Mar 25

Today’s News 25th March 2024

  • Muslims Overrepresented In UK Prison Population By Almost Three Times
    Muslims Overrepresented In UK Prison Population By Almost Three Times

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    Figures released by the UK government reveal that Muslims make up 18 per cent of the prison population, despite comprising only 6.5 per cent of the population in general.

    “Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data has revealed that there were 15,594 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales in September last year, accounting for 18 per cent of all inmates despite comprising only 6.5 per cent of the population,” reports the Telegraph.

    Muslims represent the only religion that is overrepresented in prison compared to their general population figure.

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    In another revealing statistic, around 19.9 per cent of those Muslim prisoners are white, which is three times the general population, where only 7.8 per cent are recorded as white.

    According to the Telegraph, the number emphasizes “that gangs in some jails are ordering prisoners to become Muslims or face violence.”

    “A report two years ago by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, revealed that Muslim terrorists had been able to seize control of prison wings and set up sharia courts behind bars because prison staff were so concerned about being accused of racism,” reports the newspaper.

    Meanwhile, on the continent, the Interior Minister of the State of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, blamed the increasing migrant population for a spike in crime in the region.

    “According to the crime stats, a total of 39.6 percent of the 266,390 suspects in crimes across the state last year were non-Germans despite only comprising 16 percent of the state’s population. This corresponds to an increase of 20.5 percent compared to 2022 when 32,037 immigrants were suspected of criminal offenses,” reports Remix News.

    “We will not accept the increase in crime, even if it is a nationwide trend for which foreigners and immigrants are particularly responsible,” Herrmann said in a press release.

    In related comments, French politician Marion Marechal explained the increasing sense of isolation that Europeans are starting to feel as a result of mass migration and globalism in general.

    “I am waking up at the age of 34 in a European Union which is a digital colony of the United States, an economic colony of China, a demographic colony of Africa, and is becoming a religious and cultural colony of Islam,” she said.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/25/2024 – 02:00

  • Escobar: It's War – The Real Meat-Grinder Starts Now
    Escobar: It’s War – The Real Meat-Grinder Starts Now

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    No more shadow play. It’s now in the open. No holds barred…

    Exhibit 1: Friday, March 22, 2024. It’s War. The Kremlin, via Peskov, finally admits it, on the record.

    The money quote:

    “Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that has a documented intention to use any methods to take Crimea away from it, not to mention the territory of new regions.”

    Translation: the Hegemon-constructed Kiev mongrel is doomed, one way or another. The Kremlin signal: “We haven’t even started” starts now.

    Exhibit 2: Friday afternoon, a few hours after Peskov. Confirmed by a serious European – not Russian – source. The first counter-signal.

    Regular troops from France, Germany and Poland have arrived, by rail and air, to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. A substantial force. No numbers leaked. They are being housed in schools. For all practical purposes, this is a NATO force.

    That signals, “Let the games begin”. From a Russian point of view, Mr. Khinzal’s business cards are set to be in great demand.

    Exhibit 3: Friday evening. Terror attack on Crocus City, a music venue northwest of Moscow. A heavily trained commando shoots people on sight, point blank, in cold blood, then sets a concert hall on fire. The definitive counter-signal: with the battlefield collapsing, all that’s left is terrorism in Moscow.

    And just as terror was striking Moscow, the US and the UK, in southwest Asia, was bombing Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, with at least five strikes.

    Some nifty coordination. Yemen has just clinched a strategic deal in Oman with Russia-China for no-hassle navigation in the Red Sea, and is among the top candidates for BRICS+ expansion at the summit in Kazan next October.

    Not only the Houthis are spectacularly defeating thalassocracy, they have the Russia-China strategic partnership on their side. Assuring China and Russia that their ships can sail through the Bab-al-Mandeb, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with no problems is exchanged with total political support from Beijing and Moscow.

    The sponsors remain the same

    Deep in the night in Moscow, before dawn on Saturday 23. Virtually no one is sleeping. Rumors dance like dervishes on countless screens. Of course nothing has been confirmed – yet. Only the FSB will have answers. A massive investigation is in progress.

    The timing of the Crocus massacre is quite intriguing. On a Friday during Ramadan. Real Muslims would not even think about perpetrating a mass murder of unarmed civilians under such a holy occasion. Compare it with the ISIS card being frantically branded by the usual suspects.

    Let’s go pop. To quote Talking Heads: “This ain’t no party/ this ain’t no disco/ this ain’t no fooling around”. Oh no; it’s more like an all-American psy op. ISIS are cartoonish mercenaries/goons. Not real Muslims. And everyone knows who finances and weaponizes them.

    That leads to the most possible scenario, before the FSB weighs in: ISIS goons imported from the Syria battleground – as it stands, probably Tajiks – trained by CIA and MI6, working on behalf of the Ukrainian SBU. Several witnesses at Crocus referred to “Wahhabis” – as in the commando killers did not look like Slavs.

    It was up to Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic to cut to the chase. He directly connected the “warnings” in early March from American and British embassies directed at their citizens not to visit public places in Moscow with CIA/MI6 intel having inside info about possible terrorism, and not disclosing it to Moscow.

    The plot thickens when it is established that Crocus is owned by the Agalarovs: an Azeri-Russian billionaire family, very close friends of…

    … Donald Trump.

    Talk about a Deep State-pinpointed target.

    ISIS spin-off or banderistas – the sponsors remain the same. The clownish secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, was dumb enough to virtually, indirectly confirm they did it, saying on Ukrainian TV, “we will give them [Russians] this kind of fun more often.”

    But it was up to Sergei Goncharov, a veteran of the elite Russia Alpha anti-terrorism unit, to get closer to unwrapping the enigma: he told Sputnik the most feasible mastermind is Kyrylo Budanov – the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

    The “spy chief” who happens to be the top CIA asset in Kiev.

    It’s got to go till the last Ukrainian

    The three exhibits above complement what the head of NATO’s military committee, Rob Bauer, previously told a security forum in Kiev: “You need more than just grenades – you need people to replace the dead and wounded. And this means mobilization.”

    Translation: NATO spelling out this is a war until the last Ukrainian.

    And the “leadership” in Kiev still does not get it. Former Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan: “If we win, we will pay back with Russian oil, gas, diamonds and fur. If we lose, there will be no talk of money – the West will think about how to survive.”

    In parallel, puny “garden-and jungle” Borrell admitted that it would be “difficult” for the EU to find an extra 50 billion euros for Kiev if Washington pulls the plug. The cocaine-fueled sweaty sweatshirt leadership actually believes that Washington is not “helping” in the form of loans, but in the form of free gifts. And the same applies for the EU.

    The Theater of the Absurd is unmatchable. The German Liver Sausage Chancellor actually believes that proceeds from stolen Russian assets “do not belong to anyone”, so they can be used to finance extra Kiev weaponizing.

    Everyone with a brain knows that using interest from “frozen”, actually stolen Russian assets to weaponize Ukraine is a dead end – unless they steal all of Russia’s assets, roughly $200 billion, mostly parked in Belgium and Switzerland: that would tank the Euro for good, and the whole EU economy for that matter.

    Eurocrats better listen to Russian Central Bank major “disrupter” (American terminology) Elvira Nabiullina: The Bank of Russia will take “appropriate measures” if the EU does anything on the “frozen”/stolen Russian assets.

    It goes without saying that the three exhibits above completely nullify the “La Cage aux Folles” circus promoted by the puny Petit Roi, now known across his French domains as Macronapoleon.

    Virtually the whole planet, including the English-speaking Global North, had already been mocking the “exploits” of his Can Can Moulin Rouge Army.

    So French, German and Polish soldiers, as part of NATO, are already in the south of Kiev. The most possible scenario is that they will stay far, far away from the frontlines – although traceable by Mr. Khinzal’s business activities.

    Even before this new NATO batch arriving in the south of Kiev, Poland – which happens to serve as prime transit corridor for Kiev’s troops – had confirmed that Western troops are already on the ground.

    So this is not about mercenaries anymore. France, by the way, is only 7th in terms of mercenaries on the ground, largely trailing Poland, the US and Georgia, for instance. The Russian Ministry of Defense has all the precise records.

    In a nutshell: now war has morphed from Donetsk, Avdeyevka and Belgorod to Moscow. Further on down the road, it may not just stop in Kiev. It may only stop in Lviv. Mr. 87%, enjoying massive national near-unanimity,  now has the mandate to go all the way. Especially after Crocus.

    There’s every possibility the terror tactics by Kiev goons will finally drive Russia to return Ukraine to its original 17th century landlocked borders: Black Sea-deprived, and with Poland, Romania, and Hungary reclaiming their former territories.

    Remaining Ukrainians will start to ask serious questions about what led them to fight – literally to their death – on behalf of the US Deep State, the military complex and BlackRock.

    As it stands, the Highway to Hell meat grinder is bound to reach maximum velocity.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 23:20

  • Moscow Terror Attack Suspects Hauled Before Court, One Literally Unconscious
    Moscow Terror Attack Suspects Hauled Before Court, One Literally Unconscious

    Update(2235ET): Images widely circulated Sunday showing the Moscow concert hall terror attack suspects being hauled before court. One of them was literally unconscious as clearly they have been severely roughed up – and likely tortured – by security services. Russian authorities haven’t been shy about this considering the number of videos now circulating showing portions of the intense and physical interrogations in action. The maximum penalty is reported to be life imprisonment, though it’s likely that torture or continued harsh physical punishment awaits them. According to more details from Russian media:

    A Moscow court convened late on Sunday to hear prosecutors’ demands on pre-trial detention for a group of men detained in the aftermath of Friday’s Crocus City Hall attack, which claimed lives of over 130 people.

    The suspects, all of whom are nationals of Tajikistan, appeared individually. Thus far, terrorism charges have been levelled against 32-year-old Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, who faces a life sentence if found guilty. Prosecutors told Judge Timur Vakhrameev that the suspect had admitted his guilt. 

    The court has opted to rule behind closed doors.

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    Below is what is known of the four thus far, based on statements in Russian media: 

    1) Dalerjon Mirzoev – Confessed – 32, Illegal Immigrant from Tajikistan, overstayed work visa, father of 4 young children.

    2) Saidakrom Rachabalizoda – 28, allegedly born in Tajikistan, lives in Moscow.

    3) Shamsiddin Fariduni – 24, Born in Tajikistan, factory worker, father of an 8-month-old baby.

    4) Muhammadsobir Fayzov – Hairdresser, wheeled in on a stretcher to court. All have reportedly been charged under Russia’s “Terrorist Act” for their alleged involvement in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack.

    * * *

    Russian state media has underscored that “partners and geopolitical rivals alike have joined the chorus expressing horror in the wake of the Crocus City Hall attack.”

    This has somewhat surprisingly included a statement of solidarity from Washington, as the death toll has has risen to 137 killed. “The United States strongly condemns yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack in Moscow,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Saturday statement. “We condemn terrorism in all its forms and stand in solidarity with the people of Russia in grieving the loss of life from this horrific event.”

    Reports: The Burj Khalifa lights up in the colors of Russia and says: “UAE stands in solidarity with Russia.”

    Even NATO issued a statement of condolence, with NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah saying on X that the Western military alliance “unequivocally condemn the attacks targeting concertgoers in Moscow.” 

    “Our deepest condolences to the victims and their families,” she said, adding that “nothing can justify such heinous crimes.” Pope Francis too has offered special prayers for victims on Sunday.

    But still Western officials hit back at President Putin’s attempts to link the terror attack, which ISIS-K has reportedly taken responsibility for, to Ukraine. Both the president and Kremlin officials have alleged the gunmen were trying to escape through Ukraine territory, utilizing a ‘window’ of support from across the border.

    The fire which raged for many hours in the wake of the terror attack gutted the Crocus complex and part of the roof caved in. Below is stunning video of the aftermath:

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    UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has told Sky News that Britain has “very little confidence in anything the Russian government says.”

    “We know that they are creating a smokescreen of propaganda to defend an utterly evil invasion of Ukraine. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a tragedy when innocent people lose their lives, when you have horrible bombings,” Hunt said. Hunt further emphasized that London takes “what the Russian government says with an enormous pinch of salt… after what we have seen from them over the last few years.”

    Meanwhile Russia continues to investigate who was ultimately behind the attack as it currently has eleven people in custody, and among them are said to be the four gunmen.

    Videos have emerged online showing some of their apprehensions as well as confessions, surrounded by several Russian security service personnel.

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    While Russian authorities are still very early in their investigation, the ‘confessions’ and claims and counter-claims which are still emerging remain bizarre and murky:

    On Saturday, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan posted footage of the interrogation of one of the suspects. The man in the video claims that he went on the killing spree after he was promised 500,000 rubles ($5,400).

    The suspect also claimed that his handlers had instructed him as to where the attack should take place. He said he was ordered to “kill people there… doesn’t matter who.” The suspect claimed that the terrorist act was organized on Telegram with an unknown person who provided weapons.

    Russia has said the attackers are not Russian citizens…

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    The gunmen had later the same day of the attack been apprehended in Bryansk Region, “not far from the border with Ukraine,” according to Russian official statements.

    Amid an ongoing flurry of speculation over the circumstances surrounding the Crocus Hall massacre, and the question of whether state actors or intelligence services may be involved, more videos have emerged which appear to tie the attackers to the Islamic State.

    Prior social media claims that asserted one or more attackers were Ukrainian appear to have been debunked. Various theories continue to be advanced, also by mainstream pundits. Independent journalists such as Glenn Greenwald have pointed out that there are many more questions than there are answers at this point, but an MSM narrative has already quickly solidified.

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    In a statement released Sunday, the Russian Investigative Committee detailed that “Four sets of combat ammunition, with more than 500 bullets and 28 magazines, and two Kalashnikov assault rifles, which the attackers were armed with, were confiscated from the scene of the tragedy.”

    The SITE Intelligence Group, which is often cited and relied upon in Western media, claims that the Islamic State through its official channels has “revealed the four fighters involved in the Moscow concert hall operation” and is “boasting” about its “fiercest attack in years.” Russia has long been an avowed enemy of ISIS, especially after the Russian military intervention in Syria starting in 2015, when Putin joined Assad in battling jihadists in the war-ravaged country.

    ISIS propaganda channels have reportedly released cell phone videos from the attackers themselves…

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    Meanwhile, the Russian government has continued to question what intelligence concerning the planned attack that Washington may have had ahead of time. In a March 7 emergency alert, the US Embassy in Moscow said it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.”

    The embassy further urged all US nationals in the country to remain vigilant and “monitor local media for updates.” The Kremlin has demanded answers and even raised the possibility of Western involvement, given also the current claims that the terrorists may have had a ‘Ukraine connection’. 

    Some of the newly released footage is extremely graphic, in one instance showing a man’s throat being slit (the below is censored for online release):

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    Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has on Sunday issued a statement saying that it was the United States which first destroyed anti-terrorism cooperation between the two countries. However, anonymous US intelligence officials who spoke to major US media outlets claim that Moscow was notified that a big terror act was going to happen. But Antonov has said “some things [in this cooperation] worked out… and it is all destroyed today through no fault of our own.”

    “We did not receive any notifications or messages in advance,” Antonov told RIA. However, White House spokesman John Kirby has sought to clarify, “I’m not aware of any advance knowledge that we had of this.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 22:35

  • Will The Democrat Abortion Narrative Work In 2024?
    Will The Democrat Abortion Narrative Work In 2024?

    Authored by Stu Cvrk via The Epoch Times,

    ‘Tis election season, and the political narratives are flying everywhere…

    Let us examine the 2024 Democrat political narrative surrounding abortion, including efforts to leverage the 2022 Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that has roiled American politics for 50-plus years and counting.

    Abortion on Demand as a Political Weapon

    On March 14, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, “marking what her office said was the first time a president or vice president has toured a facility that performs abortions,” as reported by the Associated Press. The article correctly points out that this represents an escalation of the “[Democrats’] defense of reproductive rights” political narrative this year.

    Buried in that article was a reference to President Joe Biden. The practicing Catholic is cited as using the phrase “right to choose” as opposed to actually using the word “abortion” when discussing the issue on which the U.S. Constitution is silent.

    Regardless of the euphemism used, President Biden, Ms. Harris, and other elected Democrats support unlimited abortions, and they apparently mean to ride that narrative all the way to November, because they apparently still believe that the 2024 election will be decided by “pro-choice” suburban women who helped make the difference in 2020.

    The Wrong Horse

    There are big problems with that political strategy. First of all, a March 12 Rasmussen poll revealed that “economic issues and immigration matter more to voters than abortion.” This should come as no surprise to anyone, because single-issue pro-abortion voters are generally going to vote Democrat anyway.

    The problem with the claim of the nonavailability of abortion providers is that the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reported back in January that the “Number of Abortions in the United States [Is] Likely to Be Higher in 2023 than in 2020.” That means that there were more abortions per annum after the Dobbs decision than when Roe v. Wade was the “law of the land.”

    [Note: the abortion numbers from Guttmacher were 930,000 performed in 2020, with 878,000 performed in the first 10 months of 2023, which, when the November and December totals at around 88,000 per month are added, would greatly exceed 2020.]

    The Right Horses

    Other issues subordinate abortion in Americans’ priorities.

    As the Heritage Foundation headlined on March 12, “Biden’s Border Crisis Comes to the Suburbs.” The article noted that “Biden’s immigration-driven crime wave is now arriving in America’s suburbs and small towns with devastating results” while noting that, regardless of the total number, “every single crime committed by an illegal immigrant is totally preventable.”

    Illegal immigrant crime victimhood is not an elective action for suburbanites while abortion certainly is —and the polls reflect that uncomfortable fact for Democrats as open borders continues to be an issue of great concern to most Americans.

    President Biden suspended the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement of U.S. immigration laws in January 2021, which initiated the 64 policies recently detailed by U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson that have created the ongoing open border crisis. President Biden could easily reverse all of those policies with the stroke of a pen, yet he refuses to do so by claiming that Congress needs to pass a border bill before he can act.

    Another major political issue that is sidestepped by Democrats is inflation as a direct result of “Bidenomics.” A February article by Reason described Bidenomics as a political messaging strategy that included the following facets: “pandemic aid, industrial policy, handouts for labor unions and public workers … [that] could be reduced to a single, overriding response: government spending.”

    Trillions of dollars of federal government stimulus spending resulted in a year-over-year inflation rate that peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022, which was the highest rate experienced in the United States in over 40 years. Inflation remains stubbornly high as the Federal Reserve interest rate manipulations have consistently missed the inflation target of 2 percent because government spending continues unabated.

    Zerohedge reported on March 12 that the year-on-year U.S. Consumer Price Index was 3.2 percent, which was more than expected. Zerohedge further noted that “consumer prices have not fallen in a single month” during Biden’s presidency. And Americans feel that pain at the grocery store and elsewhere throughout the Biden economy.

    Concluding Thoughts

    Political narrative-shifting to abortion and away from the economy, inflation, and the open border would appear to be a losing strategy, but then abortion has been a litmus test for Democrat politicians for years. Most Democrat voters are pro-abortion, and the strategy seems to be more about shoring up the fracturing Democrat base than persuading independents and others to vote Democrat this year.

    The problem for Democrats is that they apparently misunderstand the changing voter demographics in 2024. Inflation affects Gen Z and blue-collar workers far more than Democrat consultants and pollsters, who are from a different class than those people and don’t directly experience the adverse effects.

    One result, a Harvard CAPS–Harris survey determined that 64 percent of the Gen Z respondents (ages 18-24) approved of Donald Trump’s job as president because the contrast between the Trump and Biden presidencies is clear with respect to the economy and inflation.

    Furthermore, The New York Times recently reported the growing shift of Latinos toward Trump. Of even greater concern to Democrats is the rightward shift of black Americans. The Washington Post reported on a February Gallup poll that must have shocked many Democrats. According to the poll, black Americans in 2020 were “66 points more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans,” but that spread had decreased to only 47 points in 2023.

    Key voter demographics are shaping up to be much different in 2024 than those in 2016 and 2020. The Democrats appear to be losing their traditional base of minority and younger generation voters because they don’t seem to have a political narrative that resonates with them on the open border or inflation. And that is a real problem, because the abortion narrative is a lower priority this year.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 22:10

  • Trump In Final Countdown To Post $464 Million Bond By Monday
    Trump In Final Countdown To Post $464 Million Bond By Monday

    Donald Trump has until Monday to come up with more than $450 million to stop his properties from being seized by authorities following the results of his New York civil fraud trial.

    According to the ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron, Trump and executives at the Trump Organization inflated his assets. Initially, NY Attorney General Letitia James sought $250 million in damages – but later increased it to $370 million plus interest.

    Trump has been seeking a bond of $464 million ($454 million plus $10 million to cover his sons’ fines) in order to post bond and appeal the case.

    Last week, Trump said he had “almost $500 million” in cash, however his attorney Chris Kise told CNN that Trump wasn’t referring to cash he has on hand.

    “What he’s talking about is the money reported on his campaign disclosure forms that he’s built up through years of owning and managing successful businesses,” he said, which the outlet noted is “the very cash that Letitia James and the Democrats are targeting.”

    Assets including buildings, houses, cars, helicopters and even Trump’s plane are on the chopping block if Trump can’t come up with the money. The former president has asked a state appeals court to allow him to post a smaller bond, or none at all, claiming that irreparable harm would be done if he was forced to sell properties in a ‘fire sale’ that can’t be undone if he wins his appeal against the amount due. The court has not come back yet with a ruling.

    If Trump can’t secure the bond, New York state officials can begin the arduous process of taking his assets. According to experts cited by a very giddy CNN, the first action should be seizing Trump’s bank accounts.

    “The banks are the easiest part, they’ll receive the judgment from the Attorney General – the court order – then the banks will enforce,” said former federal prosecutor Peter Katz, who has handled fraud cases. “They take the funds from the account and put it in the attorney general’s accounts. The other stuff is a little more challenging.”

    According to debt collection expert Alden B. Smith, New York officials are “trying to get their ducks in a row,” adding “They want to find the most liquid of the assets they can restrain immediately. A bank account is the most effective way to do it.”

    Seizing Trump’s buildings and businesses is far more complicated. Once state prosecutors figure out which properties they want to take from Joe Biden’s chief political rival, they will give the sheriff an execution order, a $350 fee, and then the sheriff will post notice for the property in three places. The AG’s office must then advertise it four times, after which the property will be sold at public auction 63 days after the sheriff is given the execution order.

    According to Newsweek, the following Trump-owned properties had “fraudulent” and “misleading” values, and could be on the list (with New York properties taking priority, and those in other states being more complicated to seize).

    • Trump Park Avenue, New York, N.Y.
    • Trump Tower, New York City.
    • 40 Wall Street, New York City.
    • Trump Seven Springs, Westchester County, N.Y.
    • Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas.
    • Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida.
    • Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
    • Trump National Golf Club Charlotte, Mooresville, North Carolina.
    • Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck, Colts Neck, New Jersey.
    • Trump National Golf Club, Washington D.C., Sterling, Virginia.
    • Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley, Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
    • Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, Jupiter, Florida.
    • Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
    • Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, Pine Hill, New Jersey.
    • Trump International Golf Links Scotland, Aberdeen.
    • Trump International Golf Links Scotland, Turnberry.

    Trump has roughly $200 million in cumulative loans on his properties.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 21:35

  • Complacent About Replacement
    Complacent About Replacement

    Authored by T.L.Davis via Substack,

    To be blunt, this is what it feels like to be conquered. The British have been through it a couple of times, their kingdoms falling to the Romans, the Vikings, making deals and accepting new cultures that obliterated the former. Societies that survive too long lose themselves in their comfort and become complacent about their replacement. It happened to the Aztecs, the Inca, the Mayans, the Apache, the Comanche and the Sioux, who did it to others before that.

    Every single landmass has been invaded and conquered. The Marxists use that as a source of guilt, by calling it “stealing” which it never has been. If the United States had actually been a conqueror, as the Marxists suggest, it would have kept Mexico when it won the war in 1846, instead of just maintaining the landmass that it had before the war, but including the state of Texas after the Republic of Texas voted to join the United States.

    If Americans were the evil land “stealers” they are made out to be, they would have invaded and conquered Canada after they beat the British in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, leaving out that owned by the French. They would have kept Japan after WWII, much the same as Russia had claimed Alaska. Americans don’t want an empire and never have, not that the US Government hasn’t wanted to extend its influence globally and have made vassal states out of a number of nations along the way. The U.S. could have kept half of Europe and Eastern Europe, if they had thought it would not have put them at odds with Russia and started another war right after WWII, but they did have sole possession of the atom bomb and could have won that war, too. The American people were sick of war and yearned for peace and prosperity.

    The difference between all of that and our current situation, is that the United States government is aiding and abetting our own conquest, encouraging it and paying for it with forced taxation and printed funds. I believe there is a legal means of refusing to pay taxes to the federal government, because they have refused to abide by their obligations to maintain borders, ensure the welfare of the people and been woefully negligent in acting in the fiduciary interest of the American people. If we had an actual legal system instead of a corrupt means of punishment, that is.

    To get that right, like all of the others, it seems as if we are going to have to demand it at a point of leverage that the American people seem unwilling to employ as yet. This is the break point. We are either going to pay for our own conquest, or we’re going to throw off these criminal masters and engage in either wholesale secession, civil war or a counter-revolution to the bureaucratic dictatorship that has risen up and supplanted representation. Those are the simple choices. Nothing makes this more clear than the recent 1.2 trillion dollar spending bill recently passed, which was done in the face of popular opposition.

    The decision to do one or the other, i.e., secession, civil war or counter-revolution will be much easier to make once the internal terrorist attacks start, the forfeiture of property to illegals that put too many aged mothers and fathers in their son’s and daughter’s homes and the rape of daughters and sons become commonplace. I urge the American people not to take it out on those committing the acts, other than in self-defense, but much more so on our own bureaucrats, governors, representatives, senators and presidents. The people who are coming here are doing so out of encouragement by our bureaucracies, congress and president. Not one thing has been done to stop it. Not one. All of the caterwauling about it can now be ignored since in the past year, the congress has allowed the FBI to continue its illegal surveillance on the American people, fought to embolden censorship of our speech, funded the caravans coming from South America and Mexico through the UN, paid to support LGBTQ programs and abortion, funded the lawsuits being waged against Texas to keep the border open.

    They are in open hostility toward the American taxpayers, farmers, cattle ranchers, factory owners, automobile manufacturers and oil and gas producers. Not just rhetorical hostility, but regulatory and physical hostility. This is the world we live in; this is the process and methods of conquest to rid the world of the successful and control the low IQ with the brutality they desire to implement on our replacements.

    The one thing that has prevented our annihilation thus far is the Second Amendment, but if we are going to sit by and allow them to use every weapon they have to strip that from us as they have every other right listed in the Bill of Rights, then we have no chance of survival and, to be honest, with that ultimate form of leverage in our back pockets, if we still allow our own conquest, we deserve it.

    *  *  *

    I understand that people don’t want to take on a paid subscription, money is tight for everyone, but if you’ll consider a purchase of books that does not require a commitment, that would do just as well, especially the paperbacks. I know many of you have already done so, thank you.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 21:00

  • Jayapal Says Transgender Athletes Don’t Hurt Anyone, Former Volleyball Player Disagrees
    Jayapal Says Transgender Athletes Don’t Hurt Anyone, Former Volleyball Player Disagrees

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

    A former high school girls’ volleyball player who was injured in a game by an opponent identifying as transgender is calling out a Democrat congresswoman who claims that having transgender athletes in female sports doesn’t hurt anyone.

    Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on March 21, 2024. (House Judiciary GOP YouTube/Twitter/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    Payton McNabb, a 19-year-old from North Carolina, was struck in the face by a male who identifies as transgender in her varsity high school volleyball match in September 2022. The male knocked Ms. McNabb unconscious in a spike—a move intended to hit the ball in the game.

    The incident forced Ms. McNabb to spend months recovering from headaches and concentration problems. She also missed the remainder of her volleyball season.

    Ms. McNabb said she suffered from a neck injury, concussion, lasting vision impairment, and partial paralysis in the right side of her body, as well as mental anguish.

    “Just getting back from my second doctor appointment this week, a year and a half later, I’m definitely going to have to disagree,” Ms. McNabb posted Thursday on X. “My life is forever changed because of an injury by a boy. So yeah … men have harmed women in our sports. But as long as your feelings don’t get hurt, right?,”

    Ms. McNabb was responding to a clip of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who made an emotional argument during Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing over a bill that, among other things, would prohibit male athletes from representing the United States in future women’s Olympic competitions.

    “Why are you doing this?” a teary Ms. Jayapal asked the bill’s sponsors. “It is a tiny portion of people across the country that identify as trans, and not a single one of them is doing anything to harm you or your family.”

    Riley Gaines, an collegiate swimmer-turned advocate of preserving spaces for females, voiced her support for Ms. McNabb.

    “Payton is partially paralyzed on her right side, her vision and memory are impaired, and her sports career ended prematurely because of a man posing as a woman. Democrats who deny this is happening are evil,” she wrote on X, along with a video clip showing the moment Ms. McNabb was hit by the spike.

    A former University of Kentucky swimmer, Ms. Haines was forced to compete against and share a locker room with transgender athlete Will “Lia” Thomas, who captured gold in the 500 freestyle at the 2022 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Championships. She is also among more than a dozen other female athletes who are suing the NCAA for violating Title IX, a federal law that promises equal treatment and athletic opportunities for women and girls.

    The athletes’ lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Atlanta, alleges that NCAA’s “radical departure from Title IX’s original meaning” is harming women by subjecting them to “a loss of their constitutional right to bodily privacy.”

    “Title IX was enacted by Congress to increase women’s opportunities; therefore, no policy which authorizes males to take the place of women on women’s college sports teams or in women’s college sports locker rooms is permissible under Title IX,” the complaint read.

    The female athletes also accused the NCAA of depriving women’s places, titles and public recognition by permitting transgender players who “retained male advantage, size, strength, power, and speed” into women’s sports teams. “The NCAA gives males who wish to compete against women the option to suppress testosterone to a level that is still above the highest level a female can produce without doping,” it noted.

    Democrats Oppose Women Protection Bill

    The lawsuit comes as House Resolution 7187, formally called the Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, advanced out of the committee and went to the full House for a vote.

    Sponsored by 27 Republicans, the bill would require all national governing bodies for amateur sports to “prohibit a person whose sex is male” from participating in exclusively female competitions. This would affect sports events such as Olympic games and national championships.

    Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, Ms. Jayapal invoked her own child who identifies as a transgender girl, imploring those who back the measure to question whether they could still do the same if they had a “trans daughter.”

    “I am the proud mother of a trans daughter, and every time these bills come up, I ask you to think about what it would be like if your daughter was the one that you were talking about,” she said. “What would it be like if you were telling her she does not have the right to be who she is?”

    Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), co-chair of the Equality Caucus, denounced HR 7187 as “a hate bill” that would “incite violence and ultimately remove trans people from public life.”

    “I want trans girls and women to know: You deserve to participate and thrive in the sports you love,” she said.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 19:50

  • Willis Vs Willis: Fulton County District Attorney Goes Head-to-Head With Her Prior Self In Trump Case
    Willis Vs Willis: Fulton County District Attorney Goes Head-to-Head With Her Prior Self In Trump Case

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has finally broken her silence with CNN.

    Willis insisted that she has done nothing wrong while declaring that “the train is coming” for Donald Trump.

    On this occasion, CNN can be excused for not having an opposing view. Willis circa 2020 denounced Willis circa 2024.

    Willis told a CNN reporter “I don’t feel like my reputation needs to be reclaimed. I guess my greatest crime is I had a relationship with a man, that’s not something I find embarrassing in any way. And I know that I have not done anything that’s illegal.”

    The most obvious person to interview in rebuttal of that statement is Willis’s 2020 self. After all, she repeatedly declared that she would not have any romantic relationship with those in her office.

    Willis ran against her former boss Paul Howard, who was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal involving his relationship with women in his office.

    Willis offered both experience and ethical leadership, including pledging repeatedly that “I will certainly not be choosing to date people that work under me.”

    When confronted with this repeated campaign promise on the stand, Willis came up with a perfectly bizarre spin about Nathan Wade being literally “special” as a special prosecutor. While she hired him, supervised him, and controlled his continued employment with the office, she tried to suggest that he was not really part of the office in the same sense.

    Willis notably stressed that she did nothing “illegal.” She did not address whether she acted unethically.

    The court itself denounced her for unprofessional conduct in this controversy, including her speech at a church suggesting that racism was behind these allegations.

    Moreover, it may be too early to tell if she is entirely free of criminal allegations. Many believe that both she and Wade gave knowingly false or misleading testimony.

    That is a problem not just for them as individuals but for the office in this case.

    Willis and Wade were both prosecuting people for the very same conduct of filing false statements with courts and making false statements. The two lawyers testified in tandem but only one was disqualified.

    While the Court casts doubt on Wade’s testimony on the relationship, it ignored that Willis effectively ratified those claims in her own testimony.

    Putting aside the pledge of a train coming for Trump, there is the problem that there are usually two tracks and another train may be coming for Willis as the state (and potentially the bar) looks into these allegations.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 18:40

  • The World's Top 50 Largest Banks By Consolidated Assets
    The World’s Top 50 Largest Banks By Consolidated Assets

    Banks are often among the biggest companies in the world.

    In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu lists the top 50 banks in the world by consolidated assets, based on a 2023 report from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The data represents each bank’s total assets for the most recent period available.

    Chinese Banks Keep on Growing

    According to S&P, the four largest Chinese banks grew their assets by 4.1% in 2022, reaching a combined total of $19.8 trillion.

    In fact, Chinese banks already account for over a third of the assets held by the largest banks on the planet. Four of the 15 biggest companies in China are banks.

    Rank Bank Headquarters Total Assets
    1 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China 🇨🇳 China $5.7T
    2 China Construction Bank Corp 🇨🇳 China $5.0T
    3 Agricultural Bank of China 🇨🇳 China $4.9T
    4 Bank of China 🇨🇳 China $4.2T
    5 JPMorgan Chase & Co. 🇺🇸 US $3.7T
    6 Bank of America 🇺🇸 US $3.1T
    7 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 🇯🇵 Japan $3.0T
    8 HSBC Holdings 🇬🇧 UK $2.9T
    9 BNP Paribas 🇫🇷 France $2.9T
    10 Crédit Agricole Group 🇫🇷 France $2.5T
    11 Citigroup 🇺🇸 US $2.4T
    12 Postal Savings Bank of China 🇨🇳 China $2.0T
    13 Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 🇯🇵 Japan $2.0T
    14 Mizuho Financial Group 🇯🇵 Japan $1.9T
    15 Bank of Communications 🇨🇳 China $1.9T
    16 Wells Fargo & Co. 🇺🇸 US $1.9T
    17 Banco Santander 🇪🇸 Spain $1.9T
    18 Barclays PLC 🇬🇧 UK $1.8T
    19 JAPAN POST BANK 🇯🇵 Japan $1.7T
    20 UBS Group 🇨🇭 Switzerland $1.7T
    21 Groupe BPCE 🇫🇷 France $1.6T
    22 Société Générale 🇫🇷 France $1.6T
    23 Royal Bank of Canada 🇨🇦 Canada $1.5T
    24 The Toronto-Dominion Bank 🇨🇦 Canada $1.5T
    25 China Merchants Bank 🇨🇳 China $1.5T
    26 Goldman Sachs Group 🇺🇸 US $1.4T
    27 Deutsche Bank 🇩🇪 Germany $1.4T
    28 Industrial Bank 🇨🇳 China $1.3T
    29 China CITIC Bank International 🇨🇳 China $1.2T
    30 Shanghai Pudong Development Bank 🇨🇳 China $1.2T
    31 Morgan Stanley 🇺🇸 US $1.2T
    32 Crédit Mutuel 🇫🇷 France $1.2T
    33 Lloyds Banking Group 🇬🇧 UK $1.1T
    34 China Minsheng Banking 🇨🇳 China $1.1T
    35 Intesa Sanpaolo 🇮🇹 Italy $1.0T
    36 ING Groep 🇳🇱 Netherlands $1.0T
    37 The Bank of Nova Scotia 🇨🇦 Canada $1.0T
    38 UniCredit 🇮🇹 Italy $917B
    39 China Everbright Bank 🇨🇳 China $913B
    40 NatWest Group 🇬🇧 UK $868B
    41 Bank of Montreal 🇨🇦 Canada $859B
    42 Commonwealth Bank of Australia 🇦🇺 Australia $837B
    43 Standard Chartered 🇬🇧 UK $820B
    44 La Banque Postale 🇫🇷 France $797B
    45 Ping An Bank 🇨🇳 China $772B
    46 Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 🇪🇸 Spain $762B
    47 The Norinchukin Bank 🇯🇵 Japan $753B
    48 State Bank of India 🇮🇳 India $695B
    49 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 🇨🇦 Canada $691B
    50 National Australia Bank 🇦🇺 Australia $680B

    The Chinese financial market is followed by the American market on our list, with six U.S. banks combining for $13.7 trillion in assets.

    The top 10 on the list include four Chinese banks, two American institutions, two French, one Japanese, and one British.

    The biggest climber on our rank was Swiss UBS Group AG. The bank surged to 20th place from 34th in 2021. Its $1.6 trillion asset size has been adjusted to incorporate troubled Credit Suisse Group AG, which UBS agreed to take over in an emergency deal orchestrated by the Swiss authorities in March 2023.

    Assets held by the 100 largest banks totaled $111.97 trillion in 2022, down 1.5% from $113.67 trillion a year earlier. Some of the reasons include high inflation, interest rate hikes, and the Russia-Ukraine war, which dampened global economic growth and investor sentiment.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 18:05

  • FAA Considering Unprecedented "Drastic Measures" For United Airlines After Flurry Of Safety Incidents
    FAA Considering Unprecedented “Drastic Measures” For United Airlines After Flurry Of Safety Incidents

    After weeks and weeks of daily mechanical incidents that prompted many to ask – no pun intended – if the wings have fallen off from the US aviation and airline industries, on Saturday Bloomberg reported that US aviation authorities are considering drastic measures to curb growth at United Airlines, including preventing the carrier from adding new routes, following a series of safety incidents.

    Citing “people with knowledge”, Bloomberg said that the Federal Aviation Administration (or FAA) has discussed temporary actions it may take with the airline’s leadership in recent days. This follows a report from Reuters (“Boeing chair to meet key airline customers without planemaker’s CEO, sources say“) last week hinting that the CEO of Boeing, David Calhoun, may be in jeopardy after the relentless barage of Boeing-linked “mishaps” especially after recent comments by Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary who slammed Boeing’s corporate culture. Anyway, going back to United, in addition to route restrictions, the US carrier may be barred from flying paying customers on newly delivered aircraft; indeed the sources said that the FAA already is suspending United’s ability to approve and promote pilots to fly different aircraft models. One wonders if it’s because of, well, this…

    The proposed clampdown would effectively pause growth for an unspecified period at one of the largest US airlines, underscoring the panicked rush to restore confidence in, and heightened scrutiny on commercial aviation safety following a near-catastrophe earlier this year involving a Boeing plane. Since the January incident, in which a panel blew out in midair from an Alaska Airlines jet, United has endured multiple headline-grabbing mishaps including:

    • A plane in Houston ran off the taxiway into a grassy area
    • Another aircraft lost a tire shortly after departing from San Francisco
    • A Houston-to-Florida flight had to make an emergency landing after one of its engines began spewing flames.

    The FAA has announced investigations of those and other incidents.

    The renewed focus reflects stresses on commercial air travel after years of rapid growth coming out of the depths of the pandemic.

    Without addressing the report directly, the FAA told Bloomberg that it already plans to increase oversight of United in the coming weeks to review processes, manuals and facilities, the carrier told employees in a memo. Sasha Johnson, United’s vice president of corporate safety, said in the message that regulators and the company agree it needs “to ensure we are doing all we can to promote and drive safety compliance.”

    Johnson also said the FAA planned to “pause a variety of certification activities for a period of time,” without specifying which ones. The limits under consideration would restrict United from adding new routes beyond those the airline has already sold tickets for.

    Leaders of an Orlando-area local for United pilots sent a message to members saying that the FAA recently stepped in to “take substantial action” against the carrier, including restricting its abilities around pilot approval. The so-called line check process to certify and promote pilots has been paused pending further action from the FAA, according to two people familiar with the situation.

    There are now “regulator-imposed restrictions on our ability to operate and grow our airline,” according to the message from the Local Council 150 chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. “We will also see an increased FAA presence in our daily operation.”

    United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby this week promised customers that the carrier would review the incidents and its employee training. Perhaps what Kirby should be promising customers is to stop pushing “insane“, disastrous, and potentially deadly, DEI mandates, which were revealed in an interview he did touting his company’s diversity initiatives, which limited white employees while emphasizing more women and minorities in its workforce.

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    Maybe, in retrospect, there’s a reason why there are fewer women and minorities in the air travel industry…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 16:55

  • LAW, IGIW, SAS, GCBE, MBS, ROTST…. A Day For Acronyms
    LAW, IGIW, SAS, GCBE, MBS, ROTST…. A Day For Acronyms

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    A Day for Acronyms

    IGIW

    Let’s start with IGIW. I’m not sure it is an official one, but we can go with I Got It Wrong. I came into this week stating that it would be far more difficult for stocks to bounce 5% than drop 10%. I was looking for yields to continue their upward trajectory. 10-year yields finished the week lower by 11 bps and the Nasdaq was up by almost 3%. I continue to look at a wide variety of sentiment indicators, positioning indicators, etc. and see extremely aggressive positioning, but so far it has worked for those positioned that way.

    GCBE

    Probably another one I just made up, but Global Central Bank Easing was the theme of the week.

    The Bank of Japan (BOJ) hiked rates, finally going back to positive yields! They officially ended “yield curve control,” but the 10-year yield was already at 0.7% (down from almost 1% in November), so that didn’t have much of an impact. It might have been the most dovish “tightening” ever, which says a lot!

    The Swiss National Bank (SNB) surprised the market by cutting rates. Markets responded positively to this surprise move. Maybe I was in a bad mood at the time, but I’m wondering why we spend so much time worrying about what the 20th largest economy by GDP does with rates? I saw some tweets at the time, which seem accurate, but Bitcoin’s market cap is bigger than the Swiss GDP. That is mostly irrelevant and comparing apples to oranges (or chalk to cheese, for our U.K. readers), but it did strike me as a sign of the times. While I’m on this portion of the rant, we seem to care much more about the SNB than we do about the BOC (Bank of Canada), despite Canada’s economy being more than double the Swiss economy, and far more trade is affected by that currency and their interest rate policy.

    The ECB (European Central Bank) and the BOE (Bank of England) set the stage for future rate cuts, buoying global markets.
    The Fed is being taken as being quite dovish as well. I think that take is overstated (Post FOMC Thoughts), but given the overall tone of GCBE, it is an understandable take (at least in the heat of the moment). The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) does seem a bit nervous about jobs, and the balance sheet is getting to levels where they may need to restrain QT (Quantitative Tightening) as some level of balance sheet is required for our banking system to function efficiently.

    While the central banks have been “jawboning” markets in this direction, this week’s series of back-to-back-to-back meetings seemed to solidify the view for markets.

    One “odd” thing is that I haven’t heard the words “American Exceptionalism” much in reference to these bank policies. Yes, we are all excited that every other bank is definitively dovish, but shouldn’t they be when their economies and markets are behind ours?

    How the election campaign will affect Fed policy remains to be seen, but unfortunately for the Fed, in a world where every decision is held under a magnifying glass and examined for political motivations, it will be difficult to convince many people that their actions are apolitical. I think this is really going to hamstring what they can do in September and November, so a cut in June with maybe another “pre-emptive” cut in July makes sense, but I am not expecting more than that without the economy taking a big hit.

    MBC

    Made By China. Yes, yet another completely made-up acronym, but it fits. I almost went with MCGA (Make China Great Again), since we had these hats, but I really want to keep to our theme on the transition from Made in China to Made by China.

    Sticking to Made By China, we laid out the threats, risks, and opportunities in Made By China 2025.

    In this month’s ATW – Around the World with Academy Securities, we touched on several important issues, but more and more, the geopolitical lens is beings focused on China’s goods and brands. From some conversations in D.C. and Vegas with our GIG (Geopolitical Intelligence Group), it is clear that many departments in D.C. are very focused on China and what is an “appropriate” relationship with China. Much of the focus is at the National Security level, but the definition of “national security” includes things like manufacturing, energy security, etc., making it much more all-encompassing than what people typically think of as “national security.” This is going to affect how we treat China and is, without a doubt, going to impact how China responds to us in ways that the market still doesn’t seem to be pricing in.

    CNY (Chinese Renminbi – or yuan) and the PBOC (People’s Bank of China) should be watched. So far, China has not done a lot, by historical or even U.S. standards, to turn their economy around. They’ve had some stimulus here and there and implemented some rules to stymie stock market sellers. However, so far, their response seems to be appropriate if their economy was merely in the doldrums, and not on the precipice of a serious decline (which many people suspect is the real case).

    But just this past week they allowed the currency to drift above 7.2. Allegedly that level represents key support, and while it has been higher in the past, many have expressed concern that this recent breach could be part of an effort to seriously devalue the currency in an attempt to make their exports cheaper. That seems pretty darn obvious to me. Their way out of their economic malaise is to produce more goods in China. Since companies, in general, are not looking to expand their manufacturing in China, they will need to manufacture and sell their own brands! The concept of “China Inc.” is that the government and corporations are inextricably linked and work together in ways that are just not possible (or even conceivable) in the U.S. and Western Europe.

    Which brings us to Temu and Shein. Neither are acronyms, so they don’t quite fit today’s title, but they are so important to the Made By China theme that they need to be mentioned. Personally, and it is just my preference, I have not used either site and avoid pulling them up, let alone clicking on them. Yes, I am in the camp that has had concerns about the data on TikTok for a long time. In any case, I’m told that many of the products sold on Temu have apps associated with them to access their features. That seems a bit scary to me. Maybe I’m just a paranoid luddite, but…

    Shein, as a representative of “fast fashion,” is likely to be hit by a French bill Penalizing Fast Fashion. I think the argument goes along the lines that “the clothes are so inexpensive and people throw them away much sooner than normal, creating a strain on the environment.” That seems to be a stretch, but yet again, it highlights the selling of Chinese made goods by their own brands. This is a threat to sales from “our” brands, whose stocks are in “our” indices.

    Maybe I’m just more attuned to it, but the number of people who seem to want to “check out a BYD vehicle” seems to have increased. Not sure if anyone I’ve been talking to actually plans to buy one (I’m not even sure if you can), but people are suddenly curious about the brand. Word of mouth marketing is often mentioned as one of the more effective means of marketing a brand, and it almost seems like BYD is getting to that level even in the U.S. You cannot buy them here, though they sell buses here apparently if generative AI is to be trusted and confirmed on Reddit (which should be congratulated on their successful IPO).

    ROTST or ROON

    Okay, I’ve fully Jumped the Shark (JTS) on acronyms. Neither Rallying On The Same Thing (ROTST) nor Rallying On Old News (ROON) are phrases that are commonly used, but what the heck, we’ve come this far, so let’s finish with this.

    I’m not going to apply it to the Fed because I can see where it was “technically” new news, or at least contrasted against fears that had gotten priced in. But two things hit me this week on this front:

    • Semiconductor manufacturer crushes earnings. Stock soars 10% or more. I get it, to some degree, but at what point do we price in that the last quarter, the next quarter, and likely the next year are going to be great? Stocks, in many cases up 50% or more in a short period of time, pop on good news (and yes, it is definitively good news), but how is some of this not priced in? It’s not like every time Steph Curry hits a 3 everyone argues that he is undervalued – it is expected of him, given his current valuation. It has this feeling that the same headlines keep triggering positive responses, but will that last?
    • The excitement of the CHIPS Act finally providing something that almost seemed tangible was interesting. I guess, since it has taken so long for anything tangible to come out of that bill, maybe the market had started to underprice the money that in theory was available. Maybe,  with people becoming too pessimistic about the complexity and restrictions associated with the Act (there are a lot of them), the market wasn’t pricing in much value to companies that now should get priced in. Maybe, but it seems like old news. What was “new” news is the fact that while this money has been earmarked (or allocated, or set aside, or approved), it has not yet been funded. It is yet another form of stimulus and increased debt that the market seems to be ignoring (or at least it did last week).

    BTR

    Since we barely dip, does anyone who has been waiting to BTD (Buy The Dip) need to Buy The Rally (BTR)? Just suck it up, and get max long stocks, bonds, and credit?

    I don’t think so, but I was caught by surprise by how much we could rally while facing many big issues (the biggest of which, by far, is the competition from Made By China). I also was surprised at how much we could rally on what seems (after weeks and weeks of positive news) to be just more of the same news that should already be priced in.

    I know that LAW (Long And Wrong) is sometimes used, but I’m not sure what is the opposite of that? SAS (Short and Stupid)? I do know “don’t fight the Fed” but despite the apparent GCBE, I don’t think I’m fighting the Fed.

    We get a lot of economic data next week, so we will have plenty of opportunities to judge the state of the economy and the trajectory of inflation.

    LOTL

    One subject coming up, especially within Academy’s GIG, is Living Off The Land. My initial reaction was that this was about “preppers” and I felt good about having a well and expanding our garden. Turns out that it is all about cyber. In fact, a particularly nefarious and difficult to catch cyber-attack. CISA published on LOTL back in February. Maybe because it was competing with Super Bowl coverage, it didn’t get the attention it deserves, but it is coming up in more and more conversations. Please look for Academy’s SITREP on this important subject early next week.

    Finally, one thing that I think many across the country can agree with is let’s hope the old adage of March, In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb holds true, as I for one am “done” with winter!

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 16:20

  • Chinese-Owned Tanker Hit By Houthi Missile Despite Safe Passage Deal 
    Chinese-Owned Tanker Hit By Houthi Missile Despite Safe Passage Deal 

    Bloomberg’s sources stated on Friday that China and Russia made a deal with Iran-backed Houthis for safe passage of their commercial vessels through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 

    Fast forward to late Saturday night, US Central Command announced on social media platform X that a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels hit a Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-owned chemical tanker called “M/V Huang Pu.” 

    CENTCOM on X provides more details about the attack on the Chinese tanker:

    March 23, the Iranian-backed Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) into the Red Sea in the vicinity of M/V Huang Pu, a Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-owned, Chinese-operated oil tanker.

    At 4:25 p.m. (Sanaa time), a fifth ballistic missile was detected as fired toward M/V Huang Pu. The ship issued a distress call but did not request assistance. M/V Huang Pu suffered minimal damage, and a fire on board was extinguished within 30 minutes. No casualties were reported, and the vessel resumed its course. The Houthis attacked the MV Huang despite previously stating they would not attack Chinese vessels.

    Between 6:50 and 9:50 a.m. (Sanaa time), US forces, including USS Carney (DDG 64), engaged six Houthi unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) over the southern Red Sea. Five crashed into the Red Sea, and one flew inland into Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

    It was determined these UAVs presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels.

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    What remains unclear is why the Houthis would attack the vessel if there were a safe passage deal. Also, the ship was broadcasting “India All Crew China,” which Houthi rebels could see. 

    A separate Bloomberg report stated that one of the world’s top shippers, Maersk, warned the risk level across the Red Sea “remains elevated.” 

    The shipper says its container ships continue “sailing via the Cape of Good Hope and around Africa is the most reasonable solution at the moment and the one that currently allows the best supply chain stability.”

    Rising tensions in and around the Red Sea, especially with an oil tanker being hit this weekend, have some market observers extremely worried about a spillover in attacks across the region and the crude market, ignoring some of these mounting risks. 

    One of those spillovers that Rapidan Energy Group has pointed out is the increasing risk of a “crippling attack” on Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq facility, the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world. 

    “Geopolitical disruptions: Wars can temporarily stop production or interrupt trade, but if important oil processing or production facilities, like the Saudi Abqaiq stabilization plant that Iran attacked in 2019, were to be severely damaged over a prolonged period, markets would immediately become tighter,” Rapidan Energy wrote in its 2023 global markets outlook. 

    Given the chaos in Eastern Europe with Ukraine attacking Russian refineries, the global oil market could be nearing a major shock if Houthis begin attacking refineries in Saudi Arabia. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 15:45

  • US-Backed Egypt Sitting Atop Muslim Brotherhood Powder Keg Inspired By Gaza, Failing Economy
    US-Backed Egypt Sitting Atop Muslim Brotherhood Powder Keg Inspired By Gaza, Failing Economy

    Via The Cradle

    On the morning of March 4, the State Security Criminal Court in Egypt sentenced the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide Mohammed Badie to death, along with seven of the outlawed group’s leaders (Mahmoud Ezzat, Mohamed el-Beltagy, Amr Zaki, Osama Yassin, Safwa Hegazy, Assem Abdel Maged, and Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud) for organizing acts of violence eleven years ago in the so-called ‘Platform Events’ case. 

    The case traces back to 2013, days after the Egyptian military ousted the late Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Mursi in a Saudi–UAE-backed coup. 

    Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Badie has been handed multiple death sentences.

    Technically, this ruling marked 80-year-old Badie’s third encounter with a death sentence following the infamous “Rabaa Operations Room” case in 2015. 

    Yet, beyond notions of ‘justice,’ a deeper narrative unfurls – one laden with political gravitas. The court’s ruling wasn’t solely about holding individuals accountable for past transgressions; it was a strategic move by the Egyptian state.

    Ticking time bomb 

    The government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is fearful of the impending social upheaval anticipated as a result of the state’s faltering economy, flawed fiscal policies, decline in Arab world clout, and Egypt’s impotence in the face of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza – all ingredients for a potential powder keg primed to detonate.

    Commentators suggest the next explosion could be of an unprecedented scale, eclipsing the Bread Intifada of 1977 and the 25 January revolution of 2011.

    He recalled the role of the Brotherhood in the 1948 War, and then the effects of the Nakba on Egypt and the policies of the state, aimed at eradicating the popular Islamic social and political movement since the fifties:

    We don’t care if we are sentenced to death and imprisonment. Palestine is our first cause and the cause of the Arab and Islamic nation. Mr Judge, this is the root of the case. We are imprisoned until the deal of the century is completed.

    Regardless of the accuracy of Badie’s supra-temporal statement, it remains undeniable that the events unfolding in Palestine today are likely to cast a shadow on Cairo in the coming years, depending on which way the Egyptian authorities approach Gaza. The potent repercussions of a wrong move weigh heavily on Egypt’s authorities.

    State v Religion

    In this context, it is worth reflecting on Roger Caillois’ discussion in “Man and the Sacred” on the disparity between the state’s temporal perspective and the religious perception of time. 

    A state typically adheres to an objective, temporal, and often linear vision, whereas religious frameworks usually embrace a “supra-temporal” perspective intertwined with a historical understanding – in which, given time, popular struggles will eventually outmaneuver a failed authority.

    While the state endeavors to regulate movement and time, manifesting its authority through institutions such as courts and prisons, Islamists engage in a different arena. They confront the state in streets, alleys, pulpits, and prisons, focusing strategically on the temporal dimension – that is, the “timelessness” of the struggle.

    Indeed, understanding the political standoff between Cairo and the Muslim Brotherhood necessitates a deep dive into their historical relationship. 

    The so-called “Arab street” has grown increasingly angry at Egypt’s silence over the Gaza crisis…

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

    From the fraught interactions of the thirties to the dominance of the fifties, followed by a reluctant coexistence in the seventies, then the emergence of the Muslim ‘box’ during the Arab Spring, and subsequently the era of “post-Islamism” (as described by Iranian–American sociologist Asef Bayat), the Brotherhood has gone through various phases in a zero-sum game with the state. 

    This relationship is underpinned by foundational features deeply ingrained in Egyptian political life, which neither the state bureaucracy can overcome nor the Brotherhood can fully assimilate.

    Furthermore, the evolution of the Egyptian state, with its centralized control system spanning over six millennia, has moved through various pivotal periods, each contributing to the unique crises that continue to shape the country’s political scene. 

    The Brotherhood throughout the ages 

    From a historical perspective, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood can be understood as a civil response to state violence inflicted upon society. In other words, the secular–Islamic tension in Egypt is not merely a cultural clash but rather a consequence of the state’s violent encroachment upon society’s symbolic capital.

    It is also important to view the Muslim Brotherhood primarily as a social movement rather than a political one, akin to its offshoots, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which also trace their roots to grassroots social activism. 

    During Egypt’s monarchial period, the Brotherhood aligned closely with figures such as Fathi Radwan, Aziz al-Masri, and Muhammad Saleh Harb in opposing Saad Zaghloul and the nationalist, liberal Wafd Party. However, following the monarchy’s demise, the Brotherhood found itself on opposite sides.

    In the turbulent sixties, controversial figures like Sayyid Qutb faced persecution, while Hassan al-Hudaybi, the Brotherhood’s former supreme guide, emphasized their role as “preachers, not judges.”

    During Anwar Sadat’s presidency in the seventies, the Brotherhood oscillated between support and opposition, and in the eighties, it condemned his assassination by militant offshoot al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.

    This helps explain the fluctuating relationship between the state and the Brotherhood throughout modern Egyptian history. 

    A blast from the past 

    The ‘return’ of the Brotherhood, at least to the public’s attention, raises questions about what the Egyptian state wants from society. The government’s costly trophy ‘development-without-demand’ projects – erecting entirely new cities, including a capital city – and the random ‘renaissance funds’ that boomed under Sisi are yet to benefit ordinary Egyptians or resolve Egypt’s longstanding economic and national challenges. 

    Despite the artificial boom attributed to these ego projects, Egypt languishes at the bottom of Arab states in education quality, ranking 139th globally in 2023, and 153rd in health security, as corruption continues to plague its institutions, for which it ranks 130th.

    Arguably, these ‘renaissance’ projects in Egypt today do little more than enrich a financial oligarchy deeply entrenched in the corridors of power, who lack any vision for sustainable development. 

    While the Muslim Brotherhood may officially be banned, its historical role as a support system for the people during times when the state was either unwilling or unable to provide necessitates caution. 

    If the government fails to tread carefully in domestic affairs – particularly with the backdrop of Israel’s assault on Muslims right on Egypt’s border – the Brotherhood could re-emerge from the shadows, colliding head-on with the state once again.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 15:10

  • "Why Do I Have To Have Another Marvel Movie That's All Women?" Billionaire Slams 'Woke' Disney Amid Board Proxy Battle
    “Why Do I Have To Have Another Marvel Movie That’s All Women?” Billionaire Slams ‘Woke’ Disney Amid Board Proxy Battle

    Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, whose Trian Partners owns a roughly $3.5 billion stake in Disney, has entered a fierce proxy fight to join the company’s board.

    Nelson PeltzPhotographer: Calla Kessler/Bloomberg

    Sitting down with the Financial Times, Peltz slammed the DEI-driven entertainment company.

    “Disney is stupid because I’m not trying to fire [chief executive] Bob Iger, I want to help him,” he said, adding: “We don’t fire CEOs.”

    Disney, meanwhile, says that Peltz has not “presented a single strategic idea” to the company while campaigning for two years to secure board seats.

    Peltz hit back, telling the Times: “They say we know nothing about the movie business — we don’t claim we do — but I don’t think they do, with five big losers in a row. They’ve lost first place in animation, they’ve lost first place in features . . . Maybe it’s time to change management in those divisions.”

    Too woke…

    In comments we’re sure the left will seize on, the billionaire investor then criticized Disney for pushing woke messaging as opposed to simply making great content.

    “People go to watch a movie or a show to be entertained,” said Peltz. “They don’t go to get a message.”

    Elaborating further, Peltz asked “Why do I have to have a Marvel that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that? Why can’t I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-Black cast?” referring to Black Panther.

    The Disney proxy fight is nearing its end, with a shareholder vote scheduled for April 3. And speaking of woke…

    Both sides have been publicizing the support they’ve received from others in the business world. Iger has been endorsed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, filmmaker George Lucas and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs and a large Disney shareholder.

    Meanwhile, a group of current and former directors at firms including Mondelez International Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and Janus Henderson Group Plc. this week co-signed a letter in support of Peltz.

    As for politics, Peltz – who hosted a dinner in February with Elon Musk, says that Trump is “not a perfect candidate, nor is Biden,” adding “It looks like Trump is all we got.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 14:35

  • Nothing To See Here, Just A Man Waving A Severed Human Leg Around And Eating It
    Nothing To See Here, Just A Man Waving A Severed Human Leg Around And Eating It

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    Video footage shot in Wasco, California appears to show a crazed maniac waving around a severed human leg and taking bites out of it before police apprehended him Friday.

    Reports have suggested that the man ‘stole’ the leg from the scene of a train accident, where a person was earlier hit and killed.

    The footage shows the man, identified as 27-year-old Resendo Tellez, holding and examining the limb, with witnesses saying he was eating parts of it, before attempting to walk away waving it around as multiple police cars close in on him.

    WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE

    Here is a censored version, in case the uncensored graphic version above is removed:

    Tellez was arrested on multiple outstanding warrants, and for taking ‘evidence’ from the accident scene.

    He was also charged with misdemeanor removal of human body parts from an area that is not a cemetery without law enforcement approval.

    Some reports claim he was also charged with mutilating the body, supporting the claim that he had devoured some of it.

    This is the kind of thing happening most days now in Democrat run shithole American cities.

    Perhaps NBC News will report the leg as being “abandoned”?

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 14:00

  • TIME To Panic: Joe Biden's Campaign "In Trouble" Despite Obama Warning
    TIME To Panic: Joe Biden’s Campaign “In Trouble” Despite Obama Warning

    “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” –Barack Obama

    With less than eight months before the 2024 election, the Biden re-election campaign is in big trouble. Not only is Biden lagging in the polls vs. Donald Trump, the border crisis he created by shredding all of Trump’s Executive Orders on immigration has resulted in 10 million illegals flooding into the United States – which has left even Democrats livid.

    Illustration by Klawe Rzeczy

    What’s more, Biden is quickly losing the support of young Americans, and the latino vote.

    Things are so bad that TIME magazine has just devoted 3,700 words to let us know that Barack Obama ‘warned’ the Biden campaign last June that defeating Trump would be harder in 2024 (because no pandemic or hoax dossier to set him up?). Six months later, Obama ‘saw few signs of improvement.’

    Obama returned to the White House in December, with a ‘more urgent’ message: the re-election campaign was behind schedule in building out field operations, and that an ‘insular group of advisers’ in the West Wing was hamstringing the effort.

    Now, it’s really bad…

    Three months later, the 2024 general election is under way, and Biden is indeed in trouble. His stubbornly low approval ratings have sunk into the high 30s, worse than those of any other recent President seeking re-election. He’s trailed or tied Trump in most head-to-head matchups for months. Voters express concerns about his policies, his leadership, his age, and his competency. The coalition that carried Biden to victory in 2020 has splintered; the Democrats’ historic advantage with Black, Latino, and Asian American voters has dwindled to lows not seen since the civil rights movement. -TIME

    Meanwhile, Biden’s inner circle is “defiantly sanguine” as a “fog of dread” descends on Democrats.

    The rest of the TIME article is full of anecdotes of dissatisfied Democrats, particularly young voters such as 20-year-old Aidan Kohn-Murphy.

    It has nothing to do, as many assume, with the President’s age. With palpable frustration, Kohn-Murphy enumerates the list of perceived policy “betrayals” as though they were “tattooed on the back of my hand.”

    According to the report, GenZ voters “don’t understand why they should be compelled to cast their ballot for a candidate who has done so many things that are against their values,” said Kohn-Murphy.

    Losing the minority vote

    In 2020, Biden carried 87% of the black vote. Now, he’s polling at just 63%, a sharp decline. Meanwhile four years ago he won hispanic votes by a ratio of 2 to 1. He now trails Trump in that bloc.

    Biden’s support of Israel amid the Gaza war has “tanked his standing with Muslim and Arab voters,” particularly in “must-win Michigan.”

    Overall, Biden’s advantage over Trump among nonwhite Americans has shrunk from almost 50 points in 2020 to 12, according to the latest Times/Siena poll.

    “It boils down to voters of color, and those voters are pissed,” said one former Biden campaign and White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I think it’s very likely he’ll lose.”

    What’s more, nearly two dozen senior Democratic sources told TIME that Biden’s “campaign mechanics, structure, and staffing over most of the past year are partly to blame as well.”

    While Obama was marching to re-election over the summer of 2012, his campaign head count topped 900. Despite plans to hire 350 new staffers, the Biden campaign ended 2023 with only around 70 paid employees, according to campaign finance filings.

    Biden advisers don’t care about the president’s dismal numbers with young and nonwhite voters, as the “Biden brain trust” thinks they’ll vote for him again regardless.

    “We’ve reached out to this group of nonwhite and young voters earlier than any presidential campaign ever has,” according to senior adviser Becca Siegel.

    Good luck with that…

    Illustration by Tim O’Brien for TIME

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 13:25

  • The Insanity In Our World Is Driven By Money Printing
    The Insanity In Our World Is Driven By Money Printing

    Authored by Marty Bent via BombThrower.com,

    Fix The Money, Fix The World

    This chart has been making the rounds on Twitter this week and I think it’s a good image to send you freaks into the weekend with.

    It’s easy to get swept up in the chaos of the day-to-day volatility that exists in our world. Recently, our minds have been inundated with headlines about illegal immigration, squatters and the degradation of private property rights, war across the world, small battles within the larger “culture war”, increasing prices, and the decisions made by central banks around the world. In the midst of all of this chaos it is important to take a step back and remind yourself of what lies at the core of most of these issues; the fact that we’ve completely broken money.

    When you break money, the most important tool humans use to facilitate economic activity, a ripple effect of negative consequences begins to emanate from the root of the world’s engine. Those ripples create the momentum that leads to chaos that we are witnessing today.

    Broken money leads people to store their value in sub optimal vehicles like housing. This drives the cost of real estate up unnaturally and increases the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots”. Sowing seeds of animosity. Seeds that, when left to germinate and grow via the further degradation of the money people use, blossom into ugly flowers of Anarcho Tyranny.

    This has manifested in the trend of people claiming other’s houses by squatting in them when they are left unattended for an extended period of time. The preferential treatment that has been given to squatters over homeowners in recent years can be seen as the regime which controls the money printers throwing the plebs a bone as they struggle to get by, an attempt to push the productive class to violence against a state unwilling to respect private property rights, or a combination of the two.

    Broken money incentivizes governments to allow their borders to be bum rushed by cheap laborers who will take low paying jobs that enable the systemically fragile economy to keep chugging along while simultaneously increasing the chaos that already exists and diluting the values that the natives of this country believe in.

    The excess and decadence enabled by a world run on broken easy money allows people to live in a detached reality that leads them to push objectively false narratives. This is why there are running debates about gender and a retreat from merit based compensation.

    All of this stems from broken money.

    The chart above should act as a reminder to you all that the biggest problem in the world right now is the money. The chart above should also prove to you that the most powerful people throughout the economy are going to fight tooth and nail to protect the broken money because they benefit massively from the fact that it is broken.

    Keep this in mind as the chaos increases and narratives begin to form around using bitcoin as money.

    *  *  *

    Get on the Bombthrower mailing list here and receive a free copy of The Crypto Capitalist Manifesto, which outlined all this. However, by the time you read this it may already be too late to sign up for The Bitcoin Capitalist Letter: new subscriptions will be closed once Bitcoin hits a new all-time high.
    Follow Marty’s Bent via TFTC.io

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 12:50

  • Some Democrats Say They Would Save Speaker Johnson From Ouster
    Some Democrats Say They Would Save Speaker Johnson From Ouster

    By Jacob Burg of the Epoch Times

    An unlikely source of aid for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—who is facing a motion from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust him after bringing the government funding package to a floor vote—might come from House Democrats.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (L) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) listen during remarks at a menorah lighting ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Dec. 12, 2023.

    After all House Democrats voted with a gang of eight Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October 2023, several House Democrats are signaling they would save Mr. Johnson from a similar fate.

    “It’s absurd he’s being kicked out for doing the right thing, keeping the government open. It has two-thirds support of the Congress, and the idea that he would be kicked out by these jokers is absurd,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) told CNN on March 22. He said he would vote to retain Mr. Johnson as House Speaker and hoped other Democrats would do the same.

    Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) expressed a similar sentiment in a March 22 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.  “I do not support Speaker Johnson, but I will never stand by and let [Ms. Greene] take over the people’s House,” he said.

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

    However, some Democrats said their support would be predicated on Mr. Johnson reconsidering the Senate’s foreign-aid package passed in February.

    “I’d want to see his good-faith action before that happened,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said, referring to the possibility of voting to retain Mr. Johnson as speaker.

    Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), before Ms. Greene filed her motion, mentioned that he would vote to prevent Mr. Johnson’s ouster depending on the speaker’s actions regarding aid for Ukraine.

    “If we get a vote on the appropriations bills and we get a vote on the supplemental, there’ll be enough Democrats that Johnson will not be removed as speaker,” Mr. Smith told The Hill in February.

    “That’s just my view.”

    Republicans Against Johnson Ouster

    Ms. Greene filed her motion to vacate Mr. Johnson from the speaker’s chair the morning before the House approved the funding package, 286–134, which is now headed to the Senate before the 11:59 p.m. shutdown deadline.

    However, not all Republicans are eager to face the same gridlock and uncertainty that bedeviled the GOP caucus in the weeks after Mr. McCarthy’s ouster. Even some of Mr. Johnson’s harshest critics from the House Freedom Caucus have dismissed Ms. Greene’s efforts.

    Mr. Gaetz, who initiated Mr. McCarthy’s downfall, said he would not support a motion to vacate Mr. Johnson.

    “When I vacated McCarthy, I made a promise to all of you, to the entire country, that we would not end up with a Democrat speaker,” Mr. Gaetz said on his “Firebrand” podcast on March 22, after the House vote.

    He expressed concern with the dwindling House GOP majority and the possibility of at least a few Republicans voting for a Democratic speaker in the event of Mr. Johnson’s potential ouster.

    “And because I’m not sure of that, do not count me among those who would support a motion to vacate at this time,” Mr. Gaetz added.

    Some Republicans, however, were not nearly as restrained in their responses to Ms. Greene’s motion to vacate.

    “It’s not only idiotic, but it actually does not do anything to advance the conservative movement. And in fact, it undermines the country and our majority,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).

    Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) of the House Freedom Caucus said Mr. Johnson is the only House Republican capable of leading the caucus “through these dark and challenging times” and that Ms. Greene “just made a big mistake.”

    “To think that one of our Republican colleagues would call for his ouster right now—it’s really … it’s abhorrent to me, and I oppose it,” he said in a video posted to X.

    Ms. Greene told reporters on the Capital steps on March 22 that she is not the only Republican supporting her motion to vacate Mr. Johnson but stopped short of naming anyone.

    “I’ve talked to many who probably won’t go public, but silently, they’re breathing a sigh of relief,” she said.

    That support, at least so far, does not appear to come from others who voted to oust Mr. McCarthy last year.

    Continue reading at The Epoch Times

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 11:40

  • Kamala Harris Announces DOJ-Funded Office To Push 'Red Flag' Gun Laws, Gets Slammed By Parkland Dad Over 'Photo Op'
    Kamala Harris Announces DOJ-Funded Office To Push ‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws, Gets Slammed By Parkland Dad Over ‘Photo Op’

    Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday announced a new national office that will assist states in implementing “red flag” laws – which allow for a judge like this…

    …to approve the temporary removal of firearms from a person believed to be a danger to themselves or others, by a prosecutor like this:

    New York AG Letitia James

    Harris announced the new office, the federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center (Erpo), at a Saturday visit to Parkland, Florida, where she toured the site of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting that killed 17.

    “The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school occurred after there were clear warning signs, but there were no tools to remove the shooter’s firearm,” the White House said in a statement announcing the resource office.

    The office is being funded by a Justice Department grant, and will be operated through the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. It will help state and local governments, as well as law enforcement and others (including behavioral health and social service providers), to “optimize” the use of red flag laws, and will provide training and technical assistance “for a wide variety of stakeholders.”

    Red flag laws have already been implemented in 21 states, of which the White House said that just six had taken advantage of $750 million in funding made available by the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act enacted by the Biden administration.

    Meanwhile, the father of a victim of the Parkland shooting, Ryan Petty, slammed Harris in an interview on Fox News, telling the outlet “The vice president and the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention made it very clear to families early on that nothing short of new gun control was going to satisfy them in protecting our nation’s schools. And that is just a slap in the face to those of us that have worked for six years now to try to protect our nation’s schools.”

    “There are so many ways that we can protect our kids and our teachers at school that don’t require the infringement on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners around the country,” Petty added. “But the vice president and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention don’t want to hear any of those solutions. What they want to do is create an opportunity for the vice president to spout gun control talking points at a site that, quite frankly, is hallowed ground at this point.

    “What’s frustrating to me is that this building should have been demolished years ago, and it’s now being used as a photo op for politicians that want to push an agenda,” he continued.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/24/2024 – 11:05

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Mar 24

Today’s News 24th March 2024

  • China Behind Super Highway That Targets US With Mass Migration, Economic Warfare
    China Behind Super Highway That Targets US With Mass Migration, Economic Warfare

    Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The grind of heavy machinery breaks the silence of the Darién jungle, where the Pan American Highway ends at Yaviza in Panama.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock)

    Construction workers have cleared towering trees to make way for a steel and concrete bridge mighty enough to withstand flooding from the Chucunaque River.

    An onsite worker for the construction company Cusa told The Epoch Times the construction project will cut 4 miles into the Darién jungle at a cost of $42 million and includes a second bridge crossing the Tuira River.

    That would leave some 55 miles to finish the Pan American Highway, also known as Highway 1, through the mountainous rainforest to connect it to Turbo, Colombia.

    If it’s ever completed, the Pan American Highway will stretch about 18,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, opening up a land corridor the length of the Americas.

    It has gone unfinished for decades due to American and Panamanian concerns over the environment, crime, and disease—and more recently mass migration. The dangerous, rugged terrain acts as a natural barrier to travel from South to Central America.

    The bridge and road expansion will end near the town of Bocas de Cupe, in the Darién Gap. However, bridging the rivers has been considered one of the major obstacles blocking completion of the highway.

    The new project has worried some who fear completing the road into the Darién Gap will be a win for China and a loss for America.

    Michael Yon, a former war correspondent, has been covering mass migration through Panama for several years and has used social media to bring attention to the bridge’s construction and its implications.

    China would benefit through an alternate trade route around the Panama Canal, which is essential to global trade. But for the United States, it could open the floodgates to migrants from South America, he told the Epoch Times.

    Meanwhile, U.S. leaders have grown increasingly wary of the military implications tied to Chinese infrastructure projects being built in America’s backyard as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly around the Panama Canal.

    In 2018, Panama signed on to China’s ambitious BRI project, dubbed a modern Silk Road, after publicly recognizing Taiwan as part of China, much to the surprise and concern of the United States.

    Workers prepare abutments for a bridge spanning the Chucunaque River at Yaviza, Panama, on Feb. 20, 2024. An onsite worker for the construction company Cusa said the project will cut four miles into the Darien jungle at a cost of $42 million and includes a second bridge crossing the Tuira River. (Bobby Sanchez for The Epoch Times)

    The CCP aims to utilize the BRI “to amass power and influence at the expense of the world’s democracies,” U.S. Southern Command Commander Army Gen. Laura Richardson warned in March.

    She and other commanders in recent years have been sounding the alarm about China’s incursion into the Western Hemisphere.

    China “seeks to supplant the United States as the world’s leading economic and military power,” Gen. Richardson noted in a written statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

    Closing the Gap

    Last year alone, a record 500,000 migrants traveled through the Darién Gap on their way to the U.S. southern border, documents show.

    Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, believes China’s economic development in the region threatens America’s influence and security.

    “If China displaces the U.S. in the Western hemisphere as the dominant economic power, then we lose our leverage,” Mr. Howell, formerly an attorney with the Department of Homeland Security, told The Epoch Times.

    China is encircling the United States with infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Howell said.

    “It’s like a boa constrictor that’s tightening and tightening around the United States,” he said.

    In the 2019 book, “China’s Belt and Road and Panama: A Strategic and Prospective Scenario between the Americas and China,” author Eddie Tapiero touts the rise of China’s BRI in utopian terms.

    Mr. Tapiero, a Panamanian professor and international economist who wrote his book after a BRI meeting in China, called the initiative a catalyst for “global public good,” envisioning a world where “borders no longer exist, nor do countries.”

    Migrants walk by the jungle near Bajo Chiquito village, the first border control of the Darien Province in Panama, on Sept. 22, 2023. (Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)

    The book includes a BRI scenario with a map titled “Globalized Belt and Road,” showing Panama and its canal connected to Colombia by rail through the Darién Gap.

    On the Colombian side of the Darién Gap, Chinese companies are working to build highways and ports.

    Roadwork near the Pan American Highway in Turbo is part of the “Autopistas al Mar 2” highway project.

    The project will connect Colombia’s second-largest city of Medellín to ports in Urabá, including Turbo, where the Pan American Highway ends.

    China’s state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), along with four local companies won the 2015 bid to build the Autopistas al Mar 2, according to the nonprofit Colombia Reports website.

    The project was delayed until late 2019, when the Chinese-led consortium obtained the necessary loans from the China Development Bank.

    Mr. Tapiero sees Panama, bookended by Colombia and Costa Rica, as a central hub in Latin America for the BRI. He suggests the United States could “reduce geopolitical uncertainty” if it, too, joins the BRI.

    His globalized BRI map also showed rail routes slicing through the United States, to significant markets on America’s east and west coasts.

    Infrastructure “connectivity” through air, land, and sea is a central theme of the book, which is playing out in Panama.

    The bridges into the Darién are part of a contract for the rehabilitation, improvement, and maintenance of the East Pan-American Highway.

    (Top) A ship is guided through the locks in the Panama Canal on Feb. 21, 2024. (Bottom) Traffic crosses the Bridge of The Americas on the Pan American Highway as an eastbound ship enters the Panama Canal on Feb. 21, 2024. (Bobby Sanchez for The Epoch Times)

    It was awarded to Intervial Chile, S.A. under a public-private partnership with the government of Panama, according to government documents.

    The investment for the project stands at more than $262 million as part of Panama’s Performance Standards Maintenance Program, which aims to promote agricultural, commercial, and tourist development.

    Funding for the project is through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of World Bank Group. China has ties with both banking establishments. In 2009, China pledged $1.5 billion to IFC to boost global trade and more recently has intensified collaboration with IFC on climate friendly bonds.

    Global Choke Points

    A highway through the Darién Gap stands to diminish the importance of the Panama Canal, which the United States still protects under a neutrality treaty.

    The canal was returned to Panama in 1999 under a treaty brokered in the 1970s with President Jimmy Carter.

    The Darién Gap by land is similar to the Panama Canal by sea as a choke point, which holds military and economic value.

    China’s attempt to minimize or control the canal’s strategic importance to the United States could be significant should a conflict break out over Taiwan in terms of China’s ability to shut down sea lanes, said Andrés Martínez-Fernández, the Heritage Foundation’s senior policy analyst for Latin America.

    “That’s a very concerning issue in particular,” he told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Martinez-Fernandez noted that Chinese companies have been busy building infrastructure on either end of the U.S.–built Panama Canal.

    The canal has become a point of tension between China and the United States, which has retained the right to enforce operational neutrality on the Panama Canal.

    The Panama Canal Authority controls the administration and maintenance of the waterway’s resources and security, independent of the Panamanian government.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 23:20

  • Philadelphia Sets 11PM Curfew For All Businesses In Drug-Riddled Kensington Section Of City
    Philadelphia Sets 11PM Curfew For All Businesses In Drug-Riddled Kensington Section Of City

    Slowly, but steadily, Philadelphia’s drug-ridden Kensington section is all but shutting down. The area, best known for its zombie-like appearance, is now forcing 24 hour businesses like gas stations and convenience stores to shut down between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

    Because what better way to address the drug problem than to shut down law-abiding businesses in the area? Once again, government is thinking ‘outside the box’ with your tax dollars. 

    The proposal was put forward by Councilmember Quetcy Lozada of the 7th District, representing Kensington, during a Council Stated Meeting on Thursday and is aimed at curbing crime, mitigating litter issues, and moderating nocturnal activities in the community.

    Approximately 90 businesses will be affected, a new report from NBC Philadelphia said. Establishments holding a liquor license within the specified zone will be exempt from these new rules, allowed to keep their operations open until 2 a.m., which is the current law for bars and restaurants with liquor licenses. 

    The bill was conceived in February and was developed with feedback from local residents, businesses, and non-profit organizations, driven by concerns related to the opioid crisis, as noted by city representatives.

    The proposed regulations are set to affect the vicinity enclosed by East Lehigh Avenue, Kensington Avenue, D Street, E Tioga Street, and Frankford Avenue, encompassing businesses along the blocks bordering this area.

    Kensington-based nonprofit IMPACT Services Roberto Rodriguez commented to NBC Philadelphia: “The businesses in the Kensington Corridor are in support of this initiative. They are thankful that Councilmember Lozada has included them in the conversation and considered their opinions. During the meeting that she held at our office with them, it was clear that they are supportive of this and future public safety measures.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 22:45

  • Dangerous Levels Of Toxins Found In General Mills ‘LOADED’ Cereal: Report
    Dangerous Levels Of Toxins Found In General Mills ‘LOADED’ Cereal: Report

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

    A new report is raising concerns over General Mills’ new cereal line after testing revealed that Trix LOADED cereal is literally loaded with high levels of heavy metals and agrochemicals.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

    General Mills, Inc. on Feb. 1 launched “LOADED,” a new cereal line with “puffed-up larger-than-life squares” of General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, and Cocoa Puffs cereals filled with artificially flavored vanilla creme. Trix LOADED boasts 17 grams of whole grain per serving and 12 vitamins and minerals. Yet testing by Moms Across America (MAA), an organization dedicated to educating and empowering others to create healthy communities, found the artificially flavored creme-filled breakfast food also contains measurable levels of aluminum, cadmium, arsenic, lead, glyphosate, and pesticides shown to be harmful to humans.

    In a statement to The Epoch Times, MAA director Zen Honeycutt said her organization tested two samples of General Mills’ Trix LOADED cereal because they were alarmed that the company, which had previously seemed very committed to supporting regenerative organic agriculture, launched a cereal “loaded with creme, food dyes, and highly-processed foods.”

    Pesticides Found in General Mills’ Trix LOADED Cereal

    In test results obtained by MAA, scientists found residues from eight different pesticides in both samples of Trix LOADED cereal.

    The following six pesticide residues were found in trace amounts:

    • Imazalil-1
    • Metconazole-1
    • Pyraclostrobin-1
    • Pyrimethanil-1
    • Pyriproxyfen-1
    • Tebuconazole-1

    Two pesticides, piperonyl butoxide-1 (PBO) and fluopyram-1, were detected in higher amounts. Fluopyram-1 is a broad-spectrum fungicide that can cause liver problems, endocrine disruption, and thyroid cancer.

    Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) is a man-made pesticide synergist that enhances the potency of certain pesticides designed to kill insects. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies PBO as a “possible human carcinogen” as studies in rats show PBO can induce thyroid and liver cancers, as well as noncancerous tumors.

    More recent animal model studies suggest PBO exposure can cause neurodevelopmental abnormalities in utero and liver cancer. A 2021 study published in Reproductive Toxicology found PBO may cause male infertility and reproductive toxicity.

    According to the National Pesticide Information Center, PBO is found in over 2,500 pesticide products, including foggers and mosquito control programs. Yet PBO is exempt from the EPA’s maximum residue limits, which determine the amount of pesticides allowed to remain in food. This means PBO pesticide residue is freely permitted in cereals consumed daily by children and adolescents across the United States.

    Heavy Metals Exceeded EPA Allowable Levels

    According to test results obtained by The Epoch Times, scientists also detected measurable levels of aluminum, cadmium, lead, and arsenic in both samples of Trix LOADED cereal that in some cases far exceeded the EPA allowable levels in drinking water. The United States does not consistently regulate heavy metals in food or assess the long-term cumulative effects of heavy metal exposure in children, but it does regulate the amount of heavy metal contaminants allowed in water.

    For example, the EPA sets the allowable level of arsenic in drinking water at 10 parts per billion (ppb). Trix LOADED cereal samples contained 21.5 and 23 ppb of lead—more than double the EPA’s allowable level. The samples contained cadmium levels 400 percent higher than the EPA’s allowable level.

    The EPA allows 0.05 to 0.2 mg/L of aluminum in drinking water, equivalent to 50 to 200 ppb. Cereal samples 1 and 2 contained 2,930 ppb and 3,500 ppb of aluminum, respectively. These were 1,365 percent and 1,650 percent higher than the agency’s allowable level of aluminum in drinking water.

    In 2008, the European Food Safety Authority established a “tolerable weekly intake” of 1 mg of aluminum per kg of body weight per week, based on combined evidence from animal studies that assessed dietary administration of aluminum compounds.

    Using European Union standards, if a child eats a 40-gram serving of Trix LOADED cereal daily, the weekly consumption of aluminum would be 0.98 mg/week based on one sample and 0.82 mg/week based on the other. This is roughly equal to the EU’s limit without considering other sources of aluminum exposure, such as flour, baking soda, medications, processed foods, and aluminum pots and pans.

    Trix LOADED Exposes Children to Toxic Glyphosate

    Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, was found in both samples of Trix LOADED cereal at 15.83 ppb and 17.47 ppb. It is a key inactive ingredient in weedkiller products such as Roundup.

    The EPA has not classified glyphosate as a human carcinogen, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as “probably” carcinogenic to humans.

    Studies have confirmed a link between glyphosate and numerous health conditions, including cancers and nervous system disorders. Additionally, Monsanto, now Bayer, agreed to pay roughly $11 billion to settle claims filed by individuals who say Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma or other related cancers. As of March, there are 4,253 cancer lawsuits, out of the 4,800 claims originally filed, still pending in the California Roundup multi-district litigation.

    In research published by the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, scientists found that childhood exposure to glyphosate is linked to liver inflammation and metabolic disorders in adulthood that could lead to liver cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases later in life. Researchers found high levels of glyphosate residue in the urine of children and adolescents and reported that diet was a key source of exposure—as levels were higher in those who consumed more cereals and carbohydrates.

    Glyphosate is routinely used on genetically modified crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, legumes, and produce.

    Moms Across America Contacts General Mills

    In an email to General Mills provided to The Epoch Times, MAA called on the company to source suppliers who use safe, nontoxic ingredients, despite the lack of laws and regulations that would otherwise require them to do so.

    MAA requested General Mills do the following:

    • Require that suppliers of ingredients avoid using glyphosate or other agrochemicals as a drying agent or preharvest weedkiller.
    • Transition away from using glyphosate as a weedkiller within one to two years.
    • Perform quality testing on fertilizers for heavy metal contaminants and direct the safest possible fertilizer to be used.
    • Support and promote regenerative organic farming practices.

    “We hope consumers will learn the truth about the contents of ‘loaded cereal’ and make choices to support their family’s health,” Ms. Honeycutt told The Epoch Times. “We also hope they [consumers] will alert their elected officials that these types of foods, with high heavy metals and agrochemicals, have no place in the American food supply.”

    Ms. Honeycutt said she believes consumers should know the truth about what’s in their cereal so that they can make choices to support their family’s health, and hopes policymakers will “exercise the political will needed to clean up the food supply.”

    The Epoch Times reached out to General Mills for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 22:10

  • House Speaker Confirms He'll Invite Netanyahu To Address Congress
    House Speaker Confirms He’ll Invite Netanyahu To Address Congress

    Late this week House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that he will go through with inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington in order to address a joint session of Congress, and to emphasize solidarity with Israel amid its ongoing war against Hamas.

    Johnson’s Thursday statement suggests the invitation has already been extended: “I would love to have him come in and address a joint session of Congress. We’ll certainly extend that invitation,” he said to NBC News. “We’re just trying to work out schedules on all this.”

    Getty Images

    Johnson has in turn recently been asked by Israeli officials to speak at Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

    Even though all of this has come in direct response to Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s scathing anti-Netanyahu speech issued earlier this month, Schumer now says he welcomes the idea of Netanyahu addressing Congress.

    Schumer had said Israel risks becoming a “pariah” under Netanyahu’s failed policies, and highlighted the soaring Palestinian civilian death toll in the war against Hamas. He even called for new elections in Israel.

    “Israel has no stronger ally than the United States, and our relationship transcends any one president or any one Prime Minister,” Schumer has responded in a statement. “I will always welcome the opportunity for the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way.”

    It must be remembered, however, the Netanyahu once addressed Congress – all the way back in 2002 – where he helped the Bush administration deceive the American public concerning Saddam Hussein and WMDs.

    He had testified during that appearance over two decades ago, “There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking, is working, is advancing towards to the development of nuclear weapons.”

    Netanyahu had also dubiously said, “If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.”

    That alone should disqualify him from ever being welcomed to speak to Congress and the American people again. But apparently both sides of the aisle are welcoming Johnson’s plan.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 21:35

  • Biden's Border Blowup
    Biden’s Border Blowup

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Some 8 to 10 million illegal aliens from all over the world, as expected, have flooded across the border since President Joe Biden took office.

    Illegal immigrants wade through the Rio Grande River as they cross the U.S.-Mexico border to request asylum, in El Paso, Texas, on March 13, 2024. (John Moore/Getty Images)

    A demagogic candidate Biden, remember, in 2019 invited those massing at the southern border to “surge” into the United States without specifying that they first needed legal sanction: “We immediately surge to the border all those seeking asylum.”

    In contrast, we know legal immigration is America’s great strength, but it has always depended on a few key prerequisites.

    Immigration must be legal and measured.

    Why? Because only the host nation can adjudicate how many immigrants it can successfully accept and assimilate. It has no desire to encourage Balkanized tribalism so common in nations abroad torn apart by ethnic conflict.

    America must have some knowledge of the background of immigrants, especially whether they have criminal records, belong to gangs, are importing drugs, carry infectious diseases, or can be self-supporting.

    By contrast, if the first thing immigrants do is illegally cross the American border, and the second is to reside illegally in America, and the third is to obtain fraudulent identification to mask that illegality, then they will establish long patterns of illegal behavior and disrespect for their hosts.

    In addition, immigration should be diverse so that large ethnic groups do not form permanent tribal sects in the fashion of the Balkans, the Middle East, or Latin America.

    Ideally, the host should prefer immigrants who have some knowledge of the language and customs of the United States. And they should have some ability to be self-supporting so as not to burden American taxpayers or overtax and deprive social services from poorer U.S. citizens.

    As for the host?

    America must be confident enough in and knowledgeable enough about its values, customs, and traditions to demand immigrants integrate rapidly into the body politic of the United States.

    Both the host and immigrants must agree on the basic facts of immigration.

    Immigrants, not the host, have chosen to leave their native land to risk a new life and identity in America.

    Therefore, the relationship is, by nature, asymmetrical. The host has a perfect right, indeed a responsibility, to impose its own values upon newcomers—not vice versa.

    Otherwise, if immigrants do not absorb their newly adopted culture, why would they have left and, in some sense, rejected their homeland in the first place?

    To replicate in the United States the very conditions and environment that they so eagerly fled from back home?

    So the host must remind immigrants that they chose a completely different paradigm from their native country. And therefore, they must be helped to embrace an entirely new national identity.

    Unfortunately, in the last four years, the Biden administration has violated every historical canon critical to ensuring legal immigration enriches the United States.

    They have encouraged 8–10 million of the world’s poorest to flood the border and to enter and reside in America without legal sanction.

    Most have no prior experience with American traditions, and few speak English.

    Host Americans have no idea whether hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of the millions entering illegally have committed crimes in their native countries, or have any record of employment, or are sick, or are here to foment gangs and to import lethal, foreign-made drugs that kill some 100,000 Americans a year.

    Worse, we, the hosts, no longer believe in the melting pot that once made America the world’s only successful multiracial democracy, united by the laws of the Constitution and the unique values that emanate from it.

    The combination of mass illegal immigration, without audit, into a country beset with $35 trillion in national debt, an existing 50 million residents not born in the United States, and without confidence in rapid assimilation certainly explains the disaster of illegal immigration that now manifests daily.

    President Biden may think nullifying federal immigration law is a smart political trick that, in the past, may have flipped southwestern states from red to blue or warped the census to give blue states more congressional districts.

    Or he may assume that with 70 percent of the electorate now voting through poorly audited mail-in balloting, there is no real way to prevent foreign nationals from voting for those who neutered the law to let them in.

    But in truth, President Biden is unfortunately undermining support for all immigration, legal or otherwise. He is guaranteeing that more imported drugs and gang members will kill more Americans.

    Ironically, President Biden is also alienating from the Democratic Party its once loyal black and Latino voters. They, not the party elite, must deal concretely with the consequences of Biden’s callous and cynical, ideologically driven policies.

    Perhaps the left will only cease destroying immigration law when it realizes that for each illegal alien it invites in, it will lose one or more once loyal Democratic voters.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 21:00

  • Bezos's Ex Donates $640 Million – With Most Going To Far-Left Groups Boosting Migrant Criminals, Trans Athletes
    Bezos’s Ex Donates $640 Million – With Most Going To Far-Left Groups Boosting Migrant Criminals, Trans Athletes

    Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, the third-wealthiest woman in the US, has awarded $640 million in new charitable donations – with most of it going to far-left nonprofits pushing left-wing causes, including assisting migrants who commit crimes and promoting transgender biological males who compete against women, the NY Post reports.

    Scott will provide 67 migrant-advocacy organizations a combined $122 million for legal aid and other assistance, according to an analysis of 361 awards she announced Tuesday through her foundation Yield Giving.

    The big winners include the Florida Immigrant Coalition, which vehemently opposes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crackdown on migrants who commit crimes; and the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, which is fighting that state’s efforts to increase illegal-migrant enforcement. Both scored $2 million awards. -NY Post

    Scott also awarded $117 million to prisoner-advocacy groups, $72 million to 43 groups which promote “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” and supporting transgender boys who routinely ruin athletics for biological females (feminists MIA).

    “Bezos’ wife is using the profits he made through capitalism to [fund] the rope that will hang capitalism,” said Heritage Foundation senior fellow, Mike Gonzalez, adding “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them,” to quote Lenin.

    “These things that she’s donating money to – whether it’s transgender ideas, helping illegals, prisoner rights, climate change – they’re all trying to transform our system away from capitalism,” Gonzalez continued.

    Scott, who was married to Jeff Bezos for nearly 25 years and has four children with him, parted ways with the Amazon.com founder with $38.3 billion in Amazon stock. In Dec. 2022 she launched a database of her charitable gifts under the name Yield Giving.

    She then began soliciting applications from community-led nonprofits in need of financial assistants – which were required to have budgets ranging between $1 and $5 million, and missions “to advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means,” according to the website.

    According to the Post, the $640 awarded by Yield Giving during this first round of donations is more than double what Scott had initially pledged – with 361 of the 6,530 charities which applied receiving awards of either $1 million or $2 million.

    Megan Peterson, executive director of Gender Justice, cheered Scott’s $2 million “gift” to her nonprofit, saying in a statement it “could not come at a more crucial time” with “a conservative legal movement threatening our fundamental rights here in Minnesota, North Dakota, and across the United States.”

    “Building and sustaining a world free of gender barriers requires community organization, education, and changing the ways we talk and think about gender,” added Peterson, whose group recently won lawsuits regarding access to emergency contraception and the rights of trans youth to play sports that are not their biological gender. -NY Post

    At least $16 million out of $72 million handed out to LGBTQ causes were nonprofits promoting transgender athletes in female sports – including the ACLU of Alabama.

    “Democrats running cities across America do this every day with our money, and that’s the real battle we need to keep fighting,” said NY Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Brooklyn), who said that Scott’s spending on leftist causes is “unfortunate – but it’s her personal money.“

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 20:25

  • Japanese Preprint Calls For mRNA VaccinesTo Be Suspended Over Blood Bank Contamination Concerns
    Japanese Preprint Calls For mRNA VaccinesTo Be Suspended Over Blood Bank Contamination Concerns

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

    Receiving blood transfusion from COVID-19-vaccinated individuals could pose a medical risk to unvaccinated recipients since numerous adverse events are being reported among vaccinated people worldwide, according to a recent study from Japan.

    A volunteer draws the AstraZeneca vaccine as members of the public have their COVID-19 vaccinations at Fazl Mosque in Southfields, London, as it hosts a drop in clinic on June 8, 2021. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

    The preprint review, published on March 15, examined whether receiving blood from COVID-19-vaccinated individuals is safe or poses a health risk. Many nations have reported that mRNA vaccine usage has resulted in “post-vaccination thrombosis and subsequent cardiovascular damage, as well as a wide variety of diseases involving all organs and systems, including the nervous system,” it said.

    Repeated vaccinations can make people more vulnerable to COVID-19, it said. If the blood contains spike proteins, it becomes necessary to remove these proteins prior to administration, and there is no such technology currently available, the authors wrote.

    Contrary to earlier expectations, genes and proteins from genetic vaccines have been found to persist in the blood of vaccine recipients for “prolonged periods of time.”

    In addition, “a variety of adverse events resulting from genetic vaccines are now being reported worldwide.” This includes a wide range of diseases related to blood and blood vessels.

    Some studies have reported that the spike protein in the mRNA vaccines is neurotoxic and capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, the review stated. “Thus, there is no longer any doubt that the spike protein used as an antigen in genetic vaccines is itself toxic.”

    Moreover, people who have taken multiple shots of mRNA vaccines can have several exposures to the same antigen within a small time frame, which may lead to them being “imprinted with a preferential immune response to that antigen.”

    This has resulted in COVID-19 vaccine recipients becoming “more susceptible to contracting COVID-19.”

    Given such concerns, medical professionals should be aware of the “various risks associated with blood transfusions using blood products derived from people who have suffered from long COVID and from genetic vaccine recipients, including those who have received mRNA vaccines.”

    The impact of such genetic vaccines on blood products as well as the actual damage caused by them are currently unknown, the authors wrote.

    “In order to avoid these risks and prevent further expansion of blood contamination and complication of the situation, we strongly request that the vaccination campaign using genetic vaccines be suspended and that a harm–benefit assessment be carried out as early as possible.”

    Repeated vaccination of genetic vaccines can also end up causing “alterations in immune function” among recipients. This raises the risk of serious illnesses due to opportunistic infections or pathogenic viruses, which would not have been an issue if the immune system were normal, the review said.

    “Therefore, from the perspective of traditional containment of infectious diseases, greater caution is required in the collection of blood from genetic vaccine recipients and the subsequent handling of blood products, as well as during solid organ transplantation and even surgical procedures in order to avoid the risk of accidental blood-borne infection,” it stated.

    The review was funded by members of the Japanese Society for Vaccine-related Complications and the Volunteer Medical Association. Authors did not declare any conflict of interest.

    Dangers With Blood Transfusions

    The review pointed out that the genetic vaccination status of blood donors is not collected by organizations even though the use of such blood may pose risks to patients. As such, authors recommended that when blood products are derived from such people, “it is necessary to confirm the presence or absence of spike protein or modified mRNA as in other tests for pathogens.”

    “If the blood product is found to contain the spike protein or a modified gene derived from the genetic vaccine, it is essential to remove them,” it stated. “However, there is currently no reliable way to do so.”

    Since “there is no way to reliably remove the pathogenic protein or mRNA, we suggest that all such blood products be discarded until a definitive solution is found.”

    The authors pointed out that cases of encephalitis among people who received blood from dengue vaccine recipients were reported as recently as last year. This suggests that the present system of tracking and managing blood products “is not adequate.”

    Since genetic vaccines were implemented on a global scale for a massive population, “it is expected that the situation will already be complicated” compared to previous drug disasters.

    As such, there is an “urgent need” for legislation and international treaties related to the management of blood products, the authors wrote.

    The issue of blood transfusion from COVID-19 vaccine recipients has been highly controversial. In 2022, a court in New Zealand ruled against the parents of a sick infant son after they refused blood transfusions from vaccinated people.

    The parents had asked the health system to allow blood transfusion from unvaccinated individuals, with donors who were already prepared to contribute. In its ruling, the court stripped the parents of medical custody of their son.

    In Canada, doctors have also reported the trend of people’s resistance to vaccinated blood transfusions. Speaking to CBC in 2022, Dr. Dave Sidhu, the southern Alberta medical lead for transfusion and transplant medicine, said that parents of sick children were requesting unvaccinated blood.

    “We’re seeing it about once or twice a month, at this stage. And the worry is of course that these requests might increase,” he said at the time.

    In Wyoming, Rep. Sarah Penn (R-Wyo.) has sponsored a bill mandating that blood donated by people who have taken COVID-19 shots be labeled. Doing so will allow recipients who do not wish to accept such blood to reject them.

    In an interview with Cowboy State Daily, Ms. Penn said, “For various reasons, many people have purposefully strived to keep the mRNA therapies out of their bodies, even to the point that some lost their livelihoods … Their concerns are warranted.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 19:50

  • FBI Tells Passengers On Blown-Out-Door-Plug Flight They May Be 'Victim Of A Crime'
    FBI Tells Passengers On Blown-Out-Door-Plug Flight They May Be ‘Victim Of A Crime’

    In the latest bad news for Boeing, the FBI has started notifying passengers on the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines flight that experienced a terrifying blowout of a door-plug that they may be a “victim of a crime.” 

    “As a victim specialist with the Seattle division, I’m contacting you because we have identified you as a possible victim of a crime,” read the FBI letters to travelers on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. “This case is currently under investigation by the FBI. A criminal investigation can be a lengthy undertaking, and for several reasons, we cannot tell you about its progress at this time.” 

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

    In early March, it was reported that the Justice Department had opened an investigation of Boeing over the incident, which involved a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft used for an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California. Soon after takeoff, a door plug — a panel used to fill an area that in some configurations might hold a functioning door — blew out of the side of the aircraft. Fortunately, the seats adjacent to the hole weren’t occupied, and there were no serious injuries. 

    In a preliminary report on its own inquiry, the National Transportation Safety Board said the door plug was missing four bolts that are used to secure it to the fuselage. They also said they’d determined the bolts weren’t installed when the plane left a Boeing assembly plant in late 2023. 

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    The DOJ investigation is ominous enough on its own, but it could also have a serious follow-on effect: 

    If the Justice Department brings any criminal charge against Boeing in the Alaska Airlines case, that would give prosecutors the grounds to tear up the earlier agreement and charge Boeing for its role in the crashes of a Lion Air flight in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in 2019. Those crashes resulted in the deaths of 346 passengers and crew. — Bloomberg

    In that earlier combined case, Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 million, with most of that going to customers. In exchange, the DOJ agreed not to charge Boeing for withholding information from the Federal Aviation Administration pursuant to obtaining FAA approval for the MAX model. 

    On March 19, FAA chief Michael Whitaker said his visit to Boeing facilities left him with the impression that the firm’s “priorities have been on production, and not on safety and quality.” In February, the FAA published a report in which it noted 27 failings of safety procedures and culture at Boeing.  

    The door-plug blowout was just the first of a string of worrying incidents involving Boeing jets in 2024, the rest of which have no doubt left United Airlines with a bad case of buyer’s remorse…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 19:15

  • Michigan Man Sues To See Election Records After His Freedom Of Information Requests Were Denied
    Michigan Man Sues To See Election Records After His Freedom Of Information Requests Were Denied

    Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times,

    Michigan’s Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is being sued for working with local officials to stonewall a citizen’s efforts to access public election records from the Nov. 8, 2022 general and the May 2, 2023 primary elections.

    Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (right) and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (left) wait to speak at a United Auto Workers rally after the Detroit Labor Day Parade in Detroit, Mich., on Sept. 4, 2023. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

    Ms. Benson has a record of resisting transparency dating back to the 2020 presidential contest, after which she ordered local clerks to delete all electronic poll book (EPB) data from that election. In Nov. 2022, just days after the midterms, she ordered local clerks to deny public information requests to examine certain election data stored on their EPBs.

    EPB files are an original public record and a component of the electronic voting system audit trail.

    “When she (Ms. Benson) realized that some public officials were properly releasing this information under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), she ordered them to delete the data,” claims Macomb County resident Michael Butz in a brief he filed in Macomb County Circuit Court on March 11, 2024.

    Mr. Butz asked the court to deny “any interjection of responsibility” into this case by the secretary of state (SOS) and to deny the defendant municipal clerks’ rejection of his FOIA requests.

    The memos and emails supporting Mr. Butz’s claims concerning Ms. Benson are attached to the brief.

    Mr. Butz told The Epoch Times he is still awaiting the defendants’ response to his filing.

    “Jocelyn Benson and her Michigan Bureau of Elections directors are violating Michigan and United States Codes and statutes with their unlawful election processes, procedures, and instruction manuals…In fact, the Michigan Court of Appeals recently agreed,“ Mr. Butz said. “These are ongoing acts of malfeasance against the people of Michigan.”

    The Michigan Secretary of State’s Office said it does not comment or answer questions about ongoing or pending litigation.

    The case was filed against municipal election officials from several Macomb County localities for allegedly violating Mr. Butz’s right under FOIA to inspect and copy public election information.

    Though Ms. Benson is not a named defendant in the Butz lawsuit, she successfully petitioned the court to designate her as a defendant-intervener.

    The brief alleges that Ms. Benson interfered with the clerks’ responses to Mr. Butz’s initial FOIA requests by directing local officials as to what data should or should not be provided to him.

    Not Up to the SOS to Decide, Man Argues

    According to Plaintiff Butz, the responsibility for the decision to reject a FOIA request lies with the local clerks, who are mandated by statute to disclose public information and are liable for any violations of the act.

    Michael Butz, an IT professional and election integrity activist from Macomb Co., Mich. on May 30, 2023. (Steven Kovac/Epoch Times)

    The plaintiff cited legal precedent showing that Ms. Benson’s regulations, directives, guidance, opinions, memos, emails, and statements “cannot serve as the basis for FOIA denials,” because they are not statutes, and therefore, “the only basis for denial of a FOIA request must be based on the express language of the statute’s exemptions.”

    According to the brief, “Benson is simply not authorized by law to prohibit public officials from fulfilling their constitutional and statutory duties of disclosing public information under FOIA.

    “Defendants cannot, therefore, say, as they have, that they are ‘waiting’ on the research and guidance from the SOS…to tell them what to withhold, what exemption applies, or what exemption might be asserted.”

    Federal law requires all election records to be retained and preserved for 22 months, and Michigan law requires they be kept for 24 months. The retention time for used ballots in state and local elections is 30 days, if the ballots are not subject to recount or an ongoing investigation or court order or SOS order.

    “The public records derived from the EPB must, by law, be retained in their entirety and be accessible to the public,” the brief said.

    By following Ms. Benson’s order to delete the EPB data, local officials may have violated federal and state laws.

    Mr. Butz told The Epoch Times, “ The Nuremburg Trial excuse ‘I was just following orders’ does not cut it.”

    Michigan law states, “It is the public policy of this state that all persons…are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and public employees…The people shall be informed so that they may fully participate in the democratic process.”

    Discrepancies Found 

    The Butz brief states that in the jurisdictions that complied with his FOIA request, the data obtained indicated a 12 percent variation between the local records of who voted and the state’s records.

    When the discrepancies were questioned by clerks and citizens, “SOS Benson unilaterally, and without legal authority encrypted” the EPB data in order to “conceal” it from the public, and so that clerks cannot access it to reconcile it, the brief alleged.

    According to the brief, as of the 2022 elections, all files on the USB Drive for the EPB flash drive were fully encrypted.

    Mr. Butz wrote his latest FOIA requests in such a way so as to eliminate the local governments’ justifications for rejection—the privacy of registrants, proprietary and copyright concerns of the software vendors, and cybersecurity worries of the State Board of Elections. He specifically stated in his requests that he was not asking for any of these things and would be satisfied if they were redacted.

    According to the brief, “Lawful redaction of the appropriate items is expected, but BOE (state Bureau of Elections) is not allowed to define what is acceptable FOIA material in opposition to statute.”

    Mr. Butz’s requests were denied in total, so he sued.

    All Non-Exempt Information Must Be Provided 

    “The blind obedience of local clerks to the unlawful directives of the BOE is the actual reason that the FOIA requests presented by Michael Butz were denied,” according to the brief.

    Michigan law states that, if exempt information is combined with non-exempt information, the public official cannot use the excuse that redaction or separation is not possible, but “shall separate the exempt and nonexempt material,” the brief said.

    According to the plaintiff, Ms. Benson and the BOE suggest citizens requesting EPB data settle for a copy of the Voter List Report (VLR), generated on election night, in place of the EPB History file. The problem is the VLR does not contain all the information that is available on the History file, such as same-day voting data and internet connectivity, according to Mr. Butz, who is a career computer expert.

    The brief also noted that, due to several statewide voter registration services conducted by the SOS, such as the driver registration program, the statutory requirement that voter registration information be entered and filed in the public records of the relevant local official is precluded by the state’s digital practice. This means that the local clerk, who is responsible and liable for the accuracy of the names and addresses of the registrants, is effectively cut out of the process and that there is “no paper trail,” the brief contended.

    Mr. Butz told The Epoch Times that he would not settle for anything short of full disclosure of the information sought in his lawful FOIA request.

    A status conference for the case is scheduled for May 28.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 18:40

  • Where Water Stress Will Be Highest by 2050
    Where Water Stress Will Be Highest by 2050

    Water is not only the basis of life for animals and plants, but is also likely to become a contested resource in parts of the world in the coming decades. According to UN figures, global water stress, i.e. the proportion of water withdrawn for use in industry, agriculture or private households in relation to available water, was manageable at 18.2% in 2020. In 2022, however, 2.4 billion people were living in areas that are exposed to extreme water stress in some cases.

    It is not possible to determine exactly how high this will be by 2050 due to numerous factors such as the global population or economic and political developments in emerging and transition countries. This is why scientists are currently working with scenarios instead of more precise estimates. However, it is certain that the demand for water will increase steadily and that many countries are already consuming more than they have available.

    As Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the infographic below, based on projections by the World Resources Institute (WRI) , 51 of the 164 countries and territories analyzed are expected to suffer from high to extremely high water stress by 2050, which corresponds to 31 percent of the population.

    Infographic: Where Water Stress Will Be Highest by 2050 | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to WRI, the scenario used corresponds to a “business as usual” future with temperature increases of between 2.8 and 4.6 degrees Celsius by 2100 and a world that remains unequal. In addition to the entire Arabian Peninsula, Iran and India, most North African countries such as Algeria, Egypt and Libya are among the countries that are expected to consume at least 80 percent of the available water by 2050.

    However, the phenomenon of water scarcity is not limited to emerging countries. Southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy are also reportedly already under high water stress, and the situation in Spain is set to worsen significantly by 2050. For France and Poland, the WRI experts assume medium to high water stress, which corresponds to a consumption rate of 20 to 40 percent of available resources.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 18:05

  • CIA Secrecy On JFK Points To Criminal Culpability
    CIA Secrecy On JFK Points To Criminal Culpability

    Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

    More than 30 years ago, Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Enacted in the wake of Oliver Stone’s movie JFK, which posited that the Kennedy assassination was a regime-change operation on the part of the U.S. national-security establishment, the law mandated that all the assassination-related records of the Pentagon, the CIA, the Secret Service, the FBI, and other federal agencies be released to the public. Having succeeded in keeping their assassination-related records secret for almost 30 years, they didn’t like that at all.

    Today — more than 60 years after the assassination — the CIA continues to keep thousands of its assassination-related records secret. Its justification? You guessed it: “national security,” the two most powerful and meaningless words in the American political lexicon. CIA officials maintain, with straight faces, that if those still-secret assassination-related records were released, the United States would fall into the ocean, be taken over by communists, or have its “national security” endangered in some other silly way.

    How in the world can “national security” be threatened by the release of records that are more than 60 years old, regardless of what definition is placed on that nebulous term? Indeed, how can any American really believe this nonsense? They obviously take Americans for dupes.

    It is a virtual certainty that those still-secret records contain circumstantial evidence that further confirms criminal culpability on the part of the CIA and the Pentagon in the assassination of President Kennedy. After all, the CIA knows that that is precisely what most everyone is thinking with respect to the continued secrecy of those records. Why would the CIA want to leave people thinking that? One reason: Because it’s better to have people thinking that those records contain incriminating evidence rather than knowing that they do.

    What could the CIA be hiding with those still-secret records? The answer necessarily has to be speculative in nature, but my hunch is that some of the still-secret information deals with Mexico City, where the accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was supposed to have met with Cuban and Soviet officials.

    In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, it is obvious that everything went wrong with the Mexico City part of the assassination plot. For example, there were audiotapes that supposedly contained Oswald’s voice and then suddenly there were no such audiotapes. There was a photograph of Oswald except that it was a photograph of someone else.

    Why was Mexico City an important part of the assassination plot? As I detail in my newest book on the assassination, An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story, an essential part of the assassination plot was to frame a communist. This was the height of the Cold War, when most everyone hated and feared the Reds. By framing a communist, the national-security establishment could rest assured that Americans would be reluctant to come to Oswald’s defense or believe anything he said.

    Mexico City played an important role in this endeavor. Oswald was ordered to travel to Mexico City, where he was to meet with both Cuban and Soviet officials. In that way, the plotters could definitely tie the future assassin to the Soviet and Cuban communists.

    Why would Oswald obey such orders? Because he was an operative for U.S. intelligence. Intelligence operatives follow orders, especially when they’re told that they are part of an intelligence operation.

    In fact, in one of its first meetings, Earl Warren, the head of the Warren Commission, told the commission that there was highly discomforting evidence that Oswald was, in fact, an intelligence operative. Once the CIA and the FBI, which, of course, would never lie about such a thing, assured the commission that such wasn’t the case, Warren ordered that the meeting be kept top-secret and never revealed to the American people.

    When he was serving in the army, Oswald became fluent in the Russian language. That is not an easy thing to do. It takes language experts, which the U.S. government has. That’s the only way Oswald could have learned to speak fluent Russian while he was in the army.

    There is also New Orleans, where Oswald had moved from Dallas prior to his trip to Mexico City. In New Orleans, Oswald spent a lot of effort building up his “pro-communist” persona, especially with the help of an anti-Castro group called the DRE.

    Immediately after the assassination, the DRE sent out a press release informing the nation that Oswald was a communist. There is one big important thing about the DRE that the nation did not know and would not know for several decades. It was a CIA-funded and CIA-supervised group. Thus, it was actually the CIA that wanted the nation to know that the president had been killed by a Red.

    As JFK researcher Jefferson Morley, who first discovered the CIA’s connection to the DRE, has also discovered, the CIA was secretly monitoring Oswald in the months leading up to the assassination, including secretly reading his mail. Why would the CIA be doing that? Because if one is going to frame a person in a very complex murder plot, one has to be certain that the person being framed doesn’t figure out what is going on.

    Will the CIA succeed in keeping its assassination-related records secret forever? Given the overwhelming power that the national-security branch has within the federal governmental structure, it’s a virtual certainty that it will succeed. But what difference does it make? The evidence that was released by the JFK Records Act already proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the Kennedy assassination was a national-security state regime-change operation, especially with respect to the fraudulent autopsy that the military conducted on JFK’s body and the fraudulent copy of the Zapruder film that the CIA produced. (See my books The Kennedy Autopsy and An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story.) The CIA’s still-secret assassination-related records would only add more circumstantial evidence to what we already know.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 17:30

  • Slow Joe: Biden Campaign Tests 'Broke Don' Name-Calling Strategy – As Trump Net Worth Jumps By $3.5 Billion
    Slow Joe: Biden Campaign Tests ‘Broke Don’ Name-Calling Strategy – As Trump Net Worth Jumps By $3.5 Billion

    The Biden campaign couldn’t have picked a worse time to copy Donald Trump’s name-calling strategy.

    In an effort to highlight Trump’s lagging fundraising figures in the 2024 race, as well as a $454 million judgement in his NY civil fraud case, the Biden team has dubbed the former president “Broke Don”  (a slap in the face to millions of hard working Americans who are now actually broke thanks to ‘Bidenomics,’ we might add).

    On Wednesday, public election filings showed that Trump’s 2024 campaign brought in $10.9 million last month, while his joint fundraising committee raised nearly $11 million, bringing total cash on hand to around $42 million.

    Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, raised around $53 million in February, giving him $155 million in cash on hand entering this month.

    Except, Trump’s worth just jumped by roughly $3.5 billion after shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) on Friday approved a merger with Trump’s media startup, Truth Social.

    What’s more, Trump said on Friday via Truth Social that “through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash,” which would give him enough cash to post bond in his NY civil case in order to appeal the decision.

    Absolute fail

    And while Americans are getting absolutely crushed under an enormous debt load, Biden mocked them while making a joke at Trump’s expense.

    During a fundraiser last week, Biden told crowds that “a defeated man” came up to him and said, “I’m being crushed by debt.”

    “I had to say, ‘I’m sorry Donald, I can’t help you,” Biden joked.

    Even Democratic strategists are cringing at the “Broke Don” strategy.

    “The Biden team’s instinct to earn free media, try to get under his skin, and go on offense is the right one. But mimicking Trump has been done before and has never really worked,” one anonymous strategist told The Hill.

    “You can’t out-Trump Trump because he’s the original version. I would say they need to be more creative in producing their own original and unique strategy to bring him down a peg that shocks and awes,” the strategist added.

    Stay classy, Joe.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 16:55

  • Bitcoin Demand In Argentina Surges To Two Year Highs
    Bitcoin Demand In Argentina Surges To Two Year Highs

    Authored by Ciaran Lyons via CoinTelegraph.com,

    Bitcoin remains in demand among Argentines as the ARS has lost fourfold value against the US dollar in the last year, dropping from 0.0049 USD per ARS in March 2023 to 0.0012 USD at present.

    Argentines’ efforts to preserve their savings amid the ongoing decline of their national currency, the Argentine peso (ARS), has resulted in the nation recently hitting its highest demand for Bitcoin in 20 months, according to a recent report.

    On March 20, Bloomberg reported data sourced from cryptocurrency exchange Lemon Cash revealing nearly 35,000 customers in Argentina purchased Bitcoin in the week ending March 10, which is double the weekly average compared to 2023.

    Bitcoin purchases in Argentina Jan 2023 – March 2024. Source: Bloomberg

    A major factor for the increase in demand is the ongoing decline of the nation’s currency. 

    Over the past twelve months, the ARS value against the US dollar has plummeted, dropping from 0.0049 USD per ARS in March 2023 to 0.0012 USD at the time of publication.

    However, it was noted that Lemon wasn’t the only platform seeing a surge in demand. Other major exchanges in Argentina, such as Ripio and Belo, reported similar trends.

    According to the CEO of the digital wallet Belo, Manuel Beaudroi, stablecoin purchases in Argentina declined from 70% to 60% as Bitcoin’s recent price surge attracted more interest.

    “The user decides to buy Bitcoin when they see the news that the currency is going up, while stablecoin is more pragmatic and many times used for transactional purposes, as a vehicle to make payments abroad.”

    He also claimed that Belo has seen volume in Bitcoin and Ether increase “tenfold so far in 2024 compared to the same period last year.” 

    However, a recent report suggests that interest in stablecoins might still exist, as Argentines are possibly choosing not to use the well-known exchanges within the country for purchasing them.

    On Feb. 12 Cointelegraph reported that Argentines are using black market exchanges, known locally as “crypto caves,” to buy USD stablecoins in an effort to escape strict currency controls and the rising inflation of the ARS.

    Meanwhile, the use of digital currency for specific transactions is slowly gaining traction within the country.

    In December 2023, Diana Mondino, the minister of foreign affairs, international trade and worship, claimed that a decree aimed at economic reform and deregulation would allow the use of Bitcoin and other cryptos in the country under certain conditions.

    Following the ruling, a local landlord and a tenant in Rosario, the third most populated city in Argentina, sealed a rental agreement where the latter would pay monthly rent in Bitcoin.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 16:20

  • 'Will Send Netanyahu To Allah': Erdogan's Words Spark Outrage In Israel
    ‘Will Send Netanyahu To Allah’: Erdogan’s Words Spark Outrage In Israel

    Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has from the start of the Israel-Hamas war been among the most aggressive and fiercest critics of Israel and especially its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    While Erdogan has long denounced Israel’s operation in Gaza, on Thursday he unleashed his harshest rhetoric yet, which came close to perhaps being a direct threat against Netanyahu’s life. In an election rally the Turkish president vowed to “send [Netanyahu] to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable and curse him.”

    Getty Images

    The threatening and inflammatory words were widely picked up in Israeli press reports, causing outrage. He additionally described that “Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, like today’s Nazis.”

    Another media outlet which covers regional events translated Erdogan’s words as follows:

    In a fresh attack on the Israeli prime minister over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Erdogan told the crowd gathered at an election rally in central Anatolia on Thursday, “I’m leaving the person called Netanyahu in the Lord’s hands.” He then added, “May the Lord damn him.”

    Thus depending on how the remarks are translated, the statement leaves itself open to interpretation possibly as a direct threat against the Israeli leader.

    A livid Israeli government immediately summoned the Turkish ambassador, demanding answers. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Thursday said that Turkey’s charges d’affaires Mehmet Sekerci was summoned in order to “convey a clear message to Erdogan.”

    “There is no God who will listen to those who support the atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by your barbaric Hamas friends,” Katz stated. “Be quiet and shame on you!”

    Erdogan has consistently called Hamas “not a terrorist organization” but “a group of mujahideen defending their lands” – in reference to those who engage in ‘jihad’.

    From Tel Aviv’s perspective, Erdogan’s ratcheting rhetoric in denouncing Israeli actions will likely been seen as unforgiveable, even after this current crisis is over. Turkey and Israel have long clashed over the Palestinian issue, and these tensions have now exploded back into full force. Ties between the two countries are at a historical low point.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 15:45

  • Lego Lineups: Company Warns California P.D. To Stop Using Lego Heads To Hide Criminal's Faces
    Lego Lineups: Company Warns California P.D. To Stop Using Lego Heads To Hide Criminal’s Faces

    Authored by Milt Harris via PJMedia.com,

    Murrieta is a city in Southern California with just over 100,000 residents. Even though it isn’t a huge city, the Neighborhood Scout, a website that tracks local statistics for potential homebuyers or renters, reported this about the municipality on its website:

    The crime rate in Murrieta is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 15 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Murrieta is 1 in 65. Based on FBI crime data, Murrieta is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to California, Murrieta has a crime rate that is higher than 40% of the state’s cities and towns of all sizes.

    It’s common for the public to be interested in the details of an arrest, including the crime committed and the appearance of the suspect. However, in California, there is a law that prioritizes the rights of the suspect over the public’s right to know by requiring that the faces of certain suspects be concealed. In Murietta, this law has been taken to an extreme level, where police hide suspects’ faces with Lego heads.

    In an Instagram post, the police department explained the new law this way:

    On January 1st, a new law went into effect that restricts the how and when law enforcement agencies in California share suspect photos & mugshots. The new law, Assembly Bill 994 & Penal Code 13665, now prohibits law enforcement from sharing suspect photos for nonviolent crimes, unless specified circumstances exist. Additionally, the new law requires agencies to remove suspect mugshots from social media after 14 days, unless special circumstances exist.

    The Murrieta Police Department prides itself in its transparency with the community but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law, even suspects. In order to share what is happening in Murrieta, we chose to cover the faces of suspects to protect their identity while still aligning with the new law.

    Using something so ridiculous minimizes the severity of crimes and turns serious events into cartoons. People may understand the need to comply with the law, but this approach is inappropriate.

    Judge for yourself:

    //www.instagram.com/embed.js

    //www.instagram.com/embed.js

    //www.instagram.com/embed.js

    The bill: 

    Requires a police department or sheriff’s office to remove a booking photo shared on the department’s social media page within 14 days unless specific circumstances exist and requires a police department or sheriff’s office sharing a booking photo on social media to use the name and pronouns given by the subject of that photo.

    Those specific circumstances are described as: 

    A police department or sheriff’s office has determined that the suspect is a fugitive or an imminent threat to an individual or to public safety and releasing or disseminating the suspect’s image will assist in locating or apprehending the suspect or reducing or eliminating the threat, or if a judge orders the release or dissemination of the suspect’s image based on a finding that the release or dissemination is in furtherance of a legitimate law enforcement interest.

    Advertisement

    Going forward, the left will undoubtedly continue to be soft on crime. However, the Murietta police will no longer use Lego heads to further diminish the seriousness of any criminal’s actions. Lego has instructed the department to stop digitally adding Lego heads onto photos of suspects. Murrieta Police Department Lt. Jeremy Durrant told Fox News Digital in a statement that: 

    The Lego Group reached out to us and respectfully asked us to refrain from using their intellectual property in our social media content which of course we understand and will comply with. We are currently exploring other methods to continue publishing our content in a way that is engaging and interesting to our followers.

    Durrant’s choice of words to describe the way his department reports criminal activities is revealing. While the reports are supposed to be truthful and informative, Durrant uses them as a chance to downplay the severity of the crimes and make them seem less serious. He uses terms like “engaging” and “interesting” to describe police reports, which is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Murietta.

    Thankfully, Lego stepped in and eliminated the visual aspect of this farce. I guess the simple blurring out of the faces wasn’t entertaining enough for the people that Durrant refers to as the department’s “followers.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 15:10

  • Bidenomics? US Drops Out Of Top 20 'Happiest Nations' In The World For The First Time
    Bidenomics? US Drops Out Of Top 20 ‘Happiest Nations’ In The World For The First Time

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    For the first time in the history of the report, the US dropped out of the top twenty happiest nations. The youth poll (30 and under) is a disaster for the US, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, and China.

    Please consider the World Happiness Report for 2024.

    Key Happiness Details

    • Overall Rankings: The top 10 countries have remained much the same since before COVID. Finland is still top, with Denmark now very close, and all five Nordic countries in the top 10. But in the next 10, there is more change, with the transition countries of Eastern Europe rising in happiness (especially Czechia, Lithuania and Slovenia). Partly for this reason the United States and Germany have fallen to 23 and 24 in the rankings.

    • Happiness Trends by Age Group: In North America, happiness has fallen so sharply for the young that they are now less happy than the old. By contrast, in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the young are much happier than the old.

    • Global Trends: In most countries life satisfaction drops gradually from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Globally, young people aged 15-24 still report higher life satisfaction than older adults. But the picture varied by region. Youth wellbeing fell in North America, Western Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. In the rest of the world it rose.

    • Negativity: Negative emotions are more frequent than in 2006-2010 everywhere except East Asia and both parts of Europe.

    • Millennials and Zoomers: Age and generation both matter for happiness. As between generations, those born before 1965 (Boomers and their predecessors) have life evaluations about one-quarter of a point higher than those born after 1980 (Millennials and Gen Z). Within each generation, life evaluations rise with age for those in the older generations and fall with age for the younger ones, with little age effect for those in between.

    Happiness Age 30 and Below

    Clearly this was taken before the Hamas attack in Israel.

    Q: Where’s the US?
    A: #62

    Australia is #19, Germany is #47, France #48, Canada #58, Japan #73, China #79.

    Happiness Age 60 and Above

    The US, Canada, and Australia are in the top ten list of happiness age 60 and older.

    Serious Economic Implications

    Unhappy 30-year-olds don’t have kids because they don’t see a future.

    In the US, those age 30 and younger believe they will be worse off than their parents. I think they are correct in that assessment.

    The economy is allegedly booming, but only the asset holders have benefitted.

    Gen Z, the Most Pessimistic Generation in History

    Young adults are more skeptical of government and pessimistic about the future than any living generation before them. This is with reason, and it’s likely to decide the election.

    Economic Reality

    Gen Z may be the first generation in US history that is not better off than their parents.

    Many have given up on the idea they will ever be able to afford a home.

    The economy is allegedly booming (I disagree). Regardless, stress over debt is high with younger millennials and zoomers.

    This has been a constant theme of mine for many months.

    Credit Card and Auto Delinquencies Soar

    Credit card debt surged to a record high in the fourth quarter. Even more troubling is a steep climb in 90 day or longer delinquencies.

    Record High Credit Card Debt

    Credit card debt rose to a new record high of $1.13 trillion, up $50 billion in the quarter. Even more troubling is the surge in serious delinquencies, defined as 90 days or more past due.

    For nearly all age groups, serious delinquencies are the highest since 2011.

    Auto Loan Delinquencies

    Serious delinquencies on auto loans have jumped from under 3 percent in mid-2021 to to 5 percent at the end of 2023 for age group 18-29.Age group 30-39 is also troubling. Serious delinquencies for age groups 18-29 and 30-39 are at the highest levels since 2010.

    For further discussion please see Credit Card and Auto Delinquencies Soar, Especially Age Group 18 to 39

    Generational Homeownership Rates

    Home ownership rates courtesy of Apartment List

    The above chart is from the Apartment List’s 2023 Millennial Homeownership Report

    Those struggling with rent are more likely to be Millennials and Zoomers than Generation X, Baby Boomers, or members of the Silent Generation.

    The same age groups struggling with credit card and auto delinquencies.

    On Average Everything is Great

    Average it up, and things look pretty good. This is why we have seen countless stories attempting to explain why people should be happy.

    Krugman Blames Partisanship

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

    OK, there is a fair amount of partisanship in the polls.

    However, Biden isn’t struggling from partisanship alone. If that was the reason, Biden would not be polling so miserably with Democrats in general, blacks, and younger voters.

    This allegedly booming economy left behind the renters and everyone under the age of 40 struggling to make ends meet.

    Many Are Addicted to “Buy Now, Pay Later” Plans

    Buy Now Pay Later, BNPL, plans are increasingly popular. It’s another sign of consumer credit stress.

    For discussion, please see Many Are Addicted to “Buy Now, Pay Later” Plans, It’s a Big Trap

    The study did not break things down by home owners vs renters, but I strongly suspect most of the BNPL use is by renters.

    What About Jobs?

    Another seemingly strong jobs headline falls apart on closer scrutiny. The massive divergence between jobs and employment continued into February.

    Nonfarm payrolls and employment levels from the BLS, chart by Mish.

    Payrolls vs Employment Gains Since March 2023

    • Nonfarm Payrolls: 2,602,000

    • Employment Level: +144,000

    • Full Time Employment: -284,000

    For more details of the weakening labor markets, please see Jobs Up 275,000 Employment Down 184,000

    CPI Hot Again

    CPI Data from the BLS, chart by Mish.

    For discussion of the CPI inflation data for February, please see CPI Hot Again, Rent Up at Least 0.4 Percent for 30 Straight Months

    Also note the Producer Price Index (PPI) Much Hotter Than Expected in February

    Major Economic Cracks

    There are economic cracks in spending, cracks in employment, and cracks in delinquencies.

    But there are no cracks in the CPI. It’s coming down much slower than expected. And the PPI appears to have bottomed.

    Add it up: Inflation + Recession = Stagflation.

    Election Impact

    In 2020, younger voters turned out in the biggest wave in history. And they voted for Biden.

    Younger voters are not as likely to vote in 2024, and they are less likely to vote for Biden.

    The Journal noted nearly one-third of voters under 30 have an unfavorable view of both Biden and Trump, a higher number than all older voters. Sixty-three percent of young voters think neither party adequately represents them.

    Young voters in 2020 were energized to vote against Trump. Now they have thrown in the towel.

    And Biden telling everyone how great the economy is only rubs salt in the wound.

    Conclusions

    Two completely different polls show millennials and zoomers are unhappy. And they are unhappy for the reasons I stated.

    Many have concluded they will never be able to afford a house or have kids. Those who have concluded that are likely correct.

    For more discussion, please see Gen Z, the Most Pessimistic Generation in History, May Decide the Election

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 14:00

  • FAA Turning Over Newark's Air Traffic Control Duties To Philadelphia To "Address Staffing Issues"
    FAA Turning Over Newark’s Air Traffic Control Duties To Philadelphia To “Address Staffing Issues”

    As air traffic is on the verge of breaking records heading into the summer, Newark, New Jersey’s airspace is being turned over to Philadelphia.

    The move, prompted by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, seeks to “address staffing issues and congested traffic in the New York City area”, according to a new Reuters report.

    We hope it’s more of the latter than the former – because with all these Boeings in the air every day, it isn’t necessarily a great time to be understaffed. And we’re only half joking. 

    The FAA is predicted a record summer travel season, the report says, and airlines are also predicting record travel for the spring. The FAA says the change will “meet continued traffic demand in the busy Northeast Corridor.”

    The FAA, grappling with air traffic control staffing shortages, announced its collaboration with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association through a memorandum out last week. Air traffic control responsibilities for Newark will be transferred from the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control to the Philadelphia Tower/TRACON by the end of June.

    Reuters notes that New York TRACON is recognized as one of the busiest control facilities in the United States, managing some of the country’s most complex airspace. The FAA had previously disclosed plans in 2023 to reassign about 100 square miles of airspace from Newark’s N90 to Philadelphia to alleviate staffing constraints.

    United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark, frequently encounters delays due to air traffic congestion and personnel shortages. The airline scaled back its flight operations last summer in response to operational disruptions, with CEO Scott Kirby publicly criticizing the FAA’s performance.

    He highlighted that the number of flights scheduled at Newark exceeded the airport’s physical capacity to manage them. Consequently, the FAA prolonged the reduction of minimum flight requirements at airports around New York City through October, addressing these staffing shortfalls.

    Airlines are typically required to utilize their allocated takeoff and landing slots at busy airports for a minimum of 80% of the time, under risk of losing them. The FAA’s waiver permits airlines to maintain their slots despite not operating some flights.

    A report from a government watchdog in June highlighted severe staffing challenges at crucial air traffic control facilities, which pose risks to aviation operations. It noted that staffing at N90 was only at 54%. With controllers at various locations working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks to mitigate shortages, the agency falls approximately 3,000 controllers short of its staffing objectives.

    In response, President Joe Biden has proposed funding this month to recruit an additional 2,000 controllers over the next year.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 13:25

  • Spending Deal Bans Flying Pride Flag Over US Diplomatic Buildings
    Spending Deal Bans Flying Pride Flag Over US Diplomatic Buildings

    Authored by Caden Pearsen via The Epoch Times,

    The government spending bill that House lawmakers passed on Friday included an effective ban on pride flags flying over diplomatic buildings but dropped nearly all of the 45 GOP-included provisions targeting LGBT concerns.

    Specifically, the bill states that appropriated funds can only be used to fly certain official flags over U.S. diplomatic facilities, effectively banning the LGBT pride flag.

    According to the bill’s text, (pdf) “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended to fly or display a flag over a facility of the United States Department of State other than” the listed flags, which did not include the pride flag.

    The permitted flags include the U.S. flag, foreign service flag, POW/MIA flag, hostage and wrongful detainee flag; the flag of a state, insular area, or the District of Columbia at domestic locations; the flag of an Indian tribal government; the official branded flag of a U.S. agency; or the sovereign flag of other countries.

    Two-thirds of House lawmakers passed a $1.2 trillion bill on Friday to fully fund 70 percent of the government without the support of most Republicans, just ahead of a deadline.

    The legislation is now in the Senate for consideration ahead of a midnight deadline, after which the government shutdown will begin if lawmakers there do not clear it.

    House Republicans “failed” to keep more than 45 provisions aimed at limiting funding for transgender procedures, certain drag shows, and executive orders related to diversity, equity, and inclusion issued by President Joe Biden, according to the Congressional Equality Caucus.

    The only two measures that Democrats in the caucus described as “anti-equality” that made it through were the measure banning pride flags and cuts to funding for LGBT community funding projects.

    “Unfortunately, Republicans fought to maintain a rider that restricts Pride flag displays at State Department buildings, and the final funding bills did not include some LGBTQI+ community funding projects,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair of the caucus, said in a statement.

    ‘Business as Usual In the Swamp’

    Staunchly conservative Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus had pleaded with their colleagues to reject the spending deal in the days leading up to the vote, arguing that it funds the very Biden administration policies they’ve been fighting against.

    “This is business as usual in the swamp,“ said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on the House floor before the vote. He went on to warn his GOP colleagues that should they campaign against ”open borders,” they’ll be laughed at.

    “Because today, if you vote for this abomination of a bill, you will be voting to fund it,” he added.

    Republicans in both chambers lamented the lack of inclusion of stronger border security measures in the spending deal and expressed criticism of its passage in the House shortly after.

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who called the bill’s passage with the speaker’s support “a betrayal,” moved to oust Mr. Johnson from the speaker’s office for his role in the deal.

    She filed a motion to vacate the speaker on Friday as House members voted on the package.

    “The ‘Republican-controlled’ House just passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill that doesn’t secure our border but funds full-term abortion and trans ideology on our youth. I filed a Motion to Vacate because the House needs a Speaker who’s able to win for Republicans and our constituents,” she said.

    Before the vote, Ms. Greene spoke on the House floor and said no House Republican can in “good conscience can vote for this bill,” calling it a “complete departure” from the conservative party’s principles.

    The bill was unveiled on Thursday and fast-tracked to approval in a process that required a two-thirds majority vote for passage, as well as the House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) waiving a rule that requires 72 hours for members to review the legislation before it can be moved.

    The bill would fund the departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

    Shortly before midnight on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that voting on the deal would soon begin after resolving an impasse.

    However, the deadline was missed, and the government entered a partial, albeit short-lived, shutdown.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 12:50

  • "Drone Attacks" Hit Another Russian Refinery As Swing Producer's Refining Capacity Drops  
    “Drone Attacks” Hit Another Russian Refinery As Swing Producer’s Refining Capacity Drops  

    Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries continued in the overnight hours, with two separate attacks. The latest wave of drone attacks on the Russian refinery system has forced the swing producer’s daily average oil refining rate to drop to a ten-month low.

    Bloomberg reports a suicide drone caused a fire at the Kuibyshev refinery in Russia’s Samara region. The fire was extinguished at the refinery, which has an annual capacity of 7 million tons of oil. There was no word on damage or how much output was affected. 

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    A second drone attack was reported at the nearby Novokuibyshevsk refinery. However, local governor Dmitry Azarov said defense personnel repelled the drone without causing any damage. 

    “There were drone attacks on oil refineries in the region. At the Kuibyshev refinery, there was a fire at the primary oil refining column,” Azarov said, as quoted by Interfax news service. 

    The latest attacks come as new data sourced from Bloomberg shows Russia’s average daily oil refining rate was around 5.03 million barrels between March 14 and 20, down more than 400,000 barrels a day from the average for the first 13 days of the month—or a ten-month low. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    A new phase of the war is underway as Ukraine’s replacement for artillery is cheap suicide drones targeting the Russian oil export machine deep within the country. 

    So far, drones have targeted 13 major refineries and two smaller plants, reducing processing capacity by about 480,000 and 900,000 barrels a day. 

    Source: Financial Times 

    According to a person familiar with the data, Rosneft PJSC accounted for half of Russia’s lost processing capacity in the last week after drones damaged two major facilities. 

    Russia’s reduced refining rates indicate that authorities will focus on boosting domestic supplies, resulting in lower crude product exports worldwide. 

    “The latest attacks targeted primary refining processing units resulting in Russian waterborne product exports decreasing by an average 1 million b/d over the last two weeks,” Wood Mackenzie Emma Howsham wrote in a note. 

    Howsham noted the disruption so far is “still unlikely to move the needle or impact sentiment around the softening global diesel/gasoil market.” 

    Meanwhile, Washington officials warned senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service and military intelligence directorate that repeated drone attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure could drive up global oil prices. 

    Of course, the Biden administration would be concerned about these attacks because the last thing the White House needs is soaring energy prices reigniting consumer and/or producer prices. Also, higher crude prices would complicate the Federal Reserve’s planned pivot. 

    In the Middle East, there are increasing fears that Iran could be on the cusp of weaponizing crude as Houthis could launch a drone and missile attack on processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais in eastern Saudi Arabia (read: “The Weaponization Of Crude Could Trigger The Next Financial Shock”). 

    Successful attacks on these refineries would be enough to push Brent into triple-digit territory. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/23/2024 – 12:15

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Mar 23

Today’s News 23rd March 2024

  • The Language Of Force: How The Police State Muzzles Our Right To Speak Truth To Power
    The Language Of Force: How The Police State Muzzles Our Right To Speak Truth To Power

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “If the state could use [criminal] laws not for their intended purposes but to silence those who voice unpopular ideas, little would be left of our First Amendment liberties, and little would separate us from the tyrannies of the past or the malignant fiefdoms of our own age. The freedom to speak without risking arrest is ‘one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation.’”

    – Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissenting, Nieves v. Bartlett (2019)

    Tyrants don’t like people who speak truth to power.

    Cue the rise of protest laws, which take the government’s intolerance for free speech to a whole new level and send the resounding message that resistance is futile.

    In fact, ever since the Capitol protests on Jan. 6, 2021, state legislatures have introduced a broad array of these laws aimed at criminalizing protest activities.

    There have been at least 205 proposed laws in 45 states aimed at curtailing the right to peacefully assemble and protest by expanding the definition of rioting, heightening penalties for existing offenses, or creating new crimes associated with assembly.

    Weaponized by police, prosecutors, courts and legislatures, these protest laws, along with free speech zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws, and a host of other legalistic maladies have become a convenient means by which to punish individuals who refuse to be muzzled.

    In Florida, for instance, legislators passed a “no-go” zone law making it punishable by up to 60 days in jail to remain within 25 feet of working police and other first responders after a warning.

    Yet while the growing numbers of protest laws cropping up across the country are sold to the public as necessary to protect private property, public roads or national security, they are a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a thinly disguised plot to discourage anyone from challenging government authority at the expense of our First Amendment rights.

    It doesn’t matter what the source of that discontent might be (police brutality, election outcomes, COVID-19 mandates, the environment, etc.): protest laws, free speech zones, no-go zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws, etc., aim to muzzle every last one of us.

    To be very clear, these legislative attempts to redefine and criminalize speech are a backdoor attempt to rewrite the Constitution and render the First Amendment’s robust safeguards null and void.

    No matter how you package these laws, no matter how well-meaning they may sound, no matter how much you may disagree with the protesters or sympathize with the objects of the protest, these proposed laws are aimed at one thing only: discouraging dissent.

    This is the painful lesson being imparted with every incident in which someone gets arrested and charged with any of the growing number of contempt charges (ranging from resisting arrest and interference to disorderly conduct, obstruction, and failure to obey a police order) that get trotted out anytime a citizen voices discontent with the government or challenges or even questions the authority of the powers-that-be.

    These assaults on free speech are nothing new.

    As Human Rights Watch points out, “Various states have long-tried to curtail the right to protest. They do so by legislating wide definitions of what constitutes an ‘unlawful assembly’ or a ‘riot’ as well as increasing punishments. They also allow police to use catch-all public offenses, such as trespassing, obstructing traffic, or disrupting the peace, as a pretext for ordering dispersals, using force, and making arrests. Finally, they make it easier for corporations and others to bring lawsuits against protest organizers.”

    Journalists have come under particular fire for exercising their right to freedom of the press.

    According to U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the criminalization of routine journalism has become a means by which the government chills lawful First Amendment activity.

    Journalists have been arrested or faced dubious charges for “publishing,” asking too many questions of public officials, being “rude” for reporting during a press conference, and being in the vicinity of public protests and demonstrations.

    For instance, Steve Baker, a reporter for Blaze News, was charged with four misdemeanors, including trespassing and disorderly conduct charges, related to his sympathetic coverage of the Jan. 6 riots. Dan Heyman, a reporter for the Public News Service, was arrested for “aggressively” questioning Tom Price, then secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services during an encounter in the West Virginia State Capitol.

    It’s gotten so bad that merely daring to question, challenge or hesitate when a cop issues an order can get you charged with resisting arrest or disorderly conduct.

    For example, Deyshia Hargrave, a language arts teacher in Louisiana, was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for speaking out during a public comment period at a school board meeting.

    Fane Lozman was arrested for alluding to government corruption during open comment time at a City Council meeting in Palm Beach County, Fla.

    College professor Ersula Ore was slammed to the ground and arrested after she objected to the “disrespectful manner” shown by a campus cop who stopped her in the middle of the street and demanded that she show her ID.

    Philadelphia lawyer Rebecca Musarra was arrested for exercising her right to remain silent and refusing to answer questions posed by a police officer during a routine traffic stop. (Note: she cooperated in every other way by providing license and registration, etc.)

    Making matters worse, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Nieves v. Bartlett that protects police from lawsuits by persons arrested on bogus “contempt of cop” charges (ranging from resisting arrest and interference to disorderly conduct, obstruction, and failure to obey a police order) that result from lawful First Amendment activities (filming police, asking a question of police, refusing to speak with police).

    These incidents reflect a growing awareness about the state of free speech in America: you may have distinct, protected rights on paper, but dare to exercise those rights, and you risk fines, arrests, injuries and even death.

    Unfortunately, we have been circling this particular drain hole for some time now.

    More than 50 years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas took issue with the idea that merely speaking to a government representative (a right enshrined in the First Amendment) could be perceived as unlawfully inconveniencing and annoying the police.

    In a passionate defense of free speech, Douglas declared: 

    Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet. The situation might have indicated that Colten’s techniques were ill-suited to the mission he was on, that diplomacy would have been more effective. But at the constitutional level speech need not be a sedative; it can be disruptive.

    It’s a power-packed paragraph full of important truths that the powers-that-be would prefer we quickly forget: We the people are the sovereigns. We have the final word. We can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy. We need not stay docile and quiet. Our speech can be disruptive. It can invite dispute. It can be provocative and challenging. We do not have to bow submissively to authority or speak with reverence to government officials.

    In theory, Douglas was right: “we the people” do have a constitutional right to talk back to the government.

    In practice, however, we live in an age in which “we the people” are at the mercy of militarized, weaponized, immunized cops who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.”

    As such, those who seek to exercise their First Amendment rights during encounters with the police are increasingly finding that there is no such thing as freedom of speech.

    Case in point: Tony Rupp, a lawyer in Buffalo, NY, found himself arrested and charged with violating the city’s noise ordinance after cursing at an SUV bearing down on pedestrians on a busy street at night with its lights off. Because that unmarked car was driven by a police officer, that’s all it took for Rupp to find himself subjected to malicious prosecution, First Amendment retaliation and wrongful arrest.

    The case, as Jesse McKinley writes in The New York Times, is part of a growing debate over “how citizens can criticize public officials at a time of widespread reevaluation of the lengths and limits of free speech. That debate has raged everywhere from online forums and college campuses to protests over racial bias in law enforcement and the Israel-Hamas war. Book bans and other acts of government censorship have troubled some First Amendment experts. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments about a pair of laws — in Florida and Texas — limiting the ability of social media companies such as Facebook to ban certain content from their platforms.”

    Bottom line: what the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t resist.

    What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.

    Yet there can be no free speech for the citizenry when the government speaks in a language of force.

    What is this language of force?

    Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality. Contempt of cop charges.

    This is not the language of freedom. This is not even the language of law and order.

    Unfortunately, this is how the government at all levels—federal, state and local—now responds to those who choose to exercise their First Amendment right to speak freely.

    If we no longer have the right to tell a Census Worker to get off our property, if we no longer have the right to tell a police officer to get a search warrant before they dare to walk through our door, if we no longer have the right to stand in front of the Supreme Court wearing a protest sign or approach an elected representative to share our views, if we no longer have the right to protest unjust laws by voicing our opinions in public or on our clothing or before a legislative body, then we do not have free speech.

    What we have instead is regulated, controlled, censored speech, and that’s a whole other ballgame.

    Remember, the unspoken freedom enshrined in the First Amendment is the right to challenge government agents, think freely and openly debate issues without being muzzled or treated like a criminal.

    Americans are being brainwashed into believing that anyone who wears a government uniform—soldier, police officer, prison guard—must be obeyed without question.

    Of course, the Constitution takes a far different position, but does anyone in the government even read, let alone abide by, the Constitution anymore?

    The government does not want us to remember that we have rights, let alone attempting to exercise those rights peaceably and lawfully. And it definitely does not want us to engage in First Amendment activities that challenge the government’s power, reveal the government’s corruption, expose the government’s lies, and encourage the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

    Yet by muzzling the citizenry, by removing the constitutional steam valves that allow people to speak their minds, air their grievances and contribute to a larger dialogue that hopefully results in a more just world, the government is creating a climate in which violence becomes inevitable.

    When there is no First Amendment steam valve, then frustration builds, anger grows and people become more volatile and desperate to force a conversation.

    As John F. Kennedy warned, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

    As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the government is making violent revolution inevitable.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 23:30

  • Judge Tosses Challenge, Upholds Law Allowing 'Noncitizens' To Vote In DC
    Judge Tosses Challenge, Upholds Law Allowing ‘Noncitizens’ To Vote In DC

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

    A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging a District of Columbia law allowing “noncitizen residents” to vote in local elections.

    Activists rally for voting rights and D.C. statehood as they block traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue SE in Washington, on Dec. 7, 2021. (Drew Angerer /Getty Images)

    Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, found that a group of seven citizen plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the legislation.

    Their lawsuit against the D.C. Board of Elections, filed on March 14, aimed to block the 2022 law passed by the Council of the District of Columbia.

    They argued that “noncitizens” do not have a fundamental right to vote in the United States and that allowing them to cast ballots and hold office in the District of Columbia dilutes the votes of U.S. citizens.

    “It follows from our national independence that United States citizens have a right to govern, and be governed by, themselves. The constitutional right to citizen self-government, moreover, has been recognized in repeated holdings of the Supreme Court of the United States,” their complaint reads.

    “Nor does any noncitizen have a constitutional right to govern the United States,” the complaint adds.

    The group argued that the Supreme Court has recognized and protected these rights against infringement in “multiple precedents.”

    The group, in their complaint, argued that vote dilution caused by expanding the franchise to illegal immigrants has been analyzed under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment “on the ground that they discriminate against an identifiable group by harming that group while benefitting another.”

    And while the complaint noted that the 14th Amendment only applies to the states, they contended that the 5th Amendment due process clause grants residents of the District of Columbia the same equal protection right.

    No Standing

    However, in an opinion issued Thursday, Judge Jackson determined that the seven plaintiffs failed to demonstrate “that they have personally been subjected to any sort of disadvantage as individual voters by virtue of the fact that noncitizens are permitted to vote, too.”

    “They may object as a matter of policy to the fact that immigrants get to vote at all, but their votes will not receive less weight or be treated differently than noncitizens’ votes,” the judge wrote.

    “They are not losing representation in any legislative body; nor have citizens as a group been discriminatorily gerrymandered, ‘packed,’ or ‘cracked’ to divide, concentrate, or devalue their votes,” she continued.

    The judge concluded: “At bottom, they are simply raising a generalized grievance which is insufficient to confer standing.”

    The Epoch Times contacted the D.C. Board of Elections for comment.

    ‘A Direct Attack on American Self-Government’

    The Epoch Times contacted the D.C.-based Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), which represented the plaintiffs, for comment.

    In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Christopher Hajec, IRLI’s director of litigation, said the law “is a direct attack on American self-government.”

    “This law doesn’t just give foreign citizens a voice in our country’s affairs, it gives them voting power that politicians inevitably will have to respond to. That transfer of power flies in the face of the clear right of the American people to govern themselves,” he said.

    The IRLI’s executive director, Dale Wilcox, said in a statement on March 14 that when the voting power of citizens is eroded, “our nation begins to lose its independence.”

    “If laws like this are not struck down, next there will be calls in many states to allow aliens to vote in statewide and even federal elections,” he added.

    Noncitizen Voting Act

    The law in question, known as the Noncitizen Voting Act, removed the prior citizenship requirement for voting in municipal elections, allowing all residents over 18 who have lived in the district for 30 days, regardless of immigration status, to vote in local elections only.

    Those who qualify can vote in district races for mayor, council, attorney general, and advisory neighborhood commissioners. They can also vote on local initiatives, referenda, recalls, or charter amendment measures.

    Additionally, in combination with other laws, the Noncitizen Voting Act permits illegal immigrants to serve as D.C. mayor, to serve on the D.C. Council, and to serve on the D.C. Board of Elections.

    According to a court filing, at a meeting of the D.C. Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety on Sept. 27, 2022, Council Member Charles Allen, speaking in support of the legislation, said, “Our noncitizen neighbors, many of whom have lived, worked, and raised a family in the District for decades deserve the opportunity to have a stake in their government and determine their own leaders just as we all do.”

    The Epoch Times contacted Mr. Allen for further comment.

    Congress must review legislation passed by the D.C. Council; however, efforts to overturn the law through legislative means ultimately stalled in the U.S. Senate.

    After the U.S. House passed a resolution disapproving of the act on Feb. 9, 2023, the Senate failed to pass a resolution against the act within the prescribed time frame.

    This prompted the group of seven citizens to bring their lawsuit.

    The lawsuit argued that it violates the 5th Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection for citizens. The lawsuit also alleged that the law violates “the constitutional right of citizen self-government” by allowing “noncitizens to hold public office,” according to a court filing.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 23:00

  • Russia Confirms Increase Of Artillery Shell Production By 150% In Past Year
    Russia Confirms Increase Of Artillery Shell Production By 150% In Past Year

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Thursday that Russia’s production of artillery shells has increased by nearly 2.5 times over the past year as Moscow is significantly out-producing the West.

    Shoigu also said that Russia was producing components for artillery at a rate of 22 times what it could make last year. “Speaking about manufacturing of artillery munitions, the volume of production of components to such ammunition was increased by almost 22 times,” he said.

    US govt file image

    Shoigu’s comments came after CNN reported that Russia was producing nearly three times as many artillery shells than the US and Europe combined.

    The report, based on a NATO assessment, said Russia has the capacity to produce 3 million shells per year while the US and Europe can make 1.2 million.

    It’s been clear for a while that NATO could not keep up with the production needed to fuel the proxy war in Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last year that Ukraine was using artillery ammunition at a much faster rate than what the entire alliance could produce.

    “The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production, and this puts our defense industries under strain,” Stoltenberg said in February 2023.

    At that time Stoltenberg urged that NATO needs to “ramp up production” and that European leaders should focus on “ways to increase our defense industrial capacity and replenish stockpiles.”

    Due to its shortage of conventional 155mm artillery ammunition, the US has been arming Ukraine with artillery shells packed with cluster bombs, which are notorious for killing and maiming civilians and are banned by over 100 countries.

    The US announced a new $300 million arms package that included more cluster bombs. The US supplied Ukraine with the package despite the lack of new funding for the war and claimed it was paid for with money saved in the US Army budget.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 22:30

  • FDA Settles Ivermectin Case, Agrees To Remove Controversial 'Stop It' Post
    FDA Settles Ivermectin Case, Agrees To Remove Controversial ‘Stop It’ Post

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

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to remove social media posts and webpages that urged people to stop taking ivermectin to treat COVID-19, according to a settlement dated March 21.

    The FDA has already removed a page that said: “Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19? No.”

    Within 21 days, the FDA will remove another page titled, “why you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19,” according to the settlement announcement, which was filed with federal court in southern Texas.

    “The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals,” the page currently states. It also says that data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19, despite how some studies it cites show ivermectin is effective against the illness.

    The FDA in the settlement is also agreeing to delete multiple social media posts that came out strongly against ivermectin, including one that stated: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

    In exchange, doctors who sued the agency are dismissing their claims, the filing states.

    “FDA loses its war on ivermectin and agrees to remove all social media posts and consumer directives regarding ivermectin and COVID, including its most popular tweet in FDA history,” Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, one of the doctors, said in a statement. “This landmark case sets an important precedent in limiting FDA overreach into the doctor-patient relationship.”

    “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the settlement as it is a victory for every doctor and patient in the United States,” added Dr. Paul Marik, chief scientific officer of the FLCCC Alliance and another plaintiff. “The FDA interfered in the practice of medicine with their irresponsible language and posts about ivermectin. We will never know how many lives were affected because patients were denied access to a lifesaving treatment because their doctor was ‘just following the FDA.’”

    An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency “has chosen to resolve this lawsuit rather than continuing to litigate over statements that are between two and nearly four years old.”

    “FDA has not admitted any violation of law or any wrongdoing, disagrees with the plaintiffs’ allegation that the agency exceeded its authority in issuing the statements challenged in the lawsuit, and stands by its authority to communicate with the public regarding the products it regulates,” the spokesperson said. “FDA has not changed its position that currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. The agency has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19.”

    Ivermectin was approved by the FDA in 1996 to treat several conditions, including onchocerciasis, a tropical disease caused by a parasitic worm.

    In the United States, it’s common for doctors to prescribe medicine off-label, or for a different purpose than the one for which the medicine is approved.

    After some doctors began prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19, the FDA ramped up its campaign, including the Aug. 21, 2021, post on Twitter, now known as X.

    Dr. Bowden and two other doctors sued the FDA, arguing the agency’s actions went beyond its authority, as conferred on it by Congress.

    U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed the case in 2022, ruling that the FDA did not act outside the authority. But an appeals court in 2023 ruled in favor of the doctors, finding that the agency “has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine.”

    Between the time of the ruling and the settlement, the FDA refused to change any of its statements on ivermectin, and asked for a fresh dismissal of the suit.

    The Case

    Drs. Robert Apter, Bowden, and Marik brought the case in 2022. They said they suffered repercussions after prescribing ivermectin to patients with COVID-19, and that the FDA was to blame.

    Dr. Apter, for instance, said that pharmacists refused to fill the prescriptions, citing the FDA.

    “This refusal delays his patients in obtaining their prescribed treatment—when early intervention is paramount—while they look for a pharmacy to fill their prescription, if they can find one at all,” the suit states.

    He also said that insurance companies were refusing to pay for ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

    The suit said the FDA illegally interfered with the relationships between the doctors and patients. The doctors said with regard to ivermectin, the FDA overstepped the authority conferred on it in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

    Government lawyers argued that the FDA was acting within the confines of the law, and succeeded in getting the dismissal.

    Judge Brown, appointed under President Donald Trump, said the FDA’s powers were only limited with regard to medical devices.

    “As there is no statute limiting the FDA’s actions here, it cannot have acted outside of any statutory limitations,” he wrote in his ruling. “Further, it cannot be said that the FDA had no colorable basis of authority. The FDA is charged by Congress with protecting public health and ensuring that regulated medical products are safe and effective, among other things.”

    A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit disagreed, finding that the law did not authorize the FDA to give medical advice.

    “FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine,” U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett, appointed under President Trump, wrote for the court. The appeals court remanded the case back to the district court.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 22:00

  • Despite Supreme Court Ruling, States Are Still Confiscating People’s Homes
    Despite Supreme Court Ruling, States Are Still Confiscating People’s Homes

    Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Horses taught Christine Searle the importance of being fair. Intelligent and innately honest creatures, horses know deceit when they see it. She wishes they could teach that principle to the state of Arizona.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

    The 70-year-old horse trainer and Arizona native is on the verge of losing her life’s savings over an unpaid $1,607.68 property tax bill.

    “I owed them the money. And that’s what they should get—the money I owe them,” Ms. Searle told The Epoch Times.

    “I don’t think that they should have the right to take all of it.”

    Arizona is one of almost a dozen states that allow creditors to keep all the proceeds from sales of homes foreclosed due to unpaid taxes—known as tax lien sales, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF).

    A 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case out of Minnesota offers some hope to property owners in these situations, but only if a similar case is brought in their state. In the 2022 case, the justices ruled that Minnesota’s practice of keeping all the proceeds of a tax sale constitutes an illegal seizure of property.

    “The taxpayer must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the unanimous decision.

    But, under their current laws, 10 states and the District of Columbia have no means of returning the excess proceeds of a home sale; what Mountain States Legal Foundation lawyers representing Ms. Searle call “home equity theft.” The states include Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and South Dakota.

    Ms. Searle hopes her case will be the one to set things right in Arizona.

    In Arizona, a county treasurer can place a lien on a property for taxes owed. These financial claims are then sold at an online auction. In the auction, buyers bid the lowest interest rate they intend to charge property owners to redeem their lien. The bidding begins at 16 percent and the lowest bid wins.

    Purchasing a tax lien doesn’t transfer ownership of the property. In Arizona, the property owner has three years to pay the back taxes, which includes fees and interest. If it is not redeemed within that time, the lienholder may foreclose and sell the property.

    Unsold tax liens are turned over to the state. The state has the same right to foreclose, but must return any excess proceeds to the former property owner.

    In 2005, Ms. Searle bought a three-bedroom, two-bath house as a rental property for $255,000. The house is in Gilbert, Arizona, 22 miles southeast of Phoenix. Its 2024 property tax appraisal came to $376,800, but she stands to lose much more than the taxable value.

    Christine Searle gives her horse, Dunny, a treat in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 23, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

    Various real estate websites estimate the current market value to sit somewhere between $420,000 and $510,000.

    The investment firm Arapaho LLC Tesco purchased the tax lien on Ms. Searle’s property when it bought all of Maricopa County’s 2015 and 2016 tax liens. Arapaho stands to gain a significant profit if it sells the property under current law.

    Arapaho’s contact information was not available. An internet search showed that the Phoenix-based company —which is involved in a number of legal actions in Arizona—lists Hamilton Municipal Financing of Altamonte Springs, Florida, as a principal. Hamilton is incorporated in Delaware.

    According to PLF, tax liens are popular with banks, investment firms, and other financial institutions because they are seen as relatively secure investments.

    Public data gathered by PLF shows that Maricopa County sold 567 tax liens between July 2012 and March 2021. A review of those records by The Epoch Times found that at least 424, or approximately three-quarters of those purchasers, were businesses.

    This is based on buyers being listed as Incorporated, an LLC, a Trust, or a DBA (Doing Business As).

    Retirement Plan Upended

    On a dusty ranch near Tucson, Ms. Searle sits on a metal patio chair under a shady tree in front of some stables and talks about her retirement plan.

    “I have all my money invested in that home as my retirement instead of putting it in a CD [Certificate of Deposit] or some kind of a bank account. I can make a little money on the side to pay the mortgage and keep, and sell it when I need the money,” she said.

    She’s shocked at how close she is to losing her life savings to an investment firm.

    For 18 years, she lived in Chandler, Arizona, with her husband and son, Randy Searle. According to Ms. Searle, she led a typically comfortable, suburban middle-class American life. Her then-husband worked for a jewelry and memorabilia company serving high schools and colleges, and she trained horses.

    Randy Searle poses in front of his mother’s rental house in Gilbert, Ariz., on Feb. 23, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

    She knew it was possible to lose property over unpaid taxes. But that happened to other people. It wasn’t part of her life or something she really knew very much about.

    “I didn’t think about it,” she said.

    Then came the divorce, and she had to consider many things she had never given much thought.

    She had to find a way to support herself. Her son was grown, so she could afford a simpler lifestyle. Ms. Searle took her divorce settlement and purchased the house in Gilbert to use as a rental to supplement her income.

    Her work goes beyond teaching horses to respond to commands. Many horse owners live and work far from the stables in Tucson, so Ms. Searle is their horse’s primary caregiver. She is responsible for arranging veterinary care, farrier services, feeding, and exercising the animals.

    “I don’t have a nine-to-five job; I have a 24-hour job. Whenever there’s something wrong, I come down here and work on it, take care of it,” Ms. Searle said. “I’m doing it just because I enjoy it … it’s not like anyone’s making a lot of money here.”

    Her son blames himself for his mother’s predicament.

    Mr. Randy Searle, as the tenant at the Gilbert house, said it was his job to manage the property. At the same time, he was trying to get a solar energy company in Rhode Island off the ground.

    “I had been responsible for paying [the property taxes], and when our company went out of business in Rhode Island, I didn’t have the money to pay them,” Mr. Searle told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Searle said he had worked out a plan with Arapaho to redeem the 2016 lien. However, due to a miscommunication, he didn’t realize foreclosure proceedings had been initiated over the 2015 taxes.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 21:30

  • Nancy Pelosi's Son Dodges Charges In Money Laundering, Mail Fraud Scheme Linked To San Francisco Flop House
    Nancy Pelosi’s Son Dodges Charges In Money Laundering, Mail Fraud Scheme Linked To San Francisco Flop House

    Nancy Pelosi’s son has dodged the hammer of justice for a seventh time, after being excluded from a case in which two fraudsters linked to Paul Jr. are set to be sentenced in a money laundering and mail fraud scheme involving “shady dealings over a San Francisco flop house that Pelosi Jr. claimed to own,” the Daily Mail reports.

    Bill Garlock and Gina Rodriguez scammed investors into fronting over $1 million for supposed real estate ventures, and instead used the cash to pay for their lifestyle – including rent, loan repayments, credit card bills, and ‘horse-related expenses,’ according to San Francisco federal prosecutors.

    The two obtained money from investors “by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and by means of concealment of material facts, including through the use of half-truths,” according to a 2022 indictment.

    One project which the pair presented to duped investors was the renovation of a dilapidated mixed-use building at the corner of Utah and 24th Street, which Paul Pelosi Jr. claimed to own 20% of – and was involved in a 2017 bribery scheme to obtain permits for the property, a move which led to the imprisonment of a city official and an engineering consultant following an FBI sting.

    The property, located in the Mission District of San Francisco, has a troubled past of code violations and squalid conditions. In other words, a flop house.

    Pelosi Jr. was listed as the selling realtor on transaction documents of this mixed-use building in the Mission District of San Francisco when it (pictured) was bought in 2017 by Feng 24th LLC, a company controlled by Garlock and Rodriguez

    Pelosi Jr. was not charged in the bribery scheme, and was only listed as “Client 9” in the complaint.

    In 2017, he was listed as the selling realtor on transaction documents as part of a sale to Feng 24th, LLC – a company controlled by Garlock and Rodriguez. As the Mail further reports, “according to the property manager and permit applications, Pelosi Jr. continued to be intimately involved with the flop house after its sale to the two fraudsters.”

    “But he is nowhere to be seen in the July 2022 indictment leveled against Garlock, 74, and Rodriguez, 57, in a Northern California federal court,” according to the report.

    Garlock and Rodriguez were indicted on 15 counts of money laundering and mail fraud, including a scheme to bilk $400,000 from investors in the 24th Street property.

    According to prosecutors, Garlock failed to list himself on Feng 24th LLC’s filings despite having “substantial control” over the firm which owned the Pelosi-linked property.

    Pelosi Jr.’s ties to the building, and the shady dealings around it, appear to be both financial and personal.

    DailyMail.com previously revealed that Pelosi Jr. had a romantic relationship with the building’s former owner, Karena Feng – and that she sued him in 2019 claiming that he conspired with Garlock and Rodriguez to scam her out of the property.

    In one email obtained by DailyMail.com, Pelosi Jr. wrote to Feng: ‘I am list [sic] as the real estate agent for the transaction and have been working hard for you for over two years. In January 2016, you and your family made me an officer of Feng RE with a 20 percent ownership. As an officer and owner of Feng RE, I want the best outcome for your and your family.’  -Daily Mail

    Nicole Bulick, Pelosi’s ex-girlfriend, says that the FBI interviewed Paul Jr. three times about the 24th Street property, while business associate Naveen Singha also said agents interviewed him about Pelosi Jr.’s links to the building.

    “Paul’s been under FBI [questioning] like three times over this,” the 48-year-old Bulick told the Mail. “Maybe in the summer of 2017… The FBI looked at this for almost two years. They called me too… He went and spoke with the FBI three times.“

    And according to the Mail, this is the seventh federal case linked to Pelosi Jr. for which he hasn’t been charged.

    DailyMail.com has previously revealed:

    • The 52-year-old joined the board of a biofuel company after it defrauded investors according to an SEC ruling, and whose CEO was convicted after bribing Georgia officials
    • Pelosi Jr. was president of an environmental investment firm that turned out to be a front for two convicted fraudsters 
    • He joined a lithium mining company and received millions of shares, allegedly issued as part of a massive $164million fraud 
    • He was vice president of a company previously embroiled in an investigation of scam calls that targeted senior citizens 
    • He has close business ties with a man accused by the Department of Justice of running a fake UN charity that stole investors’ money 
    • A medical company Pelosi Jr. worked for tested drugs on people without FDA authorization, according to an FDA investigation
    • A permit expeditor and a city official were imprisoned over a bribery scheme of cash for permits, with Pelosi Jr. as one of their clients

    Maybe Hunter Biden should speak with Paul Jr.’s attorney?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 21:00

  • FAA Issues Warning For Air Travel Disruptions During Total Solar Eclipse On April 8
    FAA Issues Warning For Air Travel Disruptions During Total Solar Eclipse On April 8

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

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a warning on Thursday about potential disruptions in air travel surrounding the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8.

    A graphic visualization with no text of the path of totality and partial contours crossing the U.S. for the 2024 total solar eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024.(Courtesy of NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio)

    The celestial event, set to cast a path of totality across 13 states, is anticipated to impact air travel operations before, during, and after the eclipse, according to the aviation agency.

    The FAA indicated that the eclipse’s effects on U.S. airspace are anticipated between approximately 2:30 p.m. and 3:40 p.m. ET. At this time, some 32 million people in North America are expected to witness the rare event, which is anticipated to be the most-watched solar eclipse in history.

    A total solar eclipse occurs when the new moon passes directly in front of the sun, completely blocking out sunlight and casting the moon’s shadow on the surface of Earth. The most recent total solar eclipse to happen on American soil was the Great American Eclipse in 2017.

    A notice issued by the FAA to airmen emphasized potential impacts on air traffic and airports along the eclipse path from April 7 to April 10. Pilots and aviation personnel are advised to stay informed and prepared for possible disruptions.

    In a statement, the FAA suggested that aircraft should ready themselves for potential airborne holding, reroutes, and departure clearance times that might be issued for all domestic IFR arrivals and departures during the eclipse.

    Departing aircraft from airports along the eclipse path are “strongly encouraged” to coordinate their departure times as early as possible to assist fixed base operators with staging aircraft and alleviating ramp congestion.

    “There may be a higher traffic volume than normal anticipated at airports along the path of the eclipse. Traffic should anticipate delays during peak traffic periods,” the FAA stated.

    The agency cautioned that parking may be limited, particularly at small, uncontrolled airports. Delays with issuing IFR departure clearances might also happen.

    “VFR departures may also expect delays for airborne pickup of IFR clearance within 50 NM either side of the path of the eclipse,” the FAA stated.

    The eclipse will also impact or possibly prohibit aircraft from conducting practice approaches, touch-and-go operations, flight following services, and pilot training at airports during the event.

    “Airmen should check NOTAMs carefully for special procedures/restrictions that may be in place at affected airports. Specific NOTAM procedures may be revised, and arrivals to some airports possibly restricted so please review NOTAMs frequently to verify you have the current information,” the agency advised.

    ‘Great North American Eclipse’

    Dubbed the “Great North American Eclipse,” the celestial event is expected to be more impressive than the one in 2017, lasting longer, being wider, and traversing more highly populated parts of North America.

    On April 8, it will begin over the South Pacific Ocean and move across North America, spanning across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The 2024 event will move in a different direction than the 2017 event, marking a cross on the United States.

    The moon’s shadow will create a relatively narrow ribbon—the path of totality—of about 100 miles over Earth’s surface. To experience a 100 percent total solar eclipse, viewers should be located in this narrow band. This will reveal “the star’s outer atmosphere, called the corona,” according to NASA.

    Totality will last for longer than four minutes in some parts of the United States.

    According to NASA, the path of the eclipse will traverse Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse.

    The eclipse will enter Canada in southern Ontario, journey through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton before exiting continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland at 5:16 p.m. NDT, according to NASA.

    Special security provisions may be enforced for this event, the FAA said, including temporary flight restrictions, two-way radio communications, and discrete transponder requirements.

    “Specific NOTAM procedures may be revised, and arrivals to some airports possibly restricted so please review NOTAMs frequently to verify you have the current information,” the FAA reiterated.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 20:35

  • US Decries "Outrageous" China & Russia Veto Of Its Gaza Ceasefire Resolution At UN
    US Decries “Outrageous” China & Russia Veto Of Its Gaza Ceasefire Resolution At UN

    On Friday Russia and China, along with Algeria, vetoed a US draft resolution on Gaza calling for ceasefire, with the objectors complaining that the language fell short of a clear and unequivocal demand for a ceasefire. 

    The draft ceasefire sought to directly link an immediate ceasefire with the release of all hostages from Gaza. China and Russia saw in it language that paves the way for okaying an Israeli offensive against Rafah. 

    US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of the proposed resolution, “We want to see an immediate and sustained ceasefire as part of a deal that leads to the release of all hostages being held by Hamas and other groups and that will allow much more life-saving, humanitarian aid to get into Gaza.”

    But Russian ambassador to the Security Council Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of engaging in “hypocritical” posturing:  

    He accused the United States of doing nothing to rein in Israel in Gaza, and mocked Washington for speaking of a ceasefire after “Gaza has been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth”.

    “We have observed a typical hypocritical spectacle,” he said.

    Nebenzya said that the resolution offered by the Biden administration would have “ensured the impunity of Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft.”

    This comes after several prior US vetoes of attempted ceasefire resolutions. Friday marks the fourth attempt to move forward a ceasefire resolution. In this case, the Biden administration can seek to lay blame on Russia and China for not wanting to seek peace: 

    Thomas-Greenfield has reacted to Russia’s and China’s vetoes of the US resolution by saying the two countries “refuse to condemn Hamas for burning people alive, for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert and for raping women and girls”.

    “This was the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and a permanent member of the Security Council cannot even condemn it,” she said. “I’m sorry, but this is outrageous and is below the dignity of this body.”

    An alternative resolution is soon next to be put before the Security Council which urges an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, out of which could come a hoped-for permanent ceasefire. The US is expected to veto it.

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

    Given the death toll in Gaza has reportedly surpassed 30,000 mostly civilians killed, the war is becoming increasingly unpopular internationally, and Israel’s actions have been especially condemned by Global South countries.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 20:10

  • US Intelligence Says It Knew ISIS-K Was Planning Terror Attack On Moscow
    US Intelligence Says It Knew ISIS-K Was Planning Terror Attack On Moscow

    Update(1950ET): The initial reports that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Moscow appeared rumor at first, and has still been subject of widespread scrutiny and debate, however, US media and government officials are saying that the Islamic State (or ISIS-K) statement is authentic. “A branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for the attack in Moscow that killed at least 40 people and injured about 100 others, and U.S. officials confirmed the claim shortly afterward,” The New York Times writes late in the day. 

    What’s more is that US intelligence knew there was to be an imminent attack on Moscow: “The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow, according to officials. ISIS members have been active in Russia, one U.S. official said,” according to more from NYT.

    The Kremlin had earlier in the day demanded answers of Washington explaining why the US Embassy in Moscow issued an alert earlier this month for all US nationals to avoid public venues and be extra vigilant. We previously reported on that early March embassy notification here. NY Times continues, citing US officials: “After a period of relative quiet, the Islamic State has been trying to increase its external attacks, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Most of those plots in Europe have been thwarted, prompting assessments that the group had diminished capabilities.”

    Importantly, Russian state media and sources have been slow to report the ISIS-K claims, nor have state officials identified any culprits or group at this late hour. Russian media in general has not reflected Western press reports concerning the claims that ISIS-K was behind it, likely pending a deeper and ongoing investigation. It is possible that some of the gunmen may still be at large.

    Speculation continues to run rampant, and there’s as yet been little that’s confirmed from Russian security services and authorities.

    At least 40 were killed when a group of heavily armed, unidentified gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall music venue. Russia’s Health Ministry has released a list of names of 145 people who have been hospitalized in critical condition. Children are among them.

    Below: video has emerged showing the moments the gunmen entered the concert hall, after randomly massacring people in the attached mall area of the complex…

    * * *

    Update(1735ET): The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the Moscow terrorist attack according to a report by the Amaq news agency (and otherwise unconfirmed).

    We will update this story as details are confirmed.

    *  *  *

    Update(1635ET): Moscow has come out with fighting words while also pointing the finger at Washington about ‘what it knew’ ahead of time and when:

    Medvedev threatens Ukraine’s top officials will be ‘destroyed mercilessly as terrorists’ if the ‘Kyiv regime’ is linked to Moscow concert hall attack.

    The former president Deputy Chairman of the Security Council is known to routinely issue threatening and hawkish words, but the Russian foreign ministry has issued the following as cited in Reuters:

    “On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions in the midst of a tragedy about someone’s innocence?” She added that if Washington had information, it should be shared and that if Washington had no information, it should not be talking in such a way.

    Huge blaze engulfs complex after several explosions were reported during and after the attack, via AP.

    At least one of the attackers is said to be in Russian custody, also as security services inspect a van in the vicinity and other suspicious vehicles. The mall and concert hall venue previously rampaged by heavily armed gunmen continues to be engulfed in flames, according to a summary in RT:

    Multiple fire brigades and aircraft have been deployed to put out the blaze at a large mall outside Moscow that was attacked by terrorists on Friday night. The popular shopping center and music venue is located in Krasnogorsk, just northwest of the Russian capital. 

    A group of gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall on Friday night, killing at least 40 people, according to the authorities.

    The assailants reportedly set the building on fire. Witnesses also said they heard explosions inside the mall.

    According to regional emergency services, around 100 people have been evacuated from the underground floor. The rescuers are working to evacuate people from the roof.

    There have been reports that parts of the roof over the complex collapsed, with hundreds of emergency responders battling the blaze and seeking any gunmen who may be at large.

    * * *

    Update(1440ET): Russian state media as well as The Wall Street Journal’s regional correspondent is reporting at least 40 people killed, and over 100 wounded and injured, in the unfolding major terror attack on Moscow’s largest concert hall. 

    Initial videos have emerged showing what appears to be attackers in combat fatigues with assault rifles going around the mall part of the venue (which is attached to the concert hall) and shooing randomly. There are reports from RT of follow-up blasts happening even amid a huge security, police, and emergency response. 

    Below: 20 seconds into clip… is that a flamethrower?

    A mere days ago the US Embassy in Moscow released the following alert telling all US nationals still in the country to avoid large gatherings and public venues. What did they know?

    Russia has called the shooting a ‘bloody terrorist attack’ in an initial statement. The White House has also issued an initial assessment as follows:

    • WHITE HOUSE: NO INDICATION AT THIS TIME THAT UKRAINE INVOLVED IN MOSCOW SHOOTING
    • MOSCOW CANCELS ALL THE WEEKEND MASS GATHERINGS – MAYOR

    Unconfirmed reports say some of the attackers may still be at large. Below–Warning, Graphic:

    Watch Live Feed of local media coverage below:

    * * *

    Some kind of major attack just occurred at a Moscow concert hall with contradictory breaking reports emerging from on the ground and several circulating unconfirmed videos. There are possibly at least ten casualties and videos from the scene showing a large fire and plumes of black smoke over the venue. It may have been the result of a large explosion, or possibly even a cross-border drone strike, but conflicting reports say this is likely a mass shooting situation. According to the breaking Associated Press report, at least three gunmen in combat gear stormed the concert hall, with riot police responding:

    Several gunmen in combat fatigues burst into a big concert hall in Moscow on Friday and fired automatic weapons at the crowd, injuring an unspecified number of people, Russian media said.

    Russian news reports said that the assailants also used explosives, causing a massive blaze at the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow. Video posted on social media showed huge plumes of black smoke rising over the building.

    Video from inside the concert hall shows smoke and a chaotic scene of masses of people scrambling to evacuate the venue.

    Unconfirmed statements say it happened at the largest indoor concert venue in Moscow, called Crocus City Hall.

    Reuters: Smoke rises above the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow after reports of a shooting incident.

    The scope of the attack was clearly a very large, coordinated op or terror event.

    Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency said that several gunmen opened fire on the crowd in Moscow concert hall, resulting in unknown casualties, the AP has cited.

    The incident has unfolded at during a week of rapidly escalating cross-border attacks on Russian territory from Ukraine, and also large-scale retaliatory strikes on Ukraine by Russian aerial forces.

    Reports of armed men storming the concert hall, but the visuals also strongly suggest a large explosion…

    A massive emergency and security response is ongoing:

    MORE THAN 50 AMBULANCE CREWS SENT TO SITE OF SHOOTING NEAR MOSCOW – RIA

    developing…

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 19:50

  • VDH: From Russian Collusion To "Bloodbath" – A Decade Of Toxic Hysteria
    VDH: From Russian Collusion To “Bloodbath” – A Decade Of Toxic Hysteria

    Via Victor David Hanson,

    Ever since late June 2015—following Donald Trump’s announcement that he was running for president, and his voicing of controversial agendas (on tariffs, China, illegal immigration, foreign policy, NATO, etc.)—leftwing toxic hysteria has been the norm.

    In the last ten years, we’ve witnessed the Russian collusion hoax, calls from military officers and analysts for extra-legal interventions and coups, the Alfa ping hoax, the drink bleach hoax, the “suckers” D-Day hoax, the celebrities’ contest about the best way to decapitate, stab, blow up, shoot, or incinerate Trump, the 2016 leftwing postelection effort to turn state electors into “faithless” apostates to elect Hillary, the nutty Mark Milley call to his Chinese counterpart, the Antifa/BLM riotous months of 2020 and effort to storm the White House grounds, the two first-term impeachments, the laptop “Russian disinformation” hoax, the pee accusation, the “51 intelligence authorities” ruse, the FBI hiring of Twitter censors to suppress unwanted news, the Senate trial of a private citizen, the January 6 “insurrection” where “five police officers were killed” lie, the farcical two Republican members of the Jan 6 committee, the attempt to remove Trump from state ballots, the insane E. Jean Carroll suit, the Letitia James “find me the man, and I’ll find you the crime” writ, the monstrous $355 million fine growing daily to $450, the Alvin Bragg bootstrapping of an inert federal suit, the Fani Willis/Nathan Wade circus, the Jack Smith antithesis to Robert Hur’s twin investigation, the effort to bankrupt the Republican nominee, and of course the constant calls to pack the court (when the Left lost the majority), to end the filibuster (when Democrats control the Senate), to add two new states and four new senators (provided they are DC and Puerto Rico) and to end the Electoral College (once the Left lost the surety of the reliable blue wall).

    What is the effect of all this decade-long civil strife on the 2024 voter?

    There are two knowns and two unknowns from this unprecedented effort to destroy rather than defeat at the polls Donald J. Trump.

    • First, we now know that the more they have tried to destroy Trump through media lies and distortions, lawfare, and extra-legal means, the greater his resiliency and popularity.

    • Two, we also realize that the greater the anti-Trump hysteria, venom, and furor on the Left, the more leftists melt down and project their own paranoias onto Trump.

    They think something like: “If we were Trump, and we were smeared with the stuff we are dishing out, we know what we do to our tormentors when we got power. So naturally Trump will do to us what we would to us in his place.”

    Their projection then turns into our now daily unhinged screams that Trump will “take revenge” and “demand retribution”, ensure a “bloodbath”, and “end democracy”—and “therefore we have to double down to employ even more extra-legal means to destroy him”.

    Of the unknowns, we are somewhat unsure about the cumulative effect of this historic effort to warp the electoral system to destroy a candidate, and in at least two regards.

    One, as the Left ramps up its hatred and frenzy over the next seven months before the election (and they surely will), what will be effect on Independents, swing voters, and the undecided? Will they grow incensed at the damage the Left is doing to the country and react by supporting Trump all the more?

    Or, alternatively, will they finally curl up, fetal-like, with  hands over ears, and simply whimper and wish for someone to make all this conundrum go away—and along with it the disrupter Trump, who, however much the victim, still somehow is responsible for the insane reaction he elicits from the left?

    As far as the second unknown in the upcoming months, could  or would Trump as the Happy Warrior better finesse the vitriol to his own advantage by joking about his tormentors’ insanity, using Reaganesque humor to ridicule his critics, or simply shrug, stick to business, ignore the madness, and press on? Can he not unite the country by rising above the tit-for-tat taunts and put-downs?

    That is, should he not avoid his gratuitous slights (often against fellow Republicans like DeSantis and Haley), curb silly stuff like “birdbrain” and the usual social media ridicule?

    Or does it even matter at this late date—given the Left will distort anything Trump says anyway—as we just witnessed with the “bloodbath” psychodrama, and the laughable spin to suggest Trump was calling for insurrection rather than the damage Biden will do to the automotive industry?

    Are we reaching a point, then, where it does not matter how carefully Trump speaks and how ecumenical he might sound, given whatever he says or does will still be distorted given the existential hatred for who he is, what he represents, and what his agendas might portend?

    Add up what we know and the things we know we don’t know, and it is going to be a wild, dangerous next seven months in which we are going to witness things from the Left never seen before in this country.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 19:45

  • Russia & China Strike Shipping Deal With Houthis To Ensure Safe Vessel Transits, Report Says 
    Russia & China Strike Shipping Deal With Houthis To Ensure Safe Vessel Transits, Report Says 

    According to Bloomberg’s sources, Russia and China have sealed a deal with Iran-backed Houthis to allow their commercial vessels to transit the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden without fear of drone and or missile attacks. 

    One of the sources said China and Russia reached a deal with diplomats in Oman with Mohammed Abdel Salam, one of the Houthis’ top political leaders. They said the safe passage of vessels is in exchange for the Houthis’ political support at the United Nations Security Council. 

    Bloomberg noted, “It’s not entirely clear how that support would be manifested, but it could include blocking more resolutions against the group.” 

    Since November, Houthi rebels have repeatedly attacked vessels in the Red Sea. Rebels assert that their attacks are aimed only at ships connected to Israel, demonstrating their support for the Palestinians amid the ongoing Gaza conflict.

    In response to the Red Sea crisis, the Biden administration launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a military operation led by the US and other allied countries to protect the critical shipping lane. However, months later, the operation failed to protect ships. Furthermore, the US and UK have launched bombing raids on Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries to fight back against Iran-backed terror groups. 

    “China and Russia are deepening their strategic alliance with Iranian-backed terrorists. It’s a further sign of an emerging new world disorder that threatens freedom of navigation, commerce, transit, and communications,” said David Asher, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, who commented on the Bloomberg report. 

    Asher continued: “No one should doubt that Putin and Xi are increasingly coordinating their moves with Tehran while the US embraces appeasement, including via releasing billions of dollars to the Iranians with no substantive result to American interests, power, and prestige.”

    In a recent note titled “The Weaponization Of Crude Could Trigger The Next Financial Shock,” Asher warned that “Iran is preparing for an oil war—and markets ignore the growing risks.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 19:20

  • 'Gender Science' Was Merely Ideology All Along
    ‘Gender Science’ Was Merely Ideology All Along

    Authored by Wesley J. Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Did you hear the news? England’s National Health Service (NHS) has decided that children diagnosed with gender dysphoria will no longer receive puberty blockers because “there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness … to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”

    Childrens books on gender in Irvine, Calif., on Sept. 7, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    The premier of Alberta, Canada, is planning legislation to restrict “gender-affirming” surgeries such as mastectomies for minors and puberty blockers for youth aged 15 and under. Other socially liberal nations have also hit the brakes on “gender affirmation,” in children, including Norway, Finland, France, Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand. So have a score of American states.

    Why did it take so long for common sense to return to this contentious issue? Blame the cultural imperialism of gender ideologues who, while most of us were not paying attention, successfully instituted “treatment guidelines” that focused almost exclusively on “affirming” a child’s gender confusion as medically necessary, while branding the more cautious approach of deeply exploring the mental health issues that could have contributed to the patient’s confusion as “transphobic,” and, even, likely to drive gender-confused children to suicide.

    WPATH—which stands for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—led the charge. Members of the organization are committed to the belief that “gender”—as opposed to sex—constitutes a human being’s true self and that gender “identity” can be known by the child when very young—in some cases, even before starting school.

    Moreover, when a child claims a particular gender identity different from that “assigned at birth”—male, female, nonbinary, transgender, etc.—that patient must be believed, “affirmed,” and set on the road to an eventual “transition.”

    But gender ideologues didn’t just promote their views about how gender dysphoric children should be treated in the marketplace of ideas. Rather, the entirety of the woke cultural infrastructure mobilized to punish those who challenged the new orthodoxy.

    Social authoritarianism became the order of the day. Many elementary and high schools were at the vanguard. Administrators ordered teachers not to alert parents to their child’s gender confusion at the risk of job loss. Teachers were fired if they “mis-pronouned” a gender-confused student or used the child’s “dead” (given) name instead of the gender-affirming name chosen by the child. Some teachers even proselytized gender ideology to their students, for example by placing LGBT flags in classrooms and assigning readings from pro-gender transitioning books.

    Meanwhile, social media companies canceled the accounts of those who disputed affirmation as the “medically necessary, life-saving standard of care.” Blue states such as California passed laws threatening to remove the custody of children from parents who refused to affirm their child’s declared gender identity. Medical professionals who sought to continue the more traditional approaches to care were accused of engaging in hateful “conversion therapy” and threatened with professional discipline.

    For a time, the ideological juggernaut seemed unstoppable. But as the old saying goes, eventually truth “will out.” Less ideological medical professionals reviewed the actual data and noticed that the supposedly settled science was much less certain than the activists claimed. Moreover, the potential medical harm from puberty blocking and performing surgeries on healthy bodies came to the forefront—in large part thanks to the advocacy of “de-transitioners” who were affirmed in their gender confusion but came to realize that they are, indeed, the sex they were born. The tragic testimonies of young women without breasts and boys with potential lifelong sexual dysfunction exposed the potential cruelty of the gender-affirming approach.

    And now, a shocking new report—“The WPATH Files,” published by Environmental Progress—has exposed WPATH’s rank ideological method as primarily “consumer-driven and pseudoscientific”—as opposed to evidence-based—and (appearing) to be “political activism, not science.”

    Not only that, but the study demonstrates that contrary to WPATH’s claims, the “psychiatric condition of gender dysphoria is not a fatal illness, and the best available studies show that in the case of minors, with watchful waiting and compassionate support, most will either grow out of it or learn to manage their distress in ways less detrimental to their health.” In other words, alternative non-invasive approaches can help young patients overcome their gender confusion without mutilating their bodies.

    Backing up the study’s many data-derived criticisms, author Mia Hughes also quotes actual transcripts of some WPATH members’ shocking disregard for the wellbeing of their patients made in private communications. For example, the report quotes one of the authors of WPATH’s standards of care guidelines admitting that children are too immature to comprehend the enormity of the transition they may desire: “[It is] out of their developmental range to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them.”

    Another WPATH member shrugs that minor patients do not fully appreciate the consequences of sterility that some medically “affirming” treatments can cause. “It’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year old, but I know I’m talking to a blank wall. They’d be like, ew, kids, babies, gross.”

    Environmental Progress’s exposé illustrates the danger of meekly following “the experts.” This is particularly true when the main defense of a new and radical agenda is based on a supposed consensus, and that therefore, the science is now “settled.” As my Discovery Institute colleague Stephen C. Meyer says: If you have to rely on a supposed “consensus” to defend your [scientific] position, it means there isn’t really a consensus. That goes double when skeptics are coerced into silence to maintain the primacy of a particular cultural orthodoxy.

    “The WPATH Files” demonstrates that courageous resistance to destructive social fads is never futile. But good golly it can be difficult when ideology successfully masks as science. Hopefully, the report will hasten the end of our destructive transgender moral panic—at least as it impacts minors—and we will finally protect these agonized youngsters in the way all vulnerable children deserve.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 18:55

  • "Our Country Is Being Poisoned": 270,000 Overdose Deaths Catapult Fentanyl As Major Voter Topic In Presidential Race
    “Our Country Is Being Poisoned”: 270,000 Overdose Deaths Catapult Fentanyl As Major Voter Topic In Presidential Race

    In a recent interview on Fox News, former President Donald Trump warned, “Our country is being poisoned from within by the drugs and by all of the other crime that’s taking place.” 

    According to the latest provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between November 2019 and October 2023, there have been a shocking 270,000 overdose deaths from synthetic opioids – or about 80,000 overdose deaths per year – across the nation. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    Under the Biden administration’s first term, Americans have been increasingly traumatized by the tsunami of overdose deaths as disastrous open southern border policies flood the nation with illegal drugs and millions of unvetted migrants that have sparked chaos across major metro areas. 

    American voters are increasingly frustrated with progressive policies that have backfired, resulting in the loss of countless American lives, many of them young people. 

    This is how China uses open southern borders to poison the American people.

    A new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of nearly 5,000 registered voters shows 8 in 10 voters in seven swing states believe fentanyl misuse is a “very important” or “somewhat important” issue when deciding who to vote for in November. The drug overdose issue trumps abortion, climate change, labor and unions, or the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. 

    Early in President Biden’s first term, he stated one of the central pillars of his “Unity Agenda” was to solve the overdose crisis. Fast-forward to today, Biden’s team of clowns has failed as they prioritize open southern borders over the well-being and health of law-abiding taxpayers. Just think about that for a few seconds… 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 18:30

  • Pentagon Still Open To Allowing US 'Boots On The Ground' In Haiti
    Pentagon Still Open To Allowing US ‘Boots On The Ground’ In Haiti

    Authored by Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute, 

    A senior US military official said the Pentagon has not yet ruled out an American deployment to Haiti, which has seen a spike in violent unrest that prompted the resignation of the country’s prime minister last week. 

    Speaking during an event hosted by the Atlantic Council on Tuesday, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) head General Laura Richardson was asked whether she envisions “boots on the ground” in the Caribbean nation.

    Via AFP

    “Not right now,” she said, before adding “They could be at the end of the day. We wouldn’t discount that at any time.” Without elaborating, Richardson also went on to suggest that Haitian refugees fleeing violence could be housed at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay – the notorious torture prison which has held hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects without charges for years on end.

    Haiti has been gripped by a long bout of chaos since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, who was replaced by Prime Minister Ariel Henry – then the West’s favored successor. Also assuming the powers of the presidency, Henry took office in lieu of a popular vote, repeatedly postponing elections even after lawmakers’ terms expired last year and left the legislature crippled.

    However, with Henry failing to rein in gangs and armed groups running rampant across Port-au-Prince – some even seizing control of ports and other key infrastructure – the PM gradually lost his international backing, agreeing to resign last week under pressure from Washington and other regional states. 

    The premier will be replaced by a nine-member transition council intended to pave the way to future elections – at a yet-unspecified date – and create an “action plan for near-term security,” according to Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, who helped to broker Henry’s resignation.

    After repeated appeals to the United Nations for an international security force to help quell the violence, Henry finally struck a deal earlier this month for a Kenyan-led mission backed by other nations and largely financed by the United States. It is that initiative which Richardson suggested US troops could ultimately join.

    With Henry stepping down, however, Nairobi has signaled that the multi-national security mission would be delayed until the new council is established, leaving it unclear when – or whether – the plan will come to fruition.

    “The deal they signed… still stands, although the deployment will not happen now because definitely we will require a sitting government to also collaborate with,” Kenyan Foreign Ministry spokesman Salim Swaleh told the New York Times last week. “You don’t just deploy police to go on the Port-au-Prince streets without a sitting administration.”

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

    With a lengthy and often violent history of outside intervention in the country, some Haitians have objected to any foreign troop presence, fearing it may do more harm than good given disastrous experiences with UN-led missions in the past. 

    “The Haitian people have kept the bitter taste of a foreign force in charge of our situation: theft, rape, cholera, food dependence, deregulation of the economic system, without mentioning the fact that we don’t remember seeing then-gang leaders be arrested or rendered unable to do harm,” Haitian think tank Groupe de Travail sur la Securite (Security Working Group) said in a statement in 2022, soon after Henry’s first appeal for an international deployment.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 18:05

  • Large US Banks Suffer Another Weekly Deposits Outflow; Stocks & Fed Reserves Completely Decoupled
    Large US Banks Suffer Another Weekly Deposits Outflow; Stocks & Fed Reserves Completely Decoupled

    With The Fed’s bank bailout facility now expired, the 12-month term loans are starting to mature and the fund dropped over $17.2BN last week…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Money-market funds saw a big outflows of almost $62BN, which we wonder if related to tax-year liquidity issues, but it is a little early in the year…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And as money-markets saw outflows, so banks saw deposit inflows… +$38.2BN (SA) and +$41.3BN (NSA) in total deposit increases…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Excluding foreign deposits, domestic banks saw their second straight week of SA inflows +$23.5BN (Large Banks -$8.7BN, Small Banks +32BN), while NSA deposits saw a third straight week of inflows +50.1BN (Large banks +47.4BN, Small banks +2.7BN)

    Source: Bloomberg

    Large Domestic US banks have seen deposit outflows for 5 of the last 6 weeks (while Small banks saw a huge deposit boost)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Overall loan volumes rose, but very modestly (Large banks +$1.9BN, Small banks +$1.8BN)

    Source: Bloomberg

    Interestingly, there was a large jump in small bank cash relative to total assets last week (and viuce versa for large banks) which happens to coincide with the end of the BTFP facility

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, US bank reserves at The Fed shrank this week as US equity market cap soared to a new record high…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Quite a decoupling.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 17:40

  • Florida Bans Homeless Encampments
    Florida Bans Homeless Encampments

    Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

    On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed a bill into law that bans homeless encampments in the state of Florida.

    As reported by Just The News, House Bill 1365, formally titled the Unauthorized Public Camping and Public Sleeping Act, demands that homeless individuals be placed in temporary shelters that will be monitored by state law enforcement agencies, while also banning the use of drugs in such shelters and providing drug and alcohol treatment to occupants who need it.

    Furthermore, the law gives residents and businesses the power to sue a city or county government if it allows homeless camps to continue on public property. In the event that homeless shelters reach full capacity, the Florida Department of Children and Families will provide alternative shelters.

    “Florida will not allow homeless encampments to intrude on its citizens or undermine their quality of life like we see in states like New York and California,” said DeSantis during a press conference.

    “The legislation I signed today upholds our commitment to law and order while also ensuring homeless individuals have the resources they need to get back on their feet.”

    The bill was sponsored by State Representative Sam Garrison (R-Fla.), who said that “in Florida, we will learn from the mistakes of cities like San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, and more, which are paying the price for their unwillingness to act.”

    “This bill will not eliminate homelessness,” Garrison admitted.

    “But it is a start. And it states clearly that in Florida, our public spaces are worth fighting for. The status quo is not an option. In Florida we choose to act. It is simply the right thing to do.”

    The bill was passed by the State House of Representatives on March 1st, by a vote of 82 to 26, and subsequently passed the State Senate on March 5th by a vote of 27 to 12.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 17:15

  • Wake-Up Call
    Wake-Up Call

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    “Those who organized the disaster will take advantage of the inevitable discontent arising from efforts to overcome it, for if there is one thing that they are skilled in, it is demagoguery.”

    – Theodore Dalrymple

    Can you feel it? The tension rising to the red-line? It runs clear through all of Western Civ. We are ruled by governments of fiends. But now, the sun rides higher in the sky. The sap is rising in the northern forests. The earth heaves. The buds swell and blush. Something is in the air. The animals are waking from their long winter sleep. The natives are restless.

    The two traditional political divisions, liberal and conservative died with Covid. Now there are simply the sane versus the insane. The sane have had enough of being pushed around by the insane. The insane don’t register much of what reality tries to tell them. They have a body of insane ideas to comfort and protect them from the reality’s rigors. To call that body of ideas an “ideology” is way too polite.That the insane call themselves “progressive,” is a signature of their insanity.

    Progress toward what better state of things? Toward a supremacy of fiends, sadists, degenerates, and morons seizing riches and power by every dishonest means possible outside the rule of law and common decency? It’s not even suitable to call them “communists.” They lack the necessary idealism for that.

    They don’t expect to put their shoulders to the wheel with their fellow man. They just want to grab your stuff and then kill you so they don’t have to hear any complaints.

    The insane do not believe any of the theoretical bullshit they want to force you to swallow. They don’t care about climate change. It’s just a cudgel they use to beat everyone over the head so they can steal your stuff. They don’t care about “democracy.” It’s just a line of bullshit to cover up their election-stealing. Do you suppose that sane people would keep using electronic vote-tabulating machines that were demonstrably connected to the Internet, and thus hackable, if they cared about election integrity? Of course not. They would arrange p.d.q. to junk them and use paper ballots, and only in person at polling places, with “absentee” exceptions only for people out of the country.

    The insane do not care about public health. Everything that is known about the Covid-19 vaccinations tells you that they are unsafe and don’t prevent infection or transmission of a flu-like illness that might not even be what it was officially labeled as. Our public health officials in the FDA, the CDC, and in other corners of the Department of health and Human Services, lie about everything they’re responsible for. This week, the CDC (under Director Mandy Cohen) released a 148-page study on myocarditis reactions to mRNA shots. Every word on every page of the document was redacted. The CDC printed countless copies of the report with 148 utterly blank pages, and then proffered them to the news media. How is that not insane?

    The insane do not care about the rule of law. The conduct of “Lawfare” is the subversion of the law by dishonest means. It is a species of racketeering. And that is why Lawfare rogues such Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, Matthew Graves, and Merrick Garland, should be charged under the federal RICO statutes for conspiring to deprive sane citizens of their rights and property in the many cases related to the 1/6/21 riot at the US Capitol.

    It is, so far, an abiding mystery of contemporary history as to how New York Attorney General Letitia James managed to get away with prosecuting a real estate case against Donald Trump that was no more than victimless business-as-usual between a borrower and his lenders. Ms. James ran for that elected office promising to “get” Mr. Trump on something, anything. That is not how the rule of law works. Under the rule of law, first you determine that there is a crime and then look for who did the crime.

    Letitia James must be insane and/or pretty stupid. The short-term gain of stealing Mr. Trump’s property under a false color-of-law and creating impediments to his election campaign, will, sooner or later, blow back at her as a matter of malicious prosecution and, plausibly, racketeering as well. (With whom did she conspire to bring this case? We shall find out.) She will eventually be disgraced publicly as her teammate Fani Willis has already been disgraced in Fulton County, Georgia. I’ll tell you something that all sane people now know but won’t talk about for fear of being crushed by the levers of Lawfare: this looks like a concerted effort by people-of-color to railroad people of non-color. If you think that is a good thing for race relations in our country, then you are insane.

    Here are a bunch of other things that are insane: Re-litigating the first amendment is insane. It means what it says, and states it plainly. The open border is insane. No credible sovereign polity would allow it. It would be opposed with force, if necessary. Turning children into transsexuals on a wholesale basis is insane, and fiendishly so. Everybody knows that it is not good for the children or for our society as a whole. But fiends got to fiend, and if you try to deprive them of being fiends then you are guilty of “hate.”

    The war in Ukraine is insane. We certainly didn’t ignite it in the service of “democracy.” Our pawn there, Mr. Zelensky, canceled the national elections last year. The war was arguably an effort by our CIA to deprive Russia of its market for natgas in Europe, and thus deprive Russia of a great deal of money, that is, of prosperity. The project failed. Russia overcame NATO’s proxy army and found other markets for its gas. Blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines only served to impoverish and weaken our NATO allies, who no longer have affordable gas to run their industries. The leaders of those allies were too insane to recognize that the Nord Stream op was an act-of-war against them. They were also busy destroying themselves, like the USA, with open borders. They will end up in a new medievalism, ruled by savages. You’d have to be insane to arrange that for yourself.

    What’s most obviously insane in our country is that the insane party is pretending to nominate the mentally unfit White House place-keeper, “Joe Biden,” for reelection. You would think that if this party wanted to retain power, they would run a candidate who, though insane, was not also visibly senile. But the rank and file of this party are too insane to see that this dodge is not working. They are pretending with all their might that this is okay, that the growing faction of the sane don’t notice.

    Sensing the growing impatience with insanity among the voters, the insane party has reached its point of terminal desperation. What will they try next? Murder? Why not? Nothing else seemed to work. They are too far gone in their insanity to understand that winter is over. We’ve entered the season of rebirth and renewal, starting with a renewed appreciation for being sane and for that indispensable ingredient that makes liberty in a free society possible: good faith. Really, the only question left is: how rough do they intend to play to prevent the return of sanity and good faith?

    *  *  *

    Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 16:25

  • 'Powell Put' Sparks Surge In Stocks, Bonds, & The Dollar; Bullion & Black Gold Flat On Week
    ‘Powell Put’ Sparks Surge In Stocks, Bonds, & The Dollar; Bullion & Black Gold Flat On Week

    Positive macro, central bank love-fest, and AI catalysts… buy all the things…

    US Macro ‘outperformed’ expectations this week amid more pro-cyclical data points…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …which combined with a dovish tilt by Powell (which lifted 20-24 rate-cut expectation)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and positive AI catalysts…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Put this all together – rates, growth, and secular momentum –and it is perhaps not surprising that stocks have reached another all-time high in the US.

    Led to a solid week for all the majors with Nasdaq outperforming…

    The S&P 500 trades at a 2025 P/E of 20+.

    So the question may simply be: can the rates/growth/secular innovation dynamic be sustained long enough to allow corporate earnings to grow into the current market’s valuation?

    Shorts were aggressively squeezed Wednesday an Thursday…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasury yields ended the week lower, including the long-end (-4bps), but the short-end outperformed (-13bps)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Which left the curve (2s30s) stepper on the week….

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar roared back to six week highs this week…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bitcoin ETFs saw large net outflows this week…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And that weighed on the underlying with spot bitcoin back at $64,000…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Gold ended the week around unchanged, despite a hige spike intraweek to a new record high…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Crude prices ended the week unchanged, roundtripping from the early week gains…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And finally, this is not good news for Biden and his biddies…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Pump prices are heading up… and Biden’s approval rating down at the sane tune.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 16:20

  • "We Have Reached A Bottom": Uranium Poised To Jump Again After 3 Month Correction
    “We Have Reached A Bottom”: Uranium Poised To Jump Again After 3 Month Correction

    Uranium prices may have dipped slightly over the last 4 months, but its looking like the new “top” we’ve set over the last year is going to likely act as “support” as we forge forward into what Bloomberg is calling a “nuclear future”. 

    In New York, the price of uranium futures has dipped to $88.50 per pound, a decrease from the peak seen in February, which was a 16-year high, yet remains significantly above the average price of $66.60 recorded last year.

    Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, a nuclear industry research firm told the news outlet: “We have reached a bottom. The fundamentals are still strong, with increased demand and supply that hasn’t fully responded.”

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

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

    This interest is highlighted amid supply warnings from Canada’s Cameco and Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom, the leading producers responsible for half of the worldwide uranium supply. Kazatomprom forecasts a significant supply deficit escalating from 21 million pounds in 2030 to 147 million pounds by 2040.

    Geopolitical tensions, including a U.S. proposal to ban Russian uranium imports, which are essential for nuclear power and weapons, add complexity to the supply scenario, the report says. However, the potential resurgence of dormant mining operations due to rising uranium prices poses a risk of dampening the market rally, reminiscent of the recent boom-to-bust cycle in battery metals.

    “We have a number of geopolitical factors that have a really significant influence on buyer behavior, even though fundamentally nothing has changed. Buyers can use the spot to tell them the sentiment of the day, but must look at the long-term market to see that it is marching steadily up, it hasn’t taken a hiccup at all,” concluded Treva Klingbiel, president of uranium price provider TradeTech.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 15:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Mar 22

Today’s News 22nd March 2024

  • "Restricting Freedoms" May Be Necessary To Fight Climate Change: German Ethics Council
    “Restricting Freedoms” May Be Necessary To Fight Climate Change: German Ethics Council

    Via The European Conservative,

    The government may be forced to limit the available choices for citizens in order to battle predicted ‘devastating consequences’ of climate change. That’s the message in an opinion titled “Climate Justice,” published on March 13th by the German Ethics Council.

    In the opinion, the Ethics Council—a board of expert advisors established by German law—recommends actions to be taken by corporations, individuals, and the government to ensure the effects of climate change do not unjustly burden “those who are not so well-off.” 

    Primarily, the Ethics Council says, this should be done on a voluntary basis—through individual ”self-commitment as an expression of one’s individual freedom”—by, for example, “voluntarily abandoning certain vacation, consumption, or mobility practices.”

    However, the Council’s statement continues (emphasis added),

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

    In other words: If you cannot be shamed into behaving in a way deemed morally correct by the elite, the government may simply have to force you. Flugscham, from the original Swedish flygskam, meaning “flight shame”—guilt about flying experienced by environmentally conscious travelers—is now an established word in the German vocabulary.

    While the opinion states that the Ethics Council is opposed to suspending “democratic freedoms and processes” to reach the desired climate goals, the group says it largely falls to the government to provide the “supportive framework conditions” under which individuals can—as we say to the kids—make good choices. 

    These framework conditions, the opinion says, should among other things include lowered speed limits, increased “electromobility,” and increased CO2 taxes. The Council suggests a personal emissions limit that cannot be exceeded, and even “the ban on particularly climate-damaging products or services”—or, as Apollo News puts it: “a regulation as to who can buy what and to what extent.”

    Defining climate change as a man-made (“due to, among other factors, the combustion of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests and moors since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution”) phenomenon, the organization also says Germany needs to take into account “the long history of colonialism and industrialisation” as well as “ongoing neo-colonial dependencies,” meaning

    a distinction must be made between growth in countries of the global South that are catching up on development, and further growth of consumption and resource use in industrialised countries, and appropriate compensatory payments must be negotiated.

    At a time when the former European industrial powerhouse barely has its nose above water, it’s questionable whether “compensatory payments” to the Global South is on the traffic light coalition’s radar, regardless of Ethics Council recommendations. 

    The Ethics Council is a 26-member independent organization representing diverse “scientific, medical, theological, philosophical, ethical, social, economic and legal concerns” intended to provide guidance for dealing with societal changes, “particularly in the field of life sciences and their application to humans.” Established in German law, the Ethics Council is tasked with, among other things, developing “statements and recommendations for political and legislative action,” and prepares its opinions based on its own decision, “on behalf of the German Bundestag or on behalf of the Federal Government.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/22/2024 – 02:00

  • Terrorist Caught Illegally Crossing Border Says He Was 'Here To Make A Bomb'
    Terrorist Caught Illegally Crossing Border Says He Was ‘Here To Make A Bomb’

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

    A member of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah was caught entering the country illegally at the Texas border, where he told agents he was plotting to make a bomb once settled in the country, according to a March 19 federal court document.

    A group of more than 1,000 illegal immigrants walks toward a U.S. Border Patrol field processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 18, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

    Basel Bassel Ebbadi, a Lebanese national, told a Texas border agent that he was “here to make a bomb” and that he spent several years training with the Hizballah terrorist group, an alternate name for Hezbollah, and he “was taught to kill people who were not Muslim.”

    The group’s main operations are in Lebanon, Mr. Ebbadi’s native country.

    Mr. Ebbadi, who is listed as being 22 years old, was transferred to the El Paso Sectors Human Intelligence Unit for further questioning, according to the criminal complaint filed by Border Patrol agent Jose L. Benitez-Medina in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

    Mr. Benitez-Medina wrote in his complaint that Mr. Ebbadi entered the United States on March 9 by crossing the Rio Grande in an area of Texas that is not a designated port of entry for migrants.

    Instead, he crossed into the United States about four miles from the Bridge of The Americas Port of Entry in El Paso. According the court document, the border agent indicated that Mr. Ebbadi volunteered his ties to Hezbollah and was initially processed for entry.

    Mr. Ebbadi is currently being held at the El Paso Hardened Facility.

    Past Terror Against US

    As part of his court complaint, the border patrol agent noted that on Oct. 8, 1997, the United States designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization and that in 2017, officials added “Lebanese Hizballah” as an alias for Hezbollah. He also listed several other aliases for Hezbollah, including Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, Islamic Jihad, Organization of Right Against Wrong, Followers of the Prophet Muhammad, and the Revolutionary Justice Organization.

    The terrorist group has been found responsible for a number of large-scale terrorist attacks against the United States, including the deadly 1983 suicide truck bombings of the American Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. It has also planted bombs on buses and hijacked passenger airplanes around the world.

    In 1994, 85 people were killed when the group detonated bombs at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) levied terrorism charges against a Hezbollah member found to be plotting attacks against U.S. embassies.

    In 2004, the national commission appointed to study 9/11 and other terrorist attacks released a 585-page report that concluded that Hezbollah was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The 9/11 Commission also linked the group to Hamas, the radical militia group that carried out the recently grisly attacks on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Hezbollah leaders praised the attack.

    In 2008, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) started Project Cassandra as a way to stymie Hezbollah drug and weapons trafficking operations and money laundering activity in the United States.

    However, the DEA initiative was ended by President Barack Obama soon after he took office in 2009.

    In 2015, Defense Department financial crimes analyst David Asher, who helped start Project Cassandra, told Politico that the Obama administration expressed concerns the project would lead to alienating Iranian officials.

    “They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down,” Mr. Asher said.

    In May 2023, the DOJ seized 13 website domains it said Hezbollah was using to plot future terrorist attacks, including against the United States.

    “Today’s web domain seizures deny terrorist organizations and affiliates significant sources of support and make clear we will not allow these groups to use U.S. infrastructure to threaten the American people,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement about the Hezbollah domains.

    Suspected Terrorists Living in the US

    Earlier this week, the New York Post reported it had obtained internal documents from the agency showing a Hezbollah member had been nabbed at the border in El Paso.

    ICE’s El Paso Enforcement and Removal Office declined repeated requests by The Epoch Times to confirm Mr. Ebbadi’s detention.

    After several requests made over the course of two days about Mr. Ebbadi, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol finally responded on March 18 with an email indicating only that “the individual referenced is in U.S. custody.”

    Media outlets all over the world, including The Jerusalem Post and Hindustan Times, reported on the news that a Hezbollah terrorist was found to have crossed illegally into the United States.

    Members of other known terrorist organizations have been living illegally in the United States.

    In February, Patrick Lechleitner, President Joe Biden’s acting ICE director, said that in 2023, a Somali terrorist from the Islamic military group al-Shabaab was released into the United States after illegally crossing the U.S. border, The Daily Caller reported. He had been freely roaming until his arrest on Jan. 20 in Minneapolis, according to ICE records.

    Al-Shabaab is known to have ties with the al-Qaeda terrorist group, which was linked to the 9/11 attacks.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 23:40

  • Where People Are (Un)Happiest With Their Lives
    Where People Are (Un)Happiest With Their Lives

    In 2012, the United Nations proclaimed March 20 as the International Day of Happiness or World Happiness Day, which has been held on this date every year since.

    The aim is to promote awareness for a “more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all people”.

    Although happiness and satisfaction are subjective parameters, Statista’s Anna Fleck notes that the team behind the World Happiness Report has once again produced a country ranking this year that reveals clear differences between Western industrialized nations and countries in Asia and Africa.

    Infographic: Where People Are (Un)Happiest With Their Lives | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In order to map the satisfaction of respondents in the 143 countries surveyed, participants were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with their current life on a ten-point scale. This was used to calculate an average value for the results between 2021 and 2023 for each country. As this chart, based on the report shows, Finland (7.74), Denmark (7.58) and Iceland (7.53) are the countries with the most satisfied residents according to calculations, while the three lowest scores are found among the residents of Lesotho (3.19), Lebanon (2.71) and Afghanistan (1.72). The United States is ranked 23rd out of the 143 countries in this year’s evaluation.

    In addition to the clear differences in the geographical regions, there are also differences in satisfaction in different age groups. Looking at the results for the under-30s, Lithuania, Israel and Serbia take the top three places, while Denmark, Finland and Norway take the top three places for the over-60s.

    It’s important to note here that the ranking of the World Happiness Report is not an objective survey based on key figures such as gross domestic product per capita, life expectancy or the quality of the social system. According to the authors of the report, these are analyzed as “supporting factors” but have no influence on the score.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 23:20

  • Planned Parenthood Faces New Allegations Of Selling Aborted Fetal Tissue To UCSD
    Planned Parenthood Faces New Allegations Of Selling Aborted Fetal Tissue To UCSD

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Newly-released documents reveal an alleged alliance between Planned Parenthood and the University of California–San Diego to profit from the “harvesting and sale” of aborted human fetuses for research patents.

    “This new evidence shows Planned Parenthood sells late-term aborted baby body parts in violation of federal law, for far more money than has ever been discussed before,” said David Daleiden, founder and president of California-based Center for Medical Progress, which filed the public records request, in a statement earlier this month. “Planned Parenthood’s national headquarters knew about and approved these sales of aborted babies for valuable consideration as part of government-funded research grants.”

    A Planned Parenthood facility in Anaheim, Calif., on September 10, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    The documents show Planned Parenthood transferring aborted fetal body parts to the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) explicitly for “valuable consideration” in exchange for ownership of the university’s patents and intellectual property developed experimenting with them.

    Details of the alleged deal are spelled out in a redacted “Biological Materials Transfer Agreement” that grants UCSD “access” to “fetal and placental tissue,” that are the “proprietary materials” of Planned Parenthood San Diego. In return, the deal allows the nonprofit rights to “patents” and “intellectual property” developed through experiments with the “material.”

    The contract, signed in 2009, was updated to reflect the nonprofit’s name change to “Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest” in 2014, with the parties specifying the terms and conditions of the original contract remained in full force and effect.

    File photo of landscaping on the University of California-San Diego Health La Jolla campus. (Courtesy of University of California-San Diego Health)

    UCSD emails from 2017 refer to the contract while updating an additional contract for clinical personnel, and in emails from late 2020, the university seeks to be “especially careful” about “any rights” providers of fetal tissue “retain” in the “material.”

    Despite federal laws prohibiting the exchange of aborted human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration,” the university used the fetal tissue for research leading to patents, according to Mr. Daleiden’s statement.

    The University of California system generated more than $127 million in revenue for all patent inventions during the 2021-22 academic year, Mr. Daleiden claims in his statement.

    Violation of such federal laws are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $500,000, according to the Center for Medical Progress.

    Email threads between Planned Parenthood and UCSD also reveal plans for collaborative research meetings. In one thread, Planned Parenthood emailed UCSD to set up a quarterly meeting and agrees to discuss “payment” to its abortion training initiatives within the framework of its fetal tissue research partnership.

    UCSD writes that as part of a meeting, “we will have results to share on samples recently collected, and will also likely have more to discuss re: the [REDACTED] fellowship.” Planned Parenthood replies there are “[n]o current issues with the collection program,” but they “have some questions about payment to the residency program.”

    The collaboration involved Planned Parenthood’s training programs at UCSD and other taxpayer-funded universities where they allegedly supply fetal tissues for research purposes.

    Documents also show UC San Diego donated $10,000 to Planned Parenthood’s national research department at a 2021 fundraiser and a registration form for “the fetal body parts harvesting in San Diego,” according to the center.

    In 2015, Mr. Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress released an undercover video series showing Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the costs of fetal tissue from the alleged “harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts” and discussing modifications to abortion procedures to secure more intact organs. The videos exposed an aborted baby organ market between abortion clinics and research facilities.

    A woman holds up a sign from the podium of an Orange Unified School District meeting in Orange, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    The exposé revealed various for-profit companies sent tech workers into Planned Parenthood abortion clinics to harvest the organs of aborted babies and then package them for resale to research facilities.

    Last year, the center reported on records, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, confirming a federal investigation by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General of the National Institute of Health’s funded fetal tissue bank at the University of Pittsburgh, which is allegedly supplied by Planned Parenthood abortion doctors, according to Mr. Daleiden’s statement.

    Mr. Daleiden has urged federal investigators to widen the probe to include Planned Parenthood’s activities in San Diego “and every other location where this $1.8 billion abortion business supplies aborted babies for taxpayer-funded experiments,” and accused the organization’s leaders of participating in the “government-sponsored trafficking of late-term aborted babies.”

    The Center for Medical Progress also released a video about its most recent public records findings. Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, a faith-based advocacy organization that promotes traditional family values, said in a March 18 statement that the agreement between Planned Parenthood and UC San Diego treated “innocent, vulnerable human beings just like animals.”

    “Every human life is sacred from conception, and selling unborn baby parts for research is morally abhorrent,” Mr. Burt said. “This deeply revolting news reaffirms the need to pressure politicians to implement life-affirming policies and demand the laws against these crimes be enforced.”

    Educational institutions and the scientific community “shouldn’t get a pass when they violate human dignity,” he said.

    Planned Parenthood did not respond to requests for comment about the allegations.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 23:00

  • New Gene Therapy To Cost $4.25 Million, The Highest Drug Price In The US
    New Gene Therapy To Cost $4.25 Million, The Highest Drug Price In The US

    The most expensive drug in the U.S. is now Lenmeldy, a $4.25 million gene therapy the FDA approved March 18 for children with a rare genetic disease, Becker Hospital Review reports.

    Metachromatic leukodystrophy manifests into the loss of motor and cognitive function, and early death, according to the FDA. The first and only one-time medicine for patients is Lenmeldy (atidarsagene autotemcel). Its manufacturer, Orchard Therapeutics, said the drug’s wholesale acquisition cost is $4.25 million. 

    In a March 20 news release, Orchard said the price tag “is reflective of the value the therapy may deliver to eligible patients and their families, as well the potential long-term impact [the] treatment may have on overall healthcare utilization, minimization of productivity loss for caregivers and life opportunities for patients.”

    In a trial, 37 children received Lenmeldy and experienced a significant reduction in the risk of severe motor impairment and death compared to untreated children. At 5 years old, 71% of treated children could walk without assistance. All study participants who had pre-symptomatic late infantile MLD were alive at 6 years old, compared to 58% of children in the control group. 

    Before its approval, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review said the drug would be cost effective if priced between $2.3 million and $3.9 million. 

    Other chart-topping medications include Hemgenix, a $3.5 million hemophilia B therapy; Elevidys, a $3.2 million muscular dystrophy drug; and Skysona, a $3 million medicine for adrenoleukodystrophy, according to CNN. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 22:40

  • After 625 Days, The Longest Yield Curve Inversion In History
    After 625 Days, The Longest Yield Curve Inversion In History

    Today is a historic day, as last night – DB’s Jim Reid reminds us – we quietly passed the longest continuous US 2s10s inversion in history. After the 2s10s first inverted at the end of March 2022, it has now been continuously inverted for 625 days since July 5th 2022. That exceeds the 624 day inversion from August 1978, which previously held the record.

    As regular readers are aware, an inverted yield curve has been the best predictor of a US downturn of any variable through history: the yield curve has always inverted before all of the last 10 US recessions, with a lag that is usually 12-18 months, but some cycles – certainly this one – take longer…. much longer.

    In fact, the lack of a recession so far has prompted Red to ask – in his latest Chart of the Day note – if the inverted yield curve recession indicator has failed this cycle?

    “Possibly”, the DB strategist responds, “but in many ways the yield curve has already accurately predicted many of the drivers that would normally lead to a recession. However, these variables haven’t then created recessionary conditions as they normally would have done.” He explains:

    It led, as it always does, the very sharp deterioration in bank lending standards, and led the declines in bank credit and money supply that are almost unique to this cycle. It was also at the heart of why we had some of the largest bank failures on record with SVB, Signature Bank and First Republic collapsing. A significant part of their failure was a big carry trade that went wrong when the curve inverted.

    However, even with the above, a recession – according to the highly political “recession authority” known as the NBER – hasn’t materialised. This is perhaps because of the following.

    • When lending standards were at their tightest, the borrowing needs of the economy were low relative to previous cycles.
    • Excess savings have been unusually high in this cycle (and were revised higher with the GDP revisions last September), so consumers haven’t been as exposed to tight credit as they normally are.
    • The Fed unveiled a huge series of measures to ensure the regional bank crisis didn’t naturally unravel as it would have done in a free market or perhaps in many previous cycles.
    • Whilst the Fed’s tightening has been reducing demand, the supply-side of the economy has bounced back strongly from the pandemic disruption, which has further supported growth and made this cycle unique.

    So far so good, however, an inverted yield curve should ultimately be a significant headwind for an economy, as capitalism works best when there is a positive return for taking more risk with lending and investments further out the curve. As such, Reid notes, “the rational investor should be prepared to keep more of their money at the front end, or not lend long-term when the curve is inverted” as you are not giving up yield for being able to sleep at night.

    So thanks to a historic flood of fiscal stimulus and a daily orgy of new record debt as discussed earlier…

    … which means that the US is now running a 6.5% deficit with unemployment near “historical lows”, an unheard of event….

    … the economy has not succumbed to the inverted yield curve to date, but while it remains inverted the Fed is encouraging more defensive behavior at some point if sentiment changes. As such, the DB strategist concludes that “the quicker we get back to a normal sloping yield curve the safer the system is.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 22:20

  • Is Reform Possible?
    Is Reform Possible?

    Authored by Theodore Dalrymple via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    President Javier Milei of Argentina has had a certain degree of success already with his radical economic policies: That is, if certain macroeconomic statistics are a sign of success. Inflation, though still very high, has declined somewhat. The budget has been in surplus for the last two months. The official exchange rate for the peso is beginning to approximate its rate on the open market, something that has not happened for a long time.

    President of Argentina Javier Milei speaks at CPAC at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 24, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    But for how long? It remains to be seen whether these successes can be maintained, for there are problems ahead both economic and political. Argentina has for decades stubbornly pursued such disastrous economic policies that any rectification is now bound to be painful and to result in at least temporary hardship for many. People who are already hard up will not take kindly to sacrifices for the sake of a supposed and still uncertain long-term advantage (no one can eat a balanced budget), and when people are living precariously, they cling to any tiny privileges or subsidies as the shipwrecked cling to whatever floating object they can find, and never mind that the grant of those privileges or subsidies caused the problem in the first place.

    Those who organized the disaster will take advantage of the inevitable discontent arising from efforts to overcome it, for if there is one thing that they are skilled in, it is demagoguery. Everything about them is demagogic, from their reading of history to their opposition to any kind of real change. Their aim is the preservation of their power and their hold over the people at all costs; Mr. Milei is a real threat to them and they are not going to surrender easily. Moreover, it is likely that Mr. Milei will himself make terrible mistakes, because all powerful people do so before long. His decision, albeit quickly reversed, to accept a huge augmentation in his pay while so many Argentinians are growing poorer was a very foolish error.

    But Argentina is far from the only country in dire straits. The problems both of Britain and France strongly resemble those of Argentina, though perhaps they are not (yet) so dramatic. But they too find themselves in a situation in which reform is desperately needed. Indeed, they are in Argentina’s bind: Reform is imperative; reform is impossible.

    Reform is imperative for economic reasons. The governments of both countries have undertaken obligations that they cannot meet out of their own resources and increasingly must resort to borrowing to meet some other way. In a recent article in the newspaper Le Figaro, the former candidate for the French presidency, Eric Zemmour, pointed out that the French budget for the police, armed forces, and administration of justice combined now constitutes between them only a very small proportion of the whole state budget, as if the maintenance of the country’s peace, internal and external, were but some kind of minor task for the state, an afterthought, something that it can afford to attend to only once the demand for children’s creches or free abortions has been met. And unfortunately, servicing the debt that has been contracted in the meantime largely to pay for all the creches, abortions, etcetera, is likely to become the single largest call on government expenditure.

    The situation in Britain is even worse, because of the greater incompetence and corruption of its public service than that of France, combined latterly with increasing costs and inefficiencies imposed by obedience to politically correct goals.

    But reform is impossible because so many people have now become dependent on the state, either directly because the state pays them to do nothing, or because they are employed by the state, or because the enterprise or business for which they work is employed by the state, such that the difference between the public and the private sector is increasingly blurred. When I look around me, for example, I see a neighbor, the owner of a prosperous private consultancy whose business is helping people to obtain subsidies from various levels of government. I came across another consultancy whose business was to assist local government in reducing their payment of taxes that the central government imposes on their suppliers.

    It follows that attempts to reduce government expenditure, imperatively necessary for financial reasons, would, if carried out, cause genuine hardship or discomfort to many. And if there is one thing that a modern democracy promises its members, it is increasing comfort, or at the very least the avoidance of discomfort. It would not be very difficult to trigger social discontent and violence on a large scale.

    There is a kind of dialectic at work here: First, the government makes people dependent on it; then the government becomes dependent on the people whom it has made dependent on it. From this infernal cycle, it is not easy to escape. The former head of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, once said, of European politicians, “We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.”

    Mr. Milei came to power with a clear majority because the situation in Argentina was so bad that it was obvious to a large proportion of the population that something in the country had to change, and change drastically. But if 55 percent of Argentinians voted for him, 45 percent did not; and while psephologists might consider this a very large difference, I do not think it would take very much for it to melt away and reverse. After all, euphoria has more in common with despair and anger than with good sense. Most of us live in the short term and are reluctant enough to make sacrifices for our own good, let alone for the good of others.

    People in Britain and France should pay close attention to what is happening in Argentina, for it is a laboratory for their own future. There are differences of course; the French economy, for example, has already in effect been dollarized by its adherence to a currency that it does not control, the euro.

    Incidentally, I saw an unintentionally funny line in an article about Argentina’s proposed dollarization. It would, it said, halt Argentina’s addiction to the money printing machine. Ha! Try telling that to an American monetarist!

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 22:00

  • Victims Will "Never" Be Whole Thanks To SBF's "Dumpster Fire" – FTX Caretaker CEO Rages
    Victims Will “Never” Be Whole Thanks To SBF’s “Dumpster Fire” – FTX Caretaker CEO Rages

    Authored by Martin Young via CoinTelegraph.com,

    FTX restructuring officer and CEO John Ray III has slammed an attempt from Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to reduce his sentence, arguing victims “have suffered and continue to suffer.” 

    Ray wrote to Judge Lewis Kaplan on March 20 in a victim impact statement on behalf of FTX and its “millions of creditor victims” to “correct material misstatements and omissions in the sentencing submission” from Bankman-Fried.

    The letter comes after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued on March 19 that the 40-to-50-year sentencing guide from United States government prosecutors was too harsh.

    Ray argued that Bankman-Fried’s claims that FTX was solvent at bankruptcy and that no money was lost were “categorically, callously, and demonstrably false.”

    “Customers still will never be in the same position they would have been had they not crossed paths with Mr. Bankman-Fried and his so-called brand of ‘altruism.’”

    Ray stated he has led an extensive team that has spent over a year “stewarding the estate from a metaphorical dumpster fire” to a company approaching a plan “that will return substantial value to creditors.”

    “Mr. Bankman-Fried’s victims will never be returned to the same economic position they would have been in today absent his colossal fraud,” he added in another part of the letter.

    Screenshot of letter from John Ray III to Judge Kaplan. Source: Courtlistener

    Ray took over the embattled exchange in November 2022 and detailed the extensive work done by an army of lawyers to recover assets, cooperate with investigations, and position the firm, which now plans to return all value to creditors.

    This recovery doesn’t erase the immense harm caused by Bankman-Fried’s crimes, however, Ray said.

    He stated when he took over as CEO that there were only 105 Bitcoin left on FTX, against customer entitlements of nearly 100,000 BTC.

    “Why were the Bitcoins missing?” he questioned before stating that a jury has “concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Bankman-Fried stole them and converted them into other things.”

    Ray claimed that Bankman-Fried considered conflicting public relations strategies after bankruptcy, including blaming the restructuring team while also claiming to want to work with them to repay creditors.

    Ray said that it was only because of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case that the firm had assets that could rebound in value, referring to the recent crypto market rally.

    “Make no mistake; customers, non-governmental creditors, governmental creditors, and non-insider stockholders have suffered and continue to suffer,” he concluded.

    Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that a 40-to-50-year sentencing proposal for a “non-violent offense” was “medieval” while requesting that it be reduced to around five to six and a half years.

    Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven charges relating to various fraud and money laundering brought against him by the United States government, almost a year after the collapse of the crypto exchange.

    He’s set to be sentenced on March 28.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 21:40

  • Chuck Schumer's Tired Vanity Act Needs A Rest
    Chuck Schumer’s Tired Vanity Act Needs A Rest

    Authored by Richard Benedetto via RealClear Wire,

    The time has come for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to pack his bags and shuffle back home to Brooklyn.

    The New York Democrat has been around politics way too long. Aside from being a politician, he’s never held a real job since graduating from Harvard Law School nearly a half-century ago. And as they say about washed-up pitchers in baseball: He seems to have lost his fastball.

    But like many a career politician, Schumer, 73, is the last to realize it. He clearly showed last week that he is losing his stuff when he recklessly overstepped his bounds and publicly called on duly elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, embroiled in a war with Hamas, to step down and hold new elections.

    “At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel at a time when so many Israelis have lost confidence on the vision and direction of their government,” said Schumer, who is Jewish.

    That’s like a leader in the Knesset, Israel’s top legislative body, calling on President Biden to quit. Such a bold order would be greeted here in the U.S. with laughter and scorn. Israelis, who view America as its moral and stalwart protector from those intent on destroying the Jewish state, were disconcerted – and appalled at the implications of Schumer’s implied threats. An obviously miffed Netanyahu called the Senate leader’s remarks “wholly inappropriate.”

    “We’re not a banana republic,” the Israeli prime minister said. “The people of Israel will choose when they’ll have elections, who they will elect and it’s not something that will be forced upon us.” 

    However, such brash and intrusive declarations by Schumer came as no surprise to many veteran political reporters and analysts in Washington. Schumer has been loudly and aggressively throwing his political weight around for nearly half a century – basking in the media spotlight that went along with it, and clearly loving it. An old joke among news reporters covering Congress is that the most dangerous place to stand on Capitol Hill is between Chuck Schumer and a television camera.

    Aside from politics, Schumer has never held a real job as an adult. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1974, his biography is basically a political rap sheet.

    While still in law school, he ran for a seat in the New York State Assembly and represented a heavily Democratic district in Brooklyn from 1974 to 1980. When one of Brookyn’s seats in Congress opened, Schumer quickly jumped into the fray. He won election in that heavily Democratic district and served in the House until 1999.

    After 18 years in the House, Schumer, by now a career politician, decided to climb even higher on the legislative ladder. In 1998, he challenged three-term incumbent New York Republican Sen. Al D’Amato and won in a bitterly contested statewide race. Schumer has been in the Senate ever since – nearly 25 years – winning reelection four more times.

    Way back in 1975, when Schumer was a rookie in the New York State Assembly, he quickly won a reputation among Albany reporters as a guy who never shuts up. He would leap to his feet and express his views on the most mundane of bills, causing news reporters in the chamber to audibly groan, “Oh no, Schumer again!”

    Nearly a half-century later, little has changed. It’s time to give that tired act a rest.

    Richard Benedetto is a retired USA Today White House correspondent and columnist. He covered New York State government and politics in Albany for Gannett News Service, 1976-82. He has taught political science and journalism at American University and in The Fund For American Studies programs at Georgetown and George Mason Universities for the past 17 years.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 21:20

  • Man Inside Capitol On Jan. 6 For 3 Minutes Convicted By Jury
    Man Inside Capitol On Jan. 6 For 3 Minutes Convicted By Jury

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

    A Virginia man who went inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, for several minutes was convicted on March 20 on four counts and faces jail time.

    Raymond Chambers entered the Capitol at 3:01 p.m., according to the government, which offered surveillance footage. Once inside, Mr. Chambers walked to the Rotunda and took some photographs. He “immediately exited the building” through the Rotunda doors at 3:04 p.m., prosecutors said.

    Mr. Chambers was not accused of carrying out any violence, but authorities said he violated federal law, including a law that bars engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building that disrupts government business.

    Mr. Chambers was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. He pleaded not guilty.

    A jury this week convicted Mr. Chambers on all counts, following a trial.

    Mr. Chambers now faces up to three years in prison as well as fines.

    An attorney representing Mr. Chambers declined to comment ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for June 24. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, appointed under President Donald Trump, will sentence Mr. Chambers.

    Mr. Chambers did not return an inquiry.

    Three Others Convicted

    Three other men were convicted in a stipulated bench trial.

    U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, appointed under President Barack Obama, found Patrick Montgomery of Colorado and Brady Knowlton of Utah guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding. That count carries up to 20 years in prison but may end up being struck by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The judge also convicted Mr. Montgomery of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and Mr. Knowlton of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

    Gary Wilson, also of Utah, was convicted of theft of government property.

    Judge Moss is slated to sentence the trio on July 2.

    “We are obviously disappointed in the outcome. This was an unusual case because Mr. Knowlton used no force or violence against anyone including any police officers. He entered the Capitol through a door held open for him and others by Capitol Police officers and peacefully left after being inside for only 18 minutes,” Brent Mayr, a lawyer representing Mr. Knowlton, told The Epoch Times via email. “While the Judge said this was a ‘close case,’ we shouldn’t convict any citizen in close cases. Fortunately, the Supreme Court is reviewing this ambiguous law that he was convicted of and we’re hopeful the court is going to find this law to either not apply here or be invalid on its face.”

    According to stipulated facts entered in the case, the three men on Jan. 6, 2021, went to the Capitol after the “stop the steal” rally. While there, Mr. Montgomery tried taking a baton from a law enforcement officer, at one point kicking the officer in the chest. The men then entered the Capitol at 2:35 p.m. and made their way to the Rotunda.

    The men later went to a hallway outside the Senate floor, where Mr. Wilson took a black bag, and all three confronted a U.S. Capitol Police Officer. Mr. Montgomery was quoted as saying: “You gotta stop doing your job sometime and start being American. You gotta quit doing your job and be an American!” Mr. Wilson was quoted as saying, “We came all the way from our job to do your job, and the freaking Senators’ job!”

    The men left the Capitol at 2:53 p.m.

    “Mr. Montgomery and his codefendants had many viable defenses which might have resulted in acquittal in any other jurisdiction. But the D.C. jury pool is so extremely pro-government that no January 6 defendant has an opportunity for a fair jury trial. It really is a national disgrace that so many January 6 defendants are having their lives destroyed in D.C. courts. Mr. Montgomery and codefendants opted for a stipulated bench trial because the jury pool in D.C. is so fundamentally hostile to January 6ers. These cases would all end in acquittals elsewhere,” Roger Roots, a lawyer representing Mr. Montgomery, told The Epoch Times in an email.

    Update on Numbers

    Despite years elapsing since the Capitol breach, new arrests are still being made.

    Some 93 people were arrested and charged in early 2024, after a months-long pause in 2023. More than 1,358 individuals have been charged as of March 6, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

    According to one estimate, 445 new cases could hit the docket in 2024—more than in 2022 and 2023.

    One of the latest arrests was of a California woman who worked for Congress following the breach. Isabella DeLuca was arrested on several charges, including theft of government property.

    Court documents say Ms. DeLuca helped pass furniture, including a table, from inside the Capitol to outside the building. She faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

    “I am facing the unwarranted targeting and persecution by the DOJ and FBI at the direction of the Biden Administration, like most J6ers,” Ms. DeLuca wrote on X, formerly Twitter. She added later, “Whatever comes my way, though it may be difficult, I am prepared to face it.”

    Approximately 769 defendants have pleaded guilty. In addition to more than 150 being found guilty at trials, several dozen have been convicted after the parties agreed upon a set of facts.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 21:00

  • Ben Shapiro And DeSantis Former Finance Chairs To Fundraise For Trump
    Ben Shapiro And DeSantis Former Finance Chairs To Fundraise For Trump

    Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClear Wire,

    Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro announced last week to the more than 15 million monthly listeners of his eponymous podcast that he wouldn’t just vote for Donald Trump, he would also co-host a fundraiser for the former president.

    Because the choices for president are identical to 2020, Shapiro said he would “walk over broken glass” to support Trump. Almost immediately, he had an opportunity. Trump said Monday that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” comments that the White House quickly condemned as “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric.”

    Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew and outspoken ally of Israel, provided a quick defense. Far from antisemitic, he said Trump was “making a point which I have made myself, which is that Jews who are voting Democrat do not understand the Democratic Party at this point.” The left in Congress, he continued, was “split at best between moderates on Israel and radicals who hate Israel.”

    For Trump, the rebuttal was welcome, especially given that it came from a pundit once described as the voice of the conservative millennial movement. The endorsement itself, however, was not surprising. Shapiro publicly backed Trump four years ago. The significance is instead the pundit’s willingness to help bind the wounds opened by the Republican primary.

    According to an invite obtained by RealClearPolitics, Shapiro will co-host the fundraiser along with Tina Vidal-Duart, Carlos Duart, and Rick Green, each of whom previously sat on the national finance committee of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ doomed presidential campaign.

    The Trump campaign will host the fundraiser at the Trump National Doral Miami Golf Club. Tickets cost $23,200 per person. A luncheon and “photo opportunity with President Donald J. Trump” will follow per the invite.

    Beset by a myriad of legal trouble, including a $464 million bond in a civil fraud case, Trump needs the money. He also needs to achieve something approaching his boast that the GOP has never been “so unified as it is right now.”

    Enter Shapiro who provides an avatar for DeSantis supporters coming to peace with Trump.

    He has been critical of Trump’s personal vices, occasionally splitting with the former president on policy and notably calling Trump’s claim that he won the 2020 election “deeply irresponsible.” During the primary, Shapiro frequently boosted DeSantis, criticizing Trump’s decision to run “ever to the left” rather than debate the governor on more conservative grounds.

    But that fight is now long over, Shapiro said as he explained his rationale.

    “As you know, I didn’t support Trump in the primaries because I don’t endorse candidates in Republican primaries. But I do tell you who I would have voted for. And I told you I would have voted for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida if given the choice,” he said on his show last Friday.

    “But Ron DeSantis isn’t the nominee. Donald Trump is the nominee. And he’s facing Joe Biden, who is the worst president of my lifetime,” he continued.

    “My calculus is simple,” Shapiro concluded. “America was better off under Donald Trump than it is under Joe Biden.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 20:40

  • Another Bite At The Fani: Judge Grants Trump's Request to Appeal DA Disqualification Decision
    Another Bite At The Fani: Judge Grants Trump’s Request to Appeal DA Disqualification Decision

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

    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has granted former President Donald Trump’s request for a certificate of immediate review, allowing the former president and seven co-defendants to appeal the judge’s order denying the disqualification of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

    The certificate of immediate review, filed on March 20 at the Superior Court of Fulton County in Georgia, allows President Trump and seven co-defendants to seek an appeal from the Georgia Court of Appeals, which has the discretion to accept or decline to hear the case.

    “Judge McAfee has issued a certificate of immediate review allowing us to take our motion to disqualify Fani Willis directly to the Georgia Court of Appeals,” David Shafer, former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and one of the seven co-defendants, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, commenting on the judge’s decision.

    Besides Mr. Shafer, the co-defendants who can appeal the judge’s disqualification ruling are Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Robert Cheeley, Michael Roman, Harrison Floyd, and Cathleen Latham.

    All of them had joined the initial motion to disqualify Ms. Willis and later joined the motion for a certificate of immediate review.

    The request for immediate review, filed on March 18 by Steve Sadow, attorney to President Trump, stems from Judge McAfee’s decision to allow Ms. Willis to remain on the high-profile case, in which the former president is accused of election interference.

    President Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the case a politically motivated “witch hunt” meant to undermine his 2024 comeback bid for the White House.

    Ms. Willis was accused of engaging in an “improper” romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade and benefitting from it financially. The two acknowledged the relationship but denied any financial benefit or conflict of interest.

    Judge McAfee said in a March 15 order that there was an appearance of impropriety but that no conflict of interest had been proven.

    He found that disqualifying Ms. Willis wouldn’t be the appropriate remedy to the appearance of impropriety and instead ordered Mr. Wade off the case.

    Mr. Wade resigned hours after the morning order was issued.

    More Details

    In earlier testimony, Mr. Wade had acknowledged a romantic relationship with Ms. Willis but testified that it had ended before the election case indictment was handed up.

    Judge McAfee noted that Mr. Wade’s inconsistent answers under oath in his recent divorce case showed a willingness to “conceal” his relationship with Ms. Willis, and he opined that an “odor of mendacity” lingered on the prosecution team with Ms. Willis’s and Mr. Wade’s testimonies in his court.

    Given the seriousness of the appearance issue as described by the judge, the defendants argued that the removal of Mr. Wade wasn’t sufficient.

    Judge McAfee had a 10-day window to decide whether he would allow a review of his disqualification decision.

    Allowing review could technically halt pretrial proceedings for up to 45 days while an appeals court decides whether to take the case.

    However, in his March 20 certificate of immediate review, Judge McAfee said that the court intends “to continue addressing the many other unrelated pending pretrial motions, regardless of whether the petition is granted within 45 days of filing, and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court.”

    The case still has 15 defendants (four have accepted plea bargains) and is expected to run for about six months.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 20:20

  • Watch: Biden Judicial Nominee Who Wanted To Ban 'Assault Weapons' Can’t Define What They Are
    Watch: Biden Judicial Nominee Who Wanted To Ban ‘Assault Weapons’ Can’t Define What They Are

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

    A Biden-nominated candidate for a judicial seat couldn’t define the term “assault weapon” during a confirmation hearing on March 20, even though she once signed a brief defending a ban on “assault weapons.”

    Semi-automatic rifles hang on the wall for sale at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia, on October 6, 2017. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

    Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) asked U.S. District Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois to define “assault weapons” during Wednesday’s nomination hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

    In posing the question, Mr. Kennedy cited a legal brief that Judge Maldonado signed years ago.

    “You said, ‘assault weapons may be banned because they’re extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate for legitimate self-defense purposes,’” Mr. Kennedy said. “Tell me what you meant by assault weapons.”

    Judge Maldonado, who has been nominated by President Joe Biden for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, struggled to reply to the question.

    “I did not write the brief,” she said, prompting the Republican senator to point out that she signed the brief and asked her whether in so doing she was “testifying to the court that everything in it is true.”

    “Yes,” she replied.

    “So they’re your words in terms of the court, right?” he asked.

    “You’re correct, Senator Kennedy,” prompting him to ask again what she meant by “assault weapons.”

    “I am not a gun expert,” Judge Maldonado then said, with Mr. Kennedy pressing the issue, asking her to “just tell me what you wanted to ban.”

    “I don’t remember the exact definition of ‘assault weapons’ in the ordinance that was at issue,” she said, before adding that she signed off on the brief but “was not responsible for researching the content.”

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

    ‘Assault Weapons’ In Focus

    In the exchange with Mr. Kennedy, Judge Maldonado acknowledged that she was “responsible” for the brief but insisted that she doesn’t remember its specific “characteristics” as they related to the ordinance on “assault weapons.”

    Asked pointedly whether she thinks deserves to be promoted to the appeals court seat, she said, “Senator, I stand by my record.”

    The label “assault weapons,” which has been variously defined in legislation, is a fuzzy term commonly used by gun control advocates to refer to many types of popular semi-automatic sporting rifles, in particular AR-15-style rifles.

    Gun rights advocates have argued that the term “assault weapons” is ill-defined and of limited practical use in legislation, but is a dangerous-sounding term used to instill fear to build public support for gun restrictions on many modern sporting rifles (MSR).

    The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) estimated in 2022 that there were over 24 million MSRs in circulation in the United States, which include AR-15 and AK-style rifles.

    The popularity of MSRs has been attributed to factors like accuracy, reliability, and recoil control.

    “The firearm industry responds to market demand and this shows that during the elevated period of firearm sales that began in 2020, this particular style of rifle is the top choice for law-abiding citizens for hunting, recreational shooting and self-defense,” NSSF president and CEO Joe Bartozzi said in a statement at the time.

    President Joe Biden has repeatedly used the term “assault weapon” in pushing gun curbs.

    “I’m still committed to banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he told a group of mayors at the White House in January.

    “When we passed the Second Amendment, guess what: You weren’t allowed to have a cannon,” the president told the mayors, while urging them to get onboard his gun control proposals.

    “You’ve heard ‘the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots’? Guess what, man. I didn’t see a whole lot of patriots out there walking around making sure that we have these weapons,“ he continued.

    “If you really want to worry about the government, you need an F-16,” President Biden said. “You don’t need an AR-15.”

    A Rand Corp. study completed in 2020 and updated in 2023 found limited evidence that “high capacity magazine” bans reduced mass shootings and inconclusive evidence on the effect of banning “assault weapons” on the incidents of mass shootings.

    Judicial Nominations

    Meanwhile, Judge Maldonado was on Wednesday grilled by Senate Republicans on issues other than “assault weapons,” including on how she amassed one of the largest case backlogs of any federal trial court judge nationally.

    She replied by saying that when she joined the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 2022, she was immediately assigned around 300 cases with pending motions. Then, after three judges retired, her caseload swelled to 360, she said.

    Judge Maldonado said she worked hard to get the caseload number down but the speed of clearing the backlog was constrained by what she said was her desire to make sure the decisions were “well-reasoned.”

    Before joining the district court, Judge Maldonado was a partner at the law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where she focused on employment litigation.

    The other judges nominated by President Biden—who has said his nominees would ensure U.S. courts reflect “diversity”—that were also part of Wednesday’s hearing were: Georgia N. Alexakis, Krissa Lanham, Angela Martinez, and Sparkle Sooknanan.

    Michael Clements contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 20:00

  • Give Me An Engaged Electorate
    Give Me An Engaged Electorate

    Authored by John A. Ragosta via RealClear Wire,

    On March 23rd in 1775, Patrick Henry rose at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, to urge his countrymen to arm themselves for the Revolutionary War. Four weeks before the battle of Lexington and Concord, Henry saw the future: “The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!” 

    Most Americans remember the stirring ending of Henry’s speech: “give me liberty, or give me death!” But in this election year, it is useful to be reminded of the beginning of that speech. 

    When Henry rose to speak, he knew he would be called a warmonger and disloyal to the still well-loved King George. He knew that even many patriots would oppose arming as premature and provocative. 

    But facing such a momentous decision, he decided he must speak, whatever the risk. “Should he keep back his opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, he should consider himself guilty of treason toward his country.” The question that the Virginia Convention faced could lead to war. At such a critical juncture, it was “no time for ceremony” but time for a lively debate in which everyone openly voiced their concerns. 

    He reminded the gathered delegates that “we have done everything that could be done” to seek a peaceful solution with Britain. “We have petitioned – we have remonstrated – we have supplicated – we have prostrated ourselves before the throne” of King George. But now, with no other options for redress, the delegates elected by their neighbors needed to decide if they should take a drastic course of action. 

    This is a critical point. When Henry announced his commitment to “liberty … or death” he was not attacking all government regulation or control, demanding personal liberty regardless of society’s interests or needs. He was not some mad libertarian chafing at the decisions of his elected representatives.  

    The problem the colonists faced was that they had no vote in Parliament. In more familiar terms, the problem was not simply taxation – but taxation without representation. 

    Now the people’s representatives must decide for themselves and their constituents what to do.

    We know the rest of the story. As Henry’s speech rose to a crescendo, he asked in an almost accusatory tone, “Is life so dear; or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains, and slavery?” His final remark would reverberate across America as the king’s former subjects rose to demand the rights of citizens: “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” 

    Today, we enjoy the liberty for which Henry and his colleagues fought. But Henry did not see it as liberty to do whatever one wants, but liberty to join with other citizens to make laws and ensure freedom for the whole community. 

    This was never more clear than in Henry’s final political campaign in 1799. He had been a leading Antifederalist who had warned that the new Constitution would create a government too powerful and distant from the people. But he came out of retirement at George Washington’s behest to defend the Constitution against the radical idea of state nullification of federal laws.  

    Henry insisted that since “We the People” had adopted the Constitution, opponents of federal policies must act “in a constitutional way.” Go to the ballot box, he told his supporters. The alternative was “civil commotions and intestine wars” ending in “monarchy.” 

    Today, our nation faces enormous challenges. I think Henry would repeat his admonition from 1775 and urge us to speak up, to join the debate. I am confident, too, that he would repeat his warning from 1799 that we must act with other citizens to seek reform “in a constitutional way;” the alternative is “monarchy,” which he had come to dread. 

    When Henry died a few months after that final speech, a piece of paper was found with a message to the citizens of the United States. He reminded Americans of his Stamp Act speech that, according to Thomas Jefferson, gave “the first impulse to the ball of the revolution.” But Henry understood that it would take work to keep the nation afloat. A monarchy was, after all, easy: You just do what the king says. But as Benjamin Franklin reportedly said after the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, the United States has “a republic – if [we] can keep it.”

    John Ragosta is a historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, a fellow with the Jack Miller Center, and author of “For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Last Political Battle” (2023). 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 19:40

  • Republicans Call For Raising Retirement Age As Social Security Nears Insolvency
    Republicans Call For Raising Retirement Age As Social Security Nears Insolvency

    While at this point pretending that one can somehow stop or deflect the civilization-ending meteor that is the US debt load, rising by $30 billion every day on its way to a terminal reserve currency crisis, is at best rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic, Wednesday the largest caucus of House Republicans called for an increase in the Social Security retirement age up a clash with President Joe Biden over spending on popular entitlement programs.

    According to Bloomberg, the Republican Study Committee, which comprises about 80% of House Republicans, called for the Social Security eligibility age to be tied to life expectancy in its fiscal 2025 budget proposal. As a reminder, the social security pension system was created in 1935 when the average life expectancy was 61 for white males and 65 for white females, about 20 years below where it is today. The proposal also suggests reducing benefits for top earners who aren’t near retirement, including a phase-out of auxiliary benefits for the highest earners.

    The proposal sets the stage for an election-year fight with Biden, who accused Republicans of going after popular socialist entitlement programs during his State of the Union address.

    “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security, Medicare, or raise the retirement age, I will stop you,” Biden said in his March 7 address to Congress. Spoiler alert: he won’t.

    Amusingly, the Republican document notes that Biden previously supported increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67 after bipartisan negotiations in 1983.

    Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the caucus’s chairman, said the president’s opposition to Social Security policy changes would lead to automatic benefit cuts when the program’s trust fund is set for insolvency in 2033. A phased-in retirement age change was a standard feature of past negotiations, he said.

    “Anytime there’s been any reforms in history – President Clinton, President Reagan – had a slow migration of age changes for people that are 18, 19 years old,” Hern told reporters Wednesday.

    The caucus’s budget proposal is more aggressive than the recent proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), who advanced a budget resolution earlier this month that called for a bipartisan commission to negotiate Social Security and Medicare solvency but didn’t make specific policy recommendations. The Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, called for policy changes that would reduce spending on Social Security by $1.5 trillion and Medicare by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

    Republicans have said their proposals aren’t truly cuts and wouldn’t affect those at or near retirement. But Biden and congressional Democrats such as Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the Budget Committee, have said they won’t support an increase in the age of eligibility, which currently sits at 67 (and can start as early as 62 with penalties).

    The caucus’s proposal leaves some details out. It calls “modest changes to the primary insurance amount” for those who aren’t near retirement and “earn more than the wealthiest” benefit level. It also proposes “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” And it would “limit and phase out auxiliary benefits for high income earners.”

    The proposal projects to balance the federal budget by 2031, outlining $16.6 trillion in spending cuts over a decade, hardly the stuff a society addicted to fringe welfare benefits will be delighted to hear.

    The proposal calls for Medicare spending reductions by implementing a “premium support model” in which private Medicare Advantage plans would compete with the federal Medicare plan. It proposes moving graduate medical education payments, which go to teaching hospitals for their residency programs, into a trust fund separate from Medicare.

    As reported previously, Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal, released March 11, called for an increase in the tax rate to support Medicare on those earning more than $400,000 a year, from 3.8% to 5%. It also broadly called for top earners to pay more to support Social Security, but didn’t make specific proposals. White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young told reporters the Biden administration doesn’t like the current structure of the payroll tax — which only applies to the first $168,600 of an individual’s income.

    One of the trust funds that supports Social Security is projected for insolvency in 2033, the program’s board of trustees said their most recent estimate in March 2023.

    CBO projects that Social Security will run chronic deficits over both the short- and long-term. It will run a cash flow deficit of $154 billion in 2023, which is 1.6 percent of taxable payroll or 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Over the subsequent decade, Social Security will run $3.5 trillion (2.9 percent of taxable payroll or 1.0 percent of GDP) of cumulative cash flow deficits.

    Over the long term, CBO projects Social Security’s cash shortfall will grow to 3.9% of taxable payroll (1.4% of GDP) by 2033, to 5.1 percent of payroll (1.7 percent of GDP) by 2050, to 6.8 percent of payroll (2.3 percent of GDP) by 2075, and to 7.4 percent of payroll (2.4 percent of GDP) by 2097.

    CBO projects earlier insolvency dates and a larger 75-year actuarial shortfall than the Social Security Trustees estimated in their 2023 report. While CBO projects OASI insolvency in 2032 and SSDI depletion in 2052, the Trustees expect the OASI trust fund to run out by 2033 and the SSDI trust fund to remain solvent over the next 75 years. And while CBO expects the theoretically combined trust funds to deplete their reserves by 2033, the Trustees expect them to run out a year later, in 2034.

    The CBO warns that “as Social Security’s trust funds rapidly approach insolvency, the necessary adjustments to restore solvency will become harder and the burden on beneficiaries more pronounced the longer policymakers wait to act. Enacting trust fund solutions sooner rather than later would help prevent abrupt, across-the-board benefit cuts, allow for targeted adjustments to those who can most afford them, spread the burden of tax and benefit changes across generations, and give today’s workers more time to plan for retirement.”

    Unfortunately, raising the retirement age is only the easiest and most palatable of all adjustments. It also delays insolvency by a few years at most. What comes next is far more painful.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 19:20

  • Voter Apathy And Four Key Takeaways From Illinois' 2024 Primary Elections
    Voter Apathy And Four Key Takeaways From Illinois’ 2024 Primary Elections

    By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of Wirepoints

    Don’t get too excited about the results of Tuesday’s primary elections, particularly in Chicago. The results don’t represent either a mandate for, or a categorical rejection of, anyone or anything. They can’t when just 20.2% of Chicago voters cast a ballot on Tuesday, a likely new low according to the Chicago Board of Elections. 

    What the results do represent is a growing voter apathy. On both sides.

    This election should have been a dominating one for the Chicago Teachers Union and its defacto leader, Mayor Brandon Johnson.  Union members could have helped produce a new $100 million tax to benefit their allies and themselves. They could have put in power an establishment state’s attorney picked to perpetuate the criminal and social justice agenda led by current office holder Kim Foxx. Instead, the union vote didn’t materialize. For CTU’s leadership, this election should be considered a disaster.

    On the other side of the voting ledger, crime has dominated the news, and so has the illegal immigration crisis. Few in Chicago are happy with the progressive leadership under Mayor Johnson. Protest votes should have been out in full force. The numbers should have been big. Instead, most people stayed at home.

    Yes, the opposition, if you can call it that, may squeak out wins in opposing a real estate tax hike and the next “anointed” state’s attorney – assuming results hold over the next few days – but be careful what you make of it, regardless of how it all finally shakes out. The main message may be that the unions weren’t motivated to come out and organize the votes. There probably wasn’t enough money at stake for them. What’s a $100 million? And they simply couldn’t tell the difference between the two Cook County State’s Attorney candidates in the primary race. So they stayed away from the polls.

    Elsewhere in the state, voter apathy was also in full display. Many outlets reported “shockingly” low voter turnout, from Decatur to Mattoon to Rockford (just 12%!). Regardless, the few people who did vote decided several important races.

    Here are four takeaways we observed:

    1. Mayor Johnson loses big either way

    The real estate transfer tax hike, an initiative spearheaded by Mayor Johnson, likely failed to pass with nearly 54% of voting Chicagoans voting no. (There is still a significant number of mail-in votes to count, but expectations are that the referendum will fail. Nevertheless, it’s hasn’t been called yet.)

    The referendum’s failure will be a blow to Johnson whether the referendum wins or loses. He wasn’t able to motivate Chicagoans to come out. Sure there was fanfare, with the CTU marching CPS students to the polls. Johnson even structured the tax to provide small relief to the overwhelming majority of Chicagoans – only hitting the city’s wealthiest homeowners and businesses. It was the perfect soak-the-rich campaign that should have won easily. 

    Pass or fail, Johnson lost.

    2. Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle is another big loser.

    As of this writing, the race between Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III for the Democratic candidacy for Cook County State’s Attorney is too close to call, but Burke has a slim lead. 

    Whoever wins won’t make much difference to Chicagoans, as neither is likely to dramatically change direction from Kim Foxx’s tenure. 

    The results are bad news for Toni Preckwinkle, as she backed Harris. Even if he somehow ekes out a win over Burke, the fact that the race was so close – and so few people voted – shows Preckwinkle’s influence over Cook County isn’t as ironclad as she thinks it is.

    3. Members of Illinois’ Freedom Caucus survive attempts to take them out.

    Members of the downstate Republican Freedom Caucus, Reps. Adam Niemerg, Blaine Wilhour and Brad Halbrook, all survived primary challenges this Tuesday.

    The victories of Wilhour and Niemerg are particularly notable as they both faced teachers-union backed opponents. Wilhour won with a resounding 79% of the vote and Niemerg won an even bigger 88%. 

    And that’s after the unions spent several hundreds of thousands backing their candidates. 

    4. Mixed results on school district tax and bond referendums.

    Results for school district bond and tax referendums were typical, with a mix of propositions passing and failing.

    Notable referendum failures include Avoca SD 37’s (Wilmette) bond referendum, the details of which we covered here, with over 75% of voters saying no. Central SD 301’s ask for $195 million in bonds also failed, with more than 63% of voters casting a no vote.

    Both those referendums faced a tough opposition of concerned residents, which goes to show that taxpayers can successfully band together and prevent wasteful spending if they organize.

    In contrast, Glenbard Township High School District 87 managed to get its $183 million project approved – albeit just barely. The referendum passed 50.2% to 49.8% with a difference of just 89 votes.

    As we covered earlier this month, the district’s pro-referendum machine spent more than $50,000 to get the proposal over the finish line while facing no major, formal opposition. The result would very likely have been different if residents had been able to officially organize.

    *******

    A final takeaway. Maybe, just maybe, the low voter turnout points to a real opportunity for those in the opposition – for those wanting to turn Illinois around. It takes fewer and fewer votes to win something these days.

    The question is, does any real, principled, large-scale opposition exist anymore? And can it make its case, convincingly, to get out the vote?

    For now, I think we know the answer.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 19:00

  • CCP-Linked Virologist Fired After Transferring Ebola From Winnipeg To Wuhan Resurfaces In China – And Is Collaborating With Military Scientists
    CCP-Linked Virologist Fired After Transferring Ebola From Winnipeg To Wuhan Resurfaces In China – And Is Collaborating With Military Scientists

    A virologist who had a “clandestine relationship” with Chinese agents and was subsequently fired by the Trudeau government has popped back up in China – where she’s conducting research with Chinese military scientists and other virology researchers, including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where she’s allegedly studying antibodies for coronavirus, as well as the deadly Ebola and Niaph viruses, the Globe and Mail reports.

    Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were fired from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada and stripped of their security clearances in July of 2019.

    Declassified documents tabled in the House of Commons on Feb. 28 show the couple had provided confidential scientific information to China and posed a credible security threat to the country, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

    The Globe found that Dr. Qiu’s name appears on four Chinese patent filings since 2020, two with the Wuhan Institute of Virology – whose work on bat coronaviruses has placed it at the centre of concerns that it played a role in the spread of COVID-19 – and two with the University of Science and Technology of China, or USTC. The patents relate to antibodies against Nipah virus and work related to nanobodies, including against coronaviruses. -Globe and Mail

    Canadian authorities began questioning the pair’s loyalty, as well as the potential for coercion or exploitation by a foreign entity, according to more than 600 pages of documents reported by The Counter Signal.

    Highlights (via CTVNews.ca):

    • Qiu and Cheng were escorted out of Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired in January 2021.
    • The pair transferred deadly Ebola and Henipah viruses to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019.
    • The Canadian Security Intelligence Service assessed that Qiu repeatedly lied about the extent of her work with institutions of the Chinese government and refused to admit involvement in various Chinese programs, even when evidence was presented to her.
    • [D]espite being given every opportunity in her interviews to describe her association with Chinese entities, “Ms. Qiu continued to make blanket denials, feign ignorance or tell outright lies.”
    • A November 2020 Public Health Agency of Canada report on Qiu says investigators “weighed the adverse information and are in agreement with the CSIS assessment.”
    • A Public Health Agency report on Cheng’s activities says he allowed restricted visitors to work in laboratories unescorted and on at least two occasions did not prevent the unauthorized removal of laboratory materials.
    • Cheng was not forthcoming about his activities and collaborations with people from government agencies “of another country, namely members of the People’s Republic of China.”

    Following their firings, Qiu returned to China despite it being under a pandemic travel lockdown until January, 2023.

    “It’s very likely that she received quite preferential treatment in China on the basis that she’s proven herself. She’s done a very good job for the government of China,” said Brendan Walker-Munro, senior research fellow at Australia’s University of Queensland Law School. “She’s promoted their interests abroad. She’s returned information that is credibly useful to China and to its ongoing research.”

    More via the Globe and Mail;

    Documents reviewed by The Globe show that Dr. Qiu is most closely aligned with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei. In March, 2023, a document posted by a Chinese pharmaceutical company listed Dr. Qiu as second amongst “major completion personnel” on a project awarded by the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association for study related to an anti-Ebola virus therapeutic antibody. Most of the other completion personnel were associated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

    USTC was founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and initially established to build up Chinese scientific expertise useful to the military, which at the time was pursuing technology to build satellites, intercontinental ballistic missiles and atomic bombs. The university has continued to maintain close military ties.

    The document says Dr. Qiu works for USTC. Jin Tengchuan, the principal investigator at the Laboratory of Structural Immunology at USTC, lists her as a co-inventor on a patent. Mr. Jin did not respond to requests for comment.

    A person who answered the phone at USTC told The Globe, “I don’t have any information about this teacher.”

    In 2012, USTC signed a strategic co-operation agreement with the Army Engineering University of the People’s Liberation Army, designed to strengthen research on cutting-edge technology useful for communications, weaponry and other national-defence priorities.

    Dr. Qiu is also listed as a 2019 doctoral supervisor for students studying virology at Hebei Medical University.

    “Well, that makes me wonder what circumstances she was under when she emigrated to Canada. Why did she come?” asked Earl Brown, a professor emeritus of biochemistry, microbiology and immunology at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of medicine who has worked extensively in China in the past. “People leave for more freedom from China, or to make more money. But China keeps tabs on most people so I am not sure if she came over to infiltrate or whether she came and the infiltration happened later through contact with China.”

    It may be impossible to answer that question. Three former colleagues at the National Microbiolgy Lab have indicated that Dr. Qiu and her husband were diligent and pleasant to deal with, but largely kept to themselves outside of work. They say Dr. Qiu was a brilliant scientist with a strong work ethic, although her English was weak. The Globe is not identifying the three who did not want to be named.

    Dr. Qiu is a medical doctor from Tianjin, China, who came to Canada for graduate studies in 1996. She started at the University of Manitoba, but began working at the national lab as a research scientist in 2006, working her way up to become head of the vaccine development and antiviral therapies section in the National Microbiology Laboratory’s special pathogens program.

    She was also part of the team that helped develop ZMapp, a treatment for the deadly Ebola virus, which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2014 and 2016.

    “My sense is this was part of a larger strategy by China to get access to our innovation system,” said Filippa Lentzos, an associate professor of science and international security at King’s College London. “It was a way for them to to find out what was going on in Canada’s premier lab.”

    Initially trained as a medical doctor, Dr. Qiu graduated in 1985 from Hebei University in the coastal city of Tianjin, which lies southeast of Beijing. Dr. Qiu went on to obtain her master of science degree in immunology at Tianjin Medical University in 1990.

    Her career at Canada’s top infectious disease lab in Winnipeg began in 2003, only four years after Ottawa opened this biosafety level 4 facility at the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health.

    Over time, she built up a reputation for academic collaboration, particularly with China. It was welcomed by management who felt her work was helping build a name internationally for the National Microbiology Lab.

    By the time Canadian officials intervened in 2018 and began investigating, documents show, Dr. Qiu was running 44 separate projects at the Winnipeg lab, an uncommonly large workload.

    Her work with former colleague and microbiologist Gary Kobinger vaulted Dr. Qiu into the international spotlight. The pair developed a treatment for Ebola, one that in its first human application led to the full recovery of 27 patients with the infection during a 2014 outbreak in Liberia.

    Mr. Kobinger’s career continued to soar and he is now director of the Galveston National Laboratory, a renowned biosafety level 4 facility in Texas. In 2022, he told The Globe that it was “heartbreaking” to see what had happened to his colleague. He declined to speak for this article.

    “She had lost a lot of weight with all the stress. She was so convinced that this was all a misunderstanding … and she would go back to her job,” he said in 2022. “ Her career has been destroyed with all this. She was one of the top female Canadian scientists of virology and Canada has lost that.”

    Over a period of 13 months, though, the Chinese-Canadian microbiologist and her biologist husband’s lives were turned upside down.

    She went from being feted at Ottawa’s Rideau Hall with a Governor-General’s Award in May, 2018, to being locked out of the Winnipeg lab in July, 2019 – the high-security facility where she had made her name as a scientist in Canada. By January, 2021, she and Mr. Cheng were fired.

    Last month, after being pressed into explaining what happened, the Canadian government finally disclosed the reasons for this extraordinary dismissal: CSIS found the pair had lied about and hid their co-operation with China from Ottawa.

    A big question remains following their departure: Why would Dr. Qiu risk her career, including the stature associated with developing an Ebola treatment, for China?

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 18:40

  • Bretton Woods Revisited
    Bretton Woods Revisited

    Submitted By Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman of DMCC in Dubai

    It’s been a busy few weeks for both Bitcoin (BTC) fans and gold hawks, with both assets reaching record highs on the back of soaring inflation, market volatility and high rates, and while both assets typically attract quite polarising investors, their simultaneous rallies are united in their speculation that the U.S. and other western economies may not be able to maintain high interest rates, given their sky-high debts.

    As stated by XTB research director Kathleen Brooks, “When gold and bitcoin rise in unison, it is worth interrogating the reasons behind this, in case they can give us clues about investor behaviour. Both seem to be rallying on the back of the overall market mood: U.S., Japanese and several European indices have made fresh record highs recently. However, for gold and bitcoin there are other internal factors at play that could be pushing up their value even when stocks take a breather.”

    For gold, as the age-old investment hedge, a potential shift in Federal Reserve policy in conjunction with geopolitical uncertainty and a possible downturn in equity markets saw its price break through to $2,194.99 before rolling back. However, with U.S. inflation unexpectedly rising to 3.2 per cent in February, the yellow metal is well positioned to maintain or even exceed its recent highs until 20th March, when the Fed will announce its rate decision, with most economists anticipating no change. As outlined by Tim Murray at T Rowe Price, “This last mile of inflation – getting from 3 per cent to 2 per cent – is going to be really hard. Much harder than getting from 9 to 3 per cent.”

    As a digital store of value, Bitcoin’s record-breaking rally to USD 73,794 on 14th March 2024 was further propelled by buoyant market confidence, as demonstrated through the $10bn poured into Bitcoin ETFs since the beginning of the year, and will likely continue its run through an imminent ‘halving’, which is currently on schedule to take place in April. As outlined by Bitfinex, “The recent surge in Bitcoin’s value… underscores the remarkable strength and resilience of the leading cryptocurrency. This achievement not only marks a significant milestone but also reflects the continued confidence and demand in the market”. 

    With both assets illustrating a clear trend towards safe-haven investments and weakening fiat currencies, it is critical to ask the following questions:

    • Are the record-breaking prices justified against the convergence of inflation and debt?
    • What are the fundamental differences between BTC and gold?
    • What are the underlying responses beyond consumer investment?
    • And what could a return to a gold-backed economy mean for the geopolitical landscape?

    Are record highs justified?

    Asking the obvious question, as headlined by City Index, “Are Traders Afraid of Sovereign Debt Loads?” In short, yes, and for good reason. While many traders are simply seeking a short-term alternative to hedge risk, there is undoubtedly a longer-term appetite for what happens if the U.S. and other developed economies are unable to maintain high interest rates, given their existing debt loads. Starting with the most glaring information, U.S. national debt is currently on the rise to the tune of $1 trillion roughly every 100 days, reaching a total of just over $34.4 trillion in February – a figure certainly not helped by wild printing under the current U.S. administration, which included $3 trillion in 2020 alone. Speculation as to whether a default occurs or not is yet another polarising debate. As stated by Lawrence J White, an economics professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU, no one knows because it is “a political issue”. However, as an investor hedging for a worst-case scenario, the default outcome would likely be “cataclysmic”, followed by a recession of the order of the financial crisis of 2008, according to Bernard Yaros, assistant director at Moody’s Analytics. Even a short-term breach could cause more seismic shifts in the international financial markets, fuelling credible calls for alternatives to the U.S. dollar. “The world will say we can’t rely on the U.S. Treasury as much as we used to, and that will make people more reluctant to hold Treasury obligations. Interest rates for Treasury bills and bonds will go up, and that will ultimately lead to a bigger tax burden for Americans”, stated White.

    Sovereign Response

    It’s no secret that central banks have been buying physical gold in record volumes over the past two years, as outlined by the World Gold Council in January: “Central bank demand, a key driver of gold in recent years, maintained its momentum in Q4 as a further 229t was added to global official gold reserves. This lifted annual (net) demand to 1,037t, just short of the record set in 2022 of 1,082t. Global official sector gold reserves are now estimated to total 36,700t. Two successive years of over 1,000t of buying is testament to the recent strength in central bank demand for gold. Central banks have been consistent net buyers on an annual basis since 2010, accumulating over 7,800t in that time, of which more than a quarter was bought in the last two years.”

    However, this still seems to have evaded public sentiment, as outlined by Peter Schiff: “What’s unprecedented about gold’s new high is that there’s no fanfare, there isn’t any media coverage, there isn’t even any retail participation. Not only is the public not buying into this rally, they’ve been selling during the entire rally, in fact going into the gold ETFs, there’s been net outflows every week this year. The public keeps on selling as gold keeps rising. That’s not normal. Normally people buy on the way up, and sell on the way down, that’s wrong, but that’s human emotion. If everyone’s selling, how can the price of gold be going up? Because if the price of gold is going up it means somebody is buying to drive it up and if the public is dumping their gold why isn’t the price falling; well because somebody else is buying. Somebody who knows a lot more than the people who are selling. Who’s doing that buying? It’s central banks. There’s a reason they are doing it, and it’s because they are de-dollarising.” And they’re not alone.

    As highlighted in JP Morgan’s August 2023 report, the U.S. dollar’s hegemony is “in question due to geopolitical and geostrategic shifts”, and this isn’t just the outlook of the central banks, but also commodity and emerging markets. With Russia serving as an example of the potential risks of being ‘frozen out’ of USDs, albeit with negligible effect, many other countries took heed. In contrast, others reacted to the unfavourable conditions of rising interest rates. “In short, de-dollarisation entails a significant reduction in the use of dollars in world trade and financial transactions, decreasing national, institutional and corporate demand for the greenback”, commented Alexander Wise, strategic research, J.P Morgan. To date, the U.S. dollar’s share of F.X. reserves has declined to a record low of 58 per cent. At the same time, several nations, most recently Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina, have started paying for imports and exports using the Chinese renminbi. In March, the Reserve Bank of India asked Gulf exporters to accept rupees for at least ten per cent of oil payments in the next financial year, while Russian news agency TASS said that the five-nation BRICS group will work on creating a payment system based on blockchain and digital technologies. In the Middle East, an MoU signed between the UAE and India in July 2023 signals the beginning of regional currency usage for bilateral transactions within a framework called the Local Currency Settlement (LCS) system. As a symbolic transaction on the same day, a UAE gold exporter sold 25 kgs of gold to an Indian buyer, invoicing the payment in Indian rupees.

    BTC vs Gold

    Based on the reality of Bitcoin and gold being the de-facto investment hedges, each investor has their own preference. As outlined by Fergus Hodgson, director of Econ Americas, roving editor of Gold Newsletter, “Gold has thousands of years of established history as a resolute store of value,” whereas, cryptocurrency, as a relative newcome to global asset markets means, “its future as a store of value is precarious. In my assessment, central bank digital currencies and altcoins will challenge Bitcoin’s value proposition as a medium of exchange.” Certainly, as a hedge, Bitcoin’s finite 21 million coins means it cannot be manipulated like fiat currencies. However, the same could be said for gold, albeit under the speculation of what resource remains unmined and what can be recycled. While previously, Bitcoin’s edge over gold was its accessibility, recent cases of fraud, theft and the rise of ETFs have made both assets safer and more accessible to all forms of investors.

    While I am certainly not against cryptocurrencies, particularly in their capacity to support decentralised trade, all markets tend to follow power. Through that lens, it is simple to compare which nations hold Bitcoin and which hold gold. According to Elementus, a blockchain-analysis firm, most of the world’s governmental Bitcoin holdings are from government seizures, and between 2013 – 2022, only six nations held a balance – the United States, El Salvador, Ukraine, Bhutan, Venezuela and Finland. Meanwhile, according to the World Gold Council’s Annual Futures (2021), only eight nations do not hold any gold reserves, namely Nicaragua, Cameroon, Armenia, Gabon, Turkmenistan, Congo, Chad and Eritrea.

    Follow the Yellow BRICS Road

    Putting all these elements together, we are left with a likely trend that will not only see a continued transition away from the U.S. dollar but towards a new collective powerhouse in the form of the BRICS+ nations. Complete with the world’s top two gold producers in China and Russia and four of the largest consumers, it seems that the balance of power is migrating east, with the trading bloc progressing towards its own version of a gold standard. As explained by Nathan Lewis in Forbes just several weeks ago, “The BRICS countries have settled on using gold as the basis for international exchange, a role previously taken by dollars and euros. This does not mean today’s floating fiat ruble, real, or rand is going anywhere soon. Rather, just as the U.S. dollar was used alongside those domestic currencies in the past, today and in the future gold will be more commonly used. There would not be very much trade in actual gold coins — just as there is not much trade in actual dollar bills. Indeed, gold doesn’t work very well for this hand-to-hand exchange at all, since even small coins tend to be of very high denomination, worth $200 or more. Rather, it means that people around the world will increasingly use various vehicles — such as bank accounts, bonds, loans, and cryptocurrencies — denominated in gold, just as they use the very same set of tools today but denominated in dollars.”

    A Globally Inclusive Future

    If all that is stated up till now is a fair projection of what’s to come, other areas of demand will either need to be met or serve a useful purpose in the new economic landscape. For example, there are three major bullion banks with London at their centre. As a city with no closer tie to gold than its historical position as a centre for trade, a more equitable solution could be found in the form of a Global Gold Market Association, akin to the Kimberley Process with a rolling chairmanship that provides access to an exchange where vetted banks are among the liquidity providers, thereby supporting a free market model. As an outcome, global volatility could be reduced through democratic processes and regulations, resulting in greater trading stability and a fairer marketplace for all nations, regardless of economic status.

    Conclusion

    As summarised by Peter Schiff, “Everybody is writing gold’s obituary – it’s not dead, it’s alive and well, it’s over $2,000, but the most important thing is the fundamentals have never been better. Not only do the charts look great for gold, but the fundamentals are fantastic because we’re in a situation where inflation has just bottomed at about three per cent and is now headed higher, and there’s nothing the Fed can do about it. It is out of ammo, it can’t fight, there is no way the Fed is going to hike rates, it would crash the economy, and it would sink any chance Biden has of getting re-elected. So, it’s going to dismiss any increase in inflation; in fact, it’s already done that this week. It’s almost like it’s back on its transitory kick, only nobody is going to use the word transitory, but they’re basically looking at any hotter-than-expected inflation data as if it’s a one-off thing as if it’s a foregone conclusion that inflation is going back down to two per cent when there’s no reason to expect that that’s going to happen. Not with record high budget deficits, record high consumer borrowing and spending; a weakening in industrial production, money supply is now growing, and real interest rates are falling. So, all signs point to higher inflation and a weaker economy, and that’s the perfect environment for gold. It is stagflation, and as investors lose confidence in the Fed, they’re going to look for a real safe haven, a real store of value, and they’re going to buy gold.”

    I, for one, agree. Driven by non-transitory inflation, massive deficit spending, questionable global economies, and an increasing momentum towards de-dollarisation, is it finally time to revisit Bretton Woods, and or any meaningful gold standard as the potential antidote to what will soon become an uncontrollable problem

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 18:20

  • Texas Pulls $8.5 Billion From BlackRock In "Massive Blow" To "The Scam Of ESG"
    Texas Pulls $8.5 Billion From BlackRock In “Massive Blow” To “The Scam Of ESG”

    The examples of the ESG fraud imploding over the last 6 months simply aren’t stopping.

    The latest has come from Texas, where the state is now terminating an $8.5 billion investment with BlackRock due to the investment manager’s boycott of energy companies, according to a report from Fox News. 

    Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey said this week that the Texas Permanent School Fund notified BlackRock this week that it would be terminating the investment. 

    Kinsey told Fox News this week: “The Texas Permanent School Fund has a fiduciary duty to protect Texas schools by safeguarding and growing the approximately $1 billion in annual oil and gas royalties managed by the Texas General Land Office. Terminating BlackRock’s contract ensures PSF’s full compliance with Texas law.”

    Kinsey added: “BlackRock’s dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement immeasurably damages our state’s oil & gas economy and the very companies that generate revenues for our PSF. Texas and the PSF have worked hard to grow this fund to build Texas’ schools.”

    “BlackRock’s destructive approach toward the energy companies that this state and our world depend on is incompatible with our fiduciary duty to Texans,” he said. 

    Texas has made a significant move by divesting a considerable portion of its $53 billion Permanent School Fund (PSF), originally established in the 19th century to support public education. This step marks the largest divestment since GOP-led states began cutting financial relations with BlackRock and similar firms over their adoption of ESG standards. 

    In response to such opposition, Texas enacted Senate Bill 13 in 2021, mandating the state’s comptroller to identify and list financial entities boycotting fossil fuel businesses. Following this, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar updated this list in October to include BlackRock among others, urging the Texas PSF and five state pension funds to cut off from the investment company.

    Kinsey concluded: “Today represents a major step forward for the Texas PSF and our state as a whole. The PSF will not stand idle as our financial future is attacked by Wall Street. This bold action helps ensure our PSF remains in fact permanent and will continue to support bright futures and opportunities for generations of Texas students.”

    Blackrock responded: “Today’s unilateral and arbitrary decision by Board of Education Chair Aaron Kinsey jeopardizes Texas schools and the families who have benefited from BlackRock’s consistent long-term outperformance for the Texas Permanent School Fund.” 

    “The decision ignores our $120 billion investment in Texas public energy companies and defies expert advice. As a fiduciary, politics should never outweigh performance, especially for taxpayers,” they added. 

    But Derek Kreifels, the CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, felt differently, offering support for the termination: “Today’s bold step by Aaron Kinsey and the Permanent School Fund of Texas, in accordance with state law, is a massive blow against the scam of ESG.”

    “Under Larry Fink’s leadership, BlackRock has been misusing client funds to push a political agenda for years. Nowhere was that more egregious than in Texas, where BlackRock was simultaneously trying to destroy the domestic oil and gas industry while managing funds that depended on royalties derived from that very same industry,” added Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research.

    He said it was a “clear message” to “Wall Street elites that people can no longer be bullied into complying with ESG’s destructive ideology.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 18:00

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Mar 21

Today’s News 21st March 2024

  • "It's Not About Trump": American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again In Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort
    “It’s Not About Trump”: American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again In Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort

    By Matt Taibbi of the Racket News substack

    The German people are famous for putting everything in print, even things they shouldn’t, and in this instance at least, American playwright and author CJ Hopkins is glad. “The irony,” he says, laughing. “The Germans, always documenting everything.”

    In a letter from the Berlin Prosecutor’s file on Hopkins, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA, analogous to our FBI) acknowledges receipt of a document from a government office describing an effort to have tweets deleted. “The Hessen Gegen Hetze reporting office,” the highlighted portion reads, “has already initiated measures to delete the relevant post on the social network”:

    Hopkins reached out to me after listening in disgust to the Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court hearing Monday. Standing was a big issue: our government said plaintiffs like Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Aaron Kheriaty lacked definite proof that the government was responsible for suppressing their speech. No such issue exists in CJ’s case, as you can see.

    Hopkins also wanted Americans who might be up in arms about the specter of legalized censorship in their own country to see that the phenomenon has also spread to virtually every Western democracy, often in more extreme forms than we’ve seen so far in the United States.

    CJ’s unique insight involves his ludicrous German case, which as you’ll read in the Q&A below has taken bizarre turns since we last checked and will now go to trial yet again. As an expat following the American situation from afar, he’s seen how the authoritarian tide is rising in similar or worse ways all around the globe.

    Hopkins is facing the business end of the German version, among the worst. As detailed last June, he was charged with “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” The crime? Using a barely detectible Swastika in the cover image of his book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich. Far from “furthering the aims” of Nazism, he was criticizing them by comparing Nazi methods and laws to those of modern health authorities. The offending image:

    Hopkins went to trial in January and delivered an impassioned plea to the court. “Every journalist that has covered my case, everyone in this courtroom, understands what this prosecution is actually about,” he said. “It has nothing to do with punishing people who actually disseminate pro-Nazi propaganda. It is about punishing dissent, and making an example of dissidents in order to intimidate others into silence.”

    Though the judge was clearly not a fan of Hopkins — a courtroom account by Aya Velázquez, which I recommend reading, described how the judge said CJ’s statements were “ideological drivel,” just “not punishable by law” — he won on the law.

    After acquittal, he was made aware that technically the case wasn’t over, because thanks to a quirk of German jurisprudence, the prosecutor had a week to file an appeal. Hopkins was unconcerned. “I doubt he will [re-file]. He made a total fool of himself in front of a large audience yesterday,” he wrote. “I can’t imagine that he will want to do that again.”

    Bzzt! Wrong. The prosecutor re-filed charges. The prosecutorial theory in the Hopkins case was based on a bizarre interpretation of hate crime, essentially asserting that if you have to think about an image to realize it’s satire, it can’t be allowed. If that idea spreads, it would make comedy or even sharp commentary impossible. This is why his indictment, and the similar investigation of Roger Waters, are really serious moments. Not to be heavy-handed, but eliminating the loophole for satire or mockery is exactly what Waters meant by “Another Brick in the Wall.” Before you know it, it’ll be too high to see over:

    MT: You got charged again?

    CJ Hopkins: No… I got acquitted. I went to trial on the 23rd of January, and I wrote this up and I’ll send it to you so you can just look at the whole account. But at the trial I made a big aggressive statement that people republished all over the place. The judge acquitted me, and then called me all kinds of names and then put on her covid mask and stalked out of the courtroom. She called me a Schwurbler, which in German is kind of an idiot, I guess a babbler or someone.

    Anyway, I read that statement, which pissed them all off, but she said, “Okay, you’re an idiot, but that’s not against the law, so you’re acquitted.” So I thought, “Great. This is over. I’m acquitted.” The prosecutor had no case whatsoever, and it was really embarrassing, and I figured it was all done, but my attorney reminded me: oh no, the prosecutor can appeal. Which he did. So now I’m facing another trial in appeals court. It’s not new charges, it’s the same charge, but the prosecutor’s appeal of my acquittal.

    MT: The double jeopardy thing isn’t big in Germany, I take it?

    CJ Hopkins: No.

    MT: Are they going to make a different argument?

    CJ Hopkins: I have no idea what they’re going to do. They have no argument… I mean, they put my tweets up on an overhead projector, like we were back in high school, and interrogated me about whether the Swastika was on top of the mask or behind the mask, that sort of thing. The prosecutor’s argument was basically, “We don’t believe that Mr. Hopkins is a Nazi, or pro-Nazi, we don’t believe he was trying to spread Nazi propaganda, but he nonetheless spread Nazi propaganda. because his tweet” – and this is a great part of their argument – “because if people saw his tweets, they would have to stop and think for a minute to figure out what they meant.”

    MT: Essentially you can’t have satire, because that requires a person to have at least one thought.

    CJ Hopkins: You can’t make people think. You’ve got to have beat-you-over-the-head messaging. I think the whole point of this… I’m sure it’s like the plea-bargain thing in the States. They figure if they hit you with a 3,600 Euro fine, you’re going to pay three times that much to fight it in court, so you’re just going to pay the fine and go away. I don’t think they ever expected to end up in court, and I have no idea what the prosecutor is doing with this appeal. The judge a few weeks later submitted a written verdict, which is strongly in my favor. She pretty much reiterated my attorney’s arguments and made it absolutely clear that what I did falls under the exceptions to the statute, and there’s nothing here to prosecute. Nonetheless, the prosecution’s going ahead.

    MT: Did you have much Western news coverage?

    CJ Hopkins: Right before the trial I had you, then Neue Zürcher Zeitung, which is the big paper of record in Switzerland, and James Kirchick at The Atlantic, who was a big help. I think it put a lot of pressure on the judge. My lawyer made her aware that Germany was being portrayed as a laughingstock in the international press. Aside from The Atlantic, it was all independent alternative media.

    MT: In the Murthy Supreme Court case in the States Monday, there was an issue with what they call “traceability.” I see you don’t have a traceability issue, with this document from your case file?

    CJ Hopkins: Exactly. That’s why I sent it to you. Unquestionably, this is a government office, directly involved with removing the tweets. The other thing that I was going to say, is that I’m looking at things like the Supreme Court case from a non-U.S. perspective. I’m outside of it. I’m watching the legislation that’s getting rolled out in Ireland and the UK and what’s happening to me here and what’s going on in the States, and it’s so obviously much broader than just a red-blue political story in the US. This is happening throughout the Western democratic countries.

    I’m just desperate to get that across to people. I think it’s so easy for people to get locked into what’s going on in their own country and not see the bigger picture.

    MT: What’s an example?  

    CJ Hopkins: There was just a piece in The Herald, in Scotland. The police were being trained there on how to crack down on abusive hate speech. According to this new legislation that’s rolling out and in the training manual, they were saying this could take place in comic performances or stage plays. People are being arrested in the UK for protest signs.

    If I can just put one little bug in your head, Matt, to whatever degree you can tweak people and let them know: “Hey, it’s not just Trump and the Democrats and the liberals and the woke people and all that.” This is happening all over the West, in all these different countries. I think that’s one thing that my case does, it provides folks with an opportunity to remind them that this is happening all over. The old rules don’t apply.

    MT: Good luck with your case.

    CJ Hopkins: Take care.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/21/2024 – 02:00

  • Biden, Lenin, And Immigration Language: Gingrich
    Biden, Lenin, And Immigration Language: Gingrich

    Authored by Newt Gingrich via RealClear Wire,

    As an historian, it has been fascinating to watch the left try to impose new language to describe people in the country illegally.

    The left has gradually pushed accepted language away from “illegal aliens” (the term in law), to “illegal immigrants” (the most common term), to “undocumented immigrants” (the left’s current favorite term), and now to “newcomers” (the Joe Biden White House’s latest experiment in gaining language dominance).

    It all reminds me of Vladimir Lenin’s great language coup of 1903.

    The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party met secretly in Brussels. (The Czar’s secret police made it impossible to meet openly in Russia). At the meeting there was a split between Lenin’s hardline revolutionary faction and a more moderate democratic wing. Lenin’s faction was the smaller group, but they claimed the title Bolshevik (which means “greater faction” or majority). Group with the most votes were foolish enough to accept the title Lenin gave them, which was Menshevik, meaning minority. That language dominance and branding gave Lenin an enormous advantage in the following two-decade struggle to overthrow the Czar and create Soviet Russia.

    At least as far back as the French Revolution, the left has had a passion for labeling things and ideas to gain language dominance.

    This process as applied to illegal immigration began at least 25 years ago for me. That’s when I first remember being lectured that using the term “illegal immigrants” was wrong, and I should learn to say “undocumented.”

    I thought this was nuts then, and I still do now. By definition, the people we were describing are illegal. Their first act on entering the United States is to break the law. Their decision to do so is an insult to every legal immigrant who patiently followed the rules and entered the United States legally.

    In late February, the Biden White House had a handout which said, “The bill also includes $1.4 billion for cities and states who are providing critical services to newcomers.” The reaction to replacing “illegal immigrant” with “newcomer” was so harsh that the Biden team dropped it. But their goal was clear.

    This process of normalizing weird and radical ideas goes on constantly on the left. Think of pushing transgenderism on children, kneeling during the pledge of allegiance, ignoring the destruction caused by the Black Lives Matter riots, etc.

    The problem for the left is that illegal immigration may be the battlefield on which they can’t win.

    The latest absurdity began when Biden responded to jeers from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene during his State of the Union Address. He said, “Lincoln (sic) Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?”

    Note that even in acknowledging a young woman who was killed by an illegal immigrant, Biden had to immediately cover it with thousands being killed by legal immigrants and citizens. The illegal immigrant could not be the focus.

    Of course, he got Riley’s name wrong, but the left immediately attacked him for using the term “illegal.” This includes former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Biden promptly began trying to backtrack. In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, Biden acknowledged his sin of language, “I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal,’ it’s ‘undocumented.’”

    But Biden couldn’t stop there. He had to be pro-illegal immigrant. “I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. Look, they built the country. The reason our economy is growing,” he said.

    Biden’s defense of illegal immigration hurt him with the average American – and his use of “illegal” hurt him with his leftwing allies.

    His confusion made him look weak. So, in another act of language dominance, the White House simply decided he really never apologized for saying “illegal” in the first place.

    As The Hill reported:

    “White House deputy spokesperson Olivia Dalton attempted to clarify on Monday, telling a reporter that ‘the president absolutely did not apologize’ despite his expression of regret.

    “‘There was no apology anywhere in that conversation,’” Dalton told reporters on Air Force One. ‘He did not apologize. He used a different word. I think what we should be really clear about is the facts.’”

    Biden (and his press team) may be confused, but the American people are not. As Scott Rasmussen reported:

    “Our recent polling found that 55% of voters believe ‘illegal immigrant’ is the proper term and another 8% prefer ‘illegal alien.’ While 63% favor use of ‘illegal,’ just 24% prefer ‘undocumented migrant.’

    “Among traditional Democrats, 54% prefer ‘illegal’ and 33% ‘undocumented.’ But [Bernie] Sanders Democrats prefer ‘undocumented’ by a 48% to 30% margin. It is the progressive Democrats who forced Biden to apologize. This just moves him even further from the mainstream.”

    Let’s be clear: Laken Riley was reportedly killed by an illegal immigrant. That illegal immigrant was in Athens, Ga. because of Biden’s insane policies which favor an open border and prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.

    No word games can overcome those facts.

    For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 23:00

  • For Real Estate, Rate Cuts Can't Come Soon Enough
    For Real Estate, Rate Cuts Can’t Come Soon Enough

    By Michael Msika and Macarena Munoz, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and strategists

    Real estate stocks just can’t seem to catch a break. Among this year’s worst performing sectors in Europe, even the prospect of interest rate cuts might not immediately reverse this year’s downward spiral.

    Real estate is dismally lagging the broader equity index so far in 2024, with losses of 8% and erasing the outperformance seen at the end of last year. Dovish signals this week from the Federal Reserve and Bank of England could bring some relief, but few expect this to be forthcoming from the Fed.

    Javier Miralles, equity fund manager at Mapfre Asset Management, reckons it’s still early for investors to position in real estate “as a strategic call betting on the rate drop.” Recent strong inflation data could well induce the Fed to send a higher-for longer message, he says, adding that “when rates are lowered, there will be a re-rating of the sector but it is still risky to position yourself like this.” 

    The first Fed cut is now expected in June, compared with March just a few months ago. What’s more, just three reductions are priced for this year, versus more than five last December. While this pushback hasn’t affected the broader market, real estate stocks have been hit badly. That’s possibly because of other sector-specific issues, including the commercial real estate overhang and mark-to-market property values.

    “The problem for the sector in recent months is not so much in the swings in expectations of rate cuts, but in the fall in asset valuation, and how this affects its debt ratios and the need to forcefully sell properties,” says Roberto Scholtes, head of strategy at Singular Bank. The valuation adjustment could be almost complete in Britain, he says, but is less far along in continental Europe.

    The depreciation of assets increases loan-to-value ratios, in some cases it’s even threatening to exceed the covenants of the loans and bonds. That can force real estate companies to sell assets at a time of low liquidity and weak investor appetite, Scholtes notes. However, he expects the adjustment to be complete in the second half of this year, which alongside upcoming rate cuts, should allow the property sector to start its recovery. For the time being, he remains underweight.

    For Citi analyst Aaron Guy, what stands out is the discrepancy in views between company executives and investors. Recent panel discussions his bank organized on European and UK real estate featured CEOs who were confident the worst was over for the sector. Conversations with investors, on the other hand, revealed a high degree of caution.
    “This dislocation of positive CEOs and more cautious investors is likely a significant factor behind most CEOs noting their stocks trading at significant and excessive discounts and are opportunistically inexpensive,” Guy says.

    Goldman Sachs analysts including Jonathan Kownator point out that historically, an environment of falling rates, together with high – but falling – inflation, has tended to create a positive tailwind for real estate. They see “property valuations close to the bottom,” while debt maturities are “largely manageable.”

    Meanwhile short-sellers have zeroed in on the sector, which is among the most actively targeted in Europe, according to S&P Global data. Real estate management and development stocks have the highest percentage of shares out on loan — an indication of short interest — at 0.37% of market cap, versus less than 0.19% for the overall European stock market. Some names, such as Segro, Unibail-Roadamco-Westfield, Balder and SBB have even higher stock-on-loan ratios, the data shows. With such high figures, any positive central bank message this week could well see a short squeeze unfold on property stocks.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 22:40

  • What If The President Ignores The Supreme Court?
    What If The President Ignores The Supreme Court?

    Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Who or what enforces the edicts of the court? Mostly it is the executors of state power. What if they don’t want to because they disagree with the courts? At that point, we’ve got a problem.

    A view of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 4, 2024. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    Let’s consider.

    Next week, the Supreme Court hears arguments in Murthy v. Missouri over a major free speech issue. The question is whether the federal government can, directly or indirectly, impose itself on social media companies to game their policies in a particular way according to policy priorities of the government itself.

    The First Amendment suggests the answer is no. It says that government cannot impose laws “prohibiting the free exercise” or otherwise “abridging the freedom of speech.” Social media is all about speech. For government to game the system in its favor is a major intervention in rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by the government.

    This principle has been routinely tested from the early years. The Sedition Act of 1798 targeted newspaper editors who criticized the president. There was outrage about that and it swept Thomas Jefferson into office who repealed the cursed thing.

    That was hardly the end. Censorship was tried again in 1835, 1861, 1918, 1940, 1954, and so on, and each time the First Amendment eventually prevailed. And yet underlying this long experience is always the push by government to control the channels of distribution of information.

    Now that every citizen is in a position to be a distributor of information to a broad audience via new technologies, we have government exercising its penchant to want to control. The Constitution of the United States, unique in the world for this protection of free speech, stands against this.

    That seems rather simple. Surely the court will agree.

    Maybe or maybe not.

    Here’s the problem. A massive censorship industrial complex extending from federal agencies to every major digital tech platform has been constructed over the last eight years, and went into full effect in 2020. It still exists today. This largely happened out of the public eye. Even four years ago, it was barely known. The cases of banned accounts and throttled postings seemed isolated and often just an unfortunate exercise of editorial zeal.

    But FOIAs and court discovery have unearthed tens of thousands of pages of receipts, so that the problem is not isolated or random but gargantuan and systematic. It involves dozens of federal agencies, non-government organizations working as contractors, universities on contract either directly or indirectly, and even embedded employees at social media companies. The censorship network is so elaborate at this point that it is truly an industry—an illegal one!

    The 5th Circuit looked at the evidence and was so alarmed that it issued a pre-trial injunction against the federal government, namely many agencies in particular. District Court Judge Terry Doughty described what he saw as “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history” and “akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.”

    The appeals court agreed but delayed the injunction pending a Supreme Court judgment. That is the issue the court takes up next week.

    Here’s the trouble. I seriously doubt that these justices know much about the existence of this machinery. That’s understandable. Most people had no idea that it was being constructed and deployed. After all, when censorship is effective, most people are put in a position of not knowing what they do not know.

    And that’s the whole point: to deny the public information. In this case, the machinery worked to massively distort information on so-called Russiagate, COVID in every aspect of that and what it implies, and the 2020 election, the outcome of which was likely affected by the censorship. For a time there—and we should never have gotten used to this—it seemed like every mainline information outlet became a regime megaphone.

    Sadly, the courts have been denied information too. Now the highest court is hearing the case. Any fair hearing and judgment will result in an upholding of the injunction. It might not go that way. Or two other possibilities: the court sides with the Biden administration and for censorship, or simply kicks the can down the road to wait for the trial phase. In that case, the core problem could stay in litigation for many years!

    If either of those latter two decisions comes down, every federal agency will have a green light to continue and expand its aggressive intervention in information networks. Even independent platforms will feel the heat. The goal is quite clear: for the public to see and hear no information that fundamentally contradicts regime priorities. That’s the result the Biden administration hopes for, and not just on behalf of President Biden but the entire deep-state apparatus that built this censorship industrial complex in the first place.

    The stakes are extremely high. If this thing goes the wrong way, free speech in the United States is toast and the First Amendment will be a dead letter.

    But let’s just suppose there is a good result: the court sides for the plaintiffs, the injunction is immediately upheld, and goes into effect upon the release of the opinion. The social media companies would have lost nothing but their chains. They can still enforce terms of service and community standards but they will no longer be under pressure from any state actor.

    Sorry to ask this question but it must be asked: who precisely is going to enforce this?

    The pathetic answer is that the people and agencies charged with implementing the injunction are the same people against whom the injunction is targeted.

    Do you see the problem here? It is a major flaw in the way the system works. We have to trust the government, whose power is being limited by the courts to limit itself. That’s because the judiciary has no army, no inherent coercive power, no ability directly to punish those who go against its edicts against the enforcers themselves.

    In other words, even a good judgment here does not mean that we are out of the woods.

    There will still be the need for citizen oversight and resistance because the censorship industry will not simply stop existing.

    Another problem: the Biden administration is increasingly attempting to discredit the Supreme Court. This has been going on for a few years now. At the State of the Union address, President Biden directly attacked members of the Supreme Court who were sitting right there. I’m not sure that has ever happened before. And earlier this month, he bragged how his new student loan forgiveness actions are in defiance of the court. Their decision “didn’t stop me,” Mr. Biden said.

    This is an extremely dangerous trajectory we are on. The Supreme Court seems poised to rule against many practices by the executive department of the federal government. This hasn’t happened very often in U.S. history. How precisely this is enforced amounts to a large stress test of the American system itself. There is every reason to believe that the people in charge today do not even believe in that system.

    Is this a flaw in the structure? Sort of but it’s a problem with every system. If institutions collapse, they collapse, and there is no technical fix. Ultimately freedom is preserved by a public consensus in its favor and leaders willing to make it so. It appears that public opinion is the only real and final check on tyranny.

    A final factor here. Notice the mad rush by Google, Facebook, and others to implement artificial intelligence throughout its operation. If they can work with federal officials to make their curation and censorship merely a product of machine learning, they will eliminate all fingerprints from their dirty deeds. This bears watching as well.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 22:20

  • Watch: Migrant TikToker Tells Other Illegals How To "Invade" Homes In America
    Watch: Migrant TikToker Tells Other Illegals How To “Invade” Homes In America

    The Marxist destruction of private property rights is on full display after a viral video circulating TikTok, then posted on X, shows a migrant informing other migrants how to “invade” unoccupied homes across America and take advantage of progressive squatting laws. 

    “I found out that there is a law that says that if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it,” the migrant said in a video on TikTok, which Collin Rugg first posted on X. 

    The migrant said he has African friends who have taken over seven homes thanks to squatting laws. 

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

    The video is very concerning because progressive squatting laws are getting out of control. These laws are being abused, and landlords are being screwed. 

    Take, for instance, a woman who found her home full of people squatting illegally was arrested this week for changing the door locks. 

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

    “It’s starting to feel like illegal immigrants have more rights than actual citizens,” one X user said. 

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

    Here’s what other x users are saying:

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

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

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

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

    What baffles some is why squatters even have rights in the first place. 

    Americans owning multiple properties should be alert for migrants attempting to seize their home. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 22:00

  • New York Doomed To Be Migrant Central – Other Cities Take Note
    New York Doomed To Be Migrant Central – Other Cities Take Note

    Authored by Betsy McCaughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Mayor Eric Adams’ agreement, announced Friday, to limit the time illegal immigrants can stay in shelters at taxpayers’ expense, is smoke and mirrors. It’s designed to fool you into thinking he’s solving a problem when he’s actually caving to the illegal immigrant industrial complex.

    Hundreds of illegal immigrants line up outside of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City on June 6, 2023. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

    Adams claims the agreement, with the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, will allow the city to evict adult migrants from city-run shelters after 30 days, saving taxpayers money and limiting the need for more shelters. Not true.

    The fine print says illegal immigrants have a shot at staying longer if they obtain a driver’s license, follow shelter rules, and show good behavior, or—get this one—apply for public benefits. And this is a “non-exhaustive” list of reasons making illegal immigrants eligible to stay longer.

    The agreement also applies only to single adults. A staggering 78 percent come with children and get priority placement in hotels. The city currently spends a whopping $387 a night for food and a roof alone for each family, and shells out more money for free medical care, education, and legal services. This agreement does zero to alleviate those staggering costs.

    The deal dooms New York City to fiscal disaster, because it will continue to be the No. 1 destination for illegal immigrants seeking a free roof over their heads. The Big Apple is now Migrant Central.

    Worst of all, nothing in the agreement empowers the mayor to evict troublemakers who have repeat run-ins with police. The illegal immigrants who beat up cops in Time Square were living in shelters, courtesy of taxpayers, and already had long rap sheets.

    When troublemakers are arrested and give a shelter address, the shelter should be contacted and told they no longer qualify. Why should taxpayers be footing the bill to house criminals?

    Notorious gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 recruit from the shelters. How convenient that taxpayers pay to house these gangs’ lackeys.

    In October, Adams imposed a 30-day limit on adult migrants but wound up in court when Legal Aid and the Coalition challenged. A long negotiation ensued, ending with Friday’s agreement.

    Since 1981, Legal Aid and the Coalition have fought successfully to impose a “right to shelter” on New York. Now these two self-appointed guardians of the downtrodden—not elected by anyone—insist that the “right” applies not just to New Yorkers but anyone from anywhere in the world who wants shelter here. That’s crazy.

    After months of negotiating, Adams capitulated. No one at the table was looking out for taxpayers or New Yorkers who see their services being cut and their neighborhoods disrupted by the proliferation of shelters. The multibillion-dollar shelter industry came out a winner, but Joe Public got shafted.

    As the agreement was announced, Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom praised the “right to shelter” and Legal Aid Society for the work they do. They’re all in bed together.

    Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid attorney, explained that despite the settlement, “no migrant would be left out on the streets.” In fact, the agreement bans the city from even making illegal immigrants sleep overnight in chairs while waiting to be placed, imposing stricter shelter requirements than before.

    A “right to shelter” for anyone who shows up on Gotham’s doorsteps means New Yorkers who want sanitation services, police and fire protection, and other city amenities go to the back of the line. Their services get cut to pay for sheltering illegal immigrants. Adams needs to battle aggressively, up through the highest courts, to get that “right” reexamined.

    Only New York has a “right to shelter,” and it makes the city the top destination for illegal immigrants. New York City spends more than 10 times as much as Los Angeles per illegal immigrant and more than five times as much as Chicago.

    To top it off, the agreement and the Adams administration are renaming illegal immigrants as “new arrivals,” whitewashing the laws they broke to get here.

    Expect hundreds of thousands more to see these welcome signs and come. Who wouldn’t come?

    On Sunday, Adams praised the city’s “responsible policies” and blamed “Republican extremists” for the border crisis. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but the crisis here in New York City is due to the lavish benefits local Democrats insist on offering “new arrivals.” There’s no whitewashing that.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 21:40

  • RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick
    RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick

    Authored by Roger L. Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    I interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Epoch TV’s “Roller Coaster” series and also attended one of his birthday parties. In both instances, I liked the man, found him to be intelligent and personable, and also unafraid to take stands against the über-conformist Democratic Party, notably on health care and, to some degree, on the dangers of the Central Intelligence Agency.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a voter rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. (Mitch Ranger/The Epoch Times)

    Although I have been an unabashed Donald Trump supporter since he came down the escalator and continue to be so, I would not have been disappointed, even pleased, had former President Trump chosen Mr. Kennedy as his vice-presidential candidate.

    Unlikely as it may have been, it could have helped bring our fractured country together.

    No longer.

    If reports are true—and, in that regard, the website name www.kennedyshanahan.com was reportedly registered by one of his campaign operatives on March 13—Mr. Kennedy has chosen attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.

    I find this bizarre, to say the least, not to mention disappointing.

    Whatever his intentions, such a ticket would drive this country even further apart because Ms. Shanahan is a self-described “progressive.” But that’s only the tip of a disturbing iceberg I will get to in a minute.

    Let’s start with this. Mr. Kennedy, of all people, should know that the basic requirement for a vice presidential candidate, now more than ever, is that a person be qualified to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice.

    We have had disasters in that regard, dodging several bullets, including vice presidents Spiro Agnew, Mike Pence, and (for now, holding one’s breath) Kamala Harris.

    Mr. Trump has made clear that qualification for the presidency is now his first consideration, as it should be.

    What do we know of Ms. Shanahan?

    Not much, except that she is a philanthropist to largely progressive causes and that she is very rich.

    She reportedly helped pay for Mr. Kennedy’s Super Bowl ad to the tune of $4 million via a Super PAC. The ad got mixed reviews and ended up with the candidate apologizing to his family

    How rich Ms. Shanahan really is is unclear, but it is clear the bulk of her money comes from her divorce from Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and, depending on the source, the ninth richest man on the planet.

    RFK Jr’s campaign had been luffing and needed a boost. He looked to the financial. It’s hard to blame him, because that’s the putrid state of American politics. But if you’re trying to run an honest broker campaign against corrupt traditional parties, it’s not the best approach. It’s actually a turn-off.

    This is rather sad because of the optimism and excitement he initially engendered.

    It was said that much of RFK Jr’s appeal was with the more libertarian right, not the increasingly leftist Democrats. I thought that was accurate. I would imagine that unfortunately those days are over if the nomination of the “progressive” Ms. Shanahan is real. Who will RFK Jr. appeal to now?

    Of course the candidate is not confirming this nomination until March 26. We shall see.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 21:20

  • Study Says "Interpersonal Racism" Linked To Heart Problems In Black Women
    Study Says “Interpersonal Racism” Linked To Heart Problems In Black Women

    By Caleb Nunes of The College Fix

    “Interpersonal racism” might lead to higher rates of coronary heart disease, according to a recent study. But a health scholar who spoke to The College Fix questioned the findings.

    “Perceived experiences of interpersonal racism in employment, in housing, and with the police were associated with higher incidence of CHD among Black women,” the study from Boston University epidemiologist Shanshan Sheehy concluded. However, “perceived racism in everyday life was not associated with higher risk,” Dr. Sheehy wrote.

    She wrote the study, published in the American Heart Association journal, with Michelle Albert, the most recent president of the group. The paper used data from nearly 50,000 black women beginning in 1997.

    The study found that after adjusting for multiple variables, the link between racism and heart problems was “no longer statistically significant,” meaning the connection could be explained by chance. 

    Sheehy did not respond to two emailed requests for comment on the paper, including the claim “racism is highly prevalent in America.”

    The research director at Do No Harm said the extensive data set is a strength of the study, but there are many problems with its designs.

    Ian Kingsbury said, “the association [of interpersonal racism] is not significant when it comes to myocardial infarction,” in his emailed comments to The Fix.

    When it comes to coronary heart disease, Kingsbury said “there is no association with self-reported racism in everyday life but an association with self-reported discrimination in employment, housing and interactions with police.”

    There could be a confounding variable at play.

    Kingsbury said those reporting higher levels of racism in everyday life “are more anxious and prone to conflict,” and people with these personality traits have higher incidence of coronary heart disease.

    When asked about the strengths of this paper, Kingsbury said the paper “connect[ed] data collected decades ago to contemporary health outcomes.”

    Weaknesses included “overstating…findings” as well as a “lack of candor around the limitations of self-reported racism as a measure of actual racism.”

    He said the medical community should not use this paper. The results are “unconvincing” he said, when other variables are taken into consideration.

    Kingsbury said, “it’s unclear how [the results] would be actionable” and said there is a growing view doctors are “people who can solve all the world’s problems.” This often “invites activism into medical training at the expense of technical expertise.”

    Other studies have tried to connect police interactions with health problems.

    For example, a University of Minnesota researcher found a correlation between police stops in a neighborhood and preterm births. However, the researcher, Rachel Hardeman, could not identify any woman who had an interaction with police and then had a preterm birth.

    Furthermore, black immigrant women had better pregnancy outcomes than even white women, according to the study.

    That did not stop Hardeman from blaming racism.

    “These findings suggest that racialized police patterns borne from a history of racism in the United States may contribute to racial disparity in preterm birth,” the Planned Parenthood board member wrote.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 21:00

  • Ukraine Drones Again Target Strategic Bomber Base Deep Inside Russia
    Ukraine Drones Again Target Strategic Bomber Base Deep Inside Russia

    On Wednesday a wave of Ukrainian drones targeted a well-known airbase deep inside Russia which is home to strategic bombers. The air base, called Engels 2, is near the Russian city by the same name, and nearby residents reported hearing at least four explosions during the attack.

    The Main Directorate of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) has since owned up to the attack, with sources in Russia confirming to international media that “targets had been hit” and the damage is being assessed.

    Some drones may have been intercepted, however, with Roman Busargin, the governor of the Russian region of Saratov, describing in a statement that a drone attack was “repelled”. This attack is significant given Engels is located over 600km from the Ukraine border. But it’s not the first time it has come under attack during the war.

    In December of 2022 there were reports that two Tu-95 bombers were damaged in a similar drone operation from Ukraine. Later that same month explosions were reported at the airbase but the extent of damage on the ground was unclear. During this latter attack, three Russian servicemen were reportedly killed by falling debris after UAVs were intercepted.

    A well-known Russian Telegraph channel which reports breaking news related to the Ukraine war said of this newest assault on the airfield: “Preliminary data suggests the anti-aircraft defense system was activated. Residents report hearing a prior siren. There is no official information on casualties or damages.”

    Ukraine-based media sources have speculated that something was hit at Engels:

    Meanwhile, social media users mentioned a fire at the airfield area post-explosions, with rescuers quickly arriving.

    One commentator, residing near the airfield, wrote, “There was at least one direct hit, the rest (of the drones) likely shot down by anti-aircraft missiles. Then came the fire trucks, ambulances, police with flashing lights.”

    Engels has long been known to house both Tu-160 and Tu-95MS long-range bombers which are being used in Ukraine, thus it remains a high priority target for Ukraine’s cross-border attacks against Russian territory.

    The Kremlin has accused Western intelligence with assisting in such operations. This recently found some degree of positive confirmation in a damning New York Times story detailing the extent of the CIA’s presence in Ukraine going back a decade. The CIA established intelligence outposts along the border with Russia, many of which are likely directing these attacks into Russian territory.

    Via Ukraine Battle Map/Twitter

    Feeling emboldened by a string of ‘successes’, including prior attacks and bombings in Crimea but especially destruction of oil refineries, Ukraine forces will likely try to continue hitting targets inside Russia, also as their capability grows given they have been supplied with ever-longer range rockets from the US and NATO countries

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 20:40

  • Boeing Has Been Prioritizing Production Over Safety, FAA Chief Says
    Boeing Has Been Prioritizing Production Over Safety, FAA Chief Says

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

    Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Michael Whitaker said on March 19 that his impression from a recent visit to Boeing’s facilities suggests that there are issues within the aerospace giant’s safety culture.

    Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Whitaker testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Feb. 6, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    During an interview with NBC Nightly News, Mr. Whitaker said the FAA’s audit and a culture survey of Boeing revealed that the aircraft maker’s “priorities have been on production, and not on safety and quality.”

    “So what we really are focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality,” the FAA administrator told the media outlet.

    When asked if certain protocols were not being met regarding how the aircraft manufacturer approached airplane production, Mr. Whitaker said: “Not what you would have expected if safety is the first priority.

    “Whenever someone comes into the FAA to brief on their company, the first thing I expect is to talk about safety because we all have to start there.

    “If it’s not safe, then the whole system is not working the way it should.”

    FAA Audit on Boeing

    The FAA initiated a six-week audit on Boeing’s manufacturing processes for the 737 Max jetliner after a panel blew off one of the planes during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5.

    The Alaska Airlines flight was en route to Ontario, California, from Portland, Oregon, when its door plug blew off, forcing the pilots to turn back and make an emergency landing.

    A gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 7, 2024. (National Transportation Safety Board via AP)

    The FAA published its 50-page report on Feb. 26, noting that its experts had identified 27 areas in which Boeing’s safety procedures and culture were insufficient.

    According to the report, experts observed a “disconnect” between Boeing’s senior management and other members of the organization when it comes to safety culture.

    The report also found a “lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization” and could not find a “consistent and clear” process for employees to report safety concerns.

    “The procedures and training are complex and in a constant state of change, creating employee confusion, especially among different work sites and employee groups,” the report reads.

    Experts also highlighted “hesitation in reporting safety concerns for fear of retaliation,” noting that managers at the plane manufacturer authorized to oversee employee performance evaluations, salary decisions, promotion, and disciplinary actions are also tasked with investigating safety concerns.

    The company was given 90 days to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality-control issues.” Mr. Whitaker has urged Boeing to make “real and profound improvements.”

    A Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane lands following a test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle on April 10, 2019. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)

    Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s commercial plane division, said in a March 12 update that the “vast majority” of violations found by the FAA involved workers not following Boeing’s approved procedures.

    Mr. Deal said Boeing will take remedial steps that include “working with each employee noted with a non-compliance during the audit to ensure they fully understand the work instructions and procedures.”

    The company will also add weekly compliance checks for all work teams in the Renton, Washington, factory, where Max jets are assembled, he said.

    “We will assess our status in the factory and, if needed, put mitigation plans in place. We will not hesitate in stopping a production line or keeping an airplane in position,” Mr. Deal stated.

    The Alaska Airlines mishap is not the only recent incident to cause concern. On March 7, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200ER plane lost a wheel shortly after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport. On Jan. 20, a Boeing 757 jet operated by Delta Air Lines lost its nose wheel while preparing for takeoff in Atlanta.

    Katabella Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 20:20

  • US Military Desperately Seeking To Stay In Niger Despite Order To Leave
    US Military Desperately Seeking To Stay In Niger Despite Order To Leave

    The Pentagon is desperately seeking to stay in Niger despite the military-led government telling US troops to leave in the wake of accusations from American officials that Niger could be poised to transfer uranium to Iran. Niger was outraged at the allegations and rejected them.

    “The Pentagon is working with Niger officials, seeking a way for U.S. troops to stay in the country — a key base for counterterrorism operations in sub-Saharan Africa — following a weekend directive that they leave,” The Associated Press reports.

    MQ-9 Reaper drone, DoD file image

    Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US is seeking “clarification” from Niger officials and is still engaged in lengthy and direct” discussions with the junta leaders. Washington has warned the West African nation against forging deeper ties with ‘rogue’ actors like Russian and Iran. 

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that the Biden administration is “closely monitoring the Russian defense activities” there in order “to assess and mitigate potential risk to U.S. personnel, interests and assets.” Wagner Group is one major Russian mercenary outfit which has made deep inroads into the region.

    Over the weekend, Niger’s military-led government which is called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) declared US flights over Niger territory to be “illegal”. 

    Last year’s coup in the country saw a military-led government come to power, which from the start signaled rough and uncertain times ahead for US-Niger relations. A Saturday statement by Nigerien junta spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said, “Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism.”

    This charge of the US not respecting the West African nation’s sovereignty comes in reaction to recent Western intelligence claims that Niger is engaged in secret talks and deal-making to grant Iran access to its uranium. Singh in a Monday briefing had said, “We were troubled on the path that Niger is on.”

    According to the latest back-and-forth between junta leaders and the Pentagon:

    “The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer,” he [Insa Garba Saidou, an advisor to Niger’s generals] told The Associated Press.

    Singh said the U.S. was aware of the March 16 statement “announcing the end of the status of forces agreement between Niger and the United States. We are working through diplomatic channels to seek clarification. These are ongoing discussions and we don’t have more to share at this time.” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the discussions were prompted by Niger’s “trajectory.”

    “We are in touch with transition authorities to seek clarification of their comments and discuss additional next steps,” Patel said.

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    American officials are now worried about the major drone base only recently built at a cost of $110 million called Air Base 201, which was crucial for Pentagon drone surveillance operations over the region. Likely it will now have to be shuttered.

    International reports estimate that some 1,000 or more US troops and contractors remain in the country, with most of them manning the airbase. Much of the population looks upon the US as an ‘imperial’ power, also given the history of the Western powers in Africa, particularly starting in the 19th century and what historians dub “the Scramble for Africa”. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 20:00

  • Biden Campaign Distances Itself From Mysterious Big Dem Donor 'Chairman G'
    Biden Campaign Distances Itself From Mysterious Big Dem Donor ‘Chairman G’

    Authored by Soobin Kim and Bradley Hope via whalehunting.projectbrazen.com,

    Last fall, we reported on a man named Gaurav Srivastava who pretended to be a CIA operative to allegedly fleece the sanctioned Dutch oil trader Niels Troost. The ruse was simple, according to extensive recorded conversations: hand over half your company to me, a secret spy, and I’ll protect you from the US government because … I’m a secret spy.

    In the following months since our original article, it emerged that Srivastava – or “Chairman G,” as he likes to be called – is a big time political donor in the United States.

    • Whale Hunting can exclusively reveal that FBI agents in Los Angeles have been interviewing Srivastava’s current and former associates about his campaign donations, claims of being a federal officer and other financial affairs.

    • We also confirmed from a staff member for the Washington State Democratic Party that the Biden campaign is in the process of quietly refunding thousands of dollars of his political donations.

    The FBI inquiries — ongoing for last several months — may lead nowhere, but the Biden campaign’s decision to start refunding donations suggests there are deeper issues afoot for Srivastava.

    “All allegations raised in this story are false,” a spokesman for Srivastava told us (full statement and more details on the news after the jump).

    Source: Sponsored content on LA Weekly

    The culmination of Srivastava’s rise to public life came alongside a more than $1 million donation in 2022 to the Atlantic Council, a DC-based think tank. The money underwrote a conference in Bali, where he was a “co-host” and rubbed shoulders with business magnates, political honchos and John Legend.

    But that relationship isn’t going smoothly. The Atlantic Council terminated its relationship with Srivastava, Politico reported last month, and returned additional funds donated by Srivastava in 2023.

    “We made the decision to terminate our relationship with Mr. Srivastava in May 2023 upon learning new information because of our donor review process. For example, we learned that The Gaurav & Sharon Srivastava Family Foundation was not an established 501C3 in April of 2023, despite Mr. Srivastava’s representation to the Council that this was a registered foundation,” the spokesperson told Politico.

    Srivastava’s lawyer told Politico the Atlantic Council made the decision after they “disagreed” about how a gift would be implemented. (Small note: Recipients of gifts usually try very hard to implement the handover of gifts.)

    Alongside his campaign to solve global food security he also became a big spender on political campaigns. Among Srivastava’s key advisors for how to best disperse funds for political purposes were Greg Schultz (Biden’s 2020 campaign manager) and Ret. General Wesley Clark. They didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    The Federal Election Commission’s database of individual contributions shows that Srivastava contributed at least $1 million to political campaigns and committees in the United States. As an Indian national he is eligible to donate to political campaigns as a Green Card holder. Lo and behold, the donations led to a photo op with Biden which you can find here.

    Since 2022, Srivastava has made sizeable donations – including over $500,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $500,000 to Senate Majority PAC.

    One mystery we are continuing to investigate: Whale Hunting discovered publicly available evidence suggesting Srivastava contributed over $116,000 using the personal details of an individual with the same name who resides in the same city. The funds were donated under the previous employer, occupation and mailing address of the namesake, who denies making the donations.

    It’s unclear how those donations were made. Impersonating another individual to make a political contribution is strictly prohibited by law.

    The single biggest recipient for the donations made with the namesake’s personal details was the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee for Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election, which received $50,000. About a dozen state Democratic parties across the U.S. also received funds through the Biden Victory Fund.   

    “The Biden campaign is aware of the issue and the donation is in the process of being refunded,” a staff member with Washington State Democratic Party, which received these funds, told Whale Hunting in an email.

    It’s unclear the exact allegations the FBI is investigating, but among the questions they’ve presented current and former associates of Srivastava have been queries about his political spending, source of funds, involvement in international money transfers and other topics related to the allegations already aired publicly about Srivastava in a litany of lawsuits.

    Srivastava’s spokesman’s full comment here:

    All allegations raised in this story are false. The source for this story and others, including 87 paid stories on obscure websites, is tied to a Russian asset facilitating the unfettered trade of Russian oil as made clear by the U.K. sanctions. There’s a direct through-line between Russia, a barrel of oil and the high price of gas at the pump squeezing the American consumer. The slanderous suggestion of a fabricated relationship between Mr. Srivastava and a U.S. intelligence agency was orchestrated by the same Russian asset relied on as a source for your stories and designed by that Russian asset to put a target on his back, threatening the safety of him, his friends and family.

    So if your year is off to a bad start, think about what Srivastava is now dealing with: being on the Feds’ radar, juggling a glut of lawsuits brought on by all the people he’s allegedly stiffed – from his former interior designer to former landlord to former business partners – and witnessing the collapse of his carefully crafted reputation. 

    In the meantime, Whale Hunting will be chasing this story to fill its gaping plot holes, one among them being where on earth Chairman G got the funds to make the donations in the first place. If you have any insight, please get in touch!

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 19:40

  • Major Jeweler Sees Youngsters Postponing Engagements In Era Of Failed Bidenomics
    Major Jeweler Sees Youngsters Postponing Engagements In Era Of Failed Bidenomics

    Signet Jewelers Ltd., the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales, had previously signaled to investors that there would be an upswing in US engagements this year as dating patterns returned to normal. But that forecast was downgraded on Wednesday as the jeweler warned that persistently high inflation and job market uncertainty have forced some young folks to delay engagements. 

    “If right now they’re worried about their jobs or they’re still paying a little bit more for rent or for gas, then they might wait a few months for that engagement,” Gina Drosos, the CEO of SignetSignet, explained in a Wednesday interview quoted by Bloomberg.

    Signet previously told investors that 2024 would be the year of an upswing in US engagements. However, this outlook was revised on Wednesday, and the number of engagements for the year is expected to rise between 5% and 10% versus the previous forecast of 10%. 

    Drosos said 2.1 million couples were engaged last year, the lowest in years, but recovered from the dating dry spell during Covid. Still, the number is well below the 2.8 million level seen pre-2020. 

    The downshift in the outlook comes after three years of elevated inflation, which has strained consumers’ finances. 

    In the era of failed Bidenomics, Gen-Zers and millennials have flooded social media platforms, complaining about their financial hardships:

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    For youngsters who have already planned a wedding, average costs hit a new record high in 2023, exceeding $30,000, according to The Wedding Report, a research company that tracks wedding data. 

    Drosos added, “Wouldn’t it be great if the Fed lowered interest rates and if consumer confidence got on a really consistent upswing?” She noted that easing financial conditions would push the number of 2024 engagements to the high end of Signet’s guidance. 

    The obsession with lavish weddings is over for the average couple. Say goodbye to elaborate floral displays, a beautiful venue on a golf course, crab cakes and steak for dinner, fancy champagne toasts, live bands, open bars, chocolate fountains, and multi-tiered cakes, as an increasing number of folks are opting for courthouse weddings in the era of failed Bidenomics. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 19:20

  • How The Democrats Plan To Steal The Election
    How The Democrats Plan To Steal The Election

    Authored by Llewellyn Rockwell via LewRockwell.com,

    Biden and Trump have clinched the nominations of their parties for President. Everybody is gearing up for a battle between them for the election in November. It’s obvious that Biden is “cognitively impaired.” In blunter language, “brain-dead”. Partisans of Trump are gearing up for a decisive victory.

    But what if this battle is a sham? What if Biden’s elite gang of neo-con controllers won’t let Biden lose?

    How can they stop him from losing? Simple. If it looks like he’s losing, the elite forces will create enough fake ballots to ensure victory. Our corrupt courts won’t stop them. They have done this before, and they will do it again, if they have to.

    I said the Democrats have done this before.

    The great Dr. Ron Paul explains one way they did this in 2020. The elite covered up a scandal that could have wrecked Biden’s chances:

    “Move over Watergate. On or around Oct. 17, 2020, then-senior Biden campaign official Antony Blinken called up former acting CIA director Mike Morell to ask a favor: he needed high-ranking former US intelligence community officials to lie to the American people to save Biden’s lagging campaign from a massive brewing scandal.

    The problem was that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, had abandoned his laptop at a repair shop and the explosive contents of the computer were leaking out. The details of the Biden family’s apparent corruption and the debauchery of the former vice-president’s son were being reported by the New York Post, and with the election less than a month away, the Biden campaign needed to kill the story.

    So, according to newly-released transcripts of Morell’s testimony before the House judiciary Committee, Blinken “triggered” Morell to put together a letter for some 50 senior intelligence officials to sign – using their high-level government titles – to claim that the laptop story “had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.”

    In short, at the Biden campaign’s direction Morell launched a covert operation against the American people to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election. A letter signed by dozens of the highest-ranking former CIA, DIA, and NSA officials would surely carry enough weight to bury the Biden laptop story. It worked. Social media outlets prevented any reporting on the laptop from being posted and the mainstream media could easily ignore the story as it was merely “Russian propaganda.”

    Asked recently by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) why he agreed to draft the false sign-on letter, Morell testified that he wanted to “help Vice President Biden … because I wanted him to win the election.”

    Morell also likely expected to be named by President Biden to head up the CIA when it came time to call in favors.

    The Democrats and the mainstream media have relentlessly pushed the lie that the ruckus inside the US Capitol on Jan. 6th 2021 was a move by President Trump to overthrow the election results. Hundreds of “trespassers” were arrested and held in solitary confinement without trial to bolster the false narrative that a conspiracy to steal the election was taking place.

    It turns out that there really was a conspiracy to steal the election, but it was opposite of what was reported. Just as the Steele Dossier was a Democratic Party covert action to plant the lie that the Russians were pulling strings for Trump, the “Russian disinformation campaign” letter was a lie to deflect scrutiny of the Biden family’s possible corruption in the final days of the campaign.

    Did the Biden campaign’s disinformation campaign help rig the election in his favor? Polls suggest that Biden would not have been elected had the American electorate been informed about what was on Hunter Biden’s laptop. So yes, they cheated in the election.

    The Democrats and the mainstream media are still at it, however. Now they are trying to kill the story of how they killed the story of the Biden laptop. This is a scandal that would once upon a time have ended in resignation, impeachment, and/or plenty of jail time. If they successfully bury this story, I hate to say it but there is no more rule of law in what has become the American banana republic.” See here.

    But the main way the election can be rigged is by fraudulent “voting.” It’s much easier to do this with digital scanning of votes than with old-fashioned ballot boxes.

    Dr. Naomi Wolf explains how electronic voting machines make it easier to steal elections:

    “People could steal elections in this ‘analog’ technology of paper and locked ballot boxes, of course, by destroying or hiding votes, or by bribing voters, a la Tammany Hall, or by other forms of wrongdoing, so security and chain of custody, as well as anti-corruption scrutiny, were always needed in guaranteeing accurate election counts. But there was no reason, with analog physical processing of votes, to query the tradition of the secret ballot.

    Before the digital scanning of votes, you could not hack a wooden ballot box; and you could not set an algorithm to misread a pile of paper ballots. So, at the end of the day, one way or another, you were counting physical documents.

    Those days are gone, obviously, and in many districts there are digital systems reading ballots.” See here.

    This isn’t the first time the Left has stolen an election. It happened in the 2020 presidential election too. Ron Unz offers his usual cogent analysis:

    “There does seem to be considerable circumstantial evidence of widespread ballot fraud by Democratic Party forces, hardly surprising given the apocalyptic manner in which so many of their leaders had characterized the threat of a Trump reelection. After all, if they sincerely believed that a Trump victory would be catastrophic for America why would they not use every possible means, fair and foul alike, to save our country from that dire fate?

    In particular, several of the major swing-states contain large cities—Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Atlanta—that are both totally controlled by the Democratic Party and also notoriously corrupt, and various eye-witnesses have suggested that the huge anti-Trump margins they provided may have been heavily ‘padded’ to ensure the candidate’s defeat.” See here.

    In a program aired right after Biden’s pitiful State of the Union speech, the great Tucker Carlson pointed out that Biden’s “Justice” Department has already confessed that it plans to rig the election. It will do this by banning voter ID laws as “racist.” This permits an unlimited number of fake votes:

    “If Joe Biden is so good at politics, why is he losing to Donald Trump, who the rest of us were assured was a retarded racist who no normal person would vote for? But now Joe Biden is getting stomped by Donald Trump, but he’s also at the same time good at politics? Right.

    Again, they can’t win, but they’re not giving up. So what does that tell you? Well, they’re going to steal the election. We know they’re going to steal the election because they’re now saying so out loud. Here is the Attorney General of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer of this country in Selma, Alabama, just the other day.

    [Now Carlson quotes the Attorney General, Merrick Garland:]

    “The right to vote is still under attack, and that is why the Justice Department is fighting back. That is why one of the first things I did when I came into office was to double the size of the voting section of the Civil Rights Division. That is why we are challenging efforts by states and jurisdictions to implement discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot, including those related to mail-in voting, the use of drop boxes and voter ID requirements. That is why we are working to block the adoption of discriminatory redistricting plans that dilute the vote of Black voters and other voters of color.

    [Carlson then comments on Garland:]

    “Did you catch that? Of course, you’re a racist. That’s always the takeaway. But consider the details of what the Attorney General of the United States just said. Mail-in balloting, drop boxes, voter ID requirements. The chief law enforcement officer of the United States Government is telling you that it’s immoral, in fact racist, in fact illegal to ask people for their IDs when they vote to verify they are who they say they are. What is that? Well, no one ever talks about this, but the justification for it is that somehow people of color, Black people, don’t have state-issued IDs. Somehow they’re living in a country where you can do virtually nothing without proving your identity with a government-issued ID without government-issued IDs. They can’t fly on planes, they can’t have checking accounts, they can’t have any interaction with the government, state, local, or federal. They can’t stay in hotels. They can’t have credit cards. Because someone without a state-issued ID can’t do any of those things.

    But what’s so interesting is these same people, very much including the Attorney General and the administration he serves, is working to eliminate cash, to make this a cashless society. Have you been to a stadium event recently? No cash accepted. You have to have a credit card. In order to get a credit card you need a state-issued ID, and somehow that’s not racist. But it is racist to ask people to prove their identity when they choose the next President of the United States. That doesn’t make any sense at all. That’s a lie. It’s an easily provable lie, and anyone telling that lie is advocating for mass voter fraud, which the Attorney General is. There’s no other way to read it. So you should know that. You live in a country where the Attorney General is abetting, in fact calling for voter fraud, and that’s the only chance they have to get their guy re-elected.” See here.

    Because of absentee ballots, the voting can be spread out over a long period of time. This makes voting fraud much easier. Mollie Hemingway has done a lot of research on this topic:

    “In the 2020 presidential election, for the first time ever, partisan groups were allowed—on a widespread basis—to cross the bright red line separating government officials who administer elections from political operatives who work to win them. It is important to understand how this happened in order to prevent it in the future.

    Months after the election, Time magazine published a triumphant story of how the election was won by “a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.”  Written by Molly Ball, a journalist with close ties to Democratic leaders, it told a cheerful story of a “conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes,” the “result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans.”

    A major part of this “conspiracy” to “save the 2020 election” was to use COVID as a pretext to maximize absentee and early voting. This effort was enormously successful. Nearly half of voters ended up voting by mail, and another quarter voted early. It was, Ball wrote, “practically a revolution in how people vote.” Another major part was to raise an army of progressive activists to administer the election at the ground level.

    Here, one billionaire in particular took a leading role: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

    Zuckerberg’s help to Democrats is well known when it comes to censoring their political opponents in the name of preventing “misinformation.” Less well known is the fact that he directly funded liberal groups running partisan get-out-the-vote operations. In fact, he helped those groups infiltrate election offices in key swing states by doling out large grants to crucial districts.

    The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an organization led by Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla, gave more than $400 million to nonprofit groups involved in “securing” the 2020 election. Most of those funds—colloquially called “Zuckerbucks”—were funneled through the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a voter outreach organization founded by Tiana Epps-Johnson, Whitney May, and Donny Bridges. All three had previously worked on activism relating to election rules for the New Organizing Institute, once described by The Washington Post as “the Democratic Party’s Hogwarts for digital wizardry.”

    Flush with $350 million in Zuckerbucks, the CTCL proceeded to disburse large grants to election officials and local governments across the country. These disbursements were billed publicly as “COVID-19 response grants,” ostensibly to help municipalities acquire protective gear for poll workers or otherwise help protect election officials and volunteers against the virus. In practice, relatively little money was spent for this. Here, as in other cases, COVID simply provided cover.

    According to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), Georgia received more than $31 million in Zuckerbucks, one of the highest amounts in the country. The three Georgia counties that received the most money spent only 1.3 percent of it on personal protective equipment. The rest was spent on salaries, laptops, vehicle rentals, attorney fees for public records requests, mail-in balloting, and other measures that allowed elections offices to hire activists to work the election. Not all Georgia counties received CTCL funding. And of those that did, Trump-voting counties received an average of $1.91 per registered voter, compared to $7.13 per registered voter in Biden-voting counties.

    The FGA looked at this funding another way, too. Trump won Georgia by more than five points in 2016. He lost it by three-tenths of a point in 2020. On average, as a share of the two-party vote, most counties moved Democratic by less than one percentage point in that time. Counties that didn’t receive Zuckerbucks showed hardly any movement, but counties that did moved an average of 2.3 percentage points Democratic. In counties that did not receive Zuckerbucks, “roughly half saw an increase in Democrat votes that offset the increase in Republican votes, while roughly half saw the opposite trend.” In counties that did receive Zuckerbucks, by contrast, three quarters “saw a significant uptick in Democrat votes that offset any upward change in Republican votes,” including highly populated Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, and DeKalb counties.

    Of all the 2020 battleground states, it is probably in Wisconsin where the most has been brought to light about how Zuckerbucks worked.

    CTCL distributed $6.3 million to the Wisconsin cities of Racine, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, and Kenosha—purportedly to ensure that voting could take place “in accordance with prevailing [anti-COVID] public health requirements.”

    Wisconsin law says voting is a right, but that “voting by absentee ballot must be carefully regulated to prevent the potential for fraud or abuse; to prevent overzealous solicitation of absent electors who may prefer not to participate in an election.” Wisconsin law also says that elections are to be run by clerks or other government officials. But the five cities that received Zuckerbucks outsourced much of their election operation to private liberal groups, in one case so extensively that a sidelined government official quit in frustration.

    This was by design. Cities that received grants were not allowed to use the money to fund outside help unless CTCL specifically approved their plans in writing. CTCL kept tight control of how money was spent, and it had an abundance of “partners” to help with anything the cities needed.

    Some government officials were willing to do whatever CTCL recommended. “As far as I’m concerned I am taking all of my cues from CTCL and work with those you recommend,” Celestine Jeffreys, the chief of staff to Democratic Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich, wrote in an email. CTCL not only had plenty of recommendations, but made available a “network of current and former election administrators and election experts” to scale up “your vote by mail processes” and “ensure forms, envelopes, and other materials are understood and completed correctly by voters.”

    Power the Polls, a liberal group recruiting poll workers, promised to help with ballot curing. The liberal Mikva Challenge worked to recruit high school-age poll workers. And the left-wing Brennan Center offered help with “election integrity,” including “post-election audits” and “cybersecurity.”

    The Center for Civic Design, an election administration policy organization that frequently partners with groups such as liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund, designed absentee ballots and voting instructions, often working directly with an election commission to design envelopes and create advertising and targeting campaigns. The Elections Group, also linked to the Democracy Fund, provided technical assistance in handling drop boxes and conducted voter outreach. The communications director for the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, an organization that advocates sweeping changes to the elections process, ran a conference call to help Green Bay develop Spanish-language radio ads and geofencing to target voters in a predefined area.

    Digital Response, a nonprofit launched in 2020, offered to “bring voters an updated elections website,” “run a website health check,” “set up communications channels,” “bring poll worker application and management online,” “track and respond to polling location wait times,” “set up voter support and email response tools,” “bring vote-by-mail applications online,” “process incoming [vote-by-mail] applications,” and help with “ballot curing process tooling and voter notification.”

    The National Vote at Home Institute was presented as a “technical assistance partner” that could “support outreach around absentee voting,” provide and oversee voting machines, consult on methods to cure absentee ballots, and even assume the duty of curing ballots.

    A few weeks after the five Wisconsin cities received their grants, CTCL emailed Claire Woodall-Vogg, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, to offer “an experienced elections staffer that could potentially embed with your staff in Milwaukee in a matter of days.” The staffer leading Wisconsin’s portion of the National Vote at Home Institute was an out-of-state Democratic activist named Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein. As soon as he met with Woodall-Vogg, he asked for contacts in other cities and at the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

    Spitzer-Rubenstein would eventually take over much of Green Bay’s election planning from the official charged with running the election, Green Bay Clerk Kris Teske. This made Teske so unhappy that she took Family and Medical Leave prior to the election and quit shortly thereafter.

    Emails from Spitzer-Rubenstein show the extent to which he was managing the election process. To one government official he wrote, “By Monday, I’ll have our edits on the absentee voting instructions. We’re pushing Quickbase to get their system up and running and I’ll keep you updated. I’ll revise the planning tool to accurately reflect the process. I’ll create a flowchart for the vote-by-mail processing that we will be able to share with both inspectors and also observers.”

    Once early voting started, Woodall-Vogg would provide Spitzer-Rubenstein with daily updates on the numbers of absentee ballots returned and still outstanding in each ward­­—prized information for a political operative.

    Amazingly, Spitzer-Rubenstein even asked for direct access to the Milwaukee Election Commission’s voter database:

    “Would you or someone else on your team be able to do a screen-share so we can see the process for an export?” he wrote.

    “Do you know if WisVote has an [application programming interface] or anything similar so that it can connect with other software apps? That would be the holy grail.”

    Even for Woodall-Vogg, that was too much.

    “While I completely understand and appreciate the assistance that is trying to be provided,” she replied, “I am definitely not comfortable having a non-staff member involved in the function of our voter database, much less recording it.”

    When these emails were released in 2021, they stunned Wisconsin observers. “What exactly was the National Vote at Home Institute doing with its daily reports? Was it making sure that people were actually voting from home by going door-to-door to collect ballots from voters who had not yet turned theirs in? Was this data sharing a condition of the CTCL grant? And who was really running Milwaukee’s election?” asked Dan O’Donnell, whose election analysis appeared at Wisconsin’s conservative MacIver Institute.

    Kris Teske, the sidelined Green Bay city clerk—in whose office Wisconsin law actually places the responsibility to conduct elections—had of course seen what was happening early on. “I just don’t know where the Clerk’s Office fits in anymore,” she wrote in early July. By August, she was worried about legal exposure: “I don’t understand how people who don’t have the knowledge of the process can tell us how to manage the election,” she wrote on August 28.

    Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich simply handed over Teske’s authority to agents from outside groups and gave them leadership roles in collecting absentee ballots, fixing ballots that would otherwise be voided for failure to follow the law, and even supervising the counting of ballots. “The grant mentors would like to meet with you to discuss, further, the ballot curing process. Please let them know when you’re available,” Genrich’s chief of staff told Teske.

    Spitzer-Rubenstein explained that the National Vote at Home Institute had done the same for other cities in Wisconsin. “We have a process map that we’ve worked out with Milwaukee for their process. We can also adapt the letter we’re sending out with rejected absentee ballots along with a call script alerting voters. (We can also get people to make the calls, too, so you don’t need to worry about it.)”

    Other emails show that Spitzer-Rubenstein had keys to the central counting facility and access to all the machines before election night. His name was on contracts with the hotel hosting the ballot counting.

    Sandy Juno, who was clerk of Brown County, where Green Bay is located, later testified about the problems in a legislative hearing. “He was advising them on things. He was touching the ballots. He had access to see how the votes were counted,” Juno said of Spitzer-Rubenstein. Others testified that he was giving orders to poll workers and seemed to be the person running the election night count operation.

    “I would really like to think that when we talk about security of elections, we’re talking about more than just the security of the internet,” Juno said. “You know, it has to be security of the physical location, where you’re not giving a third party keys to where you have your election equipment.”

    Juno noted that there were irregularities in the counting, too, with no consistency between the various tables. Some had absentee ballots face-up, so anyone could see how they were marked. Poll workers were seen reviewing ballots not just to see that they’d been appropriately checked by the clerk, but “reviewing how they were marked.” And poll workers fixing ballots used the same color pens as the ones ballots had been filled out in, contrary to established procedures designed to make sure observers could differentiate between voters’ marks and poll workers’ marks.

    The plan by Democratic strategists to bring activist groups into election offices worked in part because no legislature had ever imagined that a nonprofit could take over so many election offices so easily.

    “If it can happen to Green Bay, Wisconsin, sweet little old Green Bay, Wisconsin, these people can coordinate any place,” said Janel Brandtjen, a state representative in Wisconsin.

    She was right. What happened in Green Bay happened in Democrat-run cities and counties across the country. Four hundred million Zuckerbucks were distributed with strings attached. Officials were required to work with “partner organizations” to massively expand mail-in voting and staff their election operations with partisan activists. The plan was genius. And because no one ever imagined that the election system could be privatized in this way, there were no laws to prevent it.

    “Such laws should now be a priority.” See here.

    Let’s do everything we can to publicize the steal. That way, we have a chance to prevent it.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 19:00

  • Badass 'Vigilantes' Show Up Evict Squatters At NY House Where Homeowner Arrested
    Badass ‘Vigilantes’ Show Up Evict Squatters At NY House Where Homeowner Arrested

    A pair of vigilantes showed up to a house in Queens, New York where the homeowner was recently arrested for changing the locks on her own house in order to try and evict squatters.

    On Tuesday afternoon, two unidentified men driving a black pickup truck pulled into the driveway of the Flushing home in search of the squatters.

    “We are looking to get this guy out,” one of the men told the Daily Mail. “I am here to talk to him. I want to see why he is here.”

    The owner, Adele Andaloro, 47, was in the process of selling the inherited property valued at roughly $1 million, when the squatters moved in.

    One man, who is believed to be squatting in the home, walks past the property (via the Daily Mail)

    One of the neighbors on the block, who saw what transpired, said ‘holy c**p,’ and said she had no idea that the squatter issue was causing so much backlash.

    Many of the neighbors are baffled by the ordeal – and say they want to know how the squatters gained access into the house in the first place.

    ‘It’s disgusting,’ one person said, who mentioned that he has seen one of the squatters walking around outside.

    He added sarcastically: ‘I wish I could live rent free.’ -Daily Mail

    A woman, who is squatting inside, peers through the window to watch a confrontation

    Another neighbor told the Mail that she had seen concerning activity at the house over the past few weeks – including one of the squatters carrying a door into the house one night.

    “I actually saw the door go into the house. The guy looked at me then looked away,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

    “They are doing construction on the house all night long,” said another neighbor. “I heard a drill and saw through my window that they were drilling holes into the wall and putting up boards.”

    One of the ‘vigilantes’ goes to confront the squatters

    Andaloro’s arrest was captured on video.

    According to locals, Andaloro lived in the house with her daughter and mother. When her mother passed away several years ago, she stayed in the house and rented out the basement to an older man and his dog. After the man moved out of state, Andaloro put the house on the market – when the squatters showed up. 

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 18:40

  • Watch: Biden Bizarrely Wanders Off Stage Mid Event To Pull Faces At A Baby
    Watch: Biden Bizarrely Wanders Off Stage Mid Event To Pull Faces At A Baby

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    Joe Biden wandered off stage during an event in Phoenix, Arizona so that he could pull funny faces at a baby.

    Biden suddenly walked off camera while his campaign manager was introducing him at a Mexican diner in front of literally dozens of people who had shown up to see him.

    When he came back, Biden announced “Well folks, I have to tell you straight up… I like you all, but I couldn’t resist that little baby.”

    He reportedly asked the mother holding the child “how old?”

    The rest of the appearance was the usual Biden vs teleprompter slur fest:

    The reason Biden was holding this Mexican Diner event is that Donald Trump leads Biden among Hispanic voters 39% to 34%, according to a  USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released in January. 

    A New York Times/Siena College Poll released in February also found Biden losing the Hispanic vote to Trump, 40% to 46%.

    Biden’s popularity among minority demographics is tanking, while Trump’s is soaring.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 18:20

  • Attention Gen-Zers: Baltimore City Wants To Sell $1 Homes 
    Attention Gen-Zers: Baltimore City Wants To Sell $1 Homes 

    The failed leftist mayor of Baltimore City, Brandon Scott, wants to practically give away vacant row homes to attract new residents and expand the tax base. This initiative comes as the city’s population crashes to a century-low and lawless neighborhoods are littered with vacant row homes. 

    Bloomberg reports Mayor Scott plans to offer residents more than 200 city-owned vacant properties for $1 each. However, those residents must rehab the homes and live in them. The proposal could be voted on as soon as Wednesday. 

    WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren recently attended an oversight hearing at City Hall where several council members asked Scott’s administration to postpone a vote on the measure. 

    “There are so many risks and hazards associated with these vacant properties,” resident Maurice Brock told WJZ’s Hellgren. 

    Brock said, “It’s a definite safety risk for citizens, for city employees and firefighters.”

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    Five decades of Democratic control have produced a massive exodus of the population, leaving 13,500 vacant homes across the city. Those who wish to stay anonymous but have participated in rehabbing vacant row homes in the city before, tell us the figure is much higher. 

    Bloomberg noted Scott’s plan to sell vacant homes is reminiscent of the city’s “dollar house” program from the 1970s. 

    The move to revitalize Baltimore (or at least attempt) comes as the city’s total population recently crashed to a 100-year-low, losing nearly 40% of its people since the peak of almost a million in the early 1960s. 

    Who in their right mind would buy a vacant home in an imploding city? 

    Baltimore City is a prime example that whatever Democrats touch turns to dust.

    As for Gen-Zers and millennials who have been priced out of homes – well now is your chance to buy at the rock bottom. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 18:00

  • Pace Of EV Adoption Must Quadruple To Reach Illinois' Goal
    Pace Of EV Adoption Must Quadruple To Reach Illinois’ Goal

    Authored by Mark Glennon and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

    It will take a mighty big change of fortune for the electric vehicle (EV) industry to meet Illinois’ goal of one million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030.

    Gov. JB Pritzker repeated that target last week, but trends are pointing somewhere else.

    The hard numbers are EV registrations in Illinois, published by the Illinois Secretary of State. For the most recent 12-month period, Illinois added just 32,478 vehicles to its EV registration rolls. That’s 8,120 per quarter.

    But to reach the target of one million by 2030, that number would have to increase to about 34,000 per quarter — a four-fold increase, as shown in this chart:

    Those numbers may be generous because they assume that all registered EVs will stay on the road through 2030. More importantly, in the latest quarter, new EV registrations dropped to just 4,997, well below the average for the year of 8,120 used above to calculate the needed 4X improvement.

    The recent drop in the quarterly increase in EV registrations no doubt reflects the new reality for EVs, which was summed up in a CNBC article last week headlined, “EV euphoria is dead. Automakers are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.” From that CNBC article:

    Now the hype is dwindling, and companies are again cheering consumer choice. Automakers from Ford, General Motor, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.

    Even U.S. EV leader Tesla, which is estimated to have accounted for 55% of EV sales in the country in 2023, is bracing for what “may be a notably lower” rate of growth, CEO Elon Musk said in late January.

    The gap between Illinois’ target and the EV adoption rate is roughly consistent with the numbers at a national scale, where EV sales need to rise 500 percent by 2032 to hit federal emissions targets.

    EV optimists point to the expectation of lower priced vehicles coming to showrooms soon and more charging stations coming online, shortages of which have impaired EV demand. They also point to consistent year-over-year improvement in EV sales. That may be true, but a 4X jump in the rate of EV adoption looks questionable at best, and record sales are not enough. To make the EV industry financially viable, far more sales are needed than at the current pace.

    So far, Illinois seems unconcerned, and more taxpayer money will go into the effort. Last week, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced round one of the Illinois National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, which will provide up to $50 million for the construction of 46 charging stations across the state.

    Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been bet on EVs, making it a historic chapter in government central planning. So far, the numbers look bad.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 17:40

  • $500 Per Hour Tutors Are Back In Vogue Now That Colleges Have Decided SATs Are, In Fact, A Necessity
    $500 Per Hour Tutors Are Back In Vogue Now That Colleges Have Decided SATs Are, In Fact, A Necessity

    It was just about a month ago we noted that SATs were once again being reconsidered by colleges who had reduced or eliminated their requirement due to (pick one: diversity, racism, climate change, equity, gender affirmation). 

    As a result of the comeback, Bloomberg noted this week that tutors, sometimes costing $500 per hour, are all of a sudden back in vogue. 

    Bloomberg wrote that demand for SAT tutoring and prep centers is surging as several top colleges reintroduce mandatory SATs, and students adapt to the SAT’s new digital format.

    Kaplan reported a significant enrollment increase, attributed to digital testing and the reinstatement of testing requirements by institutions and three Ivy League schools—Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown—have reinstated mandatory SATs, alongside MIT and the University of Texas at Austin. This shift has left many students scrambling for preparation before early application deadlines.

    Companies like The Princeton Review have also seen a spike in interest for prep services.

    Parents Bloomberg profiled are once again investing in tutoring services for their children to improve their chances of success. The debate over standardized testing’s fairness persists however, with critics arguing it favors wealthier students who can afford extensive prep. But those winning the argument still claims that standardized tests provide valuable benchmarks for admissions, potentially aiding in diversifying the applicant pool.

    We noted last month in a piece from American Greatness, that according to Axios, multiple colleges used the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to weaken the importance of SAT and ACT test scores in most student applications. But in recent weeks, several schools have reversed course; Yale is considering repealing its prior policy of making SAT/ACT requirements optional, with Dartmouth already reinstating the requirements earlier this month. MIT reversed a similar policy back in 2022.

    Other schools that have eliminated SAT/ACT requirements include Harvard and Columbia. Harvard, along with Cornell and Princeton, have extended their policy of making the scores optional, while Columbia’s policy remains permanent.

    One of the motivating factors behind the reversal is ongoing research showing a clear correlation between students’ standardized test scores, and their subsequent academic performance and graduation rates in college. Some schools had previously opposed the test requirements for reasons of “diversity,” baselessly accusing the tests of being “racist” and against minority students.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 17:20

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Mar 20

Today’s News 20th March 2024

  • Former Top Polish Army Chief Admits "Ukraine Is Losing The War"
    Former Top Polish Army Chief Admits “Ukraine Is Losing The War”

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    A former top Polish army chief says Ukraine is losing the war and that “more than 10 million people are missing.”

    General Rajmund Andrzejczak, the ex-chief of the Polish General Staff, made the comments during an appearance on Polsat Television.

    “More than 10 million people are missing. According to my estimates, losses should be in the millions, not hundreds of thousands. The country has no resources, no one to fight. Ukrainians are losing this war,” said the general.

    Andrzejczak pointed to Ukraine’s dwindling anti-aircraft missile supplies, which would allow Russia to conduct more effective strikes, casualties, and infrastructure damage.

    “The Ukrainians are losing this war,” he stated emphasized.

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    After German intelligence sources warned that Russia would be in a position to attack another NATO country after 2026, Andrzejczak warned that Poland has a limited time to prepare.

    “We need to prepare… A lot depends on us, whether it will be in two, three, or five years. Our mission is to push the threat further away. There is still time, but much work is needed,” he said.

    As we highlighted back in December, Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon official, that the war in Ukraine is effectively “over” because Kiev’s counter-offensive has failed and there is no appetite in America to continue funding it.

    The average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now 43 and mentally disabled men are being sent to fight on the front lines.

    Back in November Sascha Lehnartz, chief correspondent of German newspaper Die Welt, said the Ukrainian “counteroffensive seems to have failed” and that there was a sense Kiev had “already lost” the war.

    A month before that, CNN reported on a Time article which quoted a top Zelensky aide as saying, “He deludes himself. We’re out of options. We’re not winning.”

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 03/20/2024 – 02:00

  • New York Times, After Years of Appeasing CCP, Now Plans Attack On Dissidents In US
    New York Times, After Years of Appeasing CCP, Now Plans Attack On Dissidents In US

    Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The New York Times for nearly six months has been preparing a hit piece against Shen Yun Performing Arts, The Epoch Times has learned.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    Communications obtained by The Epoch Times suggest the article, which is yet to be published, will play into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its transnational repression campaign against Shen Yun.

    The New York-based Shen Yun, whose mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and whose slogan is “China Before Communism,” has been a major thorn in Beijing’s side for nearly two decades.

    In its campaign, the CCP has used a plethora of tactics to obstruct Shen Yun—which each year performs for an audience of a million people globally—including attempting to pressure theaters to drop performances, persecuting artists’ family members back in China, and hijacking the U.S. legal system for its purposes.

    The FBI last May arrested two suspected Chinese agents who had tried to bribe an FBI agent posing as an IRS official with tens of thousands of dollars in an attempt to revoke Shen Yun’s nonprofit status.

    The Department of Justice indicated that the two alleged CCP agents had also sought to use an environmental lawsuit targeting the company’s training facilities and schools to “inhibit” their growth.

    The next attack against Shen Yun, however, appears to be coming from America’s largest newspaper, The New York Times.

    Two reporters, Michael Rothfeld and Nicole Hong—the latter of whom began to work on the Shen Yun story after spending six months at The New York Times’ China desk—have specifically sought out former artists who might have left the company years ago with a grudge, records obtained by The Epoch Times suggest.

    Many of Shen Yun’s artists are practitioners of Falun Gong, a meditation practice whose followers are brutally persecuted by the CCP—making the company a prime target of the regime and its proxies. Some of Shen Yun’s dance pieces include artistic depictions of the persecution.

    “We know these reporters are targeting for interviews [with] a tiny group that might have something bad to say about Shen Yun, and seem to be ignoring the overwhelming majority [of artists] who see their time at Shen Yun positively and deeply rewarding,”  Ying Chen, a vice president of Shen Yun, told The Epoch Times.

    “Flowing Sleeves,” from the 2009 Shen Yun Performing Arts program. (2009 Shen Yun Performing Arts)

    “We also know some of these interviewees have freely traveled to China, which raises a huge red flag because normally anyone who works for Shen Yun or is known to practice Falun Gong would be in grave danger going back to China—but these folks do so freely and repeatedly. We also have records of communication that demonstrate some of these interviewees were very happy with their experience at Shen Yun, but now are saying the opposite to The New York Times.

    “All this indicates that The New York Times is laser-focused on attacking us, and are building a story around very questionable interviews.”

    ­­­­Out to Smear

    Internal CCP documents show the Party considers the Shen Yun campus in upstate New York, called Dragon Springs, a “headquarters” of activities by Falun Gong practitioners to counter the persecution.

    “Attack the overseas Falun Gong headquarters and bases systematically and strategically,” reads one CCP directive document obtained by The Epoch Times.

    Another document prescribes specific industries to co-opt in its transnational repression against Falun Gong, calling for mobilization of “China friendly people such as experts, scholars, journalists … who have greater influence in the U.S. and Western countries to speak for us, and strive to make more foreign media to publish more reports favorable to us.”

    The New York Times now appears to be doing just that, commented Larry Liu, a deputy director of the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC), a nonprofit dedicated to monitoring the persecution of Falun Gong.

    The New York Times published a section called “China Rules” in its Nov. 25, 2018, edition. The section included giant Chinese characters on a red background and a glowing report on the CCP, while simultaneously diminishing the United States. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    “This article will likely be the CCP’s dream come true,” says Mr. Liu.

    Not long after Ms. Hong returned to New York last year after a stint with The New York Times’ China team in Seoul, some former Shen Yun dancers started to receive emails from her and Mr. Rothfeld. The emailed questions were at times disturbingly specific and left the artists with the impression the reporters were trying to dig up information that could be weaponized against the company, Mr. Liu said.

    One former dancer was only asked about one specific incident: a knee injury.

    According to Mr. Liu, the reporters seem to be trying to craft a narrative suggesting that the dancers don’t receive sufficient medical care, a key false narrative pushed by the CCP to malign Falun Gong.

    The Epoch Times spoke to dozens of Shen Yun artists and their family members as well as students and teachers at two schools affiliated with Shen Yun. They described the environment as demanding, but with a healthy culture and supportive community. The suggestion of lacking medical care or treatment prompted visceral responses.

    “It’s absolute rubbish,” said Kay Rubacek whose son and daughter perform with Shen Yun. Ms. Rubacek is a filmmaker whose portfolio includes award-winning documentaries and the program “Life & Times” on NTD.

    “Everyone who watches the show, sees Shen Yun, they can see that these dancers love it. They really love what they do.”

    Her children started attending Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, a grade 5–12 private art school, when they were 13 and 14. She was very particular about first getting familiar with the campus and the teachers, she said.

    “I’m very careful with where I send my kids. I’m very protective of them,” she said. “So for me to feel comfortable for them to go to a boarding school, I have to check everything, and I checked everything.”

    The dance track at the school gives students the possibility of auditioning for Shen Yun while training at the Fei Tian College on the same campus, which is what her children did–with great success, she noted.

    She recalled that shortly after joining the school, her son hit his toe during dance practice. He was taken for an X-ray, which revealed a hairline fracture. His dance teacher insisted he couldn’t join dance class again until the fracture had fully healed.

    He took the hiatus as an opportunity to focus on stretching, becoming one of the most flexible dancers in the troupe, she said.

    “The level of positivity that I see coming from them and their ability to face challenges is pretty remarkable and something that I wish I had as a kid,” Ms. Rubacek said.

    She was appalled to learn that The New York Times would try to smear her children as being part of some opprobrious organization.

    Shen Yun dancers rehearse a classical Chinese dance routine at their facility in Orange County, N.Y., in this file photo. (Courtesy of Shen Yun)

    ‘Real Danger’

    “The false narratives that the Times seems to be pursuing are a grave concern for us because it can create real danger,” said George Xu, vice president of Dragon Springs.

    He said several months ago local and federal authorities mobilized to counter what they believed was a credible threat posed by a Chinese man who posted to social media about wanting to be part of a “death squad.” The man also posted a video of himself loading an AR-15 rifle magazines.

    The man “propagates these same false narratives and had been speaking with some of the same individuals the [New York] Times is interviewing,” Mr. Xu said.

    “At one point, this man was known to be in the area of our campus. … We had state police patrolling our entrances, and everyone was on high alert. This is very serious.”

    The Epoch Times obtained a copy of a September FBI Officer Safety bulleting, stating that the man “has made threats to the Dragon Springs campus,” was seen in the area, and “is potentially armed and dangerous.”

    Aiming for the Top

    Shen Yun prides itself as the leading Chinese classical dance company in the world, growing from one group in 2007 to eight, each with its own orchestra, touring the world and performing for more than a million people every year. The Epoch Times has been a long-time media sponsor of Shen Yun.

    As with any elite artistic endeavor, classical Chinese dance requires enormous effort, said multiple dancers and teachers.

    Alison Chen at the Fei Tian College campus in Middletown, N.Y., on Sept. 19, 2023. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    “To become an artist of such a high caliber, it definitely takes a lot of grit and a lot of persistence, and you have to sacrifice a lot of time and energy,” said Alison Chen, who retired from Shen Yun in 2015 to become a dance teacher and later co-chair of the dance department at Fei Tian College’s campus in Middletown, New York.

    She was still in her teens when she started training with Shen Yun in 2007, shortly after its inception. Thanks to her aptitude and previous dance experience, she was invited to join the touring company fairly quickly as part of her school practicum. Over the years, however, the company has continued to raise the bar. Fei Tian students are still allowed to audition for tours as part of their coursework, but their dance skills must be exceptional for them to make the cut, she said.

    Compared to ballet, classical Chinese dance training is more aligned with the natural disposition of the human body, leading to less extreme strain, said Jimmy Cha, who was a professional ballet dancer before he joined Shen Yun in 2008.

    Ballet dancers usually retire in their 30s and are often left with chronic pain and other ailments. On average, younger amateur dancers suffer one injury and older professional dancers 1.2 injuries for every 1,000 dance hours, according to a 2015 review of research on the topic.

    According to those estimates, a professional dance company the size of Shen Yun would theoretically have hundreds of injuries occurring every year.

    The dancers and teachers The Epoch Times spoke to didn’t have such statistics ready, but all agreed the injury incidence they observed in Shen Yun was a fraction of that number.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 23:40

  • Piers Morgan Vs Jeffrey Sachs On Putin: "Russia's War With Ukraine Was Completely Avoidable"
    Piers Morgan Vs Jeffrey Sachs On Putin: “Russia’s War With Ukraine Was Completely Avoidable”

    Economist Jeffrey Sachs has appeared this week on Piers Morgan Uncensored where the two discussed Russian leader Vladimir Putin just being elected to a fifth 6th year term as president. Sachs speaks from within the establishment, having long served as a UN advisor, but has at the same time been branded in mainstream media as “a Putin cheerleader” – as Wall Street Journal and others have long described him. Sachs had a wide-ranging discussion with Morgan over the Ukraine crisis and other pressing global topics. The guest has long been controversial for his ‘unorthodox’ views on everything from Syria to Libya to US hegemony and Western regime change efforts in the third world.

    “My point has always been, lets end this war in Ukraine,” Professor Sachs told Morgan, while emphasizing that Washington has been bent on regime change in Moscow which began in earnest in 2014 with the overthrow of the Yanukovych government in Kiev. Sachs said the tragedy of the Ukraine war ultimately began with the US seeking to destabilize Russia and NATO expansion up to its borders. Sachs lashed out at critics saying “It’s not a matter of cheerleading. It’s a matter of common sense. I’ve known the Eastern European region for over 30 years.” He described that Washington thought it could “bleed” Russia and so thwarted attempts at peace talks in the wake of the February 2022 invasion.

    Sachs said, “My view is that this war was completely avoidable, and could have been ended in March 2022. But, it persists because we don’t have a sensible approach.” When asked about his views of Vladimir Putin and the prospect for peace negotiations to finally settle the war, Sachs offered the following: “We’re not in a game. We’re not in name calling. We’re not in a cage brawl,” Sachs said. “We’re trying to actually not have the world spiral into nuclear war. So it’s not that game. The game is sit down and negotiate.” Sachs in the interview pointed out that as far back as 2007 Putin was clear on his red lines regarding violating prior NATO vows of not expanding East. Watch a key section of the interview below:

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    Sachs explained the following on the origins of the Ukraine war:

    “I believe that the big mistake of both sides is we should talk this out. And now let me say a word about talking it out. In 2008, when Bucharest happened, European leaders called me because I’m friends with them. They said, what is your crazy president doing, by the way?

    Some who are in power right now, I won’t name names. What is your president doing? Why is he destabilizing things? He promised he wasn’t going to push Ukraine. That’s what european leaders say in private. They don’t say it in public. We avoided the negotiations. Then 2014 came, sadly, Piers. I saw some of it firsthand. It was ugly. The United States should not be funding overthrows of governments. We did. I know it.

    The two also discussed everything from the war in Gaza to the TikTok ban, with Sachs saying of the China-based platform and current controversy: “I think we are in the middle of a very typical American paranoid phase…“

    On the Gaza war, which began on Oct.7 and the Hamas terror attack on southern Israel, Sachs said controversally:

    “Israel has the most extremist religious nationalist government in its history…there’s no end game here politically other than complete domination or ethnic cleansing or slaughter.”

    Watch the full Piers Morgan and Jeffrey Sachs interview below:

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 23:20

  • Duty, Honor, Nothing
    Duty, Honor, Nothing

    Authored by ‘Citizen Soldier’ via RealClear Wire,

    My father remembers a trip with my grandfather to the U.S. Military Academy in the early 1960s to watch a baseball game. They loved the game, but what struck my grandfather, who served in the Pacific during World War II, was something else.

    “Watch how they sprint on and off the field,” he said. “Every inning. The best player and the worst. Whatever the score.”

    I don’t know whether the boys at West Point still sprint on and off the athletic fields. I bet they do. Their generals and the politicians, however, are running in the wrong direction.

    West Point is dropping “Duty, Honor, Country” from its mission statement, to be replaced with the nebulous phrase, “Army Values.” Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland said “Duty, Honor, Country” would remain West Point’s “motto.”

    But “motto” is not mission, which declares what a unit is and does. Troops live and die for the mission. No “motto” could ever mean so much.

    West Point leadership wants us not to be alarmed. Just trust the process, they say. The “process” – apparently of erasure and reinvention – began two years ago with removal of plaques and images of Robert E. Lee in favor of “appropriate language and images,” as Gilland described them.

    So here we are, further stripping away the tradition and rigor that defined West Point.

    In contemporary America, life in power seems dedicated not to responsibility but self-interest. Authority figures and thought leaders specialize in manipulating opinions, bullying us into using certain words, canceling history, placing certain ideas above others. Their eyes are big, their minds addled by attention and praise, their demands absolute.

    Such a culture is contemptuous of and disdains tradition. So-called leaders are energized by tearing down tradition, making more room for monuments to their own era and outsized egos.

    Tweak the colors.

    Change the fonts.

    Replace time-honored words for something new, something soft, something “appropriate.”

    This is not to say I doubt the patriotism of Lt. Gen. Gilland, and others like him. Gilland has given more than 40 years of service to the Army. He and many other soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are the best of us.

    Which is why we urge him to pick his head up and look around, remember that leading is more than just keeping your head down as you navigate the career minefield, hoping to survive, praying that playing along will secure the next rank.

    To those at the top, I say this:

    Words gain their meaning through generations of commitment, sacrifice and faith.

    Duty.

    Honor.

    Country.

    These are the words that define us—throw them away at our own peril.

    Citizen Soldier believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 23:00

  • Sorghum: The Ancient Grain For Modern Health
    Sorghum: The Ancient Grain For Modern Health

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

    Although many may not have heard of sorghum, it is an ancient grain that has been a staple in diets throughout Africa and Asia for millennia. According to the Whole Grains Council, ancient grains refer to grains that have been largely unchanged for hundreds of years and, thus, are often healthier options compared to the many refined grains we eat today.

    Sorghum. (Jennifer Princ/Shutterstock)

    Sorghum, or sorghum bicolor, is a cereal grain plant and member of the grass family—along with wheat, corn, and barley. It has a high yield and is resistant to heat and droughts, making it a highly prized crop in hot and arid regions.

    There are many varieties, and the plant produces small, round grains that are often categorized by color, coming in white (the most common), yellow, red, and black varieties. The grains are eaten cooked or ground into flour for bread, baked goods, and other dishes.

    The United States is the largest producer of grain sorghum globally, producing about 454 million bushels in 2021. It is a hearty, versatile crop that, in addition to being a nutritious food for humans, is used for animal feed and biofuel, and a sweet variety is used to make syrup, molasses, whiskey, and rum.

    Sorghum goes by many names around the world. It is known as Guinea corn in West Africa, kafir corn in South Africa, dura in Sudan, mtama in East Africa, bachanta in Ethiopia, cholan, chari, milo, and jowar in India, shallu in Myanmar, and kaoliang in China.

    Nutrition

    Sorghum is a gluten-free grain that has gained popularity in recent years due to an increasing number of people looking for gluten-free options to make bread and other baked goods or those with celiac disease who need to avoid gluten to keep their digestive systems happy.

    Dr. Steven Gundry is a former heart surgeon and present director and founder of the International Heart & Lung Institute and the Center for Restorative Medicine, a bestselling author, and expert in human nutrition. A big fan of sorghum for its health benefits, Dr. Gundry recommends it to patients, telling The Epoch Times via email:

    “Since 100 percent of my leaky gut and autoimmune patients have antibodies to gluten and the other wheat, barley, rye, and oat proteins, it’s the perfect replacement to stop damage to the gut wall, yet still tastes great and has that all-important ‘mouthfeel’ [as] the other grains.”

    Sorghum is also an abundant source of polyphenols—compounds that plants produce that help to protect them from threats. Those protections are passed on to us when we eat these polyphenol-producing plants.

    Research has shown that polyphenols in plants have a significant protective effect against the development of multiple chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer.

    Raw, grain sorghum. (Picture Partners/Shutterstock)

    Dr. Gundry also points to another unique benefit of sorghum, saying:

    “Sorghum is one of the few grains that has no hull, hence it has no lectins—dangerous plant proteins that can cause leaky gut. Moreover, it is a plant that grows well with limited water use, perfect for global climate changes.

    “Plus, because of its texture, it can be a great stand-in for other grains like sorghum risotto or sorghum ‘oatmeal’ or turkey stuffing—I share a recipe for this in my NYT bestselling ‘Plant Paradox Cookbook!’”

    An excellent source of protein and fiber, a one-cup serving of sorghum grain offers 20.4 grams of protein and 12.9 grams of fiber. Abundant in vitamins and minerals, sorghum has ample phosphorous, iron, magnesium, copper, zinc, and potassium, all vital for a healthy body.

    Sorghum is also exceptionally high in antioxidants due to its phenolic compounds. A study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food found that two sorghum varieties—black and sumac—have greater antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties than popular foods like pomegranates and blueberries.

    Studies have shown sorghum is beneficial for a variety of conditions, from helping to lower blood sugar to helping reduce the risk of some cancers.

    Helps Lower Blood Sugar

    Its low glycemic index level means that sorghum digests more slowly than other grains, helping release glucose into the body gradually, which is especially helpful for those with diabetes.

    A small randomized-controlled trial using healthy men set out to evaluate the effect of grain sorghum on blood glucose and insulin levels after eating. The men consumed either whole wheat (used as the control) or grain sorghum muffins, and their glucose and insulin levels were measured “15 minutes before and 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, 180 minutes after consumption.”

    Researchers found an average of 35 percent reduced blood glucose in the men eating the sorghum muffins. Insulin responses were also significantly reduced with the sorghum muffins versus the control. The results led the researchers to conclude that grain sorghum can “assist in managing glucose and insulin levels in healthy individuals.”

    Supports Heart Health

    Keeping blood moving freely throughout the circulatory system is vital for a healthy heart, and heart disease remains the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. Aspirin is commonly prescribed for those with heart conditions and for those at risk of developing the disease to thin the blood and prevent dangerous blood clots from forming.

    According to data from the National Institutes of Health, approximately 29 million Americans “who don’t have cardiovascular disease take aspirin daily for prevention.”

    In a study published in Nutrients in 2020, researchers took blood samples from 18 healthy volunteers and treated them with various levels of black sorghum extract to observe their effect on blood clotting. The extract “significantly reduced both collagen-induced platelet aggregation and circulatory PMP [platelet-derived microparticles] release compared to the control,” meaning they reduced blood clotting.

    Based on the results, the study concluded that the black sorghum extract may have cardioprotective effects by “modulating specific signaling pathways involved in platelet activation and PMP release.”

    Sorghum May Help Reduce the Risk of Some Cancers

    Studies suggest that sorghum may also have anticancer effects.

    A study using human breast cancer xenografts in mice (human breast cancer implanted into mice) found that sorghum could suppress tumor growth and inhibit migration and metastasis of human breast cancer cells. The researchers concluded by “strongly recommending” sorghum (Hwanggeumchal sorghum) as an “edible therapeutic agent” for its “tumor suppression, migration inhibition, and anti-metastatic effects on breast cancer.”

    Another study set out to test the anticancer effects of a “high phenolic sorghum bran extract” on human colon cancer cells. The study found that colon cancer cells treated with the extract demonstrated a “significant dose-dependent suppression of cell proliferation.” The extract also induced apoptosis (cell death) and inhibited cell growth, migration, and invasion. Researchers noted that “the present study expands our understanding of the potential use of high phenolic sorghum bran to prevent human colon cancer.”

    In a third study using a mouse model, “high-phenolic sorghum bran extracts” inhibited the spread and induced apoptosis (cell death) in colorectal cancer cell lines. The extract also activated AMPK (a tumor suppressor) and autophagy (a healthy cell’s natural recycling process that removes unwanted or defective parts). Six weeks of treatment with the extract was shown to “significantly suppress tumor formation.”

    More research on human subjects is needed, but the initial research on animal models and in humans is promising.

    How to Use Sorghum and Where to Find it

    Sorghum is highly versatile and available in most health food stores and online as a grain, flour, and, increasingly, in a wide variety of products like popcorn, pasta, cereal, and bread. Dr. Gundry has a section on his website listing recommended products, including some made with sorghum, like spaghetti.

    For anyone looking to introduce a healthier whole grain into their diet or those trying to avoid gluten due to sensitivities—you don’t have to give up grains completely—sorghum is a wonderful, nutrient-packed option, high in protein and fiber, with many health benefits.

    “For those people who cannot give up grains, sorghum is the perfect replacement. Plus, for people who cannot give up popcorn, Popped sorghum tastes like, smells like, looks like popcorn! My wife is addicted to it!” Dr. Gundry says.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 22:20

  • Egypt Saw Gas Trade With Israel Soar In 2023, As Economy Falters 
    Egypt Saw Gas Trade With Israel Soar In 2023, As Economy Falters 

    Via The Cradle

    Israel’s NewMed Energy reported on Tuesday that natural gas exports from the Leviathan field to Egypt increased by 28 percent in 2023. The company reports that the exports jumped from 4.9 billion cubic meters (BCM) in 2022 to 6.3 BCM in 2023. 

    Israel Katz, former energy minister, approved the increase in exports to Egypt last year. For 2026, he projected an annual production increase of six BCM – about 60 percent over the current volume. “3.5 BCM of which will be directed in favor of Egypt,” the report stated. 

    Image source: Albatross

    “The expansion of the total export quota to Egypt was increased by 38.7 BCM over 11 years,” the Israeli Ministry of Energy’s August announcement read. “The export permit was granted under the comprehensive framework approved by government decisions … and in consultation with the Director of the Natural Gas Authority. In addition, an additional increase of 0.5 BCM per year is being considered.”

    The ministry noted that, in addition to enabling production expansion, the new exports are expected to derive billions of dollars in bonus revenues for Israel, increase energy ties with Egypt and other regional players, and strengthen Israel’s geopolitical status.

    Furthermore, the report adds that “on December 14, 2023, the partners in the Tamar reservoir announced that the Ministry of Energy approved them to increase the export permit of the reservoir from 38.7 BCM … to 43 BCM. This amount will make it possible to increase the maximum amount of additional gas allowed for export to Egypt from 3.5 BCM per year to 4 BCM per year. As of the valuation date, no agreement has yet been signed. The export is subject to the aforementioned export permit.”

    NewMed reported that Leviathan’s partners, including Chevron, will invest $568 million to upgrade the field. In the latter half of 2025, annual production will increase from 12 BCM to 14 BCM. The company reported a fourth-quarter profit of $102 million, down significantly from $141 million the previous year.

    Egypt–Israel tensions have been on the rise in recent months over Tel Aviv’s plan to push Gazans into the Sinai Peninsula to continue with their plan of invading Rafah. 

    Cairo has called on Washington, which has previously condemned the plan, to send a clear message to its regional ally not to move forward with the Rafah invasion. It says that “it is not enough to state opposition; it is also important to indicate what if that position is circumvented, what if that position is not respected.”

    However, following multiple investment deals into Egypt by other regional allies of Israel and a boost in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to be granted to Egypt, the North African nation is constructing an “isolated security zone,” something which local rights groups are calling Cairo’s preparation for an influx of Palestinian refugees.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 22:00

  • Woman Who Worked For Congress After Jan. 6 Charged In Capitol Breach
    Woman Who Worked For Congress After Jan. 6 Charged In Capitol Breach

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

    A woman who worked for multiple members of Congress after the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol has been charged with participating in the breach.

    Isabella DeLuca was arrested in Irvine, California on March 15 on charges of theft of government property, parading in a Capitol building, and disorderly conduct in a restricted building and in the Capitol, according to court documents that were unsealed on Monday.

    Surveillance footage reviewed by the FBI showed a woman matching Ms. DeLuca’s appearances in and around the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to one filing. The video showed her moving from the Capitol’s terrace to the Capitol, entering the building through a broken window, and helping people steal furniture, including a lamp and chair.

    Ms. DeLuca later posted on social media that she was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    She faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

    Ms. DeLuca became an intern for then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) in April 2021, according to archived screenshots of her LinkedIn profile. Ms. DeLuca was employed by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from 2022 through early 2023, according to congressional salary records.

    Ms. DeLuca later went on to work as a media associate for The Gold Institute for International Strategy.

    A spokesperson for the institute told the Associated Press that the organization learned on Monday that Ms. DeLuca was charged.

    “Following further internal investigation, we felt it necessary to sever our relationship,” the spokesperson said.

    Ms. DeLuca wrote on X after the charges were unsealed, “Thank you everyone for all the kind messages and the support.” She asked for donations to cover her legal defense.

    Mr. Zeldin did not respond to a request for comment.

    “Isabella DeLuca was an intern in Congressman Gosar’s office for three months beginning in the Fall of 2022. We have no knowledge of any alleged participation in activities on January 6, 2021,” Anthony Foti, a spokesperson for Mr. Gosar, told The Epoch Times via email.

    Tip

    The FBI first received a tip on Jan. 9, 2021, about Ms. DeLuca being part of the breach, and interviewed her on Jan. 21, 2021. Ms. DeLuca and her mother, who also spoke to the FBI that day, said Ms. DeLuca was at the Capitol but did not enter the building, according to the FBI.

    Bank records obtained by the FBI showed Ms. DeLuca paid for a train ticket to Washington on Jan. 5 and stayed at a hotel room in Alexandria, Virginia. Her credit card showed purchases in Washington on Jan. 6 within two miles of the Capitol.

    The FBI in 2022 obtained a search warrant for Ms. DeLuca’s Instagram account, which showed her asking for a ride from Baltimore, Maryland after the train broke down and that she got one to Alexandria on early Jan. 6, 2021.

    The FBI in December 2023 interviewed workers at the apartment building where Ms. DeLuca lives and an employee identified Ms. DeLuca in photographs from the Capitol.

    Messages, Posts

    Ms. DeLuca posted on Twitter on Jan. 6, 2021, at 2:55 p.m., “Fight back or let politicians steal and [sic] election? Fight back!”

    She told another Instagram user shortly after that she was heading to the Capitol.

    After the events captured by video, other Instagram messages obtained by the FBI showed Ms. DeLuca wrote in messages that “it’s insanity here” and “I got maced and had a sound bomb go off right next to me.” Early the next day, she wrote in another message that the reason she supported breaching the Capitol was, “According to the Constitution, it’s our house.”

    “I was there on Jan. 6. I have mixed feelings. People went to the Capitol building because that’s Our House and that’s where we go to take our grievances. People feel, as do I that an election was stolen from them and it was allowed,” she added in a Jan. 14, 2021, social media post.

    Ms. DeLuca later deleted many Instagram posts from on and around Jan. 6, 2021, according to the FBI. “Based on my knowledge, training, and experience, people who commit criminal acts will often delete information about those acts from social media accounts in an attempt to thwart any subsequent criminal investigation,” a

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 21:40

  • FBI Has To Face Lawsuit Over 'No-Fly List:' Supreme Court
    FBI Has To Face Lawsuit Over ‘No-Fly List:’ Supreme Court

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

    The FBI must face a lawsuit filed by a Muslim man who has since been removed from the bureau’s “no-fly list,” the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 19.

    “The government has failed to demonstrate that this case is moot,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a unanimous ruling.

    “While the government’s representation that it will not relist Mr. Fikre may mean that his past conduct is not enough to warrant relisting, that does not speak to whether the government might relist him if he engages in the same or similar conduct in the future,” he added later.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Jan. 2, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    Yonas Fikre, a Eritrean national and American citizen, sued the FBI in 2015 after having issues traveling due to being on the no-fly list, which is part of the government’s terrorist screening database. It bars certain people from flying.

    “The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision is a major blow to the lawlessness that has allowed the FBI to amass almost two million people on their secret lists. This is but the latest indication that the FBI’s secret watchlists have no place in our country,” Gadeir Abbas, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations who is representing Mr. Fikre, told The Epoch Times in an email.

    Government officials did not respond to requests for comment.

    Told He Couldn’t Return

    Mr. Fikre experienced problems flying, including when he traveled to Sudan in 2009 from Oregon, according to court papers.

    While in Sudan at the U.S. embassy there, two FBI agents told Mr. Fikre he could not return to the United States since he was on the no-fly list. The agents also asked him about the mosque he attended and offered to look into having him removed from the list if he became a bureau informant.

    Mr. Fikre refused.

    Mr. Fikre then went to the United Arab Emirates, where he allegedly was detained for months on direction from the FBI. He eventually ended up in Sweden.

    The government in 2015 declined to remove Mr. Fikre from the last, alleging he “is an individual who represents a threat of engaging in or conducting a violent act of terrorism and who is operationally capable of doing so.” The information supporting placing and keeping Mr. Fikre on the last was too sensitive to share, the government said at the time.

    Mr. Fikre then filed the suit.

    Case Dismissed Before

    In 2016, the FBI told Mr. Fikre it removed him from the no-fly list because “he no longer satisfied the criteria for placement on the on-fly list.”

    The bureau then asked a federal court to dismiss the case, claiming the removal meant the suit had become moot.

    The U.S. District Judge Anna Brown, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, ruled for the government. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision because, it said, there was nothing to prevent the government from putting Mr. Fikre back on the list in the future.

    After the government swore it would not do that, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman, appointed under President George W. Bush entered an order dismissing the case.

    But the appeals court again overturned the lower court decision, finding that the court wrongly dismissed the claims and that the government had not provided enough information on why Mr. Fikre was placed on and then removed from the list. It remanded the case back to the district court.

    The government then appealed the ruling, asking the Supreme Court to step in.

    “The court of appeals erred in holding that respondent’s claims challenging his placement on the No Fly List are not moot even though he was removed from that list seven years ago and the government has submitted a sworn declaration stating that he ‘will not be placed on the No Fly List in the future based on the currently available information,’” government lawyers said. “The court’s holding directly conflicts with decisions of the Fourth and Sixth Circuits that have found similar No Fly List claims moot upon the execution of declarations materially identical to the one in this case.”

    More on SCOTUS Ruling

    The Supreme Court, though, said that the government was wrong.

    “The government contends that because Mr. Fikre has been delisted since 2016 and has presumably interacted freely with his co-religionists during that time, it is unlikely he will face relisting in the future. This too is insufficient to warrant dismissal,” Justice Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump, said.

    “A defendant’s speculation about a plaintiff’s actions cannot make up for a lack of assurance about its own. The burden here is on the defendant to establish that it cannot reasonably be expected to resume its challenged conduct, and nothing the government offers here satisfies that formidable standard,” he added.

    In a concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito, appointed by President Bush, said the ruling did not mean the government must disclose classified information to Mr. Fikre, his attorneys, or a court.

    Justice Alito was joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed by President Trump.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 21:00

  • Young People Aren't Nearly Angry Enough About Government Debt
    Young People Aren’t Nearly Angry Enough About Government Debt

    Authored by The American Institute for Economic Research,

    Young people sometimes seem to wake up in the morning in search of something to be outraged about. We are among the wealthiest and most educated humans in history. But we’re increasingly convinced that we’re worse off than our parents were, that the planet is in crisis, and that it’s probably not worth having kids.

    I’ll generalize here about my own cohort (people born after 1981 but before 2010), commonly referred to as Millennials and Gen Z, as that shorthand corresponds to survey and demographic data. Millennials and Gen Z have valid economic complaints, and the conditions of our young adulthood perceptibly weakened traditional bridges to economic independence. We graduated with record amounts of student debt after President Obama nationalized that lending. Housing prices doubled during our household formation years due to zoning impediments and chronic underbuilding. Young Americans say economic issues are important to us, and candidates are courting our votes by promising student debt relief and cheaper housing (which they will never be able to deliver).

    Young people, in our idealism and our rational ignorance of the actual appropriations process, typically support more government intervention, more spending programs, and more of every other burden that has landed us in such untenable economic circumstances to begin with. Perhaps not coincidentally, young people who’ve spent the most years in the increasingly partisan bubble of higher education are also the most likely to favor expanded government programs as a “solution” to those complaints.

    It’s Your Debt, Boomer 

    What most young people don’t yet understand is that we are sacrificing our young adulthood and our financial security to pay for debts run up by Baby Boomers. Part of every Millennial and Gen-Z paycheck is payable to people the same age as the members of Congress currently milking this system and miring us further in debt.

    Our government spends more than it can extract from taxpayers. Social Security, which represents 20 percent of government spending, has run an annual deficit for 15 years. Last year Social Security alone overspent by $22.1 billion. To keep sending out checks to retirees, Social Security goes begging to the Treasury Department, and the Treasury borrows from the public by issuing bonds. Bonds allow investors (who are often also taxpayers) to pay for some retirees’ benefits now, and be paid back later. But investors only volunteer to lend Social Security the money it needs to cover its bills because the (younger) taxpayers will eventually repay the debt — with interest.

    In other words, both Social Security and Medicare, along with various smaller federal entitlement programs, together comprising almost half of the federal budget, have been operating for a decade on the principle of “give us the money now, and stick the next generation with the check.” We saddle future generations with debt for present-day consumption.

    The second largest item in the budget after Social Security is interest on the national debt — largely on Social Security and other entitlements that have already been spent. These mandatory benefits now consume three quarters of the federal budget: even Congress is not answerable for these programs. We never had the chance for our votes to impact that spending (not that older generations were much better represented) and it’s unclear if we ever will.

    Young Americans probably don’t think much about the budget deficit (each year’s overspending) or the national debt (many years’ deficits put together, plus interest) much at all. And why should we? For our entire political memory, the federal government, as well as most of our state governments, have been steadily piling “public” debt upon our individual and collective heads. That’s just how it is. We are the frogs trying to make our way in the watery world as the temperature ticks imperceptibly higher. We have been swimming in debt forever, unaware that we’re being economically boiled alive.

    Millennials have somewhat modest non-mortgage debt of around $27,000 (some self-reports say twice that much), including car notes, student loans, and credit cards. But we each owe more than $100,000 as a share of the national debt. And we don’t even know it.

    When Millennials finally do have babies (and we are!) that infant born in 2024 will enter the world with a newly minted Social Security Number and $78,089 credit card bill for Granddad’s heart surgery and the interest on a benefit check that was mailed when her parents were in middle school. 

    Headlines and comments sections love to sneer at “snowflakes” who’ve just hit the “real world,” and can’t figure out how to make ends meet, but the kids are onto something. A full 15 percent of our earnings are confiscated to pay into retirement and healthcare programs that will be insolvent by the time we’re old enough to enjoy them. The Federal Reserve and government debt are eating the economy. The same interest rates that are pushing mortgages out of reach are driving up the cost of interest to maintain the debt going forward. As we learn to save and invest, our dollars are slowly devalued. We’re right to feel trapped.  

    Sure, if we’re alive and own a smartphone, we’re among the one percent of the wealthiest humans who’ve ever lived. Older generations could argue (persuasively!) that we have no idea what “poverty” is anymore. But with the state of government spending and debt…we are likely to find out. 

    Despite being richer than Rockefeller, Millennials are right to say that the previous ways of building income security have been pushed out of reach. Our earning years are subsidizing not our own economic coming-of-age, but bank bailouts, wars abroad, and retirement and medical benefits for people who navigated a less-challenging wealth-building landscape. 

    Redistribution goes both ways. Boomers are expected to pass on tens of trillions in unprecedented wealth to their children (if it isn’t eaten up by medical costs, despite heavy federal subsidies) and older generations’ financial support of the younger has had palpable lifting effects. Half of college costs are paid by families, and the trope of young people moving back home is only possible if mom and dad have the spare room and groceries to make that feasible.

    Government “help” during COVID-19 resulted in the worst inflation in 40 years, as the federal government spent $42,000 per citizen on “stimulus” efforts, right around a Millennial’s average salary at that time. An absurd amount of fraud was perpetrated in the stimulus to save an economy from the lockdown that nearly ruined it. Trillions in earmarked goodies were rubber stamped, carelessly added to young people’s growing bill. Government lenders deliberately removed fraud controls, fearing they couldn’t hand out $800 billion in young people’s future wages away fast enough. Important lessons were taught by those programs. The importance of self-sufficiency and the dignity of hard work weren’t top of the list.

    Boomer Benefits are Stagnating Hiring, Wages, and Investment for Young People

    Even if our workplace engagement suffered under government distortions, Millennials continue to work more hours than other generations and invest in side hustles and self employment at higher rates. Working hard and winning higher wages almost doesn’t matter, though, when our purchasing power is eaten from the other side. Buying power has dropped 20 percent in just five years. Life is $11,400/year more expensive than it was two years ago and deficit spending is the reason why. 

    We’re having trouble getting hired for what we’re worth, because it costs employers 30 percent more than just our wages to employ us. The federal tax code both requires and incentivizes our employers to transfer a bunch of what we earned directly to insurance companies and those same Boomer-busted federal benefits, via tax-deductible benefits and payroll taxes. And the regulatory compliance costs of ravenous bureaucratic state. The price paid by each employer to keep each employee continues to rise — but Congress says your boss has to give most of the increase to someone other than you. 

    Federal spending programs that many people consider good government, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance for children (CHIP) aren’t a small amount of the federal budget. Government spends on these programs because people support and demand them, and because cutting those benefits would be a re-election death sentence. That’s why they call cutting Social Security the “third rail of politics.” If you touch those benefits, you die. Congress is held hostage by Baby Boomers who are running up the bill with no sign of slowing down. 

    Young people generally support Social Security and the public health insurance programs, even though a 2021 poll by Nationwide Financial found 47 percent of Millennials agree with the statement “I will not get a dime of the Social Security benefits I have earned.”

    In the same survey, Millennials were the most likely of any generation to believe that Social Security benefits should be enough to live on as a sole income, and guessed the retirement age was 52 (it’s 67 for anyone born after 1959 — and that’s likely to rise). Young people are the most likely to see government guarantees as a valid way to live — even though we seem to understand that those promises aren’t guarantees at all.

    Healthcare costs tied to an aging population and wonderful-but-expensive growth in medical technologies and medications will balloon over the next few years, and so will the deficits in Boomer benefit programs. Newly developed obesity drugs alone are expected to add $13.6 billion to Medicare spending. By 2030, every single Baby Boomer will be 65, eligible for publicly funded healthcare.

    The first Millennial will be eligible to claim Medicare (assuming the program exists and the qualifying age is still 65, both of which are improbable) in 2046. As it happens, that’s also the year that the Boomer benefits programs (which will then be bloated with Gen Xers) and the interest payments we’re incurring to provide those benefits now, are projected to consume 100 percent of federal tax revenue.

    Government spending is being transferred to bureaucrats and then to the beneficiaries of government spending who are, in some sense, your diabetic grandma who needs a Medicare-paid dialysis treatment, but in a much more immediate sense, are the insurance companies, pharma giants, and hospital corporations who wrote the healthcare legislation. Some percentage of every college graduate’s paycheck buys bullets that get fired at nothing and inflating the private investment portfolios of government contractors, with dubious, wasteful outcomes from the prison-industrial complex to the perpetual war machine.

    No bank or nation in the world can lend the kind of money the American government needs to borrow to fulfill its obligations to citizens. Someone will have to bite the bullet. Even some of the co-authors of the current disaster are wrestling with the truth. 

    Forget avocado toast and streaming subscriptions. We’re already sensing it, but we haven’t yet seen it. Young people are not well-informed, and often actively misled, about what’s rotten in this economic system. But we are seeing the consequences on store shelves and mortgage contracts and we can sense disaster is coming. We’re about to get stuck with the bill.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 20:20

  • BlackRock Seeds Ethereum-Backed Digital Liquidity Fund With $100 Million
    BlackRock Seeds Ethereum-Backed Digital Liquidity Fund With $100 Million

    Having surpassed Microstrategy in the size of its holdings amid the furious success of spot bitcoin ETFs…

    …the world’s largest asset manager has taken “the next step forward” toward a single ledger, instantaneous settlement and ending illicit activities, in the view of CEO Larry Fink.

    BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has filed United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form D for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund. This marks the launch of BlackRock’s first tokenized asset fund.

    CoinTelegraph’s Derek Andersen reports that. according to the filing, BlackRock created the fund in 2023, but has yet to launch it. Form D is used to obtain various exemptions. BlackRock indicated that it is seeking an exemption under the Investment Company Act Section 3(c), which exempts it from certain SEC regulations. The fund was created under the jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands.

    The fund will have a $100,000 minimum investment and be offered by Securitize, a U.S. digital assets securities firm, which will also conduct the sale of the tokens. The form shows $525,000 in sales commissions, and indicates the size of the fund as “indefinite.” The form was signed on March 14.

    The fund will be tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain with an ERC-20 token called BUIDL, which currently has one holder and a $0 on-chain market cap, according to Etherscan.

    That website also indicated that the fund received a transfer of $100 million on March 4.

    BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund’s SEC filing. Source: SEC

     Securitize is registered as a stock transfer agent and alternative trading system with the SEC.

    Source: @rleshner on X

    It has tokenized assets for asset manager KKR and Spanish real estate investment trust Mancipi, as well as formed a partnership with SBI Digital Markets in Singapore and bought cryptocurrency fund manager Onramp Invest, which had over $40 billion in assets under management.

    BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund was among the first to receive SEC approval in January. Its CEO Larry Fink, who has been generally bullish about BTC, with reservations, told Bloomberg just after the ETF approval:

    “We believe the next step going forward will be the tokenization of financial assets, and that means every stock, every bond […] will be on one general ledger.”

    “Every investor, you and I, will have our own number, our own identification. We could rid ourselves of all issues around illicit activities about bonds and stocks and digital by having a tokenization,” Fink added.

    He went on to praise customization strategies through tokenization and instantaneous settlement.

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    As we detailed previously, the bottom line is that while Bitcoin was the pioneer in Wall Street’s institutionalization race, having seen the startling success of bitcoin ETF adoption, the financial titans including Goldman, Blackrock – and now – JPM, have set their sights on what comes next, which is something near and dear to the people who manage trillions: the fastest, cheapest and most effective way to tokenize everything, from information, to data, to money itself. And they have picked the token to do it with.

    So keep a close eye on what happens on May 23 when the SEC is reportedly pushing hard against ETF approval for the second biggest digital asset: with all three of the largest US financial institutions pushing hard, any resistance will die a quick and painless death.

    More in the full notes from JPM, Std Chartered and Goldman

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 20:00

  • It’s Time For GOP To Unite Behind Trump
    It’s Time For GOP To Unite Behind Trump

    Authored by Bernie Marcus via RealClear Wire,

    For the first time in my 94 years on earth, I fear for the future of our democracy. I see the federal government using its enormous powers with contempt for the governed instead of with the consent of the governed as our founders envisioned.

    Fundamental change in America is occurring by executive order or the force of the government’s police powers instead of through the legislative process required by the Constitution. From this, I fear that free market capitalism may be replaced by big government socialism. I also fear the erosion of our rights and freedoms, including parental rights, freedom of speech and religion, and due process.   

    In the past, I always had the confidence that a president who was a threat to democracy could be voted out of office in the next election. I am no longer that confident today. My lack of confidence is because the media today is not the watchdog over government that our Founders intended it to be. It is instead the lapdog of government, shielding the public from the entire truth about the policies and actions of the current administration.

    One vivid example of this became a meme: the television reporters declaring while doing their standups that the riots in 2020 were “mainly peaceful” as fires raged in the background. I was not surprised earlier this month by the reprise of “Russia collusion.” Nor will I  be surprised if the media soon characterizes a Trump rally as an “insurrection.” The media may be the biggest threat to our democracy since only well-informed voters guarantee the future of it.

    There is more on the line in this year’s presidential election than ever before. It is a mistake to assume that this election will be a rerun of 2020. The presumptive nominees and the world have changed since then. President Biden can no longer portray himself as “kindly Uncle Joe” or a moderate Democrat. His recent State of the Union Address, which was the most divisive of any I recall, reveals he is a very angry man and not someone Americans would want as their uncle. His policies and the undemocratic means by which he implemented them confirm he has been pulled to the far left by far-left extremists in the Democrat Party. 

    The Biden administration’s policies invited an invasion along our southern border by millions of unvetted people, compromised national security, allowed crime to spin out of control in our streets, forced middle-class Americans to raid their retirement funds to put food on their tables, and divided America more than at any time in our history since the Civil War. Joe Biden has fulfilled Barack Obama’s promise to “transform” America. This is not a welcome transformation, as confirmed by Biden’s dismal job approval ratings.

    When Donald Trump was in office, his Democrats and their media allies portrayed him as a pugnacious New Yorker who “did not act presidential” and somehow craved dictatorial powers. They’re still doing this, although they’ve upped the rhetoric. Over the weekend, Nancy Pelosi invoked Adolf Hitler while attacking the former president.

    His detractors are unwilling to look past Trump’s rough edges and see the results he achieved during his first of what I hope will be two terms. His policies achieved the highest wage rate in 50 years while keeping inflation in check, the lowest unemployment rate for minorities, and energy independence for America, among other stunning results. Moreover, his policies and the projection of his and America’s strength kept the country out of any new foreign conflicts. It is essential to our national security that America’s enemies fear our president.

    This does not mean that President Trump did not have to do better. He did, and he has done so since leaving office. Having become close to him in the last seven years, I have seen a side of him that is not seen by the public. He is truly one of the most misunderstood men in America, and I and other friends of his have urged him to let the public see the real Donald Trump. His recent praise of Nikki Haley was unifying and shows the magnanimous side of him that his friends often see. Expect more of the real Donald Trump to emerge.

    The world has also changed since 2020. It is much less safe, and America’s enemies have become stronger and more emboldened. China, Iran, and Russia have become enriched by changes in America’s energy policy: canceling the Keystone Pipeline, reducing oil drilling leases, and blocking all oil drilling on certain federal lands. America’s cities are less safe because of the illegal entry into the country of millions of unvetted people from China, Russia, Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. This is compounded by the unwillingness of local Democratic Party prosecutors to prosecute violent criminals. Moreover, the Taliban have reopened terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The stakes now are even higher than the first Trump-Biden match. 

    The running mate who Donald Trump picks will be more important than in prior elections. Although he proved in his first term that he is the most capable person to solve America’s problems, it will likely take more than four years to solve the mountain of problems America now faces.

    There are several actions conservative donors should take to ensure that Trump-Biden II will have a different outcome than their first match. First, the different factions of the Republican Party must unite behind Trump and participate fully in the presidential election. Put another way, no one should sit out the presidential election or withhold their financial support to our nominee.

    Second, those who have supported constitutionally dubious schemes like invoking the 14th Amendment to try to keep Trump off the ballot should discontinue such efforts.

    Third, conservative donors should fund efforts to fill holes in Republican election strategies. There are, for example, gaps between Democrat and Republican efforts on early voting for low-propensity voters.  Democrats have a tremendous advantage here. There are also gaps in election mechanics, e.g., Zuckbucks are still flowing into some of the battleground states.

    Fourth, Democrats have a consequential advantage in the youth vote – there is a ceiling at 35% of millennial and Gen-Z voters casting votes for the Republican nominee in the last three presidential elections. Glenn Youngkin proved that this gap can be narrowed as he split the youth vote with Terry McAuliffe in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election. The key to reaching and persuading young voters is more influential messengers, more impactful messages, and “clean” message distribution channels.

    America is worth saving!

    Bernie Marcus is the co-founder of Job Creators Network, a philanthropist, and the retired co-founder of The Home Depot.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 19:40

  • Bill Gates-Backed Company Seeks To Deploy Small Modular Nuclear Reactors In U.S.
    Bill Gates-Backed Company Seeks To Deploy Small Modular Nuclear Reactors In U.S.

    A company founded by Bill Gates is planning on being the first to build a new generation of nuclear power plants based on small modular reactors (SMRs) in the United States. These plans usually have a power capacity of 300MW or less, which is about 1/3rd of regular reactors. 

    TerraPower has officially “joined the race” against Russia and China to develop lower-cost nuclear reactors, according to FT this week.

    CEO Chris Levesque said they are seeking US regulatory approval for their innovative liquid sodium-cooled reactor this month. The Natrium reactors could be constructed at nearly half the cost of traditional water-cooled nuclear reactors.

    TerraPower, which has secured nearly $1bn in private investments, has also partnered with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation to explore the deployment of Natrium reactors in the UAE for electricity and hydrogen production.

    With up to $2bn in promised support from the US government, the company is advancing its inaugural project in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Despite pending permits, construction near a former coal power site will start in June, focusing on preliminary, non-nuclear structures. TerraPower aims to activate the plant by 2030, according to the report. 

    Levesque told FT: “When you use liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water it’s a game-changer. Natrium plants will cost half of what light water reactor plants cost . . . and we are moving our project along pretty aggressively.”

    FT reports that American firms are striving to match their counterparts in Russia and China, who have already operationalized two Small Modular Reactor (SMR) plants. These include a floating plant in Pevek, Russia, and another in Shidao Bay, China.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear sector is hindered by elevated interest rates, surging expenses, and a scarcity of the enriched uranium needed for new reactors – not to mention the far left ‘woke’ crowd who continues to protest due to ‘safety concerns’ about what is really the safest, most efficient and greenest way to generate power…

    FT notes that in November, rising costs led NuScale, an Oregon company, to scrap its plans for America’s inaugural SMR after utilities balked at a proposed 50% price hike.

    TerraPower has yet to quote prices for its Natrium-generated power. Its Kemmerer reactor, initially a demonstration, aims for full-scale commercial operation. In October 2022, TerraPower and PacifiCorp, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, announced plans to explore the deployment of five more Natrium reactors by 2035.

    “Sodium-cooled reactors operate at lower pressures, which requires fewer safety systems. That reduces problems that could go wrong with the plant and reduces costs because they can be built with simpler materials while maintaining safety,” concluded Adam Stein, director of nuclear energy innovation at The Breakthrough Institute.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 19:20

  • Trump Sues ABC News, Host George Stephanopoulos For Defamation
    Trump Sues ABC News, Host George Stephanopoulos For Defamation

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

    Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against the American Broadcasting Companies (ABC) and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, accusing them of defamation.

    Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks in the library, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 4, 2024. (Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

    The complaint alleges that Mr. Stephanopoulos defamed President Trump on March 10, during an episode of “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” when he repeatedly stated during the broadcast that a jury had found President Trump liable for the rape of writer E. Jean Carroll, despite being “aware of the truth.”

    “These statements were and remain false, and were made by Defendant Stephanopoulos with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth given that Defendant Stephanopoulos knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false,” the complaint reads.

    President Trump’s complaint alleges that Mr. Stephanopoulos was aware that the jury did not find the former president liable for rape, “yet still falsely stated otherwise.”

    Mr. Stephanopoulos made these allegedly defamatory statements “within the scope and course of his employment or contractual relationship” with ABC and “with intent to harm” President Trump.

    The filing outlined two reasons to support the claim that the statements were made “with intent to harm” as being because the ABC host allegedly “was and is aware of the truth regarding the determinations made by the subject juries.”

    The additional reason outlined in the complaint alleges that Mr. Stephanopoulos’ statements “appear to have been prepared in advance and were written on notes that he was reading from while making these defamatory statements.”

    Ms. Carroll claimed that the alleged incident took place at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan more than two decades ago, but could not remember specifically when, according to the filing.

    President Trump has maintained his denial of the allegations.

    Statements Made During Rep. Mace Interview

    The incident at the heart of President Trump’s complaint happened on March 10, during an interview Mr. Stephanopoulos was conducting with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who was a victim of rape at the age of 16.

    During his preamble to introduce her, the ABC host played a clip of Ms. Mace speaking publicly during her 2019 campaign about the impact rape had on her.

    The program then cut to Mr. Stephanopoulos, who immediately directed statements to Ms. Mace about her support for President Trump despite a jury’s verdict in his civil case involving Ms. Carroll.

    Ms. Mace, who later described feeling blindsided by the questioning, accused Mr. Stephanopoulos during the interview with attempting to shame her as a victim of rape.

    George Stephanopoulos with Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey discuss “Build The Life You Want” at The 92nd Street Y, New York in New York City, on Sept. 12, 2023. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

    “You endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges in two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming a victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?” asked Mr. Stephanopoulos.

    Put immediately offside, Ms. Mace replied: “Well, I will tell you, I was raped at the age of 16, and any rape victim will tell you, I’ve lived for 30 years with an incredible amount of shame over being raped. I didn’t come forward because of that judgment and shame that I felt.

    “And it’s a shame that you will never feel, George, and I’m not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim. I’m not going to do that,” she continued.

    “It’s actually not about shaming you. It’s a question about Donald Trump.”

    “No, you are shaming me,” she insisted.

    “You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president,” he said.

    “Right.”

    “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury,” Mr. Stephanopoulos said. “Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It’s been affirmed by a judge. He repeated—”

    Ms. Mace, cutting across his statement, said: “It’s not a criminal court case, number one. Number two, I live with shame, and you’re asking me a question about my political choices trying to shame me as a rape victim and find it disgusting.”

    As the heated exchange continued, Mr. Stephanopoulos denied that he was trying to shame Ms. Mace.

    “You’re trying to shame me this morning,” she said.

    “I’m just asking you—” said Mr. Stephanopoulos

    “And I find it offensive. And this is why women won’t come forward,” Ms. Mace said.

    “Women won’t come forward because they’re defamed by those who perpetrate rape. Donald Trump has been—” Mr. Stephanopoulos said.

    “They are judged, and they’re shamed, and you’re trying to shame me this morning. I think it’s disgusting,” Ms. Mace continued, speaking over the host.

    During his exchange, the more that Mr. Stephanopoulos defended himself against Ms. Mace’s accusations of shaming her, the more he repeated statements such as that President Trump was “found liable for rape.”

    “I’m asking you a very simple question, explain what—” the ABC host said.

    “And I answered it. You’re shaming me for my political choices,” Ms. Mace said.

    “No, I’m not—I’m asking you a question about why you endorsed someone who’s been found liable for rape. Just answer the question.”

    “It was not a criminal court. This was—this was a—it was a civil court,” she said.

    “It was a civil court that found him liable for rape,” Mr. Stephanopoulos said.

    The ABC host tried to move the discussion forward by noting that Ms. Mace was repeating the same statement about shaming her.

    “You’re questioning my political choices because I’ve been raped,” the South Carolina congresswoman charged. “I think that’s disgusting.”

    “No,” Mr. Stephanopoulos replied, “I’m questioning your political choices because you’re supporting someone who’s been found liable for rape.”

    The host pushed Ms. Mace to answer his question: “Why are you supporting someone who’s been found liable for rape?”

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    The congresswoman asserted that President Trump was found guilty of sexual abuse. “It wasn’t actually rape, by the way,” she added.

    Following the interview, Ms. Mace said she wouldn’t do an ABC interview again, telling NewsNation that she had come to discuss “Donald Trump versus Joe Biden and the 2024 race.”

    ABC declined to comment to The Epoch Times.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 19:00

  • Colombian Drug Lord Arrested After Operating Out Of Texas Migrant Shelter
    Colombian Drug Lord Arrested After Operating Out Of Texas Migrant Shelter

    If you’ve ever traveled internationally and returned legally to the United States, there is a rigorous vetting process through Customs and Border Protection. But for the millions of migrants that illegally crossed into the US because of open southern border policies enforced by radical leftists in the White House (and secretly pushed by mega-corporations and NGOs), anyone is welcome, including terrorists and drug lords.

    Department of Homeland Security claims that migrants entering flooding into the US undergo “robust security vetting,” but law-abiding citizens, especially folks in Manhattan, know this statement is malarky as neighborhoods transform into third-world countries overnight.

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    Earlier this month, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez doubled down on the big lie, claiming migrants “pass through a rigorous vetting process.”

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    The lack of vetting, whether at the southern or northern border, is producing tragic consequences nationwide.

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    The chaos is being realized as some illegals embark on rape and/or kill rampages. 

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    One of the most shocking revelations of the Biden administration’s failure to properly vet migrants was in San Antonio, Texas, where authorities recently arrested 29-year-old Aderbis Pirela, one of Interpol’s top 10 Most Wanted, for operating a drug ring within a migrant shelter, according to The National Desk.

    Pirela, the second-in-command of a violent Colombian gang, was wanted for four murders, drug trafficking, and warrants out of Bogota. The fact that the gangster made it into the US is evident in the lack of a “robust security vetting” process. 

    “This just goes to the heart of one of the main issues. The reality is every time Secretary Mayorkas or anybody from this administration tells the American people that we properly vet everyone before we release them is just a lie,” former Head of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan said. 

    Morgan continued: “They’re provided a false sense of security that doesn’t exist. The reality is there are many countries that illegal aliens are coming into our country from that we have zero diplomatic relationships with, and we’re getting nothing with respect to their criminal history.”

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    Some of those migrants entering the US are known terrorists. Nearly two dozen were caught attempting entry at the southern border at the end of last year. Currently, Iranian assassin(s) roam free in the US (read: here). And the surging terror threat is likely the real reason why New York City mobilized National Guard troops with machine guns to patrol subways. 

    The issue facing Biden and his loser party of woke communist radicals is these unvetted illegals are being dumped into once-peaceful neighborhoods across metro areas by the tens of thousands. Every death, every rape, every beating an illegal inflicts on anyone will boil in the veins of Americans as they will never forget the pain and suffering Democrats have caused by open borders. They will take this anger out at the ballot box on Nov. 5. Polling data shows Americans are overwhelmingly fed up with open borders. 

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    By the way, let’s not forget the names of the Americans whose lives were cut short by illegals. Say her name: “Laken Riley.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 18:40

  • Billionaire Investor To Back Donald Trump 2024
    Billionaire Investor To Back Donald Trump 2024

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

    Billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz plans to vote for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, citing President Joe Biden’s mental condition and immigration policies.

    Nelson Peltz, founding partner of Trian Fund Management LP., speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, Calif. on Oct. 25, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

    “It will probably be Trump and I’m not happy about that,” he told the Financial Times in an interview, adding that Biden’s “mental condition is really scary.” Furthermore, Mr. Peltz expressed his concern regarding the porous U.S. southern border, which has turned into a hot-button issue for both Republicans and Democrats in the election season.

    “We can’t go on letting everyone into this country . . . We have an immigration problem—it’s not a Republican or Democrat problem,” said Mr. Peltz. He expressed opposition to stopping immigration altogether but “I want some boundaries put on it so we know at least who we’re bringing in,” he said, according to the outlet.

    Illegal immigration has been a thorn in the side of Democrats, with the Biden administration’s policies being criticized for the massive amounts of inflows across the southern border. Former President Donald Trump said at a recent rally that one of the first things he would do once elected would be to end every single “open border policy of the Biden administration.”

    “That border was a tiny fraction of what this border is,” President Trump said. “This is the worst border in the history of the world.” Since President Joe Biden took office, there have been an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants who have crossed the border.

    Mr. Peltz is the founder of Trian Fund Management, an investment management firm with offices in New York and Florida. According to Forbes, the firm has $8.5 billion in assets under management, with Mr. Peltz currently worth around $1.7 billion.

    The billionaire is among President Trump’s neighbors in Palm Beach but has not spoken to the former president “in quite a while,” reported FT.

    Regarding President Biden’s mental acuity, “I don’t know what he knows and I don’t know what he doesn’t know.” said Mr. Peltz. “I don’t know who’s speaking for him and that’s troubling.” It is not clear whether he will donate to President Trump’s campaign.

    Mr. Peltz has been involved with activist investments for some time. In 2017, he fought and won a seat on the executive board of consumer goods conglomerate Proctor and Gamble. Currently, his focus is on Disney.

    Peltz Versus Disney

    Mr. Peltz’s investment firm Trian has been involved in a proxy battle with Disney for instituting the investor along with former Disney executive Jay Rasulo as board members. Trian currently holds approximately $3.5 billion of Disney stock. The media behemoth and the billionaire investor have been engaging shareholders for the requisite votes needed for the seats.

    Disney movies have been underperforming at the box office lately. Mr. Peltz says he wants to “restore the magic” in the company and outlined his visions in a detailed 133-page memo released earlier this month.

    Published by Trian to convince shareholders at the company’s annual meeting next month, the memo said that “Disney is the most advantaged consumer entertainment company in the world,” the company “lost its way” with a deterioration in financial performance, and ultimately loss amounting to tens of billions in shareholder value.

    “We believe the root cause of Disney’s underperformance is poor oversight from a Board that lacks focus, alignment and accountability.”

    The memo detailed how Disney competitors like Netflix and Amazon were faring much better with their content, and return on invested capital and margins.

    Trian blamed Disney for showing “no interest in meeting or inviting Nelson Peltz to interview with the Board or Governance and Nominating Committee.”

    Disney responded in a 66-page regulatory filing that Mr. Peltz and Mr. Rasulo were “not what Disney needs right now.” The company said their suggestions “are nothing new” and they did not understand the company’s challenges nor had the skills to promote Disney in its current situation.

    However, Mr. Peltz has been known to be persistent in achieving his objectives, as was revealed in 2006 with Heinz, in 2015 with Dupont, and in 2017 with P&G.

    Biden’s Mental Criticisms

    President Biden’s mental capabilities have been increasingly in the spotlight during the election season. His common gaffes and slurring of speech have raised concerns about his age even among those who supported him in 2020.

    According to a New York Times/Siena College poll, 61 percent of respondents believed President Biden was “just too old” to be an effective commander-in-chief.

    A February special counsel report described the 81-year-old president’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.”

    The Robert Hur report noted that President Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

    In response to reporters’ questions about his memory, President Biden disputed the report’s statements and said he’s “the most qualified person in this country to be president.”

    The White House also pushed back on the characterizations of President Biden’s memory in a Feb. 5 letter from the president’s lawyers that was published in Hur’s report. The letter argues that the president’s “inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual,” particularly about when certain documents were packed or moved.

    “We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate,” the letter said. “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events. Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report.”

    “If you’re too senile to stand trial, then you’re too senile to be president. Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation,” said Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC backing Trump’s candidacy.

    The Associated Press contributed to the report.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 18:20

  • "It's Enraging": NYC Homeowner Arrested For Changing Locks After Squatters Take Over
    “It’s Enraging”: NYC Homeowner Arrested For Changing Locks After Squatters Take Over

    A woman who inherited a home in New York City full of people squatting illegally was arrested and led away in handcuffs after she changed the locks.

    Adele Andaloro, 47, was placed under arrest at her $1 million home in Flushing, Queens, which she inherited from her parents after they died.

    “It’s enraging,” Andaloro told the NY Post. “It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this.“

    Andaloro claims the ordeal erupted when she started the process of trying to sell the home last month but realized squatters had moved in — and brazenly replaced the entire front door and locks.

    Fed up, she recently went to her family’s home on 160th Street — with the local TV outlet in tow — and called a locksmith to change the locks for her. -NY Post

    The spat with the squatters, which was caught on camera, rapidly erupted into a verbal altercation until the cops showed up and led Andaloro away – charging her with ‘unlawful eviction.’

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    As the Post notes, people can claim “squatter’s rights” if they’ve been squatting for just 30 days at a property. This makes it illegal for homeowners to change the locks, turn off the utilities, or remove the squatters’ belongings.

    “By the time someone does their investigation, their work, and their job, it will be over 30 days and this man will still be in my home,” Andaloro said. “I’m really fearful that these people are going to get away with stealing my home.”

    During the recent encounter at her home, Andaloro — who was armed with the deeds — was filmed entering the property after one of the apparent tenants left the front door open.

    After changing the locks, a man claiming to be on the lease — identified by the local outlet as Brian Rodriguez — returned to the property and barged through the front door.

    “You shouldn’t be trying to steal my house,” a furious Andaloro yelled at him during the caught-on-camera ordeal.

    Following a flurry of 911 calls, responding cops told Andaloro she had to sort the saga out in housing court because it was considered a “landlord-tenant issue.” -NY Post

    Andaloro says she’s now been forced to go through the court system to start an eviction filing to settle the landlord-tenant dispute.

    A man identified as Brian Rodriguez claims to be on the lease. (ABC7)

    As the Post further reports, this is the latest such incident – which comes weeks after a couple’s plan to move into a $2 million home in Douglaston, Queens with their disabled son was derailed by a squatter who claimed to have an agreement with the previous owner.

    In another incident, a squatter turned a Rockaways home into a ‘house of horrors‘ with over a dozen emaciated cats and dogs trapped inside.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 18:00

  • "That's Joe Biden?" Biden Family Associate Confirms Joe & Family Used Email-Aliases During Vice Presidency
    “That’s Joe Biden?” Biden Family Associate Confirms Joe & Family Used Email-Aliases During Vice Presidency

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

    Eric Schwerin, an associate of President Joe Biden and his family, appears to have confirmed allegations that the president and several of his family members relied on aliases and personal email accounts to communicate amongst themselves during his term as vice president.

    On June 6, 2015, Hunter Biden (L) kisses his nephew Hunter, son of Beau Biden, as they stand with Beau’s widow Hallie (3L), then-Vice President Joe Biden and Beau’s daughter Natalie before his funeral, at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

    In a transcribed interview conducted on Jan. 30 and released on Monday, Mr. Schwerin identified President Biden as the person behind at least two email aliases that were active between 2009 and 2017 during his time as vice president during the Obama administration. Mr. Schwerin’s testimony provides an added layer of confirmation to allegations Republican investigators have raised for months, that the president and his family concealed their communications through various assumed names.

    During the Jan. 30 interview, an investigator asked Mr. Schwerin whether an email account owner identified as “Robinware456” had any relation to President Biden. “Yes,” Mr. Schwerin said.

    “That’s Joe Biden?” the investigator asked, to which Mr. Schwerin replied, “Correct.”

    The same investigator then asked about another suspected alias name, “Hurricane5155.” Mr. Schwerin replied that he believed that account was operated by President Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden.

    Mr. Schwerin identified the alias “261penn” as the account of President Biden’s eldest son, Beau Biden.

    The investigator then asked about another account name, “Robert.L.Peters.” Mr. Schwerin replied that it was his understanding this account also belonged to then-Vice President Biden.

    “I never used that email, so I don’t know, but that’s my understanding from later on,” Mr. Schwerin said, when asked about the “RobertL.Peters” persona.

    Mr. Schwerin said he primarily communicated with President Biden through the “Robinware” persona.

    House investigators have previously uncovered more than 260 email communications in which “Robinware456” was either the sender or a recipient. “RobertL.Peters” was a recipient of at least 26 additional email communications uncovered by House investigators. The “Hurricane5155” and “261penn” personas appeared in hundreds of additional email chains involving White House staff accounts.

    These covert communications have been a point of focus for Republicans leading an ongoing impeachment inquiry into whether President Biden engaged in influence peddling with his family members throughout his political career.

    NTD News reached out to the White House for comment about these email aliases but did not receive a response by press time.

    Schwerin Denies Knowledge of Influence Peddling

    Mr. Schwerin testified that he became acquainted with the Biden family while working at the U.S. Commerce Department during the Clinton administration, during which time he met with then-Senator Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. After leaving this government position, Mr. Schwerin said he joined Hunter Biden at a law and lobbying firm and later co-founded the firm Rosemont Seneca Partners with Hunter Biden.

    Between 2009 and 2017, Mr. Schwerin testified that he performed “a number of administrative and bookkeeping tasks” for then-Vice President Biden, pertaining to his household finances.

    “In the course of performing these duties, I had the ability to view transactions both into and out of Vice President Biden’s bank accounts while he was Vice President,” Mr. Schwerin said in his opening statement during the Jan. 30 interview. “Based on that insight, I am not aware of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden received related to business conducted by any of his family members or their associates, nor any involvement by him in their businesses.”

    In his opening statement, Mr. Schwerin further denied any knowledge of President Biden taking any official action to benefit his family members.

    “I cannot recall any requests for Vice President Biden to take any official action on behalf of any of Hunter’s clients or his business deals, foreign or domestic,” Mr. Schwerin said.

    He said that throughout his interactions with then-Vice President Biden, the elder Biden was “always crystal-clear that he wanted to take the most transparent and ethical approach.”

    Mr. Schwerin testified that this bookkeeping work he did for then-Vice President Biden was free. He testified that he also expected no favors from the elder Biden for this bookkeeping work, nor did he elicit any favor or witness Hunter Biden elicit any favors.

    While performing these free bookkeeping services, Mr. Schwerin was appointed to the U.S. Commission on the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in 2015. He said he believed the role came about following a 2009 conversation with a member of then-Vice President Biden’s staff.

    “My assumption was that it was something that, you know, the Vice President had signed off on, but I would think it was someone from the staff who said, we can put your name forward to Presidential Personnel, and they would, you know, give you a call about this,” Mr. Schwerin said.

    During the interview, Mr. Schwerin also described working with Devon Archer, a business partner of Hunter Biden, helping connect Mr. Archer with Blue Star Strategies. Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden and Mr. Archer sat, retained Blue Star Strategies for lobbying services at a time when the company was dealing with investigations of its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky.

    Mr. Schwerin testified that he had access to Joe Biden’s bank accounts until some point “towards the end of 2017.” He testified that he could not recall having seen records for loans Joe Biden purportedly gave his brother, James Biden, which were purported to have been repaid in September 2017 and March 2018.

    From NTD News

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 17:40

  • Boycott Slams Planet Fitness Shares As Americans Fight Back Against Wokeism
    Boycott Slams Planet Fitness Shares As Americans Fight Back Against Wokeism

    Approaching the one-year mark since Bud Light’s controversial partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on TikTok, a nationwide boycott of the light beer – criticized for tasting like ‘piss water’ – has been relentless as blue-collar and white-collar conservative Americans stand up in unison, bounded by memes and the power of X, to protest their distaste for woke propaganda pushed by mega-corporations. 

    To this day, conservatives are on a warpath against the woke mind virus as it infects high-level executives of mega-corporations who have learned absolutely nothing from Bud Light nuking itself with Mulvaney. 

    The power of the people. Folks are beginning to understand this. 

    Last week, Americans began to boycott Tyson Foods for planning to fire at least a thousand hard-working Americans in which the company even said it was planning to hire tens of thousands of illegals through a shadowy non-government organization. 

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

    Fast forward to this week, Americans are boycotting Planet Fitness for its move to defend its decision to ban the membership of a customer in Alaska who spoke out about a “man in women’s locker room shaving.”

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

    Since the Libs of TikTok’s X post went viral, shares of Planet Fitness have plunged 14%. 

    This comes as Planet Fitness boycott calls increase by the day. 

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

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    When will these woke executives learn that catering to a fringe minority rather than the majority will only result in a blowback with customers? 

    Which index firm is going to create the ‘woke index’? 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 17:20

  • RNC Files Election Integrity Lawsuit Against Nevada Secretary Of State
    RNC Files Election Integrity Lawsuit Against Nevada Secretary Of State

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

    The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Nevada GOP have sued the Nevada Secretary of State, accusing the state’s top elections official of undermining voter confidence by failing to follow federal law on the proper maintenance of voter rolls.

    A voter returns a voter card after casting their ballot on the first day of in-person early voting inside a tent at a shopping center in Las Vegas on Oct. 22, 2022. (David Becker/Getty Images)

    The RNC filed its complaint on March 19 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, accusing Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar of failing to keep voter rolls accurate, in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

    “Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls, and that’s why the National Voter Registration Act requires state officials to keep their rolls accurate and up-to-date,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.

    ‘Easier to Vote and Harder to Cheat’

    The NVRA requires that states maintain accurate and current voter registration rolls for federal elections. But the RNC said in its complaint that a half dozen Nevada counties have implausible voter registration rates.

    “At least three Nevada counties have more registered voters than they have adult citizens who are over the age of 18,” the complaint reads. “That number of voters is impossibly high.”

    The three Nevada counties in question are Douglas (104 percent), Lyon (105 percent), and Storey (113 percent).

    Another two Nevada counties have voter registration rates in excess of 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18: Carson City (92 percent) and Clark (91 percent).

    “That figure far eclipses the national and statewide voter registration rate in recent elections,” the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.

    U.S. Census data released in May 2023 shows that the national voter registration rate for the 2022 Congressional election was 69.1 percent—the highest for a midterm election since 2000.

    Nevada’s statewide voter registration rates for the 2022 and the 2020 elections were 65.1 percent and 66.2 percent of the voting-age citizen population, per the complaint.

    Additionally, several Nevada counties have unusually high rates of inactive registrants: Elko (31 percent), Eureka (23 percent), Humboldt (26 percent), Lincoln (25 percent,), Mineral (30 percent), Nye (31 percent), Washoe (17 percent), and White Pine (23 percent).

    Some other counties have unusually low rates of removals from voter rolls, per the complaint.

    “Securing clean voter rolls in Nevada is a critical step towards ensuring that it will be easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Mr. Whatley said in a statement.

    The Nevada Secretary of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    ‘Protecting the Vote’

    The Nevada lawsuit comes after a recent leadership shakeup at the RNC saw Mr. Whatley become the chair and former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, take the post of co-chair.

    Both Mr. Whatley and Ms. Trump have said publicly that a key focus of theirs will be election integrity.

    The latest lawsuit marks the 81st case of election integrity litigation that the RNC has engaged in during the current election cycle.

    The RNC recently filed a similar lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, accusing her of undermining public confidence in elections by failing to properly maintain voter rolls.

    An analysis by the RNC showed that 76 of Michigan’s 83 counties have inflated voter rolls, in violation of the NVRA. Among them, 53 counties have more active registered voters than voting-age U.S. citizens.

    “Jocelyn Benson has failed to follow the NVRA, leaving Michigan with inflated and inaccurate voter rolls ahead of the 2024 election,” Mr. Whatley said in an earlier statement.

    In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Ms. Benson denounced the lawsuit as “meritless.”

    Ms. Benson added that more than 700,000 voter registrations have been canceled since she took office and another 520,000 have been slated for cancellation in 2025.

    “Federal data shows Michigan is the fifth most active state in the nation in removing the registrations of voters who have died,” she wrote.

    “Let’s call this what it is: a PR campaign masquerading as a meritless lawsuit filled with baseless accusations that seek to diminish people’s faith in the security of our elections,” Ms. Benson added.

    Focus on Election Integrity

    Ronna McDaniel left her post as RNC chair on March 8.

    In her final speech as the head of the organization, she said she believes Mr. Whatley will be “phenomenal” in the role and, in particular, on an issue that President Trump “cares deeply about, which is election integrity.”

    For his part, the former president said in mid-February that he’s convinced that Mr. Whatley, who served as general counsel for the North Carolina GOP in addition to being its chairman, will be “committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our election so it can’t be stolen.”

    Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks in the library at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 4, 2024. (Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

    The former president maintains that he was cheated out of victory in the 2020 presidential election in part because of outright fraud and in part because of last-minute changes to election rules that sharply expanded opportunities to cast mail-in ballots, while softening voter verification requirements.

    Mr. Whatley said recently that the Republican party would use all available tools to help President Trump to win the 2024 election, while also ramping up its focus on election integrity.

    He said in a recent memo that the RNC would bolster programs that focus on both in-person and absentee early voting, as well as ballot harvesting where legal.

    Mr. Whatley said that the various initiatives aimed at voter outreach and early voting will be paired with strong election integrity efforts, including mounting legal challenges to voter identification and

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 17:00

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Today’s News 19th March 2024

  • Anti-Semitism As The Harbinger Of Global Chaos
    Anti-Semitism As The Harbinger Of Global Chaos

    Authored by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness,

    On the off chance you hadn’t noticed, the world appears to be at an especially precarious moment presently. Obviously, war continues to rage in Ukraine and Gaza, with no end in sight to either conflict. Great Britain and Japan are currently in recession. Canada’s economy is an absolute disaster, with almost no hope of near-term recovery. Much of continental Europe and China are struggling economically, if not officially contracting. Some experts believe that the global economy more generally is sliding, slowly but surely, into recession. The only economic bright spot in the world is the United States, and even here we have our problems with consumer spending and sentiment, massive credit concerns, and inarguably sticky inflation.

    Meanwhile, China is investing in and winning friends, and influencing people in the Global South. U.S.-backed Kurdish leaders are warning that ISIS is resurgent in Syria and Iraq. The Marine general in charge of U.S. Africa Command is warning of Russia’s increasing influence on that continent. Sudan remains mired in civil war. Nigeria is plagued by Islamist terrorism and mass kidnappings. Mexico is in the midst of a full-blown war with the drug cartels, who continue to grow bolder and more militarily sophisticated.

    Everywhere one looks, chaos reigns—or, at the very least, bubbles just below the surface.

    Perhaps most telling among the signs of disarray is the unnerving rise of antisemitism in the United States, Europe, and throughout the world. Antisemitism, in general, has been intensifying, slowly but surely, over the last decade or so. Over the last few months, however, it has emerged fully into the open, undaunted and unembarrassed. What was once considered shameful and disconcerting is now warmly welcomed as a “rational” response to American foreign policy, Israeli war practices, “colonialism,” and “white privilege.”

    All of this is troubling, to put it mildly, both in and of itself and as a harbinger of greater and more deadly global unrest.

    Hatred of and anger toward Jews is not the same as other forms of bigotry.  

    In many ways, the history of Western anti-Jewish hatred mirrors the history of Western political chaos and collapse.  Or, to put it another way, historically, Jews are not only the perennial scapegoats during periods of social upheaval and displacement, but resurgent anti-Semitism serves as the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the rise of revolutionary movements.

    In his classic, The Pursuit of the Millennium, the British historian Norman Cohn argues that the Jewish diaspora generally fit comfortably, if tentatively into European society for most of the first thousand years or so A.D., and only became a hated and perpetually persecuted minority with the rise of utopian Millenarianism that accompanied and then outlived the Crusades.  Beginning then and continuing for the next nearly a thousand years, Europeans came to associate Jews with the antichrist and thus to associate hatred and persecution of Jews with preparing the battlespace for the Second Coming.  Many historians, including Hannah Arendt, believed that the anti-Semitism that was such an integral part of the West’s 20th-century collapse into totalitarianism was relatively new and, in any case, distinct from medieval anti-Semitism.  Cohn’s history suggests otherwise, connecting the religious eschatology of medieval Europe to the quasi-religious eschatology of post-Enlightenment Europe, thereby connecting the persistence of Western anti-Semitism as well.

    Cohn tells us that millenarian moments and the millenarian movements that capitalize on those moments all share a common group of characteristics. They all appear under certain social and economic conditions. They all appeal to a certain segment of the population at large, who then present themselves as economic, spiritual, and political leaders. They all utilize scapegoats, meaning that they all identify a different, usually much smaller segment of the population on whom they can blame all the world’s ills and then set about to cure those ills through the elimination of the scapegoat. And more often than not, that scapegoat tends to be Jewish.

    In the conclusion to the second edition of Pursuit of the Millennium, Cohn notes that the millenarian fervor of the middle ages may have changed, but it never really died, and it maintained its common characteristics even as it became secular or “quasi-religious.” He wrote:

    The story told in Pursuit of the Millennium ended some four centuries ago but is not without relevance to our own times. [I have] shown in another work [Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion] how closely the Nazi phantasy of a world-wide Jewish conspiracy of destruction is related to the phantasies that inspired Emico of Leningrad and the Master of Hungary; and how mass disorientation and insecurity have fostered the demonization of the Jew in this as in much earlier centuries. The parallels and indeed the continuity are incontestable.

    The parallels between the rise of Nazism and the current global unrest and demonization of the Jewish people are also largely incontestable. The election that brought Hitler to power didn’t happen in a vacuum, after all. It happened in the midst of global chaos, namely the Great Depression. It also followed the decadence and distortion of the Weimer Era. As the New York Fed has shown, even a global pandemic—the 1919 Spanish Flu outbreak—contributed to the sense of discomfort and disconnect among the German population, prompting increased support for Hitler and his Nazis.

    The present global chaos doesn’t have to end the same way the chaos of a century ago did. It doesn’t have to result in the ascension of millenarian ideologies and their totalitarian defenders. History has shown that extremism can be short-circuited and radical ideologies undone. The first step in doing so, however, must be to bring an end to the rationalization of the persecution of the world’s Jews. The second step is to end the persecution itself.

    Antisemitism is ugly and shameful, and it must be treated as such. For their sake and ours.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 02:00

  • Cereal For The Peasants? How The Elites Use "Skimpflation" To Control Our Eating Habits
    Cereal For The Peasants? How The Elites Use “Skimpflation” To Control Our Eating Habits

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

    People who have been reading my analysis for a long time are well aware of my expectations on the eventual outcome of the US economic debacle: A stagflationary crisis followed by a massive crash similar to the Great Depression (or worse). I based this prediction on a number of circumstances, but primarily I went back to the history of currency devaluations and central bank policy. These kinds of things have happened before and they tend to follow a pattern that is visible today.

    Specifically, I studied the 1971-1981 stagflation crisis for reference and I found some startling similarities. It was one of the worst economic declines in American history next to the depression, and it’s an event that almost no one talks about. A lot of people (specifically Gen Z) believe that our current era is the worst financial era of all time and that their generation has been shafted by previous generations.

    This is inaccurate; the stagflation disaster of the 1970s was far worse. That said, it shows us where our country is eventually headed and it’s not looking good. What is a manageable economic crunch today has the potential to become a calamity tomorrow.

    One issue that I’m fascinated by that usually isn’t mentioned in mainstream economic discussion is quality degradation – The way in which products, services, construction, manufacturing, style and availability tend to break down when inflation suddenly spikes. This process is known as “skimpflation” and it was rampant in the 1970s and early 1980s. Most Americans today think of the 70s as a happy-go-lucky era of disco, bell bottoms and psychedelics, but in reality it was economically dismal.

    Examining real life images and footage from the decade compared to the 1960s, there was a stark shift in the quality of life. From the quality of cars, to the quality of clothes, to the quality of housing. Some US cities (like New York or Philadelphia) looked like warzones complete with rubble strewn slums. After sky-high inflation for several years causes a doubling and tripling of retail prices along with growing unemployment rates, the environment starts to feel real ugly.

    Skimpflation And The Food Pyramid Agenda

    Another aspect of life that takes a hit is the quality of diet and the ability of families to feed themselves. Most people are familiar with the concept of “shrinkflation” – The habit of companies to shrink portion sizes while keeping their packaging and prices the same in order to offset inflation in production costs without consumers noticing. However, skimpflation is another way in which companies will attempt to avoid raising prices on the shelf, and that’s by lowering the quality of ingredients, along with encouraging the public to eat less nutritious (and less expensive to produce) foods.

    The 1970s was the decade that gave birth to the processed food market and the microwave cuisine, at least on a wider scale. This was the decade when American food truly took a nose dive. The ease of processed foods was offset by the poor nutritional content. They were cheaper, but the quality sucked and we are still living with the repercussions of that trend today.

    There were, of course, counter-culture movements working against the adoption of processed foods, including “know your farmer” type organizations and organic movements. But as we are all well aware, the cheap processed foods eventually won. Society embraced the market because they had to. Prices were so high that it was the only way they could feed their families everyday.

    Interestingly, the Food Pyramid that we were all taught about as children in public schools was introduced to the western world in 1972. The pyramid was actually first used by the Swedish government in direct response to inflation and was designed to encourage the populace to eat cheaper food-stuffs (primarily cereals, dairy products, pastas and carbs). Governments have been using subsidies to promote the consumption of low cost and low quality foods ever since.

    I’m recounting these trends from the 1970s because we are seeing a very similar agenda today, though it is far more insidious in nature. Economic decline is a favorite tool for the establishment to control the behavior of populations, including dietary habits.

    Dollar Losing Buying Power? Switch To Lab Grown Meat And Bugs…

    It’s no coincidence, for example, that there has been a massive push by government agencies and corporations to acclimate the public to the idea of fake lab-grown meat products. For now, fake meats are more expensive than real meats so there’s no incentive for the public to consume them, but if inflation continues to drive prices higher eventually real steak will cost far more than artificial steak and people may be convinced that the fake stuff is a viable alternative.

    Then there’s the notion of western consumers eating bugs for protein instead of beef or chicken or pork. Beyond the claims that this will somehow “save the climate” from global warming (which is a complete falsehood backed by zero concrete evidence), the powers-that-be also suggest that bugs will be far more affordable than hamburgers in the near future.

    Bugs are traditionally a starvation food. They are only a staple in countries where famine is common or where governments aggressively restrict normal agriculture. Bug protein also has a habit of giving people parasites. The only way westerners could be convinced to eat bugs as a part of their regular diet is if inflation crushes the regular meat market.

    Let The Peasants Eat Cereal…

    Another form of skimpflation is the shift even further to the bottom of the food pyramid. Recently, Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick suggested in an interview with CNBC that Americans will eventually start ‘eating cereal for dinner’ because the cost is so much cheaper per portion. In other words, cheap processed carbs will become a mainstay of the American diet because a lot of people won’t be able to afford anything else. Pilnick brags that Kellogg’s is well placed for this coming change in the food market…

    The marketing for this idea is already well underway. Various companies are promoting an end to traditional healthy homemade dinner habits and a switch to unconventional and cheaper processed foods. The thrust of the Kellogg’s campaign relies on poverty. Meaning, they are banking on the expectation that Americans will be poorer in the near term and that this condition will continue for years to come.

    Just as we saw during the 1970s stagflation crisis, there is a rush to cut quality in all goods and services, but food is a major target. Today, it’s about convincing the market to consume more carbs and processed foods and less protein.  Tomorrow, it will be about abandoning established agriculture altogether and having all our food manufactured in labs.   The elites seem to be planning for a significant financial crisis beyond what we have already dealt with and this is evident in their efforts to sell the reconstruction of our dietary habits based on poverty rather than prosperity.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 03/19/2024 – 00:00

  • Bank Of Japan (Finally) Kills The World's Last Negative Interest Rate, Yen Weakens
    Bank Of Japan (Finally) Kills The World’s Last Negative Interest Rate, Yen Weakens

    As has been thoroughly warned, straw-manned, leaked, and hinted at over the past few weeks (here, here, and here for example), The Bank of Japan hiked interest rates tonight for the first time since 2007. This move ends the world’s last negative interest rate policy.

    The vote, at 7-2 to scrap the negative interest rate (setting the policy rate in range between 0% to 0.1%), was closer than many expected with policy board members Nakamura and Noguchi dissented.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Additionally, the bank has abandoned its yield curve control policy.

    The BOJ will continue to purchase JGBs with “broadly the same amount as before,” but buying of ETFs and J-REITs has apparently been scrapped (while laying out a plan to scrap corporate debt and commercial paper buying).

    Source: BoJ

    In terms of forward guidance, Bloomberg notes that the bank isn’t offering much. It says it will continue to pay attention to developments in financial and FX markets, and their impact on Japan’s economic activity and prices.

    But the previous pledge to “not hesitate to take additional easing measures if necessary” has been removed.

    This was all in line with what had leaked out in domestic media reports over the past week but USDJPY still rose on the news (yen weakness)…

    The BOJ actually downgraded its assessment of consumer spending and production, so there’s still a sense of caution.

    The BoJ’s move comes as inflation has gradually returned to the nation with the most immediate catalyst being last week, when Japan’s largest union announced its biggest annual wage hike in three decades.

    Despite the runway having been heavily foamed ahead of tonight’s decision, Veteran market commentator John Authers warns of significant implications for the rest of the world:

    “Waiting over the years for Japan to beat deflation and raise rates has been rather like hoping for Lucy to let Charlie Brown kick the football, but if the BOJ is briefing the press like this, it must be a very real possibility,” he writes.

    “There are implications for carry traders, and for Japan’s giant neighbor, China.”

    Finally, even with the decision to pull the trigger, we note that the debate over whether the BOJ has met the supposedly main condition for raising rates – stable 2% inflation – is hardly over.

    As Bloomberg reports, inflation may slow as the impact of imports-driven price gains wears off, meaning that if officials go ahead and change policy, they could end up facing criticism in the future that they’ve passed a premature judgement on prices, former BOJ board member Takahide Kiuchi recently wrote. “And that in turn could become an obstacle to smooth policy normalization,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 23:45

  • Trump Tells Ramaswamy 'No' For VP, But Leaves Cabinet Door Open
    Trump Tells Ramaswamy ‘No’ For VP, But Leaves Cabinet Door Open

    Donald Trump ‘personally told’ Vivek Ramaswamy that he’s been ruled out as a running mate, however the former president is eyeing a Cabinet job including the Homeland Security secretary, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

    According to the report, “Some Trump allies see Ramaswamy as ideal for the job because they say he excels at public speaking and, as an Indian-American son of an immigrant, could neutralize criticism of sweeping immigration restrictions.“

    Their conversation is just one of many Trump has had recently with allies about administration positions as he seized hold of the Republican nomination. Loyalty, ideological compatibility and perceived electoral power are the metrics by which Trump is evaluating possible picks, according to people familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    Those who have impressed Trump and his team for possible Cabinet roles include another former GOP primary foe, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, as well as Representative Elise Stefanik and former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. -Bloomberg

    Trump is apparently looking for a running mate who isn’t “motivated by the limelight,” but who will give the former president a significant edge. According to the report, none of the VP picks circulating have impressed Trump much, and his list of options has only grown longer, instead of shorter.

    Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is rumored to be a top candidate to serve as Trump’s deep state handler chief of staff.

    That said, after Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn were promptly squeezed out by dark forces the first time around, Trump is looking for a series of top-level aides and Cabinet members who can enable his agenda.

    Jared’s back

    Oh boy! Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law whose bed Bibi Netanyahu slept in one time, “has recently increased his presence in the campaign,” and has been “calling and texting to offer suggestions.”

    Trump Jr., meanwhile, has also expressed interest in a key transition role – in part because he can act as a gatekeeper to block people who are opposed by the MAGA movement.

    Don’t believe the hype?

    In response to an inquiry by Bloomberg, senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said it’s way too early to start speculating about Cabinet or senior roles.

    “Apparently somebody has decided to list out everyone who has ever met President Trump and is now speculating as to their potential participation in a second Trump administration. The truth is that unless you hear it directly from President Trump or his campaign, this is all b.s.,” he said.

    Those who have participated in the discussions describe a quintessentially Trump experience, in which the former president peppers the conversation with political observations and media critiques as a steady stream of food is served, while he keeps an eye on cable news or chooses his favorite musical selections over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club.

    The former president has repeatedly expressed admiration for Burgum, a billionaire who mounted a short-lived presidential bid. He has been discussed as a good fit to lead a transition – and possibly the Energy Department. Burgum, like Trump, is a supporter of fossil fuels. -Bloomberg

    If we’re still believing the hype, one person who’s been cast out of the Trump tent is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), following his failed primary challenge. Trump “regularly vents” about DeSantis in private conversations, however the pair did reportedly have a phone conversation shortly after DeSantis dropped out.

    DOJ?

    One of Trump’s top priorities will be to staff the nation’s top law enforcement agency with an attorney general who isn’t a deep state pawn.

    Senate Republicans Ted Cruz (TX) and Mike Lee (UT) are on the short list, per the report, as “it would likely be easy to secure their confirmation.”

    Former Chuck Grassley lawyer Mike Davis, meanwhile, could potentially serve as acting AG or White House counsel. Another attorney, Mike Purpura – who represented Trump during his first impeachment, is also a ‘strong contender’ for White House counsel.

    If Trump is reelected, FBI Director Christopher Wray’s days will also be numbered.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 23:20

  • Report Criticizes 'Catastrophic Errors' Of COVID Lockdowns, Warns Of Repeat
    Report Criticizes ‘Catastrophic Errors’ Of COVID Lockdowns, Warns Of Repeat

    Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    It was four years ago, in March 2020, that health officials declared COVID-19 a pandemic and America began shutting down schools, closing small businesses, restricting gatherings and travel, and other lockdown measures to “slow the spread” of the virus.

    UNICEF unveiled its “Pandemic Classroom,” a model made up of 168 empty desks, each seat representing one million children living in countries where schools were almost entirely closed during the COVID pandemic lockdowns, at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City on March 2, 2021. (Chris Farber/UNICEF via Getty Images)

    To mark that grim anniversary, a group of medical and policy experts released a report, called “COVID Lessons Learned,” which assesses the government’s response to the pandemic. According to the report, that response included a few notable successes, along with a litany of failures that have taken a severe toll on the population.

    During the pandemic, many governments across the globe acted in lockstep to pursue authoritative policies in response to the disease, locking down populations, closing schools, shutting businesses, sealing borders, banning gatherings, and enforcing various mask and vaccine mandates. What were initially imposed as short-term mandates and emergency powers given to presidents, ministers, governors, and health officials soon became extended into a longer-term expansion of official power.

    “Even though the initial point of temporary lockdowns was to ’slow the spread,’ which meant to allow hospitals to function without being overwhelmed, instead it rapidly turned into stopping COVID cases at all costs,” Dr. Scott Atlas, a physician, former White House Coronavirus Task Force member, and one of the authors of the report, stated at a March 15 press conference.

    Published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CTUP), the report was co-authored by Steve Hanke, economics professor and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics; Casey Mulligan, former chief economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisors; and CTUP President Philip Kerpen. 

    According to the report, one of the first errors was the unprecedented authority that public officials took upon themselves to enforce health mandates on Americans. 

    “Granting public health agencies extraordinary powers was a major error,” Mr. Hanke told The Epoch Times. “It, in effect, granted these agencies a license to deceive the public.”

    The authors argue that authoritative measures were largely ineffective in fighting the virus, but often proved highly detrimental to public health. 

    The report quantifies the cost of lockdowns, both in terms of economic costs and the number of non-COVID excess deaths that occurred and continue to occur after the pandemic. It estimates that the number of non-COVID excess deaths, defined as deaths in excess of normal rates, at about 100,000 per year in the United States.

    ‘They Will Try to Do This Again’

    “Lockdowns, schools closures, and mandates were catastrophic errors, pushed with remarkable fervor by public health authorities at all levels,” the report states. The authors are skeptical, however, that health authorities will learn from the experience.

    “My worry is that if we have another pandemic or another virus, I think that Washington is still going to try to do these failed policies,” said Steve Moore, a CTUP economist. “We’re not here to say ‘this guy got it wrong’ or ’that guy or got it wrong,’ but we should learn the lessons from these very, very severe mistakes that will have costs for not just years, but decades to come. 

    “I guarantee you, they will try to do this again,” Mr. Moore said. “And what’s really troubling me is the people who made these mistakes still have not really conceded that they were wrong.”

    Mr. Hanke was equally pessimistic.

    “Unfortunately, the public health establishment is in the authoritarian model of the state,” he said. “Their entire edifice is one in which the state, not the individual, should reign supreme.”

    The authors are also critical of what they say was a multifaceted campaign in which public officials, the news media, and social media companies cooperated to frighten the population into compliance with COVID mandates.

    “During COVID, the public health establishment … intentionally stoked and amplified fear, which overlaid enormous economic, social, educational and health harms on top of the harms of the virus itself,” the report states. 

    The authors contrasted the authoritative response of many U.S. states to policies in Sweden, which they say relied more on providing advice and information to the public rather than attempting to force behaviors.

    Sweden’s constitution, called the “Regeringsform,” guarantees the liberty of Swedes to move freely within the realm and prohibits severe lockdowns, Mr. Hanke stated.

    “By following the Regeringsform during COVID, the Swedes ended up with one of the lowest excess death rates in the world,” he said.  

    Because the Swedish government avoided strict mandates and was more forthright in sharing information with its people, many citizens altered their behavior voluntarily to protect themselves.

    “A much wiser strategy than issuing lockdown orders would have been to tell the American people the truth, stick to the facts, educate citizens about the balance of risks, and let individuals make their own decisions about whether to keep their businesses open, whether to socially isolate, attend church, send their children to school, and so on,” the report states.

    ‘A Pretext to Enhance Their Power’

    The CTUP report cites a 2021 study on government power and emergencies by economists Christian Bjornskov and Stefan Voigt, which found that the more emergency power a government accumulates during times of crisis, “the higher the number of people killed as a consequence of a natural disaster, controlling for its severity.

    “As this is an unexpected result, we discuss a number of potential explanations, the most plausible being that governments use natural disasters as a pretext to enhance their power,” the study’s authors state. “Furthermore, the easier it is to call a state of emergency, the larger the negative effects on basic human rights.”

    “All the things that people do in their lives … they have purposes,” Mr. Mulligan said. “And for somebody in Washington D.C. to tell them to stop doing all those things, they can’t even begin to comprehend the disruption and the losses.

    “We see in the death certificates a big elevation in people dying from heart conditions, diabetes conditions, obesity conditions,” he said, while deaths from alcoholism and drug overdoses “skyrocketed and have not come down.”

    The report also challenged the narrative that most hospitals were overrun by the surge of COVID cases.

    “Almost any measure of hospital utilization was very low, historically, throughout the pandemic period, even though we had all these headlines that our hospitals were overwhelmed,” Mr. Kerpen stated. “The truth was actually the opposite, and this was likely the result of public health messaging and political orders, canceling medical procedures and intentionally stoking fear, causing people to cancel their appointments.”

    The effect of this, the authors argue, was a sharp increase in non-COVID deaths because people were avoiding necessary treatments and screenings. 

    “There were actually mass layoffs in this sector at one point,” Mr. Kerpen said, “and even now, total discharges are well below pre-pandemic levels.”

    In addition, as health mandates became more draconian, many people became concerned at the expansion of government power and the loss of civil liberties, particularly when government directives—such as banning outdoor church services but allowing mass social-justice protests—often seemed unreasonable or politicized. 

    The report also criticized the single-minded focus on vaccines and the failure by the NIH and the FDA to do clinical trials on existing drugs that were known to be safe and could have been effective in treating those infected with COVID-19.

    Because so much of the process of approving the vaccines, the risks and benefits, and the reporting of possible side-effects was kept from the public, people were unable to give informed consent to their own health care, Mr. Kerpen said. 

    “And when the Biden administration came in and started mandating them, now you had something that was inherently experimental with some questionable data, and instead of saying, ‘Now you have a choice whether you want it or not,’ in the context of a pandemic they tried to mandate them,” he said.

    Pandemic Censorship

    Tech oligopolies and the corporate media also receive criticism for their collaboration with government to control public messaging and censor dissenting voices. According to the authors, many government and health officials collaborated with tech oligarchs, news media corporations, and even scientific journals to censor critical views on the pandemic.

    The Biden administration is currently defending itself before the Supreme Court against charges brought by Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general, who charged that administration officials pressured tech companies to censor information that contradicted official narratives on COVID-19’s origins, related mandates and treatment, as well as censoring political speech that was critical of President Biden during his 2020 campaign. The case is Murthy v. Missouri.

    Mr. Hanke stated that a previous report he co-authored, titled “Did Lockdowns Work?,” which was critical of lockdowns, was refused by medical journals, even when they published op-eds that criticized it and published numerous pro-lockdown reports. 

    Dr. Vinay Prasad—a physician, epidemiologist, professor at the University of California at San Francisco’s medical school and author of over 350 academic articles and letters—has made similar allegations of censorship by medical journals.

    “Specifically, MedRxiv and SSRN have been reluctant to post articles critical of the CDC, mask and vaccine mandates, and the Biden administration’s health care policies,” Dr. Prasad stated.

    Heightening concerns about medical censorship is the “zero-draft” World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic treaty currently being circulated for approval by member states, including the United States. It commits members to jointly seek out and “tackle” what the WHO deems as “misinformation and disinformation.”

    One of the enduring consequences of the COVID years is a general loss of public trust in public officials, health experts, and official narratives. 

    “Operation Warp Speed was a terrific success with highly unexpected rapidity of development [of vaccines],” Dr. Atlas said. “But the serious flaws centered around not being open with the public about the uncertainties, particularly of the vaccines’ efficacy and safety.” 

    “One result of the government’s error-ridden COVID response was that Americans have justifiably lost faith in public health institutions,” the report states. According to the authors, if health officials want to regain the public’s trust, they should begin with an accurate assessment of their actions during the pandemic.

    “The best way to restore trust is to admit you were wrong,” Dr. Atlas said. “I think we all know that in our personal lives, but here it’s very important because there has been a massive lack of trust now in institutions, in experts, in data, in science itself.

    “I think it’s going to be very difficult to restore that without admission of error,” he said.

    Recommendations for a Future Pandemic

    The CTUP report recommends that Congress and state legislatures set strict limitations on powers conferred to the executive branch, including health officials, and set time limits that would require legislation to be extended. This would give the public a voice in health emergency measures through their elected representatives.

    It further recommends that research grants should be independent of policy positions and that NIH funding should be decentralized or block-granted to states to distribute.

    Congress should mandate public disclosure of all FDA, CDC, and NIH discussions and decisions, including statements of any persons who provide advice to these agencies. Congress should also make explicit that CDC guidance is advisory and does not constitute laws or mandates. 

    The report also recommends that the United States immediately halt negotiations of agreements with the WHO “until satisfactory transparency and accountability is achieved.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 23:00

  • Yen's Whiplash Day Only Begins With A Rate Hike
    Yen’s Whiplash Day Only Begins With A Rate Hike

    By Mark Cranfield, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategist

    USD/JPY may be priced for the Bank of Japan to exit negative rates – something which thanks to the non-stop media leaks we know for a fact will happen – but a knee-jerk selloff is still likely when the first headline drops as traders react to the news. And that will only be the start of what could be a series of back-and-forth swings for the yen until Governor Ueda ends his press conference a few hours after the BOJ statement lands.

    While tightening policy is ostensibly a hawkish move, investors won’t be surprised if there are plenty of dovish caveats within the BOJ statement, with at least five things they will be focusing on for a sense of direction:

    • *BOJ MAINTAINS POLICY RATE AT -0.1%

    This is the big one. Will the BOJ finally end negative rates? Although the preamble to next week suggests the decision is too close to call, a move to zero interest rates would still shock the yen into a move higher.

    • *BOJ MAINTAINS 10-YEAR JGB YIELD TARGET AT ABOUT 0%

    In many ways this target is redundant as 10-year yields have been above zero for more than three years. That said, the symbolism of dropping the language would be negative for bonds.

    • *BOJ KEEPS UPPER BOUND REFERENCE ON LONG-TERM YIELDS AT 1%

    In October the BOJ fumbled the message by introducing flexible yield curve control and JGBs skidded lower. Clear communication on ending YCC will be important to avoid a disorderly reaction in debt markets.

    • *BOJ VOTES 9-0 ON RATE DECISION

    Whatever the BOJ decides, investors will want to know how split decision makers remain as a gauge for the pace of interest rate hikes to come.

    • *BOJ WILL ADD TO EASING WITHOUT HESITATION IF NEEDED

    Arguably the most symbolic statement of all, dropping it from the text would be a bearish medium-term signal for JGBs.

    * * *

    And then the fun will really begin when Ueda starts taking questions at the press conference. It’s likely that Ueda will provide dovish forward guidance, but communication in the past hasn’t always run as smoothly as the central bank would like, opening up the risk of more USD/JPY volatility.

    It sets up Tuesday for a head-spinning session…  and there is still the Federal Reserve to come!

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 22:46

  • The 4th Bitcoin Halving Explained
    The 4th Bitcoin Halving Explained

    Sometime in April 2024, the reward that cryptocurrency miners receive for mining bitcoin (BTC) will go from ₿6.25 to ₿3.125, with significant consequences for the world’s most valuable digital currency.

    To help understand this quadrennial event, Visual Capitalist’s Chris Dickert teamed up with HIVE Digital to take a deep dive on historical bitcoin data from Coinmetrics to see what the three previous halvings might tell us about the fourth.


    Bitcoin Explained

    But to understand halvings, we first need to take a step back to talk a bit about how the Bitcoin network works.

    Unlike fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar or the Chinese yuan that are backed by central banks, cryptocurrencies are supported by an underlying blockchain, which contains a record of every single bitcoin transaction in a public decentralized, distributed ledger. 

    When you spend a bitcoin, a digital record of that transaction needs to be validated and added to the blockchain. And this is where miners come in. They legitimize and audit bitcoin transactions, and as a reward, receive bitcoin in payment.

    Halvings Explained

    Now, quantitative easing notwithstanding, you normally can’t keep printing money forever without running into hyperinflation (think 1920s Germany or 1990s Argentina).

    To get around this problem, the Bitcoin network has a pre-programmed upper limit of 21 million, with the reward that miners receive decreasing by half (hence, halving) roughly every four years. 

    When the Bitcoin network first launched, the reward was initially set to ₿50, an amount that was high enough to quickly increase the money supply and incentivize miners to participate in the validation process. On November 28, 2012, that reward decreased by half to ₿25, then to ₿12.5 on July 9, 2016, and on May 11, 2020, to ₿6.25.

    The last halving will happen sometime in 2136, with the reward decreasing to ₿0.00000001 or one satoshi, the smallest denomination of bitcoin possible. The last bitcoin will enter circulation four years later, in 2140.

    Halvings and Miner Revenue

    With the fourth halving just around the corner, some have wondered whether mining will still be sustainable. Modern mining operations today are costly endeavors, often with razor-thin margins, and losing half of one’s revenue overnight would be a nightmare for any business. 

    And if you look at historical miner revenue in bitcoin, you can see quite clearly, the steep drop in revenue after each halving. But what’s interesting, is that if you compare that against the miner revenue in USD, there is a drop there as well, but it recovers soon thereafter as the cryptocurrency appreciates. In other words, a miner may receive less bitcoin, but that bitcoin is worth more.

    Halvings Compared

    So we know that the network will continue to function after the fourth halving, but what else can we learn from previous halvings? 

    If we look at the percent change in market capitalization post-halvings, we can see a bit of a pattern. After both the second and third halvings, market capitalization peaked at around the year-and-half mark. The second-halving peak occurred on day 526 at around $328 billion, an increase of 3,000%, while the third-halving peak came three weeks later on day 547 at over $1.2 trillion, or an increase of just under 700%. 

    The post-first-halving peak happened a bit earlier, at the 372-day mark, but because the peak was so high (over 10,000%!) it is considered an outlier, and omitted to better illustrate the trend.

    The 4th Bitcoin Halving Projected?

    Because we know that halvings occur every 210,000 blocks and that each block takes around 10 minutes to mine, we have a good idea of when the fourth halving should happen: April 21, 2024. If the next halving follows the same pattern as the previous two, then there could be a market-capitalization peak some time during the third week of October 2025.

    And with the price of bitcoin setting new records at time of writing, a lot of people will be watching very closely, indeed.  

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 22:40

  • Another Shutdown Averted As Deal Reached
    Another Shutdown Averted As Deal Reached

    Congress has reached a deal to avert yet another shutdown following an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the remainder of FY 2024, according to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman.

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    The U.S. Capitol building at night in Washington on March 3, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    In a race against time, Congress passed a package of six appropriations bills earlier this month, narrowly avoiding a partial shutdown. The deal revealed by Sherman avoids a Friday, March 22 drop-dead date.

    The text of a minibus combining those bills was widely expected to be released by Sunday, though no such deal emerged.

    As Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times reported earlier, House rules require that members be given at least 72 hours to review legislation before it comes up for a vote. This meant that if a deal was not released on Monday, it could mean another last-minute scramble to get something on President Joe Biden’s desk.

    The delay came amid fierce Republican opposition to the president’s handling of the crisis at the southern border, which more than 7 million illegal immigrants have crossed since he took office.

    Appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are included among the mix of remaining spending bills. Those negotiations reportedly derailed over the weekend amid talks of a potential year-long continuing resolution.

    “Republicans want to underfund DHS, which makes the border less secure and the country less safe,” a White House official told Politico on Sunday, asserting that Republicans were trying to “sow chaos on the border ahead of November.”

    But Republicans purportedly pushed back on those claims, holding that the issue was not the amount of funds requested but how they would be used.

    Nonetheless, talks were said to be back on track on Monday. Commenting on the negotiations at a press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration’s position was that DHS needs more funding to adequately address the border crisis.

    The deal is likely to face pushback from the GOP’s right flank, which continues to push for stronger border reforms.

    “Congress: we are FUNDING a DHS that is MASS RELEASING illegal aliens into our communities, some of whom commit horrific crimes,” wrote Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus, in an X post.

    “Republicans MUST NOT vote to keep funding Mayorkas’ DHS at the same level with zero policy changes next week. We have the power to stop this,” he added.

    Thanks to the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was forced to ally with Democrats to pass the first appropriations minibus on March 6. A similar partnership may well be in the cards for the second.

    Other remaining bills include funding for the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and State, as well as the legislative branch, financial services, and general government.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 22:20

  • One Bank Sees Bitcoin At $200,000, While Ether Hits $14,000 As It Becomes JPMorgan's Favorite Crypto
    One Bank Sees Bitcoin At $200,000, While Ether Hits $14,000 As It Becomes JPMorgan’s Favorite Crypto

    Many crypto skeptics laughed over a month ago when, back on February 5, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick predicted that Ether (which was then trading in the low $2000s) would hit $4,000 by May, around the time the Ethereum ETF was to be approved.

    They weren’t laughing when we got there just one month later, and more than two months ahead of schedule.

    They also laughed when back in January, Kendrick laid out his “high” case for bitcoin ETF accumulation – one which would justify a 2024 year-end price of $100,000 – as hitting 400,000 in early April, on their way to 1.32 million “coins” at year-end (or just 437,000 in the low case).

    Fast forward to today – it’s not even April yet – and already the nine new ETFs have accumulated a whopping 458,000 bitcoin, after net buying virtually every single day since the SEC authorized bitcoin ETFs.

    Bottom line: of all sellside analysts, Kendrick has proven time and again to be one of the most accurate, which is why latest research notes – one on bitcoin, and on ether – published earlier today, should be required reading for anyone following the crypto sector.

    In his first note, available to pro subs in the usual place, the Standard Chartered analyst writes that his latest forecast is for the price of bitcoin – now beyond the upcoming halving – to end 2024 around USD150k (up from a long held USD100k view). Then, “in 2025 bitcoin will overshoot to a cycle high of $250k before ultimately settling around $200k which will then be the new midpoint of a higher trading range. At that time vol will fall, and so will the rate of ascent of bitcoin.”

    How/why will we get there?

    Taking a deserved victory lap, Kendrick writes that “ETF inflows have been almost exactly as I had predicted, huge, but much greater than others had expected.” Indeed, the ytd inflows are bang in the middle of his previous high/low forecast range discussed here, and so suggest we end up somewhere around $75BN of inflows. At that point, the gold ETF story suggests we will be around $200k and that we then trade sideways in a higher trading rage (ie. The ETF inflows are a one-off re-rating higher).

    Kendrick also notes that “a gold v BTC portfolio optimization suggests we should be around 80%/20% rather than the current 91%/9% spilt. Again that points to the USD200k level as being ‘correct’.”  He explains why below:

    The total market cap of all above-ground gold is currently around USD 14.8tn (212,582 tonnes based on World Gold Council data, at the 15 March price of USD 2,160 per ounce). For BTC, the current price gives a market cap of USD 1.4tn – a split of 91% for gold to 9% for BTC. Assuming the gold price stays unchanged, the BTC price would need to increase to USD 190,000 in order for BTC’s share to rise to the 20% indicated by our portfolio optimisation. Again, this is close to our estimated BTC price level of USD 200,000 based on ETF inflows.

    The analysis focuses some more on comps to the gold market, before turning to another potential source of bitcoin price upside: FX reserves, i.e., “another large sticky (potential) cash pool, which could follow in the footsteps of new US pension money.” Specifically, Kendrick says that US and EU sanctions on Russia’s reserves “have structurally increased the appeal of non-standard reserve assets for FX reserve managers. The most obvious beneficiaries of this are gold and the CNY, but digital assets could also benefit” (as they already have in El Salvador where Nayib Bukele has previously purchased over 5,600 bitcoin). If they do, expect the largest and most liquid assets – such as Bitcoin – to receive most of the inflows. Which is why, the Standard Chartered analysts sees “a rising likelihood that large reserve managers (Figure 7) may announce BTC buying in 2024.”

    That pretty much covers the bullish bitcoin case; now what about Ethereum?

    Well, a couple points here. First of all, recall that in recent years, Wall Street has traditionally held ethereum, due to its smart contract nature and flexible architecture in much higher regard than bitcoin. None other than Goldman Sachs said, three years ago when it initiated coverage on the crypto sector, that bitcoin is a good asset, and “ironically” will be used as the “scarce resource” to make PoS systems work “instead of natural resources”, but while bitcoin may end up being a one-trick pony (if quite valuable) it is the new blockchain platforms – like Ethereum – that will serve as the basis for a “large market of trusted information“, as Goldman puts it “like Amazon is for consumer goods today” (Pro subscribers can find the full Goldman report can be found in the usual place).

    But it’s not just Goldman: none other than the most important man in the world of finance (sorry Jamie Dimon), the head of Blackrock – which buys and sells ETFs, bonds, and any other asset class at the Fed’s bidding – Larry Fink, said he is backing an ether ETF just after the SEC gave approval to Bitcoin. Specifically, the king of Wall Street, said “I see value in having an Ethereum ETF. These are just stepping stones towards tokenization and I really do believe this is where we’re going to be going.”  And whatever Larry sees, and wants, Larry gets.

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    That said, with just 2 months left until the SEC is expected to greenlight Ethereum ETFs, some are skeptical that the regulator will be as “forthcoming” this time as back in January with bitcoin, most notably Bloomberg’s ETF guru Eric Balchunas who gives just 35% odds of an Ethereum ETF being approved in May, as “we’re 73 days from the final deadline, and there’s been no contact or comments from the SEC to the issuers. That’s not a good sign… The SEC has to give comments and the issuers have to work on correcting them. They may have to refile and they might even want to have a couple of meetings — it’s kind of a long process.”

    Needless to say, Standard Chartered’s analyst Geoffrey Kendrick does not agree, and just as he sees much more upside to bitcoin, he sees even more potential gains for ether, which last week quietly and successfully implemented its long-awaited Dencun upgrade, thanks to which ETH is now as competitive as Solana in terms of transaction costs, via layer 2s.

    But that is hardly a value proposition (just don’t tell it to all those who are currently blowing Solana NFT memecoin bubbles which will burst spectacularly in a few days, assuming the centralized database that is Solana doesn’t collapse – as it tends to do every other month – first). What is of potential value, is that ether ETF approval is coming one way or another, and according to Kendrick, the SEC will do so on May 23, the final deadline for the first batch under consideration, and consistent with the timeline for the SEC’s January 2024 approval of Bitcoin ETFs: “Albeit I note this is now a non-consensus view. I think the process should be the same as it was for the BTC ETFs and I don’t see why the SEC would not approve” especially since in the UK, the LSE announced on 11 March that it would accept applications for ETH and BTC ETFs, which Kendrick’s think increases the chances of US approval.

    What happens then? Well, if the ETH ETFs are approved, Doug estimates $15-45BN – or 2.39-9.15 million ETH – in the first 12 months after approval, using the same logic as he applied to the BTC ETF inflows; importantly, he now sees more price upside than he previously did, and believes that ETH would keep pace with BTC, with the current 5.4% price ratio holding for the rest of 2024: “Given that we now see BTC reaching the USD 150,000 level by end-2024, this would imply a level of USD 8,000 for ETH” or just more than double from here.

    But the real value of ETH will shine in 2025 when Kendrick expects the ETH-BTC cross to track higher, back to 7%, as real world use cases on ETH – the same ones laid out by Goldman – start to take shape. This, he believes, “will see ETH to USD14k by year-end 2025.” There could be more gains: the report goes on to note borrow heavily from the Goldman ETH initiation report above, and states that…

    “If real-world use cases start to take practical shape before the end of 2025 (we see gaming as the most likely), then we think markets will start to see ETH as the digital assets version of a big tech stock. Indeed, we see several crossovers between tech and ETH, but because tech (most recently via AI) is already visible to end-users, it has taken most of the limelight so far. We expect that to change over time in favour of ETH, which is effectively a behind-the-scenes technology solution. This is because ETH’s smart contract platform enables future applications in much the same that Apple’s iOS system enables the building of apps.

    In that scenario, we see the ETH-BTC price ratio rising back to the 7% level that was in place for 18 months from mid-2021 to end-2022. This would present further upside to our estimated USD 14,000 price level by end-2025.”

    Impossible, you say, no way ETH rises 4x from its current price of $3,500. Perhaps, but consider the potential rise in use cases in the aftermath of the Dencun upgrade which has sent the cost of layer 2 transactions as cheap as Solanas. As a result, Kendrick believes that ETH’s use cases will “evolve towards gaming and tokenization, adding significant demand via the existing NFT and DeFi channels, respectively. Importantly, this should provide ‘proof of concept’ examples in which real-world industries come on-chain to exploit the benefits of Ethereum over their existing setups. We expect significant developments on these fronts by 2025-26.”

    Tokenization of real-world assets has begun, but it is small so far. The largest is stUSDT (staked USDT, Figure 4) on the Tron network. Returns for stUSDT are driven by US Treasury yields. The others, which are primarily built on Ethereum, are shown in Figure 5. These offer investors a mix of exposure ranging from front-end Treasuries (Ondo) to real estate (RealT);

    Note, the Standard Chartered analyst is not the first to say the true value of ETH is in tokenization: initially it was Goldman, and most recently it was the king of Wall Street, Blackrock’s Larry Fink, who as we noted above, said “I see value in having an Ethereum ETF. These are just stepping stones towards tokenization and I really do believe this is where we’re going to be going.”

    But while Goldman and Blackrock betting on ETH would be effectively a home run, what would guarantee a trifecta would be the last major holdout joining the bandwagon, and that’s precisely what happened last week when the bank – whose boss has been the most vocally skeptical of bitcoin in recent years – put its chips on ETH.

    In a March 14 note on Coinbase (which hiked the price target from $95 to $150; full note available to pro subs in the usual place) from JPM’s Ken Worthington, the crypto analyst echoed Goldman, Standard Chartered and Blackrock, and said that while “the focus of the cryptocurrency marketplace has been the net new money going into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs and the positive impact on Bitcoin token prices” it is “ethereum and its native token Ether as a substantial contributor to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and developer of blockchain technology.”

    Specifically, JPM writes that “it sees see the progression along the Ethereum roadmap, including the Dancun upgrade, which occurred this week on March 13, as driving crypto development, which is a longer-term positive and discuss this further in this research.”

    Compare and contrast that with, well, anything that Jamie Dimon has said about Bitcoin.

    There is much more in the full report, including a full fawning section on ETH (that appears to have been taken almost verbatim from the Goldman initiating coverage report)…

    … but the bottom line is that while Bitcoin was the pioneer in Wall Street’s institutionalization race, having seen the startling success of bitcoin ETF adoption, the financial titans including Goldman, Blackrock – and now – JPM, have set their sights on what comes next, which is something near and dear to the people who manage trillions: the fastest, cheapest and most effective way to tokenize everything, from information, to data, to money itself. And they have picked the token to do it with.

    So keep a close eye on what happens on May 23 when the SEC is reportedly pushing hard against ETF approval for the second biggest digital asset: with all three of the largest US financial institutions pushing hard, any resistance will die a quick and painless death.

    More in the full notes from JPM, Std Chartered and Goldman

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 22:00

  • Illegal Immigrant Can Carry Guns: Federal Judge
    Illegal Immigrant Can Carry Guns: Federal Judge

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    An illegal immigrant was wrongly banned from possessing guns, according to a recent ruling.

    A federal law, Section 922 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, bars illegal immigrants from carrying guns or ammunition. Prosecutors charged Heriberto Carbajal-Flores, the illegal alien, in 2020 after he was found in Chicago carrying a semi-automatic pistol despite “knowing he was an alien illegally and unlawfully in the United States.”

    U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman rejected two motions to dismiss, but the third motion, based on a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, triggered the dismissal of the case on March 8.

    “The noncitizen possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5), violates the Second Amendment as applied to Carbajal-Flores,” Judge Coleman, appointed under President Barack Obama, wrote in her 8-page ruling.

    “Thus, the court grants Carbajal-Flores’ motion to dismiss.”

    Lawyers for Mr. Carbajal-Flores had argued in the most recent motion to dismiss that the government could not show that the law in question was “part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.”

    In 2022, the Supreme Court determined that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment “presumptively protects” conduct that is covered by the amendment’s “plain text.”

    To justify regulations, governments must show that each regulation “is consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the high court said at the time. “Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command,’” it said.

    “Lifetime disarmament of an individual based on alienage or nationality alone does not have roots in the history and tradition of the United States,” Mr. Carbajal-Flores’s lawyers argued.

    They pointed to several rulings interpreting the Supreme Court’s decision, including an appeals court ruling that declared stripping a man convicted of a nonviolent crime of his gun rights was unconstitutional.

    The government opposed the motion, noting that neither of the cited decisions applied to illegal immigrants and that the defendant ignored other rulings that did, including a 2023 ruling that found that Second Amendment rights aren’t afforded to illegal immigrants. The government also offered examples of laws that prohibited certain categories of people from carrying guns, including “individuals who threatened the social order through their untrustworthy adherence to the rule of law.”

    But Judge Coleman ruled for the defendant, finding that the laws against untrustworthy people contained exceptions for people who signed loyalty oaths and were deemed nonviolent.

    “The government argues that Carbajal-Flores is a noncitizen who is unlawfully present in this country. The court notes, however, that Carbajal-Flores has never been convicted of a felony, a violent crime, or a crime involving the use of a weapon. Even in the present case, Carbajal-Flores contends that he received and used the handgun solely for self-protection and protection of property during a time of documented civil unrest in the Spring of 2020,” she wrote.

    “Additionally, Pretrial Service has confirmed that Carbajal-Flores has consistently adhered to and fulfilled all the stipulated conditions of his release, is gainfully employed, and has no new arrests or outstanding warrants. The court finds that Carbajal-Flores’ criminal record, containing no improper use of a weapon, as well as the non-violent circumstances of his arrest do not support a finding that he poses a risk to public safety such that he cannot be trusted to use a weapon responsibly and should be deprived of his Second Amendment right to bear arms in self-defense.”

    An attorney representing Mr. Carbajal-Flores declined to comment. Federal prosecutors didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    Reactions

    The ruling drew a range of reactions from people in the legal community.

    “Supreme Court has said the ‘people’ are members of the political community,” Larry Keane, a lawyer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, wrote on X.

    “Illegal aliens in US are not part of the political community and thus do not have 2A rights.”

    Kostas Moros, a lawyer who represents the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said that he also saw the issue that way.

    “Bruen asks for a historical tradition of modern regulation that justifies the modern law, and one plainly exists here,” he wrote, noting that groups that have been disarmed in the past, including loyalists, have the common thread of being “outside of the political community.”

    Matthew Larosiere, another lawyer, disagreed, writing in an analysis that all immigrants, even ones in the country illegally, are part of “the people” in the Second Amendment. His argument rested in part on the 14th Amendment, which applies to “any person within” the country.

    “To find that illegal immigrants are outside of ’the people‘ protected by the Second Amendment, you must believe that the Framers were talking about a different ’people’ in the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments,” he wrote, adding later that he sided with the court in finding differences between historical laws such as the one that barred loyalists from owning guns and the law that applies to illegal immigrants.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 21:40

  • Trust In Flying Still High, But Passengers Take More Precautions
    Trust In Flying Still High, But Passengers Take More Precautions

    The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into the panel blow out of a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines in January, according to the Wall Street Journal. The incident was the first in a chain of events reported this year, which have led to increased scrutiny of the company and heightened media attention over such incidents.

    Despite the string of faults that have been publicized, the chances of being killed on a flight are extremely low.

    This knowledge is well ingrained in many, as Statista’s Anna Fleck notes one study, carried out by The Harris Poll on behalf of Fast Company, shows: 69 percent of respondents agreed that flying is safer than other means of long-distance transportation.

    At the same time, 86 percent of adults agreed that they would trust flight teams (such as air hostesses and pilots) to keep passengers safe during flights, while 73 percent said that they trust passenger planes are thoroughly inspected before flying.

    Yet, it appears that the high-profile safety incidents documented of late are having at least some impact on flyers’ behaviors: 48 percent of respondents said that they would now be more likely to pay attention to safety materials on an upcoming flight, 47 percent said that they would now be more likely to wear a seatbelt when not required and 45 percent said that they would now be more likely pay attention to pre-takeoff activities. At the same time, between 30-40 percent said that they would be more likely to consider the row their seat is located on the plane, the airline they book with and the type of plane they will be flying on.

    Infographic: Trust in Flying High But Passengers Take More Precautions | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Against a backdrop of questions over what’s going on with Boeing, Morning Consult carried out a survey on how public trust in the aircraft giant has changed with the new developments.

    It found that between Q4 of last year and January 1-February 28 of 2024, net trust had dipped among respondents by 14 percentage points. Net trust is defined as the share of respondents who trust a brand minus the share who distrust a brand.

    As the following chart shows, the biggest change was among business travelers, with a 26 percentage point difference between the two survey waves. According to the online polling company, this is partly due to business flyers having historically had more trust in Boeing than other groups, which means there was more room to fall.

    Infographic: Trust in Boeing Plummets After Safety Incidents | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Nicki Zink, an analyst at Morning Consult, adds that while Boeing’s reputation has dipped, this has not spread to the wider airline industry and that net trust in airlines has even seen an uptick as the spring break season approaches.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 21:20

  • Queenpin Of Guatemalan Drug Cartel Sentenced Over International Trafficking Conspiracy
    Queenpin Of Guatemalan Drug Cartel Sentenced Over International Trafficking Conspiracy

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

    A Queenpin of the Lorenzana drug trafficking network has been sentenced to 33 years in prison and forced to forfeit $27 million for charges related to international drug trafficking.

    The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington on June 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    According to the Department of Justice, Queenpin Marta Julia Lorenzana-Cordon from Zacapa, Guatemala, was a leader in one of the largest and most influential drug cartels in Guatemala. Guatemala is a Central American country south of Mexico, with a population of over 17 million people.

    During their reign, the Lorenzana criminal group was described by authorities as one of the most brutal and destructive drug trafficking organizations in the world.

    Julia Lorenzana-Cordon was extradited to the United States in December of 2021, after Guatemalan authorities took her into custody at the behest of the U.S. government in May 2021. She subsequently pleaded guilty in May of 2023 to conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, and knowing and intending for the drug to be unlawfully imported to America.

    According to the Department of Justice, Julia Lorenzana-Cordon, also known as Yulie, began operating within the criminal enterprise around 2008 and continued until at least 2019. The organization itself began operating in 1996. The patriarchal criminal group comprised primarily of family members and had the goal of distributing multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia to Central America and Mexico for eventual distribution into the United States.

    The investigation into Julia Lorenzana-Cordon was part of Operation Slipknot and conducted by the DEA’s Bilateral Investigations Unit, with assistance from the DEA Guatemala City Country Office and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. Investigators found the Lorenzana drug trafficking organization transported tonnage quantities of cocaine from Colombia into Guatemala, where the cocaine was stored on properties owned by the crime organization.

    After the cocaine was processed, the drug was transported by the Sinaloa Cartel, among other organizations, into Mexico, through Central America, and eventually, into the United States.

    Along with Julia Lorenzana-Cordon, her siblings, Eliu Elixander Lorenzana-Cordon and Waldemar Lorenzana-Cordon have also been hit with lengthy prison sentences. Both were convicted in 2019 on international narcotics trafficking charges in the District of Columbia and sentenced to life in prison.

    At the same time, the father of the siblings, Waldemar Lorenzana-Lima Sr., pleaded guilty in August 2014 to international narcotics trafficking charges in the District of Columbia, receiving 23 years in prison. He has since passed away.

    According to authorities, the family was deeply dysfunctional, and Julia Lorenzana-Cordon had separate drug trafficking networks different to those of her brothers and father, which allowed her to continue operating for a few years after the rest of her family was convicted.

    Julia Lorenzana-Cordon was also reportedly married to Jairo Estuardo Orellana Morales, a Guatemalan narcotics trafficker and accused murderer who was arrested in May 2014. His status since being detained is unknown.

    Drug trafficker Waldemar Lorenzana Lima, related to the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, is taken under custody on April 28, 2011, upon his arrival in Guatemala City. He faces an extradition warrant from the United States. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Department of the Treasury designated the couple as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNT) under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). Under the act, U.S. persons and entities are prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with anyone designated as a SDNT. The act also freezes any assets a SDNT may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 21:00

  • More & More Americans Turn To TikTok For News
    More & More Americans Turn To TikTok For News

    The House of Representatives passed a bill last week that could lead to a nationwide ban of the social media platform TikTok in the United States, unless its Chinese owner Byte Dance sells its stake in the company within 165 days.

    U.S. lawmakers had raised concerns over the question of data and national security risks of the app, fearing potential links to China’s government. TikTok, which is headquartered outside of China, says it has never been asked by the Chinese government to provide them with U.S. data and has been actively trying to distance itself from Beijing.

    The short form video app is particularly beloved by teenagers and young people around the world.

    Now, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, nearly one in three (32 percent) young adults aged 18-29 even say that they turn to TikTok regularly for news. This is up from just nine percent who said the same in 2020.

    While still low, the overall share of adults in the United States who say they regularly get news on TikTok has more than quadrupled between 2020 and 2024.

    Infographic: More Americans Turn to TikTok for News | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to a survey by Pew Research Center of over 8,800 adults, where only 3 percent said they regularly get their news from the social media platform four years ago, this had climbed to 14 percent between September 25 and October 1, 2023, when the survey was last fielded.

    In order for the bill to come into action, it first needs to see through the legislative process and would then need to pass the Senate.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 20:40

  • Trump Reveals Plan To Impose 100 Percent Tariffs On Chinese Cars Made In Mexico
    Trump Reveals Plan To Impose 100 Percent Tariffs On Chinese Cars Made In Mexico

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

    Former President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese cars made in Mexico once reelected, double the 50 percent he stated earlier.

    Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump speaks at a rally in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 20, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    “Mexico has taken, over a period of thirty years, 34 percent of the automobile manufacturing business in our country,” President Trump said during a rally in Ohio on Saturday. China is building massive plants in Mexico where they plan on building the cars and selling them in the United States, paying no tax at the border, he said, adding that the plan will not work under his presidency.

    “Let me tell you something to China, if you’re listening President Xi … those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get that, you’re going to not hire Americans, and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no, we’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected,” he said.

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

    In an interview with CNBC on March 11, President Trump said he would put a 50 percent tariff on all cars China builds in Mexico and sells in the United States. Such a move will force them to stop building the plants, he claimed. “But we don’t do that. We have stupid people running our government, to be honest,” he said.

    Chinese Threat

    A Feb. 20 report by the Alliance for American Manufacturing warned that China posed an “existential threat” to the American auto industry if it uses the Mexico route to sell vehicles. Manufacturing in Mexico will grant Chinese automakers “more favorable tariffs” under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

    This essentially hands over Chinese auto companies “backdoor access” to American consumers, allowing them to circumvent current U.S. policies that are keeping them away from the American market. “This is an auto industry backed by the Chinese state. It has invested heavily in foreign markets in order to access more of them,” the report stated.

    “And there is cause for alarm that Chinese vehicles and parts will only increase their access to the U.S. market, overcoming existing tariffs and evading existing trade enforcement measures, to directly challenge domestic automakers and threaten the jobs of millions of American manufacturing workers.”

    The report called on the United States to adopt a more “proactive and evolving” strategy to counter the Chinese agenda. It recommended that Washington raise tariffs on any Made in China vehicle and tighten USMCA regulations.

    In January last year, a dispute panel of the USMCA ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico against the United States in their interpretation of rules for the production of automobiles.

    The dispute was regarding the United States allegedly having a stricter interpretation of rules that a minimum of 75 percent regional parts is necessary for a car to be considered as made in North America. The rule is crucial to qualify for duty-free treatment under USMCA.

    Canada and Mexico argued that if the core part of the vehicle, like the transmission or engine, has 75 percent regional content, then the number can be rounded up to 100 percent for calculating the overall regional content of the product. The United States disagreed against rounding up the numbers.

    The panel sided with Canada and Mexico. The United States Trade Representative called the ruling “disappointing.” The panel’s interpretation “could result in less North American content in automobiles, less investment across the region, and fewer American jobs.”

    Michael Stumo, from the Coalition for a Prosperous America, said that the judgment “is another reason to not outsource our trade policy, or any part of our sovereignty, to global tribunals. The USMCA was approved in large part because of strong regional auto content. Free traders on an international tribunal just changed that deal.”

    Back in September, President Trump warned in a Truth Social post that the Biden administration’s EV program will end up benefiting China and the “Auto Industry in America will cease to exist!”

    “Vote for TRUMP, and I will stop this Madness, IMMEDIATELY! Mexico & Canada LOVE Biden’s idiotic policy,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 20:20

  • US Confirms Israel Killed Hamas No. 3, But Biden Calls Rafah Ground Op 'A Mistake'
    US Confirms Israel Killed Hamas No. 3, But Biden Calls Rafah Ground Op ‘A Mistake’

    On Monday the White House confirmed that Israel killed Hamas number three Marwan Issa in an operation on March 11. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari had initially announced the likelihood of his death, but said the military is still awaiting confirmation. Some international reports have described Issa as the number two most important leader.

    But what is clear is that Issa’s death marks the highest-ranking official of Hamas to be taken out during Israel’s war with Hamas began on Oct. 7. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed the news in a Monday afternoon press briefing.

    Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, Last known photograph.

    YNet wrote that “Marwan Issa holds powerful position in the terror group as coordinator between military wing and the political leadership; reports of his death come after massive airstrikes on Nuseirat camp in central Gaza where he is believed to be hiding.”

    Sullivan during the White House press briefing also answered questions over President Biden having held his first phone call in a month with his Israeli counterpart, PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

    Sullivan said that Biden told Netanyahu that Israel has the “right to go after Hamas” – but still stressed that the impending ground operation on refugee-packed Rafah is a “mistake”. 

    A call readout indicted the two leaders focused on discussing “the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza.” The readout from the Israeli side stressed “Israel’s commitment to achieving all the goals” of its operation, including “making sure Gaza is not a threat” alongside ensuring the continued supply of humanitarian aid.

    But the division between Washington and Tel Aviv policy visions for Gaza continues to play out publicly. Sullivan said that Israel still doesn’t have an adequate plan for the safe evacuation of Rafah’s over one million civilians. But Israel has stressed repeatedly in the last several days that it does have a plan in place.

    Watch the respective contrary positions in the below statements…

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

    Israeli media took notice too:

    The White House on Monday sharply rejected the “straw man” argument adopted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that opposing a major Israeli military operation in Rafah is akin to opposing the total defeat of Hamas.

    Netanyahu also on Monday told a gathering of AIPAC representatives (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in Jerusalem that accusations coming out of Washington that he’s beholden to extremists in his government are “deliberate lies”. He was responding to the scathing criticisms issued last week Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who also called for new elections in Israel and accused Netanyahu of looking out for his own political future first.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 20:00

  • High-Schoolers Are Losing Confidence In The Benefits Of A College Degree
    High-Schoolers Are Losing Confidence In The Benefits Of A College Degree

    Via Campus Reform,

    A recently released study that involved focus groups and a national study explores how high school students and non-enrolled adults ages 18-30 view the prospects of a college degree.

    New data suggests that prospective college students are finding fewer and fewer reasons to obtain a degree.

    Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted a new report by the Gates Foundation-funded HCM Strategists and Edge Research revealing that high school students and young adults have a declining view of the benefits of a college degree.

    The study, ”Continuing to Explore the Exodus from Higher Education,”compares the results of focus groups and a national survey conducted in 2023 to findings from a 2022 Gates Foundation report titled, “Where are the students?.”

    Researchers found that high schoolers and non-enrolled adults ages 18-30 still associate some benefits with attending college, but those perceived benefits were in decline compared to findings from 2022.

    The percentage of non-enrolled adults surveyed who consider reasons to go to college, such as to gain more money or get a better job, as important or very important has also dropped from the year before.

    At the same time, however, non-enrolled adults continue to perceive an increasing benefit to other options such as licenses, certificates, and trade schools.

    In conclusion, the study’s researchers write that, “Despite our understanding of the value of higher education, perceptions among these high school students and non-enrolled audiences make it clear that institutions need to prove their value to them.”

    ”In particular, why does the value of a 2-year or 4-year degree outweigh the value of credentials and job training programs?,” the researchers write.

    “Both High Schoolers and Non-Enrollees see and select other paths that are shorter, cheaper, and/or more directly linked to specific job opportunities.”

    “At the end of the day, higher education has a lot of work to do to convince these audiences of its value,” HCM consultant Terrell Dunn told Inside Higher Ed. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 19:40

  • Google Denies Election Interference After Report Cites Dozens Of Instances Helping Dems, Censoring Republicans
    Google Denies Election Interference After Report Cites Dozens Of Instances Helping Dems, Censoring Republicans

    Google has denied a new report by the right-leaning Media Research Center (MRC) alleging 41 instances of “election interference” since 2008.

    According to the report, Google has “utilized its power to help push to electoral victory the most liberal candidates…while targeting their opponents for censorship.”

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

    MRC also claims that Google “targeted support for Hillary Clinton for censorship” by “suspending the accounts of writers who wrote blogs critical of Obama during his primary race against Clinton.”

    In 2008, MRC alleged that Google threw its support behind then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as he faced off against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. –NY Post

    Four years later, Google – which “once again favored Obama over Mitt Romney,” refused to correct a “Google bomb” that smeared GOP primary candidate Rick Santorum, the report reads.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to Dr. Robert Epstein, who is cited in MRC’s report and has conducted “dozens of controlled experiments” to uncover bias, Google’s search algorithm “shifted at least 2.5 million votes” to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US election.

    In 2018, President Donald Trump accused the search giant of rigging search results to display only left-wing and negative stories about him.

    “Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD, Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal,” Trump said in a now-deleted post on X.

    In response, Google claimed “Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology.”

    Google denies

    A company source told the NY Post that Epstein’s claims have been “widely debunked.” In one instance cited by the MRC report, Google is alleged to have “targeted” then-Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI), by “disabling Gabbard’s Ads account just as she became the most searched candidate following the first Democratic Party primary debate.”

    Google’s source told the Post that the company’s automated systems flagged ‘unusual activity’ due to large spending changes in an effort to prevent fraud – and the issue was resolved within six hours, per the source, who noted that Gabbard’s subsequent lawsuit against the company was dismissed.

    The MRC also alleged that Google’s left-leaning bias impacted the 2022 Georgia Senate race between former football great and Republican Herschel Walker and the eventual winner, the Democrat Raphael Warnock.

    According to the report, Google’s search results “favored [the] incumbent” Warnock “in the swing precinct where greater proportions of undecided voters likely reside.”

    A source close to Google told The Post that third parties who have looked at our results and “found no evidence to support claims of political bias.” -NY Post

    “There is absolutely nothing new here — just a recycled list of baseless, inaccurate complaints that have been debunked by third parties and many that failed in the courts,” a Google spokesperson told the outlet.

    Of course, one can’t help but be skeptical considering that just before the 2016 presidential election, among the many leaks published by Wikileaks as part of its Podesta email leak was Google’s “strategic plan” to help democrats win the election and track voters.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 19:20

  • Biden Wants To Hike Taxes By $7 Trillion Dollars
    Biden Wants To Hike Taxes By $7 Trillion Dollars

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    If Democrats win the trifecta with a clean sweep of the Senate, House, and White House in November, taxes would rise by $7 trillion over 10 years.

    The House Ways and Means Committee reports The Biden Tax Hike Will Likely Exceed $7 Trillion.

    I believe they mean would not will.

    Tax Details

    • President Biden Quietly Pledges to Let Trump Tax Cuts Expire

    • Sending Jobs and Companies Overseas with Higher Business Taxes than China

    • Global Tax Surrender Allows Foreign Governments to Take American Tax Dollars

    • President Biden’s proposal to raise the top rate to 39.6 percent goes after small business owners who pay their business taxes via their individual tax return – despite his pledge not to raise taxes on small businesses.

    • A Tax on Wealth You Haven’t Even Earned Yet.

    • Higher Prices for Energy Bills and an Energy Insecure America.

    • An IRS That Would Terrify Godzilla

    A friend of mine asked when will the tax hikes cause a recession. I replied never. I suspect my friend was confused over the title that said “will” it should say “would”.

    I did not total up all of those details because I don’t believe it’s going to happen. However, It is a warning shot as to what would happen if Democrats did win the trifecta.

    Biden’s Populist Budget

    The Hill comments Biden’s populist budget marks the overdue end of trickle-down economics

    Trickle-down refers to the idea that tax cuts for the wealthiest “trickle down” to the rest of us. It’s long been a popular idea in Washington, but it’s just not true. A few years ago, the London School of Economics studied 50 years of such “trickle-down” policies in 18 industrialized nations, including the U.S., and found that their only result was increasing the wealth of the already wealthy.

    So how do we get prosperity for the rest of us? By taxing extreme wealth and investing those revenues in social goods like education, housing, food and health care. President Biden’s recently released federal budget plan follows that blueprint, putting the value of investing in American families and communities ahead of slashing taxes for the rich.

    The budget for the fiscal year 2025 would generate about $5.3 trillion in revenues over the next decade. That’s a $388 billion boost compared to last year’s budget — and it all comes from fairer tax policies targeting wealthy individuals and large corporations. Households earning less than $400,000 would see no tax increases, with many seeing reductions.

    The proposed budget invests $2.3 trillion towards essential public services for hard-working families while reducing the national debt by almost $3 trillion. That’s a great start toward filling critical investment gaps for families and communities.

    Take housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports a shortfall of more than 7 million affordable housing units for poor and low-income Americans. Biden is requesting $33 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher program, which currently helps over 2 million households afford housing and would expand access to homeownership for first-time homebuyers. His request will help to support the existing vouchers and add about 20,000 more.

    Though much more is needed, this effort to reduce homelessness by providing access to safe affordable housing in a tight housing market — with high rent prices and often insufficient wages — is a step in the right direction.

    Normally writers for The Hill are not nutzoid liberal like the above article.

    But it’s not going to happen unless you think Democrats can pull off a trifecta.

    Nonetheless, the budget is instructive as are CBO and Fed projections. I will have some comments on those projections Sunday or Monday.

    Optimism reins supreme, and it won’t happen.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 19:00

  • Russia Mulls Security Buffer Zone As Ukraine Drones Shut Down 600,000 Barrels Of Daily Refining
    Russia Mulls Security Buffer Zone As Ukraine Drones Shut Down 600,000 Barrels Of Daily Refining

    After Russian President Vladimir Putin’s post-election victory speech and Q&A with the press wherein he first unveiled the possibility of creating a buffer zone between Ukrainian land and Russian border regions, the Kremlin has issued more details of the plan being mulled. 

    Putin had initially described Sunday, “I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain ‘sanitary zone’ in the territories today under the Kyiv regime.” He referenced the “tragic events” of cross-border attacks in regions bordering Ukraine which have left scores of civilians dead and wounded over the past several months.

    Putin described without elaborating further that the security zone “would be quite difficult for the adversary to overcome with its weapons, primarily of foreign origin.”

    Refinery ablaze last week in Ryazan, Ryazan Region. via Reuters

    On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that as part of the plan Russia “would take measures to safeguard [its] territories” from Ukrainian drone and artillery attacks on critical infrastructure and civilian areas and residences. These areas can be made safe, he explained in follow-up to Putin’s words, “some kind of corridor, some kind of… buffer zone that [would put] out of reach any means that the enemy might use to launch strikes.”

    From Moscow’s perspective, this is laying the foundation and likely even ‘legal framework’ for seizing and solidifying hold over border territories inside Ukraine for the purpose of creating this proposed buffer. In many cases thus far throughout the war, Ukraine forces have been able to send drones hundreds of kilometers inside Russia, reaching even Moscow and St. Petersburg in rare instances.

    Oil refineries have been especially targeted, with a dozen or more instances in merely the last few months alone. Crimea too has come under increased drone swarm attack.

    The attacks on energy are clearly beginning to have significant impact on a chief source of revenue, part of which no doubt goes to fund the Russian war machine in Ukraine.

    “Gunvor Group Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Torbjörn Törnqvist estimates about 600,000 barrels of Russia’s daily oil-refining capacity has been knocked out by Ukrainian drone strikes,” Bloomberg reports based on a Monday report. According to some key quotes:

    “It is significant because obviously this is gonna hit the distillate exports straight away,” Törnqvist said during an interview at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston on Monday. “So that will probably take down exports by a couple of hundred thousand barrels, so to me it’s a distillate problem.”

    …Broadly writ, crude oil markets are mostly in balance and fairly valued, Törnqvist said, adding that US supplies are likely to grow this year by about half the rate of 2023’s 700,000-to-800,000 barrel-a-day pace. Still, non-OPEC supply growth overall is likely to be flat this year, he said. 

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

    The past week has seen consecutive days of drone strikes on oil facilities inside Russia, with a noticeable uptick in attacks confirmed over the weekend, as Russians went to the polls to vote in the presidential election. Just before the three-day election period began, there was an attack on Rosneft’s largest refinery:

    Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery, controlled by Rosneft, was set ablaze after a drone attack, a regional governor said on Wednesday.

    The plant, with installed capacity of around 350,000 barrels per day, refines about 12.7 million metric tons of Russian crude a year (around 317,000 barrels per day), or 5.8% of total refined crude, according to industry sources.

    On Sunday alone, 35 drones were launched on Russia, disrupting electricity in a number of border regions, including resulting at another fire at an oil refinery. One drone made to Moscow, and was shot down as it flew near Domodedovo airport.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 18:40

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Mar 18

Today’s News 18th March 2024

  • Which Countries Have A Legal Cannabis Market?
    Which Countries Have A Legal Cannabis Market?

    Non-medical cannabis sales are forecast to surge by around 74 percent in the United States between 2024 and 2028, increasing from $20.2 billion to $35.1 billion.

    This is according to estimates calculated on July 2023 by analysts at Statista Market Insights and is based on the 11 countries in which cannabis was fully or partially legalized in around the world.

    As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, the U.S. is already the biggest market for non-medical legal cannabis worldwide.

    It is forecast to expand to become almost seven times bigger than the next largest market, neighboring Canada.

    Canada has a sizeable market considering that the drug’s use for recreational purposes only became legal across the country on October 17, 2018.

    Infographic: Which Countries Have a Legal Cannabis Market? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    As the chart above shows, Cannabis will soon be legally available in Germany too, with possession and cultivation of the plant for personal consumption legal for adults as of April 1, 2024.

    It will not be the sole market in Europe either, with the Netherlands and Spain both projected to see growth in the next four years.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 02:45

  • "Reduce Poverty Migration To Zero" – German Politicians Propose Crackdown On Migrants Sending Billions To Their Home Countries
    “Reduce Poverty Migration To Zero” – German Politicians Propose Crackdown On Migrants Sending Billions To Their Home Countries

    By John Cody of Remix News

    Every year, migrants and refugees transfer billions of euros from Germany to family members in their home countries, with the Bundesbank estimating this to be at least €6.8 billion per year.

    Now, some German political parties want to crack down on this development, with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) seeking to “reduce poverty migration to zero” with restrictions on cash payments and social benefits.

    Some of the money sent abroad is earned from work, but a substantial amount is likely from social welfare payments transferred to migrants, who then send it out of the country to support their families across the world. Since many of these social welfare benefits are distributed as cash, there is little oversight in how this money is used and transferred by migrants.

    These foreigners have a substantial incentive to send this money overseas, where due to exchange rates and different standards of living, the euro can go far further than it can in Germany. However, these social welfare payments were never designed to be sent overseas, and are meant to provide the necessary support for migrants within Germany.

    The debate on these remittances is only growing, with pro-migration parties working to stop efforts to disburse social welfare through electronic cards rather than cash. There is an awareness that if migrants stop receiving this money in cash, it may even serve as an incentive to leave the country. Not only would cash remittances become far more difficult, but prostitutes, drugs, and alcohol could also face restrictions.

    However, so-called vices such as alcohol and cigarettes may still be freely available with the new bank cards for migrants, with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) working to enact restrictions on certain products.

    “Established politics is once again misleading the German public. The goal of all reforms of asylum seeker benefits must be to reduce poverty migration to Germany to zero. To achieve this, all false incentives must be eliminated immediately. This is not feasible with a payment card for asylum seekers that continues to provide cash benefits and does not even exclude things like alcohol or cigarettes,” said AfD parliamentary group spokesperson, René Springer.

    “We need a strict principle of benefits in kind for asylum seekers — bread, bed, and soap. There should be nothing more. Only then can we really assume that people who ask for asylum here are actually seeking protection. Asylum is only intended for this purpose and not as an access portal to German social benefits,” he continued.

    It is not just the AfD working to abolish cash benefits. Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr said these cash benefits have been a “real pull factor. A lot of money was then sent home. We don’t want that.”

    However, other pro-migrant politicians such as the Green Party’s Erik Marquardt claim that migrants sending this tax money home is actually a good thing, saying that it is an “important part of development cooperation.” The argument is that these migrants are helping their families out of poverty.

    Continue reading at rmx.news

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 03/18/2024 – 02:00

  • Escobar: Will BRICS Launch A New World Order In 2024?
    Escobar: Will BRICS Launch A New World Order In 2024?

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

    BRICS doubled its membership at the start of 2024, and faces huge tasks ahead: integrating its newest members, developing future admission criteria, deepening the institution’s groundings, and most importantly, launching the mechanisms for bypassing the US dollar in international finance.

    Across the Global South, countries are lining up to join the multipolar BRICS and the Hegemon-free future it promises. The onslaught of interest has become an unavoidable theme of discussion during this crucial year of the Russian presidency of what, for the moment, is BRICS-10.  

    Indonesia and Nigeria are among the top tiers of candidates likely to join. The same applies to Pakistan and Vietnam. Mexico is in a very complex bind: how to join without summoning the ire of the Hegemon.  

    And then there’s the new candidacy on a roll: Yemen, which enjoys plenty of support from Russia, China, and Iran. 

    It’s been up to Russia’s top BRICS sherpa, the immensely capable Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, to clarify what’s ahead. He tells TASS: 

    We must provide a platform for the countries interested in rapprochement with the BRICS, where they will be able to work practically without feeling left behind and joining this cooperation rhythm. And as to how the further expansion will be decided upon – this should be postponed at least until the leaders convene in Kazan to decide.

    The key decision on BRICS+ expansion will only come out of the Kazan summit next October. Ryabkov stresses that the order of the day is first “to integrate those who have just joined.” This means that “as a ‘ten,’ we work at least as efficiently, or, rather, more efficiently than we did within the initial ‘five.'”

    Only then will the BRICS-10 “develop the category of partner states,” which, in fact, means creating a consensus-based list out of the dozens of nations that are literally itching to join the club. 

    Ryabkov always makes a point to note, in public and in private, that the twofold increase of BRICS members starting on 1 January 2024 is “an unprecedented event for any international structure.”

    It isn’t an easy task, Ryabkov says: 

    Last year, it took an entire year to develop the admission, expansion criteria at the level of top officials. Many reasonable things were developed. And many of the things that were formulated back then got reflected in the list of countries that joined. But it would probably be improper to formalize the requirements. At the end of the day, an admission to the association is a subject of political decision.

    What happens after Russia’s presidential elections 

    In a private meeting with a few select individuals on the sidelines of the recent multipolar conference in Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke effusively of BRICS, with particular emphasis on his counterparts Wang Yi of China and S. Jaishankar of India. 

    Lavrov holds great expectations for BRICS-10 this year – at the same time, reminding everyone that this is still a club; it must eventually go deeper in institutional terms, for instance, by appointing a secretariat-general, just like its cousin-style organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

    The Russian presidency will have its hands full for the next few months, not only navigating the geopolitical spectrum of current crises but, most of all, geoeconomics. A crucial ministerial meeting in June – only three months away – will have to define a detailed road map all the way to the Kazan summit four months later. 

    What happens after this week’s Russian presidential elections will also condition BRICS policy. A new Russian government will be sworn in only by early May. It is widely expected that there will be no substantial changes within the Russian Finance Ministry, Central Bank, Foreign Ministry, and among top Kremlin advisers. 

    Continuity will be the norm. 

    And that brings us to the key geoeconomics dossier: the BRICS at the forefront of bypassing the US dollar in international finance. 

    Last week, top Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov announced that BRICS will work towards setting up an independent payment system based on digital currencies and blockchain. 

    Ushakov specifically emphasized “state-of-the-art tools such as digital technologies and blockchain. The main thing is to make sure it is convenient for governments, common people, and businesses, as well as cost-effective and free of politics.”

    Ushakov did not mention it explicitly, but a new alternative system already exists. For the moment, it is a closely, carefully guarded project in the form of a detailed white paper that has already been validated academically and also incorporates answers to possible frequently asked questions. 

    The Cradle was briefed on the system via several meetings since last year with a small group of world-class fintech experts. The system has already been presented to Ushakov himself. As it stands, it is on the verge of receiving a final green light from the Russian government. After clearing a series of tests, the system in thesis would be ready to be presented to all BRICS-10 members before the Kazan summit. 

    This all ties in with Ushakov publicly declaring that a specific task for 2024 is to increase the role of BRICS in the international monetary/ financial system. 

    Ushakov recalls how, in the 2023 Johannesburg Declaration, the BRICS heads of state focused on increasing settlements in national currencies and strengthening correspondent banking networks. The target was to “continue to develop the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, primarily regarding the use of currencies different from the US dollar.” 

    No single currency for the foreseeable future 

    All of the above frames the absolute key issue being currently discussed in Moscow, within the Russia–China partnership, and soon, deeper among the BRICS-10: alternative settlement payments to the US dollar, increased trade among “friendly nations,” and controls on capital flight.  

    Ryabkov added more crucial elements to the debate, saying this week that the BRICS are not debating the implementation of a single currency: 

    As for a single currency, similar to what was created by the European Union, this is hardly possible in the foreseeable future. If we are talking about clearing forms of mutual settlements such as the ECU [European Currency Unit] at an early stage of development of the European Union, in the absence of a real means of payment, but the opportunity to more effectively use the available resources of the countries in mutual settlements to avoid losses due to differences in exchange rates, and so on, then this is precisely the path along which, in my opinion, BRICS should move. This is under consideration.

    The key takeaway, per Ryabkov, is that the BRICS should not create a financial and monetary alliance; they should create payment and settlement systems that do not depend upon the shifty “rules-based international order.” 

    That’s exactly the emphasis of the ideas and experiments already developed by Minister of Integration and Macroeconomy at the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) Sergei Glazyev, as he explained in an exclusive interview, as well as the new groundbreaking project on the verge of being greenlighted by the Russian government.  

    Ryabkov confirmed that “a group of experts, led by the Ministries of Finance and representatives of the Central Banks of the respective [BRICS] countries,” is working nonstop on the dossier. Moreover, there are “consultations in other formats, including with the participation of representatives of the ‘historical west.'”

    Ryabkov’s own takeaway mirrors what the BRICS as a whole are aiming at: 

    Collectively, we must come up with a product that would be, on the one hand, quite ambitious (because it is impossible to continue to tolerate the dictates of the west in this area), but at the same time realistic, not out of touch with the ground. That is, a product that would be efficient. And all this should be presented in Kazan for consideration by the leaders.

    In a nutshell: the big breakthrough may be literally knocking at the BRICS door. It just depends on a simple green light by the Russian government. 

    Now compare the BRICS devising the contours of a new geoeconomics paradigm with the collective west mulling the actual theft of Russia’s seized assets to the benefit of the black hole that is Ukraine.

    Apart from being a de facto declaration by the US and EU against Russia, this is something that carries the potential, in itself, of totally smashing the current global financial system. 

    A theft of Russian assets, would it ever happen, will render livid, to put it mildly, at least two key BRICS members, China and Saudi Arabia, who bring to the table considerable economic heft. Such a move by the west would completely destroy the concept of the rule of law, which theoretically underpins the global financial system. 

    The Russian response will be fierce. The Russian Central Bank could, in a flash, sue and confiscate the assets of Belgian Euroclear, one of the world’s largest settlement and clearing systems, on whose accounts Russian reserves were frozen. 

    And that on top of seizing Euroclear’s assets in Russia – which amount to roughly 33 billion euros. With Euroclear running out of capital, the Belgian Central Bank will have to revoke its license, causing a massive financial crisis.

    Talk about a clash of paradigms: western robbery versus a Global South-based equitable trade and finance settlement system. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 23:20

  • From Pioneer To Fallen Giant: How Hewlett Packard's Long List Of Failed Acquisitions Cost Its Reputation, Part 3
    From Pioneer To Fallen Giant: How Hewlett Packard’s Long List Of Failed Acquisitions Cost Its Reputation, Part 3

    Part 3 in the series “From pioneer to fallen giant: How Hewlett Packard’s long list of failed acquisitions cost its reputation.” 

    Read Part 1 “Billion dollar bungles” here;

    and Part 2 “The Autonomy Deal – Part 1: Leo Apotheker’s Downfall“ here.

    The Autonomy deal – part 2: Corporate conspiracy and cover-up

    In the first article in this series, we looked at how in the first decade of the 21st century, Hewlett Packard lurched from one disastrous acquisition to another. We then zoomed in on one of the most controversial of HP’s acquisitions – the Autonomy deal – which quickly fell to pieces.

    In this article, we’ll pick up the story in summer 2012. Meg Whitman, HP’s CEO, had signaled she had given up on any attempt to properly integrate the newly purchased Autonomy by firing its founder, Dr Mike Lynch.

    This could have been the end of it. Like so many of HP’s previous failed acquisitions, the Autonomy story might be now remembered as an embarrassing footnote in HP’s long history.

    Instead, more than a decade on, the HP-Autonomy saga is still playing out in the headlines and in courtrooms in the UK and US. The origins of this battle are the day in November 2012 when HP launched a calculated attack on Autonomy’s leadership, claiming with extraordinary bluster it had been defrauded when acquiring the company. The latest season in this long-running drama will start in a few days in a California court, where Dr Lynch is being tried as a criminal.

    Backing up a few months to July 2012, it was plain that HP was in serious trouble. Since the start of 2011, its share price had fallen from $20.5 to barely over $6.

    By this point, it was obvious that HP would have to conduct a write-down of its assets to bring its book value back in-line with its market value. This accounting exercise was the responsibility of CFO Cathie Lesjak. As explained in the previous article in the series, Lesjak was firmly against the Autonomy acquisition and fought tooth-and-nail to kill the deal. She asked her team to conduct an analysis of Autonomy’s value to see if an impairment should be recognized.

    Her team concluded that the fair value of Autonomy approximated the carrying value. In other words, no impairment was necessary. Indeed, as documents uncovered in the various court cases that followed show, HP’s accountants still saw potential in Autonomy. They suggested its poor performance was due to “execution issues caused by challenges with operating Autonomy in the HP environment and loss of the legacy Autonomy management team.” In their opinion, Autonomy was still worth what HP paid for it.

    This was an unhelpful view insofar as HP still needed to find ways to bring its book and market cap in-line with one another. Logic would dictate other HP assets and business lines would have to be written down.

    But CEO Meg Whitman was desperate to avoid that outcome. Let’s consider her position. Whitman had recently lost a bruising gubernatorial race, where she came under personal attack for hiring an illegal immigrant as a housemaid, and managed to blow $140m of her own money.

    It is reasonable to assume that if she took the job at HP, she would recoup some of those losses, both financial and reputational. Whitman would be forgiven if she was utterly dismayed when she walked into the dumpster fire that was HP. Presiding over the rapid decline of what was once a Silicon Valley giant would not do much for her resume.

    HP’s eyes turned to Autonomy once gain – as detailed in the previous article, it was a deeply annoying leftover from the Apotheker regime. Cathie Lesjak, still CFO, didn’t want to HP to acquire it in the first place.

    HP began to create a negative narrative about the Autonomy business. They were going to ruthlessly target it so it would become the scapegoat for the failings of HP’s declining empire.

    To reach the end goal of publicly pointing the finger at Autonomy, HP embarked on a series of financial manipulations.

    First, they fiddled with growth rates. Documents show that HP dramatically cut the projected revenue growth for Autonomy on the basis that its revenues had declined while under HP’s management.

    Then, in October, HP’s accountants took out the expected synergies. That allowed them to reach a valuation of $1.6bn.

    But of course, under that analysis, HP would effectively be admitting to the market that it had made a mess of the integration, and wouldn’t gain a cent of revenue growth it said it would when it acquired Autonomy. Such a narrative would make it appear that Meg Whitman and her allies had failed to make anything of the Autonomy deal. Whitman realised this. Internal HP communications show how she had the figures changed to put $2.3bn worth of synergies put back in.

    The third move was to play with discount rates. A higher rate was applied to Autonomy to make its value smaller. While HP had applied a discount rate of 9.5% to Autonomy in August 2012, by October, it artificially increased that rate to 15% to come up with the impairment it wanted. As with the synergies, Whitman intervened at the 11th hour, the night before the board was due to meet to discuss the impairment, asking that this was increased again to 16%.

    HP’s finance team were, understandably, getting worried about these entirely arbitrary calculations that they were being asked to make. One HP accountant described the results as “nonsensical”.

    By October 2012, HP had formulated a valuation for Autonomy of $2.2 billion – a write down of $8.8 billion – through a combination of lower growth rates, lower margins, lower projected synergies, and the “nonsensical” discount rate. This wasn’t the result of methodical review based on detailed accounting or a report from external advisors.

    But all this begs a huge question: where does fraud come into this?

    After all, Dr Mike Lynch is about to be tried for wire and securities fraud as a result of HP’s claim. However, as seen in court documents, in October 2012 after weeks of work by HP’s finance team, there was nothing to suggest a suspected fraud orchestrated by Autonomy’s people was the reason behind their write-down of the company. 

    That’s what made HP’s next move all the more incomprehensible.

    On November 20, 2012, it told the market it had been the victim of “serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentations and disclosure failures” during the course of the Autonomy acquisition. HP said this was the reason for $5.2bn of the $8.8bn write-down announced that day. In a press release, HP said that it had run an “intense internal investigation” into these “improprieties”, which included a “forensic review by PwC” of Autonomy’s financial records.

    This was a flat-out lie. No investigation took place, let alone a “forensic” review. The conclusion HP came to – that Autonomy and its leadership was somehow crooked – was pre-determined to fit HP’s narrative. The $5.2 billion figure was cooked up in the weeks preceding, it was not the result of extensive evidence gathering.

    HP peddled this myth all in a bid to save face and direct the market away from its own steep decline. On the same day, HP released its latest set of disappointing results: reporting revenue was down 7% and net losses reached $6.9 billion. It was a “tough quarter across the board” as CNN put it.

    After the initial shock of HP’s bombshell write-down announcement, investors and the media began poking around more deliberately.

    HP’s Head of Investor Relations was clearly uncomfortable, stating in internal communications that he thought it “disingenuous” that HP were not being up front about the fact that the expected synergies had not been achieved post-acquisition.

    And it wasn’t just HP staffers who were unhappy. As a New York Times piece points out, HP’s external accounts, Ernst & Young, did not believe there were accounting irregularities involved.

    An email exchange involving Lesjak and HP’s Chief Communications Officer highlighted that the media couldn’t understand how HP had reached the $5.2 billion figure. The CCO asked if the finance team could prepare an infographic to help show HP’s working.

    But of course, there was no detailed working. So when Lesjak asked for more details, she received an email on 30 November from a member of her team stating, “we’ve never formally prepared anything to attribute the irregularities to the amount of the write down”.

    In another email trail between Lesjak and the HP communications team she argued it would be better not to “go down this path” with the media, since she herself could not explain how the $5.2 billion figure had been arrived at.

    The fact that a major corporation’s CFO could not explain the basis of a market-critical announcement speaks volumes. Lesjak’s haziness on the matter was exposed when she was cross-examined in a British court years later.

    HP could not justify its claims then, nor can it justify them now. The company’s track record on acquisitions was so poor, and its overall performance so abysmal, that its leadership made a calculated decision to concoct a claim of fraud rather than admit the Autonomy integration was yet another HP management disaster. And when difficult questions arose about the write-down, HP’s leadership closed ranks and doubled down on their claim, despite the doubts of colleagues and external consultants.  

    To this day, HP continues to demand its pound of flesh, somehow convincing itself it has been a victim.  It has spent millions of dollars on lawyers and PR in the process. This is shareholder’s money, all to protect the reputation of Meg Whitman and her CFO.

    All too predictably, the Silicon Valley company and its army of lawyers has got its way. The US Government orchestrated the extradition of Autonomy’s founder, Dr Mike Lynch, and he will face trial in California this month.

    It is a stark and shocking reminder of two things: one, the once great Hewlett Packard lost its way long ago, and has burnt through cash trying to acquire its way out of trouble, and two, the lengths corporate America will go to avoid facing up to difficult truths.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 22:45

  • Supreme Court Rules Public Officials May Block Their Constituents On Social Media
    Supreme Court Rules Public Officials May Block Their Constituents On Social Media

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Public officials may block people on social media in certain situations, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on March 15.

    People leave the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Feb. 21, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    At the same time, the court held that public officials who post about topics pertaining to their work on their personal social media accounts are acting on behalf of the government. But such officials can be found liable for violating the First Amendment only when they have been properly authorized by the government to communicate on its behalf.

    The case is important because nowadays public officials routinely reach out to voters through social media on the same pages where they discuss personal matters unrelated to government business.

    “When a government official posts about job-related topics on social media, it can be difficult to tell whether the speech is official or private,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the nation’s highest court.

    The case is separate from but brings to mind a lawsuit that several individuals previously filed against former President Donald Trump after he blocked them from accessing his social media account on Twitter, which was later renamed X. The Supreme Court dismissed that case, Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute, in April 2021 as moot because President Trump had already left office.

    At the time of the ruling, the then-Twitter had banned President Trump. When Elon Musk took over the company he reversed that policy.

    The new decision in Lindke v. Freed was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

    Respondent James Freed, the city manager of Port Huron, Michigan, used a public Facebook account to communicate with his constituents. Petitioner Kevin Lindke, a resident of Port Huron, criticized the municipality’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including accusations of hypocrisy by local officials.

    Mr. Freed blocked Mr. Lindke and others and removed their comments, according to Mr. Lindke’s petition.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled for Mr. Freed, finding that he was acting only in a personal capacity and that his activities did not constitute governmental action.

    Mr. Freed’s attorney, Victoria Ferres, said during oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Oct. 31, 2023, that her client didn’t give up his rights when using social media.

    “This country’s 21 million government employees should have the right to talk publicly about their jobs on personal social media accounts like their private-sector counterparts.”

    The position advocated by the other side would unfairly punish government officials, and “will result in uncertainty and self-censorship for this country’s government employees despite this Court repeatedly finding that government employees do not lose their rights merely by virtue of public employment,” she said.

    In Lindke v. Freed, the Supreme Court found that a public official who prevents a person from comments on the official’s social media pages engages in governmental action under Section 1983 only if the official had “actual authority” to speak on the government’s behalf on a specific matter and if the official claimed to exercise that authority when speaking in the relevant social media posts.

    Section 1983 refers to Title 42, U.S. Code, Section 1983, which allows people to sue government actors for deprivation of civil rights.

    Justice Barrett wrote that according to the so-called state action doctrine, the test for “actual authority” must be “rooted in written law or longstanding custom to speak for the State.”

    “That authority must extend to speech of the sort that caused the alleged rights deprivation. If the plaintiff cannot make this threshold showing of authority, he cannot establish state action.”

    “For social-media activity to constitute state action, an official must not only have state authority—he must also purport to use it,” the justice continued.

    “State officials have a choice about the capacity in which they choose to speak.”

    Citing previous precedent, Justice Barrett wrote that generally a public employee claiming to speak on behalf of the government acts with state authority when he speaks “in his official capacity or” when he uses his speech to carry out “his responsibilities pursuant to state law.”

    “If the public employee does not use his speech in furtherance of his official responsibilities, he is speaking in his own voice.”

    The Supreme Court remanded the case to the 6th Circuit with instructions to vacate its judgment and ordered it to conduct “further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

    Also on March 15, the Supreme Court ruled on O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier, a related case. The court’s sparse, unanimous opinion was unsigned.

    Petitioners Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane were two elected members of the Poway Unified School District Board of Trustees in California who used their personal Facebook and Twitter accounts to communicate with the public.

    Respondents Christopher Garnier and Kimberly Garnier, parents of local students, “spammed Petitioners’ posts and tweets with repetitive comments and replies” so the school board members blocked the respondents from the accounts, according to the petition filed by Ms. O’Connor-Ratcliff and Mr. Zane.

    But the Garniers said they were acting in good faith.

    “The Garniers left comments exposing financial mismanagement by the former superintendent as well as incidents of racism,” the couple said in a brief.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found in favor of the Garniers, holding that elected officials using social media accounts were participating in a public forum.

    The Supreme Court ruled in a three-page opinion that because the 9th Circuit deviated from the standard the high court articulated in Lindke v. Freed, the 9th Circuit’s decision must be vacated.

    The case was remanded to the 9th Circuit “for further proceedings consistent with our opinion” in the Lindke case, the Supreme Court stated.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 22:10

  • Planet Fitness Cancels Membership Of Woman Who Exposed Biological Male Using Women's Locker Room
    Planet Fitness Cancels Membership Of Woman Who Exposed Biological Male Using Women’s Locker Room

    Planet Fitness is defending its decision to ban the membership of a customer in Alaska who spoke out about a “man in women’s locker room shaving.”

    Patricia Silva left the gym in Fairbanks, Alaska and shared a video on Facebook where she said: “I just came out of Planet Fitness. There is a man shaving in the women’s bathroom.”

    She also said the man “woman” was in the locker room at the same time as a 12 year old girl. 

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    She added: “I love him in Christ. He is a spiritual being having a human experience. He doesn’t like his gender so he wants to be a woman, but I’m not comfortable with him shaving in my bathroom.”

    Planet Fitness didn’t take kindly to the interaction and cancelled Silva’s membership, telling ABC affiliate WDPE: “As the home of the Judgement Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment.”

    The gym said: “Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity. The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated.”

    Planet Fitness’ website currently states: “At Planet Fitness, we celebrate and champion diversity and provide an environment where everyone feels accepted, respected and like they belong. Planet Fitness prohibits discrimination and harassment that is based on gender identity or gender expression in the workplace and in our clubs. The following is our corporate policy regarding the accommodation of our members and team members in terms of their gender identity.”

    “Planet Fitness prohibits discrimination and harassment that is based on gender identity or gender expression in the workplace and in our clubs.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 20:25

  • Pro-Israel Congressmen Pressed On 'River To The Sea' Hypocrisy
    Pro-Israel Congressmen Pressed On ‘River To The Sea’ Hypocrisy

    Submitted by Decensored News

    Decensored News joined forces with independent news outlet The Grayzone this week, producing/editing a video based around footage of Grayzone contributor Liam Cosgrove confronting several pro-Israel congressmen over their hypocritical condemnation of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (see above).

    They suddenly didn’t find it inherently “genocidal” anymore when Cosgrove quoted from the 1977 original Israeli Likud party platform for them, which contains a similar phrase (bold added):

    The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

    Much more recently, Benjamin Netanyahu said during a January 2024 news conference that “in any future arrangement… Israel needs security control over all territory west of the Jordan River.”

    “This is a necessary condition, and it collides with the idea of sovereignty,” he added. “What can you do?”

    “Rep. Rashida Tlaib was censured by her colleagues for calling for Palestinians to be liberated from apartheid ‘from the river to the sea,’ ” said Grayzone editor-in-chief Max Blumenthal while sharing the video above on X.

    “Rep. Brian Mast declares, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will never be,’ knowing nothing will happen except more AIPAC donations.”

    Democratic congressmen Dan Goldman and Jared Moskotwitz also appear in the video, engaging in what The Grayzone called “obscene levels of hypocrisy.”

    This is Decensored News’ second collaboration with Cosgrove, having previously worked with him on a video based around interviews he conducted with congressmen Dan Crenshaw, Byron Donalds, August Pfluger, and Juan Ciscomani a few months ago.

    See from November: “Pro-Israel Congressmen pressed on Israel’s long history of deliberately propping up Hamas“

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    For more reporting like this, please follow Decensored News on your favorite social media platforms and bookmark the website. Liam Cosgrove can be found on X (@cosgrove_iv).

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 19:50

  • Housing Affordability Crisis Solved: Sedona To Let Homeless Workers Sleep In Cars
    Housing Affordability Crisis Solved: Sedona To Let Homeless Workers Sleep In Cars

    In a move that’s raising eyebrows and rankling residents, the swanky city of Sedona, Arizona is addressing its outrageous housing costs by creating a parking area so homeless workers have a place to sleep in their cars legally. 

    After an acrimonious debate that spanned almost seven hours, the city council approved the Safe Place to Park program by a 6-1 vote. Under the scheme, 40 parking spaces will be made available in a 6-acre parking lot at the town’s Cultural Park, a 41-acre property that used to be a performance venue. The lot will be outfitted with temporary bathrooms and showers. 

    A homeless coalition will be charged with overseeing the facility from 10pm to 8am, and all cars have to leave the lot during the day — so much for night-shift workers. To secure a spot in the lot, individuals must be full-time workers in the city. Proponents say the lot will help prevent homeless workers from sleeping in cars parked on Sedona streets or on the national forest land that is one of Sedona’s major tourist draws. 

    They’ll also have to engage with social workers who will help them strive to find permanent homes. Good luck. With the average house in the isolated town going for $930,000, and rental homes oriented toward big-spending vacationers, the desert paradise is unaffordable for many blue-collar workers. 

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    City officials reassured residents that the lot will not be visible from any of their homes — so they won’t have to worry about inadvertently casting their gaze on the homeless workers who make their lux lives in Sedona possible. 

    Residents worry the lot will become a hub of criminality and drug use. One resident who fled homeless-plagued Portland for sanctuary in Sedona is already working on an end-around to kill the program. “If the city does pass this misbegotten zoning ordinance, I’ve already prepared and tomorrow I will file for a ballot referendum so the people of Sedona can correct that mistake,” said Dr. Bill Noonan on the day of the vote. 

    Sedona Arizona is one pricey paradise

    “I don’t think there’s anybody up here or staff that are extremely proud of this. This is a last-ditch effort,” Mayor Scott Jablow told AZCentral. “No one’s really proud because this isn’t really the answer. It’s one of many answers.”

    We’re guessing his other “answers” don’t include ending the Fed. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 19:15

  • Default: San Francisco Four Seasons Hotel Investors $3 Million Late On Loan As Foreclosure Looms
    Default: San Francisco Four Seasons Hotel Investors $3 Million Late On Loan As Foreclosure Looms

    Westbrook Partners, which acquired the San Francisco Four Seasons luxury hotel building, has been served a notice of default, as the developer has failed to make its monthly loan payment since December, and is currently behind by more than $3 million, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

    Westbrook, which acquired the property at 345 California Center in 2019, has 90 days to bring their account current with its lender or face foreclosure.

    Related

    As SF Gate notes, downtown San Francisco hotel investors have had a terrible few years – with interest rates higher than their pre-pandemic levels, and local tourism continuing to suffer thanks to the city’s legendary mismanagement that has resulted in overlapping drug, crime, and homelessness crises (which SF Gate characterizes as “a negative media narrative).

    Last summer, the owner of San Francisco’s Hilton Union Square and Parc 55 hotels abandoned its loan in the first major default. Industry insiders speculate that loan defaults like this may become more common given the difficult period for investors.

    At a visitor impact summit in August, a senior director of hospitality analytics for the CoStar Group reported that there are 22 active commercial mortgage-backed securities loans for hotels in San Francisco maturing in the next two years. Of these hotel loans, 17 are on CoStar’s “watchlist,” as they are at a higher risk of default, the analyst said. -SF Gate

    The 155-room Four Seasons San Francisco at Embarcadero currenly occupies the top 11 floors of the iconic skyscrper. After slow renovations, the hotel officially reopened in the summer of 2021.

    “Regarding the landscape of the hotel community in San Francisco, the short term is a challenging situation due to high interest rates, fewer guests compared to pre-pandemic and the relatively high costs attached with doing business here,” Alex Bastian, President and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, told SFGATE.

    Heightened Risks

    In January, the owner of the Hilton Financial District at 750 Kearny St. – Portsmouth Square’s affiliate Justice Operating Company – defaulted on the property, which had a $97 million loan on the 544-room hotel taken out in 2013. The company says it proposed a loan modification agreement which was under review by the servicer, LNR Partners.

    Meanwhile last year Park Hotels & Resorts gave up ownership of two properties, Parc 55 and Hilton Union Square – which were transferred to a receiver that assumed management.

    In the third quarter of 2023, the most recent data available, the Hilton Financial District reported $11.1 million in revenue, down from $12.3 million from the third quarter of 2022. The hotel had a net operating loss of $1.56 million in the most recent third quarter.

    Occupancy fell to 88% with an average daily rate of $218 in the third quarter compared with 94% and $230 in the same period of 2022. –SF Chronicle

    According to the Chronicle, San Francisco’s 2024 convention calendar is lighter than it was last year – in part due to key events leaving the city for cheaper, less crime-ridden places like Las Vegas. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 18:05

  • New York City Reaches Deal To Limit Shelter Stays For Adult Migrants
    New York City Reaches Deal To Limit Shelter Stays For Adult Migrants

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

    New York City has reached an agreement with the Legal Aid Society that will enable the city to limit the duration of stay for adult migrants in shelters amid an ongoing surge in new arrivals, according to the mayor.

    Hundreds of illegal immigrants line up outside of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City on June 6, 2023. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

    The agreement essentially ends the blanket right to shelter for adult migrants after 30 days, allowing only those who meet “extenuating circumstances” to reapply on a case-by-case basis.

    “Today’s stipulation acknowledges that reality and grants us additional flexibility during times of crisis, like the national humanitarian crisis we are currently experiencing,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a press release.

    Mr. Adams said the city’s shelter system had fewer than 2,500 people in its care when “the Right to Shelter” law was enacted over 40 years ago, compared to the 120,000 people today, 65,000 of which are migrants.

    “New York City has led the nation in responding to a national humanitarian crisis, providing shelter and care to approximately 183,000 new arrivals since the spring of 2022, but we have been clear, from day one, that the ‘Right to Shelter’ was never intended to apply to a population larger than most U.S. cities descending on the five boroughs in less than two years,” he added.

    The settlement applies only to adults seeking shelter and does not impact families with children. Young adults, under the age of 23, will be granted 60 days of shelter.

    Additional time can be granted if there is evidence of “significant efforts to resettle,” which can include making an appointment with an immigration lawyer, applying for a resettlement program, or providing proof that they’re searching for housing.

    The agreement also requires that the city eliminates the backlog of new arrivals who have been forced to wait many days for another bed when reapplying for placement.

    The city also agreed to eliminate the use of waiting rooms as shelters and provide consistent access to bathrooms, showers, and food, according to a statement by the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless.

    “We will very closely monitor the City’s compliance with this settlement and we won’t hesitate to seek judicial intervention should there be noncompliance,” said Legal Aid Society attorney Adriene Holder.

    The right to shelter has been in place for more than four decades in New York, after a court in 1981 required the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person who asks for it. Other big U.S. cities don’t have such a rule.

    Dozens of recently arrived migrants to New York City camp outside of the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been made into a reception center, as they try to secure temporary housing in New York City on Aug. 1, 2023. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

    New York’s shelter system is now filled to record levels. The city says it is currently providing housing for 93,000 people. In recent months it has rented out entire hotels to house the influx of migrants, at great cost. It has also put cots in schools, and temporarily housed people in tents, a cruise ship terminal, and a former police academy building.

    Mr. Adams has sought financial help from the state and federal government and has been critical of President Joe Biden’s administration for not providing funding to care for migrants.

    “Like impacted cities across the country, we cannot bear the brunt of this crisis alone and continue to seek significant support from our federal partners, including expedited work authorizations, more funding, and a national resettlement strategy,” he said.

    The Democrat mayor previously estimated it will cost the city roughly $12 billion over the next three years to handle the ongoing influx of immigrants.

    He also issued an executive order to clamp down on charter bus companies transporting illegal immigrants from Texas, stating that such firms must notify the city’s Emergency Management Office at least 32 hours before arriving in the city.

    Katabella Roberts and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 17:30

  • SpaceX Reportedly Building Spy Satellite Constellation In Low Earth Orbit
    SpaceX Reportedly Building Spy Satellite Constellation In Low Earth Orbit

    SpaceX’s Starshield program has been building a constellation of spy satellites under a classified contract with the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since 2021, Reuters reported, citing five people familiar with the program.  

    The spy satellite network will consist of hundreds of low-Earth orbiting satellites with Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a sat-swarm. SpaceX’s contract with the NRO, signed in 2021, totals $1.8 billion. 

    According to Reuters, if Starshield is successful, it would “significantly advance the ability of the US government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.” 

    The contract signals a strengthening relationship between Musk and national security agencies despite radical progressives in the White House who have weaponized federal agencies against SpaceX and other Musk-owned companies. 

    Reuters noted it “was unable to determine when the new network of satellites would come online and could not establish what other companies are part of the program with their own contracts.” 

    SpaceX describes Starshield as for “government use” only, while “Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use.” It also explains that Starshield is a “secured satellite network for government entities” that “supports national security efforts.”

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    Last fall, SpaceX received a contract for the Starshield network from the US Space Force. 

    The planned Starshield network is entirely separate from Starlink, which has an expanding commercial broadband constellation of 5,500 satellites in low earth orbit that provides internet to consumers, companies, and government agencies worldwide. 

    Biden officials must be absolutely furious about Musk’s expanding relationship with the Pentagon to strengthen the nation’s defenses. 

    Musk is uncancellable – no matter how many federal agencies the Biden administration directs at the billionaire.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 16:55

  • Real Wealth Vs Claims On Wealth: Bitcoin 2020s Vs USDollar 1800s
    Real Wealth Vs Claims On Wealth: Bitcoin 2020s Vs USDollar 1800s

    Authored by Kane McGukin via BombThrower.com,

    The following excerpts are from Tragedy and Hope. They detail the monetary environment from 1914 to the 1930s. When looked at independently the context helps explain the confusion we find across today’s monetary landscape.

    These passages help us better understand money and the lack of order that takes hold when international players desire a change to the system. The greatest challenge then and now was the battle between real wealth and claims on wealth.

    With the creation of the FED, the intent was to have a system of central control of the money supply, to provide a backstop in times of crisis, and to have a gold-based monetary system.

    However, the outcome led to a handful of powerful global bankers rather than a few powerful centralized institutions.

    While the mandate of the FED is said to be price stability and maximum employment, its actions arguably have been the opposite. Making it hard to resist the temptation to assume the goal was actually to empower and enrich the pockets of a few global investment bankers.

    Shedding light on the inner workings of the FED and BIS exposes a few harsh truths. It reveals a century’s worth of bankers who have chosen personal gain and growth of personal net worth over mandates of stability. These means have filtered down to the everyday politician who trades by day and passes bills to benefit those trades by night.

    Unfettered access to the cookie jar gives one the ability to control flows of credit across the globe.

    This power is hard to ignore and easily takes precedence over the intent of price stability and employment. Especially, when “no one’s looking”.

    In a post-2007 world, we find ourselves sitting with a very similar backdrop to the early 1900s.

    • Global strife due to inflation and a currency system imbalance.

    • Unsustainable global debt in the primary global reserve currency.

    • Increasingly levered institutions and individuals.

    • An upstart money/currency promising to reinstill a gold standard and promises to balance budgets while restoring exchange rates.

    This is Bitcoin in 2024. It Was the U.S. Dollar in 1914.

    What Bitcoin does that the dollar or any other fiat can’t do at this point is increase real wealth in the community.

    An economist or central banker will tell you this is bad because it leads to deflation.

    Yes, in an inflationary system like the one we currently have, that is true. However, in reality rather than in economics, deflation is not a bad thing. It is not bad that your cost of living should decline rather than increase over time. Unfortunately, it takes from the banker and gives to the individual. Therein lies the problem.

    Deflation in this sense is good, as it allows prices to fall for those who make sound financial decisions, save, and hold money; sound money. While taking from those who choose to lever up or hold a debt-laden money. Money that pre-spends its future by pulling it forward into today.

    This is the flaw of fiat currencies like the dollar.

    They are debt based. They pre-spend our future without any intention of thinking about how the piper must be paid.

    Gold, and now Bitcoin, play this deflationary role. Gold has for centuries and Bitcoin will in the digital century.

     

    In the early years of the dollar, 1800s and early 1900s, it played a similar role. A rising asset that allowed for more purchasing power (real wealth); until it was commandeered by international bankers in 1913.

    That was the moment when devaluation became the method chosen, as there were only three options to solve the economic issues at hand.

    (a)to increase the production of real wealth; (b) to decrease the quantity of money; or (c) to devaluate, or make each unit of money equal to a smaller amount of wealth (specifically gold).

    … The third method (devaluation) was essentially a recognition and acceptance of the existing situation, and would have left prices at the higher postwar level permanently. This would have involved a permanent reduction in the value of money, and also would have given different parities in foreign exchanges (unless there was international agreement that countries devaluate by the same ratio). But it would have made possible prosperity and a rising standard of living and would have accepted as permanent the redistribution of wealth from creditors to debtors brought about by the wartime.

    Today, we battle the problems left by the choice of devaluation.

    Sure, it led to a hundred years of the appearance of wealth and the appearance of rising standards of living. However, it shrank the pool of wealth and in a post-2007 world, the piper is here to be paid.

    Prices have remained permanently high, forever. The value of money has been reduced forever; by 92-99%. The parity difference between foreign exchange markets was broken by negligence, incompetence, and caused immigration to be the tool of destruction.

    These challenges could have been avoided but one must make a tough choice by choosing sound money. Money that builds real wealth and destroys claims on wealth. That is the choice today’s central banker seeks to avoid, again.

    Why? Because it requires erasing the appearance of rising living standards. It brings forward truth, and bankers would rather crank up the music instead. They’d rather continue on, pulling chairs away while everyone dances. Because they know most won’t notice, and there isn’t a reliable system of accountability to hold them responsible.

    *  *  *

    Get on the Bombthrower mailing list here and receive a free copy of The Crypto Capitalist Manifesto, which outlined all this. However, by the time you read this it may already be too late to sign up for The Bitcoin Capitalist Letter: new subscriptions will be closed once Bitcoin hits a new all-time high.
    Subscribe to Kane McGukin’s Substack here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 16:20

  • RFK Jr To Name Sergey Brin's Ex-Wife As Running Mate: Report
    RFK Jr To Name Sergey Brin’s Ex-Wife As Running Mate: Report

    After previously thinking NY Jets quarterback Aaron Rogers might be the right person to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr is now planning to select 38-year-old Nicole Shanahan, the wealthy ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as his running mate. This according to a Saturday Mediaite report that cited “a source close to the campaign.”

    Shanahan is a Bay Area lawyer and tech entrepreneur who’s been a Democratic Party benefactor and donated to Biden’s 2020 campaign. In a February Times profile, she described herself as a “progressive through and through.” Aside from opening her wallet, she has no political profile whatsoever, seemingly not even having spoken out or written about issues of the day.  

    Nicole Shanahan and her then-husband Sergey Brin (Ian Tuttle/Getty via Vanity Fair)

    Last week, the New York Times reported that, in addition to the NFL’s Rogers, Kennedy was considering former Minnesota Gov and Predator co-star Jesse Ventura, among others. Mediaite’s source said RFK Jr and Shanahan “align on numerous issues,” including wariness about vaccines.

    The source also candidly spotlighted what is likely the principal attraction: “The campaign is also looking for a candidate who can help finance the ballot access initiative.” The campaign says that effort comes with a $15 million price tag. With under eight months to the election, he’s only on four ballots: Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire and Utah. Multiple states require the naming of a running mate before giving approval, which is why his decision is coming soon. 

    This leak doesn’t exactly sound like a coordinated trial balloon, as a source close to the campaign proceeded to throw Shanahan under the bus: 

    “She might be infusing millions of dollars into the campaign to help fund the ballot initiative, which makes her attractive financially; however, she lacks the qualifications to actually do the job.”

    Shanahan helped bankroll Kennedy’s Super Bowl ad, giving $4 million to the American Values 2024 PAC that’s supporting him. That represented a major change of heart: When Kennedy announced last fall that he was bailing on the rigged Democratic nomination process, Shanahan was “incredibly disappointed” and, at the time, decided not to back him, despite having given him a $6,000 maximum contribution in May, while he was trying to dislodge Biden.  

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    Mediaite was also first to report Kennedy’s decision to go independent. On Wednesday, the outlet found that Kennedy advisor Link Lipsitz registered the kennedyshanahan.com web domain, and observed that the page was ready to facilitate donations. When ZeroHedge tried accessing it, however, we received a “connection not private” warning for the site.

    A Kennedy campaign spokesperson declined to confirm the report, merely telling the New York Post, “There has been a lot of speculation in the media about Mr. Kennedy’s pick of vice presidential running mate. The official announcement will be on March 26 in Oakland.”

    Last summer, the Wall Street Journal reported that Shanahan’s 2023 divorce from Brin was sparked by a brief affair she had with Elon Musk. In addition to ending the five-year marriage, the Journal said the episode also terminated a long friendship between Musk and Brin. Musk called the report “total bs”: 

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 15:45

  • Gold Star Dad Who Interrupted State Of The Union Explains Why He Did It
    Gold Star Dad Who Interrupted State Of The Union Explains Why He Did It

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

    President Joe Biden had been talking for about an hour when Steven Nikoui began feeling like he was sitting in the Colosseum in the movie “Gladiator” rather than at a State of the Union address.

    “They’re all sitting in the stands and they’re looking at the beast down there and they’re getting amused. And I felt that. I rationalized it like that and I was a little sickened,” Mr. Nikoui said.

    “These people … they wouldn’t even have any of this if it wasn’t for someone like my kid or … any of the others.”

    Steven Nikoui shouts as President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on March 7, 2024. (Shawn Thew/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

    He had hoped this would be the day that President Biden would say his son’s name, Kareem.

    But when the president said “America is safer today than when I took office,” the Gold Star father reached a breaking point.

    Mr. Nikoui likens the moment as “having an out of the body experience.”

    The anger and grief that had been stewing inside him for three years let loose.

    “Remember Abbey Gate! United States Marines! Kareem Mae’Lee Nikoui!”

    He shouted his son’s name, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, and the name of the airport gate in Kabul where a suicide bomber killed his son and 12 other U.S. Marines on Aug 26, 2021, during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    Then, he was arrested.

    (Left) President Joe Biden delivers the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in Washington on March 7, 2024. (Right) Steven Nikoui holds a photo of his son, fallen U.S. Marine Kareem Nikoui, in Norco, Calif., on March 14, 2024. (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images, John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Mr. Nikoui, who had been invited to the State of the Union by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a veteran, was escorted out of the House Gallery.

    “I did have remorse,” he told The Epoch Times. “I felt ashamed.”

    Mr. Nikoui said he was placed in handcuffs and escorted to a police substation at the Capitol. There, his mugshot was taken and he was fingerprinted. He said he waived his Miranda Rights.

    The officers who arrested him “were pretty good,” he said, but they gave him an ultimatum: “If you talk to us, you‘ll be out in an hour. If you don’t talk to us, you’ll go to the DC jail and see the judge in the morning.”

    He said he was scared to go to jail. He’d never been arrested before.

    ‘He Would Have Been Proud’

    Mr. Nikoui said Kareem, meaning “generous and honorable” in Arabic, is a fitting name for his son.

    It’s exactly how his son, a proud American patriot, lived and died, he said. Something, he added, that President Biden has never once acknowledged.

    He said Kareem made the ultimate sacrifice for the country he had longed to serve since he was four years old.

    As a little boy, Kareem had a collection of “little army guys” he constantly played with, Mr. Nikoui recalled. His son joined Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps as soon as he was old enough and he loved military movies. His favorite was “Band of Brothers,” a TV mini series.

    Kareem’s commitment to serve was not a rite of passage as it so often is between father and son, Mr Nikoui said.

    “I was against it,” he said. “I knew this would happen. I buried my head in the sand. I didn’t know anything about the military. I told him I don’t want to know anything about this. Just get out. But he didn’t want to get out. He said ‘I’m going all the way.’”

    People attend the funeral of U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui at the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2021.

    Mr. Nikoui, a born-again Christian, talked to The Epoch Times about his son and his March 7 arrest at the State of the Union.

    He also reflected on his relentless blame on President Biden for not following the Doha Agreement established under the Trump Administration. And his ardent belief that his son, who was only 20 when he was killed, would still be alive if former President Donald Trump had been commander-in-chief when his son was deployed in Afghanistan.

    “The only reason why I was even all right with my kid joining the military—because, like I told you I was against it—was because Donald Trump was the president,” he said.

    The memories flooded back as President Biden touted his tenure.

    From the Democrats dressed all in white to signify pro-abortion, to President Biden mispronouncing Laken Riley’s name in response to Rep. Marjorie Greene’s (R-Ga.) demand he say the name of the Georgia student brutally slain by an illegal immigrant, Mr. Nikoui described the many reasons that made him think “harder than ever” about the sacrifice of his son and the other fallen soldiers.

    He thought back to the horrifying videos Kareem had sent him during his deployment—of young Afghani children begging the soldiers to take them to America.

    “I saw this little girl just screaming, pushing herself up against the fence—screaming, ’they’ll kill me, take me with you, the bad guys are coming,” he recalled. And mothers, “throwing their babies at razor wire. And women running into the razor wire because they don’t want to be raped and killed by the Taliban.”

    Members of the Taliban gather outside the airport in Kabul after the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan, on Aug. 31, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

    He said Kareem, also a Christian, often spoke emotionally of how deeply pained he was by what he witnessed.

    Mr. Nikoui believes President Biden and his followers lack any understanding of that kind of pain. He said he finds it appalling that anytime someone dies or loses a loved one, the president interminably turns it into his own grief about the loss of his son Beau to cancer.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 15:10

  • Putin Wins Fifth Term As Russian President With 87% Of The Vote
    Putin Wins Fifth Term As Russian President With 87% Of The Vote

    Update: It will surprise no one that Vladimir Putin secured another six years as Russia’s president – effectively ensuring that he will surpass Joseph Stalin as Russia’s longest-serving ruler should he successfully complete his latest term when he will be 77-year-old – in a bid to step up his war in Ukraine and challenge the West, with the Kremlin claiming record public support for him in a vote whose outcome was largely pre-determined even without mystery sacks of mail-in ballots arriving at 3am.

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    Putin won 87%, according to an exit poll broadcast on state television late Sunday, shortly after the end of three days of voting. That exceeded the previous high of 77% support that the incumbent president received in 2018 elections, according to Bloomberg.

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    Three other candidates, all from parties loyal to the Kremlin, received no more than 5% support. Nearly 4.5 million people voted online in a system used in 29 of Russia’s regions for the first time in a presidential election, the Interfax news service reported, citing government data.

    Preliminary turnout was 74.22% – the largest in over 3 decades – according to Central Election Commission data shown on state TV. That turnout was the highest since Boris Yeltsin became president in 1991 after the Soviet Union’s collapse, and well above the 67.5% turnout recorded in 2018. At least six Russian regions claimed turnout was above 90%.

    Of note, according to the CEC, Putin received 94.12% of the votes after processing 100% of the protocols in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which is located in the contest Donetsk region.

    Putin is extending his nearly quarter-century rule into a fifth term at a time when his troops are on the offensive in Ukraine. Russia’s pressing its advantage in the third year of the invasion that’s become Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, as Ukraine struggles to supply its forces with munitions amid delays in military aid from its US and European allies.

    The election outcome “gives Putin every chance to implement any, even the toughest, scenarios in Ukraine,” said Pavel Danilin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Political Analysis, which advises the Kremlin. The “historically high result is a guarantee that the majority of the population supports Putin,” he said.

    Putin’s victory comes as Russia’s economy has fully weathered the shock of international sanctions since it began the February 2022 invasion, thanks to a continuing flow of energy revenue – which the west has been terrified to halt as it would mean a surge in global energy prices and a rout for Biden in the November 2024 elections – and a massive injection of government spending to support the defense industry and shield domestic businesses. Meanwhile, trade with China is booming as Russia reorients its economy away from markets in Europe.

    As noted above, Russia organized voting in occupied areas of Ukraine and that claimed turnout far exceeded 80%, even as millions of people have fled the regions since the invasion. The foreign ministry in Kyiv said the “pseudo-elections” were illegal, by which they probably mean they were not predetermined by neocon demi-god Victoria Nuland, or whoever it is that will replace her in the Deep State.

     

    * * *

    Earlier:

    The first round of the presidential election in Russia is taking place from Friday to Sunday this weekend.

    It will be the country’s eighth presidential election and more than 112 million voters will be called to the polls.

    While four candidates are in the running, Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports that there is almost no doubt among observers that Vladimir Putin will be re-elected for a fifth term in the first round.

    The only real unknown is the share of votes he will receive.

    During the last presidential election in 2018, this number stood at around 77 percent.

    Infographic: Putin Forever? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In power for around a quarter of a century – spanning four presidential terms and two terms as prime minister between 1999 and 2000 and between 2008 and 2012 – Putin has spent a total of almost 9,000 days at the helm of the country. If he is re-elected this weekend, the ensuing six-year term of approximately 2,190 days will likely make him Russia’s longest serving leader since the start of the twentieth century. This record is currently held by Joseph Stalin, who led the country between 1924 and 1953 for a total of 10,636 days. Putin became Russia’s second longest-serving leader overtaking Brezhnev in 2017 late into his third term as president.

    During Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency from 2008 to 2012, Russian law was amended to extend presidential terms from two terms of four years to two terms of six years.

    This change was also designed to reset terms served and therefore enabled Putin to win another two terms.

    A decade later, in 2021, Putin signed another law setting the limit at two presidential mandates per person in a lifetime, again paradoxically resetting terms already served and thereby exempting him for a second time.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 15:05

  • Molotov Cocktail Attack On Russian Embassy In Moldova On Last Day Of Election
    Molotov Cocktail Attack On Russian Embassy In Moldova On Last Day Of Election

    Sunday is the final day of three days of presidential elections in Russia. Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of deceased opposition activist Alexei Navalny, is urging mass protests against President Putin as he stands of the verge of winning another six year term as president, an outcome quite obvious to all observers. She’s calling on Russians to disrupt the final day of voting in what’s been dubbed “noon against Putin”. 

    While some sporadic minor incidents at polling stations have been reported, there has been a major incident in the small country of Moldova which borders Ukraine. Moldovan police have detained a man who attacked the Russian embassy with two Molotov cocktails as voting was underway there.

    Illustrative file image, via the Atlantic Council

    “A man threw two containers of flammable substances over the fence of the Russian Embassy in Chisinau,” police said in a statement. A 54-year-old Moldovan who described himself as also having Russian citizenship was immediately detained after after hurling the Molotov cocktails.

    There were no reports of injuries or damage to the embassy, and police said an investigation is ongoing. “He justified his action by some dissatisfaction he has with the actions of the Russian authorities,” authorities said.

    Moldova has been scene of controversy and friction especially after Russia allowed the opening of several polling stations in breakaway Transnistria, which the Moldovan government has fiercely protested.

    Reuters noted days ago that “A senior official in ex-Soviet Moldova said on Wednesday Moscow was breaking laws by printing ballot papers in the separatist region of Transnistria ahead of this week’s Russian presidential election.”

    “Moldova’s pro-European authorities have already summoned the Russian ambassador to complain about a decision to open six polling stations in the pro-Russian enclave,” the report continued. “The central government said the move broke an agreement to allow voting only at a single polling station at the Russian embassy in Chisinau.”

    Russian embassy in Moldova, via TASS

    The United States recently become more vocal in defending Moldova’s territorial integrity, and has condemned what the Biden administration has called Moscow’s ‘interference’ in the Eastern European nation’s sovereignty.

    Last summer, Moldova expelled 45 Russian diplomats and embassy staff members from the country “over numerous unfriendly actions” as tensions reached near breaking point over the war in neighboring Ukraine and the Transnistria issue. As for Russia’s election, Kremlin authorities have said Ukraine is engaged in cross-border attacks on polling stations and in annexed regions of Ukraine.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 14:35

  • The Stain Of Fani: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Signs Law To Discipline 'Rogue' Prosecutors Amid DA Willis Controversy
    The Stain Of Fani: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Signs Law To Discipline ‘Rogue’ Prosecutors Amid DA Willis Controversy

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

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a bill into law that revives an oversight panel with powers to discipline and remove wayward county prosecutors, and which could potentially target alleged misconduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in her case against former President Donald Trump.

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks during a news conference at the Fulton County Government building in Atlanta on Aug. 14, 2023. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

    Mr. Kemp signed SB 332 into law on March 13, saying at a signing ceremony that the community suffers and property is put at risk when “out-of-touch” public prosecutors put politics ahead of public safety.

    “This legislation will help us ensure rogue or incompetent prosecutors are held accountable if they refuse to uphold the law,” Mr. Kemp said.

    “As we know all too well, crime has been on the rise across the country, and is especially prevalent in cities where prosecutors are giving criminals a free pass or failing to put them behind bars due to lack of professional conduct,” he added.

    Mr. Kemp initially signed related legislation in May 2023, which established the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PACQ), with the governor saying at the time that the panel would discipline “far-left” prosecutors who make communities less safe by being soft on crime.

    However, the panel was unable to start operating after the state Supreme Court in November 2023 declined to approve rules for its governance, with justices saying in their ruling that they had “grave doubts” whether adopting the standards and rules was within their constitutional powers.

    So the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 881 in January 2024, which revived the oversight panel while removing the requirement for Supreme Court approval. The bill then was referred to the state Senate, where it became SB 332.

    Focus on Willis

    While the bill mirrored efforts in other states to hold “rogue” prosecutors accountable for refusing to prosecute certain crimes, Democrats opposed to its passage said it could be used to target prosecutors involved in the case against President Trump, including Ms. Willis.

    “The commission will be able to unilaterally proceed and have the ability to interfere and undermine an ongoing investigation against Donald J. Trump,” state House Minority Whip Sam Park, a Democrat, told The Associated Press when the House version of the measure passed.

    “You are taking action to protect former President Trump from an ongoing criminal prosecution,” he alleged.

    Ms. Willis has been accused of an “improper” relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the election interference case against the former president and over a dozen co-defendants. She also faced conflict-of-interest allegations that she benefited from the relationship financially.

    While defendants in the case moved to have both prosecutors disqualified, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled on Friday that either Mr. Wade or Ms. Willis must remove themselves from the case.

    Mr. Wade said Friday that he would resign, leaving Ms. Willis—who faces a separate campaign finance ethics probe and possible contempt of Congress proceedings—at the helm of the case, which President Trump has denounced as a politically-driven “witch hunt.”

    The prosecutor oversight panel that Mr. Kemp’s signature has established provides an additional tool that could target Ms. Willis as she faces continued scrutiny.

    Ms. Willis’ office did not respond to a request for comment on the bill.

    Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican, told The Associated Press that the measure isn’t directly focused on Ms. Willis or any one individual.

    “For us in the House our focus is not on any one person, not on any one situation,” Mr. Burns told reporters after Mr. Kemp signed the bill into law. “It’s about asking the folks that are elected, just like me, to do their jobs and protect the citizens of this state.”

    Fight Against ‘Rogue’ Prosecutors

    Georgia law mandates that a prosecutor must consider every case for which probable cause exists and can’t exclude categories of cases—such as marijuana possession or abortion-related offenses—from prosecution.

    HB 881 and its Senate version SB 332 lay out grounds for discipline, removal, or “involuntary retirement” of wayward prosecutors, including for engaging in “willful misconduct” or for being convicted of a “crime involving moral turpitude” or persistently failing to carry out their duties.

    Besides removing the need for Supreme Court oversight, the law adjusts the standard for mental or physical incapacity, allows appeals to a local superior court judge, and permits appeals to any county where the prosecutor has worked.

    The establishment of the new commission comes as Republicans fight against what they describe as leftist “rogue” district attorneys who refuse to prosecute certain crimes.

    “The inability to ensure public safety and protect communities is occurring at every level of state government,” U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) wrote in an op-ed in 2022.

    “By cracking down on rogue prosecutors who favor criminals over victims, we can ensure that no one else is put in harm’s way as a result of Democrats’ negligence,” they wrote. 

    In much the same vein, President Trump has vowed to target prosecutors who are lax on crime if he wins the 2024 presidential race.

    “Soros prosecutors appear to be engaging in selective enforcement based on illegal racial discrimination” in places such as Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, President Trump said in a video posted to his YouTube channel in April 2023.

    He was referring to left-wing billionaire financier George Soros, who has provided millions of dollars in campaign contributions to progressives Democrat district attorneys.

    “They are Marxist in many cases,” President Trump said, while pledging to appoint about 100 U.S. attorneys who are the “polar opposite” of the “Soros district attorneys and others being appointed around the United States.”

    President Trump said that those officials will be the “most ferocious legal warriors” who will target the worst “communist corruption” the country has ever seen.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 14:00

  • Rare Drone Attack On Military Base In Breakaway Pro-Russian Republic Of Transnistria
    Rare Drone Attack On Military Base In Breakaway Pro-Russian Republic Of Transnistria

    An unprecedented or at least extremely rare attack has just targeted a military base in the pro-Russian breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria on Sunday.

    A kamikaze drone hit a military base in Tiraspol, the capital of unrecognized Transnistria, local officials have told RIA Novosti. The attack reportedly resulted in fire and damage to military assets at the airfield, but there were no casualties.

    Russian state media said a helicopter stationed at the airfield was destroyed in the UAV attack. Presumably the helicopter belonged to either Transnistria separatists or to the Russian military.

    “Today a fire occurred on the territory of a military base in Tiraspol as a result of an explosion,” local authorities were cited in AFP as saying.

    “It was preliminarily established that the explosion was caused by a kamikaze drone attack,” they added, and alleged the drone launched from the Odesa region. They are blaming Ukraine forces for the rare cross-border attack.

    The incident was not immediately confirmed either by the Russian or Ukraine governments. “Grainy footage distributed by separatist authorities showed a projectile slamming into a military helicopter standing at an airbase surrounded by fields,” AFP noted.

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    Regardless of the AFP headline which says Breakaway Moldova Region Blames Military Site Blast On Drone From Ukraine… there remain conflicting reports on the origin point of the drone launch.

    Russia’s RT writes, “Transnistria’s state security ministry alleged that the drone arrived from the so-called “Clover Bridge” area – a major multi-level highway junction located north of the city of Tiraspol and close to the Ukrainian border.” Further the report notes that “The unrecognized republic’s authorities have not named any suspects behind the incident so far.”

    As we previously wrote in a backgrounder here, in 2006, a Transnistrian double referendum was held gauging popular support for the separatist state’s appetite to either renounce its independence and join the Republic Of Moldova or to maintain it and seek to join the Russian Federation. The referendum to become part of Moldova was rejected by 96% of voters while 98% approved of becoming part of Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 13:25

  • This Week Seemed Like A Crazy Market, On Steroids
    This Week Seemed Like A Crazy Market, On Steroids

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    What’s the Record for Shortest Time from All-Time Highs to Bear Market?

    That seems like such a strange question. If all you did was read the headlines, you would think that things were great (if not spectacular) in markets. If you say you are bearish, people will look at you with sympathy, wondering if you are going to be able to feed your family with such a disastrous call.

    Yet, the reality of the situation is quite different from what the headlines seem to be trying to spoon feed us on a daily basis.

    The Nasdaq 100, which was down on the week, is down 1% since February 9th. Yes, it had its closing high on March 1st, and its intraday high of 18,417 on March 8th. But 5 weeks, with a lot of hype and cheerleading, has amounted to a loss of 1%. Since the highs, we are down 3%, which is one of many things that have me wondering how quickly we’ve fallen from “all-time highs” to bear market? While 20% is a tad more bearish than I am, it sounded better than using a “correction” of 10% in the title.

    The S&P 500 has performed more steadily than the Nasdaq 100, but at the other end of the spectrum, despite begging people to Stop Using the Magnificent 7 Moniker, we still hear that term quite frequently. Yes, some people have started talking about the Fab 4 or some other catchy phrase, but that makes sense when at least a couple of the so-called Mag 7 are back to levels from October, before the big bull market started (a time when we were quite bullish, possibly fighting consensus back then too).

    Where We’ve Been Recently

    We’ve been bearish, but with an emphasis that we felt the risk of a 5% to 10% rapid move to the downside was far more likely than a sharp rally. We’ve discussed aspects of this in:

    • Trillion Dollar Mistakes. Highlighting some big mistakes made in the overall market, while questioning if Wall Street, for all its foibles, was really likely to have been that wrong?

    • The Time to Retire report, referenced earlier, highlighted a series of market behaviors and charts that were making us increasingly nervous about the risk/reward of the market and forcing us to lean to the “cautious and need to hedge” side of things.

    • It’s Friday, I’m in Love examined the week ending March 1st, highlighting some of the things that helped propel stocks higher that Friday. As I re-read that, many of the positives have dissipated, been priced in, or in the case of AI “deputization,” are starting to be questioned. If it hadn’t been for the SOX Index (semiconductors) we wouldn’t have achieved these all-time highs, and that index has started to roll over. In a market with limited leadership, that could be problematic.

    • While more of a “longer-term” trade, everything about Made By China is likely to be negative for our markets and economy.

    While those have helped articulate and explain our bearish view, they are all relatively recent (the oldest was published on February 27th). We should go back to one more article to express why the view has changed from a DEFCON 3 or 4 sort of bearishness, to a more dangerous and urgent DEFCON 2 level of bearishness.

    Back on February 9th we published A Market Only a Mother or AI Could Love. That chart showed the “crazy” trading pattern of the week. So many wild swings. Gyrations, some of which could be attributed to news, but some of which seemed inexplicable.

    This week seemed like that, on steroids! I think I actually physically poked my screen once to make sure it was working. I swear, the market was up almost 1%, I glanced away, it was down 1%, and then a few minutes later it was back to flat. I’m not sure what tapping my screen would do, but I could remember doing that when a thermometer didn’t seem to be working, so it seemed appropriate.

    But no, my screen was working just fine – it was the markets that weren’t functioning “normally” in my opinion.

    It seemed that every “big” order just caused the market to gap higher or lower while the order was being filled. It did work in both directions, but I’m increasingly convinced the risk is that the market will need to find some serious bidside liquidity, when it may be non-existent.

    Where We’ve Been In the Past

    All of this is forcing me to think about some things we’ve discussed in the past, which are rapidly rising to the forefront of my thoughts again.

    While aging myself, yet again, I cannot help but think about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. A fun “movie” many of us got to watch in school. This was back when someone had to bring in a projector and seeing a video in class was a “cool” thing (though not as cool as getting the whole school to watch the Canada Cup in the gym). But anyways, that video shows a bridge oscillating. That oscillation increases until, ultimately, it collapses! The movie was all about resonance frequency, but all I remember is seeing a structure, so seemingly sturdy, start to bend and twist before collapsing. The first time that hit me was back in 2007 and it is the main image I have in my mind right now.

    It also made me think about pendulums. In Dredging Up Pendulums, we focused primarily on the complexity of a simple pendulum versus a double pendulum, and how important even tiny changes in starting conditions could be.

    We also discussed Machine Learning Triple Pendulums. This YouTube video shows how a computer is able to manipulate a “cart” to get a triple pendulum to stand upright for a period of time. For about a decade, I’ve been using that when discussing market mechanics. It is difficult to tell what exactly happens day by day, or even minute by minute, when so much of the trading is driven by algorithms. The algorithms link not just “vehicles” (like stocks, ETFs, and futures), but also asset classes as correlations are traded rapidly. The reason thinking about market structure in terms of a machine learning triple pendulum cart is so important (if it is a correct interpretation) is that “functioning” or holding it upright is very unstable and takes more computing power and skill than a human possesses. Yet, it can be accomplished. The problem is that when it fails, it tends to result in an “epic” failure where the “natural” position of the pendulums (all pulled by gravity) is to be facing down rather than standing upright. Sure, maybe a bit alarmist, but we’ve seen it in the past. A VIX related ETF Went Poof.

    What Changed This Week

    One thing that changed is the “randomness” of trading seemed to accelerate, forcing me to think about bridges and pendulums. I also cannot stop thinking about some of the charts we included in A Retrospective of All-Time Highs. While many of the bears (and doomers) want to talk about “tech bubbles,” I’m more fixated on 2007. To me, the 2007 “all-time high” was one of the strangest ones.

    All the problems were known. None had been fixed, but we hit an all-time high, based largely on the Fed. We bounced hard again after JPM bought Bear, only to sink to new lows a week or so after Lehman. Those “lows” seemed tame compared to where the market finally bottomed in 2009, but it was the almost “hubris” of all-time highs in the autumn of 2007 that I think about more than the tech bubble, as I don’t think that is the right metric. Though as a bear, who is increasingly worried about a 10% pullback, I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

    But here are things that have made me increasingly nervous:

    • Bond yields.

      • I’ll start with longer dated bond yields as they are more fun. The 10-year Treasury yield got back to 4.31% on Friday. Treasuries rallied, much to my chagrin, last time we got here, but they seem susceptible to moving higher again. China will NOT be buying Treasuries as they are raising their own debt to figure out how to spend their way out of their economic problems. FXI, a China ETF, did finish higher on the week, in a story that remains poorly covered, and is why I continue to like – for a trade – long FXI, short QQQ. I’ve been expecting to see another march to higher yields like we saw last fall. The 10-year yield moved higher each and every day last week – a sign of things to come?

      • The Fed is getting pushed out of the picture. The first cut is expected in June, with a chance of it getting pushed to July. The market is still pricing in cuts at the September and November meetings (which I think is insane given how every issue, including monetary policy, is fodder for campaigns that seem as much about generating anger as hope). We are still at 3 cuts for the year, but I think there is a chance that the Fed changes the dots just a smidge (given all the inflation data) to show fewer than 3 cuts. That, or a change in next year’s expected end rate, could be punishing.

      • The move in yields, at the longer end, has not reflected increased term premium. Minimal (if any) concerns about the never-ending growth of federal debt, as the spread between 2s and 10s closed at -42 bps. I see no reason why this doesn’t get back to recent “best” levels of -20 or so, with my target for the summer being flat yield curves as risk premium returns and we see an end to the era of inversion everywhere you look.

    • Inflation and oil. It is clear that inflation, by a variety of measures, is “sticky.” A couple of things, actually a few things, bother me most.

      • Lots of “apologizing” about Owners Equivalent Rent. If you’ve read the T-Report for long, you know how much I hate how we calculated shelter. So yes, right now, it is overstating the current rise in shelter – BUT IT IS DOING THAT BECAUSE THE RISE WAS NEVER FULLY PRICED IN! Sorry for the “all caps” but yes, today’s inflation is likely overstated, but only because officially we under-reported it. Yes, this is a rant, but it probably goes beyond those dismissing rent.

      • Beyond dismissing rent. Most consumers think in terms of dollars. We live in a “nominal world.” So something that rose 10% a few years ago went from say $100 to $110. Now it “only” rose 3%, but it is 3% on a much larger starting point, creating a much higher dollar increase than it would have a few years ago. Add to that all the people who have been arguing that the prices they see in stores don’t seem to get used in official calculations and all the “substitutions” incorporated into the calculations artificially kept inflation lower. Basically, the real-world level of current inflation may never have been captured by the official data, leaving more room to catch up.

      • Oil. Energy prices contributed to recent rises in inflation. Apparently, many seem confident they will go back down. With no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and the Middle East edging closer and closer to direct involvement with Iran, that does not seem like a bet I’d be comfortable with. I do like the energy sector, so I’m biased, but I think it is too early to dismiss the geopolitical risks associated with oil.

    • The U.S. consumer has been like a zombie for anyone betting against the U.S. economy. They just keep coming back to life. No matter what you think you’ve done, they seem to come back! Well, I think the consumer is rolling over. Debt is mounting. The job market is far from robust and has lost all of the momentum it had. It is at best “normal” like the years before COVID, and that might be a stretch.

    While I don’t see “stagflation as a risk,” I think we are entering a period where we could see:

    • Higher yields coupled with a weakening economy and a Fed that is handcuffed by persistent inflation. Not a good mix.

    • In addition to a market positioned too aggressively that cannot expect much help from short covering.

    While I don’t want to get into detail today, I think people staring at the VIX are looking in the wrong direction. This is a world of daily and weekly option flows that don’t show up in the VIX calculation. Unlike other strategies that have been difficult to understand (meme stocks for example), the 0DTE options market seems perfectly capable of trading from the call side of the market to the put side of the market. Many other strategies, like blindly selling vol, have tended to work in one direction and could really only be traded consistently from that direction. The 0DTE can work both ways and that could be the “shock” we need that disrupts this market.

    For credit, look for CDX IG to go back above 60, maybe to 65. Not because of any serious problems in credit, but because spreads will be forced wider if I’m right on stocks.

    So, instead of thinking about a 5% to 10% pullback in stocks, I’m much more concerned about a 10% or higher pullback along with 10-year yields breaking through 4.5%.

    We didn’t answer the question posed at the start of the title, but I’m increasingly worried that we might be forced to find out what the competition is if markets start rolling over and lose the support of bonds, the Fed, and the few sectors that have done the heavy lifting.

    On that note, I do promise to write “Up in Smoke” as a title of a T-Report (I couldn’t end this report without at least trying to get you to smile!)

    Finally, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 03/17/2024 – 12:50

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Mar 17

Today’s News 17th March 2024

  • Mistakes Were Made
    Mistakes Were Made

    Authored by C.J.Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

    Make fun of the Germans all you want, and I’ve certainly done that a bit during these past few years, but, if there’s one thing they’re exceptionally good at, it’s taking responsibility for their mistakes. Seriously, when it comes to acknowledging one’s mistakes, and not rationalizing, or minimizing, or attempting to deny them, and any discomfort they may have allegedly caused, no one does it quite like the Germans.

    Take this Covid mess, for example. Just last week, the German authorities confessed that they made a few minor mistakes during their management of the “Covid pandemic.” According to Karl Lauterbach, the Minister of Health, “we were sometimes too strict with the children and probably started easing the restrictions a little too late.” Horst Seehofer, the former Interior Minister, admitted that he would no longer agree to some of the Covid restrictions today, for example, nationwide nighttime curfews. “One must be very careful with calls for compulsory vaccination,” he added. Helge Braun, Head of the Chancellery and Minister for Special Affairs under Merkel, agreed that there had been “misjudgments,” for example, “overestimating the effectiveness of the vaccines.”

    This display of the German authorities’ unwavering commitment to transparency and honesty, and the principle of personal honor that guides the German authorities in all their affairs, and that is deeply ingrained in the German character, was published in a piece called “The Divisive Virus” in Der Spiegel, and immediately widely disseminated by the rest of the German state and corporate media in a totally organic manner which did not in any way resemble one enormous Goebbelsian keyboard instrument pumping out official propaganda in perfect synchronization, or anything creepy and fascistic like that.

    Germany, after all, is “an extremely democratic state,” with freedom of speech and the press and all that, not some kind of totalitarian country where the masses are inundated with official propaganda and critics of the government are dragged into criminal court and prosecuted on trumped-up “hate crime” charges.

    OK, sure, in a non-democratic totalitarian system, such public “admissions of mistakes” — and the synchronized dissemination thereof by the media — would just be a part of the process of whitewashing the authorities’ fascistic behavior during some particularly totalitarian phase of transforming society into whatever totalitarian dystopia they were trying to transform it into (for example, a three-year-long “state of emergency,” which they declared to keep the masses terrorized and cooperative while they stripped them of their democratic rights, i.e., the ones they hadn’t already stripped them of, and conditioned them to mindlessly follow orders, and robotically repeat nonsensical official slogans, and vent their impotent hatred and fear at the new “Untermenschen” or “counter-revolutionaries”), but that is obviously not the case here.

    No, this is definitely not the German authorities staging a public “accountability” spectacle in order to memory-hole what happened during 2020-2023 and enshrine the official narrative in history. There’s going to be a formal “Inquiry Commission” — conducted by the same German authorities that managed the “crisis” — which will get to the bottom of all the regrettable but completely understandable “mistakes” that were made in the heat of the heroic battle against The Divisive Virus!

    OK, calm down, all you “conspiracy theorists,” “Covid deniers,” and “anti-vaxxers.” This isn’t going to be like the Nuremberg Trials. No one is going to get taken out and hanged. It’s about identifying and acknowledging mistakes, and learning from them, so that the authorities can manage everything better during the next “pandemic,” or “climate emergency,” or “terrorist attack,” or “insurrection,” or whatever.

    For example, the Inquiry Commission will want to look into how the government accidentally declared a Nationwide State of Pandemic Emergency and revised the Infection Protection Act, suspending the German constitution and granting the government the power to rule by decree, on account of a respiratory virus that clearly posed no threat to society at large, and then unleashed police goon squads on the thousands of people who gathered outside the Reichstag to protest the revocation of their constitutional rights.

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    Once they do, I’m sure they’ll find that that “mistake” bears absolutely no resemblance to the Enabling Act of 1933, which suspended the German constitution and granted the government the power to rule by decree, after the Nazis declared a nationwide “state of emergency.”

    Another thing the Commission will probably want to look into is how the German authorities accidentally banned any further demonstrations against their arbitrary decrees, and ordered the police to brutalize anyone participating in such “illegal demonstrations.”

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    And, while the Commission is inquiring into the possibly slightly inappropriate behavior of their law enforcement officials, they might want to also take a look at the behavior of their unofficial goon squads, like Antifa, which they accidentally encouraged to attack the “anti-vaxxers,” the “Covid deniers,” and anyone brandishing a copy of the German constitution.

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    Come to think of it, the Inquiry Commission might also want to look into how the German authorities, and the overwhelming majority of the state and corporate media, accidentally systematically fomented mass hatred of anyone who dared to question the government’s arbitrary and nonsensical decrees or who refused to submit to “vaccination,” and publicly demonized us as “Corona deniers,” “conspiracy theorists,” “anti-vaxxers,” “far-right anti-Semites,” etc., to the point where mainstream German celebrities like Sarah Bosetti were literally describing us as the inessential “appendix” in the body of the nation, quoting an infamous Nazi almost verbatim.

    And then there’s the whole “vaccination” business. The Commission will certainly want to inquire into that. They will probably want to start their inquiry with Karl Lauterbach, and determine exactly how he accidentally lied to the public, over and over, and over again …

    And whipped people up into a mass hysteria over “KILLER VARIANTS” …

    And “LONG COVID BRAIN ATTACKS” …

    And how “THE UNVACCINATED ARE HOLDING THE WHOLE COUNTRY HOSTAGE, SO WE NEED TO FORCIBLY VACCINATE EVERYONE!”

    And so on. I could go on with this all day, but it will be much easier to just refer you, and the Commission, to this documentary film by Aya Velázquez. Non-German readers may want to skip to the second half, unless they’re interested in the German “Corona Expert Council” …

    Look, the point is, everybody makes “mistakes,” especially during a “state of emergency,” or a war, or some other type of global “crisis.” At least we can always count on the Germans to step up and take responsibility for theirs, and not claim that they didn’t know what was happening, or that they were “just following orders,” or that “the science changed.”

    Plus, all this Covid stuff is ancient history, and, as Olaf, an editor at Der Spiegel, reminds us, it’s time to put the “The Divisive Pandemic” behind us …

    … and click heels, and heil the New Normal Democracy!

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 23:20

  • These Are The Top 15 Global Tank Fleets
    These Are The Top 15 Global Tank Fleets

    Heavily armed and armored, the modern tank is a versatile and mobile weapons platform, and a critical piece of contemporary warfare.

    This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Chris Dickert, shows the top 15 global tank fleets, using data from the 2024 Military Balance report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

    Let’s take an in-depth look at the top three fleets:

    1. United States

    As the world’s pre-eminent military power, it’s perhaps no surprise that the United States also has the largest tank fleet, by a wide margin.

    In total, they have just over 45,000 armored fighting vehicles in operation, along with 2,640 main battle tanks (MBTs), and 12,800 vehicles in storage, of which 2,000 are main battle tanks.

    The U.S. is internalizing the lessons from the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, where Western-supplied anti-tank weapons and massed Ukrainian artillery have been cutting Russian tanks to pieces. As a result, the U.S. recently canceled an upgrade of the M1 Abrams in favor of a more ambitious upgrade.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. is nervously eyeing a more confident China and a potential clash over Taiwan, where air and naval forces will be critical. However, a recent war game showed that Taiwanese mechanized ground forces, kitted out with American-made tanks and armored fighting vehicles, were critical in keeping the island autonomous.

    2. Russia

    According to Oryx, a Dutch open-source intelligence defense website, at time of writing, Russia has lost almost 2,800 main battle tanks since invading Ukraine. Considering that in the 2022 edition of the Military Balance, Russia was estimated to have 2,927 MBTs in operation, those are some hefty losses.

    Russia has been able to maintain about 2,000 MBTs in the field, in part, by increasing domestic production. Many defense plants have been taken over by state-owned Rostec and now operate around the clock. Russia is also now spending a full third of their budget on defense, equivalent to about 7.5% of GDP.

    At the same time, they’ve also been drawing down their Soviet-era stockpiles, which are modernized before being sent to the front. Just how long they can keep this up is an open question; their stockpiles are large, but not limitless. Here is what their storage levels look like:

    3. China

    China holds the third overall spot and top place globally for the number of main battle tanks in operation. Untypically, the People’s Liberation Army has no armored vehicles in storage, which perhaps isn’t surprising when you consider that China has been rapidly modernizing its military and that stockpiles usually contain older models.

    China also has one of the world’s largest fleets of armored fighting vehicles, second only to the United States. Breaking down that headline number, we can also see that they have the largest number of light tanks, wheeled guns, and infantry fighting vehicles.

    This is equipment that would be integral if China were to make an attempt to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force, where lightly armored mechanized units need to move with speed to occupy the island before Western allies can enter the fray. It’s worth noting that China also has one of the world’s largest fleets of amphibious assault vehicles.

    End of the Tank?

    Many commentators at the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, were quick to predict the end of the tank, however, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the tank’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

    With the U.S. and China both developing remote and autonomous armored vehicles, tanks could be quite different in the future, but there is nothing else that matches them for firepower, mobility, and survivability on the modern battlefield today.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 22:45

  • Taiwan Confirms Presence Of US Green Berets On Islands Very Close To China's Coast
    Taiwan Confirms Presence Of US Green Berets On Islands Very Close To China’s Coast

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng confirmed on Thursday the presence of US Army Special Forces soldiers in Kinmen, a group of islands that are controlled by Taiwan but located just off the coast of mainland China.

    Some parts of the Kinmen islands are just 2.5 miles away from the mainland Chinese city of Xiamen. The presence of US troops on the islands was first reported by Taiwanese media last month.

    Chiu confirmed the highly provocative deployment when asked about a new report from the US outlet SOFREP that said US Green Berets have taken up “permanent positions” as military advisors in Kinmen. The US soldiers are also deployed in Penghu, a Taiwanese-controlled archipelago about 30 miles west of the main island of Taiwan and 70 miles east of mainland China.

    The SOFREP report said the US Green Berets were stationed at the Taiwanese Army’s amphibious command centers. The deployment was carried out under provisions in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which called for the US to create a comprehensive training program for the Taiwanese military.

    The new collaboration includes the US troops training Taiwanese forces on the Black Hornet Nano, a compact military drone. Chiu said the presence of the US Green Berets was a “learning opportunity” for Taiwan’s military.

    The US has significantly increased its military and diplomatic support for Taiwan in recent years, ratcheting up tensions with China. Last year, the US deployed around 200 troops to Taiwan, marking the largest known US military presence on the island since the US pulled its troops out after Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979.

    The US also recently began providing Taiwan with unprecedented military aid. Since 1979, the US has always sold weapons to Taiwan but never financed the purchases or provided arms free of charge until last year.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 22:10

  • Biden Embraces Schumer’s "Good Speech" Which Blasted Netanyahu 
    Biden Embraces Schumer’s “Good Speech” Which Blasted Netanyahu 

    President Biden has endorsed Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s blistering Thursday speech that targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wherein he said Israel under Netanyahu could become a “pariah”.

    Biden said Friday that Schumer had made a “good speech”. The president was asked about the Senate floor remarks during an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. It was the first time Biden weighed in: “He expressed serious concerns, shared not only by him but by many Americans,” Biden continued.

    Via AP

    Biden also noted that his staff had been notified ahead of time of the content of the speech, meaning the White House had time to pressure Schumer out of it if it wanted to, or at least get him to tone down the criticisms.

    As the AP noted, “The Democratic president did not repeat Schumer’s appeal for Israel to hold elections, a step that would likely end Netanyahu’s tenure because of mounting discontent with his leadership.”

    But at the same time Secretary of State Antony Blinken while in Europe tried to calm fears that the US-Israeli relationship is collapsing. “That’s actually the strength of the relationship, to be able to speak clearly, candidly and directly,” he told reporters in reaction to Schumer’s address.

    The full Schumer speech, a transcript of which can be viewed here, included the below fierce condemnations aimed directly at Netanyahu: 

    “However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.

    He has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.

    Prime Minister Netanyahu has also weakened Israel’s political and moral fabric through his attempts to co-opt the judiciary. And he has shown zero interest in doing the courageous and visionary work required to pave the way for peace, even before this present conflict.

    As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me:

    The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.”

    Again, this was a key part of the very speech which Biden on Friday hailed as “good”. It also comes a week after Biden was caught on a hot mic saying he would have a “come to Jesus” meeting with Netanyahu.

    Kirby was later asked to elaborate on Biden calling Schumer’s speech “good” – but the NSC spokesman didn’t say much…

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

    According to Axios, Schumer’s words were felt as a political earthquake inside Israel. The speech “landed like an earthquake Thursday, delivering a huge shock to the already tense U.S.-Israel relationship” as well as created “more political space for other Democratic members of Congress to publicly voice their criticism of the Israeli government amid the ongoing war in Gaza,” Axios wrote.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 21:35

  • Harvard Medical School Professor Was Fired Over Not Getting COVID Vaccine
    Harvard Medical School Professor Was Fired Over Not Getting COVID Vaccine

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

    A Harvard Medical School professor who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine has been terminated, according to documents reviewed by The Epoch Times.

    Martin Kulldorff, epidemiologist and statistician, at his home in Ashford, Conn., on Feb. 11, 2022. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist, was fired by Mass General Brigham in November 2021 over noncompliance with the hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate after his requests for exemptions from the mandate were denied, according to one document. Mr. Kulldorff was also placed on leave by Harvard Medical School (HMS) because his appointment as professor of medicine there “depends upon” holding a position at the hospital, another document stated.

    Mr. Kulldorff asked HMS in late 2023 how he could return to his position and was told he was being fired.

    “You would need to hold an eligible appointment with a Harvard-affiliated institution for your HMS academic appointment to continue,” Dr. Grace Huang, dean for faculty affairs, told the epidemiologist and biostatistician.

    She said the lack of an appointment, combined with college rules that cap leaves of absence at two years, meant he was being terminated.

    Mr. Kulldorff disclosed the firing for the first time this month.

    “While I can’t comment on the specifics due to employment confidentiality protections that preclude us from doing so, I can confirm that his employment agreement was terminated November 10, 2021,” a spokesperson for Brigham and Women’s Hospital told The Epoch Times via email.

    Mass General Brigham granted just 234 exemption requests out of 2,402 received, according to court filings in an ongoing case that alleges discrimination.

    The hospital said previously, “We received a number of exemption requests, and each request was carefully considered by a knowledgeable team of reviewers.”

    “A lot of other people received exemptions, but I did not,” Mr. Kulldorff told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Kulldorff was originally hired by HMS but switched departments in 2015 to work at the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is part of Mass General Brigham and affiliated with HMS.

    “Harvard Medical School has affiliation agreements with several Boston hospitals which it neither owns nor operationally controls,” an HMS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email. “Hospital-based faculty, such as Mr. Kulldorff, are employed by one of the affiliates, not by HMS, and require an active hospital appointment to maintain an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School.”

    HMS confirmed that some faculty, who are tenured or on the tenure track, do not require hospital appointments.

    Natural Immunity

    Before the COVID-19 vaccines became available, Mr. Kulldorff contracted COVID-19. He was hospitalized but eventually recovered.

    That gave him a form of protection known as natural immunity. According to a number of studies, including papers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, natural immunity is better than the protection bestowed by vaccines.

    Other studies have found that people with natural immunity face a higher risk of problems after vaccination.

    Mr. Kulldorff expressed his concerns about receiving a vaccine in his request for a medical exemption, pointing out a lack of data for vaccinating people who suffer from the same issue he does.

    “I already had superior infection-acquired immunity; and it was risky to vaccinate me without proper efficacy and safety studies on patients with my type of immune deficiency,” Mr. Kulldorff wrote in an essay.

    In his request for a religious exemption, he highlighted an Israel study that was among the first to compare protection after infection to protection after vaccination. Researchers found that the vaccinated had less protection than the naturally immune.

    “Having had COVID disease, I have stronger longer lasting immunity than those vaccinated (Gazit et al). Lacking scientific rationale, vaccine mandates are religious dogma, and I request a religious exemption from COVID vaccination,” he wrote.

    Both requests were denied.

    Mr. Kulldorff is still unvaccinated.

    “I had COVID. I had it badly. So I have infection-acquired immunity. So I don’t need the vaccine,” he told The Epoch Times.

    Dissenting Voice

    Mr. Kulldorff has been a prominent dissenting voice during the COVID-19 pandemic, countering messaging from the government and many doctors that the COVID-19 vaccines were needed, regardless of prior infection.

    He spoke out in an op-ed in April 2021, for instance, against requiring people to provide proof of vaccination to attend shows, go to school, and visit restaurants.

    “The idea that everybody needs to be vaccinated is as scientifically baseless as the idea that nobody does. Covid vaccines are essential for older, high-risk people and their caretakers and advisable for many others. But those who’ve been infected are already immune,” he wrote at the time.

    Mr. Kulldorff later co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for focused protection of people at high risk while removing restrictions for younger, healthy people.

    Harsh restrictions such as school closures “will cause irreparable damage” if not lifted, the declaration stated.

    The declaration drew criticism from Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who became the head of the CDC, among others.

    In a competing document, Dr. Walensky and others said that “relying upon immunity from natural infections for COVID-19 is flawed” and that “uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity(3) and mortality across the whole population.”

    “Those who are pushing these vaccine mandates and vaccine passports—vaccine fanatics, I would call them—to me they have done much more damage during this one year than the anti-vaxxers have done in two decades,” Mr. Kulldorff later said in an EpochTV interview. “I would even say that these vaccine fanatics, they are the biggest anti-vaxxers that we have right now. They’re doing so much more damage to vaccine confidence than anybody else.”

    Surveys indicate that people have less trust now in the CDC and other health institutions than before the pandemic, and data from the CDC and elsewhere show that fewer people are receiving the new COVID-19 vaccines and other shots.

    Support

    The disclosure that Mr. Kulldorff was fired drew criticism of Harvard and support for Mr. Kulldorff.

    The termination “is a massive and incomprehensible injustice,” Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, an ethics expert who was fired from the University of California–Irvine School of Medicine for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine because he had natural immunity, said on X.

    “The academy is full of people who declined vaccines—mostly with dubious exemptions—and yet Harvard fires the one professor who happens to speak out against government policies.” Dr. Vinay Prasad, an epidemiologist at the University of California–San Francisco, wrote in a blog post. “It looks like Harvard has weaponized its policies and selectively enforces them.”

    A petition to reinstate Mr. Kulldorff has garnered more than 1,800 signatures.

    Some other doctors said the decision to let Mr. Kulldorff go was correct.

    “Actions have consequence,” Dr. Alastair McAlpine, a Canadian doctor, wrote on X. He said Mr. Kulldorff had “publicly undermine[d] public health.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 21:00

  • Visualizing The Explosive Growth Of AI-Powered Fraud
    Visualizing The Explosive Growth Of AI-Powered Fraud

    Former U.S. president Donald Trump posing with Black voters, President Joe Biden discouraging people from voting via telephone or the Pope in a puffy white jacket: Deepfakes of videos, photos and audio recordings have become widespread on various internet platforms, aided by the technological advances of large language models like Midjourney, Google’s Gemini or OpenAI‘s ChatGPT.

    As Statista’s Florian Zandt details below, with the right prompt fine-tuning, everyone can create seemingly real images or make the voices of prominent political or economic figures and entertainers say anything they want. While creating a deepfake is not a criminal offense on its own, many governments are nevertheless moving towards stronger regulation when using artificial intelligence to prevent harm to the parties involved.

    Apart from the main avenue of deepfakes, creating non-consensual pornographic content involving mostly female celebrities, this technology can also be used to commit identity fraud by manufacturing fake IDs or impersonating others over the phone. As Statista’s chart based on the most recent annual report of identity verification provider Sumsub shows, deepfake-related identity fraud cases have skyrocketed between 2022 and 2023 in many countries around the world.

    Infographic: How Dangerous are Deepfakes and Other AI-Powered Fraud? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    For example, the number of fraud attempts in the Philippines rose by 4,500 percent year over year, followed by nations like Vietnam, the United States and Belgium. With the capabilities of so-called artificial intelligence potentially increasing even further, as is evidenced by products like AI video generator Sora, deepfake fraud attempts could also spill over into other areas.

    “We’ve seen deepfakes become more and more convincing in recent years and this will only continue and branch out into new types of fraud, as seen with voice deepfakes”, says Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, Sumsub’s Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, in the aforementioned report.

    “Both consumers and companies need to remain hyper-vigilant to synthetic fraud and look to multi-layered anti-fraud solutions, not only deepfake detection.”

    These assessments are shared by many cybersecurity experts. For example, a survey among 199 cybersecurity leaders attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity in 2023 showed 46 percent of respondents being most concerned about the “advance of adversarial capabilities – phishing, malware development, deepfakes” in terms of the risks artificial intelligence poses for cybersecurity in the future.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 20:25

  • Andre Gordon, Suspect In 3 Falls Township Murders, Captured After Trenton Barricade, Showdown With Police
    Andre Gordon, Suspect In 3 Falls Township Murders, Captured After Trenton Barricade, Showdown With Police

    The man accused of killing three people during a violent rampage in Falls Township, Pennsylvania Saturday morning before barricading himself inside a Trenton home has finally been captured, Fox29 reports citing officials.

    It all began on Viewpoint Lane in Falls Township just before 9 a.m. when Falls Township police responded to reports of a shooting. There, police say Andre Gordon Jr., 26, forced his way into the home and fatally shot two people and fled in a stolen vehicle that was carjacked in Trenton earlier in the morning.

    The victims have been identified as his 52-year-old stepmother, Karen Gordon, and 13-year-old sister, Kera Gordon. Three other people, including a minor, were inside the home and able to hide, according to Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn.

    He then drove to a home on Edgewood Lane around 9 a.m. where authorities say he forced his way inside and shot and killed 25-year-old Taylor Daniel – the mother of his two children. Authorities say four other people were inside that home and one person was injured after they were struck by Gordon with a rifle.

    After fleeing that scene, around 9:15 a.m. police say he carjacked a 44-year-old male driver at gunpoint outside a Dollar General on Bristol Pike in Morrisville. He fled that scene in the driver’s dark gray Honda CRV.

    A short time later, authorities confirmed that Honda was found unoccupied in Trenton and that SWAT teams were converging on a nearby home to search for Gordon.

    Police had believed Gordon barricaded himself inside a home near the 100 block of Miller Street in Trenton where the carjacked vehicle was found. Authorities say they received information that Gordon may have taken multiple people hostage inside.

    Police later confirmed the home’s residents had been taken to safety with no injuries. Gordon was taken into custody around 5 p.m.

    By mid-afternoon, officers surrounded the house on a taped-off block, calling to Gordon through a loudspeaker and trying to persuade him to come out.

    “Andre, get away from the windows. If you would like to surrender, dial 911 now,” one message went.

    Police determined later that Gordon was not in the house on Phillips Avenue.

    According to police, it is believed that Gordon knew all of the victims who were fatally shot. He is also believed to currently be homeless and has ties to Trenton, New Jersey. Authorities believe he has ties to the home police had surrounded.

    Officials said they couldn’t yet speak to a motive for the attacks. While Gordon had had some minor brushes with the law, they were “nothing that would indicate that anything like this would happen,” Falls Township Police Chief Nelson Whitney said at a news conference.

    A shelter-in-place order was sent to residents in Falls Township by phone and by mobile alert around 9:30 a.m. and was lifted by 12:30 p.m.

    The Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade was canceled as a result of the shelter-in-place, and several local businesses in the area also closed temporarily.

    Governor Josh Shapiro noted he was informed of the shooting and said on X that he directed Pennsylvania State Police to work with local law enforcement, and to provide whatever support they might need.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 20:15

  • Vitamin D: Deficiency Symptoms, Health Benefits, Optimal Sources, And Side Effects
    Vitamin D: Deficiency Symptoms, Health Benefits, Optimal Sources, And Side Effects

    Authored by Mecura Wang and medically reviewed by Dr. Beverly Timerding via The Epoch Times,

    Vitamin D, or the “sunshine vitamin,” is considered both a fat-soluble vitamin and a hormone because it can be obtained nutritionally, and our skin can synthesize it through sunlight exposure. It is integral to various bodily functions.

    Primarily recognized for enhancing calcium absorption, vitamin D plays a role in maintaining bone and dental health, supporting the immune system, regulating cell growth, influencing mood, and preventing conditions such as multiple sclerosis.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times)

    What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency?

    Vitamin D deficiency is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency, affecting people of all ages globally. In the United States, nearly one-quarter of individuals have insufficient or deficient vitamin D blood levels, which can impact bone and overall health. Approximately 50 percent of children between ages 1 and 5 and 70 percent aged 6 to 11 experience vitamin D deficiency.

    Vitamin D deficiency often arises due to insufficient sunlight exposure, inadequate dietary intake, and the skin’s inability to produce it. Also, natural foods typically do not provide enough vitamin D to prevent deficiency, making sunlight exposure a crucial factor.

    Most people with vitamin D deficiency experience no symptoms. For others, common symptoms may include:

    • Fatigue: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to fatigue in uncontrolled trials, and treatment with the vitamin has been shown to improve the condition in blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Individuals with persistent and severe vitamin D deficiency may encounter symptoms linked to secondary hyperparathyroidism, including fatigue. Secondary hyperparathyroidism is when the parathyroid excretes too much hormone due to low calcium levels.
    • Bone and muscle pain: A mild but prolonged vitamin D deficiency can result in chronic hypocalcemia (low calcium) and hyperparathyroidism, with symptoms such as bone pain and muscle aches.
    • Muscle weakness and cramps (spasms): Increased levels of vitamin D in the bloodstream have been linked to enhanced muscle strength, physical activity, and the capability to ascend stairs, while lower concentrations are associated with a higher risk of falls among older people. Muscle spasms, particularly in infants, can be an early indication of rickets due to low blood calcium levels resulting from severe vitamin D deficiency.
    • Mood changes: According to a systematic review, about a third of the studies indicated inadequate vitamin D levels were associated with depression. Others suggested supplementing with it was helpful if combined with exercise or along with other nutritional supplements.
    • Bone loss: Vitamin D deficiency can cause bone loss as it impairs calcium absorption, leading to decreased calcium levels in the blood. Specifically, insufficient vitamin D limits the body’s ability to absorb only 10 percent to 15 percent of dietary calcium, whereas with normal vitamin reserves, absorption typically ranges from 30 percent to 40 percent.

    Other symptoms and signs of deficiency may include:

    • Heightened pain sensitivity
    • A tingling sensation in the hands or feet
    • A waddling gait from weakened hip or leg muscles
    • Bone fractures
    • Bowed legs (severe deficiency)
    • Knock-knees
    • Poor sleep
    • Hair loss
    • Increased susceptibility to illness

     Complications

    The complications of vitamin D deficiency are:

    • Rickets: Rickets affects children’s bones, causing them to become soft and weak, potentially leading to deformities. Symptoms and signs include bone pain, reluctance to walk, skeletal deformities such as bowed legs, thickening of joints, dental issues, delayed growth, and fragile bones prone to fractures in severe cases.
    • Osteoporosis: Vitamin D deficiency can result in secondary hyperparathyroidism, leading to bone loss, osteoporosis, fractures, mineralization defects, and long-term risks of osteomalacia. Osteoporosis may cause intense back discomfort, diminished stature, or deformities in the spine, such as a bent or hunched posture.
    • Osteomalacia: This is similar to rickets but can happen at any age. Characterized by bone softening, osteomalacia is primarily linked to vitamin D issues negatively affecting calcium absorption. Its symptoms and signs include bone fractures, muscle weakness, and widespread bone pain, particularly in the hips.

    What Are the Health Benefits of Vitamin D?

    When you eat food or supplements containing vitamin D, your body undergoes two processes to activate it. First, in the liver, vitamin D is converted to calcidiol (25-hydroxyvitamin D). After that, the kidneys further transform it into calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D).

    Calcitriol encourages the absorption of calcium and phosphorus in the small intestine. It also works with parathyroid hormone to enhance calcium transport, which is essential for maintaining proper calcium and phosphorus levels.

    Vitamin D plays a crucial role in calcium absorption, essential for strong bones and teeth. It also supports muscle and nerve function, facilitating movement and communication within the body. In addition, vitamin D is vital for the immune system, as it helps defend against infections.

    • Bone health: Vitamin D helps with the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, promoting bone mineralization and bone mineral density. A meta-analysis of 12 studies involving over 42,000 individuals aged 65 and above discovered that the prevention of nonvertebral fractures with vitamin D is dependent on the dosage. A higher dose of about 500 to 800 international units (IU) resulted in a reduction of hip fractures by 18 percent and nonvertebral fractures by 20 percent for people aged 65 years or older. However, in another study involving over 25,000 generally healthy midlife and older adults, supplementing with vitamin D3 did not lead to a significantly lower risk of fractures compared to a placebo. Of note, though, patients in this study had no controlled calcium supplementation.
    • Muscle and nerve function: Vitamin D may contribute to increased muscle strength by preserving muscle fibers, potentially reducing the risk of falls, a prevalent issue associated with significant disability and mortality in older individuals. Research also suggests that vitamin D plays a vital role in essential neurological functions such as cell growth, development, nerve support, protection, signal transmission, and adaptability.
    • Immune system support: Vitamin D contributes to a healthy immune system. The vitamin D receptor is present in immune cells, allowing vitamin D to act locally in the immune system. The vitamin can influence both the innate and adaptive immune responses and its deficiency is linked to higher autoimmunity risk and increased vulnerability to infections. Moreover, vitamin D exhibits strong anti-inflammatory effects.

    Other health benefits of vitamin D include:

    • Pregnancy support: Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy has also been associated with a reduction in the risks of small-for-gestational-age babies, preeclampsia, preterm birth, and gestational diabetes.
    • Mood regulation
    • Insulin level regulation: Vitamin D has been shown to lower blood glucose levels and enhance insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes.
    • Weight loss: Vitamin D plays a role in preventing the formation of fat cells by influencing specific molecules, such as vitamin D receptors.
    • Dental health: Research highlights a link between alveolar bone density, osteoporosis, tooth loss, and periodontal disease risk. Several reports suggest a significant connection between periodontal health and vitamin D intake.

    Vitamin D Prevents Certain Conditions

    In addition to the aforementioned bone-related and mental medical conditions, an adequate level of vitamin D can potentially prevent or lower the risk of certain diseases, including:

    • Certain types of cancer: Animal and lab studies suggest that vitamin D may inhibit tumor development and slow the growth of existing tumors in various organs, including the breast, ovary, colon, prostate, and brain. Human epidemiological studies demonstrate that higher serum levels of vitamin D are linked to significantly slower progression of certain cancers, particularly colorectal cancer. The anti-cancer effects of vitamin D may also extend indirectly through its anti-inflammatory properties.
    • Heart disease: Maintaining optimal vitamin D levels may have potential cardiovascular health benefits, according to one recent study. Both deficiency and insufficiency of vitamin D were linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including stroke, heart disease, heart attack, and heart failure. However, excess vitamin D was not associated with increased CVD risk.
    • Immune-related diseases: Sufficient vitamin D levels may help prevent or treat immune-related diseases.
    • Asthma: A meta-analysis discovered that taking vitamin D supplements helped adults with mild-to-moderate asthma who were also deficient in vitamin D to reduce their asthma exacerbations by 30 percent. However, this benefit was not observed in individuals with higher baseline vitamin D levels.
    • Atherosclerosis: Vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory properties appear promising in lessening atherosclerosis, as insufficient levels lead to increased production of pro-inflammatory markers, disrupting the balance in the inflammatory response. In atherosclerosis, vitamin D suppresses the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which play a significant role in the development of the disease.
    • Type 2 diabetes: One study suggested a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with Type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance decreases with the supplementation of vitamin D.
    • Autoimmune diseases: Extensive research indicates a potential connection between vitamin D deficiency and the development of autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D deficiency has been noted in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, with an inverse relationship to disease activity, suggesting a role in the disease’s pathogenesis. Similar observations exist for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren’s syndrome, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. Research also indicates there is a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis in individuals with higher levels of vitamin D.
    • Cognitive decline: Research has consistently established a connection between cognitive impairment, dementia, and a lack of vitamin D.
    • Mortality: As per a meta-analysis of 18 studies involving 57,311 subjects, daily intake of vitamin D supplements was associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality rates.

    What Are the Types of Vitamin D?

    Vitamin D is not a single chemical but a group of compounds. The two major types of vitamin D are D2 and D3. Vitamin D2 and D3, collectively known as vitamin D, share nearly identical functions, yet neither becomes active until the body performs its transformative process.

    1. Vitamin D2 (Ergocalciferol)

    Vitamin D2 comes from plants and fungi and is created when ergosterol is exposed to radiation. It is found in some plant-based foods and used in vitamin D supplements.

    2. Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)

    The body naturally produces a form of vitamin D from a widespread cholesterol variant called 7-dehydrocholesterol, mainly through exposure to sunlight. UVB energy from sunlight plays a crucial role in converting this precursor into vitamin D3. It is also found in some animal-based foods, such as fatty fish, egg yolks, and liver.

    Vitamin D3 is commonly available in animal-based supplements. It is often considered more effective than D2, possibly due to its stronger connection with the vitamin D binding protein. This increased affinity may result in slower clearance of vitamin D3, leading to longer-lasting concentrations of 25(OH)D in the blood compared to D2.

    What Is the Recommended Amount of Vitamin D?

    The required daily amount of vitamin D varies based on an individual’s age. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is designed to meet the daily requirements for maintaining healthy bones and normal calcium metabolism in individuals with minimal sun exposure.

    The recommended daily intake of vitamin D can vary among different organizations, such as the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine, or IOM), which is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation (BHOF) (formerly known as National Osteoporosis Foundation, or NOF), and the Endocrine Society.

    The NAM RDA guideline below is also recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NAM considers these intake amounts adequate to achieve a vitamin D blood level of 50 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L), which they believe is sufficient for most people. In addition, according to the Endocrine Society, ensuring a consistent elevation of the blood level of 25(OH)D above 75 nmol/L may necessitate a daily intake of at least 1,000 IU of vitamin D.

    The following table compares the recommended daily vitamin D amounts by the NAM and NIH, BHOF, and the Endocrine Society.

    What Types of Vitamin D Supplements Are Available?

    Vitamin D supplements are available in three types: vitamin D2, vitamin D3, and calcidiol. However, calcidiol is considered a medication, and it may be prescribed for individuals with health conditions causing malabsorption, such as cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, or liver disease, which impairs the synthesis of calcidiol from typical vitamin D supplements.

    Vitamin D2 vs. D3 Supplements

    Vitamin D2 supplements are created by subjecting a plant sterol to ultraviolet energy, resulting in the production of vitamin D2. Vitamin D3 is usually generated through the irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol derived from lanolin obtained from sheep’s wool. Individuals who abstain from all animal-derived products can ask manufacturers about supplement sourcing and processing methods.

    Ongoing debate surrounds the preference for vitamin D3 over D2 to increase blood levels. A meta-analysis suggests that D3 supplements tend to raise and maintain vitamin D levels more effectively than D2. Many experts favor vitamin D3 due to its natural production in the body and its presence in foods containing the vitamin.

    One study involving 15,716 participants compared four treatment options for vitamin D deficiency, including vitamin D2 injection, vitamin D3 injection, a combination of vitamin D2 injection with a D2 tablet, and a combination of vitamin D3 injection with a D2 tablet. All treatments led to a significant increase in serum vitamin D within 12 weeks, with the vitamin D3 injection alone showing the highest increase. The findings suggest that using vitamin D3 in injectable form is the most effective option for restoring severe vitamin D deficiency, outperforming the injectable form of vitamin D2 and D2 tablets. However, the study did not address the effects of a vitamin D3 tablet/capsule, which is still generally better absorbed than oral vitamin D2.

    Different Forms of Vitamin D Supplements 

    Vitamin D2 and D3 supplements can be obtained over the counter or by prescription in the United States. They come in various strengths, including 400, 800, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 50,000 IU, with the latter requiring a prescription.

    For adults, the general recommendation is a daily supplement containing 800 IU. Older individuals may still experience vitamin D deficiency at this intake level, so they might need to increase the dosage per their doctor’s instructions. In addition, all infants and children are advised to take a vitamin D supplement containing 400 IU starting shortly after birth.

    As vitamin D is fat-soluble, it is most effectively absorbed when consumed with a meal or snack containing some fat.

    Vitamin D supplements are also available in various forms, including:

    • Capsules/softgels
    • Tablets
    • Liquid drops
    • Gummies
    • Sprays
    • Injections

    What Are the Dietary Sources of Vitamin D?

    Vitamin D is found naturally in a few foods, and most dietary intake in the United States comes from fortified foods supplemented with vitamin D.

    Vitamin D2

    • Many plant-based milks (e.g., soy, almond, and oat) and plant-based yogurts are fortified with vitamin D2. One cup of various soy, almond, and oat milk brands is fortified with 100 to 144 IU of vitamin D.
    • Some mushrooms naturally contain vitamin D2, and certain commercially sold ones have higher levels of D2 because they are intentionally exposed to high amounts of ultraviolet light. Half a cup of raw, sliced white mushrooms exposed to UV light contains 366 IU of vitamin D.
    • Vitamin D (both D2 and D3) is supplemented in various breakfast cereals. One serving of ready-to-eat cereal is fortified with 10 percent of the daily value (DV) for vitamin D (80 IU).
    • Some orange juice brands, margarine, and other food items are fortified with vitamin D2.

    Vitamin D3

    Vitamin D3 is obtained from animal products, with oily fish, fish oils, eggs, and dairy serving as the best dietary sources. The amount of vitamin D in an animal’s tissues is influenced by its diet.

    Most of the U.S. cow’s milk supply is fortified with approximately 120 IU of vitamin D3 per cup, and infant formula is fortified. However, foods derived from milk, such as cheese and ice cream, are typically not fortified. Rich sources of vitamin D3 include fatty fish such as trout, salmon, tuna, and mackerel, as well as fish liver oils. In addition to vitamin D3, animal-based foods often contain calcidiol, also known as 25(OH)D. Research suggests that calcidiol is around five times more effective than the parent vitamin in increasing serum 25(OH)D concentrations.

    Examples of foods containing vitamin D3 include:

    • Fish oil: 1 tablespoon of cod liver oil (1,360 IU per serving)
    • Trout: 3 ounces of cooked farmed rainbow trout (645 IU per serving)
    • Salmon: 3 ounces of cooked sockeye salmon (570 IU per serving)
    • Sardines: Two drained sardines, canned in oil  (46 IU per serving)
    • Cow’s milk: 1 cup of 2 percent milk fortified with vitamin D (120 IU per serving)

    What Are the Other Sources of Vitamin D?

    Unfortunately, we can obtain vitamin D from only diet, sun exposure, and supplementation. The belief that tanning beds can provide sufficient vitamin D is just a myth because tanning bed bulbs mainly emit UVA light, while vitamin D synthesis requires UVB light. Hypervitaminosis D (excessive vitamin D levels in the body) is a potential risk in a small proportion of tanning beds with UVB light. It’s not known if this is due to less heating of the skin in some facilities. Also, catching sunlight in a sunny office or while driving in a car won’t contribute to obtaining vitamin D, either, because window glass completely blocks UVB ultraviolet light.

    Sunlight consists of two types of ultraviolet radiation: UVA and UVB. Although UVB is essential for the skin’s vitamin D synthesis, it can cause sunburn and contribute to cell damage linked to cancer. UVA also damages the skin and accelerates aging. To safeguard against sun damage and skin cancer, limit exposure during peak hours (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), wear protective clothing such as a wide-brimmed hat and long-sleeved garments, and use sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher when too much exposure is unavoidable, ensuring it’s broad-spectrum for UVA and UVB protection.

    Given the appropriate conditions, exposing the arms and legs to sunlight for 10 to 15 minutes a few times weekly can produce almost all the necessary vitamin D.

    In addition to the aforementioned factors, elements affecting how much vitamin D your body makes include smog and other types of air pollution, season, and cloud cover. For instance, people living north of the 37-degree-latitude line, the imaginary line connecting Richmond, Virginia, and San Francisco, cannot obtain sufficient UVB exposure during winter to produce adequate vitamin D.

    What Is the Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency?

    Blood 25(OH)D levels (combined vitamin D2 and D3) are a good indicator of vitamin D stores in the body and show a strong connection with symptoms and signs of deficiency. Blood tests measuring vitamin D, calcium, and phosphate levels can confirm a deficiency.

    High-Risk Populations

    Certain disorders, hereditary conditions, and medications may impact vitamin D absorption or conversion of vitamin D to its active form, thus contributing to deficiency.

    The following risk factors put someone at higher risk of deficiency:

    • Limited outdoor activity: Older adults and those residing in institutions may not have easy access to the outdoors.
    • Inflammatory bowel diseases
    • Celiac disease
    • Cystic fibrosis
    • Surgery: People who undergo bariatric or gastric bypass surgery for weight loss and those with sections of the small intestine removed (resection) are at higher risk.
    • Darker skin: Less vitamin D is produced during sun exposure in darker skin compared to lighter skin, as the melanin in darker skin blocks and absorbs sunlight before it can initiate vitamin D production.
    • Excessive sunscreen use
    • Malabsorption disorders
    • Age: As people age, their skin’s 7-dehydrocholesterol levels (which play a crucial role in the synthesis of vitamin D) decrease, accompanied by changes in the skin. Older people are also more prone to spending extended periods indoors.
    • Certain medical conditions: Some conditions can hinder the body’s ability to synthesize or absorb sufficient vitamin D.
    • Lactose intolerance: Milk is usually fortified with vitamin D.
    • Vegan or vegetarian diets

    To address vitamin D deficiency, increasing consumption of vitamin D-rich foods is often insufficient, prompting doctors to recommend supplements. The available forms of vitamin D supplements include vitamins D2 and D3 and calcidiol. The prescribed dosage varies based on factors such as severity, age, weight, and pregnancy status. The following table contains the suggested average daily dosages. The levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, or 25(OH)D, in the blood are used to measure vitamin D status.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 19:50

  • Tide Shift: Philadelphia Officer Says Criminals Will Be Prosecuted Once Again 
    Tide Shift: Philadelphia Officer Says Criminals Will Be Prosecuted Once Again 

    The tide is turning in lawless progressive cities after leftist radicals in city halls have pushed disastrous social justice reforms and defunded the police that have sparked crime wave after crime wave. 

    According to one Philadelphia Police Department officer, the mayor, the commissioner, and the governor are no longer tolerating the soaring thefts and out-of-control crime that have transformed some parts of the metro area into third-world-like conditions. 

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    If we had to guess, maybe the shift in policing is because progressive policies have been one of the biggest failed social experiments this nation has ever seen. Law-abiding Americans across cities demand a return to law and order after half a decade of crime chaos. And these leftist politicians are getting the message as some are up for re-election. 

    In a video interview posted by X user Wall Street Apes, a Philadelphia police officer explains that law and order is returning but will be an uphill battle. 

    “The mayor, the commissioner and the governor said we gonna do something about the theft. They passed new legislation that they’re going after people.” 

    “That’s not gonna happen anymore. Not the city of Philadelphia. You’re gonna get prosecuted, and it’s gonna be a felony. It ain’t gonna be on misdemeanor.” 

    Interviewer: “Can you say something to the youth, please, about all this morning?” 

    Officer “Well, all I have to say to the youth is put down the gun because if you come here with a gun, the chances are you’re not gonna make it home. I hate to say it like that, but we have to keep it real. This is killing us. I’ve never seen it like this before, where young people shoot up a bus depot station, 40 rounds, and shoot innocent people. Something must be done. 

    I say this to the parents. Go in your children’s room, tear it apart and find that gun. Because when they kill somebody, that’s on you. You can’t say, well, my child ain’t you know what your children are doing. It is your job. 

    That’s your house. You own it. You are the commander in that chief in that house. Go to your children’s house your room and look for these weapons. Stop it before it’s too late. 

    Either you’re burying your child, or you’re going up to prison every month, visiting your child. It takes a community to stop this. It’s not just on the police department.

     That’s why we are out there. But it’s not all about locking people up. You have to educate these people. You have to educate these young people. Guns is not the way. 

    But there’s a group of them that believe in robbing and stealing and killing. And those are the ones we have to capture and put away. “

    Watch the full interview here: 

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 19:15

  • Electric Transmission Buildout Could Cost Americans Trillions Of Dollars
    Electric Transmission Buildout Could Cost Americans Trillions Of Dollars

    Authored by Bernard L. McNamee via RealClear Wire,

    Though windmills and solar panels get the headlines, the big energy topic in Washington is electric transmission. Whether it is Congress’s newfound interest in permitting reform, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) upcoming final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, how to build and pay for long-range transmission to connect generators to customers is considered the final piece in the quest to meet net-zero goals.   

    Like so many issues in Washington, the need for more transmission lines is accepted without question and the costs are not considered. But for American consumers, especially low-income and elderly, as well as small businesses and energy intense manufacturers, building new transmission lines could result in much higher monthly bills and leave them on the hook for stranded assets.

    Traditionally, high-voltage transmission lines, consisting of 150-foot lattice towers crossing the landscape for hundreds of miles, were planned for by local utilities to meet their customers’ energy needs and subject to approval by state public utility commissions. But public policy goals to promote renewables are changing how the grid is being developed.

    Over the past few years, States established renewable energy mandates; Congress enacted over $1 trillion in taxpayer subsidies for renewable energy; and President Biden issued an executive order setting net-zero goals for electricity generation by 2035. To fulfill these policies, the grid needs new high-voltage transmission lines—lots of them—and they will be expensive.

    According to the “Net-Zero America” analysis published by Princeton researchers, achieving net zero goals with 100% wind and solar by 2050 will require an additional $3.5 trillion in capital spending for new transmission lines. If net-zero goals are pursued with a mix of renewables, nuclear, and natural gas generation (which may include carbon capture), then a significant portion of this transmission investment would be unnecessary. Furthermore, a balanced resource mix of dispatchable and renewable resources would enhance grid reliability without overbuilding renewables or transmission.

    Contributing to the cost is that renewable projects are often built far away from where the electricity will be consumed. For example, the Midwest is a great place to build windmills, but long-distance transmission lines are needed to deliver their electricity to big population centers on coasts. Not only are these lines capital intensive, but they also require purchasing or condemning private property to site them. Adding insult to injury, many of these transmission lines will not serve the people whose land is used.       

    Renewable power developers see the potential for selling their electricity in higher priced power systems near urban centers, while also being able to harvest generous taxpayer subsidies. But having to pay for transmission cuts into profits. Furthermore, property owners impacted by the transmission lines are objecting. The solution: a wave of lobbyists and special interests pressing policy makers to eliminate permitting barriers and to socialize the $3.5 trillion cost of building new transmission lines to more Americans.   

    In response, FERC is engaged in a rulemaking to change transmission planning and cost allocation. Among the proposals is requiring grid planners to consider factors like “geographic zones”, such as wind potential in the Midwest; state and federal “public policy goals”; and “trends” in technology. If adopted, these factors would provide more subjective ways to justify building big, expensive, long-range transmission projects that would be paid for by a broader number of Americans.  

    With public concerns about costs, transmission advocates now argue that more transmission is needed for grid reliability. Yet, the threat of blackouts is the result of the very net-zero policies that now require more transmission. For example, Maryland’s recent decision to shut down the Brandon Shores coal plant will cause customers across 12 states and the District of Columbia to pay $796 million for new transmission projects to support reliability.  

    Customers may also be left paying for transmission projects that are no longer needed. New technology, such as small modular nuclear reactors that can be built at existing power plants that already have transmission access, may negate the need for new transmission lines to serve renewable generators. The current push for transmission reform may be another expensive example of Washington trying to solve yesterday’s problem. This is not mere speculation, since 2008 customers have paid $250 million for the PATH transmission line that crossed three states, even though it was never built and never served customers.  

    It is time for policy makers to reaffirm that the electric grid exists to serve customers, not developers and investors. Transmission planning and cost allocation should be driven by the needs of customers and overseen by the state regulators who are best suited to protect their citizens. At a time when inflation is making its tougher from families and businesses to thrive, imposing additional costs for transmission buildouts for special interests makes little sense. 

    Bernard L. McNamee was a Commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 2018-2020. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 18:40

  • Hertz CEO Out As Firm Seeks Traction After Big EV Bet Goes Bust
    Hertz CEO Out As Firm Seeks Traction After Big EV Bet Goes Bust

    CEO Stephen Scherr’s barely two-year ride with Hertz came to a screeching halt on Friday. In his wake, he leaves a company still working to recover from a big bet on electric vehicles gone bad. It will do so under new CEO Gil West, whose previous posts include executive roles at Delta Air Lines and the Cruise unit of General Motors.    

    Scherr, who came on board in February 2022 after 30 years at Goldman Sachs, ushered the company through its emergence from bankruptcy. Hertz’s EV push began in the previous year, with a splashy move to order 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. After taking the reins of the Estero, Florida-headquartered company, Scherr doubled down on the green vision, committing to purchased another 65,000 EVs from Polestar, a Swedish company. 

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    In December 2023, Hertz emphatically demonstrated that its massive EV push just wasn’t working out, throwing 20,000 EVs into the used-car market to start a systematic liquidation planned to extend through 2024. “The company expects to reinvest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine vehicles to meet customer demand,” Hertz said at the time, adding, “The company expects this action to better balance supply against expected demand of EVs.”

    The resale of fleet cars is a key driver of rental car companies’ profitability. On that front, Tesla threw a wrench in Hertz’s financials by aggressively slashing prices across its product line, crushing the resale values of not only Teslas, but the entire EV market. Top-selling EV’s saw their secondary-market prices plunge by almost a third in 2023. 

    Poor resale value isn’t the only EV liability biting Hertz — the company also pointed to the high cost of collision repairs. “For context, collision and damage repairs on an EV can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle,” Scherr noted in an October third-quarter conference call. 

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    Then there’s the issue of consumer demand. It’s fair to assume that most rental car customers don’t want their first EV experiment to come on a business or vacation trip, where they may be in an unfamiliar area and unenthused about spending 20 minutes at a recharging station on the way to the airport, to say nothing of the hassle of figuring out how the whole EV-thing works.

    There are many horror stories about consumers unpleasantly surprised to be issued an EV when they didn’t ask for one. Others say they picked up a car that was only half-charged and missing the charging cable. Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Cotton — one of the most sinister foreign-policy interventionists to ever walk Capitol Hill — decided to intervene in the rental car market, by introducing a bill that would make it illegal to force EVs on customers. 

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    In a statement issued Friday, Hertz vice chair Tom Wagner said, “We are appreciative of Stephen’s contribution over the last two years, including on a number of key strategic initiatives.” 

    …but definitely not that EV one. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 18:05

  • Four-Star Sellouts
    Four-Star Sellouts

    Authored by Citizen Soldier via RealClear Wire,

    “The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy. One must go in to fetch a diamond out.”

    I’ve been thinking about that line from Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, Death of a Salesman, as I watch prominent men risk prison or disgrace to enrich themselves.

    Look at the news.

    Sen. Bob Menendez, former Chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is indicted for acting as a foreign agent to benefit Egypt.

    Manuel Rocha, a former Ambassador to Cuba, will plead guilty to charges he conspired to act as an agent of Cuba.

    Two years ago, former Marine Corps General John Allen resigned from his post as president of Brookings Institution amid a DOJ investigation into whether he illegally lobbied on behalf of the nation of Qatar.

    DOJ dropped the charges but, in 2023, Congress released findings that 77 general officers and admirals had taken high-paying gigs with foreign countries. The list included former Defense Secretary James Mattis (UAE), former NSA chief Keith Alexander (Singapore, Saudi Arabia) and former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (Japan).

    Go back to 2015 and you’ll be reminded that then-Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas allegedly pressured DHS officials to approve visa requests on behalf of powerful friends in business, entertainment and politics.

    I get it; there’s an edge in this game, too.

    Mayorkas and the generals played close to the edge. Menendez played too close to the edge (at minimum). Rocha obviously went over the edge.

    The bigger question is … why?

    At an age when most Americans re-discover the soapy drama of daytime television, the politicians and generals venture deeper into the jungle.

    Taking one more free trip.

    Looking for one more big payday.

    Something short of the law should restrain their greed. Call it shame, stigma, patriotism, or even self-discipline. Call it common morality.

    The generals and military bigshots are most troubling. They made their names in an institution that demanded fidelity to the military ethos. Duck your duty to stand post, and you betray your comrades. Lie to your commanding officer, and you perhaps put an operation at risk. Sit back at the command post while your troops walk patrol, and be labeled a coward by yourself and others.

    When Allen, Mattis, McMaster and the rest served as officers, much of what they could have done, they didn’t do. Their restraint enhanced their character. Their high moral standards made them leaders, and formed the basis for their credibility to ask young Americans to kill or be killed in combat.

    But as generals transition to civilian life, apparently, they discover what can be gained by switching sides and corrupting into your opposite. The opportunity to become sandwich-board twirlers for foreign governments is turning once-virtuous leaders into human directionals for money, attention and other regime goodies.

    Because the generals sold out, they’re not special anymore.

    No more duty, honor, country.

    No more honor, courage, commitment.

    The generals are hunting diamonds now, and we should treat them accordingly. 

    Citizen Soldier believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 17:30

  • "Extreme Events": US Cancer Deaths Spiked In 2021 And 2022 In "Large Excess Over Trend"
    “Extreme Events”: US Cancer Deaths Spiked In 2021 And 2022 In “Large Excess Over Trend”

    Cancer deaths in the United States spiked in 2021 and 2022 among 15-44 year-olds “in large excess over trend,” marking jumps of 5.6% and 7.9% respectively vs. a rise of 1.7% in 2020, according to a new preprint study from deep-dive research firm, Phinance Technologies.

    Algeria, Carlos et. al “US -Death Trends for Neoplasms ICD codes: C00-D48, Ages 15-44”, ResearchGate, March. 2024 P. 7

    Extreme Events

    The report, which relies on data from the CDC, paints a troubling picture.

    “We show a rise in excess mortality from neoplasms reported as underlying cause of death, which started in 2020 (1.7%) and accelerated substantially in 2021 (5.6%) and 2022 (7.9%). The increase in excess mortality in both 2021 (Z-score of 11.8) and 2022 (Z-score of 16.5) are highly statistically significant (extreme events),” according to the authors.

    That said, co-author, David Wiseman, PhD (who has 86 publications to his name), leaves the cause an open question – suggesting it could either be a “novel phenomenon,” Covid-19, or the Covid-19 vaccine.

    “The results indicate that from 2021 a novel phenomenon leading to increased neoplasm deaths appears to be present in individuals aged 15 to 44 in the US,” reads the report.

    The authors suggest that the cause may be the result of “an unexpected rise in the incidence of rapidly growing fatal cancers,” and/or “a reduction in survival in existing cancer cases.”

    They also address the possibility that “access to utilization of cancer screening and treatment” may be a factor – the notion that pandemic-era lockdowns resulted in fewer visits to the doctor. Also noted is that “Cancers tend to be slowly-developing diseases with remarkably stable death rates and only small variations over time,” which makes “any temporal association between a possible explanatory factor (such as COVID-19, the novel COVID-19 vaccines, or other factor(s)) difficult to establish.”

    That said, a ZeroHedge review of the CDC data reveals that it does not provide information on duration of illness prior to death – so while it’s not mentioned in the preprint, it can’t rule out so-called ‘turbo cancers’ – reportedly rapidly developing cancers, the existence of which has been largely anecdotal (and widely refuted by the usual suspects).

    While the Phinance report is extremely careful not to draw conclusions, researcher “Ethical Skeptic” kicked the barn door open in a Thursday post on X – showing a strong correlation between “cancer incidence & mortality” coinciding with the rollout of the Covid mRNA vaccine.

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    Phinance principal Ed Dowd commented on the post, noting that “Cancer is suddenly an accelerating growth industry!”

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    Continued:

    Bottom line – hard data is showing alarming trends, which the CDC and other agencies have a requirement to explore and answer truthfully – and people are asking #WhereIsTheCDC.

    We aren’t holding our breath.

    Wiseman, meanwhile, points out that Pfizer and several other companies are making “significant investments in cancer drugs, post COVID.”

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    Phinance

    We’ve featured several of Phinance’s self-funded deep dives into pandemic data that nobody else is doing. If you’d like to support them, click here.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 16:55

  • Pentagon Commander Reveals 'Alarming' Number Of Drone Incursions At US-Mexico Border
    Pentagon Commander Reveals ‘Alarming’ Number Of Drone Incursions At US-Mexico Border

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

    A large number of drone incursions are happening at the U.S.-Mexico border, a U.S. Department of Defense official said on March 14.

    “It’s my understanding, there’s been a lot of drone incursions along our southern border. How many drone incursions have we had and what are they doing?” Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) asked Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot during a Senate hearing.

    “I don’t know the actual number—I don’t think anybody does—but it’s in the thousands,” Gen. Guillot said.

    Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot testifies to the U.S. Senate in Washington on March 14, 2024. (Senate via The Epoch Times)

    He later added that there are likely more than 1,000 incursions happening at the border per month.

    The general, who became commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in February, said he recently spoke with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Department of Justice officials learned about the surprising number of incursions. He described becoming alarmed.

    Are the incursions a defense threat to the homeland?

    “They alarm me from being the person responsible for homeland defense,” Gen. Guillot said. “I haven’t seen any of them manifest in a threat to the level of national defense but I see the potential only growing.”

    NORAD is a United States and Canadian organization whose work includes “the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands.” NORTHCOM leads the military’s homeland defense efforts.

    The hearing was held by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The subject of Mexican military incursions at the border did not come up.

    Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the committee, inquired as to whether military base commanders were equipped with standard operating procedures in dealing with unmanned aircraft.

    “The services do have authorities, but work remains to be done to ensure that … we have standardized operating procedures to address those threats,” Gen. Guillot said. “And also work remains to be done to be able to use especially the non-kinetic capabilities that can bring down those systems safely, without interfering with our airspace structure.”

    He said he was planning to recommend to the Pentagon and Congress ways NORAD can help develop those procedures after a 90-day assessment of NORAD and NORTHCOM is finished.

    Other Comments From New Commander

    Gen. Guillot also touched on a number of additional subjects during the hearing, his first since taking command.

    At one point, he said he was concerned about how many Chinese nationals are crossing into the United States.

    “The number of Chinese that are coming across the border is a big concern of mine,” he said. “In fact, in the short period of time that I’ve been in command, I’ve gone down to the southern border to talk to the agents and leadership about that. And then I’ve also spoken with the acting commissioner of the CBP on this subject.”

    He added: “What concerns me most about specifically the Chinese migrants is—one, that they’re so centralized in one location on the border. And two, is while many may be political refugees, other explanations, the ability for counterintelligence to hide in plain sight in those numbers.”

    Gen. Guillot also disclosed that Russia flew bombers near U.S. and Canadian airspace earlier in March but turned back before reaching the Air Defense Identification Zone, and said Chinese planes could follow.

    Gen. Guillot also told lawmakers that NORAD has improved its radars since officials allowed a Chinese balloon into American airspace in 2023.

    “That has allowed us to have better domain awareness in that,” he said. Gaps in the system, he added, are slated to be address by a new radar being introduced.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 16:20

  • Who Is "Mr. 100"? Mysterious Bitcoin Whale Becomes 14th Biggest BTC Holder
    Who Is “Mr. 100”? Mysterious Bitcoin Whale Becomes 14th Biggest BTC Holder

    Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

    A mysterious Bitcoin whale, nicknamed “Mr. 100,” has sparked curiosity in the cryptocurrency space after amassing over 52,996 Bitcoin, worth over $3.5 billion, on-chain data shows.

    Who is Bitcoin’s “Mr. 100”?

    The Mr. 100 whale wallet bought at least 1,000 Bitcoin on March 15, which is 52% of the total 1,907 BTC bought by the 10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to an X post by HODL15Capital.

    Bitcoin accumulation sheet. Source: HODL15Capital on X

    This address has been continually receiving BTC since November 2022, when the FTX exchange collapsed. The wallet has been adding at least 100 BTC nearly every day since Feb. 14.

    The wallet received some larger Bitcoin transfers from a secondary wallet address, which has also been adding tranches of 100 BTC since 2019. This suggests that the mysterious whale has been stacking sats since at least 2019, according to HODL15Capital, who also noted in a March 15 X post:

    “What I do know is that this is NOT one of the U.S. ETFs. I have all those mapped.” 

    Based on the size of the acquisitions, there’s speculation that the whale could be either a Hong Kong financial institution pre-seeding for ETFs, the Qatar Investment Authority, other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, a cold wallet associated with South Korean Upbit exchange, or an unidentified address of a tech billionaire.

    Mr. 100 continues accumulating regardless of Bitcoin price at near all-time highs, adding 400 BTC on March 12, when Bitcoin traded above the $72,000 mark.

    Following the accumulation spree, the Mr. 100 wallet is currently the 14th-largest BTC holder, according to Bitinfocharts data.

    Mr. 100 wallet data. Source: Bitinfocharts

    Wallet linked to Upbit: Crystal Intelligence

    The Mr. 100 wallet has been tagged as a cold wallet belonging to the Upbit cryptocurrency exchange, by blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence.

    Based on blockchain data analyzed by Crystal Intelligence, the mysterious wallet belongs to Upbit, the firm told Cointelegraph:

    “We have found that the number and value of transactions associated with this wallet are indicative of a VASP-type service. Additionally, we can confirm with high accuracy that the incoming transactions originate from Upbit, and these have maintained a consistent value since the collapse of FTX.”

    Looking at the wallet’s outflows, Mr. 100 has only been sending Bitcoin transactions to a wallet tagged as an Upbit hot wallet by Arkahm’s platform. Most of the transactions were in tranches of at least 500 BTC, with two of the biggest transactions transferring as much as 3,000 BTC.

    Upbit: Cold Wallet Outflows. Source: Arkham Intelligence

    The analytics team behind Crystal Intelligence confirmed that the secondary wallets also belong to Upbit:

    “Bitcoin is moved into three major clusters on the outgoing transaction side, and those clusters appear to be connected in subsequent transactions. We also found some evidence that the clusters that received funds from 1Ay8v belong to Upbit.”

    Thus, the “Mr. 100” wallet likely belongs to Upbit, argued pseudonymous on-chain analyst Defioasis, who wrote in a March 12 X response:

    “The regular movements of 100 BTC are not purchases but could be Upbit’s unique way of managing cold and hot wallet assets.”

    HODL15Capital also noted that a South Korean entity is stacking large amounts of Bitcoin, in a March 15 X post, referencing the heatmap from below.

    BTC global transfers heatmap. Source: HODL15Capital

    All the 14 secondary wallet addresses associated with the main wallet of Mr. 100 have passed Know Your Customer  verification on Upbit exchange, wrote pseudonymous on-chain sleuth Mai in a March 15 X response:

    “Mr.100 uses a small wallet address to buy $BTC. I find it very similar to what Upbit usually does with altcoins (ETH network). If we follow Upbit’s cash flow, we will see the coincidence.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 15:10

  • Chinese Scientists Implant First Pig Liver Into Brain-Dead Human
    Chinese Scientists Implant First Pig Liver Into Brain-Dead Human

    Who says nothing interesting ever happens in the world anymore? This week, in a “first of its kind” operation, a brain-dead human subject was implanted with the world’s first gene-edited pig liver transplant, according to SCMP. 

    In what could be a pioneering move, Chinese scientists have transplanted a gene-edited pig liver into a human, aiming to potentially mark a solution to organ shortages, the report says.

    The liver was modified to reduce rejection risks and was implanted into a brain-dead recipient, showing no rejection signs four days post-operation, as per the Air Force Medical University. SCMP writes that this procedure could significantly aid those with end-stage liver disease, possibly revolutionizing liver transplants. 

    Gene editing advancements in China also promise to enhance efficiency and accessibility in plant modification, reflecting broader strides in medical innovation, the report continues.

    SCMP notes that liver diseases annually claim 2 million lives globally, with China alone witnessing up to 500,000 new cases of liver failure yearly. Xenotransplantation, the process of transplanting organs across species, could be a hopeful strategy, especially for liver ailments, given the complexity and scarcity of human livers for transplantation.

    While pig organs have been previously used in research, the liver’s complexity means there needs to be innovative surgical approaches, such as auxiliary transplants, to ensure effective integration and function within the body, according to SCMP. 

    This development signals a critical step toward more sustainable organ transplant solutions, addressing both the technical challenges and the dire need for viable organs.

    The Air Force Medical University commented: “From this perspective, xenogenic liver transplantation has great clinical application value.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 14:35

  • GAO: 'Unclear' If Pentagon Tracking Reports Of Misused Aid In Ukraine
    GAO: ‘Unclear’ If Pentagon Tracking Reports Of Misused Aid In Ukraine

    Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClear Wire,

    While the Pentagon has assured Congress that no U.S. military equipment sent to Ukraine has been diverted, stolen, or otherwise misappropriated, a new report from the Government Accountability Office could not determine if the Department of Defense was tracking allegations of misuse two years into the conflict.

    “If you never look, you will never find it,” a source familiar with how the report was compiled said of the worst-case possibility that aid was being misappropriated.

    The report comes as President Biden struggles to keep the supply lines open to Ukraine. Although a majority of Congress supports sending further aid to help hold back the Russian onslaught, and the Senate passed a bipartisan aid package late last month, House Republicans have yet to approve the latest round of now-stalled military assistance.

    The United States remains the leading supplier of munitions and other aid to Ukraine, providing more than $42 billion in assistance since Russia’s invasion. Much of it has come through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to transfer equipment from American stores directly to allies. The annual amount was limited by law to $100 million a year until Congress lifted the cap to $14.5 billion.

    The sheer tonnage of supplies and the speed of its shipment, according to the GAO report, has left the Pentagon without “quality data” to assess its delivery. Ensuring munitions and materiel arrive in the right hands has led to unprecedented challenges on top of the existing chaos of war. Most officials were evacuated from Ukraine long ago, for instance, and those who remain are restricted from leaving Kyiv to ensure delivery of shipments before it is used or destroyed on the battlefield.

    Department of Defense officials, however, maintain that they and their Ukrainian allies are up to the challenge. “We think the Ukrainians are using properly what they’ve been given,” Colin Kahl, formerly the Pentagon’s top policy official, told Congress over a year ago, assuring lawmakers that the DoD conducts regular audits and “we are laser-focused on this issue.”

    Though a nascent democracy, Ukraine has a history of corruption. Mismanagement or graft could threaten future aid, a message that has been relayed from the White House to President Volodymyr Zelensky directly.

    “Still no indication that there’s been any kind of widespread corruption or inappropriate use of U.S. capabilities,” John Kirby, a national security communications adviser to President Biden, told RealClearPolitics last October. As America reprises its role as an arsenal of democracy, the spokesman described a “hand-to-mouth” scenario where munitions are used as soon as they arrive.

    “It’s a matter of days before some stuff gets there,” Kirby continued, “and then a matter of days more before it is being used on the battlefield.”

    That kind of haste could very well make waste, or what the GAO report described as “end-use violations involving defense articles provided to the country.” It is precisely because so much has been provided so quickly that the nonpartisan government watchdog sees risk.

    According to the report, the Pentagon “is generally not tracking” the status of vehicles and armaments that make up the majority of supplies. More sensitive items, such as night vision capabilities and certain advanced missiles, are being monitored through updated procedures to account for their delivery into hostile environments. DoD officials often cooperate with their Ukrainian counterparts, the report found, via video calls, email, and text messages to ensure the receipt and status of those supplies.

    Complicating matters further, there is no shared definition of “delivered” among the branches of the U.S. military. Army officials told GAO they considered materiel delivered once they left an “Army point of origin,” though they could be days or weeks in transit before arriving in the hands of Ukrainians. The Marine Corps, by contrast, only marked items delivered once they received email confirmation from DoD officials or their Ukrainian counterparts.

    “The U.S. has provided a large volume of equipment in a very short period of time, and it is unclear whether DOD guidance and processes have been adjusted to accurately account for all of these items,” warned Chelsa Kenney, the director of international affairs at GAO.

    More than just shipping delays and a logistical nightmare, the greater risk is the worst-case scenario: American hardware falling into the hands of an adversary.

    The Pentagon tracked one allegation that U.S. supplies had been transferred to Russian forces, a story which, according to the report, DoD officials on the ground in nearby Poland deemed not credible and “consistent with Russian disinformation.”

    And yet, the GAO found that the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the DoD office responsible for such shipments, had “not consistently tracked” allegations of that possibility.

    “While DOD officials said there had been no credible evidence of diversion of U.S.-provided advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine,” the report states, “it is unclear whether all allegations are being tracked.” The report also warned that without tracking those allegations, “DOD may face an increased risk of real or perceived defense article losses that can undermine Ukraine’s war efforts.”

    For its part, per the GAO report, the DSCA stated the agency was “only responsible for tracking the allegations that it receives and is not required to proactively identify allegations. Further, officials from the Office of the Secretary of Defense said DSCA was not responsible for tracking unverifiable claims meant to discredit Ukraine’s weapons accountability efforts.”

    The GAO included in their report eight separate recommended reforms, which the DoD consented to partly or entirely. In a letter from Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense, that was included in the report, the DoD declined a recommendation to require which allegations of misuse should be recorded and tracked. According to Cooper, the DoD already has sufficient regulations in place.

    This will do little to pacify Republicans eager to rein in the war funding.

    “The Biden administration has spent two years deceiving the American people, claiming they’ve closely tracked the military material we’ve sent to Ukraine. The GAO’s report not only proves them wrong, it references allegations that U.S. military equipment ended up in the hands of Russian military forces,” Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican and former U.S. Marine, told RCP.

    “This is a major problem. I plan to immediately introduce legislation to hold the Biden administration accountable for these errors,” Vance added.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 14:00

  • Weaponization Of Crude: Russian Oil Refiners Under Drone Attack 
    Weaponization Of Crude: Russian Oil Refiners Under Drone Attack 

    Brent crude prices climbed to their highest level in four and a half months last week following attacks on multiple Russian oil refineries by Ukrainian drones. Additionally, this morning, drone strikes on two more oil refining facilities were reported deep within Russia. 

    Bloomberg reports drone strikes targeted two oil refining facilities in Russia’s Samara region, more than 620 miles from the Ukrainian border. 

    A petroleum product processing unit caught fire on the territory of the Rosneft PJSC oil refinery in Syzran, RIA Novosti reported, citing Dmitry Azarov, the region’s governor. The plant’s design capacity is 8.5 million barrels per year or about 170,000 barrels per day.

    … other drones attacked the Novokuybyshevsk refinery, according to Russian media. -Bloomberg

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    Ukraine has been ramping up drone attacks on crude processing facilities across Russia.

    On Wednesday, Rosneft PJSC’s Ryazan plant near Moscow was hit by a drone attack. This refinery is one of the largest in the country. A day earlier, Lukoil refinery in western Russia was hit by a drone attack. 

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    The wave of drone strikes on Russian crude-processing facilities started in January, with full intentions by Ukraine to cripple the fuel supply that funds Moscow’s war machine. 

    Here are the major Russian refineries that drones have targeted:

    Last month, Ukraine’s “drone czar,” Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, explained to Reuters that its manufacturing base can produce thousands of drones capable of hitting targets at “300, 500, 700, and 1,000 kilometers.”

    The full extent of the damage caused by strikes this year isn’t clear, but the attacks caused Msocow to place a six-month ban on gasoline exports starting on Mach 1. 

    This week, the Brent crude market wasted no time pricing increasing war risks by sending prices above $85 a barrel, the highest level since early November. 

    Despite two years of war and relentless attacks on Russian refineries, Moscow’s energy industry has proved resilient, and flows have shifted from Europe to China and India at heavily discounted prices. 

    While Ukrainians target Russian refineries, David Asher, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, recently penned a note that discusses the weaponization of crude could be the next big financial shock to the global economy. 

    Given the mounting risks in the Middle East, Asher said on slide nine, “Global oil shock could trigger a crisis like 2007-2008.” 

    He also noted, “Iran is Preparing For Oil War: Markets Ignore Growing Risk.” 

    Asher warned: It’s only a matter of time before Iran-backed Yemen’s Houthi rebels start targeting key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. 

    A perfect storm of higher crude prices continues to brew as the world’s refineries have become major targets. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 13:25

  • America The Snackable
    America The Snackable

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    There is only one pathway to health and sanity: stop consuming snackables of any kind.

    Everything in America has become snackable: devoid of value, easily consumed, intentionally addictive, and ultimately destructive to all that is healthy for individuals, communities and society at large.

    The core features of edible snackables are self-evident yet worthy of a closer look due to the severity of the consequences:

    1. The snack is made of highly processed ingredients.

    2. The snack has high concentrations of sugar, salt and unhealthy oils/fats.

    3. The snack has low nutritional value (empty calories) and is not beneficial to health.

    4. The snack is packaged in small quantities so the price appears cheap but is revealed as expensive when converted to price per pound.

    5. The snack’s “serving size” may be deceptively presented: a 4-ounce package may have a calorie count based on a “serving size” of 2 ounces, as if the package contains two servings when everyone knows a single individual will consume the entire snack.

    6. The snack is a legal addictive product as the snack has been designed to hijack humans’ innate receptors for sugar, salt and fat and satisfying mouthfeel. (Bet ya can’t have just one.)

    Highly processed, highly addictive, low nutritional value foods are a key driver of America’s declining health. All these foods share the same characteristics of the manufactured snackables: they are heavily marketed, highly profitable and contribute to obesity and metabolic disorders.

    When only one-quarter of the adult populace is normal weight, this leads to a host of chronic health disorders including higher risks of heart disease and many cancers, as well as the spectrum of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and prediabetes. Here are the facts: over 73% of adult Americans are overweight or obese.

    Given that almost 3/4 of adult Americans are overweight or obese, it shouldn’t surprise us that 52% of adult Americans are diabetic or prediabetic. This is a sobering trend, one that won’t be reversed by $1,000 a month weight-loss medications which cease to be effective once they’re no longer consumed. These medications don’t change the patients’ diets from highly processed foods to only unprocessed real food, and so the benefits are inherently narrower than advertised.

    The snack and beverage aisles take up an astounding amount of space in America’s specialty-groceries and supermarkets. These are the profit-generators, and so the processed-food manufacturers and grocery retailers are constantly seeking to entice more addicts with new novelties. For example: Trader Joe’s Has Been Releasing A Ton Of New Products Lately.

    Consuming this kind of high-fat, empty-calorie snack isn’t going to generate a healthy lifestyle.

    The marketing of novelty is as refined and devoid of value as the snacks being manufactured and sold:

    As those with any knowledge and experience of fitness know, the notion that it’s possible to burn off the empty calories of snacks with a bit more exercise is a fantasy–hence America’s bulging waistlines and declining health.

    The enormous profitability of edible snacks is mirrored in all the other manifestations of America the Snackable: our daily lives are now composed of one bite-sized addictive snack of social media, novelty memes, political opinion, financial data-snacks and pundits’ opinions and snackable videos after another.

    Attention spans and the ability to grasp complex issues have withered to snack-size, and whatever is being marketed as “ideas” are as devoid of value as an empty-calorie snack.

    All share the same characteristics: they are addictive, bite-sized, packaged deceptively, marketed as novelty, devoid of value, destructive to human health and most importantly, astoundingly profitable. So the edible snacks generate chronic illnesses which then provide fodder for highly profitable medications, while the inherently deranging snackables of social media, videos, entertainment, political opinions and memes-du-jour fuel mental disorders which provide fodder for a vast spectrum of highly profitable medications.

    There is only one pathway to health and sanity: stop consuming snackables of any kind. Yes, the only solution is cold turkey, baby, and like all addictions, it’s painful at first, and then it becomes a great relief to be freed of the addictions.

    *  *  *

    Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

    Subscribe to my Substack for free

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/16/2024 – 12:50

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Mar 16

Today’s News 16th March 2024

  • 'Belt And Road' Western Hemisphere Investments Has China Firmly Rooted In America's Backyard
    ‘Belt And Road’ Western Hemisphere Investments Has China Firmly Rooted In America’s Backyard

    Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

    The United States has been so focused on global security concerns that it has overlooked investing in its own backyard’s economic and military needs for decades.

    But China hasn’t. With its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road”), China has become South America’s largest source of infrastructure investment and second-largest trading partner, increasing trade from $18 billion in 2002 to $450 billion in 2022.

    Twenty-five of 31 Central and South American countries have negotiated infrastructure investments from China, and 22 of those nations, most recently Honduras, have formally signed onto the BRI program.

    Chinese companies, either owned or subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), operate mines in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela, electrical grids in Peru and Chile, 5G wireless systems in Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, and Mexico—80 percent of Mexico’s telecommunications equipment is provided by Chinese companies—space launch and satellite tracking facilities in Argentina, and the world’s largest embassy in the Bahamas.

    The U.S. State Department estimates China’s trade with Latin American nations and investments in sea, space, telecommunication, critical minerals, and energy will match the United States by 2035 in the region. China’s military ties with Venezuela, Cuba, Peru, and Chile—which now include port visits by Chinese warships and technical advisers—will mature into base agreements within a decade.

    China has, or plans to build or improve, 40 ports across 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries without restrictions on military use, including on both ends of the Panama Canal, where CCP-sponsored companies are bidding with Panama to work on the U.S.-built canal.

    Next fall, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will be in Peru to commemorate the completion of “a $3.6 billion ‘mega port’ that was financed by China, built by Chinese workers, and it will be owned and operated by a CCP-backed company,” House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said.

    “It will be used to ship South American copper, lithium, and other critical materials to China to further their military modernization,” he said during a House Armed Services Committee March 12 hearing on Western Hemisphere national security challenges.

    Mr. Rogers called it “the latest effort of China’s efforts to displace American influence and build a strategic footprint in our backyard.”

    ‘Debt Traps’ and CCP Espionage

    However, U.S. Southern Command Commander Army Gen. Laura Richardson said China’s increasing presence is a double-edged sword for countries that accept financing and other assistance from the CCP.

    “The world is at an inflection point,” she said at the committee hearing.

    “Our partners in the Western Hemisphere, with whom we are bonded by trade, shared values, democratic traditions, and family ties, are increasingly impacted by interference and coercion from [China.]

    “The People’s Republic of China [PRC] has exploited the trust of democracies in this hemisphere, using that trust to steal national secrets, intellectual property, and research related to academia, agriculture, and health care,” she continued.

    “The scope and scale of this espionage is unprecedented. Through the Belt and Road initiative, the PRC aims to amass power and influence at the expense of the world’s democracies,” she added.

    Ms. Richardson said that while it’s true that Central and South America have not received the economic and national security attention other areas have, that is changing.

    “I’ve learned that our presence absolutely matters,” she said, noting after nearly 20 years of “receiving less than 50 percent” of its Western Hemisphere security cooperation needs, the U.S. Southern Command was fully funded and received additional supplemental funding in the fiscal year 2024 defense budget.

    Ms. Richardson said while the boost “was very, very helpful, we can’t just get one year of additional funding to meet the requirement, and I would say that our presence absolutely matters” and needs to be fully funded again in the fiscal year 2025 defense budget.

    With the additional funding, she said, the United States has stepped up joint military and emergency response exercises with Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay with “more engagement other than just a visit once a year.”

    “This has really made a huge difference in terms of the partnering, but we have to be there. We have to have good security cooperation programs; we have to have flexible authorities that [respond to] opportunities [as they] open because they’re only open for a short period of time,” she added.

    (L-R) Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, U.S. President Joe Biden, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou, and other leaders attend the plenary session of the inaugural Americas Partnership For Economic Prosperity Leaders’ Summit in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Nov. 3, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    ‘Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is’

    That money will be there, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Rebecca Zimmerman said at the committee hearing.

    “We’re putting homeland defense and other interests across the hemisphere front and center,” she said.

    “The department’s top priority is defense of the homeland [and countering] the growing multi-domain threat posed by the People’s Republic of China.”

    Ms. Zimmerman said the United States is “deepening partnerships with Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile while reinforcing democratic institutions civilian control of the military and respect for human rights and the rule of law” across the hemisphere.

    In February, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin participated in the North American Defense Ministerial with his counterparts from Mexico, Canada, and Latin American countries.

    In November 2023, President Joe Biden welcomed leaders from the Western Hemisphere to the White House for the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity Leaders’ Summit to discuss migration, supply chains, and infrastructure investment.

    Prime ministers, presidents, and foreign ministers from Canada, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, and Panama attended.

    The United States is developing a program with the Inter-American Development Bank to expand financing for infrastructure with the launch of an investment platform through the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. to invest billions in improving critical supply chains, modern ports, clean energy grids, and digital infrastructure.

    The “Americas Partnership Accelerator” will assist entrepreneurs in developing and funding their business ideas and mobilize venture capital from around the world for startups in the region, the Biden administration maintains.

    Rep. Jan Kiggins (R-Va.) said while “the defense budget is always inadequate” in addressing all needs, it is good “that we are again prioritizing that funding because it is so important that we can put our money where our mouth is.”

    “The good news,” Ms. Richardson said, “is working with our very willing partners leads to the best defense.”

    “We must use all available levers to strengthen our partnerships with the 28 like-minded democracies in this hemisphere who understand the power of working together to counter these shared threats,” she continued.

    “The United States remains the preferred and most trusted security partner in the region.

    “We build trust through investment and security cooperation programs that train and equip our partner militaries and security forces, a robust joint exercise program to build interoperability, and the development and employment of emerging technologies,” she added.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 23:40

  • How Much Does The US Depend On Russian Uranium?
    How Much Does The US Depend On Russian Uranium?

    The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a ban on imports of Russian uranium. The bill must pass the Senate before becoming law.

    In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti visualizes how much the U.S. relies on Russian uranium, based on data from the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA).

    U.S. Suppliers of Enriched Uranium

    After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian-produced oil and gas—yet Russian-enriched uranium is still being imported.

    Currently, Russia is the largest foreign supplier of nuclear power fuel to the United States. In 2022, Russia supplied almost a quarter of the enriched uranium used to fuel America’s fleet of more than 90 commercial reactors.

    SWU stands for “Separative Work Unit” in the uranium industry. It is a measure of the amount of work required to separate isotopes of uranium during the enrichment process. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

    Most of the remaining uranium is imported from European countries, while another portion is produced by a British-Dutch-German consortium operating in the United States called Urenco.

    Similarly, nearly a dozen countries around the world depend on Russia for more than half of their enriched uranium—and many of them are NATO-allied members and allies of Ukraine.

    In 2023 alone, the U.S. nuclear industry paid over $800 million to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, and its fuel subsidiaries.

    It is important to note that 19% of electricity in the U.S. is powered by nuclear plants.

    The dependency on Russian fuels dates back to the 1990s when the United States turned away from its own enrichment capabilities in favor of using down-blended stocks of Soviet-era weapons-grade uranium.

    As part of the new uranium-ban bill, the Biden administration plans to allocate $2.2 billion for the expansion of uranium enrichment facilities in the United States.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 23:20

  • The War Between Knowledge And Stupidity
    The War Between Knowledge And Stupidity

    Authored by Bert Olivier via The Brownstone Institute,

    Bernard Stiegler was, until his premature death, probably the most important philosopher of technology of the present. His work on technology has shown us that, far from being exclusively a danger to human existence, it is a pharmakon – a poison as well as a cure – and that, as long as we approach technology as a means to ‘critical intensification,’ it could assist us in promoting the causes of enlightenment and freedom.

    It is no exaggeration to say that making believable information and credible analysis available to citizens at present is probably indispensable for resisting the behemoth of lies and betrayal confronting us. This has never been more necessary than it is today, given that we face what is probably the greatest crisis in the history of humanity, with nothing less than our freedom, let alone our lives, at stake. 

    To be able to secure this freedom against the inhuman forces threatening to shackle it today, one could do no better than to take heed of what Stiegler argues in States of Shock: Stupidity and Knowledge in the 21st Century (2015). Considering what he writes here it is hard to believe that it was not written today (p. 15): 

    The impression that humanity has fallen under the domination of unreason or madness [déraison] overwhelms our spirit, confronted as we are with systemic collapses, major technological accidents, medical or pharmaceutical scandals, shocking revelations, the unleashing of the drives, and acts of madness of every kind and in every social milieu – not to mention the extreme misery and poverty that now afflict citizens and neighbours both near and far.

    While these words are certainly as applicable to our current situation as it was almost 10 years ago, Stiegler was in fact engaged in an interpretive analysis of the role of banks and other institutions – aided and abetted by certain academics – in the establishment of what he terms a ‘literally suicidal financial system’ (p. 1). (Anyone who doubts this can merely view the award-winning documentary film of 2010, Inside Job, by Charles Ferguson, which Stiegler also mentions on p.1.) He explains further as follows (p. 2): 

    Western universities are in the grip of a deep malaise, and a number of them have found themselves, through some of their faculty, giving consent to – and sometimes considerably compromised by – the implementation of a financial system that, with the establishment of hyper-consumerist, drive-based and ‘addictogenic’ society, leads to economic and political ruin on a global scale. If this has occurred, it is because their goals, their organizations and their means have been put entirely at the service of the destruction of sovereignty. That is, they have been placed in the service of the destruction of sovereignty as conceived by the philosophers of what we call the Enlightenment…

    In short, Stiegler was writing about the way in which the world was being prepared, across the board – including the highest levels of education – for what has become far more conspicuous since the advent of the so-called ‘pandemic’ in 2020, namely an all-out attempt to cause the collapse of civilisation as we knew it, at all levels, with the thinly disguised goal in mind of installing a neo-fascist, technocratic, global regime which would exercise power through AI-controlled regimes of obedience. The latter would centre on ubiquitous facial recognition technology, digital identification, and CBDCs (which would replace money in the usual sense). 

    Given the fact that all of this is happening around us, albeit in a disguised fashion, it is astonishing that relatively few people are conscious of the unfolding catastrophe, let alone being critically engaged in disclosing it to others who still inhabit the land where ignorance is bliss. Not that this is easy. Some of my relatives are still resistant to the idea that the ‘democratic carpet’ is about to be pulled from under their feet. Is this merely a matter of ‘stupidity?’ Stiegler writes about stupidity (p.33):

    …knowledge cannot be separated from stupidity. But in my view: (1) this is a pharmacological situation; (2) stupidity is the law of the pharmakon; and (3) the pharmakon is the law of knowledge, and hence a pharmacology for our age must think the pharmakon that I am also calling, today, the shadow. 

    In my previous post I wrote about the media as pharmaka (plural of pharmakon), showing how, on the one hand, there are (mainstream) media which function as ‘poison,’ while on the other there are (alternative) media that play the role of ‘cure.’ Here, by linking the pharmakon with stupidity, Stiegler alerts one to the (metaphorically speaking) ‘pharmacological’ situation, that knowledge is inseparable from stupidity: where there is knowledge, the possibility of stupidity always asserts itself, and vice versa. Or in terms of what he calls ‘the shadow,’ knowledge always casts a shadow, that of stupidity. 

    Anyone who doubts this may only cast their glance at those ‘stupid’ people who still believe that the Covid ‘vaccines’ are ‘safe and effective,’ or that wearing a mask would protect them against infection by ‘the virus.’ Or, more currently, think of those – the vast majority in America – who routinely fall for the Biden administration’s (lack of an) explanation of its reasons for allowing thousands of people to cross the southern – and more recently also the northern – border. Several alternative sources of news and analysis have lifted the veil on this, revealing that the influx is not only a way of destabilising the fabric of society, but possibly a preparation for civil war in the United States. 

    There is a different way of explaining this widespread ‘stupidity,’ of course – one that I have used before to explain why most philosophers have failed humanity miserably, by failing to notice the unfolding attempt at a global coup d’etat, or at least, assuming that they did notice it, to speak up against it. These ‘philosophers’ include all the other members of the philosophy department where I work, with the honourable exception of the departmental assistant, who is, to her credit, wide awake to what has been occurring in the world. They also include someone who used to be among my philosophical heroes, to wit, Slavoj Žižek, who fell for the hoax hook, line, and sinker.

    In brief, this explanation of philosophers’ stupidity – and by extension that of other people – is twofold. First there is ‘repression’ in the psychoanalytic sense of the term (explained at length in both the papers linked in the previous paragraph), and secondly there is something I did not elaborate on in those papers, namely what is known as ‘cognitive dissonance.’ The latter phenomenon manifests itself in the unease that people exhibit when they are confronted by information and arguments that are not commensurate, or conflict, with what they believe, or which explicitly challenge those beliefs. The usual response is to find standard, or mainstream-approved responses to this disruptive information, brush it under the carpet, and life goes on as usual.

    ‘Cognitive dissonance’ is actually related to something more fundamental, which is not mentioned in the usual psychological accounts of this unsettling experience. Not many psychologists deign to adduce repression in their explanation of disruptive psychological conditions or problems encountered by their clients these days, and yet it is as relevant as when Freud first employed the concept to account for phenomena such as hysteria or neurosis, recognising, however, that it plays a role in normal psychology too. What is repression? 

    In The Language of Psychoanalysis (p. 390), Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis describe ‘repression’ as follows: 

    Strictly speaking, an operation whereby the subject attempts to repel, or to confine to the unconscious, representations (thoughts, images, memories) which are bound to an instinct. Repression occurs when to satisfy an instinct – though likely to be pleasurable in itself – would incur the risk of provoking unpleasure because of other requirements. 

     …It may be looked upon as a universal mental process to so far as it lies at the root of the constitution of the unconscious as a domain separate from the rest of the psyche. 

    In the case of the majority of philosophers, referred to earlier, who have studiously avoided engaging critically with others on the subject of the (non-)‘pandemic’ and related matters, it is more than likely that repression occurred to satisfy the instinct of self-preservation, regarded by Freud as being equally fundamental as the sexual instinct. Here, the representations (linked to self-preservation) that are confined to the unconscious through repression are those of death and suffering associated with the coronavirus that supposedly causes Covid-19, which are repressed because of being intolerable. The repression of (the satisfaction of) an instinct, mentioned in the second sentence of the first quoted paragraph, above, obviously applies to the sexual instinct, which is subject to certain societal prohibitions. Cognitive dissonance is therefore symptomatic of repression, which is primary. 

    Returning to Stiegler’s thesis concerning stupidity, it is noteworthy that the manifestations of such inanity are not merely noticeable among the upper echelons of society; worse – there seems to be, by and large, a correlation between those in the upper classes, with college degrees, and stupidity.

    In other words, it is not related to intelligence per se. This is apparent, not only in light of the initially surprising phenomenon pertaining to philosophers’ failure to speak up in the face of the evidence, that humanity is under attack, discussed above in terms of repression. 

    Dr Reiner Fuellmich, one of the first individuals to realise that this was the case, and subsequently brought together a large group of international lawyers and scientists to testify in the ‘court of public opinion’ (see 29 min. 30 sec. into the video) on various aspects of the currently perpetrated ‘crime against humanity,’ has drawn attention to the difference between the taxi drivers he talks to about the globalists’ brazen attempt to enslave humanity, and his learned legal colleagues as far as awareness of this ongoing attempt is concerned. In contrast with the former, who are wide awake in this respect, the latter – ostensibly more intellectually qualified and ‘informed’ – individuals are blissfully unaware that their freedom is slipping away by the day, probably because of cognitive dissonance, and behind that, repression of this scarcely digestible truth.

    This is stupidity, or the ‘shadow’ of knowledge, which is recognisable in the sustained effort by those afflicted with it, when confronted with the shocking truth of what is occurring worldwide, to ‘rationalise’ their denial by repeating spurious assurances issued by agencies such as the CDC, that the Covid ‘vaccines’ are ‘safe and effective,’ and that this is backed up by ‘the science.’ 

    Here a lesson from discourse theory is called for. Whether one refers to natural science or to social science in the context of some particular scientific claim – for example, Einstein’s familiar theory of special relativity (e=mc2) under the umbrella of the former, or David Riesman’s sociological theory of ‘inner-’ as opposed to ‘other-directedness’ in social science – one never talks about ‘the science,’ and for good reason. Science is science. The moment one appeals to ‘the science,’ a discourse theorist would smell the proverbial rat.

    Why? Because the definite article, ‘the,’ singles out a specific, probably dubious, version of science compared to science as such, which does not need being elevated to special status. In fact, when this is done through the use of ‘the,’ you can bet your bottom dollar it is no longer science in the humble, hard-working, ‘belonging-to-every-person’ sense. If one’s sceptical antennae do not immediately start buzzing when one of the commissars of the CDC starts pontificating about ‘the science,’ one is probably similarly smitten by the stupidity that’s in the air. 

    Earlier I mentioned the sociologist David Riesman and his distinction between ‘inner-directed’ and ‘other-directed’ people. It takes no genius to realise that, to navigate one’s course through life relatively unscathed by peddlers of corruption, it is preferable to take one’s bearings from ‘inner direction’ by a set of values which promotes honesty and eschews mendacity, than from the ‘direction by others.’ Under present circumstances such other-directedness applies to the maze of lies and misinformation emanating from various government agencies as well as from certain peer groups, which today mostly comprise the vociferously self-righteous purveyors of the mainstream version of events. Inner-directness in the above sense, when constantly renewed, could be an effective guardian against stupidity. 

    Recall that Stiegler warned against the ‘deep malaise’ at contemporary universities in the context of what he called an ‘addictogenic’ society – that is, a society that engenders addictions of various kinds. Judging by the popularity of the video platform TikTok at schools and colleges, its use had already reached addiction levels by 2019, which raises the question, whether it should be appropriated by teachers as a ‘teaching tool,’ or whether it should, as some people think, be outlawed completely in the classroom.

    Recall that, as an instance of video technology, TikTok is an exemplary embodiment of the pharmakon, and that, as Stiegler has emphasised, stupidity is the law of the pharmakon, which is, in turn, the law of knowledge. This is a somewhat confusing way of saying that knowledge and stupidity cannot be separated; where knowledge is encountered, its other, stupidity, lurks in the shadows. 

    Reflecting on the last sentence, above, it is not difficult to realise that, parallel to Freud’s insight concerning Eros and Thanatos, it is humanly impossible for knowledge to overcome stupidity once and for all. At certain times the one will appear to be dominant, while on different occasions the reverse will apply. Judging by the fight between knowledge and stupidity today, the latter ostensibly still has the upper hand, but as more people are awakening to the titanic struggle between the two, knowledge is in the ascendant. It is up to us to tip the scales in its favour – as long as we realise that it is a never-ending battle. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 23:00

  • Anti-Trump Neocons Raising $50 Million To Keep Open-Border Democrats In Power
    Anti-Trump Neocons Raising $50 Million To Keep Open-Border Democrats In Power

    An anti-Trump neoconservative cabal is raising $50 million in a campaign to keep open-border, spendthrift Democrats in power this November.

    Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT), headed by Bill Kristol ally and GOP strategist Sarah Longwell, will use the money to deploy a series of anti-Trump ads on streaming platforms, billboards, radio and digital media, The Hill reports.

    The ads will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

    Longwell believes the anti-Trump coalition built up in 2020 was one of the determining factors in that contest, and that expanding the demographic in 2024 could be a determining factor in whether Trump returns to the White House.

    “Former Republicans and Republican-leaning voters hold the key to 2024, and reaching them with credible, relatable messengers is essential to re-creating the anti-Trump coalition that made the difference in 2020,” Longwell, the president of the group’s Republican Accountability PAC, said in a Tuesday statement. -The Hill

    “It establishes a permission structure that says that — whatever their complaints about Joe Biden — Donald Trump is too dangerous and too unhinged to ever be president again. Who better to make this case than the voters who used to support him?” Longwell continued.

    The rubenesque Longwell and Kristol are behind “Republicans for Ukraine,” which was launched last August and exists to convince congressional Republicans to protect Ukraine’s borders, as opposed to America’s.

    In order to sell the Ukraine support, the group planned to similarly launch ads online, on billboards, and on nationwide television.

    “It was alarming in the focus groups to see so many Republican voters talk about Ukraine or [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky in disparaging terms,” said Longwell. “But we also knew, running focus groups, that there were plenty of people who still kind of had the belief that we should be supporting Ukraine, that it was important to stand up against invading forces.“

    Important to stand up against invading forces? On which border?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 22:40

  • US Supreme Court Denies Request By Group To Host Drag Show At Texas University
    US Supreme Court Denies Request By Group To Host Drag Show At Texas University

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied a request by a student group that asked to host a drag show at West Texas A&M University and sought to lift a school ban on the performance.

    In a one-sentence order, the high court wrote that Justice Samuel Alito denied the emergency request from the LGBT group, Spectrum WT, and two student leaders. There were no dissenting votes issued, and the court did not explain the decision—the usual practice with cases on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket.

    The Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t finally decide the issue but means Spectrum WT won’t be able to schedule its performance until the matter is resolved in the courts. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case in April.

    Spectrum WT called on the court to stop the school’s president, Walter Wendler, from prohibiting the show that he deemed disparaging of women. The student group has argued that the school violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections for freedom of speech.

    Spectrum WT in March 2023 sued officials at the university, located in Canyon, Texas, after Mr. Wendler barred the drag show planned for that month, which typically feature men dressed as women.

    The group later held the charity event off campus, but it continued to seek an injunction barring Mr. Wendler from prohibiting future events including a planned drag show on March 22. The group is represented by the non-profit free-speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

    U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in an interim ruling last September denied the group’s request for a preliminary injunction, casting doubt on their First Amendment claims because “it is not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive.”

    The group appealed to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to fast-track the case, scheduling arguments for late April. Spectrum WT responded by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the drag show ban while the case plays out.

    Some states including Texas have pursued Republican-backed measures targeting drag shows, with lawmakers arguing that the shows can expose children to deviant sexual imagery and behavior.

    In November, the Supreme Court declined to revive a Republican-backed Florida law banning the performance of certain drag shows in the presence of children after the measure was blocked by lower courts.

    In their petition to the high court, lawyers for the student group argued that the ban is merely the “president of one small public university in the Texas Panhandle defy what he knows to be the First Amendment’s command” but stressed the issue goes much further.

    “Public university and college officials nationwide from across the political spectrum are appointing themselves censors-in-chief, separating what they consider ‘good’ from ‘bad’ expression on their campuses,” they claimed.

    In an opinion penned in March 2023, Mr. Wendler argued that a ban is necessary because he believes drag shows are demeaning and beneath human dignity.

    “I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity,” he wrote, adding that “James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture of their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it.”

    Conservative Texans protest a drag queen event held at a church in Katy, Texas, on Sept. 24, 2022. (Darlene McCormick Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

    “Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not,” he added, arguing that such performances “stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against” women. “Drag shows are derisive, divisive, and demoralizing,” the school president continued, adding that “such conduct runs counter to the purpose of WT.”

    He also disagreed with largely left-wing notions that drag shows are “harmless,” adding: “Not possible. I will not appear to condone the diminishment of any group at the expense of impertinent gestures toward another group for any reason, even when the law of the land appears to require it.”

    A university campus, charged by the state of Texas to treat each individual fairly, should elevate students based on achievement and capability, performance in a word, without regard to group membership—an implacable and exacting standard based on educational mission and service to all, sanctioned by the legislature, the governor and numerous elected and appointed officials,” Mr. Wendler added.

    And Texas officials including state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, told the nine justices the order doesn’t prevent the group from holding a show off the university’s campus.

    “They simply may not use the university’s resources to put on a ‘drag show’ that the president has determined could be demeaning to others who must live, work, and learn on the same campus,” the state officials had argued.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 22:20

  • Boeing 737 With 139 Passengers Loses External Panel Mid-Air
    Boeing 737 With 139 Passengers Loses External Panel Mid-Air

    Literally, not a day goes by without Boeing suffering some major incident, whether it is doors and tires falling off, runway excursions, engine fires, hydraulic leaks, pilot seats flailing around the cockpit and slamming the yoke and, OH YEAH, a “suicided” whistleblower who told a close friend if anything happened to him, it most certainly wasn’t suicide. Well, we can now add one more: a United Airlines flight – because it’s never American or Delta… always United – that took off from San Francisco International Airport Friday morning landed in Oregon with a missing external panel, abc7 reported citing to officials.

    As the NY Post notes, United Airlines Flight 433 departed from San Francisco around 10:20 a.m. local time and landed safely at its intended destination, Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport, about 70 minutes later, according to airport officials and flight data.

    Once the plane reached the gate, an external panel was found to be missing, halting operations at the airport while a runway safety check was conducted, airport director Amber Judd told The NY Post.

    Amazingly, there was no indication of a problem and no emergency was ever declared during the flight, which had 139 passengers and 6 crew members on board, according to United.

    Airport staff searched for the missing panel on the airport premises, but were unable to locate it.

    “After finding no debris on the airfield, normal operations at MFR resumed a few minutes later,” she said.

    United Airlines said it plans a “thorough examination” of the 25-year-old plane and will “perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service.” Who knows, maybe another whistleblower will “commit suicide” too.

    “We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred,” the airline added.

    The Federal Aviation Administration will also investigate the incident, a spokesperson said.

    Incidents have plagued Boeing airplane in the past few weeks: on Monday, a United Airlines Flight heading from Sydney to San Francisco, was forced to turn around mid-flight due to a hydraulic leak. The Boeing 777-300 plane, which was carrying 167 passengers and 16 crew member, landed safely back in Sydney.

    Hours earlier, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner en route Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand experienced a technical issue that resulted in injuries to 50 passengers. Then, a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Japan diverted to Los Angeles International Airport on March 7 after a tire on the Boeing 777-20 fell off after takeoff, damaging cars in a parking lot on the ground.

    Boeing told its employees in a memo Tuesday that the company is implementing weekly compliance checks for every 737 work area and additional equipment audits to reduce quality problems.

    It isn’t quite clear what is behind the recent surge in incidents which are just too many to keep track of at this point…

    … but one thing is certain: more are coming, which one can only hope won’t be fatal.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 21:59

  • Doha Hunts For Whistleblowers Who Revealed Qatar's Funding Of ISIS
    Doha Hunts For Whistleblowers Who Revealed Qatar’s Funding Of ISIS

    Via The Cradle

    Qatar National Bank (QNB) and Qatar Charity (QC) are attempting to uncover the identities of confidential sources that supplied documents to lawyers representing the family of murdered US journalist Steven Sotloff, which allege the financial institutions – acting at the behest of Qatar’s royal family – wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to the ISIS judge who ordered Sotloff’s execution.

    QNB and QC filed an application on March 12 in the US to obtain “limited discovery” of the law firm representing Sotloff’s family, specifically regarding the names of those who provided the bank records linking Doha to the murder. In an email to Bloomberg, the general counsel for QNB confirmed the filing and said the bank “is the victim of an effort to tarnish its reputation” and plans to hold the individuals “to account to the fullest extent of the law.” Sotloff and another US journalist, James Foley, were beheaded in 2014 by ISIS in Syria. The terrorist group published videos of its executions online directed at US government officials. 

    In a May 2022 lawsuit filed in Florida, Sotloff’s family accused the Qatari institutions of wiring $800,000 to ISIS judge Fadhel al-Salim before he ordered Sotloff’s execution. The family also says Qatar “knowingly funded extremist insurgents” to destabilize the Syrian government and named both QNB and QC as co-conspirators in the murder.

    “The amount of assistance – $800,000 – was substantial as evidenced by Salim’s ability to cross over into Syria the very next day to begin raising his ISIS brigade,” Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks from the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida said in May 2023 when he ruled against dismissing the case. 

    “The allegations plausibly show that Defendants, in participating in a terrorism financing conspiracy, held a culpable state of mind in relation to the transaction and the foreseeable acts of terror to follow,” the US judge highlighted.

    “Perhaps the most outstanding allegation in support of a conspiracy is that [former Qatari Prime Minister] Hammad bin Jassim funded several terrorist organizations at a September 2011 meeting attended by the apparent ‘who’s who’ of terrorism financing,” Middlebrooks added. “Simultaneously, Hammad bin Jassim was a member of the Royal Family who served as prime minister, foreign minister, and head of the Qatar Investment Authority, which held a 50 percent stake in QNB.”

    Following years of improved relations between Doha and Damascus in the early 2000s, the 2011 outbreak of unrest in Syria quickly showed signs of a Qatari campaign to destabilize the country, starting with Al-Jazeera – Doha’s most prominent media outlet – and its biased, often inciteful coverage of events in the Levantine nation.

    Qatar became one of the first foreign entrants into the Syrian conflict, bank-rolling armed factions in coordination with the CIA, including the precursor to Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Jabhat al-Nusra. Doha’s role was even acknowledged by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which stated in 2016 that the Nusra Front “probably received logistical, financial and material assistance from the elements of the Turkish and Qatari governments.”

    “It turned out that all the steps of Qatari and Turkish rapprochement before the war were part of a US plan to contain Syria and pass the Qatari gas pipeline through its territory to Turkiye and then Europe, which is what President Assad was aware of. After the US discovered the difficulty of containing Syria, the decision was taken to overthrow the regime and divide the country, and this is one of the reasons for the war. Unfortunately, Qatar, with its money, media, and support for terrorist groups, spearheaded this conspiracy, and still is,” Bassam Abu Abdallah, former cultural attache at Syria’s embassy in Ankara and current Al-Watan columnist, told The Cradle in October 2022.

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

    At the height of the Syrian war in October 2014, then-US vice president Joe Biden candidly spoke about how Washington’s Sunni Muslim allies have been responsible for funding and arming Al-Qaeda-type extremist militants in Syria.

    “Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends – and I have the greatest relationship with Erdogan, which I just spent a lot of time with – the Saudis, the Emiratis, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni–Shia war; what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world” the current US president said during a discussion at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

    “Now you think I’m exaggerating – take a look. Where did all of this go? So now what’s happening? All of a sudden, everybody’s awakened because this outfit called ISIL [ISIS], which was Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which, when they were essentially thrown out of Iraq, found open space in territory in eastern Syria, working with Al-Nusra, who we declared a terrorist group early on and we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them,” Biden added.

    In 2016, WikiLeaks released an email from former US State Secretary Hillary Clinton about Saudi and Qatari funding for ISIS. “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Clinton’s email reads.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 21:40

  • McDonald's Stores Hit By Multi-Nation "Technology Outage"
    McDonald’s Stores Hit By Multi-Nation “Technology Outage”

    A major technology outage forced McDonald’s stores in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom to either shutter operations or suspend online ordering on Friday, CNN reported.

    “Many stores across the country have temporarily suspended operations,” McDonald’s Japan wrote in an X post, adding, “There is currently a system failure.” 

    “We are aware of a technology outage currently impacting our restaurants nationwide and are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible,” a McDonald’s Australia spokesperson told CNN.

    McDonald’s Hong Kong wrote on Facebook: “Due to a computer system failure, the mobile ordering and self-ordering kiosks are not functioning. Please order directly at the restaurant counter.”

    McDonald’s told BBC News the issue is unrelated to cyber-security but wouldn’t provide further details. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 21:20

  • Bitcoin Has No Top Because Fiat Has No Bottom: Understanding Monetary Debasement
    Bitcoin Has No Top Because Fiat Has No Bottom: Understanding Monetary Debasement

    Via Bitcoin Magazine,

    Bitcoin has been touted as the solution to monetary debasement, but what is debasement really, and where does it come from?

    MONETARY DEBASEMENT

    Debasement refers to the action or process of reducing the quality or value of something. When talking about fiat currencies, debasement traditionally refers to the practice of reducing the precious metal content in coins while keeping their nominal value the same, thereby diluting the coin’s intrinsic worth. In a modern context, debasement has evolved to mean the reduction in the value or purchasing power of a currency — such as when central banks increase the supply of money, in the process lowering the nominal value of each unit.

    UNDERSTANDING DEBASEMENT

    Before paper money and coins made of cheap metals like nickel, currency consisted of coins made of precious metals like gold and silver. These were the most sought after metals of the time, giving them value beyond government decree. Debasement was a common practice to save on precious metals and use them in a mix of lower-value metals instead.

    This practice of mixing the precious metals with a lower-quality metal means authorities could create additional coins with the same face value, expanding the money supply for a fraction of the cost compared to coins with more gold and silver content.

    Today, coins and notes don’t have inherent worth, they are simply tokens that represent value. This means debasement relies on supply: i.e. how many coins or notes the issuing body allows to circulate. Debasement went through different processes and methods over time; therefore, we can define old and new methods.

    TRADITIONAL METHOD

    Coin clipping, sweating, and plugging were the most common debasement processes used until the introduction of paper money. Such methods were employed both by malicious actors that counterfeited coins and by authorities that increased the number of coins in circulation.

    Clipping involves “shaving” the coins’ edges to remove some of the metal. As with sweating, the resulting clipped bits would be collected and used to make new counterfeit coins.

    Sweating involves shaking coins vigorously in a bag until the edges of the coins come off and lay at the bottom. The pieces are then collected and used to create new coins.

    Plugging was a way of punching a hole out of the coin’s middle area with the rest of the coin hammered together to close the gap. It could also be sawn in half with a plug of metal extracted from the interior. After filling the hole with a cheaper metal, the two halves would be fused again.

    MODERN-DAY METHODS

    Money supply increase is the modern method used by governments to debase the currency. By printing more money, governments get more funds to spend but it results in inflation for its citizens. Currency can be debased by increasing the money supply, lowering interest rates, or implementing other measures that encourage inflation; they’re all “good” ways of reducing the value of a currency.

    WHY IS MONEY DEBASED?

    Governments debase their currency so that they can spend without raising further taxes. Debasing money to fund wars was an effective way of increasing the money supply to engage in expensive conflicts without affecting people’s finances — or so it is believed.

    Whether by traditional debasement or modern money printing, money supply increases have short-sighted benefits in boosting the economy. But in the long term, it leads to inflation and financial crises. The effects of this are felt most acutely by those in society who do not own hard assets that might counter the loss in the currency’s value.

    Currency debasement could also occur by malicious actors who introduce counterfeit coins to an economy, but the consequence of being caught can in some countries lead to a death sentence.

    “Inflation is legal counterfeiting, Counterfeiting is illegal inflation.” – Robert Breedlove

    Governments can take some measures to mitigate risks associated with money debasement and prevent unstable and weak economies, for example by controlling the money supply and interest rates within a specific range, managing spending, and avoiding excessive borrowing.

    Any economic reform that promotes productivity and attracts foreign investments helps maintain confidence in the currency and prevent money debasement.

    REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES

    THE ROMAN EMPIRE

    The first example of currency debasement dates back to the Roman Empire under emperor Nero around 60 A.D. Nero reduced the silver content in the denarius coins from 100% to 90% during his tenure.

    Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus had enormous expenditures via post-civil war reconstruction projects like the building of the Colosseum, compensation to the victims of the Vesuvius eruption, and the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D. The chosen means to survive the financial crisis was to reduce the silver content of the “denarius” from 94% to 90%.

    Titus’ brother and successor, Domitian, saw enough value in “hard money” and the stability of a credible money supply that he increased the silver content of the denarius back to 98% — a decision he had to revert when another war broke out, and inflation was looming again across the empire.

    This process gradually continued until the silver content measured just 5% in the following centuries. The Empire began to experience severe financial crises and inflation as the money continued to be devalued — particularly during the 3rd century A.D., sometimes referred to as the “Crisis of the Third Century.” During this period, spanning from about A.D. 235 to A.D. 284, Romans demanded higher wages and an increase in the price of the goods they were selling to face currency depreciation. The era was marked by political instability, external pressures from barbarian invasions, and internal issues such as economic decline and plague.

    It was only when Emperor Diocletian and later Constantine took various measures, including introducing new coinage and implementing price controls, that the Roman economy began to stabilize. However, these events highlighted the vulnerabilities of the once-mighty Roman economic system.

    Read More >> Hard To Soft Money: The Hyperinflation Of The Roman Empire

    OTTOMAN EMPIRE

    During the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman official monetary unit, the akçe, was a silver coin that went through consistent debasement from 0.85 grams contained in a coin in the 15th century down to 0.048 grams in the 19th century. The measure to lower the intrinsic value of the coinage was taken to make more coins and increase the money supply. New currencies, the kuruş in 1688 and then the lira in 1844, gradually replaced the original official akçe due to its continuous debasement.

    HENRY VIII

    Under Henry VIII, England needed more money, so his chancellor started to debase the coins using cheaper metals like copper in the mix to make more coins for a more affordable cost. At the end of his reign, the silver content of the coins went down from 92.5% to only 25% as a way to make more money and fund the heavy military expenses the current European war was demanding.

    WEIMAR REPUBLIC

    During the Weimar Republic of the 1920s, the German government met its war and post-war financial obligations by printing more money. The measure reduced the mark’s value from around eight marks per dollar to 184. By 1922, the mark had depreciated to 7,350, eventually collapsing in a painful hyperinflation when it reached 4.2 trillion marks per USD.

    History offers us poignant reminders of the perils of monetary expansion. These once-powerful empires all serve as cautionary tales for the modern fiat system. As these empires expanded their money supply, devaluing their currencies, they were, in many ways, like the proverbial lobster in boiling water. The temperature — or in this case, the rate of monetary debasement — increased so gradually that they failed to recognize the impending danger until it was too late. Just as a lobster doesn’t appear to realize it’s being boiled alive if the water’s temperature rises slowly, these empires didn’t grasp the full extent of their economic vulnerabilities until their systems became untenable.

    The gradual erosion of their monetary value was not just an economic issue; it was a symptom of deeper systemic problems, signaling the waning strength of once-mighty empires.

    DEBASEMENT IN THE MODERN ERA

    The dissolution of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s marked a pivotal moment in global economic history. Established in the mid-20th century, the Bretton Woods system had loosely tethered major world currencies to the U.S. dollar, which itself was backed by gold, ensuring a degree of economic stability and predictability.

    However, its dissolution effectively untethered money from its golden roots. This shift granted central bankers and politicians greater flexibility and discretion in monetary policy, allowing for more aggressive interventions in economies. While this newfound freedom offered tools to address short-term economic challenges, it also opened the door to misuse and a gradual weakening of the economy.

    In the wake of this monumental change, the US has experienced significant alterations in its monetary policy and money supply. By 2023, the monetary base had surged to 5.6 trillion dollars, representing an approximate 69-fold growth from its level of 81.2 billion dollars in 1971.

    As we reflect on the modern era and the significant changes in U.S. monetary policy, it’s crucial to heed these historical lessons. Continuous debasement and unchecked monetary expansion can only go on for so long before the system reaches a breaking point.

    EFFECTS OF DEBASEMENT

    Currency debasement can have several significant effects on an economy, varying in magnitude depending on the extent of debasement and the underlying economic conditions.

    Here are some of the most impactful consequences that currency debasement can generate over the long term.

    HIGHER INFLATION RATES

    Higher inflation rates are the most immediate and impactful effects of currency debasement. As the currency’s value decreases, it takes more units to purchase the same goods and services, eroding the purchasing power of money.

    INCREASING INTEREST RATES

    Central banks may respond to currency debasement and rising inflation by increasing interest rates, which can impact borrowing costs, business investments, and consumer spending patterns.

    DETERIORATING THE VALUE OF SAVINGS

    Currency debasement can deteriorate the value of savings held in the domestic currency. This is particularly detrimental to individuals with fixed-income assets, such as retirees who rely on pensions or interest income.

    MORE EXPENSIVE IMPORTS

    A debased currency can make imports more expensive, potentially leading to higher costs for businesses and consumers reliant on foreign goods. However, it may also make exports more competitive internationally, as foreign buyers can purchase domestic goods at a lower price.

    UNDERMINING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN THE ECONOMY

    Continuous currency debasement can undermine public confidence in the domestic currency and the government’s ability to manage the economy effectively. This loss of trust may further exacerbate economic instability and even hyperinflation.

    SOLUTION TO DEBASEMENT

    The solution to debasement lies in the reintroduction of sound money — money whose supply cannot be easily manipulated. While many nostalgically yearn for a return to the gold standard, which was arguably superior to contemporary systems, it is not the ultimate solution. The reason lies in the centralization of gold by central banks. Should we revert to a gold standard, history would likely repeat itself, leading to confiscation and the debasement of currencies once again. Put simply, if a currency can be debased, it will be.

    HOW BITCOIN AVOIDS DEBASEMENT

    Bitcoin offers a permanent solution to this issue. Its supply is capped at 21 million, a number that is hard-coded and safeguarded by proof-of-work mining and a decentralized network of nodes. Thanks to its decentralized nature, no single entity or government can control Bitcoin’s issuance or governance. Furthermore, its inherent scarcity makes it resilient to the inflationary pressures that are typically seen with traditional fiat currencies.

    As a distributed system, Bitcoin users can ensure that the supply never deviates from the predetermined supply cap by running the software that downloads and validates the entire transactional ledger. By verifying every transaction in Bitcoin’s history, where every coin came from and where it went, users can be absolutely sure that the supply has not been debased and no coins were created that should not have been.

    Full node software like this for Bitcoin is essentially a counterfeiting detection machine that anyone can run. It guarantees the supply is intact, that coins being spent were properly authorized, and no funny business is happening. Any Bitcoin wallet software can also ensure that no one can restrict your access to your own money.

    In times of economic uncertainty, or when central banks engage in extensive money printing, investors often turn to assets like gold and bitcoin for their store-of-value properties. As time progresses, there’s potential for people to recognize Bitcoin not just as a store of value, but as the next evolution of money.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 21:00

  • Realtor Group Settles Lawsuits By Slashing Commissions, Risks Mass Exodus Of Agents 
    Realtor Group Settles Lawsuits By Slashing Commissions, Risks Mass Exodus Of Agents 

    For those bartenders who became realtors over the past decade, attracted to the fast and easy money during multiple real estate booms fueled by historically low mortgage rates, there’s concerning news out on Friday: Commissions are expected to drop following the National Association of Realtors’ decision to settle a lawsuit regarding its commission rules. 

    On Friday, the National Association of Realtors announced an agreement to end litigation of claims brought on behalf of home sellers related to broker commissions. This means the group would pay $418 million in damages and amend the rules that housing experts say will drive down the cost of homeownership. In other words, the standard 6 percent sales commission is gone.

    “The settlement, which is subject to court approval, makes clear that NAR continues to deny any wrongdoing in connection with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) cooperative compensation model rule (MLS Model Rule) that was introduced in the 1990s in response to calls from consumer protection advocates for buyer representation. Under the terms of the agreement, NAR would pay $418 million over approximately four years,” NAR wrote in a press release. 

    “NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers. It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible. This settlement achieves both of those goals,” said Nykia Wright, Interim CEO of NAR.

    NAR, the trade group that represents real estate agents and has more than 1.5 million members, agreed to introduce a new MLS rule that will prohibit offers of broker compensation on MLS. Another new rule would require MLS users to enter into written agreements with their buyers. 

    “We believe the potential changes would likely accelerate commission pressure on buyer agents and could support overall commission rates around a home transaction trending lower in the near term,” William Blair analyst Stephen Sheldon wrote in a note. 

    Recently, analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woods said the change to the compensation structure could result in a 30% reduction in the annual commission pool. Analysts further said this would result in a 60% to 80% reduction in the number of real estate agents. 

    Here are other analyst commentaries on NAR’s deal to resolve litigation: 

    JPMorgan, Anthony Paolone

    • “This is incrementally negative in terms of the potential impact on the residential brokerage names like HOUS and RMAX as it potentially puts top-line pressure on the names, on top of the already muted level of housing activity right now”

    William Blair, Stephen Sheldon

    • Sees the potential changes raising questions about the role of the MLS system, which primarily serves to broadly distribute listings of homes for sale
    • “If agents are no longer required to subscribe to the MLS to distribute listings or accept commissions, then we could see some agents bypassing the system, more brokerages using pocket listings (i.e., listings that are not broadly distributed) to attract consumers, and the need arising over time for a national home listing service”
    • This could be an opportunity for CoStar and Zillow, though he notes CoStar has the advantage after its success building out the leading listing distribution in both multifamily and broader commercial real estate
    • Overall, he calls the settlement a “modest negative” for the brokerage models he covers, and a positive for CoStar since its Homes.com business caters more to seller agents, “which could become even more important in the home transaction with these changes”

    Stephens, John Campbell

    • Views CoStar as the biggest beneficiary of the potential changes, though he also sees Zillow as likely to benefit eventually

    RBC, Brad Erickson

    • “The key debate from here will be can agents navigate this change with only modest changes to buyer commissions or will they be more meaningful”

    The news triggered panic dumps in Zillow Group, plunging 14%, and Redfin, down 6%. 

    For all the unseasoned realtors, you’d better start looking for another job. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 20:40

  • Democrat-Darling Rachael Rollins Disbarred After Justice Refuses To Prosecute One Of Its Own
    Democrat-Darling Rachael Rollins Disbarred After Justice Refuses To Prosecute One Of Its Own

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    We previously discussed the controversy surrounding Rachael Rollins, the former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts nominated by President Biden who was implicated in alleged criminal and unethical conduct. The case presented a glaring contrast to how the Justice Department treats its own officials accused of crimes in comparison to less favored individuals. Now, Rollins has been stripped of her bar license based on the same conduct.

    Rollins was a figure lionized by the media and many Democrats in Congress. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) heralded Rollins as the ideal U.S. Attorney. Despite her position in Massachusetts, Los Angeles Times’ editorial board dedicated a long editorial to proclaiming Rollins as

    “among President Biden’s smartest appointments, and if her nomination is finally approved in the Senate she would become the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, handling cases involving national security, white-collar crime, public corruption, cybercrime, gang violence and civil rights violations. Biden’s nomination of Rollins, while hardly radical, represents a threat to the Republican narrative about Democrats and crime, as do Boston’s enviable crime stats … The point is that when GOP senators claim that Rollins’ policies increase crime, they’re just making things up to justify blocking one of the nation’s most successful criminal justice leaders.”

    Rollins later resigned from office after investigators uncovered evidence that she had lied to them, a federal crime commonly charged against others.

    The OIG released detailed findings against Rollins for allegedly seeking to influence a Suffolk County, Mass., district attorney election last year. She also was accused by the OIG of lying under oath during an investigation into the matter. The report states that “on December 16, 2022, pursuant to the Inspector General Act, 5 U.S.C. § 404(d), the OIG referred the false statements allegation to the Department for a prosecutive decision. On January 6, 2023, the Department informed the OIG that it declined prosecution.”

    According to the OIG, Rollins sought to help Boston City Councilman Ricardo Arroyo in the Democratic primary for Suffolk’s district attorney by providing derogatory information to the Boston Globe and Boston Herald regarding his opponent, then-interim D.A. Kevin Hayden. The OIG said the information included “non-public, sensitive” DOJ material that Rollins acquired as a result of her federal position. The material suggested that Hayden was being investigated for public corruption.

    The OIG further found that Rollins leaked more material after Arroyo lost to Hayden.

    The OIG accused Rollins of violating a host of Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, including Section 2635.702 (the use “of public office for private gain”) and Section 2635.703 (the use “of nonpublic information”).

    The most serious charge was that Rollins “falsely testified under oath … when she denied” providing the non-public information to the Herald reporter.

    The investigation also found an array of other violations, including disregarding ethical warnings on political activities and soliciting expensive sports tickets.

    What is most striking about the OIG report is that Rollins took some of these steps after barely being confirmed by the U.S. Senate because questions were raised over her judgment and partisanship.

    Rollins was confirmed in 2021 after Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote due to all 50 Republican senators opposing her nomination. 

    Every Democratic senator voted for her despite the concerns, including a video from January 2021 in which she threatened the arrest of reporters.

    The DOJ’s declination of charges follows a similar pattern that suggests a higher threshold standard applied by prosecutors in charging one of their own.

    Conversely, this is the same department that pursued figures like Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn for false or misleading comments made to agents about a meeting with Russian diplomats. The media heralded that case, and legal experts clamored for prosecution.

    With Rollins, after an investigation found that she lied to investigators, the DOJ refused to file any charges at all. It is unclear what the DOJ felt was lacking in those findings or the underlying evidence. However, as shown by prior declinations — in cases like the contempt referral against former Attorney General Eric Holder, or the determination that former FBI Director James Comey removed FBI material and, through a friend, leaked it to the media — the Justice Department often seems to find insurmountable problems when asked to charge a fellow prosecutor or investigator

    The Rollins case showed a sense of total license to ignore criminal and ethical rules. She even was accused of giving Arroyo advice on how to handle the sexual assault allegations brought against him during his campaign and also provided media outlets with “negative information” about his challenger, Kevin Hayden.  She was overtly political and used her office to advance favored candidates.

    If the past is any indication, most of the media would not delve too deeply into such contradictions if Trump is charged. And selective prosecution complaints are notoriously difficult to litigate. Even if the Justice Department did not secure a favorable judge for such a case, most judges are leery of adjudicating claims of motivation and bias.

    With the recent pass given President Joe Biden on his serial violation of mishandling classified material, the Rollins case reinforces the view of many that the Justice Department continues to apply our laws in strikingly different ways for similarly situated defendants. Ironically, the sense of license displayed by Rollins proved correct. When it comes to favored individuals, the blindfolds appear off at Justice.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 20:20

  • "Time To Bud Light Them": Tyson Foods Firing Blue-Collar Workers & Replacing Them With Illegals
    “Time To Bud Light Them”: Tyson Foods Firing Blue-Collar Workers & Replacing Them With Illegals

    Calls for a boycott are intensifying on X following Tyson Foods’ announcement earlier this week to shutter a pork processing facility in Perry, Iowa. This move will eliminate 1,276 blue-collar jobs. At the same time, the mega food processor has expressed interest in hiring tens of thousands of illegals. 

    “While this decision was not easy, it emphasizes our focus to optimize the efficiency of our operations to best serve our customers,” a Tyson spokesperson said in a statement to Food Dive. 

    Perhaps the optimization part of the supply chain is better explained by Garrett Dolan, who leads Tyson’s efforts to eliminate employment barriers such as immigration status, told Bloomberg, “We would like to employ another 42,000 [migrants] if we could find them.” 

    Or explained by Charlie Kirk… 

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    The idea that Tyson is firing hardworking Americans while attempting to exploit cheap labor from illegals enraged X users. Many of them called for a boycott of all Tyson’s brands. 

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    And it begins. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 20:00

  • Japan To Restart World's Largest Nuclear Power Plant
    Japan To Restart World’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    Japan is stepping up efforts to have local authorities approve the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility north of Tokyo, Japanese newspaper Niigata Nippo reported on Friday.

    Next week, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ken Saito, is expected to ask the local governor of the Niigata prefecture to approve the restart of the power plant, according to the newspaper report.

    In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan closed all its nuclear power plants that underwent rigorous safety checks and inspections.

    Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has been offline since 2012, while the Nuclear Regulation Authority in 2021 barred the plant’s operator, utility Tepco, from operating the facility due to safety breaches.

    The regulator lifted the operational ban on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in December 2023, paving the way for the restart, which needs the approvals of the Niigata prefecture, the city of Kashiwazaki, and the village of Kariwa to resume operations.

    Tepco’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility north of Tokyo

    Japan is bringing back nuclear power as a key energy source, looking to protect its energy security in the wake of the energy crisis that led to surging fossil fuel prices. The resource-poor country which needs to import about 90% of its energy requirements, made a U-turn in its nuclear energy policy at the end of 2022, as its energy import bill soared amid the energy crisis and surging costs to import LNG at record-high prices.

    The Japanese government confirmed in December 2022 a new policy for nuclear energy, which the country had mostly abandoned since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. A panel of experts under the Japanese Ministry of Industry has also decided that Japan would allow the development of new nuclear reactors and allow available reactors to operate after the current limit of 60 years.

    Restarts of nuclear reactors, high natural gas inventories, and increased renewable power generation have dragged Japan’s LNG imports to multi-year lows in recent months.  

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 19:40

  • Riley Gaines, 15 Other Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over Transgender Madness
    Riley Gaines, 15 Other Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over Transgender Madness

    In the latest attack on transgender madness in women’s sports, former University of Kentucky Wildcats swimmer Riley Gaines and 15 other female athletes have filed suit against the NCAA alleging violations of federal Title IX law arising from its insertion of man-to-woman transgender athletes into women’s competition. 

    “The NCAA’s most basic job is to protect the fairness and safety of competition, but instead the NCAA…continues to openly discriminate against women,” Gaines told The Free Press.   

    Eight of the 16 plaintiffs who are trying to put an end to male intrusion into women’s athletics (via The Free Press)

    Much of the complaint centers on what women experienced at the 2022 national swimming championships. Infamously, man-to-woman transgender Penn Quaker Lia Thomas was not only allowed to compete against women, but was also given use of the women’s locker room — as described in this excerpt from the 156-page complaint: 

    The first time most of the Plaintiffs became aware of Thomas’ access to the women’s locker rooms and restrooms…was: (1) when Thomas walked in on them while they were fully naked or in a state of substantial undress….(2) when they unwittingly walked in on Thomas and observed Thomas undressed with male genitalia exposed…or (3) when Thomas undressed in front of them

    NC State Wolfpack swimmer Kylee Alons chose to change in a “dimly lit storage and utility closet” behind a set of bleachers, rather than risk being caught naked by Thomas or having to see him stand around naked, displaying his manhood. “I was literally racing U.S. and Olympic gold medalists and I was changing in a storage closet at this elite-level meet. I just felt that my privacy and safety were being violated in the locker room,” Alons told the Free Press. 

    Women’s racing suits are so tight they “require 15 to 20 minutes to put on,” notes the complaint. “While you’re doing this, you’re exposed,” said Kaitlynn Wheeler, another Kentucky swimmer, to the Free Press. “You can’t stand there and hold a towel around you while putting the suit on at the same time.” 

    Thomas, who wasn’t a noteworthy athlete when competing against fellow men, won the women’s national championship in the 500m freestyle by a huge margin, beating three female Olympic medalists in the spectacle. 

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    Among the plaintiffs is Tylor Mathieu of the University of Florida Gators, who didn’t make it to the final of the 500 free because Thomas took the slot. The inclusion of Thomas also cost Mathieu first-team All-American honors. 

    Gaines noted that the NCAA swimming championship environment was even more Orwellian due to Title IX fanfare that accompanied it: 

    “The NCAA was passing around shirts that said ‘50 years of Title IX’ and ‘50 years of creating opportunities for women,’ but these were the same people who were actively taking our opportunities away and telling us we weren’t worthy to be called champions, and instead this man, who merely says he is a woman, is.” 

    Hammering home the irrationality of the NCAA’s approach, the plaintiffs says the NCAA allows “men to compete on women’s teams with a testosterone level that is five times higher than the highest recorded testosterone level for elite female athletes.” It asserts that, regardless of having taken hormone suppressing drugs, post-pubescent men have a biological edge “which no woman can achieve without doping.”   

    The plaintiffs want to force the NCAA to retract Lia Thomas’s 2022 championship title and give it to then-Virginia Cavalier Emma Weyant

    The lawsuit was organized by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, a group that exists to “promote and protect women’s sports.” The plaintiffs, who also include track, tennis and volleyball athletes, are demanding that the NCAA make rule changes to bar biological males from women’s competition, revoke awards previously given to men who beat women, and also pay “damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expense costs and other damages due to defendants’ wrongful conduct.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 19:20

  • Bankruptcy Laws Plus Inflation Equals Scam
    Bankruptcy Laws Plus Inflation Equals Scam

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    At the end of 2022, investors all around the world who had bet big on cryptocurrency and had their cryptocurrency stored by the crypto exchange, FTX, received bad news. Sam Bankman-Fried and other leaders of the exchange had been using cryptocurrency that was supposedly stored by the exchange to make bets on financial markets. And the FTX leadership was bad at trading and racked up huge losses. FTX declared bankruptcy and many of FTX leaders were convicted of financial crimes. For the investors of FTX, it was a painful experience that came from betting on cryptocurrency and the viability of crypto institutions that managed such assets. Expected losses were claimed to be in the billions.

    But as of 2024, FTX’s bankruptcy lawyers began claiming that FTX creditors would be repaid in full. This claim is based on a technicality of bankruptcy law and is a feature that screws over investors and hides the reality of inflation.

    When FTX went bankrupt, the debts it owed the people who deposited their cryptocurrency with FTX were recorded based on the US dollar value at the time. Of course, cryptocurrency is a wildly volatile asset, primarily used for speculation rather than as a store of value or for actual transactions. This volatility contributed to the FTX bankruptcy as the value of assets it held at any time, changed over time.

    Currently, crypto prices are generally higher than at the time FTX went bankrupt, but it’s unclear how long this will last given crypto’s volatility. The US dollar is worth less than ever given two more years of the high inflation experienced during the Biden administration. This means that the cryptocurrency held by FTX can be exchanged for a relatively large amount of 2024 US dollars to repay debts that were measured in 2022 dollars. This is what FTX means by claiming it can now repay its creditors.

    Imagine if a similar thing happened with a gold storage company. A company promises to store gold bars for its customers, secretly loses many of them in bad bets, and declares bankruptcy. The company records how much it owes its customers- not in the amount of gold lost- but in what bankruptcy lawyers claim it was worth in US dollars. Then years later, as the dollar continues to inflate away its value relative to gold, the gold investors are repaid in devalued dollars. This is how bankruptcy and inflation combine to hurt investors.

    This is not the only area where ordinary people face a dynamic like this.

    When an employer withholds taxes from your paycheck, and you have to wait for your tax return to get it back, you are giving an interest-free loan to the government. This would be true no matter the currency that the United States used. But the United States uses a fiat currency that’s losing value over time.

    Not only does tax withholding mean that taxpayers are losing out on the interest they could have earned, they’re paid back in their refund in a currency that loses value month by month. Taxpayers pay into Social Security, pay for unemployment insurance, and all kinds of government programs. But even if we get our money back, each dollar in benefits is less than each dollar of tax that was paid.

    Bankruptcy law makes this scheme obvious, but it affects every American taxpayer.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 19:00

  • Putin Vows Ukraine Will Pay For Election Day Attacks On Civilians
    Putin Vows Ukraine Will Pay For Election Day Attacks On Civilians

    Today is election day in Russia, and it is quite obvious who will emerge victorious as the country’s next president. However, Ukraine has chosen the eve of election day and into Friday to send a ‘message’ – while apparently losing a lot of men in the process.

    There have been repeat significant cross-border ground and shelling attacks from Ukraine in the past 48 hours. Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) announced Friday morning that it “repelled” the latest major attempted incursion in the Belgorod region on the border.

    AFP/Getty Images

    The MoD claimed its forces, including border security services, took out some 50 invaders in the assault. Russian media summarized of the military’s statements: “The team was then targeted by Russian artillery and military aviation. The territory through which other Ukrainian troops could reach Kozinka to prop up the advance force was remotely mined.”

    The statement continued, “The Ukrainians were then forced out of the village, with survivors running into the freshly placed minefield and getting killed, according to the statement. An attempted evacuation was stopped by rocket artillery.”

    Russian media has further published videos and images which purport to confirm that attempted major cross-border incursion. The same groups from a similar Tuesday raid appear to have been behind the newest attack – mostly made up what have been described as anti-Putin Russian nationals collaborating with Kiev.

    President Putin on Friday addressed the string of cross-border attacks, describing there had been “four attacks on the Belgorod region and one attack on the Kursk region by armed Ukrainian proxies numbering about 2,500.”

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    Putin additionally said the invading militants had 35 tanks and 40 armored vehicles, as cited in Reuters. He estimated that about 60% of the invading force was killed.

    But it was fresh drone attack and shelling on Belgorod city Friday that resulted in Russian civilian casualties. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that during the attack air defenses shot down ten inbound “aerial targets”.

    “According to preliminary information, one civilian was killed. At the moment of the shelling attack, the man was working at a store,” Gladkov stated on Telegram. “Paramedics did their best to save his life, but he died from his injuries at the scene,” the governor added.

    Somewhat unexpectedly, or perhaps due to the security situation, President Putin is widely reported to have cast his vote online…

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    Putin spoke of the civilian death on election day, saying, “I am sure that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to this with even greater solidarity. Who did they decide to intimidate? The Russian people?“

    Russia unleashed its own large-scale strikes on the southern Ukraine city of Odesa on Friday. The NY Times describes, “A Russian missile attack on Odesa killed at least 17 people and injured 73 others, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday, the latest in a series of deadly air assaults on the southern Ukrainian port city.”

    “Ukraine’s state emergency services said a first missile hit several houses late in the morning, prompting rescuers to rush to the scene,” the report continues. “A second missile then landed on the same site, causing many fatalities, including at least one paramedic and a rescue worker. The reports could not be independently verified.”

    Meanwhile, there were various other reports of local election disruptions on Friday…

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 18:40

  • US To Back Nevada Lithium Project With $2.26 Billion Loan
    US To Back Nevada Lithium Project With $2.26 Billion Loan

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    Lithium Americas Corp has received a conditional commitment for a $2.26-billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to help it build lithium processing facilities in Nevada, as the Biden Administration looks to support America-produced lithium and reduce dependence on Chinese supply.  

    Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass project in Humboldt County, Nevada, is located next to a mine site that contains the largest-proven lithium reserves in North America, DOE said.

    The U.S. Administration plans to extend the $2.26 billion loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. The government funding is intended to help finance the construction of Thacker Pass, targeted to produce an initial 40,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, Vancouver-based Lithium Americas Corp said in a statement.

    Lithium Americas targets mechanical completion of Thacker Pass Phase 1 for 2027. Major construction is expected to start in the second half of this year, following the anticipated closing of the DOE Loan and issuance of full notice to proceed (FNTP), which is expected in the second half of 2024.  

    “The United States has an incredible opportunity to lead the next chapter of global electrification in a way that both strengthens our battery supply chains and ensures that the economic benefits are directed toward American workers, companies and communities,” Lithium Americas’ president and CEO Jonathan Evans said.

    The lithium price crash over the past year is holding back reinvestment in new supply, the world’s top lithium producer Albemarle has said recently.  

    While major lithium suppliers continue to see a surge in long-term demand as the energy transition gathers momentum, the current low price environment is “unstainable,” Kent Masters, Albemarle’s chairman, president, and CEO, said on the company’s earnings call last month.

    The current lithium prices are not in a range allowing projects, especially in the West, to get off the ground, Masters added.

     The deferral of new supply developments amid the low prices is setting the stage for the next lithium supply crunch later this decade, executives and analysts say.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 18:20

  • "I Can't Even Save": Americans Are Getting Absolutely Crushed Under Enormous Debt Load
    “I Can’t Even Save”: Americans Are Getting Absolutely Crushed Under Enormous Debt Load

    While Joe Biden insists that Americans are doing great – suggesting in his State of the Union Address last week that “our economy is the envy of the world,” Americans are being absolutely crushed by inflation (which the Biden admin blames on ‘shrinkflation’ and ‘corporate greed’), and of course – crippling debt.

    The signs are obvious. Last week we noted that banks’ charge-offs are accelerating, and are now above pre-pandemic levels.

    …and leading this increase are credit card loans – with delinquencies that haven’t been this high since Q3 2011.

    On top of that, while credit cards and nonfarm, nonresidential commercial real estate loans drove the quarterly increase in the noncurrent rate, residential mortgages drove the quarterly increase in the share of loans 30-89 days past due.

    And while Biden and crew can spin all they want, an average of polls from RealClear Politics shows that just 40% of people approve of Biden’s handling of the economy.

    Crushed

    On Friday, Bloomberg dug deeper into the effects of Biden’s “envious” economy on Americans – specifically, how massive debt loads (credit cards and auto loans especially) are absolutely crushing people.

    Two years after the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to tame prices, delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans are the highest in more than a decade. For the first time on record, interest payments on those and other non-mortgage debts are as big a financial burden for US households as mortgage interest payments.

    According to the report, this presents a difficult reality for millions of consumers who drive the US economy – “The era of high borrowing costs — however necessary to slow price increases — has a sting of its own that many families may feel for years to come, especially the ones that haven’t locked in cheap home loans.”

    The Fed, meanwhile, doesn’t appear poised to cut rates until later this year.

    According to a February paper from IMF and Harvard, the recent high cost of borrowing – something which isn’t reflected in inflation figures, is at the heart of lackluster consumer sentiment despite inflation having moderated and a job market which has recovered (thanks to job gains almost entirely enjoyed by immigrants).

    In short, the debt burden has made life under President Biden a constant struggle throughout America.

    “I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck,” 40-year-old Denver resident Nikki Cimino told Bloomberg. Cimino is carrying a monthly mortgage of $1,650, and has $4,000 in credit card debt following a 2020 divorce.

    Nikki CiminoPhotographer: Rachel Woolf/Bloomberg

    “There’s this wild disconnect between what people are experiencing and what economists are experiencing.“

    What’s more, according to Wells Fargo, families have taken on debt at a comparatively fast rate – no doubt to sustain the same lifestyle as low rates and pandemic-era stimmies provided. In fact, it only took four years for households to set a record new debt level after paying down borrowings in 2021 when interest rates were near zero. 

    Meanwhile, that increased debt load is exacerbated by credit card interest rates that have climbed to a record 22%, according to the Fed.

    [P]art of the reason some Americans were able to take on a substantial load of non-mortgage debt is because they’d locked in home loans at ultra-low rates, leaving room on their balance sheets for other types of borrowing. The effective rate of interest on US mortgage debt was just 3.8% at the end of last year.

    Yet the loans and interest payments can be a significant strain that shapes families’ spending choices. -Bloomberg

    And of course, the highest-interest debt (credit cards) is hurting lower-income households the most, as tends to be the case.

    The lowest earners also understandably had the biggest increase in credit card delinquencies.

    “Many consumers are levered to the hilt — maxed out on debt and barely keeping their heads above water,” Allan Schweitzer, a portfolio manager at credit-focused investment firm Beach Point Capital Management told Bloomberg. “They can dog paddle, if you will, but any uptick in unemployment or worsening of the economy could drive a pretty significant spike in defaults.“

    “We had more money when Trump was president,” said Denise Nierzwicki, 69. She and her 72-year-old husband Paul have around $20,000 in debt spread across multiple cards – all of which have interest rates above 20%.

    Denise and Paul Nierzwicki blame Biden for what they see as a gloomy economy and plan to vote for the Republican candidate in November.
    Photographer: Jon Cherry/Bloomberg

    During the pandemic, Denise lost her job and a business deal for a bar they owned in their hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. While they applied for Social Security to ease the pain, Denise is now working 50 hours a week at a restaurant. Despite this, they’re barely scraping enough money together to service their debt.

    The couple blames Biden for what they see as a gloomy economy and plans to vote for the Republican candidate in November. Denise routinely voted for Democrats up until about 2010, when she grew dissatisfied with Barack Obama’s economic stances, she said. Now, she supports Donald Trump because he lowered taxes and because of his policies on immigration. -Bloomberg

    Meanwhile there’s student loans – which are not able to be discharged in bankruptcy.

    “I can’t even save, I don’t have a savings account,” said 29-year-old in Columbus, Ohio resident Brittany Walling – who has around $80,000 in federal student loans, $20,000 in private debt from her undergraduate and graduate degrees, and $6,000 in credit card debt she accumulated over a six-month stretch in 2022 while she was unemployed.

    “I just know that a lot of people are struggling, and things need to change,” she told the outlet.

    The only silver lining of note, according to Bloomberg, is that broad wage gains resulting in large paychecks has made it easier for people to throw money at credit card bills.

    Yet, according to Wells Fargo economist Shannon Grein, “As rates rose in 2023, we avoided a slowdown due to spending that was very much tied to easy access to credit … Now, credit has become harder to come by and more expensive.”

    According to Grein, the change has posed “a significant headwind to consumption.”

    Then there’s the election

    “Maybe the Fed is done hiking, but as long as rates stay on hold, you still have a passive tightening effect flowing down to the consumer and being exerted on the economy,” she continued. “Those household dynamics are going to be a factor in the election this year.”

    Meanwhile, swing-state voters in a February Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll said they trust Trump more than Biden on interest rates and personal debt.

    Reverberations

    These ‘headwinds’ have M3 Partners’ Moshin Meghji concerned.

    “Any tightening there immediately hits the top line of companies,” he said, noting that for heavily indebted companies that took on debt during years of easy borrowing, “there’s no easy fix.“

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 18:00

  • The 10 Senate Seats Most Likely To Flip
    The 10 Senate Seats Most Likely To Flip

    Authored by Sean Trende via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The 2024 presidential election has grabbed most of the headlines recently, but the Senate races are taking shape under the radar. Here is a preview of the 10 most likely to flip.

    1. West Virginia – Open (D): It’s not that often that every elections analyst in the country concurs on something, but I suspect you will get unanimous agreement that this seat is far and away the most likely Senate seat to flip. Joe Manchin is a Democrat who has basically been swimming against a Republican tide since he won the seat in a 2010 special election. Two years prior, John McCain carried the state by 12 points over Barack Obama. Donald Trump won it by almost 40 points in 2020. It’s unlikely that even the popular Manchin, who won narrowly in the good Democratic year of 2018, could emerge victorious, but with his retirement, the seat is just gone.

    2. Montana – Jon Tester (D): Reasonable minds can disagree about whether Montana or Ohio is the more vulnerable seat. Tester is probably a better ideological match for his state than Sen. Sherrod Brown is for Ohio, but Montana will probably go for Donald Trump by 20 points rather than the 10 or so points by which he seems likely to carry Ohio. Tester’s preferred opponent, Matt Rosendale, dropped out of the race, giving Tester a more mainstream opponent. Even Rosendale had made a race out of it in the bad GOP year of 2018, but this time, Tester will likely have to convince one out of every six Trump voters to cross over for him. That’s no easy task.

    3. Ohio – Sherrod Brown (D): Brown is probably too liberal for the modern Buckeye State, and he’ll have to convince around one in 10 Trump voters to split their tickets. This is within tolerance – Susan Collins pulled this off in reverse in 2020 – but it is still rare. Brown only won by seven points against an underfunded opponent in 2018, but whoever the GOP candidate is will probably not have to worry about money. Trump endorsed businessman Bernie Moreno, much to the state GOP’s dismay, but this is a state that voted for a similarly untested, controversial candidate in 2022 over Brown’s political heir. Brown can win, but he’s in trouble.

    4. Michigan – Open (D): I have to make at least one controversial call, so why not here? To be clear, all of the remaining races at least lean toward the party that currently holds them. Why put this above more popular picks like Nevada, Arizona, or Wisconsin? The reason has less to do with this race than with the dynamics of the other races (discussed below). The Democratic Party has coalesced around Rep. Elissa Slotkin, which is good for the party. But there is a bit of schism within the Democratic Party right now over the Biden administration’s support of Israel in its war in Gaza. Trump has also been polling well in the state. A lot will depend on who emerges from the state’s crowded GOP primary, but remember, Trump nearly pulled now-Rep. John James across the finish line in 2020.

    5. Texas – Ted Cruz (R): Another controversial call, I suspect. I’ve gone into this in greater detail elsewhere, but this is a state that is swinging leftward, and it wouldn’t take a particularly bad showing by Donald Trump nationally for it to flip. Not only that, but Cruz is, well, Cruz, and is not particularly well-liked. He almost lost in 2018, and while the environment is better for him this year, the state is worse. Again, this isn’t a tossup, but his edge is less pronounced than the remaining Democrats on this list.

    6. Arizona – Open (D): Given Kari Lake’s post-election behavior and the presence of an abortion-rights referendum on the ballot, I’m skeptical that she is well-positioned to make this race competitive. It’s also why I’m somewhat skeptical about Donald Trump’s current polling lead against President Biden.

    7. Nevada – Jacky Rosen (D): It’s not that the incumbent is particularly weak. Nor is the GOP field particularly strong. And the presence of an abortion-rights referendum will probably help Rosen. We’re starting to get into genuine long-shot territory here, but this is a state Donald Trump really might carry handily. We’ll see what comes out of the GOP primary.

    8. Wisconsin – Baldwin (D): I don’t really think Tammy Baldwin is likely to lose. The danger to her comes if Donald Trump breaks out in the state and turns out to have coattails. But I promised 10 seats, and I aim to deliver 10.

    9. Pennsylvania – Bob Casey (D): The GOP has its preferred candidate here, Dave McCormick (which it didn’t in 2022 when Oz Mehmet edged McCormick out in the primary), and Casey has never really had a tough challenge before. But he’s got a famous last name, and I think Trump has less chance of winning here than in Wisconsin. If Trump does pull ahead strongly, however, he probably has a better chance of bringing McCormick with him than he does in Wisconsin – whomever Republicans nominate in the Badger State.

    10. Maryland – Open (D): I had to pick a race here. It was either this or New Jersey or Florida. I chose this one because GOP candidate Larry Hogan was a popular governor, is still well regarded in the state, and is probably the strongest challenger in the bunch. But Maryland is exceedingly blue and is really, really unlikely to flip.

    Sean Trende is senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics. He is a co-author of the 2014 Almanac of American Politics and author of The Lost Majority. He can be reached at strende@realclearpolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter @SeanTrende.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/15/2024 – 17:40

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