Nov 20

Today’s News 20th November 2022

  • Conrad Black: A Step Toward National Suicide?
    Conrad Black: A Step Toward National Suicide?

    Authored by Conrad Black via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Nov. 8 midterm elections were a watershed in modern American history. The implications of choosing a president whom the public strongly disapproves of and is generally a failure, over a controversial but undoubtedly capable and successful ex-president, are very serious.

    Democrat Party materials encouraging people to vote in the midterm general election are seen in Philadelphia on Nov, 7, 2022. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

    That the Democrats and their lock-step allies in the national media succeeded in putting across the colossal smear that former President Donald Trump is a supporter of violence and a threat to the constitutional system could be interpreted as a long step toward the national suicide that Abraham Lincoln foresaw is the only way in which the American project could perish.

    Former CIA Director John Brennan called Trump a traitor; former National Intelligence Director James Clapper declared as a matter of settled fact that Trump was a Russian intelligence asset. The corruption of the FBI and the intelligence agencies in the dissemination of the infamous Steele dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign as authentic intelligence revealing Trump as completely unsuited to public office and the profound dishonesty of former FBI Director James Comey in white-washing Clinton’s alleged destruction of subpoenaed evidence and his recourse to surveillance granted in response to false affidavits while attempting to destroy the Trump presidency have escaped legal retribution by the somnambulant Durham investigation, and there will be no retribution for any of it.

    Yet, Trump is the tainted protagonist. The Russian collusion hoax was the most monstrous defamation ever inflicted on a U.S. president. The spurious impeachment of him, for an innocuous telephone call to the president of Ukraine about the commercial activities of the Biden family in his country—now notorious but probably a matter of political suppression of the normal working of American justice—was in the same category of misuse of the political system for the lowest and most destructive partisan ends.

    It’s obvious that the potentially millions of harvested ballots that couldn’t be verified in the 2020 presidential election could easily have provided the 50,000 vote switchover needed in Pennsylvania and two other states to flip that election to Trump in the Electoral College. The dishonesty of the universal media stone wall that 2020 was a pristine presidential election is compounded by the judiciary’s abdication of its coequal role in government and reassertion of its refusal to consider overturning the apparent presidential election result.

    Democratic strategists deserve a near-perfect score for tactical judgment: They rounded up a big majority among young voters by hammering the abortion issue, emphasizing the reduction in marijuana penalties, and championing student loan forgiveness. This and the malicious and unctuous pressing of the safety of democracy as a euphemism for the defamatory nonsense that Trump was a menace to the Constitution turned the minds of an adequate number of voters to produce a dangerously perverse result. They have pretty well given up the former slanders that Trump is a racist, homophobe, and misogynist.

    Tabulating all of the votes cast for all offices contested last week, the Republicans outpolled the Democrats all over. The Democrats only took what they needed. Politics is a notoriously unjust occupation; Trump is objectively perhaps among the 10 most successful holders of that office. But he did great harm to himself by his lack of public relations judgment, and this fact in the hands of the political and social media monopoly of his enemies working with the strategists and saboteurs in the Democratic leadership have unfortunately won the match.

    But even the voters who rendered such an ambiguous result on Nov. 8 have betrayed a concern that the incompetence of the Biden administration, with the duplicity of the Democratic congressional leaders, can’t go on indefinitely. But they’ve demonstrated that Trump isn’t the man to stop them and to tear the government apart and repopulate it with people with clean hands.

    There’s still an important place for Trump to complete the task that he commenced of transporting the Republican Party from the country clubs to the championship of the disadvantaged and working and middle class of America, and to cleaning out the bipartisan infestation of placemen and decayed servitors of the federal political and administrative state. But the former president is far from blameless in his own misfortunes. He warned of the dangers of ballot harvesting in 2020 but was completely inadequate in taking preventive measures or even following up efficiently to challenge the vulnerable points. Instead, we had the well-intended but completely ineffectual efforts of Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell. In order to make his case plausibly, he absolutely had to avoid precisely the sort of outrage that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. But the fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser paid no attention to Trump’s warnings that matters could get out of hand and his offer of 20,000 National Guardsmen indicates the Democrats’ role was a good deal less innocent than they pretend.

    But Trump knew what desperate and sleazy people he was dealing with, and he doesn’t have a credible excuse for being so reckless. This condemned him to having to continue to emphasize the 2020 election irregularities in order to justify his calling forth such a huge and discontented crowd at the Washington Elipse on Jan. 6, 2021. Of course, he no more sought an insurrection than Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) did.

    The only way to complete Trump’s work and root out and politically exterminate those who have corrupted the intelligence and justice arms of the federal government and have dragooned the contemptible but still insidiously influential national political media in full metal jacket Trump-hate, is for Trump to identify and support the successor whom he favors as Republican presidential candidate.

    He shouldn’t go back to his 2016 playbook and insult all the other prominent Republicans. He has exchanged enough fire with his Republican enemies, contemptible though many of them are, and did well to win the first round and come so close in the second. The third round last week was an acute disappointment, and the Republican Party doesn’t need, and the American public doesn’t wish for, an internecine war on the scale that would rage if Trump sought another presidential nomination. But another candidate plausibly pledged to the enactment of the Trump program and supported by Trump but not stigmatized by him, could lead the desperately needed national political purgation.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 23:30

  • The Most And Least Reliable Cars In America
    The Most And Least Reliable Cars In America

    Toyota, Lexus and BMW are the most reliable manufacturers of new cars according to the annual survey of U.S. nonprofit Consumer Reports. Compiled by assessing issues with over 300,000 vehicles in 17 trouble spots over the past 12 months according to participant feedback, the index saw major movement compared to 2020.

    As Statista’s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, two legacy brands, in particular, have moved up and down the ladder significantly…

    Infographic: The Most and Least Reliable Cars in America | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    While Toyota and Lexus traded places year-over-year, German manufacturer BMW climbed 10 spots and won the bronze medal in terms of reliability. Dropping 10 ranks, on the other hand, is Chevrolet, which only scored 40 out of 100 possible index points across all its models.

    Notably, seven of the 10 highest-rated brands are Japanese.

    The most valuable car company in the world, Tesla, which came in second-to-last in 2020, managed to climb four ranks. According to Reuters coverage of the report, the EV manufacturer still faces problems concerning “body hardware, steering/suspension, paint and trim, and climate system on its models.”

    Jeep and Volkswagen dropped even further compared to 2020.

    Coming in last is Mercedes-Benz, earning a reliability score of 26 out of 100.

    Consumer Reports’ annual study analyzes consumer feedback for car manufacturers with more than two models and includes only the brands with enough data. By aggregating statistically significant weak points of popular car brands in the new car market, the report offers valuable insight into the market in the United States. It is considered vital information for every branch of the domestic automobile industry.

    In case you were wondering, Consumer Reports notes that this year we have insufficient data to rank Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini, Mitsubishi, Polestar, Porsche, and Rivian.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 23:00

  • Escobar: Goodbye G20, Hello BRICS+
    Escobar: Goodbye G20, Hello BRICS+

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

    The increasingly irrelevant G20 Summit concluded with sure signs that BRICS+ will be the way forward for Global South cooperation…

    The redeeming quality of a tense G20 held in Bali – otherwise managed by laudable Indonesian graciousness – was to sharply define which way the geopolitical winds are blowing.

    That was encapsulated in the Summit’s two highlights: the much anticipated China-US presidential meeting – representing the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century – and the final G20 statement.

    The 3-hour, 30-minute-long face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden – requested by the White House – took place at the Chinese delegation’s residence in Bali, and not at the G20 venue at the luxury Apurva Kempinski in Nusa Dua.

    The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs concisely outlined what really mattered. Specifically, Xi told Biden that Taiwan independence is simply out of the question. Xi also expressed hope that NATO, the EU, and the US will engage in “comprehensive dialogue” with Russia. Instead of confrontation, the Chinese president chose to highlight the layers of common interest and cooperation.

    Biden, according to the Chinese, made several points. The US does not seek a New Cold War; does not support “Taiwan independence;” does not support “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan”; does not seek “decoupling” from China; and does not want to contain Beijing.

    However, the recent record shows Xi has few reasons to take Biden at face value.

    The final G20 statement was an even fuzzier matter: the result of arduous compromise.

    As much as the G20 is self-described as “the premier forum for global economic cooperation,” engaged to “address the world’s major economic challenges,” the G7 inside the G20 in Bali had the summit de facto hijacked by war. “War” gets almost double the number of mentions in the statement compared to “food” after all.

    The collective west, including the Japanese vassal state, was bent on including the war in Ukraine and its “economic impacts” – especially the food and energy crisis – in the statement. Yet without offering even a shade of context, related to NATO expansion. What mattered was to blame Russia – for everything.

    The Global South effect

    It was up to this year’s G20 host Indonesia – and the next host, India – to exercise trademark Asian politeness and consensus building. Jakarta and New Delhi worked extremely hard to find wording that would be acceptable to both Moscow and Beijing. Call it the Global South effect.

    Still, China wanted changes in the wording. This was opposed by western states, while Russia did not review the last-minute wording because Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had already departed.

    On point 3 out of 52, the statement “expresses its deepest regret over the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands the complete and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces from the territory of Ukraine.”

    “Russian aggression” is the standard NATO mantra – not shared by virtually the whole Global South.

    The statement draws a direct correlation between the war and a non-contextualized “aggravation of pressing problems in the global economy – slowing economic growth, rising inflation, disruption of supply chains, worsening energy, and food security, increased risks to financial stability.”

    As for this passage, it could not be more self-evident: “The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today’s era must not be of war.”

    This is ironic given that NATO and its public relations department, the EU, “represented” by the unelected eurocrats of the European Commission, don’t do “diplomacy and dialogue.”

    Fixated with war

    Instead the US, which controls NATO, has been weaponizing Ukraine, since March, by a whopping $91.3 billion, including the latest presidential request, this month, of $37.7 billion. That happens to be 33 percent more than Russia’s total (italics mine) military spending for 2022.

    Extra evidence of the Bali Summit being hijacked by “war” was provided by the emergency meeting, called by the US, to debate what ended up being a Ukrainian S-300 missile falling on a Polish farm, and not the start of WWIII like some tabloids hysterically suggested.

    Tellingly, there was absolutely no one from the Global South in the meeting – the sole Asian nation being the Japanese vassal, part of the G7.

    Compounding the picture, we had the sinister Davos master Klaus Schwab once again impersonating a Bond villain at the B20 business forum, selling his Great Reset agenda of “rebuilding the world” through pandemics, famines, climate change, cyber attacks, and – of course – wars.

    As if this was not ominous enough, Davos and its World Economic Forum are now ordering Africa – completely excluded from the G20 – to pay $2.8 trillion to “meet its obligations” under the Paris Agreement to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

    The demise of the G20 as we know it

    The serious fracture between Global North and Global South, so evident in Bali, had already been suggested in Phnom Penh, as Cambodia hosted the East Asia Summit this past weekend.

    The 10 members of ASEAN had made it very clear they remain unwilling to follow the US and the G7 in their collective demonization of Russia and in many aspects China.

    The Southeast Asians are also not exactly excited by the US-concocted IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework), which will be irrelevant in terms of slowing down China’s extensive trade and connectivity across Southeast Asia.

    And it gets worse. The self-described “leader of the free world” is shunning the extremely important APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Bangkok at the end of this week.

    For very sensitive and sophisticated Asian cultures, this is seen as an affront. APEC, established way back in 1990s to promote trade across the Pacific Rim, is about serious Asia-Pacific business, not Americanized “Indo-Pacific” militarization.

    The snub follows Biden’s latest blunder when he erroneously addressed Cambodia’s Hun Sen as “prime minister of Colombia” at the summit in Phnom Penh.

    Lining up to join BRICS

    It is safe to say that the G20 may have plunged into an irretrievable path toward irrelevancy. Even before the current Southeast Asian summit wave – in Phnom Penh, Bali and Bangkok – Lavrov had already signaled what comes next when he noted that “over a dozen countries” have applied to join BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

    Iran, Argentina, and Algeria have formally applied: Iran, alongside Russia, India, and China, is already part of the Eurasian Quad that really matters.

    Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Afghanistan are extremely interested in becoming members. Indonesia just applied, in Bali. And then there’s the next wave: Kazakhstan, UAE, Thailand (possibly applying this weekend in Bangkok), Nigeria, Senegal, and Nicaragua.

    It’s crucial to note that all of the above sent their Finance Ministers to a BRICS Expansion dialogue in May. A short but serious appraisal of the candidates reveals an astonishing unity in diversity.

    Lavrov himself noted that it will take time for the current five BRICS to analyze the immense geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of expanding to the point of virtually reaching the size of the G20 – and without the collective west.

    What unites the candidates above all is the possession of massive natural resources: oil and gas, precious metals, rare earths, rare minerals, coal, solar power, timber, agricultural land, fisheries, and fresh water. That’s the imperative when it comes to designing a new resource-based reserve currency to bypass the US dollar.

    Let’s assume that it may take up to 2025 to have this new BRICS+ configuration up and running. That would represent roughly 45 percent of confirmed global oil reserves and over 60 percent of confirmed global gas reserves (and that will balloon if gas republic Turkmenistan later joins the group).

    The combined GDP – in today’s figures – would be roughly $29.35 trillion; much larger than the US ($23 trillion) and at least double the EU ($14.5 trillion, and falling).

    As it stands, BRICS account for 40 percent of the global population and 25 percent of GDP. BRICS+ would congregate 4.257 billion people: over 50 percent of the total global population as it stands.

    BRI embraces BRICS+

    BRICS+ will be striving towards interconnection with a maze of institutions: the most important are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), itself featuring a list of players itching to become full members; strategic OPEC+, de facto led by Russia and Saudi Arabia; and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s overarching trade and foreign policy framework for the 21st century. It is worth pointing out that early all crucial Asian players have joined the BRI.

    Then there are the close links of BRICS with a plethora of regional trade blocs: ASEAN, Mercosur, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), Arab Trade Zone, African Continental Free Trade Area, ALBA, SAARC, and last but not least the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the largest trade deal on the planet, which includes a majority of BRI partners.

    BRICS+ and BRI is a match everywhere you look at it – from West Asia and Central Asia to the Southeast Asians (especially Indonesia and Thailand). The multiplier effect will be key – as BRI members will be inevitably attracting more candidates for BRICS+.

    This will inevitably lead to a second wave of BRICS+ hopefuls including, most certainly, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, three more Central Asians (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and gas republic Turkmenistan), Pakistan, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, and in Latin America, a hefty contingent featuring Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

    Meanwhile, the role of the BRICS’s New Development Bank (NDB) as well as the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will be enhanced – coordinating infrastructure loans across the spectrum, as BRICS+ will be increasingly shunning dictates imposed by the US-dominated IMF and the World Bank.

    All of the above barely sketches the width and depth of the geopolitical and geoeconomic realignments further on down the road – affecting every nook and cranny of global trade and supply chain networks. The G7’s obsession in isolating and/or containing the top Eurasian players is turning on itself in the framework of the G20. In the end, it’s the G7 that may be isolated by the BRICS+ irresistible force.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 22:30

  • Democrat Rep. Claims Slavery Reparations Could Have Saved Black Americans From COVID
    Democrat Rep. Claims Slavery Reparations Could Have Saved Black Americans From COVID

    Leftists are now scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to arguments in favor of reparations for slavery.  This week, Democrat House Representative Sheila Jackson Lee from the 18th Congressional District surrounding Houston, Texas (one of the only blue districts in the entire state), “demanded” that reparations be made. 

    Her argument?  Lee presents the usual debunked social justice narratives claiming that the generations of today are somehow responsible for and benefit from the trespasses of a minority of slave owners who lived centuries ago (Only 1.4% of the population of the US were slave owners in 1860 right before the Civil War according to stats derived from the Census Bureau – This is a number the media continually claims is “not a proper metric,” and yet it is a mathematical fact.  Even if one includes the entire extended family of each slave owner in the metric as beneficiaries, the number is still only 7.4% of the population).   

    Lee, who has a noted habit of making some of the dumbest comments of any congressional representative, also insists that black Americans would have had a lesser transmission rate and death rate from covid if they had been paid reparations in advance:

    Lee does not cite the specific Harvard study she mentions in her speech that supposedly supports her assertion, but with social justice politics invading scientific inquiry the past few years, it is highly likely that said study is biased and holds no basis in fact.  One could say that ANY person might get better medical treatment if they had more money, but that is the extent of the argument and it has nothing to do with race or reparations or covid for that matter. 

    As with most things, equity is a fantasy because nature does not operate on fairness.  Covid is not fair, just as life is not fair.  The reparations game has grown tiresome, most of all because every race, every culture and every religion has faced tyranny and slavery in the past.  There are no exceptions.  Trying to maintain a running tally of who wronged who over thousands of years is impossible and pointless. 

    The political left prides itself on being “progressive” to the point that they seek to tear down the past and not let history or heritage determine the future.  Yet, they continue to cling like parasites to their own incomplete version of the history of slavery as a means to get free handouts for many years to come.  This is not progressive, this is regressive and holds our society back from true racial equality in which everyone’s future is decided by their effort and their merit, not the color of their skin.     

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 22:00

  • FTX Post Mortem Part 1 Of 3: WTF Really Happened?
    FTX Post Mortem Part 1 Of 3: WTF Really Happened?

    Authored by Scott Hill via BombThrower.com,

    The dust hasn’t settled, but the smoke is beginning to clear, somewhat… Here’s WTF just happened, and what happens next…

    On November 2nd Coindesk published a leaked balance sheet from FTX affiliated market maker Alameda Research.

    Ten days later the third largest Crypto exchange in the world was bankrupt and its founder was under international investigation for fraud.

    In this article I’ll go through how Crypto giant FTX fell apart. There is a lot of backstory to this situation which I’ll cover in a following article, discussing the beginnings of Alameda research and the story of how a sketchy hedge fund turned into a major exchange.

    As you’ve no doubt heard repeatedly this week, self custody of your Crypto is the safest approach until we know who is insolvent and the extent of the contagion. If you’re not confident with self custody, Coinbase and Kraken seem to be the safest Crypto exchanges, but that is still a counterparty risk that I’m not willing to take personally in these market conditions.

    The Balance Sheet Leak

    The exclusive scoop from Coindesk looked bad for Alameda Research. The firm, which performed market making on FTX as well as taking directional bets and venture capital investments, seemed insolvent on a realized value basis.

    Their balance showed $14.6 billion in assets held against $8 billion in liabilities. On paper solvent on a mark-to-market basis, but digging in there was no way that mark was reasonable.

    The most egregious example was $5.82 billion worth of FTT tokens on the asset side, around a third locked and the rest unlocked and available to trade. FTT is a token created by FTX, a sort of pseudo-equity token which represented some share of the exchange revenues. Kind of.

    FTX had been doing periodic buybacks of the token which were supposed to represent a distribution of exchange revenues to holders. Holding the token also entitled traders to a discount on trading fees. The token was at the time worth around $26. At its peak it was worth around $80.

    The main thing that FTT was used for though, was pledging as collateral by FTX and Alameda. 

    You read that right, a token which the exchange invented a little over 3 years ago was used as collateral for loans. We know for sure that it was acceptable collateral in various Solana DeFi protocols, which FTX had a significant amount of influence over; but reports are also surfacing that it may have been used to purchase real estate in the Bahamas and quite possibly with various institutional Crypto lending like Genesis which is now facing major problems.

    The problem with FTT

    There’s nothing inherently wrong with using Crypto tokens as collateral if there is a robust and deep market pricing them. If the loan goes bad, lenders can seize the collateral and sell it off, covering some of their loss.

    FTT didn’t have a deep and robust market.

    The “flywheel” scheme – via Dirty Bubble Media

    There was barely any volume. There was barely any liquidity. If a lender had to sell a large volume in a hurry there weren’t any buyers ready to step in.

    While Alameda was claiming to have $5.82 billion of its balance sheet held in FTT tokens, the entire available market cap was less than $4 billion.

    Read that again, Alameda’s balance sheet held more than the entire market cap of FTT. 

    So this wasn’t a situation where a lender might make a loss on selling the collateral, this was a situation where there were potentially billions in loans floating around in the Crypto ecosystem with essentially no collateral that could be liquidated without detonating the market.

    Just to top it off, some of this FTT was likely pledged to multiple lenders.

    Industry Reaction

    The initial reaction was general indifference. Alameda looked like it was playing with fire and had gone all in on the exchange token for its sister company FTX alongside various other FTX supported coins like Solana and Serum. It was an open secret in the industry that Alameda and FTX were more intertwined than they claimed, but if push came to shove it was assumed that Alameda would be allowed to fail and FTX would continue being the highly profitable exchange that everyone assumed it was.

    FTX was highly profitable, right?

    There were a few that were calling the bluff, but the main gripes were conflict of interest within FTX related companies and unsavory business practices by FTX, trading against customer positions and liquidating accounts improperly. The usual bucket shop tricks. No one seemed to be expecting a total insolvency across the FTX group of companies.

    But still something didn’t feel right. Caroline Ellison, the newly appointed CEO of Alameda Research tried to calm fears on Twitter, claiming that the leaked balance sheet was only a partial balance sheet, there were another $10 billion in assets elsewhere within the corporate structure, and they’ve paid down most of their loans.

    It was a strange and deeply unsettling response, shrugging the issue off as if the industry should just take her at her word.

    Enter the CZ Dragon

    Even CZ, the CEO of rival exchange Binance, didn’t seem to be suggesting that FTX was in trouble. Late on Sunday November 6 CZ announced that he would be liquidating the FTT held by Binance.

    All $500 million of it.

    Binance had been the sole investor in the seed round for FTX.  In 2021 they were bought out for $2.1 billion in cash and FTT tokens. This alone wasn’t enough to push markets into panic. CZ said he would do this over a number of months, carefully and slowly in an attempt to “minimize the market impact”. In a follow up tweet, CZ said that he was doing “post-exit risk management, learning from Luna”

    Everyone in Crypto knew what he meant by “learning from Luna”

    In May Luna detonated, dropping to zero. The protocol is now seen as a deeply flawed project in the best possible light and a blatant ponzi scheme in the more realistic assessment.

    Did CZ, the most powerful man in Crypto just call FTX a ponzi scheme?

    Panic

    Crypto industry figures were in disbelief. Surely FTX, the darling of the industry, was a highly profitable, solvent and legitimate business. But the reaction was off and deeply troubling. The CEO of Alameda Research quickly asked CZ if she could buy all of the FTT tokens off-market at a price of $22.

    The market smelled blood.

    Over the course of the next few hours FTT was aggressively shorted, Caroline had put a floor under it at $22 and traders were going to bleed Alameda dry defending that mark. Why did $22 matter? It’s only conjecture, but it seems likely that below $22 Alameda would be liquidated by its lenders and a cascade of FTT tokens would need to be sold into a market unwilling to buy them, flattening the firm.

    But traders only thought they were going after Alameda, the predatory market maker.

     In hindsight it’s obvious, you shouldn’t short an exchange token to death on the exchange that issued it, but FTX was the main venue for the fight for $22. A huge amount of volume flowed through the order books and everyone was looking forward to getting paid as the token dropped, first to $18 and later to $6.

    While the traders were battling it out, regular users were getting out.

    FTX experienced massive outflows and on-chain analysis showed some deeply troubling signs. Alameda was pulling liquidity from everywhere. Every dollar that was deployed in DeFi got pulled. Weird tokens got dumped. But the liquidity wasn’t going into Alameda’s wallet, it was going into FTX wallets to pay customers.

    Surely FTX wasn’t funding customer withdrawals from Alameda’s DeFi degen positions?

    FTX was supposed to be a full reserve exchange. As an even higher bar, the terms of depositing with FTX were that customers retained title to their assets. Assets were held on trust, they weren’t supposed to be lent out or touched except as directed by the customer.

    SBF concedes

    On Sunday afternoon, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO of FTX said that the problems with the Alameda balance sheet were just “unfounded rumors”. He explained that FTX had processed billions of dollars in withdrawals and that they would continue to do so. He claimed that they were hitting node capacity, something that I’ve never heard of, and needed to slow down withdrawals.

    By Sunday night, withdrawals of some assets had stopped entirely, but there was no announcement from FTX. Radio silence from the team.

    We now know that during this period SBF was frantically going to investors to do an emergency fundraise of between $6-10 billion dollars. The terms which later leaked were insane. It was obvious that no lawyer had reviewed these documents.

    They seemed to be written by a child, imitating a businessman, who was in way over his head.

    Industry insiders at the time thought that FTX had likely lost some amount of user funds, would need to take a loan to cover them and could move on with rebuilding trust. We were shocked to wake up on Tuesday to the news that Binance had made an offer to buy out FTX entirely, subject to due diligence. This isn’t what a rescue package for a competently run business looks like.

    This was a fire sale of a dumpster fire.

    The previous day SBF had claimed his exchange was fully solvent, just having minor liquidity issues. The next day he was handing the keys to their main rival. Now that balance sheets have been leaked for FTX we know what Binance would have seen as soon as they started their diligence, a balance sheet crammed with dodgy tokens and full of holes, unaudited and put together in excel with no real supporting evidence.

    The rumored sale price was one dollar.

    CZ quickly walked away from the deal, citing misuse of customer funds and regulatory concerns; leaving SBF to fix his own mess. With the exchange still operational, but withdrawals closed, SBF posted yet another long thread trying to talk his way out of the problem, claiming to be trying to set everything straight and get emergency funding. While he had not yet admitted that it was all over, he did make a bizarre reference to CZ “well played; you won”

    As we came to learn later, for this sociopath that’s all it was, just a game to be won or lost.

    The Insanity Begins

    The rejection of the deal from Binance was the first mention of misuse of customer funds. Until then there was speculation that there was a minor balance sheet hole, remember, no one knew at that time that SBF had been seeking $6-10 billion in emergency funding. The next day the news started pouring in.

    Reuters reported that there was a secret back door in the accounting at FTX which allowed customer funds to be moved around without alerting anyone. It also claimed that $10 billion dollars worth of customer funds had been secretly moved to Alameda.

    SBF remained silent, but elsewhere there was chaos. Alameda funds were moving around frantically on chain, placing gigantic bets and actively trading.

    Was SBF trying to trade out of it?

    Tether put a stop to this later in the day, freezing Alameda’s funds on the request of law enforcement.

    On the exchange the chaos was even worse. Justin Sun the founder of Tron had shown up to offer to redeem Tron tokens trapped on FTX. Prices spiked as customers flocked to get cents on the dollar via this exit ramp. There was talk of taking complicated cross-platform trades to make a synthetic exit ramp.

    The Bahamas Loophole

    As the insanity deepened, FTX posted on Twitter that they were processing a small amount of withdrawals to customers in the Bahamas as requested by local authorities. A week later we found out this was a lie, there was no request, but even at the time it seemed likely to be a way for insiders to exit their funds before the inevitable bankruptcy.

    Suddenly, traders with stuck funds were desperately trying to obtain a fraudulent Bahamian passport and complete identity checks in the Bahamas. Some even managed to do it apparently and successfully withdrew funds. Black market prices on passports spiked and a secondary market for trapped funds emerged, with accounts trading for 15 cents on the dollar.

    NFTs were being traded for entire balances in order to move the funds to an account which could still withdraw.

    On the actual exchange things were just as chaotic. Traders with trapped funds were treating their accounts like paper money, trading nonsense on high leverage and dislocating markets. FTX was removed from pricing feeds to restore order elsewhere.

    This was the first time in the whole saga that it became clear, it was all over for FTX.

    FTX US halts withdrawals

    This entire time the story had been that FTX US was a separate entity. Their funds were firewalled off from FTX international. The exchange remained open for withdrawals and appeared to be functioning properly.

    This relative calm on the US side of the company instilled some faith. Surely, despite the havoc going on in the Bahamas, the US exchange was well regulated. Surely, the books were audited and no client funds could go missing in the US.

    On Thursday afternoon, FTX US halted withdrawals.

    Bankruptcy and the Hack

    On Friday morning SBF resurfaced and announced that FTX would be put into bankruptcy. The motion was filed in the US and included FTX US. It would later be revealed that SBF had stepped down as CEO and John J Ray III, a lawyer famous for taking over Enron post-collapse, would be similarly guiding FTX through bankruptcy. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, it was finally done.

    But the fun and games weren’t over

    Shortly after the bankruptcy was announced funds started moving on-chain. A lot of funds. Over $600 million left FTX affiliated wallets, moving to fresh wallets. The speculation was that there was a hack, perhaps by an insider looking to get the last of what they could out of FTX.

    It quickly became clear that there were two teams working. One appeared to have simply moved worthless tokens into storage, a plausible move by a “white hat” or good guy team seeking to preserve user funds from a compromised system.

    The other team, the “black hat” team, took the vast majority of the $600 million and moved it all into Ethereum DeFi, trading other coins into Ethereum tokens and consolidating them all together. This consolidation took place across multiple blockchains and traded with reckless abandoning, losing gigantic sums on slippage along the way.

    Once the dust had settled, the hacker was one of the largest individual holders of Ethereum.

    We don’t quite have the full story on what happened here yet. The Bahamian authorities claim that they seized the assets, with many assuming that they are referring to the hacked funds. It seems far more likely that they are referring to the “white hat” funds only, as the “black hat” funds demonstrated much more sophistication in blockchain use that could be expected of a regulator.

    The funds have stopped moving for now. Sitting idle with more that 241,000 ETH, a little less than $300 million worth. No one really knows what will happen with these funds.

    Where are we now?

    After a week of complete mayhem as the exchange fell apart and another week for the adults to take over and begin the clean up we have two competing bankruptcy procedures. One taking place in the US, overseen by the lawyer who cleaned up after Enron collapsed. The other taking place in the Bahamas, overseen by two accountants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and a senior local lawyer who has a decades long history of high level appearances in the Supreme Court of the island nation.

    It’s not entirely clear which action will take precedence, but they are opposed to each other. The US bankruptcy is seeking that all the companies be wound up together and users are compensated with whatever assets are left across the entire conglomerate.

    It turns out, FTX was made up of over 100 individual companies.

    The organization chart looks like the web a drunk spider would spin. It’s not the sort of corporate structure that would be constructed for anything other than hiding funds and playing shell games.

    The Bahamian action appears to be seeking to have the main FTX company dealt with separately, screwing US customers out of funds and leaving the bankruptcy in the hands of the Bahamian government which seems to have taken some pretty significant donations from FTX in the past.

    In filings made late this week FTX was referred to as a “disorganized mess”. There was a lack of proper accounting. The auditing was done by “the first accounting firm in the metaverse” that doesn’t appear to have a physical address. There appears to have been loans made to company executives in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. There was no corporate board. There was no human resources department. There was no accounting department. There was no real tracking of customer funds.

    The lawyer handling the FTX bankruptcy also conducted the Enron bankruptcy. He says this is far worse.

    Enough for now

    This is just the walkthrough of how everything fell apart in front of our eyes. The corruption, the lies and the scandal have all been uncovered in the wake of this collapse. In another article coming shortly I will cover the rise and fall of FTX and Alameda Research, delving into the backstory that allowed this fraud to grow under the cover of one of the most well regarded companies in the industry.

    *  *  *

    Today’s post is from contributing analyst Scott Hill. To receive further updates of this series and our overall investment thesis for digital assets (even in this climate), subscribe to the Bombthrower mailing list. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 21:30

  • NASA Prepares Spacecraft For First "Powered Flyby Burn" Around Moon
    NASA Prepares Spacecraft For First “Powered Flyby Burn” Around Moon

    NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion capsule is three days into the lunar mission. The uncrewed spacecraft cruises at 1,000 mph and is 215,000 miles from Earth. It’s about 95,000 miles from the Moon and will make a very close powered flyby burn on Monday. 

    “Orion’s entry into the lunar sphere of influence will make the Moon, instead of Earth, the main gravitational force acting on the spacecraft,” the space agency wrote in a press release. 

    NASA continued: “Flight controllers will conduct an outbound powered flyby burn to harness the force from the Moon’s gravity, accelerate the spacecraft, and direct it toward a distant retrograde orbit beyond the Moon. During the outbound powered flyby, Orion will make its closest approach – approximately 80 miles – above to the lunar surface.” 

    Four days later, the second powered flyby burn will “insert Orion into distant retrograde orbit, where it will remain for about a week to test spacecraft systems,” NASA said. 

    Additional flyby details will be provided on Saturday following a meeting with NASA officials. 

    “Right now, we’re looking good, and we’re ready to go continue executing,” Artemis 1 Flight Director Jeff Radigan said during Friday’s briefing.

    NASA has laid out a detailed map of the Artemis 1 mission.

    Less than 12 hours into the flight after Orion took off from Launch Pad 39B at the space agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, the first view of Earth from the spacecraft was released to the public. 

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    If Artemis 1 mission is successful, which would end with the Orion capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11, then Artemis 2 and 3 flights will follow. Artemis 2 is scheduled sometime in 2024. That mission will propel four astronauts around the Moon. Then in 2025, Artemis 3 could include a return of humans back to the lunar surface. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 21:00

  • Watch: FBI Director, DHS Secretary Grilled On Tech Censorship Collusion, Targeting Everyday Americans As Terrorists
    Watch: FBI Director, DHS Secretary Grilled On Tech Censorship Collusion, Targeting Everyday Americans As Terrorists

    Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News (emphasis ours),

    Republican Senators Joh Hawley and Rand Paul took the heads of the FBI and the Department Of Homeland Security to task Thursday, with Hawley at one point directly telling Christopher Wray that he should have been fired a long time ago.

    Hawley also targeted Wray for previously leaving a committee hearing early so he could go on a vacation.

    “You were at the Senate Judiciary Committee. You remember that I think so. We had to cut that hearing short. We’re supposed to do two rounds of questions. You said you had to be somewhere, so we cut it short. Republicans were not able to ask second round as we had been informed we would,” Hawley noted.

    The Senator continued, “The press reported shortly thereafter that the reason that the hearing had to be cut short is because you were flying on a Gulfstream jet for a personal vacation in the Adirondack. Please tell me that’s not accurate.”

    It was accurate.

    “You left an oversight hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee required by statute so you could vacation with your family,” Hawley declared, adding “I find that absolutely unbelievable and, frankly, indefensible.”

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    The Senator then provided examples of how the FBI has been overtly politicised and told Wray that he doesn’t believe he is up to the job of FBI Director anymore.

    Hawley asserted “frankly, I think you should have been gone a long time ago. And given your behavior recently, I think it only makes it more clear.”

    Hawley then twisted the knife by asking “Are there any travel plans today that we should be aware of, that you have? We’re supposed to have a second round. Will you be here for that?”

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    Elsewhere during the hearing, Hawley grilled Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas regarding the Biden administration reportedly flagging social media posts it doesn’t like as “disinformation” and “pressuring Big Tech to treat American citizens as if they’re threats to Homeland.”

    “A federal judge in a federal lawsuit [has said] you are supervising the nerve center of federally directed censorship… Is that constitutional?” Hawley asked.

    Mayorkas repeatedly claimed that the allegation are false. 

    “You are leveraging private companies to carry out censorship on your behalf. It is dystopian, but worse than that, it is unconstitutional,” Hawley asserted.

    “It is also false,” Mayorkas sardonically replied.

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    Rand Paul also grilled Wray about reported collusion between the FBI and Facebook, noting “You may think it’s just jolly well to get all this stuff without a warrant that people volunteer to you, but many of us are alarmed that you’re getting this information that are private communications between people, because it is against the law.”

    “You work for the government, you should admit to us whether or not you have a program going after our speech,” Paul asserted.

    As we highlighted recently, Paul has vowed to introduce legislation that would make it illegal for government agencies and private big tech to secretly collude on such enterprises, noting that “it goes against everything that we all believe in as far as the foundation of our constitutional republic.”

    *  *  *

    In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 20:30

  • Trump To Be Reinstated On Twitter
    Trump To Be Reinstated On Twitter

    Update (2010ET): After 15 million people voted, Elon Musk announced on Saturday that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated on Twitter.

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    The vote came in at 52% for reinstatement, 48% against.

    And here it is:

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    Trump, meanwhile, says he won’t be back. When asked about the poll, Trump said: “He’s a character. I tend to like characters. But I have something called Truth Social. It’s doing phenomenally well. Engagement is much better. I’ll be staying there. I don’t see it. I don’t see any reason for it.”

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    *  *  *

    ‘Free speech absolutist’ Elon Musk has decided to ask the public whether Donald Trump – a former president and ostensibly Joe Biden’s 2024 GOP challenger – should be allowed to speak freely on Twitter, instead of, you know, just restoring Trump’s account on day one.

    The former president was banned from the platform because a group of fed-infiltrated Trump supporters were allowed into the Capitol and wreaked havoc on January 6, 2021, after Trump gave a speech in which he said “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

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    Musk’s poll on whether he should reinstate former President Donald Trump to the platform has received more than 11 million votes in less than 24 hours.

    While Trump took a large early lead, the vote tightened over Saturday morning, and currently stands at 52.3% ‘yes’ to 47.7% ‘no.’

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    “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted in a follow-up, which means “the voice of the people is the voice of God.’

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe poll is set to run for 24 hours.

    Musk’s departure from ‘free speech absolutism’ is undoubtedly due to the realities of the advertising market – with major companies having already suspended their campaigns on Twitter over Musk himself taking over the platform. According to Insider, advertising made up 89% of Twitter’s revenues in 2021.

    In response, Musk assured advertisers in late October that Twitter “will not become a free-for-all hellscape.”

    While Alex Jones won’t be allowed back on the platform, the Babylon Bee is back after their ban over a transgender joke, as is Jorrdan Peterson and Kathy Griffin.

    Maybe Elon should do an Alex Jones poll next? The frogs did, after all, turn out to be gay.

    Trump, meanwhile, isn’t going anywhere.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 20:08

  • NBC: Body Cam Footage Shows Paul Pelosi Opened Door For Police Before Alleged Attack
    NBC: Body Cam Footage Shows Paul Pelosi Opened Door For Police Before Alleged Attack

    The official narrative on the Paul Pelosi attack purported by Democrats and the mainstream media makes zero sense.  You don’t have to be a “conspiracy theorist” to recognize there were multiple contradictory accounts from the Department of Justice vs. local police and even some reports from journalists.

    In fact, NBC suspended one of its own correspondents, Miguel Almaguer, after he reported that on the night of the supposed attack at the Pelosi home in San Francisco that Paul Pelosi actually opened the door when police knocked, seemingly in normal health, and then walked away from the officers to talk to the alleged assailant David Depape, when Depape attacked him.  This report led many to suggest that Pelosi and Depape somehow knew each other. 

    A media firestorm ensued along with denials from the DOJ, which detailed a completely different version of events in which the police officers opened the door themselves and found Pelosi struggling with Depape who had injured him with a hammer.  NBC dropped Almaguer after many called his report “bizarre.” 

    As it turns out, Miguel Almaguer was right.  NBC now reports that police body cam footage has been made available to some media outlets and the footage clearly shows Paul Pelosi opening the door for police in seemingly perfect health.  This contradicts the DOJ report on the attack and suggests a potential cover-up. 

    NBC is forced to retract their earlier assertions that the Paul Pelosi open door event was unfounded.  Why?  Because they have to.  Eventually the police body cam footage will make it out into the public sphere for everyone to see, and NBC is front-running their own false reports.  However, they do suggest that “it doesn’t really matter” who opened the door to the Pelosi home, and that Paul Pelosi’s actions don’t support the “conspiracy theories” surrounding the attack.

    If that is the case, then why would the DOJ lie?  Surely, they have seen the same body cam footage.  If there is no conspiracy, then why is there an attempted coverup?  

    NBC has never had a problem editorializing news stories in the past and presenting biased opinions as evidence, yet suddenly now they pretend as if they have journalistic integrity?  It is incumbent upon journalists to present what they think are the facts to the general public, but they are also required to investigate potential false accounts and false information in order to separate truth from lies.  In the case of the attack on Paul Pelosi, NBC and other outlets clearly do not want to dig deeper. 

    Now that the midterm elections are over it would appear that the “MAGA attacker” story no longer serves any purpose.  The Democrats conjured their own conspiracy theory first – The claim that right-wing “extremists” are a threat to “democracy” and that the Pelosi attack proves it.  There is no evidence to support this claim.  There is, though, evidence to support the theory that Pelosi was familiar with Depape and his behavior indicates familiarity. 

    No person under threat of being beaten with a hammer by a home intruder is going to move closer to the violent stranger instead of running towards the police.  This does not happen, it’s nonsense.

    What is likely to take place as this case develops?  A media blackout on the story, much like we have witnessed with multiple cases in the past few years that make the political left look bad (the Waukesha massacre by BLM suppporter Darrell Brooks comes to mind).  Details will probably emerge which further contradict the official narrative but they will be buried and ignored.  The leftists will continue to label any suspicions as “conspiracy” as they hope and pray the general public completely forgets and moves on to other distractions.   

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 20:00

  • Gun Sales Skyrocket After Oregon Passes Measure Restricting Gun Rights
    Gun Sales Skyrocket After Oregon Passes Measure Restricting Gun Rights

    Authored by Scottie Barnes via The Epoch Times,

    Gun sales have skyrocketed in Oregon since the narrow passage of a strict gun control measure in last week’s midterm election.

    As gun sellers scramble to fill orders before the rule change on Dec. 8, opponents are planning to file suit against what they call the most restrictive gun control measure in the country. Several sheriffs around the state have vowed not to enforce the new legislation.

    With just three weeks until Measure 114 takes effect, background checks to purchase a gun jumped from about 850 per day before the election to 4,000 per day after, according to Oregon State Police.

    The new law, in addition to limiting sales of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, will require buyers to obtain a permit to purchase any firearm. To obtain that permit, the measure requires buyers to complete firearms training in a class that does not yet exist in the state. It also requires law enforcement to create a publicly accessible database of those who apply for or obtain a permit.

    The measure passed with just 50.7 percent approval. The disparity of votes is consistent with Oregon’s extreme urban-rural divide.

    Voters in the seven, mostly urban, predominantly Democrat counties that voted for the measure did so by a nearly 2-1 margin. Voters in the 29, mostly rural counties, rejected the measure by nearly the same ratio.

    Multiple lawsuits will be filed after the law takes effect, Leonard Williamson, a licensed firearms dealer for 20 years who helps advise gun rights groups, told The Epoch Times.

    “Plaintiffs representing the interests of different constituencies—such as gun dealerships and hunters associations—will file,” he said.

    “Ultimately, the court will likely consolidate them under one judge.”

    Lawyers advising the Oregon Firearms Federation, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Oregon Hunters Association, and other gun rights advocates, will seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the measure from taking effect until a judge can determine if it meets constitutional muster.

    The first draft of a complaint has reportedly been written.

    “We’re still adding plaintiffs to the suit, and we’ll be ready,” according to Alan M. Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, based in Bellevue, Washington.

    Meanwhile, a number of county sheriffs have publicly stated they will not enforce the measure.

    “This is a terrible law for gun owners, crime victims, and public safety,” wrote Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan in a Nov. 9 Facebook post. She said her office “is NOT going to be enforcing magazine capacity limits.”

    Duncan called the measure “poorly written” and said she hopes its passage will result in an immediate lawsuit.

    Her office has received calls from people who fear they’ll face criminal charges if they’re pulled over while driving and found with a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds, she added.

    “I’m not out there to try to look for their magazines and arrest anybody.”

    Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen wrote on his office social media that the measure is an “infringement on our constitutional rights and will not be enforced.”

    “[It] will only harm law abiding gun owners” and waste time, he said, vowing to “fight to the death” to defend gun owners’ constitutional rights.

    Lincoln County Sheriff Curtis Landers issued a press release promising to enforce the measure only after “it is ruled constitutional by any court challenge.”

    Nathan Sickler and Chris Kaber, sheriffs of Jackson and Klamath counties, have both said Measure 114 is “an unconstitutional restriction on the right to possess firearms.”

    Their statements come despite the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association statement to officials that it expected its members to uphold any law created by popular vote.

    Retailers are warning customers that gun sales will be cut off immediately unless a lawsuit results in an injunction.

    Sportsman’s Warehouse issued a statement outlining the impact to its Oregon customers.

    “A valid Oregon Firearm Purchase Permit will be required to purchase any firearm,” after Dec. 8, the retailer wrote in an email to customers. “At this time, there are no known law enforcement agencies issuing the Oregon Firearm Purchase Permit.”

    In addition, “state background check delays are possible and may impact your ability to take possession of a firearm before Dec. 8, 2022.”

    To meet demand in the meantime, it is “extending store hours and resupplying rapidly.”

    The National Rifle Association (NRA) issued a statement claiming that the legislation’s ambiguous language fails to safeguard gun owner information by creating a searchable gun owner database.

    Currently, California maintains a database for owners of concealed carry permits, but Measure 114 will place every gun owner on a database, according to the legislation. After the contents of the California database were leaked in June, gun rights advocates argued that such centralized gun databases led to an abuse of power.

    Oregon joins Washington, DC, and 14 states that have enacted similar permit-to-purchase gun laws. Nine states and Washington have adopted laws banning large-capacity ammunition magazines.

    There were more than 130 proposed constitutional amendments on midterm ballots across 37 states in the Nov. 8 elections, but relatively few related to gun rights and gun control.

    The only other measure related to firearms aside from Oregon’s Measure 114 was in Iowa, where 65 percent of voters approved Amendment One, which enshrines gun rights in the state constitution by stating residents’ rights “to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

    Iowa joins Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri with that language incorporated into their state constitution, which requires that courts use “strict scrutiny,” which makes it more difficult to impose limits on gun possession, ownership, and use while preempting attempts to require more extensive background checks or to ban certain types of firearms.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 19:30

  • CBS News Stops Posting On Twitter Out Of "Abundance Of Caution"
    CBS News Stops Posting On Twitter Out Of “Abundance Of Caution”

    Amid reports that Twitter’s mass-layoffs will ‘break’ the platform, allowing ‘free speech types’ to run amok, CBS News has stopped posting on the social media giant out of an “abundance of caution.”

    In a Friday announcement during the evening broadcast of “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” the network’s national correspondent, Jonathan Gigliotti, said: “In light of the uncertainty around Twitter and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform.”

    As Fox News notes,

    Coverage began with the network reporting on the mass resignations of employees offended by Musk’s “ultimatum” from earlier this week. In his quest to streamline the company, the world’s richest man emailed all employees asking them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” workload or leave the company.

    The “ultimatum,” as many disgruntled folks called it, prompted backlash from onlookers who trashed the company under Musk, some calling it a “hellscape.”

    The ensuing chaos from Musk’s email, as well as the general vitriol generated by him taking over the reins of company, did not sit well with CBS News. 

    And as Adweek notes, the move will affect all CBS-owned properties, including local news outlets.

    On Thursday, Twitter was hit with mass layoffs after many employees refused to accept Musk’s new demand, which would have required them to work for long hours at “high intensity.”

    The departure of those employees resulted in speculation that the website would become more unstable and could potentially cease functioning.

    Fortunately, none of that has come to pass, but the uncertainty following Twitter has caused one news organization to take action. -Adweek

    Tens of fans are crestfallen, we’re sure.

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    Meanwhile over at Twitter alternative Mastadon;

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 19:00

  • "Lost…In The Emotion Of The Night": Attorney Who Firebombed Police Vehicle Given Just 15 Month Sentence
    “Lost…In The Emotion Of The Night”: Attorney Who Firebombed Police Vehicle Given Just 15 Month Sentence

    Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

    We previously discussed the case of two New York attorneys (Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman) who joined in violent protests in New York, including firebombing a police vehicle. The Biden Justice Department later gave the two lawyers an astonishingly generous plea deal that avoided long prison sentences. Now Rahman has been sentenced to 15 months after asking for no jail time for throwing the Molotov cocktail.

    Urooj Rahman holding a black and white striped scarf close to her face with one hand, and a homemade firebomb with another, as she prepared to toss the incendiary device out of the passenger-side window of a van in 2020. (Obtained by the Daily News)

    Mattis was a member of the Corporate Group at Pryor Cashman when he was arrested. Mattis graduated from New York University School of Law in 2016 and received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. He was also previously employed as an associate at Holland & Knight.

    Rahman had just been admitted to the New York bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law.

    The police also had a picture of Rahman with the explosive. The FBI statement included the following description:

    “Officers pursued the minivan and arrested Rahman and Mattis, who was the vehicle’s driver.  The NYPD recovered several precursor items used to build Molotov Cocktails, including a lighter, a bottle filled with toilet paper and a liquid suspected to be gasoline in the vicinity of the passenger seat and a gasoline tank in the rear of the vehicle.”

    Mattis and Rahman were facing domestic terrorism charges and the possibility of 30 years in jail. The Biden Administration later agreed to a massive reduction of the charges in a plea agreement that would likely result only in a couple years of jail time. What is particularly bizarre is that the plea agreement reduced an earlier plea agreement for a more serious offense. They had agreed to the more serious offense but the Justice Department cut it down further.

    The now-disbarred attorney sought no jail time and told the court that “I completely lost my way in the emotion of the night.”

    U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan praised Rahman for her commitment to fighting social injustices: “You’re a remarkable person who did a terrible thing on one night.” Cogan, however, also criticized her “arrogance” displayed in such conduct. Firebombing seems a tad more than arrogance when you throw Molotov cocktails at police cars.

    Even with the greatly reduced charges, Cogan still elected not to give Rahman the maximum sentence of two years. While Rahman claimed to have been caught up in the moment, her texts and emails established a difficult story. In one message hours before the protest, she told Mattis “I hope they burn everything down. Need to burn all the police stations down… probably all the courts too.”

    Mattis is expected to be sentenced in December.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 18:30

  • Sam Bankman-Fried's Law Firm Drops Him As A Client Amid Ongoing Bankruptcy Revelations
    Sam Bankman-Fried’s Law Firm Drops Him As A Client Amid Ongoing Bankruptcy Revelations

    With post-mortem after post-mortem after FTX port-mortem piling up, even as the questions surrounding the world’s biggest crypto fraud and bankruptcy pile up at an even faster pace amid a breathless demand for answers – like where did all that $8 billion really go – on Saturday we learned that as part of the firm’s shambolic bankruptcy process, FTX won’t even disclose its top creditors and has asked the bankruptcy judge to keep the company’s list of creditors (which previously was said to be larger than one million) under confidential seal.

    So amid the mounting confusion, on Saturday FTX Trading unveiled that it had started a “strategic review of their global assets to begin to maximize recoverable value for stakeholders“, as part of what promises to be a very lengthy bankruptcy process (which will quickly become a Chapter 7 unless someone reveals where that $8 billion stolen by SBF has been parked), and has hired Perella Weinberg Partners LP to help with the potential sale of any viable units.

    “Based on our review over the past week, we are pleased to learn that many regulated or licensed subsidiaries of FTX, within and outside of the US, have solvent balance sheets, responsible management and valuable franchises,” FTX Group’s new CEO, Enron liquidation veteran John J. Ray III said in a statement on Saturday.

    Among those with the largest identified financial positions are FTX EU Ltd., at $49.4 million in total cash available, and West Realm Shires Services — which encompasses the FTX.US crypto exchange as well as some acquisitions — at $48.1 million, a filing in Delaware on Saturday showed. FTX Ventures, which launched a $2 billion fund in January, had less than $800,000 in available cash, it said.

    In the filing, FTX said that the positions were calculated based on verifiable available books and records for the businesses. More than half of identified bank accounts have yet to have their balances verified and other accounts may exist, given the group’s “historical cash management failures and the deficiency of documentation controls.”

    Separately, the bankrupt FTX companies, known as FTX Debtors, have engaged Perella Weinberg as lead investment bank and started preparing some assets for sale or reorganization, according to the statement.

    Ray further commented, “I have instructed the team at the FTX Debtors to prioritize the preservation of franchise value as best we can in these difficult circumstances. I respectfully ask all of our employees, vendors, customers, regulators and government stakeholders to be patient with us as we put in place the arrangements that corporate governance failures at FTX prevented us from putting in place prior to filing our chapter 11 cases.”

    Also on Saturday, the FTX Debtors filed various motions with the Bankruptcy Court “seeking interim relief from the Court that, if granted, would allow the operation of a new global cash management system and the ordinary course payment critical vendors and vendors at foreign subsidiaries,” it said. The first official bankruptcy court hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 22, at 11:00 a.m. before Judge T. Dorsey at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, 824 North Market Street, 5th Floor, Courtroom No. 5, Wilmington, Delaware

    Ray, who oversaw the liquidation of Enron Corp., said earlier this week in a sworn declaration that he’d never seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.” He called the chaos around the collapse “unprecedented.”

    And speaking of unprecedented, just days after FTX’s lawyers accused Bankman-Fried of undermining the bankruptcy case in their First Day Affidavit…

    … Paul, Weiss, the law firm hired by SBF, effectively fired him as a client, citing a conflict of interest.

    “We informed Mr. Bankman-Fried several days ago, after the filing of the FTX bankruptcy, that conflicts have arisen that precluded us from representing him” Paul Weiss counsel Martin Flumenbaum said in a statement, although he declined to describe the conflicts.

    While unclear what the catalyst was, starting on Nov. 14, SBF published a series of self-incriminating tweets that sparked a frenzy across Crypto Twitter, which would have made his defense extremely difficult for any law firm. In a conversation with the ultra-liberal outlet Vox – which sold SBF out after writing fawning praise about the prominent Democrat donor for months – and which was published this week, Bankman-Fried blamed FTX’s collapse in part on “messy accounting,” expressed regret at his decision to file for bankruptcy and denigrated U.S. regulators in profane terms. He later said he did not intend for the conversation to be made public.

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    Flumenbaum is a longtime litigator whose past clients include the junk-bond trader Michael Milken and AIG. He currently represents Christian Larsen, the chairman of the Ripple Labs crypto exchange. However SBF proved to be too much of a liability for someone defending such iconic criminals as Mike Milken. Then again, Paul Weiss quitting is not all that much of a shock amid growing speculation that the increasingly erratic SBF – who was convinced his millions in donations to the Democratic party would render him immune from legal challenges – would be indefensible in court.

    “There’s this old saying that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. The reverse is also true. An individual who is the subject of an investigation and tries to defend themselves in the court of public opinion has a fool for a lawyer,” said Justin Danilewitz, a white-collar defense lawyer at law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr.

    According to media report, Bankman-Fried is now represented by Greg Joseph, former president of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Also on his legal team as an advisor is David W. Mills, who teaches criminal law at Stanford Law School, where Bankman-Fried’s parents are both professors.

    Of course, all this legal wrangling may be for nothing: after all, SBF still hasn’t been accused of a crime, and it may just be that with the bribes he paid to prominent Democrats, ultimately helping Biden get elected…

    Source: Vox

    … that the 30-year-old will be able to avoid seeing the inside of a courtroom entirely.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 18:00

  • You're Living In A World Wrought By The Federal Reserve. Notice Anything Wrong?
    You’re Living In A World Wrought By The Federal Reserve. Notice Anything Wrong?

    Authored by Lynn Parramore via The Institute for New Economic Thinking,

    In her new book, veteran Wall Street watcher and economist Nomi Prins warns that central bank strategies deployed since the financial crisis are destroying the real economy, worsening inequality, and creating societal chaos.

    Ever wonder why it is that for most of the 21st century, no matter who is in the White House, no matter the state of the economy, and regardless of what ordinary people are suffering, money travels inexorably to the top?

    If you find this baffling, you’re not alone. For many, it seems that the further we travel into this acutely challenging century, the political, economic, and social rules we thought we understood increasingly fail to apply.

    Economist, journalist, and former Wall Street exec Nomi Prins is here to explain the inexplicable. Her latest book, Permanent Distortion: How the Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever, is a highly readable and clear account of how the financial realm, with its central bank-fueled loose money and mega-wealthy financiers, has split off from the real economy, the place inhabited by regular working people who buy stuff and produce things.

    The upshot: the people’s needs are increasingly ignored in favor of market demands.

    Prins points to the 2008 financial crisis and the Federal Reserve’s response as the pivotal moment in which we jumped on a tiger that we can no longer seem to dismount. What was supposed to be an emergency response to a crisis ended up turning into an unstoppable addiction to cheap money which, Prins argues, initiated a vicious cycle of pumped-up financial markets, destabilizing inequality, a public left worse off, and a political system increasingly unable to make real progress on long-term priorities like climate change. She spoke to the Institute for New Economic Thinking about who is responsible, what the public needs to understand, and why this tiger will not take us anywhere we want to go.

    Lynn Parramore: You’ve written several books about the U.S. economy and Wall Street. Why this new book, focusing on central banks and their influence? Why is this so important to understand now?

    Nomi Prins: Since the financial crisis, one of the themes in my books is money and power. There’s a real thru-line from my 2009 book, It Takes a Pillage, which focuses on the financial crisis, to All the President’s Bankers (2014), where I go back into the history of American bankers and their political influence, on up through Collusion (2018), the global analysis of what happened from the financial crisis through the period before the pandemic.

    That thru-line concerns this external body – the central banks – which can effectively manufacture money, and how this money, just by sheer mass momentum and the players involved, goes disproportionately to financial markets relative to the real economy. This activity, in fact, is detrimental to the relationship between markets and the real economy, and also to the real economy itself.

    I wrote Permanent Distortion because to me, the distortion that money and power have created between markets and the real economy did in fact become permanent. It’s not just something we’re experiencing now, and then can we go back to a more glorious time when it wasn’t like this. It was around July 2020, when we were all locked down and not knowing what was going on with our lives, our personal economies, our health, and our families, when I realized that the Federal Reserve had doubled the size – or even more so — of its book of assets. It had created about $5 trillion worth of money in a very short period of time.

    During that time, the markets went from being very afraid and down to being very, very high. A lot of people said, well, we’re all at home using Zoom, so therefore the market just rebounded by so much. But that was just a small part of it. The bigger part was that money became available at such an immense level and therefore the distortion between where money goes in the financial markets and where it doesn’t go in the real economy became permanent. At that moment I saw that this can happen in any amount, at any time. There’s no restriction, no transparency, no responsibility.

    LP: You make a strong case that high finance has become unhinged from the economy, and you go so far as to say it has become disconnected from capitalism itself. What exactly does that mean?

    NP: When I’m talking about capitalism in that sense, I’m connecting it to the idea of financial markets supposedly being created to aggregate money in order to then funnel it into companies, and therefore into projects, and on into the real economy.

    So the idea, technically, from a capital market perspective, is that borrowing money in order to do something, or selling bonds in order to finance something, or selling shares in order to finance something, used to have a particular relationship to each other. If there was a transparent use for a company that had value to shareholders, they would be willing to effectively invest their money in order for that company to do what it does to grow whatever it’s growing. Part of that use could be profits, part could be wages, part could be cars. The point being that the relationship was more or less (though not always) transparent at a theoretical level.

    But now there is more money being thrown into the markets from an outside source. It’s not money from the actual profits of a company or its long-term strategy, or the productivity of workers, or the creation of long-term things. You end up getting an unmooring between what markets are theoretically there to do in a capitalist society and from a capital-raising standpoint. There’s this other source that comes in and kind of turbo-boosts and distorts all of those relationships.

    LP: You place the roots of this trouble in 2008, a year which, you point out, increased the power of central banks. Yet, Ben Bernanke, the very economist in charge of the Fed at that time, just won the Nobel Prize. As some have pointed out, we are living in the world he created, and many hail him as the guy who prevented the second Great Depression. How did he contribute to the alarming picture you paint of an economic system gone off the rails?

    NP: I thought the Nobel Prize for Bernanke was a bizarre choice, although it made sense if you believed the narrative that attributed to him the power to save the economy. And he also happened to have written a lot of things historically about depressions. But if you actually dig into both what he did and what he wrote to win that Nobel Prize, you find a concerning story. To understand it, you have to go back to before the crisis was apparent to everyone — both during the Great Depression and during the 2008 financial crisis.

    Back before it became apparent that a financial crisis was happening, there was an immense amount of leverage in the banking system over which Bernanke had a responsibility to regulate. There was also an immense amount of assets being created off the back of a very small amount of interest coming in from subprime loans. Those subprime loans themselves had issues, and Bernanke knew it because the banks knew about the interest payments, and their rising delinquencies, and defaults. A small amount of subprime loans were structured to feed into a large amount of other assets by said banks. As this was happening, either he didn’t want to pay attention or he thought looming problems would just go away as many banks did. But Bernanke had information from the banking system in his position at the top of the Fed and certainly through his connection to the New York Fed. He was deeply connected to those banks and their liquidity and rising delinquency and default problems and he just chose to say that everything was effectively fine.

    He did that even before the crisis became apparent. Then, in 2007, when things were absolutely crumbling and even the shares of real estate developers were plummeting, when there was so much information all over the place and reports from the FBI were going into the Fed telling them there were issues, what did Bernanke do? He did nothing.

    So when the crisis did occur, Bernanke ultimately used the tool of quantitative easing, which is basically creating electronic money in return for taking out that debt from the market and putting it on the Fed’s books for safekeeping. He put it there and most of it stayed there. Later it manifested a larger crisis, or a looming crisis, by injecting all that money into the market on the auspices of saving the real economy.

    What actually happened was the markets rose precipitously over all of the ensuing years. There’s one or two years where they wobbled a bit, but, in all the period of time during Bernanke’s chairmanship of the Fed, the real economy stumbled. To me, the narrative that he saved things from being worse is a false one. Yet that narrative was perpetuated and is still believed today by the majority of people who care to think about it, like the Nobel Committee, apparently.

    And what about Bernanke’s writing on the Great Depression that he had done back in the day – as supposedly the main reason he got this prize? Well, he’s had an aura of having such great knowledge of the Great Depression. He was the man who wasn’t going to let it happen again. Yet he forgot, or didn’t recognize, that one of the reasons the central bank did what it did from 1929 to 1931, a time when many banks collapsed, is that there was a housing bubble. There was also overleverage and a situation where Wall Street banks had been doing nefarious things with money. So one of the reasons that the crash happened and so many banks went under afterward was because of what happened before. The banks had become over-extended, over-leveraged and Fed wasn’t paying attention at the time.

    Bernanke didn’t write about this. He wrote about what happened when the Fed tightened too much too quickly and caused another leg of the Great Depression. That strategy was something he wasn’t going to have happen on his watch, but he forgot or didn’t pay attention to anything that had actually caused the crisis, to what led to Great Depression. He showed the same blind spot in his approach to the financial crisis. To me, that’s like two negatives, two false narratives. The consistency in those two false narratives is that they are both related to over-leverage in the housing market, to Wall Street taking advantage of it, and to the Fed not doing anything.

    LP: Let’s talk for a moment about economists and economic advisers that influence our political system. What can you tell us about their relationship to power? Does it cause them to have these blind spots?

    NP: The National Economic Council is generally made up of senior business leaders and bankers with current jobs, so a lot of them tend to lobby for certain policies that benefit them. In this last go-round, there’s been an oddly exorbitant amount of lobbying to the Fed directly. There are about 120 different lobby groups that lobby the Fed directly, even beyond lobbying respective politicians and on behalf of respective companies or sectors! So “the economy” is really convenient as a funnel for any policy that has to do with money going in and out of anywhere. If policies are being formulated or explained by self-interested people or people that work for self-interested companies or parties, then they’re going to be skewed toward those people or companies. You don’t have Joe the Plumber hanging out in the middle of the Economic Council saying well, here’s what’s going on with my building and my house, now what are you going to do about those? That’s not how it’s structured. It ensures a very top-heavy approach to economics.

    Take, for example, how the Fed views statistics, such as employment numbers, when it’s thinking about inflation or raising rates so quickly, which is really constraining to people on an actual budget facing other inflationary pressures, and, by the way, not actually doing anything about inflation. They’ve got the Executive Survey and the Household Survey. The Executive Survey counts every single job somebody has as a job in the economy, even if it’s the same person, whereas the Household Survey only counts one job per human. So those numbers are disparate. There’s a lot that can be interpreted in different ways and the framework has been formulated, generally, by economists who accept certain narratives, who tend to confirm or to say what needs to be confirmed or said to keep the status quo. They’re the ones that remain in those advisory positions. You do get people who might try to push the envelope a bit in terms of definitions and policies, but they don’t tend to stay around.

    LP: You note in your book that our whole society has become alarmingly top-heavy due to these top-heavy approaches. I was struck by the statistic that in a single year of the pandemic, 2020, there were 500 new billionaires created, just as regular people were losing their jobs, losing their health, and many were losing their lives.

    NP: Yes, that statistic gets people’s attention. My other favorite is from the 2022 Oxfam report, which says that the top 10 billionaires were making $15,000 per second. When I do talks on the book, I make everybody imagine that, to think about the speed of what’s going on here. It’s because those billionaires are invested in markets that their wealth is propelling up so much. All the speculation, though, is driven by this excess amount of available money, by what the Fed has done.

    LP: You refer to this as wealth accumulation without accountability. In what sense?

    NP: If you’re participating in a market that’s going up, obviously the more you’re participating, whether as the head of a company that has options for stocks, or as an investor, or as the retail person who is placing just the little bit they have on it, then you’re going to benefit from that proportion of upside because you’re in it. If you’re not in it, you’re not going to benefit from the upside. That’s just the math.

    What we’ve seen is actually more money created than what was sensibly needed to save the economy, and it’s obviously not going into the real economy. I’ve gone through the stats of the Fed’s books related to the $600 stimulus payments, the extra unemployment insurance, and even the PPP loans. The remaining money was leveraged into the financial system. What was on offer to the markets from the Fed dwarfs what actually went into the pockets of real people in the real economy.

    As a result, the money just tsunamied upward in a very short period of time. That money unmoored from the real economy and did nothing for it. There were a lot of narratives flying around and guesswork on why the markets ballooned so quickly. What you didn’t have to guess was that trillions of dollars were created, not just by the US central bank, but by central banks around the world. And this was accumulated into the financial system and financial markets.

    LP: How does this distortion impact our ability to confront long-term challenges, such as climate change?

    NP: This goes back to the question of accountability. If money is being drawn into one place or one set of financial assets, the financial markets, it doesn’t go into preserving the social contracts or the Main Street economy or the fractures in Main Street economics. I think that as a result, government leaders of both parties get lazy about pushing through longer-term strategies. Because there is this external force of money, it distorts all of the decisions. Parties argue back and forth about where money should go where and so forth, but it distorts all that just that much further because of the ease with which money can be created and multiply and go elsewhere. The idea of long-term strategies, like fighting climate change, suffer.

    Yes, we recently had a bipartisan infrastructure act passed, and that was positive (though it’s taking quite some time to actually agree on where that money’s going to go). But going back to what capitalism could be, what if that money that went to financial markets had gone to directly build solar or wind energy? Or the electrification of manufacturing plants? Or water purification?

    If it could have gone to these areas more quickly, then you would see more of a shift. The pace of getting what’s needed to fight climate change would be faster if it weren’t way easier for money to flit about, especially when created in abundance, into areas where it can just multiply itself more easily rather than in awaiting to build a whole new production center and or new energy strategy. The fact that money can multiply so quickly in the markets makes it harder for it to stick around in one of those lasting areas —to build necessary, physical things, like new or upgraded power mechanisms.

    LP: You write about developments in cryptocurrencies and the metaverse as responses to this distorted situation. How do you see them evolving in relation to it?

    NP: When I wrote about crypto, I also wrote about decentralized finance. They’re not necessarily the same thing, though they do share commonalities in that Bitcoin, for example, was created off of blockchain technology, which has been around for decades. But let’s just focus on the fact that crypto grew exponentially in the wake of the financial crisis. That’s when the famous Bitcoin white paper came out. That’s when the idea of fighting against the bailing out of banks spurred this vision of having some way of financing, borrowing, lending, and keeping money outside of the auspices of the more centralized financial system, which had shown itself to be a) reliant on the Fed and the government and b) not particularly stable.

    Even though we’ve got, obviously, centuries of the establishment of different currencies, including the dollar (with the dollar becoming stronger and the reserve currency in the last century), the idea that something else can compete on a currency basis, or at least be another avenue if it were to be regulated and safer, was a direct result of what happened and how it was handled by central banks in the wake of the financial crisis. It’s also why that idea grew exponentially again in the wake of the pandemic, when the same things happened. Instead of saving the economy by saving Wall Street, the idea was that the Fed was saving the economy by — we don’t even know what — but ultimately money gushed into the markets again. That was one thing. But the decentralized aspect of it is also an interesting area of transformation and will be for some time — the idea of using technology to do financial transactions of all kinds away from the auspices of your Chase account or your Bank of America account.

    In terms of the metaverse, I’m not talking about gaming and that type of thing, but of using technology to share, more directly, things like medical treatments or surgery secrets or what have you, across countries without everybody physically being in the same place, or engineering techniques that can allow easier fabrication of potential problems in new bridges that could be ironed out before the bridge is actually built or engineered so that you have more efficiency in the use of material. This is about pushing technology into something helpful for the building of real things and the creation of better and healthier lives for people through the auspices of virtual reality techniques.

    LP: Some of that sounds hopeful, yet you use the word “permanent” in the title of your book. It sounds like we have no way of correcting this distortion between the financial markets and the real economy.

    NP: I chose the term “permanent” specifically. It’s a big word. Given what happened in the wake of the pandemic and the fact that central banks could create so much money so quickly facing a crisis showed me that this can happen again and again. Not necessarily that big of an amount for that big of a crisis, but that we would have this unhinged, uncapped, untransparent process that can occur repeatedly.

    Since I wrote the book, we have this high inflationary environment. The Fed is raising rates quickly, as are other central banks around the world. I think that’s creating a looming debt crisis for consumers, in particular, in the process, with the cost of money becoming so high for them so quickly. We’re starting to see delinquencies, defaults, and other problems arising as a result.

    But be that as it may, in the U.K, the Bank of England, when faced with a pension crisis recently, was “forced” — as described by articles associated with it — but actually chose to create 60 billion pounds worth of money in order to buy gilts [the equivalent of U.S. Treasury securities] and to give a bid to the gilt market to raise the level of gilts. They chose to do that because gilts were declining precipitously and over-leveraged by a contingent of the pension fund community. The idea was that, as with any pension fund, you invest and the return that you get on that investment is part of what the pensioners needing to draw on their pensions get. But when there’s too much borrowing or there’s too much of a depreciation in the assets, then there’s a problem. You can’t pay what is owed to the pensioners.

    That’s what happened in the U.K. As a result, the central bank is still raising rates – tightening policy — and on the other hand, they’re creating more money — loosening policy — in order to buy those gilts. I think we’re going to continue to see these types of situations. That’s what I mean by permanent. There’s always going to be this possibility of money coming into some part of the market when it needs it because (particularly in developed countries) central banks can do that.

    How do we get out of it? We can’t. First of all, it’s important to note that this is happening and not to accept false narratives, like the story that a host of $600 stimulus checks paid out two years ago is causing inflation today. That’s just really annoying and stupid. We need to understand that the Fed didn’t inflate money in order to pay people those $600 checks or help fund the PPP loans and whatever else was going on at the time. That’s not what’s causing our inflation. There’s a bigger picture. One of the things I think we can do is literally ask ourselves the question, do you think that this monetary body in Washington has the ability to do anything that can actually make my electricity bills go down by virtue of raising the cost of my credit card debt or my personal loans or my mortgage? The answer should be no. We need to understand and think about these relationships so that at least we don’t accept what’s false and we don’t become blind, to what’s going on. The public needs to know this. Congress should know this. That’s what I hope my book can do: educate people. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 17:30

  • Ukraine Rejects Alleged Offer Of "Short Truce" By Russia
    Ukraine Rejects Alleged Offer Of “Short Truce” By Russia

    It was revealed Friday by the Ukrainian side that the Kremlin has offered Kiev the possibility of reaching an agreement to implement a “short truce”. It comes as there are more and more signals from Washington that it’s ready to see both sides come to the table for some kind of ceasefire agreement. 

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Russian officials had attempted the overture, but he rejected the possibility, at a moment the Ukrainian counteroffensive has made recent gains, especially the retaking of Kherson city and many surrounding villages.

    “Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength. Someone may call this the war’s end, but such a respite will only worsen the situation,” the Ukrainian leader said in a virtual address before the Halifax International Security Forum.

    File image: AP

    Zelensky then reiterated his hardened resolve to not consider the possibility of talks until Russian forces are defeated. “A truly real, long-lasting and honest peace can only be the result of the complete demolition of Russian aggression,” Zelensky said.

    There was no confirmation from the Kremlin side that such a specific offer was actually made. However, Russia has lately reiterated that it has always remained open to the possibility of dialogue. During his virtual G20 address last week, Zelensky issued a 10-point plan for ceasefire, which included the hardline position that no territorial concessions would be made. 

    Despite widespread reports that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs, has been pushing the White House to get Zelensky to negotiate, other influential voices such as Secretary Antony Blinken and national security advisor Jake Sullivan have said it’s “too early”.

    Gen. Milley’s position is based on the assessment that forcing Russian troops completely out of the country anytime soon remains unrealistic. 

    The Biden administration on Friday reaffirmed that only the Zelensky government can make the determination of when it is ready to negotiate, if at all. In the meantime the potential for direct confrontation between NATO and Russia remains as unpredictable as ever, especially after the deadly Polish border missile incident of last Tuesday. 

    The Poland incident, which resulted in widespread accusations that Zelensky had sought to lie NATO into war with Russia, illustrates that the longer both sides grind on in the conflict while rejecting the idea of negotiated settlement, the greater the chances are for a ‘mishap’ leading to a WWIII scenario among nuclear-armed superpowers. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 17:00

  • House Committee Advances Bill To Have Trackable Mail-In Ballots
    House Committee Advances Bill To Have Trackable Mail-In Ballots

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

    The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would enable mail-in ballots for federal elections to be tracked.

    “This bill would require that any ballot mailed in a federal election include a postal service barcode on the envelop that is unique to the individual ballot,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the chairwoman of the committee, who had introduced the bill, said Thursday.

    “We can now track packages around the world, they have a barcode you can track it as a consumer. This would allow an individual to track their own ballot. This commonsense requirement would enable boards of elections to confirm when a ballot was sent and give voters confidence that their votes have been casted and counted.”

    U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) (R) speaks as other House Republicans listen during a news conference at the East Steps of the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 29, 2022 in Washington, D.C. House Republicans held a news conference on “House Republican’s Commitment to America.” (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

    She said that the bill would also require envelopes containing ballots to include a specific identifier which “will help ensure timely sorting and delivery” of the ballots.

    “Ensuring election officials and voters have the resources to track the status of their ballots would create even more peace of mind and confidence and further protect the sanctity of our elections,” Maloney said. The bill passed the committee by a vote of 34-5.

    Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) in New York City on Aug. 18, 2022. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

    Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the ranking member of the committee, told The Hill that he supports the measure because it will “help protect the postal service from being blamed for election irregularities.”

    ‘False Sense of Security’

    Other lawmakers said the legislation is not enough to prevent potential fraud.

    “This is good, but until you have some kind of voter identification attached to your mail-in ballot that’s stronger than amateur hand-writing experts assessing somebody’s signature on the outside of an envelope, I think we’re going to have a problem,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) reported The Hill.

    Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said the legislation would give a “false sense of security,” because there is “no way of verifying the legitimacy” of the contents of the envelope, reported the outlet.

    Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on gun violence on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 8, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    On social media, people expressed concerns over the usefulness of the ability to track a mail ballot in the absence of voter I.D. Others expressed that the ability to track mail ballots would not prevent people from casting multiple votes.

    Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States saw a shift in voting methods in 2020, in part prompted by the actions of the states. While many states did not amend their policies, some states expanded early voting, and other states issued all registered voters ballots that they could return by mail.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 16:30

  • Judge Orders Unsealing Of Names Of 8 Anonymous Individuals Relating To Jeffrey Epstein
    Judge Orders Unsealing Of Names Of 8 Anonymous Individuals Relating To Jeffrey Epstein

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

    A federal judge on Friday ordered the unsealing of documents featuring the real names of some of the “John Does” relating to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, according to multiple media outlets.

    (Left) Jeffrey Epstein, in a booking photo in Palm Beach, Fla., on July 27, 2006. (Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office) (Right) Little Saint James Island, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a property purchased by Epstein more than two decades ago. (Gianfranco Gaglione/AP Photo)

    Judge Loretta Preska ruled on Friday to disclose the identities of a number of previously anonymous individuals in documents filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against the convicted pedophile’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell in a defamation case, according to Insider.

    Epstein died in jail awaiting trial while Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

    Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against Maxwell has generated a trove of documents relating to Epstein, which contain a number of redacted names, some of which Preska ordered unsealed on the premise that public interest outweighs the right to privacy, according to Daily Mail.

    Virginia Giuffre during an interview on the BBC Panorama program that aired on Dec. 2, 2019. (BBC Panorama via AP)

    Already Disclosed to the Public

    Eight “Non-Party Does” referred to in documents as Does 12, 28, 97, 107, 144, 147, 171, and 183, sought to remain anonymous amid concerns that their disclosure would harm their reputations, Fox News reported.

    Preska disagreed in some cases, saying that much of the “purportedly sensitive information” had already been disclosed to the public during Maxwell’s trial, per Daily Mail.

    While a timeline for the release of the documents and names has not been set, Preska identified some of the Epstein-linked individuals during the hearing.

    The judge identified Doe 147 as Epstein victim Sarah Ransome, who testified publicly at Maxwell’s sentencing and published a book about her experience, and granted numerous interviews, according to Insider.

    Sarah Ransome, an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, right, alongside Elizabeth Stein, left, speak to members of the media outside federal court in New York, on June 28, 2022. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)

    Another individual Preska identified was Emmy Tayler, a former personal assistant to Maxwell who was accused of playing a role in the sexual abuse of some of the victims, according to Daily Mail.

    Tayler, who has denied any wrongdoing, was named in a batch of publicly available documents from another lawsuit, Preska said and ordered its release, according to Daily Mail, though it’s unclear which of the Does is used in reference to Tayler.

    ‘Intense Media Coverage’

    Preska also ordered documents relating to Doe 183 unsealed as the individual has been the “subject of intense media coverage” and their name was disclosed during Maxwell’s trial. But in order to allow Doe 183 an opportunity to appeal her decision, Preska put a stay on the release until Nov. 28.

    She also ordered the name of Tom Pritzker, billionaire executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels, to be unsealed, according to Insider. Preska said Pritzker had only a marginal connection to Epstein as his name came up in a deposition in which a witness said they didn’t recognize him.

    Pritzker argued against the disclosure on the premise that it could harm his reputation but Preska overruled his objection.

    The judge did concede to some of the individuals who raised objections, however.

    Doe 12 will remain anonymous as they were a “classic outsider,” the judge said, describing them as “neither victim nor associated with Epstein or Maxwell,” according to Daily Mail.

    The name of Doe 28 will also remain sealed as they’re a sexual assault victim who the judge said “continues to experience trauma,” per Daily Mail.

    Meanwhile, Maxwell recently alleged that a fellow inmate plotted to kill her in her sleep.

    She also said that she found Epstein’s death, which was ruled a suicide, to be “profoundly suspicious” and that she doubts he really killed himself.

    When he died, Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He was convicted in 2008 on similar charges but received a light sentence.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 15:30

  • US Redeploys B-1B Lancer Bomber Over Korea After North Fires Powerful ICBM
    US Redeploys B-1B Lancer Bomber Over Korea After North Fires Powerful ICBM

    Tensions are again reaching boiling point over the Korean peninsula as the US has redeployed a US B-1B Lancer long-range strategic bomber there, ostensibly for more joint aerial drills with the south’s military, even after North Korea’s vehement denunciation of similar exercises earlier this month, which resulted in Kim Jong-un ordering a record number of ballistic missile tests.

    “South Korea and the US conducted a joint air drill today with the US Air Force’s B-1B strategic bomber redeployed on the Korean Peninsula,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed in a Saturday statement.

    US Air Force’s B-1B Lancer bomber

    The statement further indicated a number of fighter jets accompanied the 1B Lancer’s flight. “Some of the most advanced jets in the US and South Korean air forces, including the F-35 stealth fighter, also joined the drill,” it said. “Through this drill, we have once again demonstrated the joint military capacity of the South Korea-US alliance and Washington’s commitment to protecting the Korean Peninsula and providing extended deterrence,” the JCS added.

    Crucially the new bomber redeployment comes the morning following another threatening North Korean ICBM launch amid warnings from the Kim regime of “fiercer military responses” to Washington to come.

    North Korean state media identified that it was a Hwasong-17 ICBM – said to be capable of flying 9,320 miles, thus making it a significant threat and warning to the United States. 

    Pyongyang accompanied the provocative ICBM launch with a severe warning, invoking the prospect of “all-out” nuclear war: 

    “Kim Jong Un solemnly declared that if the enemies continue to pose threats … our party and government will resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday.

    Referencing the Hwasong-17, state media described it as “the most powerful and absolute nuclear deterrence” – further calling the missile “the strongest strategic weapon in the world.”

    Kim Jong-un showed his daughter in public for the first time in relation to Friday’s ICBM launch…

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

    The Biden administration has apparently felt the need to flex American military might over the peninsula in tit-for-tat measure of late whenever these ramped up missile tests by the north occur, creating a continuing dangerous and unpredictable situation, also as Japan feels increasingly under threat, given in the recent past missiles have flown directly over the main island.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 15:00

  • Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Says It Won't Confirm Its On-Chain Wallet Information Publicly
    Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Says It Won’t Confirm Its On-Chain Wallet Information Publicly

    Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

    Amidst the heightened scrutiny on basically all structured crypto products following the blowup of FTX, many players in the crypto space are rushing to reassure their clients and the investing public that their assets are real, unencumbered and safe.

    The grandfather of all bitcoin structured products, the hugely popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, has seen its discount to NAV plunge to almost -50% from about 0% in the beginning of 2021 as bitcoin has fallen in price.

    In other words, if you want to buy bitcoin, and you trust that Grayscale’s assets are safe and sound, buying their trust here would essentially allow you to buy bitcoin for an additional 50% off its spot price.

    It sounds too good to be true, right? That’s what many skeptics continue to point out. Why would the trust trade at such a massive discount? Could it be due to a reasonable explanation? Perhaps its just a technical glitch as many people are selling at any price do to the volatility in the space right now? Perhaps it is due to forced liquidations of people who held GBTC, opening the door for opportunities to those who have cash on the sidelines?

    The truth is we just don’t really know. But…the simplest way for Grayscale to close the price/NAV gap would be to reassure investors that its trust’s holdings are exactly as they seem, making the case easy for arbitrageurs to pounce on what could be a significant discount not just if the price of bitcoin rises, but even if it falls less than the current discount but Grayscale is somehow able to shore up the difference.

    As of yesterday, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was trading at a massive 43% discount to its NAV, Peter Schiff, who has traded barbs with Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert on Twitter often, noted:

    Today the #Grayscale Bitcoin Trust traded at a 43% discount to its NAV. With #Bitcoin trading at $16,700, shareholders of $GBTC were willing to sell their Bitcoin for the equivalent of $9,500. What does that tell you about retail and institutional investor confidence in Bitcoin?

    And so on Friday after the market closed, Grayscale took to its Twitter account to try and make a statement to shore up investor confidence. I’m not sure the company got the reaction it was looking for.

    The company’s entire Tweet thread can be viewed here. Grayscale said they were providing “additional information about the safety and security of the assets held by our digital asset products”.

    They told readers that “each of Grayscale’s digital asset products is set up as a separate legal entity” and that the company’s “laws, regulations, and documents that define Grayscale’s digital asset products prohibit the digital assets underlying the products from being lent, borrowed, or otherwise encumbered.”

    That’s a good start.

    They also noted that all of their digital assets are being held by Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC. They provided a letter from Coinbase, dated November 18, 2022, that appeared to attest to the amount of digital assets Coinbase held for them – as of the end of September.

    Also a good step in the right direction.

    But that’s where the verification stopped. The company didn’t turn over any of its on-chain wallet information, instead noting that “Coinbase frequently performs on-chain validation”. It’s also unclear to me whether or not the Coinbase document attests to current holdings by the trust, as it appears to have everything dated as of September 30, 2022 – the last date of the quarter.

    Of course, FTX’s blowup took place just weeks ago, and this is the pressure point of volatility that the industry is concerned about. Should any changes in the trusts have taken place due to FTX’s turmoil and the “run on the bank”, it would have likely been after September 30, 2022.

    Grayscale continued: “Due to security concerns, we do not make such on-chain wallet information and confirmation information publicly available through a cryptographic Proof-of-Reserve, or other advanced cryptographic accounting procedure.”

    They continued: “We know the preceding point in particular will be a disappointment to some, but panic sparked by others is not a good enough reason to circumvent complex security arrangements that have kept our investors’ assets safe for years.”

    Then, they linked to the following document, with more information about their products.

    “Due to recent events, investors are understandably inquiring deeper into their crypto investments. Custody of the digital assets underlying Grayscale’s digital asset products is unaffected, and our products’ digital assets remain safe and secure,” it reads.

    It then appears to make a more recent, concrete attestation:

    For example, this means that Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) holds bitcoin — and only bitcoin — and each share is backed by a proportional amount of the trust’s holdings, approximately 0.00091502 BTC per share of GBTC, as of November 18, 2022. To be perfectly clear: these digital assets are owned by GBTC and GBTC alone. 

    Get 50% off: If you enjoy this article, would like to support my work, I would love to have you as a subscriber and can offer you 50% off for life: Get 50% off forever

    I’m not one to try and weigh Grayscale’s statements versus the clarity of on-chain validation, but isn’t that what the point of the blockchain actually is? Wasn’t it sold to so many people under the guise that anybody could have access and validate anyone else’s assets?

    If Grayscale has the assets it claims, and I’m not saying that they don’t, it still seems to be outside the spirit of the entire “decentralized” and “blockchain” cult that touts its transparency and openness as one of its biggest strengths.

    Why provide confirmation from the custodian but not verification on the blockchain?

    I was also alarmed by the number of people who responded to Grayscale’s Twitter thread, thrashing the company for not providing more information.

    “No one cares until you show exact on chain proof of reserves and state of your debt vs. reserves along with how much you are sucking out exactly to every executive and employee you have,” one person responded.

    Other responses looked like these:

    Another Twitter user wrote: “Making a public statement trying to quell fears while refusing to perform a proof of reserve is far worse than not making the statement. This will exacerbate the concerns and I expect the GBTC discount will reflect this sentiment.”

    I spoke with the owner of the @Bitfinexed Twitter account, who has long been a skeptic of the industry and has predicted that blowups like FTX would be coming. When I asked them if the security angle was real, they replied:

    “No, it’s not. Showing a public bitcoin address is zero risk.”

    As an example, they provided me with Binance’s wallet address.

    “Binance can sign a message to prove that address is under their control,” they told me. “Nobody can steal it and Binance can prove it is theirs.”

    A second crypto expert, @MagooPhD on Twitter, told me that they did think there was some validity to the security argument. They told me “realistically if you expose where the coin is kept you let potential bad parties know where to start looking.”

    They continued: “Like being able to see when coin movement is done. You can start to sync that to real world events and locations. It’s like disclosing where a safe is in a house – or even that there is a safe in a house.”

    Despite this, they called Grayscale’s statement “kind of weird”, adding that no one had claimed their bitcoin didn’t exist to begin with.

    Whether or not this attempt at shoring up confidence in the trust worked or not, we’ll likely know Monday morning. The important thing to watch won’t be the price of bitcoin, it’ll be the price/NAV of the trust. If the discount gets larger, the market likely isn’t buying what Grayscale has to say. If the discount closes, it means Grayscale has added little burst of confidence to the market.

    But the old saying goes…trust, but verify. Personally, even if Grayscale’s assets are fine, as they say they are and may very well be, the company may have done itself a disservice in how they communicated this to the world, after market close, on a Friday.

    Is it 9:30AM Monday morning yet?

    —

    QTR’s Fringe Finance is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Also, please Share this article.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/19/2022 – 14:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Nov 19

Today’s News 19th November 2022

  • The Maskparade Charade
    The Maskparade Charade

    Authored by Sylvia Shawcross via Off-Guardian.org,

    In the ridiculous world of the New Abnormal where we apparently find ourselves it is critically important to add your opinion to the cacophony of why we are who we are, where we are on the path to seeming totalitarianism and… why people are still wearing masks.

    Here in Canada apparently 7 out of 10 members of the public would want mask mandates back while most of the rest of the world has abandoned the concept to the rearview mirror.

    Perhaps understandable if you have a medical condition but now study after study. Peer-reviewed. Well-researched. Top quality medical journals. Top-of-the-line researchers. All saying these masks do very little good.**

    Even Fauci himself said so once…before he changed his mind as he tends to do when the landscape changes with the weather. 

    And in response, of course, drug companies and governments sponsored researchers in duelling studies to prove the opposite because that’s the game being played. It’s all about who you believe. It’s not about “the science”. Quite the game really.

    In fact, most now know that masks are harmful in many cases, with children paying the biggest price by far on many different levels.

    We know now masks don’t work for covid but perhaps they work for RSV or the flu? Maybe that’s why the push is on again. Because here in Canada it certainly is. Maybe that’s why we have the new narrative and being good abnormal citizens we must comply. Do you think?

    Don’t be silly. We know why. We just don’t want to say.

    So the Media and their polls have told us that 7 out of 10 people want to keep the masks. And why might that be?

    They can hide their crooked teeth. Or their unbrushed teeth. Or their morning-after-the-night-before breath. They don’t have to wear make-up. Or shave. Or wash their faces or their children’s faces.

    They can stick their tongue out at people without being caught. They can whisper without lip readers. They can smile and smirk and bite their lips. They can hide their cosmetic surgery in progress.They can hide their chin hairs and warts and zits and leftover food in their moustaches.

    They can rob a bank or say whatever they want to strangers because no one knows who they are and even the cameras don’t know. 

    God only knows what’s going on behind those masks!

    But! Those mask-wearing people are free in a weird weird way. Advocates of the new abnormal have found a form of freedom from social norms behind a mask.

    How is that possible? Is it possible that masks are freedom? No wonder we’re all mixed up. We don’t even know what freedom is anymore.

    Or is it because we lost the freedom to have crooked teeth, no makeup and snarky opinions in the real world due to ever evolving relentless social norms and now have to hide for any sort of freedom…Hmmm… 

    Seems to be true for a lot of things now doesn’t it?

    (Except for anything sexual. You can pretty much proclaim or do anything publicly now. Except child molestation. You can apparently sniff but not anything else. But I’m doing that digression thing again…)

    So, let’s get this straight— when we see someone in a mask are they to be feared as nasty snaggle-toothed leprous sneaky sociopaths with sharp tongues and nefarious intentions?

    Or are they just victims grasping for what little freedom they can garner in a socially punishing world? Hmmm… It could well be either one… How would we know?

    Nevertheless, this is all terribly alarming. WHAT is going on? 7 out of 10 of us!!! 

    Well, I have a theory.  Beyond the usual theories of enforced enslavement, virtue signalling, forced shame, neurosis, herd-like conditioning, continued fear porn, dehumanization/objectification/subjugation/alienation, circumvention of facial-recognition systems, gateway moves to social credit scores, anti-feminist one-step-to-the-forced-wearing-of-shuttlecock-burkas assault and the ultimate theory that this poll is nonsense propaganda from our captured media.

    All of these theories are as good as the next as long as science seems to have little to do with mask mandates. I mean, real science by independent researchers.

    Beyond these theories is the “we’re in the Dark Ages during the plague years of 1346 or so again” theory of mine which I thought I might as well throw into the mix now that we’re all mixed up about freedom and stuff.

    Not that there is a plague or anything really at the moment but because people’s reactions don’t change. Not through all these centuries. We’ve changed NOT at all.

    Here’s my theory: People wearing masks are the flagellants of the dark ages during the plague years who would run around whipping themselves publicly for God’s forgiveness and atonement or something.

    Now during the plague years we would have asked a priest about all this guilt and fear stuff that drive flagellants to be flagellants but today we ask the psychologists.

    This is because many if not all of the first world countries have become atheistic and have abandoned religion. But human nature needs what human nature needs—hence the psychologists for priests e.g. or Fauci as Pope and Schwaub as God and Greta as Mother Mary Marx.

    Some people believe either technology, money, or medicine has replaced religion but it is clearly evident that it is the Green movement. If we can accept that religion is something that people participate in every day in a meaningful way, then clearly the Green movement has it all. It has priests, codes of behaviours, dictates and forbidden things.

    It has a hell (the world as it is going now) and it has a heaven (sustainable development in utopia) It has worshippers. It has the holy and the damned. It has flagellants. And the people now wearing masks are them.

    After thirty or so years of being told  humans are responsible for killing the planet and being driven to weeping guilt over spending and frivolity and recycling and plastic and gas and beef-pork pies, humans are despicable.

    They know it.

    They’re guilty as hell. They want to be punished. They believe they deserve it and they are doing this as an appeal to their new Gods of the Environment. 

    Masks appear not to be about the virus, but about supporting the true religion of the Environmental Zealotry in all its glory and condemnation no matter whatever absurd, illogical or terribly hurtful thing that might bring in whatever sphere of influence.

    For many masks might even be called the uniform of the uninformed. 

    No wonder they read the riot act to the truckers protest of Canada over things like mask mandates. Those heretics!

    Well… that’s my theory. It’s as good as any of those other ones, isn’t it? Or maybe not. What do I know… As far as wearing masks is concerned, I appreciate that people are afraid and don’t wish to make too much light of it. Fear isn’t fun. It’s just important to know what to fear and why. Mostly I’m all for following the law of the land as long as the law isn’t an ass. That’s the hard part to figure out.

    Here’s an earworm:

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 23:40

  • Watch: Real-Life 'Darkstar' Hypersonic Engine Fires Into Ramjet Mode
    Watch: Real-Life 'Darkstar' Hypersonic Engine Fires Into Ramjet Mode

    Remember the scene in the movie Top Gun: Maverick, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is piloting the SR-72 “Darkstar” hypersonic plane and slams the thrust lever for the engines all the way forward. The engines ignite in a fiery blast that propels Maverick to Mach 10.  

    The propulsion system centered around the SR-72 Darkstar (a plane that is only a concept) is a turbine-based combined cycle, which merges a turbine engine with a ramjet. 

    While there is no aircraft in the production stage with this insane propulsion system, ground-testing testing is underway. 

    Hypersonic airplane developer Hermeus Corporation tweeted a video on Thursday of one of these engines transitioning from “turbojet” mode to “ramjet” insane mode. 

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

    Hermeus believes the engine will propel an aircraft in turbojet mode to March 3. They said the transition to ramjet would push the aircraft to March 5. 

    “This is one of the most important technological feats to making operational hypersonic flight a reality. Most hypersonic platforms use rockets – our approach allows us to use existing infrastructure at traditional airports,” the company said. 

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

    Here’s more of how the engine transitions:

    At low speeds Chimera is in turbojet mode – just like any jet aircraft. But as the temperature and the speed of the incoming air increase, turbojets hit their performance limit. This happens at around Mach 2. 

    Chimera has a pre-cooler that reduces the temperature of the air coming into the turbojet. This allows Hermeus to squeeze out a bit more performance from the turbojet before transitioning to ramjet.

    The company said they “will begin flight testing in late 2023.” 

    While Darkstar speeds are not yet attainable, supersonic passenger aircraft will be available at the end of this decade, and hypersonic travel could be a mid/late 2030 story. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 23:20

  • Lawsuit Claims Massachusetts Installed COVID-19 'Spyware' On 1 Million Devices
    Lawsuit Claims Massachusetts Installed COVID-19 'Spyware' On 1 Million Devices

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

    The Google Pixel 7 Pro phone is displayed at its launch in New York on Oct. 6, 2022. (Thomas Urbain/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly working with Google to install “spyware” onto the Android devices of a million state residents without their knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula were among 1 million Massachusetts residents who had the state’s “COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA” app auto-installed without their consent, according to the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), the nonpartisan civil rights group that filed the lawsuit (pdf) on Tuesday.

    The app, once automatically installed, didn’t appear on the device’s home screen as newly-installed apps typically do. Instead, it was invisible and could only be found by opening “settings” and using the “view all apps” feature, according to NCLA.

    This meant that many device users were unaware of its presence. Many have decried this as an invasion of privacy.

    The NCLA declared the action a “brazen disregard” of civil liberties, saying in a statement the app was installed “without obtaining any search warrants, in violation of the device owners’ constitutional and common-law rights to privacy and property.”

    “This ‘android attack,’ deliberately designed to override the constitutional and legal rights of citizens to be free from government intrusions upon their privacy without their consent, reads like dystopian science fiction—and must be swiftly invalidated by the court,” said NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Peggy Little in a statement.

    Screenshot of the COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA app on the Google Play Store, on Nov. 18, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    ‘Government May Not Secretly Install Surveillance’ on Devices

    Other states and foreign countries mostly tried to persuade their citizens to voluntarily install contact tracing apps, even if it meant fewer people took it up, according to Sheng Li, litigation counsel for NCLA.

    “The government may not secretly install surveillance devices on your personal property without a warrant—even for a laudable purpose,” Li said. “For the same reason, it may not install surveillance software on your smartphone without your awareness and permission.”

    The NCLA has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block the continued installation of the app on private devices “without the knowledge or permission of device owners.”

    The lawsuit also asks the judge to make Massachusetts DPH work with Google to uninstall the app from “private Android mobile devices where the device owner did not give permission for such installation.”

    The plaintiffs also want the state to declare that its actions violated Fourth Amendment rights and Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 23:00

  • The (Political) World Cup Map
    The (Political) World Cup Map

    A total of 18 different countries have hosted a men’s World Cup 23 times since 1930.

    Brazil, Germany, France, Italy and Mexico have hosted soccer’s most illustrious tournament twice. In most cases, the tournament took place in countries with a democratic system.

    But not always, as a look Statista’s infographic below shows.

    Infographic: The (Political) World Cup Map | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Fascism ruled Italy during the 1934 World Cup (though not the second time round when it hosted the competition in 1990), and when Argentina hosted the tournament in 1978, a military junta was in power.

    In the recent past, however, the world governing body FIFA awarded the World Cup twice in a row to countries ruled autocratically.

    Putin’s Russia, which hosted the 2018 tournament, is ‘not free’, according to Freedom House, and the same is true of the 2022 host, Qatar.

    Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani governs the country as absolute ruler; democratic elections or political parties do not exist. Freedom House goes on to say, “While Qatari citizens are among the wealthiest in the world, most of the population is made up of non-citizens with no political rights, few civil liberties, and limited access to economic opportunities.“

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 22:40

  • Democrats Never Admit Defeat
    Democrats Never Admit Defeat

    Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClear Wire,

    The only thing as wrong as the pre-election predictions of a red wave is the post-midterm analysis declaring a rousing victory by the Democrats.

    Midterm election results boost Biden 2024 hopes, Reuters reports. Democrats can’t rest on their midterm success, declares a column published in the Hill. Perhaps the most predictable, if irrelevant, spin came from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tweeted that House Democrats “defied expectations with an excellent performance: running their races with courage, optimism and determination.”

    The more germane point is that Democrats lost the House and Pelosi will have to hand the gavel over to Kevin McCarthy next year. This monumental development should stop the Democrats’ legislative agenda in its tracks. President Biden’s hopes of becoming another FDR is now a pipe dream.

    Yes, the Democrats exceeded expectations, performing better than history or pre-election polls suggested, as they won many close races in the House and hung on to their narrow margin in the Senate. But if we take a step back, the magnitude of things comes into focus.

    Just two years ago, Democrats enjoyed a resounding victory, keeping the House, taking effective control of the Senate, and installing Joe Biden in the White House. Despite their narrow majorities they operated as if they had won by a landslide. The party that continually claims to be on “the right side of history,” and insists that the American people overwhelmingly support its policies, made every effort to give the country a full dose of its vision.

    Biden’s first two years were a Golden Age for Democrats. They rammed through trillions of dollars of new spending while advancing the goals of diversity, inclusion, and equity across the government.

    Meanwhile, they and their allies in the media worked to delegitimize their Republican opponents, casting them as racist, fascist “election deniers” who posed an existential threat to the “soul of democracy.” During the summer, liberals were handed an unexpected gift when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the poorly reasoned (but now-popular) 1973 case that legalized abortion across the land.

    Given all that, one might have expected them to consolidate their power during the midterms. Instead, they lost some of it. Democrats may be raising relieved cheers, but they cannot spin away the fact that 55% of Americans disapprove of the president’s performance and 67% say the country is on the wrong track.

    The election was a repudiation of the Democrats’ vision – even as voters sent a strong signal that they like Donald Trump’s toxic politics even less. It is very possible that Trump will  rescue Democrats again in 2024 if Republican primary voters make him their party’s nominee once again.

    Yes, all elections are a choice and Democrats can hope that the GOP keeps giving voters even more unpalatable candidates.

    But that dynamic does not diminish the message voters sent to Democrats in the midterms. “We’re not as bad as the other guys” cannot be translated into an endorsement of one’s agenda.

    The most telling comment following the midterms was Biden’s declaration that he will do “nothing” different in response to the results. Of course, he won’t. The Democrats are no longer a political party in the old American tradition – an ever-evolving group of people who have a general philosophy which they can quickly adapt to the changing will of the people. They are ideologues committed to a specific unbending set of ideas about the role of the welfare state and their concept of social justice.

    They cannot change course because they are no longer running a slate of candidates but a set-in-stone philosophy whose correctness can never be questioned. They cannot admit defeat, because it’s hard for them to accept that the people do not embrace their “truths” (they just need more time). Election setbacks are just bumps in the road for them to ignore on their march to the promised land.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 22:20

  • Stratolaunch Announces USAF Contract To Launch Hypersonic Vehicle From World's Largest Plane
    Stratolaunch Announces USAF Contract To Launch Hypersonic Vehicle From World's Largest Plane

    The aerospace venture established by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced a contract with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to conduct a flight test of the company’s hypersonic test vehicle early next year. 

    Stratolaunch and AFRL will use the company’s twin-fuselage “Roc” airplane to air-launch the company’s first Talon-A hypersonic test vehicle. 

    “Launched from the Roc aircraft, Talon-A is a rocket-powered, autonomous testbed with the ability to fly a variety of hypersonic flight profiles while carrying customized payload experiments on board,” Stratolaunch said, adding the next generation of Talon-A vehicles will be capable of reusable hypersonic flight. 

    “We’re pleased that AFRL has chosen to support the flight of our first hypersonic vehicle, and we have enjoyed working with the esteemed team.

    “We look forward to providing flight test services to AFRL and other customers in the near future,” Dr. Zachary Krevor, Chief Executive Officer for Stratolaunch, wrote in a statement. 

    Last month, we noted the Roc was being prepared for an upcoming test flight that was reported to include the separation drop-test of an unmanned Talon-A hypersonic mock-up that is being referred to as “Talon-0.”

    Here’s the latest footage of the hypersonic test vehicle mounted in the center of the twin-fuselage plane. 

    Stratolaunch was initially envisioned as a satellite midair launcher. But the massive plane has had a new mission in the last several years: become a leader in sending hypersonic vehicles aloft. It seems like the first big test will occur in the first quarter of 2023. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 22:00

  • Group Calls On Authorities To Investigate CDC Over Misinformation About Child COVID Deaths
    Group Calls On Authorities To Investigate CDC Over Misinformation About Child COVID Deaths

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

    U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials who spread misinformation about child COVID-19 deaths should be investigated for violations of the agency’s scientific integrity policies, a watchdog group says.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on April 23, 2020. (Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images)

    Drs. Katherine Fleming-Dutra and Sara Oliver both claimed that COVID-19 deaths among children were higher than they actually were, and refused to correct the misinformation after they were told the correct figures, the complaint says, citing reporting from The Epoch Times.

    The CDC’s scientific integrity guidelines say that the agency holds accountability and integrity as core values, stating in part that “all information products authored, published, and released by CDC for public use are of the highest quality and are scientifically sound, technically accurate, and useful to the intended audience.”

    Protect the Public’s Trust, the watchdog that filed the complaint, urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general to investigate the apparent violations. The CDC is part of the HHS.

    “Ideally, they would investigate the incident and what happened and determine whether or not certain officials within the CDC violated the agency’s scientific integrity policies. We believe that that they have,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told The Epoch Times.

    The inspector general’s office said it received the complaint and declined to comment further. The CDC and the HHS did not respond to requests for comment. Fleming-Dutra and Oliver have not returned repeated inquiries.

    Misleading Claims

    Fleming-Dutra and Oliver both said that COVID-19 was a leading cause of death among children while presenting data to the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel before the panel voted to recommend the CDC allow all children in the United States between 6 months and 5 years of age receive a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

    Slides from their presentations cited a non-peer reviewed paper from British scientists, who analyzed death certificate data from the CDC.

    The scientists later corrected the study after admitting they didn’t fully understand how the certificate data was reported.

    Within days of the presentations, both officials were alerted to having spread misinformation, emails obtained by The Epoch Times show. But the officials brushed off the concerns, and never issued a correction.

    “The general sentiment [is] that ‘even 1 death from COVID that’s preventable is too many, regardless of how you count them,’” Oliver wrote in one of the missives.

    No evidence exists showing that vaccines protect against death among small children.

    Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director, later referred to the study, and the website of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the vaccine advisory panel, still cites it. Neither has acknowledged the update.

    It remains unclear why the CDC officials did not perform their own analysis of the certificate data.

    “I don’t understand why they don’t seem to know how to use their own resources,” Kelley Krohnert, a citizen researcher who alerted the study’s authors to the errors, told The Epoch Times. “It’s very strange.”

    Public Trust

    Apparent violations of the scientific integrity policy include relying on a non-peer reviewed study and not discovering the massive overestimate of child COVID-19 deaths, the complaint from Protect the Public’s Trust says.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 21:40

  • The US Accounts For Nearly Half Of Global Diabetes Drug Sales
    The US Accounts For Nearly Half Of Global Diabetes Drug Sales

    Eli Lilly, the world’s second-largest maker of anti-diabetes drugs, has become one of several companies to fall victim to fake-but-verified Twitter accounts spreading false information last week.

    On November 10, a “verified” account using the handle @EliLillyandCo tweeted: “We are excited to announce insulin is free now” in the company’s name, quickly gathering thousands of likes and retweets.

    By the time the tweet was eventually flagged and deleted, the damage had already been done: Eli Lilly’s stock price dropped by more than 4 percent the next day, wiping out billions in market capitalization. And just like that, the issue of insulin prices was back on the agenda.

    But, as Statista’s Felix Richter reports, the fact of the matter is that insulin is neither free nor cheap, especially in the United States, where 1.3 million with diabetes were forced to skip, delay or reduce their insulin intake to save money at some point in 2021.

    That’s according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that insulin rationing was most prevalent among Black Americans, at 23 percent, compared to 16 percent among white and Hispanic Americans. While the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in August, will partly address the problem by capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for senior on Medicare from January 1, millions of Americans who are uninsured or have private health insurance will continue to grapple with sky-high insulin prices.

    As the following chart based on estimates from Statista’s Health Market Outlook shows, the U.S. is by far the largest market for diabetes drugs, accounting for nearly half the global revenue from sales of insulin and other anti-diabetes medication.

    Infographic: The U.S. Accounts for Nearly Half of Global Diabetes Drug Sales | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    That is mostly due to the fact that insulin prices in America are many times higher than anywhere else in the world, as a study published by the RAND Corporation in 2020 found out.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 21:20

  • World Oil Demand Topped Pre-COVID Levels In September
    World Oil Demand Topped Pre-COVID Levels In September

    Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

    Oil demand worldwide rose in September to exceed the September 2019 pre-Covid levels by nearly 1 million barrels per day (bpd), new data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday.

    Global oil demand rose seasonally in September to the second-highest level of this year, according to the JODI data shared by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum (IEF).

    In September, global oil demand was at 101 percent of pre-Covid levels, while crude production was at 99 percent of those levels, the data showed.

    Oil demand in September continued its growth from August when consumption rebounded from July.

    After a counter-seasonal drop in July, global oil demand rebounded in August by 2 million bpd to reach 99 percent of pre-Covid levels, JODI data showed earlier this year.  

    The rise in September demand was driven by diesel consumption in China and gasoline demand in the United States, said the IEF, the world’s largest international organization of energy ministers.

    While markets tightened in September compared to August, global inventories of crude and refined products climbed counter seasonally by 3.7 million barrels. Yet, global inventories remain 442 million barrels below the five-year average, the IEF said.

    Other noteworthy findings for September included a rise in Saudi crude oil exports, which went up by 120,000 bpd to reach a 29-month high of 7.72 million bpd.

    In the United States, total product demand jumped by 570,000 bpd in September and was up 1.03 million bpd from year-ago levels. U.S. crude oil production was 1.13 million bpd higher than year-ago levels.

    Oil demand in China, the world’s top oil importer, rose by 459,000 bpd in September, but it was still 453,000 bpd below year-ago levels. Chinese crude oil imports increased by 290,000 bpd to 9.82 million bpd. Yet, they were still down by 197,000 bpd in September compared to the same month of last year, according to the JODI data.   

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 21:00

  • Fragile Fertility
    Fragile Fertility

    There has been an alarming decrease in the average sperm count of men worldwide over the last few decades.

    As Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the infographic below, research has revealed a 51 percent fall between 1973 and 2018 – from 101 million sperm per milliliter of sperm to just 49 million.

    Infographic: Fragile Fertility | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Commenting on the decline, lead author of the study, Hagai Levine, said “I think this is another signal that something is wrong with the globe and that we need to do something about it” adding:

    “I think it’s a crisis, that we better tackle now, before it may reach a tipping point which may not be reversible”.

    Fertility research has in the past been criticized for not taking into account the potentially biased sampling methods of earlier studies, citing also the variable of changing laboratory methods. The researchers in this case though say that such issues have been taken into account – only considering samples where the same count method was used, were of an acceptable size and did not include men known to have fertility problems.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 20:40

  • FBI Director Wray Defends Using Bureau Jet To Go On Vacation
    FBI Director Wray Defends Using Bureau Jet To Go On Vacation

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

    FBI Director Christopher Wray on Nov. 17 defended leaving a congressional hearing abruptly and using an official bureau jet to go on vacation after telling a senator he was attending to business.

    FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a congressional hearing in a Nov. 15, 2022, file image. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    Wray, a Trump appointee, confirmed under questioning by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that he flew to Saranac Lake in New York from an Aug. 4 Senate hearing.

    “You were going on vacation?” Hawley asked.

    Wray said, “I was, yes.”

    Hawley asked, “So, you left a statutorily required oversight hearing in order to go on a personal vacation to the Adirondacks?”

    Wray said, “I took a flight to go visit my family, as had been previously arranged in conjunction with leadership of the committee.”

    Hawley then cited Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who had asked Wray to remain for longer during the August hearing so members could ask more questions.

    At one point, Grassley said, “I assume you’ve got other business,” to which Wray answered affirmatively.

    “And you said you had a plane to catch. You had somewhere to go. And now we find out it was for vacation?” Hawley said.

    Wray said, “The reference to other business was not a reference that day, it was a reference to the following week when Sen. Grassley and I were going to see each other in Iowa, when I had other business in Iowa. And I did, in fact, see him then.”

    Grassley’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    “So you had to leave the hearing early because you’re gonna see him later in Iowa? You had a week,” Hawley said.

    Wray said, “No, I had to leave when I said I was going to have to leave as had been previously organized with the leadership.”

    A bureau spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that Wray followed federal guidelines on using government aircraft. Wray said he’s required to use an FBI plane when he travels, regardless of the reason, and that he pays for each trip. Wray said on Nov. 17 that the bureau would comply with requests for receipts.

    Hawley noted that a number of FBI whistleblowers have come forward in recent months, alleging that the bureau is violating federal guidelines in its treatment of Jan. 6 defendants and employees.

    “Frankly, I think you should have been gone a long time ago, and given your behavior recently, it only makes it more clear,” Hawley said.

    During the hearing, Wray said the FBI wouldn’t retaliate against the whistleblowers, although some have offered differing accounts.

    Wray declined to talk about matters related to what the whistleblowers have reported.

    “We have, as we speak, a number of personnel matters that are underway,” he told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “For reasons I’m sure you can appreciate, we can’t discuss that.”

    Johnson said, “That’s always your excuse. I understand how you remain above the law by using that excuse repeatedly.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 20:20

  • Visualizing America's Changing Demographics Over The Past 100 Years
    Visualizing America's Changing Demographics Over The Past 100 Years

    The United States has famously been called a melting pot, due its demographic makeup of various cultures, races, religions, and languages. But what shape does that mixture take? And how has it changed over time?

    Beginning over 100 years ago, this video from Kaj Tallungs assesses how America’s demographics have changed from 1901 to 2020. It uses data from multiple sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Human Mortality Database.

    A Look at the Total Population

    As Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop notes, the most obvious takeaway from this animation is that America’s population has soared over the last century. America’s population grew from 77 million in 1901 to over 330 million in 2020—or total growth of 330% over the 119 years.

    And the U.S. has continued to add to its population totals. Here’s a brief look at at the population in 2021 by regional breakdowns:

     

    And here’s a glance at how some of the population shakes out, across the top 10 most populous states in the country:

     

     

    Demographic Breakdowns

     

    Diving a little deeper, the country’s demographic breakdowns have also changed significantly over the last 100+ years. While the share of men and women is an obvious near-even split, age and race distributions have changed drastically.

    For starters, though birth rates have remained fairly strong in the U.S., they have been slowing over time. This is similar to many other Western countries, and can eventually result in a larger share of elderly people as well as an increased financial cost of subsidizing their care. Additionally, fewer births results in a depleting workforce as the young population shrinks.

    The shares of Black, Asian, Hispanic, and people of two or more races have also been growing. In fact, between 2010–2020 the population of people identifying as two races or more increased by a whopping 276%.

    Here’s a glance at some of the other demographic growth rates over the 2010-2020 period:

    • Black or African American alone population: +5.6%

    • Asian alone population: +35.5%

    • Hispanic or Latino alone population: +23%

    • White population: -9%

    Looking Ahead

    Like many countries, a “graying” of the population will become a concern in the United States.

    By 2060, it is expected that 95 million Americans will be over 65. But the share of those 18 and under will also continue to grow (albeit at a much slower pace) from 74 million people in 2020 to 80 million in 2060.

    Another interesting insight from the Census Bureau is that from 2016–2060, the American-born population is expected to grow by only 20%, whereas the foreign-born population—the share of population who will immigrate to the U.S.—is expected to rise 58%.

    True to the melting pot moniker, America’s demographics will continue to change dramatically over the coming decades.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 20:00

  • The COVID/Crypto Connection: The Grim Saga Of FTX & Sam Bankman-Fried
    The COVID/Crypto Connection: The Grim Saga Of FTX & Sam Bankman-Fried

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

    A series of revealing texts and tweets by Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of FTX, the once high-flying but now belly-up crypto exchange, had the following to say about his image as a do-gooder: it is a “dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and so everyone likes us.” 

    Very interesting. He had the whole game going: a vegan worried about climate change, supports every manner of justice (racial, social, environmental) except that which is coming for him, and shells out millions to worthy charities associated with the left. He also bought plenty of access and protection in D.C., enough to make his shady company the toast of the town. 

    As part of the mix, there is this thing called pandemic planning. We should know what that is by now: it means you can’t be in charge of your life because there are bad viruses out there. As bizarre as it seems, and for reasons that are still not entirely clear, favoring lockdowns, masks, and vaccine passports became part of the woke ideological stew. 

    This is particularly strange because covid restrictions have been proven, over and over, to harm all the groups about whom woke ideology claims to care so deeply. That includes even animal rights: who can forget the Danish mink slaughter of 2020?

    Regardless, it’s just true. Masking became a symbol of being a good person, same as vaccinating, veganism, and flying into fits at the drop of a hat over climate change. None of this has much if anything to do with science or reality. It’s all tribal symbolism in the name of group political solidarity. And FTX was pretty good at it, throwing around hundreds of millions to prove the company’s loyalty to all the right causes. 

    Among them included the pandemic-planning racket. That’s right: there were deep connections between FTX and Covid that have been cultivated for two years. Let’s have a look. 

    Earlier this year, the New York Times trumpeted a study that showed no benefit at all to the use of Ivermectin. It was supposed to be definitive. The study was funded by FTX. Why? Why was a crypto exchange so interested in the debunking of repurposed drugs in order to drive governments and people into the use of patented pharmaceuticals, even those like Ramdesivir that didn’t actually work? Inquiring minds would like to know. 

    Regardless, the study and especially the conclusions turned out to be bogus. David Henderson and Charles Hooper further point out an interesting fact:

    “Some of the researchers involved in the TOGETHER trial had performed paid services for Pfizer, Merck, Regeneron, and AstraZeneca, all companies involved in developing COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines that nominally compete with ivermectin.”

    For some reason, SBF just knew that he was supposed to oppose repurposed drugs, though he knew nothing about the subject at all. He was glad to fund a poor study to make it true and the New York Times played its assigned role in the whole performance. 

    It was just the start. A soft-peddling Washington Post investigation found that Sam and his brother Gabe, who ran a hastily founded Covid nonprofit, “have spent at least $70 million since October 2021 on research projects, campaign donations and other initiatives intended to improve biosecurity and prevent the next pandemic.”

    I can do no better than to quote the Washington Post:

    The shock waves from FTX’s free fall have rippled across the public health world, where numerous leaders in pandemic-preparedness had received funds from FTX funders or were seeking donations.

    In other words, the “public health world” wanted more chances to say: “Give me money so I can keep advocating to lock more people down!” Alas, the collapse of the exchange, which reportedly holds a mere 0.001% of the assets it once claimed to have, makes that impossible. 

    Among the organizations most affected is Guarding Against Pandemics, the advocacy group headed by Gabe that took out millions in ads to back the Biden administration’s push for $30 billion in funding. As Influence Watch notes: “Guarding Against Pandemics is a left-leaning advocacy group created in 2020 to support legislation that increases government investment in pandemic prevention plans.”

    Truly it gets worse:

    FTX-backed projects ranged from $12 million to champion a California ballot initiative to strengthen public health programs and detect emerging virus threats (amid lackluster support, the measure was punted to 2024), to investing more than $11 million on the unsuccessful congressional primary campaign of an Oregon biosecurity expert, and even a $150,000 grant to help Moncef Slaoui, scientific adviser for the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine accelerator, write his memoir.

    Leaders of the FTX Future Fund, a spinoff foundation that committed more than $25 million to preventing bio-risks, resigned in an open letter last Thursday, acknowledging that some donations from the organization are on hold.

    And worse:

    The FTX Future Fund’s commitments included $10 million to HelixNano, a biotech start-up seeking to develop a next-generation coronavirus vaccine; $250,000 to a University of Ottawa scientist researching how to eradicate viruses from plastic surfaces; and $175,000 to support a recent law school graduate’s job at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Overall, the Future Fund was a force for good,” said Tom Inglesby, who leads the Johns Hopkins center, lamenting the fund’s collapse. “The work they were doing was really trying to get people to think long-term … to build pandemic preparedness, to diminish the risks of biological threats.”

    More:

    Guarding Against Pandemics spent more than $1 million on lobbying Capitol Hill and the White House over the past year, hired at least 26 lobbyists to advocate for a still-pending bipartisan pandemic plan in Congress and other issues, and ran advertisements backing legislation that included pandemic-preparedness funding. Protect Our Future, a political action committee backed by the Bankman-Fried brothers, spent about $28 million this congressional cycle on Democratic candidates “who will be champions for pandemic prevention,” according to the group’s webpage.

    I think you get the idea. This is all a racket. FTX, founded in 2019 following Biden’s announcement of his bid for the presidency, by the son of the co-founder of a major Democrat Party political action committee called Mind the Gap, was nothing but a magic-bean Ponzi scheme. It seized on the lockdowns for political, media, and academic cover. Its economic rationale was as nonexistent as its books. The first auditor to have a look has written: 

    “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”

    It was the worst example of a phony perpetual-motion machine: a token to back a company that itself was backed by the token, which in turn was backed by nothing but political fashion and woke ideology that roped in Larry David, Tom Brady,  Katy Perry, Tony Blair, and Bill Clinton to provide a cloak of legitimacy. 

    Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, and Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas April 2022

    And you can’t make this stuff up anymore: FTX had a close relationship with the World Economic Forum and was the favored crypto exchange of the Ukrainian government. It looks for all the world like the money-laundering operation of the Democratic National Committee and the entire lockdown lobby. 

    I will tell you what infuriates me about these billions in fake money and deep corruptions of politics and science. For years now, my anti-lockdown friends have been hounded for being funded by supposed dark money that simply doesn’t exist. Many brave scientists, journalists, attorneys, and others gave up great careers to stand for principle, exposing the damage caused by the lockdowns, and this is how they have been treated: smeared and displaced. 

    Brownstone has adopted as many in this diaspora as possible for fellowships as far as the resources (real ones, contributed by caring individuals) can go. But we cannot come anywhere near what is necessary for justice, much less complete with the 8-digit funding regime of the other side. 

    The Great Barrington Declaration was signed at the offices of the American Institute for Economic Research, which, apparently, six years prior had received a long-spent $60,000 grant from the Koch Foundation, and thus became a “Koch-funded libertarian think tank” which supposedly discredited the GBD, even though none of the authors received a dime. 

    This gibberish and slander has gone on for years – at the urging of government officials! – and Brownstone itself faces much of the same nonsense, with every manner of fantasy about our supposed power, money, and influence swarming the darker realms of the social-media dudgeons. In fact, the actual Koch Foundation (probably unbeknownst to its founder) was funding the pro-lockdown work of Neil Ferguson, whose ridiculous modeling terrified the world into denying human rights to billions of people the world over. 

    All this time – while every type of vicious propaganda was unleashed on the world – the pro-lockdown and pro-mandate lobby, including fake scientists and fake studies, were benefiting from millions and billions thrown around by operators of a Ponzi scheme based on cheating, fraud, and $15 billion in leveraged funds that didn’t exist while its principle actors were languishing in a drug-infested $40 million villa in the Bahamas even as they preened about the virtues of “effective altruism” and their pandemic-planning machinery that has now fallen apart. 

    Then the New York Times, instead of decrying this criminal conspiracy for what it is, writes puff pieces on the founder and how he let his quick-growing company grow too far, too fast, and now needs mainly rest, bless his heart. 

    The rest of us are left with the bill for this obvious scam that implausibly links crypto and Covid. But just as the money was based on nothing but puffed air, the damage they have wrought on the world is all too real: a lost generation of kids, declined lifespans, millions missing from the workforce, a calamitous fall in public health, millions of kids in poverty due to supply-chain breakages, 19 straight months of falling real incomes, historically high increases in debt, and a dramatic fall in human morale the world over. 

    So yes, we should all be furious and demand full accountability at the very least. Whatever the final truth, it is likely to be far worse than even the egregious facts listed above. It’s bad enough that lockdowns wrecked life and liberty. To discover that vast support for them was funded by fraud and fakery is a deeper level of corruption that not even the most cynical among us could have imagined. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 19:40

  • Which Populations Feel Their Country Is On The Wrong Track?
    Which Populations Feel Their Country Is On The Wrong Track?

    Plato once used the allegory of a Ship of Fools to push for his vision of a wise philosopher-king as the ideal pilot for a ship of state.

    Looking at the most recent numbers from Morning Consult Political Intelligence’s Projections of Country Trajectories, you would be forgiven for thinking that a great many people believe that their ship of state is piloted by fools.

    As Visual Capitalist’s Chris Dickert and Nick Routley detail below, with the impact of the pandemic, rising inflation, and growing geopolitical instability, it’s probably not surprising that most respondents feel their countries are on the wrong track; India and Switzerland were notable exceptions.

    Below are some of the stand-out stories that we found digging through the data.

    United States

    Midterm elections have rarely been kind to the incumbent party in U.S. politics and the cost of living crisis, an unpopular president, and the aftermath of the global pandemic pointed towards an electoral bloodbath. This year’s election was also expected to set a new spending record, with over $9 billion raised.

    Even so, despite 72% of respondents thinking that the country is on the wrong track, the governing Democrats have defied expectations and posted a historic performance during the November 8, 2022, midterm elections. To put this into context, in a president’s first term, there have been three previous instances (since 1922) of the incumbent’s party gaining (or not losing) Senate seats and losing fewer than 10 seats in the House.

    Also worth noting is the large spike in negative sentiment in January 2021, following the U.S. Capitol attack, followed by the convergence of negative and positive sentiments as the peaceful transition of power became more assured.

    Brazil

    Horace, in Odes 1.14, describes a ship of state that is flailing at sea that eventually rights itself, claiming towards the end of the poem that “it’s my longing and no light love you carry.”

    Something like that may be happening in Brazil following the loss of the often turbulent, COVID-19-denying President Jair Bolsonaro to political rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in an Oct. 20, 2022, election runoff.

    However, with respondents evenly split on where the country is going and the presidential election results being so close (50.9% vs. 49.1%), Lula will have his hands full governing a divided country.

    India

    While sentiment was overwhelmingly negative in almost every country tracked in this survey, India stood out as an outlier. India has consistently maintained a positive sentiment of between 60% and 80%, which is something only Switzerland comes close to.

    The only blip was a brief period during the spring of 2021. This coincided with a deadly second wave of COVID-19 infections in the country, on top of country-wide protests against the Narendra Modi government’s deeply unpopular farm bill.

    United Kingdom

    The data here covers the three most recent UK Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and now Rishi Sunak, the first South Asian to hold the post.

    In January 2020, Johnson had just won a Tory majority and succeeded in “Getting Brexit Done.” Political scandals and the government’s pandemic response pushed the trendline down. It only recovered briefly in the spring of 2021, following Russia’s invasion of the Donbas region of Ukraine, which Johnson was widely seen as handling well. A personal visit to Kyiv on April 9, 2022, helped cement this.

    Then followed Prime Minister Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget of Sept. 23, 2022, which saw the pound fall to the lowest-ever level against the dollar and the Bank of England intervene in the bond markets. The ascension of Rishi Sunak to No. 10 Downing Street has only just begun to turn around the low of 89% negative sentiment reported on Oct 23-25, 2022.

    To quote the BBC comedy series, Yes, Minister, in another context, “the ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 19:20

  • "Election Denial" for Me, But Not for Thee: YouTube Censors TK-Produced Videos, Again, Despite Factual Accuracy
    "Election Denial" for Me, But Not for Thee: YouTube Censors TK-Produced Videos, Again, Despite Factual Accuracy

    Authored by Matt Taibbi via TK News,

    In late September videographer Matt Orfalea made a pair of videos for TK.

    One, Memory Holed: “The Election Was Hacked,” seen above, was a simple montage of Democratic politicians, media officials, and enforcement officials saying the 2016 election was, among other things, “illegitimate,” “rigged,” “hacked,” and a “cyber 9/11.”

    The second, Memory Holed, Part II: The “Rigged” Election, was a similar exercise, with one exception: it compared the post-2020 statements of Donald Trump to the post-2016 statements of Democratic partisans. When Trump tells Chris Wallace, “I have to see,” when asked if he’d concede an election, Orfalea shows Hillary Clinton saying, “No, I would not,” when asked in 2017 — after her loss — if she’d contest the results. He shows Trump later saying he’ll of course respect the results, “if I win,” and Hillary Clinton saying Joe Biden should not concede “under any circumstances,” essentially exact analogs.

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

    YouTube initially tried to demonetize both videos. After a fuss they reversed the decision about the first. Now they’ve taken a more drastic step, not only deleting the second video but two earlier rough-cut versions that were never even shown to the public but lived on his site. (This is another mad feature of the content moderation era: you can be censored and punished for pre-publication thinking). They also gave Orfalea a strike, leaving him two away from being removed from the site, which would essentially put him out of business.

    YouTube’s decision claims the second video “contains claims that past US presidential elections were rigged or stolen, and our election integrity policy prohibits content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in US presidential elections.” Moreover, “countervailing views, which we refer to as EDSA context, on those remarks are not provided in the video, audio, title, or description.”

    YouTube’s letter complaining about lack of “EDSA”

    We’ll go through this outrageous explanation point-by-point, but first: these videos are factual. There are no statements taken out of context. No editing games were played to make it appear someone is saying something he or she did not. This was the point of the exercise, to show what was actually said, when, and by whom.

    As to YouTube’s letter, if indeed their “election integrity policy” prohibits content that advances false claims that “past US presidential elections were rigged or stolen,” then YouTube really should be taking down the first video as well:

    This video after all is packed with clips of people like Karine Jean-Pierre saying the 2016 election was “stolen,” Joe Biden saying “I absolutely agree” Trump is an “illegitimate president,” Kamala Harris saying “you’re absolutely right” Trump didn’t really win in 2016, and even Jimmy Carter saying “Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016.” Old pal Keith Olbermann proclaimed the public wouldn’t stand for this “bloodless coup” called voting, Chris Hayes said Trump “cheated,” and a conga line of officials from Adam Schiff to Elizabeth Warren insisted foreigners had “hacked our elections.”

    These videos made what we believe to be a powerful and legitimate point about the framing of the last two presidential elections. The first is that despite Hillary Clinton’s reluctant capitulation on Election Night in 2016, the Democratic Party as a whole as well as key officials in the government never recognized Donald Trump as a legitimate president. Clinton in fact spent four years leading a public relations campaign insisting that a) she actually won in 2016 b) Trump only won because of fraud and actual vote tampering and c) Democrats going forward should not recognize his victory should he win a second time.

    Our view is that whether it’s Stop the Steal or Russiagate, denying a president’s legitimacy because you believe a conspiracy theory is the same behavior, and should be treated the same way. YouTube by administering a strike to Orfalea is sending a message that you may leave videos of Hillary Clinton saying “we know that they were into voting rolls” (they being the Russians), or Olbermann warning “It will not be a peaceful change of power!” or the current president and vice-president agreeing their predecessor “didn’t really win,” all without YouTube’s required Surgeon General-type warning called “EDSA” (YouTube’s clunky acronym for “Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic” context). In other words, you may leave up such statements without pointing out they’re unproven, incorrect, or irresponsible.

    This is a de facto endorsement of such behavior when committed by certain people. When others do exactly the same thing, it’s conspiracy theory, incitement, even insurrection.

    Donald Trump of course is running for president again. His behavior after the 2020 vote will become exhibit A in the case against his re-election, perhaps even rightly so. But YouTube is signaling early on that it will not permit press outlets to compare his behavior and his statements to those of his political opponents.

    This isn’t just about statements from individual has-beens like Hillary Clinton, but official bodies like the DHS and the FBI. Just like Trump, those official organizations have repeatedly engaged in a form of “election denial,” warning that upcoming elections will be packed full of efforts by foreign countries to “amplify doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections” and to “hinder candidates perceived to be particularly adversarial” to countries like China and Russia, by “spreading disinformation.”

    These official statements are more or less exactly what Donald Trump is up to when he announces before an election that it’s “rigged.” It’s what he was doing weeks before the vote in 2016, when he said “Of course there’s large-scale voting fraud happening on and before election day,” and it’s what he was doing on Election Day, when he said “The machines, you put down a Republican and it registers as a Democrat, and they’ve had a lot of complaints about that today,” before things turned his way. The idea is to prepare audiences to refuse to accept results of a vote should they go the wrong way.

    If you win, it’s “the cleanest election in history.” If you lose, the electorate is already primed to throw a fit. It’s dirty, unpatriotic behavior and it’s now a routine element of all elections, coming from the Trump side and from officialdom.

    Worse, it’s the dirtiest kind of pool to have agencies like the FBI or DHS repeatedly leak that “Russia” or “China” prefers Bernie Sanders or Trump, and is either trying to sabotage or already succeeded in sabotaging elections on their behalf. Ask yourself what purpose public leaks of such “assessments” serve. These have a patina of legitimacy because of the organizations involved, but they’re as bereft of evidence as Trump’s Stop the Steal claims and perhaps more corrupt, because they’re so flagrant a misuse of tax dollars.

    The press has to be allowed to make these points. If it isn’t, Silicon Valley is encouraging one form of unethical behavior while condemning another. Moreover, it’s punishing the media for factually accurate reporting. There is no explicit or implicit message in Orfalea’s videos that either the 2020 or 2016 vote was compromised. His videos are the opposite of election denial. He’s clearly making the point that no matter who does it, denying election results is irresponsible. If YouTube punishes him for that message, it just sends a message that all of these bad actors are right, and the system really is rigged. We’ve asked politely for a reversal of their decision. YouTube must do the right thing here.

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 19:00

  • Today's Energy Crisis Is Very Different From The Energy Crisis Of 2005
    Today's Energy Crisis Is Very Different From The Energy Crisis Of 2005

    Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

    Back in 2005, the world economy was “humming along.” World growth in energy consumption per capita was rising at 2.3% per year in the 2001 to 2005 period. China had been added to the World Trade Organization in December 2001, ramping up its demand for all kinds of fossil fuels. There was also a bubble in the US housing market, brought on by low interest rates and loose underwriting standards.

    Figure 1. World primary energy consumption per capita based on BP’s 2022 Statistical Review of World Energy.

    The problem in 2005, as now, was inflation in energy costs that was feeding through to inflation in general. Inflation in food prices was especially a problem. The Federal Reserve chose to fix the problem by raising the Federal Funds interest rate from 1.00% to 5.25% between June 30, 2004 and June 30, 2006.

    Now, the world is facing a very different problem. High energy prices are again feeding over to food prices and to inflation in general. But the underlying trend in energy consumption is very different. The growth rate in world energy consumption per capita was 2.3% per year in the 2001 to 2005 period, but energy consumption per capita for the period 2017 to 2021 seems to be slightly shrinking at minus 0.4% per year. The world seems to already be on the edge of recession.

    The Federal Reserve seems to be using a similar interest rate approach now, in very different circumstances. In this post, I will try to explain why I don’t think that this approach will produce the desired outcome.

    [1] The 2004 to 2006 interest rate hikes didn’t lead to lower oil prices until after July 2008.

    It is easiest to see the impact (or lack thereof) of rising interest rates by looking at average monthly world oil prices.

    Figure 2. Average monthly Brent spot oil prices based on data of the US Energy Information Administration. Latest month shown is July 2022.

    The US Federal Reserve began raising target interest rates in June 2004 when the average Brent oil price was only $38.22 per barrel. These interest rates stopped rising at the end of June 2006, when oil prices averaged $68.56 per barrel. Oil prices on this basis eventually reached $132.72 per barrel in July 2008. (All of these amounts are in dollars of the day, rather than being adjusted for inflation.) Thus, the highest price was over three times the price in June 2004, when the US Federal Reserve made the decision to start raising target interest rates.

    Based on Figure 2 (including my notes regarding the timing of the interest rate rise), I would conclude that raising interest rates didn’t work very well at bringing down the price of oil when it was tried in the 2004 to 2006 period. Of course, the economy was growing rapidly, then. The rapid growth of the economy likely led to the very high oil price shown in mid-2008.

    I expect that the result of the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates now, in a low-growth world economy, might be quite different. The world’s debt bubble might pop, leading to a worse situation than the financial crisis of 2008. Indirectly, both assets prices and commodity prices, including oil prices, would tend to fall very low.

    Analysts looking at the situation from strictly an energy perspective tend to miss the interconnected nature of the economy. Factors which energy analysts overlook (particularly debt becoming impossible to repay, as interest rates rise) may lead to an outcome that is pretty much the opposite result of the standard belief. The typical belief of energy analysts is that low oil supply will lead to very high prices and more oil production. In the current situation, I expect that the result might be closer to the opposite: Oil prices will fall because of financial problems brought on by the higher interest rates, and these lower oil prices will lead to even lower oil production.

    [2] The purpose of the US Federal reserve raising target interest rates was to flatten the growth rate of the world economy. Looking back at Figure 1, the growth in energy consumption per capita was much lower after the Great Recession. I doubt that now in 2022, we want even lower growth (really, more shrinkage) in energy consumption per capita for future years.*

    Looking at Figure 1, growth in energy consumption per capita has been very slow since the Great Recession. A person wonders: What is the point of governments and their central banks pushing the world economy down, now in 2022, when the world economy is already barely able to maintain international supply lines and provide enough diesel for all of the world’s trucks and agricultural equipment?

    If the world economy is pushed downward now, what would the result be? Would some countries find themselves unable to afford fossil fuel energy products in the future? This might lead to problems both in growing and transporting food, at least for these countries. Would the whole world suffer a major crisis of some sort, such as a financial crisis? The world economy is a self-organizing system. It is difficult to forecast precisely how the situation would work out.

    [3] While the growth rate in energy consumption per capita was much lower after 2008, the price of crude oil quickly bounced back to over $120 per barrel in inflation-adjusted prices.

    Figure 3 shows that oil prices immediately bounced back up after the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Quantitative Easing (QE), which the US Federal Reserve began in late 2008, helped energy prices to shoot back up again. QE helped keep the cost of borrowing by governments low, allowing governments to run larger deficits than might otherwise have been possible without interest rates rising. These higher deficits added to the demand for commodities of all types, including oil, thus raising prices.

    Figure 3. Average annual oil prices inflation-adjusted oil prices based on data from BP’s 2022 Statistical Review of World Energy. Amounts shown are Brent equivalent spot prices.

    The chart above shows average annual Brent oil prices through 2021. The above chart does not show 2022 prices. The current Brent oil price is about $91 per barrel. So, oil prices today are a little higher than they have been recently, but they are nowhere nearly as high as they were in the 2011 to 2013 period or in the late 1970s. The extreme reaction we are seeing is very strange. The problem seems to be much more than oil prices, by themselves.

    [4] High prices in the 2006 to 2013 period allowed the rise of unconventional oil production. These high oil prices also helped keep conventional oil production from falling after 2005.

    It is difficult to find detail on the precise amount of unconventional oil, but some countries are known for their unconventional oil production. For example, the US has become a leader in the extraction of tight oil from shale formations. Canada also produces a little tight oil, but it also produces quite a bit of very heavy oil from the oil sands. Venezuela produces a different type of very heavy oil. Brazil produces crude oil from under the salt layer of the ocean, sometimes called pre-salt crude oil. These unconventional types of extraction tend to be expensive.

    Figure 4 shows world oil production for various combinations of countries. The top line is total world crude oil production. The bottom gray line approximates world total conventional oil production. Unconventional oil production has been rising since, say, 2010, so this approximation is better for years 2010 and subsequent years on the chart, than it is for earlier years.

    Figure 4. Crude and condensate oil production based on international data of the US Energy Information Administration. The lower lines subtract the full amount of crude and condensate production for the countries listed. These countries have substantial amounts of unconventional oil production, but they may also have some conventional production.

    From this chart, it appears that world conventional oil production leveled off after 2005. Some people (often referred to as “Peak Oilers”) were concerned that conventional oil production would reach a peak and begin to decline, starting shortly after 2005.

    The thing that seems to have kept production from falling after 2005 is the steep rise in oil prices in the 2004 to 2008 period. Figure 3 shows that oil prices were quite low between 1986 and 2003. Once oil prices began to rise in 2004 and 2005, oil companies found that they had enough revenue that they could start adopting more intensive (and expensive) extraction techniques. This allowed more oil to be extracted from existing conventional oil fields. Of course, diminishing returns still set in, even with these more intensive techniques.

    These diminishing returns are probably a major reason that conventional oil production started to fall in 2019. Indirectly, diminishing returns likely contributed to the decline in 2020, and the failure of the oil supply to bounce back up to its 2018 (or 2019) level in 2021.

    [5] A better way of looking at world crude oil production is on per capita basis because the world’s crude oil needs depend on world population.

    Everyone in the world needs the benefit of crude oil, since crude oil is used in farming and in transporting goods of all kinds. Thus, the need for crude oil rises with population growth. I prefer analyzing crude oil production on a per capita basis.

    Figure 5. Per capita crude oil production based on international data by country from the US Energy Information Administration.

    Figure 5 shows that on a per capita basis, conventional crude oil production (gray bottom line) started declining after 2005. It was only with the addition of unconventional oil that crude oil production per capita could remain fairly level between 2005 and 2018 or 2019.

    [6] Unconventional oil, if analyzed by itself, seems to be quite price sensitive. If politicians everywhere want to hold oil prices down, the world cannot count on extracting very much of the huge amount of unconventional oil resources that seem to be available.

    Figure 6. Crude oil production based on international data for the US Energy Information Administration for each of the countries shown.

    On Figure 6, crude oil production dips in 2016 and 2017 and also in 2020 and 2021. Both the 2016 the 2020 dips are related to low price. The continued low prices in 2017 and 2021 may reflect start-up problems after a low price, or they may reflect skepticism that prices can stay high enough to make continued extraction profitable. Canada seems to show similar dips in its oil production.

    Venezuela shows a fairly different pattern. Information from the US Energy Information Administration mentions that the country started having major problems once the world oil price started falling in 2014. I am aware that the US has had sanctions against Venezuela in recent years, but it seems to me that these sanctions are closely related to Venezuela’s oil price problems. If Venezuela’s very heavy oil could really be extracted profitably, and the producers of this oil could be taxed to provide services for the people of Venezuela, the country would not have the many problems that it has today. The country likely needs a price between $200 and $300 per barrel to allow sufficient funds for extraction plus adequate tax revenue.

    Brazil’s oil production seems to be relatively more stable, but its growth has been slow. It has taken many years to get its production up to 2.9 million barrels per day. There is also some pre-salt oil production just now getting started in Angola and other countries of West Africa. This type of oil requires a high level of technical expertise and imported resources from around the world. If world trade falters, this type of oil production is likely to falter, as well.

    A large share of the world’s oil reserves are unconventional oil reserves, of one type or another. The fact that rising oil prices are a real problem for citizens means that these unconventional reserves are unlikely to be tapped. Instead, we may be dealing with seriously short supplies of products we need for operating our economy, including diesel oil and jet fuel.

    [7] Figure 1 at the beginning of this post indicated falling primary energy consumption per capita. This problem extends to more than oil. On a per capita basis, both coal and nuclear energy consumption are falling.

    Practically no one pays any attention to coal consumption, but this is the fuel that allowed the Industrial Revolution to start. It is reasonable to expect that since the world economy started using coal first, it might be the first to deplete. Figure 7 shows that world coal consumption per capita hit a peak in 2011 and has declined since then.

    Figure 7. World coal consumption per capita, based on data from BP’s 2022 Statistical Review of World Energy.

    Many of us have heard about Aesop’s Fable, The Fox and the Grapes. According to Wikipedia, “The story concerns a fox that tries to eat grapes from a vine but cannot reach them. Rather than admit defeat, he states they are undesirable. The expression ‘sour grapes’ originated from this fable.”

    In the case of coal, we are told that coal is undesirable because it is very polluting and raises CO2 levels. While these things are true, coal has historically been very inexpensive, and this is important for people buying coal. Coal is also easy to transport. It could be used for fuel instead of cutting down trees, thus helping local ecosystems. The negative things that we are being told about coal are true, but it is hard to find an adequate inexpensive substitute.

    Figure 8 shows that world nuclear energy per capita is also falling. To some extent, its fall has stabilized since 2012 because China and a few other “developing nations” have been adding nuclear capacity, while developed nations in Europe have tended to remove their existing nuclear power plants.

    Figure 8. World nuclear electricity consumption per capita, based on data from BP’s 2022 Statistical Review of World Energy. Amounts are based on the amount of fossil fuels that this electricity would theoretically replace.

    Nuclear energy is confusing because experts seem to disagree on how dangerous nuclear power plants are, over the long term. One concern relates to proper disposal of spent fuel after its use.

    [8] The world seems to be at a difficult time now because we don’t have any good options for fixing our falling energy consumption per capita problem, without greatly reducing world population. The two choices that seem to be available both seem to be far higher-priced than is feasible.

    There are two choices that seem to be available:

    [A] Encourage large amounts of fossil fuel production by encouraging very high fossil fuel prices. With such high prices, say $300 per barrel for oil, unconventional crude oil in many parts of the world would be available. Unconventional coal, such as that under the North Sea, would also be available. With sufficiently high prices, natural gas production could be raised. This natural gas could be shipped as liquefied natural gas (LNG) around the world at great cost. Additionally, many processing plants could be built, both for supercooling the natural gas to allow it to be shipped around the world and for re-gasification, when it arrives at its destination.

    With this approach, food costs would be very high. Much of the world’s population would need to work in the food industry and in fossil fuel production and shipping. With these priorities, citizens would not have time or money for most things we buy today. They likely could not afford a vehicle or a nice home. Governments would need to shrivel in size, with the usual outcome being government by a local dictator. Governments wouldn’t have sufficient funds for roads or schools. CO2 emissions would be very high, but this likely would not be our biggest problem.

    [B] Try to electrify everything, including agriculture. Greatly ramp up wind and solar. Wind and solar are very intermittent, and their intermittency does not match up well with human needs. In particular, the world’s big need is for heat in winter, while solar energy comes in summer. It cannot be saved until winter with today’s technology. Spend enormous amounts and resources on electricity transmission lines and batteries to try to somewhat work around these problems. Try to find substitutes for the many things that fossil fuels provide today, including paved roads and chemicals used in agriculture and in medicine.

    Hydroelectricity is also a renewable form of electricity generation. It cannot be expected to ramp up much because it has mostly been built out already.

    Figure 9. World consumption of hydroelectricity per capita, based on data from BP’s 2022 Statistical Review of World Energy.

    Even if greatly ramped up, wind and solar electricity production would likely be grossly inadequate by themselves to try to operate any kind of economy. At a minimum, natural gas, at very high cost, shipped as LNG around the world, would likely be needed in addition. A huge quantity of batteries would be needed, leading to a short supply of materials. Huge quantities of steel would be needed to make new electrical machines to try to replace current oil-power machines. A minimum 50-year transition would likely be needed.

    I am doubtful that this second approach would be feasible in any reasonable timeframe.

    [9] Conclusion. Figure 1 seems to imply that the world economy is headed for a troubled times ahead.

    The world economy is a self-organizing system, so we cannot know precisely what form changes in the next few years will take. The economy can be expected to shrink back in an uneven pattern, with some parts of the world and some classes of citizens, such as workers versus the elderly, doing better than others.

    Leaders will never tell us that the world has an energy shortage. Instead, leaders will tell us how awful fossil fuels are, so that we will be happy that the economy is losing their usage. They will never tell us how worthless intermittent wind and solar are for solving today’s energy problems. Instead, they will lead us to believe that a transition to vehicles powered by electricity and batteries is just around the corner. They will tell us that the world’s worst problem is climate change, and that by working together, we can move away from fossil fuels.

    The whole situation reminds me of Aesop’s Fables. The system puts a “good spin” on whatever frightening changes are happening. This way, leaders can convince their citizens that everything is fine when, in fact, it is not.

    NOTE

    *If the US Federal Reserve raises its target interest rate, central banks of other countries around the world are forced to take a similar action if they do not want their currencies to fall relative to the US dollar. Countries that do not raise their target interest rates tend to be penalized by the market: With a falling currency, the local prices of oil and other commodities tend to rise because commodities are priced in US dollars. As a result, citizens of these countries tend to face a worse inflation problem than they would otherwise face.

    The country with the greatest increase in its target interest rate can, in theory, win, in what is more or less a competition to move inflation elsewhere. This competition cannot go on indefinitely, however, because every country depends, to some extent, on imports from other countries. If countries with the weaker economies (i. e. those that cannot afford to raise interest rates) stop producing essential goods for world trade, it will tend to bring the world economy down.

    Raising interest rates also raises the likelihood of debt defaults, and these debt defaults can be a huge problem, especially for banks and other financial institutions. With higher interest rates, pension funding becomes less adequate. Businesses of all kinds find new investment more expensive. Many businesses are likely to shrink or fail completely. These indirect impacts are yet another way for the world economy to fail.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 18:20

  • Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research Took $370k In PPP Loans At A Time When FTX Was Valued Near $1 Billion
    Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research Took $370k In PPP Loans At A Time When FTX Was Valued Near $1 Billion

    As if throwing around billions of dollars in client money as though it was their own wasn’t enough for Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda Research, LLC, the latter also took out a Federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, according to multiple reports and SBA.gov. 

    The SBA.gov sourced list at ProPublica lists Alameda Research LLC as having received $370,518 on April 27, 2020. 

    However, the Federal Government will not likely be appearing on the list of creditors in FTX bankruptcy documents, as the loan was reportedly paid back, Bloomberg wrote. And it’s hard to think that the company actually needed the money. At the time, FTX had about a $1.2 billion valuation and had attracted an investment from Binance.

    FTX was founded in 2019 and in July 2021 did a $900 million funding round that valued the company at $18 billion. Later that year, it did another capital raise at a valuation of $25 billion. Investors included Tiger Global and Temasek, per Reuters. 

    In 2022, the company’s valuation went to $32 billion when SoftBank invested near the top in January, putting $400 million into the business. 

    We bet the company wishes it had the $370k back now…it could probably go a long way towards legal fees.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 18:00

  • Never Forget! Here's Some Of The Dumbest COVID Restrictions
    Never Forget! Here's Some Of The Dumbest COVID Restrictions

    Authored by Kevin Downey Jr via PJmedia.com,

    The holidays are looming, and that means several things: meals with family, cocktail nights by a cozy fire, and the Democrat Party pushing commie control on Americans for the third year in a row.

    Temperatures have just begun to drop, and President Biden is already pimping for his pharma-bros.

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    If you think the donkeys won’t try to enforce more of their bolshie cowplop restrictions, I suggest you invest in the new, hot cryptocurrency, “KDJ Coin.”

    SMALL PRINT-O-RAMA! All capital invested in “KDJ Coin” will go to bourbon and cigars.

    We survived some shockingly stupid COVID-19 flapdoodle, as did people around the world. All for a virus that more than 99% of Americans would survive.

    Related: Reasons Never to Vote Democrat Again, Vol. I: COVID Tyranny Must Be Punished

    FACT-O-RAMA! The globalists in the Democrat Party found out in May 2020 that 84% of COVID hospitalizations were from people who were locked down but stole our liberties anyway in the name of “science.”

    A man was actually arrested for paddleboarding alone on the ocean after some lickspittle saw him and called the cops. If only we were as smart as the French.

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    Grinded me with science

    We were subjected to mountains of stupidity disguised as “science” by people with big titles and fancy diplomas on their walls. Here are a few of the classics. May we never forget the mental vacancy these people pushed upon us and never allow it to happen again.

    Battle of the grocery stores

    The libs made it seem like grocery stores were an orgy of Bat Stew Flu germs predatorily resting on produce or boxes of coffee K-Cups, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting shopper and perhaps give them the sniffles.

    High-ranking jackpuddings in New York state threw together a list of science-dodging conditions that they deemed necessary to save lives at the grocery store. Today, these protocols seem as stupid as treating asthma with cigarettes, but I recall terrified Pop-Tart shoppers excoriating me for defying the one-way aisles.

    Who can forget:

    • Standing on stickers on the floor.

    • One family member shopping at a time.

    • Wash your produce you filthy, granny-killing germ mule!

    FACT-O-RAMA! The Buffalo Bills’ Cole Beasley, unvaccinated and COVID-free, was forced to quarantine after coming into contact with a vaccinated coach who tested positive for the Hong Kong Fluey.

    Restaurants

    We were led to believe that COVID devoured maskless people walking to their tables but showed mercy on partons as they were sitting. Apparently, COVID also preferred to hunt at night as New York restaurants were forced to close at 10 p.m. Being the jackanape that I am, I was admonished on Thanksgiving 2021 when I selfishly walked 27 steps (yes, I counted) from my table to the men’s room sans a Fauci face diaper. A safely sitting, bootlicking patron and a waiter jumped down my throat for my malfeasance. I no longer spend my currency at this establishment.

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    Kids and COVID

    Children took a real beating during the pandemic, especially considering that so few kids actually died from China’s virus. Skate parks were filled with sand. Playgrounds were closed. Basketball rims were taken down or covered.

    Kids in Portland, Ore., were introduced to some serious commie dystopian nonsense and forced to eat lunch outside, sitting on buckets, in cold weather. You know, for their own safety.

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    School officials actually put their hollow heads together and came up with this:

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    By now you may be thinking, “Come on, KDJ. Our nation would never go back to that nonsense. Our elected leaders and medical heavyweights have learned from their mistakes.”

    But then we remember how Dr. Fauci, America’s highest-paid ogre, started chirping about another lockdown back in March of 2022. A portion of China has just reached its 100th day of a brutal lockdown.

    One Merry Andrew from the New York Post is half-jokingly hoping for another freedom-stealing lockdown but recalled how wonderful the first one was.

    And to be honest, we failed to punish the globalists who robbed us of our liberties in the midterm elections. Sure, monkeypox fizzled, but the commies won’t stop. The Hill wrote about the possibility of a “climate lockdown” earlier this year. You know for the good of the planet.

    These are just a few of the inane lockdown restrictions we endured. Please leave more in the comments section. Let’s start the conversation now and all agree that we don’t get fooled again.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 17:40

  • Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison For Theranos Fraud
    Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison For Theranos Fraud

    Update (1415ET): U.S. District Judge Edward Davila just sentenced Elizabeth Holmes, the criminal founder of Theranos convicted of fraud, to 135 months, or 11.25 years, in prison, capping the historic downfall of what the media and the Clinton Foundation unabashedly dubbed as a “one-time Silicon Valley wunderkind.”

    Prosecutors had asked the judge for a 15-year sentence, while Holmes’ defense attorneys had asked for 18 months of house arrest.

    Ms. Holmes has 14 days to appeal her conviction.

    The judge ordered Ms. Holmes to surrender on April 27, 2023.

    Judge Davila made clear that future deterrence was a big part of his rationale for the sentence.

    He called the Theranos fraud “a cautionary tale” for Silicon Valley.

    Additionally, the judge said the court would set a date in the future for a hearing on restitution, having said earlier in the day that he had found enough evidence to determine there were at least 10 investors in Theranos who were victims of fraud, and that the total sum they were defrauded was $121.1 million.

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    Elizabeth Holmes spoke briefly, and tearfully, to the court before the judge read her sentence. 

    “I am devastated by my failings. Every day for the past years I have felt deep pain for what people went through because I failed them,” said Ms. Holmes.

    We wonder if her voice at trial was the same fake baritone she used to scam the ‘wisest’ of investors…

    Holmes’ former boyfriend and Theranos business partner Sunny Balwani in July was found guilty of 12 counts of conspiracy and fraud against certain investors and patients. Balwani is expected to be sentenced on December 7, and his attorney was on hand Friday for Holmes’ sentencing.

    *  *  *

    While everyone is fixated on the disgraced founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and his collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, another Silicon Valley fraudster, Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, will be sentenced in a federal courthouse Friday, putting an end to the years-long saga of her phony blood-testing startup. 

    Holmes’ sentencing will take place in a San Jose, California, courtroom where she was convicted earlier this year of three felony counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for scamming investors. 

    Federal prosecutors wrote in court papers ahead of the sentencing hearing that Holmes’ crimes are “among the most substantial white-collar offenses Silicon Valley, or any other district, has seen” (wait until SBF’s court case…). 

    AP noted US District Judge Edward Davila could sentence Holmes to federal prison for 15 years, slightly less than the federal government’s recommendation of 20 years, though her lawyers filed a request to the judge last week for leniency in the sentencing and requested 18 months of home confinement instead of prison. 

    The request was accompanied by letters calling for leniency from over 130 friends, family, and even Theranos investors, as well as former company employees who described Holmes as a ‘good person.’ 

    One of those letters was penned by Sen. Cory Booker (D., NJ), who said Holmes “has within her a sincere desire to help others” by fighting climate change and world hunger.

    “I knew Ms. Holmes for about six years before charges were brought,” he continued. 

    … and how convenient:

    “Holmes, who is 38 years old, was visibly pregnant with her second child at her last court appearance. If Davila hands down a prison sentence, her pregnancy could influence when her confinement starts,” NPR pointed out. 

    Judge Davila has handled her case since the collapse of Theranos after reaching a valuation of $9 billion. Criminal defense lawyers recently told Bloomberg Holmes’ sentencing could send a warning shot to Silicon Valley companies that run on hopes and dreams. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/18/2022 – 17:21

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Nov 18

Today’s News 18th November 2022

  • Escobar: The G20's Balinese Geopolitical Dance
    Escobar: The G20’s Balinese Geopolitical Dance

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

    Xi has few reasons to take Biden – rather, the group writing every script in the background – at face value…

    Balinese culture, a perpetual exercise in sophisticated subtlety, makes no distinction between the secular and the supernatural – sekala and niskala.

    Sekala is what our senses may discern. As in the ritualized gestures of world leaders – real and minor – at a highly polarized G20.

    Niskala is what cannot be sensed directly and can only be “suggested”. And that also applies to geopolitics.

    The Balinese highlight may have featured an intersection of sekala and niskala: the much ballyhooed Xi-Biden face-to-face (or face to earpiece).

    The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs preferred to cut to the chase, selecting the Top Two highlights.

    1. Xi told Biden – rather, his earpiece – that Taiwan independence is simply out of the question.

    2. Xi also hopes that NATO, EU and US will engage in “comprehensive dialogue” with Moscow.

    Asian cultures – be they Balinese or Confucianist – are non-confrontational. Xi laid out three layers of common interests: prevent conflict and confrontation, leading to peaceful coexistence; benefit from each other’s development; and promote post-COVID global recovery, tackle climate change and face regional problems via coordination.

    Significantly, the 3h30 meeting happened at the Chinese delegation’s residence in Bali, and not at the G20 venue. And it was requested by the White House.

    Biden, according to the Chinese, affirmed that the US does not seek a New Cold War; does not support “Taiwan independence”; does not support “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan”; does not seek “decoupling” from China; and does not want to contain China.

    Now tell that to the Straussians/neo-cons/neoliberalcons bent on containing China. Reality spells out that Xi has few reasons to take “Biden” – rather the combo writing every script in the background – at face value. So as it stands, we remain in niskala.

    That zero-sum game

    Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was dealt a terrible hand: how to hold a G20 to discuss food and energy security, sustainable development, and climate issues, when everything under the sun is polarized by the war in Ukraine.

    Widodo did his best, urging all at the G20 to “end the war”, with a subtle hint that “being responsible means creating not zero-sum situations.”

    The problem is a great deal of the G20 arrived in Bali bent on zero-sum – seeking confrontation (with Russia) and hardly any diplomatic conversation.

    The US and UK delegations avowedly wanted to snub Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov every step of the way. France and Germany is a different matter: Lavrov did speak briefly with both Macron and Scholz. And told them Kiev wants no negotiation.

    Lavrov also revealed something quite significant for the Global South:

    “US and the EU have given the UN Secretary General written promises that restrictions on the export of Russian grain and fertilizers will be lifted – let’s see how this is implemented.”

    The traditional group photo ahead of the G20 – a staple of every summit in Asia – had to be delayed. Because – who else – “Biden” and Sunak, US and UK, refused to be in the same picture with Lavrov.

    Such childish, un-diplomatic hysterics is profoundly disrespectful towards ritual Balinese graciousness, politeness and a non-confrontational ethos.

    The Western spin is that “most G20 countries” wanted to condemn Russia in Ukraine. Nonsense. Diplomatic sources hinted it may be in fact a 50/50 split. Condemnation comes from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, UK, US and EU. Non-condemnation from Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye and of course Russia.

    Graphically: Global South against Global North.

    So the joint statement will refer to the impacts of the “war in Ukraine” on the global economy, and not “Russia’s war in Ukraine”.

    The collapse of the EU economy

    What was not happening in Bali enveloped the island in an extra layer of niskala. Which brings us to Ankara.

    The fog thickened because on the backdrop of the G20, the US and Russia were talking in Ankara, represented by CIA director William Burns and SVR (Foreign Intel) director Sergei Naryshkin.

    No one knows what exactly was being negotiated. A ceasefire is only one among possible scenarios. And yet heated rhetoric from NATO in Brussels to Kiev suggests escalation prevailing over some sort of reconciliation.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was adamant; de facto and de jure, Ukraine can’t and does not want to negotiate. So the Special Military Operation (SMO) will continue.

    NATO is training fresh units. Next possible targets are the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and the left bank of the Dnieper – or even more pressure in the north of Lugansk. For their part, Russian military channels advance the possibility of a winter offensive on Nikolaev: only 30 km away from Russian positions.

    Serious Russian military analysts know what serious Pentagon analysts must also know: Russia used at best only 10% of its military potential so far. No regular forces; most of them are DPR and LPR militias, Wagner commandos, Kadyrov’s Chechens and volunteers.

    The Americans suddenly interested in talking, and Macron and Scholz approaching Lavrov, point to the heart of the matter: the EU and the UK may not survive next winter, 2023-2024, without Gazprom.

    The IEA has calculated that the overall deficit by then will approach 30 billion cubic meters. And that presupposes “ideal” circumstances this coming winter: mostly warm; China still under lockdowns; much lower gas consumption in Europe; even increased production (from Norway?)

    The IEA ‘s models are working with two or three waves of price increases in the next 12 months. EU budgets are already on red alert – compensating the losses caused by the current energy suicide. By the end of 2023, that may reach 1 trillion euros.

    Any additional, unpredictable costs throughout 2023 mean that the EU economy will completely collapse: industry shutdown across the spectrum, euro in free fall, rise of inflation, debt corroding every latitude from the Club Med nations to France and Germany.

    Dominatrix Ursula von der Leyen, leading the European Commission (EC), of course should be discussing all that – in the interests of EU nations – with global players in Bali. Instead her only agenda, once again, was demonization of Russia. No niskala here; just tawdry cognitive dissonance.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 23:40

  • FIFA World Cup: The Biggest Stage Of All?
    FIFA World Cup: The Biggest Stage Of All?

    When Qatar and Ecuador kick off the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Sunday, it is the beginning of what is arguably the biggest sporting event in the world. While maybe not the greatest spectacle in sports – that honor goes to the Super Bowl, which is bridging the gap between sports and entertainment unlike any other event – the quadrennial FIFA World Cup is probably the most followed competition in the world of sports.

    Taking the Super Bowl as a measuring stick reveals the extraordinary scale of the World Cup’s global appeal. As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to FIFA, the average live TV audience for the 64 matches at the 2018 World Cup in Russia was 191 million.

    That’s significantly more than estimates for the Super Bowl’s TV viewership, which was just short of 100 million in the U.S. this year plus an estimated 30 to 50 million across the globe.

    Keep in mind, it’s not the World Cup final we’re talking about, it is every single one of the 64 matches played over the course of a month.

    The final is at another level altogether, with the 2018 clash between France and Croatia drawing an average TV audience of 517 million people, as live coverage of the game reached more than a billion people in total.

    Infographic: FIFA World Cup: The Biggest Stage of All? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Looking at the overall reach of the FIFA World Cup, it even puts the Olympics to shame. In 2018, an estimated 3.56 billion people watched at least one minute of World Cup coverage on linear TV or across digital channels, compared to 3.05 billion for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and 2.01 billion for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. And Russia 2018 was no outlier in that respect: Brazil 2014 reached similar numbers and so did South Africa 2010 before it. The matter of fact is that football truly is a global game, played and followed across the globe like no other sport. Whether the controversial decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar will affect the event’s reach is yet unclear, but polls suggest that, all criticism aside, hundreds of millions of football fans will tune in once the ball is actually rolling.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 23:20

  • Conservative Think Tank Report Urges Congressional Investigation On Black Lives Matter Organizations
    Conservative Think Tank Report Urges Congressional Investigation On Black Lives Matter Organizations

    Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times,

    A new special report on cultural Marxism is urging Congress to hold hearings on Black Lives Matter (BLM) organizations.

    America’s political leaders shouldn’t shy away from investigating any organizations with the words “Black Lives Matter” in their titles for fear of the “racist” label, said the report’s authors Mike Gonzalez, an expert at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, and Katharine Gorka, a national security expert and former research fellow with the Foundation.

    “Because [BLM organizations] have been the vector for the introduction of cultural Marxism into the lives of all Americans, getting serious about the threat that the BLM organizations represent is the most immediate, and easiest, thing that Americans can do to confront Marxism,” the report read.

    The authors define cultural Marxism as a more sophisticated and nuanced version of Marxism led by American Marxists “under the pretense of social justice.”

    Instead of pitting workers against capitalists, cultural Marxists use race and gender to drive wedges between various racial groups, and children and parents to destroy the nuclear family in America, the authors said.

    The report argues that critical race theory—a framework that views America as systemically racist—in education, America’s war on climate change, and corporate America’s environmental, social, and corporate governance rules are all parts of Marxist strategies.

    On Nov. 14, a discussion about this report was held at the Foundation, Gonzalez told the audience that it’s legal to be a communist in the United States, but people should be aware of the BLM leaders’ Marxist beliefs and intentions.

    According to the U.S. Crisis Monitor, 633 riots took place in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, Gonzalez said in a previous Epoch Times interview.

    The Insurance Information Institute noted that these riots were the costliest civil unrest in U.S. history, with insured losses estimated at over $2 billion.

    “I think the country should know whether you [leaders of BLM organizations] have unleashed this level of violence and have had these riots because you believe in these ideas,” Gonzalez said at the event.

    Leaders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), an umbrella organization for the BLM movement, had openly said they were “trained Marxists,” and they should be the subject of congressional investigations, according to the special report’s authors.

    …

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 23:00

  • Biden Admin Warns Of Bankruptcy Surge As It Asks Supreme Court To Resume Student Debt Forgiveness Plan
    Biden Admin Warns Of Bankruptcy Surge As It Asks Supreme Court To Resume Student Debt Forgiveness Plan

    Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is going to the Supreme Court.

    After Biden’s plan to buy votes in exchange for forgiving a portion of one’s student loan was halted by two federal courts in recent weeks, both of which found it to be unconstitutional, the admin’s Justice Department is asking for quick action to block both rulings and allow the plan to take effect even as it plays out in the nation’s courts.

    As a result, the White House plans to ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the president’s student debt cancellation plan, according to a Thursday legal filing warning that :Americans will face financial strain if the plan remains stalled in court” when loan payments are scheduled to restart in January.

    In a legal filing Thursday, the administration announced plans to appeal one of those rulings, by a federal appeals court in St. Louis, to the nation’s highest court. It also said it’s prepared to appeal the other case if needed.

    The White House has said it will prevail, but even supporters of the plan worry about its chances before a conservative Supreme Court that has scaled back Biden’s authority in other ways, including in a June decision curbing the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to limit power plan emissions.

    Keeping the debt relief on hold would leave the government with an “unnecessarily perilous choice,” the administration argued in its filing. If it restarts student loan payments as planned on Jan. 1, millions of Americans will get billed for debt that was promised to be canceled. Which probably means the president should not have promised to cancel it; meanwhile if the government extends the payment pause, it will cost billions of dollars in lost revenue. It builds on arguments the administration made in other filings this week, warning that many Americans won’t be able to pay their student debt bills in January if the cancellation plan remains halted.

    Biden’s plan promises $10,000 in federal student debt forgiveness to those with incomes of less than $125,000, or households earning less than $250,000. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, are eligible for an additional $10,000 in relief.

    Almost 26 million people already have applied for the relief, with 16 million approved, but the Education Department stopped accepting and processing applications last week after the plan was ruled illegal.

    For typical borrowers, monthly payments would be $200 to $300 higher than they would be if Biden’s plan goes through, the Education Department said. The strain could lead to soaring default rates, and push the country into an even deeper recession.

    “We anticipate there could be an historically large increase in the amount of federal student loan delinquency and defaults as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Education Undersecretary James Kvaal said in a Tuesday filing. “This could result in one of the harms that the one-time student loan debt relief program was intended to avoid.”

    In other words, the president is hoping that his unconstitutional scheme in which taxpaying citizens fund the liberal education of deadbeats so the US recession isn’t even deeper than it currently is, is overturned by a conservative dominated supreme court. GLWT.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 22:40

  • Twitter On Lock Out After Mass Resignation Exodus; Operations At Risk
    Twitter On Lock Out After Mass Resignation Exodus; Operations At Risk

    Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees have reportedly resigned ahead of Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” cultural reset of the company. After Musk gave an ultimatum to his employees to either commit to the company’s new “hardcore” work environment or leave, many more workers declined to sign on than he expected, potentially putting Twitter’s operations at risk, according to Bloomberg sources, as well as internal Slack messages seen by The Verge and employee tweets.

    On Thursday afternoon, so many employees decided to take severance that it created a cloud of confusion over which people should still have access to company property. According to a memo seen by Bloomberg and reports from Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer, Twitter closed its offices until Monday; urging employees to “please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.”

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

    According to Bloomberg, in the final hours before his deadline, Musk tried to convince people to stay. Key staff were brought into meetings as the Thursday evening deadline neared to hear pitches on the social network’s future, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk, who had earlier said he was strictly against remote work, also sent a follow-up email Thursday softening his tone.

    “All that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution,” he wrote, adding that staffers should have in-person meetings with their colleagues not less than once per month.

    Despite the ultimatum, no Twitter employees have been deactivated — even those who’ve publicly resigned, the Platformer also reported, adding that “Musk and his team only collected the list of “yes’s” — employees who said they want to be part of Twitter 2.0. They’re still trying to track who is out.”

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

    Elon’s attempt to ease the terms of the ultimatum wasn’t enough, and Twitter’s internal communications channels filled with employees offering a salute emoji, which has become a symbol for departing the company. Former staff tweeted the salute publicly, too, along with their internal Slack messages.

    Some employees who were departing speculated that so many were leaving, along with their knowledge of how the product works, that the social network may have trouble fixing problems or updating systems during its normal operations, according to people familiar with the matter. Indeed, starting around 4pm ET or around the time of the resignation wave, Down Detector has observed a surge in Twitter outages.

    Source DownDetector

    Adding to the complexity of Musk’s attempt to overhaul the company, there have been reports that the designers leading Musk’s Blue verified project have also quot, along with the lead web engineer. Furthermore, Many Twitter employees who maintained critical infrastructure have resigned.

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

    As reported earlier, Musk on Wednesday had asked employees to formally state whether they were willing to keep working at the company – a commitment that would include “working long hours at high intensity.” Employees had until 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday to fill out a Google form.

    The form included just one possible response: “Yes.” Anyone who failed to accept the form by the deadline was told they would be out of the company with three months severance.

    “I’m not pressing the button,” one departing employee posted in Slack according to The Verge. “My watch ends with Twitter 1.0. I do not wish to be part of Twitter 2.0.”

    The ultimatum came less than two weeks after he laid off 50% of Twitter’s workforce, or roughly 3,700 employees. Many Twitter workers consulted lawyers this week to determine what to do. The form included almost no details about the severance packages, and it was not immediately clear whether employees would receive legal protections that would allow them to keep vesting stock awards or maintain insurance coverage.

    Twitter had roughly 2,900 remaining employees before the deadline Thursday. Remaining and departing Twitter employees told The Verge that, given the scale of the resignations this week, they expect the platform to start breaking soon. One said that they’ve watched “legendary engineers” and others they look up to leave one by one.

    “It feels like all the people who made this place incredible are leaving,” the Twitter staffer said. “It will be extremely hard for Twitter to recover from here, no matter how hardcore the people who remain try to be.”

    Multiple “critical” engineering teams inside Twitter have now either completely or near-completely resigned, said another employee who requested anonymity to speak without Musk’s permission. For example, the team that maintains Twitter’s core system libraries that every engineer at the company uses is gone after Thursday. “You cannot run Twitter without this team,” the employee said.

    Departing employees also tweeted their decisions to leave:

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

    While those departing the company may think it’s a jobseeker’s market they may be surprised at how rapidly the Silicon Valley job market has turned against them.

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

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

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

    Meanwhile, Twitter recruiters have already started reaching out to outside engineers to see if they want to join “Twitter 2.0 – an Elon company,” according to a message sent to one recruit that was seen by The Verge.

    “I have worked here at Twitter for over 11 years,” one employee wrote in Twitter’s Slack as the salute emojis poured in Thursday. “Back in July, I was the 27th most tenured employee at the company. Now I’m the 15th.”

    Meanwhile, Musk reportedly brought back leaders who had departed, either as part of his own layoffs or through resignation, to convince others to stay, A Bloomberg source said. One returning leader is Ella Irwin, who will manage employees in Trust and Safety.

    Musk later sent a follow-up email on remote work, according to a screenshot viewed by Bloomberg. “Any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 22:31

  • Court Blames Russia For Missile That Struck Malaysia Airlines Plane, Killing Nearly 300
    Court Blames Russia For Missile That Struck Malaysia Airlines Plane, Killing Nearly 300

    A court in the Netherlands has determined that a Russian-made missile was fired by two Russian nationals and a Ukrainian citizen, leading to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which killed nearly 300 people.

    People inspect the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, on July 17, 2014. (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)

    “The court is of the opinion that MH17 (Flight 17) was brought down by the firing of a BUK missile from a farm field near Pervomaisk, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members,” presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said, per Reuters.

    The case is different from that of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared around four months earlier and has remained a mystery.

    As the Epoch Times notes, the statement was issued in the trial of several Russians and a separatist Ukrainian who were found guilty in absentia of the mass murder for their alleged involvement in shooting down Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine.

    Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko were on trial at the Schiphol Judicial Complex in Badhoevedorp, Netherlands, according to reports. Pulatov was acquitted while the three others were found guilty.

    A Malaysian air crash investigator inspects the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo) in Donetsk region, Ukraine, July 22, 2014. (Maxim Zmeyev/File Photo/Reuters)

    None of the defendants appeared for the trial that began in March 2020, and if they’re convicted, it’s unlikely they’ll serve any sentence anytime soon. Prosecutors had sought life sentences for all four. Prosecutors and the suspects have two weeks to file an appeal.

    In a statement responding to the verdict, the US state department said:

    The United States welcomes today’s decision finding three members of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine guilty for their roles in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.  The decision by the District Court of The Hague is an important moment in ongoing efforts to deliver justice for the 298 individuals who lost their lives on July 17, 2014.

    Today’s decision is the result of sustained work by a Joint Investigation Team comprised of authorities from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, and Ukraine, and reflects the Netherlands’ firm commitment to establish the truth and pursue accountability in this case.  While this is a solid step towards justice, more work lies ahead to meet the UN Security Council’s demand in resolution 2166 that “those responsible…be held to account.”

    Russia, meanwhile, slammed the verdict as ‘politically motivated.’

    According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Dutch court was “under unprecedented pressure” during the hearings, adding “There can be no talk of objectivity and impartiality under such circumstances.”

    Investigators work at a the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in 2014. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images

    The Russians pointed to alleged attempts by Dutch “politicians, prosecutors and media to impose a politically motivated verdict” in the case. “We deeply regret the fact that The Hague District Court disregarded the principle of impartiality of justice in favor of the current political situation.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 22:20

  • Masa-Son Steps Back From Running Softbank, Personally Owes Almost $5 Billion To Troubled Tech Giant
    Masa-Son Steps Back From Running Softbank, Personally Owes Almost $5 Billion To Troubled Tech Giant

    It has not been a good week (or year for that matter) for Masayoshi Son – the founder of (once giant) tech fund SoftBank.

    First, The FT reports that, according to a person familiar with the matter, SoftBank will likely be forced to write down its approximately $100 million investment in collapsing crypto exchange FTX to zero.

    Second, and perhaps related to that, following its report last week that the technology conglomerate posted quarterly investment losses of $10 billion, Son said he would step back from running day-to-day operations at SoftBank (to “devote” himself to turbocharging the growth of UK chip designer Arm, which is owned by the Japanese group).

    SoftBank also cut 30% of its Vision Fund staff by the end of September and has sharply reduced the size of its investments over the past six months.

    On Friday, Son emphasized that he was “perfectly healthy”, in response to speculation he was ill after SoftBank revealed that he would no longer be giving his signature presentation to investors using his eccentric slides (as we have often noted).

    Finally, and perhaps most ominously, The FT reports that Masayoshi Son personally owes SoftBank close to $5bn because of growing losses on the Japanese conglomerate’s technology bets, which have also rendered the value of his stake in the group’s second Vision Fund worthless.

    As various massive tech bets have imploded, the SoftBank founder’s losses have mounted because SoftBank fronted Son the money to invest in its technology-related funds.

    The value of Son’s 17.25% stake in SoftBank’s second Vision Fund (which was as high as $2.8bn at the end of 2021) was also wiped out entirely by the end of September.

    SoftBank has not yet collected $2.8 billion that Son owes in relation to his stake in the fund (and The FT does note that Son is under no obligation to repay for many years). Previously, SoftBank netted off the value of his equity from the amount he owed the group, meaning at the end of 2021 this stood at just $4 million – but now that’s all gone and just the liability is left.

    Son also owes SoftBank $669mn under a similar arrangement on its Latin American fund.

    The total amount the Japanese executive owes his company is now at $4.7bn, when losses in the group’s short-lived internal hedge fund SB Northstar (which earned notoriety for carrying out the “Nasdaq whale”/gamma-squeeze trades in US tech stocks in 2020) are also taken into account, SoftBank confirmed to the FT.

    According to Bloomberg, Son’s net worth stood at $13.9 billion (though it is unclear whether that is ‘net’ of this massive loan from Softbank).

    Given all the self-dealing, inter-company loans, and cross-holdings, one can’t help but wonder if Masa-son is nothing more than a more polished version of SBF…

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 22:00

  • "Oops": Fired Facebook Employees Took Bribes To Hijack User Accounts
    “Oops”: Fired Facebook Employees Took Bribes To Hijack User Accounts

    Facebook parent Meta has fired or disciplined over two dozen employees and contractors over the last year who have been accused of improperly hijacking user accounts – in some cases for bribes, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter and documents seen by the outlet.

    The suspects accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from outside hackers in some cases.

    Some of those fired were contractors who worked as security guards stationed at Meta facilities and were given access to the Facebook parent’s internal mechanism for employees to help users having trouble with their accounts, according to the documents and people familiar with the matter. -WSJ

    The mechanism, known internally as “Oops,” was created during the company’s early years in order to help users who either forgot their passwords or emails, or had their accounts taken over by hackers.

    “Individuals selling fraudulent services are always targeting online platforms, including ours, and adapting their tactics in response to the detection methods that are commonly used across the industry,” according to Meta spokesman Andy Stone, who added that the company would continue to take “appropriate action against those involved in these kinds of schemes.”

    Meta contractor Allied Universal said in a statement that it “takes seriously all reports of violations of our standards of conduct.”

    When users are locked out of their accounts, there are automated procedures to try and recover it – including trying to reach Meta by phone or email, which is typically an exercise in futility.

    “Oops,” which stands for Online Operations, is supposed to be limited to special circumstances, such as friends, family, business partners and public figures as a way to cut in line for assistance. In 2020, it serviced over 50,000 tasks – up from 22,000 just three years earlier. In order to file an Oops report, the employee or contractor lists an email address to be reset. They must answer a series of questions, including whether the request is being made for someone on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s team, a celebrity, Meta partner, or family member, the Journal reports.

    Because so many people depend on social media for their businesses, or to manage critically important aspects of their lives, gaining illicit control of an account can be lucrative. Stolen Facebook and Instagram handles can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars on other online forums.

    But in part because the Oops system is off limits to the vast majority of Facebook users, a cottage industry of intermediaries has developed who charge users money to regain control of their accounts. In interviews with the Journal, some of those third parties claim to have access to Meta employees to help reset accounts. -WSJ

    “When you take someone’s Instagram account down that they’ve spent years building up, you’re taking away their whole means of generating an income,” said Nick McCandless, whose company McCandless Group operates a platform for content creators and charges people to reset their accounts through an inside contact at Meta.

    “You really have to have someone on the inside who will actually do it.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 21:44

  • Chemical Shippers Warn Rail Strike Could Hasten Recession
    Chemical Shippers Warn Rail Strike Could Hasten Recession

    By Joanna Marsh of FreightWaves,

    A potential rail strike could be the catalyst that brings the U.S. economy into a full-on recession, the American Chemistry Council warned on Wednesday in an economic analysis of the impacts on its industry and others.

    “[If a strike lasts one month, it] would likely put a major chill on several leading economic indicators through the first half of 2023,” ACC said in a release about the report. 

    The group, which represents chemical shippers, determined a strike could result in 700,000 lost jobs across multiple industries, as well as cause a 4% spike in the producer price index (PPI), a 1% contraction of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and pull out almost $160 billion from the economy.

    According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the PPI measures the average change over time of the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output.

    If a strike continues for another month, the two months combined could result in the PPI  increasing by 12% and cause the GDP to contract by 2%.

    “A rail strike could shove the economy out of recovery mode and into a recession,” ACC Chief Economist Martha Moore said in a news release. “A prolonged strike would have an exponential effect for each additional month and drag the country into a potential recession much faster.”

    A rail strike could curtail production at ACC member facilities because they typically don’t have more than four to five days’ worth of empty cars or raw materials on hand, according to the report. If facilities aren’t able to receive the supplies they need after roughly a week, they could be forced to shut down. 

    ACC and other shippers have urged Congress to prevent a rail strike, sending a letter recently to the majority and minority leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. 

    Should a strike appear imminent, Congress should pass legislation that would enact the labor contract terms that the unions and the railroads agreed to in September, ACC said.

    Shippers’ groups are concerned that a strike could occur should members of the two largest rail unions — the ones representing locomotive engineers and train conductors — decide against ratifying their labor agreements with the railroads. The results of their votes on whether to approve a new deal will be announced Monday.

    Three other rail unions have already voted against ratifying their labor agreements and headed back to the bargaining table. 

    Sick leave policies could be one of the sticking points for those unions, although the railroads have indicated publicly a reluctance to budge, opting instead for that discussion to occur outside of contract negotiations, per recommendations by the U.S. president-appointed board that convened over the summer to help resolve the multiyear negotiations impasse.

    If members of the locomotive engineers and train conductors’ unions vote against ratification, members could opt to engage in a strike but only after a cooling-off period, per federal law. That stretch for some of the five remaining unions ends Dec. 4, although that timetable could be extended to Dec. 9 if they align their ending dates for the periods.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 21:40

  • Judge Rules Georgia Abortion Ban Invalid
    Judge Rules Georgia Abortion Ban Invalid

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

    A judge in Georgia on Nov. 15 found the state’s ban on abortions unconstitutional and ordered authorities to stop enforcing it.

    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney in Atlanta, Ga., on May 2, 2022. (Ben Gray/AP Photo)

    Georgia House Bill 481, known as the LIFE Act, declared that unborn children were living people with rights and banned abortions once a heartbeat was detected.

    At the time it was enacted, though, key portions violated the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, principally the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that concluded access to abortion was a constitutional right, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in a 15-page ruling.

    “At that time—the spring of 2019—everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments—federal, state, or local—to ban abortions before viability,” McBurney said. “And yet the LIFE Act, through Section 4, did just that: a doctor faced with a request to end a pre-viability pregnancy, i.e., at a time when the fetus absolutely could not survive outside the mother’s womb, would be committing a felony if she honored her patient’s wishes.”

    A federal judge made the same decision in an earlier case but the order was overturned by an appeals court after the Supreme Court reversed Roe in its June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Under Georgia law, however, the timing of a new law being enacted determines constitutional tests.

    The legislature may pass a new ban since Dobbs changed the Supreme Court precedent but “only after our Legislature determines in the sharp glare of public attention that will undoubtedly and properly attend such an important and consequential debate whether the rights of unborn children justify such a restriction on women’s right to bodily autonomy and privacy,” McBurney said.

    He declared that authorities are enjoined from enforcing the post-heartbeat ban on abortion. Authorities have to refer to an earlier law, which bans abortions after 19 weeks unless a doctor deems an abortion necessary to avert the death or “serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman,” or to preserve the life of an unborn child.

    The case against the ban was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and other groups.

    “We celebrate this victory in Georgia that restores the right to abortion and reproductive freedom,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement.

    Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, has already filed notice to the Georgia Supreme Court that he’ll appeal the ruling.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 21:00

  • DeSantis Leads Trump By Big Margins In Key Primary States
    DeSantis Leads Trump By Big Margins In Key Primary States

    New post-midterm election polls find that Republicans in critical primary states favor Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over former President Donald Trump by substantial margins. 

    Polling conducted Nov. 11-13 by WPAi Intelligence on behalf of the conservative Club for Growth Action found that DeSantis is the preferred candidate of 48% of Iowa’s likely Republican voters, compared to just 37% for Trump. The margin is even wider in New Hampshire: Republicans prefer DeSantis by a 52% to 37% margin. 

    In what must be a particular humiliation for Trump, he trails DeSantis in their shared home state of Florida by 26 points — 56% to 30%.  

    Separately, a post-midterm poll commissioned by the Texas Republican Party found 43% of Texas Republicans prefer DeSantis, compared to 32% who back Trump. 

    Not only are those leads substantial, but they also show DeSantis’ position has strengthened in the wake of his resounding reelection victory in Florida, where he not only defeated Charlie Crist by a whopping 19 percentage points, but also helped lead Republicans to a statewide thrashing of Democrats — to include turning majority-Hispanic Miami-Dade county red. In 2018, he lost the county by 20 points. 

    County-level results in Florida’s 2024 gubernatorial contest (via NBC)

    In August polls conducted for Club For Growth Action, Trump led DeSantis in Iowa, was tied with him in New Hampshire, and trailed by just seven points in Florida. Now, he finds himself well behind in all three. 

    Trump tumbled fast in Texas too. Just last month, the former president easily led among Lone Star State Republicans, 46% to 29%, but is now down 11 points.  

    It remains to be seen if some of the glow of DeSantis’ reelection will prove temporary, or if Trump is able to boost his own prospects by attacking his undeclared rival.  

    In the days leading up to the midterm elections, Trump called the popular Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious.” After the election, Trump threatened him, hinting he would reveal “things about him that won’t be very flattering…I know more about him than anybody, other than, perhaps, his wife.”

    Ron and Casey DeSantis (Office of Florida Governor, via People)

    Likely referring to Trump’s jabs at DeSantis, Club for Growth president David McIntosh said:

    “Our polling shows that Republican primary voters recognize Trump’s insults against Republicans as hollow and counterproductive, and it’s taking a significant toll on his support.”

    The polls themselves may be a sign that Trump is also in growing disfavor with Republican Party leadership and allied organizations. Politico characterized the very release of the Club For Growth Action poll as a shot across Trump’s bow: 

    “The conservative Club for Growth is sending a warning shot at former President Donald Trump on the eve of his expected 2024 campaign launch — and indicating it might back his chief potential rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.    …

    The release of the memo represents the latest twist in a complicated relationship between the Club for Growth and Trump. After savaging Trump during the 2016 campaign, the conservative group became an ally during his White House tenure.“

    Tensions came to a boil in this year’s Ohio Senate primary, as Club for Growth backed Josh Mandel while Trump backed J.D. Vance. Politico reports that, as things deteriorated, Trump sent a pointed message to Club For Growth’s McIntosh: “Go fuck yourself.” Trump’s candidate won the primary and the general election. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 20:40

  • Wealth Of China's Richest Plunges By 39% In 2022
    Wealth Of China’s Richest Plunges By 39% In 2022

    Authored by Nie Law, Shan Lam, and Harry McKenny via The Epoch Times,

    Forbes recently released China’s Richest 2022.  Among the top 100 richest people, 79 of them saw their wealth fall.

    The biggest wealth drop since Forbes’ records began with a drop of 39 percent – from $1.48 trillion in 2021 to $907.1 billion in 2022.

    At the same time, the “Hurun China Rich List” also shows that the number of Chinese billionaires in 2022 has the biggest drop within the past 24 years.

    The following information is from the Forbes report dated Nov. 11, 2022, and the previous year’s totals are dated Nov. 17, 2021:

    1. Nongfu Spring, Zhong Shanshan, the richest people in mainland China, wealth dropped five percent to $62.3 billion from $65.9 billion in 2021.

    2. ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, with a fortune of $49.5 billion, down $9.9 billion from $59.4 in 2021.

    3. CATL, Zeng Yuqun, battery manufacturer, with a fortune of $28.9 billion, down 43 percent from last year’s $50.8 billion.

    4. Tencent, Ma Huateng, with a fortune of $23.4 billion, plummeted $25.7 billion (nearly 50 percent) from 2021.

    5. Alibaba, Jack Ma, with a fortune of $20.3 billion.

    6. SF Holding, Wang Wei, $19.6 billion.

    7. Midea Group, He Chunjian, $18.8 billion.

    8. NetEase Inc., Ding Lei, $19.7 billion.

    9. Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng, $18.6 billion.

    10. Muyuan Shares, Qin Yinglin, $18.4 billion.

    Xiao mi, the founder Leijun dropped 50 percent of wealth from US$17.9 billion in 2021 to US$7.6 billion in 2022, ranked 37th this year

    JD.com, the chairperson Liu Qiangdong, fell more than 50 percent to $8.3 billion from $17.6 billion, ranked 32nd this year.

    Worst Drop from Real Estate

    The 82 percent biggest drop in net worth from real estate tycoon Yang Huiyan, Country Garden (Property Development), from $27.8 billion to $4.91 billion.

    China Evergrande, the founder Xu Jiayin and many other real estate billionaires even failed to make the list this time.

    Biggest Loss of Billionaires in 24 Years

    The 2022 Hurun China Rich List released by the Hurun Research Institute on Nov. 8 shows that the drop in the number of Chinese billionaires this year is the largest within the past 24 years.

    A total of 1,305 entrepreneurs in China have wealth of more than 5 billion yuan (approx. US$0.71 billion) this year, a decrease of 160 people or 11 percent from last year, and their total wealth also fell 18 percent from last year to 24.5 trillion yuan (US$3.5 trillion).

    Only 411 people on the list saw their wealth increase compared to last year.  1,187 people shrank or stayed more or less the same compared to last year, while 293 people even fell off the list this time round.

    On the list, 1,121 billionaires live in mainland China, 90 in Hong Kong, 67 in Macau and Taiwan, and the remaining 27 live outside China.

    Among the 293 who fell out of the list, the real estate sector suffered the most, accounting for 14 percent of the loss, followed by the health industry, accounting for another 12 percent.  When it comes to locations, the city with the largest number of dropouts is Shanghai at 15 percent, followed by Beijing at 11.

    Traditional Industries Overtake Information Technology

    Rupert Hoogewerf (also known by his Chinese alias as Hu Run), chairperson of the Hurun Report, described that traditional industries had risen significantly this year.

    It is surprising to see that in an era of rapid technological development, China’s richest man is Zhong Shanshan of Nongfu Spring, a mineral water company, whose wealth is almost the sum of  Zhang Yiming from ByteDance in 2nd place, and Zeng Yuqun, the 3rd ranked owner of an electric vehicle battery manufacturer. 

    Li Ka-shing surpassed Ma Huateng of Tencent for the first time in five years.

    Pig farmer Qin Yinglin, overtook Ma Yun of Alibaba for the first time.

    ‘Global Economic Recession and Inflation Will Persist’

    Xie Tian, ​​a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina in the U.S., told the Epoch Times on Nov. 12 that the wealth of the Chinese riches in high-tech and Internet-related companies has declined, while those in traditional real industries such as mineral water and pig farming are raising. This is a trend that can be seen globally.

    The overall U.S. stock market has fallen 30 percent to 40 percent this year, with technology stocks bearing most of the brunt, leading to many e-commerce and Internet giants, such as Twitter and Facebook, laying off workers.

    Xie analyzed that the decline of U.S. technology stocks is the result of inflation and economic downturn in the entire world, and such a decline of U.S. technology stocks also has a negative impact on the shares of China’s tech companies. China’s technology stocks had long been criticized as overpriced and frothy. Coupled with the current economic recession in China, it is no surprise it has a tremendous negative impact on the wealth of mainland China’s richest. When stocks in high-tech, Internet, e-commerce, and other industries decline, in contrast, stocks in more traditional primitive industries such as mineral water and pig farming will go up.

    Xie also speculates that this trend will continue for at least the next half to one year because the global economic recession and inflation problems will persist in 2023, casting a similar trend in next year’s rich list.

    The Economic Indicator

    Political and economic commentator Simon Li Sai-man (pen name) pointed out to the Epoch Times on Nov. 12 that it is not just the wealth of the richest in China that has fallen. The wealth of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other wealthy guys has also shrunk. The strong dollar itself is indeed causing a certain impact on the global economy.

    Simon Li also believes that how much wealth the richest have is not the best indicator of the region’s economy.  When the economy turns bad, it is the average person who will bear most of the brunt. To analyze the economic situation of a region, we should better refer to indicators such as the employment rate of students leaving college.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 20:20

  • Dwindling US Cattle Herd Implies Supermarket Beef Prices May Rise Even More
    Dwindling US Cattle Herd Implies Supermarket Beef Prices May Rise Even More

    The US Department of Agriculture will release a report Friday that might show ranchers sent the fewest cattle to feedlots in a decade. Cattle generally spend several months at feedlots while they grow and gain body fat and muscle before being transported to a meat packing plant. Fewer cattle at feedlots may only imply dwindling beef supplies and high prices at the supermarket.

    Bloomberg’s average estimate for cattle placed into feedlots in October is about 2.17 million, a decline from nearly 2.5 million in early 2019 (right before the virus pandemic), and the lowest level since 2012. 

    Source: Bloomberg 

    “That’s a reversal from recent months, when ranchers faced with dwindling supplies and sharply higher prices for hay moved more animals off the ranch, helping to keep meat supplies relatively plentiful. Fewer animals moving closer to slaughter would signal herds are shrinking, which will likely mean higher meat prices down the road,” Bloomberg said.

    … and meat is becoming a luxury: ground beef prices per pound at the supermarket are up 25% since early 2020 and more than 134% since 2009.

    But don’t worry because supermarkets are finalizing plans to stock insects on their shelves and market them as an affordable food source for people struggling to purchase groceries. 

    Just remember, who wants you to eat bugs… 

    Or this…

    Besides beef, food inflation remains at the highest levels since the late 1970s, crushing the pocketbooks of Americans as they drain their savings and rack up credit card debt just to buy essentials. 

    Perhaps readers should ignore WEF’s messaging to eat bugs, as well as Bloomberg’s op-ed writer that advised people to eat lentils — how about venturing into the great outdoors and becoming a hunter. That could be your ticket to inexpensive grass-fed venison. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 20:00

  • Indian Gold Demand Continued Strong In October
    Indian Gold Demand Continued Strong In October

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    Festival and wedding buying boosted gold demand in India last month and the outlook looks strong moving forward.

    The arrival of festivals and the wedding season coincide with a price pullback last month. This helped drive Indian retail demand higher according to the World Gold Council, pushing the local market back into a premium for most of the month.

    October retail demand remained strong with the onset of festivals and weddings. The festivals of Dussehra and Dhanteras sparked fresh demand for physical gold towards the end of the month. … With a stable gold price before this date, demand received a boost from sales of jewelry (for weddings and everyday wear) as well as bar and coin purchases.

    Moving forward, the WGC projects demand will remain healthy, supported by the ongoing wedding season. Growing consumer confidence in urban areas could also boost gold demand. But there could be some headwinds in rural areas due to lower crop production.

    Considering the strong start to Q4 and the interplay between urban and rural demand in the months ahead, we expect overall retail demand to remain above pre-pandemic levels in the quarter, although possibly below that of 2021, at which time there was a huge boost from pent-up demand post-2020-2021 lockdowns.”

    Investors also helped drive Indian gold demand higher. Indian gold ETFs charted inflows of  0.7 tons in October.  It was the second straight month Indian ETFs charted increases in gold holdings. This bucked the global trend of ETF outflows. According to the World Gold Council, total Indian ETG gold holdings to 39.2 tons by the end of October. Overall, Indian gold ETFs have seen small but meaningful net inflows of 1.6 tons year-to-date.

    The Reserve Bank of India also bought more gold in October, increasing its holdings by another ton. According to the latest available data, the RBI’s total gold reserves now stand at 786.3 tons.

    India ranks as the ninth largest gold-holding country in the world. Since resuming buying in late 2017, the Reserve Bank of India has purchased over 200 tons of gold. In August 2020, there were reports that the RBI was considering significantly raising its gold reserves.

    India ranks as the second-largest gold-consuming country in the world, second only behind China, but the gold market has languished over the last couple of years. The pandemic crushed demand, particularly for gold jewelry. But even before the pandemic, record-high gold prices in rupee terms and government policy put a drag on the gold market. There were signs of a turnaround late last year and it continued through the first quarter of 2022. The second COVID-19 wave stalled the gold market’s recovery in India early in Q2, but it regained steam later in the year with strong retail demand and a surge in gold imports.

    Indians traditionally buy and hold gold. Collectively, Indian households own an estimated 25,000 tons of gold and that number may be higher given the large black market in the country. The yellow metal is interwoven into the country’s marriage ceremonies and cultural rites. Indians also value gold as a store of wealth, especially in poor rural regions. Two-thirds of India’s gold demand comes from these areas, where most people live outside the official tax system.

    Gold is not just a luxury in India. Even poor people buy gold in the Asian nation. According to an ICE 360 survey in 2018, one in every two households in India purchased gold within the last five years. Overall, 87% of households in the country own some amount of the yellow metal. Even households at the lowest income levels in India own some gold. According to the survey, more than 75% of families in the bottom 10% had managed to buy gold.

    Gold served as a lifeline for many Indians during the pandemic.

    The Indian government’s response to the first wave of COVID-19 ravaged the economy. As a result, many banks were reluctant to extend credit due to fear of defaults. In this tight lending environment, many Indians used their stashes of gold to secure loans. As Indians battled the second wave of COVID-19, many Indians sold gold outright in order to make ends meet.

    Indians understand that gold tends to store value and that ultimately gold is money. If they have gold, they know they will be able to get the goods and services they need – even in the event of an economic meltdown. And while westerners may not embrace the cultural and religious aspects of the Indian love affair with gold, the economic reasons for their devotion to the yellow metal are every bit as applicable in places like the US.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 19:40

  • NYC Taxi Bust Over? Drivers Get First Price Hike Since 2012, Medallion Values Bottom
    NYC Taxi Bust Over? Drivers Get First Price Hike Since 2012, Medallion Values Bottom

    We have been following how ridesharing companies have decimated the taxi industry for years now, rendering New York City taxi medallions near-worthless. Then the virus pandemic collapsed demand as work-at-home flourished, followed by soaring inflation that made operating a yellow cab in the metro area super expensive. Meanwhile, drivers were forced to keep metered fares at decade-low levels throughout all of this, making it impossible to earn a living wage.  

    Thousands of yellow cab drivers were trapped in the taxi medallion boom that saw licenses to operate a taxi in the city skyrocket to a $1.32 million peak in 2014, then crash down to $79,106 in May 2021 and has since moved higher to about $140,000 late in 2022. 

    Numerous factors contributed to the bust. One of the biggest was ridesharing companies that decimated the taxi industry — this began in 2014. 

    While medallion prices slid for half a decade, many drivers who bought the license to operate a taxi on debt were underwater. They were unable to afford debt-servicing payments or putting food on the table. Some drivers committed suicide while others endlessly protested for government relief as the industry was in freefall. 

    Then came the pandemic, where demand froze. Even more drivers could not service their medallion loans because NYC’s progressive government forced a mandatory lockdown that halted the economy. Prices of the medallions cratered some more, losing a whopping 94% since the peak, but have since turned up some. Then inflation struck taxi drivers, as many found it nearly impossible to make a living wage. 

    And finally, after all the suffering, taxi drivers saw some much-needed relief this week when NYC’s Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to increase metered fares by 23%, the first price increase since 2012, Bloomberg reported. 

    The increase is obviously great for taxi drivers but will make rides around NYC more expensive. 

    “Raising taxi fare rates and minimum pay for high-volume drivers is the right thing to do for our city.

     “We are confident that today’s unanimous Commission vote will keep our taxi and FHV fleets sustainable and ready to serve New Yorkers,” TLC Commissioner David Do said in a statement.

    TLC boosted taxi metered rates from $2.50 to $3, with surcharges rising from $1 to $2.50 during rush hour. The overnight fee was raised from 50 cents to $1. The flat rate of about $52 to John F. Kennedy International Airport will jump to $70. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    The average taxi ride in the city will now cost $19.62 compared to $15.97. 

    A similar price hike will be seen for Uber and Lyft drivers. They will receive a 7% per minute price hike and 24% per mile. The average 7.5 miles trip, about 30 minutes of travel time, will now require a minimum charge of $27.15.

    “After a year of all drivers having to choose between food and fuel, and a decade of not just stagnation but loss for yellow cab drivers in particular, we’re relieved to see the raise be voted on,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a 25,000-member union of yellow cab and Uber and Lyft drivers. 

    The long overdue price hike is excellent for drivers but will add to the structural inflation of everything getting more expensive and ultimately hurt consumers’ discretionary spending. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 19:20

  • PA House Judiciary Committee Moved To Impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner
    PA House Judiciary Committee Moved To Impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner

    Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    In the final days of a Republican controlled Pennsylvania House, the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to move two impeachment articles against Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to the full House, which is expected to vote on it Wednesday.

    Philadelphia District Attorney Lawrence Krasner during a press conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Nov. 6, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

    The articles blame Krasner’s leadership in the district attorney’s office (DAO) as being a direct cause of increasing Philadelphia crime and accuse him of obstructing the impeachment investigation by not sufficiently complying with a subpoena from the Select Committee on Restoring Law and Order.

    That select committee released a report of its investigation on Oct. 24 and, although it did not recommend impeachment, it offered a grim look at Philadelphia’s crime.

    The report (pdf) looked at rising crime rates, the use of public funds intended for enforcing the law and prosecuting crime, the enforcement of crime victims’ rights, and the use of public funds intended to benefit crime victims in the City of Philadelphia.

    ‘Shocking Increases’ In Crime Under Krasner

    Between Jan. 1, 2021, and Oct. 16, 2022, the report says, 992 people have died as a result of a homicide in Philadelphia. The report compares that to the 557 homicide deaths in 2015 and 2016, combined. Nonfatal shootings have increased, too. In 2022, there have been eight victims of nonfatal shootings who have not yet celebrated their sixth birthdays.

    “It is no secret that the DAO and DA Krasner’s progressive policies are the focus of criticism with respect to the increasing crime rate, the handling of criminal cases, and the abject failure to respond, in any meaningful way, to the current crisis,” the report says. “Most troubling to the Select Committee, is what happens after arrests are made—the DAO’s prosecution, or lack thereof,” the report says.

    The office categorizes violent offenses as homicides, nonfatal shootings, rape, robberies, aggravated assault, and other forms of assault. To the date of the report, 65 percent of all violent offenses have been withdrawn by the DA’s office or dismissed by the courts, resulting in no prosecution for those crimes. Compared to district attorney’s offices in other Pennsylvania counties, the Philadelphia office withdraws cases much more often.

    “No doubt, Philadelphia criminals are emboldened by the knowledge that the likelihood that they will be arrested is slim, and once caught, the likelihood that they will be prosecuted and incarcerated is minimal,” the report says.

    Crime at ‘Unacceptable’ Levels

    Krasner is in his second term. If the House voted to impeach, the state Senate would conduct a trial, after which, a two-thirds vote from the Senate would be needed to impeach and remove Krasner. The Senate is still a Republican majority, but with 28 Republicans and 22 Democrats in the next session, it is not a two-thirds majority.

    “I suspect that we will have bipartisan support for this effort as we have thus far,” Rep. Martina White, a Philadelphia Republican and prime sponsor of the articles of impeachment, said in a press conference after the measure passed from committee. “The investigation and holding Larry Krasner in contempt was bipartisan. Tomorrow, I believe this will also be bipartisan because the people of Philadelphia deserve better than what they receive out of the district attorney’s office. He has not been doing his job well enough for us, endangering the lives of citizens that he’s supposed to serve and protect by prosecuting criminals and making sure that they’re convicted guilty, should the evidence be there. But that’s not what’s happening right now. The district attorney is basically withdrawing cases at an unprecedented level.”

    White said she wants to assure the citizens of Philadelphia that they can live the way they deserve, not having to worry about walking out their front door and being carjacked or worrying about sending kids to school only for them to be shot dead on the walk home from the gunfire of gang members who should be locked up in jail and convicted of previous crimes.

    “It’s unacceptable,” White said. “And now is the time to act. There’s no reason to wait any longer.”

    Krasner’s Words

    In a letter sent to the select committee Oct. 21, Krasner—a Democrat whose campaign was funded in part by billionaire George Soros—defended his work.

    “Criminologists know what works to prevent crime. It is not love for the NRA, opposition to reasonable gun regulations, or draconian sentences,” Krasner said. “It is investment in communities, fully funded public schools, mental health and addiction treatment resources, economic opportunity, trade school and higher education opportunity, keeping parents in the community (not in jail) when they have committed non-violent, non-serious offenses, and modern police reform, among other things. All leading criminological reports show zero correlation between crime and progressive/reform prosecution.”

    Krasner said every decision he makes as district attorney is with the goal of seeking justice and improving public safety.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 19:00

  • "Red Cup Rebellion" To Disrupt Starbucks Stores As Baristas Go On Strike
    “Red Cup Rebellion” To Disrupt Starbucks Stores As Baristas Go On Strike

    Starbucks workers at more than 100 US stores plan to walk off the job Thursday in a labor action during one of the coffee giant’s busiest days of the year, WaPo reported. 

    More than 2,000 members of the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) in 25 states, covering 112 stores across the country, will be participating in what is called the “Red Cup Rebellion.”

    The strike coincides with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day when free reusable cups are given to customers who purchase holiday drinks. Workers have said this day is one of the busiest of the year. 

    In an Instagram post, SWU said:

    “Starbucks Workers United is conducting a nationwide ULP Strike over the company’s refusal to bargain in good faith. Workers across this campaign are also calling for the company to fully staff our union stores, because we know that Short Staffing = Venti Wait Times. Starbucks thinks they can drag their feet in bargaining, and we’re here to show them we rebel against their tactics and we mean business – by shutting down theirs.” 

    SWU represents approximately 7,000 employees at hundreds of stores, but that’s only a tiny fraction compared to the chain’s 70,000 workforce.  

    “We unionized to fix a lot of problems with a job we really like,” Josie Serrano, a barista in Long Beach, Calif., told WaPo. 

    Workers seek higher pay, better working conditions, more consistent schedules, and higher staffing levels. 

    According to union leaders, Starbucks has countered the unionization effort by shuttering some stores. 

    Serrano continued: “It’s frustrating that the company that hired us doesn’t want to work to find a happy medium. … We want to send a strong signal to the company that, ‘Hey, this is not something we’re playing around with anymore.'”

    Here’s a map of stores on strike. 

    “This is the first time unionized baristas have banded together across the country to disrupt Starbucks’s operations,” WaPo said. 

    Workers from one store in Buffalo, New York, were the first to unionize about one year ago. Momentum has spread nationwide (read: here & here) this year as more than 300 stores in three dozen states have had union elections. Unionized stores only make up 3% of the 9,000 company-operated US stores. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 18:40

  • The Mid-Terms: The Hunger Gaming Of America
    The Mid-Terms: The Hunger Gaming Of America

    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    I’ve had this post in the back of my mind for years now.  But this week’s mid-terms have brought it to the forefront of my thinking.  

    There are very few movie experiences I’ve had in my life that rival the first time I watched The Hunger Games.  So much of my reaction was due to where I was at the time and how, frankly, shitty my life was then.

    It ranks for me right up there with seeing the Death Star blow up (age 10), to being rendered speechless for an hour after watching Full Metal Jacket (age 19) to sobbing uncontrollably for 40 minutes after a midnight showing of Schindler’s List (age 25).

    I watched The Hunger Games for the first time while flat on my back broke in late 2012 by myself in the post-midnight dark, metaphorically and physically.

    For 2+ hours I sat there in horror clutching a pillow because all I could see was my daughter needing a protector and knowing at that moment I wasn’t that person.  

    But as raw as my reaction to it was that night, it was the exact thing I needed at that moment to pick myself and keep going.

    So, the cynics in the audience can forgive me if they think me an old softy for falling so hard for a piece of what I can honestly look at as thinly-conceived allegory.

    Sometimes timing is everything.  

    When I put my economist’s hat back on, Suzanne Collins’ world is not well thought out.  It doesn’t hold up to deep scrutiny.  Most stories like this don’t and, honestly, they aren’t supposed to.

    As a writer, however, I’m still bowled over with her daring to write the books in first-person, present tense. Between a story metaphorically so very true and this bit of technical prowess I have nothing but immense respect, one professional to another.

    But as allegory, especially political allegory, The Hunger Games is uniquely powerful, addressing the fundamental evil of our society using our children as emotional blackmail to coerce our compliance to a system that is truly monstrous.

    And this brings me to the mid-term elections.

    This is our biannual Hunger Games and we all volunteer to be Tributes thinking our votes can change the system, rather than simply reinforce it by participating, even if only vicariously.

    Now that the steal is in full swing and the Senate falling to the Democrats, they will run the table on their full agenda — end the filibuster, pack the court, UBI, Climate Change, on-demand abortions of 7-day old babies and gun control.

    But the steal, which is real, is also equally supported by a broken and traumatized population so gaslit into believing things which are simply not true that it is easy to mask what’s happening.

    This gaslighting has rendered our threat detectors so hyperactive that they’ve been honed razor sharp.

    And on this knife edge rests all of our political calculus.

    We’re now dealing with people supporting the Democrats because “they can’t even…” bring themselves to vote for Republicans over the ungrounded fear that one step back from the Progressive madness of Critical Rage Theory and/or pushing back against the normalization of child sexualization is tantamount to embracing Nazism.

    But, sadly, this is where we are.

    To the true believers, we still haven’t gone far enough.

    But, they aren’t enough to move the needle as far as it did to give the Democrats a chance this election cycle.

    What should scare you more is the ones in the middle, the so-called independents. Their fear has them cowed into abdicating their civil responsibility by prioritizing decadence over protecting their children.

    In an environment this stressful too many have chosen fear of backsliding even an inch because that may lead to an over-correction.

    The fear over Roe v. Wade going away has too many people immediately thinking all abortions will be banned everywhere, when that’s simply not happened nor will it.

    Their arguments have devolved into allowing drag queens to twerk in a ball sack in front of eight-year-olds on the public dime lest one gay guy get harassed in a bar in rural Texas.

    It is perverse in the extreme.

    And that brings me back to The Hunger Games.

    The punishment for the violence of the past was an original sin never to be wiped clean. The outlying districts sacrifice their children to reinforce the Capitol’s control.

    All capital is sucked into The Capitol draining the Districts of not only their vitality but their dignity through the ritualistic humiliation of thinking one of them has a chance at winning the annual event.

    But the districts farthest from The Capitol never win. It’s a once-in-a-generation event. Here Collins gets the economics of fiat currency correct. Those closest to the money printing get the lion’s share of the spoils.

    And this ritualistic theft fuels a contempt for the unwashed as real as the deaths in the arena and a sympathy for them as fake as the capital which supports their empty lives. The decadence of The Capitol is a reflection of the giant wealth vacuum the entire society is designed around.

    Which brings me back to the mid-terms.

    With each election cycle the disparity between the rural and the urban centers grows wider. But it’s not just a disparity of ‘capital’ or wealth. It’s a disparity of morality.

    Those in the cities voting for more funds from the public till believe they are entitled, ultimately, to the Tribute from the rural areas. But, without those rural communities producing the food and energy there is no urban center.

    There are no gay rights or abortion debates.

    There’s just the jungle.

    And that’s what really drives the fear of the urbanites who voted blue even though they tell themselves red is even worse. They know that letting their collective boot off the neck of those they’ve tyrannized through the fake power of a corrupt democratic process leads to a future without them.

    So, they expect everyone to show up for work, pay Tribute to the Capitol and shut their deplorable mouth-breathing pie-holes while they deny they’re stealing your voice, a voice you aren’t entitled to because well, they’re your betters.

    Or, at least, that’s what I keep hearing on Twitter.

    And that’s why Katniss’ story is our story, the example of one girl strong enough to understand the rules of the game so intuitively that when their fake story of a fake romance for a fake catharsis to feed the emotional infancy of a bunch of entitled fakers plays out to its Shakespearean end…

    … the Capitol blinks and the illusion of its control falls away. And everyone knows it, fueling an anger, long seething which soon catches fire. I warned everyone don’t turn the silent majority into The Fremen.

    Now there’s no turning back from it happening.

    And I don’t think the odds will be in favor of the real enemies of the people.

    *  *  *

    Join my Patreon if you don’t want to go hungry

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 18:20

  • Japan Weighs Raising Taxes On EVs With "Higher Output Motors"
    Japan Weighs Raising Taxes On EVs With “Higher Output Motors”

    Just days ago, we reported that the UK was looking to raise more tax revenue from electric vehicles, shattering the years-long assumption that if you contributed to “helping the environment” by buying an EV, you’d be entitled to subsidies and tax credits.

    Now, Japan appears to be following suit. 

    The country’s internal affairs ministry is reportedly weighing whether or not to raise taxes on electric vehicles in order to make up for a shortfall in income from taxes on traditional gas powered cars, Bloomberg reported Thursday morning.

    Currently, electric vehicle owners pay a flat fee of 25,000 yen per year to local governments, but the ministry is interested in potentially altering this framework for vehicles that have “higher output motors”, the report says. 

    The ministry will reportedly ask the ruling coalition to “consider the change” for inclusion in the 2023 tax code, Bloomberg reports. Even then, the change could take several years to come into effect. 

    Recall, we wrote back on November 5 that UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to put an electric vehicle excise tax in place by 2025-2026. 

    This month’s Autumn Statement will include the measures, according to FT, who said people familiar with the road tax is part of a larger plan to address a fall in motoring tax revenues caused by the shift to EVs, which leave out fuel-related taxes.

    Fuel duty raises about £35bn, but the Treasury has warned that a growing number of EVs on the road could cause this number to plunge by £2.1bn by 2026-27. Ergo, a new excise duty on EVs could take place by 2025-2026.

    More than 1 million EVs on the roads of the UK could wind up being affected. As is the case globally, sales of EVs continue to accelerate, with about 15% of new vehicles sold so far this year moving away from traditional ICE power. 

    How soon before the U.S. follows suit? 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/17/2022 – 18:00

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Nov 17

Today’s News 17th November 2022

  • Techno-Authoritarianism Is Here To Stay: China & The Deep State Have Joined Forces
    Techno-Authoritarianism Is Here To Stay: China & The Deep State Have Joined Forces

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back.”

    – Senator Frank Church

    The votes are in.

    No matter who runs for office, no matter who controls the White House, Senate or the House of Representatives now or in the future, “we the people” have already lost.

    We have lost because the future of this nation is being forged beyond the reach of our laws, elections and borders by techno-authoritarian powers with no regard for individuality, privacy or freedom.

    The fate of America is being made in China, our role model for all things dystopian.

    An economic and political powerhouse that owns more of America’s debt than any other country and is buying up American businesses across the spectrum, China is a vicious totalitarian regime that routinely employs censorship, surveillance, and brutal police state tactics to intimidate its populace, maintain its power, and expand the largesse of its corporate elite.

    Where China goes, the United States eventually follows. This way lies outright tyranny.

    Censorship. China’s censorship machine is straight out of Orwell’s 1984 with government agencies and corporations working together to limit the populace’s freedom of expression. Just a few years ago, in fact, China banned the use of the word “disagree,” as well as references to George Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and 1984. Government agencies routinely harass and intimidate anyone seen as non-compliant. Activists are frequently penalized for gathering in public places and charged criminally with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” China has also gone to great lengths to muzzle journalists reporting on corruption or human rights abuses.

    Surveillance. COVID-19 brought China’s Orwellian surveillance out of the shadows and gave China the perfect excuse for unleashing the full force of its expansive and sophisticated surveillance and data collection powers on its citizenry and the rest of the world. Thermal scanners using artificial intelligence (AI) were installed at train stations in major cities to assess body temperatures and identify anyone with a fever. Facial recognition cameras and cell phone carriers tracked people’s movements constantly, reporting in real time to data centers that could be accessed by government agents and employers alike. And coded color alerts (red, yellow and green) sorted people into health categories that corresponded to the amount of freedom of movement they’re allowed: “Green code, travel freely. Red or yellow, report immediately.”

    Social media credit scores. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese surveillance state had already been hard at work tracking its citizens through the use of some 200 million security cameras installed nationwide. Equipped with facial recognition technology, the cameras allow authorities to track so-called criminal acts, such as jaywalking, which factor into a person’s social credit score. Social media credit scores assigned to Chinese individuals and businesses categorize them on whether or not they are “good” citizens. A “citizen score” determines one’s place in society based on one’s loyalty to the government. A real-name system—which requires people to use government-issued ID cards to buy mobile sims, obtain social media accounts, take a train, board a plane, or even buy groceries—coupled with social media credit scores ensures that those blacklisted as “unworthy” are banned from accessing financial markets, buying real estate or travelling by air or train. Among the activities that can get you labeled unworthy are taking reserved seats on trains or allegedly causing trouble in hospitals.

    Safe, smart cities. Having pioneered the development of so-called “safe” smart cities, China is exporting worldwide the high-tech communities in which residents are monitored round the clock, their every action under constant surveillance, and every device is connected to a central brain operated by artificial intelligence. As privacy expert Vincent Mosco concludes, “The benefit from smart cities clearly goes to the authorities who are able to use the promise of the modern, high-tech city to extend and deepen surveillance. It also goes to the big tech companies who profit first from building the smart city infrastructure and secondly by commodifying the entire smart city space. Citizens gain some operational efficiency but at great cost to their liberty.”

    Digital currency. China has already adopted a government-issued digital currency, which not only allows it to surveil and seize people’s financial transactions, but can also work in tandem with its social credit score system to punish individuals for moral lapses and social transgressions (and reward them for adhering to government-sanctioned behavior). As China expert Akram Keram wrote for The Washington Post, “With digital yuan, the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] will have direct control over and access to the financial lives of individuals, without the need to strong-arm intermediary financial entities. In a digital-yuan-consumed society, the government easily could suspend the digital wallets of dissidents and human rights activists.”

    Digital authoritarianism will redefine what it means to be free in almost every aspect of our lives. Again, we must look to China to understand what awaits us. As Human Rights Watch analyst Maya Wang explains: “Chinese authorities use technology to control the population all over the country in subtler but still powerful ways. The central bank is adopting digital currency, which will allow Beijing to surveil—and control—people’s financial transactions. China is building so-called safe cities, which integrate data from intrusive surveillance systems to predict and prevent everything from fires to natural disasters and political dissent. The government believes that these intrusions, together with administrative actions, such as denying blacklisted people access to services, will nudge people toward ‘positive behaviors,’ including greater compliance with government policies and healthy habits such as exercising.”

    AI surveillance. In much the same way that Chinese products have infiltrated almost every market worldwide and altered consumer dynamics, China is now exporting its “authoritarian tech” to governments worldwide ostensibly in an effort to spread its brand of totalitarianism worldwide. In fact, both China and the United States have led the way in supplying the rest of the world with AI surveillance, sometimes at a subsidized rate. In the hands of tyrants and benevolent dictators alike, AI surveillance is the ultimate means of repression and control, especially through the use of smart city/safe city platforms, facial recognition systems, and predictive policing. These technologies are also being used by violent extremist groups, as well as sex, child, drug, and arms traffickers for their own nefarious purposes.

    While countries with authoritarian regimes have been eager to adopt AI surveillance, as the Carnegie Endowment’s research makes clear, liberal democracies are also “aggressively using AI tools to police borders, apprehend potential criminals, monitor citizens for bad behavior, and pull out suspected terrorists from crowds.” Moreover, it’s easy to see how the China model for internet control has been integrated into the American police state’s efforts to flush out so-called anti-government, domestic extremists. This is how totalitarianism conquers the world.

    Secret police. According to recent reports, China has planted more than 54 secret police forces in 25 cities around the world, including the United States, as part of their efforts to track and threaten dissidents and deport them back to China for prosecution. The campaign to surveil, intimidate and punish ex-patriates living abroad engaging in dissent has been dubbed Operation Fox Hunt. As one human rights agency noted, “The message from the [Chinese] ministry of foreign affairs – that you are not safe anywhere, that we can find you and that we can get to you – is very effective.”

    Police brutality. Not much has changed about China’s brutal crackdown on protesters in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chinese policing remains brutal, excessive and inflexible, now with the added power of the surveillance state behind it.

    Intimidation tactics. China has mastered the art of intimidation tactics, threatening activists, their families and their livelihood should they fail to comply with the government’s dictates. As one activist explained, “There have been telephone calls in the middle of the night that family members won’t find work if you don’t cooperate with the government, or that your parents’ phone number will be posted online and they’ll be harassed. Or with Uyghurs, that the rest of your family will be put in camps.”

    Disappearance, brainwashing and torture. Those who fail to fall in line with China’s dictates are often made to disappear, arrested in the dead of night and imprisoned in Orwellian re-education camps. China has built more than 400 of these internment camps in recent years to detain people for offenses that run the gamut from challenging the government to so-called religious crimes such as owning a Qur’an or abstaining from eating pork. As the Guardian reports, “abuses include detailed arbitrary detentions, torture and medical neglect in the detention camps and coercive birth control.”

    China’s global influence, its technological reach, its quest for world domination, and its rigid demand for compliance are pushing us towards a world in chains.

    Through its growing stranglehold on surveillance technology, China has erected the world’s first digital totalitarian state, and in the process, has made itself a model for aspiring dictators everywhere.

    What too many fail to recognize, however, is that China and the American Deep State have joined forces.

    As I make clear in Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is fascism hiding behind a thin veneer of open government and populist elections.

    For all intents and purposes, we have become the embodiment of what Philip K. Dick feared when he wrote The Man in the High Castle, a vision of an alternate universe in which the Axis powers defeat the Allies in World War II, and “fascism has not simply conquered America. It has insinuated itself, with disturbing ease, into America’s DNA.”

    Yet while Dick’s vision of a world in which totalitarianism has been normalized is chilling, our growing reality of a world in which the Deep State is not merely entrenched but has gone global is downright terrifying.

    Our national flag may not boast the red and white stripes with a swastika on a field of blue as depicted in The Man in the High Castle, but be warned: we are no less occupied.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 23:40

  • "Seismic Unrest Burbling" Under World's Largest Active Volcano In Hawaii
    “Seismic Unrest Burbling” Under World’s Largest Active Volcano In Hawaii

    United States Geological Survey data shows earthquake swarms continue around the world’s largest active volcano, Mauna Loa, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Such unrest could be a precursor to an eruption not seen in decades. 

    In the 24 hours ending Tuesday, at least 50 quakes measuring 3.0 magnitude or below rattled Mauna Loa. Geologists are worried the quakes are signs magma churns underneath the volcano could spark an eruption, though there are no signs of anything imminent. 

    Here’s USGS’ latest update: 

    Mauna Loa continues to be in a state of heightened unrest as indicated by increased earthquake activity and inflation of the summit. The current unrest is most likely being driven by renewed input of magma 2–5 miles (3–8 km) beneath Mauna Loa’s summit.

    During the past 24 hours, HVO [Hawaii Volcano Observatory] detected 50 small-magnitude (below M3.0) earthquakes 2–3 miles (2–5 km) below Mokuʻāweoweo caldera and 4–5 miles (6–8 km) beneath the upper-elevation northwest flank of Mauna Loa. Both of these regions have historically been seismically active during periods of unrest on Mauna Loa.

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    This heightened unrest began in mid-Sept. with increased earthquake rates below the Mauna Loa summit. By October, we reported the volcano was placed on red alert. 

    “Geologists say they expect to see more persistent and heightened rate of ground deformation and seismicity before a future eruption,” Fox Weather noted. 

    Mauna Loa is about half of the Hawaii Island landmass. So any eruption would immediately impact residents. There are about 200,000 people on the island. It last erupted in 1984, and lava flows took out homes in under two hours. 

    Swarms of quakes are sometimes the first indications of volcanic reawakening. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 23:20

  • Escobar: Russia, India, China, Iran – The Quad That Really Matters
    Escobar: Russia, India, China, Iran – The Quad That Really Matters

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    Southeast Asia is right at the center of international relations for a whole week viz a viz three consecutive summits: Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Phnom Penh, the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Bali, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok.

    Eighteen nations accounting for roughly half of the global economy represented at the first in-person ASEAN summit since the Covid-19 pandemic in Cambodia: the ASEAN 10, Japan, South Korea, China, India, US, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand.

    With characteristic Asian politeness, the summit chair, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (or “Colombian”, according to the so-called “leader of the free world”), said the plenary meeting was somewhat heated, but the atmosphere was not tense: “Leaders talked in a mature way, no one left.”

    It was up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to express what was really significant at the end of the summit.

    While praising the “inclusive, open, equal structure of security and cooperation at ASEAN”, Lavrov stressed how Europe and NATO “want to militarize the region in order to contain Russia and China’s interests in the Indo-Pacific.”

    A manifestation of this policy is how “AUKUS is openly aiming at confrontation in the South China Sea,” he said.

    Lavrov also stressed how the West, via the NATO military alliance, is accepting ASEAN “only nominally” while promoting a completely “unclear” agenda.

    What’s clear though is how NATO “has moved towards Russian borders several times and now declared at the Madrid summit that they have taken global responsibility.”

    This leads us to the clincher: “NATO is moving their line of defense to the South China Sea.” And, Lavrov added, Beijing holds the same assessment.

    Here, concisely, is the open “secret” of our current geopolitical incandescence. Washington’s number one priority is the containment of China. That implies blocking the EU from getting closer to the key Eurasia drivers  – China, Russia, and Iran – engaged in building the world’s largest free trade/connectivity environment.

    Adding to the decades-long hybrid war against Iran, the infinite weaponizing of the Ukrainian black hole fits into the initial stages of the battle.

    For the Empire, Iran cannot profit from becoming a provider of cheap, quality energy to the EU. And in parallel, Russia must be cut off from the EU. The next step is to force the EU to cut itself off from China.

    All that fits into the wildest, warped Straussian/neo-con wet dreams: to attack China, by emboldening Taiwan, first Russia must be weakened, via the instrumentalization (and destruction) of Ukraine.

    And all along the scenario, Europe simply has no agency.

    Putin, Raeisi and the Erdogan track

    Real life across key Eurasia nodes reveals a completely different picture. Take the relaxed get-together in Tehran between Russia’s top security official Nikolai Patrushev and his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani last week.

    They discussed not only security matters but also serious business – as in turbo-charged trade.

    The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will sign a $40 billion deal next month with Gazprom, bypassing US sanctions, and encompassing the development of two gas fields and six oilfields, swaps in natural gas and oil products, LNG projects, and the construction of gas pipelines.

    Immediately after the Patrushev-Shamkhani meeting, President Putin called President Ebrahim Raeisi to keep up the “interaction in politics, trade and the economy, including transport and logistics,” according to the Kremlin.

    Iranian president reportedly more than “welcomed” the “strengthening” of Moscow-Tehran ties.

    Patrushev unequivocally supported Tehran over the latest color revolution adventure perpetrated under the framework of the Empire’s endless hybrid war.

    Iran and the EAEU are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in parallel to the swap deals with Russian oil. Soon, SWIFT may be completely bypassed. The whole Global South is watching.

    Simultaneous to Putin’s phone call, Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan – conducting his own diplomatic overdrive, and just back from a summit of Turkic nations in Samarkand – stressed that the US and the collective West are attacking Russia “almost without limits”.

    Erdogan made it clear that Russia is a “powerful” state and commended its “great resistance”.

    The response came exactly 24 hours later. Turkish intelligence cut to the chase, pointing out that the terrorist bombing in the perpetually busy Istiklal pedestrian street in Istanbul was designed in Kobane in northern Syria, which essentially responds to the US.

    That constitutes a de-facto act of war and may unleash serious consequences, including a profound revision of Turkiye’s presence inside NATO.

    Iran’s multi-track strategy

    A Russia-Iran strategic alliance manifests itself practically as a historical inevitability. It recalls the time when the erstwhile USSR helped Iran militarily via North Korea, after an enforced US/Europe blockade.

    Putin and Raeisi are taking it to the next level. Moscow and Tehran are developing a joint strategy to defeat the weaponization of sanctions by the collective West.

    Iran, after all, has an absolutely stellar record of smashing variants of “maximum pressure” to bits. Also, it is now linked to a strategic nuclear umbrella offered by the “RICs” in BRICS (Russia, India, China).

    So, Tehran may now plan to develop its massive economic potential within the framework of BRI, SCO, INSTC, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), and the Russian-led Greater Eurasia Partnership.

    Moscow’s game is pure sophistication: engaging in a high-level strategic oil alliance with Saudi Arabia while deepening its strategic partnership with Iran.

    Immediately after Patrushev’s visit, Tehran announced the development of an indigenously built hypersonic ballistic missile, quite similar to the Russian KH-47 M2 Khinzal.

    And the other significant news was connectivity-wise: the completion of part of a railway from strategic Chabahar Port to the border with Turkmenistan. That means imminent direct rail connectivity to the Central Asian, Russian and Chinese spheres.

    Add to it the predominant role of OPEC+, the development of BRICS+, and the pan-Eurasian drive to pricing trade, insurance, security, investments in the ruble, yuan, rial, etc.

    There’s also the fact that Tehran could not care less about the endless collective West procrastination on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as Iran nuclear deal: what really matters now is the deepening relationship with the “RICs” in BRICS.

    Tehran refused to sign a tampered-with EU draft nuclear deal in Vienna. Brussels was enraged; no Iranian oil will “save” Europe, replacing Russian oil under a nonsensical cap to be imposed next month.

    And Washington was enraged because it was betting on internal tensions to split OPEC.

    Considering all of the above, no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is behaving like a bunch of headless chickens.

    The queue to join BRICS

    During the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand last September, it was already tacit to all players how the Empire is cannibalizing its closest allies.

    And how, simultaneously, the shrinking NATO-sphere is turning inwards, with a focus on The Enemy Within, relentlessly corralling average citizens to march in lockstep behind total compliance with a two-pronged war – hybrid and otherwise – against imperial peer competitors Russia and China.

    Now compare it with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Samarkand presenting China and Russia, together, as the top “responsible global powers” bent on securing the emergence of multipolarity.

    Samarkand also reaffirmed the strategic political partnership between Russia and India (Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it an unbreakable friendship).

    That was corroborated by the meeting between Lavrov and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar last week in Moscow.

    Lavrov praised the strategic partnership in every crucial area – politics, trade and economics, investment, and technology, as well as “closely coordinated actions” at the UN Security Council, BRICS, SCO and the G20.

    On BRICS, crucially, Lavrov confirmed that “over a dozen countries” are lining up for membership, including Iran: “We expect the work on coordinating the criteria and principles that should underlie BRICS expansion to not take much time”.

    But first, the five members need to analyze the ground-breaking repercussions of an expanded BRICS+.

    Once again: contrast. What is the EU’s “response” to these developments? Coming up with yet another sanctions package against Iran, targeting officials and entities “connected with security affairs” as well as companies, for their alleged “violence and repressions”.

    “Diplomacy”, collective West-style, barely registers as bullying.

    Back to the real economy – as in the gas front – the national interests of Russia, Iran and Turkiye are increasingly intertwined; and that is bound to influence developments in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, and will be a key factor to facilitate Erdogan’s re-election next year.

    As it stands, Riyadh for all practical purposes has performed a stunning 180-degree maneuver against Washington via OPEC+. That may signify, even in a twisted way, the onset of a process of unification of Arab interests, guided by Moscow.

    Stranger things have happened in modern history.

    Now appears to be the time for the Arab world to be finally ready to join the Quad that really matters: Russia, India, China, and Iran.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 23:00

  • Wray Refuses To Say If FBI Had Sources 'Dressed As Trump Supporters' On January 6
    Wray Refuses To Say If FBI Had Sources ‘Dressed As Trump Supporters’ On January 6

    FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to say whether the agency had confidential informants mixed among Trump supporters during the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riot.

    “Did the FBI have confidential human sources embedded within the Jan. 6 protesters on Jan. 6 of 2021?” Rep. Clay Higgins asked Wray on Tuesday.

    “As I’m sure you can appreciate, I have to be very careful about what I can say, about when we do and do not, and where we have and have not used confidential human sources,” Wray replied, adding “But to the extent there’s a suggestion, for example, that the FBI’s confidential human sources or FBI employees in someway instigated or orchestrated Jan 6th, that’s categorically false.”

    Higgins then asked, “Did you have confidential human sources dressed as Trump supporters inside the Capitol on January 6th prior to the doors being opened?”

    Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) questions FBI Director Christopher Wray in Washington on Nov. 15, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    To which Wray pushed back, “Again, I have to be very careful about what I can say.”

    “It should be a no!” Higgins interjected. “Can you not tell the American people: ‘no, we did not have confidential human sources dressed as Trump sources positioned inside the Capitol on January the 6th?”

    To which Wray replied: “You should not read anything into my decision not to share information about confidential human sources.”

    More via The Epoch Times,

    Higgins’s time to question Wray and other Biden administration officials then expired. He did not get to ask more questions later, and no other members pursued the line of questioning further.

    Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill.

    The FBI has never confirmed having confidential sources or undercover agents among the crowd on Jan. 6 but court filings indicate that a number of sources were embedded with the Oath Keepers and other groups whose members took part in the Capitol breach.

    Questioned on the matter in 2021, then-FBI official Jill Sanborn said she could not answer.

    Officials have also not answered questions about videos that show doors being opened on Jan. 6, enabling people to enter the Capitol.

    Later in the hearing, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said she was concerned about people thinking the FBI “is a political tool” and asked Wray to “explain in your words why they should trust their federal law enforcement.”

    Wray said that he hears from people outside the FBI that the FBI “does the right thing in the right way” and that he would “stack our workforce up against anywhere in the world, anytime.”

    “And the Americans should have deep confidence in those people. And I will add that when it comes to perceptions of the FBI, that the number of Americans all across this country applying to be special agents in the FBI, has been going up, up significantly over the past three years. At a time when, as I hear all the time, law enforcement all over this country is having the opposite experience. And I think that speaks very well of Americans in every state represented on this committee.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 22:40

  • Sheriffs Refuse To Enforce Democrat-Controlled State's New Gun Law
    Sheriffs Refuse To Enforce Democrat-Controlled State’s New Gun Law

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

    Several sheriffs in Oregon said they will not enforce the state’s new gun law that places a limit on magazine capacity, arguing that the provision violates the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

    A California-legal AR-15 style rifle is displayed for sale at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Calif., on June 5, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

    Oregon voters approved Measure 114, also known as the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, during the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The rule, among other restrictions, outlaws magazines that hold more than 10 rounds—similar to rules that have been implemented in New York, California, and other Democrat-controlled states.

    Several county sheriffs have publicly announced they won’t enforce the law or parts of the law.

    “The biggest thing is this does absolutely nothing to address the problem,” Sheriff Cody Bowen of Union County told Fox News on Tuesday. “The problem that we have is not… magazine capacity. It’s not background checks. It’s a problem with mental health awareness. It’s a problem with behavior health illness.”

    Bowen added that “society as a whole is a bigger problem rather than saying that, you know, the guns are killing people.” Union County, which is sparsely populated, is located in northeastern Oregon near the Idaho border.

    “There’s just no way possible for us to enforce that and nor would I simply because it’s an infringement on our Second Amendment, you know, our right to keep and bear arms,” he said, adding that it won’t reduce shootings in the state.

    Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe stated that he won’t enforce the magazine limit.

    “I don’t think this is superseding anything. I don’t believe that I am superseding state law by not enforcing it. Anybody in law enforcement, including the state police, including the governor, has to pick and choose what laws they are going to be able to enforce,” he told local media.

    Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan wrote on Nov. 9 in a Facebook post that she wants “to send a clear message to Linn County residents that the Linn County Sheriff’s Office is NOT going to be enforcing magazine capacity limits.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 22:20

  • Chuck Schumer Calls For Amnesty For Illegals Because Americans Are 'Not Reproducing'
    Chuck Schumer Calls For Amnesty For Illegals Because Americans Are ‘Not Reproducing’

    It’s a classic argument used ten years ago when European officials called for open borders and the acceptance of a mass injection of Islamic immigrants into the region – The idea that westerners are not having enough babies to support population replacement, and thus, open borders must be established. 

    Chuck Schumer is promoting the same concept for the US, with calls for amnesty for 11 million+ illegals.  Americans aren’t reproducing anymore, according to Schumer, and so immigration is the only answer.

    There are many problems with this nonsensical philosophy, with the most obvious being that population replacement from non-western countries that do not respect western values leads to cultural destruction.  As we have seen with the exponential rise in crime and instability within European countries where immigrants are most concentrated (like Sweden), there are often consequences to open borders. 

    The EU has desperately tried to deny the rising threat and has even commissioned multiple studies in an attempt to debunk the idea, but you can’t tell a population they are not experiencing more crime after migrants overrun their neighborhoods when they are witnessing the crime daily.  In many cases, European governments have even sought to cover up migrant crimes, refusing to prosecute because this would be an admission of the failure of open border policies.

    This behavior has been cited as one of the primary reasons for the rise of “right wing” parties in Europe in the past few years, after decades of socialist dominance.  Immigration without review and without vetting makes no sense, and it is a policy pushed onto western countries by ideologues while almost every other nation in the world maintains restrictions. 

    Why is the west expected to embrace open borders while other cultures and countries are not?

    It should be noted that Democrats have become outraged after buses filled with illegal immigrants were sent to major leftist cities including New York and Washington DC, with the mayors of those cities declaring a state of emergency and asking for federal intervention and the National Guard.  Major Democrat controlled cities can’t handle the influx of a mere 10,000 to 15,000 migrants, let alone millions; hardly proof that mass immigration is good for the economy. 

    Amnesty promoters often argue that they only want citizenship for illegals that have been in the US for years.  However, amnesty for those people encourages the increased migration of others.  The cycle never ends, with the US border now facing record numbers of illegals under the Biden Administration.

    Furthermore, if Democrats are worried about inflation and population decline, then why do they continue to defend abortion?  The best way to shore up the US population would be to stop the use of abortion as a convenient form of birth control for people that don’t want to take the pill or use a condom.  The two policies contradict because the Democrats do not care about the economy, nor do they care about population replacement.  What they care about is transplanting millions of immigrants into the US, most of which come from socialist countries, and using them as a voting bloc to secure power for generations to come.  

    Not only that, but one could argue that leftists also want the destruction of western culture because it harbors ideals of freedom that do not exist in most other cultures.  With the west invaded and our principles diluted, our freedoms will be easier to eliminate and our system easier to supplant and replace.     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 22:00

  • Short-Covers Unwind One Of The Most-Crowded Trades
    Short-Covers Unwind One Of The Most-Crowded Trades

    By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

    The recovery of Chinese assets has been fast and furious. It was mainly driven by short-covering, according to Morgan Stanley. Now that peak pessimism has been pared and positioning is less lopsided, the easy part of the rally may be behind us. Improving data and a successful retreat from Covid Zero are needed to keep the momentum going.

    Bank of America’s latest fund-manager survey shows investors saw shorting Chinese equities as the second-most crowded trade after long-dollar positions. The survey was conducted between Nov. 4 and Nov. 10, sandwiched between the party congress that disappointed investors and the official confirmation of the fine-tuning of the Covid policy.

    The crowded positioning suggests short-covering may be one of the drivers that pushed the MSCI China Index up 26% this month, after Beijing loosened Covid restrictions and stepped up the support for the housing market. Indeed, Morgan Stanley’s quant analysts found evidence supporting the theory. Strategists including Gilbert Wong wrote:

    Regional hedge funds were covering short positions from the YTD high levels of short interest, while some hedge fund managers in China were building tactical long positions again to chase the rally. 

    They believe the rally would be prolonged into year-end amid rising expectation of various fundamental improvements – e.g., Covid-zero relaxation and a temporary easing of geopolitical tensions. Thus, the most shorted stocks were leading the covering flows, resulting in the rally of low-quality and unprofitable tech plays.

    What’s more interesting is that the rally has been so quick that trading signals for trend-following strategies have flipped from short to long, according to the strategists. “Their algorithms have to trade on a reversal basis in the near term to minimize drawdown risk,” Wong wrote.

    That shift in expectations is also captured by Bank of America’s survey of Asian investors. A net 26% of investors said they’d overweight China, up from 14% in the October survey. The overweight is more than any other places in the region.

    Make no mistake: The nascent optimism is more tactical than structural. A whopping 80% of the survey respondents said that the China equity market is in a “structural de-rating process.”

    In other words, don’t overstay the party.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 21:40

  • SpaceX Attempting To Raise Funding At $150 Billion Valuation
    SpaceX Attempting To Raise Funding At $150 Billion Valuation

    Well, that’s one way to try and help alleviate a cash crunch at your empire…

    SpaceX is reportedly attempting to raise a funding round that values the space exploration company at a whopping $150 billion, multiple reports, including one from Bloomberg, on Tuesday confirmed. 

    The report cited “people familiar with the matter” and people “asking not to be identified discussing confidential information”. The valuation is a boost from the $125 billion the company sported earlier this year. 

    Terms have not yet been finalized and could change, Bloomberg noted.

    Shares are being talked about at $85 each, which is up from $70 price that the company last funded itself at. It looks as though employees will be able to sell into the funding round, as, well, Bloomberg noted:

    “Investors may buy new shares in SpaceX at the same time employees sell via a private placement, or tender offer, at the same valuation…”

    Elon Musk responded to the report on Tuesday, calling it “false” on Twitter, without offering up additional details as to why the report was incorrect. SpaceX didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment before they published. 

    The news will come as welcome to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, who are early investors in SpaceX. The pension fund was most recently in the news for getting caught up in the FTX implosion to the tune of $95 million. Perhaps they can offload some SpaceX shares to try and offset the carnage in crypto…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 21:20

  • Yes, 3D-Printed Steaks Are A Thing
    Yes, 3D-Printed Steaks Are A Thing

    Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

    Believe it or not, 3d printed meat may soon be on its way to a store near you. Reuters recently reported that Israel’s Redefine Meat has struck a partnership with importer Giraudi Meats to drive the distribution of its ‘New Meat’ steak cuts produced on 3D printers. At this time, they will be targeting the European market.

    Redefine hopes to reach thousands of restaurants by the end of next year with its plant-based whole cuts of alternative meat. Their product, which mimics meat, or as they say, flank steak, is a mix of soy and pea protein, chickpeas, beetroot, nutritional yeasts, and coconut fat.

    The Israeli company has been working with about 150 restaurants in Israel, they say the whole cuts they offer will broaden the appeal of alternative meat products. These, up until now, have mostly been limited to ground-beef dishes, including hamburgers and sausages.

    Is This What We Want?

    As the larger cuts of alternative meat which are more complicated to produce evolve, companies are gearing up to meet the demand which could reach $140 billion by 2029, according to Barclays. This would account for about 10% of the world’s market for meat.

    “We’re scaling up the capacity. Every batch that we make is five times larger than the previous batch. So we’re changing … the machines, the flow and we’re also changing the product attributes.” Redefine Meat’s CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit said.

    To be clear, Redefine Meat, is not the only company moving in the direction of what some of us see as “fake meat.” In fact, competition in this sector is growing, players include California’s Beyond Meat (BYND.O) and Impossible Foods as well as Spain’s Novameat, and Israel’s Aleph Farms, which is developing a method to cultivate meat in the lab from cow cells.

    Adding New Meaning To, Where’s The Beef?

    It is likely that if Europe does not reject this concoction, it will soon reach our shores. To many Americans and other people across the world, this will most likely be viewed as an abomination pushed upon us by climate change activists that see cattle as harming the environment. 

    This move to produce food in ways foreign to nature can also be framed as proof that mankind is moving further from its roots and off into some strange bizarre future.

    This is certainly not something our ancestors would not have seen coming.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 21:00

  • Did SBF Buy Puff-Piece Propaganda?
    Did SBF Buy Puff-Piece Propaganda?

    As FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces extradition to the USA following his fund’s commingled asset implosion, one might be a bit confused about the gravity of the situation given recent press coverage.

    For example, the NY Times on Monday published a cowering puff-piece which mentioned exactly none of the major accusations against the well-connected Democrat mega-donor.

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    Months before his firm imploded, Vox penned a slobbering review of SBF’s “Effective Altruism” program, painting him as a benevolent crime-fighter in his efforts to help ensure Joe Biden won the 2020 US election.

    But his motivations aren’t those of an ordinary Democratic donor — Bankman-Fried told Goldstein that fighting Trump was less about promoting Democrats than ensuring “sane governance” in the US, which could have “massive, massive, ripple effects on what the future looks like.” -Vox

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFast forward to Tuesday, when Vox proclaimed that SBF’s support of Democratic candidates to the tune of $40 million, second only to George Soros, is “massively overstated” and essentially no big deal.

    And what do we have here? SBF gave millions to corporate media outlets according to Tablet, and noted by @balajis, who suggests that it may have been done with “stolen customer funds.”

    Over the past two years, Bankman-Fried cultivated the media lavishly, if not carefully. Drawing on what then seemed like an unlimited pool of cash, SBF (as we’ll call the mythologized version of the real person) dispersed investments, advertising dollars, sponsorships, and donations to key news outlets—including ProPublica, Vox, Semafor, and The Intercept—with extraordinary effectiveness. -Tablet

    And while some of said outlets (Semafor, and The Intercept for example) covered FTX without obvious bias, recent pieces from Vox suggest the investment has paid off in spades.

    On Wednesday, Vox must have realized how dumb they looked – leading to Vox’s Dylan Matthews (who oddly took the “Vox” reference out of his Twitter bio earlier today) dumping what appears to be incriminating texts with another Vox journo.

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    An interesting analogy…

    And while the NY Times wasn’t on the list of outlets that received money, perhaps SBF’s deep-rooted establishment connections have something to do with it.

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 20:40

  • The Road To Totalitarianism (Revisited)
    The Road To Totalitarianism (Revisited)

    Authored by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

    It feels like it’s finally over, doesn’t it, the whole “apocalyptic pandemic” thing? I mean, really, really over this time. Not like all those other times when you thought it was over, but it wasn’t over, and was like the end of those Alien movies, where it seems like Ridley has finally escaped, but the alien is hiding out in the shuttle, or the escape pod, or Ridley’s intestinal tract.

    But this time doesn’t feel like that. This time it feels like it’s really, really over. Go out and take a look around. Hardly anyone is wearing masks anymore (except where masks are mandatory) or being coerced into submitting to “vaccinations” (except where “vaccination” is mandatory), and the hordes of hate-drunk New Normal fanatics who demanded that “the Unvaccinated” be segregated, censored, fired from their jobs, and otherwise demonized and persecuted, have all fallen silent (except for those who haven’t).

    Everything is back to normal, right?

    Wrong. Everything is not back to normal. Everything is absolutely New Normal. What is over is the “shock-and-awe” phase, which was never meant to go on forever. It was always only meant to get us here.

    Where, you’re probably asking, is “here”? “Here” is a place where the new official ideology has been firmly established as our new “reality,” woven into the fabric of normal everyday life. No, not everywhere, just everywhere that matters. (Do you really think the global-capitalist ruling classes care what people in Lakeland, Florida, Elk River, Idaho, or some village in Sicily believe about “reality”?) Yes, most government restrictions have been lifted, mainly because they are no longer necessary, but in centers of power throughout the West, in political, corporate, and cultural spheres, in academia, the mainstream media, and so on, the New Normal has become “reality,” or, in other words, “just the way it is,” which is the ultimate goal of every ideology.

    For example, I just happened upon this “important COVID-19 information,” which you need to be aware of (and strictly adhere to) if you want to attend a performance at this Off-Broadway theater in New York City, where “everything is back to normal.”

    I could pull up countless further examples, but I don’t want to waste your time. At this point, it isn’t the mask and “vaccination” mandates themselves that are important. They are simply the symbols and rituals of the new official ideology, an ideology that has divided societies into two irreconcilable categories of people: (1) those who are prepared to conform their beliefs to the official narrative of the day, no matter how blatantly ridiculous it is, and otherwise click heels and follow the orders of the global-capitalist ruling establishment, no matter how destructive and fascistic they may be; and (2) those who are not prepared to do that.

    Let’s go ahead and call them “Normals” and “Deviants.” I think you know which one you are.

    This division of society into two opposing and irreconcilable classes of people cuts across and supersedes old political lines. There are Normals and Deviants on both the Left and the Right. The global-capitalist ruling establishment couldn’t care less whether you are a “progressive,” or a “conservative,” or a “libertarian,” or an “anarchist,” or whatever you call yourself. What they care about is whether you’re a Normal or a Deviant. What they care about is whether you will follow orders. What they care about is whether you are conforming your perceptions and behavior and thinking to their new “reality” … the hegemonic global-capitalist “reality” that has been gradually evolving for the last 30 years and is now entering its totalitarian stage.

    I’ve been writing about the evolution of global capitalism in my essays since 2016 — and since the early 1990s in my stage plays — so I’m not going to reiterate the whole story here. Readers who have just tuned into my political satire and commentary during the last two years can go back and read the essays in Trumpocalypse (2016-2017) and The War on Populism (2018-2019).

    The short version is, back in 2016, GloboCap was rolling along, destabilizing, restructuring, and privatizing the planet that it came into sole unchallenged possession of when the Soviet Union finally collapsed, and everything was hunky-dory, and then along came Brexit, Donald Trump, and the whole “populist” and neo-nationalist rebellion against globalism throughout the West. So, GloboCap needed to deal with that, which is what is has been doing for last six years … yes, the last six — not just two and a half — years.

    The War on Dissent didn’t start with Covid and it isn’t going to end with Covid. GloboCap (or “the Corporatocracy” if you prefer) has been delegitimizing, demonizing, and disappearing dissent and increasingly imposing ideological uniformity on Western society since 2016. The New Normal is just the latest stage of it. Once it gets done quashing this “populist” rebellion and imposing ideological uniformity on urban society throughout the West, it will go back to destabilizing, restructuring, and privatizing the rest of the world, which is what it was doing with the “War on Terror” (and other “democracy”-promoting projects) from 2001 to 2016.

    The goal of this global Gleichschaltung campaign is the goal of every totalitarian system, i.e., to render any and all deviance from its official ideology pathological. The nature of the deviance does not matter. The official ideology does not matter. (GloboCap has no fixed ideology. It can abruptly change its official “reality” from day to day, as we have experienced recently). What matters is one’s willingness or unwillingness to conform to whatever the official “reality” is, regardless of how ridiculous it is, and how many times it has been disproved, and sometimes even acknowledged as fiction by the very authorities who nonetheless continue to assert its “reality.”

    I’ll give you one more concrete example.

    After I happened upon the “Covid restrictions” (i.e., the social-segregation system) still being enforced by that Off-Broadway theater, I stumbled upon this article in Current Affairs about the oracle Yuval Noah Harari, the writer of which article mentions in passing that somewhere between 6 million and 12 million people have “died of Covid,” as if this were a fact, a fact that no one in their right mind would question. Which it is, officially, in our new “reality,” despite the fact (i.e., the actual fact) that — as even the “health authorities” have admitted — anyone who died of anything in a hospital after testing positive was recorded as a “Covid-19 death.”

    This is how “reality” (i.e., official “reality,” consensus “reality”) is manufactured and policed.

    It is manufactured and policed, not only by the media, corporations, governments, and non-governmental governing entities, but also (and, ultimately, more effectively) by the constant repetition of official narratives as unquestionable axiomatic facts.

    In our brave new totalitarian global-capitalist “reality,” anyone who questions or challenges such “facts” immediately renders oneself a “Deviant” and is excommunicated from “Normal” society. Seriously, just for fun, try to get a job at a corporation, or a university, or a part in a movie or a Broadway play, or a book deal, or a research grant, etc., while being honest about your beliefs about Covid. Or, if you’re a “respectable” journalist, you know, with literary and public-speaking agents, and book deals, and personal managers, and so on, go ahead, report the facts (i.e., the actual facts, which you know are there, but which you have been avoiding like the plague for the last two years), and watch your career get violently sucked down the drain like a turd in an airplane toilet.

    That last bit was meant for “urban professionals,” who still have careers, or are aspiring to careers, or are otherwise still invested in remaining members in good standing of “Normal” society, i.e., not you folks in Florida and Idaho, or my fellow literary and artistic “Deviants.”

    We have pretty much burned our bridges at this point. Unless you’re prepared to mindfuck yourself, and gaslight yourself, and confess, and convert, there’s no going back to “normal” society (which we couldn’t go back to anyway, on account of how it doesn’t exist anymore).

    I realize that a lot of folks have probably been looking forward to that … to the day when the Normals finally “wake up” and face the facts, and truth prevails, and we return to something resembling normality. It’s not going to happen. We’re not going back. The Normals are never going to “wake up.” Because they’re not asleep. They’re not hypnotized. They’re not going to “come to their senses” one day and take responsibility for the damage they have done. Sure, they will apologize for their “mistakes,” and admit that possibly they “overreacted,” but the official narrative of the Covid pandemic and the new “reality” it has ushered into being will remain in force, and they will defend both with their lives.

    Or, rather, they will defend both with our lives.

    If you think I’m being hyperbolic, well, consider the epithets GloboCap has conditioned the Normals to use to demonize us … “conspiracy theorist,” “science denier,” “insurrectionist,” “extremist,” “violent domestic terrorist.” None of which signify a political ideology or any political or critical position whatsoever. They signify deviation from the norm. Any type of deviation from the norm. They are tactical terms, devoid of meaning, designed to erase the political character of the diverse opposition to global-capitalism (or “globalism,” if you are touchy about the word “capitalism”), to lump us all into one big bucket of “deviance.”

    It is usually not a very good omen when nations — or totally unaccountable, supranational global-power systems — suddenly break out the “deviance bucket.” It is usually a sign that things are going to get ugly, ugly in a totalitarian fashion, which is precisely what has been happening for the past six years.

    Back in July of 2021, at the height of the fascistic New Normal hate frenzy, with the military enforcing “Covid restrictions,” a global segregation system being implemented, and people threatening to decapitate me for refusing to get “vaccinated,” I published a piece called The Road to Totalitarianism. We are still on that road. Both the Normals and we Deviants. We’ve been on that road for quite some time, longer than most of us probably realize. The weather has improved, slightly. The scenery out the window has changed. The destination has not. I haven’t seen any exits. Let me know if you do, will you?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 20:20

  • Second GOP Mega-Donor Talks Greasy About Trump
    Second GOP Mega-Donor Talks Greasy About Trump

    While Donald Trump has a ‘massive war chest’ built through donations from smaller donors around the country, and wide support from allies in congress such as Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ), a second GOP billionaire donor has come out against the former president, who formally announced a 2024 run on Tuesday night.

    Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman

    After Citadel founder Ken Griffin on Monday labeled Trump a “three-time loser,” who he hoped wouldn’t run in 2024, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman announced he would not back the former president’s latest run, despite Trump naming him chair of the now-defunct Strategic and Policy Forum.

    “America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” Schwarzman said in a statement. “It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries.”

    It is unclear how much the rejection of big GOP donors hurts Trump, however. Trump was successful in 2016 without major party backers and appeals to his base with a populist message. 

    Griffin never gave to Trump. And Schwarzman didn’t support him until he was already president, giving $344,400 in Dec. 2017 to a committee that supported Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. In all, Schwarzman gave $3.7 million to committees that supported Trump. –Bloomberg

    Of note, Griffin never gave to Trump – and Schwarzman was a latecomer in his support, waiting till Trump was already president to give $344,400 in Dec. 2017 to a committee that supported Trump and the RNC (ultimately giving $3.7 million to committees that supported the former president).

    According to the report, Trump’s rejection by two conservative billionaires ‘could give cover to elected officials who are still deciding who to back.’

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 20:00

  • After FTX Implosion, It's Time To End Bitcoin's Dysfunctional Relationship With Crypto
    After FTX Implosion, It’s Time To End Bitcoin’s Dysfunctional Relationship With Crypto

    Authored by Tim Niemeyer, via BitcoinMagazine.com,

    “Bitcoiners are trapped in a dysfunctional relationship with crypto and we want out!”

    – Michael Saylor

    Amidst the carnage of the FTX drama, a moment of clarity illuminated the Twittersphere. Michael Saylor’s words were the signal in the noise resulting from the dysfunctional trainwreck unaffectionately known as “crypto”. Before we can truly appreciate his insights, we should first meditate on what makes this relationship dysfunctional or, in the context of couples therapy, a toxic relationship.

    While many in the cryptocurrency industry were happily going about their life viewing their relationship with money (trust, commitment, support, etc.) in a positive light, they were ignoring the warning signs that their relationship was anything but healthy. Sure, all good relationships have their ups and downs. Disagreements happen, but overall you share common goals and trust the other to have your best interests at heart. There’s a certain level of expectation that your partner will support you, communicate openly and honestly, and refrain from controlling behaviors. Life this way is freeing and you’re generally able to flourish.

    But what if one side doesn’t have your best interests at heart? What if they are dishonest? What if there becomes a pattern of disrespect? What if they ignore your needs? Sure, you can hope for change, but you still feel drained, stressed, anxious, or depressed. Eventually, you want out. Your need for a positive, healthy relationship overwhelms the comfort of the known, current relationship. The first step is admitting there’s a problem. Acknowledging signs of a toxic relationship are necessary.

    SIGNS OF A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP

    Photo by Girl with red hat on Unsplash

    In regards to our relationship with money, support may be displayed in many ways. One way we support each other is through the ability to trust that our counterpart has our best interests at heart. The overwhelming problem with the cryptocurrency sphere (defined here as everything other than Bitcoin) is that it’s still largely based on an expectation of trust. Whether it’s FTX, Celsius, LUNA or the countless other scams and Ponzis that are sewn into the fabric of the cryptocurrency industry, it’s clear that having centralized entities controlling your value requires you trust the fallible seamstresses and their incentives. It’s like the trust fall; an exercise in which one person lets him- or herself fall without trying to stop it, relying on their friend(s) to catch them. How many times do you allow yourself to fall to the ground before you lose trust?

    These recent fallouts in crypto continue to illuminate the inherent dishonesty in its DNA. Investors are deceived into a false sense of security in the relationship; it’s a form of dishonest communication based on non-transparency and the over-leveraged nature of exchanges. Allowing humans to control money allows controlling behaviors to be coded into the system, which leads to growing resentment in the relationship … The relationship is further strained when the toxic side puts their needs ahead of your own. The needs of some CEOs often incentivize them into leveraging the customers’ trust to benefit their gain. This display of negative financial behaviors is becoming all too common in the cryptocurrency industry (again, non-Bitcoin-only entities). At some point, as my father would say, we need to separate the wheat from the chaff.

    STEPS TO FIX A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP

    Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

    The first step is to accept responsibility. Not that you caused the situation per se, but that you acknowledge the situation you’re in and begin advocating for yourself. This can be done by investing in yourself. In the context of this article, that investment is education in Bitcoin as well as understanding the unintended consequences of adopting a “digital fiat” mindset present throughout the altcoin and centralized exchange industries. Once we shift from blaming to understanding, we allow ourselves to begin healing. The pain resulting from the recent developments will linger for a while, but it is our responsibility to not dwell on the past but move forward with compassion. The next step in the journey to healing is allowing yourself to be vulnerable again. This can be attained by sharing your self-love with others; calmly and clearly explaining the benefits of Bitcoin, self-custody and proof of reserves to friends and family.

    People recovering from a toxic relationship can benefit from finding support. It is the opinion of the author that Bitcoiners should be that support structure. It’s ironic that many Bitcoiners are known as the toxic ones when they are the ones trying to illuminate the toxicity inherent in the ecosystem. That being said, an “I told you so,” doesn’t assist in the healing process. This is the moment where we must rise above and lead with compassion. We should hold space in our heart and allow others the time to heal and change.

    There will be many who do not recover from a toxic relationship of this magnitude. While we can continue to educate from a place of humility, we must remember that, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Everyone will ultimately heal in their own way at their own pace. Some may never learn. We’ve probably all had a friend who’s jumped from one toxic relationship to another. As much as you may want to help, they need to first choose to help themselves. Even more, some people will continue to “Tinder around” with unhealthy cryptocurrency relationships. That’s their prerogative. If a friend of ours wants to be part of the hookup culture, that’s on them. They have to deal with the consequences of STDs and the like.

    Regardless of the actions of certain exchanges or crypto in general, we must continue to espouse the benefits of Bitcoin in a positive light. Tell them how truth is born from trustlessness. Demonstrate how actual decentralization leads to pure democracy. Illuminate how immutability and permissionless systems allow for a free-flowing, cooperative society. Michael Saylor acutely recognized the toxicity we are allowing to proliferate through the perceived connection to crypto. We must choose to move forward towards a bitcoin standard for ourselves, our friends and family, and, ultimately, for society to flourish.

    [ZH: Tl:dr:… ]

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 19:40

  • Democrats Flip Gubernatorial Seats
    Democrats Flip Gubernatorial Seats

    With the announcement of Katie Hobbs’ win in the gubernatorial race in Arizona, the Democratic Party has officially picked up three governor seats in the 2022 midterms, while the Republicans took over one governorship from Democrats.

    New Democratic governors will also start their terms next year in Maryland and Massachusetts. In Nevada, Republican Joe Lombardo prevailed over the Democratic incumbent in the race to the governor’s mansion. All Democratic flips have been open-seat races.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the net gain of two governorships for Democrats is unusual as the president’s party tends to lose rather than win gubernatorial election. At the end of last year, Democrats had only held on to 22 governorships when including then-governor-elect, Republican Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, whose term started in January 2022. Virginia’s had been the second governorship in a U.S. state passing over to a Republican since the election of Joe Biden in late 2020. Montana switched up its alliance at the same time when it elected Republican Greg Gianforte to the highest office in the state – the first Republican to serve as governor since 2005.

    Infographic: Democrats Flip Gubernatorial Seats | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Which party wins the most governorships normally follows an anticyclical pattern but this year’s midterm election bucks this trend.

    After Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, Republicans started to gain the upper hand in gubernatorial elections starting in 2009 and creating a record 34 Republican governors at the end of Obama’s second term in 2017. Likewise, most governors in the U.S. were Democrats during the second term of the Bush presidency (2005-2008) and most were Republicans during Bill Clinton’s time in office (1993-2001). The shorter presidency of Donald Trump didn’t have the same effect on gubernatorial races. Even though his party lost seven governor seats between 2017 and 2020, for example in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois, Republican governors remained in the majority throughout Trump’s term.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 19:20

  • New Online Tool Maps Out 867 US Military Bases Worldwide
    New Online Tool Maps Out 867 US Military Bases Worldwide

    Authored by David Swanson via AntiWar.com,

    World Beyond War has launched a new online tool that allows the user to view a globe pock-marked with 867 U.S. military bases in countries other than the United States, and to zoom in for a satellite view of and detailed information on each base. The tool also allows filtering the map or list of bases by country, government type, opening date, number of personnel, or acres of land occupied.

    This visual database was researched and developed by World Beyond War to help journalists, activists, researchers, and individual readers understand the immense problem of excessive preparation for war, which inevitably leads to international bullying, meddling, threats, escalation, and mass atrocity. By illustrating the extent of the US empire of military outposts, World Beyond War hopes to call attention to the wider problem of war preparations.

    The United States of America, unlike any other nation, maintains this massive network of foreign military installations around the world. How was this created and how is it continued? Some of these physical installations are on land occupied as spoils of war.

    Most are maintained through collaborations with governments, many of them brutal and oppressive governments benefiting from the bases’ presence. In many cases, human beings were displaced to make room for these military installations, often depriving people of farmland, adding huge amounts of pollution to local water systems and the air, and existing as an unwelcome presence.

    US bases in foreign lands often raise geopolitical tensions, support undemocratic regimes, and serve as a recruiting tool for militant groups opposed to the US presence and the governments its presence bolsters. In other cases, foreign bases have made it easier for the United States to launch and execute disastrous wars, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.

    Across the political spectrum and even within the US military there is growing recognition that many overseas bases should have been closed decades ago, but bureaucratic inertia and misguided political interests have kept them open. Estimates of the yearly cost to the US of its foreign military bases range from $100 – 250 billion. Thanks to davidvine.net for the variety of information included in this tool.

    View a video overview the new interactive tool:

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 19:00

  • "Paralyzing Snowfall" Could "Cripple" Buffalo With Feet Of Snow
    “Paralyzing Snowfall” Could “Cripple” Buffalo With Feet Of Snow

    The National Weather Service warned “paralyzing snowfall” will blanket parts of western and northern New York. Folks living in the cities of Buffalo and Watertown could be using yardsticks by the end of the weekend to measure the snow. 

    Lake-effect snow warnings have already been posted from Watertown to Buffalo-Niagara Falls to Erie, Pennsylvania, to northeastern Ohio. 

    “This will be the start of a prolonged lake-effect snow event which will likely include paralyzing snowfall for the Buffalo and Watertown areas late this week through the weekend,” NWS wrote in a Wednesday morning note. 

    NWS’ use of words such as “crippling” and “paralyzing” to describe the lake-effect snowstorm’s potential is very ominous. 

    Liz Jurkowski, a meteorologist at NWS’ Buffalo office, told NYTimes that NWS’ use of words is “very rare.” 

    “We usually don’t pull these terms out except for historic events,” Jurkowski said. 

    Snow begins Wednesday night and will continue through Saturday for Buffalo and Watertown. These areas could see between 1 and 3 feet of snow. Here’s more on possible snow totals via FOX Forecast Center:

    The highest totals will likely be centered directly over the Buffalo and Watertown metro areas because of the nearly stationary bands of snow from Thursday night through Friday night. Between 1 and 3 feet of snow is expected to pile up by Sunday afternoon, with localized amounts of up to 4 feet not ruled out.

    Jurkowski said residents in Buffalo and Watertown could expect “thundersnow” and high snowfall rates. Maybe now is the time to buy supplies and hunker down. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 18:40

  • Fauci's Pandemic Leadership Needs To Be Investigated: Dr. Scott Atlas
    Fauci’s Pandemic Leadership Needs To Be Investigated: Dr. Scott Atlas

    Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times,

    Former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas sees multiple reasons for an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

    Such a probe has been discussed as Republicans inch closer to a House majority that would grant them subpoena powers. Some Republican lawmakers have accused Fauci of playing a role in misleading the public about the origins of COVID-19 and supporting pandemic mandates they describe as draconian.

    While Atlas, a vocal critic of the NIAID head, is “very skeptical” that an investigation like this could get away from politics or the perception of it being political, he thinks it’s warranted. Fauci’s changing stance on certain COVID-19 policies needs to be put under the spotlight, Atlas recently said on EpochTV’s “Newsmakers.”

    “The real, clear public airing of exactly what happened needs to be done,” said Atlas, a senior fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution and contributor to The Epoch Times.

    “I personally am very skeptical that a political investigation, no matter who does it, is going to be done without politics, or if it’s going to be perceived as nonpolitical. I don’t trust people in government at all. They don’t deserve to be trusted, to be objective.

    “What was the motivation to flip flop multiple times with policy?”

    His question was referring to Fauci’s changing stance on pandemic school closures that drew criticism in late 2020.

    Scott Atlas (L), a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany arrive ahead of President Donald Trump for a press conference at the White House in Washington on Aug. 12, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo, File)

    He further questioned if there had been any “cover-up” of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Fauci’s division, citing the awards to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the New York nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance as an example.

    EcoHealth Alliance, which continues to receive millions of dollars in grants from the NIH, was subjected to scrutiny by multiple federal agencies over its partnership with the Wuhan lab. The Office of Investigations of the Department of Health and Human Services in late 2020 briefly opened a probe over alleged “major fraud against the United States.” The probe was closed in January 2021, according to internal documents, which had the reasons for the closure redacted. The allegation states that “the COVID-19 virus was generated in … China with the assistance of an NIH Grant.”

    Beginning in 2014, EcoHealth was the recipient of a $3.7 million grant to study bat coronaviruses in China. That grant was renewed through 2019 but suspended in 2020 because of compliance concerns. In August, the NIH ended the funding from the grant for the Wuhan facility after the lab at least twice rejected NIH’s request for lab notebooks and original files from the research.

    “We cannot have illegal research being funded outside the country by American science” avoiding or circumventing the rules, Atlas said.

    “These leadership positions come with massive responsibility. It’s not a game to be in charge of things. You’re not supposed to use it to circumvent rules. You’re not supposed to set up power, friends in the media to cover for you. No, you need to at least answer the questions in front of the American people.”

    By the same token, Atlas also called for the Chinese regime to answer for its coverup of the initial outbreak, as well as its role in possibly causing the pandemic.

    Besides a delayed admission of the outbreak’s severity to the world during the pandemic’s early days—behavior that Atlas called “unacceptable”—Beijing had “blocked real investigations” and “destroyed evidence of what happened,” he said.

    “Of course they need to be held accountable,” he said.

    “It needs to be done, though, by a government and multiple governments that actually have the credibility and ethical focus to do that, and I think that that remains to be seen.”

    Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the ranking Republican member of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to summon Fauci in a planned probe of the origins of COVID-19 should the Republicans win the House.

    “Why did Dr. Fauci lie for so long about American tax dollars through EcoHealth Alliance going to fund gain-of-function research? Why did he lie about gain-of-function research being done in the Wuhan lab? Why were we even in the Wuhan lab? There are so many questions that the Americans deserve answers to,” Comer recently told the “Capitol Report” program of NTD News, a sister media of The Epoch Times.

    “The American people deserve answers and anyone that was involved in any type of cover-up should be held accountable.”

    Representatives for NIAID didn’t respond to a query from The Epoch Times by press time.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 18:20

  • Housing Affordability Worsens As Homeownership Out Of Reach For Anyone Making Under $100k
    Housing Affordability Worsens As Homeownership Out Of Reach For Anyone Making Under $100k

    The US housing affordability crisis continues to worsen as mortgage rates skyrocket to two-decade highs while the cost of an average home is still at bubbly levels. Financing costs are through the roof, and anyone earning less than $100,000 has been priced out of homeownership. 

    A new report via real estate brokerage firm Redfin Corp. found that in October, the average buyer needed to earn $107,281 to afford the monthly mortgage payment of a median-priced home, up a whopping 46% from a year ago of $73,668. 

    Considering there have been a record 19 consecutive months of negative real wage growth, most of which have been under President Biden’s tenure, many prospective homebuyers have likely given up and are now renting (or back in their parent’s basement). 

    “Affordability challenges are a major reason why home sales have slowed so dramatically over the last few months,” Redfin said in the report.

    What’s made the affordability crisis worse is the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive interest rate hiking in decades to quell inflation has sent the 30-year fixed mortgage above 7% within the last several quarters. 

    This has caused a ‘payment shock’ as elevated rates, high home prices, and faltering wage growth have priced out millions of Americans. 

    According to the National Association of Realtors, today’s souring homebuying environment has been described as the ‘worst in decades’. 

    None of this should surprise readers since we first stated in March that soaring interest rates would significantly challenge housing affordability. 

    Today, we see the “Death Of The American Dream And Home Ownership.” And what’s the result: you’ll rent and own nothing… Well, that’s a very similar statement from the World Economic Forum: by 2030, “you’ll own nothing, and you’ll (still) be happy. 

    More importantly, all of this suggests home prices could be on the cusp of a major downturn. 

    We suspect 2023 will be a tumultuous year for the housing market until the Fed pivots.

    … And we almost forgot that a Bloomberg OP-ED earlier this year said anyone earning less than $300k should eat lentils. 

    …

    Ty
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 18:00

  • Ron Paul: A Tale Of Two Midterms
    Ron Paul: A Tale Of Two Midterms

    Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

    Those searching for an explanation of why there was no “red wave” giving Republicans huge gains in Congress in this year’s midterm election should compare this year’s election with the midterm election of 2010. In 2010, Republicans gained a net 63 House seats. While Republicans then did not gain control of the US Senate, they did gain six Senate seats.

    These Republican victories in 2010 were propelled by the Tea Party and the liberty movement. These movements became prominent during the waning days of the Bush administration. The liberty movement was advanced by grassroots supporters of my 2008 presidential campaign. The liberty movement’s focus was, and is, on restoring constitutional government in all areas, ending our interventionist foreign policy, and changing our monetary policy by auditing and ending the Federal Reserve and legalizing alternative currencies. Early on, the Tea Party largely focused on opposition to the 2008 bank bailouts.

    There was overlap between the liberty movement and the Tea Party as many members of both groups fought for auditing and ending the Fed, ending bailouts, and preventing Congress from passing Obamacare.

    Many Republican candidates in 2010 appealed to Tea Party voters by not just promising to repeal Obamacare. They also promised to work to restore limited, constitutional, fiscally responsible government in all areas. In contrast, in 2022 the average Republican candidate offered little in the way of a substantive agenda. In fact, few Republicans called for reversing President Biden’s massive spending increases, much less for restoring the federal government to its constitutional limitations. Despite the controversy over new critical race theory and transgender related policies in government schools, there has not been a renewed push to shut down the Department of Education.

    Many Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm election also failed to make an issue out of their Democratic opponents’ support for mask and vaccine mandates and other instances of covid tyranny. Those who did oppose the covid tyranny, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and my son Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, won landslide victories.

    The Tea Party’s success in forcing the Republican Party to focus on a more pro-liberty, limited government agenda was short lived. Soon after the 2010 election, the Republican establishment returned to its big spending ways. Spending and debt continued to rise under President Trump and a Republican Congress. Republicans even failed to deliver on their signature promise: repealing Obamacare.

    The 2010 midterm election showed that people will respond to candidates offering serious pro-liberty ideas and policies. However, the Tea Party’s rise and fall also shows the danger facing ideological movements that become too close with one political party. These movements will start pulling their punches when one of “our team” begins casting bad votes. The argument goes that we must support big government Republicans or we get REALLY big government Democrats.

    Fortunately, the liberty movement has remained committed to principles. As the failure of the welfare-warfare state to deliver peace and property — and the failure of the Federal Reserve to fulfill its mandate of ensuring stable prices and low unemployment — become clear, more Americans will join the liberty movement. Support for the liberty movement will accelerate when the inevitable economic meltdown occurs. This meltdown will be precipitated by a collapse in the dollar’s value and the rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. It will bring the end of the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system. Hopefully, the liberty movement will ensure the welfare-warfare state and fiat money system are replaced by a return to limited constitutional government, individual liberty, and peace.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 17:40

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Nov 16

Today’s News 16th November 2022

  • Poland Missile Strike May Have Come From Ukraine Self-Defense: US Officials
    Poland Missile Strike May Have Come From Ukraine Self-Defense: US Officials

    Update (0017ET): The missile that struck Poland may have been fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile, AP reports, citing three unidentified US officials.

    [K]ey questions around the circumstances of the missile launch remained amid the confusion caused by a blistering series of Russian airstrikes across the nearby border in Ukraine, none larger than who fired it. Russia denied any involvement in the Poland blast.

    Three U.S. officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one amid the crushing salvo against Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. -AP

    The Associated Press also points out that the above assessment, in addition to President Biden’s comments that it was “unlikely” the missile was fired from Russia, contradicts information earlier Tuesday from a senior US intelligence official who told AP “that Russian missiles crossed into Poland.”

    So it was a ‘stray’ missile after all?

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    *  *  *

    Update (2100ET): So much for Russia almost starting World War 3 (even if under the guise of a false flag). As we noted earlier (see below), even pro-Ukraine accounts noted that the S-300 SAM that fell in Poland was a Ukrainian one. And while Biden will never admit that Ukraine nearly started war with Poland (as much as the deep state via its AP connections or the Ukraine president would have wanted Russia to get the blame), moments ago Biden explicitly said that based on preliminary information, it is “unlikely” that the rocket strike in Poland originated in Russia. Oops.

    “There is plenty of information to contest that. I don’t want to say until we completely investigate. It’s unlikely in the minds of [sic] the trajectory that it was fired from Russia. But we’ll see.”

    So if it was not fired by Russia, where was it fired from?

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    Here are the highlights from Biden’s briefing:

    • Says he briefed NATO, G7 members on his talks with Poland
    • Leaders have agreed to support investing to figure out exactly what happened
    • Leaders will then determine next steps after finding out what ahppened
    • Russia continues to escalate its attacks in Ukraine
    • There is preliminary information that contests whether Poland incident was due to a missile fired from Russia
    • Based on the trajectory its unlikely the missile was fired from Russia

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    Guess that “conspiracy theory” was actually fact…

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    And with that Ukraine, and its western sponsors, will be busy for the next few hours de-escalating and memory-holing events from today which nearly sparked NATO to trigger Article 5 and launch a nuclear war against Russia.

    * * *

    Update(1920ET): Polish President Andrzej Duda is seeking to calm the public, and has issued a statement saying there’s as yet no definite evidence of who fired missile that fell in Poland. But he did say that a state of heightened readiness has been introduced for all Polish services, including the police, firefighters, border guards, according to breaking international reports.

    Duda further said the military is increasing the monitoring of national airspace as investigators are still working to establish the causes of the explosion. He urged all Poles to remain. He added that “there are no indications that today’s incident would be repeated.”

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

    Earlier Warsaw announced a “Russia made” missile landed on the border village of Przewodów, and Poland’s Foreign Ministry said it has summoned the Russian ambassador for a meeting. However, it should be noted that Ukraine’s anti-air defense arsenal has always been “Russia made” – especially its S-300 systems. Poland’s statement is interesting in that it did not say “Russia launched” missile, leaving the question of the missile’s origins open. 

    All of the above points in the direction that this was actually a projectile fired by Ukraine, as some of our coverage below suggested.

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    President Biden sent a condolence message for the two lives lost to Poland’s Duda…

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    * * * 

    Update(1715ET): Despite the alarmist talk all afternoon that NATO could invoke the Article 5 collective defense treaty over the alleged Russian rocket attack on a border town, the result of the Polish government national security emergency meeting is going in the opposite direction, and it seems there won’t be escalation today. 

    Polish govt spokesman Piotr Mueller said Poland has agreed to “increase its military readiness” – though crucially still admitted “It was not clear what caused the explosion in the southeastern town of Hrubieszów.” Russia has vehemently denied it was behind the explosions which killed two people. So instead of Article 5, Warsaw is merely talking the much lesser known Article 4. Article 4 requires “consultations” when a NATO member is threatened.

    NATO AMASSADORS TO MEET ON WEDNESDAY AT REQUEST OF POLAND ON BASIS OF ALLIANCE’S ARTICLE 4 – TWO EUROPEAN DIPLOMATS SAY

    “A moment ago it was decided to increase the readiness of some military units in Poland and other uniformed services,” Mueller told reporters in a press briefing. Across Ukraine and as far west as Lviv, Russian airstrikes pummeled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Tuesday. The Hill reports after a terrifying day for Ukraine, “Russia’s widespread missile attack on Ukraine – firing what Zelensky said was 90 missiles – was aimed primarily at the country’s electrical infrastructure following an embarrassing Kremlin retreat from the key Ukrainian city of Kherson.”

    It is entirely possible that amid this large barrage of rockets, which also triggered Ukraine’s anti-air defense measures, an errant projectile strayed into NATO member Poland’s territory. Polish Senate Advisor Marcin Zaborowski said late in the day that if indeed it was accidental, Moscow should immediately apologize. So far the Kremlin has denounced the reports as a “deliberate provocation” – suggesting that Ukraine’s backers are seeking to draw NATO into escalation. 

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

    NATO Article 4 involves the following: 

    All NATO decisions are made by consensus, after discussion and consultation among member countries. Consultation between member states is therefore at the heart of NATO since Allies are able to exchange views and information, and discuss issues prior to reaching agreement and taking action.

    As for the Ukrainian government reaction, it was somewhat predictable, with President Zelensky calling it a “really significant escalation” in the war while demanding “action” from the West.

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

    “Hitting NATO territory with missiles… This is a Russian missile attack on collective security! This is a really significant escalation. Action is needed,” Zelensky said his Tuesday night video address. He said it is “only a matter of time before Russian terror goes further.”

    Unconfirmed video purporting to show the strike aftermath on the Polish side of the border was aired on a Polish TV station:

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

    Meanwhile, a highly respected weapons tracker social media account that’s generally seen as sympathetic to the Ukrainian side has broken ranks, suggesting what landed on the Polish town was a Ukrainian anti-air missile…

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

    With the narrative quickly changing, and available photographic evidence from the impact site now coming under broader scrutiny, Ukraine officials are in damage control…

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

    * * *

    Update(1500ET): Russia has issued its first statements in the wake of conflicting reporting concerning the suspected missile attack on Polish territory, just across the border with Ukraine. Russia is calling the reports a “deliberate provocation” and is denying that its forces have aimed any missiles near the Ukraine-Poland border, per Interfax news. 

    The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying it has not taken part in “strikes against targets near the Ukrainian-Polish border” using “Russian weapons” – as is being alleged by Polish sources. The Russian statement further said it’s Warsaw’s attempt to escalate the situation. The Pentagon has meanwhile said it can’t corroborate the reports at this early stage but is gathering more information. A Pentagon spokesman vowed the US stands ready to “defend every inch of NATO territory.”

    According to Polish radio broadcaster Radio Zet, local reports have said what hit Przewowo is most likely the remains of a rocket shot down by Ukraine’s armed forces. But there are conflicting and many unconfirmed claims still circulating. The US State Dept. said, “We are working with the Polish government to collect information and assess what happened.” It also called the reports “incredibly concerning.” 

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

    Below is the full Russian statement in response: 

    Russia’s defence ministry has denied reports that Russian missiles hit Polish territory, describing them as “a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation”.

    “No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction,” it said in a statement.

    Wreckage reportedly found at the scene “has nothing to do with Russian weapons”, it added.

    Meanwhile “Article 5” is trending on Twitter.

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

    * * *

    Are we about to test Art Cashin’s thesis that you should never bet on the end of the world (i.e. sell stocks as the ICBMs start flying). As a reminder:

    Art Cashin, the dean of the NYSE floor, told a story on Tuesday at Barry Ritholtz’s Big Picture conference in midtown that illustrated this point perfectly. It was in the days before the Cuban missile crisis. Mr. Cashin was a young trader. One day a rumor mushroomed that the Russians had launched their missiles. World War III was starting. Mr. Cashin ran across the street to find the best trader he knew – who was in a bar having a drink. Mr. Cashin ran in breathlessly, hardly able to talk.

    “Stop,” the trader said. “Have a drink. Explain everything.” After hearing all the information, the trader had one order: “Buy. Don’t sell. Buy.”

    “Why?” Mr. Cashin wondered.

    “Because if you’re wrong, the trade’ll never clear. We’ll all be dead.”

    Well, moments ago futures ignored the venerable market strategist’s words and tumbled after a report from Polish Radio ZET according to which two stray rockets fell in the town of Przewodów on the border of NATO-member Poland with Ukraine (while unreported, the prevailing assumption is that the rockets are Russian).

    The Associated Press is also confirming, citing a senior US intelligence official who says two people were killed by the missiles. However, the Pentagon followed by saying it cannot corroborate the reports at this time. Stocks quickly reversed higher on the headline.

    And Polish sources are reporting – albeit emphasizing the report is still unofficial – that Polish military planes have been scrambled out of the airport near Tomaszów Lubelski. “The Polish Air Force took fighter jets into the air from the Tomaszow-Lubelski airfield in the Lublin Voivodeship,” the local reports say.

    Location of the missile strikes on the Polish border town.

    The rockets reportedly hit the grain dryers, leading to two casualties. The police, the prosecutor’s office and the army are on site.

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    And as Bloomberg also confirms, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki has convened an urgent meeting of the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security. Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has also reportedly convened a national defense council meeting.

    Estonia has meanwhile issued a statement saying it is “ready to defend every inch of NATO territory, We’re in full solidarity with our close ally Poland,” according to its ministry of foreign affairs.

    The news has sent futures tumbling.

    And further on the news: 

    US DEFENSE STOCKS JUMP TO SESSION HIGHS; NORTHROP UP 5%

    It will be amusing when reputable news sources deny the whole thing but for now, stocks are dumping and are red on the day after soaring more than 2% earlier.

    Hours earlier in the day Ukrainian authorities were reporting a series of fresh missile attack on the capital, and rare airstrikes in Western regions as well, including the city of Lviv. 

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

    This resulted in new emergency power outages across various cities effected. 

    Meanwhile, NATO’s collective defense article is trending on Twitter, which is never a good sign…

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/16/2022 – 00:31

  • Republican Congressman Confirms He’ll Challenge McCarthy For House Speaker
    Republican Congressman Confirms He’ll Challenge McCarthy For House Speaker

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

    U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) questions Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as he testifies before the House Judicary Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said on Monday night that he plans to challenge House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when the GOP conference convenes on Tuesday to choose its nominee to be speaker of the House.

    “We have a new paradigm here, and I think the country wants a different direction from the House of Representatives,” Biggs told Newsmax. “And it’s a new world, and, yes, I’m going to be nominated tomorrow to the position of speaker of the House.”

    After unexpected midterm results, Republicans who were hoping to win larger gains in Congress have indicated there is a need to call for new leadership.

    Biggs said voters in Republican constituencies were urging their representatives to change direction, noting his decision wasn’t about McCarthy but “about the institutional direction and trajectory.”

    “And that’s where we’re going to see if we have enough people who agree that we need to change the trajectory of this place and open it up so people can represent their constituency in a more open and transparent manner,” Biggs said.

    Biggs had previously indicated a lack of confidence in McCarthy’s ability to lead, noting that he’s “backpedaled on things like impeachment,” which Biggs said “indicates a willingness to be weakening the oversight authority that we need to have and the leverage points we need to have in order to deal with a Democrat president.”

    (L-R) Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) talks with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) during a forum titled House Rules and Process Changes for the 118th Congress at FreedowmWorks headquarters in Washington, DC, on Nov. 14, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    ‘I’m Not Voting for Him’: Gaetz

    Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Monday said he won’t vote for McCarthy, and he’s certain many others won’t either.

    “I’m making my announcement, which is that I’m not voting for Kevin McCarthy. I’m not voting for him tomorrow, I’m not voting for him on the floor,” Gaetz told “The Charlie Kirk Show.”

    “And I am certain that there is a critical mass of people who hold my precise view, and so the sooner we can sort of dispense with the notion that Kevin is gonna be speaker, then we can get to the important work of actually looking at who are the people that Brian Fitzpatrick and Matt Gaetz can agree on.”

    On Nov. 12, Gaetz took to Twitter to remind voters that McCarthy defended Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and said former President Donald Trump should resign after the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

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    Gaetz noted that “a lot of the establishment Republicans” are in denial believing that McCarthy can still become speaker. However, he said there’s enough Republicans who’d “rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney than vote for Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House.”

    “I think there’s a real desire to have fresh faces, new leadership, new ideas, and to turn a new page so that we can get to the important work that we promised the American people that we can get to,” he added.

    Biggs said Gaetz’ arguments were his opinion and that voters had also been telling their Republican representatives that change in leadership was needed.

    Biggs acknowledged Gaetz’ reasons for not voting for McCarthy but said there were other reasons led by constituents as well.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 23:30

  • NASA's Massive Moon Rocket 'Go' For Launch
    NASA’s Massive Moon Rocket ‘Go’ For Launch

    After three delays, NASA confirmed a new launch window for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, for Wednesday morning. 

    The Artemis 1 rocket launch was scrubbed in late August (read: here) and early September (read: here) due to a liquid hydrogen leak at an interface between the SLS and mobile launcher at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

    NASA appears comfortable with the next launch attempt, with a two-hour window beginning at 0104 ET Wednesday. 

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    If the launch goes to plan, it will be the first flight of the SLS and send the unmanned Orion Spacecraft around the moon. 

    “I feel good headed into this attempt on the 16th,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA headquarters in Washington, said during a press briefing on Sunday. 

    “The team is moving forward as one unit,” Sarafin added. “We’ve just got some work to do.”

    Besides prior leak mishaps, NASA outlined Hurricane Ian also delayed timelines. 

    “Engineers previously rolled the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) Sept. 26 ahead of Hurricane Ian and after waving off two previous launch attempts Aug. 29 due to a faulty temperature sensor, and Sept. 4 due to a liquid hydrogen leak at an interface between the rocket and mobile launcher. Prior to rolling back to the VAB, teams successfully repaired the leak and demonstrated updated tanking procedures. While in the VAB, teams performed standard maintenance to repair minor damage to the foam and cork on the thermal protection system and recharge or replace batteries throughout the system.”

    If all goes well, the Artemis 2 mission could propel four astronauts on a flyby mission around the moon in 2024. Then by 2025, Artemis 3 mission would allow for the first crewed moon landing on the moon. 

    Watch Launch Live Here:

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 23:00

  • Retail Sales Preview: Boost From California's Stimmy Checks
    Retail Sales Preview: Boost From California’s Stimmy Checks

    Following big misses in CPI and PPI data, tomorrow’s retail sales should come in line to slightly stronger than expected by consensus. That’s because real-time card spending data, as measured by BAC aggregated credit and debit cards, was a solid +3.1% year-over-year on a per household (HH) basis in October, and rose 0.5% month-over-month.

    As a result, BofA’s economists forecast a solid 0.6% m/m increase in the Census Bureau’s ex-auto retail sales figure in October, just above the consensus estimate.

    Alas, as has been the case in recent months, much of this retail sales strength will be driven by inflation, namely a pickup in gas spending (due to higher gasoline prices)…

    … and restaurant spending.

    Therefore, BofA expects a smaller 0.3% m/m pickup in core control sales (retail sales ex autos, gas, building materials and restaurants) in October

    As BofA further notes, two special factors appear to have boosted spending in October.

    • First, there was another round of Prime Day and related promotions last month, in addition to the usual annual July event. This likely contributed to the strong increase in online retail spending in October (+1.5% m/m).
    • Second, and as we observed above, California (CA) distributed one-off (anti-inflation) stimulus payments last month. Ex-auto retail spending in CA significantly outpaced the rest of the country in October, after lagging in four of the previous five months. CA accounts for about one-seventh of the national economy, so the stimulus checks could move the needle on national spending aggregates.

    As an aside, the Census Bureau’s retail sales report for September did not mention any impact from Hurricane Ian, whereas the BofA card data showed a 0.2-0.3% headwind to ex-auto retail sales. Therefore it is likely that the Census Bureau will enact downward revisions to the September data. Such revisions could support stronger m/m retail sales growth in October by creating favorable base effects.

    Finally, we shift away from BofA, and present a summary of what JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli expects tomorrow:

    We believe that nominal retail sales jumped 1.3% in October. Unit auto sales surged between September and October and we think this suggests that related retail sales picked up noticeably as well—we forecast that sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers jumped 6.0% in October. We also think that price increases boosted sales at gasoline stations in October and we estimate that related nominal sales rose 1.2% that month. Our Chase card data signal a strong gain for food services sales in October along with a decline in sales of the important control group, although we are fading these signals somewhat given recent noticeable deviations between the signals from the card data and the official figures reported by the Census Bureau. We estimate that food services sales increased 1.1% in October while control retail sales—the total excluding food services, autos, gasoline, and building materials—were basically unchanged that month relative to September.

    More in the full note available to pro subs.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 22:38

  • Cruz Criticizes McConnell For 'Abandoning' Blake Masters In Arizona Senate Race
    Cruz Criticizes McConnell For ‘Abandoning’ Blake Masters In Arizona Senate Race

    Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) gives a speech to Republican supporters during a rally outside the offices of Mark Alford, Republican candidate for Missouri’s 4th Congressional District in Raymore, Mo., on Oct. 14, 2022. (Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Republicans missed a “generational opportunity” to retake Congress in the midterm elections, and criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for placing personal politics above the party’s best interests.

    “We had an extraordinary opportunity. We had a generational opportunity. This should have been a fundamental landslide election,” Cruz said on his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” on Nov. 14.

    Cruz added: “We should have won the House and the Senate. We should have a 30, 40, 50-vote majority in the House. We should have 53, 54, 55 Republicans in the Senate.”

    Republicans lost control of the Senate after suffering losses in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. The GOP is still expected to gain control of the House, though with only a slim majority.

    After several races were called Monday night, Republicans are one seat away from the 218-seat majority needed to take control of the House. There are 13 uncalled races left.

    Cruz criticized McConnell for the failure of the Republicans to win Arizona’s Senate race with GOP candidate Blake Masters.

    “Mitch McConnell pulled the money out of Arizona. We could have won Arizona. We nearly won Arizona. And abandoning Blake Masters was indefensible,” Cruz said.

    Republican U.S. senatorial candidate Blake Masters speaks during his election night watch party in Chandler, Arizona, on Aug. 2, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

    The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a political action committee with close ties to McConnell, slashed millions in campaign spending for the Arizona Senate race in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 8 election.

    Cruz explained that SLF’s decision was made because Masters had said he would not support McConnell as leader in the next Congress.

    “Because Masters said he would vote against Mitch McConnell. And so Mitch would rather be leader than have a Republican majority. If there’s a Republican who can win who’s not going to support Mitch, the truth of the matter is he’d rather the Democrat win,” Cruz said.

    During the Arizona Republican primary, Masters called for McConnell to be replaced as GOP leader, saying he would support Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) or Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for the position.

    “I’ll tell Mitch this to his face,” Masters said during a Republican primary debate in June. “He’s not bad at everything. He’s good at judges. He’s good at blocking Democrats. You know what he’s not good at? Legislating.”

    On election eve, Masters told The Wall Street Journal he would support a conservative challenger to McConnell if elected, telling the outlet that “we need new leadership” in the Senate.

    Had McConnell directed the millions he spent supporting incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in Alaska’s Senate race to Arizona, Cruz said “Blake Masters probably would have won and we would be on the road to a Republican majority.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 22:30

  • LA Port Head Says October Was 'Quietest' Month Since 2009
    LA Port Head Says October Was ‘Quietest’ Month Since 2009

    About a year ago, there was a massive queue outside two of America’s biggest ports, located on the West Coast. Now, the ports are coming to a crawl during the peaking shipping season, ahead of the busiest shopping period of the year. 

    There’s no longer a massive amount of container ships outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, which handle 40% of all cargo containers entering the country. 

    According to Gene Seroka, head of the Port of Los Angeles, the backlog has all but dissipated. In an online briefing, he said the Port of LA had the quietest October since 2009. 

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    Together, LA and Long Beach are the main seaport gateway into the US economy from China. The quietest October since the GFC is sign retailers and manufacturers have slowed or stopped ordering from overseas due to either high inventories or collapsing demand. 

    Seroka’s comment Tuesday is another piece to the puzzle of an emerging global slowdown: 

    We predict in May that an inventory glut, i.e., the reverse bullwhip effect, would cool the booming freight market. It’s peak shipping season — retailers have already canceled overseas orders as freight companies reduce shipping capacity ahead of Black Friday and Christmas. 

    Companies across the board are bloated with inventories. This can be shown in the inventory-to-sales ratio, reaching multi-decade highs — forcing importers to reduce shipments from overseas suppliers. 

    As importers are stuck with inventory, they have reduced orders, which has led to a plunge in container spot rates. Even to the extent that major shipping companies are canceling sails. 

    Some of the largest shipping companies, such as US shipper FedEx and Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S have parked planes and canceled sails as economic storm clouds gather worldwide. 

    And as world trade stumbles, another problem has emerged: a massive container glut at ports. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 22:00

  • Arizona Prayer Rally Under Surveillance As Members Gather In 'Free Speech Zone'
    Arizona Prayer Rally Under Surveillance As Members Gather In ‘Free Speech Zone’

    Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Republican pastor Jerone Davison addresses a prayer rally outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 14, 2022, under the watchful eye of sheriff’s deputies. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    PHOENIX, Ariz.—Angie Russo chuckled at the clear blue urban sky over Phoenix and said, “You see the drones? We got drones.”

    One law enforcement camera drone was visible, buzzing overhead in a stationary position.

    Russo then noticed two armed police officers in body armor positioned atop the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC).

    Another pair were on the building across the street, watching her location with binoculars.

    Conservative Republican activist Angie Russo (R) dances with a participant at a prayer rally outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 14, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    “We got snipers—because we’re dangerous. Can’t you see how dangerous we are?” Russo said jokingly.

    At 1 p.m., Russo was among the first to arrive at a prayer rally outside the fortified perimeter of the county’s main tabulation center on Nov. 14.

    That the gathering took place inside an official “free speech zone” didn’t sit well with Russo, who thought it “ridiculous.”

    “I live in America. Everywhere is free speech,” she said.

    Participants at a prayer rally outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on offered prayers for a fair and accurate vote tally on Nov. 14, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    And the heavy show of law enforcement and surveillance?

    Intimidating, Russo told The Epoch Times.

    “Unfortunately, this is how they treat you. If you’re an American who believes in the Constitution and free speech, this is what you get.”

    “If you’re not hiding something, why would you do this? I don’t usually barricade something I’m not hiding, you know what I’m saying?”

    ‘Zero Confidence’

    Inside the facility, ballot workers continued their slow, laborious tallying of ballots though a clear winner in the race for Arizona governor remained in doubt Monday afternoon.

    However, NBC News projected Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs would defeat Republican Kari Lake in Arizona’s race for governor, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent, hours later.

    “Do I have faith [in the process]?” Russo said. “At this point, you’d have to prove that an election is legitimate. I won’t believe it unless I have proof—so no. I have zero confidence in our elections.”

    A woman holds an Arizona “Gadsden Flag” during a post-election prayer rally in Phoenix on Nov. 14, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    All Michelle Dillard, a conservative Republican from Mesa, said she wanted was “legitimate results,” given widespread reports of ballot tabulator machine failure on election day.

    “Everybody talks about voter suppression all the time,” Dillard told The Epoch Times at the prayer rally. “Voter suppression is super long lines. The morning polls are when people are on their way to work. They can’t stay and wait around for them to fix a printer.

    “These people are going on election day to vote in person for a reason. They were disenfranchised. Turned away. Many people did not vote.”

    “It’s worse than it was back in 2020,” said Gage, a Maricopa County poll worker at the prayer rally, who said both tabulators at his precinct center stopped working during early voting.

    He said he saw many voters step out of line and leave out of frustration.

    “They had to go. They didn’t have time to stand and wait any longer,” Gage told The Epoch Times.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 21:35

  • Get Woke, Go Broke: Disney To Lay Off Employees After Billions In Operating Losses
    Get Woke, Go Broke: Disney To Lay Off Employees After Billions In Operating Losses

    The company that once defined family entertainment is going from media giant to epic failure, suffering over $1.4 billion in streaming losses and a stock drop of around 39% for the year.  And, it would appear that these financial declines are inevitably leading to employee layoffs.

    Disney has put a freeze on hiring, it is limited employee travel and is also reviewing workers for efficiency with plans to introduce cuts as a means to make the company “more nimble.”  CEO Bob Chapek noted in a leaked memo to senior staff:

    “As we work through this evaluation process, we will look at every avenue of operations and labor to find savings, and we do anticipate some staff reductions as part of this review.

    …I am fully aware this will be a difficult process for many of you and your teams. We are going to have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions.”

    Chapek mentions in the same memo the problem of “macroeconomic factors” out of Disney’s control.  He does not, however, mention his habit of bending the knee and groveling to woke activists, attempting to sabotage Florida’s anti-grooming legislation for public schools, or the company’s steady supply of content that pushes far-left narratives. 

    It is not so much the “macroeconomic factors out of Disney’s control” that are causing the conglomerate’s downfall.  Rather, it is all the factors within their control, including their refusal to produce content that consumers actually want.  American audiences are done with leftist propaganda in their films and television and are now actively researching and avoiding any content that promotes woke ideology and social justice talking points.  After around five years of consumers withholding their money, Disney is finally starting to feel the pain.

    This is what happens when a company markets its products to a tiny minority of leftist activists and LGBT fanatics, most of whom have very little money to spend anyway.  Specifically, parents are concerned with Disney’s “family entertainment” evolving to focus on LGBT characters, being that LGBT concepts are purely sexual in nature and far outside of the understanding of the average child.  Highlighting the obscure sexuality of characters within a children’s production is a bizarre notion.       

    Furthermore, the company’s hostility towards Florida’s Parental Rights In Education bill, which makes it illegal for public school teachers to groom young children with sexualized concepts and gender ideology, raises questions among consumers about Disney’s agenda in entertainment.

    It is therefore no surprise that the company is now floundering, with a vast array of politically motivated box office bombs and streaming disasters that struggle to bring in even moderate viewership.  Though they will never openly admit it, ultimately, Disney proves yet again that going woke also means going broke.       

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 21:00

  • Watch Live: Trump Announces 2024 Run For President
    Watch Live: Trump Announces 2024 Run For President

    Former President Donald Trump has formally filed a statement of candidacy for a 2024 presidential bid, and will make an announcement live Tuesday night.

    According to polls, he will immediately become the front-runner for the Republican nomination despite last week’s lack of a “red wave” during the midterm election – after which Democrats held the Senate and lost the House by a much smaller-than-anticipated number.

    Watch live:

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 20:25

  • Biden On Democrats' Effort To Codify Roe v. Wade: 'I Don’t Think There’s Enough Votes'
    Biden On Democrats’ Effort To Codify Roe v. Wade: ‘I Don’t Think There’s Enough Votes’

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

    US President Joe Biden holds a press conference on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Nov. 14, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

    Democrats probably won’t be able to pass federal legislation codifying the struck-down Roe v. Wade abortion protections, President Joe Biden said on Nov. 14.

    “I don’t think there’s enough votes to codify, unless something happens unusual in the House,” Biden said at a press conference while traveling in Asia.

    While control of the U.S. House of Representatives is still undetermined because some states have struggled to count votes in a timely manner, Democrats have already lost a number of seats and are likely to be in the minority.

    “I think we’re going to get very close in the House. But I don’t—I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Biden added.

    The Supreme Court in June struck down Roe, the 1973 decision that concluded access to abortion was a constitutional right, and an associated ruling called Planned Parenthood v. Casey that also barred states from imposing some restrictions on abortions.

    Since then, Biden and other Democrats have repeatedly said they want to approve and sign into law a bill that would not only codify Roe but expand abortion protections beyond what they were with Roe.

    The Democrat-controlled House in July passed the measure, although Democrats lacked enough support in the Senate, which had already rejected the legislation.

    Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who opposed the legislation because it went further than Roe, joined Republicans in voting against the measure.

    Meanwhile, several Republican senators, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), have sometimes voted for pro-abortion legislation but they voted against the bill earlier this year.

    Biden claimed over the summer that Democrats only needed a few more votes in the upper chamber to codify Roe.

    “We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice House to codify Roe as federal law. Your vote can make that a reality,” he said, as he condemned the Supreme Court for its decision that struck down Roe.

    “The fastest way to restore Roe is to pass a national law codifying Roe, which I will sign immediately upon its passage at my desk,” he also said.

    On Nov. 14, Biden also said that he thought the midterms showed “the strength and resilience of the American democracy” and championed voters largely rejecting candidates who have questioned election results.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 20:10

  • NBC Pushes 'Tripledemic' Fear Mongering – Claims Children At Risk During The Holidays
    NBC Pushes ‘Tripledemic’ Fear Mongering – Claims Children At Risk During The Holidays

    Why can’t leftists and the mainstream media let go of the pandemic, accept that it is over and move on?  There are a number of reasons, but much of it can be explained by the psychological drivers within the mind of the average progressive.

    Leftists are often defined by their addiction to fear.  For them, fear is a powerful tool, a great motivator for organization and a means to manipulate large groups into conformity with an agenda that would normally take many years or decades to accomplish otherwise.  The hype surrounding covid is just one example – We can also see the political left’s love affair with fear in their obsession with “systemic racism” (which does not exist), or their rantings on the “climate crisis” (which does not exist).

    Fear is a path to control over others and society at large and tends to be a tool used by weak people who cannot assert their ideologies through force of arms.  It is also a great way to excite a population into mob impulses; a way to use large mindless crowds as a political weapon.  

    On the individual level, leftists like to live in the midst of constant crisis.  For them, crisis creates meaning in their otherwise meaningless existence. The typical mindless leftist drone subsisting day-to-day without producing anything of value, often without marriage, without children and without a greater purpose,  is going to be desperate to feel as though they are a part of something.  They are looking for anything to make life more interesting; they don’t create value in their own lives, they have to search for it outside of themselves and live vicariously through events and vast groups and governments.  

    They are part of the hive, and the accomplishments of the hive are their accomplishments as well.  

    The covid pandemic was one of those moments in history where this collectivist mentality could be justified and all the worst impulses of narcissists and authoritarians and micro-managing control freaks could be put on display without much criticism.  It was all being done for the “greater good”, you see.  If the covid virus had been an actual large scale mortal threat no one would have been more happy than leftists.  

    Instead, they got a minimal threat with a 0.23% median Infection Fatality Rate.  Covid was not the crisis they were hoping for, and not as useful in asserting dominance as they had originally envisioned.  Still, the dream lives on.  This is why we continue to see corporate media outlets pumping out not only covid fear, but also fear of any old viruses we have been dealing with for generations. 

    NBC is spearheading the latest fear narrative with the threat of the “Tripledemic”, a supposed spike in cases involving covid, the flu and a respiratory illness called RSV.  Not surprisingly, the outlet is making the risks to children the focus of their propaganda.  This makes perfect sense give the fact that covid was a non-issue for younger people, and leftists have learned over the past two years that fear is far more effective if the danger involves children.

    NBC goes on to suggest that letting unvaccinated people near children should be avoided and that vaccines are the best option for protection.  What their “medical expert” does not mention is that there is no vaccine for RSV and covid vaccination for kids is pointless.  But why is NBC trying to tie covid together with the flu and RSV?  

    First, because the public at large no longer sees covid as a reason to isolate, nor a reason to spurn their unvaccinated relatives.  So, they need to now lump covid in with a host of other diseases in order to maintain a sense of urgency.  

    Second, and perhaps most importantly, is that Big Pharma companies like Moderna are currently promoting the release of a new type of vaccine that combines a flu shot with an RSV and covid immunization.  It’s not a coincidence that the mainstream media is suddenly hyping a “Tripledemic” of those same diseases.     

    In other words, if you want to get a flu shot you would also have to take a new mRNA RSV shot and covid shot at the same time.  A problem to note is that Moderna is attempting to introduce this new vaccine product without the extensive clinical trials necessary to ensure safety.  No surprises there. 

    The establishment is seeking to make the existence of viruses a perpetual crisis that requires steady injections of new mRNA technology to stay safe, and leftists are eating up the propaganda.  Yes, it’s about money for companies like Moderna, but it’s also about control.  When people are separated from their families due to vaccination status and worried about their children’s health they are more likely to submit to untested treatments and also unconstitutional rules.  Fear is the fuel that keeps leftist movements alive.        

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 19:45

  • US, Japan To Start Large-Scale War Games On Heels Of Xi-Biden Meeting
    US, Japan To Start Large-Scale War Games On Heels Of Xi-Biden Meeting

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute,

    The US and Japan are set to kick off large-scale joint war games on Thursday. The military drills will involve over 35,000 troops and take place just days after President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at lowering tensions.

    The war games, dubbed “Keen Sword 23,” will run for three days. The military drills come as Japan is increasingly worried about China’s growing presence in the region. The exercises simulate the defense of Tokunoshima Island, located in the East China Sea. Biden’s administration has previously pledged the U.S. will defend Japan’s claims to the East China Sea’s disputed Senkaku Islands. The Senkaku Islands are also claimed by Beijing and Taipei.

    US Navy file image

    Military activity in the region has spiked in recent months. Chinese warplanes have carried out unprecedented drills in the waters surrounding Taiwan after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August.

    “Keen Sword 23” will see 26,000 Japanese troops join 10,000 American soldiers. Some Canadian, British and Australian forces will also participate. Voice of America – a US government-funded outlet – reports 370 aircraft and 30 ships will be mobilized.

    The war games are taking place in the wake of Biden’s meeting with the Chinese president. At the meeting, Biden declared Washington will “continue to compete vigorously” with Beijing. Though, he said that the competition should not “veer into conflict and underscored that the United States and China must manage the competition responsibly and maintain open lines of communication.”

    The Chinese Defense ministry recently said that if the U.S. military desires to resume regular communication between the two countries, Washington must “respect China’s interests and major concerns, and remove the negative factors that impede the development of ties.” According to China’s Foreign Ministry, echoing this sentiment, Xi told Biden “the Taiwan question” is the “the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed.”

    Location of joint drills: Tokunoshima Island, via Google Maps

    Since taking office, Biden has escalated tensions with China to unprecedented levels. Last year, Biden’s military flew more than 2,000 sorties of spy planes in the South China Sea, East China Sea, and Yellow Sea. The number of U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups deployed to the South China Sea nearly doubled.

    High level delegations of US officials and members of Congress regularly visit Taiwan, while Biden has repeatedly said the US has a defense commitment to the island, defying the One-China Policy. Washington seeks to turn Taiwan into a “weapons depot,” U.S. troops are openly deployed to the island training local forces, and American warships transit the Taiwan strait on a near monthly basis.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 19:20

  • "Invasion Clause" Triggered In Texas As Migrants Overwhelm Border
    “Invasion Clause” Triggered In Texas As Migrants Overwhelm Border

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott has invoked the state’s “Invasion Clauses” to take measures against a record-setting influx of migrants who are illegally crossing the border.

    “I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion,” Abbott tweeted Tuesday morning.

    As part of the action, Abbott plans to;

    • Deploy the National Guard to safeguard the border, and to repel and turn back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally
    • Deploy the Texas Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) to arrest and return immigrants to the border who crossed illegally, and to arrest illegal immigrants for criminal activity;
    • Build a wall in multiple counties on the border;
    • Deploy gun boats;
    • Designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations;
    • Enter into a compact with other states to secure the border;
    • Enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security;
    • Provide resources for border counties to increase their efforts to respond to the “border invasion.”

    As Breitbart News notes;

    The move by the Texas governor comes after back-to-back record years of migrant border apprehensions following changes in policies by the Biden administration. Official reports from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show the apprehension of more than 2.2 million migrants in the just ended Fiscal Year 2022 and nearly 1.7 million in Fiscal Year 2021. During the last full year of the Trump administration agents apprehended only 400,000 migrants.

    Nearly two-thirds of migrant apprehensions occur in the five Texas-based Border Patrol sectors, according to reports from CBP. This amounts to 1.26 million migrants in FY22.

    The governor’s order on Tuesday represents the next step in an increasing response to the lack of action by the federal government to secure the U.S.-Mexico border — particularly in Texas.

    “Since President Biden took office over a year ago, his dangerous open border policies have created an ongoing crisis along our southern border, with a 61-year record-high of illegal immigrants surging into our state smuggled by the cartels, along with deadly drugs like fentanyl, weapons, and other contraband,” Governor Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze told Breitbart in April. “Texas border communities and local officials are overwhelmed and overrun by the historic levels of illegal crossings, and President Biden has turned a blind eye to their suffering.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 18:55

  • Biden Unveils $37BN More In Emergency Ukraine Aid On Heels Of Polish Border 'Attack'
    Biden Unveils $37BN More In Emergency Ukraine Aid On Heels Of Polish Border ‘Attack’

    At the close of a wild roller-coaster of a day following the alleged “Russian missile attack” on a Polish border town, and despite little to nothing in the way of official confirmation of just what happened or whodunnit, and urgent phone calls flying between Western heads of state pledging “solidarity” – it’s perfect timing for the US to shovel out another nearly $40 billion to Ukraine…

    “President Joe Biden is asking Congress to provide more than $37 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, a massive infusion of cash that could help support the nation as Russian forces suffer battlefield losses in their nine-month-old invasion,” Reuters is reporting late in the day. 

    Biden unveiled the proposed massive aid infusion while at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. It was also announced just as President Biden held a phone call with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda following the explosion in the village of Przewodów.

    Biden offered Poland “full U.S support for and assistance with Poland’s investigation” and “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to NATO,” according to a call readout. The two leaders also vowed to remain in “close touch to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation proceeds.”

    According to a breakdown of the fresh aid proposed for Ukraine, it includes “$21.7 billion for military, intelligence and other defense support, $14.5 billion in humanitarian aid and to help keep the Ukrainian government functioning, $900 million for health care and support services for Ukrainians living in the U.S. and $626 million for nuclear security support to Ukraine and for modernizing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

    This follows Ukraine’s President Zelensky urging more, more, more weapons and funding, especially missiles, artillery shells, and anti-air defense systems. 

    According to more from Reuters, “Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said that more than three-fourths of the $40 billion approved by Congress earlier this year for Ukraine has already been disbursed or committed.”

    The precise figure of what the Biden administration is now asking anew totals $37.7 billion in support. 

    While there likely won’t be an invoking of Article 5 over Tuesday’s events, whatever bottlenecks that currently exist in terms of getting Ukraine more defense aid is likely to be loosened up after this.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 18:30

  • Planned Amazon Layoffs Could Hamper E-Commerce, Logistics
    Planned Amazon Layoffs Could Hamper E-Commerce, Logistics

    By Jack Daleo of FreightWaves

    Twitter, Meta and now Amazon are engaging in mass layoffs as the tech industry contends with a massive downturn.

    According to a Monday report in The New York Times, the e-commerce giant is planning the largest layoff in company history, cutting around 10,000 jobs. The cuts, people familiar with the matter told the Times, will mainly focus on the company’s devices organization, which houses the company’s struggling Alexa business.

    But sources said that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is also planning major cuts to its retail division, which is responsible for online shopping, physical retail and a chunk of the firm’s logistics operations. Hourly workers, who make up the bulk of the company’s workforce, will not be impacted.

    Amazon did not immediately respond to Modern Shipper’s request for comment.

    The layoffs were not necessarily unexpected for Amazon, which has ceased hiring in several segments since September. That includes a freeze on more than 10,000 open roles in the retail business as well as a monthslong freeze on corporate hiring.

    The marketplace has also repeatedly scaled back its logistics operations in recent months, delaying or closing more than 60 warehouses and scrapping services like free Whole Foods delivery and its Scout home delivery robot as it contends with slowing e-commerce growth.

    What is surprising, though, is that the planned layoffs would come right as peak season kicks off.

    Typically, companies like Amazon ramp up seasonal hiring to meet the increased demand that comes with the holidays. But between April and September, the Times reports, Amazon lost about 80,000 people primarily to attrition. (Turnover rates in the company’s warehouses routinely top 100%.)

    That’s not unusual for Amazon, at least in recent years, and the company said it plans to bring on the same number of seasonal workers this year as it did last year.

    Still, the fact that all of this is happening shortly before the holiday season is a not-so-subtle signal that Amazon and newly minted CEO Andy Jassy are firmly in cost-cutting mode as the company attempts to rebound from a disappointing third quarter.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 18:05

  • Relationship Among FTX, Ukraine, And Democrats Sparks Speculation
    Relationship Among FTX, Ukraine, And Democrats Sparks Speculation

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

    Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder and then-CEO of FTX, testifies during a Senate Committee hearing about Examining Digital Assets: Risks, Regulation, and Innovation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 9, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

    Is there a questionable relationship between Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt FTX, Ukraine, and the Democrats? In the aftermath of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange, new questions are being raised surrounding these connections, from crypto partnerships to the billionaire’s contributions to Democrats.

    But is there something behind the curtain or was it a group of young people in over their heads?

    It All Begins with ‘Aid for Ukraine’

    In March, the Ukrainian government established a crypto donations website, allowing Kyiv to convert digital token contributions into fiat money that would be deposited at the National Bank of Ukraine. The Ukraine government maintained a goal of $200 million. By October, it had raised more than $60 million.

    The contributed funds have been used to purchase everything needed for the war effort, such as digital rifle scopes, medical supplies, field rations, fuel, military clothing, and other critical items.

    The initiative, known as “Aid for Ukraine,” garnered the support of FTX, staking outfit Everstake, and Ukraine’s Kuna exchange. It has been powered by the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

    “At the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, FTX felt the need to provide assistance in any way it could. By setting up payment rails and facilitating the conversion of crypto donations into fiat currency, we have given the Central Bank of Ukraine the ability to deliver aid and resources to the people who need it most,” Bankman-Fried said in a statement in March. “We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Sergey [Vasylchuk] and the Everstake team as they continue to work tirelessly in helping Ukrainians as they suffer from this conflict.”

    Days after the launch of the Ukraine–FTX collaboration, U.S. President Joe Biden announced an extra $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total contribution to $2 billion since the start of the administration. In total, it’s estimated that the United States has given more than $60 billion to Kyiv.

    While it’s unclear if reports that Ukrainian officials have invested in FTX are accurate, many are seeking an explanation as to whether Ukrainian officials have used funds delivered to Kyiv through FTX to funnel money to Democratic campaigns.

    Bankman-Fried’s Donations to Democrats

    Bankman-Fried was the second-largest Democratic donor for the 2021–22 cycle, donating $39.8 million. This was behind George Soros’s total donations of $128 million. Bankman-Fried gave the most amount of money to the Protect Our Future PAC, a group that “endorsed Democratic candidates such as Peter Welch, who won his bid to become Vermont’s next senator, and Robert J. Menendez of New Jersey, who secured a House seat,” according to Fortune. But this past summer, Bankman-Fried suggested that he could’ve spent $1 billion on the midterm elections to support the Democrats, although he stepped away from this proposition.

    In the first half of 2022, he contributed $865,000 to the Democratic National Committee, $66,500 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, and $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

    In addition, Bankman-Fried made multiple visits to the White House. According to White House visitor logs, he met with White House counselor Steve Ricchetti on April 22 and May 12. The FTX founder also met with Charlotte Butash, a policy adviser to the White House deputy chief of staff, on May 13.

    Mark Wetjen, the head of policy and regulatory strategy at FTX, who served as a commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under former President Barack Obama, also attended some of the meetings.

    Visitor logs also show that Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, Gabe, made visits to the White House on March 7 and May 13. His first appointment was with Nathaly Maurice, special assistant to the president and director of partnerships at the White House. His second visit was with Butash.

    Gabe had previously worked as a Capitol Hill staffer and is the founder and director of Guarding Against Pandemics.

    Bankman-Fried has been open about his attempts to influence public policymaking, explaining that he’s championing crypto regulations, including legislation that would codify licensure for crypto assets. The bill, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022, was proposed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) in August. A key aspect of the legislative pursuit is that it would allocate crypto regulatory power to the CFTC. Bankman-Fried donated $5,800 to Stabenow’s campaign in February.

    “One in five Americans have used or traded digital assets—but these markets lack the transparency and accountability that they expect from our financial system. Too often, this puts Americans’ hard-earned money at risk,” Stabenow said in a statement. “That’s why we are closing regulatory gaps and requiring that these markets operate under straightforward rules that protect customers and keep our financial system safe.”

    So everything that has transpired between Bankman-Fried, FTX, Ukraine, and the Democrats has raised some eyebrows. Billionaire CEO Elon Musk is also intrigued by the latest developments.

    “Was FTX being used to launder money for the Democratic Party?” a Twitter user asked.

    Musk replied, “A question worth asking.”

    Alex Bornyakov, the deputy minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, took to Twitter on Nov. 14 to dismiss this “narrative.”

    “A fundraising crypto foundation @_AidForUkraine used @FTX_Official to convert crypto donations into fiat in March,” he tweeted. “Ukraine’s gov never invested any funds into FTX. The whole narrative that Ukraine allegedly invested in FTX, who donated money to Democrats is nonsense, frankly.”

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    Corruption or Incompetence?

    Is there truth to any of the speculation that Ukraine funneled money to Biden through FTX or that there was anything iniquitous in the Ukraine-FTX partnership?

    A cryptocurrency expert, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times that there isn’t much credence to the suggestions. Although Bankman-Fried was a significant Democratic donor, the downfall of FTX was because of mismanagement, poor decision-making, and a lack of experience and corporate controls. It was an enormous financial firm that was run by 20-somethings.

    The other factor was that FTX’s assets were denominated in volatile cryptocurrencies, and many of these tokens’ valuations crashed in 2022. FTX’s balance sheet, which was obtained by the Financial Times, shows that its assets were comprised of joke coins or unreliable tokens, including TRUMPLOSE, the Brazilian Digital Token, Oxygen (OXY), and FTT (FTX’s native coin).

    In recent months, FTX has been acquiring troubled assets throughout the crypto and tech industries. In May, Bankman-Fried revealed a 7.6 percent stake in Robinhood, but the value had tumbled by more than 5 percent since the purchase.

    It has been a year of turmoil for a wide array of crypto firms, such as Coinbase, crypto lending firm Celsius, BlockFi, and Singapore-based crypto trading platform Three Arrows Capital—which Bankman-Fried bailed out with a $750 million credit line.

    “We’re willing to do a somewhat bad deal here if that’s what it takes to sort of stabilize things and protect customers,” he said in June.

    The FTX scandal will likely have a domino effect in the sector. BlockFi, a crypto lender, revealed that it had large exposure to FTX. The Wall Street Journal also reported that BlockFi is exploring a bankruptcy filing, citing people familiar with the matter.

    There’s growing concern that Gate.io and Crypto.com could be the next two giants in the crypto ecosystem to experience financial troubles.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 17:40

  • Zelensky Issues 10-Point Plan To End War In G20 Virtual Address
    Zelensky Issues 10-Point Plan To End War In G20 Virtual Address

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quick to reject what he called “unrealistic and inadequate” terms for future peace talks put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

    Zelensky had addressed the G20 summit in Bali via video link earlier in the day, in which he presented a 10-point peace plan to end the war. Key features of the plan include withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, the assurance of nuclear safety, food security including the ability to freely export, and an “all for all” prisoner swap.

    FM Lavrov, who is representing Russa in Bali in President Putin’s stead, was in attendance for Zelensky’s video address, reportedly having remained in his seat for the duration. Lavrov later confirmed to reporters that he listened to the whole thing, which marks at least a “start” in terms of the potential for a future negotiated settlement.

    Russian FM Sergei Lavrov attends the first working session of the G20 leaders’ summit, via AFP.

    Lavrov responded to the peace terms, saying “I reminded him [Macron] that all the problems are on the Ukrainian side, which categorically refuses any negotiations and puts forward terms that are obviously unrealistic and inadequate,” as quoted in AFP. Addressing accusations that it is Moscow that remains unwilling to enter talks, Lavrov said, “If anyone is refusing, it is Ukraine. The longer it refuses, the more difficult it will be to reach an agreement.”

    The Kremlin has also previously pointed the finger at the US and UK for at every turn pushing Kiev away from meaningful ceasefire talks. 

    Below is the “10-point peace plan” which was presented by Zelensky before the G20 on Tuesday:

    1. Radiation and nuclear safety
    2. Food security
    3. Energy security
    4. Release of prisoners and deportees
    5. Implementation of the UN Charter
    6. Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities
    7. Justice
    8. Ecocide and the protection of the environment
    9. Prevention of escalation
    10. Confirmation of the end of the war

    Despite talking “peace” – Zelensky throughout the speech took repeat swipes at Russia, for example mocking Putin’s absence at Bali by calling it the “G19 summit”.  

    Via Ukrainska Pravda

    Zelensky further charged that Moscow has continued making nuclear threats and that its forces have turned the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant into “a radioactive bomb that can explode at any moment.”

    Despite each side remaining further entrenched in their corners and unwilling to compromise, and at a moment Ukraine has maintained the momentum of its counteroffensive by taking Kherson, Zelensky’s 10-point plan does at least represent an opening of sorts, given just a couple months ago there wasn’t so much as discussion or possibility of a “peace plan”.

    Crucially, noticeably absent from Zelensky’s peace plan was his prior demands of accelerated entry to NATO…

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    Currently, the idea of a diplomatic solution is also being debated in Washington, so this perhaps represents an inching forward on the possibility of future negotiated settlement. 

    Responsible Statecraft observes of Zelensky’s speech, “A possible diplomatic shift in the war in Ukraine may have gone largely unnoticed when Kiev appeared to signal that it might be willing to give up its aspiration to become a member of NATO. Or at least downgrading its urgency.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 17:15

  • Supply Hell: Wait Times For Tesla Model 3 And Model Y Just Evaporated Down To One Week, At Minimum
    Supply Hell: Wait Times For Tesla Model 3 And Model Y Just Evaporated Down To One Week, At Minimum

    In what we’re sure is a sign of incredible demand (or at least, that’s what we’ll probably be told by the company), Tesla is slashing the minimum wait times on its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. 

    The company’s website reflected the changes on Tuesday after Tesla “added to its electric vehicle inventory in Shanghai at its fastest pace ever in October”, Reuters reported on Tuesday morning, citing data from China Merchants Bank International.

    The inventory build comes at a time when global auto companies are “bracing for a downturn” as monetary policy conditions globally are slowly grinding the gears of many economies to a crawl. 

    Tesla’s deliveries in China for October were down sequentially from the month prior and the news comes just days after the idea was floated in financial media about whether or not Tesla could export vehicles from Shanghai to the United States. 

    Recall, about three weeks ago, Tesla cut the price of some of its cars in China, first raising suspicions about a potential lack of demand days after Musk said the company would continue robust production regardless of whether or not the global economy slipped into recession. 

    At the time, Tesla slashed the price of its Model 3 and Model Y to 265,900 Chinese yuan ($36,615) from 279,900 yuan and to 288,900 yuan versus the previous price of 316,900 yuan.

    The cuts offset price hikes that took place earlier in the year, which came as a result of higher input costs. “China is experiencing a recession of sorts,” CEO Musk said at the end of October.

    The week prior, on a company conference call, Musk had said: “To be frank, we’re very pedal to the metal come rain or shine. We are not reducing our production in any meaningful way, recession or not recession.”

    “The public at large realizes that world’s moving towards electric vehicles, and it’s foolish to buy a new gasoline car at this point because the residual value of that gasoline car is going to be very low. So, we’re in a very good spot.”

    “I wouldn’t say it’s recession-proof but it’s recession-resilient, because basically the people of Earth have made the decision in large part to move away from gasoline cars,” he added.

    Well now it’s starting to look as though Tesla may have more vehicles on its hands than it knows what to do with…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 16:50

  • Americans To See Highest Thanksgiving Gasoline Prices Ever
    Americans To See Highest Thanksgiving Gasoline Prices Ever

    By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

    This year’s average U.S. gasoline prices on Thanksgiving are expected to be at their highest level ever for the holiday and beat the previous record from Thanksgiving of 2012, according to estimates from fuel-savings app GasBuddy.

    Despite the record-high average gasoline prices, 20% more Americans plan to travel by car for the holiday weekend, compared to 2021, especially after Covid precautions have significantly eased compared to the previous two years, according to GasBuddy.  

    Moreover, gasoline prices have dropped a lot from the record highs in June.

    Per GasBuddy estimates, the national average is projected to stand at $3.68 a gallon on Thanksgiving Day – nearly 30 cents higher than last year and over 20 cents higher than the previous record of $3.44/gal set in 2012.  

    The number of Americans traveling over the Thanksgiving weekend this year is up from 32% last year to 38%, a nearly 20% rise, according to GasBuddy’s Thanksgiving survey. A total of 21% said they had chosen not to drive due to high fuel prices.

    Most respondents in the survey indicated they would travel less than an hour away.

    “While 21% say high fuel prices are impacting their travel, surprisingly fewer are citing high gas prices this year (46% vs. 51% in 2021) for impacting their travel plans,” GasBuddy said.

    The majority of respondents traveling for Thanksgiving, 73%, will not be crossing state lines to do so.

    “It has been a dizzying year at the pump, with motorists likely feeling nauseous not from the eggnog, but from the roller coaster ride at the pump with record gasoline prices earlier this year, which have fallen significantly since mid-summer,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

    “Americans, however, are proving that while we’ll openly complain about high gas prices, most of us aren’t deterred from taking to the highways to observe Thanksgiving with those that matter most to us, especially as precautions from the pandemic have eased.”

    On Monday, De Haan said he expected that in the next ten days, the national average price of gasoline would fall to its lowest level since March. The number of states with below-$3 average gas prices will rise to 5 by the end of the month, he added.   

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/15/2022 – 16:25

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Nov 15

Today’s News 15th November 2022

  • Ukraine Seeks 'Israel-Like' Arms Industry To Produce NATO-Caliber Weapons
    Ukraine Seeks ‘Israel-Like’ Arms Industry To Produce NATO-Caliber Weapons

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

    Kiev is planning a buildup of its weapons industry to produce more sophisticated arms, with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov saying government takeovers of several companies will help Kiev to create an “army of drones” and other NATO-caliber weapons. The defense chief noted that growing military ties between Kiev and the West makes Ukraine a de facto NATO partner.

    In an interview on Thursday, Reznikov told reporters Kiev was seeking to replicate Tel Aviv’s defense industry. “We are trying to be like Israel – more independent during the next years,” he said.

    Ukrainian troops fire a mortar at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

    The defense head argued that Israel’s advanced defense industry helps it maintain its sovereignty, adding “I think the best answer [can be seen] in Israel … developing their national industry for their armed forces. It made them independent.”

    Ukraine has received tens of billions in security assistance from the US and its global partners. “We understood that [by] using Soviet weapon systems … we are not independent. And it is better to have new systems with new ammunition of a NATO standard,” Reznikov went on.

    On Friday, Reuters reported additional details of Kiev’s plans for its weapons industry. Reznikov said Ukraine was already in the process of making an “army of drones” and was looking at manufacturing NATO-caliber artillery. The official also said Ukraine needs to develop drone jamming capabilities, as well as unmanned vehicles for the air, land and sea.

    Kiev’s plans to upgrade its defense sector could face several challenges given the complications of wartime. In recent months, the Kremlin has proven its ability to bypass Ukraine’s air defenses and has severely damaged the country’s electric grid. Additionally, Kiev has already passed a 2023 budget with a $38 billion deficit.

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    It’s unclear how the Kremlin would respond if Ukraine were to produce NATO standard weapons. While Moscow repeatedly voiced concerns that Kiev could someday host NATO weapons before it invaded Ukraine last winter, Reznikov insisted his country’s ties with the North Atlantic bloc would continue regardless.

    “It doesn’t matter when we become a member of the NATO alliance de jure. We have become a NATO partner de facto right now,” Reznikov said. “That’s why we need to develop our military industry together.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 23:30

  • Doug Mastriano Concedes Pennsylvania Governor’s Race To Democrat Josh Shapiro
    Doug Mastriano Concedes Pennsylvania Governor’s Race To Democrat Josh Shapiro

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Pennsylvania Republican nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano on the campaign trail in 2022. (Courtesy Mastriano Campaign)

    The Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, has conceded the race to his Democratic opponent Josh Shapiro. on Sunday, while calling for election results to be counted faster.

    In a statement posted to Twitter, Mastriano, who former President Donald Trump endorsed, said the results of the midterm elections had not gone the way Republicans had hoped and “fought so hard for.”

    “In all, we received votes from almost 2.2 million Pennsylvanians, and I thank every one of you, from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

    Shapiro was projected as the winner in the race for governor late on election night by NBC News. The Associated Press also called the race in favor of Shapiro on election night, when Shapiro had 54.42 percent of the vote, or 2,571,668 votes, and Mastriano 43.74 percent. As of Sunday, Shapiro has 56.3 percent of the vote compared to Mastriano’s 41.9 percent.

    “We gave this race everything we have,” Mastriano said. “Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do, and I look to the challenges ahead. Josh Shapiro will be our next governor, and I ask everyone to give him the opportunity to lead and pray that he leads well.”

    Mastriano’s statement comes nearly five days after NBC’s initial projection.

    He retired as a Colonel in November 2017 following 30 years of active-duty service and was elected to serve as a Pennsylvania senator by District 33 two years later in 2019.

    Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro gives a victory speech to supporters at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

    Campaign Promises

    Mastriano’s campaign had focused largely on election integrity, protecting the Second Amendment rights of Americans, and securing the border amid a mass immigration crisis that has led to an increase of fentanyl being snuck across the southern border.

    The rise in fentanyl transportation across the border is now claiming the lives of Pennsylvanians each and every day, according to Mastriano’s campaign website.

    As a state senator, Mastriano introduced Tyler’s Law, which targets drug dealers who push fentanyl resulting in a fatal overdose, resulting in a mandatory minimum 25-year sentence upon conviction.

    Mastriano also supported a complete ban on abortions and was vocal in his opposition to vaccine mandates and draconian COVID restrictions.

    In contrast, Shapiro, the state’s two-term elected attorney general, had vowed to protect Pennsylvanians’ access to abortions, including protecting the state’s existing 24-week law. He has also focused his campaign on tackling the fentanyl crisis and overhauling the state’s criminal justice system.

    As attorney general, Shapiro had spoken out against Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

    In a statement on Sunday, the Democrat thanked Pennsylvanians for giving him “the honor of a lifetime to give me the chance to serve you as Pennsylvania’s next Governor.”

    “While my name was on the ballot, it was always your rights on the line,” Shapiro wrote. “I believe this Governor’s race was a test for each of us to decide what kind of Commonwealth and what kind of country that we want to live in. It was a test of whether or not we valued our rights and freedoms, and whether we believed in opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.”

    “I humbly write to you as your Governor-elect knowing that you met this moment,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 23:00

  • Senator Cotton Vs. Progressive Foreign Policy
    Senator Cotton Vs. Progressive Foreign Policy

    Authored by Peter Berkowitz via RealClear Wire,

    Responsible foreign policy in a free and democratic nation-state is a matter of balance. Interest and principle; the logic of geopolitics and the sway of tradition, faith, and political ideology; force of arms and diplomatic finesse; national interest and alliances; spheres of influence and the laws binding all nations; necessity and justice – these and more must be constantly combined and reconciled to meet the demands of the moment and long-term strategic objectives. The Biden administration has thrown this combining and reconciling out of whack.

    Despite President Trump’s bluster and bravado, his administration transmitted to the Biden administration a variety of foreign-policy accomplishments. Foremost among them was reorientation of U.S. diplomacy around the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to American freedom and prosperity and to the nation’s interest in preserving a free and open international order.

    In addition, the Trump administration revived the Quad – Japan, India, and Australia, along with the United States – to advance shared interests in the Indo-Pacific. It withdrew from the Iran deal, which omitted reliable mechanisms for monitoring Tehran’s nuclear programs and put the terrorism-exporting Islamic republic on a clear timetable to join the nuclear club. It brokered the Abraham Accords, inaugurating a new era of comity between Israel and Arab nations. It persuaded several NATO partners to meet – or come closer to fulfilling – their agreed-upon obligations to fund the alliance. It fostered U.S. self-reliance by encouraging development of domestic oil and natural gas. And it reasserted control over America’s southern border, substantially reducing the influx of illegal immigrants.

    Biden and his team laudably followed the Trump administration in breaking with decades of engagement with China by recognizing that the CCP acts as a strategic competitor determined to reshape the world order to suit the party’s authoritarian convictions. But Biden’s diplomacy has left America in a weaker position than the one his White House inherited.

    The Biden administration opened the southern border, producing record numbers of non-citizens illegally entering the country and permitting the importation of deadly drugs. It restricted production of domestic oil and natural gas, which enriched oil-and-gas-rich Russia and increased European dependence on Vladimir Putin; then, when U.S. gasoline prices predictably skyrocketed, the Biden administration went hat in hand to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia (despite during the 2020 campaign Biden scorning the Kingdom as a “pariah”) pleading for them to pump more oil. It entreated Iran to conclude a second nuclear deal which, like the first, would lack adequate monitoring procedures and provide Tehran tens of billions of dollars in relief while allowing the ayatollahs to continue to develop ballistic missiles and foment terror and sectarian strife throughout the region. It strained to pronounce the words “Abraham Accords” let alone celebrate the historic agreements. And the Biden administration’s calamitously ill-conceived withdrawal from Afghanistan cast doubt in friends’ minds about America’s competence and trustworthiness and emboldened adversaries to surmise that the United States need not be feared.

    To the United States’ detriment, Biden administration foreign policy reflects the spirit and duplicates the consequences of Obama administration foreign policy. To take one example, in August 2013, in the Syrian civil war, President Bashar al-Assad attacked adversaries with the chemical agent sarin. Instead of enforcing his openly declared red line – and decades after the Soviet Union’s expulsions from the region – Obama invited Moscow back into the Levant to preside over removal of Assad’s chemical weapons. Six months later, on February 20, 2014, Putin invaded Ukraine. Similarly, on February 24, 2022 – almost exactly eight years later and six months after President Biden’s August 2021 Afghanistan debacle – Putin again invaded Ukraine. By misjudging foes and leaving friends high and dry, the Obama and Biden administrations dishonored the nation, encouraged aggression, and eroded world order.

    The continuities between the two Democratic administrations are not a matter of bad luck, overpowering events, or impersonal and irresistible forces, argues Sen. Tom Cotton. In “Only the Strong: Reversing the Left’s Plot to Sabotage American Power,” Cotton (an old friend whom I’ve known since his undergraduate days at Harvard) contends that the method to the messes made by Presidents Obama and Biden stems from their progressive convictions and dispositions. With characteristic forthrightness, shrewdness, and tenacity, he sets forth a devastating indictment of the progressive mindset in foreign affairs. He also provides a blistering critique of the deleterious policy choices and ham-handed execution of military operations and diplomacy to which, for more than half a century, progressivism has disposed Democratic presidents. His goal is “to reclaim the tradition of American strength.”

    Cotton knows full well that over the last half century conservatives, too, have made costly foreign-policy errors. But his analysis, informed by serious study of American political ideas and institutions, reveals a crucial difference: Whereas conservatives go wrong when they depart from their principles, which derive from the American founding, progressives do damage by acting on their principles, which repudiate the Founders’ wisdom.

    Cotton contrasts the Founders’ sobriety to progressives’ utopianism. The Founders “built America on eternal principles and timeless truths” rooted in a realistic assessment of human nature. They knew that human beings were unequal in many respects and prone to selfishness and shortsightedness but also inclined to cooperate to achieve common goods and, when put to the test, capable of self-sacrifice and nobility. The Founders embraced the Declaration of Independence’s self-evident truths: Human beings are equally endowed with natural and unalienable rights; government’s chief purpose is to secure these rights; and just power derives from the consent of the governed and is limited by what is necessary and proper to secure citizens’ rights.

    Progressivism arose in the late 19th century and early 20th century in opposition to the Founders’ ideas about human nature and government. Progressives tended to deny that human nature served as a moral guide and political standard. Instead, they supposed that science and enlightenment could steadily perfect human beings, and they placed their faith in a theory of history as ineluctably impelling humanity towards peace, prosperity, and happiness. Owing to the elites’ moral improvement and intellectual refinement coupled with the people’s persisting backwardness, progressives argued, government must be expanded beyond the Constitution’s obsolete limits to enable officials to instruct and improve ordinary voters.

    Opinions about human nature and government shape accounts of America’s dealings with other nations. The Founders, Cotton stresses, fashioned a “hard-nosed” foreign policy that made a priority in a dangerous world of ensuring the American people’s safety, freedom, and prosperity. The flux of circumstance, the Founders readily acknowledged, compelled prudent statesmen to adjust policies to achieve America’s abiding national interests. President Reagan’s diplomacy, culminating in the U.S.-led victory in the Cold War, epitomizes, for Cotton, a foreign policy that secures American freedom and prosperity through a blend of principle, competence, and courage.

    In line with the belief that history drives humanity’s unification and perfection, progressive foreign policy tended to put the international community first. Progressives appealed to a transnational corps of supposedly disinterested technocrats, diplomats, and judges to overcome great-power politics and make war obsolete by crafting rules, regulations, and agreements that knit together all peoples and nations in a global society under unified government.

    In practice, argues Cotton, the progressive sensibility issues in dithering and inconstancy, overestimation of America’s persuasive powers, underestimation of adversaries’ ruthlessness, and aversion to use of American military force. The senator chronicles the high price paid by the nation – and military men and women in particular – for progressive heedlessness and irresoluteness. His “brutally frank” examination covers President Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs; President Johnson and the Vietnam War; President Carter and the Iran hostage crisis; President Clinton and Somalia; President Obama and Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan as well as Syria and Iran; and President Biden and Afghanistan and Iran.

    To secure anew the American people’s freedom and prosperity, Cotton argues, we must recover the Founders’ wisdom, rebuild the military, strengthen the southern border, achieve energy independence, distinguish friends – including non-democratic ones – from foes, maintain our global network of partners, and gear up to prevail in the strategic competition launched by China.

    “Only the strong,” Cotton concludes, “can defend a city on a hill.” This stirring image does not mean that the patriotic warrior’s grit, discipline, and courage alone secure justice.

    Fidelity to America’s founding principles and the finest in its constitutional traditions obliges America also to educate its young people in, rather than against, constitutional democracy. Such fidelity fosters the political cohesiveness that enables partisans of many stripes to recognize one another as fellow citizens. And it disposes a responsible U.S. foreign policy to champion human rights while respecting the harsh realities of world affairs and the diversity of other peoples and nations.

    Striking the right balance is the fullest and truest expression of national strength.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 22:00

  • Ugly Chinese Data Dump Misses Across The Board, Pushing Futures Higher On Stimmy Hopes
    Ugly Chinese Data Dump Misses Across The Board, Pushing Futures Higher On Stimmy Hopes

    Instead of delaying the largely meaningless GDP print, maybe Xi should have instructed his henchmen to push back on the latest retail sales/industrial production data dump which was once again confirmed that China’s economy is a walking, tocking timebomb.

    In short, everything missed:

    • October Retail sales -0.5% Y/Y, missing exp. +0.7%
    • October Industrial Output +5.0% Y/Y, missing exp. +5.3%
    • Jan-Oct Fixed Investment 5.8%, missing exp. 5.9%
    • Jan-Oct. residential property sales -28.2% y/y vs -28.6% in Jan.-Sept.
    • Oct jobless rate 5.5% vs 5.5% in Sept.

    And visually:

    Some more details: retail sales missed by 1.1 standard deviations, and industrial production by 0.6 standard deviations; fixed asset investment which reflects government efforts to stimulate the economy was the closest to consensus. Property investment missed by 0.9 standard deviations, and remains in deep contraction for the year. Unemployment met consensus for 5.5%.

    While stocks initially slid on the news, futures traded up to session highs as the across the board miss – similar to last week’s US CPI – was seen as encouraging for equities and negative for yuan on the expectation that these numbers could spark further easing. Also, recall that the latest Chinese CPI and PPI data showed that China is now in outright deflation, meaning the bar for further easing is getting lower by the day, especially since the post congress environment seems focused on economic revival.

    To be sure, as Bloomberg notes, policy, especially monetary, still has a lot to do — note that the total social financing data last week registered a 2.5 standard deviation miss versus consensus, the biggest shortfall since April.

    One final quick note: Beijing was quick to blame the dismal economic data on the latest round of covid outbreaks and resulting lockdowns, which is precisely why Xi continues to use Covid Zero as a “justification” for every economic miss, and why as long as China’s economy continues to stagnate – mostly due to the ongoing collapse in housing and property markets – the covid zero scapegoat will remain to divert attention from the real source of economic devastation – the bursting of the housing bubble.

    And yet, with China’s massive population becoming increasingly angry at the relentless lockdowns, the latest property “rescue package” which just passed this weekend, was right in time to allow China to miraculously exit its “national covid nightmare” some time in Q1 2023.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 21:31

  • Biden’s Climate Change Policies Work More In China’s Interest: Ex-NSA Officer
    Biden’s Climate Change Policies Work More In China’s Interest: Ex-NSA Officer

    Authored by Venus Upadhayaya and Tiffany Meier via The Epoch Times,

    Hundreds of climate protesters walk from Times Square to New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office to demand more action against climate change in New York City on Nov. 13, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

    The Biden administration’s focus on climate change can be geopolitically hazardous as green policies can shift power into the hands of China, which has monopolized the supply chain of rare minerals required in the production of renewable energy technology, said Steve Yates, former deputy national security adviser at the White House from 2001–05, in an interview with The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD Television on Nov. 10.

    “I don’t think they found a sustainable path toward the goal they see. Certainly, it has shifted a lot of power towards China. And China has not proven willing to work with them on this either,” said Yates who’s also a senior fellow at the China Policy Initiative Chair of America First Policy Initiative.

    China is the largest investor in renewable energy in the world, domestically and abroad. Five of the world’s six largest solar-module manufacturing companies and the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer are also owned by China, according to a 2017 report from World Resources Institute. China’s Tainqi Lithium is one of the largest manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, an important component of electric vehicle batteries.

    U.S. policy on climate change hasn’t reduced China’s stakes in the renewable energy market and its near monopoly over the supply chain of rare earth minerals considered indispensable for renewable energy technology production. The latter has been considered a foreign policy challenge for the United States because of its own dependence on China’s rare earth supply chain.

    Yates said the Biden administration should not make policies that support China’s interest in the renewable energy market and should urgently work to catch up by first using the resources it is endowed within the country.

    The U.S. Senate, which remains intensely divided on climate change policies, approved its first international climate change treaty in three decades on Sept. 21 when it approved a 2016 agreement to phase down refrigerant chemicals that are among the worst pollutants.

    By doing so, the United States joined other 136 nations and the European Union in approving the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol that promises to cut down on refrigerant chemicals by 80 percent in the next three decades.

    The legislation is aimed at jumpstarting U.S. solar manufacturing, however, Cullen S. Hendrix, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics said in an analysis that the agreement doesn’t secure U.S. solar supply chains from China, which control 70–80 percent of the global production.

    “[The bill] would help close the gap in solar module production but would leave the United States dependent on China for critical links in the supply chain. This dependence needs to be addressed. The current situation is a significant source of US strategic vulnerability,” said Hendrix.

    The Celukan Bawang 2 power plant in Singaraja on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Oct. 29, 2020. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP via Getty Images)

    Economic Destruction

    Yates called the administration’s focus on climate change a “problematic proposition” and said it can destroy the American economy even before the climate delivers disasters, because the green policies can increase fuel prices and likely become the cause of massive inflation.

    “And that’s hard on households,” said Yates. “So hopefully, they will sober up and come back to work with Americans and more broadly in this hemisphere, to do things ourselves without having to rely on them [China].”

    The situation requires that the Biden administration think and act differently, he said.

    “Part of it means focusing with renewed vigor on our own hemisphere, there’s a lot that we could be doing with countries like Brazil or other parts of our hemisphere. And other parts of the world,” he said adding that rather than depending on China’s “carnivorous market,” the United States should also support countries in Asia and Africa to work with the other free world nations to undo China’s monopoly.

    Ironically, the promises China made on climate change go far beyond the tenure of any Chinese leader as well as beyond the commitment bindings by other nations, according to Yates.

    “And so while the United States and Europe might set these bold goals of having a net zero impact by 2030, or 2035, China’s is like 2060. And beyond! So even when they’re making a promise, it’s so far off, that it can’t really be taken seriously,” he said adding that all this while China has continued to be a leading polluter globally.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 21:00

  • US Health System Cash Reserves Plummet
    US Health System Cash Reserves Plummet

    By Laura Dyrda of Becker Hospital Review

    Cash reserves, an important indicator of financial stability, are dropping for hospitals and health systems across the U.S.

    Both large and small health systems are affected by rising labor and supply costs while reimbursement remains low. St. Louis-based Ascension reported days cash on hand dropped from 336 at the end of the 2021 fiscal year to 259 as of June 30, 2022, the end of the fiscal year. The system also reported accounts receivable increased three days from 47.3 in 2021 to 50.3 in 2022 because commercial payers were slow, especially in large dollar claims.

    Trinity Health, based in Livonia, Mich., also reported days cash on hand dropped to 211 in fiscal year 2022, ending June 30, compared to 254 days at the end of 2021. Trinity attributed the 43-day decrease in cash on hand to “investment losses and the recoupment of the majority of the Medicare cash advances.”

    Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health reported days cash on hand decreased by 69 days in the last year. The 140-hospital health system reported 245 days cash on hand at the 2021 fiscal year’s end June 30, and 176 days for 2022.

    Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa., said unfavorable trends in the capital market led to investment losses and a drop in days cash on hand from 216 to 150 days in the 2022 fiscal year ending June 30. The health system also had a scheduled repayment of $191.1 million in advance Medicare dollars as well as $25 million in deferred payroll tax payments.

    Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University reported cash on hand for clinical operations dropped by 10.9 days in just the last quarter due to nonoperating investment losses and repaying government advances, which equaled about five days cash on hand. The health system reported 158.5 days cash on hand as of Sept. 30.

    While the large health systems’ days cash on hand are dropping, they still have deep reserves. Smaller hospitals and health systems are in a more dire situation. Doylestown (Pa.) Hospital reported as of Sept. 30 the system had 81 days cash on hand, and Moody’s downgraded the hospital in June after the days cash on hand dropped below 100.

    Kaweah Health in Visalia, Calif., saw reserves plummet since the pandemic began from 130 to 84 days cash on hand. Gary Herbst, CEO of Kaweah Health, blamed lost elective procedures, high labor costs, inflation and more for the system’s financial issues.

    “The COVID-19 pandemic, and its aftermath, have brought District hospitals to the brink of financial collapse,” Mr. Herbst wrote in an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom published in the Visalia Times Delta. He asked Mr. Newsom to provide additional funding for public district hospitals. “Without your help, it will soon be virtually impossible for Medi-Cal patients to receive anything but emergency medical care in the State of California.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 20:35

  • When Protecting Criminals’ Rights Comes At The Expense Of Victims
    When Protecting Criminals’ Rights Comes At The Expense Of Victims

    Authored by Nikki Goeser & John R. Lott Jr. via RealClear Wire,

    It took four years and nine months before Nicolas Cruz was finally sentenced for the murder of seventeen people in the horrific Parkland massacre.

    So much of the legal system focuses on fairness to the criminal; but the damage to the victims and their families as they wait for trial is tremendous. Those who have to testify or give victim impact statements must continually think about what they will say at trial. There is also uncertainty about the verdict and whether the murderer will be punished.

    In the Parkland case, the victims were denied the closure of Cruz receiving the death penalty. 

    We have seen the consequences of trial delays firsthand. Nikki Goeser, the co-author here, helplessly witnessed her husband, Ben, murdered in front of her by her stalker on April 2, 2009. The murderer had long been obsessed with her. Nor was there any doubt about who the murderer was. Hank Wise shot her husband to death in front of 50 witnesses and was filmed on a restaurant’s security video. Incredibly, Nikki is still dealing with the legal fallout from that case. The murderer has continued stalking her, and a new trial, originally scheduled for the third attempt on Nov. 8, now won’t occur until January 2023.

    There was no doubt that he had carefully planned the murder in advance.

    The night before the murder, he had posted on social media: 

    Predator vs. Prey. I know who you are, run. Where will you work where I can’t find you? At home, at dinner, in your sleep, every f***ing waking moment. This is going to be very painful. You’ve pissed me off now. You are about to see my bad side. What kind of life do you have now?! You are forever un-forgiven.

    In the stalker’s truck in the restaurant parking lot the night of Ben’s murder, police found two more guns (a shotgun and rifle), ammo, a baseball bat, binoculars, gloves, rope, and a knife.

    This was a clear-cut case. But the trial was delayed several times and didn’t happen until three years later, on April 9, 2012. Nikki knew she would have to testify. As each trial date approached, she had to prepare herself and relive the horrifying events.

    Victims worry about whether they will do a good job. What will the defense attorney do to them? Nikki couldn’t put it behind her. We know the nightmares that she had to live through. Nightmares that she has continued to live with to this day.

    Unfortunately, the murderer didn’t get the punishment he deserved. He didn’t get the death penalty or even a life sentence. The death penalty is available in Tennessee, but the district attorney in Davidson County opposed using it. Despite all the evidence of premeditation and planning, the liberal judge reduced the sentence to second degree murder. 

    The murderer is still obsessed with Nikki, and she fears his release. He had her lawyer’s address and had been sending her letters before his 2012 trial. Nikki begged the prosecutors and others to stop him, but they didn’t help, so she told her lawyer to stop telling her about the letters. Then, in October 2019, when she researched her book “Stalked and Defenseless,” she reached out to her lawyer and discovered that the murderer had sent many more love letters from prison – including Valentine Day and Christmas Cards.

    She also discovered that the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) had awarded the murderer three and a half years of early release/good behavior credits even while he continued stalking her from prison.

    When Nikki approached TDOC about revoking those credits, we were both told they would do nothing because they didn’t want to upset the “prisoner rights groups.” 

    We tried a two-pronged strategy. We paid lawyers over $12,000 to help convince prosecutors and police to bring stalking charges. We also spent over $14,000 publicizing her book with the hope that the publicity would help generate prosecutors’ interest and get TDOC to do the right thing. 

    Hiring lawyers got us nowhere. Being on national news shows also didn’t do the trick. Few people have the contacts or resources we have, but it seemed hopeless despite all our efforts. Finally, a federal prosecutor got involved when a local television news show in Nashville (WSMV-TV) carried Nikki’s story in July 2020, shortly before the statute of limitations was to expire.

    But it has been over three years since she learned of this stalking. A trial scheduled for Nov. 8 is delayed for a fourth time until some still-to-be–determined date in January. Again, these delays take an emotional toll. Nikki must again mentally prepare herself for testifying, reliving her fears and dealing with nightmares in stressful anticipation of trial, only to have the trial delayed again.

    Part of the delay has been due to the murderer claiming insanity. His lawyer claims he is too obsessed with her to be responsible for his actions. His defense during the murder trial was that he had delusional disorder and erotomania, the delusional belief that their target of obsession loves them and that there is a relationship. The murderer has also made threatening comments about what will happen if Nikki finds another person in her life. Understandably, Nikki is extremely fearful about his future release, knowing what he has already proven he is capable of.

    It has been thirteen years since Nikki’s stalker murdered her husband. Yet, she still lives with that horror. Trial delays may occasionally help to ensure a fair trial for the criminal, but they always put victims and their families through hell over and over again. With so many people becoming victims of crime these days, we need to realize that the damage to victims often lasts many years after the crime.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 20:10

  • Jeff Bezos Hands Dolly Parton $100 Million To Distribute Among Charities
    Jeff Bezos Hands Dolly Parton $100 Million To Distribute Among Charities

    Jeff Bezos may force his warehouse employees to pee in bottles, but when it comes to making headlines for charitable giving, the Amazon founder has scored an optics win – handing $100 million to 76-year-old country music star Dolly Parton as part of the ‘Bezos Courage and Civility award.’

    The award recognizes “leaders who aim high, find solutions and who always do it with civility,” who are then tasked with distributing the $100 million to charities of their choosing, according to Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sanchez.

    “The woman you’re about to meet embodies these ideals so thoroughly. She gives with her heart. What she’s done for kids, literacy and so many other things is just incredible,” Bezos said before presenting the award to Parton.

    “When people are in a position to help, you should help, and I know that I’ve always said I try to put my money where my heart is. I will do my best to do good things with this money,” Parton said in response to the award.

    More via The Epoch Times,

    Bezos began handing out the award in 2021. On Twitter, the world’s second-wealthiest person said Parton joined activist Van Jones, who served as founding CEO of the REFORM Alliance and Dream Corps, and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who established World Central Kitchen, which provides food in the immediate aftermath of disasters, as recipients.

    ‘No Child Should Ever Have to Suffer’

    Parton is no stranger to charitable donations, having donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University’s Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville for pediatric infectious disease research earlier this year.

    The donation was used in part to help aid research into COVID-19 and diagnosing and treating infections in children with cancer.

    “I love all children. No child should ever have to suffer, and I’m willing to do my part to try and keep as many of them as I can as healthy and safe as possible,” Parton said in a statement at the time.

    The singer-songwriter made a previous $1 million gift to VUMC in April 2020 in honor of her longtime friend, Dr. Naji Abumrad, to help aid researchers in finding a cure for COVID-19.

    Parton has also donated to a number of other charitable organizations including the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Save the Music Foundation, the Boot Campaign, and Cancer Research UK. She has also worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to raise awareness and help stop dog owners from chaining up the animals and leaving them outside.

    Additionally, Parton herself has also founded multiple charities, including the Dollywood Foundation, which was founded in 1988 and under which the Imagination Library program was established. That program spans over five countries and gifts over 1 million free books each month to children around the world.

    The singer was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month after previously declining the invitation, admitting she felt that she “hadn’t earned the right.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 19:45

  • A Shocking Defense Of Crypto From JPMorgan: "The FTX Collapse Will Be A Massive Ramp For Institutional Adoption"
    A Shocking Defense Of Crypto From JPMorgan: “The FTX Collapse Will Be A Massive Ramp For Institutional Adoption”

    With many commentators mistakenly equating one person’s record-breaking fraud – namely SBF hubris that he has full immunity from prosecution just because he is a prominent democrat donor – with the failings of the entire crypto space (odd how nobody said Jon Corzine bringing MF Global down with his fraud exposed the failings of fiat currencies) over the past 24 hours we have seen two very unexpected voices speaking out in defense of cryptocurrencies.

    The first comes from Deutsche Bank which notes that just one year ago, in November 2021, the price of one Bitcoin exceeded $65,000, hitting an all time high, whereas just last week, Bitcoin hit a two-year low at just below $16,000 and the FTX crypto exchange deal collapsed.

    But while DB’s Marion Laboure writes that investors have suffered significant losses, she also believes “this second “crypto winter” will be a net positive because the FTX collapse will edge the crypto ecosystem closer to the established financial sector.” Specifically, the DB analyst writes that the FTX crash spotlighted well-known structural issues in the crypto ecosystem: “insufficient reserves, conflict of interest, a lack of regulation and transparency, and unreliable data.” And as a result of the FTX collapse, “market concentration is greater than ever, with Binance being the biggest winner.”

    The German bank goes on to note that “every time a major player in the crypto industry fails, the ecosystem suffers a confidence crisis. There are significant consumer and retail losses, but so far there is no systemic risk. However, this confidence crisis requires crypto investors to trust in the “Tinkerbell Effect” even more; in other words, the value of a crypto asset will depend entirely on what people believe it is worth.”

    Tthe Deutsche strategist concludes that “as we have seen, crypto assets are high-risk products that can cause massive personal losses. For this reason, we continue to argue that regulators should quickly require crypto companies to comply with the rules imposed on traditional investment products. This would restrict crypto companies from fishing for financially illiterate consumers while governments develop overarching regulatory frameworks. The need is urgent. Several factors have aligned to create a potentially dismal situation for average consumers who may be susceptible to misleading information.”

    A more surprising defense of crypto came from JPMorgan crypto analyst Steven Alexopoulos, who – just hours after JPM’s Nick Panigirtzoglou said that he expects more contagion and more liquidations as a result of the FTX collapse – wrote that far from being the death knell of the crypto sector, “the collapse of FTX a Painful Step Back but Might Prove to be the Catalyst that Moves Crypto Two Steps Forward.” Below we excerpt from the JPM note (available to pro subs in the usual place).

    With FTX emerging earlier this year as a white knight, bailing out troubled crypto-related companies, the news of FTX itself collapsing this week sent shockwaves through the crypto markets. While this is certainly a major short-term setback, we see the widely publicized collapse of FTX as potentially dramatically accelerating the timeline to which crypto-related regulation will be ushered in (similar to new banking regulation which followed the GFC).

    As a result, we see the news surrounding FTX as one step back, but one that could prove to be the catalyst to move the crypto economy two steps forward (further unlocking the utility value of blockchain). In fact, we see the establishment of a regulatory framework as the needed catalyst to massively ramp the institutional adoption of crypto.

    And the punchline which we have been making ever since the news of the FTX collapse first broke:

    Moreover, while the news of the collapse of FTX is empowering crypto skeptics, we would point out that all of the recent collapses in the crypto ecosystem have been from centralized players and not from decentralized protocols.

    How long before Jamie Dimon, who five years ago infamously warned he would fire any employee who was caught trading bitcoin before capitulating and making crypto a focal point of his bank’s growth, and who now is certainly taking advantage of the crash in crypto to accumulate aggressively having learned his lessons from the first time, becomes one of the most vocal evangelists of digital currencies?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 19:44

  • Trump Says McConnell 'Blew The Midterms'
    Trump Says McConnell ‘Blew The Midterms’

    Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Former President Donald Trump arrives for a “Save America” rally ahead of the midterm elections at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pa., on Nov. 5, 2022. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

    Former President Donald Trump on Nov. 13 blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after Democrats secured control of the Senate after winning races in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

    “It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake Masters and others was a big mistake. Giving 4 Trillion Dollars to the Radical Left for the Green New Deal, not Infrastructure, was an even bigger mistake.”

    “He blew the Midterms, and everyone despises him and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!” Trump added, referring to former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

    Trump-endorsed tech entrepreneur Blake Masters lost to incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in Arizona’s Senate race by more than 127,000 votes, or about 5.3 percent.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on July 26, 2022. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

    The Democrats will have at least 50 seats, after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) won reelection by defeating Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in Nevada’s Senate race. So far, only one Senate seat has flipped, with Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman defeating Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race. Fetterman will replace retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

    The Georgia Senate race remains undecided, with a runoff election scheduled for December after neither Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) nor Republican Herschel Walker secured more than 50 percent of the vote.

    The GOP is still in the position to retake control of the House. Republicans have 212 seats and Democrats have 201, according to data from Decision Desk, which The Epoch Times uses in its Election 2022 map. It requires 218 seats to take control of the lower chamber of Congress.

    In a separate Truth Social post earlier on Sunday, Trump shared an article titled “After Epic Failure, Growing Chorus Of Senators Signals It’s Time For McConnell To Go,” which argues that McConnell must be removed from the Senate Republican leadership.

    “Agree with this 100%!” Trump wrote, referring to the article. “Mitch McConnell is a disaster for the Republican Party and the Country.

    “He should have improved Infrastructure to fix it, not the Green New Deal, wrapped up like Infrastructure. He gave the Democrats 4 Trillion Dollars to throw out the window, and backed bad candidates like Lisa Murkowski,” Trump added.

    The Federalist article, published on Nov. 11, said McConnell “sabotaged Republicans in the 2022 midterms” by “pulling spending from competitive GOP candidates such as Blake Masters” and spending money against Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska.

    Trump-endorsed Tshibaka, a Republican who was a former Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner, has a 1.38-percent-lead (pdf) over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). The winner has not been declared.

    Senate Republicans are reportedly scheduled to hold leadership elections on Nov. 16. However, some are calling for the vote to be delayed until after the Senate runoff election in Georgia is completed.

    “Think about it – if we hold leadership elections on Wednesday, there’d be more campaigning done in a high-school class president election than in the most deliberative body in the world,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote on Twitter. “It is absurd. These elections need to be delayed.”

    “It makes no sense for Senate to have leadership elections before GA runoff,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote on Twitter. “We don’t yet know whether we’ll have a majority & Herschel Walker deserves a say in our leadership.

    “Critically, we need to hear a specific plan for the next 2 yrs from any candidate for leadership,” Cruz wrote.

    Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Senator-elect Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) have already said that Republicans need new Senate leadership. However, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told CBS News on Sunday that he will back McConnell as Senate GOP leader.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 19:20

  • Here Is What Warren Buffett Bought And Sold In Q3
    Here Is What Warren Buffett Bought And Sold In Q3

    It’s 13F season and while we will have a comprehensive summary of what hedge funds did in Q3 (which ended 45 days ago) – though we have already discussed on several occasions that using real-time data, hedge funds massively derisked after suffering staggering losses in Q2 and Q3 – we start our reporting with what Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway did.

    Which actually wasn’t all that much: the reported value of Berkshire’s long-only equity portfolio declined modestly from $300BN to $296BN, with only modest underlying changes. Here are the most notable ones:

    • Added a new position in Taiwan Semiconductor (it just made the top 10 with at $4.1 billion as of Sept 30); and much smaller positions in Louisiana Pacific ($297 million) and Jefferies ($12.8 million).
    • Exited one position: what was formerly a $180 million stake in STORE Capital
    • Added to holdings in Chevron, Occidental, Paramount, Calenese, and RH:
      • Occidental: 35.8 million shares, up 23% to 194.4 million valued at $11.9 billion, representing 21% of shares outstanding
      • Chevron Corp.: 3.92 million, up 2.4% to 165.4 million valued at $23.8 billion, representing 8.4% of shares outstanding
      • RH: 190,000, up 8.8% to 2.36 million valued at $580.7 million, representing 9.9% of shares outstanding
      • Paramount Global Class B: 12.8 million, up 16% to 91.2 million valued at $1.74 billion, representing 15% of shares outstanding
      • Celanese Corp.: 553,469, up 6% to 9.71 million valued at $877.2 million, representing 9% of shares outstanding
    • Trimmed holdings in Activision, US Bancorp, BofNY Mellon, Kroger, and General Motors:
      • U.S. Bancorp: 42 million shares, down 35% to 77.8 million valued at $3.14 billion, representing 5.2% of shares outstanding
      • Activision Blizzard Inc.: 8.26 million, down 12% to 60.1 million valued at $4.47 billion, representing 7.7% of shares outstanding
      • Bank of New York Mellon Corp.: 10.1 million, down 14% to 62.2 million valued at $2.4 billion, representing 7.7% of shares outstanding
      • Kroger Co.: 2.17 million, down 4.1% to 50.3 million valued at $2.2 billion, representing 7% of shares outstanding
      • General Motors Co.: 2.88 million, down 5.4% to 50 million valued at $1.6 billion, representing 3.4% of shares outstanding

    Berkshire’s largest position remains Apple at 894.8 million shares of $123.7 billion as of Sept 30. Other top 5 holdings are:

    • Bank of America Corp.: unchanged at 1.01 billion valued at $30.5 billion
    • Chevron Corp.: up 3.92 million, to 165.4 million valued at $23.8 billion, representing 8.4% of shares outstanding
    • Coca-Cola Co.: unchanged at 400 million valued at $22.4 billion
    • American Express Co.: unchanged at 151.6 million valued at $20.5 billion

    Full details of all Berkshire Q3 moves can be found in the table below.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 18:52

  • Tech Breakthrough Could Slash Fertilizer Emissions
    Tech Breakthrough Could Slash Fertilizer Emissions

    By Brian Westenhaus of OilPrice.com

    Tokyo Institute of Technology researchers have developed a metal nitride catalyst containing an active metal (Ni) on a lanthanum nitride support that is stable in presence of moisture. The goal is to cut the energy requirements of the Haber-Bosch process, which converts nitrogen and hydrogen to ammonia. Plus, since the catalyst doesn’t contain ruthenium, it presents an inexpensive option for reducing the carbon footprint of ammonia production.

    The research report has been published in Angewandte Chemie. The Haber-Bosch process, which is commonly used to synthesize ammonia (NH3)-the foundation for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers-by combining hydrogen (H2) and nitrogen (N2) over catalysts at high pressures and temperatures, is one of the most important scientific discoveries that has helped improve crop yields and increase food production globally.

    However, the process requires high fossil fuel energy inputs due to its requirements of high temperatures and pressure. Hydrogen used for this process is produced from natural gas (mainly methane). This hydrogen-producing process is energy-consuming and accompanies huge emission of carbon dioxide.

    To overcome these issues, various catalysts have been developed to allow the reaction to proceed under milder conditions using hydrogen produced by water electrolysis via renewable energy. Among them are nitride-based catalysts that contain active metal nanoparticles like nickel and cobalt (Ni, Co) loaded on lanthanum nitride (LaN) supports. In these catalysts, both the support and the active metal are involved in the production of NH3. The active metal splits the H2 while the LaN support contains nitrogen vacancies and nitrogen atoms in its crystal structure that adsorb and activate nitrogen (N2).

    While these catalysts are inexpensive (since they avoid using ruthenium, which is costly), their catalytic performance is degraded in the presence of moisture, with the LaN support transforming into lanthanum hydroxide (La(OH)3).

    The researchers from China and Japan led by Professor Hideo Hosono from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan, have developed a chemically stable catalyst that is stable in the presence of moisture. Taking inspiration from stable rare-earth compounds containing chemical bonds between a rare-earth metal (in this case, La) and a metal, they incorporated aluminum atoms into the LaN structure and synthesized a chemically stable La3AlN support containing La-Al bonds that prevent lanthanum atoms from reacting with moisture.

    Prof Hosono explained the La-Al-N support along with the active metals, such as nickel and cobalt (Ni, Co), was able to produce NH3 at rates similar to that with conventional metal nitride catalysts and could maintain a stable production when fed with nitrogen gas-containing moisture. “The Ni- or Co-loaded La-Al-N catalysts showed no distinct degradation following exposure to 3.5% moisture,” said Prof. Hosono.

    While the Al atoms stabilized the support, the lattice nitrogen and nitrogen defects present in the doped support enabled the synthesis of ammonia in a manner similar to the conventional active metal/rare-earth metal nitride catalysts. “Lattice nitrogen as well as nitrogen vacancy in La-Al-N play a key role in N2 adsorption, with the La-Al-N support and the active metal Ni being responsible for N2 and H2 absorption and activation, respectively,” added Prof. Hosono.

    The Haber-Bosch process is an energy-intensive chemical reaction, accounting for about 1 % of global annual carbon dioxide emissions. While alternative environmentally friendly approaches for NH3 production are being investigated, introducing inexpensive catalysts could provide immediate benefits by allowing the process to operate under milder conditions.

    ***

    The Haber-Bosch process might just lock back up more CO2 in plant growth than the process produces.

    Then the ammonia business has lately been immensely profitable. That and the past decade has seen ammonia for fertilizer increase about 10 fold in price.

    It’s enough to make almost everyone hope this technology will scale up commercially and not fall into the clutches of the fertilizer barons.

    It will be interesting to see which technology prevails. Splitting water isn’t energy free but neither is splitting hydrogen from the methane of natural gas.

    If this technology isn’t disappeared, we might finally find out.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 18:30

  • Ukraine Backs UN Vote To Send Israel To International Court While Begging For Arms
    Ukraine Backs UN Vote To Send Israel To International Court While Begging For Arms

    Despite Ukraine for months essentially begging the Israeli government to supply it with lethal weapons amid the Russian invasion, Ukraine voted at the UN to send Israel to the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    The UN resolution was voted on in the General Assembly on Friday, and it urged an international investigation into Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, as well as “annexation” activities and alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians. Ukraine’s representative registered a “yes” vote, and the resolution will now proceed to the next stage (a Generally Assembly plenary, likely next month), given it passed with 98 countries in favor, 17 countries opposed and 52 abstentions.

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    Israel was livid following the vote, and summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to issue a formal rebuke and reprimand.

    “Ukraine’s support of the UN resolution ‘Israeli Practices’, denying Jewish ties to Temple Mount and calling for ICJ advisory opinion is extremely disappointing,” Israeli envoy Michael Brodsky stated. “Supporting anti-Israeli initiatives in the UN doesn’t help to build trust”.

    The United States of course voted against the draft resolution, while interestingly both Russia and Ukraine voted in favor. 

    The UN vote is deeply awkward and somewhat embarrassing timing for Ukraine given President Zelensky has recently lashed out publicly against Israel for refusing to send its Iron Dome anti-air defense system.

    In October, Zelensky said in a virtual speech to a conference organized by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “Isn’t it time for your state to choose who you are with as well?” In addressing Israeli decision-makers, he then charged that in refusing to send arms Israel is turning “a blind eye to Russian terror”.

    Interestingly, some top officials within the Ukrainian government are also expressing their embarrassment: 

    Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s personal aide, Alexey Arestovych, said Sunday that Ukraine’s recent support of a United Nations resolution against Israel was “a grave mistake.”

    In an online livestream, the close aide to the Ukrainian premier said “Ukraine’s foreign ministry’s position was illogical and unacceptable.”

    “We’re teaming up with Russia and Iran who are attacking us, and distancing ourselves from Israel — which we want as an ally,” Aristovich said.

    “Ukraine must at least abstain from such votes,” he added.

    Israeli ambassador Michael Brodsky slammed Ukraine’s vote as “extremely disappointing”: Getty Images

    Certainly Israel is now going to be much less willing to even contemplate sending lethal arms to the Ukrainians, even despite pressure from the White House to do more than just humanitarian or non-lethal aid.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 18:05

  • Russia Price Cap Could Threaten India's Oil Supplies
    Russia Price Cap Could Threaten India’s Oil Supplies

    By John Kemp, senior market analyst at Reuters

    India would be one of the countries most exposed if Russia refuses to sell crude oil at the capped price under proposed sanctions to be imposed by the United States and the European Union.  In 2021, India was the world’s third-largest crude importer (214 million tonnes) after China (526 million tonnes) and the United States (305 million tonnes) (“Statistical review of world energy”, BP, 2022).

    India and China rely on imports by tanker from the Middle East, Russia and other regions, in contrast to the United States, which receives most of its imports by pipeline from neighbouring Canada.

    India’s domestic crude and condensate production has been stuck at 30-40 million tonnes per year for the last two decades, data from India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas shows.

    By contrast, domestic petroleum consumption has doubled to 202 million tonnes in 2021 from 103 million tonnes in 2002 (“Snapshot of India’s oil and gas data”, Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, Nov. 10).

    In the first ten months of 2022, India consumed a seasonal record 182 million tonnes, surpassing the previous peak of 178 million in 2019, before the pandemic.

    As a lower-middle income country experiencing rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, India’s consumption is growing fast but its consumers are very sensitive to both price changes and the economic cycle.
     
    Consumption has been growing by around 7% per year in the last 12 months, though there were signs of a possible slowdown to around half that rate in October.

    Voracious Oil Intake

    India’s refinery crude processing capacity increased to 251 million tonnes per year in 2021 from 115 million tonnes per year in 2002, and the country has emerged as a major exporter of refined products.

    In 2022, India has become a big buyer of Russia’s crude following that country’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions imposed on its exports in response by the United States, European Union and their allies.

    India and China have absorbed additional crude and products imports from Russia, allowing the United States and the European Union to take more crude and fuels from non-sanctioned sources.

    Because of its import dependence and price-sensitive consumers, India would be extremely vulnerable should Russia retaliate by refusing to sell crude and fuels at the capped price.

    The resulting shortfall in physical crude supplies and surge in prices for both crude and fuels would hit refiners and domestic consumers hard.

    Selling the Price Cap

    U.S. and EU policymakers have said repeatedly they will set the cap at a level to ensure Russia continues exporting and any halt or reduction to exports would be irrational.

    In remarks on Nov. 11 on a a visit to New Delhi, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the price cap would work in India’s interest by giving it extra leverage to purchase Russian crude at deep discounts.

    Russian oil “is going to be selling at bargain prices and we’re happy to have India get that bargain”, Yellen told reporters (“India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants, outside price cap, Yellen says”, Reuters, Nov.11).

    Yellen has become the chief advocate for the price cap concept as the Biden administration attempts to sell the idea to sceptical oil buyers and governments in Asia.

    India is also an increasingly important diplomatic partner as the United States develops an “Indo-Pacific strategy” to counter China, so the U.S. administration has been anxious to allay fears about the price cap’s impact.

    In recent months, the U.S. administration has walked back plans for an ambitious and strictly enforced price cap given concerns about the impact on prices, inflation and the economy at home and in importers like India.

    Remarks in the last few weeks have suggested the administration will declare the cap a success if there is any reduction in oil prices received by Russia, whether deals are done under the cap or not.

    Further SPR Releases

    In contrast to the United States and China, India has limited strategic oil reserves to protect itself from any interruption of imports.

    Ultimately, if there is any disruption to Russia’s petroleum exports, the United States will have to ensure India’s refineries remain supplied by releasing more barrels from its own Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

    Even after recent drawdowns, the SPR contains 396 million barrels of crude, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, equivalent to roughly 50-55 million tonnes, at standard conversion rates.

    The reserve is a fixed stock so it cannot replace the flow of Russia petroleum exports indefinitely, and the crude left in the reserve is not a particularly good match for Russia’s export grades.

    But further SPR releases could buy policymakers and India’s refiners time and are likely in the event Russia retaliates against the price cap.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 17:40

  • FedEx Freight To Begin Driver Furloughs Next Month
    FedEx Freight To Begin Driver Furloughs Next Month

    By Mark Solomon of FreightWaves

    FedEx Freight, the less-than-truckload arm of FedEx Corp. and the nation’s largest LTL carrier, said Saturday it will furlough an undetermined number of drivers starting in early December.

    The furloughs are scheduled to last about 90 days, during which time affected workers will continue to receive health benefits and will be allowed to file for unemployment benefits in their respective states of residence. Some eligible employees will be offered permanent transfer opportunities to other markets that have hiring needs, the unit said in a statement.

    The furloughs are expected to affect a small number of drivers, and not all facilities will be targeted, said Miranda Yarbro, a FedEx Freight spokesperson. The furloughs will be voluntary, Yarbro added.

    “Because of our previous experience with furlough and with the incentives we are offering, we are expecting employees to volunteer to meet the business need,” Yarbro said in an email.

    The unit employs about 45,000 people. It was not immediately clear how many drivers it employs.

    The action was taken in response to slowing macroeconomic conditions that have impacted LTL demand in recent weeks, the unit said. The LTL segment, which has shown very strong growth coming out of the pandemic, has seen volumes level off recently due to economic uncertainty caused by high inflation and recession concerns.

    FedEx Freight has been the best performer of FedEx’s three transport business units. Its two larger units, FedEx Express and FedEx Ground, have been hurt by high costs and slower-than-expected demand. FedEx Freight, by contrast, has focused on profitable growth and has been willing to shed unprofitable tonnage to achieve that goal.

    In its fiscal 2023 first quarter, which ended Aug. 31, FedEx Freight’s operating income increased 67%. The gains were driven by actions to improve shipment yields, as well as the positive impact of higher fuel surcharges, the parent reported.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 17:15

  • Russians With Dual Citizenship Can Now Be Drafted, New Putin Decree Says
    Russians With Dual Citizenship Can Now Be Drafted, New Putin Decree Says

    On Monday Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree which further seeks to address reported manpower shortages due to the war in Ukraine and after the prior controversial ‘partial mobilization’ order. 

    For the first time, Russians who hold dual citizenship are allowed to be drafted, according to the new decree. This changes the longstanding law stating that dual nationals were exempt from conscription. 

    “Nationals of any country can continue to serve in the Russian army under a contract in the ranks of soldiers, sailors, sergeants and foremen, so long as the individual isn’t under investigation, convicted or has a conviction that hasn’t been expunged, similar to the rules that apply to Russian citizens, according to the decree,” WSJ writes.

    This will mark the first time that dual-national Russians can potentially drafted going back to a 1999 regulation. The wording of the law suggests Americans or Israelis, or dual citizens of any other countries who previously warned of this possibility could face conscription.

    While this could possibly target a minority of Russians holding dual citizens from Western countries, the decree appears aimed primarily at tapping citizens hailing from border and regional countries. 

    “According to some military observers the easing of the citizenship regulations are primarily aimed at nationals from countries in Russia’s near abroad, such as in Central Asia, whose citizens saturate the migrant-worker labor force in Russia,” the WSJ report continues.

    Russia is commonly estimated to have at least half-a-million people claiming dual citizenship. However, many may have fled the country in the weeks after Putin’s September 21st partial mobilization order. 

    According to a recent report in The Moscow Times, many of the hundreds of thousands of Russians who initially fled on fears of being drafted and sent to Ukraine have returned home due to work and economic stability factors. 

    “Draft-age men who left Russia in fear of being sent to fight in Ukraine are returning home after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an end to the country’s chaotic mobilization that swept hundreds of thousands into the Armed Forces,” The Moscow Times wrote. “After the initial rush to get out of the country spurred by rumors of border closures, many found themselves facing the tough reality of trying to make ends meet in an unfamiliar city.”

    That September order saw some 700,000 Russian young men flee the country within the weeks following, the Kremlin earlier admitted. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 16:50

  • 'Dangerous': Expert Pans Move To Donate Guns, Armored Vehicles To Pro-Beijing Solomons Leader
    ‘Dangerous’: Expert Pans Move To Donate Guns, Armored Vehicles To Pro-Beijing Solomons Leader

    Authored by Daniel Y. Teng via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    An image of armoured police vehicles gifted to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force under by the Australian Defence Force during a gifting ceremony in Honiara, Solomon Islands on Nov. 2, 2022. (Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police)

    The Australian Labor government’s decision to gift weapons and armoured vehicles to the Solomons government has been branded “ill-conceived and dangerous” by Pacific expert Cleo Paskal, saying the move is pushing the country one step closer towards civil war.

    On Nov. 2, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) delivered training and around $1.3 million (US$740,000) worth of equipment to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF).

    In a gifting ceremony, the RSIPF delivered 13 armoured police vehicles and 60 Daniels Defense MK18 rifles, according to an AFP statement.

    Four vehicles will be part of a new Mobile Protection Unit that will provide the RSIPF with a “high-visibility presence” in the community and manage any “security threats and incidents” to critical infrastructure.

    An image of Daniels Defence MK18 rifles gifted to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force under by the Australian Defence Force during a gifting ceremony in Honiara, Solomon Islands on Nov. 2, 2022. (Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police)

    An image of an armoured police vehicle gifted to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force by the Australian Defence Force during a gifting ceremony in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Nov. 2, 2022. (Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police)

    The move drew a sharp response from the leader of the Solomon Islands’ opposition, Matthew Wale.

    “Sucking up to [Prime Minister] Soga and trying to out-compete China! For use, where, and when?” he wrote on Twitter.

    Keeping the Solomons ‘Safe’

    Clinton Smith, acting commander of the AFP, said the package helped keep communities “safe and secure.”

    “The AFP is proud to be the Solomon Islands’ security partner of choice and will continue to work closely with RSIPF officers to ensure they are trained and equipped to provide the Solomon Islands community with an efficient, modern police force,” he said in a statement.

    While Australia’s High Commissioner Lachlan Strahan said, the handover was another landmark in the ongoing security arrangement between both countries.

    “We have been with each other through thick and thin. As Prime Minister Sogavare has said, our partnership is based on our shared duty to ensure that our region remains peaceful, prosperous, and stable,” he said.

    Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare standing next to Australian High Commissioner Lachlan Strahan along with members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and Australian Defence Force during a gifting ceremony in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Nov. 2, 2022. (Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police)

    An image of armoured police vehicles gifted to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force under by the Australian Defence Force during a gifting ceremony in Honiara, Solomon Islands on Nov. 2, 2022. (Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police)

    The rearmament of the RSIPF first started in 2013 with a commitment from Australia to rearm a “limited number of officers” to ensure the RSIPF was able to deal with criminal threats. The latest move is Phase Two of the rearmament program.

    Beijing was quick to respond, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announcing a further donation—on top of existing commitments—of two water cannon trucks and other vehicles to the RSIPF.

    Solomons PM Playing Both Sides

    Beijing has ramped up bilateral ties with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Sogavare since his government decided to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan for Beijing in 2019.

    Since then, Sogavare has moved steadily to shore up power and deepen relations with the CCP.

    In August 2021, Sogavare gave “grants” to 39 of 50 MPs in the national parliament—enough to change the Constitution—using money from a Beijing-backed slush fund.

    In April 2022, Sogavare signed a security pact with Beijing that would allow the CCP to station troops, weapons, and naval ships in the country.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets with the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavar,e in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 6, 2022. (Martin Ollman/Getty Images)

    In September, the prime minister managed to secure enough votes to delay the country’s federal election—an election he may lose—claiming the government did not have enough resources to host the 2023 Pacific Games and run a national vote simultaneously.

    “For over a year, he’s been making major moves to show he has no intention of holding an election he will lose and that he is arming himself for the civil war that will result, with the help of his patron China and, inexplicably, Australia,” said Cleo Paskal, Pacific expert and non-resident fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in an email to The Epoch Times.

    The Australian Labor government has continued a “soft power” offensive—concurrent to similar efforts by the U.S. Biden administration—to win over the Sogavare government, including an SB$100 million pledge to fund the Pacific Games, delivering more regional aid, and now, offering more weaponry.

    “Canberra is in an elite capture race with China that it will lose,” she added. “It’s not going to be able to bribe more, send more weapons, and give international cover to someone who seems on track to kill his fellow citizens. That’s China’s thing, not Australia’s (one hopes).”

    Paskal has long warned that Sogavare plans to trigger some form of civil unrest that will allow his government to deploy the military to consolidate power and delay elections inevitably—a move that has long-term benefits for Beijing.

    Make Peace, Not War

    However, Paskal noted Australia has the ability to use other means to win the influence war in the Pacific.

    “Australia has a very good alternative—fight with ‘peacefare’—China and its authoritarian proxies hate when people come together and build stability from the ground up. That’s exactly what finally enacting the 2000 Townsville Peace Agreement would accomplish,” Paskal said.

    The Townsville Peace Agreement was a roadmap that ended an ongoing civil war in the region and laid the foundation for the future of the country. However, several key steps in the Agreement have yet to be implemented.

    Other suggestions around peacefare include expanding Australia and New Zealand’s migrant worker schemes to ease travel to-and-from the Pacific nations while opening up vast employment opportunities.

    “This alternative future for Australia and New Zealand with our Pacific family would hold a mirror up to the model developing in Honiara under Sogavare and his Beijing backers,” wrote Michael Shoebridge, director of Strategic Analysis Australia, in The Australian newspaper.

    “And it would also end Australia’s decades of failed security and aid-centred assistance to the Pacific, replacing it with a path that is sustainable.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 16:25

  • Technical Rally Runs Out Of Gas Despite Dovish Drawl From Fed's #2
    Technical Rally Runs Out Of Gas Despite Dovish Drawl From Fed’s #2

    Over the weekend, we said that with earnings season over, with the lower than expected CPI print in the rearview mirror, and with 4 weeks to go until the next FOMC where just a payrolls report (which may well be the first negative print since the wu-flu) looms, risk has collapsed, and as the following chart from Piper Sandler’s Danny Kirsch shows, the 1-week stradle in the SPX has been slashed in half, and now anticipates just over 2.1% in price movement over the next week, the lowest in almost three months.

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

    So with fundamentals now largely irrelevant for the next several weeks, what are traders to do? Why listen to Fed speakers, even if they contradict each other as today’s price action demonstrated so amply when first Fed Governor Christopher Waller spooked markets late on Sunday with his hawkish take that policymakers had “a ways to go” before ending interest-rate hikes, before his superior, the Fed’s #2 and vice chair, Lael Brainard, took the mic and whispered soothing words of dovishness, which immediately stopped the selling and sparked a rally that sent the S&P not only above 4,000 but to the highest level in the past two months, before stocks lost steam in the last hour of trading…

    … and the Dow Jones pulled back as it was just shy, or less than 2%, from entering a new bull market from the October lows.

    Looking beneath the surface, it was another day where energy outperformed…

    … while most other sectors lagged.

    Elsewhere, after a record two-day surge in Goldman’s most shorted basket, today’s the most shorted names dropped…

    … with low-momentum stocks suffering a similar fate, and undoing some of their striking gains from last week.

     On the other side of the trade, the chart below shows that high-momentum L/S funds suffered their 2nd worst 2-Day drop in the past 20 years according to Morgan Stanley.

    Turning to other asset classes, after plunging last week, and being closed on Friday for Veteran’s day, cash Treasuries went nowhere on Monday …

    … as did the dollar which was flat after suffering one of the biggest 2-day drops on record last week.

    Finally, here is a chart of the one asset class that everyone is looking at and which prompted the last hour selling: namely cryptos, which were hammered to session lows just minutes before stocks were also hit, and while it remains unclear what prompted the selling – rumor of another exchange run, rumor of another blow up, rumor, rumor, rumor – it is unmistakable that any time cryptos sneeze (and plunge) they drag the rest of the financial world with them.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 16:02

  • Jeff Bezos Promises To Give Away Most Of His Fortune To Charity
    Jeff Bezos Promises To Give Away Most Of His Fortune To Charity

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the fourth richest person in the world, intends to give away most of his fortune during his lifetime. 

    In an interview with CNN’s Chloe Melas on Saturday at Bezo’s mansion in Washington, DC, speaking alongside his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, he said the bulk of his fortune would go to fighting climate change and unifying humanity. 

    Melas asked if he intends to donate most of his wealth within his lifetime, and Bezos replied: “Yeah, I do.”

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

    “But the couple’s biggest challenge may be figuring out how to distribute Bezos’ vast fortune. Bezos declined to identify a specific percentage or to provide concrete details on where it would likely be spent,” CNN said. 

    Maybe Bezos wouldn’t commit to a specific figure because, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth has collapsed by 25.6% year-to-date due to a 40% plunge in Amazon shares this year. As of Friday, Bezos is worth $123.9 billion. 

    Bezos’ wealth is mostly tied up in Amazon stock.

    The 20-minute interview covered many topics, from Bezos’ views on politics to economic turmoil to his space venture where Sanchez plans to visit low-Earth orbit. 

    Bezos has committed $10 billion over the decade, or about 8% of his current net worth, to the Bezos Earth Fund, which Sanchez co-chairs. 

    “The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” he said, implying that even as he gives away his billions, he is still looking to maximize his return. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.”

    “There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too,” he added. “So you have to think about it carefully and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”

    The latest recipient of the billionaire’s money via Bezos Courage and Civility Award, an annual award distributed by Bezos, was country music legend Dolly Parton, who received $100 to donate as she pleases. 

    Oh… and there’s this. 

     So is the giving all about saving the planet and helping humanity, or is it just a giant tax shield? 

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 15:45

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Nov 14

Today’s News 14th November 2022

  • Fair Elections Are The Underpinning Of A Free Society: Retired Marine Reserve Colonel
    Fair Elections Are The Underpinning Of A Free Society: Retired Marine Reserve Colonel

    Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times,

    Election integrity was paramount on Jan. 30, 2005, when Iraq held its first free election in years to choose an entirely new National Assembly. Retired Marine Reserve Colonel Frank Ryan, today a Republican state representative in the Pennsylvania House, had been called out of retirement and was responsible for pulling together election security with the interim Iraqi government.

    It was important that voting was simple for citizens and that they had confidence in the results.

    People waiting to vote in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2005. (Frank Ryan)

    Ryan was one of the few Americans permitted at Iraqi polling places. He attended the Iraqi government meeting when they were counting the ballots that election night.

    “They did a tremendous job of making sure that they had a bipartisan group of people monitoring the counting of the ballots,” Ryan said.

    “And by the way, we got the electoral results done the same day. Just saying.”

    In the end, some people were disappointed their candidate didn’t win, but there were not accusations of fraud, Ryan said, because the election had a robust system of controls.

    “We worked with the Deputy Minister of National Security, and the Multinational Force Iraq, to make sure that we had all the polling places covered,” Ryan told The Epoch Times.

    “We had the rules of engagement relative to the counting of the ballots. We had tremendous security of all the ballots. We knew how many were issued at the polling places. We had complete control. And then obviously, the ultimate control was the dye on the finger to determine that you’ve already voted.”

    Frank Ryan in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2005. (Frank Ryan)

    Voting was risky. The insurgency, al-Qaeda, said they were going to kill anyone who voted. There was no mail-in balloting, yet nearly 75 percent of Iraqis showed up in person to vote.

    Each voter dipped their finger in purple ink, a stain to prevent people from voting twice. A group of women in their 70s stood together, Ryan recalls, and they held their ink-stained index fingers up. “They were showing that they weren’t going to be intimidated.”

    The night before the election, a rocket hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, killing two Americans who worked there and wounding five others.

    “One of the deputy ministers in national security called me up the morning of the election, and he was crying. I said, ‘Are you OK?’ and he said, ‘Today, my mother voted freely for the first time in her life. I wanted you to thank the American people for the sacrifices that they’ve done for the Iraqi people so that we can be free. And please tell those families that their children did not die in vain.’ And I started to cry, to think it meant that much to him.”

    The dye on their hands was not going to come off in a day, Ryan said. It was going to be there for a while.

    “They knew they could be executed for it, and they didn’t care. Voting meant that much to them.”

    The privilege of voting and trust in the results cannot be taken for granted.

    “The entire framework of our nation as a republic is based upon trust that people have in the system, that the elections are fair and secure,” Ryan said.

    Leaving Office to Get Things Done

    As a state representative, Ryan, who is also a certified public accountant, has worked on legislation to improve election controls and build voter trust. With Republican Rep. Seth Grove, he worked on Pennsylvania House Bill 1300 in 2021, an election reform bill vetoed by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf.

    This year, Ryan announced his retirement at the end of his term in December. But he is not done working on election security.

    “I think I can have a bigger impact on public policy outside of the legislature, than from within it,” Ryan said, adding that it is a sad truth that it is hard for legislators to get things done.

    “I intend to work specifically on election security and internal controls, and the elimination of property taxes for schools.”

    Ryan believes he can better mobilize public support around these issues as a private citizen.

    “Even the Democrats I’ve talked to want safe and secure elections,” Ryan said.

    “Democrats and Republicans want to get this fixed, but sometimes they get pressure from their leadership who are being leaned on by outside influences or special interest groups.” Ryan is writing a book about this issue. “It’s going to be about how special interest groups control the agenda in Harrisburg and in D.C.”

    When he thinks about election reform, Ryan looks at issues through the lens of his accounting experience.

    He would like to see reconciliation by the precinct, comparing the number of voters to the number of ballots cast, and details defining each extra ballot.

    It is expected that every county will have a surplus, Ryan explained. If a voter makes a mistake, their ballot is voided, and they are given a new one. Now that voter accounts for two ballots. This should be tracked. The legislation Wolf vetoed called for this and other types of audit mechanisms. Each county handles elections a little differently, he says, and there should be some uniform guidelines for how things are done. He also believes voters should be required to show identification.

    “There are too many flaws in the processes,” Ryan said.

    “If the elections are not close, everybody’s got full faith and confidence in those results. Like there’s no doubt in my mind that Fetterman won. I’m not happy about it. People didn’t ask me if I was happy about the results. But I do believe they were accurate. But if you were to tell me the race was within 20,000 votes, I wouldn’t be able to make that same assertion.”

    That is why election security processes must be reformed, he said.

    “I accept the results because I believe that it was the will of the people,” Ryan said. “And that’s my responsibility, to make sure that the election systems accurately reflect the will of the people. That’s the constitutional provisions that I swore to uphold when I became a United States Marine on Dec. 18, 1969.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 11/14/2022 – 00:00

  • Journalism Tops List Of 'Most Regretted' College Majors
    Journalism Tops List Of ‘Most Regretted’ College Majors

    A whopping 87% of Journalism majors say they regret their decision, and would pick a different major if they could, according to CNBC, citing a ZipRecruiter survey of more than 1,500 college graduates who were looking for a job.

    Taylor Lorenz cries over invasion of privacy

    The aspiring corporate media propagandists were followed by Sociology and Liberal Arts majors at 72% each, and communications majors at 64%.

    “When we graduate, reality hits,” said ZipRecruiter head economist, Sinem Buber, adding “When you are barely managing to pay your bills, your paycheck might become more important.”

    On average, 44% of all job seekers with college degrees regret their field of study. 

    The poll comes months after a Reuters survey found that trust in the mainstream media is evaporating.

    It comes down to money

    According to “The College Payoff,” a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, bachelor’s degree holders typically earn 84% more than those with just a high school diploma, however of course, career path matters.

    When broken down by areas of study, however, the difference is striking. Students who pursue a major specifically in science, technology, engineering and math — collectively known as STEM disciplines — are projected to earn the most overall.

    In addition to STEM, health and business majors are among the highest-paying, leading to average annual wages that are higher at the entry level and significantly greater over the course of a career compared with liberal arts and humanities majors, the Georgetown Center found. -CNBC

    What are the least regretted majors?

    Computer and information sciences, criminology, engineering, nursing, and health.

    According to Buber, “Pay is still most important,” but “Job security is now becoming more important. That happens whenever we have the fear of a recession.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 23:30

  • "FTX Isn't The Canary In The Coal-Mine, FTX Is The Coal-Mine… & It Just Collapsed"
    “FTX Isn’t The Canary In The Coal-Mine, FTX Is The Coal-Mine… & It Just Collapsed”

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    Bitcoin Hodlers: Time is Running Out to Convert Nothing into Something

    Three key takeaways:

    1. For weeks, the Bitcoin market has looked propped up by the whales, especially after the recent FTX disaster.

    2. Bitcoin hodlers should strongly consider moving into gold, silver, or at least Ether.

    3. Full disclosure, I have a complicated relationship with Crypto.

    An Artificial Market

    I have specifically avoided writing about Bitcoin despite having strong opinions on the subject. Bitcoin is a very hot topic, and most people have already made up their minds. In short, I think it has zero value but that argument has been made many times before so I couldn’t add anything new to the conversation.

    Full disclosure, I have been in the Crypto market since 2013 and am net positive. That said, given recent market events, I cannot sit by in good conscience without giving fair warning. This is not a Bitcoin is worthless analysis, this is a wake-up call to push people to ask what is keeping this market from imploding. FTX isn’t the canary in the coal mine (that was Celsius, or one of the other firms that crashed this year). FTX is the coal mine, and it just collapsed.

    I think the data shows that this market is being propped up by whales. If the dam breaks it could send markets crashing. Back on Oct 31, before anything happened with FTX, I texted a close friend:

    My new theory is that the whales are not trying to pump the price anymore. Instead, they are trying to stabilize the price to win back institutional investors. I have never seen bitcoin price volatility so low over a 6 month stretch in 10 years. It just totally stopped moving after an epic collapse back in June. No bounce, no continuation, no nothing. Just super tight price range even while the stock market has continued falling.

    I was led to this thinking after watching Bitcoin crash in June to ~19k and then just hold. It spent the next few months consolidating while the bond and stock markets went into turmoil. See the chart below with the simple price of SPY overlaid on top of Bitcoin since 2021. You may notice how steady the orange line has been since June 21, directly after the Bitcoin crash below $20k.

    Figure: 1 SPY vs BTC

    Let’s compare the 30-day rolling annualized standard deviation between Bitcoin and the SPY. This chart shows the difference in volatility between Bitcoin and SPY. Notice how it has been collapsing in recent months, and Bitcoin was actually less volatile than the S&P for a brief period in October. Since when is Bitcoin less volatile than the S&P 500? That has quickly reversed since the FTX fiasco.

    Figure: 2 Volatility/Standard Deviation

    However, while price volatility is falling, trade volume is not. The next chart is the 30-day rolling average trade volume of Bitcoin compared to the price. Once again you can notice a misalignment. As volume was steadily increasing over the last several months, the price stayed in a tight range.

    Figure: 3 Price and Volume

    Usually, large changes in volume are accompanied by large moves in price. But in this case, volume was moving up steadily while the price stayed nearly flat. How and why was this happening?

    As I alluded to above in my text to a friend, this looked like an artificial market. The market nearly collapsed back in June and then just flatlined near 20k. That doesn’t happen, especially in Bitcoin. After this past week though, I am now convinced this market is being artificially propped up. After all, 27% of the market is dominated by a super minority of less than 0.01%. They have a major vested interest in keeping this market inflated. I think the increased volume against stable price action is from whales defending the price and painting the tape.

    I won’t rehash what happened with FTX this week (there are 1,000s of articles explaining the epic collapse). Instead, I will just highlight that this is a MAJOR event in the Crypto space. To Crypto, this would be like 3 Enron happenings all at once, or Enron and Madoff happening in the same weekend. This is catastrophic on every level, but the price of Bitcoin only fell by about 20%. What?!?

    In the stock market over the past several weeks, companies have been reporting disappointing earnings at a frequent clip. Each company has been absolutely punished for it. Some have fallen 20% or more in a single day which is extremely rare. These are bad earnings for major corporations that still have revenue. Yet Bitcoin has its Enron + Madoff moment and the price of Bitcoin drops by the same ~20%?

    No way! I am not buying it!

    Step back and think about this for just a moment. Take another look at the charts above that show how the price volatility collapsed despite steadily increasing trade volume. Most importantly, look at the recent massive spike in trade volume from FTX and the relatively minor price drop. For any mathematicians who might be claiming scale and relative impact are not properly reflected, take a look at the same chart on log scale below.

    Figure: 4 Price and Volume on Log Scale

    Okay, this looks a little bit more reasonable… until you remember that this was Enron + Madoff! No. I am sorry, but no. The price should be down 50-70% after this event. I am convinced it will be. Think about how much Crypto money just went up in smoke. Think about the confidence lost.

    Everyone keeps saying that Crypto winters come and go, and so will this one. But will the summer ever be as bright for Bitcoin? Each winter has been followed by a bigger hype train than the last one. How can the next hype train be bigger than the last one? You had EVERYTHING going for it last year. The price was screaming higher, hype was at a fever pitch, Superbowl ads, celebrity endorsements. Everything!

    When this Crypto winter breaks, Bitcoin won’t recover to new all-time highs without being artificially pumped up. Who is entering the market on the next rebound that wasn’t already in the market? Institutional investors have abandoned ship and the whales are left trying to stem the tide.

    Want more proof that institutional investors have left? Take a look at the GBTC Premium/Discount chart.

    Figure: 5 GBTC Premium and Discount

    This is easy money for institutions. If you want Bitcoin exposure, you can get exposure at a 42% discount. Why is this arbitrage not closing? Let’s make this a little fancier and adjust the price of Bitcoin by the premium/discount of GBTC.

    Figure: 6 GBTC Implied Price

    Notice something? Right now, GBTC is implying that the fair market price of Bitcoin is under $10k. So, who is right here? I am betting on the smart money that is unwilling to buy GBTC at a whopping 47% discount.

    I get it. Bitcoin is like a religion for some people. HODL, laser eyes, Michael Saylor, blah blah. But sometimes something is just so obvious you have to get your head out of the sand. If you want true independence from the banking system and you want to reduce counterparty risk, then buy physical gold and silver. Unlike GBTC, the smart money is pillaging the Comex vaults right now while institutional investors are also paying a hefty premium for silver.

    Let me guess, you still want Crypto exposure to maybe get the moonshot event. Triple up or more. Okay fine, at least buy something of value like Ether. It at least has some value. Probably not $1,200, but definitely greater than $0. It also has potential and versatility.

    If it’s me, I still think about value. I wouldn’t pay $500 for a gallon of gas and I wouldn’t pay $10,000 for an ounce of gold (unless hyperinflation hits). So, at $1,200 Ether is probably overpriced. But again, at least it has value. I personally bought in the $150 range and sold too early at around $700.

    Ether is far from perfect or a value investment, but it’s a better option than Bitcoin. Still, anyone who wants to exit the banking system and get value… look at physical precious metals!

    My complicated history with Crypto

    Full disclosure. I have a complex relationship with Crypto. I have made more money in Crypto than gold and silver for sure. I have been bullish and bearish at different times in my life.

    As a Libertarian, I heard about Bitcoin back in 2012 and told myself to spend $2,000 and buy 1,000 BTC, toss half into cold storage, and then trade the other half. Whoops. I forgot to do this because it looked complicated. Then Cyprus happened and Bitcoin shot up to $50. I didn’t want to miss the next move, so I started buying. Had a decent stack at one point. Rode it up to $1,100 and then MtGox crashed and poof went my Bitcoins. I eventually sold the bankruptcy claim to an opportunistic buyer.

    I decided I needed to understand the tech to see if I should buy back in. I read everything. The Bitcoin white paper, articles, wiki pages about hashing, and how blocks are linked together. How computers compete to solve for the nonce with the correct amount of preceding 0s (this is how the algo gets harder). I looked at transactions on the actual Bitcoin blockchain to try and understand it. It started to make sense to me, so when prices came down, I would buy and then sell the rebound. Doesn’t mean I was all-in though. Back in 2020, I wrote:

    I think Blockchain is a vastly overhyped technology. Blockchain removes the need for trust and eliminates counterparty risk, but the cost is enormous. Blockchain is really just a super expensive low-performance database. Not to mention, that there is nothing truly unique in the [Bitcoin] blockchain code, Bitcoin simply has first mover advantage.

    I still stand by this. Blockchain is a database, just really expensive. What makes Bitcoin any different than Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash? Maybe different hashing algos or transaction speeds. But structurally, very little. I bet if you ask most Crypto fanatics, they actually understand very little about the underlying tech. There is nothing about Bitcoin that makes it special except that it came first. When you factor in the cost to mine, Bitcoin actually has a negative value.

    Ethereum is different. It wants to be Web 3.0 and wants to be the world computer. Maybe it will get there, maybe it won’t. But it has a lot better chance of being worth more than $0 in 10 years. Do you know what will definitely be worth more than $0 in 10 years, 100 years, and 1,000 years? Physical gold and silver. Not a futures contract or an ETF necessarily, but physical metal you can hold in your hand.

    If you are still in Bitcoin, then you are betting and hoping for the whales to continue propping up this market. But there is an avalanche of selling coming. As I said, FTX isn’t the canary in the coal mine (that was Celsius, or one of the other firms that crashed this year). FTX is the coal mine, and it just collapsed. Somehow you can still trade BTC for almost $17,000. That’s an extraordinary amount given what just happened.

    If you are still hodling, I encourage you to reconsider. Buy something of actual value with that money like physical gold and silver.

    There is no counterparty risk, no concern over trust, and no risk of a hacker or losing your keys. It is the best form of insurance against the turmoil that lies ahead.

    If you really want Crypto exposure, at least consider Ether. Even if it is overpriced, it is worth something greater than $0.

    Bitcoin is worth whatever the whales can force it to be worth, but one day soon, they might lose the capital needed to manipulate the price higher or even just keep it from crashing.

    As we learned with FTX, things look fine up until the very moment they are not. And then billions can be lost in a very short time.

    How much do you trust the Bitcoin whales to keep this market afloat?

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 23:00

  • X-37B Space Plane Lands In Florida After Top-Secret 908-Day Orbital Mission
    X-37B Space Plane Lands In Florida After Top-Secret 908-Day Orbital Mission

    The US Space Force’s Boeing X-37B unmanned, reusable space plane successfully deorbited after a record-breaking orbital mission around Earth and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Saturday. 

    The robotic X-37B landed at 0533 ET after spending 908 days in orbit — more than four months longer than the previous mission. 

     It’s the sixth Orbital Test Vehicle mission (OTV-6) with top-secret payloads that military researchers were testing in low-Earth orbit.

    Even though most of the payloads are classified, some have been made public, such as the US Naval Research Laboratory’s Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module, a small device that converts solar power into radio frequency microwave energy. 

    Space.com expanded more on the non-classified experiments and technologies being tested:

    “Technologies being tested in the X-37B program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, advanced propulsion systems, advanced materials and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing.”

    Task & Purpose has speculated some of the mysterious payloads could be “testing surveillance systems to experiments on putting satellites in lower orbits.”

    After the space plane landed, Jim Chilton, senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch, wrote:

    “With the service module added, this was the most we’ve ever carried to orbit on the X-37B, and we’re proud to have been able to prove out this new and flexible capability for the government and its industry partners.” 

    Space Force stated that “NASA scientists will leverage data collected after the materials have spent 900+ days in orbit and compare observed effects to ground simulations, validating and improving the precision of space environment models.” 

    “The X-37B continues to push the boundaries of experimentation, enabled by an elite government and industry team behind the scenes.

    “The ability to conduct on-orbit experiments and bring them home safely for in-depth analysis on the ground has proven valuable for the Department of the Air Force and scientific community. The addition of the service module on OTV-6 allowed us to host more experiments than ever before,” Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, DAF Rapid Capabilities Office’s X-37B Program Director, said. 

    The X-37B is similar to the retired space shuttle, although the space plane is a fraction of the size, coming in at 29 feet in length and 9.5 feet high, with a wingspan of 15 feet. 

    Here’s a list of the prior X-37 B’s top-secret missions in low-Earth obit:

    There are rumors the X-37B might be a testbed for space weapons or could be used to capture adversary satellites… 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 22:30

  • It Isn't Cognitive Dissonance; It's Doublethink
    It Isn’t Cognitive Dissonance; It’s Doublethink

    Authored by Thorsteinn Siglaugsson  via ‘From Symptoms to Causes’ Substack,

    Cognitive dissonance is when people feel discomfort due to discrepancies in their own thoughts or beliefs.

    As an example, someone who takes pride in being honest, feels such discomfort when he tells a lie.

    Another example of cognitive dissonance is the discomfort felt by members of a cult when they seek to explain how the end of the world was postponed, as their apocalyptic prophecy did not come true.

    The term was in fact coined by psychologist Leon Festinger in his studies of such cults in the 1950s.

    The opposite of cognitive dissonance is doublethink, a word that first appeared in George Orwell’s 1984.

    Doublethink is the ability to accept two contradictory beliefs at the same time, while being totally unaware of the contradiction. In Orwell’s own words:

    To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.

    This morning I saw an excellent example of this on someone’s Facebook wall (translated by FB from the Icelandic, so not perfect):

    Tertullian, one of the church fathers, born in the late second century, made the following observation regarding the birth, death and resurrection of Christ:

    Natus est Dei Filius, non pudet, quia pudendum est;
    et mortuus est Dei Filius, prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est;
    et sepultus resurrexit, certum est, quia impossibile.

    In English:

    “The Son of God was born: there is no shame, because it is shameful.
    And the Son of God died: it is wholly credible, because it is unsound.
    And, buried, He rose again: it is certain, because it is impossible.”

    Here, the contradiction is religious; only God can contradict himself, the absurd is allowed only to God; we mere mortals are bound by the rules of nature and the rules of logic. The only exemption is that through profound religious experience we can transcend the rules of logic and believe the absurd, hence “it is certain, because it is impossible.”

    Does doublespeak have a religious dimension then?

    Has the person who believes two contradictory statements at the same time in some way transcended reason, and entered into a religious dimension? Or has he simply lost his mind?

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 22:00

  • What Will Break First As The Fed Continues To Tighten: Financial Giants Duke It Out
    What Will Break First As The Fed Continues To Tighten: Financial Giants Duke It Out

    One week ago, in its latest and quite apocalyptic note which was a must-read for every finance professional (and is still available to pro subs), Elliott Management not only previewed the dire endgame of this monetary experiment, and for those who missed it here it is again…

    … the Fed has never raised rates into a struggling economy, as it is now doing. What level of rates will occasion a crash? Or will it be some combination of a melee factor and rates? We can’t know. A crash would certainly put a strong damper on consumer and producer prices. Will they just keep raising rates until the economy does crash? Central bankers actually say that they are aiming for a soft landing. But they are not puppeteers. They do not have the control that they profess to have. Whether there is a soft landing or a “hard” landing (crash) is completely unknown at present.

    As one final example, policymakers state their determination to tame inflation, but QE has not truly reversed. Mortgages on central-bank balance sheets are not being sold. They are raising interest rates like crazy, and the natural way for inflation to go from 10% to 2% is through a serious recession. There is still $30 trillion on central banks’ balance sheets. So what happens when the recession is in full force? Do the central bank balance sheets go to $50 trillion?

    The world is on the path to hyperinflation, which is the direct route to global societal collapse and civil or international strife. It is not baked, but that is the path that we are treading. Uplifting, right

    …  the hedge fund with nearly 50 years of capital markets experience also laid out a list of triggers that could “break” the market and lead to the next crash, including:

    • Banks and other lenders are starting to be forced to recognize large losses on bridge financings and loans;
    • Leveraged holders of mortgage-backed securities, and structured-debt products and CLOs, may be facing substantial markdowns;
    • Liquidity in rates and credit markets has been dramatically reduced;
    • Leveraged private equity will be under severe stress in the event of a meaningful recession; and
    • Housing unaffordability has taken the largest and quickest jump in history (the combination of the 45% rise in home prices from 2019 through 2022 and the extraordinary and rapid rise in interest rates).

    A “market break” is, of course, a topic that has been near and dear to our heart ever since we first predicted in January that the Fed’s rate hikes will inevitably lead to something snapping.

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    And while last week’s near-record market meltup on hopes that the CPI miss means the Fed will slowdown and/or pivot, we still have a lot of rate hikes and tightening pain to go, meaning that the odds of something big “breaking” remain dangerously high. So high in fact that Goldman’s research team, after coming out with a laughable (in retrospect) S&P500 target of 5,100 exactly one year ago, has become outright apocalyptic on stocks (if there was one reason to turn bullish on stocks, that’s it), and in its most read report last week, asks “What Could Break?” as a result of central bank tightening.

    While Goldman does cover a lot of potential trigger point in the full report (which we recommend all pro subs read), we focus on the summary from Goldman editor Allison Nathan who partitions the findings into several core sections as follows:

    Although the market apparently took comfort from October’s better-than-expected US CPI print, with inflation still far above target, it’s clear that the major central banks’ inflation fight is far from over. The aggressive policy tightening so far—and still in the pipe—has raised concerns about what could break in a global financial system that has grown accustomed to low rates. Which financial stability risks are worth watching, whether policymakers have the tools to effectively manage those risks, and if they could prompt central banks to slow or even pause the pace of tightening, is Top of Mind.

    We first speak with Jeremy Stein, Professor at Harvard University, who was a vocal advocate of the view that monetary policy should be implemented with financial stability in mind during his tenure on the Fed’s Board of Governors in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Despite this long-held view, he argues that the still-acute inflation problem the US faces today means that “the Fed’s only option is to continue to make inflation its number one policy priority for now.” That said, he warns that financial instability risks should not be discounted, and that the Fed’s ability to address those risks is probably more limited than the market expects and than in past episodes of stress. That’s not only because actions to quell stability risks—the so-called “Fed put”—would almost certainly run counter to the prevailing monetary policy goal of slaying inflation, but also because we can’t assume that the tools that addressed past crises—such as the emergency credit facilities implemented at the beginning of the pandemic—could be employed today.

    Vítor Constâncio, former Vice President of the ECB, has historically taken the opposite view of Stein—arguing that monetary policy should not respond to financial stability concerns—a view he stands by today even as the ECB now formally includes financial stability considerations in its policy decisions. But given that both the Fed and the ECB are already approaching the expected peak in policy rates, he expects the current hiking cycle to end before significant financial stability concerns arise that could force a recalibration of monetary policy. However, he worries about the potential effects of quantitative tightening (QT), especially in the Euro area, where incentives for banks to repay their TLTRO loans early will likely lead to an already sizable reduction in the ECB’s balance sheet even before the ECB embarks on formal QT. That said, he believes Euro area policymakers have all the tools they need nowadays to avoid a repeat of the 2010 sovereign bond crisis.

    But GS European rates strategists George Cole and Simon Freycenet are less sure that financial stability risks won’t affect monetary policy in Europe. In their view, concerns about rate-sensitive debt in both the Euro area and the UK constrain the ECB and BoE compared to the Fed in their inflation fight, likely leading to a more cautious approach from both.   These risks, they say, may force an implicitly higher tolerance for inflation in Europe, although Stein and Constâncio believe that the US could potentially be headed in a similar direction as well.

    * * *

    So which risks—outside of a monetary policy mistake in itself—are worth watching? On both Stein and Constâncio’s lists is illiquidity in the US Treasury and other sovereign bond markets. Praveen Korapaty, GS Chief Interest Rates Strategist, explains why cracks in the plumbing of the market’s microstructure have appeared: a surge in outstanding sovereign debt that has far outpaced intermediation capacity mainly owing to post-GFC regulations that discourage market-making in these securities. Although Stein says that these issues are easily fixable, unless and until they are, Korapaty argues that the Fed and other major central banks may be increasingly forced to use their balance sheets to maintain orderly market functioning rather than to conduct monetary policy.

    Constâncio and Stein are also concerned about the asset-liability mismatches of mutual funds, and especially of open-end bond funds, that have the potential to trigger asset fire sales in times of stress. This structural fragility was on full display in the US in early 2020 and never went away, Stein says, because the Fed bailed out these funds, but may not be able to do so the next time around. They are also worried about mounting pressure on sovereign and corporate borrowers in Emerging Market (EM) economies and beyond, especially, as Stein notes, given the sharp appreciation of the Dollar—a vulnerability that will likely persist according to GS FX strategists Kamakshya Trivedi and Sid Bhushan, who make the case that Dollar appreciation has further room to run.

    Indeed, although GS FX strategist Karen Reichgott Fishman finds that FX intervention by many EM central banks (and the BoJ) has slowed the pace of domestic currency depreciation against the Dollar—if not prevented it—GS FX and EM strategists Ian Tomb and Teresa Alves point out that several Frontier economies are already in the midst of classic EM crises precipitated by a Dollar funding squeeze. That said, most major EMs have proven relatively resilient to these stresses, and globally-systemic EM risks appear low, in their view.

    Even beyond EM, corporate borrowers are worth keeping an eye on, according to GS credit strategists Lotfi Karoui and Vinay Viswanathan. They argue that while fundamentals are still healthy for these borrowers, companies that have issued floating-rate leveraged loans, as well as commercial real estate (CRE) borrowers, are vulnerable to a higher-for-longer cost of funding shock. But they believe the risk of this shock threatening financial stability is lower than in past cycles.

    And what about perhaps the most obvious place to look— pension funds—given that they were at the epicenter of the
    most recent stress episode     that arguably increased market focus on financial breakages in the first place? GSAM strategists Ed Francis, Matthew Maciaszek, and Michael Moran explain the recent pressure in the UK pension fund industry and why a similar crisis is less likely to repeat elsewhere, which Freycenet generally agrees with.

    Finally, GS global economists Daan Struyven and Devesh Kodnani take a survey approach to assess the above—and other—financial stability risks that GS research analysts are watching. But, after all this discussion and monitoring of known risks, perhaps the biggest risks of all remain the “unknown unknowns” that we aren’t watching at all.

    To summarize, the most likely market “fracture points” according to Goldman are, or should be familiar to regular ZH readers as we have discussed many if not all of these repeatedly in recent months, and include:

    • Treasury (il)liquidity
    • Asset-liability mismatches of open-end mutual bond funds
    • EM and Frontier economy crises spiraling out of control as a result of the record dollar short squeeze
    • Corporate borrower weakness, especially among those who have exposure to floating rates
    • Pension funds

    Below we excerpt some more from the Goldman report, and specifically the interview with former Fed governor Jeremy Stein:

    Allison Nathan: One area of concern seems to be Treasury market liquidity. Is that concern warranted?

    Jeremy Stein: Yes; the spike in Treasury market volatility in March 2020 proved that concerns over market liquidity are warranted. But the Fed could at least partially address this vulnerability with some relatively simple fixes. For example, the supplementary leverage ratio, which is a risk-insensitive capital requirement imposed on systemically important banks in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), was unhelpful in the March 2020 episode, because it discourages banks from making markets in Treasury securities. The Fed could easily adjust this requirement so that it serves its intended purpose of acting as a backstop rather than as a primary binding constraint on market-making, and do so without weakening overall capital in the banking system by making a compensating adjustment in the risk-based requirements so that capital in the system remains the same.

    The Fed could also make its standing repo facility—which lends against Treasury securities as collateral—accessible to a larger set of financial market participants beyond banks and primary dealers. If access to the facility was expanded to allow any hedge fund, mutual fund, etc. to bring Treasuries to the Fed and get cash at a moment’s notice, the asset fire sales that characterized the March 2020 stress episode may not have occurred to the same extent. I have heard some express the view that such broader access could create a moral hazard problem, but what is the bigger problem—lending against Treasury collateral, or, as recently occurred in the UK, getting cornered into buying a lot of Treasuries at a time when you’re supposed to be tightening monetary policy?

    * * *

    Allison Nathan: What other financial stability risks are worth watching?

    Jeremy Stein: I continue to worry about the open-end bond fund complex, which the Fed basically bailed out in March 2020 by creating credit facilities that had a very powerful effect in stemming the large outflows and liquidations of assets from these funds at the time. While that was absolutely the right thing to do, it prevented us from learning more about the real fragility of some of these funds and created a moral hazard problem—credit spreads tightened, and business went on as usual with very little—if any—change in the underlying structure of these funds.

    I also worry that the sharp appreciation of the Dollar resulting from the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes is putting stress on pockets of the financial system. Corporates in many Emerging Markets borrow in dollars, which can be an inexpensive source of funding but puts substantial pressure on these economies when the Dollar strengthens. Many of these countries are relatively small, so the trade spillovers may turn out to be limited, but the bigger risk is that cracks in the financial system could emerge—when loans go bad, what banks are overexposed to these borrowers? Japan is also a potential source of concern in this context. Its debt-to-GDP is running at more than 200%, with much of that debt effectively rolling on an overnight basis given the effect of their massive QE on consolidated debt maturity. That’s not a problem when interest rates are at zero, but if Japan begins to import inflation given global inflation trends and the strength of the Dollar, and the BoJ must start fighting inflation, this could become quite problematic. Many countries are facing the same issue, but Japan is an extreme case that bears watching.

    Next, for the visual learners, a primer on US financial instability…

    … and also Euro area.

    There is much more in the full note, including Goldman’s take on FX interventions (they buy time, and “central banks will likely continue to conduct FX interventions over the near term as the Dollar continues to strengthen”), on when the US Dollar will peak, an assessment of the risk of a funding shock, can the UK pension fund crisis repeat and where, how long can the ECB and BOE keep fighting inflation with both economies now in recession, what the risk is in “risk free” rates, and more.

    As noted above, all professional subscribers are encouraged to read the full note available in the usual place.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 21:44

  • Washington Attempts To Bully India Into Cutting Ties With Russia
    Washington Attempts To Bully India Into Cutting Ties With Russia

    Authored by Conor Gallagher via NakedCapitalism.com,

    For months the US has repeatedly tried to coerce India into cutting ties with Russia, thereby abandoning its national interests. New Delhi, however, continues to spurn American attempts to subject its economy to Washington’s dictates.

    The latest fuss concerns the G7 price cap on Russian oil and EU and UK bans on shipping and related services for Russian crude. India continues to have no interest in joining the US-led initiative as it gets a steep discount on oil from Russia and wants to maintain the relationship with a long-time strategic partner. Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was just in Moscow on Nov. 8 to discuss continued sales of oil. From the South China Morning Post:

    India’s foreign minister hailed New Delhi’s “strong and steady” relationship with Moscow on Tuesday, during his first visit there since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

    Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also declared India’s intention to continue to buy Russian oil, again disregarding the US appeal to allies and partners to isolate Russia from the global markets.

    The G-7 plans are likely to send oil prices higher (despite US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claiming the opposite) and reduce tanker availability, both of which will threaten India’s energy security and hurt its economy as India is the third-largest consumer and importer of oil worldwide.

    Russia has said it will not sell to any countries that participate in the price cap scheme, and Jaishankar has repeatedly stated that India cannot afford to buy oil at high prices – at least not without undermining its economic growth, which is forecast to be 6.1 percent in 2023, the fastest-growing major economy in the world. According to Energy Intelligence:

    Russia emerged as India’s top crude supplier in October, shipping over 900,000 barrels per day or roughly a fifth of India’s demand. The two countries’ biggest concern is ensuring that Russian oil continues to flow after the Dec. 5 EU and UK bans and related G7 price cap.

    But despite Jaishankar’s bullish stance in Moscow, India’s state refiners have not placed orders for crude lifting beyond Dec. 5 due to uncertainties about whether shipping and insurance will be available, Energy Intelligence understands. And a recent attempt by an Indian buyer to use the price cap in negotiations with a Russian seller prompted the latter to abandon the deal, market sources said.

    The ongoing lack of clarity on the G-7 could be by design. Russian oil exports have already begun to dip, and Bruce Paulsen, a sanctions expert and partner at law firm Seward & Kissel, told American Shipper, “ If guidance on [price cap] compliance doesn’t come soon, some industry players may sit on the sidelines until they can determine that shipments under the price cap are safe.”

    The US, in a neat sleight of hand, quit pressuring India to adhere to the price cap, and Yellen now says Washington is “happy” for New Delhi to continue buying as much Russian oil as it wants, including at prices above a G7-imposed price cap. But there are just a few caveats: India wouldn’t be able to use western insurance, finance, or maritime services to transport the oil.

    “Russia is going to find it very difficult to continue shipping as much oil as they have done when the EU stops buying Russian oil,” Yellen told Reuters on Friday. “They’re going to be heavily in search of buyers, and many buyers are reliant on Western services.”

    More from Energy Intelligence on why this amounts to a de facto price cap:

    Indian refiners have the capacity to soak up another 600,000 b/d of Russian crude, provided it outcompetes the staple Mideast grades that are the lifeline of the country’s 5 million b/d refining base. But the availability of shipping and insurance — and payment channels — is key. From Dec. 5, tankers and shipping insurance linked to EU and G7 countries — which dominate oil shipping globally — will be barred from trading Russian crude unless those volumes are sold under the price cap, as yet undetermined.

    About 90% of India’s liquids trade is shipped by foreign tankers, presenting challenges, independent energy analyst Narendra Taneja said. Insurance does not appear as problematic, and analysts say that Russian and Chinese firms can handle it.

    This could leave Russia reliant on a shadow fleet of older tankers with opaque ownership that do not transact in dollars. According to Freight Waves:

    Brokerage Braemar reported that 33 tankers previously handling Iranian or Venezuelan exports have carried Russian exports since April, mostly to China and secondarily to India.

    Braemar defined the dark fleet as tankers that have carried Iranian or Venezuelan crude at least once in the past year. It put the current total at 240 tankers, mostly smaller and midsized, with 74% 19 years or older. Eighty of those vessels are very large crude carriers (VLCCs, tankers that carry 2 million barrels) that won’t fit in Russian ports but could be used for ship-to-ship transfers for Russian cargoes.

    If the entire dark fleet switched to Russian service and were as efficient as the “mainstream fleet,” it would be more than enough to keep Russian exports flowing, but “vessels engaged in illicit trading are highly inefficient,” Braemar emphasized.

    At the same time Washington is pressuring New Delhi to comply with the price cap, it is importing from India more vacuum gasoil, which is mostly used at refineries to produce other products such as gasoline and diesel. From Reuters:

    Russia used to be a key VGO supplier to U.S. refiners before the Ukraine war broke out.

    “Given that the U.S. is not buying Russian oil, they are looking for any and all alternatives,” said Roslan Khasawneh, senior fuel oil analyst at Vortexa…

    U.S. and EU sanctions do not apply to refined products produced from Russian crude exported from a third country as they are not of Russian origin. In India, refiners boosted imports of discounted Russian oil to 793,000 barrels per day between April and October, up from just 38,000 bpd in the same period a year ago, trade data showed.

    India joins a list of countries – including Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and Turkey – that are causing heads to explode in Washington for refusing to be bullied into submission.

    This all must be coming as a shock in Washington as its Indo-Pacific strategy in recent years has always included a “like-minded” India helping to counter China and do the US’ bidding in southeast Asia. The possibility that India might pursue its own national interests didn’t seem to factor into the strategy.

    The tension over the Russian price cap is just the latest in a series of disagreements between New Delhi and Washington. US sanctions on Iran’s oil exports deprive India of cheap Iranian oil, and force it to buy more expensive US energy exports. India is now the largest oil export destination for the US.

    Similar to the way Washington is arming Greece and Cyprus in an effort to bully Turkey into breaking off its friendly ties with Russia, the US is doing the same in Pakistan to pressure India. The US has begun to accommodate Pakistan again after the ouster of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, who blames his loss of power in a no-confidence vote on the US.

    In September, the U.S. State Department enraged India when it approved a $450 million deal to upgrade Pakistan’s F-16 fleet. Shortly after, the US ambassador to Pakistan created more tension during a visit to the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, which he called by its Pakistani name instead of the United Nations-approved name “Pakistan-administered Kashmir.”

    On Nov. 8 US State Department spokesman Ned Price lectured India on what are in its best interests:

    We’ve also been clear that now is not the time for business as usual with Russia, and it’s incumbent on countries around the world to do what they can to lessen those economic ties with Russia. That’s something that’s in the collective interest, but it’s also in the bilateral interest of countries around the world to end and certainly over the course of time to wean their dependence on Russian energy. There have been a number of countries that have learned the hard way of the fact that Russia is not a reliable source of energy. Russia is not a reliable supplier of security assistance. Russia is far from reliable in any realm. So it is not only in the interest of Ukraine, it is not only in the interest of the region, of the collective interests that India decrease its dependence on Russia over time, but it’s also in India’s own bilateral interest, given what we’ve seen from Russia.

    We’ll have to wait and see if the Indian people get the message because as of now the opposite is true.  India’s Observer Research Foundation released poll results on Nov. 2 that showed that 43 percent of Indians regarded Russia as their country’s most reliable partner, which was far ahead of the US at 27 percent.

    Washington would be hard pressed to explain how New Delhi scaling back its economic ties with Russia would be a good thing for India.

    Fuelled by a surge in import of oil and fertilizers, India’s bilateral trade with Russia has soared to an all-time high of $18.2 billion over the April-August period of this financial year, according to the latest data available with the Department of Commerce. That makes Russia India’s seventh biggest trading partner — up from its 25th position last year. The US, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Indonesia remain ahead of Russia.

    India, Iran, and Russia have also spent the past twenty years developing the International North-South Transport Corridor to increase trade between the countries, and it took on increased importance with the western sanctions on Moscow. From The LoadStar:

    RZD Logistics, a subsidiary of Russian railway monopoly RZD, has begun regular container train services from Moscow to Iran to serve growing trade with India by transloading.

    This is aimed at maximizing use of the alternative International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a Central Asia cross-border multimodal freight network helping the two strategic partners work around supply chain challenges created by western sanctions on Russia.

    The inland-ocean leg involves an estimated transit time of 35 days, compared with about 40 with previous traditional shipping, according to industry sources.

     

    In much the same way that US heavy-handedness is backfiring elsewhere, the pressure applied on India seems to only be encouraging New Delhi to find a way around the dollar. The Loadstar adds that the Reserve Bank of India is also implementing new regulatory guidelines to help exporters settle shipments in rupees, instead of US dollars that had run into sanctions-related bottlenecks:

     

    The Federation of Indian Export Organizations has also been pressing government leaders to extend the alternative currency method beyond Russian markets.

    “While the Russia-Ukraine war is a setback to our exports in the short run, we are looking to increase our exports to Russia once the rupee payment mechanism gets operationalised,” FIEO noted.

    While India has been benefitting from the discounted Russian crude, it also wants to maintain good ties with Moscow to avoid pushing Russia closer to China and potentially Pakistan, India’s biggest rivals in Asia.

    Pakistan is also now asking the Russian Trade Ministry to introduce a currency swap arrangement to strengthen economic ties between the two countries.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 21:00

  • Self-Described Sex Symbol AOC Is "Absolutely" Afraid For Her Life
    Self-Described Sex Symbol AOC Is “Absolutely” Afraid For Her Life

    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who insisted last year that “deranged sexual frustrations” underpin a “Republican fixation on me,” and who said she ‘thought she was going to die’ during the January 6 Capitol riot – despite being in a building across the street from the actual Capitol that day, now says she is “absolutely” afraid for her life.

    “I hesitate to walk my dog,” the 33-year-old New York congresswoman told CNN‘s Chris Wallace, adding that the attack on Paul Pelosi has only heightened her concern.

    When asked if she thinks her life is in danger, she replied: “Absolutely, I felt that my life has been in danger since the moment that I won my primary election in 2018,” adding “And it became especially intensified when I was first brought into Congress in 2019.”

    “It means when I wake up in the morning, I hesitate to walk my dog. It means when I come home, I have to ask my fiancé to come out to where my car is to walk me just from my car to my front door,” she continued, adding “It means that there’s just – a general disposition where you kind of feel like there’s almost a static electricity around you.”

    “And you’re just always just looking around, your head is just on a swivel, going to a restaurant, walking down the street.”I actually believe that it very much shaped my political decisions because I started to feel … that it was possible that I may not see the end of the year,” adding “I said I don’t know if I have time so I need to be as robust and urgent as possible to say what I need to say.”

    When asked if she still thinks the job is worth it, she replied: “

    She didn’t seen too afraid in July when she pretended to be handcuffed during a Roe vs. Wade protest.

     

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 20:30

  • Exxon Mobil Makes First Oil Discovery In Angola In 20 Years
    Exxon Mobil Makes First Oil Discovery In Angola In 20 Years

    By Alex Kimani of OilPrice.com

    Over the past five years, the United States’ largest independent oil and gas company, Exxon Mobil, has mostly focused its exploratory activities in South America.

    Last month, the oil major announced that it had made two new discoveries at the Sailfin-1 and Yarrow-1 wells in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, potentially adding more barrels to one of the most closely watched new oil discoveries. ExxonMobil has now made more than 30 discoveries on the block since 2015, and has ramped up offshore development and production at a pace that far exceeds the industry average.

    In contrast, Exxon’s exploits in Africa have been few and far between, with its last discovery on the continent coming nearly two decades ago. But Exxon has now announced that it has, together with its partners, discovered hydrocarbons in Block 15 off Angola in the Bavuca South prospect. This was the block’s 18th discovery, but the first since 2003. According to Exxon, the Valaris DS-9 drillship drilled the Bavuca South-1 well 365 km northwest from the coast at Luanda in 1,100 m (3,608 ft) of water, encountering 30 m (98 ft) of good-quality, hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone. Exxon owns a 36% interest in the block, with BP Exploration Angola (24%), ENI Angola Exploration (18%), Equinor Angola Block 15 (12%) and Sonangol P&P (10%) being its partners.

    Africa’s Oil & Gas Opportunities

    The last big fossil fuel discovery on the continent dates back to 2010 after Texas-based Anadarko Corp. (now a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp.) and Italian energy giant Eni S.p.A. (NYSE: E) discovered approximately 180 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, equivalent to ~29 billion barrels of oil, in Mozambique’s supergiant offshore basin of Rovuma, immediately catapulting the South African nation to a potential global LNG superpower. As you might expect, there was a stampede by oil and gas majors including ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies (NYSE: TTE), Shell (NYSE: SHEL), and China National Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: SNP)) coming in to stake their claims.  

    Unfortunately, widespread terrorism and the growing menace of piracy have constantly held back progress with Mozambique fast joining the league of African nations grappling with a ‘resource curse.’ The security crisis in the northern region of Cabo Delgado had displaced hundreds of thousands of people, created a humanitarian crisis and even forced TotalEnergies to declare force majeure on its massive natural gas investment in the country.But the tides have now turned, and Mozambique has managed to get its act together just in time. The country is now poised to ship its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) overseas in November at a time when Europe is desperately trying to cut energy ties with Russia. Experts have estimated that Mozambique can earn in excess of $100B from its natural gas assets over the next 30 years.

    BP has already inked a deal to buy all of the output from Eni’s $7 billion Coral-Sul project–capable of producing 3.4 million metric tons of LNG per year–for the next 20 years. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies has announced plans to resume its massive $20 billion project toward the end of the year, with the terminal expected to churn out 13.1 million tons of LNG annually. In addition, ExxonMobil says it will make a final decision for an even larger project in the near future. Meanwhile, the European Union has planned a five-fold increase in financial support to $15 million to fight militants near Mozambique’s gas projects. The EU has already pledged to provide the country’s army with an additional 45 million euros ($45 million) of financial support, and has so far given a SADC mission in the country 2.9 million euros of funding.

    On its part, Mozambique has laid out plans to set up a sovereign wealth fund toward the end of 2022, with 50% of the fund’s revenues to be reinjected into the fund while the remaining 50% will go to the government’s budget during the first 20 years of LNG production. Mozambique has the potential to move up the ladder and become a middle-income nation over the next two decades if it plays its cards right.

    Vijaya Ramachandran, director for energy and development at the Breakthrough Institute, says Germany and Europe should look to Africa, if they are serious about achieving energy security. Ramachandran notes that the continent is endowed with substantial natural gas reserves and new discoveries in the process of being tapped. Very little of Africa’s gas has been exploited, either for domestic consumption or export.

    Algeria is already an established major gas producer with substantial untapped reserves and is connected to Spain with several undersea pipelines. Germany and the EU are already working to expand pipeline capacity connecting Spain with France, from where more Algerian gas could flow to Germany and elsewhere. Libyan gas fields are connected by pipeline to Italy. In both Algeria and Libya, Europe should urgently help tap new fields and increase gas production. New pipelines under discussion currently focus on the Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline Project, which would bring gas from Israel’s offshore gas fields to Europe.

    But the biggest African sources lie south of the Sahara–including Nigeria, which has about a third of the continent’s reserves, and Tanzania. Senegal has recently discovered major offshore fields. 

    Ramachandra says Europe should not ignore these opportunities. For instance, the proposed Trans-Saharan pipeline will bring gas from Nigeria to Algeria via Niger. If the project is completed, the new pipeline will connect to the existing Trans-Mediterranean, Maghreb-Europe, Medgaz, and Galsi pipelines that supply Europe from transmission hubs on Algeria’s Mediterranean coast. The Trans-Saharan pipeline would be more than 2,500 miles long and could supply as much as 30 billion cubic meters of Nigerian gas to Europe per year–equivalent to about two-thirds of Germany’s 2021 imports from Russia (For comparison purposes, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, one of the major routes for Russian gas to Europe, is 2,607-mile-long). On its part, Nigeria is enthusiastic about exporting some of its 200 trillion-cubic-foot reserves of gas, with Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo arguing in favor of natural gas’ critical role, both as a relatively clean transition fuel and as a driver of economic development and foreign exchange earner.

    Unfortunately, the Trans-Saharan pipeline will likely take a decade or more to complete, and LNG shipments to Europe would bring quicker relief.

    Unfortunately, Europe’s biggest gas importer, Germany, has not built a single LNG import terminal as part of its  policy to make the country dependent on Russian gas and in turn make Russia more dependent on Germany. But there’s hope: Berlin has already renounced its old ways and says it will now build LNG infrastructure. 

    Luckily for Germany and other stranded EU nations, Ramachandran says LNG loading ports can be built reasonably quickly in Africa, with the Greater Tortue Ahmeyin field, an offshore gas deposit straddling the maritime border between Senegal and Mauritania, a prime example. When the field comes online next year, it will place the two west African nations among Africa’s top gas producers. Floating liquefaction plants above the offshore gas field produce, liquefy, store, and transfer the gas to LNG tankers that ship it directly to importing countries. While the initial production from this field will be small, it is slated to double in a few years, and the field sits within a larger basin of natural gas with substantially greater reserves.

    Elsewhere in Africa, too, gas production will continue to expand as projects in Tanzania, Mozambique, and other countries come online in the next few years.

    Developing a gas pipeline as big as the Trans-Saharan pipeline will likely present many challenges as it runs through regions plagued by conflict and insurgency. But these kinds of projects could alleviate Europe’s energy crisis while also helping Africa to develop and integrate economically.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 20:00

  • Dozens Of Children Worked Slaughterhouse Graveyard Shifts According To Labor Department
    Dozens Of Children Worked Slaughterhouse Graveyard Shifts According To Labor Department

    A top sanitation company has been accused of employing at least 31 children to clean the killing floors of slaughterhouses during graveyard shifts – one as young as 13, according to the Department of Labor.

    PSSI employees at the Grand Island JBS plant.U.S. Department of Labor

    The company, Packers Sanitation Services, or PSSI (owned by Blackstone), is contracted to work at meatpacking facilities and slaughterhouses across the country. According to court documents filed Wednesday, the children were allegedly employed at three facilities in Nebraska and Minnesota, NBC News reports.

    The company employs over 17,000 employees at more than 700 locations across the country, according to PSSI’s website.

    The investigation found that minors cleaned the killing floors and various machines — including meat and bone cutting saws and a grinding machine — during the graveyard shifts, according to the complaint.

    PSSI employed at least a dozen 17-year-olds across the three slaughterhouses, fourteen 16-year-olds, three 15-year-olds, one 14-year-old and one 13-year-old, the complaint said. -NBC News

    According to the complaint, an Aug. 24 investigation was launched after law enforcement officials were tipped off that the company may be employing children. Search warrants were executed at two plants owned by food processor JBS USA in Grand Island, Nebraska and Worthington, Minnesota – and at a poultry processing plant in Minnesota.

    If true, the practice would violate the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibits employers from “oppressive child labor,” as well as minors from working in any type of hazardous employment, reads the complaint, which asks the Federal District Court of Nebraska to issue a temporary restraining order as well as a nationwide preliminary injunction against the company to stop it from employing minors while the Labor Department investigates.

    Initial evidence indicates the company may also employ more kids under similar conditions at 400 other sites across the country, in addition to the 31 minors employed at three sites that investigators already confirmed, according to the complaint.

    The court partially granted the Department of Labor’s request in a Thursday filing. That order requires PSSI to “immediately cease and refrain from employing oppressive child labor” and comply with the Department of Labor’s investigation. -NBC News

    According to PSSI, the company “has an absolute company-wide prohibition against the employment of anyone under the age of 18 and zero tolerance for any violation of that policy —period,” with a spokesperson adding that the company mandates the use of the federal E-Verify system when it comes to new hires, “as well as extensive training, document verification, biometrics, and multiple layers of audits.”

    “While rogue individuals could of course seek to engage in fraud or identity theft, we are confident in our company’s strict compliance policies and will defend ourselves vigorously against these claims.”

    Company executives were reportedly “surprised” by the filing, after PSSI says it “has been cooperating with their inquiry, producing extensive documents and responses.”

    Interviews with the kids — which were conducted in Spanish, their first language, according to the complaint — revealed that several children began their shifts at the facilities at 11 p.m. and worked until 5, 6 or 7 a.m. Some worked up to six or seven days a week.

    School records showed that one 14-year-old, who worked at the Grand Island facility from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. five to six days a week, from December 2021 to this past April, fell asleep in class and missed school after suffering injuries from chemical burns. At least two other minors also suffered chemical burns, the complaint states. -NBC News

    “While Wage and Hour is continuing to pour over records to identify such children, it is slow, painstaking work. Yet, the children working overnight on the kill floor of these slaughterhouses cannot wait,” states the complaint.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 19:30

  • "We're Facing The Collapse Of Everything" – Michael Snyder Warns Of "The End-Times"
    “We’re Facing The Collapse Of Everything” – Michael Snyder Warns Of “The End-Times”

    Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

    Journalist and popular author Michael Snyder says in his new book we are in “End Times.”  Few Christians would disagree.  So, where are we and what are we facing? 

    Snyder explains, “I believe we are living at the very end of a timeline.  I believe Jesus is coming back soon… The Bible describes the End Times, the time just before Jesus comes back, as the most chaotic in all of human history.  In fact, Jesus told us there has never been a time like this before, and there will never be a time like this again.  Things are eventually going to get so bad that it is going to be the worst times in all of human history.  I also believe it will be the best time for the people of God.  There is no other time in human history that I would have rather lived than right now… God put you here, if you are watching, here for a reason.  God put you here with a purpose and a destiny and a job for your to do.  If you understand that, you will be really excited about the future, even though things will be chaotic and wild. . . . Jesus said the time just before his return there would be wars and rumors of wars.  A couple of years ago, I came on your program and wrote a book and said there is going to be a war with Russia.  At the time, nobody was thinking about a war with Russia.  People told me, Michael you are crazy.  Of course, now we have a war with Russia. . . . We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear conflict.”

    Snyder also mentions war with China, war between North and South Korea and war between Iran and Israel that are all boiling up right now, all at the same time.

    Snyder also brings up starvation and famines talked about in the Bible that also point to “End Times.”  Snyder explains,

    “There have been droughts in different areas in the past.  We are seeing tremendous droughts affecting agricultural production all over the northern hemisphere.  Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the bread basket of the world, we have seen agricultural products restricted because of war with Russia.  We have this perfect storm for agricultural production.

    Meanwhile, we have an energy crisis that is worse than any of us have ever seen.  It continues to get worse.  The price of natural gas has gone haywire because of this war between Russia and NATO.  Now, two thirds of all fertilizer production have already been shut down in Europe because the price of natural gas, and that is going to affect agricultural production next year. People need to realize that if we could not use fertilizer at all, we could not feed about half the world.  Half the world would instantly starve if there was no fertilizer used.  So, what we are facing is big-time global food shortages in 2023. . . . It’s going to be even worse even beyond that.  These things are going to intensify.”

    On the economy, Snyder thinks the Fed will keep raising rates, and the real estate market will tank even further along with the economy.  Snyder predicts,

    “I don’t think the so-called pivot is close… I think they are going to keep raising rates for now, and that is really bad news for real estate and for the economy because the economy is already being crushed right now.  We are already seeing a massive slowdown all over the economy. . . .I think the Federal Reserve is determined to get inflation down, but eventually they will be forced to pivot sometime in 2023.”

    Snyder also says, “Basically, we are facing the collapse of everything…”

    ”  We are already seeing mass extinctions all over the globe.  One study showed 32,000 species has declined by 69% over the last 50 years.  So, we are already seeing mass extinctions, and they are going to accelerate in the years ahead.  Natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, pestilences and all the things we have been talking about are going to combine and create this perfect storm.  People will see their lives crumble.  Their lives, careers, what they planned for their future, their lives are going to crumble.  People are going to plunge into depression and despair, and they are going to see no hope.  Society will melt down all around them, and they won’t see any hope for the future.  If you want hope for the future, you need God.  You need the Lord Jesus Christ, not just to get you through what we are facing . . . but what we have in the end.  I read the book, and we win in the end.  We get to be with Jesus for all of eternity, and that is a really long time.  That is the most important thing beyond physical preparation.”

    In closing, Snyder says, “Jesus warned us about all these things in advance so we wouldn’t be afraid.  We can look forward with courage.  Yes, bad things will happen, but it is when times are the darkest the greatest heroes are needed.  In the years that are coming, you have the chance to be a light and make a difference.  If you wanted to live in Biblical times, you are going to have that opportunity.  You are going to have a chance to do a tremendous amount of good in this world if you understand what is happening and be prepared in advance if you take advantage of this, that you rise up and be the people God created you to be.”

    There is much more in the 43-minute interview.

    Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Michael Snyder, author of the new book “End Times.” 

    *  *  *

    To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

    Besides TheEconomicCollapseblog.com, Michael Snyder has another free website:  TheMostImportantNews.com. Michael Snyder has also published six popular books. The latest is called “End Times” You can find all of Michael Snyder’s books by clicking here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 19:00

  • Goldman, TS Lombard Confirm Fed Inflation Target Hike Now Inevitable
    Goldman, TS Lombard Confirm Fed Inflation Target Hike Now Inevitable

    For much of the past year (and certainly at the time, more than a year ago, when the so-called experts, central bankers and macrotourists were still yapping about “transitory inflation” and other things they were wrong about and do not understand), we were warning that at some point the Fed will realize that it is simply impossible to contain supply-driven inflation through stubborn rate hikes which instead would lead to a dire alternative – millions in mass layoffs and newly unemployed workers – and will revise its 2% inflation target higher, a move which will send every risk asset, from high-beta trash and meme stonks, to blue-chip icons, to bitcoin and cryptos, limit up.

    To remind readers of this coming phase shift, we most recently warned in June that “at some point Fed will concede it has no control over supply. That’s when we will start getting leaks of raising the inflation target“…

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    Well, it turns out that we were right, and not just about the coming mass layoffs…

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    … but also about the inflation target leaks. But first, lets back up a bit.

    A little over one year after nobody expected the Fed would be hiking rates like a drunken sailor until some time in late 2023 or 2024, it has now become fashionable to not only predict that the Fed will keep hiking rates at every FOMC meeting and at the fastest pace since the near-hyperinflation of the 1980s, but that the central bank will somehow manage to avoid a hard landing (i.e., the hiking cycle won’t end in a recession or depression), even though every single Fed tightening cycle since 1913 has ended in disaster.

    An example of this was the statement by former Fed vice chair (and PIMCO’s “twice-revolving door”) Rich Clarida, who told CNBC that “failure is not an option for Jay Powell,” adding that “I think they’re going to 4% hell or high water. Until inflation comes down a lot, the Fed is really a single mandate central bank.”

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    Of course, if one could hike rates in a vacuum that could work – after all, Clarida himself, who admits he got this year’s soaring inflation dead wrong when he was still a daytrading god and part oft he Fed in 2021, said that the Fed may as well have just one mandate, namely to tame inflation. But what so few seem to recall is that the Fed is “hiking to spark a recession“, or as CNBC’s Steve Liesman put it, there is no such thing as “immaculate rate hikes” meaning that rate hikes have dire tradeoffs in other sectors of the economy. In other words, if the Fed’s intention is to spark a recession, it will spark a recession… leading to millions of Americans losing their jobs, something which even Elizabeth Warren appears to have grasped.

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    Yet due to the recency bias of Biden’s trillions in stimmies, and a world where workers – whether working form home or the office – have virtually all the leverage, few today can conceive of a world where inflation is zero or negative and is instead replaced with millions in unemployed workers, an outcome which one could (or rather should) say is even worse for the ruling democrats than roaring inflation. At least, with runaway prices, most people have a job and their wages are rising (at least nominally, if not in real terms).

    However, the higher rates rise, the closer we get to that inevitable moment when the BLS – unable to kick the can any longer – admits what has been obvious to so many for months: the US is facing a labor crisis of epic proportions with millions and millions of mass layoffs. And for those to whom it is not yet obvious, we urge readers to re-read a WSJ op-ed published two months ago by none other than Jason Furman, who was Obama top Economic Adviser from 2013-2017 and currently economic policy professor at Harvard.

    In “Inflation and the Scariest Economics Paper of 2022“, Furman summarized a paper written by Johns Hopkins macroeconomist Larry Ball with co-authors Daniel Leigh and Prachi Mishra of the International Monetary Fund released by the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, whose conclusion is as follows: “To bring price increases down to 2%, we may need to tolerate unemployment of 6.5% for two years.“

    In other words, just as we said, inflation – much of which is supply-driven, which the Fed can do nothing about – will force the Fed to crush the economy by keeping rates for much longer, the result of which will be many millions in unemployed workers, or as Furman puts it, the paper “shows why the Federal Reserve will likely need to maintain its war on inflation, even if unemployment continues to rise.”

    What is more remarkable about Furman’s read of the economist paper is that in addition to its primary theme (the lack of labor slack, or labor tightness, is responsible for some 3.4% of underlying inflation in July 2022), the paper admits precisely what we have been saying all along – that the Fed can’t control supply-side variables:

    The paper also argues, convincingly in my view, for a different measure of underlying inflation. Fluctuations in energy and food prices are generally due to factors outside the control of macroeconomic policy makers. Geopolitics and weather have elevated the inflation rate in recent years. Plunging gasoline prices are temporarily lowering the inflation rate now. That’s why economists since the 1970s have focused on “core” inflation, which excludes food and energy.

    But food and energy aren’t the only things people buy that are subject to supply-side volatility. Prices of new and used cars, for example, have gyrated over the past two years for reasons that are mostly unrelated to the strength of the overall economy. Both regular and core inflation are based on taking averages of price increases and can be distorted by large changes in outlier categories. The median inflation rate calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland drops outliers to remove these distortions.

    According to Furman, median inflation – which is a statistically better measure of the underlying inflation that policy makers can actually control – is well above the Fed’s preferred headline inflation print and still shows little signs of moderating and has run at a 6.3% annual rate in the last three months. But the “scariest” part of the new paper, Furman reveals, is when the authors use their model to forecast the unemployment rate that would be needed to bring inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target. He explains why this is so scary:

    The authors present a range of scenarios, so I ran their model using my own assumptions…  Under these assumptions, which are more optimistic than the authors’ midpoint scenario, if the unemployment rate follows the Federal Open Market Committee’s median economic projection from June that the unemployment will rise to only 4.1%, then the inflation rate will still be about 4% at the end of 2025. To get the inflation rate to the Fed’s target of 2% by then would require an average unemployment rate of about 6.5% in 2023 and 2024.

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    Where is unemployment now: it’s 3.7% (6.059 million unemployed workers vs 164.753 million civilian labor force). This matters, because according to one of the most erudite economist Democrats, by the end of the Biden admin in 2024, the unemployment will have to soar to 6.5% for inflation to plunge to the Fed’s historical target of 2.0%

    What does this mean in absolute numbers? Assuming a modest increase in the US labor force, a 6.5% unemployment rate in 2024 would translate into no less than 10.8 million unemployed workers, an 80% increase from the 6 million today!

    Still think that politicians – and especially Democrats – will sit quietly and blindly ignore how high the Fed is hiking rates if it means that to normalize inflation back to 2% it means nearly doubling the number of unemployed Americans (and a crushing recession to boot). Spoiler alert: no, they won’t, and this may be one of the very rare occasions when Elizabeth Warren is actually right to worry about what the coming mass layoff wave means for Democrats… and the 2024 presidential election.

    So what should the Fed do? Well, according to Furman, the Fed has four options:

    1. First, place more emphasis on the ratio of job openings to unemployment and median inflation as it assesses the tightness of labor markets and the underlying rate of inflation.
    2. Second, the new paper shows how much easier it will be to tackle inflation if expectations remain under control. The Fed should follow up on Chairman Jerome Powell’s tough talk at Jackson Hole with meaningful action such as a 75-basis-point increase at the next meeting.
    3. Third, be prepared to accept the unemployment rate rising above 5% if inflation is still out of control.

    While we doubt #3 is actionable, what is more remarkable is Furman’s final proposal: it’s the one that, like the Dude’s proverbial rug, ties the room together and sets the stage for what is coming:

    Finally, stabilizing at a 3% inflation rate is probably healthier for the economy than stabilizing at 2%—so while fighting inflation should be the central bank’s only focus today, at some point the Fed should reassess the meaning of victory in that struggle.

    And just in case his WSJ proves too complicated for some mainstream experts and economists, here it is in truncated, twitter format:

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    And there you have it: remember what we said on June 21: “At some point Fed will concede it has no control over supply. That’s when we will start getting leaks of raising the inflation target.” Well… there it is.

    We first brought all this up more than two months ago, on Sept 10, and said “that while mainstream economists and the market may require quite a few months to grasp what is coming, it is the only way out of a crisis of commodities – as Zoltan Pozsar has repeatedly and correctly put it – and which central banks have no control over, and thus will have to move not only the goalposts but the entire football field to avoid a social revolt or something even scarier.”

    * * *

    Well, it’s now a “few months” later, and we are delighted to note that our June 21 prediction that “At some point Fed will concede it has no control over supply. That’s when we will start getting leaks of raising the inflation target” is becoming more and more accurate by the day.

    Consider the November 4 note from TS Lombard chief strategist Steven Blitz discussing “October US Employment” (available to pro subscribers in the usual place), in which contrary to widespread consensus (especially after the weaker than expected CPI print), Blitz says that the Fed remains on pace for a 75bps rate hike.

    But while we will let readers parse his logic for why the dovish view is due for another disappointment, we will highlight his concluding paragraph in which he makes precisely the point we h

    In the end, a recession is pretty much baked in by what the Fed has done, signalled, and will do. The overall imbalance between the supply and demand for labor is too much of a driver of inflation, through wages and, in turn, services ex shelter, for the Fed to stop now and say they have done enough. Powell, in fact, was very clear there is much more to do. This does not negate the  fact that the coming downcycle will greatly impact those that AIT [average inflation targeting] was seeking to protect and are only just getting closer to even in terms of employment. None of this changes the Fed’s coming actions, what this coming hit to employment does mean is that the political cycle for the Fed is about to get a lot hotter – from all sides. This is one reason why I have long believed, as have many others, that the Fed ultimately bails and raises the inflation target to 3%. Powell does not have the same license to keep unemployment high and real growth low for an extended period as did Volcker (more so in retrospect than at the time). My guess is, Powell knows that.

    Much more in the full must-read note available to pro subs.

    But while the opinions of Furman and Blitz are notable, they are hardly (with all due respect) critical thought-leaders for US policy. Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, is. Which is why we were shocked when the vampire squid this weekend approached the topic aggressively, making it clear that an inflation target increase is no longer a matter of if but when.

    While pro subscriber have access to the full note, we will excerpt some of the big highlights below, confirming that the debate about the coming inflation target raise is in its advanced stages:

    The inflation target level debate

    In the past few months, markets have been gyrating wildly, with views bifurcating along the paths of soft vs hard landing expectations for 2023. The moderation in the October core inflation print is an important landmark as it reduces the risk of the most adverse sticky and high inflation (6-10%) scenario which leaves the G10 central banks no other option but to crush demand.

    How does 3.5-5% inflation allow for policy scenario optionality? Given that most would agree that a fast reduction in inflation to 2% is unlikely we can now have a debate whether raising the G10 inflation target to the 3-4% range is more optimal for reasons of maintaining employment levels or public debt sustainability than the 2% goal which would not be possible if inflation was sticky in the 6-10% range. (see “To keep unemployment low, central banks should plan to raise inflation target” by J Gagnon).

    The premise of this debate (and we mean debate by market participants and not, or at least not yet, by central bankers) is that the shift in the global supply curve to the right (de-globalization / underinvestment / tariffs and sanctions) has probably moved the saddle point of the supply curve defining the inflation level at potential output from 2% to the 3.5-5% range. (see diagram on slide 3).

    If this is the case, slowing the economy to potential will not satisfy the 2% inflation target. As the supply curve flattens at negative output gap levels, the output and social cost of bringing inflation to 2% increases disproportionately, creating the political context for the inflation target level revision debate.

    Goldman next lays out the dilemma facing politicians and central banks in no uncertain terms: keep the inflation target unchanged and suffer economic and market devastation, or raise it and enjoy another (however brief) Golden Age. Take a wild guess which option politicians whose careers are measured in “next four year” increments will pick:

    Our very stylized global macro financial framework sees scope for a significant divergence in the growth/inflation/fiscal outcomes in 2023 based on the level of the front end real rates (1y fwd rate futures – 5y BEI) which will be defined by the G10 central banks’ adherence to or departure from the 2% inflation target. If front end real rates are significantly lower from here (ie G10 CBs signal a pause in Q1-23, and break-evens go up meaningfully with the CBs remaining on hold) we see:

    • real growth rebounding,
    • G10 inflation moderating to 3.5-5.0 range allowing for ongoing fiscal consolidation and
    • reduction in public debt/GDP levels,
    • equities rallying,
    • weaker dollar,
    • credit spreads tightening and capital flows returning to EM assets

    If front end real rates keep tightening from here (G10 CBs keep hiking until the 2% core inflation looks clearly within reach with the first indication being much higher Fed dots for 2023 in Dec) we see:

    • real growth collapsing in H1-23,
    • inflation reaching but also possibly undershooting the 2% target and the fiscal position deteriorating with public debt / GDP ratios going higher.
    • The current challenging environment for risky assets will persist in this environment until policy turns for recession stabilization.

    There’s more in the full must-read GS note (also available to pro subs), but that, in a nutshell, is the simple choice that is now being actively discussed behind closed doors at various G7/G20 and BIS/Tower of Basel meetings until the inevitable decision is made.

    Professional subs can find much more on this arguably most important for the future of market topic here and here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 18:30

  • "Hints Of Many Crises – Lehman, Enron, MF Global – But No Lender Of Last Resort… Like Banking In The Late-1800s"
    “Hints Of Many Crises – Lehman, Enron, MF Global – But No Lender Of Last Resort… Like Banking In The Late-1800s”

    By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

    “Keep me posted when anything material pops up,” I told our team, scanning Twitter feeds for developments in the unfolding FTX drama, everything moving fast. “This is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 33yrs of doing this,” I said. “It has hints of many crises – Lehman, Enron, Madoff, MF Global – but moving at light speed with no lender of last resort. It’s like banking in the late-1800s.” We had no exposure to FTX or its token FTT, avoiding each for different reasons, intuitive/qualitative/quantitative risk management at work.

    “This smells like the kind of thing that happens toward the bottom. Near the end. This is the kind of catalyst that ushers in the capitulation, the flush, that then leads to the next stage we’ve been building for: the first regulated market cycle in digital assets.”

    * * *

    “There was no way US policymakers were going to relax regulation to accommodate new technology,” said The Chairman, repeating advice he’s shared for a couple years, helping guide me through the innovation maze.

    “If you want to introduce new technology into financial markets, you need to start with the premise that it performs the regulatory functions at least as well as the current technology,” he continued. FTX was imploding in the Bahamas, the crypto market’s third largest exchange collapsing in on itself, crypto markets in free fall.

    “And only with that condition satisfied will you be able to capture the efficiencies these new technologies represent.” Creative destruction sounds great in a sentence, though less so when you live it, and this makes navigating change so interesting, worthy, profitable.

    “With the FTX crisis following the Three Arrows collapse, Celsius, Luna and the others, this perspective will become a regulatory reality,” said The Chairman. “And the question for the industry and the regulators today is how do we transition from where we now are to a place where tokenization is consistent with the fundamental principles of sound financial regulation,” he said. “Those principles are:

    1. liquidity transformation needs prudential regulation

    2. customer assets need to be segregated and accessible, and

    3. leverage of all forms needs to be limited and commensurate with liquidity in times of stress

    “And it is fundamental that you can’t sell financial products to retail customers on a caveat emptor basis; transparency and a level informational playing field are necessary,” the Chairman added.

    “The US has a choice now, and there is only one to make. Regulators must incrementally accommodate crypto products, making way for the products, actors, and services that comply with these fundamental principles while keeping out the others. Identifying what is in and what is out has been bogged down in semantics and in the search for regulatory gaps,” he said.

    “The key financial regulators should collectively move forward with the identification of compliant and non-compliant products as well as paths to compliance for those that can get there. And wherever the US draws the line, people will be disappointed. That’s okay. That’s part of bringing discipline to activities that are out of step. What’s not okay is to do nothing and cede many of the opportunities that crypto represents to our competitors and adversaries, while subjecting our retail investors to the risk.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 18:00

  • Bang Bros Offers Miami Heat $10 Million For Stadium Naming Rights After FTX Collapse
    Bang Bros Offers Miami Heat $10 Million For Stadium Naming Rights After FTX Collapse

    The Miami Heat “terminated” all business relations with the bankrupted FTX crypto exchange, despite signing a two-decade $135 million deal last year to name the sports stadium “FTX Arena.” The team announced Friday they’re searching for a new stadium sponsorship partner, while the adult company “Bang Bros” tweeted out their offer to name the area “Bang Bros Center (The BBC)” still stands. 

    “The reports about FTX and its affiliates are extremely disappointing,” Miami Heat tweeted out in a statement, adding, “Miami-Dade County and the Miami HEAT are immediately taking action to terminate our business relationships with FTX. We will be working together to find a new naming rights partner for the arena.”

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

    With the stadium naming rights in the air, Bang Bros tweeted its $10 million offer for the naming rights still stands. 

    In a tweet, the adult film company posted two images of the stadium, one with “Bankrupt” across the top picture that also said “OOOPS!” And right below it, a photoshopped Bang Bros’ logo was placed on top of the stadium, with a caption that read, “BUT HEY! OUR OFFER STANDS! … WE PROMISE LESS PEOPLE WILL GET F@$%ED!”

    In another tweet, the company said their “offer still stands to buy the naming rights” of the stadium.

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

    Bang Bros, based out of Miami, tried to purchase the stadium’s naming rights in 2019. Here’s what they said in a tweet back then:

    “We’ve officially Submitted our $10,000,000 bid for the naming rights to the Miami Heat Arena. We wish to thank American Airlines for their past support of the HEAT. We intend to change the name to the BangBros Center aka ‘The BBC.'”

    Twitter users had a field day with Bang Bros’ tweets:

    “Well BangBros arena it is smh this is where we are in the movie Idiocracy thx a lot @SBF_FTX a reality star for president, was the beginning of this alternate time, I think & it appears it can actually keep getting worse this is crypto 2022 god damn who would thunk it in 2013,” one Twitter user said. 

    “After the fraud and disaster that was FTX, they should accept this,” another person said. 

    “Should’ve gone with Bang Bros back in 2019. Everyone knew FTX was a house of cards. Bang Bros won’t be filing for bankruptcy any time soon,” someone else said. 

    “This only has a chance of happening because its Florida,” a Twitter user said.  

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 17:30

  • "Please Tell Me What I'm Missing Here": Swalwell Appears To Embrace Medical & Legal Malpractice Over Parental Rights
    “Please Tell Me What I’m Missing Here”: Swalwell Appears To Embrace Medical & Legal Malpractice Over Parental Rights

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Parental rights are becoming one of the defining issues for 2024. Building from Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 gubernatorial victory in Virginia, school boards races and educational initiatives have become some of the most fiercely contested areas on local and state ballots. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Cal.) weighed in this week into the area with a curious attack on parents demanding more say in the education of their children.

    The California Democrat insisted that it is akin to “Putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials?” These were curious analogies to draw since patients and clients are in charge of the key decisions in their surgeries and trials. What Rep. Swalwell is missing is called informed consent.

    Swalwell is a lawyer with a degree from the University of Maryland Law School.

    He took to Twitter to lash out against parents who dare challenge aspects of the education of their children. The tweet came in response to South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott saying that Republicans intend to put “parents back in charge of their kids’ education.” Swalwell declared such a notion to be ridiculous:

    “Please tell me what I’m missing here. What are we doing next? Putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials? When did we stop trusting experts. … This is so stupid.”

    As a threshold matter, it is important to note that parents have always had a say in the education of their children. School boards are invested with the authority to dictate changes in curriculum and teaching policies.

    Indeed, in Meyer v. Nebraska (1925), the Court struck down a state law prohibiting instruction in German. In the decision, it stressed that parental roles in the education of their children was an essential part of the protections under the Constitution’s Due Process Clause: the right “to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”

    Putting that historical and constitutional context aside, Rep. Swalwell is equally mistaken in his analogies to the medical and legal professions. In reality, patients and clients do control major decisions over their cases. Since he asked for assistance, let’s deal with each in turn.

    Patients and Medical Consent

    From the outset, the argument that patients do not make the key decisions on their own medical care is a bit incongruous given Swalwell’s support for abortion rights without any limits. (Swalwell was widely criticized for a campaign commercial showing a women being arrested at a restaurant by police with guns drawn under suspicion of having an abortion). While women clearly consult with doctors, the whole premise of “my body, my choice” is that these decisions are left to women, not the doctors or the state.

    Parents are asking for consent in the basic goals, material, and methods used the education of their children.

    American torts have long required consent in torts. Indeed, what Swalwell seemed to suggest would be battery for doctors to make the key decisions over surgical goals or purposes. Indeed, even when doctors secured consent to operate on one ear, it was still considered battery when they decided in the operation to address the other ear in the best interests of the patient. Mohr v. Williams, 104 N.W. 12 (Minn. 1905).

    In Canterbury v. Spence, 464 F.2d 772, 784, the court observed:

    “Nor can we ignore the fact that to bind the disclosure obligation to medical usage is to arrogate the decision on revelation to the physician alone. Respect for the patient’s right of self-determination on particular therapy demands a standard set by law for physicians rather than one which physicians may or may not impose upon themselves.”

    Thus, doctors in the United States do have to secure the consent of patients in what they intend to do in surgeries or other medical procedures. (There are narrow exceptions such things as “substituted consent” or  emergencies that do not apply here).

    Ironically, California has one of the strongest patient-based consent rules. As the California Supreme Court stated in Cobbs v. Grant, 8 Cal. 3d 229 (1972):

    “Unlimited discretion in the physician is irreconcilable with the basic right of the patient to make the ultimate informed decision regarding the course of treatment to which he knowledgeably consents to be subjected.

    A medical doctor, being the expert, appreciates the risks inherent in the procedure he is prescribing, the risks of a decision not to undergo the treatment, and the probability of a successful outcome of the treatment. But once this information has been disclosed, that aspect of the doctor’s expert function has been performed. The weighing of these risks against the individual subjective fears and hopes of the patient is not an expert skill. Such evaluation and decision is a nonmedical judgment reserved to the patient alone.”

    While obviously a patient cannot direct an operation itself, the doctor is expected to explain and secure the consent of the patient in what a surgery will attempt and how it will be accomplished. That is precisely what parents are demanding in looking at the subjects and books being taught in school. Moreover, that is precisely the role of school boards, which has historically exercised concurrent authority over the schools with the teachers hired under the school board-approved budgets.

    Clients and Legal Consent

    Swalwell is also wrong on suggesting that clients are not in charge of their own trials. Not only must attorneys secure the consent of their clients on what will be argued in trial but they can be removed by their clients for failure to adequately represent their interests. It would be malpractice for a lawyer to tell a client, as suggested by Swalwell, that they do not control the major decisions in their own cases.

    Ironically, the informed consent rule in the law has been traced to its rise in the medical profession. It was adopted by bars to give clients the right to direct their own legal affairs. MODEL RULES OF PROF’L CONDUCT r. 1.7 cmt. 18. “Informed consent” is a defined term in the Model Rules. See id. r. 1.0(e) (defining “informed consent” as the “agreement by a person to a proposed course of conduct after the lawyer has communicated adequate information and explanation about the material risks of and reasonably available alternatives to the proposed course of conduct”).

    Obviously, lawyers must follow their own ethical and professional judgment in trials and tactical choices are generally left up to the lawyers. However, the main arguments and objectives of the trial remain for the client to decide. As one court explained in Metrick v. Chatz, 639 N.E.2d 198, 653-54 (Ill. App. Ct. 1994):

    “An attorney’s liability for failing to advise a client of the foreseeable risks attendant to a given course of legal action is not predicated upon the impropriety of the recommended course of action; rather, it is predicated upon the client’s exposure to a risk that the client did not knowingly and voluntarily assume. Consequently, to establish the element of proximate cause, it is necessary for the client to both plead and prove that had the undisclosed risk been known, he or she would not have accepted the risk and consented to the recommended course of action.”

    Much like the claim of parents, clients demand the right to reject a plan for trial and the arguments or means to be used at trial. This right of consent is ongoing and can be exercised at any point in the litigation.

    Informed Consent

    Of course, the key to informed consent is that parents are giving the information needed to secure their consent. School districts have been resisting such disclosures and pushing back on parental opposition to major curriculum or policy decisions.

    I have previously stated my opposition to micromanaging classrooms. However, in public education, citizens vote to elect board members to be accountable for educational priorities and policies. In private education, citizens vote with their tuition dollars as well as through school boards. Most of these controversies involve major educational policies ranging from transgender participation on teams to the lesson plans viewed by many as extreme or political. Those policies go to the issues of educational priorities that have historically been subject to school board authority.

    In other words, “what is missing here” is that Rep. Swalwell’s interpretation could constitute both medical and legal malpractice. It may also constitute political malpractice as both parties now careen toward the 2024 elections.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 17:00

  • Chappelle Talks Trump, Kanye, And "Observably Stupid" Herschel Walker In Viral SNL Monologue
    Chappelle Talks Trump, Kanye, And “Observably Stupid” Herschel Walker In Viral SNL Monologue

    Dave Chappelle has once again managed to trigger just about everyone during his opening monologue as host of Saturday Night Live this weekend – including SNL staff members who reportedly extremely unhappy about his appearance.

    Commentary ranged from Kanye West, Jews, and why Donald Trump won the 2016 US election.

    Kicking things off, Chappelle read a note which said: “I denounce antisemitism in all its forms, and I stand with my friends in the Jewish community,” adding “And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time.”

    He then noted how Kanye, who now goes by Ye, ‘lost $1.5 billion in one day’ after speaking against Jews.

    “I learned that there are two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence. And those words are ‘the’ and ‘Jews,'” said Chappelle, who later said that it’s a game of ‘perception’ – “If they’re black, it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence and you should neeeever speak about it.”

    He then turned his attention to politics, which included saying that Herschel Walker is “observably stupid,” and then explaining why Trump won the 2016 US election.

    “He’s very loved. And the reason he’s loved is because people in Ohio have never seen somebody like him,” said Chappelle, who then described how the billionaire captured hearts and minds by admitting “I know the system is rigged because I use it.”

    Of course, Chappelle then suggested that Trump was colluding with Russia (as opposed to the Obama DOJ, FBI, and Hillary Clinton setting him up), and suggested that Melania Trump “looks like the type of chick that James Bond would smash but not trust.” So he either sold out on that one or is woefully under-informed.

    Unsurprisingly, the left was outraged:

    As for the actual show itself, a “House of the Dragon’ parody appears to have been the most popular:

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 16:55

  • Ghislaine Maxwell Befriends Double-Murderer, Becomes Prison Darling
    Ghislaine Maxwell Befriends Double-Murderer, Becomes Prison Darling

    Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has apparently settled into her new life as inmate #02879-509 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Tallahasse, where she has cultivated a clique of influential inmates who ensure her protection, the Daily Mail reports, citing an inside source.

    Maxwell’s day begins at 5am, when inmates are woken up daily. Before lights out at 9pm she often heads outside for a leisurely walk around the athletics track

    While the notorious madam reportedly threw a tantrums when she arrived – refusing to eat and complaining about how her clothes fit, she appears to be settling in – making friends with notorious double-murderer Narcy Novak, a 65-year-old Florida woman serving life without parole for hiring a hitman to murder her hotelier husband Ben Novak Jr. and his elderly mother Bernice in an attempt to control the family estate.

    Maxwell, 60, also hangs out with con woman Linda Morrow, who helped her plastic surgeon husband scam $44 million out of insurers by classifying cosmetic procedures as medical necessities. After fleeing to Israel, the now-70-year-old Coachella Valley native was deported to the US in 2019 and jailed for 8 years.

    Maxwell is popular figure among her fellow inmates and has even befriended infamous double killer Narcy Novack (left) and con-woman Linda Morrow, sources say 

    “Ghislaine cried a lot when she first arrived. You could hear her yelling that everything was inhumane. She walked around like a zombie, her eyes were always puffy,” said one recently released prisoner. “She sat down next to me in the canteen, took one look at her food and declared “I can’t eat this”, and stormed off.”

    “Now she has some friends and is eating more. She’s bubbly, you see her smiling. She makes a point of saying good morning. You can see she’s visibly more comfortable.”

    Maxwell, who works just six hours a day in the prison library, spends her time strolling around the manicured grounds of the prison, where she’s got daily access to an array of sporting facilities. One Daily Mail journalist spotted Maxwell going for an hour-long jog in the Florida sunshine.

    Maxwell often completes eight to ten laps of the running track before heading to her job at the prison’s library and education center where she works from 7am to 10am

    A typical day for Maxwell begins at 5am, when inmates are woken and served breakfast on a Styrofoam tray – typically grits, oatmeal or toast. She then often does eight to ten laps around the track before heading to the prison’s library and education center, where she works from 7am to 10am.Then, after lunch, she works from noon to 3pm, after which she can swap her standard prison uniform for gray ‘personal athletic clothing’ purchased from the commissary, the Mail reports.

    She spends her free time taking pottery and crochet classes – the latter of which are taught by Novak.

    “She and Linda are learning crochet and cross stitch with Novak. Ghislaine also likes pottery. She’s outside on the track most days but the other ladies generally stay inside,” said the insider, adding “So far there have been no complaints about her. She’s polite, she’s well behaved, she goes to work on time every day.”

    “If you ask her for a book in the library she will find whatever it is you need. The general opinion of her is that she’s a nice lady.”

    Then, before the 9pm lights out, Maxwell will often take a “leisurely walk around the athletics track, where she was photographed this week by DailyMail.com enjoying a twilight stroll.”

    Insiders say Maxwell has used her privileged upbringing to boost her popularity among the 755-strong female population – drawing on her Oxford University education and literary savviness to recommend novels and history books.

    In fact, cell-mates in Unit B South think the British heiress is so smart they recently nominated Maxwell to represent them in a checkers competition – part of an Olympics-style ‘battle of the units’ tournament, held annually.

    ‘There is everything from kickball to hula-hoop but she was selected for the 40 and over checkers,’ dished an insider.

    ‘You want the best players and she has a reputation for being smart. The winning unit gets a really good meal, chicken wings, pizza, that sort of thing. It’s much better than the usual food.

    ‘It’s a big deal. Nobody cares what you’re in for so long as you win.’ -Daily Mail

    Maxwell was originally supposed to serve her 20-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Danbury, the Connecticut prison that inspired Orange is the New Black, but was instead shipped 1,000 miles south in late July to Florida.

    FCI Tallahasse, where she will spend until July 17, 2037 unless released earlier, is an “elegant, red-brick building behind the rolls of jagged razor wire looks more akin to a high school or college campus,” according to the report.

    FCI Tallahassee, potentially Maxwell’s home until at least July 17, 2037, is surrounded by a maze of 30 ft fences and cameras but the elegant, red-brick building behind the rolls of jagged razor wire looks more akin to a high school or college campus

    According to the report, Maxwell’s friendship with Novak has proven extremely useful, as the double-murderer is the head orderly for the dormitory where the disgraced socialite beds down with 100 other inmates in pods that consist of four ‘cubes’ equipped with bunk beds and no doors.

    “The units are basically like a warehouse so it’s hard to escape from that. But Ghislaine hasn’t been attacked yet and it’s gotten much better lately because she is always with Novak,” said a source. “Novak commands respect, people don’t mess with her. Her, Ghislaine and Linda seem to band together because they are the most high profile prisoners here.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 16:30

  • Morgan Stanley's 2023 Outlook: Growth Cools, Bonds Rule
    Morgan Stanley’s 2023 Outlook: Growth Cools, Bonds Rule

    By Andrew Sheets, Chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley

    We’ll publish our year-ahead outlook later today. In the global economy, my colleague Seth Carpenter and our global economics team see a story of weaker growth, less inflation, and the end of rate hikes.

    Let’s take those in turn.

    Weaker growth is about continued deceleration of the global economy in 2022 into 2023. This slowing has several drivers, including some payback from excessive post-Covid consumer demand and bloated inventories in the retail sector. But the thrust of the slowing is driven by the (lagged) impact of policy tightening. The last 12 months have seen the fastest 12-month increase in the fed funds rate since 1981 and the fastest increase in ECB rates since the establishment of the eurozone.

    Tightening usually works with a lag, and 2023 should be no different. The US barely avoids recession. The UK and eurozone do see recession, thanks to fiscal tightening (UK) and a large energy shock (eurozone). China growth recovers with our expectation that the Covid-zero policy is relaxed in the spring, but the rebound is muted, as deleveraging in the country’s real estate sector remains a challenge.

    Slower growth should (finally) cool inflation. We understand the skepticism, given the persistent surprises this year, but we think that several forces are working to change the narrative:

    1. Global demand should be weaker;

    2. Supply chains are showing much less stress;

    3. Inventories look increasingly elevated, inviting discounting for core goods;

    4. Risk in shelter prices is much more balanced; and

    5. Base effects shift materially (US gas prices are up 11%Y, but will be down 11%Y by March at current prices). US CPI is currently 7.7%Y, but we forecast it to be under 2.0%Y by the end of next year.

    Cooling growth and inflation should lead central banks to pause and assess. They’ve just delivered significant tightening, tightening that works with a considerable lag. As growth and inflation cool, we think that the Fed pauses after a January rate hike at 4.625%, while the ECB pauses in March at 2.50%. EM central banks, which were well out in front of their DM counterparts, see some significant easing, especially in Hungary, Brazil, and Chile.

    Any outlook is uncertain, but that’s especially true this year. We see risks to growth skewed to the downside, driven by more persistent inflation that drives a more forceful policy response. Significant uncertainty also exists around QT; we believe that central banks will show flexibility if it leads to systemic stress, but both central banks and investors are in uncharted waters with a balance sheet reduction of this scale.

    For markets, this presents a very different backdrop. 2022 was marked by resilient growth, high inflation, and hawkish policy. 2023 sees weaker growth, disinflation, and rate hikes end/reverse, all with very different starting valuations. It seems reasonable to think that we’ll see different outcomes, especially in high grade bonds. We forecast US 10-year Treasury yields to end 2023 lower, the US dollar to decline, and the S&P 500 to tread water (with material swings along the way).

    Indeed, we think that high grade bonds, one of the biggest losers of 2022, will be one of the biggest winners of 2023. Real and nominal yields have risen materially across a wide range of high grade markets. Less growth, inflation, and tightening make stable returns more attractive. We see attractive returns through end-2023 in Bunds, BTPs, EUR IG credit, US Treasuries, US IG credit, US municipals, agency MBS, and AAA securitized paper.

    And we think that the ‘income’ theme extends further. Across many of our recommendations we have a bias toward the higher-yielding parts of the market, whether that’s US equities (where we’re overweight staples, healthcare, and utilities) or commodities (where we prefer oil to metals).

    If ’embracing income’ is one key theme, ‘respecting sequencing’ is another. Markets face two great uncertainties for next year – will inflation/tightening moderate, and will growth bottom? We expect clarity on the first before the second. In turn, we generally prefer assets more sensitive to rate uncertainty than those more sensitive to DM growth.

    This should support high grade bonds, which often do well after the last Fed hike regardless of whether a recession follows. But it should also support EM equities and debt. Early to underperform (EM equities peaked in February 2021), we think that they’ll be early to recover, similar to the early 2000s and 2008- 2022 has been a historically bad year for cross-asset returns. Next year won’t be easy, but it should look different.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 16:00

  • Republicans And GOP-Leaning Independents Prefer DeSantis Over Trump In 2024: Poll
    Republicans And GOP-Leaning Independents Prefer DeSantis Over Trump In 2024: Poll

    A new YouGov survey has found that 42% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents would prefer Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over former President Trump as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee.

    Just 35% polled said they would prefer Trump over DeSantis.

    That said, those who consider themselves “strong Republicans” were more likely to support a third Trump run (45%) over the Florida governor, while 43% said they would prefer DeSantis.

    The difference was far more pronounced among the ‘Republican-leaning’ respondents, of which 45% preferred DeSantis vs. 21% for Trump. 38% of those who described themselves as “not very strong Republicans” prefer DeSantis, vs. 31% who picked Trump.

    The poll comes after Trump lashed out at DeSantis following the governor’s resounding midterm victory last week – cementing his position as a top GOP candidate to run against Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries.

    Trump nicknamed DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” during a rally last week, before going further and releasing a statement in which he took credit for DeSantis’ political success.

    The former president then suggested that he could share damaging private information about DeSantis “that won’t be very flattering” if the Florida governor runs in 2024, and that DeSantis is actually a RINO.

    “I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly,” said Trump, adding “I know more about him than anybody — other than, perhaps, his wife.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 11/13/2022 – 15:30

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Nov 13

Today’s News 13th November 2022

  • Escobar: Rewiring Eurasia – Mr. Patrushev Goes To Tehran…
    Escobar: Rewiring Eurasia – Mr. Patrushev Goes To Tehran…

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

    The meeting this week between two Eurasian security bosses is a further step toward dusting away the west’s oversized Asian footprint…

    Two guys are hanging out in a cozy room in Tehran with a tantalizing new map of the world in the background.

    Nothing to see here? On the contrary. These two Eurasian security giants are no less than the – unusually relaxed – Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

    And why are they so relaxed? Because the future prospects revolving around the main theme of their conversation – the Russia-Iran strategic partnership – could not be more exciting.

    This was a very serious business affair: an official visit, at the invitation of Shamkhani.

    Patrushev was in Tehran on the exact same day that Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu – following a recommendation from General Sergey Surovikin, the overall commander of the Special Military Operation – ordered a Russian retreat from Kherson.

    Patrushev knew it for days – so he had no problem to step on a plane to take care of business in Tehran. After all, the Kherson drama is part of the Patrushev negotiations with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Ukraine, which have been going on for weeks, with Saudi Arabia as eventual go-between.

    Besides Ukraine, the two discussed “information security, as well as measures to counter interference in the internal affairs of both countries by western special services,” according to a report by Russia’s TASS news agency.

    Both countries, as we know, are particular targets of western information warfare and sabotage, with Iran currently the focus of one of these no-holds-barred, foreign-backed, destabilization campaign.

    Patrushev was officially received by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who went straight to the point: “The cooperation of independent countries is the strongest response to the sanctions and destabilization policies of the US and its allies.”

    Patrushev, for his part, assured Raisi that for the Russian Federation, strategic relations with Iran are essential for Russian national security.

    So that goes way beyond Geranium-2 kamikaze drones – the Russian cousins of the Shahed-136 – wreaking havoc in the Ukrainian battlefield. Which, by the way, elicited a direct mention later on by Shamkhani: “Iran welcomes a peaceful settlement in Ukraine and is in favor of peace based on dialogue between Moscow and Kiev.”

    Patrushev and Shamkhani of course discussed security issues and the proverbial “cooperation in the international arena.” But what may be more significant is that the Russian delegation included officials from several key economic agencies.

    There were no leaks – but that suggests serious economic connectivity remains at the heart of the strategic partnership between the two top sanctioned nations in Eurasia.

    Key in the discussions was the Iranian focus on fast expansion of bilateral trade in national currencies – ruble and rial. That happens to be at the center of the drive by both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS towards multipolarity. Iran is now a full SCO member – the only West Asian nation to be part of the Asian strategic behemoth – and will apply to become part of BRICS+.

    Have swap, will travel

    The Patrushev-Shamkhani get together happened ahead of the signing, next month, of a whopping $40 billion energy deal with Gazprom, as previously announced by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mahdi Safari.

    The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has already clinched an initial $6.5 billion deal. All that revolves around the development of two gas deposits and six oilfields; swaps in natural gas and oil products; LNG projects; and building more gas pipelines.

    Last month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak announced a swap of 5 million tons of oil and 10 billion cubic meters of gas, to be finished by the end of 2022. And he confirmed that “the amount of Russian investment in Iran’s oil fields will increase.”

    Barter of course is ideal for Moscow and Tehran to jointly bypass interminably problematic sanctions and payment settlement issues – linked to the western financial system. On top of it, Russia and Iran are able to invest in direct trade links via the Caspian Sea.

    At the recent Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, Raisi forcefully proposed that a successful “new Asia” must necessarily develop an endogenous model for independent states.

    As an SCO member, and playing a very important role, alongside Russia and India, in the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), Raisi is positioning Iran in a key vector of multilateralism.

    Since Tehran entered the SCO, cooperation with both Russia and China, predictably, is on overdrive. Patrushev’s visit is part of that process. Tehran is leaving behind decades of Iranophobia and every possible declination of American “maximum pressure” – from sanctions to attempts at color revolution – to dynamically connect across Eurasia.

    BRI, SCO, INSTC

    Iran is a key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner for China’s grand infrastructure project to connect Eurasia via road, sea, and train. In parallel, the multimodal Russian-led INSTC is essential to promote trade between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia – at the same time solidifying Russia’s presence in the South Caucasus and the Caspian Sea region.

    Iran and India have committed to offer part of Chabahar port in Iran to Central Asian nations, complete with access to exclusive economic zones.

    At the recent SCO summit in Samarkand, both Russia and China made it quite clear – especially for the collective west – that Iran is no longer going to be treated as a pariah state.

    So it is no wonder Iran that is entering a new business era with all members of the SCO under the sign of an emerging financial order being designed mostly by Russia, China and India. As far as strategic partnerships go, the ties between Russia and India (President Narendra Modi called it an unbreakable friendship) is as strong as those between Russia and China. And when it comes to Russia, that’s what Iran is aiming at.

    The Patrushev-Shamkhani strategic meeting will hurl western hysteria to unseen levels – as it completely smashes Iranophobia and Russophobia in one fell swoop. Iran as a close ally is an unparalleled strategic asset for Russia in the drive towards multipolarity.

    Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are already negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in parallel to those swaps involving Russian oil. The west’s reliance on the SWIFT banking messaging system hardly makes any difference to Russia and Iran. The Global South is watching it closely, especially in Iran’s neighborhood where oil is commonly traded in US dollars.

    It is starting to become clear to anyone in the west with an IQ above room temperature that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal), in the end, does not matter anymore. Iran’s future is directly connected to the success of three of the BRICS: Russia, China and India. Iran itself may soon become a BRICS+ member.

    There’s more: Iran is even becoming a role model for the Persian Gulf: witness the lengthy queue of regional states aspiring toward gaining SCO membership. The Trumpian “Abraham Accords?” What’s that? BRICS/SCO/BRI is the only way to go in West Asia today.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 23:20

  • These Are The World's Biggest Employers
    These Are The World’s Biggest Employers

    No company in the world has more employees than Walmart.

    The latest information from the U.S. retail giant put the figure at a massive 2.30 million. Not even the behemoth that is Amazon comes close, despite being in second place with a 1.61 million-strong workforce. As Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the inforgraphic below though, there’s one sector that apparently needs even more manpower than retail, and that’s defense.

    Infographic: The World's Biggest Employers | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    At the top of the ranking for the world’s largest employers is India’s Ministry of Defence. Combining active service personnel, reservists and civilian staff, the total headcount comes to 2.99 million – a touch ahead of the United States equivalent, the Department of Defense.

    In China, the People’s Liberation Army (which doesn’t include civilian positions) employs around 2.55 million people.

    The Chinese equivalent of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Central Military Commission may have as many as 6.80 million people in its employment, though that figure was not deemed sufficiently reliable to be included in this list.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 22:50

  • The Decline of the West: Spengler In Today's World
    The Decline of the West: Spengler In Today’s World

    Authored by Oscar Silva-Valladares via The Ron Paul Institute,

    Timelessness of thought and vision in world politics is a rare mark of grandeur. Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, written a century ago, deserves this distinction as it reads like it was done yesterday.

    The German historian-philosopher wrote in 1922 that the centuries old West-European-American civilization was in permanent and irretrievable decline in all manifestations of life including religion, art, politics, social life, economy and science. For him, the political, social and ideological dimensions of this decline were evident in the failings of the Western political class in both sides of the Atlantic. He saw politicians, mostly based in large cities, consumed by ideology and contempt towards silent majorities and described them as “a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, and deeply contemptuous of the countryman.” Nowadays the Brussels-based European Union (EU) leadership, through their recurring disdain for nation sovereignty, fully befits this definition.

    Spengler believed that decadence in politics means predominance of ideology over action.

    “Men of theory commit a huge mistake in believing that their place is at the head and not in the train of great events” he wrote, unaware about how true this is today as we just saw the fall of UK Prime Minister Truss who sacrificed economics in the altar of ideology. Dogma destroying social cohesion and prosperity is also present in the wrecking of Europe’s manufacturing competitiveness as their politicians forcibly deny cheap Russian energy or when Lilliputian Lithuania picks a fight with China in defence of Taiwan’s “sovereignty.” On the face of these events the German thinker would have repeated his assertion that “the political doctrinaire … always knows what should be done, and yet his activity, once it ceases to be limited to paper, is the least successful and therefore the least valuable in history.”

    When we listen to the German Minister of Economic Affairs Harbeck or his Foreign Affairs counterpart Baerbock lecturing on the primacy of the green agenda or on how Ukraine military support needs to continue regardless of what voters think, we can’t help remembering the writer’s damning query:

    “[have they] any idea whatever of the actualities of world-politics, world-city problems, capitalism, the future of the state, the relation of technics to the course of civilization, Russia, Science?.”

    The “rules-based international order,” that Western axiom born out of post-Cold War euphoria and used to justify US-led hegemonism, reminds us the writer’s aphorism that “nothing is simpler than to make good poverty of ideas by founding a system”. “Even a good idea has little value when enunciated by a solemn ass” comes to mind when we hear the European Commission President von der Leyen or the EU Foreign Affairs Head Borrell repeat the same mantra. “In politics, only its necessity to life decides the eminence of any doctrine,” something that has been forgotten as Europe blindly follows the US in an economic war that is ruining the continent.

    On the East-West confrontation, concerning China, Spengler highlighted Western politicians’ traditional lack of understanding of the main drivers of Chinese thinking which have to do with a 4000-year view of history and of their place in the world, as compared to the Western narrow timeframe absorbed by events that took place since 1500. Western self-contained perception of history negates world’s history, he says, adding that world-history, in the Western eyes, is our world picture and not all mankind’s.

    American exceptionalism, the dangerous notion that US values, political system and history destines it to play the world’s leading role, was questioned when he pointed out that there are as many morals as there are Cultures, no more and no fewer, and that each Culture possesses its own standard, the validity of which begins and ends with it, a statement that explains the need for a multipolar world. As much as has become politically correct to criticize Nietzsche’s ideas after his appropriation by Nazi ideology, Spengler affirmed that Nietzsche’s basic concept of will of power is essential to Western civilization, and this is consistent with the Western belief on the superiority of its values and the need to impose them on other cultures. “Western mankind is under the influence of an immense optical illusion. Everyone demands something of the rest. We say “thou shalt” in the conviction that so-and-so in fact will, can and must be changed or fashioned or arranged conformably to the order, and our belief both in the efficacy of, and in our title to give, such orders is unshakable.”

    Money, politics and the press play an intimate role in Western civilization, declares Spengler. In politics, money “nurses” the democratic process particularly during elections, as is the recurring US case. The press serves him who owns it and it does not spread “free” opinion – it generates it. “What is truth? For the multitude, that which it continually reads and hears.” On freedom of the press, we are reminded that it is permitted to everyone to say what he or she pleases, but the Press is free to take notice of what he or she says or not. The Press can condemn any “truth” to death simply by not undertaking its communication to the world – “a terrible censorship of silence which is all the more potent in that the masses of newspaper readers are absolutely unaware that it exists.”

    Striking parallels exist between today’s poverty in US cities and his observation of Rome at the time of Crassus, who as a real-estate speculator also recalls Donald Trump. In Rome, people are portrayed as living “in appalling misery in the many-storied lodging-houses of dark suburbs”, a misfortune directly linked to the consequences of Roman military expansionism and which suggests current conditions in Detroit, Cleveland or Newark.

    The Decline of the West was first read as the epilogue of World War I, the war that ended all wars. Hopefully it will not be read in today’s world as the introduction of a new calamity.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 22:20

  • Visualizing India's Population Growth From 2022-2100
    Visualizing India’s Population Growth From 2022-2100

    For years, India has been on track to overtake China as the world’s most populated country.

    In fact, we’ve covered this phenomenon in past articles, back when India was expected to overtake China’s population by the end of the decade.

    However, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang notes, according to the UN’s latest population prospects, this takeover is projected to happen sooner than previously expected—as early as next year.

    This graphic by Pablo Alvarez provides an up-to-date chart of India’s population growth projections compared to other countries. Projection data from Our World in Data ranges from 1800 all the way to until 2100.

    Some Historical Context

    For over three centuries, China has had the largest population of any country in the world.

    In the 1800s, China’s population was about 322 million, which was nearly double India’s at the time. And until the mid-20th century, both countries’ populations stayed relatively stable.

    However, in 1949, China’s population started to experience dramatic growth. This occurred after the Chinese Civil War when the People’s Republic of China was first established.

    Around the same time, India’s population had also started to increase. Since both countries were experiencing population booms, the status quo remained the same, and China kept its position as the world’s most populated country.

    China’s baby boom lasted two decades. But by the late 1970s, the Chinese government implemented a one-child policy in an attempt to slow things down and control population growth, out of fear that China was becoming overpopulated.

    The plan worked—according to China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman Mao Qunan, the government’s efforts ended up reducing the number of births over the years by roughly 400 million.

    China’s Population is Aging Faster Than India’s

    These days, China has one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world. By 2040, it’s expected that 28% of the country’s population will be over the age of 60.

    In contrast, India’s population is relatively young—half of its population is under 30, and only an eighth is over 60.

    Does this mean that India’s GDP will eventually outpace China’s? Not necessarily.

    As quoted in an article published in Business Standard, Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist of the Bank of Baroda says that India needs to increase its labor participation, as well as general access to education, in order to reap the benefits of its increasing working-age population.

    As of 2022, India’s workforce participation rate sits at 46%, compared to China’s 68%. How will this change in the future?

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 21:50

  • Are Robots And AI Really Going To Displace All Workers? Probably Not
    Are Robots And AI Really Going To Displace All Workers? Probably Not

    Authored by Robert Blumen via The Mises Institute,

    Among the components of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset are a drastically reduced population and the replacement of human labor with robots and artificial intelligence (AI). The question immediately comes to mind: can robots and AI really make all the stuff for the elites after they have gotten rid of the people?

    Because a plan has been formulated and described does not mean that it is possible to realize. The plan may contradict laws of logic or reality, or assume the existence of resources that do not exist.

    Podcaster and journalist James Delingpole, speaking to investigative journalist Whitney Webb on October 23, 2021, discussed this topic with his guest. I have transcribed several minutes from their conversation, edited for concision:

    Webb: The fourth industrial revolution. One of the main pillars of that is automation and artificial intelligence. We’ve already seen that with corporate behemoths, like Amazon’s efforts to replace human workers with robots. Starbucks is piloting their AI barista with plans to have at least one in most if not all locations…. How long until humans are gone entirely? That’s in a retail setting.

    In the UK Tesco recently joined the cashier less checkout. It’s all done on your phone. You scan when you enter the store. Everything is tied to you, your unique digital identifier with the corporation. You can just walk out of the store. How convenient that you didn’t have to walk by a cashier at all.

    We’re going to see this happen in big ways in manufacturing. Chile is one of the biggest producers of copper in the world. In the northern part of Chile, the economy is driven by mining…. They are automating the mining here [in Chile]. Most of Chile’s middle class in the north work in the mining industry. They are about to all be cut out….

    It’s infinitely more profitable for a corporation to make an initial investment in a robot or an AI algorithm than to continuously pay a worker. Not have to deal with sick pay. There are efforts all over the world to demand better worker benefits. Better hours. Robots are the ultimate worker for a lot of these people because they are not interested in the human equation of things. There is a move to a human-free future coupled with anti-human rhetoric.

    The substitution of machines for human labor is a process that has been going on since the first industrial revolution. A considerable amount of manufacturing is already done by robots. But does it matter if a machine is a robot or not? Telecommunications switches connect calls that used to be done by telephone operators. We do not identify these machines as robots (perhaps because they do not have a recognizable torso and limbs or perhaps because they perform their work on data rather than physical objects) but the impact on the demand for labor to perform those tasks is the same.

    Contrary to Webb, it is not “infinitely more profitable” for a corporation to use an AI-powered robot in place of a person. Profitability is a calculation that depends on the price of the robot, the productivity of the robot, the wages of the person and the productivity of the human worker.

    The substitution of capital for labor makes economic sense when the cost of the capital goods per unit value of output—including paying for the entire supply chain—is less than the wages of the person that is replaced.

    Yes, workers are paid wages. However, robots and other machines are themselves not free goods. They must be designed, tested, and maintained. They are made of many parts which must be manufactured and transported. The manufacturing process is performed by some combination of people and other machines. The parts are ultimately made from materials that are mostly mined or extracted from the earth, also by men and machines.

    Workers prefer better working conditions over worse. And for machines as well there are optimal working conditions. A truck that is driven on poor roads in bad weather will wear out or break down more quickly. Computers need a carefully tuned environment that is temperature and humidity controlled. Computer servers are housed in a complex capital good known as a “data center.”

    The wages that are required to hire the workers are determined on the labor market, by the various competing uses for each person’s skills. If the cost of the robot is less than the worker, that is only because their labor is more urgently demanded doing something else. There is a greater need for human labor somewhere else in the world.

    AI itself is not inexpensive. Building and running AI requires engineering effort and computing resources such as networks, servers, and storage. AI models are trained by data that must originate with the same human intelligence that the AI is trying to reproduce. If you want to train AI to recognize photographs of cats, someone must have taken the photographs and classified them as cats or “not cats” so that the AI can be validated. If the photos come from security cameras, someone must have installed the cameras.

    After the model is built it must be maintained. AI models do not run perfectly forever. They must be monitored for drift, and it requires a human to determine if the drift is due to an error in the ingestion of data, such as a change in units, or a true change in the customer preferences that the model is trying to extract. In the latter case, the model must be retrained on a new data set.

    Modern computer systems are built with some degree of self-diagnosing and self-repairing abilities. But the automation must punt all but the most straightforward cases into a call for help that brings a human into the process. Humans are necessary to diagnose problems and restore service when something has gone wrong.

    The manufacture of machines such as robots requires a complex structure of production with perhaps tens of thousands of individual parts. Each part must be designed—by a person—manufactured and integrated with the other parts. The integrations, including isolating manufacturing defects, must be tested, and debugged.

    Parts are transported by industries such as shipping and trucking. All of these steps involve combinations of labor and capital goods. It is true that people take sick days, however, machines break, wear out, and, and require repairs. The humans who repair the machines also have kids and take sick days. If you need to send the robot out for service, a mover will pack it up and load it on a truck. Self-driving cars? Maybe someday, but not any day soon.

    Robots and made out of metals, which are mined out of the ground. Mineral deposits are not straightforward to find, to delineate and to mine. The discovery and extraction of mineral resources is a tremendously high-intellect activity. A small number of exploration geologists—many with doctoral degrees in fields such as geology and geophysics—have discovered a disproportionate fraction of mineable mineral deposits. Without labor, where would the metals come from to build the robots?

    Someone like Webb might respond that robots will replace all of these functions as well. And some day, they might. However, the replacement of humans by machines for one task creates a need for labor—with different skills—to operate the machines. That is why we now have jobs for truckers, power plant operators, and machinists instead of wood cutters.

    If miners were replaced with robots—how much labor would be required to build the robots including the entire supply chain, transportation, and the energy used to run them? It’s hard to say but a fraction of the impact would be shifts in the type of employment.

    Has the substitution of capital for human labor over the centuries since the industrial revolution has reduced overall employment? Not so much. We have far more need for labor now because we have accumulated so much capital and require more labor to operate it. The human population has increased—in lockstep with the demand for human labor—because we are so much more productive with our enormous legacy of capital goods that we can support much more population.

    Replacing the most routine and repeatable human labor with machines creates demand for the currently irreplaceable types of labor: creativity and problem-solving skills. It is true that boundaries of what machines can do expands over time. For example, voice recognition, which used to be quite poor, now handles a range of accents much better. However, AI is still at a point where it can at best replicate human learning by observing many samples created by humans. But for anyone who has tried to change their airline ticket by talking to a chat bot, it is clear that AI is at present limited to a standardized set of tasks.

    As we can afford it, out of our accumulated savings, capitalists will continue to invest in robots and other forms of automation to replace workers. When this results in cost savings, that means more output at a lower cost, and a rising standard of living. As certain goods become cheaper to manufacture, workers can demand other, new and different goods and services, which feeds the indirect demand for labor in those industries.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 21:20

  • Binance Dominates Crypto Exchange Landscape
    Binance Dominates Crypto Exchange Landscape

    Despite crypto evangelists describing the current situation in the cryptocurrency market as just another dip, the phenomenon known as crypto winter has real and possibly lasting consequences for one of the more volatile finance sectors. As Statista’s Florian Zandt details below, since May 2022, 38 companies in the crypto industry have laid off employees, among them crypto exchanges BitMEX and Coinbase, crypto service providers Crypto.com and Blockchain.com as well as NFT marketplace OpenSea.

    Now, 130 companies in the FTX Group owning the crypto exchange FTX have officially filed for bankruptcy due to a liquidity crunch caused by several factors. The chief reasons cited were increased user withdrawals starting November 6 and the revelation that Alameda Research, a company in the FTX Group, had a significant portion of its holdings in FTX’s own FTT coin. Following this discovery, rival company Binance divested its FTT holdings, which caused the coin’s value to fall drastically. According to now-resigned Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, the company would have needed $9.4 billion to stave off collapse. As Statista’s chart shows, the default of FTX could hurt a shaky-kneed crypto industry even further.

    Infographic: Binance Dominates Crypto Exchange Landscape | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    When looking at the year-to-date trading volume on the biggest crypto exchanges as aggregated by analysts at The Block, FTX ranks fourth behind Coinbase and OKX. No single exchange even comes close to Binance’s trade volume though, with transactions amounting to $4.6 trillion between January and November 11. Its market leader position allowed Binance to be one of the first companies offering to bail out FTX, but the deal fell through as quickly as it was announced. “As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged U.S. agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX.com”, the company announced on Twitter on November 9.

    FTX’s scrambling to save its business and cryptocurrency valuations further careening downhill also caused U.S. lawmakers concern with calls for tighter regulations of crypto getting louder. “It is crucial that our financial watchdogs look into what led to FTX’s collapse so we can fully understand the misconduct and abuses that took place,” said Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown. U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow echoed that sentiment and added: “It is time for Congress to act. The Committee remains committed to advancing the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act to bring necessary safeguards to the digital commodities market.”

    CZ is the king of crypto…

    Given the chart above, let’s hope there’s nothing afoot at Binance.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 20:50

  • Much Ado About Nothing
    Much Ado About Nothing

    Authored by Todd Hayen via Off-Guardian.org,

    Do any of you think we are over-reacting? I don’t think so, but the sheep-folk certainly do. They claim they are willing to let bygones be bygones and just put it all in the past and get on with life.

    I am sure everyone reading this is aware of the bombshell editorial The Atlantic dropped recently with their amnesty nonsense. I don’t think I have been more livid reading an article since the days of seeing piece after piece about how effective masks are against viral transmission.

    I won’t comment on The Atlantic blather directly here, as there have been many fine responses to it, but wow, what a piece. So typical of a bully trying to pretend he loved his victims all along when he knows he is cornered and about to be punished. One last punch disguised as a kiss.

    I just got back from a little cruise. Major ports were Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Monaco, and a smattering of little French and Italian hideaways. I had mixed feelings about going, but realized that if this tsunami we all see coming a few miles off the shore has the potential of wiping out most travel in the foreseeable future, I figured I might as well get something in before the onslaught.

    It was nice in a lot of ways, as would be expected, but in other ways unusually disconcerting. For one thing, very, very few people had masks, and thus there was a palatable scent in the air of “Covid is a thing of the past.”

    One would think this was a good thing, but instead it exuded a very clear vibe of denial.

    Oddly enough, not wearing masks, and believing Covid to be over, to me is just another example of compliance to authority.

    I know that seems a stretch, but if Covid were real, coupled with the truth that the vaccines do not work, and we were told again and again that there would be no natural herd immunity without a working vaccine, and we still hear of infections rising, variants being created, and hospitals becoming over crowded, why would people think the disease just died and disappeared? The reason is because we were told it was over.

    We were told we suddenly didn’t need masks, that we could party with friends, vaxxed or unvaxxed, that we could gather in huge crowds, get on cruise ships (no one even cared that I was unvaccinated.) We were told what was true, what was real and what to worry or not worry about. And like sheep, most people blindly followed.

    So shouldn’t I be happy? If I were, it would be for all of the wrong reasons. It is true we are all happy when the slave owner puts down the whip. Whip or not, however, we are still slaves.

    I, too, bask in the sun of my controlled freedom—I went on a cruise didn’t I? After two years of not being “allowed to”—so I am just as guilty of this sort of compliance. I am one step closer to truth though; I know this offer of freedom is a tactic, a ploy, and a ruse.

    I’ll take a scrap of bread when it is offered, but I will not succumb to complacency and forgive my master for his cruelty when he behaves, albeit for just a moment, as my friend. Most everyone else seems fine to let bygones be bygones.

    I am not, and I suspect most of you reading this are not as well.

    The great danger I see here in the masses just carrying on in complacent forgiveness is that they are encouraged to stay blind. Surely if they speak out against the atrocities that the world has experienced over the past three years they would quickly be categorized as a trouble maker, a pariah, and a misfit.

    “Just get over it, man, it’s all over.”

    Is it? No, of course not, you and I know that, and it is all still going on in various ways under the covers now, in the dark recesses of the culture: persecutions, continued efforts to vaccinate, and particularly vaccinate children, warnings of an “upcoming dark winter” where restrictions will come back into the mainstream. On and on, you know what I am speaking of.

    However, the mass attitude now, as per The Atlantic piece, is “nothing all that much really happened.”

    No one died unnecessarily due to the Covid response, no one got sick, no one lost their job or their livelihood, no one suffered socially (particularly children wearing masks in school), no one suffered educationally, nothing bad really happened.

    If you are still pissed about all that DID happen, then you are overreacting…much ado about nothing.

    So get over it, forget and forgive.

    Not everyone on the world has read that article, but what I saw in Europe, it seems that most people, at least on physical observation, are basically taking on that attitude.

    It breaks my heart.

    I think about the countless mothers sitting by their children in countless hospitals nurturing them through a totally unprecedented heart incident.

    I think of the countless families standing together at the funeral of a loved one, dead prematurely from a heart attack, blood clotting, or cancer—cause unknown, unless you want to apply the newly created diagnoses, “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.” What the hell is that?

    A novel disease and now a common cause of death? Easy peasy explanation, eh? I think of the countless numbers of people suffering from a myriad of strange afflictions, which suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

    I think again of countless people having suffered unconscionably, and pointlessly, after losing their jobs, their businesses, their life savings, and their livelihood—the countless children with lower IQs, and those who have suffered social retardation due to the mask mandates, social distancing, and mandatory online teaching at home with no socialization at all.

    I could write 100 pages describing all of this—but most people don’t know, and if they do, don’t care, or just attribute all of this horror to the “cost of living—some are lucky in life, some are not.”

    During my recent cruise not a word was uttered about any of this, thousands of people were encountered walking the streets of Rome, Florence, Barcelona, all laughing, eating, drinking, playing. While just beneath their feet, hidden a foot underground, there are skulls and bones of the fallen—all forgotten, and the perpetrators all forgiven.

    When I was occasionally shaken from my self-induced and compliant vacation reverie, my heart ached talking to all of the young vibrant crewmembers on our ship.

    I would hear of their plans to be married, create families, further their careers and live fully their vibrant lives—followed with the admission that they all had to be vaccinated to get their current jobs on the ship.

    What really lies ahead for these beautiful children of God so innocent and full of life? I would shake my head, “maybe none of this is true, and maybe I am making more of it than it really is. Maybe they are right, and it really wasn’t that bad, just a mistake made here and there that we really could get over. It is all fine…let’s move on.”

    Then a bone cracks under my foot—just a few inches from the surface of awareness—the truth. And I slip back into reality.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 20:20

  • Eerie Similarities Between Democratic Party And Chinese Communist Party Lingo
    Eerie Similarities Between Democratic Party And Chinese Communist Party Lingo

    Authored by Stu Cvrk via The Epoch Times,

    The brilliant former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was once quoted as saying, “Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn’t change.” That is absolutely true, but the meanings of commonly understood words are frequently corrupted, represented, or obfuscated by nefarious people.

    Both the Chinese Communist Party and the U.S. Democratic Party are masters at obfuscating language to achieve their political objectives. There are even some interesting similarities in certain aspects of messaging by both parties.

    Let us explore the thesis.

    Democracy

    In order to convey a false sense of the legitimacy, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-ruled government Xi Jinping regularly opines about the crackpot term “whole people’s democracy,” which is then endlessly repeated in the echo chamber of state-run Chinese media. The concept is absurd because there is no such thing as genuine democracy in a one-party dictatorship in which only CCP-approved candidates occupy positions across all levels of government.

    The report presented by Xi during the recently concluded 20th National Congress of the CCP included a new slogan that embellishes “whole people’s democracy”: acting for people, relying on people. This is simply more twisted gobbledygook, as the CCP has been “acting for the people” without regard to any democratically-obtained input from the Chinese people since the communist regime took power in 1949.

    Red Guard members wave copies of Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” during a parade in Beijing on June 1, 1966. (Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Democratic Party, too, has an odd definition of democracy. Throughout the 2022 election campaign, one of the key pillars of the Democrats’ election narrative has been the imperative to “save our democracy.” Joe Biden attempted to close the political sale on Nov. 2 in a speech devoted almost entirely to condemning “extreme Republicans” and urging voters to “preserve democracy” by electing Democrats, as reported by the New York Post here.

    Coupled with the continuing Biden administration’s weaponizing of federal agencies against perceived political opponents (e.g., arresting peaceful anti-abortion activists, suppressing political speech, and refocusing on the investigation and prosecution over various “domestic terrorists” like the J6 protestors), Biden’s naked political appeal is akin to the CCP’s ongoing efforts to perpetuate a one-party state. After all, “saving our democracy” is a thinly veiled slogan whose real meaning is to save the Democrats, not the democratic actions of Americans who are poised to sweep the Democratic Party out of political power, as noted here by The Epoch Times.

    Democrats would apparently like to “act for people and rely on people” by encouraging voters to support a one-party Democrat-run state analogous to communist China!

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, alongside House Democrats, holds the CHIPS for America Act, providing domestic semiconductor manufacturers with billions in subsidies to cut reliance on foreign sourcing, after signing it during an enrollment ceremony outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 29, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

    Political Purges

    Xi Jinping completed a political purge of former leader Hu Jintao and his faction of the CCP during the 20th Party Congress. In a shocking display, Hu was frog-marched out of the Congress during an obviously staged event intended to convey to the assembled CCP apparatchiks and the rest of the world that Xi is completely in charge. Besides Xi, the six other standing members of the newly-appointed 20th Politburo are all Xi allies and confidants, as are the members of the new Central Military Commission. Enter the era of complete unanimity of CCP thoughts and deeds, and a return to Mao-style authoritarianism—and a very dangerous time for the Chinese people and the world in general.

    Young Red Guards brandish copies of Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The Red Guards rampaged through Chinese towns, terrorizing people, particularly the elderly. (Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images)

    Chinese people demonstrate during the “great proletarian Cultural Revolution” in front of the French embassy in Beijing on January 1967. Protesters show symbols of the Revolution such as the portrait of Mao Zedong, banners, and the book “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.” Since the cultural revolution was launched in May 1966 at Beijing University, Mao’s aim was to recapture power after the failure of the “Great Leap Forward.” The movement was directed against those “Party leaders in authority taking the capitalist road.” (Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images)

    A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing’s Avenue of Eternal Peace during the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 5, 1989. (Jeff Widener/AP Photo)

    The Democratic Party is deep into conducting its own political purge of the “Republican faction” from the greater U.S. polity: suppress dissent, redesignate political dissenters as “domestic terrorists,” and refocus federal law enforcement on political crimes. The actions involve silencing and canceling the political speech of those who dissent from Democrat political orthodoxy. For example, the Department of Homeland Security has embarked on an “expansive effort” to influence Big Tech and social media giants, as reported here and revealed through analysis of “years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents—obtained via leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public documents.”

    Misinformation and disinformation are now apparently what the Democrats and bureaucratic allies deem them to be, despite the public outcry that deep-sixed (at least temporarily) the DHS’s “Disinformation Governance Board” earlier this year. Never mind the First Amendment that protects all political speech. Democrats know better than the Founders did!

    The Biden administration has loosened the definition of “domestic terrorists” to smear, attack, and investigate J6 protestors, those who question the adherence to due process during the 2020 election, and vocal “America First” supporters.

    Several hundred J6 protestors have been pursued vigorously for nearly two years, while thousands of violent antifa and BLM rioters (politically supported by many Democrats, as noted here) have been virtually ignored by the Democrat-controlled DOJ and FBI. The FBI targeted True the Vote after alleged election-related crimes by Chinese-owned Konnech Corporation. And after years of lies about now-dismissed Trump-Russia collusion and other politically-motivated efforts to “get Trump,” the FBI carried out an unprecedented action against a former U.S. president by raiding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August.

    An aerial view of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home after FBI agents searched it, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 15, 2022. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

    The Democrats’ three-pronged effort to suppress dissent, as defined by their own party, target Democrat-defined “domestic terrorists,” and prosecute/harass/raid Democrat political opponents is eerily similar to the CCP’s decades-long campaign to squelch all political resistance against the Chinese communist regime.

    A Brave New World

    The CCP and the Democratic Party each have their own visions of what amount to variations on the dystopian future, as presented in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in which each party exercises totalitarian control of their respective societies. We must remember, those visions were also marketed with flowery words and slogans that mask reality.

    From the newest amendment to the CCP’s constitution approved during the 20th Party Congress comes the slogan of “advancing the building of an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.” Riiiiiggght. The “shared future” promised by the CCP involves boots on the necks of all dissenters (especially ethnic and religious minorities in China), complete and intrusive social controls to manage the behavior of individual citizens, and arbitrary and punitive measures such as those associated with Xi’s “zero-COVID policy” that continues to destroy businesses and lives.

    The Democratic Party’s vision for America’s future is laid out in their party platform here. Behind the flowery words such as “stronger fairer,” “universal affordable,” and “healing the soul,” a glimpse at that future has already been presented to Americans over the past two years: economic chaos, massive inflation, out-of-control crime, the fentanyl scourge, sexualizing children, and foreign policy incompetence.

    The reality of the Democrats’ future vision for America includes gender affirmation (human experimentation and barbarism), unlimited women’s “healthcare” (infanticide), counting all votes (rigged elections), “free” healthcare (including for the increasing number of illegal aliens), and much, much more. How do the secular Democrats equate all of this damage to “healing the soul” of America?

    The above comparisons between the Chinese Communist Party and the Democratic Party in the United States are similar but not matching—yet. However, what the CCP has managed through 73 years of totalitarian control of communist China gives us a glimpse of the future in the U.S. under long-term Democrat domination and control of the federal government.

    But American voters who understand the true meaning of the words already spoken may have other ideas for our future.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 19:20

  • Canada Doubles Down On Record Immigration-Driven Population Surge
    Canada Doubles Down On Record Immigration-Driven Population Surge

    Authored by Joe Guzzardi (emphasis ours),

    Canada’s Immigration Minister Sean Fraser recently announced a bold immigration plan that has serious long-term deleterious consequences for the nation’s population growth and environmental degradation.

    Fraser’s goal is, by 2025, to add 1.45 million permanent resident immigrants to address what he and other government officials claim is a critical labor shortage; allegedly 1 million Canadian jobs are unfilled. Fraser said: “Make no mistake. This is a massive increase in economic migration to Canada.” The Minister’s new plan projects a flood of new arrivals that will see 465,000 foreign nationals in 2023, rising to 500,000 in 2025. By comparison, 405,000 permanent residents were admitted last year.

    Fraser’s immigration vision to admit a record-breaking number of immigrants is inspired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s sentiments. Following his 2019 election wherein he campaigned on more immigration, he followed up with welcoming messages to refugees. Defending his massive immigration increase, Fraser repeated familiar refrains about an aging Canadian population and a low birth rate. Without immigration, Fraser foresees a Canada that won’t have the financial resources to fund schools, hospitals and other services. In short, Fraser used scare tactics to deceive Canada’s citizens.

    Canada’s long-standing commitment to higher immigration levels has created an unprecedented population surge. In 2021, Canada’s population rose to 37 million people, up 5.2 percent from 2016, driven mostly by immigration, according to official government data. Downtowns and distant suburbs of large cities have experienced the largest growth rates.

    Canada added 1.8 million people between 2016 and 2021, with nearly 80 percent of those new residents arriving from across the globe. Research from Statistics Canada (StatsCan) published in its Census 2021 release gives Canada the dubious distinction of being the fastest growing G7 country. Almost 90 percent of new immigrants settled in urban centers, Statscan said, edging up the proportion of Canadians living in large urban centers to 73.7 percent from 73.2 percent five years ago. During the five-year time period studied, Toronto’s population increased 16.1 percent, Montreal, 24.2 percent, and Vancouver, 7.4 percent. The report concluded that Canada continues to urbanize as large city centers benefit most from new arrivals to the country. But not all Canadians would use “benefit” as a descriptor for rapid, uncontrolled population growth.

    Fraser’s plan is so ill-conceived that even the most basic and fundamental need of arriving immigrants – affordable housing – will be an insurmountable challenge. Canada is undergoing a severe housing crisis that has driven home prices out of the range for many buyers. Simply put, more people mean that more homes and more roads that lead to them must be built. And new home development creates urban sprawl.

    Mike Moffatt, executive director of the Smart Prosperity Institute, outlined the crisis that exploding population has wrought for environmentalists. “What [land] isn’t being used for housing is either being used for nature, like the Greenbelt, or for farmlands, – and we’re already losing 175 acres a day in Ontario of farmland to development.”

    Ontario environmentalists like Moffatt are fighting to save its glorious Greenbelt from ever-greater development and sprawl. Today, plans to run a highway through a portion of the belt are advancing.

    Like most environmentalists in Ontario, Moffatt fears that at any time the government could decide to develop “little pieces” of the Greenbelt. Sooner or later, Moffatt fears, those little pieces could add up to great big chunks.

    To be crystal-clear, the new immigrant total will far exceed 1.45 million. New immigrants will grow their existing families and petition certain family members. Princeton University scholars estimated, conservatively, that each migrant petitions three relatives living abroad. Within a generation, the 1.45 million new Canadians could swell to more than 3 million.

    Trudeau and Fraser have concocted an immigration plan that will devastate Canada. Immigration isn’t a one-off. Arriving immigrants need nurturing, a compassionate exercise that often comes at the expense, at least partially, of the native-born population. The Canadian government and the corporate elite are all-in on more immigrants. But, if the population at large knew that the arriving 1.45 million immigrants would more than double during many of their lifetimes and degrade Canada’s natural beauty, it would be staunchly opposed.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 18:50

  • The Five Biggest Takeaways From This Results Season
    The Five Biggest Takeaways From This Results Season

    By Sagarika Jaisinghani, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

    This earnings season hasn’t been for the faint-hearted, marked by profit warnings, job cuts and share-price volatility — all while high inflation and dollar strength wreak havoc. The bad news is that worse may be to come.

    S&P 500 companies had the lowest share of profit beats since the first quarter of 2020, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence, even after expectations were lowered going into the season. Those that missed — such as Alphabet Inc. and FedEx Corp. — were severely punished, while investors rewarded the likes of Intel Corp. for concrete plans to deal with rising costs and an economic downturn.

    “Earnings this quarter were an early hint of what’s to come as we go through an environment of slowing growth,” said Ronald Temple, head of US equity at Lazard Asset Management. “Estimates have started to come down but they don’t yet reflect the economic outlook and need to fall much more.”

    Note: Latest quarter accounts for companies that have reported; excludes Energy, Diversified REITs.

    Even after Thursday’s huge sentiment boost from good inflation news, investors will need to assess how slower growth and rising costs will affect margins going forward, as well as how prepared companies are for a raft of other factors — from staffing to the impact of China’s reopening.

    Here’s what we learned from third-quarter results:

    Margin Squeeze Is Getting Worse

    Data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. showed more pressure on margins this quarter as companies faced higher costs for materials, energy and labor, while slowing consumer demand limited their ability to raise prices.

    With firms including Nike Inc. and appliances maker Whirlpool Corp. issuing profit warnings, Barclays Plc strategists said in a report that management teams in general were now less optimistic about maintaining high margins.

    Analysts have been cutting margin expectations — but some say more is needed. “Input costs should be plateauing, but that won’t be enough to erase the pain for the bottom line” next quarter, said Sophie Lund-Yates, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “It isn’t just costs that are pinching margins, but weaker revenue growth too.”

    Staffing Tops CEO Concerns

    Conference calls showed that executives are facing a staffing headache. Big tech firms are embarking on huge layoffs in a new age of austerity for the industry — but companies in other sectors are struggling to find enough staff in a tight labor market. Wages have also become a pain point as workers contend with soaring living costs.

    Esty Dwek, chief investment officer at Flowbank SA, expects layoffs to spread from tech to other sectors. “Prudence will be the name of the game going forward,” she said.

    China Still a Curveball

    China’s Covid Zero policy continued to have a global impact, with Apple Inc. saying shipments of its latest iPhone models will be lower than previously expected after lockdowns disrupted factories. But as the country relaxes restrictions, investors are counting on a boost to global earnings.

    China generates about 6% of revenue for companies in the Russell 1000 Index, with technology, energy and consumer companies set to benefit the most from a reopening, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Still, one curveball could come from the impact on inflation as demand for commodities and the yuan rises, strategists warn.

    Europe Set for a Shock

    A sharp increase in energy company profits and euro weakness meant European earnings held up far better than those in the US and emerging markets — but the region may be in for a shock next year.

    Bloomberg Intelligence strategists see Europe’s lead fizzling out as Chinese earnings return to double-digit growth and US profits pick up. Europe will suffer due to a slowdown in energy earnings and as companies and consumers endure a gas crisis this winter.

    Analysts Are Always Too Positive

    While profit estimates for the next couple of years have been coming down, the number and magnitude of misses this quarter showed that analysts were still too cheerful.

    Willem Sels, global chief investment officer of private banking and wealth at HSBC Holdings Plc, said the current outlook for inflation and economic growth suggests no US earnings growth for 2023. With analysts projecting a 6% increase, “estimates are still too optimistic,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 18:20

  • Elon Musk Has A Fake Blue Checkmark Problem
    Elon Musk Has A Fake Blue Checkmark Problem

    Among other changes incoming CEO Elon Musk has hastily made at Twitter has been the addition of once “verified” restricted blue checkmarks to the profiles of anyone who ponies up $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription.

    This, combined with the ability to change ones display name on Twitter, has led to a deluge of fake accounts for politicians, celebrities and corporations that look extremely close to “official” social media accounts. 

    Before Musk’s takeover, the company had made sure to grant verification status to people that it wanted to ensure could not be impersonated. Now, under Musk’s regime, just the opposite is taking place. 

    Among the confusion are now accounts that appear to be from people like US president George W. Bush, wherein he tweeted offensive messages that were then re-tweeted by a similarly official looking former British prime minister Tony Blair account. 

    Other impersonators included a fake O.J. Simpson account that confessed to the murder of his former wife, and a fake LeBron James account claiming to be asking for a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. 

    Meanwhile, other users have had trouble changing their names back after Twitter appeared to remove the feature to try and fix the original verification issue. For example, the Financial Post notes that singer Doja Cat “found that she was unable to change her display name back from “christmas” after a new rule came in”.

    “I don’t wanna be Christmas forever @elonmusk please help I’ve made a mistake,” she pleaded with Musk on the platform. 

    In another example, someone impersonating a fake Eli Lilly account appeared to have wiped billions from the company’s market cap after it Tweeted that the company was “excited to announce” that “insulin is free now”.

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

    The company had to step in and correct the record:

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

    Elsewhere on the site, other accounts were impersonating political figures like Sen. Ted Cruz. One account, sporting the name “Ted Cruz” with a blue checkmark, wrote: “The first time I entered my human wife, I said, groaning into her ear, “This is exactly how mother said it would feel”. 

    It elicited a response from a fake Ben Shapiro account.

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

    Entrepreneur Mark Cuban also lodged complaints, namely that “the new system made it harder to filter out notifications”. He said he used the platform to screen out verifications in the past in order to reduce the amount of noise he encountered on the platform. 

    “I just spent too much time muting all the newly purchased checkmark accts in an attempt to make my verified mentions useful again,” Cuban remarked. 

    Elon Musk responded: “It’s working for me. That said, we can definitely make the verified mentions tab more usable.”

    Musk said in response to the issue the company is removing many legacy blue checkmarks and will be adding “official” tags to people’s bios – which would essentially replace the former purpose of the blue checkmark, to validate an account’s validity. 

    Late in the day on Friday, the confusion prompted Sen. Ed Markey to reach out to Twitter for answers “about its new verification and impersonation policies”, according to CNBC. 

    In a letter to Elon Musk, Markey wrote: “Safeguards such as Twitter’s blue checkmark once allowed users to be smart, critical consumers of news and information in Twitter’s global town square. But your Twitter takeover, rapid and haphazard imposition of platform changes, removal of safeguards against disinformation, and firing of large numbers of Twitter employees have accelerated Twitter’s descent into the Wild West of social media.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 17:50

  • Pakistan "Has No Option But To Ration" Nat Gas Supply This Winter
    Pakistan “Has No Option But To Ration” Nat Gas Supply This Winter

    Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

    • The energy crisis in Pakistan has deepened this year.

    • Gas supplies available for households will be very limited this winter.

    • Pakistani households will have gas available for three hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and three hours in the evening.

    Pakistan has no other option but to ration natural gas supply this winter, with gas provided three times a day for cooking to households, amid acute shortages and a forex crisis in the world’s fifth most populous country, an official from the petroleum ministry told a Parliament panel this week.  

    The energy crisis in Pakistan has deepened this year, and now, natural gas supplies will be very limited for households, according to officials.

    “There would be no gas supply (to household consumers) for 16 hours” a day, Muhammad Mahmood told the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Petroleum, as carried by the local outlet Dawn.  

    Pakistani households will have gas available for three hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and three hours in the evening, Mahmood added.

    Pakistan—whose population is the fifth largest in the world after China, India, the United States, and Indonesia—has been experiencing an energy crisis as the country cannot afford to import a lot of energy products at the current high prices. The stronger U.S. dollar and the sky-high LNG prices have worsened the country’s finances, with foreign exchange reserves down in October to their lowest level in three years.

    In April, soaring prices of LNG and coal on the international markets left Pakistan with having to cut electricity supply to households and industry as the country, in a deep political and economic crisis, could not afford to buy more of the expensive fossil fuels.

    This year, Europe has been outbidding Asian customers for LNG supply as it has scrambled to secure gas supply with very low pipeline imports from Russia. High spot rates for LNG have discouraged many buyers and users of the super-chilled fuel in Asia, including in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

    Meanwhile, industry customers across South Asia have turned to fuel oil because of the high prices of natural gas. In Pakistan, oil-fired power generation has surged five-fold this year, Lucy Cullen, Principal Analyst, APAC Gas & LNG Research at Wood Mackenzie, said in September.

    “Demand-side management measures are being implemented, but the situation is likely to worsen,” Cullen added.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 17:20

  • Sam Bankman-Fried Bought Into Stakeholder Capitalism And Proved It's A Disastrous Ideology
    Sam Bankman-Fried Bought Into Stakeholder Capitalism And Proved It’s A Disastrous Ideology

    While many analysts and economists will be talking for months about the epic downfall of crypto-exchange company FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, their focus will be primarily on the billions lost, the mismanagement of funds, the fraud inherent in yield farming and the alleged betrayal of investor trust.  This is a tale as old as time and not anything surprising.  What many in the mainstream are missing, though, is Fried’s attachments to the World Economic Foundation, various global elitists and his avid sermonizing of the tenets of “effective altruism”, which are nearly identical to the tenets of Klaus Schwab’s Stakeholder Capitalism agenda.

    The WEF lists FTX as a corporate “partner” and participant, which means the company must meet the globalist organization’s standards for Stakeholder Capitalism, a socialist economic model which deconstructs the Adam Smith and Milton Friedman free market foundation.

    Milton Friedman argued that the only responsibility of business should be growth and profit (within the boundaries of the law) with the shareholders in mind.  The WEF insists that the Friedman philosophy must be abandoned and that the job of wealthy elites and corporations is to use profits as a tool for managing society (the so-called “stakeholders”).  In other words, corporate leaders should become cultural and political leaders fulfilling greater ideological goals, all of them decidedly socialist/Marxist in origin.  

    Stakeholder Capitalism becomes a way to trick the public into investing their faith in corprorate leadership because these companies are no longer simply “in it for the money,” they are in it for the survival of the world and the species, right?  The companies become saviors, not just mercantilists.  That kind of blind faith allows people to be taken advantage of in a big way.  It’s the same kind of faith once applied to kings and monarchies centuries ago, and it usually leads to various forms of feudalism.

    In the WEF’s vision of the future, the average person will “own nothing, have no privacy and be happy about it” while corporate elites in partnership with governments micromanage all production, all distribution and all finance. 

    An ongoing example of the early stages of this model is ESG, a credit system in which loans are given to companies and individuals based on their ESG score, derived from how dedicated they are to globalist causes.  In the near future, if you don’t promote social justice ideology and support establishment climate change claims, then you might not be able to get a loan from the bank for your business.  You might not be able to get a mortgage loan for a new home.  In fact, you might not even be allowed to have a bank account. 

    FTX and Fried heavily relied on investment firms like Blackrock, which is a major component of the spread of ESG.  This may be why FTX regularly announced their devotion to climate and social justice projects, it kept them in the good graces of the ESG overlords. 

    A key component of Stakeholder Capitalism is the need for a digital currency framework, which might explain the WEF’s interest in FTX as a partner.  The move to a cashless society is the next step necessary for the micro-management of the economy and the ability to dole out rewards or punishments based on ESG scoring.  It is an incremental top down implementation of a framework similar to China’s “social credit system.”

    The concept is being sold by the WEF and their corporate partners as way to create “equity” within the economy by incentivizing the redistribution of wealth from the very rich to the very poor and to ‘humanitarian causes.”  It uses access to the banking apparatus and the economy itself as a carrot or a cudgel.  Really, it is the ultimate form of centralization and control posing as a charitable movement for the greater good.  But without the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail, there can be no greater good.  

    Evidence is mounting that the equity measures involved in Stakeholder Capitalism will actually erase wealth rather than create wealth.  To be sure, it would make the majority of people financially even – Instead of being equally rich, we will all suffer in equal poverty.

    The downfall of FTX and Sam Blankman-Fried illustrates this problem with clarity.  Fried constantly espoused the pie-in-the-sky ideals of Stakeholder Capitalism, engaging in a kind of corporate charity built on socialist guidelines and climate cultism, while at the same time draining client accounts.   

    The FTX profit strategy was based initially on taking advantage of imbalances in international crypto exchange rates; a limited window for a quick cash grab rather than an idea for long term viability. It also relied on the crypto market constantly reinventing the wheel with new branding and marketing to grow demand for technology that the majority of people around the world don’t really need or particularly desire.  

    Fried suggests that his intent all along was to expand capital as a means to give it away to leftist causes.  He donated over $40 million to Democrat campaigns, for example.  The problem was he failed in business while giving away the money of his clients at the same time.  Some people argue that his clients are partly culpable for the losses, but Fried explicitly stated that his company would not use client funds in such a way.  He lied to them, which is not a great feature of a supposed humanitarian.          

    Being 30 years old and naive certainly didn’t help him, but Fried is a perfect example of why corporation leaders have no business being involved in social engineering.  They are not qualified enough nor intelligent enough nor benevolent enough to mold society at large; no one is that wise or experienced.  Beyond that, the Stakeholder Capitalism ideology is rooted in socialist drivel, making FTX a socialist drivel-based company.

    The model is designed to inevitably reduce the standard of living for most people over time rather than improve it.  Fried just showed us how and why.  

    FTX is a petri dish for the disease of Stakeholder Capitalism.  In the end, FTX and Fried are a warning to us all that business should be separate from politics and cultural moderation. They are better off focusing on making money and increasing productivity and innovation; those companies that can’t should be allowed to fail, not be propped up as pillars of social cohesion.  This is the true way to ensure human progress.  In the meantime, the rest of us are much better off without their help and “charitable” oversight.   

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 16:50

  • FTX Founder Spent $40 Million As Democrat Midterm Megadonor
    FTX Founder Spent $40 Million As Democrat Midterm Megadonor

    Leading up to Sam Bankman-Fried’s spectacular implosion – in which his firm FTX evaporated billions in wealth after the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange allegedly commingled client assets with his trading firm into a liquidity crunch – he became the sixth-largest donor in this year’s midterm election cycle, giving some $40 million to mostly Democratic candidates and causes.

    According to Forbes, Bankman-Fried was second only to George Soros among billionaire donors to Democratic groups during the 2022 midterm election cycle.

    FTX allegedly loaned Alameda Research – a trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried – roughly $10 billion in client assets, which has landed him under federal investigation by the SEC, CTFC, and the Justice Department – the latter of which already had been working on a months-long investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal. The CTFC, meanwhile, is tasked with regulating certain elements of the crypto markets – including digital assets that are as commodities, and crypto exchanges and clearinghouses.

    In late September, Bankman-Fried admitted that his political donations were mostly to Democrats, and Republican recipients were ‘targeted’.

    Spot the rare journalism by host Chuck Todd;

    But it goes much deeper than that

    Bankman-Fried ‘heavily courted’ the CFTC, “and funded several key lawmakers charged with overseeing the agency, pouring cash into their campaign coffers,” as the Daily Caller notes.

    The CFTC is charged with regulating certain elements of the crypto marketplace, including digital assets that are commodities as well as crypto exchanges and clearinghouses. The agency is overseen by the Senate and House Agriculture Committees, with the former tasked with approving CFTC commissioners nominated by the president.

    The former FTX CEO personally donated to the Senate committee’s chairwoman, Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, contributing over $20,000 to the Stabenow Victory Fund and $5,800 to her campaign for Senate. Bankman-Fried donated roughly $6,000 to the committee’s ranking member, Republican Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, as well, and $5,800 to the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management and Trade, Republican Montana Sen. John Hoeven. -Daily Caller

    Others have connected dots and concluded that FTX may have been a money laundering operation.

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    What’s more, a PAC founded by FTX executive Ryan Salme, American Dream Federal Action, spent over $1 million on Boozman during the 2022 election cycle, as well as more than $1 million on House Agriculture Committee member and Republican Minnesota Rep. Brad Finstad.

    Bankman-Fried also donated $27 million to the Protect Our Future PAC, which primarily works to elect Democrats. It spent over $1 million towards Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), a member of the House Agriculture Committee.

    Another donation linked to members of the House Ag committee includes $200,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), headed by Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, and nearly $6,000 to Maloney himsself. He also gave $20,000 to the campaign and victory fund of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), whose father worked for the NXIVM sex cult in the early 2000s, where he made $25,000 per month.

    In addition to his campaign contributions to the lawmakers tasked with CFTC oversight, Bankman-Fried sought closer relations with the agency itself.

    Bankman-Fried personally lobbied for legislation in the Senate Agriculture Committee that would grant the CFTC greater regulatory oversight over the crypto industry, according to Coindesk, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the CFTC, SEC and members of Congress on the legislation.

    The bill, known as the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which would grant the CFTC “jurisdiction to oversee the spot digital commodity market,” was introduced by Stabenow, Boozman, Booker and Republican North Dakota Sen. John Thune, three of whom are beneficiaries of Bankman-Fried’s donations.

    For its lobbying team, FTX hired former Republican Rep. Mike Conaway, longtime chair of the House Agriculture Committee, and committee staffer Scott Graves to lobby lawmakers on crypto-related issues. -Daily Caller

    As a thought experiment, imagine what Bankman-Fried’s financial ‘goodwill’ would have bought the firm if FTX hadn’t divided by zero and imploded.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 16:30

  • "Your Words Are Violence!": Coulter Cancelled At Cornell
    “Your Words Are Violence!”: Coulter Cancelled At Cornell

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    This week, we saw another incident of protesters shutting down an event to prevent others from hearing opposing views. At an event with commentator and author Ann Coulter, one protester yelled “Your words are violence.” It is the latest example of how some on the left are treating free speech as harm on college campuses. Unlike many other incidents, however, Cornell has stood by the right of the student group, Network of Enlightened Women, to hold the event and pledged to hold students accountable for the cancellation of the speech.

    Students and faculty previously pressured Cornell to cancel Coulter as someone who engages in “hate speech” and declared her speaking on campus as harmful. Cornell stood with free speech. However, the event lasted only 30 minutes until protesters succeeded in shouting down Coulter. 

    One man is shown screaming “we don’t want you to be here, your words are violence… They are threats, you cannot be speaking here. We don’t want your ideas here! Leave! Leave! Your words are violence! Your words are violence!”Two students chanted “no KKK no fascist USA” as they are escorted out by security. Others blared circus music and blew whistles.

    The Cornell Review reported a common tactic: protesters “seemed to be employing a chain tactic, beginning just as soon as the last heckler was removed, so as to continuously speak over Coulter.”

    Joel Malina, vice president for University Relations at Cornell, told Campus Reform.“Eight college-age individuals were removed from the auditorium following Cornell protocols. All Cornell students among the disrupters will be referred for conduct violations.” He also apologized to Coulter.

    Cornell is to be commended for its stance, particularly if it proceeds with appropriate sanctions for these students. The incident also shows the value of limiting these events to faculty and students of Cornell, who are subject to rules protecting free speech and open discourse on campus.

    We have previously discussed the worrisome signs of a rising generation of censors in the country as leaders and writers embrace censorship and blacklisting. The latest chilling poll was released by 2021 College Free Speech Rankings after questioning a huge body of 37,000 students at 159 top-ranked U.S. colleges and universities. It found that sixty-six percent of college students think shouting down a speaker to stop them from speaking is a legitimate form of free speech.  Another 23 percent believe violence can be used to cancel a speech. That is roughly one out of four supporting violence.

    Faculty and editors are now actively supporting modern versions of book-burning with blacklists and bans for those with opposing political views. Others are supporting actual book burning. Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll has denounced the “weaponization” of free speech, which appears to be the use of free speech by those on the right.

    We discussed this issue with regard to a lawsuit against SUNY. It is also discussed in my recent law review article, Jonathan Turley, Harm and Hegemony: The Decline of Free Speech in the United States, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. We have seen how in universities (including state schools) this can turn into a type of “heckler’s veto” where speeches are cancelled in advance or terminated suddenly due to the disruption of protesters.

    This has been an issue of contention with some academics who believe that free speech includes the right to silence others.  Berkeley has been the focus of much concern over the use of a heckler’s veto on our campuses as violent protesters have succeeded in silencing speakers, including a speaker from the ACLU discussing free speech.  Both students and some faculty have maintained the position that they have a right to silence those with whom they disagree and even student newspapers have declared opposing speech to be outside of the protections of free speech.  At another University of California campus, professors actually rallied around a professor who physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display.

    In the meantime, academics and deans have said that there is no free speech protection for offensive or “disingenuous” speech.  CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek showed how far this trend has gone. When conservative law professor Josh Blackman was stopped from speaking about “the importance of free speech,”  Bilek insisted that disrupting the speech on free speech was free speech. (Bilek later cancelled herself and resigned after she made a single analogy to acting like a “slaveholder” as a self-criticism for failing to achieve equity and reparations for black faculty and students).

    A few years ago, I debated NYU Professor Jeremy Waldron who is a leading voice for speech codes. Waldron insisted that shutting down speakers through heckling is a form of free speech. I disagree. It is the antithesis of free speech and the failure of schools to protect the exercise of free speech is the antithesis of higher education. In most schools, people are not allowed to disrupt events. They are escorted out of such events and told that they can protest outside of the events since others have a right to listen to opposing views. These disruptions however are often planned to continually interrupt speakers until the school authorities step in to cancel the event.

    Recently, we have seen convocations and other important events disrupted by such protesters. Universities will have to take a stand or lose control over their campuses. Students who disrupt classes or events must be held accountable if we are to maintain open and free discourse on our campuses.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 16:20

  • Shocking Video Shows Plane Collides With B-17 Bomber At Dallas Airshow
    Shocking Video Shows Plane Collides With B-17 Bomber At Dallas Airshow

    Update (1745ET):

    ABC News’ Jeffery Cook tweeted, “six people, all crew members, are feared to be dead after a mid-air collision between two WWII-era airplanes at the Wings Over Dallas airshow today.” 

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    * * * 

    Update (1627ET):

    Both aircraft involved in the mid-air crash were historic military planes. The first, which we noted earlier, was a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. 

    The second is a Bell P-63 Kingcobra. 

    * * * 

    Shocking footage has surfaced on social media of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress involved in a mid-air collision during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas air show on Saturday at the Dallas Executive Airport. 

    Local news WFFA quoted Dallas Fire-Rescue (DFR), who said the crash occurred around 1325 local time.

    WFAA’s Jason Whitely confirmed a B-17 was involved in the mid-air collision, though he said the “other aircraft type uncertain,” adding debris was scattered across Highway 67. 

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    Videos show a smaller plane colliding with the bomber, breaking it in half as it plummeted to the ground in a fiery explosion. 

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    Here are more videos of the crash. 

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    The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed the crash and released this statement:

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 15:50

  • So Much For A Boycott: Almost 3 Million World Cup Tickets Already Sold
    So Much For A Boycott: Almost 3 Million World Cup Tickets Already Sold

    The first ever FIFA World Cup to be held in the northern hemisphere’s winter will kick off in the Gulf nation of Qatar on November 20.

    This year’s World Cup has been overshadowed by questions of human rights abuses, with reports that thousands of guest workers have died in the country since it won the right to host the World Cup ten years ago, as well as criticism over the country’s attitudes to gay people.

    Despite this, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, the tournament is selling out at a similar rate to those of the past two decades, with nearly 2.9 million tickets having been sold as of mid-October, according to a statement by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

    Demand for tickets has been highest in Qatar, the United States, Saudi Arabia, England, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, France, Brazil, and Germany.

    According to a Statista survey conducted last year, only a third of respondents worldwide thought that the tournament should not be held in Qatar because of human rights violations.

    Infographic: So Much for a Boycott: Almost 3 Million World Cup Tickets Sold | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In the UK, Shadow Cabinet Leader Keir Starmer has announced he is boycotting the games.

    A survey conducted by Public First for More in Common, between November 1 and 3, found that of the 2,030 UK respondents, 69 percent supported his decision, while 12 percent disagreed.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 15:30

  • FTX Held Just $900MM In Liquid Assets Vs $9BN In Liabilities As Video Emerges Confirming Alameda Knew It Was Pilfering Client Funds
    FTX Held Just $900MM In Liquid Assets Vs $9BN In Liabilities As Video Emerges Confirming Alameda Knew It Was Pilfering Client Funds

    On Friday, we first learned courtesy of a mystery twitter account belonging to an anonymous FTX insider, that the now bankrupt crypto exchange held just $900 million in liquid assets (including, among other things, a $7.3 million online bet by Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried for Trump to lose).

    Source: minigrogu

    Of the $900 million in liquid assets, the largest portion – or roughly half – was in the form of $470mn of Robinhood shares owned by a Bankman-Fried vehicle not listed in Friday’s bankruptcy filing, which included 134 corporate entities. The liquid assets represent just 10% of the total assets (including $5.4BN in semi-liquid and $3.2BN in illiquid) and is a fraction of the $9 billion in liabilities at FTX which will now make their way through bankruptcy court for the next several years.

    The document, which the FT also tracked down on Saturday and discussed here, and which was shared with prospective investors before the bankruptcy, provides a detailed picture of the financial hole in the FTX crypto empire and suggests customers of FTX international may face steep losses on cash and crypto assets they held on the exchange (and speaking of the 134 subs that FTX listed on its bankruptcy filing, the FT notes that the company had incorrectly listing entities it did not own in its initial filing, while as we reported earlier, the exchange suffered an apparent hack on Friday night that drained its balances to zero).

    Aside from the spreadsheet shown above, the FT also noted another spreadsheet which references the $5bn of withdrawals last Sunday – which as everyone knows by know were precipitated by CZ telling the world he would pull his money after the “recent revelations” and sparking a bank run on FTX which the exchange did not have nearly the fund to defend against; the sheet also noted a negative $8bn entry described as “hidden, poorly internally labled ‘fiat@’ account”.

    It is this entry that the prosecution’s case will revolve around, because Bankman-Fried told the Financial Times the $8bn related to funds “accidentally” extended to his trading firm, Alameda (he declined to comment further). Earlier this week, he tweeted that FTX international had $4bn in easily tradable assets when it faced Sunday’s $5bn surge of withdrawals. He has since deleted many of his fraudulent twitter misrepresentations.

    “There were many things I wish I could do differently than I did, but the largest are represented by these two things: the poorly labeled internal bank-related acount [sic], and the size of customer withdrawals during a run on the bank,” the spreadsheet adds.

    Shifting away from assets, in its now irrelevant investment materials, FTX Trading Ltd, the company behind the main international exchange, stated $8.9 billion in liabilities, the biggest portion of which is $5.1 billion of US dollar balances.

    Healthy companies typically have assets that match or exceed their liabilities. The spreadsheet says FTX Trading had a total of $9.4bn of assets, but as it itself suggests, only 10% or so could be made liquid in case of a crisis.

    Indeed, the vast majority of FTX Trading’s recorded assets were re either illiquid venture capital investments or crypto tokens that are not widely traded, according to the spreadsheet, which cautions that the figures “are rough values, and could be slightly off; there is also obviously a chance of typos etc. They also change a bit over time as trades happen.”

    As shown in the spreadsheet above, the company’s biggest asset as of Thursday was $2.1bn worth of a cryptocurrency called Serum. Unfortunately, the market value of Serum was only $86 million on Saturday, according to CoinMarketCap, suggesting FTX’s holdings are a fraction of what was represented if sold into the market.

    And while we now know that the endgame was bankruptcy, the FT reports that according to the latest set of investment materials SBF was seeking to raise $6bn-$10bn including from a convertible preferred stock paying a 10% dividend that could later be converted into common equity in FTX international at a valuation of between $12bn-$15bn. “This is just a lower bound on the terms investors can get,” the materials add.

    What about the liquid assets? Well, the FT report goes on to notes that until Friday afternoon, Bankman-Fried was looking to sell the $472MM of Robinhood shares, the largest liquid asset listed for FTX Trading, in privately negotiated deals he was arranging on the messaging app Signal, according to an FT source. As a reminder, SBF acquired a 7.6% stake in Robinhood in May, a transaction which delayed (but did not halt) the company’s collapse into oblivion. As part of the attempted firesale, Bankman-Fried was entertaining offers at a 20% discount to Robinhood’s VWAP price, or about $9 per share, said an FT source, who ultimately declined to buy due to perceived legal risks.

    But what is remarkable, is that the proceeds from the HOOD stock offering would not have gone to the now bankrupt FTX estate to satisfy prepetition claims; instead the Robinhood shares were held by an Antigua and Barbuda entity called Emergent Fidelity, which is personally controlled by Bankman-Fried, according to US securities filings. Emergent Fidelity is not among the entities listed in Friday’s bankruptcy filing.

    In other words, SBF – who is most certainly on the run at this moment – was hoping to fill up his personal bank account by dumping his HOOD holdings, while giving FTX creditors the finger (again).

    Finally, as we also noted on Friday, the FTX spreadsheet also noted that in addition to the $900mn of “liquid” assets, $5.5bn of “less liquid” assets consisting of crypto tokens, and $3.2bn of illiquid private equity investments…

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    … there was also an obscure $7.3 million bet for “Trump to Lose”. Which is part for the courtse for any Democrat criminal mastermind.

    The good news for the rest of the crypto space: there are no bitcoin assets listed, despite bitcoin liabilities of $1.4BN. That means the company can not dump bitcoin in the open market, and it also means that the odds of continued selling pressure are now far less than previously speculated. Which is far more than one can say for Vlad Tenev whose Robinhood stock is facing a world of pain when it reopens on Monday.

    And while the above will surely be Exhibit A for the prosecution, Exhibit B will be a video meeting in which Alameda Research’s chief executive and senior FTX officials confirm they knew that FTX had lent its customers’ money to Alameda to help it meet its liabilities.

    Citing ‘people familiar with the video’, the WSJ reports that Alameda employees held a video conference late Wednesday Hong Kong time, in which 27-year-old Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison (also known as @carolinecapital) said that she, Bankman-Fried and two other FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, were aware of the decision to send customer funds to Alameda,

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    Singh was FTX’s director of engineering and a former Facebook employee. Wang, who previously worked at Google, was the chief technology officer of FTX and co-founded the exchange with Mr. Bankman-Fried.

    Ellison said on the call that FTX used customer money to help Alameda meet its liabilities, the people said, assuring the 27-year-old teenager-lookalike of a lengthy prison sentence.

    Hilariously, after tweeting out all the incriminating evidence the prosecution will need to slamdunk this case, neither SBF nor Caroline Ellison returned WSJ phone message and an email seeking comment. Singh and Wang didn’t respond to multiple messages seeking comment. Ryne Miller, FTX US’s chief legal officer, declined to comment.

    Of course, by it’s not like they have anything to say that we don’t already know. Well, we take that back. Considering that FTX was instrumental in laundering bitcoin into Ukraine….

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    … we do wonder just how much crypto money-laundering between the US and Ukraine will emerge as a result of the bankruptcy discovery, and how long until we can safely claim that “Sam Bankman didn’t fry himself”?

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 14:49

  • Silvergate Rises 19% After Hours Friday After Stating It Has No "Loans Or Investments" In FTX
    Silvergate Rises 19% After Hours Friday After Stating It Has No “Loans Or Investments” In FTX

    Like almost every other equity related to crypto over the last week, Silvergate Capital, which we have written about extensively over the last few years, nosedived on the news of FTX’s collapse. 

    The stock has had a triumphant fall from grace, plunging from highs of $160 per share in early 2022 to lows near $26 on Friday before the cash session, as one new headline after another crossed the wires, offering up insight as to just how devastating FTX’s collapse could be for the crypto world.

    But on Friday after hours, the bank cleared the air in terms of its exposure to the FTX blowup, issuing a statement that it had no loans or investments in FTX, but rather that less than 10% of the bank’s deposits were from FTX.

    Alan Lane, Chief Executive Officer of Silvergate, said:

    “In light of recent developments, I want to provide an update on Silvergate’s exposure to FTX. As of September 30, 2022, Silvergate’s total deposits from all digital asset customers totaled $11.9 billion, of which FTX represented less than 10%. Silvergate has no outstanding loans to nor investments in FTX, and FTX is not a custodian for Silvergate’s bitcoin-collateralized SEN Leverage loans. To be clear, our relationship with FTX is limited to deposits.“

    Chart: WSJ

    The company then confirmed that the rest of its leveraged loans and banking infrastructure was safe: “To date, all SEN Leverage loans have continued to perform as expected with zero losses and no forced liquidations. As a reminder, all SEN Leverage loans are collateralized by Bitcoin, and we do not make unsecured loans or collateralize SEN Leverage loans with other digital assets.”

    “Silvergate’s platform was built to support our clients during times of market volatility and transformation, and the SEN has continued to operate as designed and without interruption. As a federally regulated banking institution that is well capitalized, we maintain a strong balance sheet with ample liquidity to support our customers’ needs,” the bank said. 

    It then reminded investors that Lane would participate in a fireside chat at the Oppenheimer Blockchain & Digital Assets Summit on Thursday, November 17, 2022. We’re sure that’ll prove to be an interesting conversation.

    For the time being, however, Silvergate’s statement was able to rein in some of the damage to the company’s stock: after touching $26 pre-market on Friday, the bank closed the day +1.74 at $34.42, before adding another 19.15%, rising to $41.01 in the aftermarket session, after the company released its statement. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/12/2022 – 14:30

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Nov 12

Today’s News 12th November 2022

  • FBI Should Have 14 Days, Not 66 Years, To Produce Seth Rich Information: Lawyer
    FBI Should Have 14 Days, Not 66 Years, To Produce Seth Rich Information: Lawyer

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

    The FBI should only have 14 days, not 66 years, to produce information from Seth Rich’s laptop computer, a lawyer argued in a new court filing.

    FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a news conference in Omaha, Neb., on Aug. 10, 2022. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

    After a U.S. judge ordered the FBI to produce the information, the bureau said that it should not be required to hand it over because of exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). And if the bureau still had to produce the information, government lawyers said it should have 66 years because it needs to review the information and redact certain information.

    Ty Clevenger, the attorney representing Brian Huddleston, the Texas man who sued the FBI over the information, disagreed.

    He told the judge in the new filing that the FBI failed to brief on the exemptions it is now claiming following the judge rejecting an attempt to shield the information because of privacy concerns for Rich’s relatives. That failure means the FBI cannot now rely on the exemptions, Clevenger said.

    “Having failed to raise an issue or brief it in a motion for summary judgment, the movant may not then salvage the issue by raising it in a motion for reconsideration,” he said, citing previous court cases. “In other words, the movant does not get a Mulligan on reconsideration, which is exactly what the FBI seeks here.”

    The bureau says that FOIA exemption 7(D)-3, which enables shielding identifying information of law enforcement personnel, and information provided by the personnel, enables it to keep withholding Rich’s laptop information from Huddleston.

    “In short, the compact disc containing the images of Seth Rich’s personal computer were provided to the FBI by a local law enforcement agency under implied assurances of confidentiality, and thus the FBI properly withheld the compact disc in its entirety pursuant to Exemption 7(D)-3,” government lawyers told the court.

    Another exemption, 7(E)-6, lets the agency keep the information secret, the lawyers said. That exemption enables the withholding of information that would reveal methods law enforcement uses in investigations.

    Clevenger, though, said that neither exemption applies.

    The first doesn’t because the FBI has never provided evidence that the source of the information was given assurance of confidentiality, he said. The second doesn’t because the bureau claims it never reviewed the laptop information.

    “If this is true, then how could the FBI’s investigative or analytical techniques be compromised by revealing the contents of a laptop that it never investigated or analyzed?” Clevenger told the judge.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 23:40

  • LA Turns To A "Mansion Tax" To Try And Solve Its Homelessness Problem
    LA Turns To A “Mansion Tax” To Try And Solve Its Homelessness Problem

    Believe it or not, California thinks it has a solution to the homelessness problem that can be solved with additional taxation! Go figure.

    A new measure in Los Angeles, called Measure ULA, is set to generate $900 million in taxes that will then be used for housing subsidies and tenant protections. The tax is essentially a levy on all property sales of more than $5 million, according to Bloomberg.

    This “mansion tax”, if it passes, will look to “speed new construction and deliver a way out of the city’s spiraling homelessness crisis”, according to Bloomberg. It could generate some $900 million per year to provide infrastructure like affordable homes and tools like counsel for tenants in eviction courts. 

    Laura Raymond, director of the nonprofit Alliance for Community Transit–Los Angeles, told Bloomberg: “This would be the biggest investment in tenant protections in the history of LA.”

    Yes, and it would be another reason on a long list of reasons for Californians to continue their exodus from the state to greener tax pastures like Florida and Texas. 

    She continued: ““We want to make sure that once this has passed, the housing experts, community organizations, community leaders and people who’ve been doing this work for many years are at the forefront of implementation.”

    Meanwhile critics of the bill say it could ultimately wind up causing costs for developers and, subsequently rents, to rise. The city had tried to issue a bond in 2016 to provide the same type of relief, but that measure was “lackluster” in its success, the report says. 

    Bloomberg explains the new tax:

    The current .45% transfer tax for all properties would jump to 4% for sales of more than $5 million, while transactions that top $10 million would garner a tax of 5.5%. It’s a special tax, meaning revenues don’t go into the city’s general fund but rather a dedicated purse. There’s a set-aside of 8% of revenues for an inspector general and oversight staff; the rest goes toward housing. The split for these funds is 70% for affordable housing (construction, subsidies and preservation) and 30% for homelessness prevention (various measures and tenant protections).

    “We’re talking about very, very high-wealth individuals, but even more so large real estate corporations that honestly have not been paying their fair share, and have been making a killing off of this housing market as it is now,” Raymond continued. 

    Affordable housing builders would be obvious beneficiaries from the tax, which will generate $600 million to $1.1 billion per year, bolstering subsidies for such developments.

    Critics of the bill state the obvious: that it will disincentivize developers from building in Los Angeles. But “researchers” at UCLA are skeptical about the disincentives. 

    Shane Phillips, housing initiative project manager for the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and co-author on a series of studies focused on Measure ULA and transfer taxes, offered  up his best “modern monetary theory”-style explanation, telling Bloomberg: “That money has to come from somewhere. It’s not going to come from the buyer or renter. So the place it’s going to come from is the owner of the land from whom the developer buys the property.”

    Raymond concluded: “In the past, we’ve had politicians get behind one solution. Right now we see criminalization of homelessness as being a major focus. That’s where they’ve poured a lot of their energy over the last couple of years, sweeping the streets. This is very different from that type of approach.”

    You can read more about the details of the tax here. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 23:20

  • A Key Date In The Efforts Against An Incoming President
    A Key Date In The Efforts Against An Incoming President

    Authored by Jeff Carlson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Jan. 12, 2017, has proven to be an incredibly important date in American politics.

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in Dallas, Texas, on Aug. 6, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

    It was on this date that Igor Dancehnko’s soon-to-be FBI handler, Kevin Helson, sent an email regarding Danchenko with the heading: “Plan to convert into [confidential human source].” Danchenko, of course, was the primary source for former British spy Christopher Steele’s fictitious dossier on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

    It was also on this same day that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced the initiation of a sweeping review into actions taken by the DOJ and FBI in advance of the 2016 election. This probe by Horowitz—either by design or by accident—effectively tied up any outside probes into the FBI’s actions for two years.

    Also, on the same date, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was renewed for the first time.

    Of particular note is the role of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the events leading up to that day. Without McCain’s silent endorsement and the efforts by Kramer, it’s unlikely the dossier could have been published as a prelude to the events of Jan. 12. Notably, the dossier’s publication coincided with a CNN article declaring that “Intel chiefs presented [candidate Donald] Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.”

    Just seven days earlier, on Jan. 5, 2017, top intelligence officials, including then-FBI Director James Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and then-Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Michael Rogers had briefed outgoing President Barack Obama on the ICA report. Following the official meeting, Comey stayed behind to brief Obama on the dossier. It was at this meeting that Obama stated that he wanted his team to be “mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia” with the incoming Trump administration.

    Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (L) and CIA Director John Brennan chat before testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Feb. 9, 2016. (Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images)

    The next day, Comey and other officials including Clapper briefed President-elect Trump and his national security team on the Intelligence Community Assessment. During this portion of the meeting, the Steele dossier was mentioned in passing.

    It was here that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the incoming national security adviser in the Trump administration, asked whether the FBI had dug into Steele’s sub-sources. Flynn’s probing questions may have precipitated his subsequent political demise at the hands of Comey.

    Comey would stay behind after the initial meeting to brief Trump more fully on the dossier. Comey would later tell CNN’s Jake Tapper that he only briefed Trump on the “salacious” parts of the dossier because “that was the part that the leaders of the intelligence community agreed he needed to be told about.” News of the intelligence briefing to Trump was leaked hours later to the media.

    Then on Jan. 12, The New York Times reported on then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s signing of new NSA Rules and the increased latitude of the NSA to share intercepted communications with the Intelligence Community.

    This unprecedented new order significantly relaxed longstanding limits on the dissemination of information gathered by the NSA’s powerful surveillance operations, granting broad latitude to the Intelligence Community with regard to interagency sharing of information. The order had been officially signed into effect on Jan. 3, 2017, by Lynch. As we know with hindsight, leaks from the Intelligence Community would begin in earnest. And those leaks would plague the Trump administration for the next four years.

    Loretta Lynch during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Jan. 28, 2015. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

    It was on the same day of Lynch’s signing of the new Executive Order that Schumer made his now infamous statement on NBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” where he said that if “you take on the Intelligence Community they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” Without any trace of irony, Schumer then stated that without the Intelligence Community, the alleged Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election would never have been discovered. In effect, Schumer was publicly warning the incoming Trump administration to stand down or the Intelligence Community would declare war on it.

    Also on Jan. 12, Flynn’s Dec. 29, 2016, call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was the subject of an article published by The Washington Post. The article portrayed Flynn as undermining Obama’s Russian sanctions and raised the possibility that Flynn had violated the Logan Act, an obscure, 200-year-old law. Interestingly, it was then-Vice President Joe Biden who first suggested using the Logan Act against Flynn at the Jan. 5 White House meeting with Comey. In 2020, declassified transcripts of Flynn’s call with Kislyak revealed that Flynn never once talked about sanctions.

    It was also on Jan. 12 that James H. Baker, the director of the Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA), suddenly issued a series of charges against Adam Lovinger, a strategic affairs analyst. The timing of these charges is of great importance, as it was on this same day that Flynn, now heading the National Security Council for the Trump administration, officially invited Lovinger to leave the ONA and join the National Security Council as a senior director. Baker filed four separate charges against Lovinger.

    The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, U.S., March 3, 2022, more than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

    The reason for the targeting of Lovinger appears evident. Lovinger had grown increasingly concerned over the ONA’s use of outside contractors—in particular, those of a prominent FBI source, Stefan Halper. In 2016, Lovinger wrote a series of emails to Baker, who had recently been appointed by Obama’s defense secretary. In October 2016, Lovinger wrote to Baker, identifying Halper as a particular source of contractual concern, writing of “the moral hazard associated with the contracting of Stefan Halper.” Lovinger’s lawyer, Sean Bigley, would later state that Halper was being used “to go out essentially and engage with foreign government officials. As a contractor, that’s totally illegal.”

    Lovinger would continue to criticize the use of outside contractors. In a March 3, 2017, memo, Lovinger noted, “There has never been an external review of these contractors’ research products. … It is now clear that over several decades, the office transferred millions of dollars to inexperienced and unqualified contractors.” On May 1, 2017, Lovinger was notified that his top-secret clearance had been suspended. He was the second Trump official to lose his security clearance. The loss of a security clearance is a significant matter, as it’s a requirement for many senior positions. Lovinger was then directed to leave the National Security Council and return to the Pentagon immediately.

    The target of Lovinger’s complaints, Halper, met with the FBI on Aug. 11 and 12, 2016, shortly after the FBI had formally opened their July 31, 2016, Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign. As it turns out, Halper just so happened to have direct knowledge of two of the three men considered subjects of Crossfire Hurricane—including Page, whom Halper had met with twice during the month of July. Halper would later fashion a meeting in London with Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, the one person of the three that he didn’t already know. But Halper also fabricated information on another man who was not yet being looked at by the FBI—Flynn.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 23:00

  • The US & China Account For Half The World's Household Wealth
    The US & China Account For Half The World’s Household Wealth

    Measures like GDP are commonly used to understand the overall wealth and size of the economy. However, as Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley details below, while looking at economic output on an annual basis is useful, there are other metrics to consider when evaluating the wealth of a nation.

    Household wealth statistics reveal which country’s citizens are accruing the highest level of money and assets worldwide.

    This visual utilizes data from Credit Suisse’s annual Global Wealth Report to break down the latest estimates for household wealth by country.

    Household Wealth, by Country

    Here’s how the world’s $463 trillion in household wealth is distributed:

    As the table above demonstrates, global household wealth is far from being distributed equally.

    Country-Level Wealth Concentration

    Much of global wealth is concentrated in the biggest economies, with households in China and the U.S. combining to make up half of all personal wealth in the world. This differs slightly from using GDP as a measure, where the U.S. and China make up 24% and 19% of the world economy in nominal terms, respectively.

    Today, just 10 countries account for 75% of total household wealth.

    One of the biggest changes in recent years is the rise of wealth in China. A decade ago, China’s citizens were estimated to hold just 9% of the world’s wealth. That figure has now more than doubled, while median wealth in the country has skyrocketed from $3,111 to $26,752 between 2000 and 2021.

    A Regional Look at Household Wealth

    From a regional standpoint, wealth is equally split three ways, between North America, Asia, and everywhere else.

    In just one decade, Europe’s share of household wealth dropped by eight percentage points, which is due, in part, to the economic momentum of China.

    Surprisingly, the regions of Africa, South America, Oceania, and the Middle East combine only for about 11% of the world’s total household wealth.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 22:40

  • Regardless Of Party, Pro-Gun Candidates Won Their Races This Week
    Regardless Of Party, Pro-Gun Candidates Won Their Races This Week

    Submitted by Alex Madajian, the Federal Affairs Assistant of Gun Owners of America., 

    It did not take long for anti-gun activists in the media to make the claim gun control is a winning issue for Democrats, but only if the glaring problems with that picture are ignored.

    Abortion, record inflation, large amounts of crime, concerns about democracy, and even climate change and healthcare ranked of higher concern for voters than gun policy according to NBC. Additionally, the New York Times reported last month only 1% of likely voters thought guns were the most important problem. No doubt, if guns were the only issue on the ballot, there would be very different results. The fact is, there were too many factors in play for pundits to make the claim people want more gun control. But there were many glaring cases in which pro-gun elected officials were rewarded for strong pro-gun actions.

    Every single governor who signed a Constitutional Carry law, which would allow people to carry a firearm without a permit, won re-election. Brian Kemp won Georgia, Chris Sununu won New Hampshire, Kim Reynolds won Iowa, Kevin Stitt won Oklahoma, Greg Abbott won Texas, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine also won reelection. All of the aforementioned either signed Constitutional Carry Laws in their current term or a previous term. Additionally, although Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida did not sign Constitutional Carry, he called for such legislation to be sent to him for his signature. If guns really were on the ballot in Florida, then the people of Florida clearly are rewarding him for his pro-gun stance by giving him another term.

    Even the people of Uvalde, who suffered the horrendous tragedy of 19 children and 2 teachers murdered at Robb Elementary School in May of this year by a deranged school shooter, decided to vote more than 60% for Governor Greg Abbot, who again, signed permitless carry into law. In addition, a Republican challenger to the State Senator representing the area, won the Uvalde area by more than 17% and boasts support for the “constitutional right to carry” on his website.

    People who argue guns are not a good issue to run on may claim Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s narrow race in a supposedly safe Republican district is an example of how proud pro-gun candidates are vulnerable. However, if Representative Boebert’s close margins in a safe red district prove that’s the case, why didn’t that apply to other supposedly “controversial” pro-gun elected officials? Congressman Thomas Massie is also the co-chair of the Second Amendment Caucus with Boebert, yet he won by massive margins. What about Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene? She is no stranger to taking stances on a host of issues that are considered “controversial” by the anti-gun Left, and also makes guns a top issue on which to campaign. Plus, she was outspent by her opponent by nearly $5 million, but she still won by massive margins.

    The best conclusion to make regarding Boebert’s close race is that there were numerous factors involved not having to do with gun policy. Even her opponent didn’t make it an issue, since he never mentions it on his website. When he was asked about it, he expressed a middle-of-the-road opinion by saying “I’m fully supportive of people having [guns]. Let’s make sure people can hunt as freely as they wish, let’s make sure they can do their target practices and recreational gun firing, and let’s make sure people have the ability to carry the pistol on their belt.”

    As it turns out, when Democrats show support for guns, they do fair very well. Perhaps the most egregious anti-Second Amendment piece of legislation put on the floor of the House for a vote was this year’s so-called “Assault Weapons” ban. This ban was far more encompassing than just AR-15s, which would be extreme enough, but would also have banned common items such as Glock handguns. Obviously, opposition to such legislation does not make one a pro-gun hero, but it shows even a few pragmatic Democrats recognize voting for gun bans are a bad idea in tight races. All three Democrat candidates running for reelection in the general who voted against the ban won reelection. Reportedly, two won by nearly 10 points. Democrat Jerad Golden ran in one of the thirteen districts Trump won in 2020 and is projected to win according to the Sun Journal.

    Even gun control organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety don’t act as if their actual mission of gun control is enough of an issue to mobilize voters. The Reload reports they ran ads attacking pro-gun candidate’s stances on irrelevant issues to guns like abortion or the security of the 2020 election. They also spent $1 million to defeat two Secretary of State candidates, which is an office that has nothing to do with gun policy.

    Declaring voters don’t care about their right to defend themselves because Republicans did worse than expected is a projection of desires rather than a report of facts. Many issues were on voters’ minds, but if appreciation for gun control was one of them, then that’s just clearly not reflected by the results.

    *   *   *

    Gun Owners for America, the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 22:20

  • The Dark Web Price Index 2022
    The Dark Web Price Index 2022

    Did you know that the internet you’re familiar with is only 10% of the total data that makes up the World Wide Web?

    As Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang details below, the rest of the web is hidden from plain sight, and requires special access to view. It’s known as the Deep Web, and nestled far down in the depths of it is a dark, sometimes dangerous place, known as the darknet, or Dark Web.

    This graphic by Enrique Mendoza provides us a glimpse at this shrouded part of the internet, showing us some of the common items that are sold on there, and how much they typically cost.

    A Brief Introduction to the Dark Web

    Before diving in, it’s worth quickly explaining what the Dark Web is, and how people typically gain access to it.

    Unlike the ordinary web (which is also known as the Surface Web), the Dark Web cannot be accessed through a regular browser such as Chrome or Safari. Rather, users need to access it anonymously via a Tor browser.

    Tor, which is short for “The Onion Router,” is a special portal that connects users to Dark Web websites in a complicated way that ultimately protects the user’s identity. This means users can access websites anonymously.

    The Dark Web can be a breeding ground for illegal activity, where people can buy things like contract killings, drugs, malware, and other people’s personal information.

    Product Price Breakdown

    How much is your personal information worth on the Dark Web? This graphic uses data from the 2022 Dark Web Product Price Index to find that out and more.

    This annual report by privacyaffairs.com provides insights into some of the most popular products that are for sale on the Dark Web, such as credit card data, forged documents, and hacked info, and lists the average price of each product.

    While this list is far from exhaustive and not the only measure of Dark Web prices, the report gives us a glimpse into hidden online territory that’s extremely unfamiliar to many of us. Here’s the top 10 most valuable items…

     

    One of the most expensive items included in the dataset is premium malware, which costs about $5,500 per 1,000 installs. While the cost for premium malware is hefty, there are still billions of malware attacks occurring every year causing huge monetary damage.

     

    On the other end of the spectrum are Paypal account details, Netflix logins, or stolen credit card details (complete with a CVV) all available for less than $20.

    How to Protect Your Personal Information

    As the line between the digital and physical realm becomes increasingly blurry, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re protecting yourself and your personal information from identity theft.

    According to Privacy Affairs, there are several proactive measures you can take to decrease your chances of getting hacked. This includes using a VPN whenever you access public Wi-Fi, using different passwords for different online accounts, and investing in anti-malware software to combat unwanted visitors.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 22:00

  • McCarthy, Biden Disclose What They Discussed In First Call After Midterms
    McCarthy, Biden Disclose What They Discussed In First Call After Midterms

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

    President Joe Biden and the top Republican in the House of Representatives offered slightly different accounts of their first phone call after the midterm elections.

    President Joe Biden, left, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in file images. (Getty Images)

    House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who wants to become the next speaker if Republicans gain the majority, said that Biden congratulated him.

    “He congratulated me, so for anyone who thinks we didn’t win the majority, Joe at least believes we did as well,” McCarthy said on Fox News.

    The race for the House, which the Democrats now hold, is not yet called because of delays in vote counting in multiple states. Republicans had secured 210 seats as of early Nov. 11. A majority is 218 or more.

    Biden, speaking with reporters after McCarthy’s TV appearance, said he did congratulate McCarthy.

    “I congratulated him. I said, ‘If you win the majority, congratulations. But congratulations so far, you’ve made some gains,’” Biden said at the White House in Washington.

    The Democrat also claimed that there’s still hope that Democrats, who have secured just 194 House seats so far, can keep control of the House.

    “It’s still alive. But it’s like drawing an inside straight,” he said.

    Asked for his opinion of McCarthy during a press conference this week, Biden declined to offer much.

    “I think he’s the Republican leader, and I haven’t had much of occasion to talk to him. But I will be talking to him,” Biden said.

    Regardless of the final outcome of the midterms, the president added, he wants to work together with leaders from both parties to “deliver for the American people.”

    McCarthy said Biden called him not only to offer congratulations, but to discuss where they could work together.

    “I said, I will work with anybody that wants to put American first and move us in the right direction,” McCarthy said.”

    He pointed to the poor economy, issues with energy, and the border crisis.

    “I laid this all out to the president and told him, I will work with you if you’re willing to work on these items,’” McCarthy said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 21:40

  • Corporate America Bombards Black People With Junk Food Ads
    Corporate America Bombards Black People With Junk Food Ads

    A new study reveals corporate America disproportionately targets Black and Hispanic consumers with junk food, such as candy, sugary drinks, snacks, and fast food, more than any other race. 

    The Rudd Center for Food and Policy Health at the University of Connecticut found Black youth and adults were subjected to 21% more junk food ads than their white counterparts. Researchers said corporate America boosted their advertising budgets on Spanish-speaking television stations as a total proportion of their ad budget.

    As the advertising industry drastically changes, companies are embracing celebrities and influencers to promote their products on television and social media. Researchers said advertisers hired celebrities from Black and Hispanic communities to encourage young people of color to purchase junk food. 

    Many of these celebrities are idolized by consumers and will mimic their trends, even if that’s unhealthy eating habits. 

    In the midst of the worst obesity epidemic this nation has ever faced, corporate America employs an army of influencers to bombard people of color with ads for junk food. Data shows nearly 20% of all children are obese, and rates are much higher among children of color: 26.2% of Hispanic children and 24.8% of Black children. This is compared with 16.6% of white children. 

    Here are some of those ads: 

    Eating junk food is linked to a higher risk of obesity, depression, digestive issues, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and early death. Some scientists warn that highly-processed foods should be reclassified as a “drug” because they are as addictive and harmful as cigarettes, according to Daily Mail. 

    People should question the motives behind corporate America disproportionately targeting communities of color with junk food. Perhaps, there’s more to the story than just sales… 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 21:20

  • The Real Story Behind RSV & The So-Called "Tripledemic"
    The Real Story Behind RSV & The So-Called “Tripledemic”

    Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

    MSM sources are now warning of a co-pandemics of flu, RSV and COVID… but is there any reason to be afraid?

    The “tripledemic” is upon us, according to the mainstream media. What is a “tripledemic”, you ask?

    Apparently, it’s when we have simultaneous pandemics of influenza, Covid and RSV at the same time. At least, according to the LA Times:

    A ‘tripledemic’ of flu, RSV and COVID is feared in California

    And the Atlantic:

    What a ‘Tripledemic’ Means for Your Body

    And CBS:

    “Tripledemic” in U.S. could bring deluge of patients to hospitals

    All three stories – and there are many others out there too – hit the same handful of talking points.

    They report that the flu is back after its “mysterious” disappearance during the Covid “pandemic” (the Alantic notes US flu cases reduced by well over 90% and calls it “getting lucky”, the doublethink is unbelievable).

    They also warn that Covid is “still around” or “not over”, or some variation on that them.

    However, the main thrust of the fear is reserved for RSV. Now, you’re all probably more than familiar with “flu”. And you’re definitely tired of hearing about Covid. But RSV could be a new one for you…so let me explain.

    THE VIRUS

    Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is  – according to virus theory – one of the many viruses circulating in the general population at all times. To quote the Mayo Clinic’s website [emphasis added]:

    Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes infections of the lungs and respiratory tract. It’s so common that most children have been infected with the virus by age 2. Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-ul) virus can also infect adults. In adults and older, healthy children, RSV symptoms are mild and typically mimic the common cold.

    And according to the CDC:

    Almost all children will have had an RSV infection by their second birthday […] Most RSV infections go away on their own in a week or two.

    So, according to official sources, RSV is not serious in the vast majority of cases, and almost all of us have already had it.

    In fact, seeing as the symptoms are both generic and mild, the odds are you have had it multiple times throughout your life and never really known. It’s simply one of the many viruses known to cause what we refer to as “the common cold”.

    THE DECEPTION

    There’s a trick being played here, and as usual in the age of the “pandemic”, it’s a trick of language. The powers that be are exploiting linguistic ambiguity in order to generate fear.

    Across most of the world, we simply refer to “a cold” or “the flu” almost interchangeably to describe the dozen or so respiratory infections we all get throughout our lifetime.

    Most of the time we don’t know what specific virus or bacteria is supposedly the cause, we have no way of finding out and it doesn’t make any difference because the symptoms and treatments are all the same: Cough, fever, headache – bedrest, orange juice and painkillers.

    Now, essentially, the media are taking advantage of that ubiquitous ambiguity by naming something that has always been there but pretending it is something new.

    Here’s a case in point, the Scientific American published this article on November 4th, which headlines:

    RSV Is Surging: What We Know about This Common and Surprisingly Dangerous Virus

    Now, although the headline claims RSV is “surprisingly dangerous”, the article seems to go out of its way to prove the opposite.

    • “the virus is so common that nearly all children have encountered it by their second birthday.”

    • “It’s that ubiquitous,” Flores says. “Even adults are exposed to it repeatedly over time, so we develop some immunity to it.”

    • “In healthy adults and children, though, RSV typically presents as a common cold, with symptoms similar to those caused by other “common cold” viruses, such as rhinovirus, adenovirus and a couple of common coronaviruses.”

    • “For the average person, RSV is little more than a nuisance”

    The article does warn that RSV can be “particularly dangerous for newborn babies and adults older than age 65” and the immunocompromised, but this is true of literally every pathogen . And even then, they go on to add:

    only about 1 to 2 percent of children under six months with RSV need hospitalization (usually for a couple of days), and death is rare.

    This is a tactic we’re all familiar with – it was routine, throughout the Covid narrative, for official voices to tell us to be afraid, whilst simultaneously explaining there was nothing to be afraid of.

    This approach clearly serves some purpose, although I could not say for certain what that may be.

    Regardless, the deception is obvious and clearly deliberate.

    The question is, why?

    THE MOTIVE

    To sum up – there is no reason to fear RSV infection. The media are clear about that themselves, even if they bury it under layers of hysterical headlines.

    It is just one of the many viruses which cause – or are said to cause – cold or flu symptoms, all of which circulate the whole world constantly, especially at this time of year.

    There’s ALWAYS a “tripledemic”, or a quademic or a septemic. The only difference is now they are naming it.

    They are taking the routine and pretending it’s exceptional simply to try and frighten you.

    Why?

    Well, rather predictably, to sell vaccines.

    Yes, you’ll be relieved to know that just as RSV is hitting the headlines for the first time EVER, they’ve also just produced the first ever vaccines against it.

    On November 1st, Vox reported:

    New RSV vaccines are coming. This is very, very good news.

    Which claims:

    After decades of failed efforts to produce an RSV vaccine, several highly effective ones are finally on the verge of approval.

    On the same day, Pfizer announced “positive top-line data” for their new RSV vaccine, with CNN reporting:

    After promising trial results for maternal RSV vaccine, Pfizer says it will seek FDA approval this year

    That’s right, after decades of trying and dozens of failed attempts, the pharmaceutical companies have finally managed to create not just one but multiple effective vaccines against an endemic virus…just as the virus has  hit the headlines.

    Now, this all sounds rather familiar, doesn’t it?

    If you didn’t fall for this last time you don’t need me to warn you.

    If you DID fall for this last time?

    Well, fool you once shame on them, fool you twice…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 21:00

  • Large Piece Of Destroyed Space Shuttle Found On Ocean Floor
    Large Piece Of Destroyed Space Shuttle Found On Ocean Floor

    A large section of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger has been found on the Atlantic Ocean floor, more than 30 years after it exploded shortly after liftoff, killing all seven aboard, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center announced on Thursday. 

    The section remains partially buried, but measures at least 15 feet by 15 feet. Judging by the shape of its thermal tiles, NASA believes this piece is from the belly of the shuttle. 

    Divers working on a History Channel documentary examine the heat tiles of the Challenger space shuttle (History channel via AP)

    The shuttle piece was originally discovered in March, by divers working on a History Channel documentary series about the Bermuda Triangle. They were looking for World War II aircraft wreckage but were startled to find something very different just off Florida’s Cape Canaveral coast. The documentary will debut on Tuesday, Nov. 22. 

    Noting the “modern construction and presence of 8-inch square tiles,” the production team alerted NASA, the agency said in a press release. After studying the video, NASA verified it was from Challenger.   

    Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff. The last command given to the shuttle was “Challenger, go with throttle up.” 

    A spectacular explosion followed, and then stunned silence from both TV commentators and NASA launch commentator Steve Nesbitt. That silence ended when Nesbitt said, “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation…obviously a major malfunction….we have no downlink.” 

    Evidence points to a grim conclusion: The astronauts likely survived the initial explosion. Among other indicators, study of wreckage found that at least three astronauts switched their emergency oxygen supply on. 

    Since the shuttle was 12 miles up when it exploded, the six NASA crew members and school-teacher Christa McAuliffe may have spent 2 minutes in sheer terror, knowing they were plummeting to certain death. 

    Challenger crew members training in a flight simulator a month before the disaster (Bill Bowers/NASA)

    An investigation found that unexpectedly cold temperatures led to the failure of O-ring seals in the shuttle’s solid rocker booster segment joints. Flight managers approved the launch despite concerns raised by shuttle program employees.  

    Though 118 tons of Challenger’s wreckage have been found so far, that’s still just under half of the total mass that lifted off that day. In 1986, the remains of all seven astronauts were recovered from the shattered wreckage of the crew compartment. As the New York Times reported at the time, the crew compartment was “little more than a pile of rubble on the ocean floor, 8 feet high and 50 feet across.” 

    Despite the huge volume of material that’s still unaccounted for, this is the first new section of the shuttle found since 1996, when two portions of the left wing washed ashore. 

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

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 20:40

  • One Veteran's Story: An Orange-Pilled Green Beret
    One Veteran’s Story: An Orange-Pilled Green Beret

    Authored by Adam R. Gebner, a Green Beret and West Point graduate, via Bitcoin Magazine,

    The opinions expressed throughout this piece are mine alone, and in no way reflect official policy or opinions of the U.S. Army or the U.S. Department of Defense. Though I am by no means a writer, I hope that by publishing this, more service members consider working in the Bitcoin industry and Bitcoin companies consider expanding their efforts to hire Veterans. Additionally, I am always learning more about Bitcoin, how it works, and the potential value it may bring to our world. Please let me know where I am off base, thanks!

    Early in my life, I knew I wanted to be a Green Beret officer. Fighting to liberate oppressed people by working by, with, and through local populations was at the core of my motivations to choose this path. I saw the Special Forces’ mission as a cost and risk-efficient way to prevent large-scale conflict while enabling people to defend themselves and secure their own freedom. After graduating from West Point in 2014 and serving with the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) for three years, I ultimately earned my Green Beret and an opportunity to lead a detachment of America’s Chosen Soldiers. Now that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do with my military career by commanding an “A-team” for two years, I am looking forward to the next mission in my professional life: contributing to the adoption and integration of the best freedom-protecting innovation in modern history — Bitcoin.

    Like so many others, I had a few touch points with Bitcoin before seriously considering the validity of the technology. In 2010, during my first year at West Point, I overheard a few Computer Science majors discussing this “internet money” and I foolishly dismissed it without trying to learn anything else. Then in 2013, when I started learning about investing and economics, I stumbled across bitcoin again. I read a little bit more into it, but not enough to understand how it could replace gold as a sound money system (thanks Peter Schiff…).

    Finally, in the summer of 2017, when I was deployed to the Republic of Georgia, “number-go-up” piqued my curiosity and I made my first attempt at buying some bitcoin. Unfortunately for me, the exchange I used, Coinbase, didn’t accept my orders because even though I had an American driver’s license and a U.S. Passport, I had an Italian phone number and was in the Republic of Georgia which, apparently, was suspicious. I completely missed that bull run, but I finally started to learn more about bitcoin and the potential of this innovation.

    The concepts I learned reading about Austrian economics, personal investing and American history clicked shortly after. My perspective on some of the most persistent problems around the world shifted towards the realization that our global monetary system is corrupt, pricing signals are severely distorted, and the national and global debt is unsustainable. Since then, I have continued to learn about economics, bitcoin, and the growing industry around it, while stacking sats as often as possible.

    This year, I completed my time in command and I had to make a career decision: continue serving in the Army or transition out. Service members, especially those who choose to serve for the standard 20-year career, have my deepest respect. Military life isn’t easy, it requires giving up a wide swath of freedoms, volunteering your life in order to protect national interests and persisting through deep uncertainty. The military profession can provide an honorable career, but for a variety of personal and professional reasons, I am called to do something else. I am inspired and encouraged to find work that contributes to a free and prosperous world, work that creates value for others, work that fixes systemic problems. For me, this means taking my experience leading diverse, cross-functional teams to market with the goal of contributing to the continued success and expansion of Bitcoin.

    For any service member or Veteran who might be reading this, if you want to develop technical skills, take advantage of the Career Skillbridge Program. I am on my way to enrolling in a Vet Tec program, a Veterans Affairs program to train transitioning service members on a variety of in-demand technical skills, like computer programing and data processing. My experience creating models while studying mechanical engineering has helped with the learning curve, as has some experience working through classes on Code Academy. But anyone with an honest desire to learn will be successful. Not every Veteran or member of the Bitcoin industry needs to have these technical skills, however, for those who want to work in product development, or management, I believe having experience with software engineering, computer science or programming is next to essential and will make you much more marketable to bitcoin-focused companies.

    Other vets in the industry have been incredibly helpful. Oftentimes a cold-message over LinkedIn results in an enthusiastic response and a phone call. Veterans currently working with Bitcoin know that as service members leave, they want to continue serving in a principle-based organization, and Bitcoin is arguably the most freedom-preserving industry to work in. For service members on their way out, find people who have already made the switch. They are great sounding boards for your ideas and bump-steering potential career plans. You will only leave the military once (hopefully), talk to as many people as possible who have done it before you and are now working in your targeted industry.

    To me, and many other Veterans, serving in an industry with an inspiring, impactful mission is an essential requirement for a post-military career. Out of all the options, I believe that working in the Bitcoin industry and helping spread the adoption of bitcoin is an excellent fit for the dedicated, principled and team-oriented Veterans looking for their next opportunity to contribute to society. To Bitcoin companies, talk with and hire Veterans. There are many ways to provide transitioning Veterans with trial runs with your company, at no cost to you. I think you will find that Veterans are competent members of your team who will remain dedicated to your mission and their coworkers.

    I see the potential of a civilian career working with Bitcoin as an incredible opportunity to pursue following the end of a highly rewarding period of military service. I am excited to contribute to the growth of the network and adoption of the technology. Despite the FUD and recent global instability, I am optimistic for our future. As a Green Beret who was trained to foment revolutions in pursuit of the expansion of human freedoms, I have high hopes for what Bitcoiners can do for humanity.

    [ZH: Adam’s story was not alone and we thought the following, authored by Luke Groom, a West Point graduate and Army Enginner Officer, offered further insights as to why veterans find bitcoin so compelling.]

    The Constitution was the code which enabled the protocol of America, Land of the Free — and Bitcoin builds upon this freedom.

    Within the Bitcoin community, U.S. military service members are sometimes viewed with suspicion. I don’t know where this suspicion comes from. Maybe the libertarian elements of the community are against things that remind them of Big Government. Maybe Left elements of the community are against things that remind them of guns and violence. Maybe people think we are infiltrating the Bitcoin ranks to secretly further the interests of the Military Industrial Complex. I can only speculate. For me, the transition from service member to Bitcoiner is obvious. I will outline three reasons: freedom, responsibility and code. Throughout, I will refer to “military service members” and “Veterans” interchangeably, because they are the same people, just at different periods of life.

    First, the key value which drives many young men and women to join the military is the same key value that Bitcoin promotes. If you ask someone why they chose to serve in the military, and continue to dig into their answer, somewhere in there is almost always a desire to promote liberty and freedom. At its core, Bitcoin is freedom money. It is free from debasement, free from political influence, free from seigniorage, free from centralization, free from manipulation and free from compulsion. Most people join the military because they value liberty. They value free markets. They want to fight for the “Land of the Free.” Sure, actual results may vary, but the desire is there.

    Consider that we have centrally controlled fiat money, capable of debasement, political influence, theft via seigniorage and manipulated pricing via fixing of interest rates. Consider that fiat money is at least half of essentially every transaction. That means that not only do we not have a free market of money; we don’t have a free market of anything! Imagine the disillusionment of a service member who has dedicated their life to fighting for freedom, only to realize that we live in this unfree, manipulated-market world. Then they learn about Bitcoin. Becoming a Bitcoiner means voting with your energy in favor of free markets and all the freedom that Bitcoin represents. They realize that if they put their energy into Bitcoin, whether their purchasing power goes up or goes down, they are fighting for freedom, just like their inspiration to join the military to begin with.

    Second, most Veterans crave increased personal responsibility. The military is great for teaching young people responsibility. Get up. Make your bed. Exercise. Go to work. Wear the right thing. Be on time. Be reliable. Be accountable. Lead. Follow. Take care of your buddies. The military has built in forcing functions to teach responsibility.

    There comes a time, however, when you want to take the training wheels off. You want to show your personal responsibility without someone looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re doing it right. You want more than five options for your retirement investments. You want to shout, “I’m a peacock, you gotta let me fly!” Bitcoin aligns with that desire. You have to do your own research. You have to take responsibility for custody (or responsibility for counterparty risk). You have to accept the volatility in its conversion rate to fiat. There’s no safety net in the Bitcoin market, and that increased personal responsibility is liberating for many Veterans.

    Last, every Veteran swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. As I’ve gone through law school, I’ve developed a greater appreciation for that document. We live in a polarized country. I’ve seen a lot of that country first-hand, living in Chicago, New York, Missouri, North Carolina and Washington. I’ve lived in the city, the suburbs and small towns. I’ve worked with millionaires and with people without a sat to their name. I’ve shared meals with people who have lost friends fighting overseas and with people who have protested at Army bases. Our citizens look different, sound different and have vastly different values. With citizens who are so dissimilar, what is holding this country together?

    I would argue that the Constitution holds this country together and defines who we are as a nation. The Constitution is less than 5,000 words of code that set-in motion the protocol that is the United States of America. We have since seen that code soft forked in the form of amendments to the Constitution. We have seen layer upon layer of government built on top of that code, in similar ways that layers are being built upon Bitcoin. Some could successfully argue that we have seen the code ignored or misinterpreted beyond recognition. However, this code is at the heart of our country. Every service member swears to support and defend, not a man, not a military industrial complex, but that Constitution. For Veterans who have already sworn to possibly give their lives for the sake of one code, the step to embrace code-based money is natural.

    Finally, my Veterans Day would not be complete without thanking a Veteran or two. Thank you, Anthony Pompliano and Preston Pysh. Without you two, I might still be thinking that Bitcoin was “probably nothing.” Happy Veterans Day.

    [ZH: Finally, before we leave the topic of Veterans and Bitcoin, the following brief excerpt from ‘Captain Sidd’s recent note helps explain why adopting bitcoin on Veterans Day can help put an end to forever wars that unnecessarily risk the lives of U.S. soldiers.]

    Widespread adoption of bitcoin as a monetary unit, in place of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, would tightly control or completely eliminate a government’s ability to print money. Just as the gold standard kept U.S. spending largely in check, a bitcoin standard will limit spending on military adventures abroad and costly programs at home. Government programs will need the support of the people to continue receiving funding, or else the increased taxation needed to fund those programs will lead to voting out politicians who support them. The feedback loop of rising spending between government and supported industries — like the arms industry in the U.S. — will largely disappear as public sentiment plays a larger role in allocation of government funds.

    I am hopeful we can achieve a bitcoin standard because doing so does not require us to lobby the very politicians who benefit most from the existing monetary system. Achieving a bitcoin standard only requires that we as individuals and communities continue to adopt bitcoin to a greater degree as a savings tool and monetary medium. If we all hold and transact in bitcoin instead of fiat currencies, the fiat money printer has nobody to suck purchasing power from and the politics of money printing will necessarily reform.

    Let’s honor our military veterans by only putting soldiers into war when absolutely necessary. Our collective and peaceful actions can end the funding source for unaccountable, brutal and life-destroying forever wars.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 20:20

  • What Are The Benefits Of Fusion Energy?
    What Are The Benefits Of Fusion Energy?

    As the world moves towards net-zero emissions, sustainable and affordable power sources are urgently needed by humanity.

    As Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti details below, one of the most promising technologies, fusion, has attracted the attention of governments and private companies like Chevron and Google. In fact, Bloomberg Intelligence has estimated that the fusion market may eventually be valued at $40 trillion.

    In this infographic sponsored by General Fusion, we discuss the benefits of fusion as a clean energy source.

    The Ultimate Source of Energy 

    Fusion powers the sun and the stars, where the immense force of gravity compresses and heats hydrogen plasma, fusing it into helium and releasing enormous amounts of energy. Here on Earth, scientists use isotopes of hydrogen—deuterium and tritium—to power fusion plants.

    Fusion energy offers a wide range of benefits, such as:

    1. Ample resources:

    Both atoms necessary for nuclear fusion are abundant on Earth: deuterium is found in seawater, while tritium can be produced from lithium.

    2. Sustainable

    Energy-dense generation like fusion minimizes land use needs and can replace aging infrastructure like old power plants. 

    3. Clean

    There are no CO₂ or other harmful atmospheric emissions from the fusion process.

    4. Scalable

    With limited expected regulatory burden or export controls, fusion scales effectively with a small land footprint that can be located close to cities.

    5. Safety advantage

    Unlike atomic fission, fusion does not create any long-lived radioactive nuclear waste. Its radiation profile is similar to widely used medical and industrial applications like cyclotrons for cancer treatment.

    6. Reliable

    Fusion energy is on-demand and independent from the weather, making it an excellent option in a dependable portfolio for power generation.

    Commercializing Fusion Energy

    More than 130 countries have now set or are considering a target of reducing emissions to net-zero by 2050. Meanwhile, global energy demand is expected to increase by 47% in the next 30 years.

    While renewables like wind and solar are intermittent and need a baseload source of clean energy to supplement them, fusion, when commercially implemented, could deliver clean, abundant, reliable, and cost-competitive energy. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 20:00

  • "Anti-Democratic" Just Means "Something The Regime Doesn't Like"
    “Anti-Democratic” Just Means “Something The Regime Doesn’t Like”

    Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

    “Democracy” is the new “revolutionary.”

    In the old Marxist regimes, anything that displeased the regime was said to be contrary to “the revolution.” For example, in the Soviet Union, national leaders spoke regularly of how the nation was in the process of “a revolutionary transformation” toward a future idealized communist society. Many years after the actual revolution and coup d’état in Russia following the collapse of tsarist rule, the word “revolution” had “positive connotations and was considered a source of legitimacy in official ideology.”

    “Revolutionary” became a synonym for “a thing we like,” and it’s no surprise that a 1952 Soviet legal manual lists “counterrevolutionary” activities as among the “political crimes … deemed generally dangerous crimes against the order of the state.” Moreover, in the early 1950s, when Mao Zedong launched new efforts to consolidate Communist power, he called the effort a “campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries.” Other regimes adopted similar practices as well. Fidel Castro’s regime frequently launched investigations and campaigns against “antirevolutionary” dissidents and Ethiopia’s Marxist governments in the 1970s described domestic opponents as guilty of “anti-revolutionary crimes.”

    Anything that was deemed “counterrevolutionary” or “antirevolutionary” was assumed to be an awful thing that was a threat to the reliably vague notion of progress toward the fulfillment of the alleged revolution. The vagueness of the term was, of course, an advantage from the point of view of the regime. Consequently, to be a counterrevolutionary required nothing more than to be guilty of thought crime by subscribing to heterodox views on the current ruling party.

    Thus, to be a counterrevolutionary was simply to be opposed to the regime, regardless of one’s actual ideological views. This is why communist Emma Goldman (a bona fide revolutionary) could be denounced as “antirevolutionary” for expressing doubts about the virtues of the Soviet regime. One’s support for actual revolution was irrelevant, and “antirevolutionary” could simply be defined or redefined as whatever the regime found objectionable at any given time.

    In the year 2022, we find the word “democracy” serving a similar role in political discourse. President Joe Biden has delivered two major speeches this year on how “democracy” will supposedly be abolished if his opponents win. Last week, former president Barack Obama solemnly intoned that if Republicans win in Arizona, “democracy as we know it may not survive.” Indeed, this has become something of a mantra among left-wing politicians and their media allies. One writer at Salon chastised voters for daring to let their votes be influenced by economic concerns when “democracy is under threat.” One New York Times headline bemoaned the apparent reality that voters don’t seem interested in “saving democracy” when it’s supposedly all so clear that “democracy is in peril.”

    So why are so many voters allegedly ready to “trade democracy for cheap gas”? The answer probably lies in the fact that most voters can see what is obvious: the only thing actually in peril is the Left’s version of democracy, which is an anything-goes-including-rampant-voter-fraud model for US elections. Moreover, the Left wants a federal takeover of elections, which in the United States have always been at least moderately decentralized. Instead, the “prodemocracy” camp wants federally enforced election regulations prohibiting limitations on voting for aliens, dead people, and frauds. If the Left does poorly in this election, that’s a lot less likely to happen.

    Any attempt to limit fraud – such as requiring identification for voters is denounced as “anti-democratic.” Indeed, nothing better shows this than the Left’s complaints about the fact that some law enforcement officers have monitored polling places. As one Georgetown University bureaucrat put it, allowing law enforcement personnel to guard ballot boxes might “intimidate” some people, and sends the message that voter fraud actually occurs. This, she tells us, is “abhorrent.” But at the core of this complaint is simply an aversion to the idea that the presence of police might scare some people away from ballot stuffing and other forms of fraud.

    Ironically, by this way of thinking, to be “pro-democracy” is to not care whether the voting process is fraudulent. Thus, just like the term “revolutionary” under the old Communist regimes, the terms “democratic” and “democracy” in the US today cease to have any meaning and really just mean “what our side likes.”

    After all, most reasonable people would conclude that democratic institutions exist whenever there are regular elections and generally universal suffrage for citizens. This is clearly the case in every state of the union. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of countries that the Left calls “democracies”—France, Germany, Iceland, etc.—have voter identification requirements, checks against double voting, and similar means of preventing fraud. In the United States, the Left calls all this “antidemocratic.”

    The actual details of what it means to be prodemocratic or antidemocratic don’t actually matter when it comes to political discourse. The word “democratic” is an emotionally loaded term, and essentially code for “politically legitimate.” All that really matters is to call one’s allies “democratic” and to denounce the other side as “undemocratic.” In America today, to be labeled “democratic” means one has the approval of the ruling regime. Those who are labeled “undemocratic” are those who, like the “counterrevolutionaries” of old, have been deemed—rightly or wrongly—threats to the status quo.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 19:40

  • Foreign-Owned Farms Draining Southwest Aquifers To Feed Cattle Overseas
    Foreign-Owned Farms Draining Southwest Aquifers To Feed Cattle Overseas

    While the American southwest suffers under a worsening drought conditions, foreign-owned farms have been siphoning water from underground aquifers to grow water-thirsty crops like alfalfa, which ultimately end up overseas in order to feed cattle and other foreign livestock.

    “You can’t take water and export it out of the state, there’s laws about that,” Arizona geohydrologist Marvin Glotfelty told CNN. “But you can take ‘virtual’ water and export it; alfalfa, cotton, electricity or anything created in part from the use of water.”

    Residents in Arizona’s La Paz County are particularly frustrated at the area’s ‘huge, foreign-owned farms’ which are taking advantage of lax groundwater laws that give agricultural use the upper hand, allowing farms to pump unlimited water underneath property they own or lease.

    Groundwater gushes into a cement canal near the Fondomonte farm in Vicksburg, Arizona.

    County supervisor Holly Irwin told CNN that getting the state to take action, or even acknowledge, the state’s dwindling water supply has proven a ‘frustrating’ exercise in futility.

    According to Irwin, Middle East agriculture companies “have depleted their [water], that’s why they are here,” adding “That’s what angers people the most. We should be taking care of our own, and we just allow them to come in, purchase property and continue to punch holes in the ground.”

    In fact, 80% of Arizona has no laws governing how much water can be drained by corporate megafarms, nor is their any way to track it, according to the report.

    “The well guys and I have never seen anything like this before,” said longtime resident of Wenden, Arizona, Gary Saiter, who said a UAE-based company, Al Dahra, had been tapping into an underground reservoir which stores water built up over thousands of years.

    [R]ural communities in La Paz County know the water is disappearing beneath their feet.

    Shallow, residential wells in the county started drying up in 2015, local officials say, and deeper municipal well levels have steadily declined. In Salome, local water utility owner Bill Farr told CNN his well – which supplies water to more than 200 customers, including the local schools – is “nearing the end of its useful life.” -CNN

    According to Saiter, water in the town well has been plummeting – with the depth-to-water level dropping from around 100 feet below the surface in the 1950s to around 540 feet in 2022 – far beyond what an average residential well can reach.

    Hay bales are stored at Al Dahra Farms in Wenden.

    The drought-stricken Middle Eastern expansion into the Southwestern US accelerated after a 2018 Saudi Arabian ban on growing water-thirsty crops like alfalfa and hay to feed livestock and cattle, but they have a ‘national pride’ in the Middle East when it comes to their vast dairy operations. 

    “They have all their cows there and they need feeding. That feedstock comes from abroad,” Eckart Woertz, director of the Germany-based GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies, told CNN.

    For example, the Almarai Company, which owns around 10,000 acres of Arizona farmland under subsidiary Fondomonte, is one of the largest Middle Eastern dairy supply companies. It also owns around 3,500 acres in Southern California which uses water from the Colorado River to irrigate crops.

    Woertz said while most of the company’s cattle feed is purchased on the open market, Alamarai took the extra step of buying farmland abroad, as part of a growing trend in foreign-owned farmland in the US. Foreign-owned farmland in the West increased from around 1.25 million acres in 2010 to nearly three million acres in 2020, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. In the Midwest, foreign-owned farmland has nearly quadrupled.

    …

    In the high desert of Arizona, emerald-green fields stretch for miles alongside dry tumbleweeds and Saguaro cactus.

    The Fondomonte-owned Vicksburg Ranch near Salome is massive. The company spent $47.5 million to buy nearly 10,000 acres of land there in 2014, and it leases additional farmland from the state. -CNN

    “It gives you that sense you’re closer to the source,” said Woertz. “The sense that you own land or lease land somewhere else and have direct bilateral access [to water] gives you a sense of maybe false security.”

    As outgoing state House member Regina Cobb asked CNN, “Why are we allowing a foreign company to come into Arizona – which is drought-stricken right now – and have a sweetheart deal [on leases], when we are trying to conserve as much water as we can?”

    “It boggles my mind.“

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 19:20

  • Candid UN Report Blasts "Outrageous" US Sanctions Harming Syrian Civilians
    Candid UN Report Blasts “Outrageous” US Sanctions Harming Syrian Civilians

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    A UN special rapporteur on Thursday called for the removal of US and other Western sanctions on Syria as they are having a devastating impact on the civilian population and preventing the country from rebuilding after 11 years of war.

    Alena Douhan, a special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures, made the comments after a 12-day visit to Syria. There she found that sanctions are harming civilians in many ways, including by causing a shortage of medicine and medical equipment.

    “In the current dramatic and still-deteriorating humanitarian situation, as 12 million Syrians grapple with food insecurity, I urge the immediate lifting of all unilateral sanctions that severely harm human rights and prevent any efforts for early recovery, rebuilding, and reconstruction,” Douhan told the UN Security Council.

    US officials have been candid about the fact that the sanctions campaign against Syria is specifically designed to prevent the country from rebuilding. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last year that it is US policy to “oppose the reconstruction of Syria” until there is regime change in Damascus.

    Douhan said that the “catastrophic effects of unilateral sanctions” are impacting people “across all walks of life in the country.”

    She said that 90% of Syria’s civilian population is living in poverty and have limited access to food, water, electricity, shelter, fuel, healthcare, and transportation.

    On top of the sanctions campaign, the US also maintains an occupation force of about 1,000 troops in eastern Syria and backs Kurdish groups in the region, allowing Washington to maintain control of about one-third of the country. The area that the US occupies is where most of Syria’s oil and wheat fields are located, and the US is keeping the vital resources from Damascus.

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    The US also tacitly backs Israeli airstrikes in Syria and occasionally launches some of its own. Despite the dire humanitarian crisis, there’s no sign that the US will change the policy.

    The White House said at the end of October that it has “no plans” to lift the sanctions or end its military occupation in Syria.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 19:00

  • Biden Admin Infighting On Ukraine Policy Goes Public
    Biden Admin Infighting On Ukraine Policy Goes Public

    Fresh reporting in The New York Times points to a fierce internal Biden administration divide over how the US should respond to the Ukraine crisis as winter is closing in and there’s as yet no sign the two sides are anywhere close to ending the fighting.

    Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley is reportedly pressing hard for White House policy to shift toward pressuring Kiev and Moscow to the negotiating table.

    Per the Times report, the top general “has made the case in internal meetings that the Ukrainians have achieved about as much as they could reasonably expect on the battlefield before winter sets in and so they should try to cement their gains at the bargaining table, according to officials informed about the discussions.”

    Via Reuters

    Top Biden foreign policy advisers, however, have said it’s “too soon” and are pushing back against Milley, also as the White House cheers on the continuing significant Ukrainian battlefield gains in and around Kherson in the south.

    They argue that any pause in fighting while efforts to get representatives to the negotiating table, a process which hasn’t been seriously pursued since the opening months of the war, will only benefit pro-Kremlin forces, giving them opportunity to regroup. 

    According to the report, citing those officials pushing back against Milley, “While Mr. Biden’s advisers believe the war will likely be settled through negotiations eventually, officials said, they have concluded that the moment is not ripe and the United States should not be seen as pressuring the Ukrainians to hold back while they have momentum.”

    Biden has lately reiterated that Zelensky and his government are the sole decision-makers when it comes to the timing of negotiations, and the Ukrainian leader recently vowed as a matter of policy enshrined into law that there will be no negotiations while Vladimir Putin is still president of Russia. 

    But the reality is that Washington and ultimately the American taxpayer are funding the Ukrainian counteroffensive to the tune of billions of dollars in weapons and supplies. In Congress, GOP leadership has begun questioning Biden’s “blank check” writing at the expense of ordinary citizens struggling with rising food, fuel, and cost of living. 

    The Times notes that the internal admin schism has grown to the point of spilling over into public discourse: 

    The debate, which the officials described on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive deliberations, has spilled out into public in recent days as General Milley made public comments hinting at his private advice. “Seize the moment,” he said in a speech in New York on Wednesday.

    Milley followed by telling CNBC on Thursday, “We’ve seen the Ukrainian military fight the Russian military to a standstill.” He then said, “Now, what the future holds is not known with any degree of certainty, but we think there are some possibilities here for some diplomatic solutions.”

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    This prompted subtle pushback from the White House, with national security advisor Jake Sulliven stressing in a press briefing, “The United States is not pressuring Ukraine” – at a moment that more and more headlines are speculating on the possibility of talks. Also looming in the background is the European energy crisis as temperatures begin plummeting going into winter. 

    Ironically, news of this whole debate has emerged a mere couple weeks after House Democratic Progressives led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and which included AOC, sent a letter to Biden urging the US to get serious about diplomacy. Embarrassingly, they formally retracted the letter and made apologies less then 24 hours later after bipartisan outcry. And yet there’s was essentially the stance of Gen. Milley. While the progressives quickly backed down, the top general doesn’t appear to be.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 18:40

  • The Winners And Losers In A Shift In Control Of Congress
    The Winners And Losers In A Shift In Control Of Congress

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Below is my column in the New York Post on why the self-described “giddy” White House might want to consider the impact of a loss of one or both houses of Congress. While many are still debating who will prevail in contested districts or states, the shift in power could produce its own “winners and losers.” Indeed, the President may find himself as giddy as all get out if he loses control of the House and possibly the Senate.

    Here is the column:

    The midterm elections proved captivating as one followed races district by district throughout the night. The true winners and losers, however, go beyond the individual officeholders.

    Legally, there are both individuals and institutions that could see significant changes with the new division of power in Washington. While the White House was reportedly “giddy and gleeful” with the results, Democrats likely lost the House and could still lose the Senate.

    Despite the rivaling predictions of red waves and blue walls, the night showed what was always abundantly clear: We are still a deeply divided country. Congress will reflect that division in terms of power distribution — and that may be a good thing.

    WINNERS

    Constitutionalism: The last two years have seen frontal assaults on constitutional values ranging from separation of powers to free speech. Democrats applauded, for example, as President Joe Biden unilaterally waived roughly $500 billion in loans owed to the American people. While courts repeatedly found Biden to have violated the Constitution, Congress remained conspicuously silent even as it joined the president in declaring Republicans threats to the Constitution.

    In an August New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for our founding charter to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.” It’s safe to say voters effectively reclaimed constitutionalism from such extremist voices.

    Once again, voters preferred divided government with a Congress willing and able to challenge a president rather than remain a pure pedestrian in the exercise of governance. There’s now a moving part in Congress that’s been dormant for two years. As those institutional gears engage, checks and balances will again force greater accountability and exposure in the constitutional system.

    The Supreme Court: For two years, the left has targeted the nation’s highest court with calls for packing it. Polls have long showed this movement was contained almost entirely within the far left. Yet attacking the court and its justices was an article of faith for many Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called for raw court packing. While the attacks are likely to continue, the shift in Congress will put an end to such radical proposals.

    LOSERS

    The media: Outlets, in framing the election, consistently echoed Democrats’ narratives — yet failed to deliver them victory. The media now face the prospect of inquiries that could further erode voter trust. Congressional investigations will likely drill down on the Hunter Biden influence-peddling scandal. The media played an active role in burying that scandal and will face questions of how they could turn a blind eye to globe-spanning corruption that involved millions of dollars from foreign political and intelligence figures. They may also see an investigation into backchannels political and government officials used to enlist surrogates in the media and social media for censorship.

    The Bidens: The election’s biggest loser could be the Biden family. After successfully avoiding any media or congressional scrutiny of their alleged influence peddling, time is up for the Bidens. Despite Attorney General Merrick Garland’s refusal to appoint a special counsel, they will face investigations launched with the full authority of the Oversight Committee. Garland will also confront demands to show the same aggressive prosecution of contempt of Congress when Biden associates are the subject of such referrals.

    All this will add to whatever emerges from Delaware in the long-standing investigation of tax and other allegations against Hunter Biden. With the midterms over, the Justice Department will no longer be bound to avoid filings that might influence the election. Hunter could easily find himself under indictment as Congress ramps up a broad investigation into his foreign dealings.

    There is one group that could be included on lists of both winners and losers: moderates. President Donald Trump pushed candidates that struggled or failed with voters who viewed them as too extreme. For moderates in the Democratic Party, the flipping of long-blue districts and other close races are evidence of a shift in independents and groups like Hispanics away from far-left policies.

    The problem is that so few true moderates remain in Congress. The result is that while the country remains moderate, Congress will again not reflect that broad center.

    The next two years will be anything but predictable. James Madison believed that if you want good government, “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” If that’s true, the good news is there will be no shortage of ambition in the days ahead. But before the White House gets too “giddy” after losing one or both houses of Congress, it should contemplate the prospect of a house of Congress with very different ambitions from those of the president.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 18:20

  • Taibbi: The FBI's Transformation, From National Police To Domestic Spy Agency
    Taibbi: The FBI’s Transformation, From National Police To Domestic Spy Agency

    Authored by Matt Taibbi via TK News,

    Part one of a series.

    Late on an October morning in a quiet neighborhood near Daytona Beach, Florida. FBI agent Steve Friend sits in his kitchen, fidgeting. He’s a wiry, energetic man, built like a marathoner, not muscled up but exuding fitness, not a sitter. This is not a person meant for desk work, much less staying home all day. But as a whistleblower whose name has been all over media after a complaint about statistical manipulation and other problems in the January 6th investigations, this will be his lot for a while.

    By that morning, the first rush of news stories about Friend’s case already passed. CNN and MSNBC demonized him, Fox hailed him as a hero, but the furor was beginning to die down. What a whistleblower talks about in this inevitable moment will say a lot about his or her motivation. Looking out a window into the stillness of his suburban neighborhood, Friend shook his head.

    “I love my job,” he said, sighing. “I was living my best life as an FBI agent. I was coming home every day, and my kids were my biggest fan club. Like, ‘Daddy, did you put the bad guy in jail?’ And I thought, ‘Man, this is it.’”

    Steve Friend

    It’s not the tone of a disgruntled malcontent, but someone who made a reluctant journey to whistleblower status, beginning with a whirlwind series of events that brought him and his family out of the Midwest to north Florida less than two years ago. He worked a child pornography detail before being transferred to the assignment that would upend his life: investigating J6. The FBI not only took Friend off vital work chasing child predators to pursue questionable investigations of people maybe connected with the Capitol riots (often in some misdemeanor fashion), they used dubious bureaucratic methods he felt put him in an impossible spot.

    Essentially, the FBI made Friend a supervisory agent in cases actually being run by the Washington field office, a trick replicated across the country that made domestic terrorism numbers appear to balloon overnight. Instead of one investigation run out of Washington, the Bureau now had hundreds of “terrorism” cases “opening” in every field office in the country. As a way to manipulate statistics, it was ingenious, but Friend could see it was also trouble.

    As a member of a dying breed of agent raised to focus on making cases and securing convictions, Friend knew putting him nominally in charge of a case he wasn’t really running was a gift to any good defense attorney, should a J6 case ever get to trial.

    “They’re gonna see my name as being the case agent, yet not a single document has my name as doing any work,” Friend says. “Now a defense lawyer can say, ‘Hey, the case agent for this case didn’t perform any work.’ Labeling the case this way would be a big hit to our prosecution.”

    Friend ended up refusing the arrangement, which led to his suspension. He followed procedure, making protected disclosures to superiors and the FBI’s Office of Special Counsel (OSG). He then reported his suspension to Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and whistleblower-whisperer Chuck Grassley of Iowa. They sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, detailing Friend’s procedural objections, including that “agents are being required to perform investigative actions” they “would not otherwise pursue,” at the direction of the Washington Field Office (WFO).

    When Friend first complained to his Assistant Special Agents in Charge (ASACs — the FBI is an acronym hell worse than the military), he told them, with regard to J6 suspects: “I’m not a Trump voter. I’m not sympathetic to those people.” The message didn’t get through, however, and leaks from the Bureau have almost universally painted him as an insubordinate MAGA conspiracist.

    In fact, most of the press Friend attracted reduced his story to a referendum on the Capitol riots, as if his only complaint was being asked to investigate J6 at all. Big guns were brought out to sell the idea. Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence-turned-talking-head Frank Figliuzzi blasted Friend on MSNBC as a “self-styled FBI whistleblower” (Figliuzzi, a lawyer, should know better: Friend made protected disclosures by the book and is legally a whistleblower), implying he simply didn’t follow “valid” orders, instead “running to Trump-loving Congressmen” to complain.

    But Friend’s complaint is only partially about J6. His concerns began in his first days in Quantico, and continued across years of watching the Bureau collect intelligence or open cases for non-operational reasons. Whether they involve J6 or not, a consistent theme of his stories is the FBI using its authority to “disrupt” or intimidate targets as an end in itself, as opposed to collecting evidence with the aim of prosecuting.

    One example involved a British doctor who’d been at J6. The suspect was not exactly Pablo Escobar. He did enter the Capitol, but surveillance showed he meekly stayed behind velvet ropes once inside, and under questioning was practically shaking with guilt over having taken a free Capitol tourist brochure as a souvenir. Though he seemed unlikely to be charged, he was booted from his medical practice after being interviewed, and Friend wondered if this even indirectly had been the point.

    “I worried about the process being the punishment,” Friend says. “He lost his job. What does he get from us, if we don’t charge him? ‘Hey, you’re clear? The FBI found no wrongdoing, go pick up the pieces’?”

    In the incident that led to Friend’s suspension, the FBI wanted to execute a SWAT raid on a subject who’d been communicating with the Bureau through an attorney and almost certainly would have come in voluntarily. Or, Friend thought, he could have been picked up in another, less dangerous way. The FBI however wanted a show.

    “We’re gonna hit this house at six o’clock in the morning and throw flash-bangs and knock the door down and drive a Bearcat up on the front lawn,” recalls Friend, who had extensive SWAT experience and even worked the raid of Michigan militia members suspected of plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

    He recounts a detail straight out of the movie Idiocracy: the armored Bearcat vehicles the FBI uses in SWAT raids are fitted with special battering-ram-type devices agents call dongers. (No joke. Washington Field Office agents even nickname their Bearcat accessory “DOJ,” for Dong of Justice). Friend describes the lunacy of a federal posse riding into the suburbs to take a door in one of these phallic tanks. “You’re driving down the road with this long extension pole on the front,” he says, laughing. “And I’m thinking, ‘These things were built by the lowest possible bidder.’”

    He didn’t laugh so much, however, when he started to get the sense the FBI was opening cases, knocking on doors, and using tactics like SWAT for reasons other than operational necessity.

    “I was a little kid and a smart kid in school and I got bullied, bad. That’s one of the reasons I went to law enforcement, and joined the FBI.” He pauses. “My attitude toward the FBI was, ‘You guys are the NFL of police work. You’re supposed to be fighting bullies. I think we might be becoming the bullies here.”

    Though he’s been denounced by pundits and Figliuzzi types as an insurrectionist “sympathizer” with nothing legitimate to say, Friend’s complaints in fact track with those of a number of FBI whistleblowers who came before him. Since 9/11, many complain the FBI is hurtling back in time, toward its darkest days under J. Edgar Hoover, when it was a vast, unchecked domestic political spying operation, swinging under a fig leaf of legitimizing law enforcement activity.

    The Hoover-era FBI plunged into such infamous excess via snooping programs like COINTELPRO — from trying to blackmail Martin Luther King, Jr. into suicide to opening intelligence files on as many as 500,000 Americans, including a list of 26,000 “to be rounded up in the event of a national emergency” — that Congress in 1975 was forced to intervene. Led by Idaho Senator Frank Church, a Senate oversight committee uncovered deep rot, finding the FBI secretly went “beyond its law” to “disrupt, discredit and harass groups and individuals.”

    The Church hearings led to reforms that checked the Bureau’s worst instincts, for a time. Now the beast is back. The FBI not only is deep into the domestic spying game again, it’s accrued broad new powers, including authority to collect intelligence on Americans virtually without limit.

    “I would like to think the point of all the intelligence analysis is to create products that are going to help crack a case,” Friend says. “But they’re not. In some cases, there’s no crime. We’re just intelligence, intelligence, intelligence.”

    What does an FBI that stresses intelligence, intelligence, intelligence for its own sake look like, in day-to-day practice? No matter your politics, you’ll probably be shocked.

    Subscribers to TK News can read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 17:40

  • Convicted Elizabeth Holmes Pleads For 'Lenient' 18-Month Sentence At Home
    Convicted Elizabeth Holmes Pleads For ‘Lenient’ 18-Month Sentence At Home

    Elizabeth Holmes was convicted earlier this year of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars following the epic demise of Silicon Valley blood-testing company Theranos Inc. Holmes’ lawyer filed a request to the judge for leniency in the sentencing and requested 18 months of home confinement instead of years in prison, reported Bloomberg.

    Ten months after 50 hours of deliberations, the jury of eight men and four women convicted the Theranos founder of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for scamming investors about the innovative technology Theranos allegedly had to revolutionize blood testing with the simple prick of a patient’s finger.

    Her lawyer penned a letter ahead of sentencing next week for US District Judge Edward Davila to overlook her fraudster caricature and instead focus on her as a human being. The memo said she deserved 18 months of home confinement rather than prison. 

    The memo was accompanied by letters from over 130 friends, family, and even Theranos investors, as well as former company employees who described Holmes as a ‘good person.’ 

    Judge Davila has handled her case since the collapse of Theranos after reaching a valuation of $9 billion. Criminal defense lawyers tell Bloomberg that Holmes’ sentencing could send a warning shot to Silicon Valley companies that run on hopes and dreams. 

    Another expert said the sentencing of Holmes is to discourage technology startups that blind investors with hype. Holmes’ request subtracts about 18.5 years from the maximum incarceration period she faces for her convictions, with the memo noting that time would be better spent at home than in prison. 

    “We acknowledge that this may seem a tall order given the public perception of this case,” her lawyers wrote. 

    They added: the judge shouldn’t view Theranos as “a house of cards,” but as the “ambitious, inventive, and indisputably valuable enterprise it was.” 

    “The court’s difficult task is to look beyond those surface-level views when it fashions its sentence,” the letter concluded. 

    Holmes’s memo also expands on her childhood and years at Stanford University. It also touches on life’s traumas detailed in court, such as the rape of Holmes in college. 

    The memo reiterates her ex-boyfriend and a former executive at Theranos, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, of sexual abuse that clouded her judgment. Balwani, 57, was convicted of fraud in July and faces sentencing next month.  

    Holmes’ scheme defrauded media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, former Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, and Walmart’s Walton family for hundreds of millions of dollars. Defrauding the DeVos family of $100 million in one count alone calls for 9-11 years in prison. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/11/2022 – 17:20

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Nov 11

Today’s News 11th November 2022

  • The Government Is Still Waging War On America's Military Veterans
    The Government Is Still Waging War On America’s Military Veterans

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “For soldiers … coming home is more lethal than being in combat.” 

    – Brené Brown, research professor at the University of Houston

    The U.S. government is still waging war on America’s military veterans.

    Especially veterans who exercise their First Amendment right to speak out against government wrongdoing.

    Consider: we raise our young people on a steady diet of militarism and war, sell them on the idea that defending freedom abroad by serving in the military is their patriotic duty, then when they return home, bruised and battle-scarred and committed to defending their freedoms at home, we often treat them like criminals merely for exercising those rights they risked their lives to defend.

    As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the government even has a name for its war on America’s veterans: Operation Vigilant Eagle.

    This Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program tracks military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and characterizes them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.”

    Coupled with the DHS’ dual reports on Rightwing and Leftwing “Extremism,” which broadly define extremists as individuals, military veterans and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” these tactics bode ill for anyone seen as opposing the government.

    Yet the government is not merely targeting individuals who are voicing their discontent so much as it is taking aim at individuals trained in military warfare.

    Don’t be fooled by the fact that the DHS has gone extremely quiet about Operation Vigilant Eagle.

    Where there’s smoke, there’s bound to be fire.

    And the government’s efforts to target military veterans whose views may be perceived as “anti-government” make clear that something is afoot.

    In recent years, military servicemen and women have found themselves increasingly targeted for surveillance, censorship, threatened with incarceration or involuntary commitment, labeled as extremists and/or mentally ill, and stripped of their Second Amendment rights.

    In light of the government’s efforts to lay the groundwork to weaponize the public’s biomedical data and predict who might pose a threat to public safety based on mental health sensor data (a convenient means by which to penalize certain “unacceptable” social behaviors), encounters with the police could get even more deadly, especially if those involved have a mental illness or disability coupled with a military background.

    Incredibly, as part of a proposal introduced under the Trump Administration, a new government agency HARPA (a healthcare counterpart to the Pentagon’s research and development arm DARPA) will take the lead in identifying and targeting “signs” of mental illness or violent inclinations among the populace by using artificial intelligence to collect data from Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Google Home.

    These tactics are not really new.

    Many times throughout history in totalitarian regimes, such governments have declared dissidents mentally ill and unfit for society as a means of rendering them disempowering them.

    For example, government officials in the Cold War-era Soviet Union often used psychiatric hospitals as prisons in order to isolate political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally through the use of electric shocks, drugs and various medical procedures.

    This age-old practice by which despotic regimes eliminate their critics or potential adversaries by declaring them mentally ill and locking them up in psychiatric wards for extended periods of time is a common practice in present-day China.

    What is particularly unnerving, however, is how this practice of eliminating or undermining potential critics, including military veterans, is happening with increasing frequency in the United States.

    Remember, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) opened the door for the government to detain as a threat to national security anyone viewed as a troublemaker. According to government guidelines for identifying domestic extremists—a word used interchangeably with terrorists—technically, anyone exercising their First Amendment rights in order to criticize the government qualifies.

    It doesn’t take much anymore to be flagged as potentially anti-government in a government database somewhere—Main Core, for example—that identifies and tracks individuals who aren’t inclined to march in lockstep to the government’s dictates.

    In fact, as the Washington Post reports, communities are being mapped and residents assigned a color-coded threat score—green, yellow or red—so police are forewarned about a person’s potential inclination to be a troublemaker depending on whether they’ve had a career in the military, posted a comment perceived as threatening on Facebook, suffer from a particular medical condition, or know someone who knows someone who might have committed a crime.

    The case of Brandon Raub is a prime example of Operation Vigilant Eagle in action.

    Raub, a 26-year-old decorated Marine, actually found himself interrogated by government agents about his views on government corruption, arrested with no warning, labeled mentally ill for subscribing to so-called “conspiratorial” views about the government, detained against his will in a psych ward for standing by his views, and isolated from his family, friends and attorneys. Within days of Raub being seized and forcibly held in a VA psych ward, news reports started surfacing of other veterans having similar experiences.

    “Oppositional defiance disorder” (ODD) is another diagnosis being used against veterans who challenge the status quo. As journalist Anthony Martin explains, an ODD diagnosis

    “denotes that the person exhibits ‘symptoms’ such as the questioning of authority, the refusal to follow directions, stubbornness, the unwillingness to go along with the crowd, and the practice of disobeying or ignoring orders. Persons may also receive such a label if they are considered free thinkers, nonconformists, or individuals who are suspicious of large, centralized government… At one time the accepted protocol among mental health professionals was to reserve the diagnosis of oppositional defiance disorder for children or adolescents who exhibited uncontrollable defiance toward their parents and teachers.”

    That the government is using the charge of mental illness as the means by which to immobilize (and disarm) these veterans is diabolical. With one stroke of a magistrate’s pen, these veterans are being declared mentally ill, locked away against their will, and stripped of their constitutional rights.

    If it were just being classified as “anti-government,” that would be one thing.

    Unfortunately, anyone with a military background and training is also now being viewed as a heightened security threat by police who are trained to shoot first and ask questions later.

    Feeding this perception of veterans as ticking time bombs in need of intervention, the Justice Department launched a pilot program in 2012 aimed at training SWAT teams to deal with confrontations involving highly trained and often heavily armed combat veterans.

    The result?

    Police encounters with military veterans often escalate very quickly into an explosive and deadly situation, especially when SWAT teams are involved.

    For example, Jose Guerena, a Marine who served in two tours in Iraq, was killed after an Arizona SWAT team kicked open the door of his home during a mistaken drug raid and opened fire. Thinking his home was being invaded by criminals, Guerena told his wife and child to hide in a closet, grabbed a gun and waited in the hallway to confront the intruders. He never fired his weapon. In fact, the safety was still on his gun when he was killed. The SWAT officers, however, not as restrained, fired 70 rounds of ammunition at Guerena—23 of those bullets made contact. Apart from his military background, Guerena had had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home.

    John Edward Chesney, a 62-year-old Vietnam veteran, was killed by a SWAT team allegedly responding to a call that the Army veteran was standing in his San Diego apartment window waving what looked like a semi-automatic rifle. SWAT officers locked down Chesney’s street, took up positions around his home, and fired 12 rounds into Chesney’s apartment window. It turned out that the gun Chesney reportedly pointed at police from three stories up was a “realistic-looking mock assault rifle.”

    Ramon Hooks’ encounter with a Houston SWAT team did not end as tragically, but it very easily could have. Hooks, a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran, was using an air rifle gun for target practice outside when a Homeland Security Agent, allegedly house shopping in the area, reported him as an active shooter. It wasn’t long before the quiet neighborhood was transformed into a war zone, with dozens of cop cars, an armored vehicle and heavily armed police. Hooks was arrested, his air rifle pellets and toy gun confiscated, and charges filed against him for “criminal mischief.”

    Given the government’s increasing view of veterans as potential domestic terrorists, it makes one think twice about government programs encouraging veterans to include a veterans designation on their drivers’ licenses and ID cards.

    Hailed by politicians as a way to “make it easier for military veterans to access discounts from retailers, restaurants, hotels and vendors across the state,” it will also make it that much easier for the government to identify and target veterans who dare to challenge the status quo.

    Remember: no one is spared in a police state.

    Eventually, as I make clear in Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we all suffer the same fate.

    It stands to reason that if the government can’t be bothered to abide by its constitutional mandate to respect the citizenry’s rights—whether it’s the right to be free from government surveillance and censorship, the right to due process and fair hearings, the right to be free from roadside strip searches and militarized police, or the right to peacefully assemble and protest and exercise our right to free speech—then why should anyone expect the government to treat our nation’s veterans with respect and dignity?

    Certainly, veterans have enough physical and psychological war wounds to overcome without adding the government to the mix. Although the U.S. boasts more than 20 million veterans who have served in World War II through the present day, large numbers of veterans are impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, suicide, and marital stress, homeless, subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, and left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration offices.

    At least 60,000 veterans died by suicide between 2008 and 2017.

    On average, 6,000 veterans kill themselves every year. However, a recent study suggests that the rate of suicide among veterans may be more than double what federal officials report annually.

    The plight of veterans today—and their treatment at the hands of the U.S. government—remains America’s badge of shame.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 23:40

  • OR Gun Control Referendum Nears Goal Line; Iowans Approve Gun Rights Amendment
    OR Gun Control Referendum Nears Goal Line; Iowans Approve Gun Rights Amendment

    Gun rights and gun control advocates were both eyeing two major state gun referendums this week. There may be something for both crowds to cheer about — as Iowans firmly embraced gun rights, while Oregonians may have approved a strict gun control regime in a vote that’s still being tallied.  

    In addition to criminalizing possession of a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds, Oregon’s “Measure 114” would require a permit to purchase any firearm. To obtain the permit, Oregonians would have to: 

    • Pay a fee that’s expected to be $65

    • Be fingerprinted

    • Pass a criminal background check

    • Complete a safety training course 

    Gun owners’ privacy would be violated:

    “State police would be required to maintain an electronically searchable, publicly available database of all permit applications,” reported The Epoch Times.

    With 72% of the vote counted as this article is written, “Yes” is leading 50.8% to 49.2%. Though most outlets have not indicated a final result, The Oregonian raced to declare the measure’s adoption on Election Night, on the basis that most of the votes left to be counted are from areas favoring the referendum. 

    “Sadly, this blatant assault on the Second Amendment rights of honest citizens narrowly passed — restrictions that include mandatory training, background checks, fingerprinting, and permitting. All of these infringements are completely contrary to the Supreme Court’s Bruen precedent, and ultimately, will be overturned.” Erich Pratt Senior VP, GOA.

    In social media posts on Wednesday, at least two Oregon sheriffs said they’ll defy the measure, either in whole or part: 

    • “This is an infringement on our constitutional rights and will not be enforced by my office!” said Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen in a Facebook post. “Hear this! When it comes to our constitutional rights I’ll fight to the death to defend them. No matter what crazy law comes out of Salem!”

    • “I want to send a clear message to Linn County residents that the Linn County Sheriff’s Office is NOT going to be enforcing magazine capacity limits,” said Sheriff Michelle Duncan.  

    Beyond its imposition of barriers to the exercise of a fundamental human right, the referendum has a Catch-22 built into it, according to Oregon trial attorney Leonard Williamson. 

    “In order to obtain the permit, an applicant would have to show up with a firearm to demonstrate the ability to load, fire, unload, and store the firearm,” Williamson told The Epoch Times. “But you can’t get a firearm without the permit. And under Oregon’s highly restrictive gun storage laws, no one can legally loan a firearm to another. That creates an impassable barrier.”

    There’s another built-in problem: 

    “Firearms dealers will not be able to sell a firearm to anyone without a permit; since the permit system does not exist, all legal firearms sales in the State of Oregon will stop until a permit system is established,” says Klamath County Sheriff Chris Kaber, who opposed the measure.

    He anticipates that, upon a challenge, a federal judge will stay the measure’s enforcement until a permitting process is put in place. 

    On the plus side, the magazine size-restriction has an exception for “current owners/inheritors,” which would seem to shoot a big hole in its enforceability. Sheriff Kaber nonetheless recommends documenting current possession of such magazines, such as with a dated photo. 

    The Firearms Policy Coalition, a frequent litigator against gun control measures, has already promised to challenge Oregon’s scheme:  

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

    The news from the Hawkeye State is much cheerier. Until now, Iowa has been one of only six of states without a constitutional provision safeguarding gun rights. That’s changing, as Iowans approved a constitutional amendment by a lopsided 65% to 35% vote. 

    Iowans for Responsible Gun Laws said “the potential consequences of this amendment’s passage…will be far reaching and dire.”  

    Judge for yourself — here’s the text of the amendment: 

    “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”

    The text initially echoes the operative part of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. With the second sentence, it pointedly counters the flawed notion that gun rights are necessarily limited to current militia service.

    The third sentence explicitly selects the legal standard by which Iowa courts should evaluate challenges to gun control measures. “Strict scrutiny” is the highest standard of review, requiring that a given law be narrowly tailored to further “a compelling governmental interest.” 

    “This is a very high standard,” Iowa Sen. Brad Zaun said when the amendment was advanced by the legislature in 2018. “What this bill is about – let’s put the cards on the table – is judicial activism.”

    Thanks to this summer’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, Iowa’s strict scrutiny provision may be a little redundant. However, like a gun, it’s better to have one and not need it than need one and not have it. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 23:20

  • 'We’re Not Permitted To Make The Connection': Social Worker Shares Aftermath Of COVID Vaccine Injury
    ‘We’re Not Permitted To Make The Connection’: Social Worker Shares Aftermath Of COVID Vaccine Injury

    Authored by Carly Mayberry via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    As a social worker known for her expertise when handling high-stress conflict management cases, Angela Loerzel Swafford figured she’d navigate her own concerns when it came to addressing her employers’ vaccination mandate last fall.

    And she definitely had concerns. 

    (Photo courtesy of Angela Loerzel Swafford)

    Like many hospitals and health systems across the nation during that time, the hospital where the 46-year-old was and is still employed required their health workers to get the jab. But Swafford suffers from a venous malformation, a condition where veins in the body develop in an unusual way. Because the abnormality can increase the risk of developing blood clots and deep vein thrombosis, she was hesitant about getting the COVID jab. 

    Still, worried about the possibility of losing the job she loved, the licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) practicing in both Oregon and Washington, was willing to do what was needed to protect her patients from COVID-19.

    “I love that job,” said Swafford who had always gotten the flu vaccine every year to protect the vulnerable patients she visits in hospice care. “I have this concern about my own safety but I also understand what I need to do to protect the community.”

     “It stops with you,” she added, or so she had always been told.

    No Space for Questions

    Swafford reached out to a few of her health providers, asking which vaccine would be best for her situation. However, she claimed that she didn’t feel supported during her inquiry and decision-making process. 

    “I think there should be space that we can be curious and pause and ask questions,” she said, noting she did express her health concerns but that her employer and health providers didn’t really allow any questions. “I feel that the physicians had a script and I was not heard and was kind of pushed through.”

    Seizure-like Symptoms, Blurred Vision 

    After being one of the last of her cohort of colleagues to receive the first Pfizer shot, what transpired next for Swafford was nothing short of horrifying. 

    Four hours later she started noticing pain in her upper body and difficulty charting her patients. Driving home that night, she lost orientation as to where she was.

    “Taking the exit to my house, I remember it felt like my face was exploding in pinpricks–like I had all of these sharp needle feelings all over my face,” she recalled. “My tongue, lips, and face felt swollen, my vision was blurred and I wasn’t processing information.”

    Once home, the strange sensations were followed by a repeated jerking of her whole body, what she said resembled Tonic-Clonic seizures. She also experienced blurred vision and terrible headaches.

    “The biggest thing was my vision, confusion in my thinking, trying to walk with coordination and dizziness,” she went on. “I couldn’t figure things out.”

    During some neurology psychiatry testing, Swafford said she fell under the two percentile of the people in her peer group when it came to her “processing speed” and “impaired ability to learn new information.”

    “They found I’m not encoding new information–that my processing is really slow,” she explained.

    Ultimately, Swafford was diagnosed with a severe adverse reaction to the mRNA vaccine.

    Now, more than a year later after undergoing numerous lab tests, MRIs, CT scans, and a plethora of visits to healthcare professionals (including neurologists, an epidemiologist, an occupational medicine specialist, a speech therapist, and others), Swafford continues to suffer cognitively, from an abrupt change in her vision and sleep abnormalities. She doesn’t drive because of double vision and a loss of peripheral vision and hasn’t returned to work.

    Doctors: Neurological Side Effects Have Been More Unusual

    Meanwhile, despite cases of myocarditis having made the headlines in terms of adverse reactions to the vaccines, neurological side effects like the ones experienced by Swafford, haven’t gotten the same attention. 

    That, along with what she described as her health providers’ lack of acknowledgment, has been frustrating for both her and her husband.

     “We kept running into providers in every system saying, ‘We’re not permitted to make the connection’ or ‘It doesn’t mean anything until studies support it’ or ‘It doesn’t exist until the scientific community writes about it,” recounted Swafford.

    “One of the saddest things I see is the diagnosis of functional neurologic disorder (FND) lumped together for these patients,” said Dr. Diane Counce, medical director of neurology and neurodiagnostics in Alabama, noting that such a diagnosis makes patients feel like “it’s all in their head.”

    Counce describes Swafford’s symptoms as neurological. 

    Data from the Center for Disease Control’s Vaccine Adverse Reporting System (VAERS) calculated through Oct. 28, 2022, has shown a total of over 37,000 reported neurological symptoms. 

    In terms of neurological symptoms similar to Swafford’s, there have been 4,659 cases of balance disorder, 10,190 cases of migraines, 5,192 seizures, and 573 seizure-like phenomena on VAERS. Also documented among many other neurological incidents were 4,737 cases of visual impairment.

    “When you have a patient like Swafford who within four hours is having symptoms that she’s never experienced before, clearly this is not just a migraine,” added Counce, noting the number of physicians that aren’t willing to take on patients like her or don’t know how to treat such patients. “She’s one of the more severe cases I’ve heard of experiencing multiple things including confusion, headaches, visual, hearing, mood, and behavioral changes.”

    After reviewing Swafford’s case, epidemiologist, professor, and author Daniel Halperin also concluded that as a young, healthy person who experienced these symptoms soon after receiving the shot, the most likely explanation for the health ailments must be vaccine-related. 

    Like many experts, Halperin, who has written myriad peer review education articles and the book, “Facing COVID Without Panic: 12 Common Myths and 12 Lesser Known Facts about the Pandemic: Clearly Explained by an Epidemiologist,” acknowledges that no vaccine is 100 percent safe.

    “Early on, we thought vaccination was important not only to help people be protected from death or severe illness, but also because it could greatly cut down on the transmission of COVID,” Halperin said, noting the common sense approach and the belief that health professionals should get the vaccine not just for themselves but for their patients and others they might be exposed to.

    “Now that we know they don’t actually do very much to prevent transmission, I’m not sure how convincing that argument is anymore,” he added. 

    Prescribing a Vaccine Injury Regimen

    For her part, Counce is working with Swafford and has prescribed a regimen for her that includes intermittent fasting—known to have a strong effect on promoting immune system homeostasis, taking probiotics and certain supplements including vitamin D, resveratrol, melatonin, and omega-3 fatty acids.

    “It’s frustrating we don’t have specific labs to check these things,” Counce added, noting that when she started seeing patients developing negative symptoms from the vaccinations, injuries seemed to be all over the place.

    But, she said when she sees a vaccine-injured patient, she has ruled it down to about five different things that could be going on with their body. These include decreased immunity, autoimmune response, inflammatory/histamine response (similar to Mast Cell Syndrome), fibrin activation causing micro clotting, and amyloidosis (a disease that occurs when a protein called amyloid builds up in organs).

    Counce said it’s been shown by an electron microscope that damage has been done to the cells’ mitochondria, which likely contributes to brain fog and fatigue that patients experience.

    As a neurologist, she reported seeing an increasing number of vaccine-injured patients with personality changes, sleep issues, and nerve and muscle issues, among others.

    “It’s hard to say,” said Counce, who has been treating Swafford for the last month, as to what her prognosis is and if she will ultimately improve or not.

    “All vaccine injuries respond so differently,” said Counce. “This is a brave new world for us.”

    ‘I’m Really Out’

    Meanwhile, Angela Loerzel Swafford and her family wish she could get a “do-over” when it comes to getting that jab.

    “I did the shot to keep everything and more so to protect the community I work in because that’s what they were telling me, but in the end, I lost everything,” she said. “I am not the same.”

    “Angela would like people to understand that there are folks out there that have actually suffered a vaccine injury and it’s totally okay to say ‘Yep, that happened,’” said her husband. “Too many doctors are willing to say ‘There are no studies to support that,’ instead of gathering the evidence.”

    “I think it was either you’re vaccinated and you’re with us or you’re not,” recalled Swafford, regarding the mood at the time. Now, she said, most of her friends don’t know how to be with her because she’s so different from who she once was.

     “It became you’re in or you’re out and I’m really out,” she said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 23:00

  • Iran Claims It Developed A Hypersonic Missile
    Iran Claims It Developed A Hypersonic Missile

    Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Thursday issued a surprising statement claiming that it has developed a hypersonic missile “capable of penetrating all defense systems,” according to the words of the commander of the IRGC aerospace unit overseeing the project.

    General Amirali Hajizadeh claimed in the statement cited in state-run Fars news agency, “This hypersonic ballistic missile was developed to counter air defense shields.” Hypersonic missiles can reach more than five times the speed of sound, and very few countries in the world possess the capability. Iran is now for the first time claiming to be among them.

    Iran Claims To Have Developed Hypersonic Ballistic Missile

    “It will be able to breach all the systems of anti-missile defense,” said the general, stressing that no anti-air system has yet been developed by any foreign nation which is capable of intercepting them. “This missile, which targets enemy anti-missile systems, represents a great generational leap in the field of missiles,” the IRGC commander added.

    Israel, the US, and the West more broadly is sure to take this as a shocking and dangerous development if confirmed, given already there’s been years of scrutiny placed on Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programs, amid ongoing threats to Israel especially.

    The only three countries in the world believed to possess hypersonics include the United States, Russia, and China. It remains Russia that is likely most out front in testing its hypersonic arsenal, having touted multiple successful launches and even limited deployment on the Ukrainian battlefield.

    North Korea last year also claimed to have tested a hypersonic missile, though there was little in the way of verification as to how far along its program really is. Some Western analysts think Pyongyang was bluffing, and this could be the current case with Iran as well.

    While there remains cause for skepticism over the new hypersonics claim, in recent years Western defense officials have consistently underestimated Iran’s defense technology sector and capabilities…

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    Iran has within the last year launched ballistic missiles on neighboring Iraq, targeting what it called terrorist militia groups seeking to undermine the state, which had camps hosted in Kurdish areas. Washington has also accused Iran of launching attacks via proxies on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, specifically out of Yemen. “These attacks are a reminder that Iran’s development and proliferation of ballistic missiles pose a serious threat to regional and international security,” the US government said at the time.

    More recently there have been rumors that Iran is supplying ballistic missiles to Russia alongside drones for use in Ukraine. Tehran has vehemently denied it is giving missiles to Moscow, but has just this month belatedly admitted to supplying drones. 

    As for this new claim to possess hypersonic projectiles, if Israel sees any validity in it, Israeli forces could potentially see reason enough to launch preemptive strikes on the Islamic Republic’s missile manufacturing facilities. However, Iran has long tried to conceal aspects of its long-range missile program in deep underground bunkers.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 22:40

  • China Develops 'Back To The Future-Style Hoverboard' Able To Climb 10,000 Feet
    China Develops ‘Back To The Future-Style Hoverboard’ Able To Climb 10,000 Feet

    A Chinese defense contractor is preparing for the first human test flight of a jet-propelled skateboard next year, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

    The vertical take-off device, in the shape of Back to the Future II’s Marty McFly’s Mattel Hoverboard, can lift a person weighing up to 220 pounds to an altitude of nearly 10,000 feet. The operator of the skateboard, dubbed “SF-FB-30,” can fly for as long as ten minutes at speeds up to 93 mph. 

    SF-FB-30’s flight control system is powered by artificial intelligence, allowing the operator to maneuver the flying board just like a “skateboard,” the Beijing Institute of Power Machinery, a contractor for China’s space program and hypersonic weapons, wrote in a poster at the International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong, this week. 

    “We are making the fastest progress in China. Our machine is simpler and easier to use than similar projects in other countries,” a Beijing Institute of Power Machinery representative told SCMP.

    The representative said the board’s artificial intelligence could fly itself and haul cargo or even transport a passenger. 

    The institute said the board has defense applications, such as using it to board a hijacked container ship. Besides military use, the board could be used in the civilian world for search and rescue operations, building evacuation, and urban transport. 

    Meanwhile, in the Western world, British soldiers fly around in ‘Iron Man-style’ jetpacks to practice boarding enemy or hijacked vessels.  

    Gravity Industries, a human flight start-up based out of the UK, recently released footage of these jetpacks flying around New York City’s harbor.

    So besides hypersonic weapons, AI drones, and fifth and soon sixth-generation planes, global superpowers are seeking jet-propelled skateboards and jetpacks for new mobility capabilities on the modern battlefield. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 22:00

  • 'Industrial Sabotage': Former Army Pilot Sentenced For Spying For China
    ‘Industrial Sabotage’: Former Army Pilot Sentenced For Spying For China

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

    A former U.S. Army helicopter pilot was sentenced to 20 months in prison this week for spying on behalf of China’s communist regime.

    The crest of the Department of Justice at its headquarters in Washington on May 10, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

    Shapour Moinian was sentenced on Nov. 7 for his part in accepting thousands of dollars from representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in exchange for providing the regime with classified aviation-related information taken from his defense contractors who employed him.

    “This was industrial espionage, bordering on military espionage. … These were extremely serious offenses against the United States,” said Judge Jeffrey Miller at the sentencing.

    Moinian served in the U.S. Army from 1977 to 2000, according to a Justice Department statement on the sentencing. After his service, he worked for various cleared defense contractors in the United States as well as the Department of Defense itself. “Cleared” means that the contractors were permitted to work on projects involving classified information.

    A man in China who claimed to be a technical recruiter reached out to Moinian in 2017. The man offered Moinian a job consulting for China’s aviation industry and expressed interest in Moinian’s work on classified aviation projects for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

    Moinian traveled to Hong Kong to meet with the man, where he agreed to provide information and materials related to multiple aircraft types, either designed or manufactured in the United States. He received between $7,000 and $10,000 in exchange for the information, as well as a cell phone and instructions on how to communicate with his new contacts in China.

    A People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force WZ-7 high-altitude reconnaissance drone is seen a day before the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, southern China’s Guangdong Province, on Sept. 27, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

    According to his plea agreement, Moinian knew that the individuals at that meeting and all subsequent meetings were, in fact, directly employed by the CCP or otherwise directed by CCP authorities.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 21:40

  • Texas Judge Strikes Down Biden's Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan As Unconstitutional
    Texas Judge Strikes Down Biden’s Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan As Unconstitutional

    First two years of lame duck gridlock, now this.

    Late on Thursday, a federal judge in Texas ruled that 80-year-old (ok, fine 79 for another 10 days) President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt was unlawful and must be vacated, delivering a victory to conservative opponents of the program.

    District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of former Donald Trump in Fort Worth, ruled in a lawsuit backed by the Job Creators Network Foundation on behalf of two borrowers.

    Pittman in a 26-page ruling wrote that the HEROES Act – a law that provides loan assistance to military personnel and that was relied upon by the Biden administration to enact the relief plan – did not authorize the $400 billion student loan forgiveness program.

    “The Program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and must be vacated,” Pittman wrote.

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    Biden’s debt relief plan was already temporarily blocked by the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while it considers a request by six Republican-led states to enjoin it while they appealed the dismissal of their own lawsuit.

    Biden’s plan has been the subject of several lawsuits by conservative state attorneys general and legal groups, though plaintiffs before Thursday had struggled to convince courts they were harmed by it in such a way that they have standing to sue.

    The Congressional Budget Office in September calculated the debt forgiveness would eliminate about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt and that over 40 million people were eligible to benefit.

    The plan, announced in August, calls for forgiving up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples. Borrowers who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students will have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled.

    Of course, the Biden admin won’t let this aggression against socialism stand, and after it wins on appeal at one of the extremely liberal appeals courts across the country, a final decision is going right to the Supremes.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 21:20

  • Chinese Loans Grow Less Than Expected Again, A Reflection Of Weak Loan Demand And A Weak Economy
    Chinese Loans Grow Less Than Expected Again, A Reflection Of Weak Loan Demand And A Weak Economy

    By Iris Pang, Chief Greater China Economist at ING Bank

    The fourth quarter is usually a quiet time for loans and credits, but this set of data for October is just too soft. 

    Overall credit growth was only CNY907.9 billion in October, lower than the previous month’s CNY3530 billion, and less than CNY1617.6 billion a year ago. Among all credit growth, yuan loan growth was CNY615.2 billion, also lower than the previous month’s CNY2470 billion. Outstanding yuan loans grew 11.1% year-on-year, slower than 11% in the previous month and 11.9% during the same month in 2021.

    This indicates that demand for loans was weak in October. Together with PMI and trade data, we believe that there could be a deeper-than-expected slowdown during the month.

    The housing market should still be quiet as mortgage loans, which are a big part of household long-term loans, grew only CNY33.2 billion.

    Yuan loans made up nearly 68% of total new credit in the month of October. Most of the rest were net issuance of corporate and government bonds, which contributed nearly 26% and 31%, respectively, of total new credit. 

    Local government special bonds will raise funds for the 2023 quota in the fourth quarter of this year. The issuance amount for 2023 is likely to be higher than the issuance amount of around CNY4.15 trillion in 2022. We believe funding raised will be used on finishing uncompleted home projects, buying back land from some property developers, infrastructure projects that have already started, and Covid-19-related spending.  

    What will be interesting to find out is how much more local government bond quotas are set for 2023. We believe that both central government and local governments will be key supporters of the economy until there is more relaxation in Covid measures.

    We are still keeping GDP growth at 3.3% for 2022 and USD/CNY at 7.4 by the end of the year.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 21:00

  • Conservative Candidates Take Note – DeSantis Dominated In Florida For These Reasons
    Conservative Candidates Take Note – DeSantis Dominated In Florida For These Reasons

    Many Republicans are experiencing a bittersweet election week with some impressive wins, but not the “red wave” that they were hoping for.  With a Congressional majority looking like a certainty and the Senate up in the air, it’s an overall victory for conservatives but not a slam dunk defense against leftists and Joe Biden.  What we do know is that while there was no red wave, there was certainly no blue wave either.  

    This tells us a few things:  For one, Americans are more entrenched in their political views than ever and they aren’t likely to budge.  When governors like Gretchen Whitmer or Kathy Hochul can win reelection after attempting to impose hardcore authoritarian measures on their constituency during the covid scare, it becomes clear that Democrat voters are too mentally challenged to recognize they are harming themselves.  Maybe those people deserve what they get.

    By extension, conservative voters are far more nuanced.  They aren’t interested in voting for a candidate just because they identify as GOP, they want that candidate to share their values and concerns and take action.  If a candidate doesn’t show courage and stand immovable against establishment agendas, conservatives may just stay home rather than vote for them.  

    For example, in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman managed to defeat Dr. Mehmet Oz despite Fetterman’s brain being scrambled by a stroke during the campaign.  Democrats will vote for ANYONE that will keep their state blue, they even reelected a dead Democrat House candidate in PA (Tony DeLuca).  Meanwhile, Oz avidly promoted the covid mRNA vaccines after pretending to be skeptical of them, and tried to sell his followers on them despite there being many questions of safety and efficacy.  A lot of conservatives fought hard and took considerable risks in defying the mandates, and some felt betrayed by Oz’s apparent truce with Big Pharma.  This may have contributed to his election loss.  

    One Republican that fully dominated during his campaign was Ron DeSantis.  There is no denying that there was a red wave in Florida, which was considered a swing state only a few years ago.  Now, Democrats see the state as a lost cause for the 2024 presidential race with zero chance of retrieval.  DeSantis carried nearly 60% of the vote, with Charlie Crist left with 40%.  DeSantis’ success also helped the majority of other GOP candidates in Florida gain a voter majority, with Republicans winning 20 congressional seats.

     

    Why did DeSantis crush leftists in his state while many other Republicans barely squeezed a win or lost by slim margins?  What did he do that they did not do?  Yes, he’s an incumbent, which helps by allowing the candidate to show what he has already accomplished, but that can be a double edged sword.  What measures did DeSantis accomplish that won over Florida voters en masse and also prevented potential vote count “uncertainty”?  Let’s examine a list:

    Hard Stand Against Woke Politics

    DeSantis never wavered on his stance against woke politics, social justice agendas and far-left ideology.  He never tried to make a deal with leftists or appease them.  In fact, he instituted several measures and supported multiple bills in Florida that prevent woke politics from being taught in public schools.  

    He stopped Critical Race Theory from being implanted into school textbooks.  He prevented sexually driven lessons from being taught and is punishing activist teachers for sexualizing (grooming) children.  He has ended the injection of LGBT and Trans indoctrination for young students.  He also took on one of the largest media corporations in the world, Disney, and punished them for trying to control state politics and impose woke ideology through the company’s massive monetary influence.

    Leftists hate DeSantis for a reason – He has been effective against their tactics and they fear that other red states will follow his lead.  In his victory speech DeSantis proclaimed:  “Florida is where woke goes to die.”

    Hard Stand On Illegal Immigration

    A lot of people including many Democrats said that the strategy of busing illegal migrants from red states to far left cities like New York and Washington DC would fail.  Instead, it has been a resounding success, with Democrats scrambling just to keep their city budgets from imploding under the weight of a mere 10,000 to 15,000 illegals.  

    While Texas gets most of the credit for this action, DeSantis and Florida did one better and sent the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, the pristine island vacation home of many leftist elitists.  The fact that the people of Matha’s Vineyard put on a fraudulent show by feeding the migrants some cheap lunches and then bused them straight out of town the next day to a camp on a military base was a huge embarrassment for Democrats.  It proved that they can’t live up to their own standards and take care of a handful of migrants while expecting border states to deal with millions per year.  It was a major coup for DeSantis.

    Hard Stand Against Covid Mandates And Vaccine Passports

    The population of Florida is the third largest in the nation, with a high percentage of retirees and seniors citizens.  The amount of pressure on DeSantis by the Federal Government and Biden along with the CDC and Anthony Fauci over the pandemic was immense.  If Florida folded to the mandates, then many red states may have followed suit.  This did not happen.  

    One of the most important characteristics of a great leader is the ability to stand by one’s principles even when the majority of the public or your peers seem to be against you.  When you know you are right based on reason, logic, facts and evidence, never submit or give in.  DeSantis showed this kind of fortitude over the past two years and this most of all is what likely won him another term as governor.    

    Passing Bills For Election Integrity

    DeSantis supported measures which secured Florida’s election integrity and prevented any potential chicanery in the 2022 midterms.  He signed a law strengthening voter identification at the polls.  Mass mailings of ballots, drop boxes and ballot harvesting are now illegal in Florida.  Private financiers are not allowed to administer elections.  He also established the Office of Election Crimes and Security, which monitors election integrity and enforces stiff penalties for anyone caught trying to cheat.

    If these rules were enforced in every state in the country, one might wonder how differently elections might turn out.  Future conservative candidates should take note of DeSantis and his overwhelming victory; it pays to actually defend the values you claim to represent, because conservative voters are not Democrats, they have standards.   

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 20:40

  • Biden Admin Tells Supreme Court To Let House Democrats Have Trump's Taxes
    Biden Admin Tells Supreme Court To Let House Democrats Have Trump’s Taxes

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    President Joe Biden’s administration is urging the Supreme Court to let House Democrats get access to former President Donald Trump’s tax documents.

    In a 30-page brief filed Nov. 10, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said that earlier rulings finding House Democrats’ request had legitimate legislative intent were correct, and that the nation’s top court should not diverge from them.

    U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, said the request from House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) served a valid legislative purpose because Neal says he will use the returns to examine whether new or adjusted legislation is needed for the IRS program that audits presidents.

    An appeals court later upheld the ruling.

    Trump then lodged an emergency application for a stay to the Supreme Court, which triggered a temporary block on Neal’s panel obtaining the documents.

    Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, entered the stay and asked the government to respond to Trump by Nov. 10 at noon.

    Trump’s lawyers said there is “a fair prospect” that the Supreme Court will stay the lower court rulings and deny the Democrat request, and that without a stay Trump will suffer issues such as a loss of confidentiality.

    Prelogar, a Biden appointee,  argued Trump had not met the bar for a stay, which includes an applicant showing a reasonable probability that four justices will agree to review the appeals court ruling and showing there is a fair prospect that a majority of the court would reverse the ruling.

    Because the appeals court relied on Supreme Court precedent, including Trump v. Mazars, there’s no need for the Supreme Court to review the ruling, Prelogar asserted.

    “The court of appeals’ factbound application of the Mazars factors does not warrant further review. And this case would be a particularly poor vehicle for elaborating on the Mazars analysis,” she said, noting that the two lower courts “each took somewhat different approaches to the separation-of-powers questions presented here, but all of them reached the same conclusion—and none of them regarded the case as particularly close.”

    “The application should be denied,” she added.

    Roberts has not yet indicated whether he will solicit a reply to the brief from Trump’s lawyers.

    Roberts is handling the application because he oversees the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

    He can keep the stay in place or lift it on his own, or choose to refer the matter to the full court for consideration.

    If the stay had not been imposed, the IRS was under orders to transmit Trump documents from tax years 2015 to 2020 to Neal.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 20:20

  • Loan Demand For Mortgage Loans Crashes To Depression Levels
    Loan Demand For Mortgage Loans Crashes To Depression Levels

    In all the chaos over the past few days, we missed the release of the Fed’s latest Senior Loan Officer Survey which came out Monday. The results were striking: as one would expect from an economy in recession (and in some cases, depression), in nearly all categories, banks are reporting both tighter lending standards and sliding demand for new loans…

    … and nowhere more so than in mortgages, both qualifying and otherwise, where demand has collapsed to “depression” levels as a result of the fastest every surge in interest rates.

    While C&I loans are still doing ok, and demand for credit card debt is still near record highs – to be expected at a time when revolving credit debt is soaring at the fastest pace in history, record APRs be damned – it’s only a matter of time before these two core credit categories follow mortgage loan demand into purgatory at which point the US economy will be a complete disaster.

    Here are some more details courtesy of Goldman:

    1. Lending standards for commercial and industrial (C&I) loans tightened in 2022 Q3. 39% of banks on net tightened lending standards for large and medium-market firms (vs. 24% on net in the previous quarter), while the number of banks tightening lending standards for small firms increased to 32% (vs. 22% on net in the previous quarter). 30% of banks on net widened spreads of loan rates over the cost of funds for large firms (vs. 12% on net in the previous quarter), while 25% on net widened spreads for small firms (vs. 13% on net in the previous quarter).
    2. For banks that tightened credit standards or terms for C&I loans or credit lines, all cited a less favorable or more uncertain economic outlook as playing a role; 61% cited reduced tolerance for risk; 59% cited a worsening of industry-specific problems; 39% cited decreased liquidity in the secondary market for these loans; 26% cited less aggressive competition from other lenders; 20% cited a deterioration in their bank’s current or expected capital position; and 20% cited a deterioration in their current or expected liquidity position as playing a role.
    3. Demand for C&I loans from large- and medium-sized firms weakened in Q3. 9% of banks on net reported weaker demand for C&I loans for large and medium-market firms, compared to 24% on net reporting stronger demand in the previous survey. 22% of banks reported weaker demand for C&I loans from small firms, compared to 18% reporting stronger demand the previous quarter.
    4. Standards for commercial real estate (CRE) loans tightened in 2022Q3. 58% (+10pp) of banks on net reported tightening credit standards for construction and land development loans, and 40% (+10pp) on net reported tightening lending standards for loans secured by multifamily residential properties. The number of banks that reported tightening standards for loans secured by non-farm non-residential properties increased to 53% (+11pp). Demand for loans secured by multifamily residential properties, loans secured by nonfarm nonresidential properties, and construction and land development loans all decreased.
    5. Credit standards on mortgage loans tightened somewhat. Standards eased slightly or were basically unchanged for non-jumbo, non-GSE eligible (-3.4pp to -3.4%) and GSE-eligible mortgages (flat at +1.7%). Meanwhile, standards tightened for Qualified Mortgage jumbo (-0.1pp to +5.2%); non-Qualified Mortgage jumbo (+3.8pp to +7.4%); non-Qualified Mortgage non-jumbo (-1.8pp to +3.8%); and subprime residential mortgages (-1.4pp to +11.1%).
    6. Banks’ willingness to make consumer installment loans decreased in Q3 (-7% on net vs. +5% on net previously). The portion of banks tightening credit standards for approving credit card applications increased (+19pp to +19%), and 2% of banks on net tightened standards for auto loans (flat). The portion of banks reporting stronger demand for credit card loans decreased but remained positive (-7pp to +11% on net), while demand for auto loans also declined (-12pp to -28% on net).

    But loan supply and demand aside, the punchline from the survey is that “most banks assigned probabilities between 40 and 80 percent to the likelihood of a recession in the next 12 months, with no bank reporting a probability less than 20 percent. Although banks in general assigned relatively high probabilities to a recession occurring in the next 12 months, most banks reported expecting the recession to be mild to moderate, should one occur. In addition, most foreign banks assigned a probability between 40 and 80 percent that a recession would occur in the next 12 months.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 20:00

  • The Election Won't Change Much In DC. The Real Battle Is Now In The States
    The Election Won’t Change Much In DC. The Real Battle Is Now In The States

    Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

    The votes are still being counted, but one thing is already clear: very little will change in Washington after this election. 

    The House of Representatives will likely be controlled by Republicans, but the majority enjoyed by the GOP in the House will be small. This will provide a veto over some of the worst legislation being pushed by the Biden administration, but history has made it abundantly clear that the GOP is more than willing to compromise and “work with” Democrat administrations rather than simply kill bills.

    As for the US Senate, we’re still waiting on the results in Nevada and Arizona. Georgia is headed to a runoff election. But it’s clear that the Senate will again be close to a 50-50 split. If the GOP manages to eke out a majority, that will help sink some of the worst legislation and some of the worst presidential appointees. But the direction of policy will not fundamentally change. 

    After all, so much of federal policy is now determined by the executive branch that moderate changes in party leadership in Congress will do very little to change the course of the nation’s administrative agencies such as the EPA, the IRS, and the FBI. These agencies have immense power over the daily lives of countless Americans, yet even sizable majorities of so-called conservatives have shown little stomach for doing much to rein in this power. Certainly, the small GOP majority now headed for the House will do little. 

    From Global Warming to Money Printing to Foreign Policy, Expect Little Change

    This all combines to mean we should expect very little change on policies at the federal level. For example, we can expect to keep hearing plenty about the evil of fossil fuels. The administration will continue to press for less drilling for oil and gas, and the war on coal will continue. The administration will continue to issue new edicts for “fighting global warming.” This, of course, will continue to drive up the cost of living. 

    On foreign policy, it was clear nothing much would change short of an overwhelming victory by “America First” types in Congress. That hasn’t happened, so we can expect more of the same foreign interventionism we’re seeing now. The US regime will add to the $65 billion it has already sent to Ukraine, and will continually ratchet up its involvement in the region as with a recent deployment of US troops near the Ukraine border. Even worse, the US will likely continue to flirt with nuclear war, as the Pentagon now has more leeway in using nuclear arms in the regime’s new National Defense Strategy document. The US will not, any time soon, remove the approximately 900 American troops that are currently conducting a regional occupation in Syria. 

    Naturally, as far as social spending goes, we can expect zero change. Under Donald Trump, Republicans signed off on massive new spending increases, and were headed towards approving trillion-dollar deficits even before 2020. With covid, of course, spending exploded even more, and only a small handful of Republicans expressed doubts.  (Trump naturally threw a tantrum about even this small bit of opposition.) The only disagreements we’ll see in Washington in the next two years will be over how exactly to run up the next massive annual deficit. 

    Indeed, if the economy continues to slide as we’re now seeing it do—with thousands of new layoffs coming from the tech sector just this week, and with real estate falling—we can expect a new bipartisan consensus in Washington calling for a wide variety of new “stimulus” programs. Neither party will want to be seen as the party of austerity. 

    The Biggest Changes Will Be at the State Level

    While Washington will keep up with the same disastrous policies, the real change we’ll see will be at the state level. The GOP did not do especially well in this election with state level offices, and the Republicans lost control of legislative chambers in at least Michigan, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. On the other hand, the GOP gained supermajorities in both the house and senate in Florida, plus supermajorities in the state senates of North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Moreover, Nevada’s state house is trending toward the GOP. Republicans still control a majority of statehouses and have even added to the tally of state GOP control in recent cycles prior to 2022. 

    What all this likely means is a continued divergence between places like Washington State, New York State, and California on the one hand, and Florida, Texas, and Ohio on the other. On matters like abortion, schools, immigration, guns, and energy policy, the differences between the two blocs will only continue to grow. Covid helped illustrate the importance of state-level policy and the very different legal environments that actually exist between so-called red states and blue states. This has not been forgotten, and many state policymakers will increasingly see themselves as the last defense against federal power. As one GOP operative put it in Politico: “With minimal gains at the federal level, the Republican power we held and gained last night in the states will be all the more important for stopping Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda.”

    In a column titled “Red states are building a nation within a nation” this was noted by Ronald Brownstein at CNN who clearly disapproves of efforts within red states to separate themselves from federal political trends. He writes: 

    [R]ed states, supported by Republican-appointed judges, are engaging in a multi-front offensive to seize control of national policy even while Democrats hold the White House and nominally control both the House and Senate. The red states are moving social policy sharply to the right within their borders on issues from abortion to LGBTQ rights and classroom censorship, while simultaneously working to hobble the ability of either the federal government or their own largest metro areas to set a different course.

    To a degree unimaginable even a decade ago, this broad offensive increasingly looks like an effort to define a nation within a nation – one operating with a set of rules and policies that diverge from the rest of America more than in almost any previous era.

    Brownstein frames it all as a sinister plot against the Left’s favorite interest groups, and he no doubt exaggerates the magnitude of it all. But he is right that red states’ governments do have the ability to set up obstacles to federal policy. Gone are the days when state governments simply fell into line every time the federal government demanded some new capitulation. One example of this is the recent conflict between the Biden Administration and the Arizona government on the matter of border security. The state government had places shipping containers along the border to form a makeshift wall. The administration demanded their removal. The state refused to move them. 

    National Divorce Is Inevitable

    We should expect more of this type of thing in which state governments simply refuse to play along with federal policy. Democrat-controlled state governments have done this for years, of course, with policies like creating “sanctuary cities” for immigrants or legalizing recreational marijuana. (The latter has not become virtually mainstream thanks to state level resistance.)

    But the fact is that state governments do have the ability to push back against federal policy makers. States can interfere with federal education policy. States can refuse to enforce federal gun laws. States can make their own abortion policy. States can refuse to do what they’re told. 

    Over time, this will serve to further build cultural and legal differences between different states, just as the covid lockdowns and mask mandates made it clear that there were real differences between states. As the differences become more evident, this will even encourage residents to relocate to places that better suit their political preferences. For example, we’re even now hearing that American leftists are leaving the lefty enclave of Austin, Texas. It turns out Austin is in the middle of Texas, and Texas has become too “red” for some people. It’s hard to guess how numerous these cases really are, of course, but relocating for political reasons does appear to be far more meaningful than it used to be. 

    Over time, this will continue to build a real cultural divide that will inevitably lead to de facto political division between these blocs of states. “E pluribus unum” was never more than a political slogan. It’s becoming less convincing every day. “National divorce” will increasingly be evident on the horizon. 

    In the short term, with Washington, DC poised to change so little, policy changes will increasingly come within the context of state governments defining themselves as being either against national elites (as in Florida), or for them (as in California.) This is where the real political action will be. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 19:40

  • Lawyer For Canadian Commission Investigating Trucker Protests Collapses During Proceedings
    Lawyer For Canadian Commission Investigating Trucker Protests Collapses During Proceedings

    Gabriel Poliquin, a lawyer for the Public Order Emergency Commission “investigating” the circumstances that led to Justin Trudeau’s recent use of emergency powers, violently collapsed during commission proceedings with no indication from his family or the Canadian media as to the cause. 

    The Commission is tasked with outlining the legality or illegality of the government’s attempt to use terrorist based laws to put pressure on the mass trucker protests in Ontario. 

    The protesters were using civil disobedience actions against covid mandates and vaccine passports. 

    Trudeau specifically targeted fundraising for the protests, threatening individuals and groups with possible charges of aiding and abetting terrorists, and froze bank accounts of those involved.  The government also tried to confiscate goods and fuel brought to the protesters by sympathetic supporters.

    If history is any indication, such government commissions are generally designed to justify federal trespasses and bury independent investigations before they can take place.

    While it is not known what triggered Poliquin’s collapse during questioning, surely many people will be wondering if he is suffering from a new heart condition featuring myocarditis or blood clotting.           

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 19:20

  • Democracy Wasn't On The Ballot, Extremism Was
    Democracy Wasn’t On The Ballot, Extremism Was

    Authored by Michael Shellenberger,

    Democracy was on the ballot, argued Democrats in the run-up to yesterday’s elections. If voters elected Republican governors and a Republican majority in Congress, Democrats and media pundits warned, we could soon see the end of the American system of republican democracy. Those Republicans who denied the outcome of the 2020 election would use their position to help Donald Trump steal the 2024 election, tear up the Constitution, and install himself as dictator-for-life. Or something.

    But many Democratic candidates have themselves denied the results of past elections. In November 2002, Al Gore said he “would have won” the presidency had all the votes in Florida been counted, even though in 2001 The New York Times conducted a comprehensive review of all uncounted Florida ballots and found that George W. Bush would have won even had the United States Supreme Court allowed a manual recount of the votes to go forward. In 2005, Democratic Senate and House members objected to the certification of Ohio’s electoral college votes for George W. Bush claiming “numerous, serious election irregularities,” while the losing Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, claimed that voters were “denied their right to vote; too many who tried to vote were intimidated.” In 2017, House Democrats objected to the 2016 electoral votes, 67 Democrats boycotted the inauguration claiming his election was “illegitimate” and in 2019, Hillary Clinton said the election was “stolen” from her and that Trump “knows” he stole the election and was “an illegitimate president.”

    It’s true that election denialism is much more widespread among Republicans than it is among Democrats. Where seven Democratic House members objected to the certification of their states’ votes for Trump in 2017, 139 Republican House members and eight Republican senators objected to the certification of their states’ votes for Biden in 2021, notes Cathy Young at The Bulwark. At the state level, 19 Republican attorneys general coordinated with Trump’s legal team to invalidate the results of the vote and involved fraudulent electors sending phony certificates to Washington depicting Trump as the winner. And Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol Building on January 6 in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s election.

    But if Democrats were really so worried that America’s democracy was on the brink of collapse, then why did they help Trump-backed election-denying Republicans defeat their moderate Republican opponents during the primaries? To be sure, it proved to be effective. “All eight Democratic candidates who benefited from the strategy,” notes Reuters, “were projected to win their races as of Wednesday morning.” But if it was a smart strategy in the short term it also undermines the credibility of the claim that Democrats care more about democracy than Republicans. If they did, why would they risk electing election deniers? Why would they put a risky political strategy above protecting American democracy?

    And if Democrats are so concerned about protecting democratic norms, then why did they spend 2016 to 2019 arguing that Trump stole the 2016 election with the help of Vladamir Putin? Not only Democrats but the mainstream news media for nearly three years prosecuted the notion that Trump was a foreign agent. They even awarded themselves Pulitzer Prizes for their misleading reporting. As a result, many Democrats, including most if not all of my progressive friends, still believe that Trump stole the 2016 election with the help of the Russians. They argue that just because Mueller didn’t find conclusive proof that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians didn’t prove that Trump didn’t conspire with the Russians.

    The most ridiculous element of Democratic election denialism isn’t the notion that Trump accepted help from Russia but rather that the things Russia did to interfere in the 2016 election changed the outcome. Democrats are right to suspect that Trump and his campaign team would have accepted Russian help to become president. Everything about Trump’s past behavior suggests that he would have, and indeed may have, if he felt that doing so would help him and that he would get away with it. Far less plausible is the notion that the things the Russians did, namely spreading fake news articles on social media, and hacking John Podesta’s emails, had much if any impact on voters. The Mueller Report found that the Russians spent $100,000 for 3,500 Facebook advertisements from June 2015 to May 2017, an utterly insignificant sum compared to the $81 million Clinton and Trump spent on Facebook ads. Even most liberal analysts, including Hillary Clinton herself, crediting many factors other than Russian interference for Trump’s 2016 victory.

    Without a doubt, we should fight foreign interference in American elections, reject election denialism, and protect elections from fraud, but we should also recognize that those things aren’t determining factors in what wins or loses elections. Progressives have rightly noted for decades that election fraud is exceedingly rare and, to the extent it occurs, is almost always too small to change an election. But that same argument applies to Russian interference. Democrats can’t, on the one hand, dismiss concerns over election integrity when it comes to collecting ballots and, on the other, hype concerns over election integrity when it comes to $100,000 in Facebook ads.

    The failure of U.S. Capitol Police to prevent January 6 protesters from entering the Capitol building was disturbing, but it hardly constituted a near-coup. There is little reason to believe a secretary of state could change an election’s result for the simple reason that voting is far too closely monitored and decentralized for it to be stolen. “It’s really hard to rig an election in America because it’s so decentralized,” confessed one advocate to The Washington Post.

    It’s true that various means exist for someone to undermine our democratic system. The Electoral Count Act is, say, experts, too vague. A sitting vice president could point to voting irregularities, invoke the 12th Amendment, and let state delegations in the House vote on the manner. A sitting president could declare a national emergency, or the Insurrection Act, rule unilaterally, and deploy the military, without the authorization of Congress, to put down mass protests. And a secretary of state could simply refuse to sign off on election results that she doesn’t like.

    But none of those constitute a significant threat. Even if a rogue secretary of state refused to certify election results, “there are nationwide, built-in protections to stop rogue actors from taking over,” admits The Post, which has done more to exaggerate the threat Trumpism poses to the republic than any other publication. Those protections are other elected officials, like the governor, and the courts. It might make sense to reform the Electoral Count Act, but even if that doesn’t happen, the Supreme Court still exists to play the role of interpreting vague and confusing laws in light of the constitution.

    In truth, state governments are constantly making decisions about elections aimed at favoring one party or another, from 100% mail-in ballots in California, which allow for legal ballot harvesting, to the need to show identification before voting, such as in Georgia. One might argue that such rules undermine democracy, but there are legitimate differences of opinion about what the requirements should be to vote. There are always some barriers to voting if only the work of reading and filling out a ballot and stuffing it into an envelope. Whatever one thinks of such barriers, they are hardly the end of our republic.

    When you read through various articles and reports raising the alarm about the threat to the American republic, most come down to vague concerns about things like “endless audits,” “distrust in results,” and “politicians hacking away at people’s confidence in democracy.” While I agree it’s important for the public to support our democratic system, there’s no evidence that such support is weakening. The widespread belief among many Republicans that the election was stolen from Trump expresses concern about the integrity of our electoral system, not a desire to get rid of it. And even were a president to declare an emergency, or an Insurrection Act that postponed an election, that would hardly constitute the end of the Republic, as new elections would simply be held later.

    In the end, the main concerns most Democrats appear to have about election-denying Republicans center around the behavior of America’s last president. “Trump has never acknowledged defeat,” a friend of mine writes. “Yes — there has been a lot of bitching and moaning on the part of the Democrats, but most importantly, [Al] Gore not only conceded, but he, as vice-president, validated the results of the election, declaring that he lost.”

    The problem, I responded, is that the First Amendment gives people, including former presidents, the right to say all sorts of stupid things. There’s nothing that we can or should do about it. It’s better to just argue over the evidence and, after it’s clear that nobody’s mind is changing, move on.

    But what if a president refused to leave office? The answer is clear: the U.S. Supreme Court would order the U.S. military to remove him. There has been story after story of U.S. military leaders who allegedly refused to do what Trump asked them to do. Whether or not they are true, it’s clear that America’s military leaders continue to see themselves as serving the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, over this or that president. Could that change? Could there be a military officer in the future who, in effect, overthrows the government? Of course. But there’s no evidence that such officers exist in any significant number today, much less that their numbers are growing.

    The mirrored obsession of the Right with election fraud and of the Left with election denialism are undermining America’s ability to confront the most important issues facing the country. Extremes on the Left and Right are using false, exaggerated, and hypocritical allegations of fraud and denialism to stoke anger and fear, in a shortsighted effort to attract attention, drive Internet clicks, and mobilize voters.

    The good news is that voters have, as a collective, rejected the extremism of both the Right and Left, and elected a divided government.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 19:00

  • Blizzard Pounds Plains, Midwest; "Polar Vortex" To Unleash Chill Nationwide
    Blizzard Pounds Plains, Midwest; “Polar Vortex” To Unleash Chill Nationwide

    The first blizzard of the 2022-23 winter season is unfolding across the northern Plains and through the upper Midwest today. 

    Parts of North and South Dakota and portions of Montana, Minnesota, and Nebraska are in the storm’s path. Some areas could experience more than a foot of snow and snowfall rates of up to 2 inches per hour. 

    “This will be the first major snowstorm of the season for the northern Plains and the combination of heavy snow, powerful winds and low visibility will result in hazardous travel,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Brian Wimer said.

    Blizzard warnings have been posted for much of North Dakota and northern Minnesota. 

    Temperatures behind the system will result in much colder weather in the days ahead. US Lower 48 mean temperatures have dove from 58 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week to a forecasted 39 degrees by November 14. 

    Here’s what meteorologists at private weather forecasting firm BAMWX are saying about the cold bast:

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

    “With strong cold influence from a displaced Polar Vortex, now the question becomes…how long can this pattern last?” BAMWX’s Kirk Hinz tweeted. 

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

    Colder temperatures will send heating demand skyrocketing across the country starting this weekend. 

    Increased heating demand could put a bid under natural gas prices. 

    But then again, NatGas prices have slumped this week on the delayed restart of the Freeport LNG export terminal, which would boost US NatGas storage.  

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 18:40

  • Bankman-Fried Faces SEC Probe, FTX Assets Frozen By Bahamas Regulator
    Bankman-Fried Faces SEC Probe, FTX Assets Frozen By Bahamas Regulator

    Update (1945ET): Things just went to ’11’ for the Dem darling crypto billionaire as Bloomberg reports that, according to a person familiar with the matter, Sam Bankman-Fried is being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential violations of securities rules as the regulator deepens its probe into his crumbling FTX crypto empire.

    The SEC is scrutinizing Bankman-Fried’s involvement in recent moves that helped push FTX into a liquidity crisis, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing the confidential inquiry.

    FTX, the American platform FTX US, and Bankman-Fried’s trading house Alameda Research are already under investigation by the SEC, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The Justice Department is also looking into the situation.

    *  *  *

    The Bahamas Securities Commission has frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets “and related parties” and has appointed a provisional liquidator as the Bahamas securities regulator seeks to place the beleaguered crypto exchange into receivership, i.e. bankruptcy, the agency said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

    The lockdown comes just hours after Sam Bankman-Fried said that he is closing his affiliated trading house at the center of the FTX scandal, Alameda Research, and after FTX said it may halt trading in FTX US, the remote US-based platform which has so far avoided scrutiny.

    An asset freeze was “the prudent course of action” to preserve assets and stabilize the company, the agency said.

    “The commission is aware of public statements suggesting that clients’ assets were mishandled, mismanaged and/or transferred to Alameda Research. Based on the commission’s information, any such actions would have been contrary to normal governance, without client consent and potentially unlawful” it warned

    Meanwhile, while unconfirmed but certainly not unlikely, a rumor emerged on Twitter also late on Thursday that SBF had been arrested on the tarmac at the Bahamas airport.

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

    The Bahamas crackdown comes as Japan’s government also ordered FTX.com’s local subsidiary to suspend some operations, saying it has no structure in place to properly offer cryptocurrency exchange services to users.

    And while authorities finally crackdown on the biggest crypto fraud in history, who may or may not have been arrested, investors are starting to count their money, or rather lack thereof.

    Take the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which said it had “invested” $95 million in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX International and FTX.US since October 2021. Pension plan initially invested $75 million in two FTX entities Oct. 2021 and made a follow-on investment of $20 million in January in FTX.US

    The fund wanted to gain small-scale exposure to an emerging area in the financial technology sector, it says in a statement
    “Naturally, not all of the investments in this early-stage asset class perform to expectations.”

    The pension fund, realizing that the money is gone… all gone, was quick to add that any financial loss on this investment will have limited impact on the fund. FTX investment represents less than 0.05% of fund’s net assets.

    Late on Thursday we also learned that the FTX-linked loss at Genesis Trading, an institutional crypto market maker, was nearly double, or $175 million “in locked funds” in its FTX account.

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

    And speaking of “gone… all gone”, it is ordinary retail investors who poured their life savings into crypto, for whom the stunning demise of FTX.com is a worst-case scenario.

    “I’m done and I think a lot of retail traders are done,” said Christ Keuchkerian, a 36-year-old FTX.com customer in Quebec who works in IT and hadn’t been able to withdraw his funds as of Thursday. “I don’t think at this point I want to put any more money into this.”

    Keuchkerian first started using FTX about a year ago, investing approximately C$4,500 ($3,360) in tokens like Bitcoin and Ether. He considered the platform “too big to fail.” When he heard the Binance deal fell apart, his heart started palpitating.

    “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that centralized exchanges are dead,” he said. “The philosophy behind this movement was great, but the execution has been horrible. The people running the exchanges have been horrible.”

    It’s not just FTX customers who may be hurt by Bankman-Fried’s downfall. The billionaire agreed to bail out Voyager in a $1.4 billion deal in September, as part of his distressed crypto buying spree, but the transaction still hasn’t closed. Voyager declined to comment on the status of the deal on Thursday.

    John Gould, a 45-year-old software developer in Birmingham, Alabama, had about $2,000 in his Voyager account, mostly in altcoins, when the platform froze withdrawals. When FTX first announced it would acquire Voyager’s assets, he was optimistic he would be able to cash out, but he doesn’t think that will happen now.

    “This is a like domino effect,” he said. “It’s definitely shaken my faith in exchanges.”

    As Bloomberg adds, some retail traders who plan to keep investing in crypto say they no longer trust the exchanges and are moving their tokens to offline wallets. Considering that this is precisely what this website and other exchange skeptics have been saying for years is the only proper protocol, one can only say better late than never. If only it didn’t take massive losses to make people realize just what’s at stake.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 18:27

  • "Difficult Times Ahead": Musk Says Twitter Bankruptcy Possible As FTC Expresses "Deep Concern"
    “Difficult Times Ahead”: Musk Says Twitter Bankruptcy Possible As FTC Expresses “Deep Concern”

    Twitter boss Elon Musk told employees at a recent all-hands meeting that the company is losing so much money that “bankruptcy is not out of the question,” according to The Information.

    Twitter, which hasn’t turned a profit since 2019, has seen a “massive drop” in revenue according to Musk, as advertisers step back from spending campaigns.

    Musk also suggested during the meeting that the company’s future depends on the success of the revamped $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription service – which is currently being bombarded by bots, scammers, and impersonators.

    “The reason we’re going hardcore on subscribers is to keep Twitter alive,” Musk said, according to The Information, adding “Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.“

    Musk also announced that the company’s “work from anywhere” policy is now canceled, telling Platformer “If you can physically make it to an office and you don’t show up, resignation accepted.”

    Banks balking at holding debt?

    As Bloomberg notes, Wall Street banks that lent Musk $13 billion to fund Musk’s buyout have been quietly approaching hedge funds to see if they would be interested in chunks of buyout debt at deeply discounted prices as low as 60 cents on the dollar – which would mark one of the deepest discounts in a decade.

    The lukewarm investor reception shows just how big of an albatross the Twitter debt is becoming for a Morgan Stanley-led cohort that committed to finance Musk’s acquisition of the social-media firm back in April, before credit markets cratered. The seven banks are now saddled with risky loans that they never intended to keep on their books, and face an increasingly uphill battle to minimize losses. -Bloomberg

    In particular, the banks want to unload their $6.5 billion leveraged loan portion of the financing, and if the loans are trading at 60 cents, that implies everything below the secured tranche in the cap structure is impaired (more or less a donut), and the EV on the company is around $8 billion.

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

    Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission has sounded the alarm over an exodus of top employees from the social media giant – the latest of whom was the company’s head of moderation and safety, Yoel Roth, who – as a longstanding left-leaning executive, provided some level cover for Musk.

    The government watchdog agency said that it was “tracking the developments at Twitter with deep concern,” and that it’s considering taking action to ensure that the company is complying with a ‘consent order’ which requires the company to comply with certain privacy and security requirements related to allegations of past data misuse.

    Twitter was first put under a consent order in 2011, and it agreed to a new order earlier this year. If the FTC finds Twitter is not complying with that order, it could fine the company hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially damaging the company’s already precarious financial state. -WaPo

    “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,” said FTC director of public affairs, Douglas Farrar. “Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”

    According to the report, FTC staffers said they were most concerned about the rapid rollout of new features which have yet to undergo full security reviews governed by the FTC consent decree. The agency also objected to Musk requiring staff to work in the office at least 40 hours per week, effective Thursday.

    Former FTC officials warned that the departures of key privacy and security officials, as well as some of Musk’s proposed changes to Twitter products, opened the company to serious regulatory peril. -WaPo

    Employees were not happy in the company’s slack channel following the all-hands meeting.

    “What’s the motivation? Work hard or get fired?” asked one employee.

    “How do you plan to restore totally destroyed trust?” asked another.

    “I am ethically not okay with making the richest person in the world even richer. Also not okay with this alpha dog mentality – it’s already trickling down.”

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 18:20

  • JPMorgan Warns FTX Collapse Will Spark "Cascade Of Margin Calls"
    JPMorgan Warns FTX Collapse Will Spark “Cascade Of Margin Calls”

    Unlike the high profile crypto-linked blowups earlier this year, JPMorgan believes that there is something different about the ongoing FTX implosion.

    First the bad news: as JPM flows and liquidity strategist Nick Panigirtzoglou writes overnight, “given the size and interlinkages of both FTX and Alameda Research with other entities of the crypto ecosystem including DeFi platforms it looks likely that a new cascade of margin calls, deleveraging and crypto company/platform failures is starting similar to what we saw last May/June following the collapse of Terra.”

    Then again, this is the same Panigirtzoglou who just a few weeks ago was busy praising crypto’s nascent recovery. Nothing like a one-off event to totally U-turn your entire thesis.

    To be sure, that doesn’t mean he is wrong, and this is how he frames the current quandary facing the crypto space –  the $8bn of Alameda Research liabilities reported in the press “is big enough to create a similar wave of deleveraging to that seen following the $20bn Terra USD collapse last May. And similar to what we saw after the collapse of Terra USD, this deleveraging is likely to last for at least a few weeks unless a rescue for Alameda Research and FTX is agreed quickly.”

    Yet what makes this new phase of deleveraging more problematic is that the number of entities with stronger balance sheets able to rescue those with low capital and high leverage is shrinking within the crypto ecosystem. If nothing else, SBF was frequently referred to as the next JPMorgan (not any more). FTX and Alameda Research had emerged last May/June as the main entities with apparently strong balance sheets to rescue weaker and more leveraged entities such as BlockFi, Voyager Digital and Celsius.

    But now that the balance sheet strength of Alameda Research and FTX is under question only a few months after being perceived as strong balance sheet entities, it creates a confidence crisis and reduces the appetite of other crypto companies to come to the rescue.

    What is certain, according to Panigirtzoglou, is that the collapse of Alameda Research/FTX will increase investor and regulatory pressure on crypto entities to disclose more information about their balance sheets, to safeguard client assets, to limit asset concentration and will induce more diligent risk management including management of counterparty risk among crypto market participants.

    Paradoxically, FTX had been preferred over Binance by institutional clients such as hedge funds, so the past days’ events will likely change the way institutional investors interact with exchanges to ensure their assets are protected.

    In this context, JPM notes that it is encouraging that nine exchanges including Binance, Gate.io, KuCoin, Poloniex, Bitget, Huobi, OKX, Deribit and Bybit have issued statements that they would publish their Merkle tree reserve certificates to increase transparency. Merkle trees allow Exchanges to store each user account’s hash value of assets in the leaf nodes of the Merkle tree. Assets on a leaf node can be audited and verified by a third party

    On the positive side, and while it might take several weeks until the current deleveraging cycle peaks, the JPM strategist believes that “the hit to crypto market cap is likely to be smaller than post Terra given previous deleveraging.”

    One metric to quantify the previous deleveraging is shown in the chart below, which depicts JPM’s position proxy for CME bitcoin futures: this position proxy stands close to levels last seen in January 2020 pointing to rather advanced deleveraging.

    The  deleveraging phase that followed the Terra collapse had induced a 50% decline in crypto market cap from around $1.7tr at the beginning of May to a low of $0.86tr by mid-June. With the crypto market cap standing at just above $1tr before the FTX/Alameda Research collapse, JPM’s guess is that the crypto market will find a floor above $500bn in the current deleveraging phase.

    Another way of thinking about the downside from here is the bitcoin production cost which historically acted as a floor for the bitcoin price. At the moment, this production cost stands at $15k but it is likely to revisit the $13k low seen over the summer months. A production cost of $13k implies 25% downside from here which would bring the crypto market cap to a low of $650bn.

    More in the full JPM report available to pro subs in the usual place.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 18:00

  • LA's 'Soros DA' Gets Charges Dropped Against Election Software CEO
    LA’s ‘Soros DA’ Gets Charges Dropped Against Election Software CEO

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

    A judge in California on Nov. 9 dismissed charges against the CEO of an election software firm, who prosecutors had accused of being behind “probably the largest data breach in United States history.”

    Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out charges of conspiracy and grand theft by embezzlement of public funds against Eugene Yu, the CEO of Konnech, at the request of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon.

    Konnech did not respond to a request for comment.

    The office of Gascon, a Democrat, said the request stemmed from potential bias that it did not detail.

    “We are concerned about both the pace of the investigation and the potential bias in the presentation and investigation of the evidence,” Tiffiny Blacknell, a spokeswoman for the office, told The Epoch Times in an email. “As a result, we have decided to ask the court to dismiss the current case, and alert the public in order to ensure transparency.”

    Gary Lincenberg, an attorney representing Yu, said the dismissal shows that his client is innocent.

    “Mr. Yu’s good name was tarnished by false narratives from fringe conspiracy theorists who bragged about enlisting Los Angeles prosecutors to further their political agenda. They have since been found in contempt of court and were imprisoned for their contempt. We are grateful that our judicial system still has checks and balances to guard against their dangerous conduct,” Lincenberg said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

    He was referring to leaders of True the Vote, who were jailed after refusing to identify a person they described as a confidential FBI informant, but released from jail this week after an appeals court overruled the judge who issued the confinement order.

    Konnech sued the leaders, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, alleging public comments the pair made defamed Yu, a Chinese-born American citizen, and Yu’s firm.

    Some of the comments aligned with the charging documents against Yu, which alleged in part that he violated the contract Konnech signed with Los Angeles County by storing data on poll workers on servers in China.

    “Under its $2.9 million, five-year contract with the county, Konnech was supposed to securely maintain the data and that only United States citizens and permanent residents have access to it. District Attorney investigators found that in contradiction to the contract, information was stored on servers in the People’s Republic of China,” Gascon’s office said in October.

    Phillips testified in the defamation case that he was “told by L.A. County” that they had accessed the same data he viewed in 2021.

    The charges against Yu were dismissed without prejudice. That means they can be refiled in the future.

    Prosecutors have not ruled out refiling charges.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 11/10/2022 – 17:40

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