to support a slowdown in much of the sector, away from restaurants). Against that is the ESG, geopolitical, and on/near/friend shoring, all of which create a “safer” and more stable environment, but are inflationary as they are being built out.

  Net, net, expect inflation to be stubborn here and possibly rise a touch – confirming that this recent data is not an anomaly, making the Fed’s job more difficult.

  The Consumer

  One outlier has been the strength of the U.S. consumer. That strength got called into question on Thursday as retail sales came in extremely weak. Not only were the numbers weaker across the board, but the headline number for last month was also revised down.

  We’ve had our doubts about the consumer (credit card usage, the fact that so many things were on sale for the holidays, demand pulled forward, etc.), and those doubts seem to have been “rewarded” by this retail sales report. Please see Consumption Glass for more details.

  While jobs will be the key and I remain cautious on that, especially the mix of full and part-time jobs, and the difference between creation/loss of high paying jobs versus lower paying jobs.

  Markets seemed to take this data in stride on Thursday, likely assuming that the Fed would view this slowing as evidence that they were on the right track in terms of monetary policy. While I can understand that argument (it is legitimate), shouldn’t we be worried that there is something more going on here? While it “doesn’t affect us” (supposedly), both Japan and the U.K. are officially in recessions.

  Markets were seeking something to offset the high CPI print and they gravitated to this “weak” data as being “good,” but I think that interpretation will be questioned in the coming days and weeks as more data comes in (which I think will confirm the slowdown).

  Who Isn’t Long?

  Virtually everything I read describes a market that has gone “all-in”, especially in the sectors that have been driving returns for the past year or more.

  I like the RSI (relative strength indicator) as a simple technical tool. It is registering overbought on some of the stocks driving markets and is certainly not showing up as even close to indicating oversold on them.

  I’m told equity put/call ratios are showing complacency and a long risk bias. I watch MOSO on Bloomberg (most active options). I like it on volatile days as it gives some clues (I believe) as to the sentiment out there. I found two things very interesting:

  • There was some longer-dated put buying on Tuesday, not just a big run-up in volumes of zero- days-to-expiration (0DTE) options. Given how severe the decline was on Tuesday, I expected to see a lot of 0DTE options as the most active. It seems to me that there was some real need to hedge real risk, which was interesting.
  • I mostly saw call buying. The volumes that I looked at were skewed to call buying, with several single stocks (as opposed to ETFs) garnering some call buying interest. Are investors being cautious and buying calls or are they so fully invested, that they have to resort to calls rather than outright positions?

  I think these both tend to mean that there could be more downside, especially since we didn’t see a 0DTE “gamma” driven move to the downside, and I think, unfortunately, that the market is ripe for such a day.

  The CNN Fear and Greed Index has moved into “extreme greed” which is a nice little contrarian signal. The AAII Sentiment Survey receded a little but is still showing a strong bullish bias, which again, is often a contrarian signal.

  While there are plenty of reasons why the rally that took us to “all-time highs” can continue, I’m leaning heavily towards the view that too much was bet too quickly on the Fed “pivot” and positioning is too aggressively long risk – making a sharp/rapid decline, that eats away at “dip buyers” with help from 0DTE options, my current base case.

  Bottom Line

  Let’s start with rates and the Fed.

  • 10-year yield to 4.4% to 4.6%. Watch the “structural deficit” and “interest payments as a percentage of all spending” rise to the forefront of things pushing yields higher.
  • 2s versus 10s less inverted, but not heading to positive any time soon (-10 bps to 0).
  • On the Fed, I’m still at 25/50/25 for cuts in the May, June, and July meetings, but if anything, I fear that I am now in the “too many cuts” camp that I have been fighting for much of this year! Have I really “joined” the enemy? When I started at 4 cuts in total at 3 meetings, the market was pricing in way more than me, and now I’m pricing in the same as the market, but much sooner. I think I need to dial back on this call, but don’t have a scenario I like any better, at least not yet.

  Credit. I don’t like credit here. I started that view early last week and am increasingly confident that we will see spreads widen in the coming weeks.

  • Looking for tighter spreads when we were “already at the tight end of the range” seemed contrarian at the start of the year and has worked out well. I’m not sure “long credit” is as crowded as equities, but it is no longer contrarian.
  • It is difficult to be bearish on stocks and expect credit to do well, so that plays into the analysis.
  • Finally, I do pay close attention to how “day old” new issues perform. I look at bonds issued a couple of weeks ago that no longer have as much trading related to the initial allocation and underwriter positioning to gauge how liquid the market is. I watch not just how the bonds are quoted, but also how executable those quotes are, and I believe that we’ve transitioned into a “warning” phase.
  • Overall, I still expect credit to do well and encourage investors to be overweight credit versus Treasuries, but I think there will be better entry points.

  Equities. Maybe after mentioning “Cheech and Chong” last week, I just want to be able to write a report titled “Up in Smoke”, so I have to be aware of my own biases. Having said that, the market has skewed heavily towards being bullish. Within that, it is extremely bullish on a subset of names. Between positioning and price action, I think that the risk of the next 5% move being to the downside is much higher than the probability that we will go another 5% higher from here. Yes, fighting momentum can be dangerous (and momentum is still higher), but I am not the mother of this stock market, I do not love how it behaved last week, and think that it is a precursor to more downside.

  I still like China and commodity related plays (for different reasons), but cannot yet get my hands around re-embracing the “laggards” (anything from equal weight indices, to the Russell 2000, to regional banks and commercial real estate). I want to, but just cannot get there.

  We will all see how this version of “all-time highs” plays out, but for now I’m nervous on stocks and bonds! For different reasons, but that could be a troublesome issue for this market to face if stocks and bonds really start moving down together.

  On that “cheery” note, enjoy the holiday!

  P.S. If any of you happen to have an AI algo that caught most of those moves, can you please share or make it open source and save us all some misery? Thanks!

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 17:30

• Cummins Fined $1.6 Billion Over Allegations It Outfitted Dodge Rams With Software To Cheat Emissions
  Cummins Fined $1.6 Billion Over Allegations It Outfitted Dodge Rams With Software To Cheat Emissions

  Engine manufacturer Cummins is facing $1.6 billion in fines after allegations that “it outfitted hundreds of thousands of trucks with software to defeat pollution controls,” according to The Cooldown. 

  The DOJ took time off from prosecuting J6ers and President Trump to allege that Cummins’ actions were in violation of the Clean Air Act.

  The agency says that “about 1 million Ram pickups” were rigged to cheat emissions tests so they could look “cleaner than they actually are,” the report says. 

  The DOJ says that “630,000 model year 2013-2019 Ram engines and 330,000 model year 2019-2023 Ram engines” have been “secretly releasing” nitrogen oxide as a result. 

  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nitrogen oxide can cause irritation to the human respiratory system, leading to asthma attacks and other respiratory issues that may require hospitalization. Additionally, this pollutant contributes to the formation of ozone smog and intense tropical downpours.

  

  Engine manufacturers such as Cummins shirk their responsibility to maintain breathable air by evading emissions tests.

  Even Merrick Garland made a statement about the action: “Violations of our environmental laws have a tangible impact. They inflict real harm on people in communities across the country.”

  Cummins paid a $1.6 billion fine to California to settle the claims.

  The company pledges ongoing cooperation with investigators to address environmental concerns, while its partner Stellantis begins recalling non-compliant Ram models for software adjustments. This significant penalty should prompt the automotive industry to prioritize decisive climate action.

  Amazonian tribesmen supposedly experiencing more “tropical downpours” as a result of Cummins rigging some software were sadly unavailable for comment. But we’re sure the PhD volumes at the Harvard library will soon be replete with “academic studies” about how Cummins is singlehandedly biggest cause of climate change on the planet.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 17:00

• Quinn: Hard Decisions Used To Lead To An Easy Life
  Quinn: Hard Decisions Used To Lead To An Easy Life

  Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

  I’ve seen the graphic below a few times over the last several weeks. I understand its message and have essentially tried to follow the hard decision path for most of my life, while imparting the same advice to my three sons. I’m sure they got sick of me telling them that no matter what amount you make, if you spend less than that amount, you will get ahead in life financially.

  Of course, this graphic is too simplistic to describe the real world, where medical misfortune, bad luck, bad investments, or bad people running the country can and do prevent many hard working honest families from ever achieving the “easy life”.

  

  We all know life is never easy, but it can potentially be easier if you make enough right decisions along the way. The graphic reminds me of a quote sometimes attributed to John Wayne, “This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.” I think that captures the truth better than hard decisions lead to an easy life. It does seem the level of stupidity across the general populace has risen to astounding levels over the last couple decades.

  I was lucky enough to join the full-time work force in 1986, when the country still had a growing economy and short-term hard decisions would usually lead to an easier life over the long-term. Neither of my parents graduated high school, but a father driving a gasoline truck for 40 years and a stay at home mom, could raise three kids in a 900 square foot row home in the suburbs outside Philadelphia, and they could all graduate college with little or no debt. Those days are long gone. My parents made hard decisions their entire lives, to make their kids lives better than theirs.

  I think another name for “hard decisions” are decisions to delay gratification. For me, decisions about my career, kids, real estate, and not keeping up with the Joneses, constituted my hard decisions. Out of college, I put in two years at an accounting firm, even though I hated every minute, because I needed two years of CPA experience to get my CPA license. I didn’t want a CPA license other than to put it on my resume to get a good job with a corporation. I was 23 years old and wanting to have fun every weekend with my buddies, but I made the hard decision to spend 10 weeks totally dedicated to passing the CPA exam, and I did.

  I knew an MBA was another stepping stone to a better paying job, so when the corporation I had joined made it clear an MBA was not valued there, I left and went somewhere it was valued. I then proceeded to work my full-time job, including many weekends, and get my MBA at night at Villanova. It was hard and it took three and a half years, but it was worth it, as the Treasurer position at IKEA came available, and my CPA and MBA allowed me to get the job.

  Just as I got the MBA and the new job, our first child was born. My wife had a good job at a social services organization, but we made the hard decision for her to stay at home and raise our kids, as two more sons were born over the next six years. Our overall family income was lower after my wife left the workforce, so we delayed buying a single family home, took vacations with our parents, drove used cars until they died, and rarely went out to restaurants. We managed to live beneath our means, contribute to my 401k, put the kids through Catholic school, and spent quite a bit on hockey equipment, because the boys loved hockey.

  Many of my hard decisions when it came to my career most certainly did not lead to an easier life financially. I refused to lie or shade the truth at IKEA, resulting in my termination, because the unqualified female diversity CEO was too stupid to grasp the facts I presented. I realized the willful ignorance to my projections of the CFO at Toll Brothers in 2006 made my position untenable, so I took a substantial pay cut to move to Wharton. After 13 years of dedicated service, the new CFO turned out to be a despicable human being, and I took another pay cut to come to my current, and hopefully last employer.

  So, from my perspective, not all hard decisions lead to an easier life financially. But the hard decisions I’ve made have kept my integrity intact. I’ve never lied, cheated, or done anything I considered unethical in my entire career. I also choose to no longer become friends with co-workers outside of work, because I’ve been stabbed in the back too frequently by people I thought were friends. My blog is my outlet for my anger, depression, and desire to tear off the veil hiding the treasonous, evil, corrupt, and psychotic actions of the government, media, banks, and Deep State.

  I see what my kids and honest hard working people across the land are up against at this point in history, and I know hard decisions today are not likely to lead to an easy life ever again. At least, not until we go through a horrific and catastrophic financial collapse, with a civil and global war thrown in for good measure. Talk about hard decisions. How about life and death decisions on a daily basis for several years? We have no chance at a better future without the collapse of the present day dystopian debt empire.

  My kids are all hard working, have decent jobs, have no debt, and still have absolutely no pathway to owning a home, without being strangled by debt to do so. Even rent for modest apartments, is a huge burden.

  

  Life is now hard for everyone, not only the stupid. We aren’t in Kansas or the 1980’s anymore. The people who did this to America and the American people have names and addresses. Many of the people they have screwed over are the ones with the 300 million guns they want to confiscate. At some point, those guns will need to be used. Then we’ll see whose life gets hard.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 16:30

• With Charge Offs Soaring, Capital One To Buy Discover, Creating Credit Card Giant
  With Charge Offs Soaring, Capital One To Buy Discover, Creating Credit Card Giant

  With both delinquency and charge off ratios at the two largest credit card companies (targeting everyday consumers, unlike the top 10% focused American Express) in the US surging in the past two years to the highest level since the covid crash, and prompting speculation among traders that the US consumer is set for a painful hit (just a few days ago Goldman trader Rich Privorotsky said that “I think we are going to keep ignoring any consumer concerns for now but some of these numbers from Discovery were pretty glaring” referring to the 242bps surge in NCOs from 2.81% to 5.23%)…

  

  … it’s hardly surprising that the easiest way to cover up the growing delinquency/NCF rot below the surface is simply to throw billions in “synergies” at the problem while also combining two (very ugly) balance sheets in hopes of confusing shorts, and sure enough earlier today the WSJ reported that Capital One plans to buy Discover Financial Services in a deal that would combine two of the largest – and ugliest – credit-card companies in the U.S.

  The WSJ reported that the all-stock deal (may as well take advantage of the ridiculous short squeeze in the stock in recent months) could be announced Tuesday, and would the deal would value Discover – which has a market value of about $28 billion – at a premium.

  Buying Discover would give Capital One, a credit-card lender with a market value of a little over $52 billion, a network that would increase its power in the payments ecosystem.

  Card networks are critical to enabling transactions and setting fees that merchants pay when consumers shop with credit cards. Though much smaller than Visa and Mastercard, Discover is one of the few competitors to those companies in the U.S. and it is one of a small number of card issuers that also has a payments network.

  Capital One, the ninth-largest bank in the country and a major credit-card issuer, uses Visa and Mastercard for most of its cards. The bank plans to switch at least some of its cards to the Discover network – which guarantees that it will lose even more customers – while continuing to use Visa and Mastercard on others. Those larger networks have more merchant acceptance abroad than Discover does.

  Capital One also plans to maintain the Discover brand on the cards and network… assuming regulators sign off and the deal is consummated, which is a big “if” with the Biden FTC which has tried to kill any major merger in recent years.

  Discover, based in Riverwoods, Ill., is an online institution so the takeover wouldn’t come with physical bank branches, except for one location in Delaware.

  As the WSJ notes, the deal follows a tumultuous period for Discover that has included increased regulatory scrutiny and a change in leadership. The company disclosed last year that an internal review found it had misclassified certain credit-card accounts beginning in 2007, incorrectly placing them in the highest merchant-and-acquirer pricing tier. The company established a liability of $365 million to account for estimated compensation owed to merchants and acquirers. Separately, Discover received a consent order from the FDIC. In October, Discover said it would address the FDIC order to improve its consumer-compliance operations.

  In December, Discover said financial-industry executive Michael Rhodes would become its CEO and president. He took over from John Owen, who had been serving in the interim after Roger Hochschild stepped down in August.

  Discover has been approached by large banks and technology companies about an acquisition of all or a part of its business over the past decade or more. Tech companies have been interested in acquiring its network so that they can play a more central role in payments, but prior senior executives at Discover weren’t interested in separating the company’s credit-card lending side from the network.

  For Capital One, the deal would also further expand the number of cardholders it will count as customers for its credit-card lending business.

  Additionally, Discover also has consumer deposits, most of which are in savings accounts, allowing Capital One to continue to grow its already large presence in that area.

  An acquisition of Discover will rank among the biggest deals so far in 2024. After a lull in M&A activity in 2023 as economic and other uncertainty and increased interest rates took a bite out of the appetite for deals, volumes have gotten off to a relatively strong start and are up 90% in the U.S. compared with a year earlier, according to Dealogic. Other big transactions include software maker Synopsys’ roughly $35 billion acquisition of rival Ansys and Diamondback Energy’s $25 billion deal for Endeavor Energy.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 16:00

• How The US Regime Subsidizes Immigration (Both Legal & Illegal)
  How The US Regime Subsidizes Immigration (Both Legal & Illegal)

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  In recent months, stories from both the legacy media and the independent media have continued to pile up on how undocumented foreign nationals – also known as “migrants” and “illegal aliens” – are able to take advantage of a vast network of taxpayer funded benefits in daycare, medical care, housing, and more. 

  

  For example, both the New York Post and Denver Post report that these foreign nationals have “overwhelmed” the Denver Health hospital system in Denver, and that the situation is “unsustainable.” Meanwhile, public schools report classrooms are filling up quickly with the children of these foreign nationals. Denver is hardly alone. The New York Post notes that both the City of New York and the state government have expanded local welfare programs, including pre-paid credit cards, to further ensure that migrants continue to receive cash and resources from American taxpayers. This is in addition to the approximately 66,000 foreign nationals who are housed in hotels and shelters, care of both New York and federal taxpayers. USAToday reports that colleges “across the country” are receiving millions in taxpayer money to offer housing to migrants at no charge. Chicago’s mayor is bragging he’s giving away $17 million in taxpayer-funded giveaways to “asylum seekers” who are presently living off the sweat of the taxpayers in government shelters. This, of course, is just a downpayment on many more planned giveaways. 

  Just how much in taxpayers’ resources is going to foreign nationals? It’s difficult to estimate for a number of reasons. The spending is done through numerous different government agencies at various levels of government. Moreover, much of the money if filtered through non-profits (i.e., “NGOs”) that are labeled “charities” but are simply adjuncts of the regime. 

  Once we add up $1 billion here and $77 million there, after a while we’re talking about real money, and one thing becomes abundantly clear: the regime and its partners are subsidizing the influx of foreign nationals who are promised a variety of both cash and in-kind benefits. It must also be noted that, contrary to certain myths, the largesse is not reserved for only the so-called “illegal aliens.” Legal immigrants can take advantage of the generous and well-funded American welfare state even more readily than can the undocumented migrants.

  What is the effect of subsidizing a particular product or activity? It is usually the same everywhere we look: you get more of what you subsidize.  This is true of student loans, it’s true of ethanol, and it’s true of migrants. Economic theory tells us that the government cannot possibly know the “correct” number of migrants, nor should the regime be free to centrally plan some arbitrary number. On the other hand, it is extremely unlikely that the number of migrants—even with lax border enforcement—would be as high as it is without the regime’s incessant subsidization of migrants, both legal and illegal. 

  How Many Foreign Nationals Live in the United States? 

  According to the Congressional Research Service, it is estimated there were approximately 45-46 million foreign-born residents of the United States in 2022. Of those, about 53 percent, or 24 million, are naturalized citizens. In addition to this there are 12.9 million legal permanent residents (LPRs) and approximately 11 million more are so-called “illegal” immigrants. All combined, we find that 23 million non-citizen US residents—i.e., “foreign nationals”—are living in the United States. That’s about 51 percent of the overall foreign-born population. As we will see, many of them receive financial support and resources from US taxpayers.

  (This measure does not count the approximately 3.2 million nonimmigrant workers, students, exchange visitors, diplomats, and their relatives who have sought only temporary residence in the United States. These nonimmigrant groups are not eligible for public benefits.)

  Are Foreign Nationals Eligible for Welfare? 

  Among immigrant foreign nationals, most are eligible for some form of taxpayer-funded “public” benefits. 

  For example, undocumented foreign nationals may legally access “treatment under Medicaid for emergency medical conditions,” a variety of in-kind services such a soup kitchens and temporary housing, and “programs for housing or community development assistance or financial assistance administered by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development…”

  That’s just the direct federally-funded services. State and local government may elect to provide additional services at local taxpayers’ expense. 

  The welfare programs available to legal foreign nationals are far more broad. Legal foreign nationals (LPRs) can access most federal welfare programs after an initial five-year period. This includes non-emergency Medicaid, CHIP, TANF (i.e., cash assistance), food stamps, and SSI. 

  Access to these programs have been further broadened by state governments. As noted by the National Immigration Law Center: 

  Over half of the states have used state funds to provide TANF, Medicaid, and/or CHIP to immigrants who are subject to the five-year bar on federally funded services, or to a broader group of immigrants. A growing number of states and counties provide health coverage to children, young adults, or pregnant persons regardless of their immigration status. Several states offer or will offer health coverage to older adults regardless of their immigration status. And five states (California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington) and the District of Columbia offer or will offer public or private health coverage with state subsidies to all otherwise eligible immigrants regardless of their immigration status.

  It is not necessary to be employed to maintain legal permanent resident status, even if one is of working age. After all, LPRs are not the same at temporary nonimmigrant workers like H1B visa holders: “Green card holders [LPRs] can also collect unemployment compensation the same way citizens do …nor can a legal permanent resident be deported for being unemployed.” 

  Legal immigrants do not jeopardize their legal status by applying for additional taxpayer funded benefits such as food stamps: “SNAP enrollment will NOT affect your ability to remain in the United States, get a green card/permanent resident status, keep your green card/permanent resident status, or become a U.S. citizen.”

  In short, nearly the full gamut of taxpayer-funded welfare programs are open to legal foreign nationals after the initial five-year bar. Moreover, many migrants aren’t even held to that, including “[r]efugees, people granted asylum or withholding of deportation/removal, Cuban/Haitian entrants, certain Amerasian immigrants” and other specific groups are exempted from the waiting period.

  All these foreign nationals, regardless of status, are free to send their children to government childcare centers known as “public schools.” 

  How Much Do Foreign Nationals Use American Social Benefits? 

  A variety of organizations have attempted to quantify the extent to which both naturalized immigrants and current foreign nationals use welfare programs.  This study from the National Academies concludes that the data

  show[s] that the immigrant households use several programs, most notably food assistance and Medicaid, at higher rates than do households led by the native-born. …This higher use of welfare programs by immigrants is attributable to their lower average incomes and larger families. 

  In the NA study, immigrant households with children utilized welfare programs at higher rates in nearly every US state. In California, 61.5 percent of households utilized welfare while 40.7 percent of immigrant households did. In Texas, the same measures are at 66.3 and 44.2 percent, respectively. Similar proportions are found in Florida and New York. 

  This report unfortunately does not differentiate between naturalized immigrants and foreign nationals. However, given that naturalized immigrants tend to earn 50 to 70 percent more than non-citizen immigrants, it is safe to conclude that foreign nationals utilize welfare programs more than naturalized immigrants, and therefore more than the native population. 

  An increasingly important addition to legal immigration in recent decades has been the population of immigrants legally designated as refugees. In total, this all costs the taxpayers nearly two billion dollars per year, or $80,000 per refugee per year in the form of federal and state programs including food stamps, child care, and public housing.

  The Center for Immigration Studies has published studies similar to the NA study. These CIS studies show similar results. 

  • In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) reported that they used at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native households. Welfare in this study includes Medicaid and cash, food, and housing programs.

  • Immigrant households have much higher use of food programs (40 percent vs. 22 percent for natives) and Medicaid (42 percent vs. 23 percent). 

  Note that these conclusions reflect immigrant households rather than immigrant individuals. This is an important distinction because many immigrant households contain citizen children who became citizens at birth due to being born in the United States. Thus, the household may contain both citizens and foreign nationals—some of whom may be illegal foreign nationals. These households, however, enjoy access to welfare programs by virtue of the underage members’ citizenship. Thus, immigrant households can access taxpayer funded healthcare, food stamps, housing programs (and more) through the native-born children.  Similar trends persist when non-citizen households are measured separately from all immigrant households combined. 

  Some researchers insist that welfare benefits for foreign nationals ought to be measured only on an individual, per capita basis. For example, in this report from the CATO institute, the researchers conclude that for 2020, native-born residents, on average, cost welfare programs $8,335 per capita while immigrants cost welfare programs $6,063. These proportions can vary by program. For example, the per capita Medicaid cost for immigrants is $1,859, while the cost for native-born residents is $2,081. The use of food stamps is similar ($190 per capita for immigrants versus $214 per capita for natives), Immigrants usage of SSI is slightly higher ($188 per capita) than it is for natives ($169 per capita). 

  How much taxpayer funding are we talking about overall? The CATO report estimates that the total cost of welfare going to non-native US residents in 2020 was $290.4 billion, That’s a sum equal to the combined budgets of the Departments of Education and Homeland Security. Yet, only about half of non-natives are non-citizen foreign nationals. To find the sum used by non-citizen immigrants, we can’t just divide the sum in half because foreign nationals tend to use welfare more than naturalized immigrants. So, given the $290.4 billion total for immigrant welfare spending, we can estimate that at least $150 billion of that is consumed by foreign nationals—a sum about equal to the combined budgets of the Departments of Education, State, and Housing and Urban Development. (This spending total excludes state and local spending on government schools for the children of foreign nationals.)

  An older CATO study (from 2013) does break out non-citizens from immigrants overall. Here, the researchers conclude that low-income immigrants use food stamps more than naturalized immigrants, and only slightly less than native-born residents. When it comes to taxpayer funded healthcare: one in five non-citizen immigrants collect this benefit while slightly more than 1 in 4 natives collects this particular form of taxpayer largesse. 

  The Migration Policy Center reports that in 2021, 32 percent of immigrants (both citizen and non-citizen) used government health insurance. That’s comparable to 38 percent of natives. 

  Yet, even by this conservative measure of immigrant welfare usage, the best we can say is that immigrants use welfare at a rate slightly lower than that of natives. One could argue that, at the low end, immigrants receive (per capita) about 70 to 75 cents for every welfare dollar that goes to natives.  That’s not exactly “good news” given that overall federal spending on social benefits amounts to about half of the annual $6.3 trillion budget and is clearly out of control. The fact that natives get most of this is hardly an exoneration of immigrants. It’s more of an indictment of native-born Americans, millions of whom exploit their most productive fellow citizens every month to keep the government benefits flowing. 

  In any case, we find tax money flows freely to foreign nationals, and immigration to the United States is heavily subsidized. We should not be surprised when a lot of immigrants show up to get their share. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 15:30

• War Expands With Massive Israeli Airstrikes 60km Deep Into Lebanon
  War Expands With Massive Israeli Airstrikes 60km Deep Into Lebanon

  The Israel-Hezbollah war is expanding, which was on display Monday as Israel for the first time struck near a large city which is deep inside Lebanon, far away from the border, in the region of Ghaziyeh.

  Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari has confirmed in a statement that military was behind large airstrikes that rocked a town just south of Sidon earlier in the day. Hagari the strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons depots, and also served as a response to an explosive-laden that struck northern Israel previously on Monday. Video captured the moment of the massive airstrikes:

  Happening now: More footage from Israel’s bombing of Lebanese civilian areas 45 kms from the border. It is clearly visible that these are homes in a residential area. Sidon is under the control of the Lebanese army, which receives financial assistance from the US govt. pic.twitter.com/ebTde3HvWG

  — Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) February 19, 2024

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  Sidon is the third largest city in Lebanon, and the region that was attack lies at least 45-60 kilometers from the Israeli border. So far the tit-for-tat strikes which stretch back to early October, following the Hamas terror attack on southern Israel, have been confined to southern Lebanon. Fighting has by and large stayed to within kilometers of the border on either side.

  “Israeli jets attacked near Sidon on Monday, Israeli media reported, citing the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper,” regional media also confirms. “The two strikes occurred in the region of Ghaziyeh some 60 km from Israel’s northern border.”

  Videos of the strikes show a huge fireball erupt high into the air…

  ⚡️First moments of the zionist airstrikes on the Ghaziyeh area in Lebanon pic.twitter.com/WGQWW22rYY

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 19, 2024

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  This also marks the first time a Sunni-dominant area has been hit (as opposed to focusing on the Shia south, where Hezbollah has most sway)…

  BREAKING: Massive Israeli military attack against #Lebanon targets civilian areas near major coastal city, Sidon. Is Tel Aviv trying to incite the Sunni of Lebanon? Sidon is where ex-PM Rafik Hariri hails from. It is 5 days since the anniversary of his assassination. pic.twitter.com/vB72KWWUVN

  — Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) February 19, 2024

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  Lebanese national media has since described the attack as against an industrial facility, amid the ongoing emergency response…

  خاص NBN

  كاميرا الـ NBN ترصد الاستهداف الاسرائيلي لمستودع الزيوت ومعمل الباطون في الغازية#زمن_فلسطين pic.twitter.com/AXisCoIXWd

  — nbnlebanon (@nbntweets) February 19, 2024

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  Casualties in Ghaziyeh are as yet unknown, but the location was deep in a civilian area along the coast.

  Meanwhile there are reports of missile alert sirens sounding once again in various towns of northern Israel, which portend the coming Hezbollah response.

  Attack is unprecedented since fighting began following Oct.7, given this is very deep inside Lebanese territory:

  

  Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz recently repeated a warning to the Lebanese government, saying that if Hezbollah isn’t removed from near the border that Lebanon would “pay a heavy price”. However, Lebanon’s Army is widely seen as not having the capability to remove the powerful Shia paramilitary group backed by Iran, which would also most certainly set off another civil war.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 15:00

• GOP Efforts To Shore Up Election Security In Swing States Face Challenges
  GOP Efforts To Shore Up Election Security In Swing States Face Challenges

  Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Massive voter fraud allegations that marred the 2020 election spurred a political and grassroots movement from coast to coast to pursue an array of election reforms designed to increase election integrity.

  

  However, with just months left ahead of the 2024 election, Republicans say little was mended, especially in contested states where they thought fixes were needed most.

  Much concern is centered around five key swing states that became the focus of 2020: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

  Election reforms tend to follow party lines. Democrats commonly castigate increased election security measures as voter suppression, while Republicans often condemn laws and directives that loosen security as aiding and abetting voter fraud.

  According to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice, a left leaning, non-profit, law and research foundation, 23 states enacted 53 laws relaxing election security restrictions in 2023, while 14 states enacted 17 laws tightening them.

   The statistics suggest that Democrats are still winning the nationwide battle, as they have for the past several years. The report found the states that took the most actions to tighten election security are the places that already had security measures in place.

  Of the 14 states that tightened voting procedures, President Trump won all but one (New Mexico) in both 2016 and 2020. The 14 states listed by the Brennan Center include Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

  The methods by which Americans cast their ballots have changed markedly over the last four federal election cycles, with many people embracing election procedures such as no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, and same-day voter registration.

  As early as 2005, the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission raised concerns that mail-in voting was a vehicle for potentially significant election fraud, yet the method has since steadily grown.

  In 2018, a quarter of the electorate voted by mail, according to a study by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). By 2022, it had become one-third.

  Forty-six states and territories permitted no-excuse absentee voting in 2022. The number was 43 in 2020 and 40 in 2018.

  Twenty-three states and territories had a permanent absentee voter list in 2022—a practice that allows a voter to request to automatically be sent a mail-in ballot in every succeeding election. No new application or update of registration information is required in most of them.

  In the 2022 election, half the states and territories allowed same-day voter registration.

  In the election cycles before the pandemic, the EAC study said that nearly 60 percent of Americans voted in person on election day. In 2022, the figure was 49 percent.

  Before the pandemic, mail-in ballot drop boxes were rare, with most being deployed in or around an election office. By 2022, there were 13,000 drop boxes being used in 39 states, with many boxes placed in settings that lacked security and surveillance measures.

  Fifteen of the 39 states and territories using drop boxes, including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, and Maine, couldn’t report how many ballots were collected from their receptacles in 2022, the report said.

  

  According to the EAC study, 334,382 voting machines were used in the nation’s polling places in 2022. The utilization of electronic ballot marking devices was up 18.6 percent from 2020, while the use of electronic scanners rose 7.8 percent in the same period.

  Despite the push by some election integrity activists for the hand-counting of ballots as a means to improve accuracy and security, the method was used by only 17.8 percent of jurisdictions in 2022, down from 20.7 percent in 2020.

  And although chain of custody protections for ballots are being tightened in several states, dirty voter registration rolls—resulting in mail-in ballots being sent to ineligible people, undeliverable addresses, or multiple ballots being sent to the same individual—are still a widespread issue.

  Georgia

  The state of Georgia has been the scene of continuous controversy over the conduct of the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election in which challenger Mr. Biden defeated incumbent President Trump by 11,779 votes (0.23 percent).

  The persistent public outcry over alleged election fraud prompted the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly to pass the 95-page Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021.

  

  The declared purpose of the legislation is to apply “the lessons learned” in 2020 and “make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” in the future.

  An explanatory notation in the bill acknowledged that there was a “significant lack of confidence” in the state’s election systems stemming from persistent allegations of “rampant voter fraud” and “rampant voter suppression.”

  “The changes made in this legislation in 2021 are designed to address the lack of elector confidence in the election system on all sides of the political spectrum,” the notation said.

  In order to ensure that more votes are not counted than ballots cast, every precinct, by 10 p.m. on election night, must post the number of all ballots cast, including all absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7 p.m.

  The new law mandates that the total number of cast ballots must equal the number of ballots counted.

  No pauses are allowed once the counting begins, as were seen in the early morning hours in Atlanta in 2020.

  To help achieve a timely vote count, the statute allows absentee ballots to be processed days before the election, but the voter’s choices must not be tabulated until the counting begins on election day.

  The act provides that ballots shall be printed with authentication marks in order to eliminate counterfeiting.

  To deter duplicate voting and ballot harvesting, the statute mandates that mail-in ballot applications be sent out only at a registered elector’s request, and nobody but statutorily specified individuals may return a marked absentee ballot filled out by another person. Seeking to obtain more than one absentee ballot can now expose an individual to legal penalties.

  When applying for an absentee ballot, the new law requires a person to provide the numbers from either their driver’s license or state-issued identification card or the last four digits of their social security number.

  To expand opportunities to vote, early voting is now an option for three weeks before the election. The law makes early voting on Sunday available at the choice of each county.

  

  The new legislation codifies the use of drop boxes in 2024, but mandates they be placed in secure, well-lit, locations with continuous human monitoring. To protect the chain of custody, two people are now required to deliver the contents of a drop box to an election clerk.

  The act prohibits local officials from accepting non-government funds, grants, or gifts in connection with election administration.

  In 2023, the Georgia legislature passed SB-222 to bolster the 2021 prohibition to make it a crime.

  In protest to the new 2021 measures, Major League Baseball deemed them “restrictive,” and moved that year’s All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado.

  Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican, said that although improvements have been made since 2020, much meaningful work is still needed.

  “Nothing of substance has changed since 2020. Every mechanism to facilitate a steal is still in place,” he told The Epoch Times. “We must work to eliminate the vulnerabilities still in place today.”

  Mr. Moore also highlighted the “ridiculous” number of absentee ballots still used in Georgia elections and said they ought to be restricted to military personnel and medically disabled citizens. He said he was also worried about the institutionalization of the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, which he believes should be done away with altogether.

  “We need to make it a legislative priority to stop authoritarian figures like [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis from prosecuting people for merely questioning our elections. Her actions have created a chilling effect among my colleagues in the legislature,” he said.

  “Unless we obtain a legislative solution soon, we must resolve to overcome fraud through an overwhelming turnout in November.”

  

  Michigan

  Right after being elected in 2018, Michigan’s Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used her veto power to shoot down nearly 20 election integrity reform bills sent to her desk by the then-Republican-controlled state legislature.

  In the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump lost Michigan to Joe Biden by 154,000 votes or 2.8 percent.

  Afterwards, judges in six different court cases found that Michigan’s Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson issued inaccurate or legally unauthorized guidance to local officials in the runup to the 2020 general election.

  When Ms. Whitmer was reelected in 2022 and Democrats captured control of the legislature, within a year 12 new Democrat-sponsored election laws were enacted—all of which Republicans say loosen security.

  The new Democrat-authored statutes extend automatic voter registration to other state agencies and offices beyond the Secretary of State’s office, which issues driver’s licenses in Michigan.

  They liberalize online registration and allow a person to apply for an absentee ballot online. They permit 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote.

  During the past several election cycles, Democrat activists, backed by out-of-state, big-money donors, effectively used the ballot initiative process to repeal existing election laws, enact new laws, and amend the state constitution. Two of the largest contributors were the Sixteen Thirty Fund ($11 million) and the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundation ($1.2 million).

  The ballot initiative method was employed to expand and institutionalize the use of mail-in ballot drop boxes, allow no-excuse absentee voting, permit same-day registration and voting, and shorten the length of residency required to register to vote.

  The initiative process was also used to weaken photo ID requirements by mandating that election officials accept an affidavit of identity signed by the prospective voter instead. It also enabled people to request to automatically receive an absentee ballot for every election in perpetuity, and it authorized taxpayer-funded, postage-free mailing for people returning absentee ballot applications or mail-in ballots.

  Left-wing activist groups also utilized the initiative process to obtain the constitutional right to nine consecutive days of early voting; and early voting sites can now be used by people from more than one community within a county.

  The ballot proposals enacting these new laws were approved handily by the Michigan electorate at the polls.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 14:35

• "12 Fellas Down. 1 To Go": Nikki Haley Has Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend On Social Media
  “12 Fellas Down. 1 To Go”: Nikki Haley Has Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend On Social Media

  The only thing more hilarious than Nikki Haley continuing to remain in the 2024 presidential race despite zero chance of winning is her completely inept social media team – which suggested she’s more than just a whore for the military-industrial complex.

  

  In Sunday afternoon tweet, ‘Haley’ let the world know: “12 fellas down. 1 to go.”

  12 fellas down. 1 to go.

  — Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 18, 2024

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  While we’re sure whatever 22-year-old feminist wrote that had the best intentions, that’s not how it came off…

  You probably shouldn’t have tweeted this… pic.twitter.com/JHsVXzfIbO

  — Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) February 18, 2024

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  That’s a lot of fellas. pic.twitter.com/9K9rgztGhP

  — Emergent Perspective (@_emergent_) February 18, 2024

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  You ever get the feeling that Haley’s staff hates her?

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 19, 2024

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  Husband out of town again?

  — 🇺🇸 Be Light 🇺🇲 (@BonX41A) February 18, 2024

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

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAnd if that wasn’t bad enough – they don’t even know how to use X! Later that day, after the ‘I’m a huge whore’ tweet, a staffer using X Pro (formerly Tweetdeck), scheduled Haley’s entire week of pre-canned tweets (so very authentic!) in under an hour.

  DEVELOPING: A Nikki Haley staffer using Tweetdeck (now X Pro) for the first time just scheduled all of Haley’s posts for the week to drop within the hour. We are on 26 tweets in less than 40 minutes. pic.twitter.com/A1Rtdq6D5D

  — Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) February 18, 2024

  Someone is about to get fired 😂

  — R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 18, 2024

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  There’s no remedy for incompetence.

  — Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) February 18, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/19/2024 – 14:10

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• US Officials Concede No Active Surveillance On Long-Term Effects Of COVID-19 Vaccines
  US Officials Concede No Active Surveillance On Long-Term Effects Of COVID-19 Vaccines

  Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  In a Feb. 15 hearing by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, U.S. health officials side-stepped a question when asked whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is actively conducting extended safety surveillance on those who received early COVID-19 vaccines.

  

  Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) asked Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, whether the FDA is conducting active surveillance and if there are any specific health markers they’re studying that may signal trends requiring further inquiry.

  “Every time we go through and do the safety surveillance, we start back, and it goes back to 2020. In some cases where we’re looking for certain things, we might use a different window, but indeed, we have to look from the beginning of the period of surveillance. I can turn it over to Dr. Jernigan because he can speak for CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] in that regard,” Dr. Marks said.

  “So with regard to myocarditis, we certainly have been monitoring the issue with various different data systems. I think the most recent data really demonstrates that you’re about eight times less likely to get myocarditis if you’re vaccinated compared to those that are unvaccinated,” Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC responded.

  Rep. Malliotakis told Jernigan she wanted to know about “everything,” not just myocarditis.

  Dr. Jerrigan asked her to repeat the question, and she asked again whether the FDA was conducting extended safety surveillance on early recipients of COVID-19 vaccines.

  “Most of the reports that we get of adverse events are in the few weeks following the vaccination,” Jernigan said. In terms of monitoring these over time, Jernigan said the agency has “vaccine effectiveness” systems in place at the CDC.

  Neither Jernigan nor Marks referenced any active surveillance initiatives being undertaken by their agencies to monitor people who received the original COVID-19 vaccines for long-term health effects.

  “There is no system in place for long-term vaccine safety surveillance in this country,” Ms. Liz Willner, founder of OpenVAERS, told The Epoch Times.

  “The FDA and CDC do not actively search for safety signals. They did not find the myocarditis or the thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome that led to the withdrawal of the J&J COVID vaccine—those signals were discovered by the European Medicines Agency. The Vaccine Safety Datalink has never corroborated any vaccine safety signals, including myocarditis, because you cannot find what you are not looking for,” she added.

  According to the CDC, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a passive reporting system co-managed by the FDA and CDC that relies on individuals to send reports of their experiences to the agencies. It is not designed to determine whether a vaccine caused a health condition. The Vaccine Safety Datalink uses electronic health data from participating sites to monitor and assess the safety of vaccines and is not available to the public.

  At one point during the hearing, Dr. Marks was asked whether COVID-19 vaccines have resulted in an increase in cancers and whether “turbo cancers” are real.

  “I’m a hematologist oncologist that’s board certified. I don’t know what a turbo cancer is. It was a term that was used first in a paper in mouse experiments describing an inflammatory response,” Dr. Marks said. “We have not detected any increase in cancers with the COVID-19 vaccines.”

  The inquiry was part of a long line of questioning to examine the government’s post-marketing surveillance of COVID-19 vaccine safety and the process for adjudication claims for compensation.

  FDA Director Dr. Peter Marks said they tried to be prepared for reports that may come into VAERS but received a “tremendous” avalanche of adverse event reports after COVID-19 vaccines were released.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 23:20

• Mapping The World's Top 50 Science And Technology Hubs
  Mapping The World’s Top 50 Science And Technology Hubs

  In 2023, the world experienced another wave of science and technology (S&T) innovation, from the introduction of the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. to the stunning growth of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence.

  This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, explores the world’s top 50 science and technology hubs leading these innovations based on data from the Global Innovation Index 2023. Hubs were ranked by their combined share of international patent applications and scientific publications.

  

  East Asia Dominance in S&T

  The world’s five most significant science and technology hubs are in East Asia.

  The top-ranked Tokyo-Yokohama cluster made up just over 10% of all patent applications between 2018-2022.

  Cluster	Country/Economy	Patent Applications	Scientific Publications
  Tokyo-Yokohama	🇯🇵 Japan	127,418	115,020
  Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou	🇨🇳/🇭🇰 China/Hong Kong	113,482	153,180
  Seoul	🇰🇷 South Korea	63,447	133,604
  Beijing	🇨🇳 China	38,067	279,485
  Shanghai-Suzhou	🇨🇳 China	32,924	162,635
  San Jose-San Francisco	🇺🇸 U.S.	47,269	58,575
  Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto	🇯🇵 Japan	38,413	51,948
  Boston-Cambridge	🇺🇸 U.S.	18,184	76,378
  San Diego	🇺🇸 U.S.	23,261	20,928
  New York City	🇺🇸 U.S.	13,838	74,849
  Nanjing	🇨🇳 China	7,143	113,488
  Paris	🇫🇷 France	15,176	61,692
  Wuhan	🇨🇳 China	6,250	89,756
  Hangzhou	🇨🇳 China	10,755	62,924
  Nagoya	🇯🇵 Japan	17,736	16,091
  Los Angeles,	🇺🇸 U.S.	11,556	44,058
  Washington, DC–Baltimore	🇺🇸 U.S.	5,525	76,039
  Daejeon	🇰🇷 South Korea	12,275	25,552
  Xi’an	🇨🇳 China	1,786	86,937
  London	🇬🇧 Great Britain	5,981	59,068
  Seattle	🇺🇸 U.S.	11,472	20,322
  Munich	🇩🇪 Germany	10,248	24,239
  Qingdao	🇨🇳 China	7,286	39,745
  Chengdu	🇨🇳 China	2,046	67,334
  Cologne	🇩🇪 Germany	7,466	34,286
  Amsterdam–Rotterdam	🇳🇱 Netherlands	4,230	52,864
  Taipei–Hsinchu	🇹🇼 Taiwan	3,907	52,752
  Houston	🇺🇸 U.S.	8,475	24,636
  Stuttgart	🇩🇪 Germany	9,342	14,874
  Tel Aviv–Jerusalem	🇮🇱 Israel	7,268	24,219
  Moscow	🇷🇺 Russia	2,036	55,086
  Chicago	🇺🇸 U.S.	5,763	32,343
  Singapore	🇸🇬/🇲🇾 Singapore/Malaysia	4,861	36,803
  Tehran	🇮🇷 Iran	249	63,113
  Philadelphia	🇺🇸 U.S.	5,390	32,309
  Tianjin	🇨🇳 China	1,267	53,680
  Changsha	🇨🇳 China	1,149	52,768
  Stockholm	🇸🇪 Sweden	6,069	19,984
  Minneapolis	🇺🇸 U.S.	6,625	15,375
  Hefei	🇨🇳 China	2,549	38,974
  Eindhoven	🇳🇱 Netherlands	7,982	5,339
  Melbourne	🇦🇺 Australia	2,126	40,056
  Berlin	🇩🇪 Germany	3,624	30,464
  Chongqing	🇨🇳 China	1,651	41,412
  Frankfurt am Main	🇩🇪 Germany	5,410	18,590
  Sydney	🇦🇺 Australia	2,539	33,695
  Raleigh	🇺🇸 U.S.	3,057	30,206
  Madrid	🇪🇸 Spain	1,580	38,849
  Zürich	🇨🇭 Switzerland	3,759	24,437
  Milan	🇮🇹 Italy	2,578	31,077

  The first American cluster on the list, the San Francisco Bay Area, is home to major tech companies such as Adobe, eBay, Google, and PayPal.

  Along with Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most S&T-intensive clusters relative to overall population density.

  For the first time, China topped the list of countries with the highest number of clusters among the top 100, having 24 total. The United States follows, with 21 clusters, then Germany with nine.

  In addition, nearly every Chinese cluster rose in the rankings compared to last year, with only Beijing falling by one place.

  São Paulo (Brazil); Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai (India); Tehran (Islamic Republic of Iran); Istanbul and Ankara (Türkiye); and Moscow (Russian Federation) are the only middle-income economy clusters outside China.

  According to the Global Innovation Index, the U.S. leads in research and development (R&D) expenditure, followed by China, Japan, Germany, and the Republic of Korea.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 22:45

• Black Activist Lawyer's Idea To Stop Law-Breaking: Just Legalize Crime
  Black Activist Lawyer’s Idea To Stop Law-Breaking: Just Legalize Crime

  Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

  During a recent appearance on MSNBC, a black activist lawyer suggested that crime in the United States could be completely eliminated if all crime was just legalized.

  

  Yes, really.

  The comments were made by Ben Crump, who specializes in civil rights cases and was the attorney for the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

  The most insane thing you have ever heard from@MSNBC

  Celebrity Black activist lawyer @BenCrumpLaw
  says that criminal behavior in America is just Black culture. Demands the legalization of crime.@TheRevAl and other Black racial activists all express agreement. pic.twitter.com/bfEQr0b7AU

  — National Conservative (@NatCon2022) February 17, 2024

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

  “We can get rid of all the crime in America overnight, just like that,” Crump told his fellow guests, one of whom was civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

  “And people ask ‘how attorney Crump?’ – change the definition of crime.”

  “Of course!” responded another guest.

  “If you get to define what conduct is gonna be made criminal, you can predict who the criminals are gonna be,” added Crump.

  Another guest responded by saying that suggested all black people were criminals by their nature.

  “They made the laws to criminalize our culture – black culture,” responded Crump.

  Respondents on X asserted that Crump was essentially acknowledging someone he probably didn’t intend to.

  “Criminal behaviour in America is just black culture? Wow, I didn’t know that…” https://t.co/P7FkNRPPQz pic.twitter.com/A1FALmTEZK

  — RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9) February 18, 2024

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  I mean, this has been the Democrat position for a long time, he’s just saying it out loud.

  — Karl Kole (@DDPuncher) February 17, 2024

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  Actually he’s pretty close to right. Black African and Tribal cultures allow a lot of killing, and taking of property. The concept of Private Property is really from European culture. But, if they want to live like that they should go to Africa. We don’t want it here.

  — Bob Allen (@BobAlle58828655) February 17, 2024

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  It’s literally “can’t break the law if there is no law” w/ black meme gif guy tapping his head

  — Glyn Dŵr (@glyndwr619) February 17, 2024

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  Anyone still doubt that there’s no fixing this?

  — Joe Blow (@JoeBlowIdunno12) February 17, 2024

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  Let’s hear them out. I want a list of actions that are currently criminal that they want to decriminalise. I’m all ears.

  — Carl Benjamin (@Sargon_of_Akkad) February 17, 2024

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  Meanwhile, Scott Adams was unavailable for comment.

  Scott Adams has become a meme for noticing the things that you’re not supposed to notice. pic.twitter.com/ll9UmDo1uz

  — Rosie’s Space Nukes (@DarnelSugarfoo) February 26, 2023

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  *  *  *

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 22:10

• "Enough Is Enough": 'Squad' Member Tlaib Comes Out Against Biden
  “Enough Is Enough”: ‘Squad’ Member Tlaib Comes Out Against Biden

  Democratic Socialist Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) encouraged Democrats to “vote uncommitted” in the Feb. 27 presidential primary due to the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in the Gaza strip.

  

  An “uncommitted” vote is a form of protest designed to send a message.

  “Right now, we feel completely neglected and just unseen by our government,” Tlaib said in a video to Michigan residents filmed outside of a civic center in Dearborn. “If you want us to be louder, then come here and vote uncommitted.”

  On Wednesday, Tlaib was the only member of Congress to vote against a resolution condemning Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In her message, she said she wants voters to “support life” and “stand up for every single life killed in Gaza.”

  “It is important, as you all know, to not only march against the genocide, not only make sure that we’re calling our members of Congress and local electeds,” said Tlaib, who in November accused Biden of supporting “genocide” in Gaza.

  “It is also important to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn to say, ‘Enough is enough. We don’t want a country that supports wars and bombs and destruction.’”

  NEW ENDORSEMENT: “If you want us to be louder, come here and vote uncommitted.” –@RashidaTlaib pic.twitter.com/8pxuUjq5QG

  — #ListenToMichigan (@Listen2michigan) February 17, 2024

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  “I want you to think of all of the amazing young children and the people again, lives were lost in Gaza. This is the way you can raise our voices. Don’t make us even more invisible,” continued Tlaib, a vocal critic of Israel.

  Tlaib marks the highest-profile Democrat so far to get behind the so-called “Listen to Michigan” campaign, which hopes to raise 10,000 “uncommitted” votes for its cause (around the same margin Donald Trump won the swing state in 2016).

  Over the past three and a half months, Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza has strained his relationship with progressives.

  “A lot of people in our base are feeling really hesitant about supporting Joe Biden,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, spokesperson for climate-focused youth group Sunrise Movement, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “Joe Biden needs the young generation in order to win and that is going to require him doing a lot on climate, on Gaza, on immigration, to try and regain trust that’s been broken.“

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 21:35

• WHCA Vs WHCO: White House Correspondents Blast The White House Over Heavy-Handed Media Memo
  WHCA Vs WHCO: White House Correspondents Blast The White House Over Heavy-Handed Media Memo

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We have previously discussed the increasingly aggressive role of the White House Counsel’s Office (WHCO) in defending President Joe Biden, including spreading disinformation about various investigations. WHCO spokesman Ian Sams has taken the lead in attacking critics and denying facts related to corruption and other allegations.

  Now, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) is blasting a memo in which the WHCO instructs reporters on how to cover the recent Hur report and allegations of the President’s diminished faculties.

  

  Sams is not a lawyer. He is a political operative who has worked extensively for Democratic candidates and the Democratic National Committee, including a stint with Hillary Clinton. He was recently accused by the former head of the WHCA (and my former student) Jon Decker of giving false statements concerning the Special Counsel’s report.

  There have been previous controversies over instructions given to the media by the White House. While the media has often been accused of maintaining a largely unified front protecting the President, actual memos directing their responses insulted many in the media. That is just not how this is done. You have to maintain certain proprieties and appearances.

  Indeed, when the President recently snapped at a reporter by saying “that is not the judgment of the press,” it seemed to say the quiet part out loud in the ability of the White House to dictate coverage.

  

  The most recent controversy came after Sams sent another letter with media instructions. Sams lays out how the report should be spinned in the media, putting in writing what is often conveyed in “background” chats with reporters.

  It proved too much for WHCA president Kelly O’Donnell who called it “misdirected.” She added that “[a]s a non-profit organization that advocates for its members in their efforts to cover the presidency, the WHCA does not, cannot, and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news.”

  In my testimony at the Biden impeachment hearing, I raised the role of Sams and the White House staff in advocating for the President:

  ”To the extent that the President has used White House staff to maintain false claims or resist disclosures, it can fit into the type of Nixonian abuse of power model.”

  The WHCO has long distinguished between the interests of a president and the presidency. Biden has his own personal counsel to oppose these allegations. That separation has now collapsed under White House Counsel Ed Siskel, who appears to approve of this advocacy role as Sams routinely lashes out at critics and investigators.

  As noted in a recent column, Sams’s work is precariously close to the line drawn in past impeachments. Indeed, he may have already crossed over in the effort to swat back investigations into corruption allegations. Sams’s effort to spin out of these scandals could easily end up spinning the White House into an actual impeachment.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 21:00

• Chinese Stocks Set To Soar
  Chinese Stocks Set To Soar

  After the 10-day Lunar new Year holiday, Chinese markets are all set to reopen with China with a positive lead from the Hong Kong and ADR rally last week. as UBS notes, a lot of the press reports has been focused on the improvement in consumption in China, despite the ongoing deflation and property crisis concerns, but as always, the big question remains on the sustainability of any rebound. Very upbeat travel-related data news span from rail trips, online hotel bookings, spending on Meituan, Macau visitation data, and tourism spending. State media reported over the weekend that about 474mn domestic tourist trips were made during the 8-day holiday, up 19% from the same period in 2019. Total tourism spending climbed nearly 8% from that year to CNY633 bn, while domestic trips reportedly rose 34% and spending reportedly increased 47% from 2023.

  Not surprisingly, the UBS desk says that it is better buying across the region, with early flows showing a 2:1 buy skew.

  Below we dig deeper into the latest market dynamics as summarized by Bloomberg Markets Live reporters George Lei, Henry Ren and Jacob Gu, who lay out the three main things we learned about China last week:

  1. A-shares are likely to start the Year of the Dragon with a bang, extending a rally that began before the Lunar New Year hiatus. That’s after investors piled into US-listed Chinese stocks in the week ended Feb. 16, when onshore markets were closed. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index advanced more than 4% in the period, helping drive month-to-date gains for the gauge to almost 10%. In Europe, stocks of luxury brands with exposure to Chinese demand also gained traction last week. For those who don’t hold direct stakes in Chinese companies, buying options has become an increasingly popular trade.

  

  Initial government reports pointed to a nationwide resurgence in road, rail and air travel over the week-long holiday, signaling a possible pickup in consumer spending. Beijing’s next steps to support the economy will come into focus when mainland markets reopen on Monday. The first data point to watch will be Tuesday’s decision regarding the five-year loan prime rate, which could be reduced by 10 basis points, according to consensus economist forecast.

  

  2. Sentiment toward the broader Chinese market appears to be improving after a poor start to 2024. The outlook is becoming “incrementally more positive” and investors should pivot to “risk on” trades on Chinese equities, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a research report on Friday.

  The MSCI China Index is now trading below the bank’s year-end target of 56 under a bearish scenario, which presents buying opportunities, according to strategists including Wendy Liu and Marko Kolanovic. “If overcapacity sectors do see restricted equity issuance, leading players in the renewables and new energy vehicle ecosystem should benefit,” they wrote. Internet names such as Tencent, Alibaba and Meituan that were among the most net sold by active funds before the Lunar New Year may also see a reversal in flows, they added.

  3. While China has been on holiday, global investors have been snapping up cheap options to hedge risks of a bigger-than-expected yuan drop. Societe Generale advised clients on Wednesday to take advantage of “multi-year low” prices and buy three-month USD/CNH risk reversals as protection against a move above 7.25. Yuan’s low volatility is mainly due to PBOC fixing, which hasn’t moved much over the past couple months but could face increasing challenges down the road, according to the French bank.

  With US consumer and producer price gauges last month pointing to inflationary momentum, Citigroup, Societe Generale and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers are all telling investors to brace for the potential of a Fed hike, rather than cuts that have been largely priced in. Depreciation pressure on the Chinese currency looks set to persist.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 20:31

• "Everything Is Going Wrong For The Deep State" – Martin Armstrong Warns That's What "Makes Them So Dangerous" Now
  “Everything Is Going Wrong For The Deep State” – Martin Armstrong Warns That’s What “Makes Them So Dangerous” Now

  Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

  Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is predicting political turmoil, civilian unrest, war and a big economic downturn in 2024 in a new report called “The Year from Political Hell.” 

  It’s not just a US election year, but it is an election year for more than half of the world.  This is a global phenomenon which no one can be sure of the outcome. 

  

  Armstrong explains, “This is not just the United States election. This is what you hear on the news locally…”

  ” However, step outside this country, and, for example, Indonesia just voted in a leftist government.  You have the EU going for elections.  You have on May 2nd all the local elections in Britian. You have Russian elections on May 7th.  60% of the world is going to the polls in 2024 to vote for a new government.  You might as well throw them into a tumbler, shake well and see what comes out.  I mean it’s all over the place.”

  On the war front, get ready for more mass killing, and don’t be surprised if it goes nuclear.  Armstrong predicts,

   “There will be nuclear weapons.  The neocons keep telling people on Capitol Hill that Russia would never use a nuke because they know we would use them back. That is nonsense!  If you are about ready to conquer somebody, and this is all they’ve got left, they are pushing the button…

  These people, all they want is war.  They don’t care.  They really do not care.  They don’t care about the economy.  They don’t care about anything.”

  Armstrong says the coming war will make the economy “crash in 2024” as people get scared, spend a lot less and save a lot more.  Armstrong says,

  “What we are looking at is a contraction in spending because of uncertainty. 

  This is what these neocons are creating, and they don’t want to listen to anybody, and it is just their agenda, and they don’t care what happens to the country…

  We are looking for a contraction of 12% to 18%.  GDP is not going to be rising, but you are going to find inflation still rising.”

  Armstrong also says to look for “a rebellion in government debt” as people lose faith in governments around the world.  This rebellion in government issued debt will include US Treasuries, according to Armstrong.  This means interest rates will continue to trend upward and not downward.

  On volatility in the markets, Armstrong predicts, “Look for volatility to start around July, and there may be some false flags too.”

  Armstrong continues to say Trump is still looking like he can “win in a landslide in 2024,” but expect the Deep State to pull every dirty trick in the book to keep him out of office.  Armstrong points out,

  “If Trump gets back in power, they are all fired. . . . They know they are losing power.  Instead of reforming and doing the right thing, they clamp down and they think they can retain power by pressing us even more.  Sorry, but that’s what creates revolution.”

  In closing, Armstrong says, “Pretty much everything is going wrong for the Deep State. . . . confidence in government has collapsed everywhere.”

  This is what makes the Deep State Dems, RINOs and Neocons very dangerous.

  By the way, Armstrong says he would be a buyer of physical gold to hold as a core asset.

  There is much more in the 1-hour and 4-minute interview.

  Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong, who gives a preview of his new report called “The 2024 Outlook: The Year from Political Hell?”  for 2.17.24.

  * * *

  To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

  There is some free information, analysis and articles on ArmstrongEconomics.com. If you want to buy the new in-depth report called “The 2024 Outlook: The Year from Political Hell?” click here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 19:50

• In Trading, "The Narrower Your Focus, The Tighter Your Timing, The More Likely You'll Lose"
  In Trading, “The Narrower Your Focus, The Tighter Your Timing, The More Likely You’ll Lose”

  By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

  Top Down

  Ten percent of endowments are run by top-down macro guys,” said Lone Star, one of the top-performing endowment CIOs. “We hunt for ten-year trends, gale force tailwinds, and position our portfolios around those,” he said. “Getting the macro right allows me to make a lot of mistakes and still win.” The top-down macro approach requires a far smaller investment team than the ‘best-manager’ approach and the ‘best-ideas’ approach of endowment management. “We run our money without any specific targets for an asset class, a region, or anything else. And I can beat the benchmarks by 500-600bps.”

  “I have infinite-life capital, so I don’t need to be right on timing,” said Lone Star. “The narrower your focus, the tighter your timing, the more likely you’ll lose,” he explained. “The broader and longer your view, the more likely you’ll win.” Indeed.

  “And if you believe in the random walk, then a drunk person will not always stumble left. A bearish person will not always make money being max short, and a bullish person won’t get rich by always being leveraged long. So, you lean against extremes, trade around your themes. And compound.”

  “Oil is going to get tight over the coming five years,” said Lone Star. “If you look at the demand curves, the decline curves, we’re missing 3-5mm barrels per day out a few years,” he said. “The kinds of tailwinds I look for are all about supply — you can’t bring enough new supply online in time for rising demand. Right now, investors are unwilling to fund sufficient new oil supply,” he said. “Semiconductors. We’re looking at trough earnings and trough values. Ask yourself, how many semiconductors will the world need in ten years? The answer is a lot.”

  “AI will make the internet’s impact look like child’s play,” said Lone Star. “Who’s going to win?” he asked, rhetorically. “Everyone. That’s who. Maybe it’ll take 5-7 years, but everyone wins here,” he said. “People tell me corporate margins are too high, but I see AI as pushing them up another 2-3 percent. Multiply that by a 20x PE and stocks should be 40-60% higher just on that,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s straight up. We could see wild moves. We will. But it’s why we haven’t had a dollar of uninvested cash in our portfolio for the past year.”

  Anecdote

  “This is a thinking job,” said Lone Star. “It’s not a doing job,” continued one of America’s best-performing endowment CIOs. “It’s a job for people who pull on strings to see where they lead.” I smiled. “We screen for people with a natural curiosity and an interest in puzzles,” he explained. “Because, this game is a puzzle that’s always changing.” When I started One River in 2013, Lone Star had taken the reins of one of America’s worst performing endowments. He’s been in the Top-5 for the past 1yr, 3yrs, 5yrs running. “I surround myself with a tight group of the top thinkers across a range of disciplines, best in class types, and we hunt for opportunities, themes, and commit capital together, make concentrated bets.” Back in March and April of 2020, when One River’s long vol strategies were surging, he hit the ATM hard, pulling cash from our funds every Friday, redeploying that capital into deeply distressed securities. That’s how you compound at extraordinary rates.

  “I’ve got a few deep distress guys, top-down guys, volatility experts, equity guys, credit, macro thinkers,” he said. “At any given point in time, I have $1mm with probably half my managers, and a couple billion deployed to the others.” As the investment opportunity set shifts, those allocations swing. “A lot of people in my seat have huge teams who scour the world, meeting thousands of managers, and they think that kind of work is how they’ll outperform. No doubt, they can find the best manager in Pakistan,” he said. “In general, those kinds of investors don’t think they can make money in markets, but I do,” said Lone Star. “So I spend my time with a small team, internal and external, thinking, hunting, searching the markets for things to own that other investors don’t yet realize they’ll need to buy.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 19:15

• San Francisco Appoints First Non-Citizen To Election Commission
  San Francisco Appoints First Non-Citizen To Election Commission

  Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

  San Francisco’s Elections Commission has, for what is believed to be a first time in history, appointed a non-U.S. citizen, who isn’t legally allowed to vote, to serve as an official.

  

  The officer, Kelly Wong, was sworn in on Wednesday, according to local news outlet KQED. It reported that Ms. Wong, an immigrant rights advocate, is a native of Hong Kong who arrived in the United States in 2019 for graduate studies.

  She was sworn in by Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin during a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall after winning unanimous support from the board.

  “This appointment is a milestone for all immigrant and marginalized communities throughout SF,” Ms. Wong said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday. “Representation matters: thousands of immigrants living in the city hold stakes in politics and there’s no better way to have us be represented than to serve in leadership positions.”

  “I am deeply committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of immigration status, has a seat at the table in shaping the future of our city.”

  The appointment of a non-citizen to city boards, commissions, and advisory bodies was made possible in a 2020 vote, which saw voters pass the proposal by lawmakers to remove the standing requirement that candidates seeking office hold U.S. citizenship.

  Mr. Peskin at the ceremony on Wednesday applauded Ms. Wong’s activism, saying, “I’m very impressed by her commitment to enfranchising people who rarely vote, to educating people about the voting process, and to bring in noncitizens and get them the tools they need as they become citizens,” he told KQED.

  The former resident of Hong Kong, which now belongs to China and recently saw mass pro-democracy protests over the people’s lack of true electoral representation, said she hopes to improve immigrant and non-English voter engagement in her new home city of San Francisco, which has a ranked-choice voting system. She also told KQED that one of her priorities would be to put resources into better translations of voter materials.

  “I’ve seen how language and cultural barriers prevent immigrants with limited English proficiency from fully exercising their right to vote,” Ms. Wong said.

  Ms. Wong will now join six other members of the civilian-led commission, whose job it is to oversee policy and operations for the city’s Department of Elections.

  As all member roles are unpaid, Ms. Wong said she would also continue her work for progressive advocacy group Chinese for Affirmative Action—a non-government organization founded in 1969 that is focused on protecting the “civil and political rights of Chinese Americans and to advance multiracial democracy in the United States,” the group says on its website.

  She has worked for the group since 2022.

  Chinese for Affirmative Action in 2016 supported other progressive advocacy efforts to further liberalize voting access, lobbying the government to change the law to allow non-citizens to vote on school board elections if their child attends a school in the district. Their efforts succeeded after challenges in the state’s courts.

  Ms. Wong thanked City of San Francisco’s Immigrant Rights Commissioner Sarah Souza—who arrived in the United States as an illegal immigrant child and was the first of her kind in California appointed to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee—for her successful campaign in 2020 to change the law and allow non-citizens to serve on local commissions and advisory boards.

  “Without Sarah’s advocacy and perseverance, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to represent immigrant voices and contribute to shaping the future of our communities,” Ms. Wong said in her post.

  “To all immigrants in SF: I hope my appointment to the Elections Commission serves as a beacon of hope, showing that change is possible and your voices matter in policymaking. If I can do it, you can too.”

  Vincent Pan, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, also congratulated Ms. Wong.

  He told KQED, “I’m hoping there will be a day where it won’t be as newsworthy that you have someone who’s an immigrant and a noncitizen involved in helping make the city run better, especially in a city where such a large percentage of the community is immigrants.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 18:40

• Lawless America: Truck Hauling Corvettes Hijacked In 'Grand Theft Auto'-Like Robbery
  Lawless America: Truck Hauling Corvettes Hijacked In ‘Grand Theft Auto’-Like Robbery

  Fox 10 Phoenix reports that a 23-year-old man, freshly out of jail, hijacked a tractor-trailer loaded with exotic sports cars, telling law enforcement after he was caught, he simply needed a ride. 

  According to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department in Phoenix, Arizona, the suspect, Isaiah Walker, “assaulted and robbed” a truck driver at a Willcox Loves Truck Stop. 

  

  “Walker grabbed the victim and threw him from the cab,” the sheriff’s department wrote on Facebook. 

  The suspect then “entered the vehicle, locked the door, stole the vehicle, and drove it from the parking lot,” the sheriff’s department continued, adding the truck was hauling ten Chevrolet C8 Corvettes with an estimated value above $1.25 million. 

  

  More from the sheriff’s department, describing the chase like a scene from the violent video game ‘Grand Theft Auto’: 

  A deputy from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department located the stolen vehicle near Fort Grant Road and Browns Market where the officer attempted to stop the vehicle, which failed to yield to the deputy’s emergency lights and sirens. The stolen vehicle began driving recklessly which caused vehicles to leave the roadway. As the stolen vehicle approached North Fort Grant Road and County Line Road, the vehicle turned onto County Line Road and stopped.

  Mr. Walker was taken into custody by the Deputy and a Willcox Police Officer, who provided Mr. Walker with his Miranda Rights and interviewed him on the scene. 

  Following his arrest, Walker explained that his motive for hijacking the truck was not to steal the Corvettes. Instead, he stated he was looking for a way to get home after being released from jail. 

  Mr. Walker admitted to stealing the vehicle and advised that the Corvettes were not the reason and that he needed a truck to get home as he had just been released from prison. Mr. Walker was booked into the Cochise County Jail for multiple felony charges including Robbery, 11 counts of Theft of Means of Transportation, and Felony Theft. -sheriff 

  This nonsense reminds us of the time that radical leftist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended shoplifters as ‘hungry’ people seeking bread. 

  Common sense ‘law and order’ must be reinforced nationwide as disastrous social justice policies have only emboldened criminals. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 18:05

• Taxing Billionaires Won't Reduce Taxes For The Middle Class
  Taxing Billionaires Won’t Reduce Taxes For The Middle Class

  Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

  In a world of populist policies, the notion of taxing billionaires to alleviate the financial burdens of the middle class stands as a tempting narrative. Advocates tout it as the quintessential solution to income inequality, promising a redistribution of wealth that lifts the masses from their fiscal woes. However, this narrative, so alluring in its simplicity, crumbles upon closer examination, revealing a multitude of complexities and pitfalls that belie its benefits.

  

  Central to the fallacy of taxing billionaires lies a fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamics of government spending and deficits. Proponents of this approach often overlook the inconvenient truth that as most governments increase spending even when tax receipts rise, deficits soar to unprecedented heights, burdening future generations with a mountain of debt and always increasing taxes for the middle class.

  Taxing the rich is the door that leads to more taxes for all of us. The case of the United States is evident. No tax revenue measure is going to wipe out an annual two trillion dollar deficit. Therefore, the government announces a large tax hike for the wealthy and disguises it with more taxes for everybody and higher inflation, which is a hidden tax.

  The notion that taxing billionaires will miraculously alleviate this fiscal strain is akin to applying plaster to a gaping wound—it does not even provide temporary relief, and it fails to address the underlying malaise.

  A seminal paper by Alesina, Favero, and Giavazzi (2015) delves into the implications of government deficits on economic growth. The authors argue that persistent deficits not only crowd out private investment but also lead to higher interest rates, reduced confidence, and ultimately diminished economic growth. This underscores the importance of fiscal prudence in addressing long-term fiscal challenges and the evidence that tax hikes are not neutral.

  Billionaires mostly hold their wealth in shares of their own companies. This is what is called “paper wealth.” However, they cannot sell those shares and if they lost them, their value would decline immediately.

  The redistribution fallacy comes from three false ideas:

  • The first is the notion that billionaires do not pay taxes to begin with. The top one percent of income earners in the United States earned 22 percent of all income and paid 42 percent of all federal income.

  • The second error is believing that wealth is static—like a pie—and can be redistributed at will. Wealth is either created or destroyed. Confiscating the wealth of billionaires does not make the middle class or the poor richer. We should have learned that lesson from the numerous examples in history, from the French Revolution to the Soviet Union.

  • The third mistake is to believe that the economy is a sum-zero game where the wealth of one person is the loss of another. That is simply false because wealth is not “there.” It must be created through an exercise where all parties win in exchange for cooperation.

  The world must strive to create more wealth, not limit those who generate it.

  Consider the recent clamour for increased government intervention and spending, particularly in the wake of global crises. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments all over the world to enact a flurry of fiscal stimuli, ostensibly intended to soften the blow of the economic fallout. Yet, as the dust settles, we find ourselves grappling not only with the immediate ramifications of increased government spending but also with the long-term consequences of ballooning deficits as well as persistent inflation.

  Who came out as the loser of the redistribution and stimulus frenzy of the past decade? The middle class. It has been destroyed by persistent inflation created by printing money without control, rising debt and deficits and constantly bloating government size in the economy, which in turn creates two taxes for the middle class and the poor: inflation and rising indirect taxes.

  Critics of this approach have long warned of the dangers of irresponsible government spending. Taxing billionaires will not stop this trend of excessive bureaucracy and irresponsible administration of public services; in fact, it may accelerate it, as we have seen in so many countries, and certainly will not reduce the tax wedge on ordinary citizens.

  History is replete with cautionary tales of nations brought to their knees by unchecked fiscal excesses. From hyperinflation to sovereign debt crises, the ramifications of fiscal irresponsibility are manifold and far-reaching. And yet, in the face of mounting pressure to “tax the rich,” policymakers seem intent on repeating the mistakes of the past, heedless of the inevitable consequences.

  But the fallacy of taxing billionaires extends beyond the realm of fiscal policy—it strikes at the very heart of economic prosperity. At its core, capitalism depends on investment, entrepreneurship, and innovation—all of which are at risk from excessive taxation. The narrative that vilifies billionaires as greedy hoarders of wealth overlooks their crucial role in driving economic growth and prosperity.

  By focusing solely on redistributive measures, policymakers risk undermining the very foundations of prosperity upon which our economic system rests.

  

  Moreover, the notion that taxing billionaires will somehow level the playing field and uplift the middle class is predicated on a flawed understanding of economic reality. In truth, the global mobility of capital renders such measures largely ineffective, as the ultra-wealthy can easily relocate to jurisdictions with more favourable tax regimes. This not only undermines the efficacy of taxing billionaires as a revenue-generating mechanism but also exacerbates the very inequalities it seeks to redress.

  Indeed, the unintended consequences of excessively taxing the rich are manifold and far-reaching. From reduced investment and job creation to economic stagnation and decline, the repercussions of such policies are felt across society. And while the rhetoric of wealth redistribution may sound appealing in theory, the reality is far more sobering—a stagnant economy, diminished opportunities, and a dwindling standard of living for all.

  So, where does this leave us? If taxing billionaires is not the panacea it purports to be, what alternatives exist to address income inequality and alleviate the burdens of the middle class? The answer lies not in punitive taxation but in prudent fiscal policy, targeted policies, and a renewed focus on fostering economic growth and prosperity for all.

  Primarily, we must recognize that fiscal responsibility is not a luxury but a necessity. Governments must exercise restraint in their spending, prioritize efficiency and accountability, and resist the temptation to paper over fiscal deficits with ill-conceived tax hikes and money printing. Only through disciplined fiscal management can we hope to secure a prosperous future for generations to come.

  Second, we must recognize the vital role that entrepreneurship and investment play in driving economic growth and prosperity. Rather than demonizing billionaires as the root of all evil, we should celebrate their contributions to society and create an environment that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation. This means reducing regulatory barriers, incentivizing investment, and empowering individuals to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions.

  Finally, we must understand that opportunities provided to citizens, not the size of the government, are what define true progress. Rather than relying on the state to solve all our problems, we should empower individuals and communities to chart their own course to prosperity. This means investing in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, providing a safety net for those in need, and fostering a culture of self-reliance and personal responsibility.

  In conclusion, the fallacy of taxing billionaires lies not in its intentions but in its execution. While the notion of redistributing wealth may sound appealing in theory, the reality is far more complex. By succumbing to the allure of punitive taxation, we risk stifling economic growth, undermining prosperity, and perpetuating the very inequalities we seek to redress. Only through prudent fiscal management, targeted interventions, and a renewed focus on fostering economic growth can we hope to build a future that is truly prosperous for all.

  Socialism does not redistribute from the rich to the poor, but from the middle class to politicians.

  The fallacy of massively taxing billionaires is another trick to promote socialism, which has never been about the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, but the redistribution of wealth from the middle class to politicians.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 17:30

• Here's Where People Are Living Longer
  Here’s Where People Are Living Longer

  With improvements in medical care and living standards in many countries around the world, the 20th century saw a dramatic increase in life expectancy at birth.

  While some of the most significant gains are apparent between 1900 and 1950, apart from the immediate effects of World War II, due to a variety of economic and political developments, even the past 50 years saw a steady uptick in the estimated lifespans of the world’s population. For example, the worldwide average lifespan of a person born in 1971 was 58, while in 2021, this number rose to 71, an increase of roughly 19 percent.

  And, as Statista’s Florian Zandt details below, there are some countries around the world where this jump has been even more pronounced.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  To guarantee better comparability and show a more varied picture, we used World Bank data for these two new years and calculated the three countries per continent with the biggest percentage change in life expectancy.

  Bangladesh ranked first not only in Asia but the whole world. Life expectancy at birth in the Asian nation jumped from 26 in 1971 to 72 in 2021.

  While this number is impressive, it coincides with an external factor decreasing the chance of a long life: the Bangladesh War of Independence of 1971 between Pakistan and Bengali nationalists, whose victory laid the groundwork for the foundation of Bangladesh. The year prior, people in East Pakistan, as it was then called, had a life expectancy of 43, which would mark a 40.6 percent increase compared with 2021.

  Apart from Bangladesh, countries on the African and Asian continent, which in this definition includes the Arab peninsula, Turkey and Russia, exhibited the biggest percentage increases in life expectancy at birth, with the Americas coming in third due to increases in nations like Guatemala, El Salvador and Bolivia.

  While the two biggest post-WW-II superpowers, the United States and Russia, then the USSR, only saw life expectancy increases of seven and two percent, respectively, some countries in post-war Europe also saw double-digit growth in this regard.

  Malta and Luxembourg ranking second and third might be explained by the influx of high-net-worth individuals and their better access to medical care and other amenities. Portugal taking the top spot in Europe with a percentage increase of roughly 18 percent is harder to explain. Experts cite a variety of factors like increased political stability since the ratification of its constitution in 1976, leaving the European Free Trade Association it co-founded in 1960 for the European Economic Community in 1986 together with Spain, and the country’s climate, diet and communal lifestyle contributing to overall better health.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 16:55

• Leading Scientific Journal Humiliated After Publishing Fake AI-Generated Paper About Rat With Giant Penis
  Leading Scientific Journal Humiliated After Publishing Fake AI-Generated Paper About Rat With Giant Penis

  Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news,

  A leading scientific journal faces humiliation after it published a completely fake paper, purportedly written by Chinese researchers, which contained AI generated images of a rat with a penis bigger than its own body.

  

  The Telegraph reports that the journal Frontiers in Cell and Development Biology published a paper that claimed to show the signalling pathway of sperm stem cells, but depicted a rat sitting upright with a massive dick and four giant testicles.

  The illustration was reportedly created by using Midjourney, the AI imaging tool, which added labels to the ridiculous diagram using terms that don’t exist, including “dissilced”, “testtomcels” and “senctolic”.

  Another ludicrous image to the right of the rat displays “sterrn cells” in a Petri dish being spooned out.

  Erm, how did Figure 1 get past a peer reviewer?! https://t.co/pAkRmfuVed H/T @aero_anna pic.twitter.com/iXpZ1FvM1G

  — Dr CJ Houldcroft 🕷️ (@DrCJ_Houldcroft) February 15, 2024

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  Subsequent images in the paper also displayed terms and biological systems that simply are not real.

  

  

  Remarkably, the paper found its way into the journal, where it was read by scientists who immediately recognised the images and descriptions were not grounded in “any known biology”.

  The journal retracted the paper, issued an apology and announced that it is working to “correct the record”.

  Adrian Liston, professor of pathology at Cambridge University and editor of the journal Immunology & Cell Biology warned of the dangers of AI being used to create scientific diagrams, noting “Generative AI is very good at making things that sound like they come from a human being. It doesn’t check whether those things are correct.”

  “It is like an actor playing a doctor on a TV show – they look like a doctor, they sound like a doctor, they even use words that a doctor would use. But you wouldn’t want to get medical advice from the actor,” he further noted, warning that “The problem for real journals is getting harder, because generative AI makes it easier for cheats.”

  “It used to be really obvious to tell cheat papers at a glance. It is getting harder, and a lot of people in scientific publishing are getting genuinely concerned that we will reach a tipping point where we won’t be able to manually tell whether an article is genuine or a fraud,” Liston further cautioned.

  People have since been creating their own AI rat images, in an attempt to work out what the Chinese ‘researchers’ typed into Midjourney to make the images that got published.

  

  

  *  *  *

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 16:20

• Harvard Professor Says "All Hell Broke Loose" When His Study Revealed No Racial Bias In Police Shootings
  Harvard Professor Says “All Hell Broke Loose” When His Study Revealed No Racial Bias In Police Shootings

  Bari Weiss of The Free Press sat down with Harvard Economics Professor Roland Fryer at the University of Austin last week to discuss what it means to pursue the truth. 

  Fryer, a highly respected economist, told Weiss about the intense blowback that was dealt to him after he published a study in 2016 showing there were “no racial differences in officer involved-shootings.” 

  After the study was published, in a matter of days, the professor said, “All hell broke loose,” and people were “losing their minds when they didn’t like the result.” 

  The study found that police were over two times more likely to use physical force, such as manhandling or beating, against black and hispanic individuals compared to people from other races. On the other hand, the findings also revealed that police were 23.8% less inclined to use firearms against black individuals and 8.5% less inclined to do so against Hispanic individuals, compared to whites. 

  “We didn’t find any racial bias in police shootings.”

  Economist Roland Fryer tells @bariweiss at @uaustinorg about the 2016 paper on policing bias that led to his need for an “armed guard” for over a month and the academics who told him not to publish. https://t.co/dklaGtiMxT pic.twitter.com/95FbOe3jhJ

  — The Free Press (@TheFP) February 15, 2024

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  “I lived under police protection for about 30 to 40 days,” he said, adding, “I had a seven-day-old daughter at the time…I was going to the grocery store to get diapers with an armed guard.”

  Fryer told Weiss the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 is how he initially became interested in the topic. He was shocked by the result because he expected the study to find evidence of bias in police shootings.  

  The biggest conclusion from the study (read: here): “Yet, on the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we are unable to detect any racial differences in either the raw data or when accounting for controls.” 

  At the time, liberal elites warned Fryer not to publish the study because it would ruin his career. Then he said in 2019, Claudine Gay, who was Harvard’s dean at the time, placed him on a two-year leave for alleged sexual harassment. 

  Considering Gay is no longer president of the woke college following her botched antisemitism response on campus and plagiarism allegations, Fryer told Weiss: 

  “Do you believe in karma?”

  “I hear it’s a motherf*cker.”

  Roland Fryer in response to @bariweiss when she asks him about Claudine Gay. pic.twitter.com/dlC4XpwAiI

  — Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 17, 2024

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  Fryer had the courage to publish the unpopular truth despite liberal elites’ attempts at Harvard and elsewhere to silence the professor in his pursuit of truth because the study didn’t fit the progressive narrative at the time of the Marxist group Black Lives Matter. 

  *   *   * 

  Listen to the full discussion: 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 15:45

• Assange's Final UK Court 'Moment Of Truth' Arrives As Wife Warns He 'Will Die' If Extradited To US
  Assange’s Final UK Court ‘Moment Of Truth’ Arrives As Wife Warns He ‘Will Die’ If Extradited To US

  Tuesday, February 21 is the big day and ‘moment of truth’ for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his legal team. That is when two high court judges in London will hear arguments on whether Assange can appeal a ruling to extradite him to the United States, where he would most certainly spend the rest of his life in prison, likely in a harsh ‘supermax’ federal facility. The hearing is scheduled through Wednesday.

  Stella Assange, his wife, has warned that if the judges rule against Assange, he could be on a plane to US soil in a matter of days. He would be removed from the high security Belmarsh prison for a trial in the US on espionage-related charges and publishing state secrets, where a 175 year jail sentence would await him.

  

  His wife told a Thursday press briefing, “It is the final hearing if it does not go Julian’s way, there is no possibility to appeal to the supreme court or anywhere else in this jurisdiction.”

  She said further that situation is “extremely grave” given his health continues to be “in decline”. She warned: “If he is extradited, he will die.”

  The Guardian has meanwhile commented on US authorities’ attempts to bully journalists who worked with Assange to turn against him:

  At least four well-known journalists have been approached by the Metropolitan police on behalf of the FBI: James Ball, his ex-WikiLeaks colleague, who is now with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism; David Leigh, the former Guardian and Observer journalist; Heather Brooke, a freedom of information campaigner; and Andrew O’Hagan, who had been commissioned to ghost Assange’s autobiography.

  All of them have declined to cooperate with the FBI. In an article for Rolling Stone last year, Ball said that he had first been approached in 2021 and subjected to pressure, including the threat of being prosecuted himself.

  O’Hagan said that although he had his differences with Assange, he would happily go to jail rather than assist the FBI. “I would only add that the attempt to punish Assange for exposing the truth is an attack on journalism itself. I notice that none of those mainstream collaborators who published his material – the New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel – are being pursued, which demonstrates that a generational bias against internet-based journalism is at the heart of the case … If Julian goes to the US, Britain will have failed to protect one of the first principles of democracy.”

  Editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson has commented on what Assange’s prosecution and possible extradition means for the future of press freedoms.”It cannot be underestimated, the effect that it will have,” he said. “If an Australian citizen publishing in Europe can face prison time in the United States, that means no journalists anywhere are safe in the future.”

  As for Assange’s native Australia, its parliament has just voted to issue formal request that charges against Julian Assange be dropped. The motion adopted by parliament emphasized “the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr. Assange can return home to his family in Australia.”

  The clock is ticking! My friend @MearsheimerJ on #FreeAssange #FreeAssangeNOW #FreeAssange2024

  PLEASE repost. Use Hashtags. Together, we will get this message to the #HighCourt to #SETHIMFREE pic.twitter.com/mMMqUUURhY

  — Judge Napolitano (@Judgenap) February 17, 2024

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  Days ago, Amnesty International also renewed its call to drop the charges against Assange. “The risk to publishers and investigative journalists around the world hangs in the balance. Should Julian Assange be sent to the U.S. and prosecuted there, global media freedoms will be on trial, too,” a statement said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 14:35

• Watch: Mobs Of Violent African Migrants Riot, Attack Police In Holland
  Watch: Mobs Of Violent African Migrants Riot, Attack Police In Holland

  Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

  Mass violence broke out in the city of The Hague in The Netherlands Saturday night as hundreds of marauding African migrants attacked police, smashed property and set fires, in scenes that once again highlight the complete failure of multiculturalism.

  

  Reports suggest that the violence flared up between two rival groups of rival groups during a ‘meeting’ of the Eritrean community in the city where the Dutch parliament is seated.

  Eritrean African immigrants devastate The Hague and attack Dutch police. pic.twitter.com/Ns7ygY5ICK

  — RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) February 17, 2024

  Footage appeared to show protesters breaking into the Opera Zalencentrum event venue, with police using tear gas in a desperate effort to disperse them.

  The rioters then began throwing bricks and bottles at police and attacking them with sticks.

  This is multiculturalism in action. https://t.co/TvgfUgqcpR

  — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 18, 2024

  Dutch News reports that four police officers were injured in the riots, and only a handful of arrests were made.

  “Our colleagues were confronted with very serious violence which erupted out of nothing,” local police chief Mariëlle van Vulpen said told broadcaster NOS. “This is unacceptable.”

  You reap what you sow, what else did you think would be the outcome of unchecked immigrations?pic.twitter.com/hu6YBdhsuB

  — Hope Hunk (@HopeHunk) February 18, 2024

  Acting justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz said in a statement “Attacking emergency service workers who are simply doing their jobs is totally out of order and there will be consequences.”

  Here’s who devastated The Hague yesterday. We hope that this video can contribute to identification and deportation. pic.twitter.com/46Z9f1okxa

  — RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) February 18, 2024

  City mayor Jan van Zanen described the rioting as “disgusting and unacceptable”, adding that “We had received several reports about youngsters from the ‘Brigade Nhamedu’ looking for trouble.”

  The same group also started riots in Sweden, Canada and the US, last year. 

  The Hague, Netherlands – Eritrean scum rioting. Tigray People’s Liberation Front are a paramilitary communist group and there are tens of thousands of them claiming aslyum in the UK and Europe. They have been in an actual war in Ethiopia and are cold-blooded killers 🇳🇱🇪🇷🔥 pic.twitter.com/Eg6YDneJmt

  — 🇬🇧RonEnglish🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@RonEng1ish) February 17, 2024

  The cause of the Dutch riot is also thought to be EXACTLY the same as a month ago in London. Pro-government Eritreans were holding an event and anti-regime migrants got wind of it.

  Violent clashes break out between Eritrean migrants and police in The Hague in Netherlands pic.twitter.com/q3YJBg3vO1

  — TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) February 18, 2024

  The terrorist group #BrgedNhamedu, consisting of Ethiopians, more specifically members of the #Tigray region in #Ethiopia , attacked police officers and participants of an #Eritrea|n event in The Hague / #Netherlands today 17/02/2024 pic.twitter.com/RUTFmyxE4F

  — FRANKFURTER JUNGE 🇪🇷🇪🇷 (@shaebiaeritrea2) February 18, 2024

  The Hague, The Netherlands.

  No further comment. pic.twitter.com/v2JZe0bOuB

  — Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) February 18, 2024

  Enrichment alert. https://t.co/sraPMkPyJh

  — m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) February 17, 2024

  This latest round of cultural enrichment comes in the wake of the EU passing a migration pact dubbed “the suicide of Europe” which could lead to the continent being flooded with as many as 75 million new migrants.

  Even pro-EU centrist leaders in Europe are now warning that mass migration is causing the collapse of civilisation there:

  *  *  *

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 14:00

• Biden Says Ukraine May Lose More Cities After Avdeyevka Due To US Aid Delay
  Biden Says Ukraine May Lose More Cities After Avdeyevka Due To US Aid Delay

  Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu over the weekend confirmed in a statement to President Vladimir Putin that the city of Avdeyevka in eastern Ukraine is now under the military’s full control. We earlier detailed the significance of the ‘major’ victory for Russian forces, and the devastating blow for the Ukrainian side, which is in retreat.

  “Today in the Kremlin, Russian Defense Minister Army General Shoigu reported to the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces that the Center grouping of forces under command of Col. Gen. Andrey Mordvichev has taken under full control the town of Avdeyevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which was a massive fortified stronghold of Ukraine’s armed forces,” Russia’s defense ministry said.

  President Biden’s Saturday reaction was interesting yet predictable. He laid blame for the loss squarely on Congressional inaction in holding up the $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine. It suggests this will be the election narrative against Republicans going into November as well.

  

  Biden said the Ukrainians might lose other cities too, so long as US aid is held up:

  US President Joe Biden has admitted that Ukrainian troops may lose other cities after abandoning Avdeyevka unless the US Congress approves additional aid to Kiev.

  Reporters asked the American leader if he was sure that Ukraine would not lose other cities as well. “I’m not. I’m not. No one can be,” Biden replied. “There is so much at stake,” he added.

  According to the US president, it would be “absurd” and “unethical” to refuse to support Kiev when the Ukrainian military is running out of ammunition. “I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need,” he pointed out. Biden also said that he had promised Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to seek additional funding.

  National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson has also acknowledged, “The Ukrainians continue to fight bravely, but they are running low on supplies.”

  But Putin has shown no signs that he plans to slow down the Russian military operation in Ukraine. He said Sunday in a state media interview referencing Kiev’s backers in NATO that “For them, this is about improving their tactical positions. But for us, this is destiny. This is a matter of life and death.”

  RU forces appear to have temporarily established limited and localized air superiority and were able to provide ground troops with close air support during the final days of their offensive operation to capture Avdiivka, likely the first time that RU forces have done so in UA.1/5 pic.twitter.com/jkbL7VLOb7

  — Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) February 18, 2024

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  The West ultimately has no more cards to play. As we wrote earlier it is time to stop promoting the fiction that Ukraine has any hope of ejecting Russia from the approximately 20% of the country it has captured — and time to start earnestly pursuing a settlement that restores peace and ends a proxy war that has cost countless lives while only benefitting the military-industrial complex.  

  Meanwhile, Sen J.D. Vance makes a good point, the lame attempt at pushback of the community note notwithstanding…

  If Putin is such an existential threat to Europe why isn’t every European country emptying it armories and its treasury to help Ukraine? https://t.co/ahvrCa4fw8

  — J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 17, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 13:25

• The Great Reset Didn't Work: The Case Of EVs
  The Great Reset Didn’t Work: The Case Of EVs

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

  We are living through one of history’s longest and most excruciating versions of “We told you so.” When in March 2020, the world’s government decided to “shut down” the world’s economies and throttle any and all social activity, and deny kids schooling plus cancel worship services and holidays, there was no end to the warnings of the terrible collateral damage, even if most of them were censored. 

  

  Every bit of the warnings proved true. You see it in every story in the news. It’s behind every headline. It’s in countless family tragedies. It’s in the loss of trust. It’s in the upheaval in industry and demographics. The fingerprints of lockdowns are deeply embedded in every aspect of our lives, in ways obvious and not so much. 

  Actually, the results have been even worse than critics predicted, simply because the chaos lasted such a long time. There are seemingly endless iterations of this theme. Learning losses, infrastructure breakages, rampant criminality, vast debt, inflation, lost work ethic, a growing commercial real estate bust, real income losses, political extremism, labor shortages, substance addiction, and more much besides, all trace to the fateful decision. 

  The headlines on seemingly unrelated matters go back to the same, in circuitous ways.

  A good example is the news of the electric vehicle bust.

  The confusion, disorientation, malinvestment, overproduction, and retrenchment – along with the crazed ambition to force convert a country and world away from oil and gas toward wind and solar – all trace to those fateful days. 

  According to the Wall Street Journal, “As recently as a year ago, automakers were struggling to meet the hot demand for electric vehicles. In a span of months, though, the dynamic flipped, leaving them hitting the brakes on what for many had been an all-out push toward an electric transformation.” 

  Reading the story, it’s clear that the reporter is downplaying the sheer scale of the boom-bust. 

  That’s not to say that Tesla itself is going bust, only that it has a defined market segment. The technology of EVs simply cannot and will not become the major way Americans drive. It might have seemed otherwise for a moment in time but that was due to factors that traced exactly to pent up demand caused by lockdowns and huge errors in supply management due to bad signaling. 

  Looking back, the lockdowns hit in the spring of 2020 and supply chains were entirely frozen by force. This might have been a major problem for car manufacturers that had long relied on just-in-time inventory strategies. However, at the very time, the demand for travel collapsed. Commutes came to an end, and vacations too. At that same time, pre-arranged government subsidies and mandates for EVs flooded the industry, all of which were later ramped up by the Biden administration. 

  As demand picked up, retailers sold their old inventory of cars and looked to manufacturers for more but the chips needed to complete the cars were not available. Many cars were put on hold and lots emptied out. This continued through the following year as used car prices soared and stock was otherwise depleted. 

  By the time matters became desperate in the fall of 2021, manufacturers discerned a heightened demand for EVs and began to retool their factories for more. There was even a time when cars were being shipped without power steering, just to meet the demand. 

  It might have seemed for a time like the crazed period we just lived through was birthing a completely different way of life.  A kind of irrationality, born of shock and awe, swept industry and culture. The EV was central to it.

  This demand seemed to pan out in 2022 as Americans grabbed whatever cars were available, perhaps willing to give the new doohickies a shot. So on it went as more carmakers threw more resources at production, benefitting from massive subsidies and staying in compliance with new mandates for reducing their carbon footprint. 

  There was no particular reason to think anything would go wrong. But then the next year began to reveal uncomfortable truths. Cold weather dramatically cuts the range of the EVs. Charging stations are not as readily available on longer trips, charging takes longer than one expects, and having to plan such matters adds time. In addition, the repair bills can be extremely high if you can find someone to do it. 

  Tesla as a manufacturer had planned out all such contingencies but other carmakers less so. Very quickly the EVs gained a bad reputation on a number of different fronts. 

  “Last summer, dealers began warning of unsold electric vehicles clogging their lots. Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen and others shifted from frenetic spending on EVs to delaying or downsizing some projects,” writes the Journal. “Dealers who had been begging automakers to ship more EVs faster are now turning them down.”

  In short, “the massive miscalculation has left the industry in a bind, facing a potential glut of EVs and half-empty factories while still having to meet stricter environmental regulations globally.”

  Today, lots are selling the cars at a loss just to avoid the costs of keeping them around. 

  Truly, this has been one spectacular boom-bust in a single industry. There seems to be no real end to the bust either. These days it appears that everyone has given up on any chance of actually converting the mass of American cars to become EVs. All recent trends are headed in the other direction. 

  Meanwhile, the EV is deeply loved by many as 1) a second car, 2) for well-to-do suburban commuters, 3) who own homes, 4) can charge overnight, and 5) have a gas car as a backup for cold weather and out-of-town trips. That is to say, the market is becoming exactly what it should be – a street-worthy golf cart with very fancy features – and not some paradigmatic case for the “great reset.” That’s simply not happening, despite all the subsidies and tax breaks. 

  “A confluence of factors had led many auto executives to see the potential for a dramatic societal shift to electric cars,” writes the Journal, including “government regulations, corporate climate goals, the rise of Chinese EV makers, and Tesla’s stock valuation, which, at roughly $600 billion, still towers over the legacy car companies. But the push overlooked an important constituency: the consumer.”

  Indeed, the American economy, much to the chagrin of many, still primarily relies on consumers to make choices in their best interest. When that doesn’t happen, no amount of subsidies can make up the difference. 

  This story is impossible to understand without reference to the crazed illusions caused by lockdowns. Those are what provided the respite of time to allow automakers to retool. Then they boosted demand artificially for transportation after a long period in which inventory had been depleted. 

  Then the whole ridiculous ethos of the “great reset” convinced idiotic corporate executives that nothing would ever be the same. Maybe we would get 15-minute cities powered by sunbeams and breezes after all, along with a social-credit system that would allow the authorities to decommission our ability to drive in an instant. 

  It turns out that the entire bit, including the fake prosperity of the lockdown economy, made possible by money printing and grotesque levels of government spending, was unsustainable. Even sophisticated car companies bought into the nonsense. Now they are paying a very heavy price. The new market depended on a panic of buying that turned out to be temporary. 

  In short, the illusions of these horrible policies have come crashing down. It was born of liberty-wrecking policies under the cover of virus control. Every special interest seized the day, including a new generation of industrialists seeking to displace the old ones by force. 

  More and more, it’s obvious what a disaster this was. And yet no one has apologized. Hardly anyone has admitted error. The big shots who wrecked the world are still in power. 

  The rest of us are left holding the bag, and paying very high repair bills for cars that are non-optimal for driving from one town to another and back again in the cold weather that was supposed to be gone by now had the “climate change” prophets been correct. They turn out to be as correct as those who promised us that we would no longer need “fossil fuels” and that the magic inoculation would protect everyone from a killer virus. 

  What astonishing illusions were born of this nutty and destructive period. At some point, not even corporate CEOs will be tricked by the experts. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 12:50

• Idaho House Approves Death Penalty For Certain Sex Crimes Against Children
  Idaho House Approves Death Penalty For Certain Sex Crimes Against Children

  Pedophiles in Idaho have more to worry about than getting shanked in prison…

  A new bill which just passed the House by a vote of 51-11 would allow for the death penalty for those found guilty of lewd conduct with children under the age of 12 with aggravating circumstances.

  

  According to co-sponsor Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa), the death penalty would be reserved for heinous cases, such as repeat offenders.

  “There is a deep, dark, dark side in our culture. And it’s our job to protect the children. There are times when things are so wicked that retribution is appropriate,” said Skaug, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

  Currently, Idaho only allows for the death penalty in the case of first-degree murder.

  Unconstitutional?

  In 2008, the US Supreme Court blocked the death penalty for a child rapist in Kennedy v. Louisiana, raising concerns that Idaho’s bill – should it become law, would be struck down.

  “Well there’s constitutional and there’s constitutional. Depends on the court of the day,” said Skaug, an attorney, adding “It would be very rare that this case would happen. It’d be very rare that a prosecutor would take this kind of case and ask for the death penalty, but it will happen. And I say to you that when you see that case, you read about it in the newspaper, you’re gonna say, ‘This is the one case that this needs to happen,’”

  The only Republican lawmaker to vote against the bill, Rep. Jack Nelson, said of his decision: “My concern is judicious use of taxpayer money. Florida already passed this. It’s obviously in the courts. I see no reason to spend hard-earned Idaho taxpayer’s dollars on a bill that’s a little bit of time and patience, we’ll know what the outcome is.”

  The ACLU of Idaho called the bill “blatantly and admittedly unconstitutional.”

  “House Bill 515 and any iterations of (it) have already been litigated in our country’s highest court, and found to be unconstitutional. Our lawmakers should exercise a healthy respect for laws, law enforcement, and judicial review. This bill spits on the checks and balances our country was founded on,” said spokesperson Rebecca De León.

  Of course the ACLU is against it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/18/2024 – 12:15

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• US Air Force Needs Robotic Wingmen In Fight Against Communist China: Report
  US Air Force Needs Robotic Wingmen In Fight Against Communist China: Report

  Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. Air Force needs to pair its manned combat aircraft with next-generation drones—known as collaborative combat aircraft (CCA)—to gain the air superiority needed in a war against China’s communist regime, according to a recent report by the Washington-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

  

  The report, based on wargames run by the Mitchell Institute in counterair missions defending Taiwan against China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), demonstrates how CCAs were used as airborne sensors, decoys, jammers, or weapon launchers in cooperation with crewed aircraft like the Air Force’s 5th generation fighter F-35 and F-22 Raptor.

  The Pentagon has characterized China as its pacing challenge amid the regime’s rapid modernization of its military. According to a 2023 report from the Department of Defense (DOD), PLA Air Force and PLA Navy Aviation had about 2,400 combat aircraft, and China “probably will become a majority fourth-generation force within the next several years.”

  In comparison, the report notes that the U.S. Air Force currently “operates a force that is the oldest, smallest, and least ready in its history,” adding that it now consists primarily of 179 aging 4th-generation F-15C/Ds and 185 5th-generation F-22s.

  “The defense budget trends tell us it’s simply unreasonable to assume the Air Force, or DOD for that matter, will soon be able to match the PLA aircraft for aircraft, weapon for weapon, ship for ship, and so on,” said Mark Gunzinger—a retired Air Force colonel who leads future concepts and capability assessments at the Mitchell Institute, and one of the authors of the report—during the report’s rollout event on Feb. 6.

  “Instead, our military must invest in asymmetric capabilities that will disrupt the PLA’s operations, impose costs, and create the conditions for mission success. And that’s a key reason why the Air Force is developing CCA,” Mr. Gunzinger added.

  According to the Department of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, CCAs must be capable of “taking high level direction” from a pilot and then “autonomously implementing this direction.” The uncrewed aircraft must also employ “a distributed, mission-tailorable mix of sensors, weapons, and other mission equipment.”

  Acting Air Force Undersecretary Krysten E. Jones disclosed during an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in January that contracts had been awarded to five companies to build a fleet of 1,000 CCAs. Air & Space Forces Magazine later confirmed the five selected companies are Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Anduril, and General Atomics.

  “Failing to achieve air superiority in a conflict with China would greatly increase the risk of a costly defeat that has existential, long-term impacts on the security of the United States and its allies,” the report says.

  CCAs

  Mr. Gunzinger emphasized that CCAs can be more than adjuncts to crewed aircraft.

  “There’s a need to break from the mindset that CCA will always operate in support of crewed aircraft,” Mr. Gunzinger said. “CCAs—that are properly designed, have the right mission systems, [and] degree of autonomy—could also be used as lead forces to disrupt enemies’ air defense operations.”

  The report explains that expendable CCAs—cheaper models with less advanced features that come with a price tag of $15 million or less each—could be used as lead forces to “complicate the PLA’s counterair targeting” and “cause PLA defenses to partially deplete their air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons.”

  CCAs can also work with non-stealthy combat aircraft, according to the report.

  “Today, the Air Force’s non-stealthy combat aircraft may have to stand-off from Chinese air defenses at distances that are outside the range of current U.S. counterair weapons—possibly 800 [nautical miles] or more,” the report reads.

  When paired with CCAs, stand-off bombers and fighters could “directly contribute to the fight for air superiority,” according to the report. Meanwhile, crewed combat aircraft can become more lethal when paired with CCAs.

  “Using CCA as sensors and shooters could also reduce the need for crewed fighters to activate their radar, open their weapons bay doors, or perform other actions that would temporarily reduce their stealthy signature,” the report says. “This would help reduce crewed aircraft attrition rates, which has a force-multiplying effect over the course of an air campaign.”

  The report also highlights how CCAs can potentially be designed so that they are launched from either short runaways or no runways, meaning they can be stationed in many different locations, creating a “more dispersed, resilient forward posture.” Air-launching CCAs can have longer ranges since they don’t need to consume fuel to take off or climb to an operational altitude.

  “Because uncrewed CCA may not need to fly as frequently as crewed aircraft, they could be postured in forward locations along the Pacific’s First Island Chain like other pre-positioned materiel,” the report says.

  “Forward posturing CCA in this way could help the Air Force sustain its initial combat pulses to defeat Chinese aggression and reduce reliance on long-range supply chains that will be at risk of attack.”

  The first island chain includes the Japanese archipelago, Taiwan, and the northern Phillippines. Taking over Taiwan would allow China to break the chain and project its military power in the Pacific Ocean.

  “These CCA could be used in disruptive ways that will help offset the PLA’s ability to project superior combat mass to control the air over the Taiwan Strait and other areas of the South China Sea,” the report says.

  Costs

  Experts taking part in the wargames “unanimously agreed” that CCAs will be “additive and complementary” to crewed aircraft, according to Mr. Gunzinger.

  “They’re not going to reduce the Air Force’s requirements for F-35s, NGAD, and B-21s,” Mr. Gunzinger said. “The maximum combat value will be realized by taking full advantage of the attributes that crude and uncouth uncrewed aircraft [that] each bring to the fight.”

  The U.S. Air Force is looking to replace F-22s with sixth-generation fighter aircraft via the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.

  “NGAD will include attributes such as enhanced lethality and the ability to survive, persist, interoperate, and adapt in the air domain, all within highly contested operational environments,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in May last year.

  The report offers several recommendations for the U.S. Air Force, including carrying out analyses to determine the “right tradeoffs” to balance cost and design attributes for its future fleet of CCAs.

  “A CCA designed as an expendable decoy may not require as much payload capacity or the same degree of low observability as recoverable/attritable CCA that are designed to fly multiple sorties,” the report says. “Balancing CCA capabilities with their mission requirements and costs will be key to maximizing their combat utility and cost-effectiveness.”

  In November last year, Mr. Kendall took part in an event at the Washington-based think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS). During the event, he said the cost of a single CCA would be “on the order of a quarter or a third” of the current cost of an F-35—meaning that a CCA would cost about $20 million to $27 million.

  The report recommends that the U.S. Air Force develop “innovative operating concepts for using CCA to disrupt China’s advanced IADS [integrated air defense system] and other counter-intervention operations.”

  The U.S. Air Force should also develop smaller weapons to take maximum advantage of CCA payload limitations. The report explains that increasing the number of targets CCA can attack per sortie “is critical to rapidly halting a Chinese offensive.”

  The report also advises the Pentagon to work with Congress to increase U.S. Air Force funding.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 23:20

• Fentanyl Lollipops? Top Border Patrol Doctor Asked Staff For Narcotics Before UN Meeting In New York: Whistleblowers
  Fentanyl Lollipops? Top Border Patrol Doctor Asked Staff For Narcotics Before UN Meeting In New York: Whistleblowers

  Several whistleblowers allege that the chief medical officer for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pressured his staff to smuggle fentanyl lollipops to a September United Nations General Assembly Meeting in New York last September, according to a report submitted to Congress on Friday.

  

  According to NBC News, Dr. Alexander Eastman’s staff thought it was really strange that their boss would need to order fentanyl lollipops to take with him. What’s more, his explanation was hilarious; he might need them as part of his duties in case any injured CBP operators needed pain management, should an emergency occur.

  “Eastman spent copious hours of his and Office of the Chief Medical Officer staff time directing the OCMO staff to urgently help him procure fentanyl lollipops, a Schedule II narcotic, so that he could bring them on the CBP Air and Marine Operations helicopter on which he would be a passenger in New York City,” the whistleblowers alleged in their letter. “Dr. Eastman claims that his possession of fentanyl lollipops was necessary in case a CBP operator might be injured, or in case the CBP Air and Marine Operations team encountered a patient in need.”

  Customs and Border Protection is the chief agency responsible for detecting and stopping the illegal flow of fentanyl into the U.S. across international borders.

  Eastman’s staff initially responded to his request by explaining that Narcan, which can save the lives of those who overdose on fentanyl, has been requested for CBP operations in the past, but not fentanyl itself. The whistleblowers say staff members raised questions about how he would store the lollipops and what he would do with unused fentanyl at the end of the operation, according to the report. -NBC News

  Eastman responded to his staff’s questions by writing his own policy regarding the procurement of Schedule II narcotics – which failed to outline how narcotics would be stored and disposed of, the whistleblowers allege. He was ultimately unsuccessful in his bid for the lollipops, because a vendor could not be found in time for the UN General Assembly – a meeting of diplomats and heads of state to discuss international issues. While it would be unusual for the CBP’s top medical officer to attend, he said that he needed to go because CBP’s Air and Marine Operations division was assisting Secret Service with security.

  The whistleblowers, represented by the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, also allege Eastman was under investigation by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility at the time regarding improper ordering and securing of narcotics for a friend who is a pilot for Air and Marine Operations. The friend worked as a helicopter pilot for Air and Marine Operations in New York during the General Assembly, the report says. -NBC News

  Eastman was promoted to acting chief medical officer in June after the agency made an abrupt change in leadership following the death of an 8-year-old girl in CBP custody, who died after on-site medical personnel allegedly ignored warning signs and ignored her mother.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 22:45

• Iran Transported $2.8BN Worth Of Oil In 2023 Under Washington's Nose
  Iran Transported $2.8BN Worth Of Oil In 2023 Under Washington’s Nose

  Via The Cradle

  Iran was able to transport $2.8 billion in oil to customers in 2023 using insurance from a US-based company, despite sanctions imposed on Iranian oil sales by the US Treasury, an investigation published by The New York Times (NYT) on Friday has found. 

  The oil was transported aboard 27 tankers, using liability insurance obtained by the New York-based American Club. Tankers are typically required to have liability insurance to enter international ports, meaning the US Treasury could have blocked the sale of this oil by demanding the American Club revoke insurance for the tankers.

  

  NYT says the 27 tankers were able to transport shipments across at least 59 trips during 2023. The Treasury Department did not respond to a question from the newspaper about whether it was aware the ships had transported Iranian oil while insured by the American Club.

  To identify the shipments, NYT relied on tracking data provided by TankerTrackers.com, SynMax, and Pole Star.

  The investigation showed the tankers were engaged in activities suggesting they may be involved in evading US sanctions. The ships are owned by shell companies, are older than average tankers, and use “spoofing” to obscure their locations.

  In response to the investigation, Daniel Tadros, the American Club’s COO, said it was difficult for his firm to determine if a tanker was carrying Iranian oil and that the US government should play a more significant role in investigating activity that might violate its sanctions. 

  “It’s impossible for us to know on a daily basis exactly what every ship is doing, where it’s going, what it’s carrying, who its owners are,” Tedros said. “I would like to think that governments have a lot more capability, manpower, resources to follow that.”

  A US Treasury spokesperson said in a statement: “Treasury remains focused on targeting Iran’s sources of illicit funding, including exposing evasion networks and disrupting billions of dollars in revenue.”

  Lawmakers in the US have criticized officials in the White House for their failure to curb Iranian oil sales and for releasing billions of dollars of seized Iranian oil revenue as part of a prisoner exchange this summer. 

  Republican lawmakers claim that Iran has been able to use funds from released oil sales to support “terrorism.”

  Meanwhile, let’s review other recent instances of Biden’s failed sanctions policy, and inability to enforce:

  “A US refiner imported 10,000 barrels of Russian oil through a blending loophole at storage terminals in the Bahamas.

  The crude, brought into Wilmington, Delaware in November, didn’t violate US sanctions because it was exported from Russia to the Bahamas prior to March 8, 2022, when the sanctions began, said Morgan Butterfield, an Energy Information Administration spokesperson. It was then commingled with other oil before being imported into the US, he said.”

  We can now publicly reveal that Russian crude oil is en route to Venezuela after LIGERA (9237072), a frequent sanctions violator, received roughly 1.7 million barrels via 2 STS transfers in the Laconian Gulf, Greece. She is heading most likely to the Punta Cardon refinery. #OOTT pic.twitter.com/F7cH0kwVIC

  — TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) February 12, 2024

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

  Iran provides essential support to various armed groups throughout West Asia, collectively known as the Axis of Resistance, including in Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen. These groups are committed to ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the US occupation of Syria, and US troop presence in Iraq.

  “It is very concerning,” said Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat of New Hampshire, who has filed a bill to strengthen the enforcement of sanctions.

  “The United States must use every tool at its disposal to identify, stop and sanction these bad actors,” she said. “These new revelations highlight the stakes.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 22:10

• CDC Confirms Spread Of 'Unknown' Outbreak Aboard Cruise Ship
  CDC Confirms Spread Of ‘Unknown’ Outbreak Aboard Cruise Ship

  The CDC has confirmed that an “unknown” outbreak aboard a cruise ship is spreading, and has infected at least 154 people.

  

  In an update this week, the agency said that so far 25 crew members and 129 passengers on the Carnival-owned Cunard Cruise Line’s Queen Victoria have fallen ill, after an initial 15 cases were reported weeks ago. The Queen Victoria has 1,824 passengers and 967 crew members aboard.

  Those fallen ill have reported “symptoms of gastrointestinal illness,” however the CDC has yet to identify the exact illness.

  “Cunard confirms that a number of guests had reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness on board Queen Victoria on voyage V405 which departed Florida on [Jan. 22] and arrived in San Francisco on [Feb. 7],” said Cunard Cruise Lines in a statement to news outlets. “They immediately activated their enhanced health and safety protocols to ensure the wellbeing of all guests and crew on board and these measures have been effective.”

  According to CruiseMapper, the Queen Victoria is currently on a 55-day trip that will take it from Germany to Australia – with its final destination being Honolulu, Hawaii on March 4.

  Last month, nearly 100 passengers aboard a Celebrity Cruises ship, the Constellation, fell ill with norovirus after departing in early January from Florida.

  As the Epoch Times reports further;

  Common Outbreak Source

  While the CDC report still hasn’t revealed the cause of the Cunard cruise ship’s outbreak, norovirus has been the most common source of illnesses on cruise ships in recent years. The agency reported 14 illness outbreaks on cruise ships in 2023, with norovirus being listed as the causative agent in all but one of the incidents.

  Last year, for example, a norovirus outbreak sickened more than 170 people on a Celebrity cruise ship, with the main symptoms being diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and headaches.

  In a normal year, according to the CDC, norovirus causes between 19 million and 21 million cases of vomiting and diarrhea, 109,000 hospitalizations, and 900 deaths across the United States. The virus also is associated with about 495,000 emergency department visits, mostly in younger children, the CDC says.

  If there is a new strain of the virus, the CDC says, there can be upward of 50 percent more norovirus illnesses in a given year.

  The CDC’s webpage for norovirus says the virus is very contagious and generally causes vomiting and diarrhea. “Anyone can get infected and sick with norovirus. Norovirus is sometimes called the ’stomach flu‘ or ’stomach bug,’” the agency says. “However, norovirus illness is not related to the flu.”

  Other than cruise lines, norovirus outbreaks often occur in health care facilities, long-term care facilities, restaurants, child care centers, and schools. Noting the association between norovirus outbreaks and cruises, the CDC says that more than 90 percent of “outbreaks of diarrheal disease on cruise ships” are caused by the virus.

  “These outbreaks often get media attention, which is why some people call norovirus the ‘cruise ship virus,’” the CDC says. “However, norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships account for only a small percentage … of all reported norovirus outbreaks. Norovirus can be especially challenging to control on cruise ships because of the close living quarters, shared dining areas, and rapid turnover of passengers.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 21:35

• Incest Is Best? The Economist Says Copulating-Cousins Cool "In Most Cases"
  Incest Is Best? The Economist Says Copulating-Cousins Cool “In Most Cases”

  With America facing population collapse thanks to a pandemic which compounded already-shrinking birth rates, petrified young men who don’t want to get #MeToo’d for trying to get past 1st base, and record numbers of young Americans identifying as anything but heterosexual, The Economist wants you to know that it’s “probably fine” to bang your cousin, which they also note is “illegal in 25 American states.”

  

  After a dig at Kentucky for a ‘quickly withdrawn’ proposal to remove “first cousin” from the state list of incestuous family relations, the article goes on to ‘ackshually’ explain that the risk of genetic mutations among the offspring of first cousins is ‘greater’ than non-incest relations, however ‘the increase is quite small.’

  Justifying ‘kissing cousins’ further, The Economist suggests that it’s unfair to prevent incest because “Many other couples face far higher risks of genetic complications for their offspring, and those unions are not banned,” such as people with recessive genes for certain disorders, such as sickle-cell anemia or cystic fibrosis, their offspring has a 25% chance of being born with that disorder, “Yet those marriages are allowed.”

  “The law against first-cousin marriage is a major form of discrimination,” said University of Washington Department of Medicine Director of Genetic Counseling, Robin Bennett (M.S., CGC, (she/her)).

  

  According to Bennett, “the risks are very low and not much different than for any other couple.”

  The Economist then goes on to let us know that ‘the Bible does not directly ban sexual relations between cousins,’ (“how else would all of mankind have descended from Adam and Eve?” they write), though “The Roman Catholic Church did later prohibit first cousins from marrying, though exceptions were made for a fee.”

  That said, there are limits, even for The Economist…

  Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary biology, who married his first cousin in 1839, was reportedly conflicted about his own arrangement. The Darwins had ten children, but three of them died during childhood and three of his surviving children never had any offspring with their spouses. Some historians surmise that the children suffered from genetic abnormalities due to their parents being closely related—the families of Darwin and his wife had a long history of intermarriage.

  Yet despite the fairly low genetic risk for most couples, the “ick” factor prevails in Western culture. The family dynamics can be difficult to explain to others. Many consanguineous couples choose to keep quiet, says Ms Bennett. For this reason it is difficult to know how many of these couples exist in America. -The Economist

  Maybe the plan is to either get people banging their cousins, or keep the border open while praising Biden’s amazing ‘jobs recovery’?

  NEW – The United States has just undergone its most substantial one-year population increase in history, with growth exceeding 3.8 million people in 2023, primarily attributed to illegal immigration, according to a recent report by John Burns Research and Consulting.

  Under… pic.twitter.com/2BRANQUrPF

  — KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 17, 2024

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

  

  Also ‘probably’ just fine?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 20:25

• Turley: Obscene Award Against Trump Is Testing New York's Legal Integrity
  Turley: Obscene Award Against Trump Is Testing New York’s Legal Integrity

  Authored by Jonathan Turley, op-ed via The Hill,

  In laying the foundation for his sweeping decision against former President Donald Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron observed that “this is a venial sin, not a mortal sin.” Yet, at $355 million, one would think that Engoron had found Trump to be the source of Original Sin.

  

  The judgment against Trump (and his family and associates) was met with a level of unrestrained celebration by many in New York that bordered on the indecent. Attorney General Letitia James declared not only that Trump would be barred from doing business in New York for three years, but that the damages would come to roughly $460 million once interest was included. 

  That makes the damages against Trump greater than the gross national product of some countries, including Micronesia. Yet the court admitted that not a single dollar was lost by the banks from these dealings. Indeed, witnesses testified that they wanted to do more business with Trump, who was described as a “whale” client with high yield business opportunities. 

  Undervaluing and overvaluing property is a longstanding practice in New York real estate. The forms submitted by the Trump organization cautioned the banks to do their own estimates and the loans were paid in full and on time. Yet, the New York law used by James is a curiosity because it does not actually require a victim. Indeed, everyone can make ample profits and still allow for an investigation into “repeated fraudulent or illegal acts.” 

  Having campaigned on bagging Trump on any basis, James turned the law into a virtual license to hunt him down along with his family and his associates.

  Engoron proved the perfect judge for the case. The opinion itself seems almost cathartic for the jurist who struggled with Trump inside and outside of court. In the judgment, Engoron fulfilled Oscar Wilde’s rule that the only way to be rid of temptation is to yield to it. He ordered everything short of throwing Trump into a wood chipper.

  The size of the damages is grotesque and should shock the conscience of any judge on appeal. Even if the Democrat-appointed judges on the New York Court of Appeals were to ignore the obvious inequity and unfairness, the United States Supreme Court could intervene. 

  State courts tend to get a significant amount of deference in the interpretation of their own laws. After all, if New York wants to turn Wall Street into a remake of “The Hunger Games,” it has only itself to blame as other businesses flee the state. 

  The impact on New York business is likely to be dire. New York is already viewed as a hostile business environment, with the top end of its tax base literally heading south as taxes and crime rises. This draconian award is only going to deepen concerns over the arbitrary application of the law by figures like James, who previously sought to disband the National Rifle Association. (She has shown less interest in cracking down on liberal organizations like Black Lives Matter or the National Action Network of Al Sharpton despite their own major financial scandals.)

  As James gleefully uses this law to break up a major New York corporation, it is hard to imagine many businesses rushing to the Big Apple. This follows Democratic politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) campaigning against Amazon seeking to open new facilities in the city. After this week, drawing new businesses to the city is going to be about as easy as selling country estates during the French Revolution.

  The one hope for New York businesses may be the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite the deference afforded to the states and their courts, the court has occasionally intervened to block excessive damage awards. 

  For example, in 1996, the justices limited state-awards of punitive damages under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In that case, BMW was found to have repainted luxury cars damaged in transit without telling buyers.

  An Alabama jury awarded $4,000 in compensatory damages for the loss of value in having a factory paint job, but then added $4 million in punitive damages. Even when the Alabama Supreme Court reduced that to $2 million,  the U.S. Supreme Court still found it excessive. Even liberals on the Court such as John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer agreed that such “grossly excessive” awards raise a “basic unfairness of depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property, through the application of arbitrary coercion.”

  The court may find almost half a billion dollars in damages without a single lost dollar from a victim to be a tad excessive.

  That prospect will not dampen the thrill-kill environment in New York this week. In electing openly partisan prosecutors such as James and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, voters have shown a preference for political prosecutions and investigations. 

  In “Bonfire of the Vanities,” Tom Wolfe wrote about Sherman McCoy, a successful businessman who had achieved the status of one of the “masters of the universe” in New York. In the prosecution of McCoy for a hit-and-run, Wolfe described a city and legal system devouring itself in the politics of class and race. The book details a businessman’s fall from a great height — a fall that delighted New Yorkers.

  It is doubtful Trump will end up as the same solitary figure wearing worn-out clothes before the Bronx County Criminal Court clutching a binder of legal papers. But you do not have to feel sorry or even sympathetic for Trump to see this award as obscene. The appeal will test the New York legal system to see if other judges can do what Judge Engoron found so difficult: set aside their feelings about Trump.

  New York is one of our oldest and most distinguished bars. It has long resisted those who sought to use the law to pursue political opponents and unpopular figures. It will now be tested to see if those values transcend even Trump.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 19:50

• Conditions Not Right For Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks, China Says After Appeal From Kiev
  Conditions Not Right For Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks, China Says After Appeal From Kiev

  Starting last month the Zelensky government began calling for China to get more involved in the international effort to find a peace formula in Ukraine. “China needs to be involved in talks to end the war with Russia,” a Zelensky top aide said during January’s WEF meeting in Davos.

  But what Ukraine means by peace talks is that Beijing must get on board Kiev’s own peace formula, which demands the full withdrawal of all Russian troops from seized Ukrainian territory. This weekend, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba is reportedly seeking a meeting with China’s FM to discuss the issue.

  Importantly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has responded by saying conditions are not yet right for peace talks to end the war.

  

  The top Chinese diplomat delivered his response before the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “There are not ripe conditions in place for parties to go back to the negotiating table,” he announced in an on-stage interview.

  “China has done a lot of constructive work and we will continue to play a positive role,” he added. Noticeably, China has never outright condemned the war or Russia’s invasion. Instead, it has issued a number of statements highlighting the role of NATO’s expansions in leading up to the crisis.

  Ukraine has been pressing to woo Global South countries and ‘fence-sitters’ to its side, also in preparation for a major summit in the near-future.

  “Ukraine has been pushing for a high-level summit to be held next month, though the date is likely to slip to April or May due to the lack of commitment from world leaders, according to people familiar with the plans,” Bloomberg writes.

  “Switzerland has said it’s open to hosting, and its diplomats have been looking to assess interest from counterparts — including in China,” the report noted.

  China is seen as key to getting Russia to make significant compromise, yet both Xi and Putin know that the latest Russian military successes in Ukraine means Kiev has no cards to play. Ultimately, without China being on board with such initiatives to convince the major Global South countries to take a firmer anti-Russian line, there’s little likely to come out of it.

  Still, it seems each side is at least inching toward possible near-future talks. “Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told an event in the US that Russia has showed enthusiasm to have peace talks with Ukraine, when Chinese officials talked with them,” according to statements issued last month.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 19:15

• Middle America Is Dying, And D.C. Doesn't Care
  Middle America Is Dying, And D.C. Doesn’t Care

  Authored by Salena Zito via The Washington Examiner,

  WEIRTON, West Virginia – Most people in this town will tell you they’d rather have taken a physical punch to the gut than get the news they received yesterday when Cleveland-Cliffs Steel announced it was idling its tinplate production plant, a move that directly cost 900 people their jobs.

  It isn’t just those workers who face catastrophic uncertainty; this closure also jeopardizes the jobs of thousands more people whose businesses supported the plant: the barber shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop grocery stores, the machine shops that make the widgets for the steel industry. And there’s also the demise of the tax base, which affects the school district and the quality of the roads.

  

  Thirty years ago, more than 10,000 people worked here at Weirton Steel. Now, the last 900 workers left have just lost their jobs.

  “It’s just another scar to add on what people in power have done to our lives and our community over the past 40 years,” said one employee who declined to give his name, adding, “Honestly, how many times does this story have to be told before someone in power cares about our lives.”

  He points to different buildings downtown, and all of them for him were “used to be this” and “used to be that.”

  Ryan Weld of Wellsburg, 43, grew up in downtown Weirton right behind the local funeral home.

  “When I was growing up in the ’80s, the mill was still going at full tilt with Weirton Steel employing 10,000 people, including my grandfathers,” he said.

  The Republican state senator said things started to slow down here in the mid to late ’90s after the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted:

  “That dramatically changed the landscape of downtown, went from a bustling the last age group that remembers the shops and stores and restaurants of downtown.”

  He believes NAFTA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, essentially made it hard for companies like Weirton Steel, which had to follow strict and expensive Environmental Protection Agency guidelines compete with places like Mexico.

  The towns all up and down the Steel Valley died hard.

  “The legacy of the federal government and its refusal to properly enforce trade laws is nothing but empty mills and unemployed workers,” Weld said.

  “That was true in the ’80s and ’90s, and that is true today.”  

  Forty years ago, the Democratic Party started to slowly shed its working-class base, but not quickly: Democratic officials would still show up for decades at union rallies, putting their arms around workers’ shoulders and telling them they have their back while at the same time enacting regulations and trade agreements that stripped them of their livelihoods and dignity and made ghettos of their once beloved communities.

  By the 2012 Obama reelection, they traded their New Deal Democrat legacy voters for ascendant groups: minorities, young people, college-educated elites, and single women, all done without so much as a Dear John letter.

  The Republicans inherited them, but most of their strategists running messaging and campaigns had no idea what to do with them, at least on the national level.

  And then there is the press covering the voter who will decide the next president: Few if any of them come from places like Weirton or Youngstown, Ohio, so they have little understanding of their worldview. Things that give people from here purpose, such as living close to extended family, are not as valuable to someone who has been transient for most of a career.

  In short, we are heading once again into an election where very few people in Washington truly understand how remarkably devastating this mill closure is.

  Instead, it is a wire story at best, soon forgotten if measured at all. They truly do not understand how much the loss of the dignity of work has changed American politics.

  That this tone-deafness is still happening 14 years after Barack Obama was given notice in the 2010 midterm elections and eight years after Donald Trump won the presidency is pretty staggering.

  The Democrats once attracted these voters, but they’ve moved on to the social justice crowd and don’t appear to want to anymore. I’m not sure if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) does, the press does not, and the new “very online right” is certainly not the reflection of a center-right voter in middle America. The online right just seems hell-bent on making them seem like Taylor Swift conspiracy theorists. (P.S. They’re not.)

  Jeff Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College, said Washington elites on both sides of the aisle, media elites, and now online conspiracy elites just don’t get Middle America even after this recent economically and politically difficult decade.

  “Few things bond people/citizens together like trying to make a living in the real world, the dignity of work, and raising a family,” he explained, adding these bonds that cut across all divides — geographic, racial/ethnic, religious, gender, ideological/party, and even at times socioeconomic.

  “If there is one thing we have learned over the past decade, it is that this bond over the difficulties of making an honest living can and does create unlikely coalitions of voters,” he said. “Even disparate voters from the likes of Bernie Sanders supporters to Trump supporters can agree on this.”

  Indeed, economic dignity and survival make strange bedfellows.

  Brad Todd, founding partner of OnMessage and co-author with me of The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics, said one thing is for certain about 2024: “We are about to read a million new stories that quote zero people who are actually going to decide the election.”

  Brauer said the dignity of work is at the very core of the American experience, “Yet the elites of this country still just don’t understand, while average Americans just keep getting financially squeezed more and more.”

  Weld said it is incumbent on local elected officials such as himself to be the advocates of Middle America.

  “I do what I do because of that. The empty buildings were already there when I was in college and high school, and it pisses me off,” he said. “I don’t think anyone fought hard enough for that from happening. We shouldn’t keep having to read again, again, another story about a town dying hard and a vacancy of no one caring.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 18:40

• US Prepares New Weapons Transfer To Israel, Ironically While Pushing For Ceasefire
  US Prepares New Weapons Transfer To Israel, Ironically While Pushing For Ceasefire

  Just days ago President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the military operation in refugee-packed Rafah “should not proceed” unless civilians are evacuated first.

  Yet at the same time, the Biden administration is preparing another major weapons transfer to Israel. Not only is Washington pushing for another ceasefire (ostensibly at least) but Biden recently called the Israeli operation in Gaza “over the top” amid the soaring civilian death toll.

  All of this serves to highlight that the White House is talking out of both sides of its mouth – on the one hand seeking to deflect international and domestic criticism by issuing statements warning over the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, but on the other directly fueling the Israeli war machine.

  

  On this latter point, the Wall Street Journal has detailed in a fresh weekend report:

  The proposed arms delivery includes roughly a thousand each of MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses, the officials said. The arms are estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars. The proposed delivery is still being reviewed internally by the administration, a U.S. official said, and the details of the proposal could change before the Biden administration notifies congressional committee leaders who would need to approve the transfer.

  Since the Hamas terror attack of Oct.7, the US administration has given Israel 21,000 precision-guided munitions to Israel, an estimated half of which have been used.

  This new proposed transfer is valued at “tens of millions of dollars”. Already the bulk of Israel’s arsenal is supplied from the US, also given it has historically been the biggest recipient of American foreign aid.

  The WSJ says that even now, with a reported over 28,000 Gazans killed and a massive refugee crisis, the Biden White House is not expected to attach any conditions to the use of these weapons:

  An assessment of the proposed arms transfer drafted by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, said the Israeli government requested “rapid acquisition of these items for the defense of Israel against continued and emerging regional threats.”

  The assessment said there were no potential human rights concerns with the sale. “Israel takes effective action to prevent gross violations of human rights and to hold security forces responsible that violate those rights. In the past, Israel has been a transparent partner in U.S. investigations into allegations of defense article misuse,” the assessment says.

  Below: an example of Biden’s change in rhetoric toward sharply criticizing Israel…

  Biden’s full answer on Gaza. He calls the response from Israel “over the top,” says he got humanitarian aid into Gaza adding “there are a lot of innocent people are starving. Lot innocent people or in trouble and dying. And it’s got to stop” pic.twitter.com/EZM01RP9HX

  — Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) February 9, 2024

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

  But again, strangely Biden himself has highlighted the humanitarian disaster, and has warned Israel. This is yet another example of Biden’s contradictory policies and statements, while apparently having no long-term plan. The current policy is tantamount to Biden telling Netanyahu to stop killing so many civilians, while simultaneously handing him more guns and military hardware ‘with no strings attached’. Biden’s progressive supporters are taking note going into November too, and he’s likely to lose some of his base.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 18:05

• Cultural Marxism & The Corruption Of Common Law
  Cultural Marxism & The Corruption Of Common Law

  Authored by William Brooks via The Epoch Times,

  Peaceful and productive human societies depend on the maintenance of judicial principles that are consistent and impartial.

  During the 12th-century reign of Henry II, the English king began to establish a more trustworthy system of legal decision making. The king’s judges were asked to consider verdicts that had been reached in similar cases.

  Throughout the following centuries legal decision making was based on tradition and custom. This unified system of justice became known as “English Common Law.”

  The legal principle, commonly known as “stare decisis,” discouraged dishonest plaintiffs from seeking unprecedented settlements for specious allegations against parties whom they disliked or sensed they could take advantage of.

  The adoption of English common law in America made the United States particularly attractive to free, hard-working people who sought to engage in honest commerce, acquire capital, remain secure in their persons, protect their property and reputations, participate in public affairs, practice their religion, and live well-ordered lives.

  When jurists feel compelled to make fair comparisons with precedent-setting cases, justice is generally well served.

  Transforming American Justice

  Things don’t always change for the better.

  Over several generations Marxist intellectuals have been transforming the American justice system. They regard a commitment to neutrality as a way of disguising “colonialist” and “patriarchal” power structures. Since the 1980s this has led to fierce partisan disputes over the nomination of judges and serious doubts about impartiality in American courts.

  Marxism is a conflict-oriented ideology, and Marxists view liberal conceptions of freedom, democracy, and justice as instruments of “oppression.” The American left defines pro-American descendants of European colonists as “oppressors.” More recently, this status has expanded to include African American conservatives, legal Hispanic immigrants, election fraud protesters, concerned parents, practicing Catholics, Jews, or anyone else President Joe Biden chooses to call a “MAGA extremist.”

  Cultural Marxists imagine victims of oppression at all levels of American society. The “oppressed” can include university-educated elites, radical militants, anti-American identity groups, drug addicts, homeless vagrants, habitual criminals, and millions of illegal migrants. “Social” as opposed to “actual” justice requires that people with victim status receive special protection while alleged oppressors are summarily prosecuted and punished.

  Justice Must Be Done and Seen to Be Done

  Legal scholars once insisted that “justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.” Everyone should be able to expect a fair trial that’s accurately covered by public news organizations.

  But unbiased judges and honest reporters are in short supply. While Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is facing unprecedented indictments, journalists are still insisting that American justice is fair and impartial.

  The left’s recourse to “lawfare” requires judges and journalists to conceal the truth rather than expose it. Legacy news organizations say there’s no evidence of the “weaponization of justice” or a “two-tiered” legal system. But, as specious allegations come before American courts, folks can’t help noticing that the so-called “oppressed” usually win.

  For example, in 2019 American advice columnist E. Jean Carroll suddenly accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Mr. Trump vigorously denied the allegations, but Ms. Carroll was permitted to sue him for defamation and battery.

  One could have guessed the outcome of this case before it began. The left views Donald Trump as an arch-oppressor, and E. Jean Carroll was seen as an “oppressed” victim.

  In May 2023, a New York jury found the former president liable for defamation and sexual abuse and awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages. In January of this year, Mr. Trump was found liable in a second defamation suit, and Ms. Carroll was awarded an additional $83.3 million. The second award was unprecedented.

  Late in January, Breitbart News reporter Hannah Bleau Knudsen revealed several facts about this case that she said the establishment media didn’t want the public to know.

  First, there were no witnesses and no surveillance video of the attack, which was alleged to have occurred in a downtown New York department store.

  The plaintiff came forward with her story while promoting a book titled “What Do We Need Men For?,” which featured a list of “The Most Hideous Men of My Life.” The dress she claimed to be wearing during the alleged attack was not for sale in the year she initially claimed the event occurred. Despite her public reputation for being very open about sexual matters, she didn’t accuse President Trump until some 30 years after the alleged encounter.

  Her entire story was very similar to a 2012 “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” episode, titled “Theatre and Tricks,” in which an individual talks about a rape fantasy in Bergdorf Goodman. In a November 1993 edition of Elle, before the alleged abuse, Ms. Carroll had made a joke associating sex with Bergdorf Goodman.

  E. Jean Carroll’s case was financially backed by anti-Trump Democrat mega-donor Reid Hoffman. One of her lawyers is Roberta Kaplan, whose wife is a Democratic Party activist. In fact, her lawsuit was only able to proceed after New York Democrats created a 2022 “Adult Survivors Act,” which allowed judges to overlook the usual statute of limitations for such charges.

  Judgments in cases that are tried in partisan-charged venues such as New York City or Washington DC, have almost become forgone conclusions.

  

  A steep decline of common law principles will not bode well for the future of the American Republic. Who would have thought that in 2024 American citizens would be witnessing a partisan special prosecutor seeking the U.S. Supreme Court’s permission to put the opposing party’s presidential candidate on trial months before a presidential election.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 17:30

• "F**k Around & Find Out": Truckers Warn Loads To NYC Will Be Rejected Starting Monday
  “F**k Around & Find Out”: Truckers Warn Loads To NYC Will Be Rejected Starting Monday

  Truck drivers transport between 70% to 73% of all freight in the United States. Therefore, when truckers begin discussing plans on social media to boycott loads to progressive hellhole New York City, it’s important to pay attention. 

  X user Chicago1Ray, who appears to be a Midwest truck driver, shared a video late Friday night detailing that a number of truck drivers will begin denying loads to NYC on Monday. 

  “I don’t know how far across the country this is – or how many truckers are going start denying loads to NYC – but I’ll tell you – you f**k around and find out,” Chicago1Ray said. 

  He continued: “We’re tired of motherf**king leftist f**king with Trump. Okay … Motherfu**ers start to get tired of this shit. Our bosses aren’t going to care if we deny loads. We’ll go somewhere else.” 

  “You know how hard it is to get in and out of NYC?” the trucker emphasized. 

  I’ve been on the radio for over an hour and I’ve talked to at least (10) Truckers who are gonna start refusing loads of Monday for (NYC) …I talked to (3) guys that I work with who texted the boss and told him no (NYC)

  Truckers are (95%) Trump… it’ll get overturned on appeal… pic.twitter.com/qVzx4RKUmd

  — Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) February 17, 2024

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

  By Saturday morning, the video had amassed nearly 3 million views. This comes after a New York judge handed former President Trump a penalty of $355 million plus interest on his civil fraud case. 

  

  Here’s what X users are saying about the potential trucker boycott of NYC:

  If truckers start denying loads to certain regime-controlled cities, it’s going to get spicy.

  — Albert Latham (@albert1776) February 17, 2024

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

  Boycot New York!

  — Mississippi RN (@TraceyOFlynn3) February 17, 2024

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

  God bless our truckers. The people need to show their power. Enough. Bud Light for NY it is.

  — Nomuck (@MagaNomuck) February 17, 2024

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

  Perhaps truckers in America have learned something from revolting farmers in Europe. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 16:55

• 10 Reasons Why The World Can't Run Without Fossil Fuels
  10 Reasons Why The World Can’t Run Without Fossil Fuels

  Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World,

  • Banks, governments, and businesses would face failure due to the essential role of fossil fuels in the economy.

  • Critical infrastructure like electricity, internet, and trade systems would collapse without fossil fuel support.

  • Agriculture and home heating would become inefficient and inaccessible to many, leading to widespread social upheaval.

  It is now popular to talk about leaving fossil fuels to prevent climate change. Pretty much the same result occurs if we run short of fossil fuels: We lose fossil fuels, but it is because we cannot extract them. Practically no one tells us about the extent to which the current system depends upon fossil fuels, however.

  The economy is extraordinarily dependent on fossil fuels. If there are not enough fossil fuels to go around, there is likely to be fighting over what is available. Some countries are likely to get far more than their fair share, while the rest of the world’s population will be left with very little or no fossil fuels.

  If losing fossil fuels completely, or nearly completely, is a risk for some of the world’s population, it might be useful to think through some of the things that go wrong.

  

  The following are some of my ideas about things that change, mostly for the worse, in a fossil fuel-deprived economy.

  [1] Banks, as we know them, will likely fail.

  Before banks fail in areas with virtually no fossil fuels, my guess is that we will generally see hyperinflation. Governments will greatly increase the money supply in a vain attempt to get people to believe that more goods and services are being produced. This approach will be used because people equate having more money with the ability to buy more goods and services. Unfortunately, without fossil fuels it will be very difficult to produce very many goods.

  More money will simply provide more inflation because it takes physical resources, including the proper types of energy, to operate machinery of all kinds to make goods. Creating services also requires fossil fuel energy, but generally, to a lesser extent than creating goods. For example, the pair of scissors used in cutting hair is made using fossil fuel energy. The person cutting hair needs to be paid; his or her pay needs to be high enough to cover energy-related costs such as buying and cooking food to eat. The shop where hair cutting is operated will also need to pay for the fossil fuel energy required for heat and light, assuming such energy is even available.

  Banks will fail because too large a share of debts cannot be repaid with interest. Part of the problem will be that while wages will rise, the prices of goods and services will rise even faster, making goods unaffordable. Another part of the problem is that service economies, such as those of the US and eurozone, will be disproportionately affected by a declining economy. In such an economy, people will get their hair cut less often. Instead, they will spend their money on essentials, including food, water, and cooking supplies. Service-providing businesses, such as hair salons and restaurants, will fail for lack of customers, leading to defaults on their debts.

  [2] Today’s governments will fail.

  With failing banks, today’s governments will also fail. Partly, they will fail because of attempts to bail out banks. Another problem will be declining tax revenue because fewer goods and services are produced. Pension programs will become increasingly difficult to fund. All these issues will lead to increasingly divisive politics. In some cases, central governments may dissolve, leaving states and other smaller units, such as today’s provinces, to continue on their own.

  Intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations and NATO, will find their voices becoming less and less heeded before they fail. Getting sufficient funding from member states will become an increasing problem.

  Dictatorships ruled by leaders who wield absolute power and aristocracies ruled by leaders with hereditary rights are the types of governments with the least energy requirements. These are likely to become more common without fossil fuels.

  [3] Nearly all of today’s businesses will fail.

  Fossil fuels are essential for all kinds of businesses. They are used in the extraction of raw materials and in the transportation of goods. We use fossil fuels to pave roads and to build nearly all of today’s buildings. Without fossil fuels, even simple repairs of existing infrastructure become impossible. Without adequate fossil fuels, international companies are especially at risk of breaking into smaller units. They will find it impossible to operate in parts of the world with virtually no fossil fuel supply.

  Fossil fuels are even used in making solar panels, wind turbines, and replacement parts for electric vehicles. Talking about solar and wind as “renewables” is to a significant extent misleading. At best, they can be described as fossil fuel “extenders.” They might help a problem of a slightly low fossil fuel supply, but they are far from adequate substitutes.

  [4] Grid electricity and the internet will disappear.

  Fossil fuels are important for maintaining the electrical transmission system. For example, restoring downed power lines after storms requires fossil fuels. Hooking up solar panels or wind turbines to the electric grid requires fossil fuels. Home solar panel systems may operate until their inverters fail. Once their inverters fail, their usefulness will be greatly degraded. Fossil fuels are needed to manufacture new inverters.

  Fossil fuels are also important for maintaining every part of the internet system. Furthermore, without grid electricity, it becomes impossible to use computers to connect to the internet.

  [5] International trade will be scaled back greatly.

  At this time of year, many of us remember the story of the three kings from the East coming to visit the baby Jesus with precious gifts. We also remember stories in the Bible of Paul traveling to distant countries. From these and many other examples, we know that international trade and travel can continue without fossil fuels.

  The problem is that without fossil fuels, some parts of the world will have very little to offer in return for goods made with fossil fuels. Countries with fossil fuels will quickly figure out that government debt from countries without fossil fuels doesn’t really mean much when it comes to paying for goods and services. As a result, trade will be scaled back to match available exports. Exports of goods will likely be very limited for parts of the world operating without fossil fuels.

  [6] Agriculture will become much less efficient.

  Today’s agriculture has been made unbelievably efficient using large mechanical equipment, generally powered by diesel, together with a huge number of chemicals, including herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. In addition, fences and netting made with fossil fuels are used to keep out unwanted animal pests. In some cases, greenhouses are used to provide a controlled climate for plants. Using fossil fuels, specialized hybrid seeds are developed that emphasize characteristics that farmers consider desirable. All these “helps” will tend to disappear.

  Without these helps, agriculture will become much less efficient. Figure 1 shows that even with the small cutback in fossil fuel use in 2020, the share of employment provided by agriculture rose.

  

  Figure 1. World employment in agriculture as a percentage of total employment, as compiled by the World Bank.

  Employment in agriculture is essential. These workers did not get laid off, even as workers in tourism and workers making fancy clothes lost their jobs, so agricultural jobs as a share of total employment rose.

  [7] Future labor needs are likely to be disproportionately in the agricultural sector.

  People need to eat. Even if the economy is operating in a very inefficient manner, people will need food. The share of people in agriculture (including hunting and gathering) can be expected to rise considerably.

  Some people hope that a shift to the use of permaculture will solve the problem of the dependence of agriculture on fossil fuels. I see permaculture as mostly a fossil-fuel extender, rather than a solution for getting along without fossil fuels, because it assumes the use of many fossil fuel-based devices, such as modern fences and today’s tools. Also, at best, permaculture only partly solves the inefficiency problem because it requires a huge amount of hands-on labor.

  

  Figure 2. Comparison of US employment in agriculture as a share of total employment, with a similar ratio for the UN Least Developed Countries based on data of the World Bank.

  Today, there is a wide divide between the share of employment in agriculture in the United States and in the same statistic for the UN group of least developed countries. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. They use very little fossil fuels.

  The US share of employment in agriculture has recently been about 1.7%. In the part of Europe using the Euro, the share of employment in agriculture has recently averaged about 3.0%. In either the US or Europe, it would take a huge change in employment to get to 70% in agricultural employment (as seen early in the 1990s for the UN least developed group), or even to 55% (as experienced recently by the same group).

  [8] Home heating will become a luxury item available only to the wealthy.

  Without fossil fuels, wood will come into high demand for its heat value. Wood will be needed for cooking food; it is very difficult to subsist on a diet of all raw foods. Wood will also be in demand for making charcoal, which in turn can be used to smelt some metals. With these demands on wood, deforestation is likely to become a major problem in many parts of the world. Wood in general will be quite expensive, given the considerable cost of harvesting and transporting it over long distances without the benefit of fossil fuels.

  People living in sparsely populated wooded areas may be able to gather their own wood for home heating. For other people, home heating will likely become a luxury, affordable only by the very rich.

  [9] Living alone will become a thing of the past.

  Without enough heat, and with barely enough wood for cooking, people (and their animals) will have to huddle together more. Homes housing multiple generations, built over a place for keeping farm animals, may again become popular. It will be more efficient to cook for large groups than for one person at a time. People in cold areas will huddle together with each other in beds to keep warm. Or they will huddle together with their dogs, as in the saying, three dog night, meaning a night that is cold enough to need to have three dogs to keep a person warm.

  Even in warm parts of the world, people will live together in groups, simply because maintaining a household for a single person will become impossibly expensive. Food and fuel for cooking will take up a huge share of a family’s income. There will be little left over for other expenses.

  [10] Governments and their laws will shrink in importance. Instead, new traditions and new religions will play a greater role in keeping order.

  Governments have made dozens of promises, but without a growing supply of fossil fuels (or an adequate substitute), they will not be able to keep them. Pensions will be gone. The ability of governments to enforce ownership laws will likely disappear. Without any good substitute for fossil fuels, mass disorder is a likely outcome.

  People crave order. Without order, it is impossible to conduct business. We know from recent experience that “sustainability groups,” put together by people with a common interest in sustainability tend not to work well enough to provide order. They tend to fall apart as soon as obstacles arise.

  What has seemed to work to provide order in the past is some combination of traditions and religions. With a changing world, both traditions and religions are likely to need to change. In the book, Communities that Abide, by Dmitry Orlov et al., the authors point out that having a strong (non-elected) leader, and a shared set of religious beliefs, helps keep a group together. In fact, it helps if the group is somewhat persecuted. Fighting for a common cause is part of what keeps the group together.

  The Ten Commandments in the Bible are interpreted in a way that strongly suggests that they are rules for behavior within the group, not for behavior in general. For example, “Thou shalt not kill,” applies to other members of the group; wars against other groups were very much expected. In those wars, killing of members of another group was expected. This would seem to allow Israel’s killing of members of Hamas, today. Without enough fossil fuels to go around, fighting becomes more frequent.

  Conclusion

  In my opinion, the problem the world is facing today is like one that smaller economies have faced, over and over, in the past: The population has become too large for the economy’s resource base, which now includes fossil fuels. Today’s leaders reframe the problem as voluntarily moving away from fossil fuels to prevent climate change in order to make the situation sound less frightening.

  As I see the situation, the world needs to scale down its use of fossil fuels because, ultimately, the laws of physics determine selling prices for fossil fuels. We extract the inexpensive-to-produce fossil fuels first. The problem is that fossil fuel selling prices cannot rise arbitrarily high. Prices must be both:

  • High enough for producers to make a profit, with funds left over for reinvestment and for adequate taxes for their governments.

  • Low enough for consumers to afford to buy food and other consumer goods produced with these fossil fuels.

  If we assume that all the fossil fuels that seem to be under the ground can really be extracted, climate change from burning them may indeed be a problem. But it is hard to see that they can really be extracted, given the affordability issue. Politicians will hold down prices to get voters to vote for them if nothing else.

  Researchers have been working diligently to find solutions, but to date, their success has been poor. Every supposed solution requires significant use of fossil fuels. So, we need to think through what might happen if we are forced to get along without fossil fuels and without an adequate substitute.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 16:20

• Fani 'Tainted' Whole Case: Trump
  Fani ‘Tainted’ Whole Case: Trump

  Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis – who gave her lover Nathan Wade’s law firm five Fulton County contracts totaling nearly $1 million, has “badly tainted” her case against Donald Trump, according to the former president.

  

  “It is so badly tainted. There is no case here,” said Trump in a statement to Fox News while Willis was giving a trainwreck testimony last week in a Georgia courtroom over allegations that she had an “improper” relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, her lover.

  “By going after Trump, she’s able to get her boyfriend more money than they ever dreamed possible,” Trump continued.

  Several of Trump’s co-defendants in the case have moved to disqualify Willis over the relationship.

  

  “The case will have to be dropped,” Trump continued. “There’s no way they can have a case. The whole thing was a scam to get money for the boyfriend.”

  Willis claimed that her relationship started in early 2022, after Wade was hired. But Robin Yeartie, a college friend of Willis who remained friends for several decades (even renting Willis an apartment), testified that the romantic relationship began “shortly after” Willis and Wade met at a 2019 municipal conference.

  

  Yeartie, who says she stopped talking to Willis sometime in 2022 after she was told to resign or be fired from the Fulton County DA’s office, directly contradicts testimony by both Willis and Wade.

  Ms. Yeartie said she had “no doubt” the pair were in a romantic relationship from 2019, adding that she saw them “hugging” and “kissing” that year.

  President Trump told Fox News that Thursday’s courtroom testimony shows Ms. Willis is “disgraced” and that Mr. Wade’s trips to the White House add to signs that the case is another example of “election interference” meant to thwart his 2024 bid for the presidency. –Epoch Times

  Trump co-defendant Micahel Roman has alleged that Willis’ relationship with Wade allowed her to benefit from taxpayer funds, after Wade took her on several lavish vacations.

  Willis claims she reimbursed Wade in cash for everything, so there was no benefit to her.

  On Monday, Judge Scott McAfee said that Willis could be disqualified from the case if the evidence shows “an actual conflict or the appearance of one,” adding that the purpose of Thursday’s hearing was to determine “whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or nonromantic in nature, when it formed and whether it continues.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 15:45

• RFK Jr. Scores Big Win In Lawsuit Accusing Biden Admin Of Censoring COVID Vaccine Info
  RFK Jr. Scores Big Win In Lawsuit Accusing Biden Admin Of Censoring COVID Vaccine Info

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has notched a victory in his legal battle against alleged government censorship of statements he made on social media that were critical of the COVID-19 vaccines.

  

  A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction against the White House and other federal defendants in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Kennedy Jr. that accuses the Biden administration of orchestrating a campaign to pressure social media platforms to censor vaccine criticism.

  Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued the ruling on Feb. 14, stating that Mr. Kennedy Jr. has demonstrated a strong likelihood of success in proving government infringement on his free speech rights.

  The injunction prevents the defendants—which include the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the FBI—from taking any actions to coerce social media companies to remove or suppress content containing protected free speech.

  The injunction remains on hold for the time being, however, as the proceeding in Mr. Kennedy Jr.’s lawsuit has been consolidated with the case of Missouri v. Biden, which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The freeze will be in place for 10 days after the Supreme Court rules in Missouri v. Biden, which is based on the same evidence.

  The defendants have, in prior public statements, denied illegally leaning on social media companies to stifle protected free speech.

  Rather, they have said they only ever flagged objectionable content, such as that they claimed was “misinformation” and “disinformation” and that it violated the companies’ own terms of use.

  ‘Destructive, Coercive Threats’

  Mr. Kennedy Jr., along with plaintiffs Children’s Health Defense and Connie Sampognaro, a health professional who says she was harmed by the government’s censorship campaign, have alleged in their class action complaint that the Biden administration violated their right to free speech.

  They accuse President Joe Biden and other federal defendants of systematically and repeatedly using “destructive, coercive threats” to force social media platforms to censor protected speech.

  The Biden administration is also accused of entering into “collusive partnerships” with social media companies and working with them to censor constitutionally protected expression.

  Mr. Kennedy has argued that the defendants harmed him by censoring him on social media—in some cases deplatforming him entirely—and so preventing him from gathering vaccine-related news and passing it along to his hundreds of thousands of followers.

  Children’s Health Defense has also made the same argument but, additionally, it claims that its many members were deprived of information and ideas about the safety and efficacy of alternative COVID-19 treatments.

  Ms. Sampognaro has alleged that the Biden administration’s actions have harmed her as a health care policy advocate by depriving her of complete, accurate information about COVID-19 and possible treatments.

  The complaint also asked the court to certify the case a class action to cover all people who consumed news related to COVID-19 or U.S. elections on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, at anytime from January 2020 to the present, and so who would have been harmed by government censorship of related facts.

  ‘Willingness to Coerce’

  The lawsuit singled out several of the “countless examples” of the Biden administration’s alleged censorship campaign.

  One was the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story on social media ahead of the 2020 presidential election, with the complaint calling it “an act of censorship that deprived Americans of information of the highest public interest” and that “may even have swung the outcome of that election.” Polling has indicated that many voters would have picked a different candidate had they been aware of the laptop’s contents, which included information suggesting President Biden was involved in his son’s overseas business dealings, contrary to his repeated denials.

  Another was suppression of reporting or expression of opinion that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese regime lab in Wuhan.

  

  The third example was online suppression of facts and opinions about COVID-19 vaccines “that might lead people to become ‘hesitant’ about COVID vaccine mandates, again depriving Americans of information and opinions on matters of the highest public importance.”

  In his order, Judge Doughty found that Mr. Kennedy and the other plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits that the defendants colluded to influence the actions of private social media companies “by ‘insinuating’ themselves into the social-media companies’ private affairs and blurring the line between public and private action.”

  He also sided with the complaint in determining that the Biden administration’s actions represented a “substantial risk of harm” to Mr. Kennedy and the other plaintiffs.

  “And it is certainly likely that Defendants could use their power over millions of people to suppress alternative views or moderate content that they do not agree with in the upcoming 2024 national election,” Judge Doughty wrote.

  He said that Mr. Kennedy has proven that the Biden administration has shown “willingness to coerce” or at least give significant encouragement to social media companies to suppress free speech with regard to COVID-19 vaccines, national elections, gas prices, climate change, gender, and abortion.

  In July 2023, Judge Doughty also granted an injunction in the Missouri v. Biden case, which is now pending before the Supreme Court.

  More than 50 officials in the Biden administration across a dozen agencies were involved in efforts to pressure big tech companies to censor alleged misinformation, according to documents released in 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 15:10

• US (Re)Designates Houthis A Terrorist Organization
  US (Re)Designates Houthis A Terrorist Organization

  The State Department has formally designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization, which gives Washington new powers to thwart the group’s access to the global financial system.

  The new label of Specially Designated Global Terrorist group against the Yemeni Shia rebel militia backed by Iran was implemented Friday, coming weeks after a mid-January warning was issued by the State Department.

  

  It also comes following months of Houthi drone and missile attacks on both commercial vessels and Western warships patrolling the Red Sea. 

  On Thursday in the latest response, the US military struck three Houthi anti-ship cruise missile systems that US Central Command (CENTCOM) said were preparing to launch.

  The new designation is controversial among some humanitarian aid groups working in Yemen, as detailed in The New York Times: 

  Last month, Mr. Blinken announced the State Department’s intent to return the Houthis to its terrorism list, but delayed the action for 30 days. The pause was intended in part to give humanitarian aid groups working in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen time to ensure that their work does not run afoul of new sanctions from the United States that will punish anyone who provides support to the militant group. Some aid groups have warned that their work will inevitably be constrained in a country with dire humanitarian needs.

  The Houthis were removed from the list in 2021 after they were first designated previously under the Trump administration, also given they have long been armed and backed financially by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

  A move by Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s February of 2021 had taken the Houthis off the list. “Effective February 16, I am revoking the designations of Ansarallah, sometimes referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)…,” the US top diplomat said at the time.

  Blinken had said the removal was in “recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. We have listened to warnings from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, and bipartisan members of Congress, among others, that the designations could have a devastating impact on Yemenis’ access to basic commodities like food and fuel.”

  Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired missiles at the British oil tanker Pollux in the Red Sea amid ongoing attacks on commercial shipping.

  🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/LCscISHYXA pic.twitter.com/buD2tEDOJg

  — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 17, 2024

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

  This new reversal presumably means the already dire humanitarian situation in the country is about to get a lot worse once again, though long largely ignored in Western media headlines.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 14:35

• Is Artificial Intelligence Hope? Hype? Or A Market Disaster In The Making?
  Is Artificial Intelligence Hope? Hype? Or A Market Disaster In The Making?

  Authored by J.G. Collins via The Epoch Times,

  When I first moved to New York City in the mid-1970s, cab drivers – or “hacks,” as they were called once – were a skilled profession.

  

  The Checker Taxi Cab, once ubiquitous on NYC Streets, is now a rare sight and hired now mostly for weddings, bar mitzahs, and period movie shoots. (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

  Many of them were sole proprietors, and owned their cab and taxi medallion—the costly city license that allowed them to pick up fares hailed on the street. They took pride in their taxis, kept them clean, and many festooned them with family photos, religious icons, custom dashboard decorations, and other objects.  These men—and just a handful of women—worked hard and knew the city like you know your Social Security number. They knew the fastest way to get you where you were going by the time of day (“Second Avenue will get you to Wall Street faster than the FDR; it’s morning rush”…) And they knew obscure streets like Freeman Alley, Stone Street, and Hunts Lane.  And if you were conversant, they also dispensed some of the best opinions and advice one could garner, gleaned from years of workaday life and speaking to thousands of people a year.

  But in the 1980s, taxi medallions soared in value to nearly—and past—the half-million dollar mark and were scooped up by investor groups who leased them to a polyglot corps of  independent drivers, mostly recently arrived to New York, who rented the cabs, bought their own gas, and had few other options for work. 

  Soon the medallion-owning taxi owner/operators sold out and retired or found other work.  In the 1980s, you were lucky to find a taxi driver who spoke English, let alone one who knew how to get to Katz’s Deli in the days before the movie “When Harry Met Sally” turned it into an overpriced tourist destination.

  Today, anyone with a hack license issued by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, a clean driving record, a late-model vehicle, and a mobile phone can drive for Uber or Lyft and start doing what the old hack drivers took years to learn. They can simply start driving using one of the half-dozen navigation apps one can download for free on their telephone or the apps provided by the ride-share company once they sign up. 

  And those old taxi medallions that once sold, in their heyday, for over a million dollars? Well, they now sell, often in bankruptcy, for less than a quarter of that.  And not a few of the independent medallion taxi owner/operators who bought in at the high end and found themselves desperately upside down on their medallion mortgage, ended up killing themselves; there were three in 2018 alone. I relate the story of the medallion taxi drivers to highlight an example of how technology can disrupt long-standing businesses and industries. (NYC taxi medallions have been issued since 1937.)

  As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in our economy, it’s important to remember that it could become a massive disrupter of existing businesses.

  In the service space, especially, it has enormous potential to displace millions of skilled workers.  

  Or not…

  “New” technology is always hyped by its proponents. The Segway, when it was introduced in 2001, was reported by one outlet to be “a more significant invention than the personal computer.” Twenty years later, its leading customers were  tour companies whose clients couldn’t walk the mile or more to highlighted destinations and mall cops who were similarly limited. (The Segway even became a feature in the “Paul Bart: Mall Cop” movie comedies.) The original model is no longer produced, and most of the market has been replaced with an array of battery powered scooters. 

  

  Tourists on Segway Scooters visiting Washington, D.C., on Aug. 21, 2008. (Xesús Cociña Souto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.)

  So, how do we separate the hype from the facts?

  I’ll have to leave that to people far smarter than I am. If you had told me 20 years ago that Elon Musk would return a rocket booster from space to land, upright, on a platform at sea, like a rocket landing on Mars in some 1950s’ sci-fi movie, I would have called you a liar. But here we are; Musk has done it. (For a deeper dive into the “hows,” “whats,” “whos,” and “whys,” particularly on the hardware elements of AI, I suggest the article “What Is AI Hardwire?” on VentureBeat.)

  If AI lives up to its billing, then millions of clerical, repetitive, and routine jobs will go the way of telephone booths and AAA road maps. It could be a massive disruption, for some, or a massive opportunity for others.  We’ll have to wait and see. 

  But adaptation will be necessary to some greater or lesser degree. Luddites seldom (never?) win. The good news is that AI will likely take several years to “learn” the routine, clerical, and repetitive jobs it will likely replace, although higher-paying skills are most likely to be “learned” first.

  The Market Effect

  I am more concerned about the likelihood markets will see an AI bubble and bust, much as we saw in the  “dot-com” boom and bust at the flip of this century. Those of us old enough to remember the late 1990s can recall when pretty much any business having a “.com” after its name practically guaranteed an avalanche of investor money being dumped on it. By the time the markets had sorted the likes of Amazon.com and Booking.com from their less viable brethren, billions of investor money had been lost with an enormous effect on the larger macro-economy and the securities markets.   

  I fear there may be a similar boom and bust in AI.

  An exchange-traded fund, for example, that invests only in the so-called Magnificent 7 stocks—Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—is up by nearly 50 percent in less than a year. In addition to the Magnificent 7,  AI stocks, who are all involved in AI to a greater or lesser degree, there are a number of “pure play” stocks and start-ups. A number of “silly season,” purely speculative “meme” stocks (i.e., a stock which has gained viral popularity) have been bid up by Wall Street, as well as blockchain digital assets like crypto coins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—unique digital assets like artworks. 

  It’s important to remember that much of this value appreciation has occurred because Federal Reserve policy and Biden administration deficit spending has caused a lot of money to be sloshing around the financial markets.

  Much of that money—or “excess liquidity”—is looking for a place to nest.

  If too much of it nests in the aspirational AI, and those dreams come to be dashed, or simply take too long to be realized,  it will have an enormous effect on the markets. For that reason, fund managers and market regulators – as well as the “plunge protection team” (formally, the Working Group on Financial Markets) at the White House – should all be on heightened alert and run robust risk-management strategies to ameliorate market risks. It will be a massive and crucial undertaking.

  They may even want to create an AI algorithm to do it.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 14:00

• Bidenomics Fail: White House Plans Downshift In Electric Vehicle Transition As Demand Slides
  Bidenomics Fail: White House Plans Downshift In Electric Vehicle Transition As Demand Slides

  The Biden administration is reportedly considering easing tailpipe emissions regulations, a move that was designed to force Americans from gas and diesel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles, according to The New York Times, citing three people familiar with the plan. This potential policy adjustment is in response to concerns from major automakers and labor unions and comes amid sliding EV demand, recently prompting companies such as Ford Motor Company to reduce EV production and lay off workers. 

  “Instead of essentially requiring automakers to rapidly ramp up sales of electric vehicles over the next few years, the administration would give car manufacturers more time, with a sharp increase in sales not required until after 2030,” the people said.

  

  This policy change comes after 3,900 auto dealers penned a letter to President Biden at the end of 2023, warning the president to reconsider the pace of EV mandates, citing a severe decline in demand for these vehicles. 

  “Currently, there are many excellent battery electric vehicles available for consumers to purchase. These vehicles are ideal for many people, and we believe their appeal will grow over time. The reality, however, is that electric vehicle demand today is not keeping up with the large influx of BEVs arriving at our dealerships prompted by the current regulations. BEVs are stacking up on our lots,” the dealers said. 

  They warned: “Already, electric vehicles are stacking up on our lots which is our best indicator of customer demand in the marketplace.” 

  Last month, Ford Motor’s electric vehicle sales ran out of juice as the automaker was forced to slash production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning to April “to achieve the optimal balance of production, sales growth and profitability.” 

  A recent note by RBC analyst Tom Narayan said the EV slowdown is far from over:

  “Key takeaways thus far from earnings season are that the EV slowdown is not showing any evidence of an inflection, Level 4 autonomy headwinds continue to persist, and fears over supplier inventory overbuild are likely overblown.”

  

  Analyst Adam Jonas at Morgan Stanley suggested consolidation is coming to the industry:

  

  The EV bubble is no match for elevated interest rates, and no fiscally conservative American is trying to survive the era of failed Bidenomics with a +$1,000 EV car payment. 

  Plus, Toyota’s chairman and former CEO, Akio Toyoda, will likely be proven right: EV cars will never dominate the global market, adding hybrids are the future. 

  If the alleged climate crisis is as urgent as portrayed by radicals in the White House and woke corporate media, then why does the Biden administration feel the need to move the transition goalposts if banning gas cars saves the planet? 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 13:25

• Chicago Mayor Extends Contract On Anti-Crime Program That He Campaigned Against As Racist
  Chicago Mayor Extends Contract On Anti-Crime Program That He Campaigned Against As Racist

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  I have written about the disastrous policies of Mayor Brandon Johnson for Chicago. 

  As a native son, it is hard to watch this wonderful city undermined by Johnson and radical allies in the city council. Some initiatives like reparations and state-funded grocery stores will cost money but will not impose nearly the costs of Johnson’s dismal record on crime and taxes.

  However, this week saw a particularly confusing moment when, after calling the anti-crime program ShotSpotter “racist,” Johnson asked the company to extend its contract beyond the upcoming Democratic National Convention. So Johnson will put an end to this supposedly racist program but only after the Democratic luminaries (and the most violent summer months) have passed.

  

  Johnson was elected in a close race against an anti-crime candidate. The teacher-union backed politician has never enjoyed widespread support in the city, but he is now polling at just 28 percent popularity.

  In his latest baffling position, Johnson first declared that ShotStopper was racist because it spots more shots in minority neighborhoods and is used by police to justify unsupported investigations or charges.

  The program has been widely credited for reducing violence and crimes.

  The Democratic National Convention presented a problem for Johnson.

  He is already under fire for continuing Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city despite the struggle to support the current number of undocumented migrants and the opposition of most Chicagoans. Only 39 percent favor Johnson continuing the status.

  So ShotSpotter is now being extended for seven months. Johnson says that the police will then be transitioned away from the technology. Critics say that the city will then return to operating without the system of alerts at a time when people are demanding more action on gun violence.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 12:50

• From Censorship To Criminalizing Dissent
  From Censorship To Criminalizing Dissent

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

  History does seem to be on fast forward, doesn’t it?

  A major battle is brewing throughout the Western world over the basic principle of free speech. Is it going to be protected by law? It’s not entirely clear what the outcome will be. We seem to be on the precipice of a potential calamity if the courts don’t decide the right way. Even if we squeak out a victory, the question is already in play. Our free speech rights have never been more fragile.

  Turn your attention to France right now. In the dead of night, a new law slipped through the General Assembly that would make it a crime to criticize mRNA shots. Critics call it the Pfizer law. It calls for fines up to 45,000 euros and possibly three years in prison for debunking an approved medical treatment.

  

  A general view of the French National Assembly (Assemblee Nationale) is seen in Paris on July 17, 2023. (Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images)

  Like all Western nations, criticism of the mRNA platform has already been subjected to vast social-media censorship. Even given this, there has been a major and global consumer turn against these shots. People are not convinced that they are necessary, safe, or effective. Still, government imposed mandates for everyone, billions of people worldwide. This was a form of conscription that has driven a deep divide between the rulers and the ruled.

  Rather than back down, however, governments, which have been captured by pharmaceutical interests, are going to bat for the companies and the technology to threaten imprisonment of anyone who speaks out openly against them.

  Here is where censorship becomes severely weaponized. It’s the next logical step. First you deploy every power to keep the distribution channels of information free of dissent. When that doesn’t entirely work, simply because people find alternative means of getting the word out, you have to intensify matters and institute outright controls.

  It stands to reason that this would happen. After all, the whole point of censorship is to curate the public mind to put down opposition to regime priorities. When mainstream corporate media is falling apart and new media is rising, the next stage is to go the full way to flat-out criminalize opinion, like any totalitarian government.

  We are very close to that stage. If it can happen in France, it can happen throughout Europe, then the Commonwealth, and then the United States. We know this much about politics today. It is global. The elites that have seized control of our governments coordinate across borders. This is why it is hugely important to pay attention to what’s going on across the pond.

  As a second item, I’m alarmed to read the lead piece in the New York Times opinion section that celebrates a defamation case about which I had not previously heard. It is by Michael Mann, professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He had sued a writer for the Competitive Enterprise Institute for taking issue with Mann’s climate change model, and the so-called hockey stick in particular.

  This is not my area of specialization at all but I have no doubt that mainstream climate science should be subject to vigorous criticism. If the COVID era has taught us anything, it is that the “scientific consensus” can be outrageously wrong and needs a check that comes in the form of writing, some of it zippy and cutting.

  

  Scientist Michael Mann attends the New York screening of the HBO Documentary “How to Let Go of the World and All The Things Climate Can’t Change” in New York on June 21, 2016. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for HBO)

  Dr. Mann filed a defamation lawsuit. Defamation is a very high bar: it means to deliberately lie about something with the intention to harm. One might not suppose that many things could qualify as that, certainly not criticism of a climate model. Indeed, most defamation lawsuits are dismissed outright simply because this country generally values free speech.

  This one, however, was accepted by the judge in Washington, D.C. court. After a full decade in litigation, and a full hearing, the jury ended up deciding in favor of the plaintiffs. One defendant, Rand Simberg, has been told to pay $1K and the other, Mark Steyn, $1M. Simberg says he will appeal and stands by every word that he wrote. Steyn agrees and is ready to appeal.

  Essentially this verdict is criminalizing hyperbole, said the defense attorney.

  The op-ed writer, however, says this is justice. “Our recent trial victory may have wider implications,” he says. “It has drawn a line in the sand. Scientists now know that they can respond to attacks by suing for defamation.” He mentions in particular people who have disagreed with the COVID consensus—disagreeing with Anthony Fauci—or otherwise make “false claims about adverse health effects from wind turbines.”

  Can you imagine? Criticize a wind turbine or pandemic lockdowns and find yourself hauled in front of a judge!

  Will this case have a chilling effect on criticism of government? Absolutely! Indeed, it is terrifying to think what it implies. And the writer leaves nothing to the imagination. He sees this case as a wedge to make scientific criticism of any area of life—from vaccines to climate change to the conversion to EVs—essentially illegal. In any case, if not that, it comes close by erecting so many landmines that critics essentially shut up for fear of having their whole lives ruined.

  This case went on for ten years. The article in question was published 12 years ago. How is it possible that litigants pushed a case for that long? It was to establish a serious precedent. That precedent is now clearly established. The definition of defamation is so malleable that juries can decide anything. Just the prospect of being hauled before a judge over ten years is enough to deter speaking out.

  We can hope that this appeal reverses the decision. But let’s face it: free speech should not rest on such a thin foundation of jury-created law and arbitrary judicial edict. This is all extremely dangerous and flies in the face of the First Amendment.

  Essentially, every critic of the “scientific consensus” in every area has been put on notice. They are already fair game. That’s the world toward which we are moving.

  Here’s the issue. Censorship works when government can control all the distribution channels of information. What happens when that no longer works? The powers that be have to use more direct methods, even when they fly in the face of the First Amendment. Those who say that this cannot happen here need to pay closer attention to the reality of what’s happening.

  Many people are excited to see the breakup of old media. Certainly I am but consider how the censors will respond. They are getting hardcore, relying more on law rather than capture, and hoping the courts can act to shut up the critics permanently. That’s the future we are looking at. It is extremely dangerous. Under this trajectory, free speech will be no more. The First Amendment will be a dead letter.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/17/2024 – 11:40

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• RFK Jr: The Wuhan Cover-Up & The Rise Of The Biowarfare-Industrial Complex
  RFK Jr: The Wuhan Cover-Up & The Rise Of The Biowarfare-Industrial Complex

  Authored by Debbie Lerman via The Brownstone Institute,

  The Wuhan Cover-Up and the Terrifying Bioweapons Arms Race (Skyhorse Publishing, December 3, 2023) is a crucial book for understanding how the Covid catastrophe happened. 

  

  I would even go so far as to argue that RFK, Jr.’s new book is the most important Covid chronicle to date, although it ends at the beginning of 2020, before most of us were even aware that a “novel coronavirus” was circulating among us. 

  The book explains the CAUSES of the global disaster, which all happened before March 2020. Everything after that are the downstream EFFECTS of what The Wuhan Cover-Up exposes.

  Here’s how RFK, Jr. summarizes those effects:

  Everyone has now seen that pandemics are another way for the military, intelligence, and public health services to expand their budgets and their power. In 2020, public health, defense, and intelligence agencies weaponized a [Covid-19] pandemic, resulting in unprecedented profits to Big Pharma and the dramatic expansion of the security/surveillance state, including a systemic abandonment of constitutional rights—effectively a coup d’état against liberal democracy globally.

  (Kindle edition, p. 385)

  Putting Covid in the Biowarfare Context

  Interestingly, in the publicity blurb on the book and in interviews about it, RFK, Jr. focuses on “the etiology of the gain-of-function research” and everything that led up to a virus being engineered in a US-funded lab in Wuhan by a group of Chinese and Western scientists.

  At the core of this story is RFK, Jr.’s desire to warn readers about the dangers of gain-of-function research, which he shows in the book to be irrefutably a biowarfare – not a public health – endeavor.

  But in the process of constructing the argument and supplying the proof for his dire warning, and for his assertion that this type of research should be stopped immediately and forever, RFK, Jr. provides what I find to be an even more compelling story.

  The story in the Wuhan Cover-Up that interests me is the rise of the biowarfare-industrial-complex – the global behemoth comprising military/intelligence alliances, Big Pharma, Big Tech, academic and medical institutions, and NGOs – that both created the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 and ran the global response to it.

  In this article, I will highlight key parts of The Wuhan Cover-Up that pertain to this storyline – which I believe are downplayed in its publicity materials and are one of the main reasons it has been practically banned from polite society: The book has been so heavily censored that I cannot find a single actual review on Google. Newsweek reported that independent bookstores do not want to carry it. 

  A lot of the censorship has to do with mainstream animosity toward RFK, Jr’s presidential campaign. But the explosive content of the book, as reviewed in this article, is also likely a factor.

  Top-Level Summary of the Rise of the Biowarfare Industrial Complex, as Told by RFK, Jr.

  • The biowarfare industry started to grow after WWII, when Western intelligence agencies imported Japanese and German scientists to help develop weapons against Communist enemies. This was, in fact, the first task of the newly formed CIA.

  • After 9/11, funding for bioweapons research exploded, and so did the power and reach of the military and intelligence agencies in charge of such research. The research, presented to the public as “pandemic preparedness and response (PPR),” encompassed mostly attempts to engineer deadly pathogens and simultaneously to create countermeasures to them, predominantly vaccines. 

  • So much money was pouring into PPR/bioweapons research that the public health agencies and academic institutions involved in government research all became dependent on it – or, perhaps more accurately, addicted to the money and power this type of research bestowed. Multinational public-private partnerships and “non-governmental organizations” (e.g., The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Wellcome Trust) were created to fund and promote the need for such research.

  • In the fall of 2019 an engineered pathogen from one of the bioweapons labs in China found its way into the population. All the military, intelligence, and public health officials from China, the US, UK, and other countries, with their pharma and academic partners, conspired to cover up the lab leak, while simultaneously preparing to unleash their countermeasures on the world.

  How the Nature of Biowarfare Research Has Not Changed

  As RFK, Jr. tells it, the history of today’s biowarfare industry starts after WWII, when German and Japanese scientists were secretly repatriated to assist the intelligence community and military in developing chemical and biological weapons programs. 

  It is no coincidence, he argues, that many sinister features of those earlier programs carried forward to the present. These features include:

  • tight alliances with the pharmaceutical industry and the media; 

  • the complicity of academia and medical schools; 

  • the co-opting of journals; 

  • intense secrecy; 

  • pervasive experimentation on human subjects; 

  • liberal use of the word “volunteers;”

  • open-air testing on large unwilling populations; 

  • ethical elasticity; 

  • the normalization of lies; 

  • the use of microbiology to alter and weaponize bugs; 

  • the use of vaccine development as a mask for bioweapons research; 

  • the corruption of the entire medical establishment 

  (p. 48)

  Even just this list is enough to explain what happened with Covid: Take all these ingredients, add billions of dollars and multinational public-private partnerships involving top research institutions and thousands of scientists, and how could you not get a global disaster? 

  Deep CIA-Biowarfare Ties

  The Wuhan Cover-Up spends a lot of time documenting the correspondence between the rise of the CIA and the emergence of the modern biowarfare program. 

   RFK, Jr. writes:

  …it’s worth reviewing the agency’s seventy-five-year preoccupation with bioweapons, pandemics, and vaccines. Bioweapons development was the CIA’s first love, and has remained its relentless passion. The CIA’s natal obsession with bioweapons pitted the agency against all the idealistic underpinnings of both American democracy and the healing arts of medicine. 

  (p. 46)

  An important related point emphasized in the book is that bioweapons research is not an obscure, niche industry. Rather, according to The Wuhan Cover-Up, it is a top national defense concern, driving the national security agenda:

  Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the military and intelligence apparatus erected the biosecurity agenda as the new spear tip of American foreign policy. These agencies deftly replaced the fear of the Soviet monolith and creeping communism with a fear of infectious disease, which they have successfully stoked to justify vast expansions in power…

  (p. 44)

  Shockingly Broad Participation by Academics and Scientists

  Because the biosecurity agenda – which focuses on biochemical and medical research – is so central to foreign policy and national security, it controls large swaths of research funding. Thus, as RFK, Jr. documents, it has come to encompass many top academic institutions and thousands of doctors and scientists:

  Among the most alarming side effects of the federal preoccupation with bioweapons has been the systematic diversion of vast resources and armies of academic and government scientists away from public health and healing. 

  (p. 46)

  Today, some thirteen thousand death scientists labor on bioweapons technology on behalf of US military, intelligence, and public health agencies in some four hundred government and university bioweapons labs. 

  (p. 83)

  Moral Bankruptcy

  When faced with Covid “conspiracy theories” – such as those put forth in The Wuhan Cover-Up – people often argue that so many doctors and scientists could not possibly have knowingly agreed to civilization-killing ideas like lockdowns and injections of unsafe medical products into billions of people. They must have believed they were actually saving humanity, right?

  Wrong, according to RFK, Jr.:

  History has shown again and again the bioweapons agenda’s awesome power to transform compassionate, brilliant, idealistic doctors into monsters. 

  (p. 47)

  They have, as a class, demonstrated thoroughly warped judgment and a reliable penchant for dishonesty and terrible ideas. 

  (p. 87)

  Bioweapons Research = Vaccine Research

  Another crucial idea bearing on our understanding of the Covid response is that vaccine research is a primary concern for the biowarfare-industrial complex, although it is publicly presented as a public health endeavor.

  The book quotes Professor Frances Boyle, author of the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, with this explanation:

  You can’t use a bioweapon against your enemy without having in your possession an antidote with which to shield your own team from blowback. For this reason, bioweapons and vaccines are always developed in tandem with each other.

  (p. 121)

  Moreover, because vaccine research funding goes to both biodefense and public health agencies, they have become inextricably linked:

  The military and public health agencies work in close coordination to develop vaccines for military applications, sharing information and working side by side in labs. Vaccine research often serves as a cover or rationale for illegal bioweapons development.

  (p. 129)

  From an Obsession of US National Security to a Tool of Globalism

  As RFK, Jr. writes, after 9/11, Islamic terrorism became the focus of US national defense. After the anthrax attacks, the focus of antiterrorist activities coalesced around the need to predict, prevent, and create countermeasures to biological terrorism. 

  This more reliable and terrifying enemy would soon replace the war against Islamic terror—justifying a “forever war” against germs. “Biosecurity,” a.k.a. Pandemic Preparedness and Response (PPR), provided a rationale for US presence in every developing nation.

  (p. 149)

  And, as further explained by RFK, Jr., the focus on bioterrorism, which first served the American imperialist impulse, then became incorporated into the program of globalism:

  The emerging medical/military-industrial complex would soon be citing biosecurity as a pretext for centralized control, coordinated response among nations, a sprawling construction project for new US bioweapons laboratories, the archiving of every germ with weapons potential under the pretext of pandemic protection, the control of the media, the imposition of censorship, the erection of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure ostensibly needed to “track and trace” infections, universal digital IDs, digital currencies to reduce disease spread, and the ceding of power by national governments to the WHO—in short, globalism. 

  (p. 149)

  China Becomes a Dominant Biowarfare Research Player

  Concurrently, China’s leaders were working on a mission to make China a world leader in science, research, and innovation. According to The Wuhan Cover-Up, the Chinese have been using the West’s march toward globalism to infiltrate “Western academia, businesses, media, cultural groups, and government agencies that speak the language of cooperation, globalism, and public health.” (p. 257)

  As part of their infiltration process, the Chinese lavished funding on Western research institutions and scientific publishing houses. And because biomedical/biowarfare research was so central to Western governments and research institutions, the Chinese were able to eventually dominate that space as well.

  Thus, the book explains, China was able to “co-opt US academic institutions and US public health agencies into performing backdoor bioweapons research for the Chinese military.” (p. 274)

  Why Would the US Do Bioweapons Research in/for China?

  This is, perhaps, the most oft-raised question in response to the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 was an engineered bioweapon from a lab funded by the Chinese military, the US, and other Western governments.

  As RFK, Jr. explains, with the Chinese as major funders of Western institutions, journals and projects related to biomedical research, this strange collaboration was not just unsurprising, but in fact, inevitable:

  The Chinese campaign to co-opt leading scientists and the river of Chinese funding to researchers at US and British medical research universities and to the leading scientific journals had, by then, bought China powerful friends across the Western scientific establishment. 

  (p. 280)

  Furthermore, the interests of China intersect with the interests of major global corporations and NGOs that comprise the biowarfare-industrial-complex – many of which enriched themselves considerably through the Covid response. As RFK, Jr. writes:

  There is a natural intersection of interests between Western business titans and a former communist government [the Chinese Communist Party] that has made itself the global model for seamlessly merging corporate with government power, and promoting business growth by suppressing democracy, labor, and human rights. 

  (p. 572)

  For its part, the US intelligence community has all kinds of reasons – all ultimately geared toward increasing its own power and influence – to engage in sensitive scientific research projects with the Chinese:

  The deliberate transfer of our superior bioweapons knowledge to the Chinese—a potential enemy—makes little sense to citizens who think in terms of conventional rivalries between nations. Espionage was clearly among the complex motivations for the US intelligence community supporting Chinese bioweapons research in China. Knowing what the Chinese are up to is the mission of the US intelligence community. But quietly sharing cutting-edge technologies may also serve institutional self-interest. After all, the intelligence community expands its power by reporting the enemy’s expanding capabilities; more frightening capabilities abroad justify increased budgets and increased power at home. 

  (p. 388)

  Bioweapons expert Dr. Francis Boyle is quoted stating that:

  Opportunities to expand institutional power and corporate profits always seem to trump patriotism and duty within the CIA’s bioweapons teams. Patriotism is a polite fiction among the bioweapons set.

  (p. 383)

  RFK, Jr. adds that the public health agencies, which are heavily involved in, and funded by, biowarfare research, share the CIA’s self-interested non-patriotism:

  NIH and NIAID operate under the same perverse incentives that drive destructive conduct across the whole bioweapons field.

  (p. 383)

  A Convergence of Personal, Political, Financial and Global Interests

  In the final chapters of The Wuhan Cover-Up, RFK, Jr. focuses on several key figures in the biowarfare-industrial-complex, including Jeremy Farrar of the Wellcome Trust (now at the WHO), Anthony Fauci of the NIH, and Bill Gates. 

  RFK, Jr. uses these figures to show how the Covid pandemic emerged from the toxic stew of ethically compromised biowarfare research standards; military, intelligence, public health, and academic institutions/organizations dependent on biowarfare funding; the involvement of China and global interests in the booming business of “pandemic preparedness and response;” and, of course, the endless pursuit of political power and personal enrichment.

  Here’s a great summary of how they all came together, through personal and institutional greed and power-mongering, to unleash the Covid catastrophe on the world:

  The evidence suggests that instead of relentlessly protecting public health, Farrar exploited the pandemic to promote the venal financial agendas of his WEF [World Economic Forum] patrons, to transform Western democracies into surveillance states, to expand his personal power and paycheck, and to pander to high-level Chinese officials. Achieving these objectives required Farrar to hide [Covid’s] laboratory origins, a project in which he enlisted a cadre of his medical cartel cronies—those who, thanks to years of funding by Fauci, Farrar, and Gates, now occupy the highest echelons of virology in academia, the regulatory agencies, and pharmaceutical companies. 

  (p. 539)

  If for nothing else, I would recommend adding The Wuhan Cover-Up to your library as an invaluable resource on leading figures, organizations, and power brokers involved in the biowarfare-industrial-complex.

  Conclusions and Comments

  It was especially gratifying to me to read The Wuhan Cover-Up (all 600 pages of it), because it validated my own research, showing that the pandemic response was led by the national security/intelligence arms of government, not public health agencies. 

  In fact, after reading the first few chapters – the ones that go into the history of chemical and biological warfare and the rise of the biowarfare-industrial-complex – I paradoxically felt an enormous sense of relief. 

  Finally, we have a detailed account that shows – beyond what I would consider a reasonable doubt – that the entire Covid catastrophe was caused, and led, by a multinational military-intelligence-academic-pharma-tech-NGO cabal.

  RFK, Jr.’s conclusion is that we should look to a future “in which the bio-elites are held responsible for their actions, people regain their rights, and the Constitution is restored to its intended preeminence.”

  But how do we do that? 

  I am afraid, based on the information in his own book, and the fact that RFK, Jr. himself is being censored and banned so extensively from the public square, that the solution to the problems he exposes is much more difficult and complex than just “holding the bio-elites responsible” which will somehow lead to people regaining their rights.

  What we need to do is to shut down, or extract ourselves from, the global biowarfare-industrial-complex that is able to convince (or coerce?) our governments into declaring states of emergency over supposed pandemic threats, and then curtail civil rights and impose massive surveillance, censorship, and propaganda that would not be permitted in non-emergency situations. Not to mention garnering enormous wealth while forcing the world’s population to accept novel, untested, and potentially lethal medical “countermeasures.”

  The Wuhan Cover-Up does a better job than any other book or article I have read at exposing the trends, forces, and institutions that brought us the Covid catastrophe – with hundreds of pages of notes and references. What’s frightening is that the enormity of the problem is beyond the scope of the book, not just to solve, but even to fully acknowledge.

  Republished from the author’s Substack

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 23:40

• Hotel Rooms Or Homes?
  Hotel Rooms Or Homes?

  Even with Airbnb posting a net loss of $500 million in its fourth quarter of 2023, the past year was a success story for the short-term rental platform, which increased its annual revenue to roughly $10 billion and net income to $4.8 billion.

  Nevertheless, as Statista’s Florian Zandt details below, the hotel business is still far more important regarding the revenue generated in the travel and tourism sector.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  As the chart above, based on Statista Mobility Market Insights data, shows, hotel accommodation has a larger revenue share in every one of the eight economies projected to generate the most revenue with cruises, package holidays, camping, hotels and vacation rentals.

  Italy had the highest share of vacation rentals, which encompasses vacation homes and short-term rentals, in total market revenue with almost 16 percent. The relationship between Airbnb and the Southern European nation, in particular, is fraught. In November, Italian authorities seized 780 million euros from the online platform due to the suspicion of tax evasion. The case was settled in December with Airbnb agreeing to pay 576 million euros without admitting direct liability.

  The tourism and travel industry in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan will continue to rely heavily on hotel bookings in 2024 according to Statista analysts, with between 54 and 62 percent of the corresponding total market revenue being provided by this segment. Germany has one of the lowest combined revenue share of hotels and vacation rentals, which can be attributed to the country’s inhabitants’ fondness for package holidays.

  Overall, analysts forecast that revenue in all market segments will amount to $927 billion worldwide in the upcoming year.

  The United States, China and Germany alone are projected to contribute almost half of this revenue.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 23:20

• How Progressive Policies Are Designed For Civilizational Suicide
  How Progressive Policies Are Designed For Civilizational Suicide

  Authored by John D. O’Connor via American Greatness,

  We all understand, in the timeless words of the poet Robert Burns, that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

  Most Americans are accustomed to assessing the various failed initiatives of our country’s leaders as well-intended actions that turned out badly. The Vietnam, Afghan, and Iraq wars, the 2008 financial meltdown, and the COVID pandemic overreaction, all in hindsight, can be viewed as simply the unfolding of human stupidity in the contingency of time.

  In accordance, it is understandable that many are inclined to believe that our country’s current serious problems are, once again, merely the failed result of well-intentioned policies.

  

  But what if, we ask, seemingly fumbled programs were intended to be the initial throes of civilizational suicide? What if apparent missteps were actually directed at the purposeful destruction of a prosperous, free, safe, and secure society?

  As we examine the policies pushed by the Biden administration progressives regarding climate, national security, crime, and the border, we can rationally conclude that they are being purposely implemented to render our society unsuccessful, not successful, in its traditional aims, causing what could be the ultimate destruction of a thriving, liberal enlightenment society.

  Let us begin with escalating climate mandates, now reaching gas stoves and tires, seeking the total elimination of fossil fuels. Because our mainstream media, more out of reflexive conformity than malevolence, constantly amplify climate alarmism, most Americans believe climate programs are designed in good faith to protect us from planetary disasters. Climate subsidies are aimed, they are led to believe, at increasing prosperity through good “green” jobs in emerging “green” industries, all part of the supposedly improved “Bidenomics” economy, however counterintuitive many think them to be.

  When Biden, immediately upon assuming office, stopped issuing new drilling leases, canceled the Keystone Pipeline, and issued EPA regulations effectively shutting down multiple power plants in the near future, was he, however idealistically, trying to wean our country off of fossil fuels in favor of clean, “renewable” energy? If so, what could be wrong with that?

  If the administration had calculated that lost energy from stifling fossil fuel sources could actually be replaced, these initiatives, even if overly optimistic, could be viewed as well-intended.

  However, within the climate camp, it has been well known that fossil fuels, which power 82% of world energy needs, cannot conceivably be replaced by renewable energy to any substantial degree. So, as these policies take effect over the coming years, our hospitals and medical centers, relying on petroleum-based plastic furniture, fixtures, and equipment, energy-dependent stainless-steel implements, and high-power physical plants, will be hit hard. Health care costs will soar, while treatment will decrease to emerging society levels. Our food costs, already rising dramatically, will skyrocket as petroleum fertilizer, now tripling yields, becomes economically impractical. Housing costs, dependent on fuel-powered equipment and concrete and steel needing massive energy inputs to manufacture, will put homeownership out of reach for all but the rich and reduce housing to cramped, third-world levels. And, of course, transportation will become an expensive luxury for both people and products.

  But isn’t this all meant well? For trusting, uncritical moderates and traditional liberals, yes. For the progressives pulling the strings, no.

  Maurice Strong, the Canadian socialist responsible for steering the United Nations into the bureaucratic sinecures of the climate alarmist IPCC, has stated from the outset that his intention is the diminishment of the wealth of the Western industrialized nations, making them more like less-advantaged societies.

  Although they tout their certainty, climate warriors conceal that for decades, their computerized GCMs (General Circulation Models) have overpredicted global warming by 300%. Well, they respond when confronted by the knowledgeable, the increased heat was swallowed by the oceans, or perhaps tamped down by those pesky aerosols. They know better, but gullible, well-intentioned believers do not.

  Documents from a key IPCC research center in East Anglia, the GRU, reveal the fear of climate activists that the public will learn of the Medieval Warm Period and that its temperatures were warmer than today without any claimed assistance from carbon dioxide. Progressive climatologists, in essence, know they are pushing a canard.

  Progressive border policies need little discussion. When Biden was elected, the country was led to believe that he would aim to control the southern border, but do so in a humane, non-Trump manner, no longer putting children in cages (which in truth and in fact were Obama-inspired).

  Of course, to any rational observer, it is now clear that the massive invasion at our southern border was intended by progressives. The “great replacement” theory is not needed to prove this invasion intentional, obvious to any observer. Three-star New York hotels and thousand-dollar-a-month payments to migrants? Free health care? These are among the positive incentives to illegally migrate, revealing intentionality after the maligned Trump proved that the border was substantially controllable.

  The intended result of mass migration is not just new Democratic voters; the most obvious result. It is, more significantly, a deliberately overwhelming burden on our social welfare system, heretofore supported sufficiently by taxes on a powerful economy. With more unemployment and more burdens on social welfare, the progress of the aspiring poor, primarily minorities, will be crushed. Our society is headed, as intended by progressives, to socialism, which, as Winston Churchill noted, has “as its greatest virtue the equal sharing of misery.”

  Moving to national security, the tinderbox of the Middle East was not caused by Trump’s irrational temperament, which, in hindsight, has proven its deterrent value. Rather, putting Obama’s progressive policies on steroids, Biden both directly sent cash to Iran and also removed oil sanctions, giving the country financial power to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and, of course, Iran’s own depredations on U.S. troops. Biden’s special Iran envoy, the pro-Hamas Rob Malley, and other pro-Iran and pro-Hamas officials influence our Middle East policy to intentionally favor our enemies.

  But what could be the progressive motive for Iran’s hegemony in the Middle East? Clearly, it is to cause the demise of “right-wing” leadership in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, all American allies, so that the region will be controlled by anti-American repressive regimes. Interestingly, progressives revealed their anti-democratic, authoritarian roots by supporting Mullahs who kill members of the LGBT community and subdue women. Again, Iran’s terrorism is not an unfortunate artifact of balanced statesmanship. Rather, it is intended to exterminate a democratic Jewish society and a Saudi regime seeking to modernize itself. In a remarkable exercise in projection, progressives at the same time deem Trump to be a Hitler stand-in.

  Similarly, the cause of increasing crime in our cities is no mystery. Progressives applauded, not decried, the George Floyd mayhem, largely an exercise in looting. Beautiful cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles, all run by progressives, have become dystopian hellholes.

  So, sincere, well-meaning liberals should, but generally do not, see that they are being led like lemmings to the sea, toward civilizational suicide, by the progressives they have long trusted as being in the liberal leadership, not the socialist vanguard.

  In the nineteenth century, the brilliant French observer of American culture, Count Alexis de Tocqueville, said that democratic despotism would be effectuated, if at all, not by overt state terror but by the infantilization of a trusting population.

  The evidence is now clearly established that moderate liberals should face reality and reject the policies of the progressive vanguard, leading them into civilizational suicide.

  *  *  *

  John D. O’Connor is a former federal prosecutor and the San Francisco attorney who represented W. Mark Felt during his revelation as Deep Throat in 2005. O’Connor is the author of the books, Postgate: How the Washington Post Betrayed Deep Throat, Covered Up Watergate and Began Today’s Partisan Advocacy Journalism and The Mysteries of Watergate: What Really Happened.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 23:00

• These Are Expected To Be The World's Largest Consumer Markets In 2030
  These Are Expected To Be The World’s Largest Consumer Markets In 2030

  Consumers are the lifeblood of the global economy, the driving force behind market dynamics, and the ultimate arbiters of demand.

  But where are the biggest congregations of consumers, and are they growing?

  Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes the 20 largest consumer markets in the world, based on 2030 projections from World Data Lab, an enterprise focused on creating estimates on global consumer spending.

  

  In this dataset, a consumer is classified as someone who spends at least $12 per day. Sources for the data include the World Bank, UN, Eurostat, and OECD databases.

  Ranked: Largest Consumer Markets in 2030

  Ranked first, China is expected to have slightly more than 1 billion consumers by 2030, a 15% increase from 2024. Just across the Himalayas, at second place, India will have 773 million consumers, up from 529 million today, a staggering 46% increase.

  The rise of the global middle class, thanks to expanding economies and wealth, is expected to boom in this region, in turn increasing local spending ability.

  This nearly 2 billion-strong consumer market in India and China could have wide-ranging effects on the global economy. Businesses may shift their focus to cater to these markets, offering more customized products and employing different marketing strategies. This could also require businesses to realign their supply chains and build new distribution networks closer to these markets.

  Rank	Country	Consumer Market (2030 Projections)	% Change (from 2024)
  1	🇨🇳 China	1,062,294,436	+15%
  2	🇮🇳 India	772,929,623	+46%
  3	🇺🇸 U.S.	348,393,863	+4%
  4	🇮🇩 Indonesia	158,448,996	+27%
  5	🇧🇷 Brazil	135,902,978	+9%
  6	🇷🇺 Russia	127,324,784	0%
  7	🇯🇵 Japan	118,264,539	-3%
  8	🇵🇰 Pakistan	99,263,255	+30%
  9	🇲🇽 Mexico	91,698,269	+9%
  10	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	87,183,060	+59%
  11	🇻🇳 Vietnam	80,383,445	+34%
  12	🇩🇪 Germany	80,370,656	0%
  13	🇹🇷 Turkey	79,955,332	+8%
  14	🇬🇧 UK	69,179,607	+3%
  15	🇫🇷 France	67,980,532	+3%
  16	🇪🇬 Egypt	67,710,385	+25%
  17	🇵🇭 Philippines	65,545,279	+35%
  18	🇹🇭 Thailand	58,237,555	+10%
  19	🇮🇹 Italy	55,596,017	-1%
  20	🇮🇷 Iran	55,219,774	+11%

  Following current population rankings, the U.S. (348 million consumers), and Indonesia (158 million consumers) rank third and fourth respectively. Brazil, the sixth-most populated country, will have the fifth-largest consumers class by 2030, close to 136 million people.

  At the same time, not all countries will see a growing consumer base. Russia and Germany are expected to stagnate, while Japan and Italy could even see a decline, a direct representation of plateauing population growth within these countries.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 22:40

• America's Dysfunctional Overclass
  America’s Dysfunctional Overclass

  Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times,

  What does America’s overclass think of the rest of us? The short answer is “not much.”

  They think ordinary people’s splurging on natural resources is destroying the planet and needs to be cut back forcefully.

  And that the government needs to stamp down on ordinary people enjoying luxuries that, in their view, should be reserved for the top elites.

  

  These are the implications of the results of two surveys of elite people conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, an organization that supports low tax rates and low government spending. The surveys covered not large swaths of the population but were confined to the top 1 percent of society.

  One survey, the Elite, included only respondents with postgraduate degrees, household incomes above $150,000 and residents in a ZIP code with more than 10,000 people per square mile. Another, Ivy League graduates, included adults who attended Ivy League or other selective private colleges such as Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, or Stanford.

  You probably won’t be surprised that the large majority of this Elite feels economically well off. Nor, if you’ve kept up with recent changes in party identification, will you be much surprised that 73 percent of these elites identify as Democrats and only 14 percent as Republicans.

  What is surprising is the extent to which this American overclass would deprive its fellow citizens of things they have taken for granted. Half of these groups, 47 percent of Elites and 55 percent of Ivies, say the United States provides people with “too much individual freedom.”

  More than three-quarters favor, “to fight climate change, the strict rationing of energy, gas, and meat,” a proposition rejected by 63 percent of the public. Again, “to fight climate change,” between half and two-thirds favor bans on gas stoves (a recent target despite demurrals of Biden bureaucrats and New York state Democrats), gasoline-powered cars (heavily disfavored by Biden Democrats and California rules) and SUVs, “private” air conditioning, and “nonessential air travel.”

  The ascetic economist Thorstein Veblen, in his 1899 book “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” argued that the rich engaged in “conspicuous consumption” activities such as golf, polo, and art collecting, for which ordinary people had neither the time nor the money.

  A century and a quarter later, America has rich people hoping to deprive ordinary people of “conspicuous consumption” activities they can afford and where they clutter up the airports, interstate highways, and high-end malls.

  For generations, Democrats have liked to portray themselves as the tribune of the little man, the defender of policies that enable ordinary people without special advantages, or with many disadvantages, to live comfortably, securely, and in dignity. There may be some condescension in this posture, but also a considerable element of respect.

  This survey shows that today, this 1 percent of the public, which includes virtually all elective and appointive Democrats in Washington and states like California, New York, and New Jersey, tends to see the bulk of its fellow citizens as selfish and destructive, in need not just of discipline but deserving of harsh restrictions on their freedoms.

  This attitude is echoed by the wider group of Democratic voters. A 2023 Pew Research survey shows that while 31 percent of Republicans, even with their party out of power, think America “stands above all other countries in the world,” only 9 percent of Democrats do so.

  It’s an unstable and dangerous situation when a largely one-party elite looks, with fear and loathing, across what Rasmussen describes as a “Grand Canyon gap” between it and its multiparty fellow citizens. It’s reminiscent somehow of the “let them eat cake” French royalists in 1789 or Russian nobles in 1917. An overclass this disconnected and contemptuous risks disruption.

  A better approach comes from an undoubted member of America’s elite, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Speaking to CNBC at Davos last month, Dimon recounted a bus trip to Spokane and Boise and Bozeman: “People are growing. They’re hungry to grow. They’re innovating. It’s everywhere. It’s not just Silicon Valley.”

  Perhaps aware the Mountain West votes Republican, Dimon, who calls himself a centrist Democrat, conceded that former President Donald Trump “wasn’t wrong about some of the critical issues” and was “kind of right” about NATO and immigration and “grew the economy quite well.”

  Of elite Democrats’ contempt for Trump supporters, he had less to say.

  “The Democrats have done a good job with the deplorables, hugging their Bibles and their beer and their guns. I mean, really? Can we stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat other people respectfully and listen to them a little bit?”

  It’s a question other members of our dysfunctional overclass might ask themselves.

  *  *  *

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 22:20

• Tennis Courts Slated For Empty Manhattan Lot After Office Tower Plans Postponed
  Tennis Courts Slated For Empty Manhattan Lot After Office Tower Plans Postponed

  Vornado Realty Trust appears to have abandoned plans for an office tower near Madison Square Garden as the commercial real estate downturn worsens. 

  Bloomberg reports the site of the once-planned 61-floor office tower in Manhattan could be “temporarily” converted to tennis courts for the US Open. Vornado’s website said the site has the potential for basketball courts, New York Fashion Week, or even a giant billboard. 

  

  The new office tower was set to replace Hotel Pennsylvania at 401 Seventh Avenue (15 Penn Plaza) in Manhattan, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. The hotel was demolished in 2023, and Vornado has not built the new office tower due to CRE turmoil. 

  But Vornado put the tower plan on hold along with parts of the massive redevelopment plan to remake Penn Station last year after high interest rates and the shift to working from home triggered a crisis in the commercial real estate market. -Bloomberg 

  A Vornado spokesperson told Bloomberg: “We are currently considering a number of potential interim options for the Hotel Pennsylvania site.” 

  Chief Executive Officer Steven Roth told investors in an earnings call this week that there’s a “total blacklisting of office in the capital markets.” Hence, this is why Vornado can’t find the financing for the new tower. He also warned about “office apocalypse” spreading across Midtown. 

  The construction delay also came as office supply nationwide developed into a sizeable surplus as demand evaporated. This was noted by Morgan Stanley analyst Ronald Kamdem in a note this week titled “Where Is The Highest Supply Risk Across CRE Sectors?”  

  

  What’s unfolding is a slow-motion trainwreck in the CRE space. Financing for new office towers is becoming increasingly difficult to secure, and some properties, such as the one in Manhattan, are being repurposed into tennis courts.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 22:00

• Elite Colleges Reconsidering SAT Score Requirements
  Elite Colleges Reconsidering SAT Score Requirements

  Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

  Several elite universities are considering reversing recent decisions to reduce or even eliminate requirements for application that include standardized test scores such as the SAT exams.

  

  According to Axios, multiple colleges used the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to weaken the importance of SAT and ACT test scores in most student applications. But in recent weeks, several schools have reversed course; Yale is considering repealing its prior policy of making SAT/ACT requirements optional, with Dartmouth already reinstating the requirements earlier this month. MIT reversed a similar policy back in 2022.

  Other schools that have eliminated SAT/ACT requirements include Harvard and Columbia. Harvard, along with Cornell and Princeton, have extended their policy of making the scores optional, while Columbia’s policy remains permanent.

  One of the motivating factors behind the reversal is ongoing research showing a clear correlation between students’ standardized test scores, and their subsequent academic performance and graduation rates in college. Some schools had previously opposed the test requirements for reasons of “diversity,” baselessly accusing the tests of being “racist” and against minority students.

  Dartmouth pointed to a study that had been commissioned by the university’s president, which “confirms that standardized testing — when assessed using the local norms at a student’s high school” is crucial in evaluating an applicant’s potential.

  In a statement, Yale’s undergraduate office said that they “expect to announce a decision on its long-term testing policy in the next few weeks.” In the meantime, students applying for the Fall of 2024 will still fall under the “not optional” category when it comes to standardized tests.

  Brown University is currently awaiting a committee’s recommendations on how to move forward with standardized testing, as well as other practices such as legacy admissions and early decisions. The committee is expected to finish its report in the next few months.

  There are still over 2,000 schools in the country which remain either optional or completely free of standardized test requirements ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year. Meanwhile, the National Education Association (NEA) has demanded that all colleges eliminate testing requirements, with NEA president Becky Pringle declaring in a statement that “All students deserve and have the ability to demonstrate knowledge in many ways that are measurable by those who know them best: Their educators.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 21:40

• Kremlin Calls Nuclear Space Weapon Story A 'Trick' To Get Biden's Ukraine Aid Passed
  Kremlin Calls Nuclear Space Weapon Story A ‘Trick’ To Get Biden’s Ukraine Aid Passed

  The Kremlin has blasted what it is calling the “malicious fabrication” by the US government of its alleged new ‘space weapon’ which set off a frenzy of media speculation this week.

  Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believes it was a trick by lawmakers to get Biden’s massive Ukraine and foreign defense aid package passed. “It’s obvious that Washington is trying to force Congress to vote on the aid bill by hook or by crook,” he said.

  

  US officials and media continue to walk back the initial hyped and headline-grabbing claims of a Russian nuclear space weapon.

  According to the latest from Reuters, “The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said.”

  And more, “Analysts tracking Russia’s space programs say the space threat is probably not a nuclear warhead but rather a high-powered device requiring nuclear energy to carry out an array of attacks against satellites.” The report goes on to list:

  These might include signal-jammers, weapons that can blind image sensors, or – a more dire possibility – electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that could fry all satellites’ electronics within a certain orbital region.”

  During a Thursday press briefing White House national security council spokesman John Kirby belatedly confirmed that reports of a new Russian capability was related to “an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing,” but that “This is not an active capability that’s been deployed.”

  It all started when Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio set Capitol Hill media correspondents into a frenzy of speculation after on Wednesday he issued an ominous-sounding statement about “information concerning a serious national security threat.”

  Cue trolling and mockery by Russian government accounts…

  ⚡️⚡️ YET ANOTHER THREAT ⚡️⚡️:

  Russia’s nuclear space “weapon”

  With everyone talking about the US government panicking over a new Russian “space weapon”, we suggest to look into what it really could be.

  (Remember the warmongers in the West saying Russia was stealing washing… pic.twitter.com/ILEGjCaH5Y

  — Russian Embassy in South Africa 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) February 16, 2024

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

  This sparked a very short-lived media panic, and by Friday it’s already largely been forgotten about. There are even new reports saying Moscow has held out the possibility of cooperation with the West on new satellite technology, but of course this could also be another example of the Kremlin trolling Western media.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 21:20

• House OKs Bill Prohibiting Any Normalization With Syria
  House OKs Bill Prohibiting Any Normalization With Syria

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that prohibits the US from opening diplomatic relations with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and expands harsh sanctions on Syria to prevent other countries from normalizing with Syria.

  The Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act passed in a vote of 389-32, demonstrating broad bipartisan support for the economic war against Syria. Only 28 Democrats and four Republicans voted against the bill. The legislation now heads to the Senate.

  

  The bill was introduced as a reaction to Arab countries repairing relations with the Assad government and Syria being brought back into the Arab league. Hawks in the US are opposed to Syria’s regional integration and are hoping they can prevent it using sanctions under the Caesar Act.

  The Caesar Act was implemented in 2020 and allows the US to sanction any individual or entity that does business with the Syrian government. The sanctions are specifically designed to prevent Syria from rebuilding, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously said it’s US policy to “oppose the reconstruction of Syria” as long as Assad remains in power.

  The text of the bill declares that it’s US policy “to actively oppose recognition or normalization of relations by other governments with any Government of Syria that is led by Bashar Al-Assad, including by fully implementing the mandatory primary and secondary sanctions in the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.”

  On top of the economic sanctions on Syria, the US has about 900 troops occupying the eastern portion of the country, where it backs the Kurdish-led SDF and controls oil fields.

  Syria and regional analyst Joshua Landis: “What an odd form of justice for Syrians: block reconstruction and ensure poverty.”

  US Passes Bill to extend Sanctions on Syria until 2032

  “Congress is sending a message that it remains committed to justice for the Syrian people.”

  Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee Mike McCaul said.

  Mr Ghanem adds “If Caesar is allowed to expire, then it will… pic.twitter.com/ih8toxgWsR

  — Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) February 16, 2024

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  Recent reports have suggested the US was considering a withdrawal from Syria as its forces have been under attack since October due to US support for the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. But an SDF commander said last week that he received assurances from the US that a withdrawal was not on the table.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 21:00

• Visualizing Racial Diversity In America's 10 Largest States
  Visualizing Racial Diversity In America’s 10 Largest States

  Over the last decade, America has become increasingly more diverse as demographic patterns shift across the population.

  With over 39 million people, California is not only the most populous state, but one of the most diverse in the country.

  Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu created this graphic to show the racial diversity of the 10 biggest states by population, based on data from the U.S. Census.

  

  How Diverse Are America’s Most Populous States?

  Here is the racial breakdown of the 10 largest U.S. states:

  

  As the table above shows, California has the highest proportion of Asian Americans across the top 10 states, comprising 15% of the population.

  Meanwhile, Georgia’s ethnic makeup includes 32% of Black Americans, the highest across the most populous states. As diversity has risen over the last decade, it has significantly influenced politics at both the state and national level. The state voted Republican for every presidential election from 1996-2016, but flipped blue in 2020.

  With 80% of the population being White Americans, Ohio has the highest share across the biggest states. While diversity has increased since 2010, it has been seen mostly in urban and suburban districts while diversity has stagnated in rural areas.

  Overall, 24% of rural areas in the U.S. are made up of non-White Americans, rising by a median rate of 3.5% across counties since 2010. While this debunks the myth that “rural” is synonymous with “white”, racial diversity across rural areas falls below the national average of 42% of the population being people of color.

  Beyond the top 10 states, ethnic diversity is the highest in Hawaii, Nevada, and Maryland.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 20:40

• "Biden Reelection Chances Do Not Look Favorable": Political, Economic Indicators "Not Promising", Gallup Finds
  “Biden Reelection Chances Do Not Look Favorable”: Political, Economic Indicators “Not Promising”, Gallup Finds

  By Jeffrey Jones and Megan Brennan of Gallup

  Several key indicators of the 2024 election environment indicate that President Joe Biden faces an uphill climb to win a second term. His job approval rating, Americans’ satisfaction with how things are going in the country and their confidence in the economy are below the levels associated with successful reelection bids in recent elections.

  

  While Democrats hold a slight edge in national party identification and partisan leanings, that advantage is smaller than what it has been in past presidential elections won by Democratic incumbents.

  In less direct measures of the electoral environment, Americans are more inclined to say that they are worse off financially, that it is harder to buy things and that the U.S. is as respected throughout the world as it was before Biden took office.

  Biden’s fate will ultimately be determined by whether Americans’ views on these metrics improve over the course of the year (as they did for Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012), stay the same or get worse (as they did for George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Donald Trump in 2020).

  Presidential Job Approval

  Incumbent job approval is arguably the best predictor of reelection success. Presidents with approval ratings of 50% or higher close to Election Day have all been reelected. All but one president with a sub-50% approval rating lost, the exception being George W. Bush. He won reelection with a 48% approval rating in Gallup’s final 2004 preelection poll taken in late October. However, he registered multiple 50% readings earlier in the month and had a 51% approval rating among likely voters in that final survey.

  Among the approval ratings that did not carry incumbents to victory, Trump’s 46% approval rating is the highest and Gerald Ford’s 45% is close behind. The inauspicious ratings descend from there, all the way down to 34% for George H.W. Bush.

  Biden’s 41% job approval rating, the lowest among incumbents in January of an election year, puts him in a precarious spot. It has not been unusual for incumbents to be below the 50% threshold this early on. But Biden’s reelection may depend on his ability to boost his numbers close to that threshold, something Clinton, Obama and Richard Nixon were able to do but Trump and Ford were not. Other presidents, including George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, saw significant declines in approval during their fourth year in office.

  

  Satisfaction With the State of the Nation

  Over the past four decades, incumbent presidents have still been reelected when majorities of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, but the cutoff seems to be 30% satisfaction. Less than 30% of U.S. adults were satisfied at the time of the 1992 and 2020 elections when the elder Bush and Trump lost, whereas more than 30% were satisfied in the years incumbents won.

  Biden started 2024 with 20% of Americans satisfied with the country’s direction. Obama and Clinton had similar marks in January of their reelection years but saw satisfaction increase as the year wore on. For Trump, the opposite was the case, as the relatively high 41% satisfaction in January 2020 was soon dashed by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic downturn, as well as racial strife associated with the George Floyd killing.

  

  Economic Evaluations

  Although the economy is always a key issue in presidential election campaigns, Americans’ confidence in the economy is not always determinative of election outcomes. Gallup has computed its Economic Confidence Index in five presidential election years since 1992 when an incumbent sought reelection. The index summarizes Americans’ assessments of current national economic conditions and their perceptions of whether the economy is getting better or worse. Positive scores indicate economic optimism, and negative scores indicate pessimism, with a minimum theoretical score of -100 and a maximum of +100.

  Among the past five incumbent elections, Americans were decidedly positive about the economy in one — 1996, when Clinton was reelected — and decidedly negative in one — 1992, when George H.W. Bush was defeated. In 2004, 2012 and 2020, index scores were close to the scale’s zero midpoint, indicating neither positive nor negative views of the economy. In two of those elections (2004 and 2012), the incumbent prevailed, but in 2020, Trump lost, likely because the coronavirus pandemic overshadowed the economy as an issue.

  Currently, Americans’ economic confidence is closer to that of 1992 than other incumbent election years. However, the index has been improving in recent months. Biden can hope that economic perceptions follow a similar trajectory to 2012. That year, confidence started more negative than positive but approached a more neutral rating by the election, which Obama won.

  

  Party Identification and Leaning

  Americans’ partisanship strongly aligns with how they will vote and is thus an important indicator of election outcomes. Democrats typically lead Republicans in Americans’ party preferences; therefore, the size of that lead indicates whether Democrats are in a strong or weak position.

  Gallup’s January 2024 poll shows the Democratic Party with a three-point advantage over Republicans: 46% identify as or lean Democratic, and 43% identify as or lean Republican. If this were October, these figures would be concerning for Biden, as it would represent the smallest Democratic advantage in an incumbent election year, including 2004 when Republican George W. Bush won with Democrats holding a five-point edge. In years Democratic incumbents won (1996 and 2012), the Democrats’ party advantage was +10 and +7, respectively.

  A possible silver lining for the Biden campaign is that Democrats’ party advantage has often increased between January and October or November of an election year. This has occurred in all election years featuring an incumbent since 1992.

  

  While Democratic Party identification and leaning have increased in each of the past five election years involving an incumbent, that pattern has not occurred in other recent elections. In non-incumbent years, Democrats increased their advantage in one (2000), saw no change in another (2016) and saw it shrink in one (2008).

  Better Off Than Three Years Ago

  Americans are evenly divided in their assessments of whether they are better off now than they were three years ago, with 48% saying they are and 47% saying they are not.

  Gallup has asked this question in the early stages of previous election campaigns when incumbents were running for reelection. The current share of U.S. adults who say they are better off now is down from 2020’s pre-pandemic reading, but it is similar to the readings in prior election cycles. In 1992, 1996 and 2003, more Americans said they were better off, and two of the three presidents won reelection. In 2012, slightly more said they were not better off, but Obama still won another term.

  

  Americans’ perceptions of whether they are personally better off now than three years ago are largely influenced by their party leanings and, to a lesser extent, their income level. There is currently a wide gulf between Democrats’ (74%) and Republicans’ (22%) assessments of whether they are better off than three years ago, and independents are squarely in the middle of the two groups, at 48%.

  This is the fifth election cycle of the past six that partisans in the same party as the sitting president seeking reelection are significantly more likely than their counterparts to say they are better off. The gaps in partisans’ reports since 1992 have ranged from four points in 1996 when Clinton ran for a second term to 60 points in 2020 when Trump ran. The current 52-point gap is the second highest.

  

  Meanwhile, 53% of those in upper-income households and 50% in middle-income households say they are better off, compared with 41% in lower-income households.

  The “better off than three years ago” question is typically only asked early in election campaigns. Near the end of prior campaigns, Gallup has asked Americans whether they were better off than four years ago. That question has not shown an obvious relationship to election outcomes, exemplified by the high scores in the 2020 election that Trump eventually lost and weaker scores in Reagan’s 1984 landslide.

  Personal Finances

  While the current U.S. inflation rate is far below its 9.1% recent peak in June 2022, it is about twice what it was in November 2020, and many Americans continue to struggle because of high prices. Only 35% of U.S. adults say it is easier to buy things at stores than it was three years ago, while 59% say it is not.

  The share of Americans who currently say shopping is not easier is higher than in 1992, 1996, 2003 and 2020. The question was not asked in other presidential election cycles and is not asked at the end of campaigns.

  The previous reading from January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced widespread shutdowns, showed a slim 52% majority saying it was easier for them to make purchases than three years ago, and 36% said it was not.

  

  Americans’ reports of their own financial situation are also more negative now than in early 2020. Currently, 37% of U.S. adults say they are financially better off than a year ago, 45% say they are worse off, and 16% volunteer that they are the same. These readings are similar to last year’s but sharply different from the last election year, 2020, when 59% reported being better off and 20% worse off.

  

  Looking ahead, a steady 61% majority of Americans think they will be financially better off in a year, but this is lower than the 74% who said the same in 2020.

  Readings on these personal finance measures differ significantly by party identification, with Democrats much more positive than Republicans. Democrats (58%) are more than four times as likely as Republicans (14%) to say buying things is easier than it was three years ago. Similarly, Democrats (57%) are nearly three times as likely as their Republican counterparts (20%) to say their personal financial situation is better now than three years ago. Independents’ views on both are closer to Republicans’, as 33% say shopping is easier and 35% report an improvement in their financial situation.

  There is no significant difference by household income level in views of buying power, as majorities across income groups say it is not easier to shop. However, lower-income (32%) and middle-income households (36%) are less likely than upper-income households (47%) to say their personal financial situation is better than one year ago.

  U.S. International Respect

  When it comes to foreign policy, only about one-quarter of Americans, 27%, think the U.S. is as respected throughout the world as it was three years ago, while 67% say it is not. Just 3% volunteer that it is more respected now. Americans were similarly pessimistic about the United States’ international standing in past election years, with no more than 40% (in 1992 and 2000) believing respect for the U.S. remained intact. The current reading is identical to 2003 and similar to 2012 (30%).

  

  The U.S. has had varying degrees of involvement in world affairs over the past three years, ranging from its military departure from Afghanistan in 2021, its support for Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war, and its military support for Israel following the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, which resulted in an Israeli military operation in Gaza. Both the Russia-Ukraine and Hamas-Israeli wars are ongoing, and Americans are sharply divided over the proper U.S. role in each.

  Democrats are split in their view of whether the U.S. is as respected around the world as it was three years ago, with 47% saying it is and 44% saying it is not. At the same time, 7% of Republicans think the U.S. is as respected, and 91% think it is not. Independents fall in between the partisan groups, with 27% saying it is respected and 67% saying it is not.

  Bottom Line

  Biden’s reelection chances do not look very favorable in early 2024. His job approval rating is lower than all recent incumbents at the same point, including those who ultimately lost the election, and key national mood indicators are more in line with those for past losers than winners. Party identification offers Biden some hope but depends on Democrats making gains rather than holding steady in national support, something that has happened at least slightly in each of the past five incumbent elections.

  Biden’s chances may rest on him experiencing a comeback similar to what Obama achieved in 2012 when Biden was serving as vice president. That year, national mood indicators and Obama’s job approval rating significantly improved during the campaign, and the president was elected to a second term. Unlike Obama, though, Biden also faces questions about his age and ability to carry out his duties in a second term. Biden is also starting at a lower point in job approval than Obama did, meaning he has to show a bigger improvement.

  Biden won his first term after national mood indicators worsened throughout the 2020 election year, which led to his defeating Trump, the incumbent.

  Many Americans continue to struggle financially, and Biden has so far been unable to convince voters of the economy’s health or his accomplishments. If he cannot do so by the summer, particularly before the Democratic National Convention, his chances of winning reelection will grow increasingly bleak.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 20:20

• Maryland Proposes Raising Registration Fee For Pickup Trucks
  Maryland Proposes Raising Registration Fee For Pickup Trucks

  As if the Federal government wasn’t doing enough to try and incentivize buying EVs by subsidizing purchases and shaming people who drive ICE vehicles, Maryland is now considering raising vehicle registration fees for trucks. 

  And what would government legislation absconding with more of your purchasing power be without an altruistic sounding name? This one is called the “Pedestrian Fatality Prevention Act of 2024,” according to CBS affiliate WBOC. 

  In other words, if you don’t support the higher fees, you’re rooting for pedestrians to die. 

  The Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles notes that the registration fee for smaller vehicles, like the Honda Civic, is currently $135, with a proposed reduction to $50 under new legislation. Conversely, the fee for larger vehicles, such as the Ford F-250 pickup truck, now at $187, would rise to $229 if the legislation is enacted.

  

  The report says that vehicles weighing 3,700 pounds or less have a registration fee of $135, while those over 3,700 pounds are charged $187. The proposed changes would introduce a tiered fee structure: $50.50 for vehicles up to 3,500 pounds, $101 for those between 3,500 and 3,700 pounds, $153 for vehicles between 3,700 and 5,000 pounds, and $229.50 for vehicles over 5,000 pounds.

  “Pick-up trucks shouldn’t be penalized because it’s a pick-up truck. It’s a necessary vehicle in a lot of cases,” commented pick-up driver David Kenney. 

  Delegate Robbyn Lewis of Baltimore City, who proposed the bill, argues that the revenue from increased fees would fund transit and pedestrian safety projects, citing the higher risk of injury and death from crashes involving heavier vehicles.

  Kenney, while prioritizing pedestrian safety, questions the effectiveness of raising fees on pickup trucks as a means to reduce fatalities, emphasizing the need for careful driving.

  The bill is currently under review in Maryland’s legislature, with discussions ongoing about its potential to enhance pedestrian safety – though we’re sure the selling point is really the extra revenue it’ll contribute to the state’s top line. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 20:00

• Study Finds 80% Of Americans Exposed To Fertility-Lowering Chemicals In Cheerios, Quaker Oats
  Study Finds 80% Of Americans Exposed To Fertility-Lowering Chemicals In Cheerios, Quaker Oats

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

  According to a recent study, four in five Americans tested positive for an agricultural chemical found in several wheat and oat products, including brands like Cheerios and Quaker Oats.

  

  The peer-reviewed study, published in the JESEE journal on Feb. 15, looked at urine samples from American citizens to determine their exposure to chlormequat chloride—a plant growth chemical. Exposure to the chemical can result in lower fertility and harm developing fetuses even at doses below acceptable levels set by regulators. Researchers detected chlormequat in 80 percent of urine samples collected between 2017 and 2023, with “a significant increase in concentrations for samples from 2023.”

  The chemical was detected in “92 percent of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,” said the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which conducted the study.

  Out of 25 conventional oat products tested, 23 had “detectable levels” of chlormequat. One in eight organic oat products had the chemical, while two in nine wheat products had low concentrations of chlormequat.

  Researchers collected 96 urine samples, out of which 77 showed the presence of chlormequat. The numbers suggest that the subjects likely underwent “continuous exposure” to the chemical since chlormequat leaves the body about 24 hours after ingestion.

  The frequency of the chemical in samples was observed to rise with time. In 2017, 69 percent of samples had chlormequat, which jumped to 74 percent in 2018-2022 and then to 90 percent in 2023.

  The study suggested that the higher chemical concentration in 2023 samples “may reflect the likely recent introduction of chlormequat into the U.S. food supply due to EPA regulatory action changes involving chlormequat.”

  Such changes include “establishing limits on chlormequat in food in 2018 and raising those limits for oats in 2020,” it said. “These actions permitted import and sale of agricultural products that had been treated with chlormequat, for example, from Canada.”

  At present, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only allows the use of chlormequat in the United States for ornamental crops, not for food crops. The agency allowed the chemical to be present in imported oats in 2018—raising the allowable limits in 2020.

  Following a 2019 application submitted by chlormequat manufacturer Taminco, the Biden EPA proposed in April last year to allow the use of chlormequat on oats, barley, wheat, and triticale grown in the United States for the first time. EWG said it “opposes the plan.”

  The study suggested that if domestic use of chlormequat were approved, “chlormequat levels would likely continue to increase in oats, wheat, and other grain foods, leading to higher levels of exposure for the U.S. general population.”

  The research was funded by Skyline Foundation. The authors declared no competing interests in the study.

  Threshold Levels

  The study pointed out that urine sample donors were exposed to chlormequat at “levels several orders of magnitude below” the recommended safety thresholds set by the EPA and the European Food Safety Authority. However, “toxicological studies on chlormequat suggest reevaluation of these safety thresholds may be warranted,” it said.

  Researchers pointed to studies showing that mice and pigs exposed to doses lower than these thresholds have displayed “reduced fertility.” One analysis found that exposure to chlormequat at a dose equivalent to a level used for determining the EPA threshold “altered fetal growth as well as metabolism and body composition in neonatal mice.”

  “Additionally, the regulatory thresholds do not consider the adverse effects of mixtures of chemicals that may impact the reproductive system, which have been shown to cause additive or synergistic effects at doses lower than for individual chemical exposures.”

  These factors raise “concerns about the potential health effects associated with current exposure levels, especially for individuals on the higher end of exposure in general populations of Europe and the U.S.”

  Speaking to The New York Post, Olga Naidenko, EWG’s vice president of science investigations, recommended shoppers “buy organic oat products since these oats are grown without the use of toxic pesticides such as chlormequat and glyphosate.”

  ‘Alarm Bells’

  In an interview with Newsweek, Alexis M. Temkin, lead author of the EWG study, said that the prevalence of chlormequat in people’s food and urine “raises alarm bells.”

  He called for further investigation into the matter and said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “should be testing grains for chlormequat as part of annual pesticide monitoring.”

  The EPA “needs to fully consider the potential risks to children’s health from chlormequat exposure and reconsider their recent decisions to allow chlormequat to be present in children’s foods.”

  EPA announced the proposal to use chlormequat in domestic crop agriculture last April. Since then, several organizations like EWG have opposed the move.

  In May 2023, Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) said that it collected over 10,000 signatures calling on the agency to reject the proposal.

  “All this chemical is used for is to make the stems of small grains a little bit stronger, so fewer of them bend or break. A slightly bigger harvest isn’t worth the risk to our health,” it said in comments to the EPA.

  “Research shows that chlormequat chloride disrupts fetal growth and harms the reproductive system. We shouldn’t allow its use on food crops unless and until it’s proven completely safe—especially since we know we can farm without it. “

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 19:40

• Russian Media Thrilled By Biden's LNG "Gift" To Putin
  Russian Media Thrilled By Biden’s LNG “Gift” To Putin

  This week, President Vladimir Putin praised President Joe Biden as a more experienced and predictable president than Donald Trump, hoping the 81yo president “with a poor memory” wins a second term.

  

  Meanwhile, Trump made remarks during a campaign rally Wednesday night in South Carolina on Putin’s comments: 

  “He’s just said that he would much rather have Joe Biden as president than Trump. Now that’s a compliment. A lot of people said, ‘Oh, gee, that’s too bad.’ No, no, that’s a good thing.”

  Democrats spent years framing Trump as ‘Putin’s puppet,’ but the actions by Biden, essentially handing over the global energy kingdom to Moscow by halting permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects in Texas, is a stark reminder of why Putin prefers the elderly and weak president. 

  Last month, the Wall Street Journal editorial board called Biden’s LNG export license halt “an election-year gift to Russia and Iran.“

  

  And the editorial board is out with another piece titled “Biden’s LNG ‘Gift’ to Vladimir Putin.” 

  

  This latest note by the editorial board points out how Russian media is “thrilled” by Biden’s LNG gas export ban:

  “Now it is not Russia, but the United States that wants to bring the Germans to their knees,” gloated the Russian newspaper Pravda after the Energy Department imposed a moratorium on permits for new LNG export projects last month. Pravda argued that Germany will eventually have to return to buying Russian gas because it will have no other choice, and it may be right.

  They cite another Russian media outlet:

  RedDigest, a Russian-based news source, also predicted Europe will need to buy more Russian gas and be forced to pay a higher price. “The EU may well turn to Moscow for additional supplies. Of course, there will be no talk of any discounts,” a Feb. 3 article sneered. Mr. Biden’s LNG embargo will leave Europe more vulnerable to Mr. Putin’s energy blackmail.

  And another:

  Bloknot, a pro-war Russian media outlet, accused the U.S. of scheming to replace Russian gas and then pulling the rug from under Europeans. “A brilliant scam: how the States fooled Europe with gas,” read a Bloknot headline. RT (formerly Russia Today) gloated that Mr. Biden’s “very timely decision to ban LNG exports” was a “gift to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.”

  In a separate note, WSJ said Biden’s attempt to punish Texas over the border dispute is part of a campaign by wealthy donors – including the Rockefeller family – to pressure the government into shifting away from LNG. 

  Why are America’s elites and an elderly president with a “poor memory” giving Putin the keys to the global energy kingdom under the guise of ‘climate change’? 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 19:20

• California Counties Could Be Forced To Pay $300 Million To Cover COVID-Era Program
  California Counties Could Be Forced To Pay $300 Million To Cover COVID-Era Program

  Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

  With the state and some local governments facing significant budget shortfalls this year, finances could become even tighter after the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA, informed California officials that it will deny some pandemic-related reimbursement claims.

  

  At issue is money spent on unoccupied hotel rooms and housing homeless individuals for lengthy stays between June 11, 2021, and May 11, 2023, as part of the state’s Project Roomkey program.

  The governor’s Office of Emergency Services said it is working to reverse the agency’s decision.

  “California is committed to maximizing federal aid to local communities and intends to aggressively advocate for FEMA to rescind the decision to deny Public Assistance to local governments,” Brian Ferguson, deputy director for crisis communications and public affairs for the Office of Emergency Services, told The Epoch Times by email Feb. 14.

  More than $300 million is at stake, according to a Jan. 31 letter sent to FEMA by Nancy Ward, director of the emergency services office.

  “[We] urge FEMA to rescind the decision to deny public assistance funding … as it changes the rules for reimbursement of … expenses after such services were provided and directly conflicts with prior FEMA guidance,” Ms. Ward wrote.

  The change represents a retroactive revision that failed to meet the emergency management agency’s self-declared notification policies that require a 30-day notice to the state, according to the letter.

  Such will result in some counties across California experiencing “financial burdens, budgetary shortfalls,” and a diminished ability to provide essential services, Ms. Ward wrote.

  

  A Project Roomkey participant stands outside her door at The Stanton Inn in Stanton, Calif., on October 8, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

  Documents attached to the letter detail costs that some counties would incur, including $22 million for Ventura, $32 million for Sonoma, and up to $34 million for San Diego. San Francisco submitted claims for approximately $881 million, with $190 million ineligible based on the federal government’s recent decision.

  Additionally, the state is alleging that FEMA is inconsistently applying its policies for other states. Officials point to the agency’s April 2023 announcement that Vermont would receive nearly $22 million to reimburse costs for hotel lodging and services to homeless populations through July 2022.

  The guidelines presented to California in a letter sent by FEMA in October 2023 represent a reimbursement period of a full year less than is being provided to Vermont, according to the letter.

  Disputing the state’s allegations, the agency claimed all states are held to the same standards—with guidance coming from the Centers for Disease Control, also known as the CDC.

  “Every state, territory and tribal nation was provided with the same guidance and policy updates throughout the pandemic,” a spokesperson for FEMA told The Epoch Times by email Feb. 13.

  “This guidance also included information on transitioning individuals from other programs that could … keep them out of high-risk situations.”

  The agency is reviewing thousands of applications from across the country and is focused on finalizing reimbursement for eligible applicants while maintaining fiscal responsibility, according to the spokesperson.

  “FEMA is committed to working with each impacted jurisdiction on all requests for federal funding to maximize reimbursement for the appropriate life saving measures they implemented to protect their citizens from COVID-19, while also ensuring the appropriate oversight of federal funds,” the representative from the emergency management agency said.

  “Consistent with this intent, FEMA will review the state of California’s recent letter regarding their COVID-19 sheltering operations and provide a response to the state as soon as possible.”

  In the letter informing the state of the agency’s decision to deny claims, Robert J. Fenton, regional administrator for FEMA Region 9—encompassing California—noted the efforts made to reduce COVID transmission by July 1, 2021, as a reason guidance was adjusted at the time.

  The agency is willing to cover costs incurred or stays of up to 20 days, the timeline recommended by the CDC said at the time. However, the bill submitted by California includes longer stays that make the claims ineligible, Mr. Fenton wrote.

  Additionally, stays of any length for homeless individuals qualify for reimbursement only if they tested positive for COVID-19, had been exposed—with documentation from health officials or medical professionals—or were at high-risk, including those over 65 or with specific underlying health conditions.

  With the state and federal agency at odds over the interpretation of policy guidelines, several counties are working with a disaster recovery attorney to seek compensation.

  The lawyer representing the counties, Wendy Huff Ellard of the national law firm Baker Donelson headquartered in Houston, Texas, told The Epoch Times the process could be lengthy and might ultimately result in arbitration.

  She said counties are hopeful that FEMA will reverse its decision once its impact on local governments is better understood.

  “The counties were under the impression that these costs would be covered,” Ms. Ellard said. “They’re relying on FEMA to reimburse these funds.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 19:00

• Israel Spying On US Inquiries Into West Bank Settler Violence – With Goal Of Thwarting Sanctions
  Israel Spying On US Inquiries Into West Bank Settler Violence – With Goal Of Thwarting Sanctions

  Israeli intelligence has been spying on information shared with the US government by the Palestinian Authority about West Bank settler violence against Palestinians — spying with the purpose of thwarting US attempts to hold settlers accountable, according to a report by Israeli news outlet +972 Magazine.  

  Settler violence against West Bank Palestinians, which gets little attention in Western media, takes many forms: murder, arson, assaults, vandalism, distributing threatening leaflets ordering Palestinians to leave their homes, blocking roads with boulders, cutting power lines, shutting down water wells, and setting fire to cherished olive groves that are important to Palestinian livelihoods and culture.  

  

  Following a major 2023 uptick in violence against Palestinians — which started well before the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel but then got even worse — the United States, United Kingdom and France have started imposing sanctions on individual perpetrators. Punishments include the freezing of financial assets, barring travel to the United States, and prohibitions against Americans transacting with the sanctioned settlers. 

  According to Israeli intelligence sources, Israel has been surveilling information and allegations about settler violence that the Palestinian Authority has been forwarding to the Office of U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC), which is led by Lieutenant General Michael Fenzel. 

  Israel’s goal isn’t to join in imposing justice on the villains, but rather to help them avoid accountability imposed by the United States, the sources tell +972 Magazine. Said one: 

  “We want to know what the Americans know. The goal is to know what is going to hit us when Fenzel comes and demands answers about these cases. It’s not for going after the settlers and arresting them — that’s why a lot of people here felt uncomfortable doing it.

  …The Americans are demanding accountability from Israel, and the Israelis are finding themselves embarrassed. The fact that we are being asked to look for the materials indicates that Israel has no good answers.

  …We’re working to help refute these allegations, or prevent them from developing into sanctions.”

  On Monday, armed Israeli settlers attacked Huwwara, a town in the West Bank, occupied Palestine, and burned several cars. They also attempted to set fire to at least two houses. pic.twitter.com/xOqambL5xq

  — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 13, 2024

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  Two weeks ago, the US government sanctioned four settlers for their crimes against Palestinians. They included 29-year-old David Chai Chasdai who was determined to have instigated a February 2023 settler rampage in Huwwara (which was also attacked this week) that inflicted widespread property destruction, to include arson. One man was killed and 98 injured. Another sanctioned individual was among a group that assaulted Palestinian farmers and sympathetic Israel activists with clubs and stones. 

  The USSC has an inventory of hundreds of settler violence incident reports to work through. Those reports come from the Palestinian Authority, but USSC does its own investigations, and the final decision to impose sanctions also reflects other sources.

  ⏺The vehicle that was set on fire by herds of settlers during their attack on the town of Asira Al-Qibliya, south of #Nablus#stopwar
  . pic.twitter.com/B3lewhD5WU

  — SM (@al_melgy75828) February 12, 2024

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  One of +972 Magazine‘s Israeli sources say targets of upcoming sanctions will include senior Israeli civil servants, which will compound the mounting damage to the Zionist state’s reputation. 

  In a Feb. 1 executive order, Biden declared that “the situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 18:40

• Trump Slams 'Election Interference' And 'Tyrannical Abuse Of Power' After $364 Million Verdict; Vows To Appeal
  Trump Slams ‘Election Interference’ And ‘Tyrannical Abuse Of Power’ After $364 Million Verdict; Vows To Appeal

  Update (1840ET): Trump has responded to Judge Engoron’s decision, calling him a “crooked” judge who’s just committed election interference (and much, much more). Read below.

  

  “A Crooked New York State Judge, working with a totally Corrupt Attorney General who ran on the basis of “I will get Trump,” before knowing anything about me or my company, has just fined me $355 Million based on nothing other than having built a GREAT COMPANY. ELECTION INTERFERENCE. WITCH HUNT (more to follow!),” said Trump in a post to Truth Social.

  “The Justice System in New York State, and America as a whole, is under assault by partisan, deluded, biased Judges and Prosecutors. Racist, Corrupt A.G. Tish James has been obsessed with “Getting Trump” for years, and used Crooked New York State Judge Engoron to get an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business. I helped New York City during its worst of times, and now, while it is overrun with Violent Biden Migrant Crime, the Radicals are doing all they can to kick me out….”

  And according to the former president, Engoron conspired with New York Attorney General Letitia James.

  “This Election Interference and tyrannical Abuse of Power by a Crooked Judge and Crooked Attorney General cannot be tolerated. My case was already won in the Appellate Division, and more than 80% of the frivolous claims were wiped out. Yet, as I suspected, and in order to hurt me and the Republican Party politically, Crooked and Corrupt Judge Arthur Engoron ignored his loss at the Appellate Division, and came up with an outrageous $355 Million Dollar fine against me. Using a statute that has never been applied like this before, the Corrupt Judge conspired with the Crooked Attorney General, Letitia James, and punished a liquid and beautiful Corporate Empire that started in New York, and has been successful all around the world…..

  “There were no victims, and not one person testified there was any fraud. The actual witnesses established my Net Worth exceeded that reported in my Financial Statements as those Statements never included my most valuable Asset – the TRUMP Brand. The Highly Respected Expert Witness said my Financial Statements were among the best he has ever seen. I paid over $300 Million Dollars in taxes to New York City and State, and they want me gone. They are Crazed Lunatics who are destroying everything in their way. It all starts with Biden’s attacks on his Political Opponent!”

  Trump also said he’d appeal Engoron’s decision.

  “The actual bankers who were involved in the loan transactions testified I was a highly sought-after “whale” of a client with “one of the strongest personal balance sheets” they had ever seen, and I was overqualified for the loans. Those banks earned more than $100 Million Dollars in profits doing business with me and my companies. But to justify his crazed attack on me and my family, this biased, Trump Hating Judge, ignored all this, and even said Michael Cohen told the truth, although Cohen admitted to lying hundreds of times, and lied right in front of the Judge during the trial. This shocking and corrupt Interference in the Free Markets for political gain places every New York business transaction at risk. We must make sure Corrupt Politicians and Judges cannot continue to abuse the power of their office, and violate the public trust. We have already won, and will continue the fight on appeal!“

  A breakdown of the fine via Bloomberg:

  

  *  *  *

  New York Judge Arthur Engoron has ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $364 million for allegedly defrauding banks in order to acquire loans and other benefits – loans which the banks themselves testified they were satisfied with after doing their own due diligence.

  

  Trump is also barred “from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years,” while his sons have been barred from serving as New York executives for two years.

  BREAKING: A judge finds Donald Trump liable in his civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, fining him $364 million and prohibiting him from operations in the state for 3 years. pic.twitter.com/Wj8QLpRvy4

  — Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) February 16, 2024

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  New York Attorney General Letitia James had sought $370 million from Trump, his company, and its top executives for what she claimed was “repeated and persistent fraud” – which included allegations of falsifying records and financial statements to the tune of as much as $2.2 billion.

  Trump maintains that his financial statements to banks were conservative, and has called the case a “fraud on me.”

  “This is a case that should have never been brought, and I think we should be entitled to damages,” Trump said on Jan. 11.

  Following Friday’s decision, Trump’s attorneys hit back – calling it “manifest injustice” in a statement.

  “This verdict is a manifest injustice – plain and simple”

  Donald Trump’s legal team have issued a statement following the verdict which also bans Trump from running businesses in New York for three yearshttps://t.co/02spXph3ip

  📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/wKX50VCJdy

  — Sky News (@SkyNews) February 16, 2024

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  The months–long civil trial included testimony from Trump and his oldest children. The former president was combative in his day on the stand, blasting James as a “hack” and calling the judge “extremely hostile.”

  Trump repeatedly complained about Engoron before and throughout the trial, and the judge slapped him with a partial gag order after he started blasting the judge’s law clerk as well. Trump’s complaints led to a flood of death threats against the clerk, as well as Engoron, court officials said, and Trump was fined $15,000 for twice violating the order. -NBC News

  During the trial, Deutsche Bank executive David Williams, who directly worked on at least one of several loans obtained by Trump over several decades, testified that it’s “atypical, but not entirely unusual” for a bank to internally slash a client’s stated asset values by 50% and approve a loan anyway, as they did with Trump, Bloomberg reported in November.

  “It just depends on the circumstances,” said Williams, a managing director at the bank.

  Deutsche Bank, which loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump for properties in Miami, Chicago and Washington, cut his stated net worth in 2011 and 2012 from about $4.2 billion to $2.3 billion, according to internal bank credit memos. The same documents indicated the bank approved the loans anyway because it expected them to generate a profit based on Trump’s history of successful developments and other criteria.

  Trump, who denies wrongdoing and claims the case is politically motivated, is calling to the stand this week four current and former Deutsche Bank employees — including the family’s former private banker Rosemary Vrablic — as part of his defense case, seeking to flip the script on the state’s version of events. -Bloomberg

  The testimony undermined AG James’ premise, that Trump defrauded the German bank. But of course, none of that matters to Engoron – while Trump’s Martyr status just intensified.

  Expect this decision to be reflected in upcoming polls.

  This ruling is what’s criminal. https://t.co/ChopCG3rCP

  — Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) February 16, 2024

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  NEVER FORGET: The judge who fined Donald Trump $364 million laughed, smiled and smirked for the camera in court.

  This isn’t about “justice” — These people are openly celebrating what they’re doing.

  Disgusting.

  pic.twitter.com/HR6HpVBCHb

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 16, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 18:38

• The #1 Warning Sign Capital Controls Are Coming Soon & 4 Ways To Beat Them
  The #1 Warning Sign Capital Controls Are Coming Soon & 4 Ways To Beat Them

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

  Weekends and holidays are the perfect time to catch people off guard…

  

  Like a street thug committing a mugging, capital controls blindside most people—otherwise, they wouldn’t be effective.

  The government declares a surprise bank holiday and shuts all the banks—mere hours after they denied they were even thinking about such actions.

  They impose capital controls to stop citizens from taking their money out of the country.

  Cash-sniffing dogs, which make drug-sniffing dogs look friendly, show up at airports and border crossings.

  At this point, your money is like a lobster in a trap. It doesn’t require much imagination to see what comes next.

  Once a desperate government has your money within its reach, it’ll find a way to take as much of it as possible.

  Don’t be surprised if your local currency suffers a massive devaluation, bank deposits are suddenly worth a fraction of what they were just yesterday, or the government imposes an emergency tax.

  Whatever the method or pretext, the outcome is always the same: a wealth transfer from you to the government.

  This familiar story has played out in many countries in recent years. The pattern is clear and should surprise no one the next time it happens.

  It’s all but certain governments in financial trouble will turn to capital controls as a desperate, misguided solution—with devastating consequences for ordinary people.

  Argentina, Lebanon, Venezuela, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China, India, South Korea, and governments in countless other countries have recently imposed capital.

  The lesson from these examples is capital controls can happen anywhere and anytime.

  Although it seems unthinkable to most, there is an excellent chance capital controls are coming to the US—they’ve happened before and could happen again soon.

  Remember, in 1933, through Executive Order 6102, President Roosevelt forced Americans to exchange their gold for US dollars under penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine (or more than $235,000 in today’s debased confetti).

  Of course, the official government gold exchange rate was unfavorable. It amounted to around a 41% confiscation of purchasing power.

  The US government continued prohibiting private ownership of gold bullion for 42 years until they reluctantly allowed the plebs to own it again in 1975.

  So, there is a clear historical precedent for implementing capital controls in the US, especially during a crisis.

  Today, it’s self-evident the fiat currency system centered on the US dollar is crumbling at an alarming rate.

  It’s been over 50 years since Nixon ushered in the fiat currency system by severing the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971.

  The fiat currency system is long past the end of its shelf-life, like a carton of spoiled milk.

  Even the global elites running the system can see that and openly talk about what they want to come next.

  That’s why there’s all this talk about a “Great Reset,”… and without a doubt, capital controls will be part of it.

  All it would take is a crisis—real or contrived—or some other pretext and the stroke of the president’s pen on a new executive order.

  Expect it to happen.

  Why and How Governments Impose Capital Controls

  Capital controls are government restrictions on how people can use their money—something that should be abhorrent to anyone who believes in property rights and a free society.

  Here’s how capital controls work…

  Governments might allow people to buy foreign currency (or gold) only at an “official” rate that they set, which is always less favorable than the free-market rate. The difference between the fake official rate and the real free-market rate amounts to a wealth transfer to the government.

  Another form of capital controls is steep taxes on international money transfers or purchasing foreign assets.

  Governments could also flat-out prohibit ownership of foreign assets or moving any form of wealth outside the country.

  No matter what flavor they come in, capital controls always help a government trap money within its borders so it’s easier for them to take.

  A propaganda campaign is also necessary to gaslight people into believing such actions are required to protect the average person.

  Expect politicians to make disingenuous claims to make them appear as saviors instead of aggressors.

  The mainstream media will amplify this false narrative and demonize those opposed to capital controls as disloyal citizens or worse.

  What Happens After Capital Controls

  Capital controls are always a prelude to something worse.

  That’s because once governments trap money inside a country, it’s probably only a matter of hours before there is wealth confiscation. Anything they don’t steal immediately, they box in for future thefts.

  That’s why you must act BEFORE they impose capital controls.

  How much time do you have?

  While it’s impossible to know, acting well in advance is advisable. It’s better to be a year early than even a minute late.

  However, there is one common feature I’ve noticed when countries impose capital controls that indicates the situation is imminent. It’s like someone waving a big fat red flag.

  That warning sign is a government official denying that they are considering imposing capital controls.

  Whenever you hear a central banker or politician say something won’t happen, you can almost be sure it will happen. And probably soon.

  Coming from a bureaucrat, the real meaning of “no, of course not” is “it could happen tomorrow.”

  It’s like the old saying: “Believe nothing until it has been officially denied.”

  These deceptions have a purpose: Politicians and central bankers must surprise the public to get the desired results.

  When you hear the official denial, you probably have only a matter of hours before they impose capital controls. Urgent action is required.

  Four Ways To Beat Capital Controls

  The solution is simple.

  Place some of your savings outside your home country so it’s not trapped when the government imposes capital controls. It will be waiting for you safely on the other side.

  Below are four ways you can do that.

  • First, obtain a foreign bank account. Capital controls imposed in your home country are unlikely to affect a bank account in another country.

  • Second, real estate in a foreign country is an excellent way to store significant capital abroad. Your home government won’t be able to seize it without a literal act of war.

  • Third, there’s Bitcoin, which enables anyone to send and receive value worldwide without relying on any third party.

  • Fourth, another solution is physical gold bullion coins held in a non-bank vault in a wealth-friendly foreign jurisdiction.

  However, it’s crucial to emphasize that you should NOT put gold in a bank’s safe deposit box. They will be among the first targets if and when governments decide to declare a bank holiday and confiscate private wealth.

  Holding the physical gold bullion in your own possession or a private non-bank vault in a wealth-friendly jurisdiction like Singapore, Switzerland, or the Cayman Islands is a good idea. (More on this below).

  Conclusion

  The current dollar-based monetary system is on its way out. Even the central bankers running the system can see that.

  They are preparing for what comes next as they attempt to “reset” the system. It’s a virtual certainty they will impose capital controls.

  I suspect it could all go down soon… and it won’t be pretty for most people.

  We are likely on the cusp of a historic financial earthquake…

  One that could alter the direction of the US forever and mark the biggest economic event of our lifetimes.

  Yet few people are aware of what is happening.

  And even fewer know how to prepare.

  That’s exactly why legendary investor Doug Casey and I released an urgent video revealing the best way to store your gold.

  In it, we uncover the best way to protect your savings capital controls and the coming wealth confiscations.

  Capital controls are likely coming, and you won’t want to miss this crucial information. Click here to watch it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 18:20

• US Farmland Value Hits Record High Amid Tighter Credit Conditions 
  US Farmland Value Hits Record High Amid Tighter Credit Conditions 

  According to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, farmland values across the Midwest crop belt hit a record high in the fourth quarter despite elevated interest rates. 

  Farmland values in the region encompassing all of Iowa and most of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin increased by 6% compared to the previous year. Although this represents an increase from a 5% rise in the third quarter, the growth rate is notably slower than the 12% and 22% gains seen in the fourth quarters of 2022 and 2021, respectively. 

  An annual increase of 6 percent in the Seventh Federal Reserve District’s agricultural land values in 2023 helped them reach a new peak, though the yearly gain shrank to a single digit. Values for “good” farmland in the District moved up 2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 from the third quarter, according to 129 agricultural bankers who responded to the January survey. 

  Only 6 percent of the survey respondents expected farmland values to rise during the January through March period of 2024, with 17 percent expecting them to fall and 77 percent expecting them to be stable

  Farmland values

  

  Annual real change in Seventh District farmland values

  

  Record high farmland values 

  

  “For the third time in a row, there were fewer funds available for lending than in the same quarter of the prior year at survey respondents’ banks in the final quarter of 2023,” Fed economists David Oppedahl and Elizabeth Kepner wrote in the report. 

  The economists cited an Iowa banker who warned of “tough times ahead” for farmers. 

  A recent US Department of Agriculture forecast showed farmers are poised for another year of financial misery, facing the most significant decline in incomes in almost two decades as crop prices slide and US dominance in ag exports wanes.

  

  A number of billionaires have been buying hard assets like farmland over the years (read: here & here & here & here). 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/16/2024 – 18:00