• A Call To Arms: Teachers In Conservative States Are Volunteering To Carry Guns
  A Call To Arms: Teachers In Conservative States Are Volunteering To Carry Guns

  Authored by Darlene MCormick Sanchez (emphasis ours),

  Crosses and flowers laid out in the public square of the grief-stricken town Uvalde, where a teen gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, are an all-too-familiar scene igniting a call to arms for teachers in Texas and beyond.

  

  The Republican-led Texas legislature is addressing the twin issues of school safety and mass violence following the May 24 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. Committees of lawmakers are reviewing past legislative efforts, such as the Guardian and Marshal programs that allow teachers to carry firearms in the hopes of hardening schools as targets. School officials and firearm trainers in the Lone Star State say interest has risen sharply since the recent shooting.

  Jeff Sellers owns Schools on Target, a company in Marble Falls, Texas, that trains teachers to carry firearms in schools. Since the school shooting, Sellers told The Epoch Times that he has added nine additional classes—double the amount customarily held—for June through August.

  “I’ve gotten an insane amount of calls,” Sellers said. “It hasn’t stopped. Ninety percent is because of Uvalde.”

  Bryan Proctor, owner of Go Strapped Firearms Training in Arlington, Texas, told The Epoch Times much the same thing—that training requests for the Guardian program have skyrocketed.

  “We’ve had about a 100 percent increase,” Proctor said. “It’s been pretty dramatic. I’ve sent out over 20 proposals in the past week.”

  Proctor said teachers want to protect their students and themselves, despite what people may be hearing form the select voices in legacy media.

  “What you’re seeing is a vocal minority,” Proctor said. Arming teachers isn’t about giving them something else to be responsible for—but instead giving them a tool as a last defense.

  Elsewhere, state legislatures are investigating how to make schools safer and arm teachers.

  Louisiana is currently looking at legislation similar to Texas, allowing teachers to carry guns in schools after receiving specialized training. Ohio’s latest bill aims to be less restrictive than the current law, mandating 700 hours of police training and board approval before allowing teachers to be armed.

  Republican governors Bill Lee of Tennessee and Ron DeSantis of Florida took action on school security this week. Lee signed an executive order June 6 to ensure working safety protocols at schools, and to evaluate training for active shooter scenarios. DeSantis signed a school safety bill into law on June 7 that focused on crisis intervention and training, and mental health awareness. 

  Meanwhile, teacher unions have nixed the idea and portrayed arming teachers as unpopular with educators. A 2018 Gallup poll found that 73 percent of teachers oppose the idea.

  

  Meanwhile, policies to arm teachers in some form has widespread participation throughout the country amid the horror of gunmen targeting schools for mass shootings. The RAND Corporation reported in 2020 that 28 states permit armed teachers under some circumstances, while states such as Texas and Florida have passed laws encouraging the practice.

  In North Florida, one principal at a private Christian school said he would like to see the program expanded to include private schools. The principal, who didn’t wish to be identified, said he added chain-link fencing around his school’s 40-acre perimeter and allowed just one-way traffic onto the campus, except during drop-off and pick-up times.

  Now, cameras monitor doors into buildings, and access is controlled remotely or with special key fobs. Classrooms stay locked throughout the day. But it’s not enough anymore, he said.

  He asked for training under Florida’s school guardian program to protect his school’s 340 students, ranging from toddlers to high school seniors. He was denied because the program doesn’t extend to private schools.

  Currently, it is open to employees of public schools or charter schools who volunteer to serve as guardians and their official job duties. To qualify, they must pass psychological and drug screenings, and complete a 144-hour training course.

  

  Sheriff’s offices in 45 of Florida’s 67 counties participate and receive funding to cover screening and training costs. And guardians receive a one-time bonus of $500 for serving in the program. Schools in districts can arrange to send employees for certification.

  So the principal is now training on his own to become a licensed, armed security guard.

  “It’s the only option,” he said. “Even before this last school shooting, I said, ‘I’ve got to go get this taken care of.’ So we’re doing it the right way.”

  About a decade ago, Texas lawmakers created the school Marshal program, as a way for educators to carry weapons inside schools, and later initiated the Guardian program.

  Under the Marshal program, school employees can carry a handgun on school premises after 80 hours of training. However, school marshals are restricted from carrying concealed firearms if they are regularly in contact with students. Instead, the marshal can store a gun in a safe at the school. There are 62 school districts participating in this plan, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

  Gretchen Grigsby, director of government relations with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, told The Epoch Times that 30 new students and nine new school districts have signed up for the Marshal program since the Uvalde shooting.

  The Guardian program authorizes school boards to arm employees under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act and the Texas Penal Code. After completing 16 hours of training, those employees may carry a concealed firearm in the presence of students. According to the Texas Association of School Boards, 389 districts reported using the Guardian plan as of May.

  While Democrats are calling for gun control, people like Sellers reiterate that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Sellers told The Epoch Times that the first few minutes of an active shooter situation are critical, and arming teachers could save lives.

  “In active shooting incidents, time is everything,” Sellers said. “No gun control law is going to stop evil from conducting evil acts.”

  

  Madalyn Maresh is an assistant superintendent at the Edna Independent School District, a rural 3A district northeast of Victoria, Texas. She told The Epoch Times that her district reopened the application process for the Guardian program at her school in response to the Uvalde shooting.

  “The day I reopened it, I got two applications immediately,” she said. In the three years since the program has been operational, she gets between 3 to 10 volunteers per year. Without guns for protection, teachers are forced to use their own bodies to shield students from an active shooter, she said.

  “You’ve got to find what fits your community. We got zero push back on it—our community embraces it,” Maresh said.

  Kyle Collier, police chief for City View ISD in Wichita Falls, Texas, said an additional four or five teachers volunteered after the Uvalde shooting.

  Nanette Holt contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 23:40

• Boeing & Airbus Control 91% Of Global Commercial Aircraft Fleets
  Boeing & Airbus Control 91% Of Global Commercial Aircraft Fleets

  How many airplanes do the world’s major airlines utilize in their fleets, and which models do they prefer?

  As Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach and Sam Parker details below, some prefer newer planes, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which came into service in the 2010s. Others prefer large planes, like the Airbus A380 , the world’s largest passenger aircraft. A few carriers, like Air France–KLM, opt for variety. The airline uses 16 different active models. This contrasts with Southwest Airlines, which utilizes a single model in its fleet.

  This series of graphics visualizes some of the world’s most well-known airliners by fleet composition, using fleet data from Planespotters.net as of May 26, 2022.

  

  How Many Planes Are in Airline Fleets?

  Each plane in a fleet is tracked in meticulous detail, from its start of service date and age, to its registration number and current status.

  Above we visualized the parent airline’s current fleets, which includes planes that are either in service or parked for future service. They do not include retired planes (the historic fleet) or future planes on order.

  From conglomerates to flag carriers, here are some of the world’s most well-known airline fleets:

  

  U.S. based airlines were far and away the largest aircraft carriers, with American Airlines being the world’s largest airline by fleet size since 2019. Interestingly, Delta Airlines was the largest by revenue in 2020, despite a smaller fleet size.

  Asia’s largest airline has been China Southern, in both fleet size, revenue, and passengers carried. Together with China Eastern and the flag carrier Air China, it is part of China’s “Big Three” airlines.

  But smaller airlines aren’t any less important, or lucrative. The slightly smaller fleet size of International Airlines Group (IAG), which was formed from a merger between flag carriers British Airways and Iberia, includes planes that fly on the world’s highest grossing routes. They’re joined on the list by other smaller fleets including UAE airliner Emirates, Singapore Airlines (often ranked as the world’s best airline), and Air Canada.

  Boeing, Airbus, and Other Aircraft Manufacturers

  The story of airline fleets usually breaks down to the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing.

  By outlasting key competitors and mergers in a difficult industry, the duopoly has solidified a grasp on the commercial aircraft sector. In 2019, they were estimated to control a combined 91% of the global commercial aircraft market.

  Which manufacturers do the world’s popular airlines utilize? Here’s a breakdown of the same airlines from above, this time by manufacturer share:

  

  Notably, European and Asian airlines have emerged as slightly bigger Airbus customers, while American carriers favor Boeing. There are also standouts, such as Southwest Airlines’ utilization of just one make, the Boeing 737.

  And a few carriers used aircraft from other manufacturers as well. Brazil’s Embraer saw usage in IAG and Air France–KLM, making up 17% of the latter’s total fleet. Bombardier‘s CJR planes, formerly produced by the Canadian manufacturer but now owned by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, saw use by IAG, Air France–KLM, and Lufthansa. The Airbus A220 was also originally a Bombardier plane before being acquired by the European manufacturer in 2018.

  China Southern Airlines was the only other airline to feature a different manufacturer’s plane in its active fleet, the ARJ21. Also known as the Xiangfeng (literally “soaring phoenix”), it was developed by Chinese state-owned manufacturer Comac and first introduced into service in 2016.

  What Will Airlines Use in the Future?

  Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus was starting to outperform Boeing in market share.

  In 2019, the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX model after two crashes saw 387 active aircraft grounded and 1,200 canceled orders, a debacle that could go down as the most costly corporate blunder in history.

  Soon after, Airbus took the global market share lead in new orders, with the Airbus A320 becoming the world’s highest selling family of aircraft in October 2019. But the COVID-19 pandemic quickly followed and severely impacted the entire aviation industry.

  As countries, airliners, and manufacturers look to bounce back and recover, fleet compositions are sure to change in coming years.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 23:20

• Silicon Valley Corporations Are Taking Control Of History
  Silicon Valley Corporations Are Taking Control Of History

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

  Twitter has imposed a weeklong suspension on the account of writer and political activist Danny Haiphong for a thread he made on the platform disputing the mainstream Tiananmen Square massacre narrative.

  

  The notification Haiphong received informed him that Twitter had locked his account for “Violating our rules against abuse and harassment,” presumably in reference to a rule the platform put in place a year ago which prohibits “content that denies that mass murder or other mass casualty events took place, where we can verify that the event occured, and when the content is shared with abusive intent.”

  “This may include references to such an event as a ‘hoax’ or claims that victims or survivors are fake or ‘actors,’” Twitter said of the new rule. “It includes, but is not limited to, events like the Holocaust, school shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters.”

  That we are now seeing this rule applied to protect narratives which support the geostrategic interests of the US-centralized empire is not in the least bit surprising.

  The US government thought police at Twitter locked journalist Danny Haiphong @SpiritofHo‘s account, threatening to suspend him because he contradicted the Western propaganda narrative on Tiananmen, calling it “abuse”.

  There is only “free speech” for US regime propagandists here pic.twitter.com/t9CeCGIBeK

  — Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 5, 2022

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  Haiphong is far from the first to dispute the mainstream western narrative about exactly what happened around Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 as the Soviet Union was crumbling and Washington’s temporary Cold War alignment with Beijing was losing its strategic usefulness. But we can expect more acts of online censorship like this as Silicon Valley continues to expand into its role as guardian of imperial historic records.

  This idea that government-tied Silicon Valley institutions should act as arbiters of history on behalf of the public consumer is gaining steadily increasing acceptance in the artificially manufactured echo chamber of mainstream public opinion. We saw another example of this recently in Joe Lauria’s excellent refutation of accusations against Consortium News of historic inaccuracy by the imperial narrative management firm NewsGuard.

  As journalists like Whitney Webb and Mnar Adley noted years ago, NewsGuard markets itself as a “news rating agency” designed to help people sort out good from bad sources of information online, but in reality functions as an empire-backed weapon against media who question imperial narratives about what’s happening in the world. The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal outlined the company’s many partnerships with imperial swamp monsters like former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and “chief propagandist” Richard Stengel as well as “imperialist cutouts like the German Marshall Fund” when its operatives contacted his outlet for comment on their accusations.

  Lauria compiles a mountain of evidence in refutation of NewsGuard’s claim that Consortium News published “false content” about the 2014 US-backed coup in Ukraine, copiously citing outlets which NewsGuard itself has labeled accurate sources of information with its “green check” designation system. It becomes clear as you read the article that NewsGuard’s real function is, as John Kiriakou put it, “guarding the country from the news.”

  US State-Affiliated NewsGuard Targets Consortium News https://t.co/pAT3ZofeNw

  — Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) June 3, 2022

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

  Then you’ve got Wikipedia, which blacklists the same sites as NewsGuard and whose operatives run relentless smear campaigns on anti-imperialist voices, thereby guaranteeing a view of history that is wildly tilted in the favor of empire-authorized narratives. Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, also happens to serve on NewsGuard’s advisory board.

  This idea that anyone can ever be an impartial arbiter of objective reality is logically fallacious and is invalidated by facts in evidence. It is clear that imposing regulations on people’s efforts to understand world events on the platforms where people have come to congregate to share ideas and information will necessarily lead to an information ecosystem that is skewed to the benefit of whatever power structure is imposing those regulations. When that power structure is an alliance of oligarchs and government proxies whose interests are served by the ongoing dominance of the US-centralized empire, the information ecosystem will be biased in favor of that empire.

  The most impressive feat of engineering in the 21st century has been of the “social” variety. The social engineering necessary to continually keep people confused and blinkered about what’s going on in the world despite a sudden influx of information availability is one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of civilization, despite its depraved and destructive nature.

  The empire has had mixed feelings about the internet since its creation. On one hand it allows for unprecedented surveillance and information gathering and the rapid distribution of propaganda, which it likes, but on the other it allows for the unprecedented democratization of information, which it doesn’t like.

  Its answer to this quandary has been to come up with “fact checking” services and Silicon Valley censorship protocols for restricting “misinformation” (with “facts” and “information” defined as “whatever advances imperial interests”). That’s all we’re seeing with continually expanding online censorship policies, and with government-tied oligarchic narrative management operations like NewsGuard.

  * * *

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

  Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 23:00

• NASA's $10 Billion Space Telescope Hit By Micro-Meteoroid
  NASA’s $10 Billion Space Telescope Hit By Micro-Meteoroid

  NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was struck by a tiny meteoroid impacting one of the 18 hexagonal gold-coated mirrors on the spacecraft.

  Between May 23 and 25, JWST sustained a dust-sized micrometeoroid impact to the mirror segment known as C3, one of the 18 beryllium-gold tiles that make up the telescope’s 6.5-meter wide primary reflector, according to NASA. The shield acts as a reflector and allows the most sensitive infrared sensor ever launched in space to capture footage of stars and galaxies. JWST was launched into space in late December. 

  

  Fortunately, engineers planned for JWST to encounter space debris though the latest hit is concerning. 

  “Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeoroid strikes that were consistent with expectations and this one more recently that is larger than our degradation predictions assumed. We will use this flight data to update our analysis of performance over time and also develop operational approaches to assure we maximize the imaging performance of Webb to the best extent possible for many years to come,” Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA Goddard, said. 

  The good news is the telescope is still operational:

  “After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data,” NASA said. “Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing.”

  There’s no interruption in JWST’s planned first release of full-color images of deep space on July 12. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 22:40

• Jan. 6 Committee Being Used To "Abolish Electoral College", "Cover Up" For Pelosi: House Republicans
  Jan. 6 Committee Being Used To “Abolish Electoral College”, “Cover Up” For Pelosi: House Republicans

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  House Republicans on Wednesday spoke out against the Jan. 6 Committee, accusing the entire effort of being a “partisan witch hunt” used by Democrats to abolish the Electoral College as well as to help cover up what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not want the public to know about matters surrounding the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

  “This committee is not about seeking the truth. It is a smear campaign against President Donald Trump, against Republican members of Congress, and against Trump voters across this country,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House Republican Conference chair, said at a press conference—the first of several events pushing back against the Jan. 6 Committee’s public hearings that are set to begin Thursday.

  “It does not serve any true legislative or oversight purpose. And it is not about finding out why Nancy Pelosi left the Capitol so ill-prepared that day … and it will not prevent another January 6 from happening,” she added. Stefanik had previously accused the Jan. 6 panel of being a political weapon “used to cover up for Nancy Pelosi’s failures.”

  

  Stefanik also accused Democrats and the Biden administration of “scrambling to change the headlines, praying that the nation will focus on their partisan witch hunt instead of [Americans’] pocketbooks,” noting how Americans are currently facing soaring gas prices, high inflation, and a shortage of baby formula.

  Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters on Wednesday, “Regarding January 6, I think the goal is been stated. Mr. Raskin stated that their goal is to end the Electoral College and the goal is to stop President Trump from running in 2024, plain and simple.”

  

  Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said that “based on reports over the weekend, that the committee is being used to advance the radical Democrat agenda that includes abolishing the electoral college.”

  The two Republicans’ remarks come after Axios reported on June 6, citing anonymous sources, that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) “has argued that the Electoral College should be abolished”—a stance reportedly concurred by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) but opposed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), per the outlet. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the details reported by Axios.

  The Jan. 6 panel, which has nine members, has been criticized for its apparent partisanship, in part because the only two Republicans on the panel—Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Cheney—are both known for their strong opposition to Trump.

  “This [Jan. 6] committee is unconstitutional. It is illegitimate. It was not put together according to the rules of the House,” Stefanik said, in reference to how Pelosi had selected Kinzinger and Cheney after refusing to seat Jordan and Banks on the committee.

  The two were selected to be on the panel by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), but Pelosi rejected them, saying at the time: “As legislation allows, I didn’t accept [Jordan and Banks] as they had made statements and taken actions that I think would impact the integrity of the commission of the committee.”

  

  ‘A Cover Up’: Rep. Banks

  Banks said on Wednesday that the Jan. 6 Committee is not just a “partisan witch hunt” or a potential attempt to abolish the Electoral College, but “also a cover up.”

  “Speaker Pelosi blocked us because she’s afraid of what a real investigation would uncover,” Banks said while Jordan stood behind him. “She doesn’t want Americans to find out what really happened on January 6, and leading up to it. And she doesn’t want anyone asking questions about her role and her responsibilities and securing the United States Capitol.”

  Banks said that the committee is “refusing to answer basic questions about January 6, in fact blocking these questions from even being asked questions that must be answered to keep the capital safe, and to prevent another riot or incident like January 6, from ever happening again in the future.” He listed some of the questions at the press conference.

  “First of all, Capitol police officers we now know were half-staffed on January 6, ‘because of COVID.’ How is that?” Banks asked.

  Banks asked about why some Capitol police officers were under-equipped, with some officers having had to use expired helmets or no helmets at all while they faced some rioters. He also asked why the U.S. Capitol police “never trained to deal with riots after all of the riots that were going on in the summer of 2020.”

  “Did Speaker Pelosi communicate with the house sergeant at arms on January 6, or in the days leading up to the riot?” he asked in a fourth question.

  “Five—was Speaker Pelosi involved in the decision to delay the National Guard assistance on January 6?” Banks said.

  Maj. Gen. William Walker, who was then the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, said in March 2021 that deployment of guardsmen was delayed on Jan. 6, 2021, after the breach of the U.S. Capitol building, because of a memo issued a day prior that barred the use of the Guard’s “Quick Reaction Force” without approval. The memo was issued by then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. Walker, who is now the House sergeant-at-arms, had said that if the memo wasn’t issued, he would have immediately sent troops to the Capitol following the breach. Instead, it took him over three hours to get the approval from Pentagon officials to deploy that day.

  Pelosi on Jan. 6, 2022, told CNN that it was “inexplicable” why the National Guard took so long to deploy. She said that she, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), were on the phone “fighting to get the National Guard and it was very hard.”

  Banks had three more questions he relayed to reporters on Wednesday.

  “Six—why didn’t the Capitol Police intelligence unit raise the alarm about potential violence when they had evidence and intelligence for weeks leading up to January 6 that something violent could happen at the Capitol that day?

  “Seven—why did the FBI deploy commandos to Quantico on January 3, with shoot-to-kill authority, but failed to send the U.S. Capitol Police a single threat assessment or intelligence bulletin?

  “Eight—why did the House Sergeant-at-Arms refuse to cooperate with the Senate Homeland Security’s bipartisan January 6, investigation?”

  Banks said that he and Jordan were prepared to ask the above questions if they had not been blocked from the Jan. 6 Committee by Pelosi. “Pelosi blocked us because she knows that those questions leave a trail of breadcrumbs right back to [her] office.”

  “The American people are sick and tired of what they’re getting out of this … they’re tired of the theatrics. They want their congressmen and women to focus on the issues that matter most to them. But instead, this is what we’re left up to. It’s a shame. And I believe that will backfire big time on these Democrats as we near the election to come.”

  The Epoch Times has reached out to the offices of Pelosi and Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 22:20

• White House Informs Saudi Arabia: US Ready To 'Move On' From Khashoggi Murder
  White House Informs Saudi Arabia: US Ready To ‘Move On’ From Khashoggi Murder

  CNN on Friday is reporting something which has been long predicted – the Biden White House while waging economic and proxy war against one “dictator” (Putin) is rushing to quickly mend ties with and quickly embrace another:

  Senior US officials have conveyed to Saudi Arabia that the US is prepared to move forward with a “reset” of the relationship, and effectively move on from the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in order to repair ties with the key Middle East ally, senior US officials tell CNN.

  Joe Biden is headed to Riyadh in a few weeks to beg the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman for more oil, and to reaffirm the importance of the decades-old US/Saudi partnership. https://t.co/dTEmbe5J4P

  — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 8, 2022

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  This as the administration is planning an official trip by the president to the kingdom, set to reportedly happen within weeks. There’s as yet no date announced for Biden’s trip to meet with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, but without doubt all of this preparatory talk from the administration of a “reset” with the country the president not long ago referred to as a “pariah” is laying the groundwork.

  The grisly death and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist and US resident Khashoggi at the Istanbul consulate shocked the world, driving headlines for months, and not long following, official investigations by the UN and CIA pointed straight to the top – to crown prince MbS himself for ordering the assassination. 

  But, as CNN tells us in one of the more curiously gratuitous lines in its report, Biden has “set aside his moral outrage” – apparently in order to go after the “bigger bad guy” of the moment:

  But officials say Biden, who is under immense pressure to crack down on Russia and lower domestic gas prices amid inflation that’s rising at the fastest pace since 1981, has set aside his moral outrage to pursue warmer relations with the Kingdom amid the dramatic global upheaval spurred by the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

  Though it should be noted that the US weapons shipments and close Pentagon help executing the Saudi coalition war on Yemen never ceased, Biden is “moving on” in hopes the Saudis will finally accede to his longtime demands that the kingdom pump more oil.

  One senior official cited in CNN referenced Khashoggi’s murder in saying, “Both sides have decided that for the sake of achieving peace and stability in the Middle East, we need to move past it.” However, “That doesn’t mean forgiving and forgetting, the sources noted,” CNN continues. 

  

  “Biden, they said, does plan to raise Khashoggi’s murder directly with MBS, as the crown prince is known, when they meet as soon as next month,” CNN sources note. “And some officials inside the administration still believe more should be done to hold MBS accountable for the crime. But the shift is now well underway…”

  What’s left? Perhaps a light verbal scolding before Biden and the prince who was not long ago dubbed “psychopath and killer” in global headlines retire to a nice candlelit dinner in an stately gold-encrusted room?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 22:00

• 3 US Companies That Allegedly Sent Defense Blueprints To China Receive Export Denial Order
  3 US Companies That Allegedly Sent Defense Blueprints To China Receive Export Denial Order

  Authored by Mary Hong via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Commerce of Business has issued a temporary denial order (TDO) for 180 days to three U.S. companies for the illegal export of data relating to satellite, rocket, and defense technology to China.

  

  On June 7, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) accused three U.S.-based companies of unauthorized export of technical drawings and blueprints used to 3-D print satellite, rocket, and defense-related prototypes to China.

  The three entities are Quicksilver Manufacturing Inc., Rapid Cut LLC, and U.S. Prototype Inc., all located in Wilmington, North Carolina.

  “Outsourcing 3-D printing of space and defense prototypes to China harms U.S. national security,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod in a statement on June 8.

  “By sending their customers’ technical drawings and blueprints to China, these companies may have saved a few bucks—but they did so at the collective expense of protecting U.S. military technology.”

  According to the statement, TDOs are some of the most significant civil sanctions the BIS can issue.

  The statement indicated, “Without their customers’ advance consent or knowledge, these drawings were provided to manufacturers in China to 3-D-print the items without the required U.S. Government authorizations.”

  As stated in the TDO, these three entities use “the same rental mailbox.”

  “The information illegally sent to China included sensitive prototype space and defense technologies,” said the BIS.

  

  The statement also encouraged customers of the three entities to “review their records to determine whether intellectual-property or export-controlled technology was provided and/or potentially compromised.”

  The BIS did not disclose the customers that have contracts with the three entities.

  According to the TDO, the customers include an aerospace and global defense technology company; a manufacturer of specially designed parts intended for a rocket platform’s ground support and test equipment; and an advanced science and engineering company with multiple U.S. government contracts, including with the Department of Defense.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 21:40

• Shanghai Returns To Lockdown For Mass Testing Just Days After Reopening
  Shanghai Returns To Lockdown For Mass Testing Just Days After Reopening

  Just over a week after we reported that “Shanghai was finally lifting its Covid lockdown“, China’s commercial capital is once again backsliding into the warm embrace of Wuhan’s proudest export, and will “briefly” lock down most of the city this weekend for mass testing as Covid-19 cases continue to emerge, causing more disruption and triggering a renewed run on groceries days after exiting a grueling two-month shutdown.

  According to Bloomberg, the plan emerged from one area with a handful of cases, then spread in hours to 15 of the financial hub’s 16 districts, and now encompasses almost all of the city’s 25 million residents as health officials use testing to root out any silent transmission of the virus, a key tool in China’s “Covid Zero” arsenal.

  The instant escalation reflects the worry that continues to shroud Shanghai (and also Beijing), which implemented one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March after a sluggish initial response to its outbreak. The newest move follows a rebound in infections within the community to six on both Thursday and Friday, up from zero a day earlier. Residents will be released after taking the tests, but they’ll be back under lockdown if new infections are found in their compounds.

  There were 5 additional infections found among people in quarantine on Thursday, for a total of 11 cases in the financial hub, health officials said. Nationwide, China added 71 infections a far cry from the record high near 30,000 in April.

  

  The threat of disruptive measures also returned to Beijing, where testing turned up 21 new local cases as of 3 p.m. on Friday. More than 4,400 people who were in close contact with those who were infected have been sent to government-mandated quarantine facilities.

  As Bloomberg details, several neighborhoods in the capital’s key Chaoyang district, home to company headquarters and embassies, were on alert after a flareup in a local bar ended a five-day streak of zero community spread on Thursday. There were two new infections found outside of quarantine there on Friday.

  The return of restrictions and mass testing in China’s biggest cities underscores the difficulty of eliminating the virus while the rest of the world accepts it as endemic. The disruption wrought by pandemic curbs have impacted production at companies like Sony Group Corp. and Tesla, with the electric-car maker only now normalizing operations at its factory in southern Shanghai. 

  The latest moves hit home quickly for residents. It led some to flee their apartment complexes and sparked a run on grocery stores after many struggled to get fresh fruits and vegetables in the early days of the original lockdown. While the latest curbs may lift in as little as a few hours if no new infections are found, two more weeks of isolation may be imposed for areas where new chains of transmission are uncovered.

  Entire citywide block locked down at midnight, all for a case several blocks over. We hid out in a hotel nearby airport for following three days. All this for a single case three blocks over. On Friday, we made it to airport and flew home to see family for first time since COVID.

  — Dan (@DRechts) June 10, 2022

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

  Most economists say it will be tough for China to meet its annual growth target this year because of lockdowns. By having zero tolerance for new cases, the country risks being in a constant loop of imposing and easing restrictions.

  Still, President Xi Jinping continues to emphasize the country’s adherence to a policy that has delivered one of the lowest Covid death rates in the world. Xi called for Covid Zero to be adhered to “unwaveringly” in a visit to Sichuan province Thursday, according to the official Xinhua news agency, while stating that it should be achieved in balance with the needs of the economy.

  For now, the renewed restrictions aren’t yet having a significant impact on the financial markets.China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index rose 1.52%, paring earlier losses. For the week, it’s up about 3.5%.

  “Investors are watching but there is not much reaction at the moment given its just flare ups,” said Kevin Li, fund manager at GF Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd. “If it expands into more areas that affect people turning to work, then it will lead to some volatility.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 21:20

• India And China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year: That's Greater Than All US Coal Output
  India And China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year: That’s Greater Than All US Coal Output

  Authored by Robert Bryce via RealClearEnergy.org,

  If you think the world is moving beyond coal, think again. The post-Covid economic rebound and surging electricity demand have resulted in big increases in coal prices and coal demand. Since January, the Newcastle benchmark price for coal has doubled. And over the past few weeks, China and India have announced plans to increase their domestic coal production by a combined total of 700 million tons per year. For perspective, US coal production this year will total about 600 million tons. 

  

  The surge in coal demand in China and India – as well as in the U.S., where coal use jumped by 17% last year – demonstrates two things:

  • First, that the Iron Law of Electricity has not been broken,

  • Second, it shows that it is far easier to talk about cutting emissions than it is to achieve significant cuts. 

  In April, China announced it will increase coal output by 300 million tons this year. Last month, India said it aims to increase domestic coal production by more than 400 million tons by the end of next year. 

  Adding the 700 million tons of new coal that China and India will be mining to the amount they are now producing leads to some staggering numbers. By the end of next year, China will be producing about 4.4 billion tons of coal per year and India will be mining about 1.2 billion tons. Add those together and you get 5.6 billion tons of coal, which is more than 9 times the amount of coal that will be mined in the U.S. this year. 

  As I point out in my latest book, A Question of Power, electricity is the world’s most important and fastest-growing form of energy. After writing that book, and doing further reporting, I coined the Iron Law of Electricity, which says that “people, businesses, and countries will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need.” The Iron Law matters because the electricity sector is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions. And as the Iron Law states, politicians in countries like China and India are going to do everything they can to prevent (or reduce) blackouts, including burning more coal. 

  The Iron Law helps explain why coal continues to be a dominant fuel for electricity production today, nearly 140 years after Thomas Edison used coal to fuel the first central power station in Lower Manhattan. Coal persists because it can be used to produce the gargantuan quantities of electricity the world’s consumers need at prices they can afford. Indeed, coal’s share of global electricity generation has stayed at about 35%, since the mid-1980s.

  In India, the push for more coal has led the government to give a “special dispensation” to the Ministry of Coal which allows the agency to relax environmental controls and public consultations so mines can produce more coal. As one media outlet explained, the move came after the government “received a request from the Ministry of Coal ‘stating that there is huge pressure on domestic coal supply in the country and all efforts are being made to meet the demand of coal for all sectors.’”

  Of course, the surge in coal is going to hamper efforts to control emissions. Last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said there is a “high risk of failure” to reach a new climate accord unless politicians agree to slash their respective countries’ emissions. Guterres’ remarks came just a few days after the United Nations issued a report which found that global greenhouse gas emissions are likely to increase by 16% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. 

  Last week, John Hanekamp, a St. Louis-based coal industry consultant, told me that “the incremental coal production in India and China is exceeding whatever coal-fired generation capacity that was retired in the US and Europe. Whatever policymakers thought they were achieving by getting rid of coal, they’ve effectively done nothing but increase the cost of energy,” he said. “We haven’t changed anything but make ourselves energy poorer.”

  I will conclude with two points I have been making for more than a decade.

  • First, soaring global electricity demand will largely be met in the near term, meaning the next decade or so, by burning more coal, oil, and natural gas. Why? Renewables cannot, will not, be able to scale up to meet soaring global demand for power. 

  • Second, if the countries of the world are serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing more electricity to the 3 billion people now living in energy poverty, the only way to do it is with nuclear energy and lots of it.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 21:00

• Red-Hot US Inflation Is No Longer An Outlier
  Red-Hot US Inflation Is No Longer An Outlier

  Today’s US inflation print continued the trend of upside surprises, coming in at 8.6% YoY. In fact, in the past two years, there have been just two occasions when inflation came in below expectations, and judging by the market’s reaction, many more upside surprises lie in stock.

  

  Perhaps more importantly, DB’s Jim Reid today notes that inflation is not meeting the Fed’s test of MoM deceleration that would force a slower path of rate hikes, with headline CPI at 1.0% MoM versus expectations of 0.7% and 0.3% in April.

  Yet what may come as a shock to readers, US inflation doesn’t really stand out globally any more; in fact, as Reid’s Chart of the Day below shows, the US is now just above the middle of the pack when ranked the highest to lowest using 111 countries covering the most up to date data available. In fact, the US is “only” 48th highest on this list.

  

  Compare this to June last year when the US was ranked 28th highest out of 116 and the Eurozone 84th (now only 2 spots below the US). This was soon after the Biden fiscal package and associated helicopter money. Since then YoY US inflation has increased around 3% but many other countries have seen it increase even more.

  Just for statistical interest, Reid calculates that the median global inflation is now 7.9% YoY. It was 3.05% last June. Inflation is now truly a global phenomenon with Asian economies generally the least effected. So the shock value from US inflation data has lessened.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 20:40

• Republicans Press FDA On Why COVID-19 Vaccines Would Be Authorized For Young Children
  Republicans Press FDA On Why COVID-19 Vaccines Would Be Authorized For Young Children

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

  A group of members of Congress is pressing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for answers before the regulator decides whether to authorize COVID-19 vaccines for young children.

  

  All Americans aged 5 and older can get a COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA is scheduled to meet with its advisory panel on June 15 to discuss whether to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children aged 6 months to 4 years old.

  A bicameral group of members of Congress, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), are questioning whether an EUA makes sense, given how little risk COVID-19 poses to young children and how the vaccines have plunged in effectiveness against infection as new virus variants have emerged during the pandemic.

  “The broad approach of the CDC and FDA to date has been a one-size fits all policy—get the vaccine regardless of age, risk factors, the underlying health of the individual, or previous infection,” the members wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and members of the advisory panel in a June 7 letter obtained by The Epoch Times. “Yet, to date there remain many unanswered questions about these EUA-approved COVID-19 vaccines and only a small percentage of the safety data about these vaccines that are in the possession of the FDA and the manufacturers has been released for review.”

  The members noted that nearly 70 percent of children aged 1 to 4 have recovered from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That recovery gives the children a level of protection against re-infection that studies show is better than the protection from the vaccines. The members also pointed out that children who contract COVID-19 have a high survival rate and have little risk of experiencing severe disease.

  The group asked the FDA to answer a series of questions before issuing its decision on the EUA requests from Moderna and Pfizer. They want to know, among other details, the cardiac risk factor for children getting the vaccines; whether the FDA will commit to sticking with a 50 percent effectiveness threshold it outlined in 2020; and whether there is a possibility children who get the vaccines will face higher risk from future variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

  “The data show that the risks of serious adverse outcomes for COVID for children five and under is very low and as such the standard for evaluating EUA interventions must be very high,” the group wrote. “We believe each question raised above is not just important, but essential questions for the FDA, VRBPAC and the CDC when it comes to doing a thorough job of evaluating the potential benefits and potential risks of the vaccines for which you have been asked to consider granting an Emergency Use Authorization.”

  VRBPAC stands for the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. It is the FDA’s advisory panel on vaccines.

  The group who wrote the letter also includes Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Rep Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), and Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.).

  The FDA did not respond to a request for comment.

  “I am concerned that in a rush to mandate a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy, the FDA is failing to consider that this age group is least at risk for complications from COVID and that the CDC estimates 68% of those under five have already had COVID. Common sense would suggest that VRBPAC members have already asked these questions, so we would expect a response by the time they meet. If we don’t receive answers, it is right to assume they haven’t asked basic benefit and risk questions about using this vaccine for millions of children who are at very little risk from COVID,” Posey said in a statement.

  “We are in our third year with COVID-19, and we know vastly more about the virus now than we did in 2020. One of the most important things we know is that this virus poses minimal risk for children. Before the FDA approves an Emergency Use Authorization for a children’s vaccine, parents should be able to see the data and paperwork they would use to justify this decision. This is the least the FDA can do for families in Texas and across the country so parents can make the best decisions for their children,” Cruz added.

  

  Given the high survival rate of children, the unknown long-term side effects of the shots, and the post-vaccination heart inflammation cases that were only detected after the vaccines were authorized, “the push for vaccine approval seems absolutely reckless,” Gohmert said.

  “Just last month, the FDA essentially announced that people should no longer take the Johnson and Johnson vaccine due to dangerous blood clotting side effects. This, after telling us the J&J vaccine was safe and effective for over a year. As Americans, we have every right to demand that the utmost safety and efficacy standards be implemented and rigorous studies and testing be performed before these injections are approved for anyone, especially innocent children,” he added.

  After Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) reported being told by Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA vaccine official, in May that the agency would not withhold authorization solely because a vaccine was not at least 50 percent effective. An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency “will evaluate any data submitted in the context of the ongoing public health emergency and will only authorize vaccines for the youngest children that meet our standards and for which the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks.”

  Experts and parents are divided on whether vaccines are needed for children, especially healthy children.

  Based on research and the effect of COVID-19 on youth, “childhood vaccination should not be considered unless a child has significant co-morbidities like cystic fibrosis, severe Type I diabetes, etc.,” Dr. Steven Hatfill, a virologist, told The Epoch Times in an email.

  Dr. Moira Szilagyi, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement that U.S. authorities should “move with all possible speed” to review the data on vaccines for young kids, adding, “Children are not immune from COVID, which can cause severe and long-term illness, hospitalizations and even death.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 20:20

• Three US Military Aircraft Crash In Southern California Within One Week
  Three US Military Aircraft Crash In Southern California Within One Week

  While the Tom Cruise sequel to 1986’s Top Gun (Top Gun: Maverick) shatters multiple box-office records and excites an entire generation of young people who want to become fighter pilots, a disturbing trend of military aircraft crashes emerges in Southern California in less than a week. 

  The latest is an MH-60S Seahawk that crashed along the Arizona-California border Thursday near El Centro, California. All four of the helicopter’s crew members survived with non-life-threatening injuries. 

  

  The crash comes just one day after five Marines were killed in an MV-22B Osprey near Glamis, California. Both Osprey and Seahawk crashed about 100 miles away from each other. 

  

  Last Friday, further north, a F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, killing the pilot. 

  

  All three military aircraft crashed within one week of each other in Southern California. 

  

  The aviation disasters come as the military actively uses Cruise’s patriotic action film to boost recruitment since numbers have been dismal over the last several years. 

  The number of internet searches for “how to become a fighter pilot” have gone parabolic since the Top Gun: Maverick debuted in theaters on May 27. 

  And according to Defense News, more than half the Navy’s aircraft are grounded because there’s not enough money to fix them. The Air Force has a similar issue. Only 71.5% of the service’s fleet is mission ready. America’s aging military appears to have reliability issues, even though it outspends the entire world. It’s unknown whether the three aircraft experienced mechanical problems. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 20:00

• Jim Bovard: It's Time For Joe Biden To Exit The Ring
  Jim Bovard: It’s Time For Joe Biden To Exit The Ring

  Authored by Jim Bovard via The Libertarian Institute/Mises.org,

  President Biden often looks like a punch-drunk old fighter sent into the ring once too often. At this point, the only thing lower than Biden’s approval numbers is his energy level. Is Uncle Joe too old to rebound?

  At this point, Biden is running on little more than fumes and righteousness. In his televised antigun speech Thursday night, Biden proclaimed that he expected most people “to turn your outrage into making this issue [assault weapons] central to your vote.” Biden’s histrionic spiel was far more likely to turbo-charge gun owners than gun banners and could be another coffin nail for Democratic candidates in middle America. Biden perennially tells audiences that banning assault weapons is justified because the Second Amendment didn’t permit Americans to own cannons—a falsehood that even The Washington Post has repeatedly derided.

  Inflation is the top issue by a wide margin for Americans nowadays. Biden’s inflation will soon have inflicted a 10 percent cut in the purchasing power of Americans’ paychecks. But Biden is indignant at criticism of his policies. When Peter Doocy of Fox News asked about the impact in January, Biden called him “a stupid son of a bitch.” In a March speech to Democratic members of Congress, Biden raged at being blamed for inflation: “I’m sick of this stuff!…We have to talk about it because the American people think the reason for inflation is the government spending more money. Simply. Not. True.”

  

  Biden first tried to blame greedy corporations for inflation and then began railing about “Putin’s price hikes.” Didn’t work. Last week, The Washington Post revealed that Biden now blames White House aides who “were not doing a good job explaining the causes of inflation and what the administration is doing about it.” But his aides have a hell of a challenge when Biden boasts “a gallon of gas is down 14 percent today”—as he claimed based solely on a happy fantasy on March 9. Even wackier? Last Friday, Biden boasted that Americans feel more “financially comfortable,” thanks to his policies.

  Biden won in 2020 in part because he promised in the final debate: “I’m going to shut down the virus.” Biden bet his presidency on covid vaccines. When their efficacy faded, Biden dictated a “jab or job” ultimatum to more than a hundred million Americans. The Supreme Court rebuffed most of that mandate but not before the omicron variant was causing a million new cases a day and obliterating Biden’s covid victory boasts. Last month, the White House predicted up to a hundred million new covid cases this fall—after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that almost half of covid fatalities now are among the fully vaxxed. In lieu of more reliable vaccines, Team Biden is pressuring social media companies to crack down on “disinformation” that casts doubts on presidentially ordained injections.

  Biden has a long DC reputation for trampling the facts. His first presidential bid collapsed in the late 1980s, thanks to his brazen plagiarism of a British politician. But the Democrats in 2020 were desperate to find someone who could defeat Donald Trump. Their verdict: “He’s a pathological liar, but he’s our pathological liar.” During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden was shielded by a phalanx of media allies and former government honchos who helpfully buried issues such as the damning revelations of Hunter Biden’s laptop (first exposed by the New York Post).

  But, regardless of how often Biden flees back to Delaware, he is in the limelight far more than during the campaign. He struggled to find his way off stage after a speech, and the video of him attempting to shake hands with invisible people on stage was jolting. A decade ago, Biden seemed mentally quick and verbally agile in battering Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the vice presidential debate. But Biden’s verbal and mental struggles make that stellar performance seem like a thousand years ago.

  

  The Biden White House discloses little or no verified medical information on the president’s health, mental or physical. Instead, Biden’s apologists in the media insist that he is doing fine—the same way that much of the press corps covered for President Woodrow Wilson after he was debilitated by a stroke.

  Last month, The Washington Post reprinted a column by Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein demanding that Americans “Stop Smearing Biden’s Mental Capacity.” Bernstein described doubts about Biden’s acuity as “one of the many ugly things that’s happened during Joe Biden’s presidency.” Bernstein rests his defense of Biden on the trustworthiness of the Washington elite: “To believe that Biden is impaired requires a belief in a massive conspiracy…by thousands of people.”

  Like the notion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction—a Bush scam to justify a war that was supported in lockstep by most of the media and the Washington establishment? Or the notion that the Federal Reserve flooding the nation with increasingly worthless currency is good for America—another beloved myth embraced by the Beltway?

  A poll last month showed that 53 percent of Americans doubted whether Biden was “mentally fit” for the presidency. Who knew that antigeezer prejudice would explode during Uncle Joe’s reign? But even 51 percent of senior citizens doubt Biden’s mental competence for office. That the official scorekeepers ruled that Biden won eighty-one million votes in the 2020 election is supposedly the only proof of “competence” that matters.

  Perhaps there is only one proof of Biden’s mental capacity that matters in Washington: he is delivering the conflict with Russia that the Democratic Party has craved since Hillary Clinton made anti-Russia agitation a linchpin of her 2016 presidential campaign. Biden’s hysterical denunciations of Vladimir Putin have endeared him to DC insiders itching to drag this nation into a military conflict that they know most Americans would not support if the full facts and risks were presented to them.

  Biden Dismisses Elon Musk’s Fears of a Recession: “Lots of Luck on His Trip to the Moon”

  Good luck to Biden on this gaffe not haunting him in the future pic.twitter.com/OEs1VOjXHa

  — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 3, 2022

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  The White House, State Department, CIA, and Pentagon have provided almost zero credible evidence on how the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine is proceeding. Instead, Biden has been the front man for a fairy tale that pretends that providing almost unlimited U.S. government aid and weapons to a corrupt regime in Kiev will create a historic victory for democracy everywhere.

  But Russia’s unjust invasion and atrocities against civilians do not purify a Ukrainian regime that has been abusing its own people for decades. In effectively opposing any peace talks between Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Team Biden has simply assured more pointless deaths on both sides.

  Biden is a listless president surrounded by aides with broken compasses. Biden’s worst pummeling could occur if Democrats lose control of Congress in November. Republican committees will be investigating an array of potential abuses of power that Team Biden has successfully buried (at least according to media scorekeeping) so far. Unless Biden can make it a hate crime to attach “I did this!” stickers to gas pumps, his support will keep draining away every time Americans fill up their tanks.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 19:40

• Apartment Companies Saw Net Income Spike 57% Last Year Thanks To Rising Rents
  Apartment Companies Saw Net Income Spike 57% Last Year Thanks To Rising Rents

  Apartment owners have been earning big profits off of raised rents, according to a new report by Accountable.US released this week. 

  The report notes that the top 10 public apartment companies saw net income collectively rise 57% to about $5 billion as a result. 

  These numbers far exceed losses that the companies incurred at the beginning of the pandemic, the report showed. 

  Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig commented: “It’s obvious the punishing rental prices on our most vulnerable populations are driven by corporate greed. Big apartment companies have joined the long list of industries using inflation as cover to charge working families far beyond any new cost of doing business.”

  The study found that rent was up more than 17% last year and occupancies grew 2.5% above the historical average of 95%.

  

  Pressuring the everyday citizen further, these increases came despite inflation doling out a 2.4% pay cut in 2021. 

  Starwood Property Trust’s CEO Barry Sternlicht said during the company’s most recent investor call that inflation was “an extraordinary gift that keeps on giving to a tune of maybe $400M or $500M.”

  [It was] “the strongest real estate market I’ve seen in 30 years, 35 years if you count my time before Starwood,” he added.

  Additional key findings from the report included: 

  • Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA): Benefited from “strong rent growth” and saw FY 2021 net income nearly double to over $550 million after multiple lawsuits for excessive fees and tenant mistreatment in recent years—Meanwhile, its CEO’s compensation rose over 60% to over $7.6 million and he owns two lavish homes together worth $9.3 million.
  • Starwood Property Trust: Called inflation “an extraordinary gift that keeps on giving” while being affiliated with Invitation Homes, known for “horror stories” from tenants, as it reported “a record year” in FY 2021 with net income jumping by over $126 million and its billionaire chairman owning a luxury waterfront Miami Beach mansion valued at almost $34 million.
  • AvalonBay Communities: Saw move-in rent grow by 23% in FY 2021 and expected further rent hikes in FY 2022 as its net income grew by over $176 million—Meanwhile, its CEO saw compensation swell by 27% to over $14 million and owns at least four homes together worth over $11.2 million.
  • Equity Residential: Touted its “pricing power” as it talked about increased rents while reporting that its FY 2021 net income jumped by 45% to almost $1.4 billion while being sued by 135,000 applicants for “‘unlawful conduct’” in its fee practices—Its CEO’s compensation increased by 11% to nearly $8.5 million while he sold his 8 bedroom home with “gourmet kitchen” and wine cellar for over $1.3 million.
  • Essex Property Trust: Saw rents go “above pre-covid levels” in FY 2021 and warned that Los Angeles’ extended eviction moratorium “will hurt collections” as it posted an FY 2021 net income of $515.7 million—Its CEO saw compensation rise by $627,000 to over $7.1 million and he owns a $1.9 million home with a “covered outdoor kitchen” and a “separate casita.”
  • Camden Property Trust: Has touted rent increases while calling rent caps “impediments to running our business” after seeing FY 2021 net income grow by nearly 143% to $312 million—Meanwhile, its CEO’s compensation rose by almost $420,000 to over $4.2 million and his “masterpiece” home has been valued at $18.3 million.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 19:20

• Doctors Suing Food And Drug Administration Over Ivermectin
  Doctors Suing Food And Drug Administration Over Ivermectin

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

  A Washington law firm has filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for interfering with the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.

  

  The lawsuit was filed by Boyden Gray & Associates on behalf of three doctors who were disciplined for prescribing human-grade ivermectin to patients.

  The firm’s founder, attorney Boyden Gray, is a former legal adviser to the Reagan and Bush administrations.

  Gray told The Epoch Times that the FDA had violated well-established law that allows doctors to prescribe an FDA-approved drug as an off-label treatment.

  Ivermectin was no different, he said. It was approved by the FDA in 1966.

  “Congress recognized the importance of letting doctors be doctors and expressly prohibited the FDA from interfering with the practice of medicine,” Gray said.

  “That is exactly what the FDA has done time and time again throughout this pandemic, assuming authority it doesn’t have and trying to insert itself in the medical decisions of Americans everywhere.”

  The three plaintiffs in the case are Dr. Paul Marik of Virginia, Dr. Mary Bowden of Texas, and Dr. Robert Apter of Arizona.

  Marik is a founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care 21 Alliance (FLCCC), a national nonprofit that promotes alternative COVID-19 treatments to the government-touted vaccine.

  “The FDA has made public statements on ivermectin that have been misleading and have raised unwarranted concern over a critical drug in preventing and treating COVID-19,” Marik told The Epoch Times. “To do this is to ignore both statutory limits on the FDA’s authority and the significant body of scientific evidence from peer-reviewed research.”

  According to Marik, more than 80 medical trials conducted since the outbreak of COVID-19 show that ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for the virus.

  Gray said the FDA has engaged in unlawful interference with the use of ivermectin and should be held accountable for that.

  The lawsuit included several statements made by the FDA that Gray said show that the administration interfered with the use of ivermectin.

  They include an Aug. 21, 2021, Twitter post by the agency: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

  The post, with an image of a horse and a doctor, has a headline that reads, “Why you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.”

  Marik, Bowden, and Apter are among a number of U.S. doctors across the United States who have been disciplined for prescribing ivermectin.

  Marik, a critical care specialist, was suspended by Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for prescribing ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. Bowden, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, was suspended from the Houston Medical Hospital. Apter was under investigation by both the Washington Medical Commission and Arizona Medical Board for prescribing ivermectin.

  Marik was recently informed that he was under investigation by the medical licensing board in Virginia.

  Gray filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Texas.

  The doctors are seeking a permanent injunction that would prohibit the FDA from interfering with the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 19:00

• Geico Ordered To Pay $5.2 Million To Woman Who Contracted HPV In Man's Car
  Geico Ordered To Pay $5.2 Million To Woman Who Contracted HPV In Man’s Car

  A Missouri Court of Appeals has upheld a $5.2 million award against GEICO after a woman filed a claim because she contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the car of a man who was insured by the company, according to court documents.

  

  The woman, a resident of Jackson County identified in court papers only as “M.O.” – said she contacted human papillomavirus (HPV) from the her ex-boyfriend in November and December 2017 after she “engaged in unprotected sexual activities in Insured’s vehicle.”

  In a February 2021 p;etition to Geico, the woman claimed that the man “negligently caused or contributed to” her catching the disease. She made a final settlement offer of $1 million to resolve her claims, which Geico denied.

  In an opinion published Tuesday and reported by NBC News, the Court of Appeals for the Western District of Missouri affirmed the judgement after Geico challenged the decision through an arbitrator, who found in her favor.

  Geico appealed the arbitrator’s decision, and lost again.

  “At the time of Geico’s intervention, liability and damages had been determined by an arbitrator and confirmed by the trial court. GEICO had no right to relitigate those issues,” the appeals court wrote. “But GEICO did have the opportunity to participate and defend its interests — including the ability to challenge liability and damages — by entering a defense of Insured.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 18:40

• Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Volumes To China For July
  Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Volumes To China For July

  By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

  Saudi Arabia will ship lower-than-nominated crude oil volumes to some of its Chinese buyers in July, but will provide most other Asian customers with all the crude they have requested, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing refinery officials in Asia.

  

  Many buyers in Asia have asked for more Saudi crude oil for July as barrels from the Middle East are cheaper than those from the North Sea and the U.S. because of a drop in the Dubai/Oman benchmark compared Brent and WTI benchmarks. The oil going to Asia from the Middle East is priced off the Dubai/Oman benchmark.

  The Saudis will not fully meet all Chinese requests but will supply all the volumes and even extra barrels to some customers in India, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, Bloomberg’s sources say. 

  This past weekend, Saudi Arabia raised its official selling prices (OSPs) to Asia and Europe for July, as widely expected, signaling confidence in demand in the near term.

  The increase in Saudi crude prices for next month was the biggest for Asian buyers, with the flagship Arab Light grade set to sell for $2.10 per barrel more than it did this month, at $6.50 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai benchmarks. Strong refining margins in Asia amid a global crunch in fuels also played a part in the Saudi decision to raise the prices for its oil selling in Asia.

  

  Many of Saudi Arabia’s customers in Asia have asked for more Saudi supply as they prefer to steer clear of Russian cargoes.

  China and India, however, continue to buy Russian oil, and India is even reportedly seeking more of it in order to take advantage of the cheap crude, which sells at record discounts. Currently, the flagship Russian grade Urals sells at a discount of $30 a barrel or more to Dated Brent.   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 18:20

• With Border Cities Swamped, Biden To Bus Migrants Deeper Into US
  With Border Cities Swamped, Biden To Bus Migrants Deeper Into US

  With border cities overwhelmed by a record surge in migration, the Department of Homeland Security is planning to start transporting migrants into cities away from the border, according to DHS documents reviewed by NBC News.  

  

  Los Angeles has been designated as the first city to be the recipient of the transported migrants, with Albuquerque, Houston, Dallas and others to follow. In a statement to NBC, DHS said “no decision has been made.” 

  Away from microphones, DHS officials jokingly refer to the scheme as the “Abbott plan,” according to an unidentified official who spoke to NBC. That’s a reference to Texas governor Greg Abbott, who earlier this year sent at least 10 busloads of illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C. as a means of redistributing the wealth of inbound Latin American diversity.  

  At the time, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Chris Magnus said Abbott’s shipping of immigrants made CBP’s job more difficult. 

  Texas taxpayers paid for those buses, but the federal embrace of the Abbott plan will put all taxpayers on the hook for who knows how much. The new scheme will be managed by the Southwest Border Coordination Center, a joint undertaking of CBP, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. 

  The busing plan is Washington’s answer to overflowing shelters run by charitable and nongovernmental organizations in border cities. In April, CBP tallied a record-breaking 234,088 migrant encounters.  

  NBC’s revelation of the Biden administration plan comes the same week that a massive migrant caravan has begun a thousand-mile trek from Mexico’s Guatemala border to the Rio Grande. Numbering upwards of 12,000, the group paused Wednesday in the town of Huixtla while the Mexican government issued work visas that will ease their travel throughout Mexico and up to the U.S. border. 

  On Friday, Biden is expected to sign an international declaration on migration at the poorly-attended “Summit of the Americas” that he’s hosting in Los Angeles. According to AP, the declaration will “call for more pathways to legal status, mechanisms to reunite families, more efficient and humane border controls and improved information sharing.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 18:00

• Median Manhattan Apartment Rent Tops New Record-High Of $4,000
  Median Manhattan Apartment Rent Tops New Record-High Of $4,000

  Manhattan apartment rents surged to a record high in May as spring demand remains robust and supply is ultra-tight. The baffling part about the strong demand is why people are flocking to a metro area experiencing an eruption in violent crime (remember what happened to the Goldman Sachs analyst?) and soaring living costs.  

  Bloomberg reports new data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate that shows Manhattan apartment rents touched an average of $4k per month, a 25% jump from a year ago. 

  

  Strong demand is apparently due to the real estate market’s busiest season (spring) as new college graduates find jobs and families make moves before fall when school begins. “Rents now have notched records in the past four months as New York came roaring back from the pandemic,” Bloomberg explains. 

  “Historically, new lease signings always peak in August, which increases the chances that the additional demand will push prices up further.

  “In other words, tenants could see more price pain through the summer,” Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said. 

  Manhattan’s vacancy rate was 12% a little more than a year ago and has since plunged to 2%. Supply is tight and is the reason why rents are at record highs. The lack of supply could push rent prices even higher by the end of summer (we noted last month: “Not A Peak” – Manhattan Apartment Rents Hit Another Record High). 

  

  Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said units listed last month spent just 52 days on the market, down from 68 in April and 107 a year earlier. Strong demand has enabled landlords to slash concessions. Only 15.3% of new leases in May had added perks, the lowest since September 2016. 

  Here’s the current situation on the ground: 

  $8k/month for that in NYC 😳. pic.twitter.com/y6ooEhKbeY

  — TTI (@TikTokInvestors) June 9, 2022

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

  As people flock to the borough, an exodus of New Yorkers continues to accelerate. 21,546 New Yorkers left the state for Florida (where taxes, costs of living, and violent crime are low) in the first four months of the year. 

  In today’s age of remote or hybrid work, living in a violent city, and paying some of the highest living costs in the country, makes absolutely no sense. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 17:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• World Health Organization Finally Admits COVID Lab-Leak Theory Is A Possibility
  World Health Organization Finally Admits COVID Lab-Leak Theory Is A Possibility

  For two years, governmental and global medical institutions like the CDC and WHO along with conmen like Anthony Fauci have been referring to the argument that Covid-19 leaked from the virology lab in Wuhan, China (the only Level 4 lab in Asia) as a “conspiracy theory.” 

  For two years, the mainstream media and Big Tech social media platforms have called for outright censorship of anyone trying to discuss the evidence. 

  The WHO has been an avid protector of the Chinese government and dismissed any assertions they they were involved in development of covid related viruses through gain of function research. 

  Now, suddenly, the WHO is willing to give the theory a serious look and admits there are several important pieces still missing from the origin puzzle.

  

  It’s hard to say why this sharp change of attitude has occurred, but it is now very difficult to deny the facts.

  Evidence has been mounting for some time that the virus was at the very least coaxed into existence through mutation processes if not outright engineered.  Covid-19 is a 96% match to a virus sample collected and held at the Wuhan lab for several years.  This same virus strain does not naturally exist anywhere near Wuhan, only in the lab, and the 4% discrepancy could be explained by gain of function research. 

  Such research is now a confirmed FACT, and was funded by Anthony Fauci, the NIH, NIAID and related institutions for years.    

  The only “evidence” to support the wet market theory of covid’s origin comes from the Chinese government, which has a vested interest in lying about the situation and still has yet to release any accurate data on covid deaths within the country.  The claim was essentially debunked by Chinese researchers when multiple cases of early infections were discovered among people who had no contact with the market in Wuhan.   Extensive evidence now supports the lab leak theory, an argument made by the alternative media during the entire course of the pandemic and one which we were constantly attacked for. 

  Will the WHO ever actually admit that the most likely scenario for the covid outbreak is a lab leak from the massive Level 4 virology lab in Wuhan which specializes in covid gain of function research? 

  No, they won’t. 

  But, they will now try to act as if they are entertaining the idea because if they do not they will lose all credibility in the process.  Many researchers argue that it’s already too late for that. 

  The mainstream media continues to perpetuate numerous falsehoods surrounding covid and has built a complex narrative of assumptions and misdirections to deny reality.  As time passes, more and more of the original narrative falls apart. 

  The “fact checking” machine is being exposed as a propaganda machine, and people who defend REAL science, real logic and real data can take heart that as the truth is exposed any institution that perpetuated the lies will also be exposed in the long run.   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 02:45

• British Health Secretary Says "Sex Matters" After NHS Removes "Women" From Cancer Guidance
  British Health Secretary Says “Sex Matters” After NHS Removes “Women” From Cancer Guidance

  Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times,

  Health Secretary Savid Javid has said that the word “women” should not be removed from ovarian cancer guidance, after it was found that the NHS had “desexed” some of its main sites on female medical conditions, by using “inclusive” gender-neutral language that excludes the words “female” and “women.”

  

  The health secretary told Sky News, “You won’t be surprised to know that as a health secretary, I think that your sex matters, your biological sex is incredibly important to make sure you get the right treatment, the very best treatment.”

  The Times of London reported on Tuesday that the main NHS web pages on ovarian, womb, and cervical cancers no longer referred to women on some of the main pages.

  For example, the womb cancer page used to say that “cancer of the womb (uterine or endometrial cancer) is a common cancer that affects the female reproductive system. It’s more common in women who have been through the menopause.”

  Now it says that “most womb cancer usually starts in the lining of the womb (endometrium), this is also known as endometrial cancer.”

  For the ovarian cancer page, the site used to say that “ovarian cancer mainly affects women who have been through the menopause (usually over the age of 50), but it can sometimes affect younger women.”

  Now the guidance says that “ovarian cancer affects the 2 small organs (ovaries) that store the eggs needed to make babies. Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.”

  Javid said that he hadn’t seen the Times of London report. “Well, look, I haven’t seen that particular report, but I have heard of instances like that and I don’t think it’s right,” he said.

  He added that he was “looking into this” and used prostate cancer as an example of a disease that can only affect “those that are biologically male” and that it was “important to talk about women when talking about cervical cancer … so people know what you are talking about.”

  “It’s important that when messaging is given to people for cancers that words like women and men are used,” Javid said.

  “There are many different trusts and I want to listen to why someone might have taken a different approach, I don’t just want to assume, but I think I’ve made my views clear on this,” he said.

  He added, “I know there’s some sensitivity around this language, but we have to use common sense and use the right language so that we can give people the best possible patient care.”

  A spokeswoman for NHS Digital told The Times of London on Tuesday: “It is not correct to say that there is no mention of women on the ovarian, womb, and cervical cancer pages. We have updated the pages as part of our routine review of web pages to keep them in line with the best clinical evidence, and make them as helpful as possible to everyone who needs them.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 02:00

• Everything Is A Weapon: The US Government Is Waging Psychological Warfare On The Nation
  Everything Is A Weapon: The US Government Is Waging Psychological Warfare On The Nation

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

  “Have you ever wondered who’s pulling the strings? … Anything we touch is a weapon. We can deceive, persuade, change, influence, inspire. We come in many forms. We are everywhere.”

  – U.S. Army Psychological Operations recruitment video

  The U.S. government is waging psychological warfare on the American people.

  

  No, this is not a conspiracy theory.

  Psychological warfare, according to the Rand Corporation, “involves the planned use of propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups.”

  For years now, the government has been bombarding the citizenry with propaganda campaigns and psychological operations aimed at keeping us compliant, easily controlled and supportive of the police state’s various efforts abroad and domestically.

  The government is so confident in its Orwellian powers of manipulation that it’s taken to bragging about them. Just recently, for example, the U.S. Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group, the branch of the military responsible for psychological warfare, released a recruiting video that touts its efforts to pull the strings, turn everything they touch into a weapon, be everywhere, deceive, persuade, change, influence, and inspire.

  This is the danger that lurks in plain sight.

  Of the many weapons in the government’s vast arsenal, psychological warfare may be the most devastating in terms of the long-term consequences.

  As the military journal Task and Purpose explains, “Psychological warfare is all about influencing governments, people of power, and everyday citizens… PSYOP soldiers’ key missions are to influence ‘emotions, notices, reasoning, and behavior of foreign governments and citizens,’ ‘deliberately deceive’ enemy forces, advise governments, and provide communications for disaster relief and rescue efforts.”

  Yet don’t be fooled into thinking these psyops (psychological operations) campaigns are only aimed at foreign enemies. The government has made clear in word and deed that “we the people” are domestic enemies to be targeted, tracked, manipulated, micromanaged, surveilled, viewed as suspects, and treated as if our fundamental rights are mere privileges that can be easily discarded.

  Aided and abetted by technological advances and scientific experimentation, the government has been subjecting the American people to “apple-pie propaganda” for the better part of the last century.

  Consider some of the ways in which the government continues to wage psychological warfare on a largely unsuspecting citizenry.

  • Weaponizing violence. With alarming regularity, the nation continues to be subjected to spates of violence that terrorizes the public, destabilizes the country’s ecosystem, and gives the government greater justifications to crack down, lock down, and institute even more authoritarian policies for the so-called sake of national security without many objections from the citizenry.

  • Weaponizing surveillance, pre-crime and pre-thought campaigns. Surveillance, digital stalking and the data mining of the American people add up to a society in which there’s little room for indiscretions, imperfections, or acts of independence. When the government sees all and knows all and has an abundance of laws to render even the most seemingly upstanding citizen a criminal and lawbreaker, then the old adage that you’ve got nothing to worry about if you’ve got nothing to hide no longer applies. Add pre-crime programs into the mix with government agencies and corporations working in tandem to determine who is a potential danger and spin a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies, and you having the makings for a perfect dystopian nightmare. The government’s war on crime has now veered into the realm of social media and technological entrapment, with government agents adopting fake social media identities and AI-created profile pictures in order to surveil, target and capture potential suspects.

  • Weaponizing digital currencies, social media scores and censorship. Tech giants, working with the government, have been meting out their own version of social justice by way of digital tyranny and corporate censorship, muzzling whomever they want, whenever they want, on whatever pretext they want in the absence of any real due process, review or appeal. Unfortunately, digital censorship is just the beginning. Digital currencies (which can be used as “a tool for government surveillance of citizens and control over their financial transactions”), combined with social media scores and surveillance capitalism create a litmus test to determine who is worthy enough to be part of society and punish individuals for moral lapses and social transgressions (and reward them for adhering to government-sanctioned behavior). In China, millions of individuals and businesses, blacklisted as “unworthy” based on social media credit scores that grade them based on whether they are “good” citizens, have been banned from accessing financial markets, buying real estate or travelling by air or train.

  • Weaponizing compliance. Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation. The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on COVID-19, the war on illegal immigration, asset forfeiture schemes, road safety schemes, school safety schemes, eminent domain: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the police state’s hands.

  • Weaponizing entertainment. For the past century, the Department of Defense’s Entertainment Media Office has provided Hollywood with equipment, personnel and technical expertise at taxpayer expense. In exchange, the military industrial complex has gotten a starring role in such blockbusters as Top Gun and its rebooted sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which translates to free advertising for the war hawks, recruitment of foot soldiers for the military empire, patriotic fervor by the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for the nation’s endless wars, and Hollywood visionaries working to churn out dystopian thrillers that make the war machine appear relevant, heroic and necessary. As Elmer Davis, a CBS broadcaster who was appointed the head of the Office of War Information, observed, “The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people’s minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize that they are being propagandized.”

  • Weaponizing behavioral science and nudging. Apart from the overt dangers posed by a government that feels justified and empowered to spy on its people and use its ever-expanding arsenal of weapons and technology to monitor and control them, there’s also the covert dangers associated with a government empowered to use these same technologies to influence behaviors en masse and control the populace. In fact, it was President Obama who issued an executive order directing federal agencies to use “behavioral science” methods to minimize bureaucracy and influence the way people respond to government programs. It’s a short hop, skip and a jump from a behavioral program that tries to influence how people respond to paperwork to a government program that tries to shape the public’s views about other, more consequential matters. Thus, increasingly, governments around the world—including in the United States—are relying on “nudge units” to steer citizens in the direction the powers-that-be want them to go, while preserving the appearance of free will.

  • Weaponizing desensitization campaigns aimed at lulling us into a false sense of security. The events of recent years—the invasive surveillance, the extremism reports, the civil unrest, the protests, the shootings, the bombings, the military exercises and active shooter drills, the lockdowns, the color-coded alerts and threat assessments, the fusion centers, the transformation of local police into extensions of the military, the distribution of military equipment and weapons to local police forces, the government databases containing the names of dissidents and potential troublemakers—have conspired to acclimate the populace to accept a police state willingly, even gratefully.

  • Weaponizing fear and paranoia. The language of fear is spoken effectively by politicians on both sides of the aisle, shouted by media pundits from their cable TV pulpits, marketed by corporations, and codified into bureaucratic laws that do little to make our lives safer or more secure. Fear, as history shows, is the method most often used by politicians to increase the power of government and control a populace, dividing the people into factions, and persuading them to see each other as the enemy. This Machiavellian scheme has so ensnared the nation that few Americans even realize they are being manipulated into adopting an “us” against “them” mindset. Instead, fueled with fear and loathing for phantom opponents, they agree to pour millions of dollars and resources into political elections, militarized police, spy technology and endless wars, hoping for a guarantee of safety that never comes. All the while, those in power—bought and paid for by lobbyists and corporations—move their costly agendas forward, and “we the suckers” get saddled with the tax bills and subjected to pat downs, police raids and round-the-clock surveillance.

  • Weaponizing genetics. Not only does fear grease the wheels of the transition to fascism by cultivating fearful, controlled, pacified, cowed citizens, but it also embeds itself in our very DNA so that we pass on our fear and compliance to our offspring. It’s called epigenetic inheritance, the transmission through DNA of traumatic experiences. For example, neuroscientists observed that fear can travel through generations of mice DNA. As The Washington Post reports, “Studies on humans suggest that children and grandchildren may have felt the epigenetic impact of such traumatic events such as famine, the Holocaust and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”

  • Weaponizing the future. With greater frequency, the government has been issuing warnings about the dire need to prepare for the dystopian future that awaits us. For instance, the Pentagon training video, “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” predicts that by 2030 (coincidentally, the same year that society begins to achieve singularity with the metaverse) the military would be called on to use armed forces to solve future domestic political and social problems. What they’re really talking about is martial law, packaged as a well-meaning and overriding concern for the nation’s security. The chilling five-minute training video paints an ominous picture of the future bedeviled by “criminal networks,” “substandard infrastructure,” “religious and ethnic tensions,” “impoverishment, slums,” “open landfills, over-burdened sewers,” a “growing mass of unemployed,” and an urban landscape in which the prosperous economic elite must be protected from the impoverishment of the have nots. “We the people” are the have-nots.

  The end goal of these mind control campaigns—packaged in the guise of the greater good—is to see how far the American people will allow the government to go in re-shaping the country in the image of a totalitarian police state.

  The facts speak for themselves.

  Whatever else it may be—a danger, a menace, a threat—the U.S. government is certainly not looking out for our best interests, nor is it in any way a friend to freedom.

  When the government views itself as superior to the citizenry, when it no longer operates for the benefit of the people, when the people are no longer able to peacefully reform their government, when government officials cease to act like public servants, when elected officials no longer represent the will of the people, when the government routinely violates the rights of the people and perpetrates more violence against the citizenry than the criminal class, when government spending is unaccountable and unaccounted for, when the judiciary act as courts of order rather than justice, and when the government is no longer bound by the laws of the Constitution, then you no longer have a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

  What we have is a government of wolves.

  Our backs are against the proverbial wall.

  “We the people”—who think, who reason, who take a stand, who resist, who demand to be treated with dignity and care, who believe in freedom and justice for all—have become undervalued citizens of a totalitarian state that views people as expendable once they have outgrown their usefulness to the State.

  Brace yourselves.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 23:40

• Visualizing The Best-Selling Video Game Consoles Of All Time
  Visualizing The Best-Selling Video Game Consoles Of All Time

  In 1972, the first-ever commercially available home video game console hit the market – the Magnavox Odyssey. Players of the Odyssey had a choice between two built-in games that were stored directly in the device, and would use a joystick and dials as a controller.

  

  But, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang details below, video game consoles have come a long way since then, and the console market has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry that’s expected to reach $72.67 billion in value by the end of 2022.

  This graphic by Enrique Mendoza uses data from VGChartz to show the market leaders in the industry, by highlighting the top-selling video consoles of all time, as of May 8, 2022.

  

  Nine Generations of Video Game Consoles

  Before diving into the top-selling consoles, it’s worth taking a step back to touch on the evolution of home consoles to show how they’ve changed over the years.

  We dug into the literature on the history of video game consoles, and found that most articles and blog posts on the topic cite nine different generations of devices.

  Here’s a breakdown of each generation, and some of their most noteworthy systems:

  1972: Gen One, Where it Began

  Consoles in the first generation had pre-built games that were stored directly on the device. They include the Magnavox Odyssey and Atari’s Pong.

  1976: Gen Two Emerges

  In this generation, games were sold separately, rather than programmed into the device. Consoles of this gen include the Fairchild Channel F and the Atari 2600.

  1983: Gen Three, the “8-bit Generation”

  This era’s consoles typically had 8-bit processes which allowed for more advanced graphics for the time. A few notable consoles during this gen were ​​the Sega SG-1000 and the Nintendo Famicom, released outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

  1987: Gen Four Elevates Handheld Gaming

  Home consoles were released with 16-bit systems, meaning that audio and graphics improved even more in this era. But an arguably bigger moment for this gen was the emergence of the Nintendo Game Boy.

  1993: The 3D Start of Gen Five

  This generation saw the move away from pixels and towards 3D polygons. Some consoles like the Sony PlayStation started using CD-ROMs instead of cartridges, which stored more data at a cheaper cost and changed the industry.

  1998: Gen Six and the Internet

  At the start of this generation, the three major players in the console space were Sony, Sega, and Nintendo. By the end, Sega would be replaced with Microsoft as it launched the Xbox and helped popularize online console gaming.

  2005: HD Graphics and Motion Controls of Gen Seven

  On one side of the market, Microsoft and Sony were competing with high-definition graphics, faster processers, and different forms (Blu-rays or DVDs). But Nintendo’s motion-sensing Nintendo Wii arguably defined this generation, and the handheld Nintendo DS swept the market as well.

  2012: Gen Eight’s Modern Consoles

  Consoles of this era started having increased connectivity and processing power, with full HD an expectation. It was also an extremely long generation, starting with Nintendo’s unsuccessful Wii U and ending with the ultra-successful Nintendo Switch, widely considered the first hybrid console with three different ways to play: TV mode, handheld mode, or tabletop mode.

  2020: Gen Nine and Beyond

  So far, this generation has brought upgraded graphics (up to 8K resolution), larger games, and game-streaming capabilities. Devices in this gen include the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, which both use solid state drives to increase speed and performance, while Nintendo has yet to introduce a 9th generation device.

  The Best-Selling Game Consoles

  The best-selling video game console of all time is Sony’s PlayStation 2 (PS2). More than 157 million systems have been sold around the world since its launch in March 2000.

  

   

  Despite the fact the PS2’s been discontinued since 2013, no other gaming console has managed to top it—in fact, the next closest actively-sold consoles, the PS4 and Nintendo Switch, are each more than 40 million units behind.

   

  One major factor for the PS2’s success was its built-in DVD player. At the time, DVD players were very expensive, and in many places a PS2 was a cheaper and effective alternative. It was also one of the first devices to be “backward compatible,” meaning users could play most of their PS1 games on the PS2. This meant players didn’t have to buy a whole new library of games when they made the switch to a PS2, and Sony could tap into its existing customer base.

  But while Sony’s PS2 is the top-selling console on the list, Nintendo has more top-selling consoles on the list—almost half of the consoles on the list are manufactured by Nintendo (11), while only seven are made by Sony.

  What Will it Take to Out-Sell the PS2?

  As the PS4 has started taking a backseat to the PS5 in sales and promotion, the current most-likely contender for the best-selling console crown is the Nintendo Switch. Early in 2022, it was the fastest console to sell 100 million units.

  With lots of hype around the possibilities of AR and VR, it’ll be interesting to see what new features come with the next generation of gaming consoles.

  Will future devices ever beat the PS2’s record-breaking sales? Time will tell. But for now, the 22-year-old console continues to hold its well-earned spot at the top.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 23:20

• 'Pawns' For Beijing: CCP Pressures US Officials To Tilt Policies In China’s Favor
  ‘Pawns’ For Beijing: CCP Pressures US Officials To Tilt Policies In China’s Favor

  Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times,

  It was late February 2020, as the pandemic was heating up in the United States, when a request from China caught Wisconsin state Sen. Roger Roth’s attention.

  

  It was an email from Wu Ting, wife of the Chinese consul general in Chicago.

  Wu wanted Roth to help pass a resolution “in support of China’s fight against the novel coronavirus.”

  The “Chinese government has taken unprecedentedly rigorous measures to bring [the coronavirus] under control, including locking down Wuhan,” she wrote in a Feb. 26 email that has been viewed by The Epoch Times.

  “We have drawn up a draft resolution just for your reference,” she wrote, adding that the Chinese consulate in Chicago was committed to promoting China–Wisconsin relations, “particularly mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, agriculture, and other fields and people-to-people links.”

  The Chinese consul general looked forward to visiting Roth’s “beautiful state” and meeting with the senator to “discuss how to take our relations forward,” the email said.

  Regarding the draft resolution, “In essence, it praised China for their openness and transparency in their handling of the coronavirus,” Roth told The Epoch Times.

  

  “I thought this had to be a joke,” Roth said. “It came from a Hotmail account, of all places. It wasn’t even an official thing.” He discarded the email and thought of it no further, but Wu persisted. A few weeks later, she followed up using the same email, attaching the same resolution.

  He had his staff verify the email address with state government sources and learned that Chinese consulate officials routinely use private email accounts. Wu, it turns out, is the wife of the Chinese consulate general Zhao Jian.

  Once Roth realized the email was legitimate, he became “downright angry.”

  “I dictated a one-word response to them, and I said: Dear Consul General, Nuts. Signed respectfully, Roger Roth,” he said. “Not only do we respond to them with the word ‘nuts,’ we even drafted our own resolution on the Communist Party of China, exposing who they really are.”

  That one-word reply, a nod to Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe’s famous response to a German surrender ultimatum during World War II, was the last communication Roth had with the Chinese consulate in Chicago. Wu later wrote an email expressing shock at his response, which he never replied to. But that interaction pushed him onto the offensive in Wisconsin.

  It “awakened me to the real threats that our country is facing from the Communist Party of China,”​​ said Roth, who is running for lieutenant governor in his state.

  “Most people in the world probably don’t even know where we are, if we even exist, but they are trying to reach their tentacles even into Wisconsin,” he said.

  ‘Pawns’ for Beijing

  Wisconsin isn’t the only state where Beijing has tried to exert influence.

  Around the same period as the emails to Roth, the state of Utah was approving a resolution expressing solidarity with the Chinese people. In language similar to what Wu had put forward, the resolution noted “a friendly relationship and strong economic, cultural, and people-to-people ties” that Utah and China share, and “the unique, 14-year legislative relationship between Utah and Liaoning,” referring to a legislative exchange program between the Western state and a Chinese province.

  That Feb. 25, 2020, resolution also urged against virus restrictions that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade and raise fear and stigma.” At the time, the Trump administration had imposed a flight ban to and from China in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, a move that initially sparked condemnation from the Chinese regime and the World Health Organization, but was ultimately adopted by the majority of countries around the world as the pandemic evolved.

  States like Utah that passed such resolutions didn’t know “what was really happening and how they were being used as pawns,” Roth said.

  The Epoch Times has reached out to the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Jacob Anderegg, for comment. An email to the bill’s sponsor in the state House, Eric Hutchings, who was a representative until last January, was undeliverable.

  The states of Georgia and New York also have passed a “China Day” resolution.

  The Georgia version, passed on Feb. 3, 2020, intended to “commend the special friendship between Georgia and the People’s Republic of China” and to “recognize the Consul General Cai Wei of the Consulate General of China in Houston.”

  Cai, prior to the resolution’s passage, gave a speech on the state Senate floor touting China’s leadership in the virus fight. The State Department five months later would order the closure of the consulate, with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it a “hub of spying and intellectual property theft.”

  

  The New York Senate resolution that was approved in June 2019, meanwhile, appears to be the nation’s first such gesture to commemorate Oct. 1, marking the Chinese Communist Party’s official takeover of China.

  The resolution’s lead sponsor, state Sen. James Sanders, didn’t respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times about whether the consulate had any role in the resolution’s eventual adoption.

  Coercion and Threats

  For those who chose to take a stance critical of the Chinese Communist Party, the regime took direct action in a bid to thwart their efforts.

  The first time former California state Sen. Joel Anderson experienced Chinese pressure firsthand was 15 years ago, when he was first elected to the California state assembly.

  His purported offense was to introduce a resolution recognizing the anniversary of the introduction of Falun Gong, a spiritual belief that the regime has marked for elimination since 1999. The resolution, he said, simply aimed to welcome Falun Gong adherents “to a country that recognizes religious liberty.”

  “It didn’t say anything more. It didn’t say that they were the best faith, or they were better than many other faiths,” he said. “All it said was, you know, we welcome you.”

  That resolution put Anderson in the crosshairs of the Chinese Communist Party. Shortly after, he received a six-page letter from Chinese authorities branding him a “terrorist.”

  “It told me that if I traveled to China, I’ll be arrested and prosecuted as a terrorist,” Anderson told The Epoch Times.

  

  Anderson, who at the time knew little about the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong, said he was taken aback.

  “China doesn’t get to dictate to the United States. We’re a free country. And we allow religious liberty,” he said. “We allow all faiths to be practiced here in the United States.”

  The Chinese regime’s displeasure toward Anderson didn’t ease up after he joined the California state Senate years later. As a senator, he was invited on an official trip to China to promote bilateral trade relations. Recalling the threats from the letter, he mentioned the issue to the state office handling the logistics. The answer that came back was blunt: He “would not be welcomed,” Anderson recalled.

  “So I can’t go to China without fear of being arrested and convicted.”

  What happened to Anderson was not at all a one-off incident.

  Over the decade and a half that followed, he and other U.S. officials at local and federal levels would receive pressure through visits, emails, and phone calls from Chinese authorities with an eye toward bending their policies in China’s favor.

  President Joe Biden in May accused the CCP of lobbying against a bill aimed at bolstering U.S. competitiveness against Beijing.

  Anderson drew the regime’s attention a second time when in 2017, he introduced a resolution denouncing Beijing’s persecution of Falun Gong.

  After the measure was approved by the state Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 5–0, the Chinese consulate in San Francisco sent a round of letters to all of Anderson’s colleagues, warning that the passage of the resolution could “deeply damage the cooperative relations between the State of California and China and seriously hurt the feeling of Chinese people.”

  

  “That had a chilling effect on my colleagues voting forward in the future,” Anderson said. “All my colleagues had been voting in favor of it until they received the letter; the letter just completely flipped them from support to oppose.

  “They didn’t let it get to a vote; what they did is they tabled it. And then they voted to table it so that it could not be heard.”

  Anderson tried at least 18 times in the final week of the Senate session to bring the resolution to a floor vote.

  “What’s so disappointing is their congressmen, who shared the same constituents, not only voted in favor of it in Congress, but they co-authored it,” he said, noting that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had co-authored a bill in 1999 denouncing the persecution of Falun Gong.

  “So on the federal level, it was supported, on the state level, it was not,” he said. His colleagues “didn’t want to talk about it. But “the only difference between supporting it or not supporting it” was the letter.

  A similar story had played out in Minnesota two years earlier, when the state’s Senate took up the issue of forced organ harvesting, a Beijing-sanctioned practice targeting primarily Falun Gong practitioners. After introducing the resolution, state Sen. Alice Johnson received a letter from the Chinese consulate in Chicago. The consular officials also visited her and state Sen. Dan Hall in a bid to get them to drop the bill. The resolution was passed unanimously in May 2016.

  Visa Blackmail

  On the hot button issue of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that the regime has long desired to control, the regime has been no less aggressive.

  In August 2019, then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant received a letter from the Chinese consulate in Houston, warning that his state would lose Chinese investment if he chose to travel to Taiwan, Pompeo said in a speech in September 2020 at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

  

  Mirroring Bryant’s experience, a U.S. congressional delegation a few months later would learn that Beijing rejected their visa applications to China after they had planned a trip to Taiwan, in what Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.) described as “visa blackmail.”

  “Chinese officials told members of my staff on multiple occasions that if I canceled the trip to Taiwan, I would be granted a visa,” he wrote in an op-ed in October 2019.

  “This was visa blackmail, designed to stanch the longstanding tradition of robust U.S. congressional engagement with Taiwan,” he wrote.

  As Utah adopted the pro-Beijing resolution in the early stages of the pandemic, another bill condemning the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting appeared to hit roadblocks in the state’s legislature.

  The measure was introduced in late February 2020 by state Rep. Steve Christiansen. Days later, however, Utah doctor Weldon Gilcrease, who had been working with Christiansen on the bill, got a call informing him that the lawmaker was backing out.

  In effect, Christiansen said, “I’m backing out because I was told I need to talk to the Chinese community,” according to Gilcrease, an oncology professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

  “To me, that meant he was pressured,” he told The Epoch Times. “He wasn’t backing out because he didn’t believe it was true, he was backing out because he was afraid of not listening to the ‘Chinese community.’

  “To me, that’s the voice of the Chinese Communist Party. Those are the people that have clearly put pressure on our officials. The Chinese Communist Party has used its channels to pressure our legislators to do nothing.”

  While the proposal passed the third reading in the Senate, the latest update, on March 12, 2020, showed that the bill had lapsed.

  Christiansen, who left office in October, couldn’t be reached for comment after repeated requests via email, phone calls, and social media.

  Keep the Pressure On

  California hasn’t seen any major legislative action relating to Falun Gong since Anderson left the state Senate in 2018.

  The former state legislator, who has been advocating for the victims of Beijing’s persecution for years, said he still finds it hard to understand why the communist regime perceives the spiritual group as a threat.

  “The faith is a very peaceful faith, brings great joy to many people. And yet, if you practice the faith, you were put in jail, you were tortured, and in some cases, you had body parts harvested for medical tourism,” said Anderson, now on San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors. “The pressure needs to stay on China.”

  Roth, the Wisconsin senator, has since proposed a series of measures aimed at curtailing Chinese influence in his state, including barring Chinese military members from working in the University of Wisconsin system and curbing Chinese recruitment or propaganda programs within the university system.

  “As lawmakers all over the country, everything we do plays into a larger narrative,” he said. And we have an opportunity, though it be limited … we have an opportunity to make a stand for freedom, and to make a stand for the freedom-loving peoples of China right now, or who are held hostage by this brutal regime.”

  To achieve that goal, Roth said, U.S. lawmakers need to make sure they’re not enabling the CCP.

  “If I had passed this resolution, that would have been enabling the CCP, and they would have used this for propaganda on their own people,” he said, recalling the resolution drafted by the Chinese consulate. “So right now is an opportunity for Americans to wake up and recognize this fight for freedom, which sometimes we take for granted here in the United States.

  “Freedom is a fragile thing.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 23:00

• NY Governor Signs Off On New Gun Laws Requiring Permits And Banning Body Armor
  NY Governor Signs Off On New Gun Laws Requiring Permits And Banning Body Armor

  New York Governor Kathy Hochul has an extensive track record of authoritarianism. 

  The same governor that enforced a pointless and ineffective lockdown of her state for two years and argued that anyone refusing to submit to the experimental mRNA covid vaccines and vax passports is going against “the will of God” is now affirming new laws that make rifles illegal to own without permits and that ban life protecting body armor.

  

  New laws also raise the legal age for owning a firearm to 21 and expand on existing Red Flag rules.  This allows all healthcare professionals to file “risk orders” and requires police to follow up on any and all threat accusations, potentially confiscating a person’s weapons based on hearsay and without due process.  

  The unconstitutional nature of such laws is not a new issue within the state of New York.  The Safe Act and numerous other laws enforced over the past century in NY are up for review by the Supreme Court this year with rampant violations of the Bill of Rights and the 2nd Amendment coming into question.  Under Hochul’s political leadership the state has become one of the most restrictive in the country.

  The state’s draconian policies have clearly contributed to the fact that it now leads the US in population loss.  From 2020 onward NY has faced a mass exodus of citizens citing medical tyranny, bureaucracy and taxation as their primary reasons for leaving.  In 2021 alone, Manhattan lost around 7% of its population, the highest of any county in America.

  New York has also suffered from the slowest economic return in the US following its covid lockdown lunacy.  It is still missing over 450,000 jobs from pre-pandemic levels while the rest of the nation has fully recovered (red states most of all). 

  Governor Hochul seems to be completely ignoring the connection between rising economic instability and crime as well, while preferring to blame the existence of guns as the core problem.  In March, NYC saw crime rates increase 36% overall from last year, and this is added to the growing crime rates since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.  

  As crime and financial distress rise in NY, the state is moving to make self defense a far more difficult prospect.  Gun permits turn a constitutional right into a government granted privilege which they can take away any time they please.  Furthermore, body armor, a product with purely defensive capabilities, is now mostly illegal for anyone outside of an “eligible profession” (law enforcement).  Though, interestingly, some ballistic plates including those used by the Buffalo grocery store shooter are still legal.  This is likely due to an oversight caused by a lack of understanding of the gear being banned; a very common issue among Democrats.

  Typically, anit-2nd Amendment legislation is tested out in states like New York and California before spreading into other blue states.  It is then attempted at the federal level; though luckily this often ends in failure.   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 22:40

• University Study Finds Higher Risk Of Psychiatric Diagnoses Among COVID-19 Patients
  University Study Finds Higher Risk Of Psychiatric Diagnoses Among COVID-19 Patients

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A recent study published by Oregon State University discovered that COVID-19 infected individuals have a higher chance of developing psychiatric disorders within about four months of contracting the virus.

  

  For the study, published in World Psychiatry on May 7, researchers used data from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C). They matched 46,610 patients infected with COVID-19, which can trigger a respiratory tract infection (RTI), with control patients diagnosed with a different RTI.

  This allowed researchers to specifically look into how COVID-19 affected the mental health of infected individuals. No patients with any history of mental illness prior to 21 days after a COVID-19 diagnosis were included in the study. Those with a medical record extending a year prior to their COVID-19 diagnosis were also excluded.

  Researchers looked at the rate of psychiatric diagnoses in the 46,610 COVID-19 patients for two time periods—the early post-acute phase between 21 and 120 days from the infection and the late post-acute phase between 121 and 365 days from the infection.

  The study discovered that COVID-19 patients had a 3.8 percent rate of developing a psychiatric disorder in the early post-acute phase when compared to just 3 percent for other respiratory tract infections. This amounted to a nearly 25 percent higher risk for COVID-19 patients.

  However, the researchers did not find such a “significant difference in risk” when they compared COVID-19 late post‐acute phase patients with individuals with other respiratory tract infections.

  When researchers looked at anxiety disorders, they found the incidence proportion of a new‐onset anxiety disorder diagnosis was “significantly higher” for COVID-19 patients when compared to RTI patients. For mood disorders, such significant differences were not observed.

  “For people that have had COVID, if you’re feeling anxiety, if you’re seeing some changes in how you’re going through life from a psychiatric standpoint, it’s totally appropriate for you to seek some help,” Lauren Chan, co-author of the study, said according to a June 6 news release by Eurekalert.

  “And if you’re a care provider, you need to be on the proactive side and start to screen for those psychiatric conditions and then follow up with those patients.”

  Chan stressed that not every COVID-19 infected individual is going to have such psychiatric problems. In the context of the health care infrastructure of the United States, an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients seeking psychiatric care could add more strain on the system, she warned.

  Multiple other studies have also suggested that a segment of COVID-19 patients might end up facing psychological issues.

  Research published in April 2021 found that 34 percent of the 236,379 COVID-19 survivors included in the study developed neurological and mental disorders in the six months after becoming infected, according to WebMD.

  Anxiety was the most commonly found disorder, with 17 percent of subjects reporting it. This was followed by mood disorders at 14 percent, substance abuse disorders at 7 percent, and insomnia at 5 percent.

  When it came to neurological problems, 0.6 percent reported brain hemorrhage, 2.1 percent reported ischemic strokes, and 0.7 percent reported dementia. Among patients diagnosed as seriously ill with COVID-19, these rates jumped. Of the patients admitted to the intensive care unit, 7 percent experienced a stroke while 2 percent were diagnosed with dementia.

  In another study published on Feb. 16 at BMJ, researchers analyzed records of nearly 153,848 COVID-19 patients in the Veterans Health Administration (VHS) system, comparing them with individuals who had not contracted the virus.

  Those who got infected were found to be 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety following the infection than uninfected people, 38 percent were more likely to be diagnosed with adjustment and stress disorders, 39 percent were more likely to be diagnosed with depression, and 41 percent were more likely to be diagnosed with sleep disorders.

  “There appears to be a clear excess of mental health diagnoses in the months after Covid,” Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford who was not involved in the study, told The New York Times.

  However, only 4.4 to 5.6 percent of individuals in the study were diagnosed with anxiety, depression, adjustment, and stress disorders.

  “It’s not an epidemic of anxiety and depression, fortunately,” Harrison added. “But it’s not trivial.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 22:20

• "I Will Never Forgive Them": Teacher Shot In Uvalde Slams Police As "Cowards"
  “I Will Never Forgive Them”: Teacher Shot In Uvalde Slams Police As “Cowards”

  Fourth-grade Robb Elementary school teacher Arnulfo Reyes says he was “destroyed” inside after a gunman spent 77 minutes killing 19 students – including 11 in Reyes’ classroom, and two teachers.

  

  Reyes, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds, called local police “cowards” for waiting outside and restraining parents while 18-year-old Salvador Ramos committed mass murder.

  Reyes said that before Ramos entered his classroom, he immediately “knew something was wrong” upon hearing two shots ring out. He told his students, “Get under the table and act like you’re asleep,” before the gunman burst in and started firing.

  Reyes told the 10 and 11-year-olds to keep quiet.

  “I prayed that I wouldn’t hear none of my students talk,” he said, adding “And I didn’t hear talk for a while. But then, later on, he did shoot again. So, if he didn’t get them the first time, he got them the second time.”

  The teacher then pretended to be unconscious himself. “And that was the second time he got me,” he said. “Just to make sure that I was dead.”

  “I had no concept of time,” Reyes continued. “When things go bad, it seems like eternity. The only thing that I can say is I felt like my blood was like an hourglass.”

  Reyes has had five surgeries and had his blood replaced twice since the shooting.

  Police fail

  According to Reyes, he heard officers in the hallway approach his classroom three times, but they failed to enter. In one instance, he said a student was calling for the police in the next classroom over to no avail.

  “One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, ‘Officer, we’re in here. We’re in here’…But the [police] had already left,” he said. “And then [the gunman] got up from behind my desk and he walked over there, and he shot again.”

  Unbeknownst to Reyes, parents and onlookers eventually gathered outside of the school, encouraging officers to enter the building. It wasn’t until 12:50 p.m. when a tactical unit finally breached the classroom door and killed the gunman.

  “After that it was just bullets everywhere,” he said. “And then I just remember Border Patrol saying, ‘Get up, get out,’ and I couldn’t get up.” –ABC News

  “They’re cowards,” said Reyes of the police, who took over an hour to subdue the attacker. “They sit there and did nothing for our community. They took a long time to go in… I will never forgive them.”

  

  ABC notes that both law enforcement and state officials have changed their story multiple times – providing conflicting information, while at one point admitting that the on-scene commanding officer (who was recently sworn in on the city council), made the “wrong decision” to wait so long.

  Reyes noted that despite an active shooter drill at Robb Elementary just weeks before the shooting, “There was no announcement. I did not receive any messages on my phone — sometimes we do get a Raptor system,” adding “but I didn’t get anything, and I didn’t hear anything.”

  Reyes also described complaints he said he had made about his door, which is meant to remain shut and locked while class is in session. At prior security checks, Reyes said he noticed that his door would not latch — an issue he said he raised with the school’s principal.

  “When that would happen, I would tell my principal, ‘Hey, I’m going to get in trouble again, they’re going to come and tell you that I left my door unlocked, which I didn’t,'” he said. “But the latch was stuck. So, it was just an easy fix.”

  Even with the failures in plan implementation, Reyes said the outcome felt inevitable: “No training would ever prepare anybody for this.” -ABC

  “It all happened too fast. Training, no training, all kinds of training — nothing gets you ready for this,” Reyes continued. “We trained our kids to sit under the table and that’s what I thought of at the time. But we set them up to be like ducks.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 22:00

• Louisiana Transgender Sports Ban To Become Law
  Louisiana Transgender Sports Ban To Become Law

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

  Transgender females will be banned from playing on girls and women’s sports teams at schools and colleges in Louisiana after the governor took no action to veto or sign a bill passed by the GOP-controlled legislature.

  

  Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, who is opposed to the bill, said he took no action on Senate Bill 44 because it “was going to become law whether or not I signed it or vetoed it” because of the current make up of the Louisiana State Legislature.

  Under Louisiana law, any bill that passes the state’s House and Senate automatically becomes law by the end of the legislative session if the governor takes no action.

  “It became very clear to me after two years, seeing the votes on both sides, and in the conversations that I had with a number of legislators, that that bill was going to become law regardless of what I did,” Edwards told reporters on Monday.

  The bill, titled the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act (pdf), will require K–12 schools and universities to “designate intercollegiate and interscholastic athletic teams according to the biological sex of the team members” recorded at birth.

  It specifically provides that teams designated for females “are not open to participation by biological males,” which includes transgender females.

  Louisiana is not the first state to enact such laws. The issue of transgender athletes competing in female sports has been a significant issue.

  Proponents of similar bills have argued that the physical advantage transgender females have as biological males in the sporting arena is taking opportunities away from biologically female athletes.

  SB44 seeks to address that, stating that “the biological differences between females and males” provide biological males, at puberty, with “lifelong effects” that are “most important for success in sports.”

  “Categorically, they are strength, speed, and endurance generally found in greater degrees in biological males than biological females,” the bill states.

  The bill therefore seeks to protect biological women and girls from that physiological advantage that transgender females benefit from in sports owing to being born biological males.

  In further comments, Edwards noted that he knew of no example in Louisiana of an openly transgender athlete trying to complete in a female sport, and that this was a reason he vetoed a similar bill last year.

  He said he thinks some of those advocating SB44 and similar bills elsewhere are sending a negative message to transgender people.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 21:40

• Five Georgetown Ethics Profs Scold President For Failing To Uphold Free Speech Policy
  Five Georgetown Ethics Profs Scold President For Failing To Uphold Free Speech Policy

  Five Georgetown ethics professors have penned an open letter to university president John DeGioia decrying his administration’s failure to uphold a school policy that makes freedom of speech paramount over preventing hurt feelings. 

  McDonough School of Business ethics professors John Hasnas, Jason Brennan, William English, Peter Jaworski and Sahar Akhtar write: 

  “In our courses, we examine examples of both organizations that act with integrity and honor their commitments even when doing so carries some cost, and those that pay lip service to their commitments but abandon them when they become inconvenient. We write because, in an important respect, Georgetown presently falls into the latter category.”

  In 2017, spurred on by a presentation to a faculty steering committee by one of the signatories of this week’s letter, Georgetown adopted a speech and expression policy that explicitly gave priority to freedom of expression over protecting members of the campus community from being offended.   

  The ethics professors note that, in its two-year journey to adoption, the policy first garnered the approval of the faculty senate, the Office of Student Affairs, the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action, and university counsel.

  In part, Georgetown’s speech and expression policy proclaims:

  “It is not the proper role of a university to insulate individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive. Deliberation or debate may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or ill conceived.“

  However, the ethic professors cite several examples illustrating Georgetown’s failure to uphold that policy:

  • In 2017, an undergraduate student group, Love Saxa, was investigated and threatened with being defunded. Campus critics alleged that the group’s assertion that marriage should be defined as “a monogamous and permanent union between a man and a woman” fostered “hatred or intolerance of others because of their…sexual preference.” (Lest the irony go undetected, it bears noting that we’re talking about a Catholic University.) 

  • In 2019, the acting U.S. secretary of Homeland Security was forced to abandon his delivery of a speech after protestors continuously shouted him down. The professors say insufficient intervention by administrators and campus security officers at the event violated a Georgetown speech policy provision that says protestors “may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe.”  

  • In 2021, an adjunct professor was recorded expressing dismay that black students comprised a disproportionate share of the low grades in her class. A fellow adjunct prof listened without disagreeing. The law school dean promptly fired the first professor and put the second on administrative leave, and condemned the “abhorrent” conversation containing “reprehensible statements concerning the evaluation of black students.” University president DeGioia publicly endorsed the dean’s actions.  

  • In January, Ilya Shapiro, the incoming director of Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution, criticized President Biden’s advance commitment to nominating a black female Supreme Court justice. Shapiro tweeted, “Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman.” The law school dean condemned the tweet, put Shapiro on administrative leave pending an investigation and barred him from campus for five months. (Shapiro resigned on Monday just days after been reinstated.)

  • In May, Georgetown distributed a “Campus Climate Newsletter” inviting people to help the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion track down the source of anonymous, “racially insensitive” messages on Flok, a social media app. The ethics professors denounce the invitation for campus community members to inform on others for expressions the university deems “offensive, unwise, immoral, or ill conceived”—expressions that are explicitly protected by university policy.   

  Throughout the 2,800-word letter, the professors stress that, while the university deliberately adopted a policy that puts free speech first, it continues to emphasize the primacy of eliminating “bias” and promoting a “welcoming” environment—not just by its actions in the above incidents but in its public statements too. 

  Indeed, in recently reinstating Shapiro, Georgetown Law dean William Treanor referred both to the university’s dedication to free speech and what he called an “equally important principle” of building “a culture of equity and inclusion.” 

  Professors Hasnas, Brennan, English, Jaworski and Akhtar say it’s incumbent on the university to either: 

  1. Enforce the speech and expression policy that was adopted in 2017, or

  2. Change the policy to subordinate free speech and unfettered debate to the promotion of an “inclusive and welcoming educational environment.” 

  Advocating neither option, they conclude:

  “One of the most fundamental principles of organizational ethics holds that organizations must honor their freely undertaken commitments. We are duty bound by the nature of our employment to call upon Georgetown University to abide by this principle.”

  You can read their full letter here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 21:20

• US SPR Release Is Creating A Problem For Canada’s Heavy Crude Oil
  US SPR Release Is Creating A Problem For Canada’s Heavy Crude Oil

  By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com

  The Strategic Petroleum Reserve release in the United States – a large one designed to release a million barrels per day from storage into the commercial markets – is creating a bit of a problem for the Canadian oil industry.

  

  All crude oil grades aren’t equal, and a large share of what the SPR is releasing into the Gulf Coast area is heavy sour crude – a similar grade to the oil shipped down from Canada.

  The heavy Mars and Poseidon grades—both hailing from the GoM area and both heavy grades—are getting lost in the sea of heavy crude flooding the market from the SPR. So is Western Canadian Select (WCS)—the Canadian crude oil that traverses pipelines from Hardisty, Alberta, to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

  The WCS discount to the U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is now the steepest in years at $20 per barrel.

  

  “It’s not great timing,” Rory Johnston, founder of the Commodity Context newsletter based in Toronto, told Reuters. “The vast majority of what’s coming out of the SPR is medium sour crude. It’s hitting directly at that marginal pricing point for WCS.”

  Canada is no stranger to battling steep discounts—also referred to as wide spreads—compared to U.S. crude oil. For several years, their lack of pipeline capacity into the United States created a situation where all their pipelines were full, and the bottlenecking in this midstream segment created a pricing situation most unfavorable to Canada.

  By 2020, Canada had increased its storage capacity and slacked crude oil production, which dragged up the price of WCS—and shrunk the gap between WCS and WTI. Compared to today’s steep $20 discount, June 2020 contract pricing for WCS was just $3.80 per barrel.

  For those thinking that the steep discount to WTI means the SPR is working to bring down crude oil prices, that is not the case. As of Thursday morning, WCS was trading at $108.01—nearly double what it was trading this time last year.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 21:00

• PLA Military Jet Crashes In Middle Of Chinese City, Leaving At Least 1 Dead
  PLA Military Jet Crashes In Middle Of Chinese City, Leaving At Least 1 Dead

  Chinese media showed images of the dramatic aftermath of a military jet crash in a busy residential area of the city of Laohekou, in central Hubei province Thursday morning.

  China’s state-run national broadcaster CCTV confirmed that at least one person was killed, and two others injured. Military sources said it was a PLA Air Force J-7 fighter that went down near the city’s airport while on a training mission.

  

  The pilot had successfully ejected from the plane prior to the crash, resulting in a huge fireball amid residential buildgings, and only sustained minor injuries.

  Tragically, the fatality was reported to be a resident on the ground at the time of impact, with the pilot along with the injured in the area rushed to local hospitals.

  According to a description of the dramatic fiery crash in CNN, “Videos circulating on social media show some homes on fire, believed to have been caused by the crash, which occurred near Laohekou airport in Xiangyang, Hubei province.”

  “The cause of the crash and related casualties is under investigation, with emergency response underway, state media said.”

  Several apartments were seen on fire in the crash aftermath, according to eyewitness reports.

  Laohekou Airport is reportedly mainly used as a military training site for new fighter pilots belonging to Central Theatre Command Air Force. It has long stopped serving civilians aviation routes. It’s as yet unclear what caused the crash.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 20:40

• Report Reveals Depth Of US Complicity In Saudi Massacres Of Yemeni Civilians
  Report Reveals Depth Of US Complicity In Saudi Massacres Of Yemeni Civilians

  Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams,

  A leading peace group on Monday said a new report detailing the depth of US support for Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen—hundreds of which have been called war crimes by international legal experts—shows the need for Congress to pass a recently introduced measure to end American complicity in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

  According to The Washington Post—which along with the Security Force Monitor (SFM) at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute analyzed thousands of news reports and images to identify warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have attacked Yemen—“a substantial portion of the air raids were carried out by jets developed, maintained, and sold by U.S. companies, and by pilots who were trained by the US military.”

  

  This, despite a February 2021 pledge by President Joe Biden to end U.S. support for “offensive operations” in the Saudi-led war—a promise that has been repeatedly sidestepped via arms sales and a $500 million maintenance contract.

  “This is an absolutely devastating analysis of U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen,” tweeted the Quaker peace group Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). “Our ongoing complicity is a stain on our nation’s soul. Just further reason for Congress to pass the newly introduced Yemen War Powers Resolution.”

  Last week, a bipartisan group of 48 House lawmakers introduced a War Powers Resolution directing “the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.”

  “It’s critical that the Biden administration take the steps necessary to fulfill their promise to end U.S. support for the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen,” explained Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), one of the resolution’s lead sponsors.

  “We should not be involved in yet another conflict in the Middle East,” he added, “especially a brutal war that has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, and contributed to the deaths of at least 377,000 civilians.”

  As so many of us have documented for nearly 8 years, US-backed Saudi air strikes have been nonstop war crimes. The siege has been eased, but it’s still a war crime. https://t.co/2Pl4H5gzgg

  — Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) June 4, 2022

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  Writing for Just Security, Priyanka Motaparthy, director of the Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict, and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, and SFM’s Tony Wilson noted Saturday that “during seven years of war, coalition airstrikes have killed nearly 9,000 civilians in Yemen.”

  “Human rights groups and the United Nations-mandated Group of Eminent Experts have documented more than 300 airstrikes that are likely war crimes or violations of the laws of war,” they continued. “These strikes have hit hospitals and other medical facilities, markets, a school bus filled with children, and a funeral hall filled with mourners.”

  “Independent human rights groups, journalists, and U.N. monitoring bodies have found U.S. weapons used in many of these attacks,” the pair added.

  The Post-SFM investigation comes amid widespread U.S. and Western condemnation of alleged and documented Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

  “Thousands of similar strikes have taken place against Yemeni civilians,” the report notes. “The indiscriminate bombings have become a hallmark of the Yemen war, drawing international scrutiny of the countries participating in the air campaign, and those arming them, including the United States.”

  The report also comes as Biden prepares to visit Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks in a bid to boost relations with the oil-rich kingdom amid record fuel prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—despite a campaign promise to make the nation’s leaders “pay the price” for their role in the grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

  America has done more to enable Saudi Arabia’s aggression in Yemen than we have done to end it.pic.twitter.com/7F5eNnKurk https://t.co/zPZomwfQz3

  — Quincy Institute (@QuincyInst) June 5, 2022

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  The president’s decision to visit the fundamentalist kingdom, one of the world’s worst human rights violators, stands in stark contrast to the U.S.’ exclusion of Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan leaders from the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles—purportedly due to the lack of democracy and respect for human rights in those countries.

  Annelle Sheline, a Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, last week called the introduction of the War Powers Resolution “a key factor in why the warring parties in Yemen decided to extend their ceasefire,” which is now in its third month.

  Speaking of the resolution on Al Jazeera last week, Sheline said that “if this were to pass, two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s air force would be grounded, because they cannot operate without U.S. military contractors, spare parts, and assistance.”

  “It very clearly shows,” she added, “that the Saudis… don’t want to be in the position of losing the ability to fly their own planes if the U.S. does withdraw support.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 20:20

• Watch Live: Jan. 6 Panel Prime-Time 'Show-Trial'
  Watch Live: Jan. 6 Panel Prime-Time ‘Show-Trial’

  Watch the fully-produced circus live here (due to start at 2000ET)

  As WaPo reports, while the committee is bipartisan, both Republicans on it are fierce Trump critics. McCarthy (Calif.) pulled his handpicked members from the panel last year after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vetoed two of his picks.

  Many of the details of the proceedings have been kept secret, but Politico reported Tuesday morning that the proceedings will include testimony from US Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards and a documentarian named Nick Quested who was embedded with the Proud Boys during the attack, but it’s unclear what the focus of his testimony will be.

  In fact, while expectations have been set for a ‘smoking gun’, ‘gotcha’ moment for Trump – just like Schiff and his pals did with Russia collusion – WaPo reports that committee aides sought to temper expectations of any shocking revelations during Thursday’s hearing and instead framed the session as an opening argument.

  “[Thursday] night is connecting the dots,” said a second aide.

  “A lot of this has been reported and bits and pieces of it have been shared. But our aim is to tie all that together in a comprehensive narrative and to show how it’s a pattern that started before the election and went all the way through January 6.”

  We look forward to seeing the ratings for this must-watch TV… sigh.

  *  *  *

  As we detailed earlier, the Jan. 6 panel will use never-before-seen documentation and closed-door depositions on Thursday to present their grand unifying theory to connect former President Trump to the Capitol riot, as part of a broader effort to keep him in power.

  

  Tonight’s televised 90-minute hearing, which begins at 8pm ET and is being produced by a former network television executive, will show that the Jan. 6 2021 attack on the Capitol was the result of a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden,” a House Select Committee aide told reporters during a Thursday call.

  “And indeed, that President Donald Trump was at the center of that effort,” the aide added.

  

  House Democrats will also feature live testimony from Nick Quested – a British documentarian who was creating a project about the Proud Boys and was present at a meeting between that group and the Oath Keepers, who participated in the Capitol breach.

  “You’re talking about two witnesses who were there at the very initial breach,” said the aide. “We’re going to hear about their experiences from that day — particularly sort of what they heard, what they saw from the rioters.”

  Democrats are expected to connect how the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers interacted with Trump’s tweets on Reddit and other message boards, according to Axios, which pointed out two other ‘areas of interest.’

  1. Efforts by Trump and aides to destroy documents.

  • Trump often tore up White House documents that should have been preserved as presidential records.

  • Some of the presidential records sent to the Jan. 6 committee by the National Archives had been ripped up, then taped back together, the Washington Post reported.

  • A committee witness testified that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers in his West Wing fireplace after meeting with a House Republican about challenging the 2020 election, the N.Y. Times and Politico reported.

  2. Trump’s consideration of invoking the Insurrection Act, a federal law that allows the president to deploy the military domestically.

  • Committee members have studied how close Trump came to invoking the act immediately after the election and leading up to Jan. 6. -Axios

  Other witnesses include Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was the first law enforcement officer injured on the day of the ‘insurrection’ attempt. Both Edwards and Quested, the documentarian, plan top recount their experiences – “particularly what they saw and heard from the rioters,” said a committee aide.

  January 6 was the violent culmination of an extensive effort to overturn a presidential election.

  The American people know a lot about those events, but soon they will learn more, and see how close we came to losing our democracy.

  On Thursday, we will begin to tell that story. pic.twitter.com/hX6RAS9GFR

  — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 5, 2022

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  House Republicans, meanwhile, say that the Democrats’ use of former ABC News president James Goldston on the presentation may have violated House rules.

  As the Epoch Times notes, in a letter (pdf) to the Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Committee on House Administration Chairperson Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), GOP lawmakers asked for confirmation that Goldston has been hired as an employee of the committee, and not as a consultant or in an “unofficial capacity.”

  The letter was signed by Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and others.

  It comes after Axios first reported Monday that the former network news executive had joined the committee as an “unannounced adviser” and is “busily producing Thursday’s 8 p.m. ET hearing as if it were a blockbuster investigative special.”

  Goldston has previously served as a producer for some of the network’s biggest news programs like “20/20,” “Nightline,” and “Good Morning America.” He left ABC in March.

  Citing congressional laws pertaining to committee staff, the lawmakers noted that a letter is required requesting approval of the Committee on House Administration regarding Goldston’s hiring, along with a signed contract agreement and resume.

  Under that same law, Goldston would be unable to commence work for the committee until the contract has been approved by the Committee on House Administration.

  “To our knowledge, the Committee has not received or considered such a request,” wrote the representatives.

  The GOP lawmakers also cited reports from CNN that Goldston is working with the select committee “to help produce their upcoming hearings” and “helping the committee with the planning of the hearings and their presentation.”

  They noted that the committees are allowed to “obtain temporary or intermittent services of individual consultants or organizations, to advise the Committee with respect to matters within its jurisdiction,” but that Goldston would not be able to act as an employee of the committee.

  “The Committee on House Administration will not approve a contract if the services to be provided by the consultant are the regular duties of Committee staff,” lawmakers wrote. “Planning, preparation, and production of hearings are unquestionably the ‘regular duties of Committee staff’.”

  Republican lawmakers also noted in their letter that Goldston would be barred from working for the Jan. 6 Committee free of charge, noting that such an arrangement would “violate House Rules and the House Ethics Manual regulations which clearly states that no logical distinction can be drawn between the private contribution of in-kind services and the private contribution of money.”

  Finally, the big question is: Could Trump face criminal charges?

  Inciting an insurrection or riot is a federal crime, but the Justice Department would have to charge him separately. That’s unlikely, according to Frederick Lawrence, a lecturer at the Georgetown University Law Center. Not only would prosecutors have to prove Trump intentionally whipped up his supporters, Lawrence said, but also that he intended for them to break into the Capitol, loot and cause bodily harm.

  A further complication is a 1969 Supreme Court precedent that shields inflammatory speech under the First Amendment unless it’s aimed at “imminent” lawless behavior.

  Apart from what Trump said in his speech, prosecutors could take an alternative path if they uncover evidence that the former president or his advisers were involved in planning the riot.

  Whether such conspiracy charges are viable would depend on the nature of the plotting and how close Trump and his inner circle was to it.

  “It would all turn on who was in the room and what they are prepared to testify to,” Lawrence said.

  More than 850 people have been criminally charged in connection with the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 by a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters. Most are accused of conventional offenses such as trespassing and assault, while 16 members of two right-wing groups are facing a more exotic charge: seditious conspiracy.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 19:52

• State Farm Remains A 'Creepy Neighbor' After Transgender Book Backlash
  State Farm Remains A ‘Creepy Neighbor’ After Transgender Book Backlash

  Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  In light of a public backlash, State Farm has swiftly distanced itself from a collaborative book donation program that promotes transgender ideology among young children. The watchdog group that exposed the insurance giant’s involvement, however, said this is far from over.

  “They continue to not be a good neighbor, but a creepy neighbor,” said Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, a nonprofit organization working to expose large companies that put “woke politics” ahead of their customers.

  

  In late May, Consumers’ Research brought national attention to State Farm’s partnership with transgender youth advocacy group The GenderCool Project, which sought to “increase representation of LGBTQ+ books” intended for readers as young as 5 years old.

  According to an internal email leaked to and publicized by Consumers’ Research, hundreds of State Farm insurance agents have been encouraged to participate in the program by donating a bundle of three GenderCool books to “their local teacher, community center or library of their choice.”

  Hild described these GenderCool titles—”A Kids Book About Being Transgender,” “A Kids Book About Being Non-Binary,” and “A Kids Book About Being Inclusive”—as “transgender-in-training books.”

  “They explain it in terms that would lead to confusion among your average 5-year-old,” Hild told NTD News. “For example, it’s implied that if you are a boy who likes playing with dolls, or playing dress-up, or a girl who likes playing sports—stereotypically something from the other gender, then you might be transgender.”

  “It even explicitly says that the doctor may have assigned you the wrong gender at birth, and that you need to question the doctor’s assessment of your sex,” he continued. “State Farm was asking their agents to give out these books without parents’ knowledge.”

  The exposure of the State Farm-GenderCool partnership has thrown the insurance company into “full panic,” Hild said.

  According to Hild, just four hours after being called out by Consumers’ Research on Twitter, State Farm sent out an internal email alleging a “misunderstanding” about the book donations. This was followed by another email, which announced that the partnership had ended, that the company’s top executives were unaware of the partnership, which they found inappropriate, and that they had only donated $40,000 to GenderCool.

  Even if this is true, it still means that GenderCool books worth a total of $40,000 might have made it into libraries, community centers, and schools across the country. “These books could be being read by students to deck in schools and libraries,” Hild said. “State Farm refuses to lift a finger to undo any of that.”

  In fact, a private school in Washington state received a donation of GenderCool books in April and posted a thank you message to State Farm on Facebook, according to the Washington Examiner, which first reported on the matter.

  Hild also rejected the claim that the higher-ups at State Farm didn’t know about the book donations, noting that he also obtained numerous email complaints that were sent to top executives by concerned employees.

  “There were emails of multiple agents, walking up the chain, complaining to higher-level executives that this is wrong,” he said, noting that he’s unable to publicize them without compromising the whistleblower’s anonymity.

  Hild said his organization will not end its “creepy neighbor” ad campaign against State Farm until the company takes action to undo the damage it has caused.

  Specifically, he demanded that State Farm hire a third-party auditor to examine “every program they have that targets children,” retrieve every one of these books that have been donated to a school, library, and community center, and have conversations with parents whose children have been exposed to such material.

  “Parents need to know if their kids were exposed to these materials by State Farm agents, and they can have a conversation to walk them out of the bizarre propaganda they were exposed to,” Hild said.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 19:40

• Former House Rep Pleads Guilty To Ballot-Stuffing For Dems In Five Elections
  Former House Rep Pleads Guilty To Ballot-Stuffing For Dems In Five Elections

  A former congressman has pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to fraudulently create votes for Democratic candidates in five different election years. 

  Michael “Ozzie” Myers, 79, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification of voting records, and conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election. 

  Myers paid Philadelphia election officials upwards of $5,000 per election to add fraudulent votes on voting machines—a practice called “ringing up” votes—and to falsely certify the voting machine tallies were accurate.  

  Carried out in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 elections in Philadelphia, the scheme benefitted candidates for federal, state and local offices, including judicial candidates. According to the FBI, Myers solicited payments from candidates in the form of cash or checks, with some labelled as “consulting fees.”

  Nope, sorry, this isn’t possible. I have been reliably informed by the very credible establishment media that Democrats never stuff ballot boxes to steal elections—especially in Pennsylvania! https://t.co/Xx05s8S7Nl

  — Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) June 8, 2022

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  The crime also entailed falsifying polling books and lists of voters by entering names of voters who had not appeared at a given polling station. One of the bribed election officials, Marie Beren, also instructed real voters whom to vote for. 

  Myers carefully managed the tally on Election Day, according to the Department of Justice:

  During Election Day itself, Myers conferred with Beren via cell phone while she was at the polling station about the number of votes cast for his preferred candidates. Beren would report to Myers how many “legit votes,” meaning actual voters, had appeared at the polls and cast ballots. If actual voter turnout was high, Beren would add fewer fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates.

  “Free and fair elections are critical to the health of our democracy,” said Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, “which is why protecting the legitimacy of the electoral process at every level is such a priority for the FBI” (…the bureau’s participation in the election-questioning Russiagate hoax notwithstanding). 

  This isn’t Myers’ first brush with the law. In 1980, he was snared in the FBI’s ABSCAM sting. Then a sitting U.S. congressman, Myers was caught on video accepting a $50,000 bribe from undercover agents seeking special immigration accommodations to enable casino investments by fictional Arab sheiks. 

  ABSCAM inspired the movie “American Hustle,” but we find the original plenty entertaining:  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 19:20

• "The Demand For Random Crap Suddenly Vanished, Taking Everyone By Surprise"
  “The Demand For Random Crap Suddenly Vanished, Taking Everyone By Surprise”

  By Rachel Premack of FreightWaves

  At the beginning of 2022, things were economically pretty peachy. Too peachy, one could argue: People were buying so much stuff that our ports and terminals could barely handle the massive import volume. Companies were desperate for someone, anyone, to come work for them. And movie theaters, offices, planes and other locales many eschewed during the pandemic were poised to bounce back; the omicron wave appeared mild compared to previous bouts of the coronavirus. 

  The vibes were good. Now, the vibes are completely terrible. 

  

  More and more spooky recession signs are cropping up seemingly every day, ranging from cooling housing starts to meek GDP growth, all amid the Fed tightening rates. Record-setting inflation – particularly for gas – is only adding to the premonitions, as Vox’s Emily Stewart wrote Wednesday in a piece aptly titled “The bad vibes economy.” But even as things feel bad, many still cast doubt that we’re headed for a recession this year, pointing out persistently low unemployment and the fact that certain indicators, while not as strong as the beginning of this year, are still unusually healthy. 

  No one is shocked that what goes up must go down. What’s shocking us all is how quickly the situation changed.

  Glum transportation indicators confirm the bad vibes

  A downturn, if not a full-on recession, is clear in the transportation world. While the rest of the economy debates whether things are that bad, it’s been clear for months to logistics providers that the situation has worsened — and the velocity of that change is still stunning. 

  The cost to move a container from Asia to a major port in North America or Europe has sunk by 23% since the beginning of this year, according to maritime research firm Drewry. Spot rates have plummeted even faster; marketplace Freightos said rates from China to the West Coast are down 38% month-over-month. FreightWaves forecast this week that ocean shipping volumes will “drop off a cliff” by this summer, based on slumping bookings out of China. 

  Spot van rates in trucking are down 31% since the beginning of this year, with some truck drivers reporting that rising diesel and plummeting rates have already harmed their business. 

  Even our mighty railroads are reporting a 3% year-to-date decline in volumes across the board, with only carloads of coal, chemicals and “stone, sand and gravel” (aka, frac sand) increasing. 

  

  The pullback in transports has been quicker and swifter than anyone imagined. In the ocean world, carriers have deployed more vessels than ever before, according to research firm Sea-Intelligence. In March, Sea-Intelligence forecast carriers to increase their capacity following Chinese New Year by 20% over 2019 levels. Asia-East Coast services were forecast to grow an eye-popping 40%.

  And in trucking, small carriers flooded the market. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of trucks available to haul a load is up 10%. 

  Transporters built up record capacity to move loads that are suddenly shrinking. Even if volumes merely settled to pre-pandemic marks, rather than collapsing to a 2008-like recessionary volume, carriers would still be in trouble. 

  And this isn’t a trend that’s exclusive to transportation.

  Retailers are a little embarrassed right now

  Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, Best Buy and most every other retailer are having their own mismatch of supply and demand. They stocked up too much this past year. Now they’re struggling with something called “inventory bloat.” It is even more painful than regular bloating, I imagine, if you are a shareholder in a large retail firm.

  While we were buying more and more crap, seemingly without any regard for our dwindling savings, our favorite retailers were doing anything to get more product in.

  At some point this year, though, the thirst for buying stuff finally quenched. Some of us got spooked by inflation, others got hit by a hefty tax bill and still others decided to spend their apparently boundless cash on trips abroad and fine dining. Or some weird combination of the three. 

  The retailers weren’t aware that we were all going to stop ravenously buying this quarter, apparently. They quietly kept amassing their own inventories, many of which were still depleted from 2020 and 2021. And concern over another black swan after years of oddities – trade wars, the pandemic and so on – probably drove many transportation managers to keep ordering stuff. Just in case.

  

  Retailers realized this spring that they built up too much. Amazon said in an April call to investors that it had to scale back after doubling its warehouse footprint. Bloomberg reported weeks later that the mega-retailer was quietly trying to end or sublease at least 10 million square feet of warehouse space. It was a stunning about-face for the company that many investors believed had not only endless growth but an unmatchable logistics machine. 

  It’s not just warehouse space that Amazon loaded up on – it’s the stuff in the warehouses. According to federal filings concerning the first three months of 2022, the value of Amazon’s total inventories increased 47% compared to the same period last year. But its North America net sales only popped 8%.

  Amazon was hardly alone in its uncomfortable first-quarter report. Walmart’s inventory jumped 32% from the previous year, compared to a 4% increase in sales. Best Buy’s inventories increased 9%, while sales declined by 8%. 

  

  Target really wants you to buy a bunch of televisions and lawn chairs

  America’s top retailers messed up – particularly the ones that focus on durable goods rather than groceries. Most of them released their earnings reports last month, saw shares take a beating and moved on.

  Target followed that at first. Its earnings report on May 18 fell short of investor expectations, with an anticipated profit margin of 5.3%. Over-the-top inventories of kitchen appliances and electronics were the top culprit. Its stock sank by 25%. 

  Then, the mega-retailer did something no one was expecting. On Tuesday, Target told investors it anticipated a profit margin more around 2%. It would slash prices on certain goods and cancel incoming orders. It’s highly unusual for a company to slash its profit expectations within weeks of its earnings report.

  Target said in its Tuesday press release that the profit slash comes from a need to “right-size” inventories. People aren’t buying items like televisions, outdoor furniture and kitchen appliances like they were last year. Those are some of the delicate, bulky items Target paid dearly to bring over from Asia in 2021, amid record-high shipping rates. 

  It’s all leading to what Forbes’ Madeline Halpert called “markdown mania,” and not just at Target. Gap is hawking $60 leggings for just $12. Target is selling televisions for 25% off and patio sets at a 52% markdown. In total, shares in consumer staples stocks have tumbled by about 9% from mid-April highs, while consumer discretionary shares are down by about 20% over the same period.

  Few of us in the logistics world were surprised. After all, if trucks and ships are moving less stuff, it’s a sign that consumers aren’t buying as much and that manufacturers have curtailed their output.  

  Sometimes it can be hard for us who toil in logistics to get the attention of lofty economists and traders. Even though I write about the companies that move everything we eat, wear, drink and most any other verb you could think of, I’m still told that I cover a niche industry. The ongoing downturn in trucking seems like it would only affect truckers – never mind the fact that a trucking recession has preceded nearly every recession since the 1970s, per research from freight brokerage Convoy.

  The demand for random crap suddenly vanished, taking everyone by surprise

  As my colleague Mark Solomon wrote last month on this “inventory bloat,” it’s challenging to forecast demand – even if you’re one of the biggest retailers in the world. We can return to that key metric of inventories-to-sales ratios, which, conveniently, the federal government tracks. 

  We generally don’t like an inventories-to-sales ratio that’s too high – it indicates that people don’t have the cash to buy stuff. But if it’s too low, like it was through much of 2020 and 2021, it means that there isn’t any stuff to buy. See: The “everything shortage” that dominated headlines last year. 

  

  As you can see, the inventories-to-sales ratio is still very low, even if it is creeping up from the nadir of last year. That gives credence to some who argue that a recession isn’t in the cards for this year and could explain why the National Retail Federation declared on Wednesday that it expected port volume to roughly match the crazy numbers seen in 2021. (FreightWaves’ own research, which JPMorgan analysts lent credence to in a Wednesday note to investors, counters that.)

  The ratio is more marked when you look at the major consumer goods, as Solomon reported (emphasis mine):

  Furniture, home furnishings and appliances, building materials and garden equipment, and a category known as “other general merchandise,” which includes Walmart and Target, among others, reported higher inventory-to-sales ratios, according to government data analyzed by Michigan State.

  For the latter sectors, the change has happened fast, according to Jason Miller, logistics professor at MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business. As of November, inventory-to-sales ratios were at pre-COVID levels, Miller said. They have since exploded upward.

  To end, I’d like to emphasize that the vibes are abruptly off and no one really knows what’s happening. My colleagues who went to the Gartner supply chain conference in Florida this week found that executives were confused and not feeling very zesty. Transportation managers canceled orders in early 2020 predicting a recession, then found their hastiness left shelves empty and consumers furious. Now that they’ve built back up, customers aren’t buying anymore and their balance sheets are destroyed.

  The whiplash is baffling. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 19:00

• Inflation Storm Devastates US Households As Fuel, Power, And Food "Become Unaffordable" 
  Inflation Storm Devastates US Households As Fuel, Power, And Food “Become Unaffordable” 

  The latest inflation figures are due on Friday and will reveal if consumer prices are signaling a peak or will remain at four-decade highs that have financially devastated American households. 

  For months, households have been battered by soaring fuel, grocery-store food, and power bill costs — all rising at double-digit annual rates for the first time since 1981, according to Bloomberg. 

  

  Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast consumer prices in May will be around 8.2%, versus 8.3% in April, though some leading estimates suggest a move between 8.3% to 8.4%. The print isn’t expected to deviate too much from the 40-year high of 8.5% in March, and elevated inflation levels will continue to wreck lower-tier households.

  

  The souring economic backdrop with threats of stagflation is crushing households, and their views on the economy are bleak. The April consumer credit report from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday showed people are maxing out their credit cards as excess savings accumulated during the pandemic has been wiped out thanks to soaring prices of goods. 

  

  Consumers are struggling as they now pay $5 a gallon (national average) for gasoline at the pump, grocery prices rise by the week, and power bill costs erupt. Some Americans are getting a taste of what it’s like to live in a third-world country. 

  As prices for everyday expenses go up, more families are going without. Some 31% of households found it somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses, according to a Census Bureau survey conducted in late April and early May, compared with 25% at the same time last year. Nine percent of households sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat, the survey found, compared with 7% a year ago. 

  The challenges are especially acute for low-income Americans who spend more of their income on necessities. Gasoline and power bills now account for about 34% of the monthly budgets for the lowest-earning consumers, up from 31% last year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

  “The cost of energy is becoming unaffordable,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA. US consumers currently owe about $22 billion in overdue utility bills, almost double the $12 billion seen in a typical year. This all comes at a time when housing prices are also surging, up the most since 1991 as of April. Shelter costs lag other CPI categories because of how the government tracks the data, so the category could increase further in the second half, adding to household strain. “We could have severe hardship in this country,” Wolfe said. “Families’ budgets are being cut. It’s like they’re being taxed, and there’s no end in sight.” –Bloomberg 

  Food, power, and fuel prices are becoming an even larger share of household expenses, straining discretionary spending on big-ticket items. Target has warned about consumer behavior shifts in the last several weeks. 

  Meanwhile, President Biden’s polling data is dropping to new lows as the administration fails to arrest rising gasoline prices at the pump, despite all the promises made by lawmakers to fix the energy crisis. This is terrible news for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections this fall. 

  

  An inflation storm crushes households as economic growth beats to the downside and stagflation threats emerge. Consumers have maxed out their credit cards and evaporated savings, just as the Federal Reserve is engineering a downturn via aggressive monetary tightening. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 18:40

• Democrats Ignore Their Own Role In Capitol Breach
  Democrats Ignore Their Own Role In Capitol Breach

  Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  The Jan. 6 hearings set to begin tonight will be even more predictable than the prime-time fare they are preempting. Once again, we will be told the story of a narcissistic president who helped whip up the mob in the mad hopes of overturning the 2020 election.

  

  This drumbeat melodrama will spotlight Donald Trump’s infamous recklessness and showcase the damage he and his most fervent supporters did that day to their country, and themselves, when they breached the Capitol in the name of a lie.

  It is an important story but also a familiar one, pounded home for a year and a half in repetitive front-page articles and cable news chyrons. We get it. The hearings will not go beyond this storyline. They will not offer penetrating insight into the deeper forces that set the stage for that horrific day because they are not an honest pursuit of the truth but a partisan effort to eliminate a sworn enemy and give Democrats a more positive 2022 political narrative than rising crime rates and even faster rising inflation.

  While Democrats and their “Never Trump” brethren broadcast yet another episode of “Evil Orange Man,” the story we need to see is “Jan. 6: An American Tragedy.” The Capitol riot was not the singular result of Trump’s frustrated mind. It was a reflection of the aching anger and mistrust that is metastasizing across our body politic. Trump did not create this cancer; he fed off it. It will not be cured by excising him.

  Like Robert Mueller’s blindly partisan report – which discovered innumerable innocent contacts between Trump cronies and Russians but ignored the central role Hillary Clinton and her crew played in fabricating the Russiagate conspiracy theory – the Jan. 6 hearings will disregard the central role Democrats played in sowing the seeds of this tragedy.

  Democrats and their media allies gave Trump supporters plenty of reasons to believe their man would never get a fair shake by mercilessly maligning the president as a Russian agent and the second coming of Adolf Hitler. These same forces may have swung the election in its final days by falsely claiming that the laptop owned by Joe Biden’s son Hunter, which suggested the candidate’s involvement in Hunter’s shady business dealings, was “Russian disinformation.”

  Democrats helped sow doubts about the election by exploiting COVID fears to ram through a series of “electoral reforms” that favored their side, including the widespread use of mail-in ballots that were accepted with relaxed standards. Democrats also enjoyed an unfair advantage through the unprecedented use of private money to finance a public election, especially the $322 million Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan gave to a progressive group which appears to have funneled much of the money to Democratic strongholds in swing states. Perhaps all this one-sided activity was above board, but it raised reasonable concerns about electoral integrity.

  Democrats also laid the groundwork for Trump’s claims of a “rigged election.” Since George W. Bush’s victory in 2000, they have ascribed Republican wins to thievery, fraud, and voter suppression. The chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, voted to overturn the results of the 2004 election and his fellow committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin challenged the certification of the 2016 race. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are just a few of the other party leaders who declared Trump an illegitimate president by falsely claiming he had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. Democrats and their media allies have made a hero out of Stacey Abrams, despite her refusal to admit she lost the 2018 governor’s race in Georgia.

  Democrats also helped normalize the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 by tacitly endorsing the often-violent protests that erupted in their strongholds following George Floyd’s killing. Their muted response to the rioting and looting that filled our television screens and ravaged our downtowns – the scenes of diners and politicians being harassed by left-wing protestors – sent a dangerous message about acceptable behavior.

  Democrats on the Jan. 6 committee have only fueled this distrust of government in the 16 months since the attack. While pledging allegiance to “the facts” and “the truth” as they rail against Trump’s “Big Lie,” they have steadfastly failed to challenge the false narratives casting the riot as a deadly assault. Only one person died that day as a direct result of the violence, a Trump supporter named Ashli Babbitt who was shot by a Capitol Police officer. Committee members have not demanded that the Capitol Police explain why it claimed that Officer Brian Sicknick had died from injuries sustained “while physically engaging with protesters”when a medical examiner determined that he had succumbed to “natural causes.” Nor have they asked why the New York Times reported that a Trump supporter “appears to have been killed in a crush of fellow rioters” when, in fact, she died of a drug overdose (the “paper of record” has still not corrected this error).

  Democrats on the committee have also shown little interest in addressing the admitted failures of law enforcement. Nothing seems more central to its mission than determining what might have been done to control the crowd. But the committee has largely ignored the Inspector General report that found that the Capitol Police had failed to act on intelligence suggesting a potential threat, lacked a comprehensive plan in the event of violence, and did not adequately respond to officers who were frantically requesting backup during the melee. It has also shown little interest in videos that appear to show officers allowing Trump demonstrators into the Capitol.

  None of this absolves Trump or the rioters, who are facing the full force of the law for their actions. The Democrats are not responsible for the Jan. 6 assault, but they certainly share some of the blame for helping create the climate in which it occurred.

  By ignoring these factors, the Jan. 6 committee is just another symptom of our nation’s sick soul. Instead of bringing us together through an honest reckoning of our broken politics, it will only deepen our anger and mistrust.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 18:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Bulgaria Says "We've Done Enough" On Ukraine Aid As NATO-EU Cracks Deepen
  Bulgaria Says “We’ve Done Enough” On Ukraine Aid As NATO-EU Cracks Deepen

  Bulgaria says it’s “done enough” for Ukraine and has no plans to send heavy weapons, a Tuesday statement from Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov indicated.

  “We’ll do what we have promised to do and there’s no need to reignite the debate every two weeks,” Petkov said. “We’ve supported the incoming refugees, we have sent all kinds of humanitarian aid, we have also been involved with repairing Ukraine’s heavy weapons and we’re in line with all sanctions against Russia.”

  

  The pushback from Bulgaria’s leader comes amid growing pressure after most NATO countries have ramped up their military supplies to Kiev, including some Baltic and Western European states transferring heavy weapons, up to an including even tanks.

  Since the war’s start and Western calls for heavier armaments to help Ukrainian forces repel the Russian invasion, the question of aid to Ukraine has threatened to fracture Petkov’s ruling coalition government, resulting in an earlier agreement that Sofia would refrain from supplying arms or ammunition.

  Previously European media reported: 

  The Bulgarian Socialist Party, or BSP, is traditionally friendly towards Russia and since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year, it threatened to leave the country’s coalition government if Sofia were to send weapons to Ukraine. The party’s departure would topple the current Bulgarian government.

  BSP supporters and allies have argued that supplying arms would make Bulgaria a party to the conflict, resulting in Russian retaliation, which has been the position of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev.

  A week ago a report in The Wall Street Journal detailed growing dissent against the US-UK plan for bigger arms for Ukraine: “Cracks are appearing in the Western front against Moscow, with America’s European allies increasingly split over whether to keep shipping more powerful weapons to Ukraine, which some of them fear could prolong the conflict and increase its economic fallout,” the report said.

  

  It continued: “At the center of the disagreement—which is splitting a group of Western European powers from the U.S., U.K. and a group of mostly central and northern European nations—are diverging perceptions of the long-term threat posed by Russia and whether Ukraine can actually prevail on the battlefield.”

  The UK’s Boris Johnson in particular has been at the forefront of telling the Ukrainians to not concede any territory or negotiation with the Russians, despite that this uncompromising approach is sure to end in more death and destruction. Geographically and geopolitically, eastern European states like Bulgaria have much more to lose if the chart an uncompromising approach to “standing up” to Moscow.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 02:45

• UK's NHS Scrubs The Word "Women" From Ovarian Cancer Guidance To Be More "Inclusive"; Report
  UK’s NHS Scrubs The Word “Women” From Ovarian Cancer Guidance To Be More “Inclusive”; Report

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  The National Health Service website in the UK has altered its guidance pages on ovarian cancer, removing instances of the word “women” in a move that sources say is intended to be more “inclusive” toward trans, non-binary and intersex people.

  

  The Post Millennial reported the development, noting that “The NHS’s erasure of ‘women’ is from their resources on ovarian, cervical, and womb cancers, all of which only impact women.”

  The woke movement is OBSESSED with the erasure of women

  UK’s National Health Service drops ‘woman’ from guidance on ovarian cancer to be ‘inclusive’

  But the word ‘men’ appears prominently on male-specific conditions https://t.co/qUZAbaBq5L

  — Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) June 7, 2022

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

  The PM posted screenshots of the NHS guidance before and after the woke mob intervened:

  BEFORE:

  

  AFTER:

  

  The NHS website also now states that ovarian cancer can affect “trans men, non-binary people and intersex people with ovaries.” 

  

  The report notes that when the NHS was contacted for an explanation, they were unaware of the changes and referred the reporter to NHS Digital, an agency that manages the government health site.

  NHS Digital eventually responded, noting “We use language that is inclusive, respectful and relevant to the people reading it.” 

  The group added “It is not correct to say that there is no mention of women on the ovarian cancer pages. We have updated the pages as part of our routine review of web pages to keep them in line with the best clinical evidence, and make them as helpful as possible to everyone who needs them.”

  The report also notes that guidance on prostate cancer on the NHS site has not been altered and still notes that only men can get it.

  Believe it or not, some ‘doctors’ are agreeing to transplant wombs into trans people. That is happening:

  We are becoming a freak culture. A Circus Culture. https://t.co/ufe2fCaE3U

  — Greg (@CwicShow) June 7, 2022

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

  The British Health Secretary Sajid Javid commented on the development, saying “I don’t think it’s right,” and adding “biological sex matters”.

  Health Secretary Sajid Javid says ‘it’s important that words like women and men are used’ in messaging about cancers, “so people know who you’re talking about”.#KayBurley https://t.co/3zmq8DU1kj

  📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/JkEM2KLI7x

  — Sky News (@SkyNews) June 8, 2022

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

  Javid told Sky News “You won’t be surprised to know that as a health secretary, I think that your that your sex matters, your biological sex is incredibly important to make sure you get the right treatment, the very best treatment.”

  He noted that he is looking into the matter, adding “It’s important that when messaging is given to people for cancers that words like women and men are used,” adding that prostate cancer, for example, only affects “those that are biologically male”.

   “I know there’s some sensitivity around this language, but we have to use common sense and use the right language so that we can give people the best possible patient care,” Javid further asserted.

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 06/09/2022 – 02:00

• Paul Mason's Covert Intelligence-Linked Plot To Destroy The Grayzone Exposed
  Paul Mason’s Covert Intelligence-Linked Plot To Destroy The Grayzone Exposed

  Authored by Kit Klarenberg & Max Blumenthal via The Grayzone,

  Leaked emails reveal British journalist Paul Mason plotting with an intel contractor to destroy The Grayzone through “relentless deplatforming” and a “full nuclear legal” attack. The scheme is part of a wider planned assault on the UK left.

  A former Trotskyist and BBC journeyman, journalist Paul Mason has made a career as the establishment’s favorite gatekeeper of the UK left. Since the Russian military incursion into Ukraine, he has cemented his position as one of Britain’s most vocal “left” cheerleaders for Western military intervention. 

  

  While leading a “U.K. left” delegation to Kiev and a demonstration through to streets of London in support of NATO military escalation against Russia, Mason has accordingly used his platform to assail journalists, academics, Labour party members and private citizens who oppose shipping piles of advanced weaponry to Ukraine. 

  In a series of recent columns, Mason called for the state-enforced suppression of facts and perspectives he considers overly sympathetic to the Kremlin, and demanded “state action” against members of the media that oppose the NATO line on Ukraine. He placed The Grayzone at the top of his fantasy censorship target list.

  Mason has since announced a run for parliament on the Labour ticket to wage his crusade against “disinformation” from inside the House of Commons.

  Anyone who wants to see the complete intellectual collapse of @paulmasonnews under pressure from @OwenJones84 and @michaeljswalker should watch this.

  Paul can’t explain why he thinks what he thinks.

  (Clip below and in full here: https://t.co/xqI011FVMu)pic.twitter.com/75tibsletf

  — Alex Nunns (@alexnunns) May 8, 2022

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

  The Grayzone, meanwhile, has learned through anonymously leaked emails and documents that Mason has been engaged in a malicious secret campaign that aims to enlist the British state and “friendly” intelligence cut-outs to undermine, censor and even criminalize antiwar dissenters. 

  In one leaked email, Mason thundered for the “relentless deplatforming” of The Grayzone and the creation of “a kind of permanent rebuttal operation” to discredit it. In another, the celebrity journalist declared that “the far left rogue academics is who I’m after,” then rants that he is motivated by fear of an emergent “left anti imperialist identity” which “will be attractive because liberalism doesn’t know how to counter it.”

  

  Mason is joined in his covert crusade by Amil Khan, the founder of a shadowy intelligence contractor called Valent Projects. In the cache of leaked emails, Khan proposed to Mason the initiation of a “clever John Oliver style stunt that makes [The Grayzone] a laughing stock,” as well as a “full nuclear legal to squeeze them financially.”

  The Grayzone has previously revealed Khan’s extensive involvement in the Syrian dirty war, during which he provided public relations guidance to jihadist groups, trained anti-government activists in communication strategies, and secretly oversaw supposed citizen journalist collectives backed by foreign governments. His goal was to flood international media with pro-opposition propaganda, destabilize the government of Bashar Assad, and ready the ground for Western regime change.

  This ethically dubious work was conducted for a variety of intelligence-adjacent British Foreign Office contractors, such as ARK, a firm founded by probable MI6 operative Alistair Harris, and IncoStrat, which has been plausibly accused of producing propaganda for the blood-stained UK and Saudi-backed insurgents.

  After leaving the Middle East, Khan reinvented himself as an expert in countering “disinformation”, and has since charged a number of blue chip clients a premium for his dubious services. As this outlet reported, the same techniques of manipulation and information warfare that Khan honed in Syria were turned against Western citizens when he oversaw a British quasi-state funded astroturf YouTube project designed to counter public skepticism of Covid-related restrictions.

  Khan’s email communications with Mason illustrate the grudge he has harbored since The Grayzone exposed his devious exploits. In the missives, he descends into self-delusion, insisting this outlet’s factual, objective reporting was, in fact, state-sponsored retaliation for his crusading work “opposing military dictators and kleptocrats.”

  Together, Khan and Mason plotted to assemble a coalition of anti-Grayzone actors, including the US and UK government-funded “open source” outlet Bellingcat, which Mason revealingly described as a channel for “intel service input by proxy.” Khan proposed convening the de facto Victims of Grayzone Memorial Foundation at an in-person summit to “come up with a plan that addresses [The Grayzone’s] objectives and vulnerabilities.”

  At one point, he even reached out across the Atlantic for advice from Nina Jankowicz, the disgraced former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board.

  It is uncertain how Mason and Khan became acquainted, but their mutual coincidence of needs, motives and vendettas is obvious. The public interest in releasing the pair’s private communications is also abundantly clear. If their planned criminalization of The Grayzone for publishing facts and opinions they abhor is successful, it will have dire ramifications for any and all journalists and independent media institutions seeking to challenge the status quo.

  When approached by The Grayzone, Paul Mason declined to comment on the incriminating correspondence with Khan, and claimed to have informed local police that “an attempt was made” to hack his email account. While dismissing the leaked content as “likely to be edited, distorted or fake,” he went on to pledge he would “not cease to identify and rebut Russian disinformation operations masquerading as journalism.” 

  In other words, Mason implied he plans to carry on with the very activity exposed in the leaked emails.

  On April 30 this year, Paul Mason emailed Amil Khan, making clear he was “keen to help” de-platform The Grayzone. He attached a bizarrely constructed “dynamic map of the ‘left’ pro-Putin infosphere” that resembled a spider’s web, with a mess of arrows linking the names of members of parliament, media outlets, activists, causes, and British minority communities.

  The barely coherent, racially-tinged chart connected the Russian government, Russian state broadcaster RT, the People’s Republic of China, and Beijing-based tech millionaire-financier Roy Singham to the “Muslim Community,” “Young Networked Left” and “Black Community” through a series of leftist outfits and UK Labour figures. No evidence was provided to support Mason’s linkages.

  At the center of Mason’s chart (see below) is Jeremy Corbyn. When Corbyn served as Labour leader, Mason plotted against him in private while simultaneously posing as one of his most ardent public supporters. He also sought to influence Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in a pro-war direction.

  The implication behind Mason’s Nixonian enemies chart was clear: Russia and China have weaponized the British left to corrupt key Labour constituencies – therefore the left must be neutralized.

  

  Mason suggested to Khan that he enlist the help of “pro traffic analysts to map” how these “different echo chambers interact, where their material begins – and work out who might [emphasis added] be pulling the strings.” 

  He nonetheless seemed certain about the dark forces animating The Grayzone, bombastically charging that its “attacks” on Khan and others are “fed by Russian and Chinese intel,” including hacking, “electronic warfare” and human intelligence.

  Mason compared this process to Bellingcat receiving “a steady stream of intel from Western agencies.” The US and UK government-funded outlet Bellingcat has frequently been accused of laundering CIA and MI6 dirt, a charge which the operatives behind it aggressively repudiate. However, Khan – a long-time advocate and associate of the outlet – did not once challenge Mason’s repeated characterization of the supposed citizen journalist collective as a clearing house for friendly spy agencies.

  Underlining the sensitivity of the pair’s malicious plans for The Grayzone, Mason stressed the need for their work to be conducted via “white label organisations operating with firm infosec – Signal/ProtonMail, clean phones.”

  

  Khan was clearly amenable to his suggestions. Five days later, he outlined two options for taking down The Grayzone: “some sort of clever John Oliver style stunt that makes them a laughing stock” – referencing a sting operation targeting academic Paul McKeigue conducted by the dubious, intelligence-linked Commission for International Justice and Accountability back in 2021 – “or full nuclear legal to squeeze them financially.”

  Mason was enthused by the latter prospect, submitting that it should be “combined with relentless deplatforming,” including cutting off The Grayzone from donation sources such as PayPal, in the manner of Consortium News and MintPress, and setting up “a kind of permanent rebuttal operation.”

  

  Khan agreed, proposing the pair “get a few people together who are looking at/been target [sic] by this together and do a centre of gravity analysis,” pooling “what we’ve all learnt about how they operate” in order to “come up with a plan that addresses their objectives and vulnerabilities, not just their arguments.” 

  Mason responded by launching into a conspiratorial aside asserting that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) post-February 16, 2022 reports showing a dramatic Ukrainian military escalation against pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region represented “manipulated facts.” He then proposed “creating a dynamic reference catalogue debunking all [The Grayzone’s] allegetions[sic] and ‘facts,’” pitching the initiative as an alternative to direct engagement or “toe to toe” debate.

  

  “Keen” to move on the project, Mason suggested several information warriors to join them; Emma Briant, an academic researching disinformation; Chloe Hadjimatheou, the British intelligence-linked BBC journalist who produced a multi-part podcast series smearing critics of the NATO-backed Syrian White Helmets organization as Kremlin stooges and fascists; and Bellingcat, which he said could provide “intel service input by proxy.”

  Khan said he was “happy” to host a secret meeting of these individuals at Valent Projects’ London offices. After Mason proposed inviting a representative of the UK Foreign Office to the anti-Grayzone meet and greet, the Valent Projects chief reached out to a friend at the National Security Council’s Communications Directorate, a Whitehall unit “tasked with hybrid threats.”

  

  His Directorate source said the British government would be averse to sending a representative to the gathering, “as it could jeopardise outcomes later.” Nonetheless, they advocated convening people “targeted” by The Grayzone, to collate evidence that could be submitted to OFCOM, Britain’s communications regulator, and/or Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the name of both a government department and parliamentary committee, “as part of a formal complaint.” 

  They imagined that this process could somehow trigger an investigation into The Grayzone’s “funding and activities,” leading the government to “get properly involved.” Khan added that his pal suggested also approaching Thomson Reuters Foundation and BBC Media Action for the initiative. The Grayzone has previously exposed these media charities as having participated in covert British state-funded efforts to “weaken the Russian state’s influence.”

  Khan said he would also be in touch with the Foreign Office’s newly-founded psychological warfare unit, the Government Information Cell. 

  

  Mason’s reaction was mixed. While hailing the prospect of triggering an official government investigation into The Grayzone as “a good idea,” he seemed crestfallen the plan did not include securing material from British intelligence on who funds the site, and “what their ultimate deliverables are on behalf of the ppl [people] their work benefits.”

  “An investigation into them would lead to what? Deplatforming? Anyway that’s progress,” he concluded.

  Khan reassured Mason that OFCOM and DCMS could task “other bits of government to get that intel; and the findings will automatically enter the system” – meaning The Grayzone and its contributors could end up slapped with “Russian state affiliated media” labels on social media, leading to algorithmic discrimination and potential shadow banning, among other penalties.

  “I think/hope there’s potential to go further [emphasis added]. It’s too easy for them to flip deplatforming with ‘the system is scared of us’. We need to look at their influence/legitimacy with audiences,” Khan stated.

  The the rest of the full report at The GrayZone

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 23:40

• Shipping Stocks Crash After JPM Points To Latest Freightwaves Recession Alert
  Shipping Stocks Crash After JPM Points To Latest Freightwaves Recession Alert

  Yesterday, in “US Import Demand Is Dropping Off A Cliff“, we noted that Freightwaves (best known for sparking a crash in freight stocks at the end of March when the company’s CEO said that a “freight recession is imminent”) warned that “despite the strong levels of inbound cargo during the first five months of 2022, import demand is not just softening — it’s dropping off a cliff” or 36% in just the past few weeks…

  

  … as retailers (ahem Target and Walmart) “suddenly” realize they have over-ordered way too much inventory, and noted that as a result, “Drewry’s container spot rates from China to the West Coast have plunged 41% month-over-month to $9,630.” While there is much more in the full note, the gist was simple: shipping rates are sliding and are set to fall further as demand for cargo evaporates with the US sliding into recession.

  

  We bring this up because this morning JPMorgan also brought it up, with the bank’s European Transport and Logistics analyst Samuel Bland writing that a note titled “Freight Markets” (available to pro subscribers in the usual place), in which he draws attention to the FreightWaves article which he says “suggests that US import volumes of containers have fallen sharply in recent weeks. We see a similar thing in weekly data from LA and Long Beach ports.” Some details excerpted from the JPM note:

  • For context. March 2022 container volume vs the 2019 level was 4% higher globally and 43% higher on the Asia – North America lane in particular. “Normal” volume growth might be 3-4% CAGR, such that globally volume is quite weak, but very strong on Asia-US in particular. This focusing on demand on one lane, straining infrastructure and labor availability has driven up supply chain  congestion. Presumably, lower US volume would help to unwind this, freeing up to c.12% of ship capacity currently stuck in congestion.
  • Freight rates. Freight rates show a mixed pattern depending on which index is used. On a global basis, all the indices are down c.20% YTD, and by closer to 25% on a bunker-neutral basis. On the China-US West Coast lane in particular, SCFI is flat YTD, whereas the equivalent Freightos index is down 31% YTD. Importantly, the Freightos decline has all happened in the last month, with the indexed having been up YTD until early May.
  • Freight forwarder exposure. It is important to remember that sharply falling freight rates can be positive for freight forwarder  profitability in the short run. This is driven by forwarders not passing on all the saving to customers in the near term.
  • Bunker costs. We’d also highlight that the spread between low and high sulphur bunker fuel has widened sharply in recent weeks, to around $360 / tonne currently, up from nearer $120 / tonne in early May. This is most negative for those container lines with a high level of spot exposure and low level of scrubber fittings, both of which point to ZIM

  JPM concludes that since the strength of the US consumer has been a key ingredient in the level of freight rate increase seen since COVID, “this is negative for the sector generally, particularly container shippers and particularly ZIM.”

  The market’s reaction was quick, and just as FreightWaves crashed truckers two months ago, this time they demolishes shipping stocks which tumbled Wednesday: the Russell 3000 Index Marine Transportation Subsector dropped 4.8% for its biggest decline in a month, with all 15 members of the index were down Wednesday. Among the components, Eagle Bulk Shipping plummeted as much as 12%, its biggest intraday decline in a month, to lead a drop among index members Other notable decliners include Matson -9.3%, Genco Shipping & Trading -8.3%, Costamare -7.4%, Safe Bulkers -6.9%.

  

  The news of a looming shipping recession quickly spread around the globe. In Europe, shares in major shipping companies including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and Kuehne & Nagel fell, on both the JPM note and also after Nordnet Bank economist Per Hansen noted similar concerns about lower freight rates as the container shipping market normalizes and about the impact of a possible recession in the US. Maersk dropped as much as 8.3%, the most intraday in a month, while Hapag-Lloyd falls as much as 8.3% and Kuehne & Nagel drops 4.4%

  A similar dumpfest was observed in Asia too, with shipping stocks in Japan and South Korea following their global peers lower following the JPMorgan reference to the FreightWaves article:

  • Japan’s Mitsui OSK -7%, Kawasaki Kisen -7.6%, Nippon Yusen -6.7%
  • South Korea shipping companies: HMM -3.8%, Korea Line -2.1%, Pan Ocean -3%
  • Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine -3.1%, Yang Ming Marine -2.3%, Wan Hai Lines -3.1%
  • Hong Kong-listed Cosco Shipping -6.7%, Orient Overseas -7%, Pacific Basin -5.5%, SITC International -6%
  • China’s Cosco Shipping Holdings -4.6%, Cosco Shipping Energy -3.4%, China Merchants Energy Shipping -3.1%, Ningbo Marine -1.1%

  And while shipping is certainly one of the most leading recessionary indicators, and a recession most certainly is looming, what we find fascinating is just how little work the “market” had done on shipping stocks: after all, all Freightwaves – and by extension JPM – did was to look at the latest shipping rates and volumes, data that is available to every Bloomberg terminal subscriber. And yet, not a single one appeared to have pulled it up… until today. Which begs the question: does anyone even remember how to do simple fundamental analysis any more?

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 23:20

• Obama Approved US Intel Statement On Russia-DNC Hack Before FBI Received Server Images
  Obama Approved US Intel Statement On Russia-DNC Hack Before FBI Received Server Images

  Authored by Ivan Pentchoukov via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  President Barack Obama approved a statement by the U.S. intelligence community in October 2016 accusing Russia of stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), despite the U.S. government not having obtained the DNC server images crucial to ascertaining whether Moscow was involved in the theft.

  

  FBI emails recently made public during the trial against now-acquitted DNC attorney Michael Sussmann show the bureau was still in the process of requesting images of the DNC servers on Oct. 13, 2016. The server images, which are equivalent to a virtual copy of the alleged crime scene, were taken by private cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

  On Oct. 7, six days before CrowdStrike agreed to mail the server images to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a statement accusing Russia of hacking U.S. political organizations and disseminating emails allegedly stolen through the hack. The statement was approved and encouraged by Obama, according to then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.

  “The president approved the statement. I know he wanted us to make the statement. So that was very definitely a statement by the United States government, not just Jim Clapper and me,” Johnson told the House Intelligence Committee in June 2017, referring to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

  The DHS, ODNI, and the office of Barack Obama did not respond to requests for comment.

  The Oct. 7, 2016, statement said that the U.S. intelligence community, which is composed of more than a dozen agencies including the FBI, was “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”

  “The recent disclosures of alleged hacked emails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” the statement said.

  The lack of server images at the time the statement was released highlights the question of what the intelligence community used to establish Russia’s involvement.

  On Aug. 31, 2016, CrowdStrike provided a report on the DNC hack to the FBI. The FBI special agent who reviewed the report called it “heavily redacted,” according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Russia investigation. FBI Assistant Director James Trainor was so frustrated with the redactions that “he doubted its completeness because he knew that outside counsel had reviewed it.”

  The “outside counsel” Trainor referred to is all but certainly Michael Sussmann, who served as the DNC’s point of contact for all intrusion-related matters. Sussmann was acquitted last month of one charge of lying to the FBI about whether he was representing the DNC when he took a white paper to the FBI that alleged a connection between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia. The FBI agents who reviewed the paper found the claims in it unfounded within 24 hours.

  On Sept. 30, 2016, one week before the release of the statement accusing Russia of the hack, the FBI was still seeking copies of the CrowdStrike reports without the redactions. That day, FBI Agent Adrian Hawkins listed copies of the unredacted CrowdStrike reports as the number one priority request to the DNC, according to another email made public as a trial exhibit in the Sussman case.

  The FBI never received the unredacted reports, according to a government court filing in the case against Roger Stone. According to the filing, lawyers for the DNC told prosecutors that “no redacted information” in the CrowdStrike reports “concerned the attribution of the attack to Russian actors.”

  Special counsel Robert Mueller alleged that the hack of the DNC during which emails were stolen took place on or around May 25 to June 1, 2016. That timeframe is significant because CrowdStrike has since told The Epoch Times that the DNC systems were not hacked during that time frame. Crowdstrike had deployed 200 sensors and other counter-intrusion technologies on the committee’s network within the first week of its engagement, which began on May 1, 2016.

  “There is no indication of any subsequent breaches taking place on the DNC’s corporate network or any machines protected by CrowdStrike Falcon,” the company told The Epoch Times in August 2020.

  CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry, who was in charge of the firm’s work on the DNC intrusion, has told congressional investigators that his company did not have concrete evidence that emails had been stolen from the DNC.

  “We have indicators that data was exfiltrated. We did not have concrete evidence that data was exfiltrated from the DNC, but we have indicators that it was exfiltrated,” Henry told lawmakers on Dec. 5, 2017.

  The alleged hacking of the DNC and the subsequent release of the committee’s emails was the nexus of allegations of collusion with Russia that plagued the administration of President Donald Trump.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 23:00

• BIS Calls For Centralization Of Crypto – Predicts Rise Of CBDCs
  BIS Calls For Centralization Of Crypto – Predicts Rise Of CBDCs

  While citing multiple problems with the decentralization model for cryptocurrencies (some of them valid and some of them not), the Bank for International Settlements has concluded in a report released this week that crypto ‘can’t fulfill the role of money.’  As noted in the report:

  “Building on permissionless blockchains, crypto and DeFi seek to create a radically different monetary system, but they suffer from inherent limitations. A system sustained by rewarding a set of decentralised but self-interested validators through fees means that network effects cannot unfold. Instead, the system is prone to fragmentation and costly to use.

  Fragmentation means that crypto cannot fulfill the social role of money. Ultimately, money is a coordination device that facilitates economic exchange. It can only do so if there are network effects: as more users use one type of money, it becomes more attractive for others to use it. Looking to the future, there is more promise in innovations that build on trust in sovereign currencies.”

  Not surprisingly, this falls in line with a previous report from the BIS in May that predicts the expansive rise of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in the near term.

  

  Whether or not one is an avid supporter or investor of crypto, it’s safe to say that a defining flaw of blockchain assets is the fact that anyone with proper knowledge can produce a cryptocurrency that is similar or identical to any other in terms of performance and characteristics.  This means that while crypto production or mining is often limited to a certain number of coins, which conjures up artificial rarity, this does not stop thousands of other coins from being invented that offer the same qualities. 

  In other words, a specific coin’s success is dependent not on the value of the technology (usually), but on branding and fickle popularity.  This can be as fleeting as any other digital asset; for example, for every Facebook there are multiple Myspace-type failures that were once used by millions of people and then abruptly abandoned.  Even Facebook has the potential to easily implode in terms of user significance in a short amount of time.  The same dynamic goes for cryptocurrencies.  Values are determined by market favor in the way that many stocks are valued. 

  That is to say, the users become a commodity, the ONLY commodity backing the value of a cryptocurrency.

  Another factor that has a potential for adding “value” to crypto is the development of infrastructure that eases trading and use of a coin.  It’s not enough for a cyptocurrency to exist, it also needs to have various assets in place that create functionality and convenience.  Some crypto assets like Bitcoin already enjoy this kind of infrastructure development, often because of billions of dollars of investment by international banks.  This seems to run contrary to the original motivation for crypto as a counter to major banks.

  Is “fragmentation” in crypto a problem for central banks and the BIS to solve?  No.  It’s far outside of their purview, but they have decided to make it their business.  The formation of the crypto world was intended to act as an alternative to the edicts and economic control of central bankers, at least that was how many people were sold on the idea.  But it is quickly becoming obvious that central banks plan to co-opt the movement towards blockchain and digital products and exploit them as a means to gain even more centralized power than most people thought possible.  Maybe that was the plan from the very beginning.

  A BIS survey suggests that around 60% of central banks around the world are now planning on introducing digital currencies in the near term.  These currencies would be “bridged” together through various infrastructure plans, and the BIS argues that crypto coins should be bridged together as well within the same system.  They do not specify what the mechanism for that bridge would be, but the IMF has mentioned on multiple occasions that their Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket would fill the role.  

  Essentially, the idea central banks have for crypto is to congeal all coins and currencies into one bridged basket system along with CBDCs, giving banks and the BIS even more control in the process.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 22:40

• Time To Pour Some Cold Water On China's Red-Hot Stock Rally
  Time To Pour Some Cold Water On China’s Red-Hot Stock Rally

  By George Lei, Bloomberg markets Live Analyst and Commentator

  Chinese tech stocks are poised for their biggest weekly advance in months, boosted by news of a potential wrap-up of the probe into Didi as well as relaxed Covid curbs in Shanghai and Beijing. Still, it might be premature to call a bottom in the tech sector, let alone the broader market.  

  The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index has rallied about 15% since last Friday, poised for the best week in almost three months; the Hang Seng Tech Index is also on course for its biggest weekly gain since the end of April.

  Chinese equities are “bumping along the bottom” and will stage a “very strong and sustained recovery” once there’s a clear exit strategy from Covid Zero, said Chi Lo, a senior strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management. JPMorgan also sees a “turning point” in China stocks with buying opportunities emerging, according to a Monday note by strategist Marko Kolanovic.

  

  The Golden Dragon Index has mostly consolidated in a 6,000-8,000 range over the past three months. The gauge may be forming a bottom, yet it is still more than 10% away from its 200-day moving average. Hang Seng Tech, among other stock indexes, remains far below the 200-DMA.

  “Expecting the regulator to change other rules, which currently harm the companies in my coverage, seems a bit too soon,” according to DZ Bank’s Manuel Muehl, who was the first among more than 70 analysts tracked by Bloomberg to go bearish on China tech.

  For broader Chinese stocks, how fast and far the rebound goes depends very much on how long Covid Zero lasts. BNP’s Lo sees little room for policy change this year but possibly more clarity into the second quarter of 2023: “The point here is the timing of that we don’t know,” he added.

  Bets on China reopening have always been risky. In early March, Trip.com and casino operator Wynn Resorts climbed 10.8% and 8.6% respectively on a report that China might experiment with a laxer Covid policy as soon as this summer. The gains quickly fizzled and current prices are about 15% and 22% below their respective closings back then. China is showing “little evidence” of reopening aviation and the industry will continue to suffer, IATA Director General Willie Walsh said on Tuesday.

  A case in point is Hong Kong. The city has allowed most mildly ill patients to stay at home since February, yet it announced last week that people infected with Covid sub-variants including BA.2.12.1 will be sent to government facilities for mandatory quarantine, even if they are not severely sick. Unless and until Hong Kong fully embraces living with the virus, it will be a stretch to expect China to abandon its pandemic rules any time soon.

  “Any new waves of Covid could return cities back to lockdowns” as long as “the leadership remains dedicated to its Zero Covid Strategy,” Nomura analysts led by Chief China Economist Ting Lu wrote in a report on Wednesday. Economic data are likely to improve in June, representing a brief respite rather than a real turning point since the property sector will still be under stress and fiscal stimulus will be used primarily to fill the funding gap of local governments, Lu argued.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 22:20

• Beijing And Shanghai Have The Most Dollar-Rich Billionaires In The World
  Beijing And Shanghai Have The Most Dollar-Rich Billionaires In The World

  After looking at the ultra-wealthy, globally, it appears Beijing has the highest concentration of dollar-rich billionaires. This is according to a new study published by MoneyTransfers.com. 

  The site concluded that Beijing is home to 145 dollar billionaires and that it has retained its first position globally after added 35 new people to its list in 2020. 

  MoneyTransfers’ CEO Jonathan Merry commented: “China continues to rip big from its optimization of the investment market by liberalizing and facilitating investments. The trickle-down has seen certain regions emerge as investment hubs. One of these is Beijing. Its modernization and dynamism provide the perfect scene for incubating business ideas, particularly in technology.”

  

  The analysis also showed that China has the highest number of dollar-rich billionaires. The country is the only one who has over 1,000 people whose net worths are over a billion dollars, the report says. The U.S. comes in second:

  “Chinese cities also dominate the global top 10 inhabited by these ultra-rich,” MoneyTransfer.com reported. “Shanghai follows Beijing in the second position with 113 billion dollar-rich individuals. It outranked New York from 2020 after gaining another 30 of these in 2021.”

  New York is the third most attractive city to the ultra rich, the report notes. London is fifth and Moscow is seventh. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 22:00

• 6 Members Of Haiti's Special Olympics Delegation Go Missing In Florida: Police
  6 Members Of Haiti’s Special Olympics Delegation Go Missing In Florida: Police

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

  Six members of Haiti’s Special Olympics delegation mysteriously went missing just a day into the 2022 event in Orlando, Florida, according to local law enforcement.

  In an announcement, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said that officers are “actively investigating a missing person’s case involving members of the Haitian delegation participating in the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games.”

  “We are in communication with Walt Disney World, Special Olympics, and our Law Enforcement and Federal partners,” the sheriff’s office stated.

  “At this time, we believe this is an isolated event and do not suspect foul play.”

  Anyone with information is asked to contact the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.

  In an attached missing persons bulletin, the sheriff’s office said that all of the members had turned in their room keys and “left behind their personal bags and belongings.”

  

  All of them are adults, aged between 18 and 32. They are Antione Mithon, 32, Nicholson Fontilus, 20, Peter Berlus, 19, Anderson Petit-Frere, 18, Steevenson Jacquet, 24, and Oriol Jean, 18. The bulletin said they are “in the United States competing in a soccer competition from Haiti.”

  The bulletin states that they were last seen at 710 S Victory Way, in Kissimmee, Florida, on June 6, 2022 at about 2:30 p.m. local time. Kissimmee is south of Orlando.

  “The individuals are all adults, five of whom are not Special Olympics athletes and one who is an adult with intellectual disability,” the Special Olympics said in a statement to CNN.

  “The well-being of these delegates is our foremost concern. Local authorities have indicated they have no reason to believe the health and safety of any of the individuals is at risk. To expand the reach and effectiveness of law enforcement’s efforts to locate these individuals, they have been reported as missing persons.”

  Petit-Frere recently introduced himself as one of the soccer players on Team Haiti.

  “My name is Anderson Petit-Frere, I am from Port-au-Prince and I am 18 years old,” he wrote on the Special Olympics Haiti’s Instagram account at the start of the games.

  The games run from June 5 through June 12.

  “The 2022 Special Olympics USA Games will unite more than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and the Caribbean and 125,000 spectators during one of the country’s most cherished sporting events,” organizers said.

  credittrader
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 21:40

• ECB Preview: QE Ends But Too Soon For Rate Hikes
  ECB Preview: QE Ends But Too Soon For Rate Hikes

  Submitted by Newsquawk

  • ECB policy announcement due Thursday 9th June; rate decision at 12:45BST/ 07:45EDT, press conference from 13:30BST/ 08:30EDT
  • Policymakers are set to announce that purchases under APP will end as of July 1st
  • The Governing Council will likely confirm that rate hikes will commence at the July meeting

  OVERVIEW: Since its previous meeting, Eurozone inflation has continued to pick up, with the headline rising from 5.9% Y/Y to 7.4% Y/Y in April, and then extending to 8.1% in May. This has struck a sense of alarm at the central bank, which has resulted in an increasingly hawkish tone from members of the Governing Council. A blog post in May penned by President Lagarde deviated from her usually non-committal stance; she now expects “net purchases under the APP to end very early in the third quarter. This would allow us a rate lift-off at our meeting in July”. Furthermore, she added that “we are likely to be in a position to exit negative interest rates by the end of the third quarter”, going on to state that “even when supply shocks fade, the disinflationary dynamics of the past decade are unlikely to return”. This was viewed as giving the green light for purchases under APP to cease as of July 1st, paving the way for rate hikes at the July and September meetings, analysts said.

  Note, despite the pressing need to move on rates, the current  sequencing between asset purchases and rate hikes means that a hike to the deposit rate will not take place at the June confab. For some of the more hawkish voices on the GC, such as Austria’s Holzmann, the recent inflation metrics emphasize the need for a 50bps hike. However, this is an issue that is unlikely to be resolved at the upcoming meeting given that the discussion around the magnitude of a hike will likely be a feature of the July gathering.

  In terms of market pricing, at the time of writing, the market looks for around 132bps of tightening this year, which would imply 25bps hikes at the three of the four meetings after June, with one meeting expected to see a 50bps increase. Given the need for flexibility and lack of certainty surrounding the Eurozone outlook, it is hard to see how much vindication market participants will get for the aforementioned rate path. We will also be presented with the latest batch of macro projections from the Bank which will inevitably see an upgrade to the current 5.1% forecast for 2022 inflation. Of potentially greater interest will be the more medium-term forecasts and how they align with the Bank’s 2% target. Finally, reporting over the weekend has suggested that policymakers could opt to strengthen the wording in its statement to underscore its commitment to avoiding fragmentation within the Eurozone.

  PRIOR MEETING: As expected, the ECB refrained from tweaking its monetary policy settings with rates left unchanged and the parameters of its bond-buying operations maintained. As such, the ECB stated it will lower purchases under APP to EUR 30bln from EUR 40bln in May and then to EUR 20bln in June before concluding in Q3. At the accompanying press conference, introductory remarks from Lagarde stated that several factors point to low growth ahead, new pandemic measures in Asia are contributing to supply chain issues and inflation pressures have intensified across many sectors. On policy measures, Lagarde refrained from providing any firmer pointers on when in Q3 purchases under APP will conclude. Lagarde also reiterated her line from the previous press conference that the “some time” linkage between the end of APP and start of rate hikes could mean “weeks” or “several months”. In the wake of the meeting, Reuters ECB sources suggested that policymakers saw a July hike as still possible, but they were unanimous in their support for April’s decision. Meanwhile, Bloomberg sources suggested there was a growing consensus for a 25bp rate hike in Q3. Finally, during her remarks, Lagarde didn’t add anything to the reports ahead of the meeting which suggested that the Bank was looking at crafting a crisis tool if bond yields were to jump.

  RECENT DATA: Since the prior meeting, inflation has continued to pick up with headline Eurozone Y/Y CPI rising from 5.9% to 7.4% in April and then extending to 8.1% as rising energy and food prices continue to drive price pressures higher. The core reading (ex-food and energy) also remains at elevated levels, rising to 4.4% in May from 3.9% as input prices are passed on to consumers. Elsewhere, attention has also been placed on Q1 wage data which rose from 1.5% Y/Y to 2.8% Y/Y. As a reminder and as highlighted by ING, chief economist Lane had mentioned that wage growth at 3% is consistent with reaching the goal of 2% inflation in the medium term. On the growth front, Q1 Q/Q GDP growth was confirmed at 5.0%. Timelier PMI metrics saw the Eurozone composite PMI metric slip to 54.8 from 55.8 with the report noting that “Strong demand for services helped sustain a robust pace of economic growth in May, suggesting the eurozone is expanding an underlying rate equivalent to GDP growth of just over 0.5%. However, risks appear to be skewed to the downside for the coming months.” Finally, unemployment in the Eurozone has continued to drift lower, with the April unemployment rate at 6.8%.

  

  RECENT COMMUNICATIONS: Arguably, the most important intervention from the Bank came from President Lagarde with her now infamous May 23rd blog post in which she deviated from her usually non-committal stance to state that she expects “net purchases under the APP to end very early in the third quarter. This would allow us a rate lift-off at our meeting in July”. Furthermore, “we are likely to be in a position to exit negative interest rates by the end of the third quarter”. Lagarde also went on to state “even when supply shocks fade, the disinflationary dynamics of the past decade are unlikely to return”. Chief Economist Lane (May 30th, pre-inflation) attempted to temper some of the more hawkish views on the GC by stating that monetary policy normalisation will be “slow” and the natural thing would be for 25bps increments. At the dovish end of the spectrum, the likes of Italy’s Panetta (May 25th) has acknowledged that negative rates are “no longer needed today”, however, he wishes to avoid a “normalisation tantrum”, adding that “normal does not mean neutral”. From a hawkish perspective, Austria’s Holzmann (1st June, post-inflation) says the “record Eurozone inflation print backs the need for a 50bps hike”. France’s Villeroy has been relatively vocal since the prior meeting, noting that too weak a EUR “would go against the ECB inflation target”. He also noted that he judges the neutral level of interest rates to be in the range of 1-2%.

  RATES/TIERING/TLTRO: The ECB is expected to stand pat on rates with the deposit, main refi and marginal lending rates to be held at -0.5%, 0.0% and 0.25% respectively with policymakers likely to refrain from moving on rates at the upcoming meeting and therefore preserve their sequencing commitments which state that rate hikes will not take place until asset purchases cease (expected early Q3). In terms of signalling how the Bank intends to tighten policy in the coming months, it remains to be seen if the statement will stay as is for now or be modified to align with Lagarde’s blog post which noted “we are likely to be in a position to exit negative interest rates by the end of the third quarter”. Regardless, Lagarde will likely state that rate hikes are forthcoming at the accompanying press conference. For some of the more hawkish voices on the GC, such as Austria’s Holzmann, the recent inflation metrics back the need for a 50bps hike. However, this is an issue that is unlikely to be resolved at the upcoming meeting given that the discussion around the magnitude of a hike will likely be a feature of the July gathering. As it stands, market pricing looks for around 132bps of tightening this year, which would imply 25bps hikes at the three of the four meetings after June, with one meeting expected to see a 50bps increase. Elsewhere, analysts at Rabobank expect the ECB to confirm that the TLTRO-III discount will not be extended after June.

  BALANCE SHEET: Current forward guidance notes that “net asset purchases under the APP should be concluded in the third quarter”. Since the prior meeting, guidance has been clear that this will be “early Q3” and as such, consensus is firmly in favour of purchases ending on July 1st. Policymakers will continue to note that reinvestments from PEPP and APP will continue to support favorable liquidity conditions in the Eurozone. That said, there have been some concerns that the levels of reinvestments might not be enough to prevent fragmentation in the Eurozone as the ECB begins to normalize policy. Accordingly, there have been reports suggesting that the ECB could formulate a “new tool” to address this issue. A recent report in the FT has suggested that policymakers are expected to “strengthen their commitment to prop up vulnerable eurozone countries’ debt markets if they are hit by a sell-off”. As it stands, it doesn’t appear that the specifics of such a tool have been designed and therefore, for now, policymakers will likely enhance some of the language surrounding future bond purchases. One option, as suggested by the FT would be for the statement to incorporate similar language to that of Lagarde’s recent blog post which reads “If necessary, we can design and deploy new instruments to secure monetary policy transmission as we move along the path of policy normalisation, as we have shown on many occasions in the past.”

  ECONOMIC FORECASTS: From an inflationary perspective, clearly inflation has surprised to the upside since the previous projection round in March. Accordingly, analysts at Nordea expect the 2022 forecast of 5.1% to be revised higher to around 7%. Nordea suggests that this will most likely understate the inflationary outlook given that the cut-off date for submitting the projections will likely not account for recent price movements, including the May HICP release. Of potentially greater interest will be the medium-term outlook and how it aligns with the Bank’s 2% inflation target. As it stands, inflation next year is expected to pull back to 2.1%. A figure materially above 2% could be viewed as a green-light for the current path of market expectations which looks for 132bps of tightening by year-end. From a growth perspective, given the fallout from higher prices, Nordea expect 2022 and 2023 GDP projections to be cut to around 3.0% and 1.5% respectively from 3.7% and 2.8% respectively. Finally, in terms of market reaction, ING notes that “any message that does not signal the ECB’s openness to a 50bp hike in July would likely fall short of the market’s hawkish expectations and push EUR/USD closer to 1.0500.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 21:21

• White House Defends Biden's Plans To Visit 'Pariah' Saudi Arabia & Meet With MbS
  White House Defends Biden’s Plans To Visit ‘Pariah’ Saudi Arabia & Meet With MbS

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The White House on Tuesday defended President Biden’s plans to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, a country he once vowed to make a “pariah.” Although the dates for Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia haven’t yet been set, he did confirm that he has plans to meet with MbS, who is the Kingdom’s de facto leader. Defending the MbS meeting, the White House said it will “serve the US national interest.”

  “This trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia — when it comes — would be in the context of significant deliverables for the American people in the Middle East region,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

  

  “If he determines that it’s in the interest of the United States to engage with a foreign leader and that such an engagement can deliver results, then he’ll do so,” she added. Biden is expected to press MbS to increase oil output as Americans are facing record-high gas prices.

  But the plan has exposed the hypocrisy of the Biden administration as the US has banned the import of Russian oil over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine while turning to Saudi Arabia for help, a country that has been leading a brutal war against its neighbor Yemen with US support since March 2015.

  Biden’s plan to meet with MbS has drawn criticism from Congress. Six House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden urging him to “recalibrate” the US-Saudi relationship. 

  Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that if he were in Biden’s shoes, he wouldn’t meet with MbS because of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who US intelligence assessed was killed at the direction of the Saudi crown prince.

  “I wouldn’t go. I wouldn’t shake his hand. This is someone who butchered an American resident, cut him up into pieces and in the most terrible and premeditated way,” Schiff said.

  Democrats in Congress have also led a renewed effort to end the war in Yemen by introducing a war powers resolution to end US support for the conflict. The bill has 55 cosponsors, including five Republicans.

  Biden has received significant pushback mainly from members of his own party:

  The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia ordered the brutal murder of an American resident and journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

  For that — and many other human rights violations — he should be shunned.

  I would not meet with him or shake his hand.

  President Biden shouldn’t either. pic.twitter.com/FSuRT2iK2O

  — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 5, 2022

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

  A two-month ceasefire in Yemen held relatively well with no Saudi airstrikes reported in that time, and the warring sides agreed to extend the truce.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 21:00

• Nebraska GameStop Forced To Close After Four Employees Walk Out Over "Verbally Abusive" District Manager
  Nebraska GameStop Forced To Close After Four Employees Walk Out Over “Verbally Abusive” District Manager

  Power to the players…but maybe not the employees. Certainly that’s how some GameStop staff have been feeling in Lincoln, Nebraska.

  The store was forced to close over the weekend when its four employees decided to walk out over “bad working conditions” and a “verbally abusive district manager”, according to Yahoo Finance. 

  Incredibly it is the second time this year the location has seen its entire staff resign in protest.

  The employees left a sign on the door of the store near the mall which said: “We regret to inform you that we all quit.”

  It continued: “Our District Manager has no respect for us as employees or as human beings. We have been told by our district manager that we were supposed to have had this store achieving sales quotas and running perfectly 6 months ago. Which was 3 months before alot of us even got hired. Unfortunately, despite the staff’s best efforts, we are not god.”

  

  The sign then even listed competitors where customers could take their money, including a store called EntertainMart, located in the same mall. 

  “Spend your money at an establishment that respects it’s employees [sic],” the sign read. 

  The store told media on Monday that they would reopen “soon” and directed inquires to a PR firm, who “refused an on-the-record comment” over the phone or in writing. 

  Frank Maurer, the store’s recently promoted manager, told Yahoo: “For my health I had to leave.” He said after starting working at the store in 2021, “the stress and anxiety were so bad he had trouble sleeping and wasn’t even enjoying games anymore”. He was paid $17 per hour, he said, and didn’t get help when asked.

  “When I asked for support I was met with silence,” Maurer added.

  Talking about his district manager, he concluded: “He was abusive verbally. He would constantly threaten people’s jobs.” The staff would be told they could be easily replaced by other college kids, part of a ceaseless “churn and burn” mentality that Maurer said was part of why the store was struggling to meet its unrealistic quotas. “All he sees are numbers on a computer.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 20:40

• Judge Rejects GOP Challenge To Mail-In Voting In Arizona
  Judge Rejects GOP Challenge To Mail-In Voting In Arizona

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

  A judge has ruled that Arizona’s legislature is within its constitutional rights to allow “no-excuse” mail-in ballots, denying the state GOP’s legal challenge ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

  

  Mojave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen ruled against the Arizona GOP and its chair, Dr. Kelli Ward, in support of a 1991 law that permits no-excuse mail-in ballots.

  “Defendants for the past thirty years have applied the laws of Arizona as written,” Jantzen wrote in his ruling (pdf). “The laws are far from perfect and nobody anticipated thirty years ago that approximately 90 percent of Arizona voters would vote by mail-in ballot during a pandemic, but these laws are NOT in violation of the Arizona Constitution.”

  No-excuse mail-in ballots “are not inapposite of the intentions of the framers of the Constitution,” he added.

  The Arizona GOP signalled their intention to “explore their next steps” following the ruling, including to appeal it in a higher court.

  Election integrity in Arizona has been pressing issue since the 2020 general elections, the results of which have been vigorously disputed. In 2020, around 89 percent of voters voted by mail before election day.

  “The Republican Party of Arizona, under Chairwoman Dr. Kelli Ward, is concerned that if this ruling stands, Arizona’s most vulnerable voters will be deprived of the protections to which they are constitutionally entitled,” the Arizona GOP said in a statement on Monday.

  The Arizona GOP said it seeks to restore mail-in ballots for the “sick, elderly, and other absentee voters” to ensure they have the constitutionally guaranteed protection of election officials safeguarding their votes from “ballot traffickers.”

  “We are sorry that the most vulnerable voters of Arizona will not receive the protections to which they are constitutionally entitled if this ruling stands—people who truly cannot make it to the polls versus those who find convenience voting in the comfort of their homes,” said Alex Kolodin, the attorney representing the case.

  Our statement on today’s ruling of “No-Excuse” Mail-in Voting. pic.twitter.com/NBSyh4nGqm

  — Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) June 7, 2022

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

  The Arizona GOP argues that a lack of chain of custody “when a voter votes by mail under our current system” exposes the election system to weakness. They also argue that there is no possible way to ensure the secrecy of a ballot cast by mail.

  Ballot secrecy is a key pillar of the state’s mail-in ballot laws, which Jantzen noted in his written ruling.

  The language of the state constitution does not prohibit mail-in ballots yet does allow new laws concerning voting to be passed as long as secrecy in voting is preserved, Jantzen wrote.

  He noted that mail-in voting began in Arizona in 1918 “to allow people that could not get to the polls, mostly military people, an opportunity to vote.”

  “These laws mandated the mail-in voter keep his ballot private, so the legislature had the right to write election laws in 1918 that maintained secrecy, and they did so,” Jantzen wrote.

  On June 4, Ward, who has been challenging the no-excuse mail-in voter system, said on Twitter, “I want voting to occur in person and on Election Day, don’t you?”

  I want voting to occur in person and on Election Day, don’t you? 🤔

  — Dr. Kelli Ward 🇺🇸 (@kelliwardaz) June 3, 2022

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  The Arizona legislature approved no-excuse mail-in voting in 1991, and it became effective on Jan. 1, 1992. The law states that early ballots must be returned in envelopes “of a type that does not reveal the voter’s selections or political party affiliation and that is tamper evident when properly sealed.”

  Mail-in ballots must be folded and sealed in an envelope, Jantzen noted, along with an affidavit, in a way “so as to conceal the vote.” They are then either delivered, mailed, or deposited by the voter or the voter’s agent “at any polling place in the county.”

  A state Supreme Court appeal by Ward that challenged ballot boxes and remote voting was already rejected in April, Just The News reported.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 20:20

• Massive Migrant Caravan Targeting Texas Could Be Biggest One Yet
  Massive Migrant Caravan Targeting Texas Could Be Biggest One Yet

  With their eyes on Texas, a massive new migrant caravan is underway in southern Mexico. It’s the largest of 2022 and—thanks in part to Mexican government accommodations—it might soon be the biggest one on record. 

  Many previous caravans have crumbled in sometimes-violent confrontations with National Guard troops, or upon reaching internal checkpoints where migrants are prevented from crossing Mexican state borders for lack of visas.

  However, caravan organizer Luis Villigran told Fox News the Mexican government has committed to start issuing 1,000 temporary work visas a day to the migrants he’s leading northward. 

  That will certainly ease migrants’ progress. At the same time, by authorizing migrants to work in Mexico’s northern states—where employment opportunities are more plentiful than in the south—the visas give migrants some reason to stay south of the U.S. border. 

  With numbers already estimated at 12,000 or more, the caravan departed the far-southwest Mexico border city of Tapachula on Monday, blocking multiple highway lanes as it began a thousand-mile journey to the Texas border. Organizers plan to make most of the trek by traveling along Mexico’s eastern coast. 

  The caravan includes people from a variety of countries, with Venezuelans reportedly representing a large share. Venezuela’s struggle to rebound from disastrous economic policies is made harder by U.S. sanctions that are meant to punish the regime but which end up making innocent citizens miserable—and encouraging migration to the United States.

  Villagran claims nearly 70% of the caravan are women and children, but photos in news accounts frequently depict crowds of adult males. 

  

  The caravan’s departure coincides with the Summit of the Americas that Biden is hosting in Los Angeles this week. On Friday, summit participants are expected to sign a declaration about migration.

  Reporting on the draft of what will be hailed as the “Los Angeles Declaration” indicate it’s an aspirational document rather than a set of binding commitments. According to AP: 

  The agreement may call for more pathways to legal status, mechanisms to reunite families, more efficient and humane border controls and improved information sharing, according to experts who have seen early drafts.

  Biden excluded Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua from the summit, which prompted the leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador—key countries in the ongoing mass migration dilemma— to skip the summit themselves. Their absence guarantees the summit will be a dud. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 20:00

• Texas LNG Export Terminal Shuttered For Three Weeks After Explosion
  Texas LNG Export Terminal Shuttered For Three Weeks After Explosion

  Update (1749ET): The explosion at Freeport LNG at Quintana Island has forced operations at the oil and gas export facility to be halted “for a minimum of three weeks,” according to local news KPRC.

  UPDATE: Explosion shuts down Freeport LNG’s liquefaction facility for next 3 weeks, officials say https://t.co/7oKRbn6F4u pic.twitter.com/cU65zFR5fV

  — KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) June 8, 2022

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  Freeport receives about 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day or roughly 16% of the total US LNG export capacity. This means LNG exports will shrink and result in more supply on the grid, pushing down natural gas prices.

  Here’s earlier footage of the explosion. 

  * * * 

  A “small explosion” at Freeport LNG terminal in Surfside Beach, Texas, resulted in the plunge of natural gas futures on Wednesday afternoon. 

  Local news KHOU reports the incident occurred around 1140 local time in the 1500 block of Lamar Street at the facility on Quintana Island. 

  “We are in the process of monitoring the situation and will provide information accordingly,” Freeport’s Director of Corporate Communications Heather Browne told The Facts. 

  Important Update from member company Freeport LNG:

  An incident occurred at the Freeport LNG facility on Quintana Island at about 11:40 am on June 8. An investigation is ongoing and updates will be provided soon.

  At this time, CAER has no additional information. pic.twitter.com/X490VlZvzk

  — Brazosport CAER (@bportCAER) June 8, 2022

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  The Facts posted a picture of the export terminal showing black smoke rising from the facility. 

  

  Houston-based energy firm Criterion Research shared more views of the facility via local news KPRC’s live aerial view. 

  

  

  Criterion points out that the facility is the fourth largest in the US in terms of flows. Freeport receives about 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day, or roughly 16% of total US LNG export capacity.

  

  Natgas contracts slumped as much as 12% on the news to $8.43. 

  

  For those puzzled by the price action, US NatGas’s slump is in response to the prospect that fewer LNG exports would mean more supply domestically, though inversely, it would mean higher prices in Europe since the US has been increasingly sending LNG across the Atlantic to ween European countries off Russian supplies. 

  

  Criterion sheds more color on the importance of the Freeport LNG terminal and how a disruption at the facility could push more supply back onto the grid. 

  It’s very early and the situation is still developing, but we can give a bit of background on the situation and potential worse-case impacts.Through the first eight days of June, Freeport has been receiving an average of 1.95 Bcf/d and the facility’s latest high was 2.0 Bcf/d this morning.

  

  Assuming the worst-case scenario is a complete facility outage through the end of October, Freeport LNG’s incident could push back an average of 1.95 Bcf/d to the grid and add +285 Bcf to storage. Even a two-month outage through July 2022 would add +105 Bcf to inventories.

  

  The other factor to keep in mind is that it is smaller, but Freeport does pull a good amount of power from the grid. According to the EIA, the electric-driven facility pulls 690 MW of power supply when fully operational.

  Others seem to be agreeing with Criterion’s view:

  “The concern is it’s going to back up supply here in the US,” rather than be exported to Europe,” @KilduffReport tells @pattidomm. “If this plant is affected it’s going to .. drive down prices for US consumers but drive them higher for Europe and Asia.” $UNG https://t.co/N4h1NCJ8uX

  — Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) June 8, 2022

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  With almost three-quarters of US LNG heading to Europe in the first four months of this year, this ‘explosion’ has the potential to seriously up-end global natgas supplies.

  

  Will Putin is blamed for this explosion? We doubt it because…

  Freeport LNG Terminal Has ‘Small Explosion,’ KHOU 11 Says

  That’s one way to lower US gas prices and send European gas prices soaring even higher

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 8, 2022

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 19:49

• How Fake Is Twitter's User Data?
  How Fake Is Twitter’s User Data?

  Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Over the last several weeks, the perception has grown that Elon Musk will not be the emancipator of Twitter, freeing it finally from its mysterious algorithms that throttle, block, and ban perfectly wonderful accounts solely based on the political vendetta of employees and management.

  

  It’s said that he has cold feet, as if Elon’s demand for better data is purely a cover for emotional doubt. That’s simply not true. What he has intuited—that Twitter underreports the sheer fake accounts and bot armies that use its platform—could in fact become another scandal for our age.

  Twitter says it’s only 5 percent.

  Elon has crowd-sourced the question and suspects it is closer to 20 percent.

  The truth is out there, but Twitter is not forthcoming. Why might this be? Here is where we get to the core of the issue: the reach data provided by these companies—this pertains not only to Twitter but to hundreds of thousands of sites—form the basis of its pricing structure for advertisers and therefore drive the fundamentals of the business model.

  [ZH: According to WaPo, Twitter execs have agreed to deliver the ‘firehose’ of all their data to Musk (a service they already provide to several clients). Of course what we do not know is how accurate that ‘firehose’ is…]

  The business model is that these companies sell your content—which you provide because you want your views known—to advertisers so that they can sell to you. Advertisers are charged for access to your brain based on an overall estimate of how many users are on the platform and how broad is the reach. Accuracy is of huge importance here.

  But accuracy has not exactly defined the way these companies have long operated. The data are subject to manipulation in the extreme. For example, Twitter has proven to be absolutely awful at policing the number of fake accounts that pretend to be some famous person with large followers. One might suspect that getting rid of such accounts should be part of Twitter’s main focus.

  I’ve dealt with it for years and spent far too much time getting rid of them. Who has such time? It’s ridiculous. But have a look at this problem which has been going on for many weeks now. Brownstone’s Martin Kulldorff has a famous Twitter account but I can easily search his name which turns up many fake accounts. Notice the slightly different spellings. This isn’t rocket science! Does Twitter do anything about it? Not in many weeks.

  

  If this is any indication of the underlying realities, Twitter has a very big problem. Instead of focusing its energies on censoring good accounts, it might have applied its energies to solving a problem that affects all users.

  And yet there is more at stake. Consider that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has initiated an investigation into Twitter. If the company has falsely reported its real user base, that stands in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Paxton has given the company until June 27, 2022, to produce evidence for how it calculates the numbers it has routinely touted to advertisers. We’ll see. It will probably end up in court.

  Twitter’s reluctance to comply with Elon’s demand, and seeming lack of transparency here, is hardly unusual in this industry. It affects the whole of the digital world. The data is easily manipulated. Users are not necessarily users. People have learned to game the system to manufacture influence. Companies count as a user people who have created accounts and forgotten about them, not having logged in for years.

  I’ve been working hard recently to clean up my accounts out there, and discovered for myself just how tricky this can be. I once thought Snapchat would be a thing, so I got an account (don’t judge me). Then it bored me. I found the app the other day and decided to delete my account. After 30 minutes of trying, having completely forgotten my logins and so on, and then searching forever for the way out, I finally gave up. Yes, I could have solved the issue but doing so is too arduous. Same goes probably for another dozen or two such accounts.

  Meanwhile, I’m sure these companies list me as a user. In other words, it’s a racket.

  Years ago, I had begun to watch the behavior of a certain media team that was using YouTube and I noticed that there was something not quite right about the wild claims they were making. One day I did a deep drill down into this alleged traffic. It turned out that 95 percent were views of only a few seconds, and most of those came from strange and far-flung places in the world. It turned out that the production company was paying pennies on views that were not actual views. But to know that, you have to look very carefully and very deeply. It’s there but buried.

  The problem is systematic and gigantic. Facebook faced a similar problem. The overcharges in this realm are legion. The ability to generate fake users, views, and traffic is rather easy to achieve. It proves too tempting for these outlets, especially because investors and advertisers are so easily bamboozled. I’ve long been on the admin side and see the realities, and they are nothing like what these companies report.

  If Elon can manage to get to the bottom of this, he will have had an amazing impact on the whole social media industry. Even if he never becomes the owner of Twitter, he will force new levels of transparency and truth. There could be huge scandals lurking out there, not only at Twitter and YouTube, but also at Facebook, TikTok, and many more. These revelations could prompt yet another deep correction in company valuations.

  There is a larger point here. Think about the use of the energies of these companies. They have their staff working long hours with deep focus to find reasons to ban anyone with right-of-center views. They have deleted thousands and even millions of legitimate accounts of people who have said truthful things, all at the behest of their government masters. Bans continue unabated, daily, hourly.

  And while they have been doing this, they have allowed bot armies to run uncontrolled in ways that radically diminish user experience. In other words, they are not doing their actual jobs and instead are using the platform to push an agenda.

  This is obviously unsustainable. But these are times of truth. It’s all going to come out. These are the days of the great reckoning.

  What is happening to Twitter now is happening to the entire economic environment. A new poll reveals a dramatic loss in economic optimism. A Wall Street Journal poll says that 83 percent of those surveyed rate the economy as not good or poor. The dissatisfaction is intensifying.

  Frothy social media companies, platforms that won big from lockdowns that they pushed and championed on behalf of governments around the world, could see a serious cleaning of their clocks in this environment. With or without Elon’s proposed takeover of Twitter, the privileged censors who have relied on inflated numbers for years are not going to fare well.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 19:40

• Even If Ukraine's Ports Open Up Tomorrow, It Will Take "Months" To Demine Them: UN
  Even If Ukraine’s Ports Open Up Tomorrow, It Will Take “Months” To Demine Them: UN

  At a moment global humanitarian and hunger relief groups are warning of a “catastrophe” for already vulnerable populations particularly in Africa and the Middle East which rely heavily on Ukrainian and Black Sea region grain exports, the United Nations has said it will likely take “months” to de-mine Ukraine’s ports. The war-torn country is the fourth biggest exporter of grain in the world.

  Hundreds of merchant vessels had been stranded in the war’s opening months at Ukrainian ports following the Russian invasion, and still nearly 100 remain stuck along with their crews. This week a special advisor on maritime security at the UN’s International Maritime Organization told Bloomberg: “Even if the ports wanted to reopen tomorrow it would take some time until ships could enter or depart.” But it remains that before this, “Completely removing sea mines in the port areas would take several months.”

  

  The de-mining issue has stalled UN-sponsored negotiations in Istanbul between Russia and Turkey to establish a ‘grain corridor’ to get the vital exports needed for much of the world’s food moving again. Kiev has charged that both the Russian naval blockade as well as Russian forces’ theft of Ukraine’s grain is the reason for the emerging global food and supply crisis, while the Kremlin has long blamed Ukraine for heavily mining its own ports.

  Statements from the Ukrainian and Russian governments, as well as in international reports, indicate there are literally multiple thousands of mines up and down Ukraine’s coast. For this reason, Ukrainian government officials have estimated that if it started demining efforts now, it would take a whopping six months to clear the coast of Ukrainian and Russian mines, as cited in The Guardian.

  In his latest statements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the onus is on the Ukrainian side: 

  “We state daily that we’re ready to guarantee the safety of vessels leaving Ukrainian ports and heading for the (Bosphorus) gulf, we’re ready to do that in cooperation with our Turkish colleagues,” he said after talks with his Turkish counterpart.

  “To solve the problem, the only thing needed is for the Ukrainians to let vessels out of their ports, either by demining them or by marking out safe corridors, nothing more is required.”

  Ukraine has rejected this narrative or that it bears responsibility for placing mines in the face of an invading power. The standoff and firm words on Wednesday strongly suggesting there’s no resolution to the crisis in sight.

  “Freight and insurance costs spiked after several merchant ships were hit in the early days of Russia’s invasion, and some shipping companies are still avoiding the Black Sea,” Bloomberg details of a still dangerous situation for Black Sea shipping. “Three mines were detected free-floating in March, two off the coast of Turkey and one near Romania. In the northwest of the Black Sea near Ukraine, commercial ships have stopped operating,” the report adds.

  In terms of estimated numbers, there were initially 2,000 commercial ships stuck at Ukrainian ports – but in recent weeks this is down to over 80 international ships which represent some 450 crew members.

  

  But again, even if a deal between Russia and Ukraine to lift the blockade were struck tomorrow, the presence of mines would make it unsafe for commercial maritime traffic:

  According to the UN, Russia and Ukraine supply about 40% of the wheat consumed in Africa, where prices have already risen by about 23%.

  However, Markiyan Dmytrasevych, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of agrarian policy and food, said on Tuesday that even if Russia lifted its blockade, thousands of mines would remain floating around the port of Odesa, and elsewhere.

  Meanwhile, spokesman for the World Food Programme, Petroc Wilton, told Sky News on Wednesday that an already bad situation is about to get a lot worse. “Food prices were already going really, really high,” he said, and explained: “The concern now is that Ukraine is making these things worse, but also because of the impact that the Ukraine crisis is having on aviation fuel costs, (and) is having on international shipping costs.”

  He emphasized: “So the real concern right now is that Ukraine will make an already dire situation so much worse.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 19:20

• Tennessee Governor Signs Executive Order To Enhance School Safety, Calls For 'Single Point Of Entry'
  Tennessee Governor Signs Executive Order To Enhance School Safety, Calls For ‘Single Point Of Entry’

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order on Monday to ensure working safety protocols at schools, and to evaluate training for law enforcement for handling active shooter scenarios, in a bid to fortify school security across the state after the recent mass shooting at a school in Texas in which 21 people were killed.

  “Parents need to have full confidence that their children are safe at school, and thankfully, Tennessee has built a firm foundation with our practical approach to securing schools, recognizing crisis, and providing confidential reporting of any suspicious activity,” Lee, a Republican, said in a statement.

  “This order strengthens accountability and transparency around existing school safety planning and assures Tennessee parents that our efforts to protect students and teachers will continue.”

  

  For parents, the executive order (pdf) creates a “School Safety Resources and Engagement Guide” to provide parents with information about how to report suspicious or concerning activity to school administrators and local law enforcement. The guide would also help parents inquire about building security and compliance at their child’s school, and provides parents ways to access mental health resources for their child.

  Lee in the order called on parents and the community to work with law enforcement to ensure simple practices, such as “ensuring a single point of entry and multiple points of exit, securing vestibules and other access points, and reporting suspicious activity.”

  Tennessee state agencies will also provide more guidance to help local school districts implement current school safety law. Under the law, public schools are required each year to carry out a school security assessment and submit a safety plan to the state’s school safety center.

  The guidance will include more frequent audits of local school security assessments and safety plans, and will also provide a set of “best practices” for school leaders to enhance the security of a building against an intruder.

  

  Among a slew of other measures, the executive order will ensure that educators, school leaders, and staff will have additional training and educational materials no later than Aug. 1.

  For law enforcement, the executive order directs the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance to “evaluate and assess law enforcement training standards” and to recommend improvements to existing training for active-shooter scenarios. The department must provide a report to the governor by July 1.

  The executive order will also direct the same department to “review the use of armed security guards in non-public schools” and, with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, report to the governor regarding “the need for active-shooter training for armed guards.”

  At a press conference on Monday, Lee was asked by reporters multiple times about the issue of gun laws and gun violence.

  “There are a lot of conversations that are happening all across the country about laws that affect gun ownership and red flag laws, and waiting-period laws. And there will be those conversations all across the country. We’re not looking at gun restriction laws in my administration right now,” Lee said. “One thing to remember—criminals don’t follow laws. Criminals break laws. Whether they are a gun law, a drug law, criminals break laws. We can’t control what they do but we can control what we can control and that’s what we’re working on today.”

  Separately, he said, “Certainly, gun violence is a serious problem in our country, and it has been a rising problem in our country.” He noted that gun violence is just one aspect of violent crime. “Crime is a problem,” he said.

  When asked again about the administration’s actions on gun laws, he said: “We are not talking in our administration about gun laws, gun registries. We’re working on school safety, and what’s been laid out and what’s been laid out in this plan today.”

  The May 24 Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, Texas, resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers. Officials said an 18-year-old shooter entered the school via a back door that was unlocked.

  Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arrendondo became the target of accusations that he was responsible for a delayed police response to the shooting, after it was revealed that officers, after having entered the building, waited about 45 minutes to breach the classroom where the shooter, as well as students and teachers, were.

  Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said that Arrendondo held back officers from immediately breaching the classroom because he thought the situation was a barricaded suspect, not an active-shooter one.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 19:00

• Chinese Passenger Car Sales Down 17% Year Over Year
  Chinese Passenger Car Sales Down 17% Year Over Year

  While Chinese passenger car sales look like they might bump higher sequentially for May, the country’s sales numbers are still down year over year.

  Sales are supposed to be down 17% year over year, according to Bloomberg and preliminary data from the China Passenger Car Association.

  This marks a 30% rise from April, totaling 1.35 million units sold.

  China continues to face tough comps, as last year’s demand was robust due to pull forward of demand aiming to capture EV subsidies and this year has slowed again due to a new round of Covid lockdowns. 

  

  Things aren’t going phenomenally for the global auto market in other countries, either. In Europe, we just noted that sales plunged by 20% in April, marking the 10th month in a row that sales fell. 

  At the time, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association noted that it was the steepest decline this year. The losing streak continues months after Goldman had opined that European automakers had already priced in a “stressed” scenario. 

  And in the U.S. we noted that May showed a marked slowdown in auto sales, as well. Companies like Honda and Mazda saw sales plunge between 27% and 63% year over year. As we noted, the lack of stimmy money and unemployment check bonuses, combined with the fact that rates are rising and spending is slowing, made for a tumultuous May report for some of the most well known legacy auto manufacturers. 

  It’s sure going to be tough to keep the melt-up in auto prices going with sales slowing down so much. Over the last year, both new and used car prices have soared amidst growing demand and a gummed up supply chain that’s keeping inventory sparse. With demand starting to falter and supply woes starting to ease, we wouldn’t be surprised to see prices start to come back down toward Earth…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 18:40

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• EU Bureaucrats Finally Agree On Something: All Tech Devices To Use USB-C Connector, Apple Scrambles
  EU Bureaucrats Finally Agree On Something: All Tech Devices To Use USB-C Connector, Apple Scrambles

  Apple recently began testing future iPhone models with USB-C charging ports instead of the current Lightning charging port and now is scrambling (amid supply chain disruptions) as new European regulations mandate all smartphones and other electronic devices to use the USB-C charger. 

  In an unusual twist, the European Parliament actually agreed on something Tuesday, decreeing that all mobile phones, tablets, and cameras use the same charging port to make consumers’ lives easier and save them money. What’s more impressive is lawmakers in the EU actually agreed on something…

  “Under the new rules, consumers will no longer need a different charging device and cable every time they purchase a new device, and can use one single charger for all of their small and medium-sized portable electronic devices. Mobile phones, tablets, e-readers, earbuds, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers that are rechargeable via a wired cable will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port, regardless of their manufacturer. Laptops will also have to be adapted to the requirements by 40 months after the entry into force,” European Parliament said in a statement. 

  Apple and other companies will have to comply with the new rule by 2024. 

  “A common charger is common sense for the many electronic devices on our daily lives.

  “European consumers will be able to use a single charger for all their portable electronics — an important step to increase convenience and reduce waste,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement to Bloomberg. 

  The plan was unveiled last year and is estimated to save consumers 250 million euros ($267 million) each year. Bloomberg noted that “the proposal originally angered Apple, which said it would reduce innovation.” 

  At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, there was no mention of a future iPhone model using a USB-C charger.

  However, in April, a dual-USB-C port 35-watt charger was leaked. 

  

  What’s more astonishing is that EU lawmakers actually agreed on something sensible: 

  “We have a deal on the #CommonCharger!” EU commissioner Thierry Breton said via Twitter.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 06/08/2022 – 02:45

• Beware Of Hidden Messages From War-Games
  Beware Of Hidden Messages From War-Games

  Authored by Guermantes Lailari via The Epoch Times,

  An NBC Meet the Press special on May 14  presented a war game conducted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington-based think tank. On the surface, the game appeared to “educate” its audience. However, looking deeper into the messages delivered, “education” was not its purpose.

  

  These are the “conclusions” as quoted from the NBC news article about the war game:

  • The “U.S. should prepare for drawn-out conflict if China invades Taiwan.”

  • “An attack would plunge the region into a broad, drawn-out war that could include direct attacks on the U.S.”

  • The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will conduct a decapitation strategy against Taiwan prior to its invasion. The CCP is “not going to let the president of Taiwan survive the first day.”

  • Part of the “swift decapitation of Taiwan’s government” involves the CCP “pre-emptively attacking American bases in Japan and Guam.”

  This NBC report notes that “it may sound like a purely academic exercise but, in fact, it’s deadly serious.” Even the monthly Air Force Magazine picked up the story and repeated some of the CNAS’s talking points. Luckily, one senior retired U.S. Air Force officer recognized that the scenario was far-fetched.

  NBC assumed the CNAS game is consistent with what we know about CCP assumptions about what the United States will or will not do to stymie an invasion.

  The CNAS war game’s most important problematic assumption is that the CCP would order the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to conduct a preemptive strike against U.S. bases in Japan and Guam. First, attacking the U.S. military bases and killing American soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines, and the U.S. and Japanese civilians will bring a hellfire on the CCP—and the CCP is fully aware of such a response.

  An attack on the U.S. territory of Guam would remind the U.S. public of the last time an Asian country attacked the United States and what transpired; Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and, after four years of hard fighting, was the recipient of two atomic bombs in August 1945.

  The CNAS assumption about attacking U.S. Pacific bases is analogous to asserting that Vladimir Putin would preemptively attack NATO bases in Europe as a prelude to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The CNAS’s assumption is fantastical and unrealistic.

  CNAS Connections

  Having argued that the CNAS made a strategic blunder, I investigated the background of one of the key participants, Michèle A. Flournoy. Flournoy and Kurt M. Campbell co-founded the CNAS in 2007 as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization. The CNAS touts its research as independent and non-partisan. This article argues that this war game was partisan and supports indirectly or directly the CCP propaganda and media warfare campaigns conducted against Taiwan and the United States.

  According to the CNAS website, “Michèle Flournoy is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors, and former Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors.”

  Prior to her selection as the under secretary of defense for policy from February 2009 to February 2012, Flournoy “co-led President Obama’s transition team at the Defense Department.” In other words, she has close ties to the Obama administration and the Biden administration.

  

  U.S. Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy arrives for a bilateral meeting with Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, at the Bayi Building in Beijing, China, on Dec. 7, 2011. (Andy Wong/Getty Images)

  Campbell was the Obama administration’s assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Currently, Campbell is the Biden administration’s first designated National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific.

  WestExec Advisors

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken was WestExec’s co-founder and managing director; Avril D. Haines, the current director of National Intelligence, was a WestExec principal; Jen Psaki, former Biden White House press secretary, and Eli Ratner, current assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, were WestExec senior advisers. Ben Weingarten’s Newsweek exposé provides more details on the current administration’s connections to the CCP.

  In early March 2022, a group of former administration officials visited Taiwan to deliver a message endorsing the Biden administration’s “asymmetric warfare strategy” or “little porcupine strategy” to President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration, including Flournoy and former National Security Council senior directors for Asia Mike Green and Evan Medeiros.

  Why did Washington send people who are not part of the current administration to deliver an important message to Taiwan? President Joe Biden could have sent a current assistant secretary of defense or state. Consider how Tsai felt when she had to swallow her pride and pretend she was grateful for this after-thought hodge-podge crew thrown at her because the Biden administration was embarrassed by former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s visit to Taiwan later that same week.

   ‘Asymmetric’ Weapons for Taiwan

  In 2020, Mike Green and Evan Medeiros co-wrote an article in Foreign Affairs arguing that Taiwan should not buy expensive weapon systems. They argued:

  “These [weapons] do little to deter a combined naval, air, and missile campaign from China—and the PLA will always be bigger and better equipped than Taiwan’s army in a ground battle. Rather, the United States should work with Taiwan to develop asymmetric military capabilities that would actually stand a chance of deterring a Chinese invasion or attacks on critical infrastructure.”

  The weaknesses of the asymmetric weapons strategy was well documented by this author’s recent two articles in Taiwan News. Absent a guarantee that the U.S. military would intervene in an invasion of Taiwan by the PLA, the U.S. government is asking the Taiwanese to commit national suicide. The asymmetric military capabilities proposed by these “advisers” do not “deter” a Chinese invasion or attacks on critical infrastructure.

  By allowing Taiwan to only purchase these asymmetric weapons at the exclusion of others needed to address at least four other attack scenarios makes Taiwan more vulnerable. All five attack scenarios are decapitation (missile and air strikes), naval and air blockade/embargo, invasion, border operations (quickly taking Taiwan’s small islands), and all-out regional war.

  What Is the War Game’s Message to the US Population?

  The CNAS war game had several subtle messages that corrupt the U.S. popular support for Taiwan, such as the following:

  • The United States should not be involved in a long and bloody war against the CCP/PLA (remember Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam).

  • The United States will not send troops and promotes the idea that the Taiwanese can defend themselves using asymmetric weapons (same as Ukraine).

  What Is the Message to the Taiwanese Population?

  The war game’s message to the Taiwanese population is the following:

  • The PLA will destroy Taiwan’s expensive weapons during an invasion. Taiwan should purchase only “asymmetric weapons” (no weapons that can reach China).

  • The United States will sell Taiwan weapons to defend itself against an invasion. These weapons will support a guerrilla operation against the PLA. These asymmetric weapons will not prevent the PLA from other attack scenarios such as an air and naval embargo or air and missile strikes.

  • Taiwan is not a state, and Taiwan does not deserve weapons that other countries have, such as Israel. Taiwan “only” deserves weapons that non-state actors have (guerrillas or terrorists).

  • If the people of Taiwan are brave enough to fight against annexation by a genocidal and totalitarian regime, they will lose. The PLA has more people and more weapons.

  • The United States is not serious about helping Taiwan defend itself and will refuse to commit to assisting in a war. So just give up now.

  What Is the Message to the CCP and the PLA?

  The war game’s scenario hid the following messages:

  • Diminish American popular support to fight against the PLA.

  • “Asymmetric warfare” policy would not threaten the Chinese landmass. Deterrence is not only defensive (attacking forces invading the island); deterrence is also offensive (striking targets inside China). Conceding the option of putting marauding invaders at risk on their home soil before they set foot on the soil of a democracy is a prescription for failure, as demonstrated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

  • Taiwan should surrender rather than fight because the PLA is destined to win.

  The CCP’s Goal Regarding Taiwan

  A CCP “core interest” (核心利益), the equivalent of U.S. vital interest, is to absorb Taiwan into China. The CCP views Taiwan’s political independence as an issue of “state sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and national reunification,” which is more important to the CCP than economic stability. Helping Xi Jinping accomplish this goal would make any person or country a friend.

  The CNAS war game conducts psychological warfare in support of the CCP and against Americans and Taiwanese by positing that American military support for Taiwan is destined to fail.

  Psychological warfare “seeks to influence and/or disrupt an opponent’s decision-making capability, to create doubts, foment anti-leadership sentiments, to deceive opponents and to attempt to diminish the will to fight among opponents,” according to a report by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

  Media warfare is “a constant, ongoing activity aimed at long-term influence of perceptions and attitudes,” according to The Heritage Foundation.

  Taiwan represents a new democracy that opposes the despotic rule of the CCP and demonstrates that Chinese people can successfully (economically and politically) have a self-ruled democratic society with Chinese characteristics.

  Worst Case Scenario: If the CCP Takes Taiwan

  If the PLA took Taiwan, the CCP would threaten U.S. alliance partners Japan and South Korea militarily, politically, and economically. A declassified CIA report addresses the economic threat; the Senkaku Islands are near a large oil reservoir discovered in 1968. Japan’s Senkaku Islands, claimed by the CCP (since 1970), are easily within reach (about 100 hundred miles north of Taiwan—see map here).

  

  A P-3C maritime patrol aircraft of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force flying over the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Oct. 13, 2011. (Japan Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

  The PLA would conduct a military buildup throughout Taiwan to project force from the first island chain to the second and beyond. For example, the east side of Taiwan, with its very deep-water access, is the perfect location for the PLA to build nuclear submarine bases for its nuclear attack and its nuclear-armed submarines. These submarine ports would make it difficult for the United States and its allies to track the location of these submarines, providing China with a greater deterrence capability against the United States.

  In other words, the CCP conquest of Taiwan would place China in a dominating position in the Pacific Ocean and embolden the CCP to consider other expansionist actions to “rectify” other claims it has in the Pacific, such as the “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea, Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, and Okinawa.

  The loss of Taiwan would be a worse situation for the United States and its allies than the embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan. Taiwan’s loss to the CCP would be another example of America’s retreat from seeking to support and maintain global norms and rules. The CCP would force these Asian countries into making dangerous compromises that could place them behind a new “bamboo curtain” with Chinese communist characteristics.

  US Responsibility

  The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) states:

  “That any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, is considered a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States.

  “That the United States shall provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character and shall maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or social or economic system, of the people of Taiwan.”

  The TRA asserts a U.S. responsibility to defend Taiwan from PLA attacks. The Biden administration should stand up to the CCP and re-assert the U.S. support for Taiwan’s defense, and conduct a massive arming of Taiwan along with training that enables the full power of joint and combined military operations (air, ground, sea, subsurface, space, cyber, and special operations)—with the assurance that the United States will fight to ensure democracy for the people of Taiwan.

  The training should not focus solely on tactical training of ground forces using “asymmetric weapons” as the United States did in Ukraine. Instead, the United States should train the Taiwan military so that it can participate in the type of combined and joint operations used to free Kuwait from Iraqi forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

  Flournoy and the CNAS are furthering the CCP’s political warfare against Taiwan by sending messages through the war game while also reinforcing the Biden administration’s desire to weaken Taiwan through its “asymmetric weapons” strategy. These manipulations of the American and Taiwanese populations must stop.

  If the U.S. government protected a non-democratic nation (Kuwait) against Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian regime (Iraq) in 1991, then why wouldn’t the United States protect a democratic nation (Taiwan) against another authoritarian regime (the CCP)? If the United States pretends to intervene but fails to stop the PLA, the result would be disastrous for Asia and the entire world.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 23:25

• New Video Shows "Holy Grail" Of Shipwrecks Off Colombia
  New Video Shows “Holy Grail” Of Shipwrecks Off Colombia

  The Colombian government released a new video of a Spanish ship that sunk three centuries ago off the South American country’s coast. Maritime experts describe it as the “holy grail” of Spanish colonial shipwrecks. 

  President Ivan Duque and naval officials released a video on Monday showing the long-sunken San José galleon, resting 900 meters below the ocean’s surface, with treasure that could be worth billions of dollars, according to Reuters. 

  

  No humans have been able to reach the shipwreck found in 2015 near Colombia’s Caribbean port of Cartagena.

  

  A remotely operated underwater vehicle with a camera and powerful light recently examined the wreckage, finding gold bars and coins and cannons. 

  “The idea is to recover it and to have sustainable financing mechanisms for future extractions.

  “In this way we protect the treasure, the patrimony of the San Jose galleon,” President Ivan Duque said.

  

  Colombian Navy commander Admiral Gabriel Perez said the underwater vehicle found two other shipwrecks in the area, believed to be from two centuries ago. 

  “We now have two other discoveries in the same area, that show other options for archaeological exploration,” Perez said. 

  The story behind why San José has been considered the “holy grail” of shipwrecks is that it was loaded up with precious metals from South America and headed to Europe when the British Navy sank it in 1708. CBS News said experts estimate the treasure to be “200 tons of gold, silver, and emeralds.” 

  

  

  Here’s the video of the wreckage.

  Now comes the hard part: How to retrieve the billions of dollars in treasure 900 meters under the surface? 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 23:05

• Comedians Can't Quit Trump
  Comedians Can’t Quit Trump

  Authored by Christian Toto via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  Yes, the real estate mogul no longer calls the White House home, but chances are you’ll hear Donald Trump jokes in any given late-night monologue. And they’ll draw satirical blood. That’s all well and good, but Trump no longer lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and he can’t even steer all his favorite GOP candidates to victory these days.

  

  There’s a ready Trump replacement for Colbert and Co., a politician who might be commander in chief should the current occupant’s health falter. So far, mainstream comics won’t lay a glove on her despite enough material to fill a year’s worth of monologues.

  Maybe two. Meet Vice President Kamala Harris.

  The 57-year-old Californian has only been in office a little more than a year, and already she’s amassed a treasure trove of mockable moments. Cackles. Gaffes. Empty results. Calamitous polling numbers. Emotionally distressed ex-staffers. And a new gold standard for political word salad.

  So where are the jokes? Of course, these same satirists should be tweaking President Biden, who also suffers from horrific polling numbers and his own gaffe-tastic spells. Harris still represents a unique satirical target, a chance to make the vice presidency part of the comic fabric. Again.

  Veeps aren’t prime fodder for political comics, at least on paper. They’re second in command and serve in a ceremonial capacity, for the most part, meaning comics would rather target the boss instead. But they can still draw comedic attention when they step out of line.

  Just ask Dan Quayle. George H.W. Bush’s sidekick got punished by comedians for his perceived lack of intelligence. Quayle didn’t help himself, uttering absurd lines like, “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century.”

  These things aren’t always fair – and wouldn’t be for Kamala Harris if anyone dared tease her. Quayle’s infamous misspelling of “potato” at a 1992 school appearance, for instance, was prompted by an erroneous cue card given to him by a teacher. Nonetheless, it became his comedy anchor. You can’t blame comedians for teeing off on that gaffe.

  Comedians got an early start on Quayle quips. David Letterman devoted six “Top Ten” lists to him during the 1988 election cycle on his NBC showcase. Quayle, he noted, “would not seem like a brainy egghead when visiting the nation’s injured professional wrestlers.”

  Jay Leno, filling in for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show,” compared Quayle to his VP competition, Lloyd Bentsen, saying the former had two pluses over the older man – “a blow dryer and a pulse.”

  Late night hosts also targeted the vice president mercilessly during the Trump years. Vice President Mike Pence made headlines for revealing he doesn’t spend time alone with any woman other than his wife. Comedians pounced, and seized, turning him into the ultimate square.

  Comedians even channeled Pence’s COVID-19 vaccine injection for a skit mocking both him and President Trump. We can’t forget the fly that invaded Pence’s follicular airspace in the 2020 vice presidential debate. Earlier this year, the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” mocked Pence by bringing up notes Trump took during his time in office. “I know it wasn’t intentional,” Kimmel said. “But a blank space between two parentheses is the most perfect description of Mike Pence I’ve ever seen. It should be on his Christmas cards.”

  

  Even The Onion poked serial fun at Biden when he served under President Barack Obama. They wrote the book on the subject – “The President of Vice: The Autobiography of Joe Biden.”

  Why poke fun at Harris, the first female vice president and a person of color? The real question is, “Why not?” – especially since her public persona all but demands a satirical scorching. Her scattershot speeches routinely go viral on social media, with “amateur” comics doing the work Team Late Night won’t do. Here’s her TED talk touting high-speed Internet:

  So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time in terms of what we need to do to lay these wires, what we need to do to create these jobs … And there is such great significance to the passage of time when we think about a day in the life of our children and what that means to the future of our nation, depending on whether or not they have the resources they need to achieve their God-given talent.

  Just an awkward moment? It happens to the smoothest politicians, right? There’s more. Here’s Harris addressing Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness earlier this year:

  We also recognized, just as it has been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an issue that is economic in the way its impact has been the pandemic … So to that end, we are announcing today also that we will assist Jamaica in COVID recovery by assisting in terms of the recovery efforts in Jamaica that have been essential to I believe what is necessary to strengthen not only the issue of public health, but also the economy.

  Harris also stumbles during softball interviews, be it with MSNBC’s Joy Reid or NBC’s Lester Holt. She gaffed her way through one Holt Q&A by insisting (three times) that she had been to the southern border only to have that position gently corrected. Her response was to lash out at Holt and conjure up a bizarre non sequitur. “And I haven’t been to Europe,” she said. “And I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making … I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”

  Last year, she offered this oddball homily during an appearance in France: “We must together. Work together. To see where we are. Where we are headed, where we are going and our vision for where we should be. But also see it as a moment to, yes. Together, address the challenges and to work on the opportunities that are presented by this moment.”

  “Every time she speaks, it’s like watching Wile E. Coyote’s feet keep spinning madly even after he’s run off the cliff,” NY Post columnist Kyle Smith quipped. And he’s not a professional comedian.

  Her most recent word salad entrée? A plea to work together on the environment’s behalf.

  Our world is more interconnected and interdependent. That is especially true when it comes to the climate crisis, which is why we will work together, and continue to work together, to address these issues, to tackle these challenges, and to work together as we continue to work operating from the new norms, rules, and agreements, that we will convene to work together on to galvanize global action. With that I thank you all. This is a matter of urgent priority for all of us and I know we will work on this together.

  Writing word salad sketches could be a snap for random YouTube creators, let alone seasoned late-night scribes.

  Need more Harris fodder? Her staff defections are so common it’s yet another comic through-line to throw on the already massive pile. One unnamed ex-staffer said Harris underlings endure a “constant amount of soul-destroying criticism.”

  And then there’s that cackle. Harris laughs at inappropriate times, a troubling tic for any politician. She even chuckled over a question regarding Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. It makes imitating her a snap, but has Maya Rudolph even attempted Harris’ signature quirk? Rudolph has played Harris sparingly on NBC’s left-leaning “Saturday Night Live” over the years, but those appearances have mostly disappeared since Harris became vice president.

  They also avoid her flaws. A March 2021 SNL skit found Rudolph, as Harris, hosting a unity Seder dinner. The jokes landed against her guests, including SNL players as Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green.

  Trump made political humor so much easier. Some could argue too easy, given the lazy jabs at his “orange” skin and curious ‘do. Harris isn’t Trump, but she’s tailor-made for comic vivisections.

  Harris jokes might help late-night comics bolster their ratings. A Rasmussen Reports survey shows “54% do not believe the former California senator is qualified to be president.” Her overall polling numbers remain weak, meaning comedians risk little for targeting her with their barbs. It’s one reason Greg Gutfeld shocked late night last year by rising to the top of the ratings heap. The Fox News star regularly mocks Harris from his popular perch, eclipsing iconic shows like “The Tonight Show” in the ratings race.

  “She is truly a national treasure, if by treasure, you mean, embarrassment,” Gutfeld said recently. 

  What does Harris have to do to get Comedy, Inc.’s attention? Then again, maybe their relative silence is based in fear, not punchlines. A silly Twitter jab at the vice president cost one conservative talker her gig. So is it any wonder that Jimmy Kimmel has defended, not mocked, Harris’ poor poll numbers by playing two cards – racism and sexism? Kimmel quipped, “I think I know why Kamala’s ratings are low, besides sexism and racism, which are the obvious ones. It’s because whenever she’s next to Joe Biden, standing near or behind him, she looks like an assassin.”

  Does he want to break his own rules by giving her a good-natured ribbing? Does he fear the consequences? Comedians may be more worried about their next paycheck than about stepping on comedy’s vice presidential third rail.

  Christian Toto is the author of “Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 22:45

• Hedge Funds Had A Horrible May… And Then They Missed The Month-End Ramp
  Hedge Funds Had A Horrible May… And Then They Missed The Month-End Ramp

  May was a volatile month for equity markets, starting off ugly and closing strong, but while most equity indices were able to finish slightly green for the month  given the large rally in the final full week of May, the same cannot be said for hedge funds.

  According to the latest weekly report from Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage (available to pro subscribers), Hedge Funds had felt (and were hammered by) a large portion of the market downside in the first part of May but then hung in well mid-month given most strategies were running lighter net levels at the time. That was as good as it gets however, and HFs then struggled to make back their losses in the final full week of May, capturing only a portion of the rally. This left the average global fund down ~1% for the month.

  Digging deeper we find that while the performance of equity markets was quite volatile throughout the month, we did not see nearly the same levels of volatility in HF returns, perhaps due to most strategies running at much lighter net leverage levels (more on HF leverage and positioning below).

  

  According to MS, most of the performance ‘pain’ was felt in the week ending May 6, with HFs posting losses in-line with the MSCI – this also coincided with L/S funds beginning to de-gross. HFs then performed in line with the market for two weeks (weeks ending May 13 & May 20) as HF de-grossing took a pause after May 9, and then HFs returned to adding to gross exposure while keeping nets light.

  However, the moderate levels of net leverage then caused HFs to miss out on a large portion of the rally in the week ending May 27 – this lack of upside capture amidst this rally is what ultimately led HFs to lag the index for the month

  

  Goldman’s Prime Desk makes a similar conclusion in its May performance post-mortem.

  

  Another notable observation: while performance across all strategies tracked indices relatively well (except for the late month ramp), there is a lot of dispersion both across strategies and intra-strategy through May – the spread between the 90th %-tile and 10th %-tile performers is currently the 2nd widest Morgan Stanley Prime has seen since 2010, trailing only 2020 by a small margin. Among the top performers this year based on investor letters received through April are Systematic Macro (+14.3%), Disc. Macro (+8.3%) and Energy-focused (+4.2%), and while there has been only a small sample of funds who’ve reported for May, these strategies all outperformed the avg. global fund last month. The weaker performers this year have been traditional L/S strategies (-8.4% through May based on our prop estimate), particularly TMT-and HC-focused funds (both down ~14% through Apr based on letters).

  

  Drilling down into L/S fund performance, global Equity L/S total alpha was negative this past month, all of which was driven by the long side given shorts generated positive alpha of ~1%. Longs held globally by L/S funds fell ~2.4% last month vs. the MSCI ending up +0.2%, representing a negative spread of -2.6%.

  Even more embarrassing for the billionaires who make up the 2 and 20 crowd – like Gabe Plotkin – this was the 8th consecutive month where long alpha has been negative, the longest stretch we have seen since we began tracking the data in 2010.

  Meanwhile, the spread of -2.6% represented the 6th time in the past 8 months where the spread was lower than -2%. To put this into perspective, for the period from the start of 2010 through the end of 3Q 2021, the spread between longs and the MSCI was worse than -2% only nine times.

  

  Looking at global HF positioning and leverage, MS Prime finds two main themes:

  • THEME #1: HFs Continue to Sell Global Equities, Led by US and China

  HFs sold global equities for the 6th consecutive month, with the magnitude of the selling in May larger than what we saw in
  April, but smaller than March’s flow. The selling can be attributed to Equity L/S (long selling) and Stat Arb/Quant (short adds)
  funds, and by region, split between N. America, Asia ex-Japan, and LatAm – HFs were, however, net buyers of both Europe
  and Japan.

  The Global L/S ratio (ex. Quants) ended just above 2.0x at the end of May, right around where it ended in Apr. At its low, the ratio fell all the way to 2.01x but has yet to break below the 2.0x barrier – the last time it did so was in April of 2020.

  

  • THEME #2: L/S Funds Trim Gross Exp; Gross Lev Now Light Across Most Major Strategies

  More important even than dismal performance, May ended up being one the largest month in terms of active gross reductions Morgan Stanley Prime has seen YTD by L/S funds, with most of the gross exposure trimmed specifically within the US and China. While this month was far from the most extreme seen in recent years (Jan ’21 was ~4x larger), it is still a notable break in trend from the gross adds that occurred in April. US L/S gross leverage reached a ~2-year low of ~175% intra-month before recovering to 182% by month-end – in addition to US L/S gross lev, gross across many of the major strategies also hit a 12M low in May and remains in the <10th %-tile both over the last 12M and the last 5 years as of last week.

  

  Goldman’s Prime Desk makes another interesting observation, which is apropos in light of today’s 2nd consecutive guidance cut by Target. According to GS, following challenging earnings results from various companies, Consumer Staples is one of the most net sold sectors in the US, driven entirely by short sales, with short sales outpacing long buys by nearly 5:1.  Selling was consistent over the past week as the sector experienced net selling (and short selling) every day over the past week. All industry groups were net sold for the week, with the exception of Food & Staples Retailing, which was marginally net bought. Food Products and Beverages accounted for a large proportion of the net selling flow for the overall sector. Amid this shorting frenzy it is not surprising that relatively within the US, Consumer Staples was one of the worst performing sectors on a five-day basis.

  

  There is much more in the full Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs notes, including much more granular detail and in depth analysis of nascent hedge fund themes, with both available to professional subs in the usual place.

  One final observation: courtesy of the latest HSBC hedge fund weekly report (also available to pro subs) here are the best and worst performing hedge funds of 2022:

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 22:25

• Revisiting The Flynn/Kislyak Leak
  Revisiting The Flynn/Kislyak Leak

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

  How I found out the Flynn/Kislyak leak took place on January 5, 2017.

  

  Before I get to that, some brief words on the “unmasking” report commissioned by Attorney General Bill Barr and prepared by US Attorney John Bash – with a focus on the call between Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Kislyak.

  With respect to that call transcript, Flynn’s name was never “masked.” As Bash noted, “the FBI shared transcripts of the relevant [Flynn/Kislyak] communications with officials outside of the Bureau without masking General Flynn’s name.”

  The FBI shared these transcripts with top-level FBI/DOJ officials – and perhaps members of the Obama White House. Who could have seen the transcripts? The list includes President Obama, Vice President Biden, FBI Director James Comey, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, all who were present at a meeting at the Obama White House to discuss General Flynn’s calls with the Russian Ambassador.

  The Washington Post explains:

  On Jan. 5, 2017, President Barack Obama received a briefing from intelligence officials in the Oval Office about the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump. When the briefing was over, he asked Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James B. Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and national security adviser Susan E. Rice to stay behind for an additional discussion about incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn.

  On that same day – January 5, 2017 – the Flynn/Kislyak call was leaked to Adam Entous of The Washington Post.

  This leak was done by source(s) who “saw a transcript and described it to” Entous.

  How do I know that?

  Because Entous told me.

  ---

  Entous’s discussions with his sources would lead him and Greg Miller to write this January 5, 2017 Washington Post article discussing intelligence reports that Russian intelligence was involved in the DNC hack and that Moscow tried to help “Trump win the White House.”

  To his credit, Entous didn’t include discussions of the Flynn/Kislyak call because he didn’t think they were newsworthy. In Entous’s own words, there was no reason that Flynn “shouldn’t be having that conversation.”

  You can read the Flynn/Kislyak transcripts here.

  This gets us to the identity of the leaker. Much of the focus had been on who spoke with The Washington Post’s David Ignatius, who was the first to report on the Flynn/Kislyak call on January 12, 2017. For example, during Congressional testimony on the Trump/Russia matter, witnesses were asked about whether they spoke with Ignatius.

  The real focus should have been on who spoke with Entous. And we have a couple guesses on that front.

  The primary suspect: Sally Yates. Or someone close to Sally Yates (such as Tashina Guahar). Entous told us that his source(s) had seen the Flynn/Kislyak transcripts. With that in mind, take a close look at Entous’s February 13, 2017 appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show, where he divulges that Yates saw the transcripts in “late December, early January” and was concerned about potential Logan Act violations. He didn’t just know when Yates saw the transcripts – he also knew what she thought about the transcripts:

  MADDOW: So, obviously, the headline here and the lead graph are arresting, jarring. Why exactly did the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, conclude or surmise that the Russian government might be able to blackmail Mike Flynn, the national security adviser?

  ENTOUS: Right. So what happened was when this intelligence first came in, which would be in late December, early January, you know, Yates saw the intelligence and was concerned that Flynn was potentially in violation of what is known as the Logan Act, which is a very obscure statute which would bar a nongovernment official from trying to influence another government`s policies. And so, that really was — she knew that that was not something that would be pursued in court. There wouldn`t be a prosecution based on the Logan Act.

  The other suspects. This includes Susan Rice. Remember that it was Susan Rice who prepared the infamous January 20, 2017 memo – the same day Trump was sworn-in as President – to cover for President Obama, who supposedly told Comey he expected the Trump/Russia investigation to be handled “by the book.” In that same memo, Rice discussed how Comey relayed the frequency of the Flynn/Kislyak talks to that small group.

  Or, perhaps it was Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. He would have been updated on the January 5, 2017 meeting with Obama, Comey, et al. And McDonough unmasked General Flynn on an unknown matter that same day.

  

  Those close to James Clapper at DNI had their suspicions the leak came from the Obama White House or Senate Democrats. We obtained this January 6, 2017 e-mail distributed to James Clapper (then-Director of National Intelligence) relating to the leak:

  

  With respect to a Senate Democrat “leaker”, look no further than James Wolfe, the former democrat director of security for the Senate Intelligence Community who leaked the Carter Page FISA to Ali Watkins, his mistress at The New York Times. We don’t have an answer to whether Senate Democrats would have had access to the Flynn/Kislyak calls in late December 2016 – January 5, 2017.

  I’m not sure we’ll ever have an answer. Bash didn’t look into the Flynn/Kislyak leak. And The New York Times reported the leak investigation – code name Operation Echo – closed without charges.

  With the Operation Echo investigation being closed, there is a silver lining via FOIA. We’re making the request and will provide updates as they come.

  ---

  Speaking of FOIA requests, we are looking into Jake Sullivan’s wife Margaret Goodlander. She serves as counsel to Attorney General Merrick Garland. We understand she has not recused herself from Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation, despite her husband being a witness to Clinton Campaign misconduct. We have a very strong reason to believe that Goodlander is keeping a close eye on the Durham investigation – as she has hundreds, if not thousands, of e-mails discussing Durham and what he is looking into.

  We’ll be providing an update on Goodlander as the documents start rolling in.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 22:05

• These Are The Biggest US Importers And Exporters
  These Are The Biggest US Importers And Exporters

  Which companies are the biggest importers and exporters in the U.S.?

  The majority of people will know the names of the businesses that ship the most goods into the country (measured by volume transported on container ships), but, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, most of the biggest exporters hardly ring a bell.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While large retailers like Walmart, Target or Home Depot dominate the imports list, the biggest U.S. exporters deal with products that don’t inspire the imagination, like paper, or that Americans would rather forget about, like their trash.

  Out of the top eight U.S. exporters, four deal with paper, packaging or recyclables.

  Other products exported in large volumes are animal feed and cars/automotive parts, according to industry publication JOC.

  Largest importer Walmart has a substantial lead on runner-up Target and is also way ahead of the biggest U.S. exporter, Koch Industries.

  While Walmart has 2.2 million employees, the top 5 U.S. exporter, America Chung Nam, only has 120. The paper and plastics recycling company is headquartered in City of Industry, Calif., according to Zoominfo. Their containers full of old cardboard and plastic recyclables are mainly headed for Asia. In 2018, the company was still the biggest exporter in the U.S. but a ban on plastic recyclables imports into China likely contributed to a decline in the company’s and its competitors’ export volumes.

  The coronavirus pandemic did little to change the export and import volumes of America’s biggest players.

  The only company that fell out of the top eight in 2020 was Exxon Mobil. The fifth biggest exporter in 2019, it did not even appear in the top 100 in 2020 as oil prices crashed as a result of COVID-19. In 2021, it was back in rank 19 of America’s biggest exporters.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 21:45

• YouTuber 3D Prints "World's First" Rocket Launcher And Fires At Target
  YouTuber 3D Prints “World’s First” Rocket Launcher And Fires At Target

  3D printing has revolutionized gun-making and has come a long way since the single-shot “The Liberator” pistol was available for download in 2013. Now entire semiautomatic pistol carbines can be entirely printed at home, and weapon-making appears to have graduated to rocket launchers. 

  Youtuber “Ordnance Lab“ (also known as Ordnance Lab LLC and holds a Type 10 FFL) published a video showing what they say is the “world’s first 3D printed rocket launcher.” 

  “In this video we team up with D&S Creations, who have developed 3D printed rockets and rocket launchers. We test both a smaller caliber rocket and a larger one, along with a prototype for a shaped charge warhead. This is just the start of our working on 3D printed rockets. We have the launch and detonation figured out, now we need to work on getting the accuracy figured out,” Ordnance Lab said in the video’s description. 

  

  One firing test shows a 3D-printed rocket with a shaped charge denoting on a target. The narrator in the video said the “flash powder charge produced a very bright and loud report.” 

  This is the first time we’ve seen 3D-printed rocket launchers demonstrated in a video. Earlier this year, Deterrence Dispensed, an online group that promotes and distributes open-source 3D-printed firearm blueprints, released a video showing the use of a “66mm recoilless launcher.” 

  Deterrence Dispensed, the controversial 3D-printed weapons syndicate (co-founded by JStark), has recently released a new project.

  This is a 66mm recoilless launcher with shoulder rest attachments, allowing it to convert to a mortar on the go. pic.twitter.com/esdUxNJD7g

  — Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) March 23, 2022

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  Within a decade, 3D printing weapons have evolved from single-shot pistols to semiautomatic pistol carbines to rocket launchers. How is President Biden’s ATF going to counter people printing weapons at home? The simple answer is they can’t unless they ban printers and polylactic acid (PLA) filament, which we believe will be impossible… 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 21:05

• Big Oil Set To Win Stakes In Qatar's Huge LNG Expansion Projects
  Big Oil Set To Win Stakes In Qatar’s Huge LNG Expansion Projects

  By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

  Some of the biggest international oil and gas majors, including ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies, are expected to be awarded stakes in the major expansion projects of one of the world’s top LNG exporters, Qatar, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

  

  Qatar announced last year the world’s largest LNG project, which is set to raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (mmtpa) to 110 mmtpa. The project, expected to start production in the fourth quarter of 2025, will cost US$28.75 billion. Qatar also plans another expansion phase at the North Field, the world’s largest natural gas field, which it shares with Iran. The second expansion phase will be the North Field South Project (NFS), set to further increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 110 mmtpa to 126 mmtpa, with an expected production start date in 2027.

  International oil and gas majors Exxon, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, ConocoPhillips, and Eni, bid last year for a stake in Qatar’s LNG expansion projects.

  Qatar has delayed the awarding of the stakes, but its state firm QatarEnergy has now called a press conference in Doha this coming Sunday, without saying what the event will be about, Bloomberg’s sources said. Executives from U.S. supermajor Exxon and TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanne may attend the event, the sources added.

  Qatar announced its huge expansion plans just months before the energy crisis sent natural gas and LNG prices sky-high in the autumn of 2021 and a year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted the EU to race to procure alternative supply.

  The EU is looking at the U.S. and Qatar—the top exporters of LNG—to replace as much Russian pipeline gas as possible.

  Last month, Qatar signed an agreement on an energy partnership with Germany, which, QatarEnergy says, “will further strengthen Germany’s energy supply diversification through LNG imports from Qatar.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 20:45

• Family Of Latest Clinton-Linked Suicide Blocks Release Of Shotgun Death Details
  Family Of Latest Clinton-Linked Suicide Blocks Release Of Shotgun Death Details

  The family of yet another dead Clinton pal has petitioned a judge to prevent pictures of Mark Middleton from being released under a Freedom of Information Act. And while there’s been no response from the court, a local Arkansas sheriff is interpreting the request itself as a full-stop on information requests, according to the Daily Mail.

  

  All we know thus far is that the 59-year-old Middleton – who admitted Jeffrey Epstein to the White House seven out of at least 17 times – was discovered on May 7 hanging from a tree at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville by an electrical cord, with a shotgun blast to his chest. The ranch, located 30 miles from Middleton’s home, is owned by an anti-poverty nonprofit called Heifer International.

  

  The seemingly redundant ‘suicide’ methods used by the married father of two, or whoever killed him, will remain a mystery, for now.

  “The investigation is still open. I can’t say anything more,” Perry County Sheriff Scott Montgomery told the Mail, adding that the family said he was “depressed.”

  “‘I don’t know the man, and I don’t [know] why he picked our county or picked that location to commit suicide. To our knowledge, he had never been there before, and we have no record of him being there before, Montgomery told Radar Online before he clammed up.

  “He died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the chest. He found a tree and he pulled a table over there, and he got on that table, and he took an extension cord and put it around a limb, put it around his neck and he shot himself in the chest with a shotgun … It was very evident that the shotgun worked because there was not a lot of blood or anything on the scene. You can tell the shotgun blast was on his chest, you can tell that because there is a hole in the chest and pellets came out the back of his back. It was definitely self-inflicted in our opinion.“

  As the Mail notes, Middleton’s mysterious death adds to the list of Clinton associates who have died unexpectedly – many in small plane crashes.

  Middleton’s family did not disclose the cause of death at the time but authorities later confirmed the former White House official took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot at an urban farm in Perryville, Arkansas.

  In a lawsuit filed on May 23, the family admits Middleton committed suicide, and says they have ‘a privacy interest’ in preventing any ‘photographs, videos, sketches (or) other illustrative content’ from the death scene being released.

  They claim it would lead to ‘outlandish, hurtful, unsupported and offensive articles’ being published online.

  They argued that keeping the footage and files sealed would halt a proliferation of ‘unsubstantiated conspiracy theories’.

  A judge is due to hear the case on June 14. -Daily Mail

  Middleton was an associate of the late Jeffrey Epstein – who made at least 17 trips to the White House between 1993 and 1995. Bill Clinton, meanwhile, was one of dozens of passengers to fly on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” – where witnesses have placed the former president on Epstein’s private island.

  

  According to the Heifer International spokesman Chris Cox Heifer, Middleton’s car was found in the parking lot by ranch employees who then notified the sheriff. His body was found shortly thereafter.

  “He wasn’t invited to the property and staff became aware that he was there without authorization,” said Heifer, adding “We have not found any connection to Heifer.”

  “The ranch is well known in the area and it’s possible that he could have attended something here but we couldn’t’ find any major links,” he continued. “The ranch hosts school groups for things like lambing so he could have attended one of those. It’s a very unfortunate incident.”

  According to the Mail, Middleton left the White House in February 1995 – and allegedly held himself out as an international dealmaker, something Epstein might have been attracted to. In 1996, an investigation found that Middleton had abused his access to the White House to impress business clients, and was barred from the executive mansion without senior approval – claims he’s denied.

  Meanwhile, the Mail has provided a list of the ‘Clinton body count.’

  Judi Gibbs, 32, January 3, 1986: The one-time Penthouse Pet died alongside her lover Bill Puterburgh, 57, in an unexplained house fire in Fordyce, Arkansas. She was a high-class prostitute who used hotels and racetracks to pick up rich and powerful men and was known to have had an affair with then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton who would fly her from her home town to Little Rock. Rumors of a compromising picture of the two of them were rife, but if it ever existed, it was probably destroyed in the fire. The families of both Gibbs and Puterburgh told DailyMail.com in 2016 they believe the fire was set deliberately.

  Kevin Ives, 17, and Don Henry, 16, August 23, 1987: The two teens were crushed by a train, in Alexander, Arkansas. Their deaths were ruled accidental, with the medical examiner saying they had fallen asleep on a railroad line after smoking marijuana, but a grand jury found they had been murdered before being placed on the tracks. They had allegedly stumbled on a plot to smuggle drugs and guns from an airport in Mena, Arkansas, that Gov. Bill Clinton was said to be involved in.

  Victor Raiser, 53, July 30, 1992: The second finance co-chair of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign was killed along with his son in a plane crash during a fishing vacation in Alaska. Conspiracy theorists believe the crash was deliberately caused. Campaign press secretary Dee Dee Myers called Raiser a major player in the organization.

  Paul Tully, 48, September 25, 1992: The Democratic strategist died of an apparent heart attack. A chain-smoking, heavy-drinking political consultant who weighed in at more than 320 lb. Tully died seven weeks before Clinton’s first presidential election win. He had been political director of the DNC during Clinton’s rise. Tully was on the left of the Democratic Party and usually worked for those who shared his views, however he agreed to work for Clinton because he was impressed with his oratory and thought he was the only Democrat who could beat President George Bush.

  Paula Gober, 36, December 7, 1992: Clinton’s interpreter for the deaf for several years died in a single car accident. Gober had traveled with him while he was governor of Arkansas. Her vehicle overturned on a bend, throwing her 30 feet. There were no witnesses.

  Vince Foster, 48, July 20, 1993: The Arkansas lawyer committed suicide. President Clinton appointed Foster to deputy White House counsel when he became president in 1993. It didn’t take long for Foster, 48, to realize he had made a terrible mistake by accepting the post. He hated the work and fell into a deep depression. Just six months into the job, his body was found in his car in Fort Marcy Park, Virginia, a gun in his hand and a suicide note torn into 27 pieces in the trunk. Conspiracy theorists believe he was murdered by the Clintons for knowing too much.

  Stanley Heard, 47, September 10, 1993: The Arkansas chiropractor died in a small plane crash. According to 1998 book ‘A Profession of One’s Own,’ the doctor treated the Clinton family. Heard was asked by Bill Clinton to represent the practice as plans for ‘Hillarycare’ were being finalized. His attorney Steve Dickson, was flying him home from a healthcare meeting in Washington DC just eight months into the Clinton presidency. On the way to the capital from his home in Kansas, Dickson’s small plane developed problems so he landed in St. Louis and rented another plane. That rented plane was the one that crashed in rural Virginia, killing both men.

  Jerry Parks, 47, September 23, 1993: The head of security for Bill Clinton’s headquarters in Arkansas, was shot to death. As he drove home in West Little Rock, two men in a white Chevrolet pulled alongside his car and sprayed it with semi-automatic gunfire. As Parks’s car stopped a man stepped out of the Chevy and shot him twice with a 9mm pistol and sped off. Despite there being several witnesses, no-one was ever arrested. The killing came two months after Parks had watched news of Vince Foster’s death and allegedly told his son Gary ‘I’m a dead man.’ His wife Lois remarried and her second husband, Dr. David Millstein was stabbed to death in 2006.

  Edward Willey Jr, 60, November 29, 1993: The Clinton fundraiser was found dead in the Virginia woods. He was having serious money problems and his wife, a volunteer aide in the White House, agreed to ask Bill Clinton for a paid job. Their meeting ended when Clinton allegedly forced himself on her in the Oval Office, kissing her, fondling her breast and pushing her hand on to his genitals. Four years later Kathleen Willey wrote a book in which she put forward a theory that the Clintons may have had her husband murdered. She said after his death, a friend had told her that Ed had confided that he took briefcases full of cash to the Clintons’ base in Little Rock, Arkansas during Bill’s first presidential campaign.

  Herschel Friday, 70, March 1, 1994: The Arkansas lawyer died in a small plane crash when he lost control as he came in to land at his Arkansas ranch. President Richard Nixon had once considered Friday for the Supreme Court. He was known as a benefactor of Bill Clinton, serving on his campaign finance committee after his law firm had persuaded the then-governor to support a tax package that helped the state’s horse racing industry.

  Kathy Ferguson, 37, May 11, 1994: The ex-wife of Arkansas State Trooper Danny Ferguson, who was named in a sexual harassment suit brought by Paula Jones against Bill Clinton. Ferguson died by gun suicide. She left a note blaming problems with her fiancé, Bill Shelton. A month later Shelton, upset about the suicide verdict, killed himself.

  Ron Brown, 54, April 3, 1996: The chair of the Democratic National Committee died in a plane crash in Croatia. He became head of the DNC during Bill Clinton’s rise to the presidential nomination and was rewarded with the cabinet position. He was under a corruption investigation when his plane slammed into a mountainside. Doctors who examined his body found a circular wound on the top of his head which led to suspicions that he had died before the plane crashed, but that theory was later discounted. The crash was attributed to pilot error.

  Charles Meissner, 56, April 3, 1996: The assistant secretary for international trade died in the same plane crash as Brown. Meissner had been criticized for allegedly giving special security clearance to John Huang, who later pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for violating campaign finance laws, in a case that enmeshed the Clinton administration.

  Seth Rich, 27, July 10, 2016: The Operations Director for Voter Expansion for the DNC, was found murdered on in Washington, DC. He was shot in the back a block from his apartment at 4:20am. His killers have not been identified. Conspiracy theorists believe Rich may have been involved in the DNC email leak in 2016. His death initially appeared like a robbery gone wrong but his mother Mary Rich claims that nothing was taken from her son, who was found with two shots in his back. The mystery surrounding his death sparked a flurry of theories, including claims that he was on his way to speak to the FBI when he was shot.

  To see the rest of the list, click here.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 20:25

• "Somebody's On Path To Destruct America," Warns US Oil Billionaire
  “Somebody’s On Path To Destruct America,” Warns US Oil Billionaire

  New York billionaire and refiner John Catsimatidis is out with a new warning that soaring fuel prices and rising interest rates could produce a hard landing for the US economy. Catsimatidis warned last month about the diesel shortage on the East Coast, even suggesting the fuel could “be rationed this summer.” 

  Catsimatidis told Fox Business’ Dagen McDowell that the fuel crisis “will get worse” and said the Biden administration is steering the economy on a path towards recession, indicating this downturn doesn’t need to happen. 

  Biden’s “obsession” against “turning on North American oil spigots” has skyrocketed energy costs and inflation, he said, adding that the president has been begging Saudi Arabia and other countries for more crude production instead of increasing domestic production. 

  “We have 100 years’ worth of oil [in the US]. Let them [the government] open up the spigots and the price of crude oil will come back down to $55, $60, maybe $65 – half”, Catsimatidis said. 

  He explained it makes absolutely “no sense” to beg Saudi Arabia for crude at $120/bbl. He called on the president to increase domestic drilling. 

  “[Biden] wants to fly to Saudi Arabia and beg the Saudi Arabians to give us another half a million barrels at $120 a barrel… It makes no sense,” he added. 

  Catsimatidis spoke with McDowell on Monday as the national gasoline average at the pump inched closer to $5 a gallon.

  

  Tightness in fuel supplies is worsening and has forced multiple banks, including Goldman Sachs (full note available only to pro subs), to revise the peak summer oil price target from $125/bbl to $140/bbl. 

  Goldman outlined demand destruction would be around $160/bbl. 

  

  Besides soaring energy costs (as well as rapid food inflation), Catsimatidis said he disagrees that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening is the right thing to do and could trigger a recession. 

  Catsimatidis left Fox listeners with this ominous warning: 

  “Somebody’s on the path to destruct America, and somebody’s got to say ‘guys, enough is enough’. You know what the cost has been to the American people because of the rising gas prices – the cost of the rising food prices – it’s going to go even higher with $120 oil”, Catsimatidis said.

  Maybe history doesn’t repeat, but it certainly rhymes. Perhaps Catsimatidis is right. Soaring energy costs and rising interest rates are a perfect storm that could shock the economy into the next recession. 

  Watch the full interview here (it’s short, about 5 minutes long). 

  … maybe Bloomberg’s Javier Blas is on to something here. 

  CHART OF THE DAY: Play long enough with a left-and-right y-axis double scale, and one can fit two charts and show a strong correlation. In this case, however, there’s a single scale (right), and the correlation is scary: Brent market in 2007-to-2009, and in 2021-to-date | #OOTT pic.twitter.com/IgjEe3Exy8

  — Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) June 7, 2022

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 19:45

• US Import Demand Is Dropping Off A Cliff
  US Import Demand Is Dropping Off A Cliff

  By Henry Byers of FreightWaves

  The latest ocean container bookings data reveals that despite the strong levels of inbound cargo during the first five months of 2022, import demand is not just softening — it’s dropping off a cliff. Because capacity on the trans-Pacific has remained relatively stable, Drewry’s container spot rates from China to the West Coast have plunged 41% month-over-month to $9,630.

  

  Freight forwarders will enjoy expanding margins on ocean freight, while U.S. trucking carriers and intermodal volume providers may start to see volume risks. 

  Consumer buying patterns are rapidly normalizing to pre-COVID levels, and U.S. retailers are stuck with too much inventory. Target shares dropped Tuesday morning after executives said the company would mark down unwanted items, cancel purchase orders and move quickly to get rid of excess inventory.

  Container imports bound for the U.S. have dropped over 36% since May 24. (This index measures departing container volumes at the port of origin). This is a troubling sign for domestic U.S. freight markets that have been benefiting from an unprecedented surge of containerized import volumes over the last 18 months. Since ocean transit times for these inbound container volumes have recently been averaging between 30 and 35 days, we will begin seeing the softer volumes show up at U.S. ports in the first couple of weeks of July. 

  

  This also puts U.S. containerized imports from all countries of origin down 36% year-over-year, which is a reversion back to the volume levels of the summer of 2020. But what is the cause of the sudden drop in containerized import volumes? Well, there are a few simultaneous factors converging that serve as likely explanations for why volumes are suddenly dropping.

  The inventory glut

  At the forefront of these reasons is the buildup of inventory here in the U.S. resulting from companies attempting to both replenish inventories that were largely depleted in 2021, but also from these companies wanting to keep enough inventory on hand in case of any further disruptions that may occur. Consecutive rounds of COVID lockdowns in China only exacerbated those fears, but after the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out more than 100 days ago, the geopolitical risks seem to only be escalating, and for better or for worse, companies decided that they would rather have the inventory safely here in the U.S. than risk having it abroad should there be a sudden surge in consumer demand.

  

  So, if consumers are now shifting buying trends from goods to services, those goods-producing companies may get stuck with too much inventory or the wrong inventory in order to try to capture sales. This buildup of inventory will inevitably lead to a slowdown in new import orders abroad and thus will only add to the demand destruction we are seeing for containerized imports into the U.S. Just Tuesday Target announced an “aggressive” inventory reduction plan led by canceling orders and marking down even more inventory. 

  The chart above, displaying rising inventories, and the chart below, displaying falling imports, reveal that retailers are upside down after the last surge of freight to hit the United States’ shores and are throttling down freight velocity in their networks.

  

  The consumer is getting crushed

  Conditions for the consumer seem to be getting worse and worse as inflation takes hold and prices get more and more expensive. Just this week, AAA reported a new record high for gasoline prices at $4.51 per gallon on its national index.

  Some economists speculate that with the Fed beginning to raise rates and draw down its balance sheet, we may be experiencing “peak inflation.” However, even if inflationary pressures begin to ease, consumers may still be overexposed to rising interest rates through the use of credit in a way that could further deteriorate demand and discretionary spending.

  Credit card spending has been accelerating at a time when personal savings rates have continued to decrease and move toward some of their lowest rates (last reading 4.4) since the Great Financial Crisis (4.5 in August 2009). There are two ways to read very low savings rates: either consumers are exceptionally confident and exuberantly spending their money or consumers are spending every last dollar they have in an attempt to keep their heads above water in a high-inflation environment. Either way, there isn’t any slack left in consumer wallets — it’s hard to imagine consumer spending growing from here.

  

  Unfortunately, inflationary pressures in energy and food don’t know or care that American consumers are out of money — inflation in those sectors was caused by supply shocks, not artificially stimulated demand. It is also important to keep in mind that the rate of growth for the Producer Price Index has been outpacing the Consumer Price Index, so some producers may still be taking some hits from rising costs that have not yet been passed on to the consumer.

  

  So even though total revolving credit outstanding is just at pre-pandemic levels, it is nonetheless accelerating, and if prices continue to rise, it is reasonable to expect that revolving credit outstanding will rise as well.

  

  At first glance, one may look at retail sales (charted below) and conclude that they are growing, but keep in mind that the report is measured in nominal dollars unadjusted for inflation and represents increases in the prices of goods being sold — not so much the strength or resilience of consumers. Goods-producing companies will not be alone. Services and tech companies will also be under pressure in the coming months, and sell-offs could lead to layoffs.

  

  As we see a growing number of signs pointing toward further demand destruction from U.S. consumers, and thus a further reversion of import container volumes back to levels closer to 2019, it is worth examining the trade lane that handles a majority of that volume: China to the U.S.

  When looking at aggregated volumes from China to all U.S. ports, we are able to see that volumes have been declining from the “peak of peak season” in September 2021 through Tuesday (currently down 51% from that peak). While late March through the beginning of May is historically (pre-trade war/pre-pandemic) a softer period for volumes on this trade lane, it is important to realize that this decline in volumes has also been amplified by the COVID restrictions and lockdowns implemented by the Chinese government in Shanghai as well as other important manufacturing regions in China (most notably around Beijing and its major nearby port of Tianjin).

  Despite the lockdowns, a decline in volumes on this major trade lane was seemingly inevitable in 2022 as the massive volumes moved between these two countries in 2021 were at unprecedented and unsustainable levels. Now some industry observers are calling for a “container surge” as China reopens, but it seems that the demand destruction has already spilled over into this trade lane in a big way.

  

  The ‘container surge’ that never was

  The “container surge” that many have been expecting from Shanghai (thought to be building during the lockdowns) appears to have mostly already been rerouted through the Port of Ningbo (yellow). With access to the Port of Shanghai being largely blocked due to landside restrictions (i.e., road closures), shippers were quick to reroute volumes through the closest alternate major port to the Port of Shanghai (red). Since the lockdowns began in Shanghai in late March, the decline in Shanghai new bookings (and thus load volumes) has been more than offset by a surge of volumes through Ningbo from rerouted containers. This led to booking lead times hitting their lowest levels on record as shippers scrambled to get their volumes moving.

  

  Despite the reopening of Shanghai, total container volumes from China to the U.S. have continued their downward trajectory, and that trend is not likely to be reversed by an easing of COVID restrictions alone. As of the latest data points, if this is the “container surge” from Shanghai to U.S. ports upon its reopening last Wednesday, then right now, it is barely a “blip on the radar” compared to the volumes from Shanghai to the U.S. that what we have seen over the last 18 to 22 months. This could easily change within our bookings data for the weeks ahead, and if there is pent-up demand, it will undoubtedly show up in the bookings data, but as of Tuesday, it has not yet materialized in any significant way.

  

  This steady decline in volumes from China to the U.S. has also put significant downward pressure on spot rates from the demand side. As capacity remained relatively consistent in the first few weeks post-lockdown (March 28 onward), the drop in volumes caused a decline in both the Freightos Baltic Daily Index and the Drewry World Container Index spot rates from China/East Asia to the U.S. West Coast (down 41% per FEU month-over-month [m/m] – $9,630), as well as from China/East Asia to the U.S. East Coast (down 36% per FEU m/m – $11,907). While this has been a welcome downturn in spot rates for shippers that battled the record-setting spot rates of 2021, we should also keep in mind that these spot rates remain elevated on a y/y basis (73% to the West Coast and 59% to the East Coast).

  

  If bookings continue to soften through June, we expect to see spot rates on this trade lane decline further, but ocean carriers may go to greater lengths than ever before to try and protect their record-setting earnings. They have already been cutting capacity on major trade routes  through measures such as blank sailings and reassigning vessels to other services, but if the decline in volumes accelerates in the weeks ahead, we may see the alliances test their strength and discipline like never before. 

  If rates start dropping quickly, it is reasonable to suspect that the ocean carriers that have not locked in a majority of their allocations in longer-term contracts may begin aggressively undercutting one another as they compete in the spot market. 

  Interestingly enough, the last port labor negotiations at LAX/LGB that caused disruptions to supply chains (and thus led to a buildup of inventory in the U.S.) in 2014-15 created a similar situation. Coming off of a record year, that may sound like an unlikely scenario, but there is a distinct possibility that sharply softening spot rates could cause a shakeup and/or reorganization of the current alliances.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 19:25

• Leading Dems Issue Letter Urging Biden To Distance US From 'Unreformed' Saudi Crown Prince
  Leading Dems Issue Letter Urging Biden To Distance US From ‘Unreformed’ Saudi Crown Prince

  A group of Democratic lawmakers are urging Joe Biden take greater caution with Saudi Arabia amid reports that he plans to travel there this summer, specifically that the US president take steps to distance the United States from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in almost unheard of Congressional dissent over historically close US-Saudi ties.

  The New York Times on Tuesday was the first to report on a letter delivered to President Biden, drafted by California Democrat Rep. Adam B. Schiff and signed by a handful of other influential Dems, which calls on the president to “recalibrate” the US-Saudi relationship – coming years after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of a Saudi hit team at the Istanbul consulate.

  While stopping short of calling on the president to cancel the trip altogether, the letter makes the case that any near-future engagement with the kingdom must be strive at “recalibrating that relationship to serve America’s national interests.”

  

  Importantly, the letter lashes out at MbS himself, expressly refuting claims that he’s a “reformer” – and demanding accountability for Khashoggi’s killing, stressing this should be a top US priority. 

  It’s in the following that the letter takes the crown prince and current de facto ruler of the country to task over persistent human rights abuses. The Congressional Democratic critique appears to emphasize that the Khashoggi affair wasn’t an isolated event, but that bin Salman has remained unrepentant as well as gone unpunished, leading to further human rights crackdowns with impunity:

  Finally, recent mass executions and Saudi pressure on Turkey to cease the trial for Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder bely claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is pursuing genuine reforms.

  Until Saudi Arabia shows signs of charting a different course, and in light of deliberations regarding a potential visit to the Kingdom during which you may have an opportunity to meet with King Salman and other regional heads of state, we encourage you to redouble your efforts to recalibrate the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

  The letter’s additional signatories, as Axios lists, include “Gregory Meeks, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Adam Smith, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; Bennie Thompson, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee; and Stephen Lynch, who chairs the Subcommittee on National Security on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.”

  The other more interesting and unprecedented criticism the letter presents (unprecedented, that is, for high-ranking Congressional Democrats to publicly express) is that it calls out the Saudis for working with China to build ballistic missiles.

  On this point, the letter says, “Public reports indicate that Saudi Arabia is pursuing greater strategic cooperation with China, including further ballistic missile acquisitions. We urge you to make clear that partnership with China in ways that undermine U.S. national security interests will have a lasting negative impact on the U.S.-Saudi relationship.”

  The letter offers critiques of recent Saudi actions on a variety of issues, including related to the war in Ukraine…

  Senior House Democrats urge Biden to overhaul the US relationship with Saudi Arabia ahead of his trip there. “Saudi Arabia’s refusal to stabilize global energy markets is helping bankroll Vladimir Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine”: pic.twitter.com/E58X4hQ3tf

  — Jared Malsin (@jmalsin) June 7, 2022

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

  According to background in the NY Times, “Saudi Arabia has bought short-range ballistic missiles from China for years. But in the last two years, that relationship has intensified, even as the United States and China have grown more adversarial.” 

  Further, as the Times points out, “The Saudis are now buying more capable missiles that can travel farther, and they are acquiring the technology to create their own components, set up production facilities and conduct test launches, U.S. officials say, with the apparent goal of being able to produce their own missiles in the future.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 19:05

• ANZ Bank Gives Transgender Staff 6 Weeks Of Paid Leave
  ANZ Bank Gives Transgender Staff 6 Weeks Of Paid Leave

  Authored by Nina Nguyen via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The ANZ bank will allow transgender and gender-diverse staff in Australia and New Zealand to take six weeks of paid leave and up to 12 months of unpaid leave so that they could affirm their gender.

  

  The bank, which is Australia’s second-largest by assets with more than 40,000 staff globally, announced on Monday that the leave will benefit employees who are undergoing “any aspect of gender affirmation including social, medical, and legal gender affirmation.”

  ANZ’s Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Fiona MacDonald, said the scheme was part of the bank’s ongoing commitment to the LGBTIQ+ movement and a step towards creating a more “inclusive culture.”

  She said the move as “especially important,” while claiming that trans and gender diverse people “are more likely to experience lower incomes and employment rates.”

  “The six weeks of paid leave means people who are affirming their gender do not need to exhaust their annual or sick leave entitlements, while also easing some of the financial pressures,” MacDonald said.

  The big four banks said in a statement on Monday that an individual can affirm their gender identity in “many ways,” and the extended leave was meant to “recognise the process needs time and is not the same for everyone.”

  According to ANZ’s press release, examples of social affirmation are changing of pronouns and/or names and adopting the clothing style that “better aligns with their gender identity”; medical affirmation includes surgery, hormone therapy, medical appointments, and recovery from medical procedures; and legal affirmation includes legally changing the name and/or gender marker on personal identification documents.

  On its website, ANZ declares itself as “a leading employer for LGBTQ+ inclusion” which has claimed several titles by the Australian Workplace Equality Index, a framework that measures Australian businesses’ level of LGBTQ+ “workplace inclusion.”

  The bank is a member of the Welcome Here Project by the government-funded LGBTIQ+ group the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON). Businesses participating in the project would need to display a rainbow sticker in a prominent place to demonstrate their support for the LGBTIQ+ cause.

  ANZ, a signatory to the UN Standards of Conduct for Business Tackling Discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people, is a close partner with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Transgender Victoria and Intersex Human Rights Australia.

  The move comes three weeks after Australian supermarket giant Coles announced it will allow trans and gender-diverse staff to take up to 10 days of paid gender affirmative leave.

  David Brewster, Coles Chief Legal and Safety Officer and chair of the company’s Pride Steering Committee said in a statement released on May 19: “We know that we have at least 900 team members who identify as transgender or gender diverse.”

  “We need to have proper policy and education in this area so there is clear guidance around taking leave for this important transition in their life.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 18:45

• "We're Closely Monitoring" – Did Yellen Just Signal Gold-Grab Over Russian Sanctions Loophole?
  “We’re Closely Monitoring” – Did Yellen Just Signal Gold-Grab Over Russian Sanctions Loophole?

  According to The IMF, Russia has around $132.26 billion of gold in its reserves, having cranked up its holdings dramatically as it de-dollarized from the USD (dumping all but a few of its US Treasury holdings in 2018)…

  

  As with most central bank’s reserves, the actual amount and location of those gold reserves is generally unknown or expressly hidden from public purview. As Ronan Many previously noted, Putin’s tour of a gold vault in 2011 (11 years ago) and Russian reporters visiting a gold vault in 2018 (4 years ago) are great for optics and marketing – and the Bank of Russia has been very successful in this regard – but without some hard facts about bar numbers and locational details from the Russian government and Bank of Russia, we still don’t know the true state, size and location of the Russian Federation’s gold reserves.

  Which is not surprising, since as Chris Powell of GATA has said in the past and will say again:

  “the amounts, location, and disposition of government gold reserves are secrets more sensitive than the amounts, location, and disposition of nuclear weapons.

  Indeed, under nuclear weapons control treaties, governments with nuclear weapons have often shared that sort of information, even with hostile powers. But gold reserve information is far more tightly held and most gold information provided officially is actually disinformation.

  Why is it this way? It’s because gold is an even more powerful weapon than nukes — an alternative currency that is not necessarily under any government’s power; a determinant of the value of other currencies, interest rates, government bonds, and equities.“

  

  Bringing us up to date, as we detailed previously, since the ruble collapsed under the strain of economic sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian people turned to gold to protect their wealth.

  Sberbank ranks as Russia’s largest financial institution. It reported the demand for gold quadrupled during the first two weeks of March. Demand from the Russian citizenry was so strong, the  Central Bank of Russia suspended its gold purchases from local banks so they could leave inventory for their customers.

  Demand for silver, platinum and platinum were also strong.

  On March 9, President Putin suspended the 20% VAT tax on precious metals. The move was designed to encourage people to buy gold instead of foreign currencies as the ruble collapsed.

  “Currently, households’ demand for buying physical gold in bars has increased, driven, in particular, by the abolition of value-added tax on these operations,” the Central Bank of Russia said in a statement earlier this month.

  According to Russian media, Sberbank Borrow and Save Division Director Sergei Shirokov said the bank’s clients are trying to protect their savings.

  “Precious metals are a traditional defensive asset that helps to feel confident in any economic situation. 

  At the moment, our clients want to receive a physical guarantee of the safety of their savings, and bullion is an excellent tool for this.”

  The Russian Ministry of Finance called gold an “ideal alternative” to the US dollar.

  

  The sanctions (threats and actual) from the West have sparked a cottage-industry in creative methods for other nations to circumvent them in order to still receive critical energy and agriculture goods from Russia.

  In late March, the chairman of Russia’s Congressional energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, said in a press conference that Russia was open to accepting bitcoin for its natural resources exports.

  “When it comes to our ‘friendly’ countries, like China or Turkey, which don’t pressure us, then we have been offering them for a while to switch payments to national currencies, like rubles and yuan,” Zavalny said during the press conference.

  “With Turkey, it can be lira and rubles. So there can be a variety of currencies, and that’s a standard practice. If they want bitcoin, we will trade in bitcoin.”

  Much attention has been focused on Putin’s “Rubles-for-Gas” demands sending the Ruble soaring to multi-year highs relative to its fiat peers.

  

  But in late May, the Interfax news agency quoted a government official saying that Russia is considering allowing cryptocurrency to be used for international payments

  “The idea of using digital currencies in transactions for international settlements is being actively discussed,” Ivan Chebeskov, head of the finance ministry’s financial policy department, was quoted as saying.

  Allowing crypto as a means of settlement for international trade would help counter the impact of Western sanctions, which has seen Russia’s access to traditional cross-border payment mechanisms “limited,” Chebeskov said.

  All of which prompted Treasury Secretary Yellen to note in March that:

  “I often hear cryptocurrency mentioned and that is a channel to be watched.”

  Ms. Yellen added that many participants in cryptocurrency networks are subject to anti-money laundering and sanction rules.

  “It’s not that that sector is completely one where things can be evaded,” she said.

  “We will continue to look at how the sanctions work and evaluate whether or not there are leakages, and we have the possibility to address them,” Ms. Yellen said at an event at the University of Illinois Chicago.

  But now things have escalated from ‘monitoring’ digital gold transaction to real gold.

  As Reuters reports, the US Treasury Department has made clear that gold-related transactions involving Russia may be sanctioned, and is closely monitoring any efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions through the use of gold, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday.

  “This is an important matter,” Yellen told a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Treasury’s budget.

  “We’re closely monitoring any efforts we can see to circumvent our Russia-related sanctions through the use of gold.”

  Such transactions may be sanctionable under an executive order issued by President Biden to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

  Notably, sanctions on gold reserves were proposed in March in an effort block Russia from selling any of its gold on international markets, in another step to “tightening the financial noose around Russia.”

  One wonders, given the fungible nature (and relatively anonymous nature of transcations), how exactly Yellen and the US Treasury will contain any “leaks” around the sanctions due to gold (and somewhat similarly crypto – though that is more traceable).

  Is Yellen inching closer to the threat of ‘confiscation’ of gold? They have already hinted at ‘freezing’ gold holdings.

  It happened before…

  

  Can it really happen again?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 18:25

• 10 Under-Reported Revelations From Trial Of Former Clinton Lawyer
  10 Under-Reported Revelations From Trial Of Former Clinton Lawyer

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  While former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann was acquitted of lying to the FBI, a number of new details came to light during his trial. Some haven’t been made known or been widely reported.

  

  1. FBI Lawyer Sussmann Met With Sought Perkins Coie Job

  Sussmann passed along claims about Clinton presidential rival Donald Trump to FBI lawyer James Baker on Sept. 19, 2016, as well as data that supposedly supported the claims.

  Baker gave the information to others in the bureau, triggering an investigation. The FBI and CIA both determined the claims were unsupported.

  Baker, while testifying during the trial, described Sussmann as a friend whom he met when both worked for the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI’s parent agency. Baker, who left the bureau in May 2018, revealed that he was seeking to work for Perkins Coie, the firm that employed Sussmann, soon after.

  “To the best of my recollection, I think it was Michael’s idea,” Baker said. “I mean, Michael knew that I had left the bureau, and I was looking around for a job—I had a job at the time, so I was working—I was working at the time, but I was looking around at other jobs, including [at] law firms. And so somehow he became aware of that and inquired about whether I would be interested in working at Perkins Coie.”

  In one of many text messages the men exchanged before and after the meeting, Sussmann told Baker on Sept. 29, 2018, that it was “great seeing you this week.” That was a reference to a meeting that involved discussing a job at Perkins Coie, according to Baker.

  While Sussmann arranged interviews for Baker, Perkins Coie never made a job offer.

  Baker described “a miscommunication” in which a headhunter he was working with told him that the firm had essentially rejected him. But when Baker conveyed the message to Sussmann, Sussmann “went and got it sorted out,” Baker said, adding that the firm was actually considering offering him a job. Baker, however, ended up taking jobs at the think tank R Street Institute and CNN. He left those positions to work at Twitter, where he’s currently employed.

  2. Joffe Was an FBI Source, and Was Fired

  The information that Sussmann took to the FBI was obtained by Rodney Joffe, among others. Joffe was a technology executive at Neustar who was one of Sussmann’s clients.

  Joffe was a confidential human source (CHS) for the bureau for years, it was revealed during the trial. He had regularly helped the bureau on cybersecurity matters and was even recommended for an FBI award in 2013.

  But Joffe was terminated, apparently because of his actions in 2016. He was “closed for cause as a source,” prosecutor Deborah Brittain Shaw said.

  “Our understanding is that Mr. Joffe was terminated as a source for cause in 2021 as an outgrowth of this investigation,” Michael Bosworth, a defense lawyer, added later.

  The defense successfully got U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, to order prosecutors not to reference Joffe’s status again, after they claimed it was “prejudicial to explore or elicit further testimony about his termination, given that it happened so late and was connected to this case.”

  Bosworth called Joffe “one of the world’s leading cyber experts” during opening arguments.

  Joffe “exploited his access” to non-public data from Trump Tower, Trump’s apartment in New York, and the White House to compile the data Sussmann eventually took to the FBI, according to prosecutors. Joffe could still be charged with crimes, prosecutors have indicated. He wasn’t called as a witness because he was going to refuse to answer questions, since he’s still under investigation.

  3. ‘Tea Leaves’ Was April Lorenzen

  The group that gathered the data that Sussmann presented to the FBI also included April Lorenzen, a data analyst at a firm called ZETAlytics.

  It was known that a person in the group went online and posted some of the information under the moniker “Tea Leaves.” The posts were made in October 2016, shortly after Sussmann met with Baker.

  But the identity of the person wasn’t confirmed until the trial, during which Bosworth said it was Lorenzen.

  Bosworth was questioning FBI agent Ryan Gaynor, who monitored the investigation into the Trump–Russia claims from Washington on behalf of FBI leadership.

  Gaynor acknowledged that, as far as he knew, nobody had tried to contact the person who posted the information online pseudonymously.

  “And are you aware that, if they had done so, they would have discovered that the person posting was another cyber expert named April Lorenzen?” Bosworth asked.

  “I am not,” Gaynor said.

  Slate magazine, which was one of the first outlets to publish an article about the Trump–Alfa Bank claims, described “Tea Leaves” as a male, as did The Intercept.

  “Tea Leaves” was mentioned in Sussmann’s indictment, which also described the person “Originator-1.” According to the indictment, “Tea Leaves” was a business associate of “Tech Executive-1,” who has long been known as Joffe.

  Jared Novick, who conducted research for Joffe on Trump associates such as Carter Page, said on the stand that Joffe “had involvement in” a number of companies, including ZETAlytics. Joffe previously refused to answer questions about the businesses he owned or was otherwise affiliated with during a deposition for a lawsuit filed by Alfa Bank.

  

  Rodney Joffe, left, launching Littoral Ventures with others, including April Lorenzen, second from right, the CEO of ZETAlytics. (DOJ via The Epoch Times)

  4. Multi-Pronged Effort to Seed Allegations

  Lorenzen posted the data on a WordPress blog. One or more members of the group also reportedly took to Reddit to share the data, and Joffe directed Sussmann to go to the FBI with the claims, Sussmann indicated in previous testimony before Congress.

  Separately, Joffe approached an FBI agent named Tom Grasso with several IP addresses that were purportedly linked to Alfa Bank, the Russian bank that Joffe’s group claimed had a secret backchannel with Trump’s business.

  Grasso said on the stand that he’d been working with Joffe for years, even though he wasn’t Joffe’s handler. He also said the situation was “unusual” because “it concerned a matter that I normally did not work on with Mr. Joffe.”

  “Most of the stuff I worked on Mr. Joffe with was cyber crime matters, and this was in the area of Russia and foreign influence and counterintelligence and things like that, which is why I quickly passed it off to who I thought were the people working that matter,” Grasso testified.

  Grasso didn’t reveal Joffe was a CHS in passing along the information to others in the bureau. Instead, he described Joffe as an “anonymous reporter.”

  During closing arguments, prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis said: “This is Mr. Joffe trying to put these politically charged allegations into another part of the FBI in order to create the appearance of two different streams of information. And that makes sense with the broader plan that was at work here. They were trying to hide origins, hide the involvement of clients in order to get the FBI to investigate.”

  Another aspect of the effort involved promoting the allegations to the media. Sussmann, operatives with Fusion GPS, and at least one Clinton campaign staffer shared the data with reporters to try to get stories written. That plan was approved by Clinton herself, campaign manager Robby Mook said on the stand. Among the reporters was Mark Hosenball of Reuters, who emails show was in contact with Fusion operatives. Hosenball went to the FBI to ask about the “Tea Leaves” post.

  5. Clinton Lawyers Met Regularly With Fusion

  Marc Elias, another lawyer with Perkins Coie, served as the Clinton campaign’s counsel after Clinton won the Democratic primary. He hired Fusion to perform opposition research and to help him with legal services. Fusion is the firm that compiled the infamous anti-Trump dossier with the help of former British spy Christopher Steele.

  Elias was known to have met multiple times with Fusion co-founders Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson ahead of the election. But during the trial, documents entered by the prosecution show the trio convened regularly, and that Debbie Fine, a top lawyer with the campaign, was part of the meetings.

  One document, titled “Daily Check in,” shows that meetings were scheduled every weekday for 30 minutes from June 6 until Oct. 31, 2016. Another shows a meeting of the quartet on Aug. 12 for its daily check-in. A third shows a meeting on Aug. 17.

  Fine said on the stand that she communicated with Fusion operatives on average several times a week.

  Fine didn’t recall daily check-ins. She said that as far as she knew, only she and Elias were aware of Fusion doing research, but she didn’t know why others weren’t aware.

  “I operated on the assumption that, like most of the work that I did for clients, it’s on a need-to-know basis, so I just—I didn’t share it, and I wasn’t told not to share it. And I don’t know whether or not Marc Elias shared it with anyone,” she said.

  Fine also said she didn’t recall discussions about Alfa Bank. Presented with an email she asked Elias to print in October 2016, she said the email was about the Trump–Alfa Bank allegations, as laid out in the Slate article.

  Elias previously told a congressional panel that Fusion was “acting as my agents” and that he met with the operatives on a weekly basis.

  Other documents entered during the trial showed that Elias met with Joffe in his office and spoke with him by phone, and that Elias sent an article related to Alfa Bank to top campaign officials, including campaign chair John Podesta, four days before Sussmann went to the FBI.

  6. FBI Leaders Were Excited About Probe

  Then-FBI Director James Comey was “fired up” about the Trump–Alfa Bank allegations, according to internal messages entered into evidence.

  Comey was interested in the case, another agent wrote.

  The decision to open an investigation was made by senior officials.

  Joseph Pientka, an FBI official, wrote in a message that the Chicago team “must” open a case because Bill Priestap, another official, “says its [sic] not an option—we must do it.”

  The case was opened later that day.

  FBI leadership kept tabs on the probe, mainly through Gaynor, who volunteered to monitor it from Washington.

  Senior FBI leaders imposed a “close hold” on the material, “which meant that the specific information about who had provided the allegation could not be provided to the field,” Gaynor testified during the trial. Leaders were also said to be behind efforts to stonewall agents who asked to interview the source.

  “When we said that we were interested in interviewing the—when I say ‘the source,’ I mean the author of the white paper or the source of the data—I don’t know if that’s different people or not—but wherever it came from,” said Allison Sands, the FBI agent who was in charge of investigating the claims.

  But leadership communicated that “we should, at the division level, focus on the technical analysis,” she added.

  Headquarters “was not giving us the ability to go interview these people,” Curtis Heide, another agent working the case, recounted. He said he was frustrated.

  Agents said that it’s important to know about sources’ political biases, such as Sussmann representing the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

  Gaynor acknowledged he had been under investigation for violating the hold during an interview with employees of the DOJ inspector general’s office during a 2020 meeting. He said he was “woefully ill prepared” for the meeting. He believes he’s no longer under investigation.

  

  Former FBI Director James Comey speaks via a TV monitor during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 30, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images)

  7. Multiple Offices Worked on Investigation

  Baker was based in Washington at the FBI’s headquarters. Gaynor monitored the investigation into the claims from Washington. Cyber experts in Chantilly, Virginia, initially analyzed the data, then passed the probe to a hybrid cyber-counterintelligence team in Chicago.

  At least one agent based in Miami worked on the case, interviewing Central Dynamics, the company to which the Trump email domain was registered, while another agent or agents in Philadelphia handled interviews at Listrak, another company.

  Grasso was based in Pittsburgh.

  “It looks like the clearing house in London” received the same white paper as the one given to Baker, or a similar one, Sands wrote in a message on Oct. 4, 2016.

  8. FBI Took Months to Close Investigation

  A full investigation into the Trump–Russia claims was opened on Sept. 23, 2016. The probe wasn’t officially closed until Jan. 18, 2017.

  FBI experts deemed the allegations likely false within a day. The team that did additional work in looking into the claims, which included contacting entities like Central Dynamics had come to a similar conclusion by Oct. 5, 2016.

  The delay in closing the probe stemmed from not being able to figure out who handed over the thumb drives that contained the data, according to Sands.

  The drives were serialized as 1b, which is digital evidence. When the bureau closes cases, it has to return items taken in the course of an investigation to their rightful owner.

  “Well, in this case, we didn’t know who the owner of the thumb drives was, because James Baker wasn’t the owner,” Sands said. “He was like a middleman or something. He had given them to us, but we didn’t know who the thumb drives belonged to.”

  The team moved to initiate an “abandonment hearing,” which would enable them to destroy the drives. However, because that involved layers of bureaucracy, Sands’s supervisor recommended reserializing the drives as 1a, which refers to anything an agent wants to have in a case file but isn’t necessarily evidence. She cited notes taken in an interview as an example.

  The reclassification allowed the FBI to close the investigation. That means it was closed when CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, in March 2017 that it was still being investigated.

  9. Paperwork Had ‘Mistakes’

  The document memorializing the opening of the investigation said the DOJ referred the allegations to the FBI. So did the closing document.

  Heide referred to both as “mistakes,” or “typos.” He said the team had apparently conflated the FBI’s office of general counsel with the DOJ.

  That wasn’t the only problem with files related to the probe.

  The closing document said that the was a “preliminary” inquiry as opposed to a “full” investigation.

  “That’s a typo as well,” Heide said.

  Heide said he was alerted to the issues for the first time in 2018 by the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General.

  “I believe they brought it to my attention and asked me if it was accurate, and my response was the same, that I don’t believe it was accurate,” he said.

  10. Investigation Into Crossfire Hurricane Continues

  Special counsel John Durham’s team, which prosecuted Sussmann, is investigating the origins of the government’s counterintelligence probes into alleged Trump and Russia links. Many of the probes utilized information paid for by the Clinton campaign.

  The FBI is also conducting its own inquiry into the probes, collectively known as Crossfire Hurricane, Heide said on the stand.

  “And are you being investigated individually as part of that investigation?” a prosecutor asked.

  “Yes. Myself and, I believe, others as well,” Heide said.

  Heide is being investigated for “not identifying exculpatory information as it pertained to one of the Crossfire Hurricane investigations,” he added later. “There were various consensual recordings that were obtained from one of the subjects, and there were statements, I believe, used in a FISA application that were—the exculpatory information was not divulged to the FISA court”—the secretive court authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

  A previous watchdog probe found the FBI committed “significant” errors and omissions in all four of the applications made to the court to spy on Page. The most significant may have been how an FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, doctored an email to state that Page wasn’t a CIA asset when, in fact, he was. Clinesmith pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from Durham’s probe and received probation.

  Heide, during testimony, denied that he withheld exculpatory information from the court.

  Heide, who is still with the FBI operating out of Des Moines, Iowa, worked on both Crossfire Hurricane and the Mid-Year Exam, or the bureau’s investigation into Clinton’s use while secretary of state of a private email server to send classified emails.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 18:05

• As White House Continues To Push Jabs For Kids, FL Surgeon General Questions Safety
  As White House Continues To Push Jabs For Kids, FL Surgeon General Questions Safety

  As we’ve noted for some time, Covid-19 vaccines have limited efficacy vs. the dominant (and thankfully more mild) strain, Omicron – with CDC researchers finding in one study that Pfizer’s jab was just 20% effective against symptomatic illness after 60 days for those aged 12-15 years old, and 0% effective after five months.

  

  One Danish study from the University of Copenhagen found that Omicron actually spreads faster in vaccinated individuals vs Delta, the previous dominant strain.

  When it comes to who Omicron is killing (or ‘involved’ in killing), one UK study that looked at 814,011 cases found just 128 deaths (0.00057%), of which 42 were aged 18-59 years-old, and zero deaths under the age of 18.

  

  Yet, despite clear and convincing evidence that Omicron is mild compared to its predecessor strains, the Biden administration continues to peddle fear.

  As Stanford health policy professor Jay Bhattacharya wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday – White House covid response coordinator Ashish Jha is engaging in “scare-mongering about the danger of Covid to children.”

  In a May 30 tweet, Dr. Jha asserted that Covid is “a far greater threat to kids than the flu is.” He linked to an article by Harvard Medical School instructor Jeremy Faust, which claims that Covid killed more than 600 children in 2021, whereas the flu kills “an average” of only 120 children annually.

  Great figure by @jeremyfaust says it all

  COVID is a far greater threat to kids than flu is

  And you know what dramatically lowers risk and keeps kids out of the hospital?

  Vaccines

  If your kid 5 or older isn’t vaccinated, its time

  Full article: https://t.co/r2gNeXkNx0 pic.twitter.com/7goa03DYVE

  — Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@AshishKJha46) May 31, 2022

  Bhattacharya demolishes Faust’s argument – noting: “Faust’s data are severely skewed, for three reasons.”

  First, while flu is seldom tested, everyone admitted to a hospital for any reason gets a Covid test. Between October 2018 and September 2019, 1.4 million flu tests were reported to public-health and clinical labs. As of May 31, 2022, there had been 897 million PCR tests for Covid.

  Second, evidence from audits of death certificates found that 35% of all pediatric deaths in 2020 “had co-occurring diagnosis codes that could not be plausibly categorized as either a chain-of-event or significant contributing condition,” according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Put another way, in at least 35% of pediatric “Covid deaths,” Covid couldn’t have been the cause.

  Third, Dr. Faust relies on a figure for confirmed flu deaths that is well-known to underestimate actual flu deaths by an order of magnitude. Correcting for the lack of flu testing, the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases estimated 1,161 pediatric flu deaths in the 2012-13 season rather than the 142 that Dr. Faust reported. -WSJ

  He then slams the Biden administration for “eroding public confidence” and undermining public health by lying about the Covid risk for children, and points out that “There are far greater risks to children than Covid. Since March 2020, more than 1,000 kids have died with Covid (an average of around 38 a month), according to the CDC. In the same period more than 1,400 children died from drug- and alcohol-related causes.”

  Then there’s Florida

  On Friday, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo openly questioned the safety of Covid-19 vaccines. During a press conference to announce an agreement with the Special Olympics to lift a vaccine mandate, the Florida Department of Health boss said: “People will say oh, you know, millions of people have taken these vaccines, they must be safe,” adding “Well, you can’t know the answer to that when it is taboo to talk about having a reaction after vaccines.“

  

  He also suggested that the vaccine has produced more side effects than others, such as flu shots, according to Florida Politics.

  “There’s another vaccine that over 100 million Americans take every year, and it’s the influenza vaccine, he said, adding “And the stream of adverse events that I’ve heard from people all over this country after these vaccines is nothing like the years of my life when I’ve been in medicine and have been administering the influenza vaccines. There is a difference, and you can’t say that millions of people getting it excuses you from that.”

  Regarding vaccine mandates, he said those make no sense based on what science now shows about this coronavirus and about vaccines in use now.

  “Scientifically, it makes zero sense,” Ladapo said. “How can you force people to take a vaccine in order to stop transmission when that vaccine is not effective at stopping transmission?” -Florida Politics

  The CDC, of course, insists that the vaccine is still better than nothing, saying in a statement that “Data show fully vaccinated persons are less likely than unvaccinated persons to acquire SARS-CoV-2, and infections with the delta variant in fully vaccinated persons are associated with less severe clinical outcomes.”

  Of course, they aren’t exactly breaking it down by age and comorbidity, are they?

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

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 17:45

• How Brazil Is Saving The World From A Catastrophic Food Crisis
  How Brazil Is Saving The World From A Catastrophic Food Crisis

  Authored by Augusto Zimmermann via The Epoch Times,

  Brazil is the fourth-largest producer of food in the world. The country is entirely self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs, and it ranks as the world’s number one producer of banana, cacao, cassava, coffee, corn, maize, rice, soybean, and sugar. Although the bulk of these products are consumed domestically, a considerable part is also exported, including oranges, palm oils, garlic, peanuts, tea, etc.

  

  But Brazil needs a steady supply of fertilizers to power its mighty agricultural industry. The country’s largest international supplier of fertilizers is Russia, which accounts for 44 percent of the total Brazil consumes each year.

  Since the war in Ukraine began, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said his country would remain neutral. He met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Feb. 16, and on the occasion, President Bolsonaro stated: “We are eager to cooperate [with Russia] in various fields. Defence, oil and gas, agriculture. Brazil stands in solidarity with Russia.”

  As one may expect, this visit to Russia was heavily criticized by the U.S. government because it took place in the midst of Western tensions with Russia over Ukraine. However, Bolsonaro did not back down.

  

  Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro speaks during a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on May 25, 2022. (Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images)

  The Amazon is a huge bank of endless natural resources for Brazilians. It has the most significant percentage of sweet water, valuable minerals, and petroleum globally. It is no wonder the global elites are appealing to environmental issues in an attempt to undermine Brazil’s sovereignty over the region. In reality, environmentally protected areas in Brazil amount to an impressive 25 percent of its entire territory—50 percent in the Amazon alone. However, we are constantly witnessing a misinformation campaign about the deforestation of the Amazon.

  On the other hand, it is also true that Brazil still needs to import 97 percent of the roughly 10 million tonnes of potassium it uses for crop production each year, making it the world’s largest importer. So, the fundamental question is: Where could Brazil find more fertilizers from?

  The potassium reserves in Brazil are mainly on its Indigenous lands in the Amazon region. According to Márcio Remédio, director of the Geological Survey of Brazil, a state-owned company under the Ministry of Mines and Energy, “These reserves are world-class. They have the potential, if not more, than those in the Ural Mountains produced by Russia and Belarus, and also of Saskatchewan in Canada.”

  In Brazilian Indigenous lands, only 3 percent of all these lands are deforested, a rate lower than on government and private lands. The Brazilian Constitution defines as Indigenous lands those traditionally occupied by Brazilian Indians, as well as “those used for their productive activities, those indispensable to the preservation of the environmental resources necessary for their well-being and for their physical and cultural reproduction, according to their uses, customs and traditions.” This description is so broad that an eminent constitutional law professor, Manoel G. Ferreira Filho, quipped that it would be easier if the Constitution had defined which land non-Indians could occupy.

  Federal law in Brazil authorizes the exploration of mineral riches in the Indigenous lands. A share of the profit must be transferred to the relevant Indigenous community occupying the region, which cannot be removed from the land except in the extraordinary cases of catastrophe or epidemic. Even so, these Indians preserve the right to return to the land as soon as the risks cease.

  

  A tractor sprays stone dust in a field next to a pile of stone dust at the Vargem Dourada farm in Padre Bernardo, Goias State, Brazil, on May 19, 2022. (Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)

  By making an agreement with Russia, Brazil has prevented potassium mining that could harm the Amazon and infringe on Indigenous rights and potentially saved the world from a catastrophic food crisis.

  “If Brazil were to scale back next year because of a lack of fertilizer, that would certainly be bad news for a global food crisis,” says Joseph Schmidhuber, an economist who has studied the conflict’s impact on food for the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation.

  The war in Ukraine, coupled with the West’s economic sanctions, have put the world’s food security at tremendous risk. These sanctions were meant to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but they are causing a serious danger to the world’s ability to feed itself.

  In this sense, the Brazilian government has recently submitted to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation an critical proposal excluding fertilizer products from any sanctions imposed on Russia. Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias has called on countries to find an international solution to the issue, noting that a shortage of fertilizers would provoke “food inflation and potentially undermine food security.”

  To conclude, not only has the Brazilian government avoided a food crisis by replenishing the country’s stockpiles with the help of Russia, but it has also been playing a leading role in seeking international solutions to an emerging food emergency crisis that, in the worst scenario, could see millions of people dying from starvation, especially in the poorer countries.

  That so being, the world should hope that President Jair Bolsonaro is duly re-elected by the Brazilians in the forthcoming presidential elections in October this year.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 17:25

• Bitcoin Soars Back From Overnight Plunge As Citadel, Virtu Signal HFT Move To Crypto
  Bitcoin Soars Back From Overnight Plunge As Citadel, Virtu Signal HFT Move To Crypto

  So now we know what Plan B was for the giant HFT shops…

  Just hours after the SEC leaked plans to The WSJ that the regulator is preparing to propose unprecedented changes to market structure as soon as this fall which would make it virtually impossible to frontrun retail orders, sending shares of Virtu tumbling, Coindesk reports that Citadel and Virtu are building a cryptocurrency trading platform along with retail brokerages Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

  According to Coindesk, work on a “cryptocurrency trading ecosystem” is aimed at creating more efficient access to deep pools of liquidity for digital assets, the source told the online publication.

  The firms in Citadel Securities’ initial consortium will be joined by additional wealth managers, market makers, and other industry leaders who are expected to join the marketplace before it launches.

  Citadel Securities had been “quietly hiring executives” to build out a crypto trading stack, a second source told CoinDesk.

  “This marketplace is intended to create more efficient access to deep pools of liquidity for digital assets. So a group of industry leaders are working closely together to facilitate the safe, clean, compliant and secure trading of digital assets,” the source told CoinDesk.

  Bloomberg reports that Susan Coburn, a spokeswoman for Fidelity, said the company “supports efforts within the industry that provide optionality to source liquidity for our clients.”

  Schwab “has made a minority, passive strategic investment in a new digital asset venture,” spokeswoman Mayura Hooper said in an emailed statement.

  “We know there is significant interest in this cryptocurrency space and we will look to invest in firms and technologies working to offer access with a strong regulatory focus and in a secure environment.”

  Additionally, earlier in the day, Citadel confirmed its commitment to crypto as it noted that if regulators allow it, the company is willing to make markets in ETFs that hold cryptocurrencies.

  “We will be ready if and when those products are approved, but we are taking a measured approach,” Kelly Brennan, head of the firm’s ETF group, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York, adding that the firm can’t provide liquidity until regulatory issues are resolved.

  “We get a huge volume of calls about spot Bitcoin ETFs, but they are all from prospective issuers,” said Cory Laing, head of Delta-One sales at Citadel Securities. “The calls are not coming from clients.”

  Customers who want to be in crypto are finding ways, according to Laing.

  “They aren’t waiting for a nice packaged product,” he said.

  If a spot Bitcoin ETF gets approval, Laing anticipates that demand will follow.

  

  As a reminder, Griffin told Bloomberg earlier this year he had changed his anti-cryptocurrency stance and that it was possible his firm would get into market-making for digital assets.

  “Crypto has been one of the great, great stories in finance over the course of roughly the last 15 years and, I’ll be clear, I’ve been in the naysayer camp over that 15-year period.”.

  The reaction to this news was self-evident as overnight weakness in Asia was eviscerated with a mirror-image buying-panic…

  

  One reason for this renewed bullishness is self-evident.

  Growth in the partnership between the price-makers (Virtu and Citadel) and price-takers (the clients of Schwab and Fidelity) relies on ‘roping in’ more and more retail traders whose orders will be potentially ‘front-run’ (allegedly), since liquidity and trading volumes have collapsed as crypto prices have dropped. And what drags retail kicking-and-screaming back into Bitcoin and Ethereum better than a rip-snorting rally where ‘all your friends’ on Twitter or TikTok are “killing it” again.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 17:05

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• "Ticking Timebomb": 500,000 UK Small Businesses Could Imminently Go Bust 
  “Ticking Timebomb”: 500,000 UK Small Businesses Could Imminently Go Bust 

  As a stagflationary storm looms over the UK economy, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) chairman warned of a tsunami of small business closings without new support packages from the government. 

  FSB chairman Martin McTague, recently told BBC Radio 4’s Today, “there is still a massive problem with small businesses. They are facing something like twice the rate of inflation for their production prices, and it’s a ticking timebomb. They have got literally weeks left before they run out of cash and that will mean hundreds of thousands of businesses, and lots of people losing their jobs.”

  McTague referred to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, showing that 2 million (or about 40%) of the UK’s small businesses had less than three months of cash in reserves to support operations. He noted that 10% (or 200,000) were in grave danger, and 300,000 only had a few weeks of cash left. 

  “It is a very real possibility because … they don’t have the cash reserves. They don’t have any way they can tackle this problem,” McTague said. 

  FSB chairman’s warning comes as April UK inflation hit 9%, the highest level since 1982. Inflation has been widely sparked not just by loose monetary policy conditions during the virus pandemic but now soaring energy costs as Europe tries to ween itself off Russian fossil fuels and monetary tightening by the central bank. 

  

  McTague gave one example of a hotel owner in Scarborough, a resort town on England’s North Sea coast, which had profits wiped out because soaring power bills were five times higher than normal levels. 

  “They weren’t able to trade any longer without essentially trading at a loss and therefore damaging the future of their business and everybody that worked for them,” he said. 

  Soaring inflation and faltering growth is a perfect recipe for a stagflationary macro backdrop that is already crushing small businesses and households. ONS data showed the economy contracted by .1% in March, and the economy appears to be sliding into what could be the beginning of a recession. 

  

  Meanwhile, Bloomberg data shows the Bank of England is on an aggressive hiking path this summer to quell inflation. Tightening into a downturn will only add even more pressure on small businesses by making lending more expensive and stifling demand. 

  

  Recession fears and economic turmoil have sent the pound to a two-year low. 

  

  A combination of higher energy prices, a slumping pound, faltering economic growth, a deteriorating environment for small businesses, weak households, trade restrictions on Russia, a central bank that is tightening, and overall inflation at four-decade highs have all produced a toxic environment for the UK economy. 

  No wonder the UK Misery index is soaring to the highest level since 1994. 

  

  Meanwhile, Barclays’ small and medium-sized enterprises barometer shows 75% of British firms are worried about the challenging macro climate and how it could dramatically impact their operations. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 02:45

• NATO Kicks Off Baltic War Games With Finland, Sweden As Russia Tensions Boil
  NATO Kicks Off Baltic War Games With Finland, Sweden As Russia Tensions Boil

  Authored by Kyle Anzalone via AntiWar.com,

  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced it will launch military drills with 7,000 troops in the Baltics. The provocative war games will include Sweden and Finland. Stockholm is hosting the exercises after applying for NATO membership last month.

  The war games, dubbed Baltic Operations (BALTOPS 22), are based in Stockholm. BALTOPS 22 will primarily consist of naval operations and run from June 5-17. The drills will involve 45 ships and 75 aircraft. Sixteen nations will participate, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

  

  The annual war games are taking on increased significance as Helsinki and Stockholm recently submitted their applications to join NATO. The USS Kearsarge is in the Swedish capital city for the war games. According to Chairman of the Joint Chief, Gen. Mark Milley said, part of the ship’s mission is a show of force to Russia.

  “I think the Kearsarge being here is a pretty strong statement,” Milley said. “This is a big exercise with 7000-8000 soldiers from 16 countries, two of which are not NATO members.”

  Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson added, “This shows President Biden’s security assurances are followed by actions.”

  Several NATO members gave security guarantees to Sweden and Finland as they go through the membership process. The security guarantees are meant to prevent a Russian attack before Stockholm and Helskinki receive protection under the alliance’s mutual defense pact.

  Russia says it will not react to Finland and Sweden joining the North Atlantic alliance but warned against a military buildup in the Nordic counties.

  How could NATO’s expansion stabilise the Baltic region?

  Exercise Hedgehog might have been planned long before #Russian troops invaded #Ukraine, but the huge war games in Estonia are a prickly reminder of NATO readiness.

  Read more: https://t.co/ib8Ku9gOoo#maritimesecurity pic.twitter.com/jwBJ3fBSW5

  — Dryad Global (@GlobalDryad) May 23, 2022

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  Antti Pelttari, head of Finland’s intelligence service, confirmed Moscow had not targeted Helsinki with reprisals since it submitted its NATO application. “It has been rather quiet, and let’s hope it stays that way,” he said in an interview with Financial Times. “It’s a positive thing that nothing has happened.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 06/07/2022 – 02:00

• Why Uvalde Doesn't Justify Gun Control
  Why Uvalde Doesn’t Justify Gun Control

  Authored by Frank Miele via RealClearPolitics.com,

  The deaths of 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, are a nightmare that I can’t even fathom. It is pure evil.

  Yet millions of Americans seem prepared to accept this nightmare as the new normal.

  

  They don’t ask what could turn an 18-year-old boy into a monster who could look innocent children in the face and shoot them to death while dozens others were screaming, while blood splattered and puddled in the classrooms, while his own life ticked down to its final meaningless minute.

  They just assume there are more like him – waiting, planning, marking time, ready to do the unthinkable.

  And their proposed solution is to take guns away from law-abiding American citizens on the assumption that evil people will be deterred from doing evil if they can’t obtain (take your pick) either long guns or handguns (or both).

  Why do I get the feeling these presumably well-intentioned people don’t know what evil is? Don’t they realize that mass murder is never normal? Perhaps more importantly, why do they think that the government can hinder evil by passing new laws that will restrict gun ownership?

  The crisis isn’t that children kill other children with guns; the crisis is that children want to kill other children with guns. And more broadly, there is a moral crisis in our country because we teach children that right and wrong are no longer absolutes, that they are rather subjects for debate. And the more we debate right and wrong, the more that evil gains a foothold in our society.

  But it is easier to talk about guns than it is to talk about evil. It is easier to blame guns than it is to blame our sick society for what happens to our children. If you want to prevent mass murder, the answer isn’t to take guns out of classrooms; it is to put God back in classrooms, and to fearlessly teach children about good and evil, about right and wrong, about the basis for our laws and our civilization. A society that is unwilling to acknowledge a higher power is unlikely to have any answers for children who question authority.

  Even if we can’t reverse the secularization of America, there are steps that can be taken to improve public safety without restricting gun rights.

  If you want to prevent psychotic teenagers from acting out their dreadful fantasies, for instance, try providing mental assistance when they make threats to kill people. Even better, don’t prescribe dangerous psychotropic drugs that can result in hallucinations, paranoid delusions, mood swings, depression, and “abnormal” thoughts. Those are all listed side effects for Adderall, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for teenagers with behavioral problems.

  Instead of taking guns away from people who have never even contemplated committing a crime, how about this? Pass laws that make it a felony to threaten violence against children or to threaten random violence in public places. Then prosecute those crimes and lock up the people who are deemed a threat by a jury of their peers. Don’t do what the California state Senate just did and vote to remove the requirement that police be notified when students make threats against a school official. That is just plumb crazy.

  Of course, reliance on the police to solve all our problems is also crazy.

  That is the logical fallacy at the heart of the argument of would-be do-gooders like Beto O’Rourke who want to grab your guns. Think about it. They are asking us to turn our safety (and our children’s safety) over to the care of law enforcement when it was law enforcement that let us down at Uvalde. From the video and testimonial evidence, it appears that police were called to the scene of the massacre quickly and then waited. Waited while children died. Waited while children were risking their lives by making 911 calls to beg for help. Waited. For more than an hour. Waited. Until finally Border Patrol officers took matters into their own hands and shot the demon.

  Do you see the irony? The people of Uvalde trusted the government to protect their children, and children perished. But give one parent a gun at Uvalde and there’s at least a 50/50 chance he or she would have ambushed the shooter and killed him. And the more law-abiding people who have guns, the better off the rest of us will be when crazed shooters decide to go on a killing spree.

  Unfortunately, too many people looking for easy solutions want to take guns out of the hands of citizens and put all the power for our protection in the hands of government. That goes against our lived experience, not just at Uvalde but in society overall.

  In case after case, we the people have been conditioned to believe that the government is incapable of protecting us from criminals.

  Consider the summer of 2020 when our cities were burning and mobs were rampaging in state after state. What did the government do to protect us? Nothing. They decided it was safer to let the mobs riot, to let the looters loot, to let the fires burn – perhaps because they were afraid they would be “defunded” if they actually fought to protect citizens from dangerous criminals. Gun owner Kyle Rittenhouse decided to try to protect Kenosha, Wisconsin, and he was arrested and charged with murder for his trouble.

  Moreover, in city after city, Democratic prosecutors have decided it is easier to let criminals go than to send them to jail. This crusade against “mass incarceration” is also known as sweeping the dirt under the rug. The problem isn’t that too many people are in jail; the problem is that too many people commit crimes. Left-wing prosecutors like George Gascon in Los Angeles are adding fuel to the fire by releasing criminals back into society without punishment, thus giving them incentive to commit more crimes. Refusing to prosecute gun crimes guarantees that more guns will be used in crimes.

  And let’s not forget the most glaring example of the government abdicating its responsibility to protect the public from criminals – Joe Biden’s open border. How many millions of people have to enter our country illegally before you lose confidence in the government to do its job? Well, I’m well past that point. Like millions of other Americans, I don’t trust the government. Can you think of any reason why I should, when the Department of “Homeland Security” not only allows unvetted immigrants into the country illegally but then flies them to their preferred destination? It’s that same government, by the way, which says that people like me (i.e., Republicans) are domestic terrorists and would like nothing better than to lock us up just like King George wanted to lock up those unruly colonists who insisted on something called “liberty.”

  Joe Biden wants to suspend the Constitution and deny American citizens the right to bear arms of their choice. Of course he does, because it is the easiest answer to a complicated problem, and because it would consolidate power in the hands of the government. Last week, Biden spoke earnestly and forcefully to a prime-time audience and told us that the shooting at Uvalde was enough, that no more innocent people need die if we just turn over our guns. Coincidentally, an hour before Biden spoke, I was watching an episode of the TV series “Alex Rider,” where these frightening words were spoken:

  “From Facebook data to Internet oversight, what we can see is that if your message is strong enough, you can take away people’s liberties, and they will applaud you for doing it.”

  Unfortunately, such a message is not just fiction. Consider yourself warned.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 23:40

• Pizza Hut Pushes Drag Queen Book For Kid's Summer Reading Program
  Pizza Hut Pushes Drag Queen Book For Kid’s Summer Reading Program

  Restaurant chain Pizza Hut is the latest company meddling in divisive political issues, as they promote a children’s book this summer that features a young boy who dresses in drag. 

  Since 1984, Pizza Hut has been running a reading program for PreK through sixth-grade classrooms called “BOOK IT!” incentivizing children to read a list of books to achieve awards, such as free pizza. 

  In celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month, the fast-food chain owned by Yum! Brands added “Big Wig,” which tells the story of a young boy who competes in a neighborhood drag competition. 

  

  The publishers, Simon and Schuster, said the book “celebrates the universal childhood experience of dressing up and the confidence that comes with putting on a costume.” 

  

  “And it goes further than that, acknowledging that sometimes dressing differently from what might be expected is how we become our truest and best selves,” the publishers continued. 

  

  The book’s author, Jonathan Hillman, who graduated from Hamline University in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program, tweeted about his book being featured in Pizza Hut’s book club for young kids. BOOK IT! ‘s website shows the book is for kids from Pre-K to 3yo. 

  Hooray! Thank you @pizzahut for featuring BIG WIG (and for the MANY pizzas over the years 🍕). I grew up doing Book It!, so this is really special. And thank you @mychal3ts for sharing! 🌈 #Pride @LeviHastingsArt @SimonKIDS https://t.co/BgLBnwdqSQ

  — Jonathan Hillman, BIG WIG author ✨ (@jhillmanbooks) June 3, 2022

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  Critics of the children’s book suggested a boycott over woke corporatism. 

  Should we boycott @pizzahut? https://t.co/epZ8yaaYtK

  — Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) June 3, 2022

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  Boycott Pizza Hut, order from Papa John’s instead.

  Better ingredients. Better pizza. No wokeness.

  — Nick Adams (@NickAdamsinUSA) June 4, 2022

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  Time to BOYCOTT Pizza Hut they are pushing indoctrination vs education

  — Patriot USA (@lorraine01640) June 4, 2022

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  MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT:

  Pizza Hut has gone woke, now they must go broke. Every single American must boycott woke pizza! pic.twitter.com/tkij2wa7XL

  — Nick Adams (@NickAdamsinUSA) June 4, 2022

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  Hey, @pizzahut I’m switching to these guys. This is kindness and morality, not indoctrination. pic.twitter.com/mmjkZRBcin

  — Coder (@WhiskeyCoder) June 4, 2022

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  Some pointed out this is a “plan to indoctrinate kids.” At such a young age, children’s brains are like sponges taking in everything around them…

  I know their whole plan was indoctrination, but we went from drag queens reading with kids to drag queens are kids awfully fast. https://t.co/uj3dHpDp5O

  — Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) June 3, 2022

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  Go woke, go broke. These companies need to understand they are not political entities, and if they wanna push crazy ideology promoting unhealthy indoctrination of our children they need to feel the mighty punch of the side that doesn’t believe those views. https://t.co/SMyXOKba87

  — Rick Harrell (@RickHarrell21) June 5, 2022

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  It’s indoctrination plain and simple, I have no issue in a person being what they want in life but to force it is wrong. This is propaganda meant to lock step salute an extremists ideology. #Let kids be kids stop the brainwashing.

  — Richard W. Hampton (@rickywade321) June 5, 2022

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  @pizzahut encourages the Sexualization of Children by pushing these indoctrination books by the LGBTQRSTUV community of WOKENESS like “ Big Wig” unbelievable. Good bye Pizza Hut thank you I’ll teach my kids about sex after all I am the Parent.

  — Larry kepple (@JohnQ_Hadenough) June 4, 2022

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  None of this woke activism comes as a surprise considering Pizza Hut is owned by Yum! Brands. Last month, Taco Bell, also owned by Yum!, introduced “Taco Bell Drag Brunch” at select Taco Bell Cantinas across the US.

  Seems like Yum! ‘s out-of-touch executives are pushing woke activism through its fast-food chains. The consequences could be severe for Yum! as the saying goes, ‘get woke, go broke,’ as Americans are becoming increasingly outraged that such corporate and government messaging is being aimed at their children. 

  Even former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi is fed up with woke corporate activism, recently saying: “Corporations have no business being on the right or the left because…their sole job is to build equity for the investors.”

  Besides Pizza Hut, liberal-run Ben & Jerry’s launched a multi-state media campaign with billboards to combat anti-trans legislation in several states, such as Florida. Here’s an example of one of the billboards in Georgia. 

  

  And it’s not just woke corporate America that is getting push-back. Kuwait’s government summoned a senior US diplomat at the US Embassy in Kuwait for tweeting a rainbow flag in celebration of Pride Month. 

  How much is too much? Corporate America and the US government are hellbent on spreading an agenda of wokness. 

  Podcaster Joe Rogan has called woke corporate execs and employees “mentally ill.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 23:20

• Demographers Warn Of Impending Population Collapse
  Demographers Warn Of Impending Population Collapse

  Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Amid the deluge of dire predictions that the human population will rise exponentially, deplete the earth’s resources, and overheat the planet, two recent demographic studies predict the opposite—that the number of people will peak within the next several decades and then begin a phase of steady, irreversible decline.

  

  In some places, including Japan, Russia, South Korea, and most countries in Europe, that population collapse has already begun. China is not far behind.

  The United Nations has predicted that humanity will continue its rapid expansion into the next century, growing from just under 8 billion today to more than 11 billion by 2100. An oft-repeated interpretation of this data is that people are having too many babies, and many of the models for climate change and environmental degradation are based on projections like these. In August, the U.N. declared a “code red for humanity” over climate change and overpopulation, and analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley stated that the “movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing.”

  However, a demographic study funded by the Gates Foundation and published in the Lancet, a medical journal, paints a much different picture. This study, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, predicts that the global human population will peak at 9.7 billion within several decades, and then start to decline. “Once global population decline begins,” the authors write, “it will probably continue inexorably.”

  The Lancet study projects that by the end of this century, China will have shrunk by 668 million people, losing almost half of its current population, and India will lose 290 million. Despite all efforts to reverse this trend in China, including eliminating the one-child policy and providing incentives for child-rearing, couples are not cooperating; China experienced its fifth consecutive record low birth rate in 2021.

  Findings like these are the basis for Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s statement in May that “civilization is going to crumble” from the loss of so many people. Musk had previously declared at a speaking event in 2019 that “the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years is population collapse.” Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group, also present at the event, said, “I agree.”

  

  Manoj Pradhan, economist and co-author of “The Great Demographic Reversal,” predicts that population loss will bring dramatic economic, political, and societal changes. “The future is going to look very, very different from the past,” he said. Some of the things we are experiencing today, such as high inflation, labor shortages, and the sacrifice of economic well-being to protect the elderly and the vulnerable, offer a “peek into the future.”

  The most populous countries in the world today are China and India, both with about 1.4 billion people, together comprising one-third of the world’s population. The United States is a distant third, with 330 million. Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, and Japan round out the top 10.

  According to the Lancet and other studies, populations will soon start to fall throughout Asia and South America, catching up with chronic declines that are already taking place in Europe. Simultaneously, Africa will be one of the few areas that continue to grow their population, though even in Africa growth rates are falling. Nigeria is projected to gain 585 million people by the end of this century, becoming the world’s second-most populated country after India, with China falling to third and the United States falling to fourth. Japan, Russia, and Brazil will soon drop out of the top 10 altogether.

  The key discrepancy between those who project rapid expansion and those who predict decline centers on fertility rates. Dr. Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, co-authors of “Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline,” combed through global fertility data and traveled across six continents speaking with people throughout Asia, Africa, South America, and the West. What they discovered concurs with the Lancet Study; both statistically and anecdotally, birth rates around the world are significantly below what the U.N. has projected.

  Driving the population collapse is what Bricker and Ibbitson call the “fertility trap.” For a country to sustain its population, women must have an average birth rate of 2.1 children. Once a country’s fertility rate falls below 2.1, it never comes back.

  In 2020, the U.S. fertility rate was 1.6, the lowest rate in America’s history and a sharp decline from 3.7 in 1960. Europe’s average fertility rate is 1.5. Among other top-10 countries, the Lancet Study reports that Japan’s fertility rate is currently 1.3. China’s fertility rate ranges from 1.3 to 1.5, depending on the source, but some estimates put it as low as 1.15.

  Russia’s fertility rate is 1.6. Deaths substantially outnumber births in Russia today, and it is projected to lose up to one-third of its population by 2050. A January Foreign Policy report stated that Russia’s loss of population means it will soon struggle to field enough soldiers for a major military conflict, likely a factor behind its recent threats to use nuclear weapons.

  In 1960, the average woman worldwide had 5.2 children. Today that number has fallen to 2.4 and is projected to decline to 2.2 by 2050, barely at replacement level across the globe. By 2100, the Lancet predicts global fertility will be 1.66, taking into account current trends of urbanization, women’s education, workforce participation, and access to birth control.

  Going from a birth rate of 5 to a birth rate below 2, writes Stanford University Economist Charles I. Jones, is the difference between “exponential growth in both population and living standards and an empty planet, in which incomes stagnate and the population vanishes.” Jones’ March 2022 report, titled “Consequences of a Declining Population,” describes what he calls the “empty planet result,” featuring not only a decline in human prosperity, but also a depletion of culture, ideas, and innovation. “Economic growth stagnates as the stock of knowledge and living standards settle down to constant values,” Jones writes. “Meanwhile, the population itself falls at a constant rate, gradually emptying the planet of people.”

  For countries below the replacement rate, immigration can help sustain their population for a time, but there are few countries that allow significant immigration and even fewer that are managing it effectively. The global drop in fertility, however, means that even countries like the United States and Canada, which have been growing their populations through immigration, may soon hit their peaks as well.

  While a future with fewer people may have environmental benefits, one demographic problem is that, as humanity shrinks, the composition of societies changes dramatically. Longevity is a key factor slowing the population collapse—the average human lifespan has increased from 51 years in 1960 to 73 years today. The Lancet predicts that by century’s end there will be 2.4 billion people older than 65, compared with only 1.7 billion under the age of 20. The median age worldwide has gone up from 22 years in 1960 to 30 years today, and is projected to increase to 41 years by 2100.

  

  A large portion of the earth’s population will be older, beyond childbearing age, and more dependent on an ever-shrinking pool of productive young people to care for them in retirement. This inverse pyramid of the few supporting the many is most likely unsustainable. One phrase that is commonly used by researchers regarding countries like China is that they are “getting old before they are rich enough to get old.”

  Urbanization

  Demographers say there are several causes of declining fertility rates, but they point to one factor that seems to be driving the rest: urbanization. When people move from the countryside to cities, the economics of having children shifts.

  In purely monetary terms, children are no longer a source of labor for farms, etc., but rather an expense. In the United States, the average cost of raising a child to adulthood, not including college expenses, is $267,000. Another consequence of urbanization is that women become educated, employed, independent, and have better access to contraception. Regardless of which country they’re in, women react the same way, by having fewer children and having them later in life.

  According to the “Empty Planet” authors, fewer than a third of the world’s people lived in cities in 1960. Today, just over half of the world’s population are urban dwellers; by 2050, that number is expected to increase to more than two-thirds.

  Africa is projected to increase from 44 percent urbanized today to 59 percent by 2050, Asia from 52 percent to 66 percent. The rest of the world’s population is already more than 80 percent urbanized. The U.N. study predicts that China will go from having been 16 percent urban in 1960 to 80 percent urban by 2050. And China’s demographic problems are exacerbated by the fact that its one-child policy, although officially ended in 2016, has created a shortage of women today. Currently, China has 34 million more males than females, leaving a large portion of its male population now reaching adulthood without the prospect of having a family.

  Is Japan Our Future?

  Some say that if you want to see your future, look at Japan today. Japan is 92 percent urbanized and its population is shrinking by about half a million people every year. It is a fairly homogenous society with little immigration, and its marriage and birth rates have declined steadily, leaving it a “super-aged” nation with 20 percent of its population now older than 65. As Japan ages and empties, its economy has stalled and asset values have fallen.

  Japan’s Nikkei stock market index crashed during the 1990s from a high of 39,000 to 20,000, marking the “start of a long adaption from a young, fast-growing economy to an aging, slow-growth new normal,” explained economist Martin Schultz. Japanese stocks never fully recovered; three decades later, the Nikkei index is currently at 27,000.

  After rising dramatically for decades, Japan’s per capita GDP flatlined in 1995 and has not grown significantly since. With an aging and declining population, sales of adult diapers in Japan now exceed that of infant diapers, and some of the emptier places in Japan have even taken to posing life-sized dolls in public places to make these locations feel less deserted.

  Asked if Japan was our future, Pradhan said “sadly, no, because that would’ve been quite comforting. Japan had its demography turning negative while the rest of the world was swimming in labor.” Japanese companies were able to prosper through the decline by shifting labor to places with abundant populations, while workers at home developed automation to increase their productivity. Consequently, Japan so far has avoided the inflation and debt levels that shrinking and aging populations will bring.

  As countries produce less and dedicate more and more resources to caring for the elderly, Pradhan said, “we’re going to see an increase in debt-to-GDP ratios to the extent that no one has ever imagined.” This will lead to lower growth and chronic inflation. Stagflation could become a permanent feature.

  On the positive side, labor shortages will likely lead to higher wages and greater equality among working-age people. And there will be great demand for technologies to replace the more rudimentary tasks and free up human labor.

  Pradhan cited the example of the Japanese government providing subsidies for nursing homes to buy robots to carry out the simpler aspects of elderly care. “Japan’s productivity is one source of hope for all of us.” It is also possible that medical breakthroughs could improve the health of the elderly and extend peoples’ productive years, allowing retirement to be pushed later in life.

  Another thing that will be in high demand is empathy in taking care of others, which families traditionally had done for parents and grandparents. “I think that’s something that in a mechanized society, we’ve lost,” Pradhan said.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 23:00

• ​​​​​​​Axon Halts Stun-Gun Drone Project After Exodus Of Ethics Board 
  ​​​​​​​Axon Halts Stun-Gun Drone Project After Exodus Of Ethics Board 

  Taser-maker Axon Enterprise Inc. says it will “pause” stun-gun-equipped drone development for schools after some members of its ethics advisory board resigned. 

  Last Thursday, Axon announced stun-gun-equipped drones and artificial intelligence-powered surveillance systems for schools following the tragic May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Hours after the release, the company’s AI Ethics Advisory Board released a statement specifying it instructed the company to limit a pilot program for the taser drone, only to be used by police. The board said a majority voted against moving forward with the project. 

  

  “However, in light of feedback, we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward,” Chief Executive Rick Smith said in a press release on Sunday. 

  “It is unfortunate that some members of Axon’s ethics advisory panel have chosen to withdraw from directly engaging on these issues before we heard or had a chance to address their technical questions. We respect their choice and will continue to seek diverse perspectives to challenge our thinking and help guide other technology options that we should be considering,” Smith continued.

  One of the ethics board members, Wael Abd-Almageed, told Reuters he and eight members resigned from the 12-member panel. He said many on the board had significant concerns the drone could be used beyond schools and “exacerbate racial injustice, undermine privacy through surveillance and become more lethal if other weapons were added.”

  “What we have right now is just dangerous and irresponsible, and it’s not very well thought of and it will have negative societal consequences,” he said.

  

  Axon, formerly known as Taser, sells body-worn cameras and policing software to most police departments across the country. 

  As for now, Axon appears to have shelved the taser drone but shows the dystopic technology coming down the pipe that could be misused by law enforcement and or government agencies against the American people. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 22:40

• Progressive Prosecutor Movement Goes On Trial In California Primary
  Progressive Prosecutor Movement Goes On Trial In California Primary

  Authored by Cara Ding via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Three prosecutors at the forefront of the progressive movement in California will be put to the test on June 7.

  

  Chesa Boudin, San Francisco’s chief prosecutor, faces a recall election in the primary. Polls suggest there is a good chance that he will lose.

  Diana Becton and Tori Berber Salazar, chief prosecutors of two counties just east of San Francisco, face uphill reelection bids against career prosecutor challengers.

  All three are founding members of the Prosecutors Alliance, a first-of-its-kind prosecutor organization pushing progressive changes in the California criminal justice system. The fourth founding member, George Gascón, is also mired by a robust recall campaign in Los Angeles.

  Boudin, a former public defender and son of incarcerated parents, was elected in 2019 on a progressive platform. He set out policies to restrict cash bail and sentencing enhancements for offenders, while ramping up criminal prosecutions against police officers.

  His term, coinciding with the pandemic years, has been marked by an uptick in property crimes and homicides, according to San Francisco police data.

  The political committee that is most active in the recall campaign, San Franciscans for Public Safety Supporting the Recall of Chesa Boudin, spent nearly $4.5 million in 2022, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures published by the San Francisco Ethics Commission. The treasurer of the committee is Mary Jung, former San Francisco Democratic Party chair.

  Four committees opposing the recall spent a combined $2.1 million in 2022. Among them, a committee set up by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California spent $263,171.

  A San Francisco Examiner poll conducted a week ago finds 56 percent of San Francisco voters in favor of recalling Boudin, 32 percent opposing the recall, and 12 percent undecided. Another poll commissioned by the Boudin campaign finds likely voters evenly split on the recall.

  Contra Costa County

  

  In Contra Costa County, incumbent Diana Becton faces a reelection bid against career prosecutor Mary Knox.

  Becton, a former judge, was first elected in 2018 on a progressive platform. During her term, she stopped prosecuting certain drug possession cases, piloted a resentencing program to reduce sentencing lengths, and started a data collection project to identify racial disparities within the system.

  Knox told The Epoch Times that she disagreed with Becton’s policy to stop prosecuting a wide range of drug possession cases. Prosecuting the cases incentivizes people with serious addictions to get court-ordered treatment and reigns in drug-fueled crimes such as thefts, robberies, and burglaries, she said.

  “I think the crime will only increase until we start enforcing our laws the way they are written. It is the district attorney’s ethical duty to file charges when the facts prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a crime was committed and not let your own personal beliefs get in the way,” Knox said.

  Becton told The Epoch Times in a statement that her office focuses resources on prosecuting violent crimes.

  Knox also finds fault with the way Becton handled organized retail thefts at high-end stores. During the pandemic, Becton set a higher standard for prosecutors to charge looters, which emboldened the thieves, Knox said.

  Becton said that her office continues to file charges in organized retail thefts.

  

  Knox raised $385,978 this year, out-raising Becton by about $143,000, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures published by Contra Costa County’s election office.

  However, far more money was spent by super PACs that have chosen to get support Becton’s campaign. These super PACs can raise and spend as much as they like, but they are prohibited from coordinating directly with any candidates.

  California Justice and Republic Safety PAC spent a whopping $963,884 on TV ads, digital ads, mailers, etc. in supporting Becton and opposing Knox in 2022, according to the latest data.

  George Soros, who has a record of supporting progressive prosecutor candidates, chipped in at least $652,000 into the PAC. Smart Justice California Action Fund put in $300,000.

  Lift Up Contra Costa Action PAC, affiliated with Tides Advocacy, also spent tens of thousands in supporting Becton.

  In support of Knox, Contra Costans for Progress and Justice, a PAC formed by a coalition of local organizations and individuals spent $228,548 in 2022. Contra Costa Deputy Sheriff’s Association is the largest donor to the PAC, contributing $190,000.

  In 2020, Knox and four other prosecutors filed a federal lawsuit accusing Becton of discriminative promotion practices. In 2019, Knox filed an unfair workplace treatment complaint alleging that Becton demoted her after she supported Becton’s challenger in the 2018 election.

  San Joaquin County

  

  In San Joaquin County, incumbent Tori Verber Salazar faces a reelection bid against career prosecutor Ron Freitas.

  Salazar, a Republican career prosecutor who worked at the gang and homicide unit, was first elected in 2014 and re-elected in an uncontested race in 2018.

  In 2020, Salazar joined Boudin, Gascón, and Becton to form Prosecutors Alliance. The alliance follows the 21 principles for progressive prosecutors developed by Fair and Just Prosecution, Brennan Center for Justice, and Justice Collaborative, including ending cash bail, stopping prosecuting misdemeanors, holding police accountable, expunging criminal records, and ending the death penalty.

  In April, the District Attorney’s portion of the San Joaquin County Attorney’s Association concluded a vote of no confidence in Salazar’s ability to effectively manage the office.

  Freitas told The Epoch Times that he disagrees with the direction set forth by the Prosecutors Alliance. For instance, he thinks stopping prosecuting misdemeanors will embolden the criminals and give rise to more violent crime.

  Freitas raised $222,287 in 2022, outraising Becton by two times, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures published by San Joaquin County.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 22:20

• Goldman Again Hikes Oil Price Target, Now Sees Barrel Hitting $140, Up From $125
  Goldman Again Hikes Oil Price Target, Now Sees Barrel Hitting $140, Up From $125

  Earlier today we reported that the biggest oil bears among the big banks, Citi and Barclays, just capitulated on their downbeat forecasts – having seen crude steamroll any and every downside catalyst thrown at it and hitting 3 month highs – and were forced to hike their price targets. Of course, their views don’t matter since anyone who had traded based on their reco to short oil is now looking for a new career; but with them out of the way, the big boys are now coming out with a new round of aggressive price hikes. To wit, late on Monday, Goldman published a report in which it again revised its price outlook (higher), saying that structural shortages remain unresolved to this day (despite a brief period in which the oil market enjoyed its first surplus since June 2020), and the bank is raising its peak summer oil price target from $125 to $140, while also hiking it oil prices targets for the rest of 2022 and 2022 by $10 higher than before.

  

  We excerpt some more details below.

  As Goldman’s Damien Courvalin writes in the note (available to professional subs), with fundamentals weakening in April-May, due to modest declines in Russian exports, record large SPR sales and severe Chinese lockdowns, the oil market to saw its first surplus since June 2020. However, this politically created surplus is already ending (even with the SPR still pumping a cool million every single day until the Democrats are swept out of Congress this November), driven by the ongoing recovery in Chinese demand…

  

  … with an 0.5 mb/d expected further decline in Russian production following the European ban.

  

  As such, oil’s structural deficit remains unresolved, with in fact an even tighter oil market through April than the Goldman analyst had expected. Supply remains inelastic to higher prices with core-OPEC (higher) and exempt countries (lower) production shifts broadly offsetting.

  

  On the demand side, the negative global growth impulse remains insufficient to rebalance inventories at current prices.

  

  As a result, Goldman believes that oil prices need to rally further to normalize the unsustainably low levels of global oil inventories, as well as OPEC and refining spare capacities.

  

  Warning that with structural shortages unresolved, Courvalin writes that the rising long-term shortages will require near-term surpluses, and that given both record low inventories and OPEC spare capacity, “the market will solve to balance in the short-term and recreate the necessary buffers in the coming year.”

  

  Forcing the market to balance in the short-run and create excess inventories next year therefore requires a higher oil price forecast over both periods. Based on Goldman’s estimated 3% demand elasticity and bottom-up estimated shale elasticity, as well as  accounting for the retail vs. Brent price disconnect, the bank forecasts that oil prices will need to average $135/bbl in 2H22 and $125/bbl in 2023, $10/bbl higher than previously. On a monthly basis, this points to a peak summer Brent price of $140/bbl with Goldman’s consumer Brent price expected to reach over $160/bbl.

  

  Finally, how is Goldman trading this upside? The bank has identified three opportunities to express this bullish view and overcome then near-term fundamental uncertainties.

  • First, long Dec-22 Gasoil, a trade that will perform even if US foreign policy leads to higher OPEC crude supply and that positions for a potential surge in prices this summer.
  • Second, Goldman reiterates its long Dec-23 Brent Top Trade recommendation (and its corollary that energy equities continue to outperform the broader market), as the multi-year supply response has yet to be triggered.
  • Third, the bank reiterates its bullish crude timespread near-term view as refinery runs ramp-up by more than the risks to Russian production and Chinese demand.

  

  More in the full note available only to pro subs.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 22:00

• Fall Of High-Level Party Official Who Faked Economic Data Triggers Concern Over China's Economy
  Fall Of High-Level Party Official Who Faked Economic Data Triggers Concern Over China’s Economy

  Authored by Sophia Lam via The Epoch Times,

  China’s top disciplinary watchdog announced on May 31 that it has removed a former top official in eastern Jiangsu Province from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the regime’s public office.

  

  Zhang Jinghua, former deputy CCP chief of Jiangsu, was accused of “faking economic figures for personal promotion and meddling in market activities in violation of relevant rules,” among other charges of corruption, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in a notice on May 31. It did not provide any specifics for the accusation.

  Zhang is one of the most recent CCP members of the 19th central committee—the CCP’s top governing body—to fall.

  One day prior, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) held a virtual meeting in which its director, Kang Yi, said that the problem of statistical falsification still exists in China.

  On May 27, the NBS stated that 126 lower-level officials in Hebei, Henan, and Guizhou provinces had been punished for fabricating statistical data.

  This wave of purging data fabrication began in March when the CCDI wrote on its website that some local officials had falsified data to create an illusion of development and manipulated statistical data by “reminding” and ordering relevant departments to make the necessary changes.

  Foreign investment banks have already cut their China growth forecasts after the regime’s COVID-19 lockdowns hit the economy of Shanghai hard, with Nomura predicting growth of 3.9 percent.

  Statistics to Suit Party’s Political Needs

  For the CCP, statistics have three functions, according to Wang He, a China current affairs commentator in a recent interview with the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times: to support decision-making, to serve politics, and to brainwash the people. But the first function is nominal, he said.

  “To effectively support decision-making, the authenticity, timeliness, and completeness of statistical data must be of top priority,” Wang said.

  But the norm in CCP officialdom, Wang said, is to use data to serve the party’s political purposes. He noted that fake data assists CCP officials in their promotion through the ranks, which in turn spurs them to continue forging data for further promotion.

  “The CCP uses false data to fool the people that the situation in China is always great, as lies are a basic element of the CCP’s rule,” Wang said.

  The recent purging of false data by the CCP now is again for political reasons, Wang added, rather than motivated by economic transparency, as the regime is in the critical months before the CCP’s 20th national congress to be held in autumn for political reshuffling.

  China’s GDP Figures ‘Man-made,’ Unreliable: Premier

  

  Chinese Premier Li Keqiang participates in a press conference at Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, China, on Nov. 21, 2019. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

  The Chinese regime has long been criticized for massaging its economic data, including GDP figures, population, and other indicators.

  Chinese premier Li Keqiang, then party secretary of northeastern Liaoning Province, reportedly said to Clark T. Randt, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to China, that China’s “GDP figures are ‘man-made’ and therefore unreliable,” over dinner on March 12, 2007, as disclosed by Wikileaks.

  He also acknowledged the economic crisis facing China in 2020 when he told reporters at a presser on May 28 that “there are 600 million people whose monthly income is only 1,000 yuan ($140).”

  China’s population is 1.439 billion; 600 million people is roughly 41.7 percent of the total population.

  In January 2017, Chen Qiufa, then governor of Liaoning Province, confirmed at the provincial people’s congress that the cities and counties of Liaoning had problems with falsifying financial data from 2011 to 2014, as reported by the CCP’s mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency.

  In January 2018, Inner Mongolia revealed that its economic data was substantially falsified—its 2016 industrial output was substantially inflated by 40 percent and that fake growth amounted to 290 billion yuan (roughly $43.5 billion).

  In addition to Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, Jilin Province and Tianjin City were forced to revise their data after they were found to have inflated or manipulated economic statistics over the past few years, according to a Bloomberg report.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 21:40

• Americans 'Deeply Pessimistic' About US Economy, Inflation
  Americans ‘Deeply Pessimistic’ About US Economy, Inflation

  Last week President Biden insisted that “more Americans feel financially comfortable” since he took office.

  

  Yet, according to a new poll, 83% of Americans are pessimistic about the US economy – describing it as “poor or not so good,” while 35% say they aren’t satisfied with their financial situation – the highest level of dissatisfaction in the 50 years since the Wall Street Journal-NORC (University of Chicago) poll began.

  The survey found Americans in a sour mood and registering some of the highest levels of economic dissatisfaction in years. The pessimism extended beyond the current economy to include doubts about the nation’s political system, its role as a global leader and its ability to help most people achieve the American dream. –WSJ

  The Journal frames sentiment as “deeply pessimistic,” and says Americans view the nation as sharply divided over its most important values.

  

  Only 27% of the 1,071 adults polled say they have a good chance of improving their standard of living – a 20% drop from last year, while 46% said they don’t.

  Meanwhile, 38% said their financial situation had gotten worse in the past few years – marking the second time since the 2007-2009 recession that more than 30% of respondents said their finances were worse off, according to 50 years of data.

  Some 60% said they were pessimistic about the ability for most people to achieve the American dream.

  “The promise was this was a place where what you were born into did not determine who you could be. But I think we’ve failed deeply at that,” said Julie Olsen Edwards, an 83-year-old Soquel, Calif., retired community college teacher. “I find myself choking up saying it.”

  What’s driving the results? Inflation, of course.

  The survey results show that high inflation in particular is driving the dim economic outlook, said Jennifer Benz, vice president of public affairs and media research at NORC. Inflation is running at close to its fastest pace in four decades, at an 8.3% annual rate in April, one of several factors weighing on consumers. Households are digging into savings to support their spending, the Commerce Department has said, and the S&P 500 nearly closed in bear territory recently. -WSJ

  The poll does have a bright spot – namely the labor market, with the unemployment rate close to a multi-decade low at 3.6%. Around 2/3 of those polled said it would be ‘somewhat or very easy’ to find a new job with around the same income and benefits – the highest % since 1977.

  That said, the overall results of the poll suggest that Democrats ‘face a dispirited electorate heading into November’s elections,’ as respondents’ despondent view of things suggests that ‘a connective tissue of pessimism underlies Americans’ economic and social attitudes.”

  

  According to the poll, 86% said that Americans are ‘greatly divided’ when it comes to key values, while over half said they expect the divisions to worsen over the next five years.

  “I’m angry,” said Robert Benda, a 69-year-old retired telecommunications worker who lives in Berthoud, Colo., who says freedom is the most important American value, which Democrats controlling Washington are trying to take away. “Our government is doing what’s right for their special-interest groups, and everybody else be damned.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 21:20

• US-Backed Kurds Offer To Work With Assad Government To Resist Turkish Invasion
  US-Backed Kurds Offer To Work With Assad Government To Resist Turkish Invasion

  Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

  The most enduring US ally in the Syrian War, the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are very publicly interested in resisting the latest round of planned Turkish invasions of northern Syria, saying they are open to coordination with the Syrian government’s troops to do so.

  Turkey has repeatedly invaded northern Syria and northern Iraq to have a run at Kurdish factions, declaring them “terrorists” in both. The operations in Syria aim at the SDF’s parent organization, the YPG.

  

  The most recent threatened Turkish operation seeks to establish a 30 km “security zone” within Syria. This is roughly in line with past plans threatened, mostly with an eye toward propping up Turkish-backed rebels in the area.

  Syria opposes such raids because that “zone” becomes rebel territory, and the SDF oppose it because it’s carved out of their territory. SDF leaders suggest the Syrians would particularly help if they used air defenses against the Turkish warplanes. According to Middle East Eye:

  The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would be “open” to coordinating with Syrian government troops to fend off any Turkish invasion of the north, the head of the US-backed militia has said. 

  Mazloum Abdi also told Reuters on Sunday that Damascus should use its air defense systems against Turkish planes. 

  The US-armed SDF are a formidable on the ground force, but were an auxiliary of the US in fighting ISIS, and envision the same role with Syria in resisting Turkey.

  Turkey backed the rebels in Syria almost immediately at the beginning, envisioning the Sunni Arab-dominated rebels being more hostile to Kurdish autonomy, and leaving the YPG in a weakened position.

  Ironically, Turkey’s pro-rebel position set Islamists up in north Syria, and when the US got involved, they backed the YPG in resisting those groups, leaving the YPG and the SDF as a stronger group than they likely were before the war began. Now, they may find themselves natural allies to Syria, and even further entrenched as an autonomous faction in northeast Syria.

  “We hope that Ankara will refrain from actions that could lead to a dangerous deterioration of the already difficult situation in Syria,” Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said.https://t.co/UwVHuirCXZ

  — Wladimir (@vvanwilgenburg) June 2, 2022

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

  Turkey, by contrast, has found its border far less stable for its involvement in the war, and its relationship with Syria broken. The rebels plainly aren’t going to win the war, and Turkey will have to deal with the Assad government they worked to undermine.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 21:00

• Top Gun Inspires Patriotic Fervor As Search Trends To "Become Fighter Pilot" Soar  
  Top Gun Inspires Patriotic Fervor As Search Trends To “Become Fighter Pilot” Soar  

  “Top Gun: Maverick” has raked in a whopping $548.6 million since it premiered in theaters ten days ago. The Tom Cruise sequel to 1986’s Top Gun has shattered multiple box-office records and is one of the most popular movies on multiple streaming platforms. The patriotic action film has served as a call to action for some Americans as internet search trends for becoming a fighter pilot soar to new heights.

  Shortly after Top Gun: Maverick was released on May 27, the internet search trend “how to become a fighter pilot” went absolutely parabolic, hitting a new record high. The movie, or perhaps US military propaganda, produced by Hollywood, has spurred patriotic fervor, something the military has desperately needed as recruiting in the last several years has been dismal. 

  

  Last week, we pointed out that recruiting tables for the Navy were popping up in the lobbies of movie theaters showing the patriotic film, a move certainly made by the service to boost enlisting numbers by playing off the emotions of moviegoers. 

  Maj. Gen. Edward W. Thomas, commander of Air Force Recruiting Service, told Fox News the military would use Top Gun: Maverick to boost recruitment. A similar phenomenon was seen during the first release of Top Gun during the Cold War.  

  “We did get a good recruiting bump from ‘Top Gun’ in 1986 when I went to the theaters and saw ‘Top Gun’ with my friends in ’86,” Thomas said. “I was already excited about military aviation, but I got even more excited. 

  “We expect ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to do the same,” he added. “You know, whether people want to aim high or fly Navy, we just want them to get excited about serving the nation in some capacity.”

  The release of the film and soaring search trends of how to become a fighter pilot (remember, most enlisted don’t earn their wings but rather become maintenance crews or security forces or logistics) come as war in Ukraine crosses the 100-day mark and risks mount of further escalation. 

  The question remains if the movie will spur a new wave of enlistments as the US and NATO allies continue to resupply Ukraine with weapons and show no signs of backing down. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 20:40

• Subpoena Wars: Washington Is On A Path To Mutually Assured Destruction
  Subpoena Wars: Washington Is On A Path To Mutually Assured Destruction

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in The Hill on the subpoena war raging in Washington as the Jan. 6th Committee prepares for its first public hearings this week. This weekend, the Justice Department announced that it would not be prosecuting former chief of staff Mark Meadows and social media director Dan Scavino. As noted below, they took a wiser course of limited cooperation.

  The refusal to prosecute triggered a backlash from Rep. Adam Schiff who wanted to see more criminal charges out of the Biden Administration.

  

  Here is the column:

  In an initial court appearance following his arrest on Friday for contempt of Congress, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro stood before an obviously concerned federal magistrate. “Every time that you’re speaking,” Judge Zia Faruqui tried to explain, “it could mean potentially putting yourself at risk.”

  It was entirely sensible advice about self-protection — and it was promptly ignored. Navarro, 72, went directly outside and blasted the charge against him, the Democrats, and the FBI.

  Judge Faruqui’s concern was almost charmingly naive. We live in an age of the sensational, not the sensible. The Navarro case is just one skirmish in a subpoena war engulfing Washington. No one seems to be thinking much beyond the next election.

  In the buildup to next week’s start of public hearings by the House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 investigative committee, Democrats have subpoenaed Republican colleagues and held former Trump officials in contempt. Then, instead of simply arranging for Navarro to voluntarily surrender, the Justice Department made a dramatic public arrest of him at an airport and dragged him off to jail in handcuffs.

  These subpoena fights seem to be unfolding with little consideration given to the potential costs, either for Washington institutions or the individuals involved.

  Democrats circle the firing squad

  A variety of polls show, according to the political site FiveThirtyEight, that “Americans are moving on from Jan. 6th — even if Congress hasn’t.” With waning interest in the investigation, congressional Democrats and some in the media have pushed “blockbuster” new disclosures. However, many of their disclosures simply confirm what is already known: Then-President Trump and close associates wanted to challenge Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election and, instead, force Congress to select the next president. I wrote about that likely strategy just a couple weeks after the election, but that fruitless effort turned into a full-fledged riot in the Capitol.

  The House hearings are likely to add details that damn Trump for fueling the riot and failing to immediately call on the rioters to pull back. Yet many of us reached the condemnation stage years ago; I reached that point while Trump was still speaking on Jan. 6, 2020, and opposed his efforts to challenge the certification.

  The problem is not that the committee will move forward with hearings or a report. Despite its partisan composition and agenda, there is always a value to greater transparency about what occurred on that tragic day. The problem is the effort to ratchet up interest through conflict. The committee has taken the rare step of subpoenaing GOP colleagues, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and threatening to hold them in contempt like Navarro and other former Trump officials.

  Despite years of bitter political divisions, the two parties have long avoided using subpoenas against each other. It was viewed as a step toward mutually assured destruction if House members unleashed inherent investigatory powers on each other. House Democratic leaders, however, shattered that long tradition of restraint despite the fact that they may gain little from the effort. What they will lose is a long-standing detente on the use of subpoenas against colleagues — and they are creating a new precedent for such internal subpoenas just months before they could find themselves in the minority. Today’s hunters then could become the hunted, if Republicans claim the same license after November’s elections.

  The House already is a dysfunctional body that allows for little compromise or dialogue between parties. The targeting of fellow members now will remove one of the few remaining restraints on unbridled partisan rage.

  Justice delayed or justice denied?

  Attorney General Merrick Garland is well on his way to setting a record for the prosecution of congressional contempt. The Justice Department has consistently refused to submit congressional contempt cases to grand juries, including a flagrant act of contempt by Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder. There is ample basis for this charge as well. It is not the substance but the selectivity and speed of the charges that is notable. Navarro was only held in contempt in April and is now being prosecuted by a department long known as the place where  contempt sanctions go to die. Yet, the Navarro case could quickly take a wild turn.

  Navarro claims he offered to compromise with the committee but that he was asserting his right to remain silent. Putting aside such mitigating circumstances, the problem for the Justice Department could be the calendar: Despite moving at an uncharacteristically fast pace, the Navarro case likely will extend beyond November’s midterms. If Republicans retake the House, they could seek to retroactively rescind the House’s contempt vote on Navarro.

  Technically, the Justice Department could insist that the act of contempt and the referral vote occurred under the prior Congress. Given the issuance of an indictment, the Biden administration could insist on pursuing the prosecution even if the alleged victim is no longer claiming to be harmed. And some Democrats likely would file to support his continued prosecution, even if a new majority of the House filed to seek dismissal of the case.

  This prosecution and any appeal is likely to extend beyond the duration of the House committee. Last November, the Justice Department indicted former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on the same grounds; his trial will not occur until July. That will be the first such prosecution since 1982, when Rita Lavelle, a former Reagan-era EPA official, was indicted for failing to answer congressional questions. (Lavelle was acquitted of that but then later convicted of lying to Congress.)

  The Biden administration did not have to act on this before the November elections. The statute of limitations for contempt of Congress is five years. If it hoped to get a quick plea and cooperation from Navarro, his defiant courthouse colloquy makes that less likely. The question is whether it will pursue these two misdemeanors — which could result in as little as 30 days and no more than a year in jail — if the next House seeks to rescind the contempt referral.

  Self-defense or self-immolation?

  That brings us back to Navarro. Judge Faruqui encouraged Navarro to consider the basis of his self-defense when Navarro seemed intent on self-immolation. In addition to announcing that he would represent himself, Navarro made an extended statement on the steps of the courthouse in his defense. He then incongruously said he could not discuss “legal matters” before plunging again into his legal defense points.

  Navarro is known as someone who tends toward the path of greatest resistance. In a city known for highly managed criminal defendants with legions of lawyers and PR advisers, Navarro was a captivating figure as he held forth outside the courthouse. Yet for all that he has in terms of personal guts, he lacks legal authority. The problem is that even as he claimed executive privilege to avoid answering any of the House committee’s questions, he was publishing a book and giving interviews on the very subject matter of the subpoenas. It was an ill-considered course that may make him an icon on the right but could also make him a convicted defendant. As he repeatedly pitched his book outside the court, it seemed clear that his priority was not acquittal.

  Navarro at one point asked, “Who are these people?” I have found myself asking the same question about all of the players in this subpoena war. Institutions and individuals alike seem to be in a crazed fit with little concern for how their actions may play out beyond the next election. But the greatest costs will be borne by the public, if our legal proceedings become as performative and shallow as our politics.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 20:20

• US Moves To Seize 2 Luxury Jets From Roman Abramovich Valued North Of $400 Million
  US Moves To Seize 2 Luxury Jets From Roman Abramovich Valued North Of $400 Million

  On Monday the US moved to seize two luxury private jets from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. It marks one of the greatest single attempted seizures of a Russian oligarch’s personal assets in the wake of the Putin-ordered military invasion of Ukraine, at a total value north of $400 million.

  “U.S. authorities moved Monday to seize two luxury jets — a $60 million Gulfstream and a $350 million aircraft believed to be one of the world’s most expensive private airplanes — after linking both to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich,” The Associated Press reports. One of the planes reportedly has an elaborate paper trail which attempted to shield and obscure Abramovich’s ownership, the DOJ investigators uncovered.

  

  Before it underwent lavish upgrades and customizations, the initial value of his giant Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, currently believed to be parked in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was less than $100 million. While it perhaps could be easier for the much smaller Gulfstream to evade the long arm of US law, the Boeing Dreamliner is without doubt too big to hide, unless it makes its way to Russia.

  The warrant, signed by a federal magistrate judge Monday, indicates the aircraft are in violation of US sanctions given they were moved within a designated time period after sanctions took effect but without a US exemption license.

  “In explaining the move to seize the planes, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft and the Gulfstream G650ER plane are subject to seizure because they have been moved between March 4 and March 15 without licenses being obtained in violation of sanctions placed against Russia,” AP explains.

  “According to the affidavit, Abramovich controlled the Gulfstream through a series of shell companies. The plane, it said, is believed to have been in Moscow since March 15,” the report added.

  Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has treated himself to the world’s most expensive private jet – A 248 seater, $300 million #Boeing 787 Dreamliner that has been customized to a lavish 50 seater. – https://t.co/Mx0mvoevkq pic.twitter.com/yLXOpyqquK

  — Luxurylaunches (@luxurylaunches) December 24, 2021

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  And according to a profile last year of Abramovich’s huge Dreamliner in Forbes Russia, “For personal needs, such huge aircraft are used very rarely” and often the aviation industries of entire countries don’t have one.

  The Dec.2021 profile detailed:

  The Dreamliner, which Abramovich bought, was built in June 2015 for private Swiss airline Privateair but was never handed over to him. In 2019, its equipment began in accordance with the requests of the Russian billionaire. The plane reportedly can to carry up to 50 passengers: 10 seats are provided for security, 10 for staff and 30 for guests, says a Forbes source in the aviation market.

  The flight range of the “dreamliner” is 18,418 km (with 25 passengers on board), the cabin area is 224.4 sq.m. The operator of the new vessel is the same as the previous one, owned by Abramovich – Global Jet Concept. At the same time, unlike its previous Boeing 767 aircraft, which received the code name “Bandit” due to the black “mask” on the cockpit windows, the new vessel is painted with extreme restraint. “It’s fashionable now – it helps to attract less attention,” the source explains.

  Given his high visibility in the West, it’s perhaps not a surprise that Abramovich’s assets (which, until very recently, included Chelsea Football Club, the popular English Premier League team which he recently placed in the hands of a trust ahead of a sale) have been the focus of particular attention.

  

  According to a recent FT report, he has at least five mega-yachts worth a combined total of about $1 billion. Two of the most expensive ones ended up in Turkey after fleeing European sanctions. At least one is believed to be in Montenegro.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 20:00

• Bitcoin Is The Ultimate Representation Of Energy
  Bitcoin Is The Ultimate Representation Of Energy

  Authored by ‘Freedom Money’ via BitcoinMagazine.com,

  Love, violence and money are interrelated through their connection to energy. As the digital representation of energy, Bitcoin offers a better store of energy.

  “’But how is [Bitcoin] digital energy; how do you get it back to being energy?’ The answer is, I send a billion-dollar block of it to Tokyo, I run it through an exchange … I convert it back into yen and I take the yen and I buy electricity from the Tokyo Power Company.” 

  – Michael Saylor (WBD431)

  While I think most Bitcoiners generally agree with the concept of bitcoin as digital energy, I have seen some pushback that this is not consistent with physics, is just a metaphor or is just plain false. I started writing this paper with the intention to argue that all money actually represents a store of energy and bitcoin is simply the best money available. However, I started finding interesting parallels with both love and violence as alternate methods of channeling energy, so I expanded the scope of this paper to offer my thoughts on these areas as well.

  

  First, let’s start with energy. What is energy? According to Britannica:

  “Energy, in physics: the capacity for doing work. It may exist in potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical, chemical, nuclear, or other various forms. All forms of energy are associated with motion. For example, any given body has kinetic energy if it is in motion. A tensioned device such as a bow or spring, though at rest, has the potential for creating motion; it contains potential energy because of its configuration.”

  When it comes to what things humans typically think of as energy, there is certainly something to say for our ability to control or direct that energy. Before electrical applications were invented, electricity was probably not commonly thought of as a form of energy. Thus, the energy conversion device is perhaps just as important as the energy itself.

  Modern humans have invented devices that allow us to use and scale all sorts of different types of energy. However, our original energy conversion device was, of course, the ability of the human body to convert the chemical energy in our food into kinetic energy that we inherently control. Today, despite having access to other sources of energy that have scaled immensely, human energy remains extremely valuable.

  Despite our rather limited energy output, humans have evolved to be wildly efficient. With the assumption that an adult human worker uses 2,000 calories (food) per day, we can calculate the rate at which we can control our own energy:

  

  Human energy calculation

  At a rate of 98.5W, a human who works 40 hours per week, performs approximately 200 kWh of work for their employer in one year. In comparison to electrical energy conversion devices, this is an exceedingly minuscule amount of work. However, if this human has an annual salary of $50,000, the value of their energy output would be $250/kWh. The extremely high value of human energy is largely due to our ability to learn, adapt, engineer solutions and harness other forms of energy to provide valuable solutions to society.

  Note, however, that the energy delivered by each human is exclusively controlled by the individual. I am the only person who can choose to raise or lower my arm; therefore, I am the only person who has control over the actions of my chemical energy conversion device (body). Because of this, humanity is continuously looking for answers to the question: “How do we convince other humans to channel their energy to a specific application?”

  Our species has discovered many ways to motivate humans to channel their energy toward a specific task. In this article I will be discussing the following three broad categories:

  • Love (family, friends, God)

  • Violence (force, threats, war)

  • Money (barter, metals, fiat, bitcoin)

  LOVE

  Love has evolved as part of human society and is the reason that parents choose to use their energy to meet the needs of their children. Love generally maximizes the efficiency of human energy because people who are motivated to cooperate via love genuinely want their work to achieve the best possible outcome. Love is a voluntary, decentralized means of channeling human energy. Each member of society can choose to love or not love another human; love cannot be forced.

  However, love is very challenging to scale. One possible reason for this could be related to Dunbar’s number, which is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. Personally, I believe that connection to God allows humans to scale love beyond Dunbar’s number, however, I will reserve my thoughts on this topic for another time.

  VIOLENCE

  Violence, or the threat of violence, can also be used to channel human energy. Controlling energy through violence has its roots in the evolution of life on this planet. One attribute of violence that has made it such an effective means of forcing human cooperation is that violence scales. Specifically, violence can be scaled by engineering weapons that leverage human energy or incorporate more powerful forms of energy, i.e., gun powder, fission, fusion, etc. In addition, unlike love, violence can be stored and stockpiled for future use, offering the ability to scale the threat of violence as a means of channeling human energy.

  However, violence is a non-voluntary, centralized solution to scale cooperation. Violence centralizes power because it favors those with the most powerful weapons, which grants them access to the most human energy and innovation, which enhances their ability to engineer even more powerful weapons. This centralization has led to non-optimal outcomes for humanity as a whole and is generally an inefficient means of directing human energy. Forced labor will never be as efficient as voluntary labor, and centralized decision making will never be better than decentralized decision making.

  MONEY

  Which brings us to money. The invention of money allowed humans to scale cooperation beyond Dunbar’s number without the need for love or violence. Money motivates humans to use their energy toward someone else’s goals by promising them that the money they were paid for their work can be used in the future to deploy the energy of other humans. Similar to violence, money can also be stored and stockpiled for future use. Money is a battery for human energy; the battery is charged as you work for someone else, and is discharged as someone else works for you. Money, therefore, represents stored human energy.

  Unlike violence, money allowed for systems of decentralized decision-making to develop. Money enabled economies to emerge where humans all voluntarily participate in determining the value of different forms of labor. Decisions about what a society needs could therefore be set by the market, where each human decides what they are willing to pay for a good or service. In comparison to violence, money is a significantly more efficient scaling solution for motivating humans to channel their work toward a specific goal.

  However, all forms of money can be corrupted through violence. Money, like life, can be stolen using violence. Decentralized markets can become centralized when violence, or the threat of violence, is used to control human actions. In earlier societies, when governments wanted to use violence to accumulate wealth, they needed to physically take the money from their citizens or from other external entities. Largely after the invention of nuclear weapons, when the threat of violence and the cost of war started reaching unimaginably enormous magnitudes, governments started relying on money printing more heavily to continue acquiring wealth. Paper money that can be printed radically changed the scale at which governments could acquire and deploy money. Increasing the number of monetary units devalues all of the existing money in a given economy and transfers that value to the entity in control of the money supply.

  Note, however, that the amount of work that can be done with this stolen value will decay over time due to price inflation. As the newly printed money enters an economy, the decentralized market pricing mechanisms will take the new supply of money into account and raise all prices relative to how much individuals value their own human energy. Forcing the participants in an economy to reprice goods and services on a continuous basis also offers the opportunity to influence the value each human places on their own labor. Depressing a population, for example, may lead to participants ascribing less value to their own work and will result in lower relative repricing of goods and services after an inflationary event. When wages don’t keep up with price inflation, this can be viewed as a signal that market participants are attributing less value to the deployment of their own energy.

  Although governments may earn money through taxation by providing services determined to be valuable by their citizens, i.e., protecting physical property rights, the majority of monetary energy controlled by modern governments is stolen primarily using the threat of violence to maintain their control over the money printer.

  ENTER BITCOIN

  Users of bitcoin — like users of all other forms of money — can be subjected to violence, or the threat of violence, as a means of forcibly acquiring their wealth. However, the violence needed to forcibly acquire bitcoin from an individual who controls their own private keys must be applied with extreme precision. Neither bullets nor weapons of mass destruction are effective methods of violence for stealing bitcoin. I would argue that the forms of violence required to forcibly acquire bitcoin don’t scale at all in comparison to traditional violence. Therefore, bitcoin is strongly resistant to theft via violence.

  It is also not possible for bitcoin’s value to be stolen via supply inflation. Although the supply of bitcoin in circulation is increasing over time (albeit at an exponentially decreasing rate), the inflation rate is public knowledge and can be accounted for when pricing goods and services. Further, there is 100% market consensus on what bitcoin’s supply inflation will be used for. Newly-minted units of bitcoin are exclusively used to subsidize payments to bitcoin miners for the security and transaction processing services they provide.

  During the early stages of bitcoin’s existence as money, all bitcoin holders contribute to Bitcoin’s security and transaction processing budget via an exponentially decreasing inflation tax. Currently, about 98% of miner revenue is supplied by Bitcoin’s 1.74% annual inflation rate, i.e., block reward, which will be cut in half approximately every four years. In the future, Bitcoin’s security budget will be paid for entirely by market participants who transact over the Bitcoin network, i.e., transaction fees. The block reward is therefore a temporary measure designed to subsidize security while Bitcoin is still in its youth; it would be more accurate to view this form of taxation as a collective payment for a valuable service, rather than theft.

  In conclusion, humans have invented all sorts of energy conversion devices to accomplish our goals. However, humans remain one of the most efficient, flexible and valuable sources of energy conversion available. Therefore, controlling the flow of human-supplied energy remains a fixture of human civilization. Although each human controls their own energy, we can be motivated using methods such as love, violence and money to work together.

  Historically, love has failed to scale in comparison to violence and money. Although violence has proven to scale, it is inefficient and does not optimally orient human progress due to centralization of power and decision-making. Although money offers a more efficient scaling solution for channeling human energy, it has historically been susceptible to violence at scale and fiat based monetary units can be stolen via inflation. Bitcoin is a new form of money that cannot be forcibly acquired using violence at scale and cannot be stolen through inflation.

  Bitcoin represents an opportunity to protect money from the influence of violence, abolish inflation without consensus and restore high quality decentralized market signals. It will take time for society to realize these benefits as bitcoin is still young in comparison to other forms of money and is not currently widely adopted across humanity. If more people start to understand that money represents human energy, I believe humanity will start to demand better money, and when they do, bitcoin will be here for them.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 19:40

• J6 Committee Dems Hire TV Exec To Literally 'Produce' Hearings
  J6 Committee Dems Hire TV Exec To Literally ‘Produce’ Hearings

  Congressional Democrats on the January 6th Committee have hired former ABC News President James Goldston to “produce” this month’s slate of hearings on the Capitol riot, according to Fox News‘ Chad Pergram, who added that Goldston will “have a hand in all of the hearings this month.”

  Goldman will be “particularly involved” in efforts by the committee to make the prime-time hearings – both this Thursday and another later this month – “TV friendly.”

  C) However, the committee will intersperse various portions of taped depositions, new audio/videotape and never-before-seen footage from inside the Capitol on the day of the riot.

  — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 6, 2022

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  On Sunday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that the Democrats would present a “comprehensive narrative” at the J6 Committee’s first public hearing this week.

  “Our goal is to present the narrative of what happened in this country, how close we came to losing our democracy, what led to the violence,” he told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding: “Americans I think know a great deal already — they have seen a number of bombshells already [and] there’s a great deal they haven’t seen. But perhaps the most important is the public has not seen it woven together, how one thing led to another.”

  January 6 was the violent culmination of an extensive effort to overturn a presidential election.

  The American people know a lot about those events, but soon they will learn more, and see how close we came to losing our democracy.

  On Thursday, we will begin to tell that story. pic.twitter.com/hX6RAS9GFR

  — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 5, 2022

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  It’s all part of the show, folks!

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 19:20

• Joseph Stiglitz On The Minimum Wage: A Disgrace
  Joseph Stiglitz On The Minimum Wage: A Disgrace

  Submitted by Walter E. Block, Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics at Loyola University

  In his 1993 introductory economic textbook, Economics, Columbia University economics professor Joseph Stiglitz gives the usual dismal science analysis of minimum wage legislation: it creates unemployment for those least likely to be able to bear it: unskilled workers whose productivity is below the level stipulated by law. It hurts the very people who, ostensibly, this enactment was meant to help.

  In his own words, from this textbook:

  “Price floors have predictable effects too…. If government attempts to raise the minimum wage higher than the equilibrium wage, the demand for workers will be reduced and the supply increased. There will be an excess supply of labor. Of course, those who are lucky enough to get a job will be better off at the higher wage than at the market equilibrium wage; but there are others, who might have been employed at the lower market equilibrium wage, who cannot find employment and are worse off.”

  All well and good you say? Not so, very much not so. For this 2001 Nobel Prize winning economist has also come out in favor not for the elimination of this pernicious legislation, nor, even, to leave it alone and hope that inflation can reduce its real value (thus unemploying fewer unskilled workers), but for an increase in the level mandated.

  Specifically, he called for a boost in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour.

  Talk about cognitive dissonance.

  If there were a Nobel Prize for that, Stiglitz would surely win it. You can’t get too much further apart from what this world-famous economist wrote in his textbook and what he calls for in the real world.

  

  How does Stiglitz reconcile his support of the minimum wage law with his textbook’s denigration of this enactment? That, indeed, is the $64,000 question.

  One possibility is that various economists such as David Card and Alan Krueger have failed to discern any unemployment effects for low wage employees upon an increase in the minimum wage. But that hardly supports Professor Stiglitz’s textbook treatment of this law. What can we say in behalf of the wisdom his textbook seeks to impart to undergraduate students? The answer would be that Card and Krueger and their ilk should dig deeper; and/or not confine themselves to slight increases in this legislation.  Rather they should compare states of the world where it exists at something like $7.25 per hours at today’s prices with its utter and total absence.

  Another ploy sometimes used by supposed economic sophisticates is the argument from monopsony. No, that is not a mis-spelling of monopoly, sometimes characterized as a single seller of a good or service. Monopsony, in sharp contrast, is a single buyer of an item, for example, in this case, labor. The argument from monopsony is the answer to this attempted reductio ad absurdum against the minimum wage law: if it is so great, why not raise it to $1,000,000 per hour, and then we would all be rich? To the extent there is monopsony in the economy, there are strict limits as to how high the minimum may go, before negatively and heavily impacting the labor force via unemployment. Yes to $15 per hour, and, maybe, even $25 per hour, but certainly not to anything very much higher than that; certainly not to anything like millions of dollars hourly.

  But the big problem with this argument is that monopsony, if it exists at all, must necessarily be limited to cases where one or at most a very few firms (oligopsony) hire a certain type of laborer. Possible examples include professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey stars, engineers, chemists, physicists, computer nerds, movie stars, rock musicians, etc. Does this sound like workers who earn in the realm of the minimum wage? Of course not. Thus, this argument too, fails.

  We are left with a big mystery: how can a public figure like Joseph Stiglitz get away with the public embarrassment of blatantly contradicting himself? At the very least, he ought to repudiate what he wrote in his textbook, if he keeps on supporting the minimum wage law. Or, far better yet, he should cease and desist from his present advocacy of this pernicious legislation

  (On a personal note, the value of my Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1972 has taken a hit thanks to this man occupying a prominent professorial role there).

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 19:00

• Texas Power Demand To Hit Record High Amid Sweltering Summer Heat  
  Texas Power Demand To Hit Record High Amid Sweltering Summer Heat  

  Texans are cranking up their air conditions this week as high temperatures across the state are forecasted to exceed triple digits and could strain the state’s power grid. Last week, Houston-based energy firm Criterion Research warned of the incoming surge in power demand. 

  According to Reuters, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Texas’ main grid operator, expects power demand to reach 75,195 megawatts (MW) on Tuesday, which would surpass August 2019 levels marking a record high. 

  “ERCOT weather-adjusted loads have been increasing rapidly since mid-2021,” said Morris Greenberg, senior North American power analysis manager at S&P Global Commodity Insights.

  As soon as Tuesday, average high temperatures across the state could reach the upper 90s Fahrenheit and breach 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. Bloomberg forecasts show high temperatures could surge between 100-106 Fahrenheit through mid-month — scorching hot weather will lead to businesses and residents boosting cooling demand. 

  

  The problem for Texans isn’t just the threat of power blackouts from a strained power grid this summer but soaring energy bills due to the rising cost of power generation. 

  The average price-per-kilowatt hour of electricity for Texas residents has increased 70 percent year-over-year from June 2021, according to The Dallas Morning News’ Mitchell Sherman, who compared new rates offered by state power providers in 2022 to those consumers were offered in 2021. According to Power to Choose, a site through which Texas consumers can compare power plans, Lone Star State residents signing new contracts in June 2022 are paying 18.48 cents per kilowatt hour—10.5 cents more than the averaged rate they were paying in June, 2021 (7.98 cents). — Houston Chronicle

  Power bills for businesses and residents could be a “real sticker shock,” AARP Texas Associate State Director Tim Morstad told Sherman. Rising power bills are primarily due to the soaring price of natural gas. About 45% of Texas’ grid is powered by natgas. 

  

  ERCOT has said with wind and solar plants boosting power resources, it has enough 91,392 MW of capacity, though when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, the grid could experience energy shortfalls. 

  Texans should be prepared for grid strain and soaring electricity bills. Power grids in the westernmost states warned last month that power-generating capacity might struggle to keep up with demand amid threats of heat waves this summer, resulting in possible rolling blackouts. 

  High inflation and risks of power blackouts sound like many Americans this summer will be experiencing what it’s like to live in a third-world country. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 18:40

• Watch: Matt Walsh Film Forces Academics To Confront Their Hypocrisies On Gender Identity
  Watch: Matt Walsh Film Forces Academics To Confront Their Hypocrisies On Gender Identity

  Authored by Alexa Schwerha via Campus Reform,

  In Matt Walsh’s Daily Wire documentary What is a Woman?, academics defend their advocacy for radical gender ideology with at least one admitting to having encouraged chemical castration.

  

  Michelle Forcier, assistant dean of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, abruptly ended the interview after Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh stated that one drug used in sex reassignment surgery doubles to castrate sex offenders.

  Walsh was referring to Lupron, a testosterone suppressant. Lupron is often used to cure endometrial or prostate cancer but is also castrate predators.

  Now, it is also known for aiding the transition from a woman to a man.

  “You know what, I’m not sure we should continue with this interview because it seems like it’s going in a particular direction,” Forcier said.

  She then accused Walsh of using “malignant” language by referring to hormone suppressants as “drugs.” According to Forcier, such rhetoric is “harmful” to transgender children.

  Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog: “If I see a chicken laying eggs and I say that is a female chicken laying eggs, did I assign female or am I just observing a physical reality?”

  Dr. Forcier: “Does a chicken have gender identity?” pic.twitter.com/Nk6jc2lC4y

  — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 2, 2022

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  Forcier is also a pediatrician.

  Additionally, University of Tennessee Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Patrick Grzanka told Walsh that asking for a definition of “woman” is “essentialist.”

  “It’s a really simple answer,” Grzanka said. “It’s someone who identifies as a woman.”

  Grzanka refused Walsh’s challenge to define the term without using it in the sentence.

  According to Grzanka, gender and sex are conflated terms, and each person is entitled to his or her own “truth.”

  Walsh countered the latter, stating that there is only one, objective truth. Grazanka told Walsh that his understanding of the term “truth” made him uncomfortable and was transphobic. Like Forcier, Grzanka threatened to end the interview if Walsh continued to use it.

  “I’m really uncomfortable with that language,” he said.

  This was perhaps the most utterly insane scene of the entire documentary, hands down… @MattWalshBlog pic.twitter.com/qF9MXvsmtv

  — Kyle J. Maxwell (@khendriix_) June 2, 2022

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  Marci Bowers, a transgender surgeon who specializes in “gender affirmation surgery,” told Walsh that being a woman is a collection of “physical attributes.”

  According to Bowers, a woman is defined by the “gendered clues” that are displayed to the world.

  From @MattWalshBlog’s #WhatIsAWoman: this trans surgeon, Marci Bowers, admits to performing a vaginoplasty on a 16-year-old boy attempting to become a woman (that’s a surgery where Bowers uses skin from the boy’s genitals to craft faux female parts).

  pic.twitter.com/HCqfTWQmhR

  — Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 1, 2022

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  Bowers gave a lecture as a visiting professor for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in October 2020 about Gender Affirming Surgery.

  Bowers is the first transgender person to conduct “transgender surgery.” He has 32 years of experience and boasts of completing “2250 primary [male to female] Vaginoplasties and 3900 Gender Affirming Surgeries overall.”

  The sole voice of reason among the academics came from Miriam Grossman.

  Grossman is a former psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and told Walsh that identifying as an opposite gender does change the person’s identity.

  “I am rooted in reality and science,” she explained. She then confirmed Walsh’s position that there is only “one” reality.

  Dr. Miriam Grossman talks to Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog about the dangers of puberty blockers.

  “How can they be sterilizing kids? How can this whole thing be happening?” pic.twitter.com/94vz90hjr4

  — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 2, 2022

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  What is a Woman? features Walsh as he traveled across the country to seek the answer to the film’s eponymous question.

  However, Walsh was consistently shut down by gender activists when he scrutinized their logic.

  California Representative Mark Takano walked out of the room mid-interview after refusing to engage with Walsh.

  “Turn off the cameras,” he demanded.

  When Walsh called out his signature question as Takano left the room, a staffer responded that he was “not gonna find out.”

  The documentary also includes heartfelt testimony from victims of radical gender theory.

  Walsh sat down with a former teammate of University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

  The swimmer explained how the university actively censored any complaint raised about Thomas being allowed to compete as a woman.

  “There was a lot of things you couldn’t talk about that were very concerning- like [the] locker room situation,” she said. “If you even brought up concerns about it, you were transphobic. If you even bring up the fact that Lia swimming might not be fair, you were immediately shut down [with] being called a ‘hateful person’ or ‘transphobic.'”

  Walsh also spoke with a Canadian father who was jailed after fighting the court system to stop his daughter from being injected with gender-affirming hormones. The father lost the case and his daughter was allowed to proceed with the transition to male.

  The father has been released but is unable to leave British Columbia. 

  What is a Woman? premiered on Wednesday.

  The documentary delicately mixes humor and seriousness that keeps the reader engaged as Walsh one-by-one undermines every argument presented by radical gender activists.

  Walsh covered a spectrum of milestones in the gender debate, most notably the Loudon County, Virginia, investigation that accused the public school system of covering up a sexual assault in the girl’s bathroom after a male was allowed to use it.

  Walsh engages in man-on-the-street style sleuthing to uncover the opinion of everyday Americans in New York, California, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C.

  No matter the location, people had difficulty defining a woman.

  What is a Woman? is a question Campus Reform has asked students, as well.

  Ahead of a Matt Walsh appearance at Georgia Tech, Campus Reform challenged students to answer his famous inquisition.

  “It’s whatever the person defines themself as because there is no set standard because nobody is the same as another person,” one student said. “There’s a whole bunch of different ways you can define a woman.”

  Another guessed that it is “a very personal question” that “depends on the person.”

  Campus Reform Correspondent Jaden Heard, however, had better luck at Auburn University by asking students to instead define a man.

  “A biological male,” one student simply said.

  Campus Reform has contacted every individual mentioned in this article for comment and will update accordingly.

  Follow @Alexaschwerha1 on Twitter.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 18:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Visualizing The World's 50 Biggest Data Breaches From 2004–2021
  Visualizing The World’s 50 Biggest Data Breaches From 2004–2021

  As our world has become increasingly reliant on technology and data stored online, data breaches have become an omnipresent threat to users, businesses, and government agencies; and as Visual Capitalist’s Paul Sykes details below, in 2021, a new record was set with more than 5.9 billion user records stolen.

  This graphic by Chimdi Nwosu visualizes the 50 largest data breaches since 2004, along with the sectors most impacted. Data was aggregated from company statements and news reports.

  

  Understanding the Basics of Data Breaches

  A data breach is an incident in which sensitive or confidential information is copied, transmitted or stolen by an unauthorized entity. This can occur as a result of malware attacks, payment card fraud, insider leaks, or unintended disclosure.

  The targeted data is often customer PII (personally identifiable information), employee PII, intellectual property, corporate data or government agency data.

  Date breaches can be perpetrated by lone hackers, organized cybercrime groups, or even national governments. Stolen information can then be used in other criminal enterprises such as identity theft, credit card fraud, or held for ransom payment.

  Notable Data Breaches Since 2004

  The largest data breach recorded occurred in 2013 when all three billion Yahoo accounts had their information compromised. In that cyberattack, the hackers were able to gather the personal information and passwords of users. While the full extent of the Yahoo data breach is still not fully realized, subsequent cybercrimes across the globe have been linked to the stolen information.

  Here are the 10 largest data breaches by amount of user records stolen from 2004–2021.

  

  The massive Yahoo hack accounted for roughly 30% of the 9.9 billion user records stolen from the Web sector—by far the most impacted sector. The next most-impacted sectors were Tech and Finance, with 2 billion and 1.6 billion records stolen, respectively.

  Although these three sectors had the highest totals of user data lost, that doesn’t necessarily imply they have weaker security measures. Instead, it can probably be attributed to the sheer number of user records they compile.

  Not all infamous data breaches are of a large scale. A smaller data breach in 2014 made headlines when Apple’s iCloud was hacked and the personal pictures of roughly 200 celebrities were disseminated across the internet. Although this highly targeted hack only affected a few hundred people, it highlighted how invasive and damaging data breaches can be to users.

  The Cost of Data Breaches to Businesses

  Every year data breaches cost businesses billions of dollars to prevent and contain, while also eroding consumer trust and potentially having an adverse effect on customer retention.

  A 2021 IBM security report estimated that the average cost per data breach for companies in 2020 was $4.2 million, which represents a 10% increase from 2019. That increase is mainly attributed to the added security risk associated with having more people working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Measures to Improve Data Security

  Completely preventing data breaches is essentially impossible, as cybercrime enterprises are often persistent, dynamic, and sophisticated. Nevertheless, businesses can seek out innovative methods to prevent exposure of data and mitigate potential damages.

  For example, after the iCloud attack in 2014, Apple began avidly encouraging users to adopt two-factor authentication in an effort to strengthen data security.

  Regardless of the measures businesses take, the unfortunate reality is that data breaches are a cost of doing business in the modern world and will continue to be a concern to both companies and users.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 02:45

• Russia Sees Extra $6.4 Billion Oil Revenue In June As Prices Rally
  Russia Sees Extra $6.4 Billion Oil Revenue In June As Prices Rally

  Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

  • Russia’s Finance Ministry expects $6.37 billion in additional oil revenue in June.

  • Russian oil exports haven’t fallen off a cliff, while it continues to sell natural gas to most of the EU.

  • Russian crude exports could drop if the EU’s sixth’ sanctions package is fully implemented.

  Russia expects to receive as much as $6.37 billion in additional oil and gas revenues in June, its finance ministry said on Friday, as energy commodity prices have rallied since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

  

  According to estimates released on Friday by the Finance Ministry, Russia expects its additional revenue from oil and gas sales to be 393 billion rubles, or $6.37 billion, this month. Additional budget revenues are expected at $10.66 billion (656.6 billion rubles) for the months of May and June because of the higher-than-expected oil prices, Russia said.

  Russia has been benefiting from the energy commodities rally, which intensified after the invasion of Ukraine. Despite Western sanctions designed to hurt Russia’s oil revenues and war chest, Moscow is still getting a lot of additional billions of U.S. dollars in oil and gas revenues.

  So far, Russian oil exports haven’t fallen off a cliff, while it continues to sell natural gas to most of the EU, including to some of the biggest consumers and economies such as Germany and Italy.

  However, under the sixth sanctions package from the EU, Russian oil exports could drop further as the EU is currently endorsing a ban on Russian oil imports via sea that also aims to cut Russia off the tanker insurance market and limit its ability to redirect seaborne oil exports to third countries.  

  Russia said this week its oil production would rebound in June and expressed confidence it would be able to find new markets for its oil.

  Russia is boosting exports to India and China, but analysts doubt the Asian market would be able to absorb all the 4 million bpd of oil Russia was sending to Europe before the war. 

  Russia could see between 2 million bpd and 3 million bpd of its oil exports—or about a quarter of the country’s oil production—disappear from the global market by end-2022, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday.

  “We believe that redirecting of all Russian oil and products volumes may not be possible due to infrastructural limitations, buyers’ self-restrictions and logistical complications, such as potential restrictions on providing insurance for cargos carrying Russian oil,” Fitch added. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/06/2022 – 02:00

• Onshoring Semiconductor Capacity Is Crucial To National Security
  Onshoring Semiconductor Capacity Is Crucial To National Security

  Authored by Zachary A. Collier via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  When you think about national security, you probably don’t immediately think about semiconductors. These tiny chips are the “brains” enabling all the computational capabilities and data storage that we take for granted today. Chips power virtually every sector of the economy – including data centers, automotive, healthcare, banking, and agriculture. As a consequence of their widespread use, semiconductors have grown to become a $555 billion global industry, and are the world’s fourth most traded product. Semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging have been cited frequently as one of the main critical supply chain priorities for the nation.

  

  A steady source of uninterrupted, trusted chips is necessary for the security of the nation – supporting the readiness of the U.S. military and protecting critical infrastructure like the electric grid. The problem is that most chips are fabricated outside of the U.S., in the vulnerable region of Southeast Asia – hence the security issues. Around three quarters of global chip production capacity comes from Southeast Asia. The U.S., on the other hand, represents only 12% of global manufacturing supply, while accounting for around 25% of global demand. This supply-demand imbalance leaves the U.S. in a precarious position, dependent upon foreign sources of supply such as South Korea and Taiwan. Amidst geopolitical tensions in that region, there are compelling reasons to consider strengthening the supply of semiconductor production at home.

  The first consideration is cybersecurity. The security of the chips, embedded within everything from your smart phone to your laptop, plays a critical role in cybersecurity. In fact, databases such as the Common Weakness Enumeration list a number of known hardware weaknesses. Furthermore, given the complex global supply chain, there are ample opportunities for foreign adversaries to maliciously tamper with chips and other electronic assemblies.

  Beyond the security implications, semiconductors play an important role within the economy. The U.S. semiconductor industry employs roughly 277,000 people and generates $55.8 billion in national GDP. The jobs in this industry pay higher than average wages. For every one worker in the semiconductor industry, an additional 5.7 jobs are supported indirectly through the supply chain or related economic activity. However, the current global chip shortage has reduced U.S. GDP by around $240 billion. Because of the chip shortage, semiconductor inventories for auto makers have dropped 43%, and 70% of auto manufacturers have announced production stoppages. The result is that the global auto industry produced 7.7 million fewer cars in 2021. Without chips, many industries simply cannot support demand.

  Of course, building domestic capacity, especially leading-edge capacity, will require commitment, effort, and buy-in by multiple parties. According to a BCG report, building a semiconductor fabrication facility can cost $5-20 billion in upfront capital expenditures, with a ten-year total cost of ownership ranging from $11-40 billion. The report finds that U.S. costs are 25%-50% higher than in other locations such as South Korea and Taiwan, with 40%-70% of this gap accounted for by government incentives. Despite this, trends such as remote work, the increased use of artificial intelligence, and growing demand for electric vehicles will result in continued increases in semiconductor demand.

  This is why legislation is an important first step to ensure domestic production. The CHIPS for America Act, which was passed as part of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, authorizes provisions such as grants for strengthening domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research capabilities. The Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act which includes $52 billion in investments supporting the CHIPS Act, while the House passed its own version of competitiveness legislation called the America COMPETES Act that also includes $52 billion in CHIPS Act funding. The Senate and the House are now negotiating the details of the two separate bills to be combined into the Bipartisan Innovation Act. A complementary bill called the FABS Act provides an investment tax credit for construction of domestic semiconductor manufacturing facilities. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the CHIPS Act incentives will produce 66,000 research and development jobs, as well as thousands of additional jobs in construction and manufacturing. Together, the grants in the CHIPS Act and the tax incentives of the FABS Act are intended to kick-start the construction and expansion of domestic semiconductor manufacturing facilities and allow for investment in the technology and operations for sustained growth over time.

  As we have learned through the pandemic, the global supply chain is surprisingly brittle, and dependence on foreign sources for critical components like semiconductors leaves the nation vulnerable. Cultivating a domestic manufacturing ecosystem can be done by onshoring semiconductor fabrication capabilities and providing market incentives – strengthening national security and promoting economic prosperity.

  Zachary A. Collier, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management at Radford University. He is a visiting scholar at the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST).

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 23:30

• Central China's State Bailout Good News For Similar Developers
  Central China’s State Bailout Good News For Similar Developers

  By Shen Hong, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and reporter

  The de facto partial state bailout of Central China Real Estate is certainly a sign of things to come, and bodes well for small- to mid-sized Chinese developers of strategic importance to local authorities.

  The chairman of the Henan-based developer, China’s 37th-largest, will sell a 29% stake in the firm to a real estate company owned by the provincial government. The proposal followed a December move by China South City Holdings to also sell an identical stake to a state firm. The moves strongly hint at local coordination based on instructions from the very top, as Beijing steps up efforts to prevent the property sector’s liquidity crisis from deteriorating into a major systemic risk.

  To be sure, not all distressed developers will be as lucky as the above-mentioned two. Henan is not a rich province but Central China happens to be a major local employer and taxpayer. As one of the nation’s most populous provinces, Henan also can’t afford to see angry homebuyers stage street protests if the developer collapses and leaves behind unfinished apartments.

  

  One last thing: the two episodes need not rekindle concerns about aggressive nationalization of private enterprises. Beijing is proactively helping these struggling developers, with likely no intention to fully own them in the long run.

  Real estate is becoming a sunset industry in China, as the population ages fast and economic growth slows further. It’s not where state firms want to be, unless called upon to do the national service of building cheap public housing.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 22:30

• Three Chinese Astronauts Dock At New Space Station For Six Month Stay
  Three Chinese Astronauts Dock At New Space Station For Six Month Stay

  Three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, have docked at the under-construction Tiangong space station Sunday evening after launching from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert earlier in the day, according to Space.com. 

  LAUNCH! Long March 2F launches Shenzhou-14 from SLS-1 at Jiuquan, carrying three taikonauts to the Tiangong space station.

  Overview:https://t.co/evZFEOrtuH – by Adrian Beil (@BCCarCounters)

  Livestream:https://t.co/bs7ov5T4s8 pic.twitter.com/qwUehdLYph

  — Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) June 5, 2022

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  The three Shenzhou 14 taikonauts — commander Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe — will spend six months on the Tiangong, overseeing the addition of two laboratory modules (with the Wentian module set to launch next month and the Mengtian in October). When the modules are connected, Tiangong will be a T-shaped station smaller than the aging International Space Station (ISS).

  Shenzhou 14 flight crew consisted of astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe pic.twitter.com/lExdQuKgyY

  — 曹 毅 CAO Yi أبو وسيم (@CaoYi_MFA) June 4, 2022

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  The trio of taikonauts will welcome Shenzhou 15 crew aboard the station at the end of the year, making the first time six people will be living aboard.

  Here’s a docking video of the spacecraft with the station.

  Last month, China released a never-before-seen image of Tiangong, orbiting above the Earth at 250 miles. 

  

  The station’s completion will mark President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to be a leader in space as NASA is set to retire the aging ISS by 2031. This could mean China might have the only space station orbiting the Earth unless the US and its partners announce plans for a new station. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 22:00

• House Judiciary Democrts Vote To Advance Expansive Gun Control Bill
  House Judiciary Democrts Vote To Advance Expansive Gun Control Bill

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

  The House Judiciary Committee voted this week to advance a gun control bill in the wake of a deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

  

  The final vote fell along party lines, with every committee Republican voting against the legislation and every committee Democrat voting to advance it.

  Splits between Democrats and Republicans were on full display during the hearing, which focused on the “Protecting Our Kids” Act, H.R. 7910.

  That bill, among other provisions, would ban the sale of “any semiautomatic centerfire rifle or semi-automatic centerfire shotgun that has, or has the capacity to accept, an ammunition feeding device with a capacity exceeding 5 rounds” to citizens below the age of 21; currently one only needs to be 18 to buy such a weapon.

  It would also codify the Department of Justice’s controversial ban on bump stocks, a weapon modification that increases the fire rate of a semiautomatic firearm.

  In addition, it would also make it a federal crime to possess weapons that critics have pejoratively labeled “ghost guns,” usually describing homemade or 3D-printed weapons without a serial number.

  Democrats pushed strongly for the passage of the bill, saying that stricter gun control laws are needed in response to the shooting in Uvalde that left 19 children and two adults dead.

  The legislation “might have saved those children in Uvalde,” Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said, adding “whoever saves one life, it’s as if he saved the whole world.”

  Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) argued at one point in the hearing that arguments against the bill hinging on the Second Amendment are faulty.

  “The Supreme Court has ruled time and time again that the Second Amendment is not absolute,” he said.

  Others pushed for the bill as a matter of urgency, and called for various changes to Senate rules and the Supreme Court’s composition if necessary to pass the legislation.

  “This epidemic of gun violence is not unstoppable,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.). “It is a choice—a choice you could make differently at any time, a choice between our lives and your guns.”

  “Time and time again you have chosen to put your right to kill over our right to live,” Jones added. “But your selfishness and your indifference have not killed our hope.”

  “If the filibuster stops us, we will abolish it,” Jones said. “If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it. And we will not rest until we have taken weapons of war out of circulation in our communities.”

  “Each and every day, we will do whatever it takes to end gun violence,” Jones said. “Whatever it takes,” he emphasized.

  Republicans, by contrast, have pushed for legislation to address mental illness and to increase school security, but have rejected efforts to limit gun rights.

  While what happened in Uvalde was “a tragedy,” Judiciary Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said, “protecting children is not a Democrat or Republican issue.”

  Jordan called instead for legislation based on making schools safer rather than restricting gun rights, a sentiment shared by many other Republicans.

  “We’re all for that,” Jordan said. “But we’re not for taking away Second Amendment liberties.”

  Rather, Jordan said, we should focus on discovering “the why” of mass shootings: “Until we discover the ‘why,’ we’re never going to solve the problem.”

  “The left and the Democrats’ response to practically every problem is to take more power and control into the national government, or take away individuals’ rights, or throw taxpayer money at the problem—sometimes both,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

  “That’s why they tend to exacerbate practically every problem without resolution,” Biggs said. “They misidentify the cause of virtually every effect.

  “The misuse of guns for evil or even criminal purposes is another example. Millions of Americans safely and responsibly own and use guns.”

  Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) echoed the sentiment.

  “You are not going to bully your way into stripping Americans of fundamental rights,” Bishop said.

  In a statement, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that the House would vote on the legislation next week.

  Though the legislation is likely to pass the lower chamber, it has little to no chance of passing in the Senate, where it would need the support of at least 10 Republicans to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 21:30

• Ukraine Foreign Minister Furious After Macron Says Russia Must Not Be Humiliated
  Ukraine Foreign Minister Furious After Macron Says Russia Must Not Be Humiliated

  French President Emmanuel Macron sparked a cascade of virtue outsignaling and social media outrage after he said that “it is vital that Russia is not humiliated so that when the fighting stops in Ukraine a diplomatic solution can be found,” adding that he believed Paris would play a mediating role to end the conflict.

  While Macron has sought to maintain a dialogue with Vladimir Putin since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February, his stance has been repeatedly criticized by some staunch anti-Russia eastern European and Baltic states as they see it as undermining efforts to pressure Putin to the negotiating table.

  “We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means,” Macron said in an interview to regional newspapers published on Saturday. “I am convinced that it is France’s role to be a mediating power.”

  Predictably, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who spends most of his time on twitter, slammed Macron’s comments, responding on Twitter on Saturday that “calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it. Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.”

  Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it. Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.

  — Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) June 4, 2022

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

  All this comes as western media drops much of the propaganda facade over the past three months and admits that the Ukraine war has actually been a disaster for, well, Ukraine (NYT: “Ukraine War’s Geographic Reality: Russia Has Seized Much of the East“, WaPo: “Ukrainian volunteer fighters in the east feel abandoned“).

  Meanwhile, while all some do is tweet, Macron has actually spoken with Putin repeatedly since the invasion as part of efforts to achieve a ceasefire and begin a credible negotiation between Kyiv and Moscow. “I think, and I told him, that he is making a historic and fundamental mistake for his people, for himself and for history,” Macron said.

  France has supported Ukraine militarily and financially, but until now Macron has not been to Kyiv to offer symbolic political support like other EU leaders, something Ukraine has wanted him to do. Macron said he had not ruled out going. Paris sends offensive weapons including Caesar howitzer canon taken from French army stocks. Macron said he had asked weapons manufacturers to accelerate production.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 21:00

• Asylum Seekers Overwhelm Shelters In Portland, Maine
  Asylum Seekers Overwhelm Shelters In Portland, Maine

  Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Facing an impending humanitarian crisis, Portland Family Shelters Director Mike Guthrie has a simple message to anyone who will listen, “We need help!”

  

  Guthrie, a hands-on, frontline worker in the effort to feed, clothe, and house a continuous flow of foreign nationals arriving in Portland by airplane or bus from the U.S. southern border, told The Epoch Times, “Our family shelter facilities, our warming room, and even area hotel space is at capacity. We have maxed out our community resources.

  “The time is coming when I’m going to have to look a dad in the face and tell him and his family that I don’t know where they’re going to sleep tonight.”

  The Portland Family Shelter is a complex of four rented buildings in various states of renovation located in the heart of downtown.

  Some of the structures are gradually being converted into small apartments where up to four families will share a single kitchen and bathroom.

  All four buildings are overflowing their present capacity.

  “The intake is greater and faster than we can process,” Guthrie said.

  

  To accommodate the stream of new arrivals, the family shelter program has in recent months placed 309 families (1,091 people) in eight hotels located in five neighboring municipalities spread over three counties of southeastern Maine’s prime tourist and vacation region.

  Those moves, with their attendant complications and problems, have resulted in some pushback from the local Mainers who fear their prized relaxed lifestyle may never be the same.

  And they resent not having a voice in any of it.

  “It’s just part of the state government’s plan to bring the slums to the suburbs,” said a Mainer from the resort and tourist community of Kennebunkport, a small town about 28 miles down the Atlantic coast from Portland.

  “The United States cannot rescue Africa.”

  Coming out of the Kennebunkport post office, long-time Mainers Virginia and Robert shared their opinions on what the locals see as the “invasion” of Maine by immigrants.

  Virginia commented, “We have sympathy for the asylum seekers, but resources are over-extended and now it’s going beyond Portland.”

  “Eventually, it’s going to impact our quality of life,” Robert said.

  

  Pressures on Portland’s homeless shelter capacity last year inspired a York County community action group to obtain a federal grant to help house the city’s regular homeless population.

  The plan included renting half a dozen large motels in a three-mile corridor in the heart of southeastern Maine’s Atlantic-shore tourist region.

  Motels within walking distance of shopping opportunities were selected.

  The motels close in the off-season, so it appeared to some people to be a win-win arrangement.

  Included in the plan was the small, quiet, resort town of Wells, located about six miles from Kennebunkport.

  Though the program sheltered hundreds of individuals from the brutal Maine winter, the resulting wave of never-before-seen vandalism, burglaries, and other property crimes in the commercial district forced the city of Wells to evict every tenant for violations of several municipal ordinances.

  It is unclear where the evicted people were relocated.

  Homeless Victimized and Intimidated

  

  According to Captain Gerald Congdon of the Wells Police Department, the crimes were not committed by foreign asylum seekers, Wells residents, or by the many legitimate, disadvantaged, and debilitated people housed in the motel.

  “The perpetrators arrested were mostly ‘couch-surfers’ spending time with homeless friends staying legally at the motel. However, the bulk of grant-qualified motel dwellers had drug problems,” Congdon said.

  One small business operator, whose sweetshop was burglarized, told The Epoch Times, “The thieves were druggies in need of a fix. They came in through a window, stole the cash from the register, and took our digital scales.

  “These people were brought in around Christmastime. It was like an invasion. We never had a crime at our store before they came in and ruined things.

  “It’s not fair. We now think differently. They changed the whole landscape of how we do business. We don’t want to see them come back.”

  Congdon told The Epoch Times, “There was shoplifting at the bigger chain stores and car break-ins going after loose change in the strip mall parking lot.

  “A small bike shop was burglarized twice, losing thousands of dollars-worth of high-end bicycles—never happened to them in 42 years of business.

  “Our officers spent a lot of time on disturbance calls and enforcing warrants. We made quite a few arrests and recovered some stolen property.

  “The management of the area’s motels got tired of seeing us there. They were tired of their legitimate businesses being associated with crime.

  “The nice tenants, many of whom are truly deserving of help, were being victimized and intimidated. They were afraid to call us.”

  Congdon said his department was not consulted and was given no advance notice on the plan to bring hundreds of homeless people—including many known drug-addicts—into their city.

  The City of Wells was not compensated for the additional hours of policing.

  

  ‘Feeder Sources’

  On May 1, a hotel in the resort town of Old Orchard Beach, located about halfway between Portland and Kennebunkport, evicted all of its residents for a different reason.

  This time, they were asylum seekers evicted in order to make room for the arrival of legally permitted temporary seasonal workers to lodge there.

  These special visa-holders make up the majority of the workforce needed by the region’s thriving hospitality industry.

  The asylum seekers were relocated to motels in three other southern Maine communities, according to Portland city officials.

  In Portland, 500 single asylum seekers are housed in a municipal shelter separate from the family shelter, according to a spokesperson for the city. It too is at capacity.

  Guthrie told The Epoch Times that city authorities have publicly notified what he calls “the feeder sources” at the southern border and in Washington D.C. about the immigration crisis unfolding in Portland.

  The city administration asked Border Patrol, Health and Human Services, and participating non-profits to stop sending asylum seekers to Portland until sufficient resources become available to adequately care for them.

  But the force of the city’s request was blunted when it announced immediately after the notification that it would not turn anybody away, acknowledged Guthrie.

  

  Guthrie stated that the city asked Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, to call out the National Guard to set up emergency shelters and feeding stations but has not yet received an answer.

  On June 2, in remarks before the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, Mills committed the state to building a new emergency shelter in the city and said she was working to create additional housing for asylum seekers in the area.

  She also spoke of the desirability of the in-migration as a source of labor to fill many existing job openings.

  Speaking of the migrants, Mills said, “We need the workforce here. We want them to be available for work. Some of them come with incredible skills and experiences that we can employ.”

  One long-time Maine resident, who visited the Portland Family Shelter to see the situation for himself, told The Epoch Times, “Mike Guthrie is like a man frantically trying to bail out a sinking rowboat, while his superiors continue to drill holes in it.”

  During the month of May, the family shelter took in 79 families consisting of 262 individuals with no slowdown in sight, Guthrie said.

  “220 people turned up in just 20 days. We’re trying to help anybody that comes to the door. Thus far, nobody coming to us has had to sleep outside but we can no longer guarantee shelter upon arrival,” he said.

  “We need the state of Maine to step in and create safe places for these people. We need a facility to be created and run like a FEMA camp.

  “Our legislators are talking about buying and renovating older apartments throughout the region that could house 140 families. That’s great in the long-term, but the problem is now!

  “At the rate things are going, we’d have those places filled in two months. Then what?” Guthrie asked.

  Portland’s pastors, church members, and its citizens have been stepping forward to do what they can.

  “Local churches and those in Cumberland are offering space for people to sleep and some Portland residents have even opened up their homes,” Guthrie said.

  

  Where Are the Asylum Seekers Coming From?

  The vast majority of the new arrivals at the family shelter in Portland have come from Angola and the Congo in Africa, with some coming from Haiti in the Caribbean.

  They make the arduous and often dangerous journey any way they can—largely on foot.

  Guthrie told of a father and child who recently showed up at the shelter.

  “The man said that his wife, the young child’s mother, died on the way. She was swept away while crossing a river.”

  Guthrie explained that the route to Portland for most of the asylum seekers begins in chaos-torn western equatorial Africa.

  “They cross the Atlantic to South America. They go up through South America and then north through Central America, ending up in northern Mexico, from which they cross the southern border into the United States.

  “At that point, they present themselves to Border Patrol.

  “A new arrival tells Border Patrol ‘I am here to seek asylum. If I go back home, I will be killed. I fear for my life.’ That’s the difference between an asylum seeker and an immigrant,” he said.

  Those three short sentences guarantee a person’s admission for a lengthy stay in the United States as his or her claim is adjudicated.

  Guthrie went on to explain, “After some additional questioning, the individual is issued minimal paperwork by immigration authorities and told they will be contacted about a formal hearing on their asylum plea. They are then turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

  Most are given cell phones.

  Public servants with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and representatives of various American non-profit, philanthropic organizations, ask the asylum seekers where they want to go in the interior of the United States to await their asylum hearing.

  For many, their answer is “Portland.”

  “They are then put on buses or airplanes and sent on their way,” Guthrie said.

  

  Why Portland?

  Guthrie said that Portland is often recommended to people enroute to the United States by relatives who are already living in the city.

  “Once they get here, the majority of the new arrivals want to stay in Portland. They tell their relatives and friends about us,” he said.

  Jessica Grondin, the city’s director of communications and media, told The Epoch Times in a phone interview, “Portland is happy about and proud of our good reputation as a ‘Welcoming City.’ We presently have a large Somali population, as well as many Iraqis and Afghans who arrived here previously.”

  Grondin said that several busloads of asylum seekers recently shipped off to Washington D.C. by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ultimately made their way to Portland.

  She stated that, along with the lack of housing, one of the biggest problems facing the city is a shortage of staff to care for the volume of new arrivals.

  Guthrie said that the influx asylum seekers has exceeded the city’s ability to offer basic services.

  “As we outgrow our past limits, we are being forced to prioritize what we are doing for these people. We are no longer able to help them connect with local immigration attorneys, nor help them learn English,” he said.

  Effective May 7, a policy change took effect forbidding the shelter’s staff from assisting asylum seekers in finding an apartment.

  “Instead, these folks, who are complete strangers to this community and speak no English, are being qualified for a state General Assistance housing voucher.

  “They are given a sample lease, a rental form, and an explanation of the GA process, and are then sent out on their own to find a place to live,” Guthrie said.

  While most of the new arrivals speak Portuguese, some speak French, Lingala, or another tribal language. Many are bilingual, but none speak English.

  Weary of waiting around, some of the French-speakers asked to be sent to Quebec, but the strict Canadian rules concerning COVID-19 prevented them from entering, Guthrie stated.

  Condition and Needs of Asylum Seekers

  Guthrie described the migrants’ situation, saying, “Understand, the majority of these people arrive here with no money. They spent their life savings during their trip and have to start over. They need everything.

  “They come from hot climates wearing summer clothes. We have given away about 97 percent of our clothing stock to help them cope with the colder weather here in Maine.

  “We have to keep many people outside during the day and then pack them into our warming room for the chilly Maine nights, or on rainy days,” he said.

  Fathers, mothers, and their numerous small children are kept outside all day long. They stand on the sidewalk across the street from the shelter or sit in an alley between two old houses passing the time until the next meal.

  The grimy concrete and stony gravel of the alley serve as furniture. There are no chairs or tables. They sit or recline on whatever is at hand, or on the bare dirt.

  The shade formed by the receding shadow of the walls of the surrounding old buildings is their only comfort.

  Antsy and bored small children have no toys with which to amuse themselves, except for one little boy who rides a plastic big-wheel tricycle around the alley.

  A small bathroom is available to people upon request in one of the shelter’s buildings, or at a nearby city-owned singles’ shelter around the block.

  “For showers, we team up with a local church that comes by with a bus and offers showers to any of them that want to go,” Guthrie said.

  When asked if the asylum seekers are Christians, Guthrie answered that many ride a bus to church services on Sunday morning.

  The shelter provides families with three meals a day, prepared off-site by “community partners.”

  “We pick up the meals and bring them here and serve them indoors. The food is decent. A typical lunch is a sandwich, salad, soup, granola bars, snacks, milk and water,” Guthrie said.

  Guthrie told The Epoch Times that the family shelter is providing standard baby formula for the young children, but one baby is intolerant to it.

  This infant requires a specialty brand that is hard to get—a fact that is upsetting to the mother and her child.

  The Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition (MIRC) is providing asylum seekers residing in hotels and motels with some culturally appropriate foods such as fufu (an African staple), goat meat, greens, chicken, and rice, he said.

  A lot of the accommodations do not have kitchens.

  According to Guthrie, the cost per motel room is between $250 and $350 dollars per night and rising as the tourist season begins.

  MIRC is part of a network of 85 statewide organizations involved in the care of the thousands of asylum seekers already here and those that are arriving daily.

  Guthrie said the state is footing 70 percent of the family shelter’s expenses, with the city making up the remaining 30 percent.

  But Guthrie says that getting the children into school is among the best assistance that can be provided.

  “The schools offer all kinds of different programs. They have community resource officers. They keep the kids busy while giving them two meals a day,” he said.

  More than 60 different foreign languages are spoken by students at Portland area schools, further complicating every task associated with education.

  When asked about the overall health condition of the asylum seekers, Guthrie replied, “They are exhausted and scared. They haven’t travelled a safe route. Though clearly traumatized, very few will talk about the details of their experience. Counselling is available if requested.”

  Teams of health care workers are performing what Guthrie calls “health outreach.” They have set up clinics at some of the motels to perform triage and make any necessary medical referrals.

  The city of Portland has a busy public health clinic helping to provide treatment, but some people with more serious conditions end up in emergency rooms.

  To overcome the language barrier, the city provides interpreters, and health care workers make use of cell phone translation apps.

  On the whole, Guthrie said most of the people under his supervision are physically “very healthy.”

  “Pregnancy is the families’ most urgent medical concern, and their most pressing medical need is OBGYN (obstetrics and gynecology) care,” he said.

  He also said there is some sickle cell disease among them.

  

  City Hall allowed The Epoch Times access to several families being warehoused outdoors and a number of parents were eager to talk about their current plight.

  Speaking through an interpreter provided by the shelter, and in the presence of shelter director Guthrie, Samantha, a young Angolan woman with a 10-month-old baby on her hip and a toddler in tow, was not shy about sharing her dissatisfaction.

  When asked if her family’s basic needs were being met, Samantha replied, “We just need a place to sleep. We stay outside in the sun and the elements because there is not enough space for us indoors. There are not enough clothes for my family.

  “Being outside all day is not good for my baby. Some of us have caught colds. Some had fevers. Some were so sick they went to the hospital.

  “My son eats a special baby formula. I have to ration his feeding.

  “What we are fed is very different than what we are used to. We are receiving no culturally appropriate food. There was no way for us to take a shower for five days.

  “We endured a seven-month journey to come to this! We are not happy. Conditions are not good! We really need help.”

  When asked if she felt welcome, Samantha said with a look of disbelief, “No! I do not feel welcome. Look at us. We are outside.”

  

  Landry, a housepainter and electrician’s helper, brought his wife Sylvie, two-year-old daughter, and 12-month-old son to Portland from the Congo.

  When asked why he risked the journey, Landry answered, “I left my country because of political issues and insecurity. There we could be sure of nothing. Here, it’s different.”

  Sylvie said, “We came from Texas unprepared for this Maine weather. I am not happy for how I am living here. I don’t feel welcome!”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 20:30

• Whoopi Goldberg Thinks The AR15 Should Be Banned Because It 'Turns People To Dust'
  Whoopi Goldberg Thinks The AR15 Should Be Banned Because It ‘Turns People To Dust’

  If you want to find some of the dumbest political hot takes of the past five years, you only need to have a strong stomach and the patience to sit through the numerous uneducated discussions of the clucking flock on The View.

  Whoopi Goldberg continues this winning tradition (The View’s audience numbers tanked this year and it remains 10^th among women 18-49 in daytime television) with her recent comments on gun control, arguing in favor of criminal arrest for Americans that own AR15s that refuse to give them up. When pressed on the fact that gun crimes could just as easily be committed with pistols during a largely one sided debate against her co-host, Goldberg argued that handguns “don’t turn people to dust.”

  Neither do AR15s, but lets not bring reality into a debate that was broadcast on The View. Injury and death is just as likely from a handgun as it is from an AR15. You are also more likely to find expanding hollow point ammo used in a pistol. The primary difference is that a pistol’s range is limited, usually to 50 yards or less. This makes little difference though, as most shooting events and crimes occur within 50 yards anyway, and this includes shootings where rifles are involved.

  Whether or not this was hyperbole, the insane misconceptions put out into the mainstream by anti-2^nd Amendment activists falls in line with a long series of lies and gaffes uttered by Joe Biden and other Democrats. If you don’t know anything about the weapons you are trying to ban, then maybe you shouldn’t be trying to ban them?

  The fact is, the vast majority of gun crimes and gun related homicides are committed with handguns according to FBI stats; only 2%-3% of crimes and homicides are committed using rifles or “assault rifles” on average. The claim that the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban had any bearing on the overall decline in gun crime in the 1990s is false – The largest decline was in handgun homicides, and handguns were not subject to the 1994 ban.

  Goldberg’s assertion that gun rights advocates should compromise and allow the banning of this “one gun” is naive; gun grabbers will never be satisfied with limited gun control, only total gun confiscation (at least among the poor and the people that oppose them politically). Say what you want about Beto O’Rourke, but his big mouth is valuable in that he often lets slip what the real agenda on gun control is.

  Goldberg then goes on to suggest that people can “report” AR15 owners and have them arrested, saying the solution is “simple” and compared this to reporting and arresting women who abort their babies in states where abortion is banned. Interesting how the political left is rabidly in favor of killing people in the womb despite numerous other birth control options, but wants to strip all law abiding citizens of their rights whenever people die from gun related homicides.

  The question for Goldberg and any other anti-gun rights mouthpiece is this: Are YOU going to go collect the guns you deem criminal? Are you operating on the assumption that Americans are going to willingly give up those guns? The authoritarian solution might not be as “easy” as you think it is.

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 20:00

• New York Attorneys Accused Of Firebombing Police Car Given Generous Plea Deal
  New York Attorneys Accused Of Firebombing Police Car Given Generous Plea Deal

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We previously discussed the cases of attorneys Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman, who were accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail into an occupied police vehicle in New York.

  

  They were facing domestic terrorism charges and the possibility of 30 years in jail.

  This week, the Biden Administration agreed to a massive reduction of the charges in a plea agreement that will likely result only in a couple years of jail time. What is particularly bizarre is that the plea agreement reduces an earlier plea agreement for a more serious offense.

  The plea deal by the Justice Department is a breathtaking reduction in the charges and expected sentencing of the two lawyers.

  Earlier, some of us were surprised that U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie upheld the $250,000 bail determination of U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Gold.  Prosecutors presented evidence that the two attorneys were trying to distribute Molotov cocktails and suggested that Mattis did not appear rational.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Judge Brodie and the two attorneys were sent back to jail. (Rahman’s bail was paid for by friend and fellow attorney Salmah Rizvi, who served in the Defense Department and State Department during the Obama administration).

  Notably, Rahman and Mattis pleaded guilty last year to one count of possessing and making an explosive device, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Now, however, they will be allowed to withdraw the earlier plea and instead plead guilty to conspiring to assemble the Molotov cocktail and damage the New York Police Department patrol car. That is a nosebleed of a drop in the severity and punishment for this violent attack.

  It is a sharp contrast to the harsh position taken by the Biden Justice Department on many of those accused of rioting on January 6th. 

  Attorney General Merrick Garland cited the threat to police officers in pledging an unprecedented effort to charge and convict those involved “on any level” in the riot.

  Conspiring to assemble the Molotov cocktail and damage the New York Police Department patrol car does not quite capture what these two attorneys did during the violent riot in New York. Rahman was caught on video throwing the firebomb and then fleeing the scene. 

  

  Colinford Mattis was accused of having a store of firebombs in his vehicle and was videotaped as he attempted to hand them out to other rioters to fuel further violence.

  Rahman later was unapologetic and declared to reporters that “the only way they hear us is through violence.”

  That does not seem the type of the suspects who would ordinarily garner deep sympathy from prosecutors. Yet, the Biden Administration walked back the charges, unraveled the earlier plea to a lesser offense, and told that court that the earlier charges would have resulted in “excessive sentencing” for the attorneys. Instead, they are supporting a maximum sentence of five years with a recommendation of between 18 to 24 months imprisonment.

  Attorney General Garland just last month honored law enforcement killed in the line of duty. This plea agreement is likely to infuriate many of those families given strength of the case and the severity of the conduct. These two attorneys were participating in an effort that could have burned officers alive as a form of protest. They will now be given sentences closer to tax fraud than terrorism.

  As previously discussed, Mattis was a member of the Corporate Group at Pryor Cashman when he was arrested. Mattis graduated from New York University School of Law in 2016 and received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. He was also previously employed as an associate at Holland & Knight.  Rahman was just admitted to the New York bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law.

  Both lawyers will be permanently disbarred and will have to pay restitution to the city of New York.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 19:30

• 23 Pounds Of Cocaine Stashed In Wheelchair By Man Posing As "Handicapped" At Charlotte Airport
  23 Pounds Of Cocaine Stashed In Wheelchair By Man Posing As “Handicapped” At Charlotte Airport

  US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers discovered a wheelchair stuffed with pounds of cocaine after a US citizen returned from the Dominican Republic and landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. 

  According to a CBP press release, a 22yo US male operating an electric wheelchair underwent a full inspection by officers on Tuesday. After examining the wheelchair, officers found four packages containing over 23 pounds of cocaine, hidden within the seat cushion, with an estimated street value of $378k.

  

  Mike Prado, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Charlotte, told local news WBTV on Friday that his team had prior intelligence the man was smuggling drugs into the country through a wheelchair. 

  “What we did was identify the individual. Agents and inspectors were able to pull him out of line when he was laid over for a connecting flight to Newark, New Jersey,” said Prado.

  When CBP questioned the man during an interview, his story didn’t match up. 

  “It was readily apparent that there was something suspicious going on so we had probable cause to conduct further investigation and ultimately we were able to determine that he was sitting on 11 kilos of cocaine,” said Prado.

  

  The special agent said it’s not often people smuggle drugs in a wheelchair through an airport. 

  “It’s unusual for an airport environment generally to have somebody pose as a handicapped person and have a wheelchair stuffed with cocaine. That is definitely something we’re more accustomed to seeing at land borders, the southwest border,” said Prado.

  He also said the attempt to smuggle drugs in a wheelchair shows how desperate some people are to get drugs into the US. 

  There have been other absurd drug smuggling attempts in the past, including a Brazilian man who tried to hide a kilo of cocaine in his fake butt implants and was intercepted at an airport in Portugal. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 19:00

• Inflation Will Price Many Americans Out Of Housing And Into Homelessness
  Inflation Will Price Many Americans Out Of Housing And Into Homelessness

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  One of the most detrimental aspects of an inflationary or stagflationary crisis is that, in most cases, housing costs tend to rise while home sales fall.

  It might seem counterintuitive; one would assume that as sales fall so should prices, but this is the upside-down world of inflation. Certain commodities and products, usually necessities, almost always skyrocket in price, ultimately driving most American families out of the market completely.

  One of the only exceptions to this rule is when the government institutes rent or price controls. In Weimar Germany, for example, the government enforced strict regulatory controls on landlords, fixing rent at a rate that made profits impossible.

  

  Biden’s housing crisis

  Now, this might sound familiar – during the height of the Covid pandemic the Biden administration established a lengthy moratorium on evictions, which made it impossible for many property owners to collect rent payments they were owed. Owners couldn’t replace delinquent tenants with those willing to pay on time, leading to massive financial burden on property owners across America.

  The effects of this were detrimental to both the U.S. economy and especially the rental market.

  How? The moratorium awakened property owners to the reality that they could be unilaterally restricted from their own business. They could be stopped from collecting rent payments owed by tenants under contract while still being forced to pay taxes and maintenance expenses on those same properties.

  The entire rental market became a zero-sum game. In response, landlords began selling their extra properties in droves instead of renting them out.

  As you might expect, this has led to a shortage of rentals in many parts of the country. When supply is constrained, what does basic economics tell us must happen? The eviction moratorium led directly to much higher prices on the limited rentals that still remain.

  But it wasn’t just a reduction in supply that caused prices to rise.

  Those owners still willing to rent properties under the eviction moratorium had to increase their prices to compensate them for the additional risks they were taking in a market where the rules suddenly changed. By placing the moratorium on rent, Biden made an existing housing crisis far worse.

  Who benefits from this manufactured crisis?

  Another factor to consider is this: who were the buyers for many of these suddenly-for-sale properties?

  Massive conglomerates like Blackstone and Blackrock have been increasingly involved in the housing market since the crash of 2008.

  While Blackrock claims it has no involvement with the single-family housing market, it works closely with companies that are involved, buying up multiple houses and bundles of distressed mortgages.

  Blackstone has continued to buy houses in bulk for the past decade, removing properties from the market for a time. These mass purchases give the public the impression that local sales are “hot” and that the market is thriving. As you might expect, these actions force prices up even further to meet this artificial demand.

  Currently, median sale prices of homes have spiked dramatically to all-time highs in the span of a couple years – a 30% price surge coinciding with the beginning of the Covid panic.

  Now, part of the price inflation can be attributed to the large migration of Americans out of blue states to escape draconian Covid lockdowns and high taxes, but this migration has now died off. Housing sales are plummeting back to Earth. Yet, prices remain higher than the average family can afford.

  Housing Inflation Is far Outpacing Wages

  In 2022, the median cost of a home in the US is now $428,000. The average American makes around $50,000 a year or less, placing them far outside the current market.

  In terms of rentals, the average cost in the US has exploded to $1300 per month for people that stay anchored to a location, and $1900 per month for people that relocate. This average is of course partially pushed up by the ridiculously high prices in major coastal cities like San Francisco (up 22% year over year), Los Angeles (up 297% since January 2000) and New York (up 159% house price inflation since January 2000).

  An individual today must make at least $20 an hour to afford a single bedroom apartment. Consider that over 30% of Americans are paid less than $15 an hour (before taxes).

  Nearly half of the American population doesn’t make enough money to maintain a one bedroom rental. The vast majority of Americans will find it impossible to buy a home at today’s prices.

  On average, an annual salary of $105,000 is recommended before taking on a mortgage for a $350,000 house. And keep in mind, as the inflation crisis accelerates the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates – which pushes up mortgage costs. So where does this leave us? It only gets worse from here.

  What comes next?

  Home buyers waiting for prices to track lower along with sales may find they are waiting around for a while. This could change IF the government enforces price controls on home costs. Granted, that is highly unlikely.

  I think it’s more likely that, as inflation rises, the government would freeze monthly rents, but not home prices themselves.

  That said, if there was another moratorium on evictions, or a freeze on rents, then landlords would probably sell off their properties en masse once again to avoid taxes and expenses on investments that are making them no money. That could lead to a larger drop in prices, but again, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

  One solution to the housing problem would be a moratorium on corporate purchases of homes. That would limit hedge funds and investment banks to speculating on industrial and retail properties.

  Personally, I’m not a fan of the government insinuating itself into business, but maybe it is better to stop conglomerates from buying up American homes and driving up prices than it is to stop landlords from collecting rent? We also have to consider the very real possibility that global corporations devouring the U.S. housing market is part of a calculated agenda to make housing expensive.

  Price explosions caused by inflation like we are seeing today often last for many years, sometimes a decade or more. When housing finally does deflate, it will only be under drastic economic instability. By that time, people will have much bigger concerns beyond whether they can take on a mortgage. (Note: Birch Gold has reported extensively on the latest housing bubble, and the forces behind it.)

  Property rights and ownership are a primary pillar supporting a free society. When ownership is relegated to the upper-middle class and the wealthy the result is an inevitable social decline into various forms of feudalism or socialism.

  For those with authoritarian ambitions, housing inflation is a boon. Homelessness feeds the kind of desperation that drives the public to support totalitarian actions. They might provide you with housing eventually, but it will be at a terrible cost.

  The last thing anyone with common sense would want is for the government to become their landlord by default. It’s very hard to defy the trespasses of government overreach when that government controls the roof over your head.

  *  *  *

  After 14 long years of ultra-loose monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it’s no secret that inflation is primed to soar. If your IRA or 401(k) is exposed to this threat, it’s critical to act now! That’s why thousands of Americans are moving their retirement into a Gold IRA. Learn how you can too with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals the little-known IRS Tax Law to move your IRA or 401(k) into gold. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 18:30

• Oregon Bungles New Addiction Recovery Program Tied To Decriminalization
  Oregon Bungles New Addiction Recovery Program Tied To Decriminalization

  Thanks to mismanagement and naive assumptions about the propensities of drug abusers, a new public health program associated with Oregon’s decriminalization of drugs is falling flat on its face. 

  The state has only managed to spend a small fraction of a $305 million budget meant to expand substance abuse and recovery services. The money, which comes from cannabis tax revenue, was diverted from schools, mental health services and state police but now much of it sits idle. 

  As OregonLive reports: 

  So far not a single new treatment bed has been funded since Measure 110′s passage to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of heroin and other street drugs and set up a system to refer and treat those suffering from addiction.

  Ballot Measure 110 was approved by Oregonians in 2020, making it the first state to decriminalize possession of personal amounts of heroin, cocaine, meth, LSD, ecstasy, oxycodone and other drugs. Under decriminalization, which took effect on Feb. 1, 2021, people found in possession receive a citation—akin to a traffic ticket—rather than jail time. 

  Consistent with viewing addiction as a health problem and not a criminal justice issue, Measure 110 aspired to create a robust statewide network of resources for those with substance abuse problems. It isn’t even close to materializing.  

  Responsibility for selecting service providers and distributing hundreds of millions of dollars falls to a citizen-led council. The law requires that, among others, the council must include a social worker, a physician, “an evidence-based substance abuse disorder provider,” an academic researcher and “at least two people who suffered or suffer from a substance abuse disorder.”

  That’s not exactly stacking the deck for success in overseeing a multifaceted, $300 million government program serving towns, cities and counties all over the state.  

  The council has been overwhelmed by applications from some 330 organizations eager for state money, and grant timelines have been revised multiple times. Council member Caroline Cruz described a recent meeting as “total chaos.”

  Another council member, Morgan Godvin, told state officials, “I don’t know grant-making. That was [the Oregon Health Authority’s] duty, but you did not fulfill it and the goalposts just keep moving. I have whiplash trying to keep up with this, but at no point do I hear an acceptance of responsibility from OHA saying ‘we dropped the ball’.”

  Buried under the deluge of grant requests, the council opted to start by awarding grants to sparsely populated eastern Oregon counties, rather than to Portland, Salem and other major population centers. That doesn’t strike anyone as sound triage for a health emergency.  

  So far, just $40 million of the $305 million have been allocated for the 2021-23 biennium. At this pace, the council won’t be even halfway finished making allocations for this biennium before the next one starts.  

  Distancing itself from the fiasco, the office of Governor Kate Brown told The Oregonian that the governor doesn’t appoint the council or oversee its work, directing questions to the OHA. 

  Finger-pointing abounded in Salem this week. Mike Mike Marshall, executive director of Oregon Recovers, a statewide coalition focused on addiction, characterized the rollout as a “debacle” and blamed both OHA and the governor. 

  The shoveling of money at addiction treatment isn’t the only aspect of the program that’s faltering. So too is a feature meant to encourage cited possessors to avail themselves of help.

  In Oregon, the maximum penalty under a drug possession citation is $100, but that’s waived if the individual calls a health assessment hotline to complete a substance abuse disorder screening. So far, police across Oregon have issued roughly 2,000 citations and only 91 people—something like 4.5%—have called the hotline. 

  Though reporting doesn’t make it clear, it’s not hard to imagine that most of the others didn’t bother paying the citation either. 

  Meanwhile, in a Thursday hearing of Oregon’s House behavioral health committee that focused on the botched rollout, Republican representative Lily Morgan, of the southern Oregon town of Grants Pass, pointed to rising overdoses as she expressed skepticism about Oregon’s new approach.

  “Director, you’ve mentioned a couple of times that you’re waiting to see, and yet we have overdoses increasing at drastic rates, in my community a 700% increase in overdoses and a 120% increase in deaths,” said Morgan, addressing Oregon Behavioral Health Director Steve Allen. “How long do we wait before we have an impact that we’re saving lives?”

  It may seem counterintuitive, but much of that spike springs from the fact that, while possession of drugs has been decriminalized, the sale of drugs in Oregon is still illegal. That leaves users vulnerable to the particular perils of black market drugs. 

  Consistent with that reality, Allen attributed much of the increase in overdoses and overdose deaths to a recent wave of both methamphetamine and illegal pills laced with fentanyl, an opioid that can be deadly in small doses.

  Allen may not have made this point, but we will: In a competitive, fully legal drug market where users (and their estates) could use courts to hold professional producers accountable for failing to provide products with clearly delineated dosages and uniform ingredients, overdoses would plummet.  

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 18:00

• Gun Laws Will Not Fix A Problem Of Culture And Spirit
  Gun Laws Will Not Fix A Problem Of Culture And Spirit

  Authored by Star Parker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Once again, the nation has witnessed a horrible, pointless act of violence, with innocent children the victims.

  And, once again, we hear from liberals that the answer is gun control.

  

  If we look at what generally characterizes the mindset of those—generally young men—who commit these acts, we see what generally characterizes the mindset that has taken hold of our whole culture.

  Victimhood, blame, and denial of personal responsibility.

  Can this be an accident?

  Kudos to The Wall Street Journal for having the courage to point to these incidents as signs of a “social and spiritual” problem in the country.

  “The rise of family dysfunction and the decline of mediating institutions such as churches and social clubs have consequences,” the Journal’s Editorial Board wrote on May 25.

  The signs of a society that is sick are all around us: the collapse of family, the collapse of interest in marriage and having children.

  In 2021, 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, an all-time high and a 15 percent increase over the previous year.

  According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the suicide rate in the United States increased 35.2 percent from 1999 to 2018.

  Suicide was the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 34, and the fourth-leading cause of death among individuals ages 34 to 44.

  A characteristic common to suicides and mass killings is that the perpetrators are disproportionately men.

  Men—generally young men—commit indiscriminate mass murder, and men take their own lives at a rate almost four times higher than women.

  So men demonstrate in a most unpleasant way another truth that our liberal friends want to deny. Men are different from women—not just in physical makeup, but also in spiritual and psychological makeup.

  For whatever reason, our increasingly Godless, materialistic, morally empty culture seems to take a particularly heavy toll on men.

  American Enterprise Institute scholar Nick Eberstadt has looked into the recent phenomenon of prime-age men—ages 25 to 54—who have bailed out of the labor market. These are men who have stopped working and seeking work. The official label is NILF—not in the labor force.

  According to Eberstadt, the total number of NILF men held steady in the 1940s and 1950s at around 1 million. Then, in the late 1960s, it exploded. There are now 7 million prime-age men who have withdrawn from the workforce.

  According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the labor force participation rate of men—the percent of working-age men in the workforce—was 86.2 percent in January 1950. In April 2022, it was 68 percent.

  The labor force participation rate for women has almost doubled over the same period—33.4 percent in January of 1950 to 56.7 percent in April 2022.

  We’ve gone from a culture centered on church to a culture centered on government.

  According to Gallup, in 1950, more than 70 percent of Americans belonged to a church. In 2020, it was 47 percent. Among those born between 1981 and 1996, it’s 36 percent.

  Over the same period, the take of all levels of government from our GDP went from 22.6 percent to 43.4 percent.

  Sanctity of life was devalued with Roe v. Wade. Military conscription was abolished around the same time, erasing any personal responsibility, beyond paying taxes, that men have to serve.

  In this vacuous culture of entitlement and meaninglessness, lost young men periodically make their presence known through violent expressions, sometimes directed at others, sometimes toward themselves.

  I do not pretend that this is simple. I certainly agree that security measures should be taken, particularly in schools.

  George Washington warned the nation in his farewell address that there is no freedom without faith, tradition, and personal responsibility.

  The same liberals that have helped wipe this out now want more government in the way of new gun laws to solve what is a cultural and spiritual crisis.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 17:30

• New York Times Op-Ed Applauds Inflation As Means To Enforce Green Diet
  New York Times Op-Ed Applauds Inflation As Means To Enforce Green Diet

  Following a general trend of excitement among extreme leftists in media, The New York Times has recently posted an Op-Ed which argues in favor of the inflationary crisis facing the US and much of the world because it forces the public to go vegan and give up meat “for the greater good.”

  Just as late night propagandist Stephen Colbert cheered for higher gas prices and suggested people buy a Tesla (a vehicle far outside the affordability of the majority of Americans) if they want to avoid paying $15 a gallon for gas, the NYT Op-Ed has a familiar stench of elitism.

  The UN and many globalist foundations have been engaged in a war on the average person’s diet for many years now. A main pillar of the UN’s climate change agenda calls for the end of large scale farming and meat production in the name of reducing our “carbon footprint.”

  Keep in mind that even the NOAA admits in their own data that worldwide temperatures have only risen 1 Degree C in the past century (with a margin of error of 0.23C). That’s right, 1 degree, and this is after climate scientists have made numerous “adjustments” to how temperatures are recorded for the official record.

  Also note that the temperature record started in the 1880s. Whenever NASA or the NOAA says that a particular day was the “hottest day on record,” they are referring to a tiny sliver of the history of the Earth in which data has been “officially” collected. In reality, the history of the planet is replete with long term global warming events (far hotter than we are witnessing today), and long before man-made carbon was ever a thing.

  

  Today’s temperatures are low to moderate in comparison, but if you only look at the records that climate groups want you to see rather than the bigger picture then it might seem like the world is getting hotter than it should. The Earth’s weather history is vast, and changes occur without the input of human activity.

  There is zero concrete evidence to support the claim that man-made carbon has any significant bearing on the current and historically minor temperature increase of today; only assumptions, once again based on correlation rather than proof of causation.

  This fact won’t stop the climate cult from singing the praises of economic decline, though. If they can’t force Green New Deal-type legislation on the masses, then perhaps an inflationary collapse will do the job for them?

  Even more disturbing is the insinuation by the Times that a reintroduction of the Lever Act might be in order. For those unfamiliar with this starkly unconstitutional legislation, the Lever Act, also known as the Food And Fuel Act, was passed in 1917 and used wartime conditions and price inflation as an excuse for the government to take control of agricultural production, specifically reducing meat availability. It also gave the government the power to confiscate agricultural resources and “prevent hoarding.”

  As the Op-Ed notes in a quote:

  “There was huge cultural buy-in to the idea that collectively, we could make small sacrifices — which is how people saw giving up meat — and we’d make the sacrifices in the name of a greater good and get something done…”

  In other words, the argument is that climate ideologues and militant vegans should support government actions that violate private property and business rights because this has already been done before. A precedent was set in 1917, and they think this makes it okay to do it again.

  It’s also funny how the “greater good” always seems to coincide with whatever establishment elites want to happen rather than what public freedom demands. The globalist organization known as the Club Of Rome openly admitted the agenda in 1992 in their treatise titled ‘The First Global Revolution’:

  “In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.”

  The statement comes from Chapter 5 – The Vacuum, which covers their position on how to convince the public on the need for global government.

  Why does the UN and other globalist institutions want to remove meat in particular from our diet? It’s hard to say, but it’s certainly not climate related. There is some scientific evidence including multiple studies which suggest that a plant based diet can lead to stunted brain development and cognitive decline, especially in children and adolescents. Is removing meat availability from our society a bid to make the peasants dumber and less dangerous?

  There are also multiple studies which link veganism to higher rates of depression and a higher chance of irritability and anger. This would help explain the bizarre zealotry we see among some vegans these days, but the overall problem is one of cultism.

  Connecting dietary habits with moral responsibility is nothing new – Many religions have done this in the past. However, the NEW global religion is one of environmental faith and climate doomsday fears that never seem to materialize. At the very least, the anti-meat campaign serves to provide a sense of moral superiority that adherents desperately need in order to feel justified in their militancy. It is also something that any individual can do to feel as though they are making a difference on the planet, even if they are really achieving nothing at all.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 17:00

• Hedge Fund CIO: Biden Is Already As Unpopular As Trump And The Fed Is Only Just Starting QT
  Hedge Fund CIO: Biden Is Already As Unpopular As Trump And The Fed Is Only Just Starting QT

  By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

  “Today the enemy counts on popular demonstrations to strike the Islamic system,” declared Iran’s Supreme Leader, 83-years-old, in power since 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square student slaughter and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unrest tends to cluster.

  “The enemy hopes to turn the people against the Islamic Republic by psychological means, through the internet, money, and the mobilization of mercenaries,” continued Khamenei, seeking to quell Iranian protests over rising food prices, corruption, incompetence. Not all revolutions are sparked by food price inflation, but most are. Mass migrations too.

  “If, God forbid, these weapons are used against Russian territory then our armed forces will have no other choice but to strike decision-making centers,” warned Russia’s former President Medvedev, responding to Biden’s decision to supply Zelensky with M142 high-mobility rocket systems. Going to be a hot summer.

  “My job as President is not to nominate highly – not only nominate highly – highly qualified individuals for that institution, but to give them the space they need to do their job,” announced America’s chief executive, ahead of a private meeting with Chairman Powell and Secretary Yellen.

  “I’m not going to interfere with their critically important work,” pledged the President, consumed by a desire to draw the clearest possible distinction between his own management style and that of his predecessor.

  [ZH: President Biden has a significantly lower approval rating than former President Trump did at this point in his term.]

  

  Powell first hiked rates by 25bps to 1.75% in March of 2018. CPI was 2.36% that month, unemployment was 4.0%. Jerome’s final hike of that cycle came nine-months later, in December 2018, with CPI at 1.91% and unemployment at 3.9%.

  But Powell was also quantitatively tightening in late-2018, at a $50bln monthly pace, draining a pool of liquidity built up during a decade of bond buying. Trump was as unhappy as he was vocal. But those were simpler times. The secular stagnation years. Back when economists still thought every developed nation was turning Japanese. Robots were going to render blue color jobs redundant, white collar too, suppressing wages forever.

  Silicon Valley billionaires, haunted by visions of idle truckers, displaced by ubiquitous self-driving semis, raced to pen universal-basic-income whitepapers. In those years, the real reason our central bankers raised rates was so that they might have something to slash in the next economic downturn. It was certainly not to suppress CPI; inflation was barely an ember.

  Covid changed all that. Our politicians acquired the taste for extraordinary deficit spending, funded by the Federal Reserve. And where our central bankers once wondered what it would take to generate inflation, they now question what is required to contain it.

  “My plan is to address inflation and it starts with a simple proposition: Respect the Fed and respect the Fed’s independence, which I have done and will continue to do,” declared Biden, not yet halfway through his presidency, as deeply unpopular as was his predecessor, with inflation at 8.25%, unemployment 3.5%, overnight rates 0.75%, and a Fed Chairman only just now starting to quantitatively tighten. 

  

  [ZH: President Biden’s approval rating is now below that of former President Trump, having been 15 pts higher than Trump’s in March 2021… and The Fed hasn’t even really started QT yet.]

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 16:30

• The Great Robo-placement? Workplace Robot Orders Jump 40% In First Quarter
  The Great Robo-placement? Workplace Robot Orders Jump 40% In First Quarter

  As we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic – which was more like a controlled demolition of small businesses, followed by a mismanaged, taxpayer-funded cocaine binge that dropped vicious inflation on our laps – more and more industries are turning to robots as they struggle to hire enough workers to fill mounting orders.

  

  According to the Wall Street Journal, orders for workplace robots increased by 40% during the first quarter of 2022 vs the same period in 2021, a according to the Association for Advancing Automation – the robotics industry’s trade groups.

  The explosive growth follows a 22% increase y/y in 2021 after years of stagnant growth, according to the group.

  “Before, you could throw people at a problem instead of finding a more elegant solution,” said Joe Montano, chief executive officer of Delphon Industries LLC, a maker of packaging for semiconductors, medical devices and aerospace components.

  Montano told the Journal that Hayward, CA-based Delphon lost 40% of its production days in January after Covid-19 worked its way through their workforce. So, they bought three additional robots to fill the gap. The company began leasing robots around four years ago, which has since grown to 10 robots – four of which work side-by-side with employees.

  

  According to Montano, two robots reduced a three-person printing crew to one, saving $16,000 per month in expenses.

  Two other Delphon cobots assemble packaging for shipping semiconductors and other fragile cargo, which are shipped in plastic boxes. Robots are now being used to clean the 2-inch-by-2-inch boxes with jets of air, dispense a bead of glue inside them and then install layers of mesh and the company’s silicone film padding.

  Mr. Montano said Delphon is scaling up robots to work on larger-size boxes. The robots have improved the company’s productivity, he said, resulting in shipments increasing about 15% in 2021 and 2020, respectively, without increasing the company’s workforce of 200 people. -WSJ

  “We haven’t reduced any head count, but we reassigned them to where we needed people,” Montano claims.

  The United States has been slower to embrace robotics vs. other industrialized countries such as South Korea, Japan and Germany, according to the International Federation of Robotics. In North America, they have primarily been used in the automotive industry performing repetitive tasks such as welding.

  

  Now, companies such as Austin, TX-based Athena Manufacturing, a fabricating and machining company in the semiconductor, energy and aerospace industries is turning to robots, after CFO John Newman said the company has struggled to find enough workers to staff a second weekday shift and a weekend shift.

  The company has bought seven robots over the last 18 months, including one that grinds steel frame-welds on equipment that holds semiconductors. According to Newman, Athena has spent over $800,00 on robots, including $225,000 on the grinding unit. He says that the investments have improved Athena’s ability to fulfill orders more than lowering costs. What’s more, the grinding robot takes just 30 minutes to do what a human took around three hours to compete. It also doesn’t have a union, a 401(k) to match, or catch Covid-19.

  

  “The robot doesn’t stop to rest, and that’s understandable for a human because it’s a hard job,” said Newman, who added that the grinding robot can apply more force with a grinding tool than a human can.

  Acquiring the grinding robot took Athena about four years of research and engineering, Mr. Newman said, including help from 3M Co., which supplies the abrasive materials used in the grinding tool wielded by the robot. Athena has deployed six other robots, four of which weld the racks and two that load metal into machines. Most of these off-the-shelf robots were delivered in a few weeks and can be programmed remotely from a phone app, he said. -WSJ

  “The robots are becoming easier to use,” according to Michael Cicco, chief executive officer of Fanuc America, a subsidiary of Japan’s Fanuc Corp, a major supplier of industrial robots. “Companies used to think that automation was too hard or too expensive to implement.”

  So what’s likely to happen? MIT economics professor Daron Acemoglu thinks the shift to automation will lead to an oversupply of human labor that will drive wages lower, unless other industries can absorb the displaced workers.

  “Automation, if it goes very fast, can destroy a lot of jobs,” he said. “The labor shortage is not going to last. This is temporary.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 16:00

• Diesel Once Again Racing Higher Than Prices For Crude Oil, Gasoline
  Diesel Once Again Racing Higher Than Prices For Crude Oil, Gasoline

  By John Kingston of FreightWaves

  Diesel prices have wrapped up four days of trading in which they are finishing far higher than they were at the start of the business week and have moved up faster than crude and gasoline prices.

  

  It’s a worrisome trend for consumers because it signals that once again, diesel is moving at a pace more bullish than that of the petroleum market as a whole. That it already has done so in recent months is evident in the gasoline-diesel spread seen on price signs outside of retail outlets, and it has a complex set of causes.

  Ultra low sulfur diesel for July delivery settled on the CME commodity exchange Friday at $4.2803 a gallon. That marked a gain of 7.19 cents per gallon on the day for an increase of 1.71%. It traded as high as $4.3250. 

  For the week — which was just four trading days, given the Memorial Day holiday — July ULSD rose 9.6%, posting a gain of 37.5 cents per gallon. 

  By contrast, the gain in WTI over the four days (from the May 27 settlement through the settlement at the end of this week) was 3.3% for West Texas Intermediate crude, barely any overall movement for global crude benchmark Brent, and 8.6% for RBOB, an unfinished gasoline blendstock that is a trading proxy for gasoline.

  Those sorts of numbers suggest that increasingly, the issue in the market is not just the loss of Russian crude supplies but a loss of refining capacity worldwide that is coming home to roost, aggravated by the effective loss of some Russian refining capacity and its output as a result of formal and informal sanctions.

  It is most evident in one of the most basic numbers traders watch: the 3:2:1. It’s a rough estimate of refining margins, arrived at by taking the price of either Brent or WTI and multiplying it by 3, and then subtracting that number from the sum of taking two barrels of gasoline and one barrel of ULSD.  

  The 3:2:1 for both Brent and WTI spent most of the week in the range of $55 to $60 per barrel, depending on how it was calculated. (Even a simple number like this can be the focus of differences in methodology.) At the start of 2021, it was closer to $20 a barrel, a figure that was far more in line with historic norms. A 3:2:1 in the upper $50s is leaving traders searching for new words to describe how unprecedented that is.

  That sort of blowout can be expected in a world in which the International Energy Agency estimated earlier this year that global refining capacity had a net decline of 730,000 barrels per day in 2021. While that is less than 1% of the global oil market, in a tight supply/demand balance, the impact of such a decline can be enormous. 

  A $55, 3:2:1 will lead refiners to process as much as they can. And that is evident in the weekly Energy Information Administration data on U.S. refining operations — mostly.

  U.S. refineries operated at 92.6% of capacity in the week ended May 27. While that is a healthy number, it actually was down slightly from the 93.6% from the prior week. And it isn’t that much higher than the average for the final full week of May, which is 91.8% over the last five years of data points, excluding pandemic-impacted 2020. 

  But the numbers on ULSD production nationwide are disappointing. Total output the last two weeks through May 27 was 4.875 and 4.818 million barrels per day, respectively. Those are the highest in a year, but the bad news for diesel consumers is that it’s still less than the output for the final week of May for the three years before the pandemic. Even with enormous margins, U.S. refiners are making less diesel than they were for this time of the year between 2017 and 2019. 

  On the U.S. East Coast, refiners have rushed to take advantage of the strong margins in that region. Refiners there over the last two weeks have operated at 97% and 98.2%, respectively, in an industry in which it is virtually impossible to run at 100% for any sustained period of time. Something inevitably breaks down. But the East Coast operating rates are against a base of refining capacity that has lost several hundred thousand barrels per day in the past several years. 

  The East Coast has been of particular interest to the diesel market given its soaring value relative to the Gulf Coast, which is the major refining center and a key export point for the U.S. and the world. 

  Weekly inventory figures dropped once again for the week ended May 27. They were at 18.8 million barrels, down from 20.4 million barrels just two weeks ago. And when it was at 20.4 million, it was already well below the roughly 38 million barrels at the start of the year in the East Coast area known as PADD 1, an EIA-designated area. 

  Despite those tight inventories, the spot market spread between the East Coast price and that in the Gulf Coast reacted counterintuitively. 

  Through much of May, as East Coast diesel inventories declined steadily during the year, that spread blew out to as much as 70 cents per gallon, according to data provided to FreightWaves by benchmark gateway General Index.

  But on Friday, General Index estimated the spread at 7 cts/g, after it declined steadily through the week. It closed last week at 11.5 cents, went to 10.8 cents for Monday and Tuesday and then dropped to 5 cents Thursday before the slight widening Friday. 

  That odd movement may be a signal that the squeeze seen in the East is no longer the outlier and tight inventories through the country mean the East Coast just got there first. For example, the spread between the Gulf Coast and Chicago ULSD markets stood at roughly 20 cents by Thursday, with Chicago running that much of a premium to the Gulf Coast. That spread also tends to be a few cents during normal periods, much like the East Coast/Gulf Coast spread.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 15:30

• Anti-Green Blowback: ESG Funds Suffer Biggest Monthly Outflows On Record
  Anti-Green Blowback: ESG Funds Suffer Biggest Monthly Outflows On Record

  Has the ESG fraud bubble finally burst? More than two years ago, long before Elon Musk joined the growing anti-ESG bandwagon, we were the first to slam ESG as nothing but the latest Wall Street scam meant to fast-track gains for all those hypocrites who pretended to care about the environment but really had found a quick and efficient way of parting fools from their money (see from Feb 2020 “Behold The “Green” Scam” and from April 2020 “The Fraud That Is ESG Strikes Again: Six Of Top 10 ESG Funds Underperform The S&P500“).

  Well, it appears that after years of forced capital allocations, the party is over and the bubble has burst. As Bloomberg writes, this year’s weak performance by US stocks has forced many investors to recalibrate their portfolios. And they’re fleeing “do-good” scams strategies.

  After more than three years of inflows, investors are now pulling cash out of US equity exchange-traded funds with higher environmental, social and governance standards. May saw $2 billion of outflows from ESG equity funds, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence — the biggest monthly cash pullback ever.

  “There’s no way to know for certain why the outflows were so extreme,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart, who noted that the funds had started from a high-asset base after years of inflows. “But also ESG ETFs may be finding that people care a lot more about them in bull markets.”

  

  Do-good investing boomed during the pandemic, with more than $68 billion flowing into ESG equity funds in the past two years. Many believed that this momentum would continue into 2022. But the spike in oil prices since Russia invaded Ukraine has lifted fossil-fuel shares, driving the S&P 500 Energy Index to gain 59% this year even as the benchmark overall has dropped 14%.

  This has made do-good investing more of a sacrifice. RBC Wealth Management recently surveyed over 900 of its US-based clients and 49% said that performance and returns were a higher priority than ESG impact, up from 42% last year.

  “The story has been told that you don’t have to give up returns in order to do ESG, but everyone assumed that you would get the same exact return profile as a traditional benchmark, which is absolutely not true because traditional benchmarks are not looking at ESG factors,” said Kent McClanahan, vice president of responsible investing at RBC Wealth Management.

  He added that social and environmental policy can take time to implement, so investors should focus more on longer-term payoffs.
  “You would think that now more than ever, people will be looking to ESG investing given what we are seeing in the energy markets and the need not to be so dependent on certain countries such as Russia and their energy and their oil and gas,” said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index.

  That might be one reason that at least 20 ESG-focused funds have launched in the US this year, netting almost $3.2 billion of inflows in 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

  Yet RBC clients also expressed skepticism about the ESG label. Though nearly two-thirds said that socially responsible investing is the way of the future, 74% of those surveyed said many companies provide misleading information about their ESG initiatives. This is an issue that could eventually be addressed through a Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal for new restrictions to ensure ESG funds accurately describe their investments.

  Ivy Jack, head of equities at Northstar Asset Management, said that this year’s performance has exposed the fact that some investors were caught up in ESG as a fad and misinformed.

  “If you really want to understand if someone is serious about ESG, I would first ask them to look at their portfolio and ask them to explain why all the companies are in there and how those companies relate to their values,” Jack said. “To the extent that someone can’t do that for you, well that’s a red flag.”

  See John Authers latest “ESG Is Alive and Well. Just Call It Protectionism” for another take on ESG.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 15:00

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• Escobar: Bilderberg Does China, Realizes "The Chessboard Sucks"
  Escobar: Bilderberg Does China, Realizes “The Chessboard Sucks”

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  When Davos and Bilderberg messenger boys look at The Grand Chessboard, they realize that their era of perpetual free lunch is over.

  

  Discreetly, as under the radar as a looming virus, the 68th Bilderberg meeting  is currently underway in Washington, D.C. Nothing to see here. No conspiracy theories about a “secret cabal”, please. This is just a docile, “diverse group of political leaders and experts” having a chat, a laugh, and a bubbly.

  Still, one cannot but notice that the choice of venue speaks more volumes than the entire – burned to the ground – Library of Alexandria. In the year heralding the explosion of a much-awaited NATO vs. Russia proxy war, discussing its myriad ramifications does suit the capital of the Empire of Lies, much more than Davos a few weeks ago, where one Henry Kissinger sent them into a frenzy by advancing the necessity of a toxic compromise named “diplomacy”.

  The list of Bilderberg 2022 participants is a joy to peruse. Here are just some of the stalwarts:

  • James Baker, Consigliere extraordinaire, now a mere Director of the Office of Net Assessment at the Pentagon.

  • José Manuel Barroso, former head of the European Commission, later the recipient of a golden parachute in the form of Chairman of Goldman Sachs International.

  • Albert Bourla, the Pfizer Big Guy.

  • William Burns, CIA director.

  • Kurt Campbell, the guy who invented the Obama/Hillary “pivot to Asia”, now White House Coordinator for Indo-Pacific.

  • Mark Carney, former Bank of England, one of the designers of the Great Reset, now Vice Chair of Brookfield Asset Management.

  • Henry Kissinger, The Establishment’s Voice (or a war criminal: take your pick).

  • Charles Michel, President of the European Council.

  • Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, which will duly relay all major Bilderberg directives in the magazine’s upcoming cover stories.

  • David Petraeus, certified loser of endless surges and Chairman of KKR Global Institute.

  • Mark Rutte, hawkish Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

  • Jens Stoltenberg, NATO top parrot, sorry, secretary-general.

  • Jake Sullivan, Director of the National Security Council.

  The ideological and geopolitical affiliations of these members of the “diverse group” need no further elaboration. It gets positively sexier when we see what they will be discussing.

  Among other issues we find “NATO challenges”; “Indo-Pacific realignment”; “continuity of government and economy” (Conspirationists: continuity in case of nuclear war?); “disruption of global financial system” (already on); “post-pandemic health” (Conspirationists: how to engineer the next pandemic?); “trade and deglobalization”; and of course, the choice wagyu beef steaks: Russia and China.

  As Bilderberg follows Chatham House Rules, mere mortals won’t have a clue of what they actually “proposed” or approved, and none of the participants will be allowed to talk about it with anyone else. One of my top New York sources, with direct access to most of the Masters of the Universe, loves to quip that Davos and Bilderberg are just for the messenger boys: the guys who really run the show don’t even bother to show up, ensconced in their uber-private meetings in uber-private clubs, where the real decisions are made.

  Still, anyone following in some detail the rotten state of the “rules-based international order” will have a pretty good idea about the 2022 Bilderberg chatter.

  What the Chinese say

  Secretary of State Little Blinken – Sullivan’s sidekick in the ongoing Crash Test Dummy administration’s Dumb and Dumber remake – has recently claimed that China “supports” Russia on Ukraine instead of remaining neutral.

  What really matters here is that Little Blinken is implying that Beijing wants to destabilize Asia-Pacific – which is a notorious absurdity. Yet that’s the master narrative that must pave the way for the US to muscle up its “Indo-Pacific” concoction. And that’s the briefing Sullivan and Kurt Campbell will be delivering to the “diverse group”.

  Davos – with its new self-billed mantra, “The Great Narrative” – completely excluded Russia. Bilderberg is mostly about containment of China – which after all is the number one existential threat to the Empire of Lies and its satrapies.

  Rather than wait for Bilderberg morsels dispensed by The Economist, it’s much more productive to check out what a cross-section of fact-based Chinese intelligentsia thinks about the new “collective West” racket.

  Let’s start with Justin Lin Yifu, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and now Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, and Sheng Songcheng, former head of the Financial Survey and Statistic Dept. a the Bank of China.

  They advance that if China achieves “dynamic zero infection” on Covid-19 by the end of May (that actually happened: see the end of the Shanghai lockdown), China’s economy may grow by 5.5% in 2022.

  They dismiss the imperial attempt to establish an “Asian version of NATO”: “As long as China continues to grow at a higher rate and to open up, European and ASEAN countries would not participate in the US’s decoupling trap so as to ensure their economic growth and job creation.”

  Three academics from the Shanghai Institute of International Studies and Fudan University touch on the same point: the American-announced “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework”, supposed to be the economic pillar of the Indo-Pacific strategy, is nothing but a cumbersome attempt to “weaken the internal cohesion and regional autonomy of ASEAN.”

  Liu Zongyi stresses that China’s position at the heart of the vastly inter-connected Asian supply chains “has been consolidated”, especially now with the onset of the largest trade deal on the planet, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

  Chen Wengling, Chief Economist of a think tank under the key National Development and Reform Commission, notes  the “comprehensive ideological and technological war against China” launched by the Americans.

  But he’s keen to stress how they are “not ready for a hot war as the US and Chinese economies are so closely linked.” The crucial vector is that “the US has not yet made substantial progress in strengthening its supply chain focusing on four key fields including semiconductors.”

  Chen worries about “China’s energy security”; “China’s silence” on US sanctions on Russia, which “may result in US retaliation”; and crucially, how “China’s plan of building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Ukraine and EU countries will be affected.” What will happen in practice is BRI will be privileging economic corridors across Iran and West Asia, as well as the Maritime Silk Road, instead of the Trans-Siberian corridor across Russia.

  It’s up to Yu Yongding, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank, to go for the jugular, noting how” the global financial system and the US dollar have been weaponized into geopolitical tools. The nefarious behavior of the US in freezing foreign exchange reserves has not only seriously damaged the international credibility of the US but has also shaken the credit foundation of the dominant international financial system in the West.”

  He expresses the consensus among Chinese intel, that “if there is a geopolitical conflict between the US and China, then China’s overseas assets will be seriously threatened, especially its huge reserves. Therefore, the composition of China’s external financial assets and liabilities urgently needs to be adjusted and the portion of US dollar denominated assets in its reserves portfolio should be reduced.”

  This chessboard sucks

  A serious debate is raging across virtually all sectors of Chinese society on the American weaponization of the world financial casino. The conclusions are inevitable: get rid of US Treasuries, fast, by any means necessary; more imports of commodities and strategic materials (thus the importance of the Russia-China strategic partnership); and firmly secure overseas assets, especially those foreign currency reserves.

  Meanwhile Bilderberg’s “diverse group”, on the other side of the pond, is discussing, among other things, what will really happen in case they force the IMF racket to blow up (a key plan to implement The Great Reset, or “Great Narrative”).

  They are starting to literally freak out with the slowly but surely emergence of an alternative, resource-based monetary/financial system: exactly what the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) is currently discussing and designing, with Chinese input.

  Imagine a counter-Bilderberg system where a basket of Global South actors, resource-rich but economically poor, are able to issue their own currencies backed by commodities, and finally get rid of their status of IMF hostages. They are all paying close attention to the Russia gas-for-rubles experiment.

  And in China’s particular case, what will always matter is loads of productive capital underpinning a massive, extremely deep industrial and civil infrastructure.

  No wonder Davos and Bilderberg messenger boys, when they look at The Grand Chessboard, are filled with dread: their era of perpetual free lunch is over. What would delight cynics, skeptics, neoplatonists and Taoists galore is that it was Davos-Bilderberg Men (and Women) who actually boxed themselves into zugzwang.

  All dressed up – with nowhere to go. Even JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon – who didn’t even bother to go to Bilderberg – is scared, saying an economic “hurricane” is coming. And overturning the chessboard is no remedy: at best that may invite a ceremonious tuxedo visit by Mr. Sarmat and Mr. Zircon carrying some hypersonic bubbly.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/05/2022 – 00:00

• The Top 10 Creepiest & Most Dystopian Things Pushed By The World Economic Forum
  The Top 10 Creepiest & Most Dystopian Things Pushed By The World Economic Forum

  Authored by Vigilant Citizen,

  When one talks about the “global elite”, one usually refers to a small group of wealthy and powerful individuals who operate beyond national borders. Through various organizations, these non-elected individuals gather in semi-secrecy to decide policies they want to see applied on a global level.

  

  The World Economic Forum (WEF) is smack dab in the middle of it all. Indeed, through its annual Davos meetings, the WEF attempts to legitimize and normalize its influence on the world’s democratic nations by having a panel of world leaders attending and speaking at the event.

  A simple look at the list of attendees at these meetings reveals the organization’s incredible reach and influence. The biggest names in media, politics, business, science, technology, and finance are represented at the WEF.

  

  According to mass media, the Davos meetings gather people to discuss issues such as “inequality, climate change, and international cooperation”. This simplistic description appears to be custom-made to cause the average citizen to yawn in boredom. But topics at the WEF go much further than “inequality”.

  Throughout the years, people at the WEF have said some highly disturbing things, none of which garnered proper media attention. In fact, when one pieces together the topics championed by the WEF, an overarching theme emerges: The total control of humanity using media, science, and technology while reshaping democracies to form a global government.

  If this sounds like a far-fetched conspiracy theory, keep reading. Here are the 10 most dystopian things that are being pushed by the WEF right now. This list sorted is in no particular order. Because they’re all equally crazy.

  #10 Penetrating Governments

  The least one can say is that Klaus Schwab, the founder and the head of the WEF is not a fan of democracy. In fact, he perceives it as an obstacle to a fully globalized world.

  In the 2010 WEF report titled “Global Redesign”, Schwab postulates that a globalized world is best managed by a “self-selected coalition of multinational corporations, governments (including through the UN system), and select civil society organizations (CSOs)”. This is the exact opposite of a democracy.

  He argued that governments are no longer “the overwhelmingly dominant actors on the world stage” and that “the time has come for a new stakeholder paradigm of international governance”. For this reason, the Transnational Institute (TNI) described the WEF as “a silent global coup d’état” to capture governance.

  In 2017, at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Schwab blatantly admitted what is continually dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” by mass media: The WEF is “penetrating” governments around the world.

  “Klaus Schwab in 2017: “What we are very proud of, is that we penetrate the global cabinets of countries with our WEF Young Global Leaders… Like Trudeau”

  This has been DECADES in the making and finally they had all their puppets in place to strike!” pic.twitter.com/vihAi4H1Qx

  — Drebonacci (@andre_mihaescu) January 25, 2022

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  Schwab said:

  “I have to say, when I mention now names, like Mrs. (Angela) Merkel and even Vladimir Putin, and so on, they all have been Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. But what we are very proud of now is the young generation, like Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau, the President of Argentina and so on.

  We penetrate the cabinets. So yesterday I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau and I know that half of his cabinet, or even more than half of his cabinet, are actually Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. (…) It’s true in Argentina and it’s true in France, with the President – a Young Global Leader.”

  In this outstanding talk, Schwab blatantly stated that Angela Merkel of Germany, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Emmanuel Macron of France were “groomed” by the WEF. He even adds that at least half of Canada’s cabinet consists of representatives sold to the WEF’s agenda. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is the absolute truth, confirmed by the head of the WEF himself.

  #9 Controlling Minds Using Sound Waves

  In 2018, one of the topics of discussion at the WEF was “Mind Control Using Sound Waves” (read my full article about it here). I did not alter this title for sensationalism, those are exactly the words used by the WEF.

  

  In the article, the technology is touted as a possible treatment for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. However, the article also states that “it can cure you, it can get you addicted, and it can kill you”. It can also be used to completely control a person’s mind, remotely. The article states:

  “I can see the day coming where a scientist will be able to control what a person sees in their mind’s eye, by sending the right waves to the right place in their brain. My guess is that most objections will be similar to those we hear today about subliminal messages in advertisements, only much more vehement.

  This technology is not without its risks of misuse. It could be a revolutionary healthcare technology for the sick, or a perfect controlling tool with which the ruthless control the weak. This time though, the control would be literal.”

  The conclusion of the article: Nobody can stop scientists from developing this technology. To prevent misuse, it should be regulated by organizations such as … the WEF. That’s convenient because some companies developing this technology are part of the WEF. Do you see where this is going?

  #8 Pills That Contain Microchips

  Once again, this title sounds like a far-fetched conspiracy theory cleverly worded for sensationalism. It is not. Here’s a video from the WEF’s 2018 meeting where Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, talks about pills that contain microchips.

  Bourla says:

  “FDA approved the first ‘electronic pill’, if I can call it like that. It is basically a biological chip that is in the tablet and, once you take the tablet, and it disolves into your stomach, it sends a signal that you took the tablet. So imagine the applications of that, the compliance. The insurance companies would know that the medicines that patients should take, they do take them. It is fascinating what happens in this field.”

  Is this field truly fascinating? Or utterly dystopian? As Bourla himself said: Imagine the compliance. This kind of technology could easily open the door to all kinds of nefarious applications. Since then, COVID put Pfizer in a position of power never seen before for a pharmaceutical company.

  Like Pfizer, the WEF is also using COVID to further its agenda.

  #7 Praising Massive Lockdowns

  In 2020 and 2021, cities around the world were subjected to massive and drastic lockdowns, causing job losses, suicides, drug overdoses, isolation, mental health issues, domestic abuse, bankruptcies, and homelessness. During this horrific period, children could not attend school for months and were essentially barred from interacting with other children. A slew of small and medium businesses was destroyed while large corporations strived.

  Despite all of this, the WEF could not hide its love of drastic, life-destroying lockdowns. In fact, it released a video surrealistically called “Lockdowns are quietly improving cities around the world”. Here’s this piece of complete insanity.

  The video states “Lockdowns significantly reduced human activity … leading to Earth’s quietest period in decades,” while showing dystopian images of empty cities and planes stuck on the ground.

  Completely ignoring the immense human suffering caused by these lockdowns, the WEF considered it was all worth it because “carbon emissions were down 7% in 2020”.

  When this thing was first posted, it garnered intense backlash. So the WEF deleted the video above and posted this tweet.

  

  As you can see, despite deleting the video, the WEF kept praising lockdowns. That’s because the WEF would love to see “covidian” life become permanent.

  #6 “Take a Peek at the Future”

  Judging by comments on YouTube and social media, people absolutely hate videos created by the WEF. But they keep coming. Because they don’t care what you think. They just want to plant their seed of insanity into your mind. In a video titled “How our lives could soon look” (read my full article about it here), the WEF invites viewers to “take a peek at the future”. And it is BLEAK. It is all about making COVID life permanent.

  This is how our lives could soon look.

  Take a peak at the future: https://t.co/lOLgPc95VB pic.twitter.com/sR7l66C95C

  — World Economic Forum (@wef) August 17, 2021

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  The video is filled with masked people, purell dispensers, and QR codes. This is the future they want. Then, there’s this nugget of insanity.

  

  The video proudly says:

  “NASA has invented a system that can ID you from your heartbeat using a laser.”

  As if that wasn’t enough, the video shows children stuck at home and being schooled through screens. The video ends by showing people wearing masks outside, like crazy people.

  

  #5 Pushing For a Great Reset

  As stated above, the WEF perceives the pandemic as an “opportunity”. It is not only an opportunity to reshape our personal existence but to restructure the entire world structure according to its principles. The WEF calls it “the Great Reset”. To promote this Reset (that absolutely nobody wants) the WEF released a propaganda video (it really fits the definition of “propaganda”). Here it is in all of its insanity. 

  When I posted an article about this video in 2021, the comments were not yet turned off. And I took a screenshot of the top ones.

  

  

  This short video manages to contain an incredible amount of subversive messages. It even ridiculizes “conspiracy theories” while, astoundingly, confirming these theories.

  

  The video also announced the “death of capitalism”.

  

  While capitalism is based on a self-regulating system of offer and demand, the Great Reset looks to redefine the way businesses are evaluated through new parameters. The main one: Compliance with the elite’s social and political agendas.

  Towards the end, the narrator utters this enigmatic sentence:

  “And that’s all about getting the right people in the right place at the right time”.

  While the video doesn’t quite explain what this sentence actually means in real-life situations, its implications are rather chilling. Instead of allowing successful individuals and businesses to grow organically, the elite’s system would interfere to “get the right people at the right place at the right time”, in accordance with its agenda. In other words, the system would be rigged and compliance with a wider agenda would be mandatory in a new economy.

  The video ends with a call to viewers to get involved. However, of course, you’re not actually invited to the WEF. In fact, they’re actually looking to “recalibrate” your freedom of speech.

  #4 “Recalibrating” freedom of speech

  An easy way to identify world leaders who are groomed by the WEF is through their incessant railing against free speech. They absolutely hate it and they’re constantly calling for the internet to be censored and highly regulated. At the 2022 Davos meeting, Australian “eSafety commissioner” Julie Inman Grant stated that we need a “recalibration of free speech”.

  Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant tells the World Economic Forum we need a “recalibration” of freedom of speech. pic.twitter.com/zEq72wFhNf

  — Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) May 23, 2022

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  Grant said:

  “We are finding ourselves in a place where we have increasing polarization everywhere and everything feels binary when it doesn’t need to be. So I think we’re going to have to think about a recalibration of a whole range of human rights that are playing out online. You know, from freedom of speech to the freedom to be free from online violence.”

  Here, Grant essentially calls for censorship. She even believes that freedom of speech as a human right should be “recalibrated” using “online violence” as an excuse. There is no such thing as “online violence”. They love to equate speech with violence. It is an extremely manipulative way of justifying China-style censorship.

  Free speech is, in fact, binary. Either it exists or it doesn’t. And they clearly don’t want it to exist.

  #3 Tracking Your Clothes

  The WEF wants to control your clothes. And they’ve made a video about it. Did I mention that people absolutely hate WEF videos? Here’s another one that got people’s blood boiling.

  Using the environment as an excuse (as usual), the WEF announced the coming of clothing laced with “digital passports” that can be traced at all times. Backed by Microsoft (of course), these garments will apparently flood the market by 2025.

  

  According to the WEF, these chips will allow fashion brands to resell their clothes. I have no idea how that would work. The video makes sure NOT to mention that this technology would be a great way of tracking those who ditched their smartphones.

  But ditching your smartphone might become … impossible.

  #2 “Smartphones will be in your body by 2030”

  At the 2022 Davos meeting, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark claimed that, by 2030, “smartphones will be implanted directly into the body.” This would coincide with the coming of 6G technology, which is expected to be launched by the end of the decade.

  For years, this site has been documenting the elite’s incessant push for transhumanism, which is the merging of humans with machines. They’re looking to accelerate this transition by making things people cannot live without (such as smartphones) available in transhumanist form.

  Are you noticing their creepy eagerness to insert things inside our bodies?

  #1 “You’ll Own Nothing. And You’ll Be Happy.”

  This is probably the most dystopian moment in WEF history. In 2016, Ida Auken, a Member of Parliament in Denmark said:

  “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better”.

  The WEF loved that quote so much that it tweeted about it.

  

  The WEF also created a video (that everybody absolutely hated) titled “8 Predictions for the World in 2030”. Here’s a screenshot.

  

  An article on the WEF’s website explains:

  “I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes,” writes Danish MP Ida Auken. Shopping is a distant memory in the city of 2030, whose inhabitants have cracked clean energy and borrow what they need on demand. It sounds utopian, until she mentions that her every move is tracked and outside the city live swathes of discontents, the ultimate vision of a society split in two.

  In this dystopian future, there are no products you can own. Only “services” that are rented and delivered using drones. This system would make all humans completely dependent on WEF-controlled corporations for every single basic need. There would be absolutely no autonomy, no freedom, and no privacy. And you’ll be happy.

  Honorable Mention: Individual carbon footprint tracker

  At the 2022 Davos meeting, Alibaba Group president J. Michael Evans announced the development of an “individual carbon tracker”.

  Alibaba Group president J. Michael Evans boasts at the World Economic Forum about the development of an “individual carbon footprint tracker” to monitor what you buy, what you eat, and where/how you travel. pic.twitter.com/sisSrUngDI

  — Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) May 24, 2022

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  Once again, the WEF uses the environment to promote the micro-management of human behavior. Evans says that the tracker can monitor “where they’re traveling, how they’re traveling, what are they’re eating and what are they consuming on the platform”.

  Notice that he used the pronoun “they” and not “we” because there is no way in hell he’s going to use that thing. Me neither.

  In Conclusion

  Upon reviewing this list, two common themes become obvious. The first theme is “penetration”. The WEF wants to penetrate governments using “Global Leaders” (aka Manchurian candidates). It also wants to penetrate our bodies through pills, microchips, and vaccines. It also wants to penetrate our minds using soundwaves, censorship, and propaganda.

  The other theme is “control”. They want to control what we think, where we go, what we say, what we eat, and what we wear.

  Do you know who agrees with the WEF? China. Censorship is widespread, a social credit system controls people’s behaviors and COVID is still used as an excuse for massive lockdowns and total population control. Not to mention the literal concentration camps. Despite all of this, Chinese officials are constantly present at WEF meetings. Why? Because China is basically a laboratory for the WEF’s policies.

  With all of that being said, how can we counteract the WEF’s insanity? How can we vote them out if they were never voted in? A first step would be to elect – at all levels of government – representatives that want nothing to do with the WEF. If our elected officials treated the WEF as the rogue, illegitimate organization that it is, its influence would be greatly reduced.

  Second, we can boycott every company that is part of the WEF. I realize this is easier said than done because many of these companies are virtual monopolies. However, if we stop giving them our money, they’ll stop using our money to poison our lives.

  Then, they’ll own nothing. And we’ll all be happy.

  P.S. If you appreciated this article, please consider supporting The Vigilant Citizen through a VC Membership (which allows you to view the site ad-free + a free copy of the VC e-book) or through Patreon (same perks as a VC Membership). Alternatively, you can make one-time donation here. Thank you for your support!

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 23:03

• Red Flag Gun Laws Set The Stage For Selective Disarmament Of Conservatives
  Red Flag Gun Laws Set The Stage For Selective Disarmament Of Conservatives

  In his recent address on gun violence, Joe Biden called for a number of new measures to limit 2^nd Amendment rights, but two of them stood out as starkly unconstitutional – The issuance of an “assault weapons” ban and the institution of national Red Flag gun laws.

  Both are egregious in their violations of the Bill of Rights, but Red Flag laws set an Orwellian standard that will likely be used against conservatives as a whole.

  How? We have to examine the situation within the context of Joe Biden’s domestic terrorism policies, but first lets explain what Red Flag laws are.

  

  Red Flag laws, also known as “Extreme Protection Orders,” are generally associated with assumptions of mental health and instability (remember the word “assumptions”). The parameters of such laws tend to be incredibly broad and ambiguous, and allow for almost anyone in regular proximity to a person to accuse them of being psychologically unstable. The accusation can come from a family member, a significant other, a work associate, etc.

  Once the accusation is made, authorities can confiscate the target person’s firearms without due process under the law on the grounds that they present a danger to themselves and others. No jury, no testing, no proof is required to get a court order. It is then up to the accused to prove they are NOT unstable and that they deserve to have their firearms returned. This process could take years, if the guns are ever returned at all.

  Some versions of Red Flag bills even allow police to declare you dangerous on their own accord, even without direct contact or a witness. In other words, it’s a pre-crime system open for massive abuse. And keep in mind, we live in a digital era in which social media is carefully monitored, often by people that do not have our best interests at heart. Red Flag laws could even extend to comments made and taken out of context on social media platforms.

  But why should this be dangerous to conservatives in particular?

  Biden’s White House has made it abundantly clear that he intends to conflate many conservative positions with “extremism.” In his policies on domestic terrorism, Biden and his handlers insinuate that the majority of terrorist concerns come from right leaning Americans, even though the White House is unable to produce more than a few examples of “right leaning” people committing terrorist acts and is rather loose with their definitions of terrorism. Remember, they continue to call the protests of January 6^th an “insurrection” despite the fact that there was no insurrection and no one was even armed.

  The White House blatantly ignores terrorist acts by people associated with the political left and makes no mention of the “Summer of Love” in which BLM and ANTIFA attempted to burn the country to the ground.

  As with all leftist propaganda, Biden and the Democrats have sought to associate normal political and social concerns as well as constitutional concerns with nefarious behaviors such as racism and treason. If you oppose illegal immigration, want proof of citizenship for voting, support gun rights and the constitutional right to a militia, believe the government is corrupt and has overstepped its constitutional mandate, oppose globalism and corporate monopoly, etc. then you are an extremist in the eyes of the Biden Administration. Not only that, but you are comparable to groups like the KKK and individual terrorists like the Oklahoma City Bomber.

  The message is clear within White House policy papers – Domestic terrorist concerns will revolve around conservatives and patriots. They will be pigeon holed as the worst humans imaginable, while any other potential threats will be dismissed.

  Red Flag laws open the door for punishment of political opposition by associating contrary views with “extremism” and then extremism with mental instability. Biden’s policies specifically mention people who are hostile to government authority, which falls right in line with rhetoric used by the DHS and other alphabet agencies over the past several years relating to something called “Oppositional Defiant Disorder.”

  When gun control laws were initiated by the Third Reich in Germany in 1938, guns were confiscated from political enemies and the Jews while gun rights were granted to loyal party members. This standard of selective confiscation helped to strengthen the Nazi Party through a system of rights as rewards; if you said the correct things and virtue signaled your love of the state, you got to keep certain freedoms. If you spoke out of line, your freedoms were immediately forfeit. This included access to firearms.

  Red Flag laws create an environment where political opposition to the prevailing order can be legally punished as psychological instability. Under the Biden Admin, leftists may feel emboldened to take advantage of the open ended nature of the laws to threaten individual conservative and patriot activists, or, the government could simply declare all conservatives dangerous by default. Leftists would remain happy and secure in their ability to hold onto their weapons while incrementally depriving their enemies of a means of defense.

  This attack should be taken seriously by all gun rights advocates and anyone outside of the far left cult, but the leftists are not the biggest danger. It’s perhaps not surprising that some members of the GOP have expressed support for Red Flag laws as a “bipartisan compromise” to outright gun bans. These politicians are either too stupid to see the long term consequences of Red Flags, or they are well away and don’t care because they are fake conservatives.

  Any Republican that throws their weight behind Red Flag laws should be treated as hostile to the constitution and the 2^nd Amendment in particular. Red flag laws are not a “compromise,” they are the Holy Grail of gun control. They are the ultimate Trojan Horse. They are the means to deprive anyone of their firearms for any fabricated reason, and they will create an automatic culture of self censorship in which all anti-establishment voices live in terror of speaking out.

  Anti-gun authoritarians are fearful of direct confrontation and direct confiscation. Going door-to-door is not their idea of a good time. Instead, they prefer the use of backdoor confiscation, going after a handful of people and then moving on to the next group. Slowly at first, until it is too late for people to organize effectively against it. The 2^nd Amendment is not a privilege granted for loyalty to a particular regime or ideology and it is not dependent on the crime rate; it is sacrosanct and stands outside of the conditions of the times we live. Shootings may rise and fall, but none of this matters – once gun rights are taken away, it is unlikely they will ever be returned.

  BOOM…on target! pic.twitter.com/PuVFF0OpRu

  — Fr33dom __𝓢𝓱𝓪𝓮__ (@1fr33dom) May 31, 2022

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 23:00

• US State-Affiliated NewsGuard Targets Consortium News
  US State-Affiliated NewsGuard Targets Consortium News

  Authored by Joe Lauria via Consortium News,

  Consortium News is being “reviewed” by NewsGuard, a U.S. government-linked organization that is trying to enforce a narrative on Ukraine while seeking to discredit dissenting views. The organization has accused Consortium News, begun in 1995 by former Associated Press investigative reporter Robert Parry, of publishing “false content” on Ukraine.  

  It calls “false” essential facts about Ukraine that have been suppressed in mainstream media: 1) that there was a U.S.-backed coup in 2014 and 2) that neo-Nazism is a significant force in Ukraine. Reporting crucial information left out of corporate media is Consortium News‘ essential mission. But NewsGuard considers these facts to be “myths” and is demanding Consortium News “correct” these “errors.”

  

  Who is NewsGuard?

  NewsGuard set itself up in 2018 as a judge of news organizations’ credibility. The front page of NewsGuard’s website shows that it is “partners” with the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as with several major corporations, such as Microsoft. The nature of these “partnerships” is not entirely clear. 

  NewsGuard is a private corporation that can shield itself from First Amendment obligations. But it has connections to formerly high-ranking U.S. government officials in addition to its “partnerships” with the State Dept. and the Pentagon.

  Among those sitting on NewsGuard’s advisory board are Gen. Michael Hayden, the former Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency director; Tom Ridge, the first U.S. Homeland Security director and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former secretary general of NATO. NewGuard says its ”advisors provide advice and subject-matter expertise to NewsGuard. They play no role in the determinations of ratings or the Nutrition Label write ups of websites unless otherwise noted and have no role in the governance or management of the organization.”

  The co-CEO, with former Wall Street Journal publisher Louis Gordon Crovitz, is Steven Brill, who in the 1990s published Brill’s Content, a magazine that was billed as a watchdog of the press, critiquing the role of the media to hold government to account.  NewsGuard is a government-affiliated organization judging media like Consortium News that is totally independent of government or corporations.   

  NewsGuard has a rating process that results in a news organization receiving either a green or red label. Fox News and other major media, for example, have received green labels. 

  Getting a red label means that potentially millions of people that have the NewsGuard extension installed and operating on their browsers will see the  green or red mark affixed to websites on social media and Google searches. (For individuals that do not already have it installed and operating on Microsoft’s browser, it costs $4.95 a month in the U.S., £4.95 in the U.K., or €4.95 in the EU to run the extension.) 

  

  According to NewsGuard, libraries in the U.S. and Britain have had it installed on their computers, and it is also being put on computers of U.S. active duty personnel.  Slate reported in January 2019 that NewsGuard:

  “struck a deal with Microsoft to incorporate those ratings into the tech giant’s Edge browser as an optional setting. That’s when the Guardian noticed that the Mail Online had been tagged by NewsGuard with a ‘red’ label, a reliability score of 3 out of 9, and the following warning: ‘Proceed with caution: This website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability.’ For Microsoft Edge users with the ‘News Ratings’ feature turned on, that warning appeared alongside every link to the Mail Online—whether in Google search results, Facebook or Twitter feeds, or the Mail’s own homepage.”

  Approach to Consortium News

  Consortium News was contacted by NewsGuard analyst Zachary Fishman. In his request to speak to someone at Consortium News he said categorically that CN had published “false content” and that the interview would be on the record. “I’m hoping to talk with someone who could answer a few questions about its structure and editorial processes — including its ownership, its handling of corrections, and its publication of false content,” he wrote in an email.

  As editor-in-chief, I informed him that our founder, editors and writers came from high levels of establishment journalism. I told him that in thousands of press interviews I’ve conducted over nearly half a century in journalism I had never known anyone accusing a prospective interviewee of misconduct upfront and then determining that the interview would be on the record, when the ground rules are usually set by the person being interviewed. 

  Fishman apologized and tried to say his mind wasn’t made up about Consortium News, when he had clearly stated that it was. “I do apologize that the wording of my email insinuated that I had come to a predetermined conclusion on whether your website has published false content, when I have not — be sure that I am interested in your responses to my questions,” he wrote in an email.

  According to his LinkedIn profile, Fishman had one previous job in science and financial journalism that lasted 15 months for a company called Fastinform that is now defunct. Last month, all the links of his published pieces on LinkedIn went to a site that no longer exists. The links have now been removed.

  Fishman has degrees in health, environment and science journalism and engineering physics. He has no experience in political reporting and especially of the politics of Eastern Europe and U.S.-Russia relations.

  NewsGuard’s determination on Consortium News will be made by the analyst and, “At least one senior editor and NewsGuard’s co-CEOs review every Nutrition Label prior to publication to ensure that the rating is as fair and accurate as possible.”

  

  Charge: There Was ‘No US-Backed Coup’

  NewsGuard alleges that Consortium News has published “false content” by reporting that there was a U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014 and that neo-Nazis have significant influence in the country.

  Fishman took issue with a:

  “February 2022 article ‘Ukraine: Guides to Reflection,’ [which] asserted, ‘Hence, the inflation of Russian behavior in Ukraine (where Washington organized a coup against a democratically elected government because we disliked its political complexion) … .’

  Fishman then wrote: 

  “The U.S. supported the Maidan revolution that ousted then-Ukraine President Viktor Yanikovych (sic) in 2014 — including a December 2013 visit by John McCain to Kyiv in support of protesters — but there is no evidence that the U.S. ‘organized’ a ‘coup.’ Instead, it has the markings of a popular uprising, precipitated by widely covered protests against Yanukovych’s decision to suspend preparations for the signing of an association and free-trade agreement with the European Union.”

  Viktor Yanukovych was democratically elected as president of Ukraine in 2010 in an election certified by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a fact not mentioned in NewsGuard’s writings on the change of government in Ukraine.  Even though Yanukovych agreed to an EU political settlement and early elections, violence forced him to flee from the capital on Feb. 21, 2014. Reporting that the neo-Nazi Right Sector was at the forefront of the violent overthrow, The New York Times (green check) wrote earlier that day:

  “Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of Right Sector, a coalition of hard-line nationalist groups, reacted defiantly to news of the settlement, drawing more cheers from the crowd.

  ‘The agreements that were reached do not correspond to our aspirations,’ he said. ‘Right Sector will not lay down arms. Right Sector will not lift the blockade of a single administrative building until our main demand is met — the resignation of Yanukovych.’ He added that he and his supporters were ‘ready to take responsibility for the further development of the revolution.’ The crowd shouted: ‘Good! Good!’

  A study on the violence used to overthrow the government, by Prof. Serhiy Kudelia, a political scientist at Baylor University, says the overthrow succeeded because of “the embeddedness of violent groups” in a non-violent protest. The violence began on Dec.  1, 2013 when these violent groups attacked police with “iron chains, flares, stones and petrol bombs” and tried to ram a bulldozer through police lines.  The police viciously fought back that day.  

  As the International Business Times (IBT) (green check) wrote about these groups at the time:

  “According to a member of anti-fascist Union Ukraine, a group that monitors and fights fascism in Ukraine, ‘There are lots of nationalists here [EuroMaidan] including Nazis. They came from all over Ukraine, and they make up about 30% of protesters.

  Different groups [of anarchists] came together for a meeting on the Maidan. While they were meeting, a group of Nazis came in a larger group, they had axes and baseball bats and sticks, helmets, they said it was their territory. They called the anarchists things like Jews, blacks, communists. There weren’t even any communists, that was just an insult. The anarchists weren’t expecting this and they left. People with other political views can’t stay in certain places, they aren’t tolerated,’ a member of the group continued.”

  The violence by far-right groups was evidently condoned by Sen. John McCain who expressed his support for the uprising by addressing the Maidan crowd later that month. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and then U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt visited the square after the violence had broken out.

  

  NewsGuard’s account of the events of Feb. 21, 2014 says that even though Yanukovych agreed to the early elections, “angry protestors demanded Yanukovych’s immediate resignation,” and he fled on that day after “hundreds of police guarding government buildings abandoned their posts.” NewsGuard then says “protestors took control of several government buildings the next day.”

  Government Buildings Seized

  But protestors had already seized government buildings as early as December 2013. On Jan. 24 protestors broke into the Agriculture Ministry building in Kiev and occupied it. On the same day barricades were set up near the presidential headquarters.  Government buildings in the west of the country had also been occupied. The Guardian  (green check) reported on Jan. 24: 

  “There were dramatic developments in the west of the country on Thursday as hundreds of people forced their way into the office of the regional governor in the city of Lviv, and forced him to sign a resignation letter. Oleh Salo, a Yanukovych appointee in a city where support for the president is in the low single digits, later said he signed the letter under duress and was rescinding his resignation.

  Thousands also stormed regional administration headquarters in Rivne on Thursday, breaking down doors and demanding the release of people detained in the unrest there, Unian news agency reported. In the town of Cherkasy, 125 miles south of Kiev, about 1,000 protesters took over the first two floors of the main administration building and lit fires outside the building.

  Similar action took place in Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytsky in western and central Ukraine, as well as parts of the north-east, the Party of the Regions said.”

  Protestors had begun occupying Kiev City Hall in December, with a portrait of Ukraine’s World War II fascist leader Stepan Bandera hanging from the rafters. On the night of Feb. 21, the leader of the Neo-fascist Right Sector, Andriy Parubiy, announced that the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), the Presidential Administration, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had all come under control of the protestors.

  Therefore NewsGuard has published “false content” by reporting that government buildings were occupied the day after Yanukovych fled the capital. It should print a correction.

  On the day after Yanukovych fled, the Rada voted without the presence of Yanukovych’s party — the largest in the country — to impeach him after the fact of his violent overthrow. NewsGuard omitted the key fact that the impeachment vote was tainted by the absence of Yanukovych’s party and that the impeachment became largely irrelevant after violence forced him to flee the capital.

  Democratically-elected leaders are removed by electoral defeat, impeachment or votes of no confidence, not by violence.  NewsGuard writes that “hundreds of police guarding government buildings abandoned their posts” on the day Yanukovych was forced out, but doesn’t say why.  As Jacobin (NewsGuard green check) magazine reports:

  “Whatever one thinks of the Maidan protests, the increasing violence of those involved was key to their ultimate victory. In response to a brutal police crackdown, protesters began fighting with chains, sticks, stones, petrol bombs, even a bulldozer — and, eventually, firearms, all culminating in what was effectively an armed battle in February, which left thirteen police officers and nearly fifty protesters dead. The police ‘could no longer defend themselves’ from protesters’ attacks,’ writes political scientist Sergiy Kudelia, causing them to retreat, and precipitating Yanukovych’s exit.”

  NewsGuard calls the events a “revolution,” yet revolutions in history have typically been against monarchs or dictators, not against democratically-elected leaders. For instance, the 1776 American Revolution, the 1789 French Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution, the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and countless others were against monarchs. Coups have been against both elected and non-elected leaders. Revolutions change political systems, usually from monarchies to republics. Ukraine’s political system was not changed, only its leader.

  By any measure, Yanukovych’s ouster was an unconstitutional change in government. His “impeachment” without his party present for the vote came after government buildings had been seized and after violence drove him from the capital.  

  Circumstantial Evidence

  In its version of these events, NewsGuard only refers to circumstantial evidence of the coup, interpreting it as U.S. “support” for a “revolution” against a democratically-elected president.

  NewsGuard fails to point out that McCain, Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT) as well as  Nuland appeared on stage in the Maidan with Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of the Neo-fascist Svoboda Party, formerly known as the Social National Party.

  NewsGuard does not consider how such events would be seen in the United States if a senior Russian foreign ministry official, two leading Russian lawmakers and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. appeared on stage with a far-right American leader to address a crowd on the Washington Mall seeking to oust an elected U.S. president. If that president were overthrown violently, would Americans think it Russian-backed the coup?

  

  NewsGuard discusses Nuland’s 2013 speech in which she revealed that since 1991 the U.S. had spent $5 billion to help bring about Ukraine’s “aspirations.” What it fails to point out is that U.S. aspirations were to turn Ukraine towards the West and away from Russia. And the U.S. had work to do.

  In a 2008 poll, 17 years after this U.S. effort began, and the year in which the U.S. said Ukraine would one day join NATO, 50 percent of Ukrainians actually opposed NATO membership against just 24.3 percent who favored it. A 2010 Gallup poll showed that 40 percent of Ukrainians viewed NATO as more threat than protector.  Just 17 percent had the opposite view. So building up civil society through U.S.-funded NGOs to favor the West was the U.S. challenge.  

  NewsGuard does not mention that part of the $5 billion the U.S. spent was to help organize protests. There was genuine popular dissatisfaction with Yanukovych that the NED nurtured and trained. Jacobin reported of the 2014 events:

  “US officials, unhappy with the scuttled EU deal, saw a similar chance in the Maidan protests. Just two months before they broke out, the NED’s then president, pointing to Yanukovych’s European outreach, wrote that “the opportunities are considerable, and there are important ways Washington could help.”

  In practice, this meant funding groups like New Citizen, which the Financial Times reported “played a big role in getting the protest up and running,” led by a pro-EU opposition figure. Journalist Mark Ames discovered the organization had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from US democracy promotion initiatives.”

  Writing in Consortium News six days after Yanukovych’s ouster, Parry reported that over the previous year, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which funds NGOs in countries the U.S. targets for regime change, had bankrolled 65 projects in Ukraine totaling more than $20 million. Parry called it “a shadow political structure of media and activist groups that could be deployed to stir up unrest when the Ukrainian government didn’t act as desired.”

  The NED, on Feb. 25, the day after the Russian invasion, deleted all projects in Ukraine it funded, which are archived here. The NED meddled in Ukrainian politics in 2004 in the so-called Orange Revolution.  The Washington Post (green check) wrote in 1991 that what the C.I.A. once did in secret — destabilizing and overthrowing regimes —  the NED was now doing openly.

  C.I.A. or NED-led coups are never made up out of whole cloth. The U.S. works with genuine opposition movements within a country, sometimes popular uprisings, to finance, train and direct them. This U.S. has a long history of overthrowing foreign governments, the most infamous examples being Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954,  and Chile in 1973.

  In September 2013, before the Maidan uprising began, long-time NED head Carl Gerhsman called Ukraine “the biggest prize” in a Washington Post op-ed piece, and warned that “Russians, too, face a choice, and Putin may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself.”

  In 2016 he said the NED has been involved in Ukraine since the 1980s and he praised the “overthrow of Yanukovych.”

  Nuland-Pyatt Tape Omitted

  Most significantly, NewsGuard’s attempt to refute U.S. involvement in the coup omits the 2014 intercepted and leaked telephone call between Nuland and Pyatt, the then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, in which the two discuss who will make up the new government weeks before Yanukovych was overthrown. 

  On the leaked tape, Nuland and Pyatt talk about “midwifing” a new government; Vice President Joe Biden’s role, and setting up meetings with Ukrainian politicians to make it happen. Nuland says the prime minister should be Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and indeed he became prime minister after the coup.

  At the time, the BBC (green check) wrote of the leak: “The US says that it is working with all sides in the crisis to reach a peaceful solution, noting that ‘ultimately it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide their future’. However this transcript suggests that the US has very clear ideas about what the outcome should be and is striving to achieve these goals.”

  The U.S. State Department never denied the authenticity of the video, and even issued an apology to the European Union after Nuland is heard on the tape saying, “Fuck the EU.” Mainstream media at the time focused almost exclusively on that off-color remark as a distraction from the greater significance of U.S. interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs. 

  Why did Nuland say, “Fuck the EU”? At the time she said it, France, Germany and Poland were working for the EU on a political settlement with Russia to the Maidan crisis that would leave Yanukovych in power. 

  Indeed the E.U. brokered a deal with Yanukovych, who agreed to early elections by December, a restoration of the 2004 Constitution and an amnesty for all protestors, clearing the way for no one to be held responsible for the violent ouster. Yanukovych  announced the agreement, with E.U. officials at his side in Kiev, on Feb. 21, 2014. Later that day he was violently driven from power.

  Leaving the historic role of the NED and the essential Nuland-Pyatt conversation out of its reporting is an omission of evidence by NewsGuard, typical of corporate media. Omitting crucial elements of a story changes its meaning and in this case undermines NewsGuard’s account of the events of 2014. 

  This is an excellent example of why Parry started Consortium News: to report on crucial information that corporate media sometimes purposely and deceptively leave out to change the meaning of a story. NewsGuard should correct its story about the coup, not Consortium News.

  The rest of the full report at Consortium News…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 22:30

• Watch: An Enraged Peter Navarro Describes Being Arrested And Shackled Over Misdemeanor J6 Indictment
  Watch: An Enraged Peter Navarro Describes Being Arrested And Shackled Over Misdemeanor J6 Indictment

  Former Trump adviser and Director of Trade Peter Navarro is livid after the Biden DOJ arrested him at a DC-area airport prior to a scheduled flight to Nashville, Tennessee, for telling the House January 6 committee to pound sand over a subpoena.

  

  In a recently filed lawsuit challenging the J6 Committee, Navarro disclosed that he had been commanded to appear before a DC grand jury, as well as turn over all documents requested by the J6 Committee “including but not limited to any communications with formal [sic] President Trump and/or his counsel or representative.”

  “Who are these people? This is not America,” Navarro said during his arraignment, adding: “I was with distinguished public servants for four years. Nobody ever questioned my ethics.”

  Outside, the 72-year-old explained that he’d been hauled in and shackled.

  “Instead of coming to my door where I live – which by the way, is right next to the FBI. Instead of calling me and saying ‘hey, we need you down at court, we’ve got a warrant for you’ – I’d have gladly come. What did they do? They intercepted me getting on a plane, and then they put me in handcuffs, they bring me here, they put me in leg irons, they stick me in a cell … that’s punitive.”

  “What they did to me today violated the constitution,” he continued.

  Trump Advisor Peter Navarro BLASTS FBI for unconstitutional ARREST after he sent the J6 Committee to POUND SAND:

  “They’re not coming for me and Trump, they’re coming for YOU— all 74 MILLION of you who voted for Donald John Trump.” pic.twitter.com/qalAwEOfk3

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 3, 2022

  Former White House adviser Stephen Miller had Navarro’s back.

  Miller complains that Navarro was shackled but gang bangers are released with no pre-trial detention pic.twitter.com/DGoKXUQyeN

  — Acyn (@Acyn) June 3, 2022

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  As did Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

  .@RepMattGaetz: “Peter Navarro was just indicted by federal grand jury on criminal content of Congress and this is a total abuse of our justice system. […] These contempt proceedings are not justified and it continues to concern us.” https://t.co/CTjMfcpDah pic.twitter.com/GHRUqvhMAs

  — The Hill (@thehill) June 4, 2022

  Others pointed out that former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder did the same thing and was held in contempt of Congress without similar treatment.

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  Peter Navarro was charged with contempt of Congress by a monopartisan Committee. He got shackles.

  Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress by a bipartisan vote of 255-67. He went out to dinner that night.

  And DC wonders why people believe in the Swamp.

  — Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) June 4, 2022

  Rudy Giuliani called it shameful.

  Dragging Peter Navarro off a plane and shackling him in leg irons demonstrate that AG Garland and Director Gray are using DOJ AND FBI AS THE DEMOCRAT STATE POLICE.

  SHAMEFUL!

  — Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) June 4, 2022

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  Look at the glee with which liberals are celebrating the arrest of 72-year-old Peter Navarro, who was apparently intercepted and shackled by the FBI for two misdemeanor charges of “contempt of Congress.” They love vindictive displays of state power against their political enemies

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 4, 2022

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  I understand the top of the FBI is as corrupt as the day is long but what really disappoints me is the field agents who went to the Airport to arrest Peter Navarro knowing it was a political stunt
  The FBI is rotten to the core from top to bottom

  — Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) June 4, 2022

   In Navarro’s lawsuit, he argues that his responsibilities to the Trump White House should be taken into consideration.

  “Given the economic and national security ramifications of a possibly stolen election, I worked diligently in my official capacity as a government official within the White House and as a senior White House adviser to help the president and other senior advisers navigate what appeared to be the most sophisticated assault on American democracy ever perpetrated,” reads the filing.

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 22:00

• Yellen Throws Biden Under The Bus On Runaway Inflation: She "Wanted" $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Cut By A Third
  Yellen Throws Biden Under The Bus On Runaway Inflation: She “Wanted” $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Cut By A Third

  Perhaps the most idiotic thing to ever come out of the Biden administration – and there has been plenty to choose from – was the repeated lie that (trillions in) stimulus does not cause runaway inflation, but rather lowers it.

  And while Biden’s handlers were generous enough to bribe supposedly smart people to repeat said lie to give it credibility, like for example the chief economist at JPMorgan who last March said that the $1.9 trillion Biden stimulus “won’t spark runaway inflation” (narrator: it did)…

  Why JPMorgan’s Chief Economist Thinks The $1.9TN Biden Stimulus Won’t Spark Runaway Inflation https://t.co/v2MtuE9DUS

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 12, 2021

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  … and of course Janet Yellen, whom we mocked last March when she said that an “inflation problem was unlikely to result from stimulus”…

  Yellen Says Inflation Problem Unlikely to Result From Stimulus

  LOL

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 8, 2021

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  … the truth, of course, as Jeff Gundlach noted recently, is that an “intelligent twelve year old” was able to predict that excessive stimulus causes inflation…

  Excessive stimulus caused inflation. An intelligent twelve year old was able to predict it. Ms. Yellen, long serving Fed Chair…..yes, Fed Chair,…admitted today she was not. On the inflation bright side, and it is a very bright side, Build Back Biden did not pass.

  — Jeffrey Gundlach (@TruthGundlach) June 2, 2022

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  … and yet the 75-year-old Treasury Secretary and former Fed chief could not, as she herself admitted last week when Yellen told CNN “Well, look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take” when she was shown previous remarks she’d made last year where she indicated there would only be a “small risk” of inflation, and that it would be “manageable.”

  .@SecYellen on inflation being transitory: “I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy […] that I, at the time, didn’t fully understand.” https://t.co/AlrXn4kT0r pic.twitter.com/9tqxo0iA3B

  — The Hill (@thehill) June 1, 2022

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  Only instead of taking one for the team of senile, clueless economists and Putin puppets (because if there is any admin that has done the Kremlin’s bidding by sending oil prices to near record highs, it is Biden’s) especially after the so-called “president” made it clear he will blame Powell and the Fed ahead of the midterms for his admin’s catastrophic MMT policies which have assured an avalanche this November that will hand control of Congress to republicans on a silver platter…

  

  …  Yellen has decided to strike back, and as Bloomberg reports citing an advance copy of the Treasury secretary’s biography- due out on Sept. 27, just weeks before the midterms –  the treasury secretary initially urged Biden administration officials to scale back the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan by a third “worried by the specter of inflation“… the same stimulus plan that she herself said last March would not lead to an inflation problem. But, in retrospect, she appears to have changed her mind.

  “Privately, Yellen agreed with Summers that too much government money was flowing into the economy too quickly,” writes Owen Ullmann, the book’s author and a veteran Washington journalist who has covered economics and politics in Washington since 1983, referring to former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who severely criticized the size of the aid plan.

  Of course, since it would be an act of near treason for the Secretary of the Treasury to confirm now (if not then) that she personally was against what has emerged as Biden’s most hated policy, prompting questions about how actually gives economic advice to Biden and why does Soros have more influence on US policies than the Treasury, the denials came in fast and furious, with Bloomberg reporting that a Treasury spokesperson disputed the claims.

  “The Secretary did not urge a smaller package and, as she has said, believes that without the American Rescue Plan, millions of people would have been economically scarred, and the country’s historically fast recovery would have been far slower,” Treasury spokesperson Lily Adams said in response to the book’s claims. What Lily failed to mention is that without the package, US gas prices wouldn’t be on the verge of double digits.

  Ullmann’s account sheds new light on a policy debate that preceded the eruption of inflation, which now poses a major political threat to President Joe Biden and his Democratic party’s control of Congress.

  Fears of overheating have since been confirmed making a mockery of the idiots known as “team transitory” as price increases this year hit a 40-year high and have destroyed Biden’s standing among voters, who is now even more unpopular than Trump was at this time in his tenure. Meanwhile, sensing doom in November, Democrats have blamed the cost surge on supply-chain bottlenecks caused by the pandemic and on energy price surges following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They’ve also pointed the finger at US energy companies, and most recently, the Fed itself. But as it has now become clear to both smart 12 year olds and even economists, outsize demand – fueled in part by Biden’s spending plan – was the driving force behind galloping inflation.

  Yellen’s concern about inflation “is why she had sought without success to scale back the $1.9 trillion relief plan by a third early in 2021 before Congress passed the enormous program,” wrote Ullmann, who had “unfiltered access” to Yellen as he researched the book, according to publisher PublicAffairs.

  Ullmann wrote, “She worried that so much money in the pockets of consumers and businesses would drive up prices at a time when the pandemic had caused severe shortages of goods that were in unprecedentedly high demand.”

  Now if only she had said as much instead of – say – repeating the opposite over and over, just to placate her senile boss and lose every last shred of credibility she may have had. Hilarious, even the biography – her desperate attempt at expiration – is confused how to spin Yellen’s revisionary view of events:

  It’s unclear from the book how staunchly Yellen lobbied to cut back the size of the third wave of aid or whom she engaged with in the administration. And Ullmann goes on to emphasize that Yellen threw her full weight behind the bill as it moved ahead in its larger size.

  The Treasury chief endorsed the package before US lawmakers, telling them that historically low interest costs on federal debt had given the government space for fiscal expansion. She has continued to defend the ARP even as high inflation proved persistent. In an April 28 speech, she said it had helped drive unemployment to 3.6%, practically a 50-year low, and had prevented the pandemic from causing a much higher degree of suffering for Americans.

  Still, Yellen “would have preferred something closer to $1.3 trillion, according to colleagues,” Ullmann wrote. “But given the choice between Biden’s full $1.9 trillion package and less than $1 trillion that some in Congress preferred, Yellen believed going big was the better course.”

  Yellen also felt that even if the bill pumped too much money into the economy, the subsequent spike in inflation would be “transitory,” a term she used through 2021.

  Even more remarkable is that according to the biography, while Yellen pushed back against Biden’s stimmies, but not really and endorsed them in public at every opportunity, Yellen was angered by Summers’ attacks on the stimulus plan, “even though she shared some of his worries.” Yes, you read that right: Yellen disagreed with Biden, but she was more angry when someone else criticized his plan! This kind of cognitive dissonance of the highest order has to be a Democrat thing.

  “Yellen was irritated that he would cause his own party so much grief by arming Republicans and some Democrats — such as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a conservative by Democratic standards — with a justification for opposing subsequent spending proposals on Biden’s agenda,” Ullmann wrote.

  Manchin cited rising inflation, along with long-term debt concerns, when he later opposed Biden’s 10-year $3.5 trillion economic development proposal known as Build Back Better.

  Of course, it’s too little too late now, and with even the liberal media turning on Biden, Yellen’s last-ditch attempt to preserve some of her reputation in the twilight of her career, and life, will be a miserable failure just like Biden’s entire administration as even Jeff Bezos of Democracy Dies In Doublespeak fame, now attests…

  their best to add another $3.5 TRILLION to federal spending. They failed, but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today, and inflation today is at a 40 year high.

  — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 16, 2022

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 21:44

• The Complexity Trap
  The Complexity Trap

  Via The Consciousness of Sheep blog,

  Let’s talk about “value.”  Value, at its simplest, is merely the consequences of acting upon the world in a manner which “improves” (some might say despoils) some part of it.  If, for example, someone takes a pile of timber, a saw and some glue and nails, and then turns it into a table, they have added value.  The same is true of goods and services across the economy.  Wherever people act to improve the goods and services that we collectively consume, value is added… governments even attempt to tax that additional value via, well, Value Added Tax.

  Value also has a clear relationship to another key factor in the way an economy works – productivity.  We have all been brought up to understand that the simplest way of growing an economy is to improve productivity.  In effect, to do more for less, or to put it another way, to make the addition of value more efficient.

  In the coming months, as the western economies crater as a consequence of the follies of their elites, we are going to hear a great many siren voices urging us to improve our collective productivity in order to pull our stagnating economies out of the doldrums and to put an end to the cost-of-living crisis.  And yet, among the biggest mistakes made by almost all of us is the false attribution of value and productivity.

  

  For many on the political left, and at least some on the right, labour is the source of value – a view which can be traced back to classical liberal economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo.  In classic Marxist thinking, capitalism uses the payment of wages for workers’ time as a means of converting the surplus value they create into profit.  Politics in a capitalist economy then becomes an ongoing struggle over the respective shares of surplus value divided into the wages of workers and the profits of capitalists.  According to Ricardo:

  “The value of a commodity, or the quantity of any other commodity for which it will exchange, depends on the relative quantity of labour which is necessary for its production…”

  Smith qualified this by arguing it was labour time rather than quantity which mattered:

  “If among a nation of hunters, for example, it usually costs twice the labour to kill a beaver which it does to kill a deer, one beaver should naturally exchange for, or be worth two deer. It is natural that what is usually the produce of two days’ or two hours’ labour, should be worth double of what is usually the produce of one day’s or one hour’s labour.”

  This line of thinking was flawed, since it allowed that the product of a bad or slow worker would have more value than the product of a good and fast worker.  Marx was to tidy the thinking up by insisting that it was “socially necessary labour time” which mattered.  The value of our wooden table was not the time our worker took to construct it, but rather the average time that a skilled carpenter would take to construct a wooden table.  The other useful line of thought offered by Marx was that there is a difference between exchange and use value.  This, for example, helps us understand why a Chippendale table might sell for a much higher amount than a plain utilitarian table.  In monetary terms, the value of an item is merely whatever someone is prepared to pay for it.  Nevertheless, there was something about socially necessary labour time which set a minimum value below which an item is neither worth selling nor even constructing.

  Labour, in its naked form, however, is an incredibly weak source of value.  And as Marx began to see later in his life – when Britain’s industrialisation had matured significantly – industrial machinery clearly added far more value than labour alone. (Although Marx refused to take this observation to its logical conclusion since it contradicted his class-based politics).  In any case, Marx was wrong.  It was not the machines themselves which were the source of value, but the coal-power which drove them.  Nobel Prize-winning chemist and contrarian economist Frederick Soddy arrived at the real source of value in the early 1930s:

  “Still one point seemed lacking to account for the phenomenal outburst of activity that followed in the Western world the invention of the steam engine, for it could not be ascribed simply to the substitution of inanimate energy for animal labour. The ancients used the wind in navigation and drew upon water-power in rudimentary ways. The profound change that then occurred seemed to be rather due to the fact that, for the first time in history, men began to tap a large capital store of energy and ceased to be entirely dependent on the revenue of sunshine. All the requirements of pre-scientific men were met out of the solar energy of their own times. The food they ate, the clothes they wore, and the wood they burnt could be envisaged, as regards the energy content which gives them use-value, as stores of sunlight. But in burning coal one releases a store of sunshine that reached the earth millions of years ago. In so far as it can be used for the purposes of life, the scale of living may be, to almost any necessary extent, augmented, devotion to the primitive ideas of the peoples of Kirkcaldy [i.e., Adam Smith and his followers] and Judea notwithstanding [i.e., economics is more religion than science].

  “Then came the odd thought about fuel considered as a capital store, out of the consumption of which our whole civilisation, in so far as it is modern, has been built. You cannot burn it and still have it, and once burnt there is no way, thermodynamically, of extracting perennial interest from it. Such mysteries are among the inexorable laws of economics rather than of physics. With the doctrine of evolution, the real Adam turns out to have been an animal, and with the doctrine of energy the real capitalist proves to be a plant. The flamboyant era through which we have been passing is due not to our own merits, but to our having inherited accumulations of solar energy from the carboniferous era, so that life for once has been able to live beyond its income. Had it but known it, it might have been a merrier age!”

  Insofar as the physiocrats, living during the heyday of pre-industrial landed estates, saw the land as the source of value it is because of the way the plants which grow on the land are able to photosynthesize solar energy and convert it into hydrocarbons which can feed humans directly or feed the animals which humans consume for fat and protein.  In the same way, it was not so much the industrial machinery – still less the mass army of industrial workers – which provided the eighteenth and nineteenth century economy with massive quantities of surplus value so much as the fossilised solar energy locked up in the form of the coal which provided the energy behind the industrial economy.

  Soddy also pointed to what was then the future predicament of fossil fuel depletion.  Not only did we burn our way through the once-and-done “capital store” of accessible coal, but from the early twentieth century we set about the rapid depletion of oil and gas too.  It is the surplus useful energy (sometimes referred to as exergy) – the amount left over after we have obtained the energy to begin with – which is the source of the surplus value generated in the industrial economy.  And the huge quantities involved explain why a large part of the population of western states have enjoyed a standard of living which would be the envy of kings, and, indeed, why we are ruled over by a handful of godzillionaires whose wealth is so vast as to make the Gods of Olympus jealous…  which is something of a problem because the world recently passed peak exergy.

  That is, while there may be roughly as much fossil fuel in the ground as we have consumed in the course of three centuries of industrialisation, we also burned our way through the cheap and easy deposits first.  Consider this an issue of “socially necessary exergy” – nobody was going to buy or even extract oil from deep beneath the North Sea or from hydraulically fractured shale deposits while it was still possible to obtain all the oil you needed by knocking a pipe into the ground.  We will, of course, continue to extract ever more difficult and expensive fossil fuels, but their extraction will remorselessly consume an ever-greater part of the exergy previously available to the wider economy.  Which, in turn, means that the wider economy is going to shrink… and we have no economic theory to explain how we are going to handle this.

  What of productivity?  Surely – and visibly – technology adds value.  After all, we now have automated production processes which can manufacture goods with barely a human finger laid upon them.  But as with labour back in Adam Smith’s day, what the technology is achieving is the efficient conversion of exergy into value.  And while this can have massive results – there is a big difference, for example, between Trevithick’s 1804 steam locomotive trundling down the Taff valley at walking pace (and later having to be towed back up by horses) and Gresley’s Mallard achieving the world record for a steam locomotive of 126 mph in 1938 – there are both physical (thermodynamic) and economic limits to what can be achieved.  As with fossil fuels themselves, technological improvement – aka productivity gains, i.e., optimising the conversion of exergy into value – is cheap and easy to begin with but hard and expensive later on:

  

  There is a reason why Mallard still holds the speed record for a steam locomotive, and it is the same reason why nobody has replaced Concorde in providing supersonic commercial flight – it costs too much!  Indeed, Mallard and Concorde both turned out to be state-subsidised luxury passenger transport for the wealthy.  And in both cases, electorates – most of whom could not afford the ticket price – eventually refused to vote for any more corporate welfare.

  Although we like to pretend that the technology which surrounds us is novel and world-changing, as physicist Tom Murphy has shown, much of it would be recognisable to someone in the USA of the 1950s:

  “Look around your environment and imagine your life as seen through the eyes of a mid-century dweller. What’s new? Most things our eyes land on will be pretty well understood. The big differences are cell phones (which they will understand to be a sort of telephone, albeit with no cord and capable of sending telegram-like communications, but still figuring that it works via radio waves rather than magic), computers (which they will see as interactive televisions), and GPS navigation (okay: that one’s thought to be magic even by today’s folk). They will no doubt be impressed with miniaturization as an evolutionary spectacle, but will tend to have a context for the functional capabilities of our gizmos.

  “Telling ourselves that the pace of technological transformation is ever-increasing is just a fun story we like to believe is true. For many of us, I suspect, our whole world order is built on this premise.”

  The point is that most of these technologies have already reaped the cheap and easy, and, indeed, almost all of the hard and expensive improvements that are ever going to be made.  In this respect, we are entering a period similar to the early twentieth century when we hit the limits to coal-powered technologies.  The big difference today being that there is no even more energy-dense and easily available new energy source available to us to usher in a new suite of technologies in the way that oil-based technologies rapidly replaced coal in the years after World War Two.

  From this viewpoint, the smart thing to do today would be to simplify our way of life – and write-off a large part of the monetary claims on future exergy growth which will not be arriving – in order to bring our economies into line with the declining surplus energy available to us.  The paradox though, is that – even at today’s higher prices – energy does not appear to be the biggest problem before us.  For all of the complaints about the rapid and steep rise in fuel and electricity prices, they remain low in comparison to the benefits that we derive from them. 

  In the monetary economy, on the other hand, it is the cost of labour which looks like our biggest headache.  In almost every business, the wage bill is far and away the biggest cost.  And with the price of energy rising as a direct consequence of depleting exergy (and with few more productivity gains to be won) the greatest fear on the part of central bankers and policy-makers is that wage demands will begin to exceed price increases – a process compounded by labour shortages caused by two years of lockdown policies.

  Labour shortages in Britain in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, were an essential part of why we had an industrial revolution to begin with.  The use of machinery to harness water and steam power rapidly out-produced craft workers, soon enough turning skilled artisans into mere machine-minders.  And with labour shortages appearing again, the complexity trap is that corporations turn to technological automation to fill the gap.  From supermarkets installing ever more self-service tills and automated farming to the end of High Street banking and the move to digital currencies, the trend toward technological fixes for our growing predicament is irresistible.  But without the exergy to make it all work, something – very likely something big – is going to break.

  The counter trend to technological automation can already be seen in less profitable sectors of the economy, where cheap labour has been used to replace increasingly unaffordable technologies such as the once ubiquitous automated car wash.  Add these to a growing list of things that ordinary people used to be able to afford but no longer can.  As the cost of necessities like food and temperature control continue to increase, the list will grow.  And this will cause huge problems for the corporations which are pursuing the automation route… and, indeed, those of us who rely upon them as the customer base shrinks.

  This loss of critical mass is one jaw of the complexity trap.  Much of the automation that corporations are pursuing is only cheaper if a mass of the population uses it.  As Netflix and Facebook have discovered recently, things go badly awry when people begin to unsubscribe.  The same is true for the energy companies themselves since they rely on our collective willingness to continue using electricity and gas even as the price spirals upward.  The problem, of course, is that we are not prepared to do this.  Instead, we seek ways of cutting our use, with those at the bottom disconnecting themselves entirely.  So much so that even that bastion of neoliberal austerity, the IMF, is now calling on states to subsidise energy and food…  Not, as establishment media outlets may pretend, out of some sudden desire to alleviate the plight of the poor, but because when we stop buying, their system gets flushed around the U-bend.

  Declining surplus energy is the other jaw of the trap.  The immanent, and partially self-inflicted, loss of firm – 24/7/365 – electricity, along with periodic shortages of diesel, gas and food, are going to render hi-tech automated processes unworkable in practice.  Your driverless tractor may plough the straightest furrows possible.  But without diesel to fill the tank, it is no more than an expensive art installation.  Digital currency is of little use when the servers are down and/or when the users have no electricity with which to transact.  Try shopping during a power cut – something that is happening more often in the UK these days.  You might want to pay, and the supermarket would be delighted to take your money.  But if the tills aren’t working, it can’t be done… not even if you still use notes and coins, because without electricity, the system can’t process them.  Oh, and as an aside, when the power goes off, the supermarket is legally bound to dump its frozen and chilled foods… even during a food shortage.

  Several decades ago, sociologist Joseph Tainter observed that collapsing civilisations have a habit of unconsciously entering into complexity traps, adding energy-intensive complexity in a desperate attempt to sustain themselves.  Our turn to energy-intensive automation in an attempt to overcome our growing woes and to maintain economic growth is likely repeating the same folly.  The difference – at least for those who see the economy as primarily an energy rather than a monetary system – is that we have the necessary knowledge to avoid our complexity trap if only we are prepared to actively simplify away from an economy based on mass consumption in favour of one based around material simplicity…  I’m not holding my breath though.

  *  *  *

  As you made it to the end…you might consider supporting The Consciousness of Sheep.  There are five ways in which you could help me continue my work.  First – and easiest by far – please share and like this article on social media.  Second follow my page on Facebook.  Third, sign up for my monthly e-mail digest to ensure you do not miss my posts, and to stay up to date with news about Energy, Environment and Economy more broadly.  Fourth, if you enjoy reading my work and feel able, please leave a tip. Fifth, buy one or more of my publications

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 21:30

• Israel's "Iron Beam" Laser Shield Zaps Threats Out Of Sky
  Israel’s “Iron Beam” Laser Shield Zaps Threats Out Of Sky

  With Israel facing an increasing threat of a barrage of enemy rockets as well as war with Iran, the Jewish state has developed a working prototype high-powered laser system known as “Iron Beam” to intercept aerial targets, such as mortars, rockets, and anti-tank missiles, and drones, bringing down the cost of interception from tens of thousands of dollars to cheaper than a McDonald’s Big Mac.

  Reuters reports the laser-based air defense system is in prototype form and has been successfully tested in Israel’s South by the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Research and Development and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. 

  On Wednesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett commented on the Iron Beam, calling it “a game-changer, not just because we are striking at the enemy military, but also because we are bankrupting it.” 

  “Until today, it cost us a lot of money to intercept each rocket. Today they (the enemy) can invest tens of thousands of dollars in a rocket and we will invest $2 on the electricity for intercepting that rocket,” Bennett continued.

  Let’s do some math:

  If firing a rocket at Israel costs terrorists $20,000
  X
  Intercepting that rocket costs Israel $100,000

  What would happen if Israel’s new “Iron Beam” laser system could intercept that rocket at $2 per shot?

  Tables turned on terror & an equation redefined. pic.twitter.com/VWlWKEZpAk

  — Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) June 1, 2022

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  Palestinian and Lebanese forces have launched thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel, costing the government tens of millions of dollars in interception costs. Each Iron Dome interceptor missile around $50,000. 

  Fielding Iron Beam could be several years away — and is a move to modernize forces with laser weapons that appear to be from a science-fiction movie. 

  “There is a lot of promising laser work going on,” Thomas Karako, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told NYTimes. “This isn’t ‘Star Wars’ science fiction anymore.” 

  For years the US Army has been working on lasers. The service is reportedly working on a laser weapon system that’s a “million times stronger” than anything ever used before, able to fire bullet-like pulses of light to vaporize drones, cruise missiles, and mortars.

  Countries developing laser weapons have one goal: bringing down the cost per round of costly interceptor missiles. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 21:00

• Watch: Tucker Carlson Warns "Disarming You Is The Point" Of Biden Gun Control Push
  Watch: Tucker Carlson Warns “Disarming You Is The Point” Of Biden Gun Control Push

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  Responding to Joe Biden’s announcement that he intends to institute unprecedented gun control laws, Tucker Carlson warned that the intention is to disarm those who didn’t vote for him.

  

  “This is about saving the children, Joe Biden just told us, but how many lives would this new law save?” Carlson asked.

  “Well, we know the answer. Zero. Not one,” Carlson ciontuned, explaining “We know that because there’s precisely no evidence at all and never has been that larger magazines somehow inspire mass shootings. But of course saving lives is not the point of this.”

  “Disarming you is the point,” the host further urged.

  Carlson even used the example of Biden’s own son being accused of lying on a federal firearm background check, which is a felony. 

  “If you’re at all confused about whether the effort here is selective, if this is enforcement only of certain people, you’ll notice the President never mentioned the apparent federal gun felony his own son committed when he lied on a federal background form when he bought a handgun,” Carlson asserted.

  The host went on to note that “facing almost certain defeat for his party in the midterm elections five months from now, Joe Biden has become desperate. He’s decided to leverage the murder of nineteen children in Texas last week for political advantage.” 

  He continued, “To summarize the President’s remarks tonight, your constitutional rights are not absolute but in taking them away, we’re not actually taking away your rights we’re protecting children to which you might ask, am I a threat to children? That question is never answered by the President.”

  “The point of this, of course, is to disarm people who did not vote for Joe Biden, and that is why simultaneous with this, this effort to recategorize the guns in your closet as felonies, Democrats have been failing to prosecute gun crimes in our cities where most of the crime is,” Carlson further declared.

  “Biden’s fellow Democrats and the House of Representatives spent the day debating ways to disarm you, Americans who have committed no crime at all and want only to protect themselves and their families,” Carlson concluded.

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 20:30

• The Hamptons Summer Rental Market Is Collapsing
  The Hamptons Summer Rental Market Is Collapsing

  For the last decade and certainly during the pandemic, real estate in the Hamptons (and anywhere located outside of major U.S. cities) was in such high demand that prices skyrocketed and inventory became sparse.

  Now, for the first time, it looks like the opposite is happening and the market is loosening up – at least in the Hamptons. 

  Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman told CNBC this week: “There is a tremendous amount of inventory and people are not renting it. And it’s across all segments, from the very low to the very top of the market.”

  The same article notes that the Hamptons is seeing “a wave of last-minute price cuts” while rental prices in the first quarter fell 26%. Some owners are even cutting prices by 30% or more just to fill their properties, the report says. 

  One property that was formerly $70,000 per month is now being rented at just $45,000 per month, for example. “We were hoping the renter would split the difference, but it’s a different market right now,” Morabito said of the discount.

  

  After years of no properties being available, “there are hundreds of rentals still available for the summer,” according to brokers.

  The demand is a result of increased travel, according to brokers. Many New Yorkers who spent the last few summers in the Hamptons due to travel restrictions are now free to vacation in other countries. 

  That is not to overlook the effect of the economy slowing down, either. Harald Grant with Sotheby’s International Realty commented: “There are a lot of questions in the air, about the economy, both locally and nationally. It all effects the market.”

  “The assumption that rents would be sustainable at these elevated levels has been proven to be false,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel.

  There has been only a slight pickup, brokers said, as a result of last minute renters looking for a potential deal. Gary DePersia of Corcoran said: “We had a lull from February to April, but now it’s picking up again. The inventory we had is going.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 20:00

• Ostentatious Stupidity
  Ostentatious Stupidity

  Authored by James Howard Kunstler via DailyReckoning.com,

  When I wrote the book The Long Emergency nearly 20 years ago, I never thought that, once it got going, our government would work so hard to make it worse. My theory then was just that government would become increasingly bloated, ineffectual, impotent and uncomprehending of the forces converging to undermine our advanced techno-industrial societies.

  

  What I didn’t imagine was that government would bring such ostentatious stupidity to all that.

  Obviously, there was some recognition that ominous changes were coming down. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have heard so much chatter about alt energy, “sustainable growth,” “green” this-and-that.

  But the chatter was more symptomatic of wishful thinking for at least a couple of reasons:

  1) Mostly it ignored the laws of physics, despite the fact that so many people involved in enterprises such as wind and solar energy were science-and-tech mavens; and…

  2) There was a dumb assumption that the general shape and scale of daily life would remain as it had been — in other words, that we could still run suburbia, the giant cities, Disney World, Walmart, the U.S. military and the Interstate Highway System just the way they were already set up, only by other means than oil and gas.

  Now we’re finding out the hard way how much daily life must change, and is changing and how disorderly that process is in every way from the imperative personal adjustments to our spiritual attitudes about them.

  God Is a Prankster

  As with so many things in history, this disorder expresses itself strangely, even prankishly, as if God were a practical joker.

  Who would’ve imagined that our politics would become so deranged? That there would be battles over teaching sex in the fifth-grade? That the CDC would keep pushing vaccines that obviously don’t work (and that so many people would still take them)? That stealing stuff under a thousand dollars in value wouldn’t merit prosecution?

  That riots featuring arson and looting are “mostly peaceful?” That we’d send $50-billion halfway around the world to defend the borders of another country while ignoring the defense of our own borders? That financially beset Americans would spend their dwindling spare cash on… tattoos?

  Notice that all of these strange behaviors have really nothing to do with making practical adjustments to the way we live. The collective psychology of all this is bizarre. Of course, mass formation psychosis accounts for a lot of it.

  Groups of people under duress, suffering from loneliness, purposelessness, helplessness, and anxiety will fall into coordinated thought-and-action if presented with some object or someone to fixate their ill feelings upon.

  Donald Trump was such an object. He galvanized about half the country into an intoxicated fury aimed at destroying him. It actually managed to drive him off the scene via a fraud-laced election which many in-power (local officials, judges) deemed a means justifying the desired end. That success reinforced their mass formation psychosis.

  Vaccines to the Rescue

  Alas, having succeeded against Mr. Trump, they were left without a galvanizing object to focus on. So, they adopted one of the devices of Trump-riddance, Covid-19, as the next object of all their distress and anxiety, adopting the mRNA vaccinations as their next savior du jour.

  Unfortunately, the vaccination scheme has gone very much awry, and now millions face a future with damaged immune systems. The horror of that is too awful to comprehend, especially by government, which caused the problem in the first place and can’t possibly admit it without demolishing its legitimacy… so it presses on stupidly and heinously with the vaccine program.

  Already all-causes deaths are substantially up, and in time the recognition of how-and-why this happened will reach a point of criticality.

  It will be too obvious to ignore.

  But by that time (probably not far away), the economy will be so wrecked, the people of America so deranged, and our circumstances so desperate, that the government will resort to a supremely stupid act of national suicide, say, starting a nuclear war.

  The government under “Joe Biden” seems perfectly disposed to that possible outcome. Which brings us to the spiritual part of the story: those unused to consorting with alleged “higher powers” might consider getting used to prayer.

  Build Back Better

  Lately, a new derangement is overtaking Western Civ, for the excellent reason that Western Civ gave birth to techno industrial societies and is now first to undergo the alarming demise of that system.

  I speak of the World Economic Forum (under one Klaus Schwab) and its stated ambition to Build Back Better — based on its unstated premise that the current system must be nudged to its death sooner rather than later, and on-purpose.

  All the governments of Western Civ nations seem coordinated on this.

  But it’s not going to happen as Mr. Schwab and his followers hoped, for at least a couple of reasons. First, as already stated, God is a prankster and likes to throw knuckleballs at the human race.

  Anyway, the “better” that Mr. Schwab expects is an ultra-techno-industrial “trans-human” scheme that is unlikely to come about if the support system of the older techno-industrial system is no longer available to support it.

  As currently conceived, BBB depends on electric power, and that is one of the major sub-systems of our system that already looks like it’s going janky.

  Maybe the Amish Have It Right

  You get the idea, I’m sure, so I’ll cut to the chase for now. About a year ago I had my French easel set up on a country road nearby and was busy painting a motif at-hand when along came a horse-drawn wagon filled with four men in severe black-and-white clothing, wearing beards.

  They were apparently a bit surprised by the strange sight of me painting a picture and they stopped to chat. They were Amish and had lately moved to the county from down in Pennsylvania, which was running out of farmland for their fruitful people.

  Not a half-hour later a second horse-drawn wagon passed by. I admit, the incident gave me a thrill — not just the sensory pleasure of the horses’ ripe animal smell, and the gentle rhythm of their clip-clopping along.

  But since I had lately been writing a bunch of novels about life in a post-economic collapse town like my own (the World Made by Hand series), I enjoyed the strange delight of being transported briefly into a scene of my own imagining — the prequel of my own books.

  Many more Amish are landing in the county these days. I hear they go around to the failing or inactive farms with bundles of cash and make an offer, just like that. Evidently the method works.

  It’s given me a business idea: to start an Amish skills school, buy a few acres with a barn and hire some Amish men to teach all us non-Amish how to do a few things that might be good to know in the years ahead, like how to harness horses to a cart or a mule to a plow. (The Amish like to make a bit of cash-money when they can.) That’s my idea of how to build back better.

  What do you think?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 19:30

• "The Options Are Looking Pretty Bleak": California Gas Prices Sprint Past $6 Per Gallon As Mendocino Station Approaches Double Digits
  “The Options Are Looking Pretty Bleak”: California Gas Prices Sprint Past $6 Per Gallon As Mendocino Station Approaches Double Digits

  California: come for the poo-covered streets, stay for the crippling gas prices.

  That’s right, while the national average gas price hit $4.76 per gallon this week according to AAA, Californians are now paying a record $6.24 average per gallon after the state saw prices surge past the $6 mark for the first time in history last week.

  

  At one station in coastal Mendocino, prices are just pennies away from $10 – the highest ever in history, according to the Daily Mail.

  

  Breaking it down by city, San Francisco motorists are paying an average of $6.50, while San Jose drivers are paying $6.38, and Oakland drivers are forking over $6.37. LA drivers are only doing slightly better at $6.26 per gallon on average.

  This is at least $2 more per gallon in the same cities vs. this time last year.

  And based on the 3-2-1 crack spread, which measures the difference in price between a barrel of crude oil and its byproducts, it appears prices at the pump are about to head even higher.

  Some advice: gas up today pic.twitter.com/BRs7EIoTFM

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 2, 2022

  Indeed, the Mail notes that supplies at US refineries remain tight – with Thursday’s US weekly inventory report showing that crude stock had fallen by more than the expected 5.1 million barrels, while gasoline inventories have also dropped to dangerous levels.

  What’s more, Chinese oil demand is back online after recently relaxing COVID restrictions, the Saudis are near peak output, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being drained by the Biden administration at 1mmb/d.

  Saudis now near peak output, SPR draining at 1mmb/d and war not ending any time soon.

  When do we see double digit gas?

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 2, 2022

   “I don’t think as many people are going to hit the road,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “And if they do, I think a good portion are going to be staying close to home,” he told CNBC last weekend.

  “They’re definitely should be a noticeable bump – but my impression is people are not driving as far,” he continued, adding “The concern is high prices that are keeping people a little closer.”

  Diesel prices have also skyrocketed over 80% vs. last year to around $5.58 per gallon, an all-time record.

  The rising cost of the fuel – commonly used by truckers for their rigs – has further hampered America’s embattled economy, driving up prices of good being transported cross-country by truckers, who are now electing for shorter routes due to the ‘unprecedented’ increase.

  ‘I can pretty much count on setting on fire $5-$700 a day…minimum,’ 22-wheel driver Eric Jammer told NPR Saturday of the rise in diesel costs seen over the past 12 months. 

  He told the outlet that he typically transports military and construction equipment – gear that often weighs well into the ton. He even once hauled an Apache helicopter. 

  Jammer says the crisis has forced him not to take routes that are too far away from his home in Houston, Texas, forced to only accept jobs with destinations and pickups within a day or two from his residence. -Daily Mail

  For reference, the national average on President Trump’s last day in office was $2.41 per gallon. 

  “If exports persist at this elevated pace and refinery runs – already near the top range for reasonable utilization rates – fall within our expectations, gasoline inventories could continue to draw to levels below 2008 lows and retail gasoline prices could climb to $6/gallon or even higher,” JPMorgan warned, adding that total US gasoline inventories could soon fall to levels not seen since the 1950s – a perfect storm.

  “There is a real risk the price could reach $6+ a gallon by August,” JPM head of commodities research, Natasha Kaneva, told CNN last week.

  According to JPM, unless refineries “immediately” halt most exports and shift towards domestic gasoline production, ‘‘US consumers should not expect much in the way of relief in prices at the pump until the end of the year.”

  On Monday, CNN business correspondent acknowledged that President Biden had exhausted his short-term solutions for high gas prices – including tapping the SPR.

  “The pain is widespread,” she said on Monday, adding: “The options are looking pretty bleak at this point.“

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 19:00

• Real Estate Agents Raked In $3.9 Billion In PPP Loans, Only To Pocket The Money Amid Housing Boom
  Real Estate Agents Raked In $3.9 Billion In PPP Loans, Only To Pocket The Money Amid Housing Boom

  The federal government handed out more than 300,000 loans to the real estate industry as part of the Paycheck Protection Program – however few of them have been paid back despite a booming housing market as the Covid-19 pandemic ran its course.

  

  According to data from the government’s Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, some $3.9 billion was given to real estate entities claiming just one employee. While the average loan was around $13,000, 146 entities received more than $90,000 each, NBC News reports.

  Many of the loans, as were the case in other industries, were forgiven if the recipient met certain criteria, including spending 60% of the loan on payroll and the rest on eligible expenses. For realtors, $3.1 out of the $3.9 in PPP loans have been forgiven – which has been rapidly sped up over the last eight months.

  One such forgiven loan:

  Can somebody put this in dumb person language for me? Thanks. @GerberKawasaki https://t.co/CNXvSaMCj9

  — Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 6, 2020

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  The SBA, which governs the PPP, says it has denied forgiveness for around 12,000 loans (out of 9.9 million), while around 4,200 borrowers have appealed that decision. 215,000 loans were also selected for manual review.

  The $789 billion Paycheck Protection Program was intended to rescue American jobs and shore up businesses during the pandemic. Now 80 percent of all PPP loans — 9.9 million of them — and 84 percent of the total dollar amount have been forgiven by the SBA, according to the PRAC.

  For real estate entities the percentage of forgiveness is almost the same, at 83 percent of all loans and 84 percent of the dollar amount, according to the PRAC website. -NBC News

  According to a senior SBA official, programs which were passed with bipartisan support were “extremely liberal” and “extremely generous” when it came to loan forgiveness.

  PPP loans were handed out by private lenders and backed by the SBA. In order to obtain forgiveness, borrowers simply had to apply to their lender and submit forms and documentation. In most cases, the lender will recommend for forgiveness or denial.

  As NBC notes, the real estate industry boomed after the pandemic hit despite an initial shock “because obviously people didn’t want people traipsing through their homes,” according to Erin Stackley, senior policy representative for commercial issues at the National Association of Realtors.

  Yet while other industries cratered, residential real estate boomed as people of means working under lockdown conditions sought larger properties. By early May of 2020, it became clear from nationwide open house data that “something was about to happen.”

  And it did. Between April 2020 and Jan  1, 2021, housing sales jumped 53%, while prices are now 40% higher than they were in January 2020.

  “I’ve been in this business since the 1970’s and I’ve never seen that kind of explosion in sales,” said Steve Murray, a partner at Real Trends consulting.

  And while sales boomed, commissions soard as well – jumping from $76.2 billion in 2019 to $85.9 billion in 2020, and $98.8 billion in 2021.

  NBC News tracked down a few real estate agents who had successful years in 2020, obtained PPP loans in excess of $90,000, and who then had them partially or completely forgiven by the federal government.

  Tina Guerrieri, who sells houses in suburban Philadelphia, sold more than $25 million worth of real estate in 2020, according to Zillow, and she also got a PPP loan for $100,000. Her loan was forgiven in 2021, and she no longer has to pay the money back, according to public records.

  NBC News asked Guerrieri why she needed the $100,000. She told a reporter she did not want to share what she used the money for or how it was approved, saying, “So many people know me, I wouldn’t want all those details shared.”

  Real estate agent Jenna Jacques sold $25 million worth of real estate in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2020 according to Zillow data. She also received three loans totaling $141,664 that were all forgiven by the federal government. Jacques did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

  New Jersey commercial real estate agent Shane Wierks got two PPP loans for $151,833, according to federal records, and has paid $103,000 back to the federal government. Public records show $48,918 was forgiven. He said based on his conversations with other real estate agents that was “pretty much what everyone got.”

  One real estate agent who got the money told NBC News she came to believe that asking for a loan of taxpayer money to be forgiven after a successful year could be inappropriate. -NBC News

  Another agent, Gary Goldberg, sold more than $27 million of luxury homes in the Santa Barbara, CA region – down slightly from the $31 million he closed in 2019 according to data from Zillow. In 2021, Goldberg sold $82 million of real estate.

  He also received $95,832 across two PPP loans, listing one employee. According to federal records, Goldberg asked for, and received, forgiveness for both loans by November 2021. Given that the average real estate commission is 2.5% of the sale price, making US taxpayers foot Goldberg’s PPP loans – given his enormous income – adds insult to injury.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 18:00

• The "Net Zero" Agenda Has Devastating Consequences… Here's What You Need To Know
  The “Net Zero” Agenda Has Devastating Consequences… Here’s What You Need To Know

  Authored by Chris Macintosh via InternationalMan.com,

  Human beings — regardless of race, religion or culture — like to embrace any belief that is absolute. This is because absolute beliefs are simple, easy to comprehend, and false positives that offer us a false sense of security.

  If we come to believe that a particular idea, place, or group of people are either all good or all bad, then we humans fool ourselves into thinking that we have got a piece of a particular equation all figured out.

  Such a binary viewpoint is psychologically comforting, allowing us to feel assured and in control. The more control we feel the more assured we feel so there is a feedback loop here which takes hold.

  Now, think of propaganda, which is, of course, a group reassuring another group of a particular narrative. Consider that if you have decided that a group of people are all bad, then all you have to do is stay away from them or keep them away from you. Life just got easier. If you decide that a group of people are your enemy, all you have to do is make war against them and once they are all gone, life would surely be better, right?

  The problem with absolute thinking

  The problem with absolute thinking is that it causes pain and suffering in the life of the person who adheres to an all-or-nothing attitude in any facet of his thought process. This is because the person is routinely exposed to contradictions to his beliefs, which creates a sense of threat to his world view. Eliminating the threat (canceling) brings about relief and even the canceling of any contradiction provides reassurance.

  This is why absolute thinking is the genesis of, among other things, genocides.

  Why bring this up? Because when hearing statements that are universally absolute like: “the science is settled.”, you know that we are dealing with a cult, not science.

  

  It is why the governments’ statements about carbon zero and the road to zero emissions are dangerous. Because they’re absolute, allow for the demonization, and hence eradication of anyone that opposes this narrative.

  It is literally impossible to get to truth without the ability to view the possibilities of other or new facts.

  This is true of any field, not just climate science.

  As of right now you’ll notice the “absolute,” which cannot therefore be questioned can be found in the following topics:

  • Covid

  • Climate change (CO2 emissions and “net zero”)

  • Ukraine

  • BLM

  • LGBQT

  • Critical race theory

  • Privileged white males

  

  There are others, but you’ll know that all of the above will bring hell fury if you are to question the orthodoxy of views held in relation to these topics.

  This means that most anything can be done in the name of these topics and escape scrutiny which would otherwise not be the case.

  These are all worrying attributes of this current hysteria we’re living in, but let us deal with the facts and the realities.

  Facts and realities

  Facts and realities are what typically bring societies back to some sense of rationality. Mao’s China never gave up on attempting centralized farming because debate and discussion resulted in their thinking to themselves, “My oh my, this doesn’t look good, perhaps we were wrong in our assumptions.” No, they starved tens of millions of people first and only when the evidence was absolutely overwhelming and the hysteria had burned itself out there was the ability to chart a different course.

  We’ve many examples throughout history but let us today consider this one of CO2 emissions which feeds into “renewables” and a “sustainable” future.

  Never in the history of man have we transitioned from a more dense energy form to a less dense one. The reason is simple. It is “barse-ackward.”

  If we look at any time we’ve transitioned from a less energy dense form to a more energy dense one we see a number of things.

  • Higher productivity

  • Lowered inflation (the two going hand in hand)

  • Rising standards of living

  It stands to reason that by doing the opposite we’re likely to see the following:

  • Lower productivity

  • Increased inflation

  • Falling standard of living

  Energy Return on Investment (EROI)

  Looked at purely from an investment perspective an important ratio is energy return on investment. The multiple of your energy input that translates into output.

  Proponents of solar will point out that solar generates decent energy returns.

  What is often missed is that the numbers used to support this are more often than not cherry picked from locations (enjoying sunlight) and daytime hours. This is a problem given that solar doesn’t work when the sun doesn’t shine, which is on a cloudy or rainy day as well as at night. And this is the time when the bulk electricity demand comes into play to cover for the lack of solar energy.

  If a source generates electricity at a time inconsistent with demand, the price it can sell for can often be negative. It’s like trying to sell me a cold cappuccino at 3pm. I don’t want it. I want it hot and at 7am, thanks.

  However, to get a true reflection of overall electricity costs, we need to factor in the storage and delivery costs to obtain the EROI (energy return on investment).

  If future EROI will be lower than any preceding electricity EROI (and it will be due to more costly, less dense and less effective energy sources), then consequently we can expect lower productivity, higher costs, higher inflation, and lower living standards.

  If we look at man’s history from an energy perspective, we see the following: wood, biomass, coal, oil, natural gas, uranium. Biomass is denser in energy than wood, and coal denser still, and so on.

  Dense forms of energy with high EROI let nature do the work. For example, oil is just concentrated solar from eons ago.

  

  Infrastructure

  Another issue that requires consideration is that solar and wind infrastructure require a lot of dense fuel to build.

  Those wind turbines require a lot of steel. In order to produce steel we need iron ore mines and coking coal to form the steel. Then there is the concrete and the graphite. All of these things need to be mined, brought to the earth’s surface, trucked, shipped, forged, and so on. All of these processes are, if you think about it, components of energy density.

  But we’re told by the absolutists that we’re getting rid of all of these processes. Zero is the absolute word.

  

  Achieving Net Zero

  We may well approach some level of “zero” in parts of the world. It’ll be zero energy, zero food, zero life. And that means conflict of the sort we’ve never experienced in our lives.

  I wish it wasn’t so, but that is the road we’re on with the absolutists steering this titanic catastrophe in the making.

  *  *  *

  Disturbing economic, political, and social trends are already in motion and now accelerating at breathtaking speed. Most troubling of all, they cannot be stopped. The risks that lie ahead are too big and dangerous to ignore. That’s why contrarian money manager Chris Macintosh just released the most critical report on these trends, What Happens Next. This free special report explains precisely what’s coming down the pike and what it means for your wealth and well-being. Click here to access it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 17:30

• "Pay-To-Play" Looms For The Rest Of Us
  “Pay-To-Play” Looms For The Rest Of Us

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  The more kafkaesque quagmires you’ve slogged through, the more you hope “pay-to-play for the rest of us” beomes ubiquitous.

  

  You know how “pay-to-play” works: contribute a couple of million dollars to key political players, and then get your tax break, subsidy, no-bid contract, etc., slipped into some nook or cranny of the legislative process that few (if any) will notice because the legislation is hundreds of pages long or a “gut and replace” magic wand was wielded at the last minute.

  As the essential systems of everyday life break down and become increasingly dysfunctional, I predict the rise of what I’m calling “pay-to-play” for the rest of us: if you pay for expedited service, concierge service, etc., you will get the kind of service everyone used to get, i.e. functional, prompt and efficient.

  As I detailed in Who’s Going to Fix What’s Broken?, systems such as vehicle registration and tax collection are becoming kafkaesque quagmires where the expected (or promised) services are not provided or are botched.

  Waiting for services at the DMV, IRS, et al. and the county welfare office are identical experiences. Poor people have no choice but to put up with long waits and bureaucratic quagmires, but the top 10% who earn almost half of all income and are responsible for roughly half the consumer spending are not amused by services that are equivalent to what the bottom 10% must tolerate out of necessity.

  Since nobody in power is truly interested in fixing these large-scale, complex systems, then it’s easy to predict the rise of “pay-to-play” for the rest of us: pay an extra fee, get much better service.

  There are already examples of this trend. For example, if you want expedited processing of your U.S. passport renewal, that will cost you $60. Given my previous experience with passport renewals, I was happy to pay the extra $60 just to have some additional assurance I was actually going to receive the new passport in a timely manner.

  Would I have paid an extra $100 for “expedited processing” of my DMV registration to avoid a 7-month descent into bureaucratic Heck? Yes, with no hesitation whatsoever. Would I have paid $200 for “expedited processing” of my federal tax return to bypass that 7-month kafkaesque quagmire? Gladly, without hesitation.

  How about a $500 “expedited processing” of your building permit? Given that those long months of slogging through the quagmire cost real money, a $500 “concierge service” fee to get your permit in 8 weeks rather than 8 months would be a bargain.

  “Pay-to-play” is inherently unfair: the wealthy get their interests served, the rest of us tax donkeys and debt-serfs slog through kafkaesque quagmires. “Pay-to-play” for the rest of us will also be inherently unfair, but at least it will democratize “pay-to-play” to the degree that a couple hundred bucks will actually buy better service, and that’s within reach of many more households than the million dollars required to access political “pay-to-play.”

  If systems can’t or won’t be fixed, then having access to the 10% which still functions is worth a great deal. The more kafkaesque quagmires you’ve slogged through, the more you hope “pay-to-play” for the rest of us becomes ubiquitous.

  How much would you pay for expedited emergency services?

  *  *  *

  My new book is now available at a 10% discount this month: When You Can’t Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 16:30

• Russia Threatens To 'Strike The West' If US-Supplied Rockets Hit Its Territory
  Russia Threatens To ‘Strike The West’ If US-Supplied Rockets Hit Its Territory

  Following on the heels of the Biden administration announcing it would send longer range rocket systems to Ukraine, the Kremlin has issued a veiled threat that if it’s territory is hit it could strike back directly at the West.

  “One of President Putin’s closest allies has warned that Moscow could target western cities if Ukraine uses rocket systems supplied by the United States to carry out strikes on Russian territory,” the UK Times is reporting. The dire warning was given by close top Putin ally and former president Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as the Russian security council deputy chairman. 

  

  “If, God forbid, these weapons are used against Russian territory then our armed forces will have no other choice but to strike decision-making centers,” Medvedev warned in the new statements.

  That’s when he suggested the following for the first time, marking a severe escalation of rhetoric:

  “Of course, it needs to be understood that the final decision-making centers in this case, unfortunately, are not located on the territory of Kyiv” – with the suggesting being that those Western capitals supplying the advanced arms could come under attack in response.

  Previously Russia has threatened to hit “decision-making centers” within Ukraine, such as Kiev and Lviv. These cities have been targeted on occasion, but rarely, throughout the war now in its fourth month.

  The US confirmed this past week that Ukraine would receive M142 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, which are medium-ranged, capable of striking targets some 50 miles away.

  President Biden on Tuesday stressed that “we’re not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that strike into Russia” – which the Kremlin acknowledged as a “rational” decision, while stilling condemning the transfer of the systems.

  Ukraine’s government, meanwhile, has reportedly given Washington “assurances” that it will not uses US-supplied weaponry to target Russian territory, which Moscow has long made clear would mark severe violation of its ‘red lines’.

  The map shows where HIMARS MLRS M30/M31 rockets can strike on the front line with a range of up to 70 km. Also, M30 / M31 missiles can hit Snake Island, 50 km from the nearest Ukrainian city. pic.twitter.com/idDDNjpK4M

  — ТРУХА⚡️English (@TpyxaNews) June 3, 2022

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  This as Yahoo News UK has noted that “The West has been increasingly willing to give Ukraine longer-range weaponry, including M777 howitzers, as its forces battle Russians with more success than intelligence officials had predicted.”

  Likely these fresh warnings from Medvedev serve to further warn and enforce over Russia’s red line. While the longer range MLRS missiles are apparently off the table for now, which can reach up to 190 miles away, the shorter-range MLRS systems could easily be updated with the larger, more advanced and longer range systems.

  #Donetsk – The city center of Donetsk is under heavy shelling from #Ukraine this evening. The exact target is unclear from this footage. pic.twitter.com/8cmwTiaFqc

  — OSINT Aggregator (@AggregateOsint) June 4, 2022

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  On the sanctions and economic war front, Poland officials have on Saturday said the next, seventh round of anti-Russia sanctions are currently being readied – suggesting that for the time being the ongoing Russian-NATO/EU standoff will only escalate further. Negotiations are at the same time stalled completely, and diplomatic openings and communications are fewer and fewer, making the situation even more dangerous.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 16:00

• Expect A Deep Recession To Start This Quarter Or Early Third Quarter
  Expect A Deep Recession To Start This Quarter Or Early Third Quarter

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  GDP estimates are plunging but are still too high. A recession is on the near horizon.

  

  GDPNow Data from the Atlanta Fed, Chart by Mish

  The GDPNow Forecast was at 2.5 percent on the May 17 retail sales report. It’s now 1.3 percent and falling fast. 

  This snip is from June 1. 

  The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2022 is 1.3 percent on June 1, down from 1.9 percent on May 27. After this morning’s Manufacturing ISM Report On Business from the Institute for Supply Management, and this morning’s construction spending report from the US Census Bureau, the nowcasts of second-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and real gross private domestic investment growth declined from 4.7 percent and -6.4 percent, respectively, to 4.4 percent and -8.2 percent, respectively.

  Stall Rate

  1.3 percent is below the stall rate. However, Real Final Sales is the number to watch. 

  That’s the true bottom line number for the economy. The rest is inventory adjustment which nets to zero over time.

  The GDPNow estimate for Real Final Sales is a very respectable 2.9 percent.

  Why the Recession Call?

  On April 28, I reported GDP Declines 1.4% in First Quarter of 2022 Sounding Recession Bells

  Economists missed the mark badly as GDP shrunk along with real final sales.

  Real final sales was negative in the first quarter and I expect a repeat in the second quarter because I do not believe retail sales will hold up.

  On May 17, I noted Retail Sales Easily Beat Expectations, US Treasury Yields Jump in Response

  However, the next day I noted Target Plunges 25%, What About Yesterday’s Big Retail Sales Blowout?

  The advance retail sales reports by the commerce department were stunning. Reports by Target and Walmart strongly suggest something else.

  Car sales in April were also a disaster.

  Automotive News reports Market loses more steam; SAAR tumbles to 2022 low

  May U.S. auto sales: Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru post declines behind choked supply chains, tough comparison to robust May 2021

  Add it all up and retail sales are crashing. A recession is now on the near horizon.

  *  *  *

  Please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 15:30

• Restaurants Adding Inflation Fees Amid Razor Thin Margins
  Restaurants Adding Inflation Fees Amid Razor Thin Margins

  As restaurants across the country feel the squeeze from rising inflation, a tight labor market, and minimum wage increases on an industry with notoriously thin margins, owners are passing along the pain in the form of various fees tacked onto the tab, according to the Wall Street Journal.

  

  Fees for a “noncash adjustment,” “fuel surcharge,” or “kitchen appreciation” have been showing up on more bills lately. Industry analysts say this wave of surcharges is mostly being driven by restaurants trying to cope with the impact of rising inflation and a tight labor market on their bottom lines. In addition, Mastercard and Visa in April raised transaction fees for many merchants. -WSJ

  According to point-of-sale software developer Lightspeed, fee revenue has nearly doubled from April 2021 to April 2022, based on a sample of 6,000 restaurants on their platform. Restaurants adding service fees increased by 36.4% over the same period.

  “As the costs of doing business have changed, we’ve seen more merchants leverage this tactic,” said exec Peter Dougherty.

  The fees are effective in part because unless people are paying close attention, many fail to notice them. When the bill arrived following a mid-April dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Lizzie Stephens was about to grab her wallet to pay. Instead, she pulled out her phone to Google the “temporary inflation fee” she noticed had been added to her check. 

  “I was just like—wow, now we’re getting fees at a restaurant, too?” said Ms. Stephens, 34 years old, who lives in the Stockton, Calif., area. 

  Inflation has hit the average restaurant operator to the tune of 17.5% since last year, according to NPD Group. Consumer spending in restaurants, meanwhile, rose just 5% during the same period.

  These charges are nothing new. In February, one restaurant charged a “Temporary Inflation Fee” of $2 on a $15 bill – or 13%.

  Picking up dinner for my 6yo. Obviously ordering at the bar and snagging a drink while I wait, standard dad move.

  Temporary Inflation Fee: $2.00

  What?!? pic.twitter.com/QGP93mTNK9

  — Steads (@winsteadscap) February 21, 2022

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  Then we’ve got a ‘Kitchen Appreciation Fee’ of 5%:

  ‘Kitchen Appreciation Fee’, the new inflation offset. Food was great though. pic.twitter.com/74T4ijb9ON

  — Peter Boockvar (@pboockvar) April 2, 2022

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  In October, Sherwin-Williams came under fire for a 4% “supply chain charge.“

  Latest new tax that might appear on your next receipt. 4% supply chain charge 🤯 WTF that’s legit a thing. Why confuse people? Just wrap it into your price and call it good.#SupplyChainCrisis #inflation #tax #BuildBackBetter pic.twitter.com/l12uU3TddT

  — Dre PhD (@PilatAndre) October 23, 2021

  “These are the more cost-sensitive verticals that have a huge demand or need to pass through their credit-card transaction fees against this backdrop of the rising costs,” said Jonathan Razi, founder and chief executive of CardX, which allows merchants to pass along credit-card swipe fees to consumers in the form of surcharges. The company, which was acquired in November by Stax, had 2,600 clients as of November.

  In April, Minneapolis-area restaurant chain Rock Elm Tavern took heat over a 3% “wellness fee” added to checks. Co-owner Troy Reding said the company added the fee right before the pandemic in order to offer health-insurance to its 140 employees who work at least 25 hours per week. Reding will be raising the fee to 5% this fall.

  I asked the restaurant what this fee was for and was told, “the Wellness Fee pays for employees access to a mental health hotline for depression and suicide”.

  Question: do I lower my tip by 3% since I am now paying for “mental health” for the server? pic.twitter.com/gApdOJNmHK

  — Corporate Hodler (@ChrisMattson11) April 10, 2022

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  “We’ll see if this supply-chain mess straightens out a bit, see if the labor pool comes back at all,” said Reding. “If costs continue to escalate, part of our strategy is gonna be to figure out new and added benefits that we can add to retain the people we have and try and attract new people from other hospitality ventures.”

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 15:00

• Our Rulers Have Lost Their Minds
  Our Rulers Have Lost Their Minds

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,

  Have a look at the shock on people’s faces as they leave the grocery stores these days, or the look as they stand filling up their tanks at the gas station. Their jaws drop and they wonder what is happening to the world.

  The answer is the policy disasters of the last two years. The bill is coming due and everyone but the masters of the universe is paying it. The value of the dollar is sinking rapidly, more rapidly than in our lifetimes.

  Nor is it coming back.

  The people who hold power today seem completely clueless about why this is happening. Actually, that’s a charitable interpretation. They might just think it is great.

  High gas prices are pushing a shift to electric cars, presumably to manage global climate (I’m a serious doubter that anything like that is possible by policy). Or maybe there is an impulse here just to redistribute wealth and disorient people to create new levels of dependency.

  Whatever the reason, I’m seeing absolutely no signs that anyone at the top has any intention to put a stop to this.

  

  Kill the Snake in the Garden!

  The Biden administration — total geniuses up there! — have been hunting around for the source of price increases, as if there is some single greatest offender out there in the markets.

  They won’t blame the Fed of course because the Biden administration considers a monetary policy war against inflation to be a potential political disaster. It would drive the economy into a statistical recession. Then they would doom themselves at the midterm. Better to let inflation rip than risk that.

  So instead, they are looking to scapegoat market actors. It’s preposterous: Markets are linked in ways that are impossible to trace and understand. You cannot map it. It’s too complex. It cannot be designed. It cannot be gamed. But tell that to the credentialled experts who believe that they have it all going.

  So some geek in the White House noted that shipping prices are through the roof. They reasoned that these high costs are putting pressure on all producers, which in turn is being passed on to consumers.

  What to do? Crack down on the shippers! That’s exactly what they have done by unleashing the Federal Maritime Commission, “an independent agency that polices international ocean transportation on behalf of American companies and consumers,” according to The New York Times.

  What the heck is the FMC going to do? Oh, harass people. Send letters. Investigate. Make big demands. But this much is clear during inflation: Everyone, without exception, has a thoroughly valid reason to raise prices.

  In this sense, they are all telling the truth that it is not their fault.

  Finding some single or several or many key offenders during a hyperinflation is like hunting for the offending cloud during a hurricane.

  Another Stimulus

  One of the great independent journalists who has really found his mojo during this crisis has been Jordan Schachtel. His Substack account seems often ahead of the major news. He drew my attention to something so bizarre that I never imagined it would happen.

  He believes that the politicians are, right now, plotting another stimulus check drop on citizens as a way of helping people deal with inflation.

  True story! It’s actually a level of policy insanity I’ve not seen in my lifetime. This would be like pushing a drowning man deep underwater:

  Far from coming to terms with their mistakes and acknowledging their errors, the rulers of our fiat system, in their infinite wisdom, may soon decide to fight inflation with… you guessed it, more inflation.

  Sounds crazy? No way they would be that ridiculous, right? Well, I have some news for you. It’s already happening in Canada.

  Quebec has announced that they will give a $500 stimulus check to everyone that makes $100,000 or less. This handout, which is expected to reach 6.4 million Canadians, will “help Quebecers cope with the sharp increase in the cost of living that we have seen in recent months,” Finance Minister Eric Girard said Tuesday.

  Following Canada’s lead, a group of Democrat congressmen have just introduced a bill to hand out “gas price stimulus checks” to Americans. The timing of this new bill should not go unnoticed, as midterm elections are just around the corner in November.

  Two congressmen are hyping a bill to give $100 a month to all citizens who live in areas where gas prices are above $4 per gallon. Do the math on this and you end up with an annual bill of $168 billion. This comes after many people in Congress have started to slightly worry about their spending programs.

  And of course, once you do this with gas, there is no reason not to do this with food, rent, medical bills or anything else. You end up with a mind-blowing system in which government is forever printing up the currency to compensate people for the consequences of previous money printing.

  CNN is helping to drum up support:

  The administration should ask Congress to authorize a payment of $1,100 per household to pay for four months of higher prices going forward, and provide an option for the president to provide a second or even third check to low- and moderate-income families for an additional four months in the event that prices remain high. We don’t know when this crisis is going to end or when prices for essential goods and services will return to more affordable levels.

  It’s the Interwar Period All Over Again

  Here we have a scenario straight out of the history books. We are talking about Weimar-level insanity here. But what’s to stop it?

  The current political winds all lean in this direction. So long as Democrats are in control and the Republicans are stupid and afraid, even as the Fed is embarrassingly bowing to every political pressure, something like this cannot be stopped.

  If this continues, we could be looking at a full-scale monetary crisis of epic proportions as we approach the midterms. Even then, Congress under Republican control simply cannot manage the Fed, which owes its entire allegiance to the executive in the White House and the deep state.

  That means two more years even after November of utter policy disasters.

  Wow, I really do get tired of reporting terrible news! I wouldn’t have to if the major media could cover these topics with any level of intelligence or honestly. But they don’t. And the failure to do so is having a major impact on the standard of living, which is taking a hit much harder than we have seen since the early 1930s. This is both in the U.S. and Europe. Really all over the world.

  We can hope and pray for policy rationality to return. But we must also be realistic. This is a crisis with no end in sight.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 06/04/2022 – 14:30