Today’s News 10th February 2024

• Chinese Engineer Allegedly Stole Trade Secret Technology For Detecting Nuclear Missile Launches: DOJ
  Chinese Engineer Allegedly Stole Trade Secret Technology For Detecting Nuclear Missile Launches: DOJ

  Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Chinese-born researcher has been arrested for allegedly stealing trade secret technologies developed for the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches and to track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

  

  Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested in San Jose on Feb. 6, prosecutors said.

  Mr. Gong became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He got his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University and completed some work toward a doctorate at Stanford University, according to court documents.

  From January 2023 to April 2023, Mr. Gong worked as an engineer for a research and development company based in Malibu, California. The company was referred to only as the “victim company” by the DOJ and in court documents.

  Court documents said much of the company’s work—the development of infrared sensor technology for space-based and military missions for missile detection—was funded through contacts with the Pentagon and other government contracts.

  Mr. Gong allegedly transferred 3,600 files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices from March 2023 to April 2023, according to court documents. Hundreds of documents marked as confidential or proprietary belonging to the company were discovered on devices taken from his temporary residence in Thousand Oaks, California, following an FBI search in May 2023.

  The DOJ said the technology allegedly stolen by Mr. Gong would be “dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors.”

  “Many of the files Gong allegedly transferred contained proprietary and trade secret information related to the development and design of a readout integrated circuit that allows space-based systems to detect missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles while providing resilience and a readout integrated circuit that allows aircraft to track incoming threats in low visibility environments,” the DOJ stated.

  Other files were related to the development of the company’s “next-generation sensors,” which can “detect low observable targets while demonstrating improved survivability in strategic space applications,” the court document says.

  The information Mr. Gong allegedly stole was among the company’s “most important trade secrets,” worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the DOJ said, adding that some of the files were marked “EXPORT CONTROLLED.”

  “The theft of trade secrets, especially of sensitive military technology, undermines our national security, erodes U.S. competitiveness in the global market, and harms the businesses and individuals who have invested time, resources, and creativity into developing innovative technologies,” Donald Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement.

  After becoming aware of his activities, the company terminated Mr. Gong’s employment in late April 2023.

  According to the DOJ, Mr. Gong is charged with theft of trade secrets, which, if he’s convicted, carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

  He was released on $2.5 million bond with location monitoring and curfew on Feb. 7 following a hearing in San Jose, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said, according to NBC News.

  China

  The FBI also uncovered Mr. Gong’s employment history in China. For three years in the 1990s, Mr. Gong was a “government employee” of a provincial-level association under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, according to court documents.

  Before joining the Malibu-based company last year, Mr. Gong worked for “a number of prominent U.S. technology companies, as well as an international defense, aerospace, and security company,” according to court documents.

  While employed in the United States, Mr. Gong repeatedly contacted Chinese authorities. According to court documents, he submitted “numerous applications” for China’s “Talent Programs” from 2014 to 2022.

  The regime in Beijing offers hefty financial incentives—including research funding, salaries, and housing—via many different talent recruitment programs to entice overseas Chinese and foreign experts into working in China’s science and tech sectors. The CCP hopes to quickly turn China into an industrial and innovation powerhouse through these programs, one that ultimately outperforms Western countries.

  The FBI has long warned about these Chinese programs, saying that they encourage trade secret theft and economic espionage.

  “Talent plans usually involve undisclosed and illegal transfers of information, technology, or intellectual property that are one-way and detrimental to U.S. institutions,” the FBI says on its website.

  In recent years, federal authorities have prosecuted academics who have allegedly concealed their links to China’s talent programs.

  In 2017, Mr. Gong wrote to the 38th Research Institute of the state-run China Electronics Technology Group Corp. requesting funding. He stated that he “would like to apply for funding for entrepreneurial teams” to develop high-performance analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters similar to those produced by his U.S. employer, according to court documents.

  He told the institute that he would use the funding for his startup company, which would “become the leader in the field of data converters in China, providing customization for the military and civilian fields,” according to court documents.

  Mr. Gong traveled to China twice to participate in talent program conferences in 2019. In an email translated from Chinese to English by the FBI, Mr. Gong remarked that he “took a risk” by traveling to China to participate in the Talent Programs “because [he] worked for … an American military industry company” and thought he could “do something” to contribute to China’s “high-end military integrated circuits,” according to the DOJ.

  In a 2020 talent program application, Mr. Gong proposed to develop “low light/night vision” image sensors for use in military night vision goggles and civilian applications, according to the DOJ.

  “In a video presentation included with Gong’s [2020] submission, Gong used a video containing the model number of a sensor developed by an international defense, aerospace, and security company where Gong worked from 2015 to 2019,” the DOJ said.

  “We will do everything to protect our nation’s security, including from foreign threats,” Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement.

  “We know that foreign actors, including the PRC [People’s Republic of China], are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat … by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 23:40

• October 2023, The Month Streaming Costs Ballooned
  October 2023, The Month Streaming Costs Ballooned

  While price hikes for subscription services might seem like a smart short-term solution to boost revenue and income, they tend to become more of a gamble in times of fracturing markets.

  This is especially true for the subscription video, or SVoD, sector where many traditional TV networks have launched their own streaming platforms in recent years.

  In the U.S., Netflix, Amazon and Disney dominate this industry, despite aggressive price increases by the latter two companies in the last six months.

  As Statista’s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, only one major video streaming service didn’t announce or implement higher costs for their standard plans…

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The platform in question is Netflix, which kept the price for its standard ad-free plan steady since January 2022.

  This isn’t to say that the company hasn’t turned the screws in other areas.

  In October 2023, the streaming service raised the price for its Basic plan by $2 and for its Premium plan by $3, which is in line with the increase in costs for the standard plans of other providers. These price hikes coincided with Apple, Amazon and Disney all raising monthly fees by $3 in absolute terms, sometimes directly, sometimes by announcing add-ons to existing plans that will get rid of ads like in Amazon’s case. Customers of Max, the SVoD offering by HBO, had to contend with an increase in pricing even earlier in the year, although the base cost of its standard plan had already been relatively high.

  It remains to be seen if these price hikes, which most certainly won’t be the last for the near future, manage to balance out other macroeconomic effects and market developments. For now, the companies behind the platforms seem optimistic. Disney, for example, claimed to be on track for profitability in its direct-to-consumer segment by the fourth fiscal quarter of 2024, despite losing 1.3 million subscribers in their core markets between October and December 2023.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 23:20

• Who's To Blame For The Elite Extreme Left?
  Who’s To Blame For The Elite Extreme Left?

  Authored by Rob Natelson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Many writers decry the American political scene as “too divisive.” But I don’t think this goes to the root of our political problems. A much more serious concern is that a very powerful minority of Americans reject the core principles upon which our Constitution and our society rest: principles of Western Civilization, republican government, and the Judeo-Christian heritage.

  

  In the view of this minority, the American Founding was a crime, people should be judged largely on race and gender, elections should be manipulated (to protect “our democracy”), the traditional family structure should be abandoned, sexual mores should be perverted, and government should be nearly omnipotent.

  These ideas resemble a variant of fascism in which everyone serves the state and individual rights—economic and political—are exercised only by the elite’s permission. This minority not only believe these things themselves, but they want to force you to accept them also. They’re authoritarian, even totalitarian.

  When the rest of us push back against their agenda, it isn’t “divisiveness.” It’s self-defense.

  The Power of the Elite

  Despite our efforts of self-defense, this group has been remarkably successful in setting the national agenda. One example: From 1998 to 2014, there were 30 state referenda on the definition of civil marriage. The advocates of traditional marriage—that is, between a man and a woman—won all these referenda, and most of them by decisive supermajorities.

  But the agenda-setters wanted same-sex civil marriage; therefore, now it’s imposed on every state, no matter what the voters might think. So much for “our democracy.”

  Once same-sex civil marriage was secured, the agenda-setters proceeded to implement even more outré policies: critical race theory, “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and, at least in some states, infanticide and the mutilation of children.

  And despite the fact that most Americans think we have too much government and not enough freedom, under the guidance of the agenda-setters, government continues to grow.

  Who Are They?

  Scott Rasmussen, the national pollster, set out to learn who these agenda-setters are. His polling results—some of which were publicized in The Epoch Times by Newt Gingrich—provide some answers. Mr. Rasmussen’s results also point toward the culprits who created this dangerous class of people.

  When conducting general surveys, Mr. Rasmussen noticed that most people expressing extreme leftist views share three characteristics: (1) they are very urban; (2) they hold postgraduate university degrees; and (3) they are relatively wealthy. People meeting all these criteria make up about 1 percent of the general population.

  I would have guessed our agenda-setters comprise more than 1 percent, but as it turns out, they amount to even less than that.

  Anyway, Mr. Rasmussen decided to poll a national sample of these people: urbanites with post-grad degrees who had an income of more than $150,000 per year.

  He found that their economic situations and political views are remote from those of most Americans. While most Americans have been suffering hardship during the Biden years, the 1 percent has been prospering. While most Americans are concerned about inflation, illegal immigration, and border security, the 1 percent couldn’t care less.

  Mr. Rasmussen also uncovered just how unsympathetic to American ideals this group is and how authoritarian it is:

  • Nearly half of the elite group say Americans have too much freedom.
  • 70 percent trust government to do the right thing most of the time. (What planet are they living on?)
  • Over three-quarters want to restrict your right to eat meat and use electricity.
  • Nearly three-quarters want to abolish your right to have a gasoline-powered car.
  • Nearly 70 percent would deprive you of your right to choose a gas stove.
  • More than two-thirds favor letting teachers (who usually are government employees) dictate to parents what children should be taught.
  • Decisive majorities would take away our SUVs, air conditioning, and any air travel they deem “non-essential.”

  Nearly a third of these people are focused on politics—and the views of that third are even more alarming. For example, 69 percent of them said they would rather cheat on an election than lose one! (The comparable figure among all citizens is only 7 percent.)

  This is the faction that has been setting the national agenda. The left sometimes tries to raise resentment against the wealthiest 1 percent, but the Rasmussen poll shows that the real danger lies with a different 1 percent.

  Who’s to Blame?

  In several Epoch Times columns, I’ve commented on the leftist extremism prevailing on many of our university campuses. The Rasmussen survey suggests the establishment media bear some of the blame for the elite’s attitudes. (Seventy-one percent of the subset Rasmussen designates as the “politically obsessed” elite have a “very favorable” opinion of journalists.) But the survey also suggests that the prestige universities bear much of the blame as well.

  Seventy-six percent of the “politically obsessed” elite have a “very favorable” opinion of professors. Roughly half of the entire elite attended at least one of 12 prestigious universities: Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.

  In a prior Epoch Times column, I contended that university “affirmative action” policies were less about race and gender than about gerrymandering student admissions and faculty hiring to benefit leftists and exclude conservatives (especially Trump voters). Rasmussen reports that 65 percent of Harvard’s entering class describe themselves as “progressive,” while only 8 percent describe themselves as “conservative.”

  Even more astonishing, he reports that Protestant Christians—who make up nearly half the American population—comprise only 6 percent of Harvard’s entering class. Perhaps some at Harvard rationalize this situation by telling themselves that conservatives and Protestants are just too stupid to get into their school.

  If the universities were performing their duty of transmitting the culture, conveying knowledge, and promoting free thought, the political and cultural imbalances in entering classes would even out somewhat as those classes progressed through college. But the Rasmussen numbers suggest prestige universities are also indoctrinating the young people they’re supposed to be educating.

  This shows up in the polling data: The views of members of the elite who attended a university recently were far more extreme than the views of older members.

  Thus, among those 55 years of age or older, only 10 percent believe there’s too much individual freedom. This is below the number for the general population (16 percent).

  But among members of the elite under 35—and therefore most recently out of college—54 percent think Americans have too much freedom.

  The Rasmussen poll supports the view that America is under attack from what French author Julien Bender called La Trahison des Clercs—The Treason of the Intellectuals. For some proposed cures, see my Epoch Times series, “What’s Wrong With the Universities and How to Fix It.”

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 23:00

• Spot The Start Of The Biden Administration…
  Spot The Start Of The Biden Administration…

  A border deal proposed in the U.S. Senate has quickly fallen through, dragging into jeopardy a new funding plan for Ukraine wartime aid that had been tied to it as well as more funds for Israel, Gaza, Asian allies and more.

  President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had worked with Republican Senate leaders on the plan, but it was still voted down Wednesday in the chamber despite Republicans having demanded that the situation at the Southern border be addressed at the same time as aid to foreign allies.

  Republicans are right to worry, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, fiscal years 2023 and 2024 have seen new record numbers of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, counting both migrants apprehended and those asking to enter legally but deemed inadmissible. Their numbers rose to almost 2.5 million in FY 2023 and stood at 785,000 three months into the new fiscal year, which would constitute another record if extrapolated.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While in 2019, Non-Mexicans outnumbered Mexicans 4:1 at the Southern border, this trend has subsided in the years since with levels of around 2:1 most recently, records from Customs and Border Protection show.

  Because a majority of people seeking to enter the United States recently have come from Central and South America and more have been applying for asylum, the Trump administration in 2019 overhauled its application process, making many asylum seekers wait in camps on the Mexican side without assistance.

  The Biden administration tried to end the policy around 1.5 years into its term, in mid-2022, but was ensnared in legal battles. ‘Remain in Mexico’ was implemented after another system overhaul – the separation of families in U.S. custody and the tendency to release fewer immigration detainees on bail – had caused chaotic scenes at detention centers and an international outcry during Trump’s time in office.

  Since then, it appears the Biden administration has done nothing to secure the border (and some might say even the opposite).

  One glance at that chart and one can only think that Cloward and Piven would be so proud…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 22:40

• A Rushed EV Approach Will Undermine Our National Security
  A Rushed EV Approach Will Undermine Our National Security

  Authored by James Marks via RealClear Wire,

  Normally a new year brings a renewed focus on getting things done in Washington. But with Congress accomplishing little in 2023 and attentions now shifting to the November elections, it is more prudent than ever that the policy agenda of our nation’s leaders reflect what’s best for our collective future, not politics.

  

  Take this administration’s campaign to spread electric-vehicle (EV) technologies. There is no doubt that EVs will be part of America’s future. But decisions made by President Biden and his allies to incentivize and rush the adoption of EVs into the American transportation sector will have unintended consequences. Most unrecognized being the implications on our national security priorities.

  Back in April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced a rule that would regulate the tailpipe emissions of light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The rule aims to have roughly two-thirds of automobiles sold in 2032 to be electric. However, proponents of these types of heavy-handed government policies fail to account for the realities of the global EV market and importantly the dominance held by the Chinese.

  For the last 15 years, China has solidified various investments within the EV value chain, fortifying its position of power in this rapidly expanding market. China dominates the market for rare earths reserves, mineral extraction, and battery production, all of which are integral to the production of EVs. And while the U.S. Geological Survey estimates China only has about 36% of the globe’s rare earths reserves, it has come to control 70% of the world’s extraction capability and nearly 77% of the world’s battery manufacturing capacity.

  It’s this condition that makes a concerted push toward EVs risky because clearly to get more electric vehicles, Americans will increase our reliance on China.

  Recently a letter cosigned by me, and 16 other national security experts highlight these details and the associated risk that continued overexposure to China could mean for public officials. the U.S. automobile market will be inadvertently tied to Chinese interests, making prices and markets more susceptible to Chinese manipulation.

  For example, in October China announced intentions to enforce export restrictions on graphite, a mineral that makes up the largest amount by volume and mass of an EV battery. The country has a history of weaponizing trade as a means to exert its power. As Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy explained, the move was clearly “part of China’s broader strategy of flexing its economic muscle in response to escalating trade tensions with the United States.” If we continue to push the status quo, Americans will more likely face a trade war with China rather than a fully integrated, electrified future.

  Instead of electrification strategies and regulations that will artificially increase EV demand, we need to ensure that domestic investment and infrastructure opportunities are our first priority and establish policies that will level our playing field with China. One place to start would be enabling more domestic mineral and battery production with a timely and effective permitting process.

  Thankfully, national security voices like ours aren’t the only ones sounding the alarm. Recently, dozens of Congressional members in both the Senate and House wrote a likeminded letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, expressing concern over this aggressive plan to reduce vehicle emissions and flood the nation with EVs. Additionally, the House passed the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of 2023 (CARS Act) at the end of last year, which affirms American security and independence, and would force leaders to think of solutions that will responsibly and equitably transition people to EVs.

  Pushing forward with emissions rules and mandates will only serve to undermine Americans’ national security. President Xi Jinping’s recent speeches at the G20 make it clear that China wants to maintain its position at the top of this market and is continuing investments to do so. As stated in our letter, we must strengthen our market share and capabilities before hastening the clean energy transition. In this way, we can stand up for freedom and democracy, rather than submit to Chinese domination, and secure a prosperous economic future for us all in the 21st century.

  James “Spider” Marks is a retired U.S. Army major general.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 22:20

• Meta Removes Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei's Instagram, Facebook Accounts
  Meta Removes Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei’s Instagram, Facebook Accounts

  It has been a growing trend for the US government and US-based media platforms to censor and cancel Iranian state media entities. For example the biggest instance came in 2021 when the US Justice Department seized state-run PressTV’s domain. 

  The DOJ had seized a total of “33 Iranian government-affiliated media websites, as well as three of the Iraqi group Kataeb Hezbollah, which it said were hosted on US-owned domains in violation of sanctions,” according to a statement at the time. 

  This was after it became clear that attempts to revive the JCPOA nuclear deal with the US and Europeans had failed, and as Iran-linked attacks on US based in Syria and Iraq increased. In the wake of last month’s drone strike on a Jordanian base which killed three Marines, likely from a pro-Iran militia in Syria or Iraq, this drive to remove Iranian state social media accounts has returned.

  On Thursday Meta removed the Instagram and Facebook accounts of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The action is said to be largely the result of pressure from Israeli lobby groups in the wake of the Oct.7 terror attacks on southern Israel. Iranian leaders frequently use the term “Zionist entity” in English messaging and will not say “Israel” – which has been flagged as a violation of Meta’s hate speech policies. 

  

  “We have removed these accounts for repeatedly violating our Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy,” a Meta spokesperson confirmed to English-language Arab news outlet Middle East Eye.

  Meta cited its policy of not allowing “organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence” on its.

  Ayatollah Khamenei has used his official media accounts to post in support of the Palestinian plight, and Tehran has long stood accused of backing Hamas, which is listed by the US and many European countries as a terrorist organization.

  Per MEE’s figurs, “Khamenei’s Persian-language account had more than 5.1 million followers, while his English-language account had more than 204,000.”

  Iranian opposition groups have also long lobbied to get Iranian leaders banned from Western social media platforms, particularly in wake of the recent ‘anti-hijab’ protests led by women in Iranian cities, which resulted in a harsh security services crackdown.

  

  However, critics of these censorship policies have argued that there are fewer and fewer avenues left whereby an international audience can gain insight into what Tehran is thinking. Often accounts like the Ayatollah’s Instagram or X are used to communicate official statements in multiple languages to the West.

  Additionally, in many cases state media are the first to report major breaking events such as bombings or assassinations within the country, or instances of alleged Israeli sabotage on Iranian nuclear facilities. Thus the opposing argument would be that such vital information is needed, and that these accounts should be kept active.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 22:00

• Bugs On The Menu? Biden's Climate And ESG Policies Threaten Food Supply, Think-Tank Warns
  Bugs On The Menu? Biden’s Climate And ESG Policies Threaten Food Supply, Think-Tank Warns

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

  A new report from the right-leaning think-tank The Buckeye Institute sounded the alarm on the Biden administration’s net-zero climate-control policies and that agenda items threaten U.S. food production.

  

  The report, released on Feb.7, found that the climate policies and mandates guided by the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda that is being pushed by the Biden administration carries a hefty price tag for American farmers and consumers.

  “To better appreciate the true costs that American farms and households will likely pay for the Biden administration’s net-zero policies and objectives, The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center developed a model corn farm that must play by the government’s new carbon emission rules,” wrote report authors Trevor W. Lewis and M. Ankith Reddy, who are both economic research analysts at the think-tank.

  “The farm’s operational costs, as expected, all rose significantly,” they added.

  Crunching the numbers, the researchers found that U.S. farmers will see their operational costs rise by an estimated 34 percent as a result of the Biden administration’s net-zero emissions policies.

  Not only did the model predict that the government’s carbon pricing policies would raise farm operating costs, consumers also face a hit to their wallets.

  “Carbon pricing will increase the average U.S. grocery bill by $110 per month, $1,330 annually, or 15 percent,” the researchers estimated.

  

  Threat to Food Supply

  The government’s net-zero policies that the Buckeye report took into account in its analysis include the implications of rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, which targets greenhouse gas emissions.

  In order to achieve the climate pact’s objectives, the Biden administration committed to cutting America’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52 percent by 2030 and to reach economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.

  “Achieving the administration’s desired decarbonized economy will require aggressive climate-emission reduction policies that drain and replace fossil fuels from every sector of the U.S. economy,” the report’s authors wrote.

  The Biden administration has already started implementing stringent regulatory policies meant to cut carbon emissions from America’s energy industry, while a looming final rule on ESG reporting, due to enter into force in April 2024, threatens to push carbon compliance onto other industries.

  Many of these policies have been tested in Europe, with the researchers concluding that the results there have been an “unmitigated failure.”

  “Despite these resounding warnings from European counterparts, U.S. policymakers have recommitted American industry to the same net-zero emissions standards and have imposed the same kinds of costly mandates on farms and businesses that will ultimately reduce food and energy supplies without achieving their intended benefits,” they argued.

  “The results of Buckeye’s modeling were predictable and unsurprising, but many U.S. policymakers seem unwilling to address or even acknowledge them. That has to change, or the United States will face dire economic consequences,” concludes the report’s executive summary.

  The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the report’s findings.

  

  Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, commented on the report in a post on X.

  “Farmers and ranchers lay out huge sums for everything from fertilizer, seeds, and feed to heavy machinery and pesticides to produce the food we eat. Yet, the climate cult and ESG elites are causing these costs to skyrocket,” he wrote.

  “That puts a heavier financial burden on agricultural producers and imposes higher food costs on hardworking Americans,” he continued.

  “America’s farmers and ranchers’ livelihoods shouldn’t be at risk because of inflated operating costs or loss of access to capital from woke banks. Nor should the American people be victim to a crushing tax put on their groceries by climate extremists.”

  ‘Agriculture Is National Security’

  The Buckeye report comes a week or so after a dozen Republican state agriculture commissioners warned in a Jan. 29 letter to top bank executives that membership in the UN Net-Zero Banking Alliance would negatively impact farmers and threaten America’s food security.

  Along with their membership in the alliance, banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have pledged that the loans they make will “align with pathways to net-zero by mid-century or sooner.”

  Tyler Harper, Georgia agriculture commissioner and one of the letter’s signatories, told The Epoch Times in an earlier interview that committing to net-zero policies has a negative knock-on impact on national security.

  “At the end of the day, agriculture is national security, and if we’re not able to feed ourselves as a nation, we’re not able to protect ourselves,” he said.

  “When you look at Sri Lanka and the devastating impacts that [climate mandates] had there, you look at the Netherlands and what they did to implement some of these policies there and the devastating impact it had on their ag economy—we’ve seen the impacts that this had in other nations and we don’t want that to happen here,” Mr. Harper added.

  

  In 2019, after the government of Sri Lanka implemented rules to cut down the use of nitrogen in fertilizer, crop yields collapsed, leading to violent protests that ultimately toppled the government.

  In the Netherlands, regulatory attempts to impose net-zero policies led to widespread protests from farmers.

  ‘Will You Eat the Bugs?’

  Meanwhile, a recent Epoch Original Documentary called “No Farmers No Food: Will You Eat the Bugs?” explores the climate-control policies pushed by governments around the world and how they’re forcing farmers out of business, threatening food supply.

  “This is the next global crisis that is being ignored by media across the world,” Roman Balmakov, host of EpochTV’s “Facts Matter” and director of the documentary, told The Epoch Times during an interview on the sidelines of the world premiere of the film in September 2023.

  

  The documentary delves into the history of the “climate crisis” and how it was conceived by world leaders during the United Nations Conferences on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, in June 1992, shortly after the Cold War ended.

  The film also dives into Agenda 30, previously known as Agenda 21, laying out a case for how global policies set forth by the UN’s aim to end private farming and create dependence on a one-world government that will control the world’s food supply.

  “People in charge of some of the most powerful organizations on the planet have determined that agriculture, specifically animal agriculture, is to blame for global warming and global warming is to blame for the high prices of food and food shortages,” Mr. Balmakov explained.

  The documentary explores the impact of radical climate policies in Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, while also exploring the impact of net-zero and other regulations in the United States.

  The solutions being proposed by governments around the world to solve climate change “might surprise you,” Mr. Balmakov says in the film.

  “According to the United Nations, [bugs] might actually be your future dinner,” he says.

  Kevin Stocklin and Jana Pruet contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 21:40

• Leftist San Francisco Mayor Scrambles For Survival By Backing GOP Effort To Restore Law & Order
  Leftist San Francisco Mayor Scrambles For Survival By Backing GOP Effort To Restore Law & Order

  So what changed in just a few short years, San Francisco Mayor London Breed?

  A few years back. 

  

  Fast-forward to this week. 

  

  Breed’s sudden U-turn has been in the making since last summer.

  A ZH report titled “San Francisco Mayor Makes U-Turn To Fund Police After Company Exodus Pressures City Finances” shows last June that after years of defunding the police, the mayor decided to refund them. This was primarily because of the tsunami of violent crime triggered by failed social justice policies that led to a massive exodus of residents and businesses. And with the exodus, the metro area also deals with a commercial real estate crisis. 

  

  Breed is up for election. And recent polling data, according to The San Francisco Standard, shows the mayor’s job performance has tumbled to only 13%. Respondents pointed to the mayor’s inability to manage homelessness and crime. Respondents want the return of law and order after years of failed social justice reforms (they’re starting to sound like MAGA). 

  

  Now Breed is scrambling to restore confidence (a little too late for that) by joining a Republican-led campaign to eliminate parts of a law that allowed criminals to stay on the streets, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 

  Where are Henry Lee & Da Lin? Recall the SF DA. https://t.co/hC3zuDSGEo

  — Elmano Gonsalves (@Elmanogonsalves) February 1, 2024

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

  On Thursday, Mayor London Breed endorsed a proposal known as “The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act,” which aims to increase jail sentences for distributing fentanyl, streamline the process of charging drug dealers with murder, and extend incarceration for those who participate in organized retail crime. It’s noteworthy that the mayor previously supported Prop. 47, a 2014 law approved by voters that nearly eliminated punishment for criminals who stole less than $950.  

  “Our goal is not to keep people locked up,” said Breed, who is running for reelection in 2024, according to the Chronicle. “But when there are no real consequences for crimes that are committed in this city, that’s a real problem.”

  The theft of 49 iPhones from an Apple store in San Francisco highlights the ongoing challenge of retail theft in urban centers. It’s crucial for businesses and law enforcement to work together to address this issue and ensure public safety. #RetailSecurity #BeAware #Collaboration pic.twitter.com/sCOUfxrgKc

  — Andy Beltran (@Andy080195) February 8, 2024

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  Democrats in the progressive and imploding state are running far away from their party’s own disastrous social justice reforms so they can be re-elected, as the people have spoken loud enough: return law and order. 

  Now that downtown SF has banned cars on market street and is rampant with vacancies and drug tourists, the motorcycle gangs roam the streets with impunity.

  Great job @LondonBreed 🤡 pic.twitter.com/fQ6X3XqpX4

  — Morgan Bender (@MorganWBender) February 7, 2024

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  Voters should be demanding accountability for Democrats who pushed failed policies and triggered what appears to be real-world ‘Grand Theft Auto’ across the metro area.  

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 21:20

• Medicine Has Been Fully Militarized
  Medicine Has Been Fully Militarized

  Authored by Clayton Baker via The Brownstone Institute,

  I am thinking of a certain industry. See if you can guess what it is…

  

  This industry is huge, constituting a large portion of the nation’s GDP. Millions of people earn their living through it, directly or indirectly. The people at the top of this industry (who operate mostly behind the scenes, of course) are among the super-rich. This industry’s corporations lobby the nation’s government relentlessly, to the tune of billions of dollars per year, both to secure lucrative contracts and to influence national policy in their favor. This investment pays off richly, sometimes reaching trillions of dollars.

  The corporations supplying this industry with its materiel conduct advanced, highly technical research that is far beyond the understanding of the average citizen. The citizens fund this research, however, through tax dollars. Unbeknownst to them, many of the profits gained from the products developed using tax dollars are kept by the corporations’ executives and investors.

  This industry addresses fundamental, life-or-death issues facing the nation. As such, it relentlessly promotes itself as a global force for good, claiming to protect and save countless lives. However, it kills a lot of people too, and the balance is not always a favorable one.

  The operational side of this industry is emphatically top-down in its structure and function. Those who work at the ground level must undergo rigorous training that standardizes their attitudes and behavior. They must follow strict codes of practice, and they are subject to harsh professional discipline if they deviate from accepted policies and procedures, or even if they publicly question them.

  Finally, these ground-level personnel are handled in a peculiar manner. Publicly, they are frequently lauded as heroes, particularly under declared periods of crisis. Privately, they are kept completely in the dark regarding high-level industry decisions, and they are often lied to outright by those at higher levels of command. The “grunts” even significantly forfeit some fundamental civil liberties for the privilege of working in the industry.

  What industry am I describing?

  If you answered, “the military,” of course you would be correct.

  However, if you answered “the medical industry,” you would be every bit as right.

  In President Eisenhower’s farewell speech of Jan. 17, 1961, he stated that “… in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Sixty-three years on, many Americans understand what he was referring to.

  They see the endless cycle of undeclared wars and decades-long foreign occupations that are undertaken on nebulous or even outright false pretenses. They see the ever-hungry mega-industry that produces super-expensive, high-tech killing devices of every imaginable form, as well as the steady stream of traumatized soldiers that it spits out. War (or, if you prefer its Orwellian nickname, “defense”) is big business. And as Eisenhower warned, as long as those profiting from it drive the policy and the money stream, it will not only continue, it will continue to grow.

  Other mega-industries – the medical industry in particular – have generally fared better in public perception than the military-industrial complex. Then came COVID.

  Among its many harsh lessons, COVID has taught us this: if you substitute Pfizer and Moderna for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and swap the NIH and CDC for the Pentagon, you get the same result. The “medical-industrial complex” is every bit as real as its military-industrial counterpart, and it is every bit as real a problem.

  As a physician, I am embarrassed to admit that until COVID, I possessed only an inkling that this was so—or more accurately, I knew it, but didn’t realize how bad it was, and I didn’t worry about it too much. Sure (I thought), Pharma engaged in dishonest practices, but we’d known that for decades, and after all, they do make some effective drugs. Yes, physicians were increasingly becoming employees, and protocols were dictating care more and more, but the profession still seemed manageable. True, healthcare was far too expensive (gobbling up a reported 18.3 percent of the U.S. GDP in 2021), but healthcare is inherently expensive. And after all, we’re saving lives.

  Until we weren’t.

  By early-to-mid 2020, it became obvious to those paying attention that the COVID “response,” while promoted as a medical initiative, was in fact a military operation. Martial law had effectively been declared approximately on the Ides of March 2020, after President Trump was mysteriously convinced to cede the COVID response (and practically speaking, control of the nation) to the National Security Council. Civil liberties—freedom of assembly, worship, the right to travel, to earn one’s living, to pursue one’s education, to obtain legal relief—were rendered null and void.

  Top-down diktats on how to manage COVID patients were handed down to physicians from high above, and these were enforced with a militaristic rigidity unseen in doctors’ professional lifetimes. The mandated protocols made no sense. They ignored fundamental tenets of both sound medical practice and medical ethics. They shamelessly lied about well-known, tried-and-true medicines that were known to be safe and appeared to work. The protocols killed people.

  Those physicians and other professionals who spoke out were effectively court-martialed. State medical boards, specialty certification boards, and large healthcare system employers virtually tripped over each other in the rush to delicense, decertify, and fire dissenters. Genuine, courageous physicians who actually treat patients, such as Peter McCullough, Mary Talley Bowden, Scott Jensen, Simone Gold, and others, were persecuted, while non-practicing bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci were hailed with false titles like “America’s Top Doctor.” The propaganda was as nauseating as it was blatant. And then came the jabs.

  How did this happen to medicine?

  It all seemed so sudden, but in fact it has been in the works for years.

  COVID taught us (by the way, COVID has been such a harsh tutor, but haven’t we learned so much from her!) that the medical-industrial complex and military-industrial complex are deeply connected. They are not just twins, or even identical twins. They are conjoined twins, and so-called “Public Health” is the tissue shared between them.

  The SARS CoV-2 virus, after all, is a bioweapon, developed over a period of years, funded by U.S. tax dollars in a joint effort between Fauci’s NIH and the Department of Defense to genetically manipulate the transmissibility and virulence of coronaviruses (all done in the name of “Public Health,” of course).

  Once the bioweapon was out of the lab and into the population, the race was on within the medical-industrial complex to develop and market the supremely profitable antidote to the bioweapon. Cue the full-on military takeover of medicine: the martial law lockdowns, the suppression of cheap and effective treatments, the persecution of dissidents, the ceaseless propaganda and anti-science, and the unabashed whoring of most hospital systems for CARES Act money.

  We know the rest. The ill-conceived, toxic, gene-therapy antidote, falsely billed as a “vaccine,” was foisted upon the population by blackmail (“the vaccine is how we end the pandemic”), the effective bribery of medical authorities and politicians, as well as other Deep-State directed psyops designed to divide the population and scapegoat dissenters (“pandemic of the unvaccinated”).

  The end result even sounds like the aftermath of a gigantic military operation. Millions are dead, many millions more are psychologically traumatized, economies are in tatters, and a few warmongers are fantastically rich. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel (who, incidentally, oversaw the construction of the Wuhan Institute of Virology years ago) is a freshly minted billionaire. And not one of those who caused all the mischief are in prison.

  At this writing, virtually all the major healthcare systems, specialty regulatory boards, specialty associations, and medical schools are standing at attention, still in lockstep with the received—and by now, clearly false—narrative. Their funding, after all, be it from Pharma or the Government, depends upon their obedience. Barring dramatic change, they will respond in the same fashion when orders come down from above in the future. Medicine has been fully militarized.

  In his farewell address, Eisenhower said something else that I believe is most prescient here.

  He described that a military-industrial complex fostered “a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.”

  Enter Disease X.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 21:00

• Where The World Celebrates Chinese New Year
  Where The World Celebrates Chinese New Year

  For around 1.4 billion Chinese, the new year begins on February 10 – unlike in the Gregorian calendar, China calculates its traditional new year’s date according to the lunar cycle.

  While various Asian nations also celebrate their own Lunar New Year festivals, the Chinese New Year is in fact a public holiday in several nations around the world, not just in the People’s Republic.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz shows in the chart below, Southeast Asia is the region in which most countries give their citizens time off for the beginning of the Chinese New Year. These include Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  In recent years, the Chinese New Year has also been introduced as a special holiday in the Philippines, most recently in 2024. South Korea and Vietnam also organize celebrations at the beginning of the lunar year, but these differ in part from the customs of the Chinese New Year and are more likely to be shaped by national culture.

  While the majority of the countries and territories that explicitly celebrate the Chinese New Year are in Asia, there are two exceptions.

  In Suriname in South America, the turn of the year in both the Gregorian and the lunar calendar are public holidays. According to the official census, around seven percent of the approximately 618,000 inhabitants are of Chinese descent. The island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean also celebrates the Chinese New Year, although only about three percent of the approximately 1.3 million inhabitants have Chinese roots. In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, the island was a popular emigration destination for Chinese from the province of Guangdong, also referred to as Canton at the time.

  Chinese New Year celebrations are spread over the course two weeks and usually triggers an increased volume of travel, one of the largest waves of migration in the world. The festivities also mark the official start of spring, which is why the Lunar New Year is also known as Chūnjié or Spring Festival. According to the official lunar calendar, 2024 is the year of the dragon, which last happened in 2012.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 20:40

• 7 Indicted For Attacking NYPD Officers At Times Square
  7 Indicted For Attacking NYPD Officers At Times Square

  Authored by Allen Zhong via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A total of seven persons have been indicted for attacking the New York Police Department (NYPD) officers at Times Square, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Thursday during a joint press conference with New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

  

  Yohenry Brito, 24, was charged with assault, obstruction, and evidence tampering.

  Four others, 19-year-old Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel, 21-year-old Wilson Juarez, 19-year-old Kelvin Servita Arocha, and 24-year-old Yorman Reveron, were charged with assault and obstructing governmental administration.

  The other two suspects have not been identified.

  Mr. Bragg strongly condemned the attacks during the press conference.

  “This assault sickens me and outrages me. We all rely on our members of the NYPD every day to keep us safe and keep this the safest big city in America,” he said. “I do not tolerate attacks on our police officers.”

  Mr. Bragg has faced pressure since four others who had allegedly beaten police were released without bail, drawing criticism from New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. He defended himself, saying more investigation was needed to tell who did what during that incident.

  Mr. Bragg said Thursday that he’s confident with the indictments after a thorough joint investigation between the NYPD and his office.

  “Today’s indictment follows a painstaking joint investigation between the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” he told reporters. “I stand here today confident that we have identified the roles of every person who broke the law and participated in this heinous attack.”

  The NYPD is still looking for two other suspects who were at the scene and has asked the public to help.

  Anyone with information about these two suspects and the assault is encouraged to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

  

  The Incident

  A group of youths—reportedly all illegal immigrants—attacked two NYPD police officers at Times Square at around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 27.

  The officers were attempting to disperse a disorderly group in front of 220 West 42 Street in Manhattan when a physical altercation started, the NYPD said.

  Several individuals repeatedly kicked and punched the officers’ heads and bodies when they were trying to take an individual into custody.

  The officers sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

  Initially, police arrested five men in connection with the incident. Four were released without bail later and only one suspect, Mr. Brito, was ordered held on bail in Rikers Island, New York City’s largest jail.

  NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell criticized the decision to release four of the suspects without bail, calling it “reprehensible,” and saying the “cowards” should be in jail.

  “Do you want to know why our cops are getting assaulted? There are no consequences,” Mr. Chell told reporters during a news conference.

  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also expressed disappointment during a Feb. 2 press conference that the suspects involved in the assault on police officers were released on bail.

  “All I know is that an assault on a police officer means you should be sitting in jail,” she said.

  4 Arrested in Arizona

  Several illegal immigrants believed to be involved in a separate officer beating in New York have been arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, according to an official.

  A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that, on Feb. 5, special agents from multiple law enforcement agencies arrested four individuals on a bus from El Paso, Texas, on its way to the Greyhound bus station in Phoenix.

  “The subjects were believed to be fleeing the state of New York from their suspected involvement in a coordinated assault on multiple New York City Police Department (NYPD) Officers,” said Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, ICE acting deputy press secretary.

  Ms. O’Keefe added that the four were transferred to the custody of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations to be processed for immigration violations.

  Special agents from ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Border Patrol participated in the operation.

  It’s unclear if those arrested in Arizona are the same persons released without bail in New York.

  Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 20:20

• Propaganda Wars Begin: Illegal Immigration Will Boost US GDP By $7 Trillion
  Propaganda Wars Begin: Illegal Immigration Will Boost US GDP By $7 Trillion

  One month ago we asked a simple question: at a time when the Biden admin is breathlessly taking credit for a quote-unquote “strong” job market, how is it not the biggest political talking point right now that since October 2019, native-born US workers have lost 1.4 million jobs; while over the same period foreign-born workers have gained 3 million jobs.

  How is this not the biggest political talking point right now: since October 2019, native-born US workers have lost 1.4 million jobs; over the same period foreign-born workers have gained 3 million jobs. pic.twitter.com/Z5HVWmQ24C

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 15, 2024

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  A few weeks later, when the grotesque and ridiculous January jobs report hit, we reran the analysis to find something even more jarring. Not only were all job gains in the past year entirely thanks to part-time workers, but native-born workers plunged by a another whopping 560 thousand, bringing the two-month total drop to just under 2 million. This meant that not only has all job creation in the past 4 years been exclusively for foreign-born workers, but there has been zero job-creation for native-born American workers since July 2018 (don’t believe us? go ahead and check the data directly from the Fed).

  

  Well, little by little our observations went viral, and soon the fact that immigration has been the only source of growth in the US was picked up by everyone from unimportant people such as fake (or is it fax) economists such as Paul Krugman, all the way to the most important person in the world, (with all due respect to Dementia Joe), the Fed chair Jerome Powell, and even the Congressional Budget Office. And that required an immediate propaganda response.

  So what does the propaganda blowback against this “biggest political talking point” look like?

  Well, let’s start with the NY Times’ pet Goebbels, Paul Krugman, who just happens to be the world’s most overrated economist who in 1998 said that “by 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s”, concedes that “all of the increase in employment since the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic has involved foreign-born workers” (but because facts are “political” he mocks that “Trump and those around him clearly believe that immigrants take jobs away from native-born Americans”), and then he proceeds to lose any last trace of credibility liberals may still have in him – since anyone who knows how to click on a hyperlink such as this one can figure it out on their own – when he claims that immigrants “haven’t been taking jobs from the native-born, who are more likely to be employed in their prime working years than they were before the pandemic.” Great, the only problem with that is if one also looks at the quality of jobs instead of just quantity, and finds that all jobs in the past year have been part-time jobs.

  

  Is that the quality of jobs Krugman believes native-born Americans are entitled to? Don’t answer that: it’s rhetorical. As we showed repeatedly, non-immigrant Americans have not gained any jobs in 6 years, so Krugman’s whole argument is one giant strawman.

  As for the employment rate among prime-aged native Americans being flat, all Krugman is confirming is that the population of native born Americans is falling just as fast as their employment, which in turn is keeping the numerator and the denominator more or less unchanged. At the same time not only are all new jobs going to immigrants (whether legal or illegal), all of the US population growth is also due to immigrants (whether legal or illegal), which last time we checked, is precisely what the Replacement Theory is all about.

  Perhaps for his next propaganda exercise, the Democrats’ favorite economist can answer this question: why are so many native-born Americans so terrified of having families and raising children in this Bidenomical nirvana where everything is so wonderful, and why is all growth, in both the labor force and population, left to immigrants (whether legal or illegal).

  Of course, he won’t do that, as that requires figuring out the true nature of the problem which would go against his ideology; and instead he will jump right to the propaganda conclusion which is what one would expect from a professional liar, namely that “Immigrants are really good for the U.S. economy — and nativists really bad.“

  All this is short-run; add in huge long-run benefits from immigration in helping us pay for Social Security, Medicare and so on. Immigrants are really good for the U.S. economy — and nativists really bad 6/

  — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) February 2, 2024

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  * *  *

  Of course, if it was just Krugman doing the full court propaganda press we wouldn’t even bother with this response, but we were rather amazed to hear none other than the Fed chair bring the topic of immigration up in his 60 Minutes interview. Luckily, unlike the NYT ecomedist, Powell’s take was far more accurate, if much more sinister. For those who missed it, here is what Powell said when host Scott Pelley asked him why the return of immigration to the US after the Pandemic (when Trump locked down all the borders) was so important:

  PELLEY: Why was immigration important?

  POWELL: Because, you know, immigrants come in, and they tend to work at a rate that is at or above that for non-immigrants. Immigrants who come to the country tend to be in the workforce at a slightly higher level than native Americans do. But that’s largely because of the age difference. They tend to skew younger.

  PELLEY: Why is immigration so important to the economy?

  POWELL: Well, first of all, immigration policy is not the Fed’s job. The immigration policy of the United States is really important and really much under discussion right now, and that’s none of our business. We don’t set immigration policy. We don’t comment on it.

  I will say, over time, though, the U.S. economy has benefited from immigration. And, frankly, just in the last, year a big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.

  PELLEY: The country needed the workers.

  POWELL: It did. And so, that’s what’s been happening.

  Two points here: first, whether he meant to or not, Powell just insulted a few hundred million native-born Americans who reportedly do not work at a “rate that is above that for non-immigrants”, i.e., they are plain old lazy, and then there is the far more ominous insinuation: when Powell says that a “big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era,” what he really means is that the reason why inflation has fallen so fast since peaking in June 2022 (at 9.1% YoY) without a corresponding surge in the unemployment rate, is because immigrants (whether legal or illegal) were replacing the jobs of those native American workers who were leaving the labor force! Or said otherwise, you have Replacement Theory to thank for the drop in inflation (i.e., wages) which would not have been possible without the surge in immigration, which in turn is why native-American workers haven’t seen any job gains in 6 years!

  Which also explains why private worker wages have indeed tumbled in the past two years, even as government wage growth has exploded to an all time high. That’s right, Replacement Theory for thee… just not for the Deep State, which is taking all the benefits of sliding wages (thanks to Paco mowing your lawn again), and pushing wages of government workers (i.e., the Deep State) to an all time high!

  

  But while Powell’s attempt at spinning immigration (almost entirely of the illegal sort since that’s where the bulk of workers came from in the past two years) was at least grounded in truth – and is why the ominous conclusion of why all this is taking place emerged – the third and final propaganda shocker came from none other than the “bipartisan” Congressional Budget Office, which this week published its latest “Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034“, and which not surprisingly for an election year, came out decidedly more optimistic than last year’s edition, largely due to a handful of ridiculous assumptions about the future US budget and deficit, which we will discuss in a subsequent post – some of the “highlights” are i) no recession for a decade, ii) unemployment rates peaks just over 4%, iii) inflation peaks at 2%, iv) discretionary spending declines drastically largely due to a big drop in Medicaid spending – yet even with all these ludicrous cherry-picked assumptions, US debt/GDP still rises to catastrophic, hyperinflationary 172% by 2054.

  

  Anyway, since it is an election year, the CBO – whose forecasts have been dead wrong and overly optimistic every single year this century – was tasked with coming up with some optimistic talking points for the Biden admin, like how many trillions in nominal GDP growth the US economy will add if it maintains the current course over the next decade, and it did as ordered. In fact, it did so well, that the WaPo’s favorite economic columnist and spin master, Catherine Rampell, was effusive in her praise of the CBO forecast on X (formerly twitter). To be sure, not even she could mask the fact that the US is on an unsustainable fiscal course, pointing out that “Thanks largely to those higher-than-previously-expected interest rates, CBO raised its estimate of net outlays for interest over the next decade by $1.2 trillion (or 11%)” (spoiler alert: outlays due to the soaring interest will be orders of magnitude greater).

  But what matters for this analysis is the CBO’s punchline, and what one item they goalseeked to get to their mandated economic increase. Can you guess where the bulk of economic growth comes from?

  Why, that’s right: immigration!

  Here is how the CBO’s labor force forecast looks like today vs a year ago. Why the surge? Well, as the CBO explains, higher population growth through 2026 is “mainly from increased immigration”, which “more than offset a decline in labor force participation due to slowing demand for workers and the rising average age of the population” – translation: more immigrant workers, fewer native-American workers. And that’s not all: according to the CBO, “a large proportion of recent and projected immigrants are expected to be 25 to 54 years old – adults in their prime working years.“

  

  And there’s your Replacement Theory again, only this time with a beautiful spin, one which as the WaPo columnist was delivered by none other than CBO Director Phill Swagel, who writes that “as a result of those changes in the labor force, we estimate that from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenue will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.”

  From CBO Director Phill Swagel: “As a result of those changes in the labor force, we estimate that, from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenues will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.”https://t.co/751mWoOqNL pic.twitter.com/xsJS0ROpPc

  — Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 8, 2024

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  And so there you have it. One month ago we wondered how the surge in immigrant workers is “not the biggest political talking point right now.”

  Well, just a few weeks later, it is emerging as just that, and the propaganda response has been staggering, with establishment figures such as Krugman, who accuses anyone that believes immigration is bad as being part of the lumpenproletariat, which ironically is a Marxist term…

  “No, A.I. and automation, for all the changes they may bring, won’t ultimately take away jobs, and neither will immigrants. Don’t join the lumpencommentariat” – source

  … Powell, who accuses native-born workers of being lazy and claims that immigration is helping defeat the inflation that his policies unleashed…

  “… a big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.” – source

  … and finally the CBO…

  “The labor force in 2033 is larger by 5.2 million people, mostly because of higher net immigration. As a result of those changes in the labor force we estimate that from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenue will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.” – source

  … all coming out in full-throated support of immigration (mostly of the illegal, inflation-crushing because wage-hammering variety).

  To be sure, many rational voices – even those of conventional economists – have come out to challenge these ludicrous assumptions and conclusions, but none of them will be heard because as it should be abundantly clear by now, immigration will be the decisive factor of the November election, and if the Biden propaganda machine can kill two birds with one stone, namely that (illegal) immigration is actually great for the US and will end up boosting the economy by trillions, all the better.

  

  And so, with the election still nine months ago, expect the topic of how illegal immigration is the greatest thing imaginable for the US, to dominate the airwaves of the liberal mainstream media which is also the most vocal propaganda channel available to the establishment, whose fate is now contingent on convincing hundreds of millions of Americans that all those tens of thousands of illegals entering the country every day thanks to Biden’s open-border policies are actually the best thing that could happen to them.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 20:00

• DNC Files FEC Complaint Against RFK Jr. Alleging Illegal Super PAC Coordination
  DNC Files FEC Complaint Against RFK Jr. Alleging Illegal Super PAC Coordination

  Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times,

  Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is accused of receiving an illegal contribution from the super PAC working to get him elected president, according to a Federal Election Commission complaint filed by the Democratic National Committee.

  

  Mr. Kennedy’s campaign is “in the process of accepting a $15 million unlawful in-kind contribution by coordinating their efforts to get him on the ballot,” DNC legal counsel Bob Lenhard said in a Feb. 9 call detailing the FEC complaint.

  Mr. Kennedy’s campaign “has acknowledged that it is time-consuming and expensive for a first-time candidate to get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states. Rather than doing that hard work itself, using money raised in compliance with the candidate contribution limits, the campaign is taking a shortcut outsourcing what is otherwise a core campaign function to a super PAC,” Mr. Lenhard added.

  American Values 2024 is ignoring federal law, according to the complaint, Mr. Lenhard noted.

  “The law does allow the super PAC to raise unlimited amounts of money from wealthy individuals, corporations, and unions for independent expenditures. But it remains illegal for a super PAC to provide goods and services directly to a campaign,” Mr. Lenhard said.

  Mr. Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would challenge President Biden for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He has generated wide-ranging support from conservatives, moderates, independents, and Libertarians throughout his campaign, although he hasn’t gained the same favor from many Democrats.

  Campaign finance reports have shown that Mr. Kennedy is getting more support from Republican-leaning donors than from Democrats.

  For months, Mr. Kennedy was confronted with roadblocks from the Democratic National Committee, which he said was “rigging” the primary process to favor President Joe Biden. On Oct. 9, he declared his candidacy for president as an independent.

  American Values 2024 said late last year that it plans to spend as much as $15 million to help get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in multiple states deemed important to winning the election.

  Mr. Kennedy has so far qualified to appear on the ballot in one state—Utah. Late last month, he reported that his campaign gathered enough signatures to appear on the ballot in New Hampshire. Mr. Kennedy is traveling the country and holding voter rallies in his effort to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a feat he believes he will accomplish.

  Mr. Kennedy noted that his favorability ratings were better than President Biden and President Trump, and he is ahead of both candidates among Americans under the age of 45 in six battleground states, and among independents, according to polls.

  

  Supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listen to the announcement that he will run as an independent for president in Philadelphia on Oct. 9, 2023. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)

  When asked if the DNC is concerned that Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy is a threat to President Biden’s reelection bid, DNC spokesperson Ramsey Reid called the alleged FEC violation a “scheme.”

  Billionaire Tim Mellon, one of former President Trump’s largest donors, gave American Values 2024 “the exact $15 million paycheck, they said that they would need for ballot access.”

  Mr. Reid called the move “an effort to subvert our election laws” and “prop up” Mr. Kennedy.

  Campaign finance records indicate that Mr. Mellon gave American Values 2024 $15 million in 2023. Mr. Mellon also contributed $10 million to pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. last year, according to FEC filings.

  Anthony Lyons, who is co-chairman of American Values 2024, said in a statement that the super PAC: “has been working independently from the campaign in accordance with FEC precedent to get Bobby Kennedy on the ballot in 12 states. Recent polling shows that as many as 40,000,000 Americans are prepared to vote for Kennedy in November of 2024. The DNC wants to deny millions of people their basic constitutional voting rights in a relentless onslaught against democracy.”

  “The Biden administration and the DNC clearly find democracy inconvenient, want to stifle any dissenting opinions and don’t believe that their candidate can win a free, open and fair election. I don’t know if all of this amounts to election fraud,” Mr. Lyons added.

  “This FEC complaint is just another desperate DNC tactic to defame Kennedy, vilify him, and drain his campaign funds. The American people are too smart to be fooled by these political games,” he said.

  Mr. Kennedy responded to the complaint, alleging he’s being targeted for political reasons.

  “The DNC is accusing my campaign of FEC violations in the form of secretive activity—activity that’s so secretive it’s on the Ballot Access HQ of my website,” Mr. Kennedy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

  “After the day they had yesterday, it’s understandable they’d want to put the focus on someone else. The DNC is in no position to assert morality over anyone—they refused to have a primary and have worked against the will of the people in the past few elections. It’s sad to see the party my family built crash and burn,” he added, referring to the special counsel report released yesterday that made damning findings about the president’s “poor” memory.

  Mr. Kennedy has called ballot access laws for independent and third-party candidates “among the worst forms of voter suppression in America today” and said that state officials should work together to “streamline and standardize ballot access procedures.”

  Ballot access restrictions “artificially prop up the two-party duopoly,” Mr. Kennedy added, noting that a Gallup poll conducted in September 2023 showed that 63 percent of American adults agree that “the Republican and Democratic parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that another choice is needed.”

  FEC Involvement

  The DNC’s allegations mark the second time the FEC has become involved in matters regarding Mr. Kennedy.

  Last month, the FEC asked Mr. Kennedy’s campaign to clarify salary payments made to a family member.

  In a letter first obtained by CNBC, the FEC questioned whether payments made by the Kennedy campaign to the candidate’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, between July 1 and Sept. 30 exceeded “fair market value.”

  The correspondence indicates that the Kennedy campaign must provide the FEC information regarding “payments to members of the candidate’s family that possibly constitute personal use of the committee’s campaign funds.”

  The FEC threatened legal action against the campaign if the payments did not meet fair market value guidelines for legitimate campaign services.

  According to financial disclosures, the Kennedy campaign reported paying Ms. Kennedy around $70,000 for administrative services.

  Ms. Kennedy was not named in the FEC letter, but she was the only family member on the campaign payroll between July and September, according to CNBC.

  A former undercover CIA agent who is married to Mr. Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III, Ms. Kennedy joined the Kennedy campaign as digital director in May 2023, according to a statement from the campaign.

  Last October, Ms. Kennedy was named campaign manager, replacing former Democrat Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who stepped down days after Mr. Kennedy announced that he would run for president as an independent.

  “I asked Amaryllis to run my presidential campaign for the same reason my uncle, John F. Kennedy, asked his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to run his campaign,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. “There is nobody who could possibly be more effective in this position than Amaryllis Kennedy.”

  “RFK Jr. has broadly complained against the weaponization of federal agencies, including the Secret Service, against his campaign. It’s curious that the FEC has the capacity to investigate this non-issue when legitimate complaints against top-level Democrats and Republicans have sat dormant for years,” the statement explained.

  The FEC set a Feb. 13 deadline for the campaign to provide details on the payments.

  Mr. Kennedy’s campaign has also been focusing on the findings of a 388-page report regarding Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur’s 13-month investigation that found President Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”

  Citing a lack of sufficient evidence to establish his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” and how he would appear to a jury, Mr. Hur declined to pursue charges against the president.

  “At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the special counsel wrote.

  Mr. Kennedy told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that “we’ve reached a time where it’s no longer character assassination to ask legitimate questions about his (President Biden’s) competency.”

  American citizens have a right to know if their president is capable of making decisions that require complex levels of thinking, Mr. Kennedy said.

  “There are entrenched interests and special interests in government that actually benefit from having a president who is not completely competent. Their power increases as a president’s power decreases,” Mr. Kennedy continued, adding that President Biden should participate in general election debates.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 19:40

• US Army Ditches Next-Gen Helicopter Program In Major Aviation Shakeup 
  US Army Ditches Next-Gen Helicopter Program In Major Aviation Shakeup 

  The US Army is abandoning its multi-billion dollar Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program for next-generation scout helicopters. At the same time, the service has reassessed the modern battlefield in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. 

  In an announcement, the service said the decision to end FARA was based on a “sober assessment of the modern battlefield” that would now allow it to increase investments in unmanned aerial vehicles. FARA was launched in 2018 and selected two helicopters in 2020: Bell-Textron with the 360 Invictus and Sikorsky with its Raider X. 

  

  “We are learning from the battlefield – especially in Ukraine – that aerial reconnaissance has fundamentally changed,” Army Chief of Staff General Randy George said in a statement.

  George said, “Sensors and weapons mounted on a variety of unmanned systems and in space are more ubiquitous, further reaching and more inexpensive than ever before.”

  He continued, “We are paying attention [to world events] and adjusting because we could go to war tonight, this weekend.” 

  As for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program, the Army plans to continue with the Bell V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor aircraft designed to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk. The service noted production of the UH-60V version of the Black Hawk will be halted in 2025. 

  

  This represents a significant transformation in the Army’s aviation strategy and upends years of planning.  

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 19:20

• In January Cold, The Texas Electricity Grid Held-Up… Barely
  In January Cold, The Texas Electricity Grid Held-Up… Barely

  Authored by Bill King via RealClear Wire,

  During the recent Winter Storm Heather (Jan. 13-16), the Texas grid was able to produce enough energy to meet the demand, but just barely. Since Winter Storm Uri (February 2021), it appears that improvements have been made to the reliability of natural gas generation. Also, there have been significant additions of renewables capacity, primarily solar, and a small amount of energy storage (batteries). All of these helped to prevent another grid collapse. But we also got lucky. This storm was not nearly as severe as Uri in its intensity, duration, and precipitation.

  

  During the storm, Texans used a wintertime record amount of electricity at 78,138 megawatts on Jan. 16 at 7:50 a.m. At that time, ERCOT’s data showed that the system had 5,229 megawatts in Physical Responsive Capability (PRC). ERCOT begins calling alerts when operating reserves drop below 2,500 megawatts. At 1,500 megawatts, ERCOT begins “controlled outages,” a.k.a. rolling blackouts.

  So, it appears to me that at the worst of the storm, we had about 7% in reserves. The amount of reserves as a percentage of the total demand varies dramatically, even within a day, but typically runs in the 10-20% range. So, while we were never in danger of the grid failing this time, I think it is likely that if Heather had been as bad as Uri, the grid would have likely failed again, but perhaps not as badly as it did with Uri.

  The recent storm did, however, once again underscore the dilemma Texas faces with its current mix of generation sources. The industry jargon for this is called the “fuel mix.” Texas has the most diverse fuel mix in the country, and many may be surprised to know that Texas generates the highest level of renewables in the country, with wind and solar contributing over 30% of total generation.

  Data Source: ERCOT

  The Texas grid was primarily designed to perform in the summer heat when demand peaks are generally limited to several hours in the late afternoon and early evening. In the winter, during periods of extreme cold, demand peaks can be much longer. In the case of Uri, the demand peak lasted for several days.

  Wind and solar perform better in the summer. Typically, renewables do not perform very well during winter storms. Because of the poorer performance of renewables and prolonged periods of high demand, the Texas grid is much more at risk of catastrophic failure in the winter.

  The contribution of wind and solar fell close to zero for several hours during Heather and for several days during Uri. For example, on Jan. 15 at 7:00 a.m., wind was only producing 4,700 megawatts, and solar was at zero. At that time, wind and solar were contributing less than 7% of the electricity Texans were using.

  In these situations, the load falls back on other sources, primarily natural gas. Several times during the recent storm, natural gas was generating almost 70% of Texas’ electricity.

  This dynamic means that for a reliable grid, we must have sufficient dispatchable generation capacity to make up the difference when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. For now, at least, that is natural gas generation. 

  But the problem is that when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, wind and solar produce electricity at a significantly lower cost, making it difficult for natural gas to compete during those times. For wind, the cost advantage is almost entirely attributable to government subsidies. But solar comes in a little below natural gas without any subsidy, and the cost of solar continues to drop. 

  In a market-based system like ERCOT, the competitive problem for natural gas is even more challenging during times when wind and solar are producing a lot of electricity. That is because wind and solar have high upfront capital costs, but the marginal (input) costs are nearly zero. Even when electric prices are very low, wind operators are incentivized to continue to produce because their primary government subsidiary is based on the amount of electricity they produce. In some cases, wind operators will continue to produce at even negative market prices (i.e., the grid is oversupplied with electricity) because they still collect the production tax credit. In contrast, natural gas generators, which have significant fuel and operating costs, cannot afford to continue to produce when the price drops below their input costs.

  As a result, there is very little incentive to invest in natural gas generation in Texas today. Texas recently offered a package of incentives to build additional natural gas generation, including low-rate loans. There were no takers.

  So, if Texas wants to be assured that it will have adequate dispatchable power for extreme weather conditions, the state is going to have to subsidize it with taxpayer money or require it by regulation, which would ultimately increase rates. I will leave the irony of one government subsidy causing the creation of another government subsidy or additional regulation for another day.

  The only other alternative is to build storage capacity for the electricity. Currently, that means batteries. At one point in the recent storm, batteries were contributing over 1,000 megawatts. The all-time record for battery contribution to the grid was 2,172 megawatts in February 2023. So, currently, batteries are making a very small contribution.

  There is a building boom in battery storage as electricity users have become increasingly suspect of the grid’s reliability. And we are likely to see that number continue to grow. However, as you can see on the chart above, the cost of battery storage is very high. That will probably come down over time, but it has a long way to go.

  Because of cheap natural gas prices and the significant contribution of wind and solar, Texans enjoy some of the lowest electricity prices in the country, running 18% below the national average. But that low cost comes at a price – an inherent lack of reliability in its grid. And it is a savings that is wiped out many times over when a storm like Uri does billions of dollars in damage, not to mention the human toll.

  The Texas grid held in this storm, but the long-term issue of building a reliable grid in Texas is far from over.

  Bill is a life-long resident of the Houston area. He has enjoyed a varied career as a businessman and a lawyer. Bill was an opinion writer for the Houston Chronicle from 2004-2015, writing over 400 columns and editorials eventually serving on the editorial board.  In 1996, Bill was elected to the City Council of Kemah, Texas where later served as mayor of Kemah from 2001-2005. He lost an independent run for mayor of Houston in 2015 in the closest mayoral election in Houston’s history.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 19:00

• Khan-linked Candidates Stun By Outperforming In Pakistan Election Against Military-Backed Nawaz Sharif
  Khan-linked Candidates Stun By Outperforming In Pakistan Election Against Military-Backed Nawaz Sharif

  Results which have continued to come in through late Friday, some 12 hours after polling for national and provincial assemblies ended Thursday, show PTI-affiliated candidates doing better than previously expected in a national ‘shocker’. Ex-PM Imran Khan’s party is indeed raising eyebrows and is ‘overperforming’ – as one Washington Post headline has put it.

  This despite Khan’s PTI having been forced by a prior legal ruling to run candidates on independent platforms in what his supporters say is a move by the military and its political allies to ensure Khan, who is in prison on dozens of corruption charges, can never rise to power again. The PTI has surged ahead for seats in parliament against recent Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League.

  

  “With results from just 24 seats of 266-member National Assembly now outstanding, political maneuvering begins to form the next government,” Al Jazeera reports of the latest figures to come in. “At least 134 seats are needed for a simple majority.”

  “PTI-backed candidates have won 98 seats while Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), has secured 67.”

  Still there are contradictory declarations of ‘victory’ happening…

  In a speech earlier on Friday, Sharif claimed victory and invited allies.

  Hours later, Imran Khan released an AI-generated “victory speech” video from jail, calling Sharif a “petty man” and saying no Pakistani would accept his claim of victory.

  Sharif still said as the public has been described as “stunned” (or rather in reality the military establishment is stunned) at Khan’s party surge that he would seek a broad coalition government. “Since we don’t have a clear majority, we will reach out to steer the country out of the quagmire it is in,” he announced.

  “I don’t want to fight with those who are in the mood for fighting,” he said before supporters in Lahore. “We will have to sit together to settle all matters.”

  Former PM Khan’s AI-generated ‘victory speech’ issued from jail…

  Chairman Imran Khan’s victory speech (AI version) after an unprecedented fightback from the nation that resulted in PTI’s landslide victory in General Elections 2024. pic.twitter.com/Z6GiLwCVCR

  — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 9, 2024

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  Sharif was viewed going into the election as the clear front-runner. He’s seen as the “military’s man” in Islamabad, while Khan’s legacy has sought to be erased by those same elite powers.

  Sharif’s political ‘reaching out’ is unlikely to include former Khan officials and his PTI, but likely some who ran as independents will have to be dealt with cooperatively. 

  #PAKWatch🇵🇰: Even though it appears that Imran Khan and the PTI party had a runaway electoral victory, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is working overtime to rig the results and remove Captain Pakistan from the picture. pic.twitter.com/LMd3POYbno

  — Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) February 9, 2024

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  The Washington Post underscores that what this shows is the Pakistani countryside continues to have large bastions of PTI and pro-Khan support: “But the provisional results of Thursday’s vote still pointed to lingering support for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, which was politically sidelined by the Pakistani establishment after Khan ran afoul of the military two years ago,” it writes.

  The contest is fundamentally between Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Bilawal Bhutto’s parties. Already there are widespread accusations of “fraud” and political violence on the streets could persist.

  

  As we detailed yesterday, the hotly contested election has been marred by political violence and acts of terrorism of the past several days, which has even included bombings at polling stations and attacks on political offices. 48 hours of violence going into Thursday’s voting saw over 35 people killed and scores wounded.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 18:40

• "It Has To Be Done": After Court Victory For Freedom Convoy, Canadians Ready To Sue
  “It Has To Be Done”: After Court Victory For Freedom Convoy, Canadians Ready To Sue

  Authored by Matthew Horwood via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Several Freedom Convoy protesters, buoyed by a recent victory in Canadian federal court, said they’re preparing to sue the federal government, banks, and the police that brought the 2022 protest to a heated end.

  

  “I think it’s the second phase to what took place with the federal court case,” military veteran and plaintiff Eddie Cornell said. “We’ve got a big hill to climb, but it’s something that’s necessary. It has to be done.”

  On Jan. 23, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley issued a ruling against the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the protests and blockades that gridlocked Canada’s capital Ottawa for weeks.

  The government’s use of the act did “not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness—justification, transparency and intelligibility—and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” Justice Mosley wrote in his ruling.

  Police veteran and plaintiff Vincent Gircys, whose bank account was frozen for more than a week under the Emergencies Act, said that while he was initially “very disappointed with our justice system—having worked in there for 32 years”—he’s pleased to see that “some level of justice is being restored.”

  Alberta contractor Jeremiah Jost, who, alongside his wife, drove to Ottawa as part of the convoy, said he was “incredibly encouraged by Justice Mosley’s ruling and his courage to put his neck out.”

  The ruling has likely given hope to Canadians who are upset with the country’s justice system, he said.

  The Freedom Convoy, a protest response to a federal mandate requiring COVID-19 vaccination for truck drivers crossing the Canada–U.S. border, resulted in an encampment of large trucks in the nation’s capital in early 2022.

  The original protest action, which began in January 2022, quickly evolved into a broader, large-scale movement in opposition to pandemic mandates and restrictions, with similar demonstrations being held at several Canada-U.S. border crossings.

  The federal government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022—for the first time since its creation in 1988. The act gave law enforcement expanded powers to arrest demonstrators and to require towing companies to remove protesters’ vehicles from Ottawa’s downtown core (some of which refused).

  The emergency measure also allowed the national police force—the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)—to provide banks and other financial institutions with a list of individuals and entities involved in the protests and to ask them to freeze the accounts of those on the list.

  Justice Mosley ruled that invocation of the act infringed the charter’s Section 2(b), which deals with “freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression,” and Section 8, which deals with the “right to be secure against unreasonable search seizure.”

  The action to freeze bank accounts was “not minimally impairing,” the judge said, as the measure applied everywhere in Canada—including in areas where no protests were occurring—and because there were “less impairing alternatives available” to Ottawa.

  Hours after Justice Mosley’s ruling was issued, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the Liberal government intends to fight it.

  “We respect very much Canada’s independent judiciary. However, we do not agree with this decision. And respectfully, we will be appealing it,” she said on Jan. 23.

  

  Lawsuits Against Government, Banks

  Justice Mosley’s decision was ultimately the result of court action by five plaintiffs who participated in the protest, two of whom had their bank accounts frozen.

  Three of the plaintiffs—Mr. Jost, Mr. Gircys, and Mr. Cornell—said on Jan. 29 that they plan to take further legal action against “those in government, the financial institutions who froze people’s bank accounts, and the police officers who beat up and injured innocent Canadians.”

  Mr. Cornell, a co-founder of the organization Veterans 4 Freedom, said his legal team had “great success” in the federal court ruling and that he felt vindicated. His bank account was one of those that was frozen.

  He said his team has established an initiative called “The Accountability Project” to fundraise for the planned lawsuit. The legal team, which is currently being assembled, will decide whether the litigation will take the form of a class-action or a tort suit.

  “They want to make sure that they get it done correctly. We have complete faith in the team, because these are the guys that actually were successful with this Federal Court challenge,” Mr. Cornell said.

  “I’m just hoping that Canadians will stand up and support this initiative.”

  While Justice Mosley ruled that Mr. Jost lacked standing to challenge the Emergencies Act decision and ultimately dismissed his application, Mr. Jost said he was pleased to still provide video and first-hand evidence.

  “I was able to be there and testify that they were filming all of us. There were snipers on the roof. They had guns, batons, rubber bullets, and pepper spray, and all those things. And they were snatching people and beating people,” he said.

  “So I’m thankful I was able to be another voice for truth in the case. That was really my goal.”

  ‘Something Historical’

  Mr. Gircys, who assisted with the logistics and coordination for the Ottawa protest, said he was in “disbelief” when city police moved in to evict the protesters from the downtown core.

  

  “The event was peaceful, and I would never believe that our police agencies would move on peaceful protesters,” he said.

  A former forensic investigator with the Ontario Provincial Police, Mr. Gircys said he had observed what was happening in regard to the vaccine mandates and travel restrictions, and as the trucker convoy converged on the nation’s capital, he felt he had to go see it for himself.

  “I thought this could be something historical,” he said.

  “When we arrived—and my intention was just to stay one night and head back—I could not believe how big this was, how many people were there, just how huge this event was and how incredibly happy and jovial everybody was to come together from one end of the country to the other.”

  Mr. Gircys, who is based in the Toronto area and had traveled to Ottawa with his son, said he had to drive his son back to Toronto but then returned to the capital and stayed for the protest.

  He said citizens came together “organically” to ensure that necessary services such as restrooms, first-aid stations, and access to fuel were provided.

  “My observations with all those that I engaged with, was that this was a very peaceful event,” he said. “I’ve never seen this much unity in our country, as I had never seen such a large group of people being as happy as they were. And yet I’m constantly, every evening, observing on the news reporting that ’this was a violent, hateful group,’ and nothing could be further from the truth. This was complete propaganda.”

  Mr. Gircys said that after the Emergencies Act was invoked, he heard that some individuals’ bank accounts had been frozen. Then it happened to him.

  He said he was able to get some money “through the goodness and kindness around me” to fuel his vehicle to get home.

  “They’re violating rights on a massive scale in a number of ways, and eventually, they moved in with police en masse again,” he said.

  “Having been a former police officer with 32 years of service, and having spent time in emergency management as a member of the Emergency Response Team, I’m very aware of what was about to take place from the policing side.

  “I was in disbelief that this would actually be happening, because the event was peaceful,” he said.

  Mr. Gircys said he’s pleased that the court found the invocation of the Emergencies Act unjustified and he’s looking forward to filing the civil suit with Mr. Jost and Mr. Cornell.

  Court Ruling Has ‘Teeth’

  Chris Barber, one of the Freedom Convoy’s lead organizers, said Justice Mosley’s ruling is a “step in the right direction” and will help many Canadians see how “the government trampled on us during the protests.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 18:20

• Cisco To Fire "Thousands", Adding To Firehose Of Tech Layoffs Since Beginning Of 2024
  Cisco To Fire “Thousands”, Adding To Firehose Of Tech Layoffs Since Beginning Of 2024

  The tech industry has been so delirious about the vast wealth that pervasive chatbots will supposedly unleash, it forgot about the massive layoffs on the road to AI nirvana. Luckily, every day there is a new tech giant to remind us of just how much fewer jobs will be needed in said future, and how laughable the Biden Labor Department’s “strong jobs data” is… and today it was network giant Cisco’s turn.

  According to Reuters, Cisco will lay off “thousands of employees”, as part of a business restructuring which seeks to “focus on high-growth areas”…. such as AI/chatGPT of course. The San Jose-based company, which has a total employee count of 84,900 according to its website – is still deciding on the total number of employees to be affected by the layoffs, but it will certainly be substantial. The official announcement will likely come next week, when the company holes its earnings call on Feb. 14.

  In November 2022, Cisco announced during an earnings call a restructuring that impacted roughly 5% of its workforce which lead to $600 million in severance and other charges. Back then Cisco cut its full-year revenue and profit forecasts, and blamed the weakness on a slowdown in orders in the first quarter, saying “customers are currently focused on installing and implementing products in their environments.” The coming mass termination will probably reiterate continued weakness even as the lunatic buying up chatGPT chips and hot air keep bidding up the AI bubble.

  Cisco joins dozens of other tech companies which have started 2024 – a year when supposedly the economy is bursting higher according to fans of the president with dementia and where AI stocks are soaring – with another brutal wave of job cuts, paring back even further after widespread layoffs last year.

  So far, nearly 34,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in 2024 according to Layoffs.fyi.

  

  Prior to Cisco, Snap and DocuSign became the latest examples, announcing earlier this week they they are reducing their workforces by about 10% and 6%, respectively. Earlier this month, software company Okta Inc. said it would eliminate 7% of its staff to reduce costs, affecting about 400 employees. The list goes on, including Big Tech employers like Amazon.com, Salesforce and Meta Platforms.

  This year, “tech companies are still trying to correct for their over-hiring during the pandemic surge, given that the high interest-rate environment and tech downturn have both lasted longer than initially expected,” Layoffs.fyi founder Roger Lee told Bloomberg.

  There have been two main waves of job cuts in recent years, according to Lee. The “early Covid” spike, from the first to second quarters of 2020, and the “interest rate hike” effect, which has been going on since the second quarter of 2022. “This year’s layoffs are typically smaller and more targeted than the layoffs a year ago,” Lee said.

  Although economic factors are the main reason for tech layoffs, Lee noted that many companies are citing the race for artificial intelligence as a factor, as they are shifting resources to focus on AI talent. According to an analysis by CompTIA, which tracks employment trends in the tech industry, job postings in “artificial intelligence or requiring AI skill increased by about 2,000 from December to January, to 17,479.”

  “I do feel like most of the layoffs have happened, and companies are going to start to rebound,” said Bert Bean, chief executive officer of staffing company Insight Global. “But it’s still very uncertain.” He expects the market to remain that way for about the next two quarters, “until the Fed really comes out and starts to cut interest rates.”

  Good luck with Bert, who clearly has zero conflicts of interest. And also good luck to anyone else who believes that BS from the BLS that unemployment is “falling”; instead here is the truth, and this covers just the past few weeks.

  1. Twitch: 35% of workforce
  2. Roomba: 31% of workforce
  3. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
  4. LA Times: 20% of workforce
  5. Spotify: 17% of workforce
  6. Levi’s: 15% of workforce
  7. Xerox: 15% of workforce
  8. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
  9. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
  10. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
  11. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
  12: Snap: 10% of workforce
  13. eBay: 9% of workforce
  14. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
  15. Paypal: 7% of workforce
  16. Okta: 7% of workforce
  17. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
  18. Docusign: 6% of workforce
  19. UPS: 2% of workforce
  20. Blackrock: 3% of workforce
  21. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
  22. Pixar: 1,300 employees

  According to the Biden Bureau of Goalseeked Statistical Bullshit, none of this is happening…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 18:05

• "Garbage Deals": Dealership Puts Customers In Cars With $3,000 Monthly Payments
  “Garbage Deals”: Dealership Puts Customers In Cars With $3,000 Monthly Payments

  A New York Fed survey published earlier this week indicated that, in the fourth quarter of 2023, auto loan delinquencies reached levels not seen since right after the Great Recession more than a decade ago. 

  As a refresher, the data from Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed (read: ZH report here) the rate at which car owners are behind on their payments hit an annualized rate of 7.7%, the highest level since 2010. 

  

  “Delinquency transition rates have pushed past pre-pandemic levels, and the worsening appears to be broad-based,” researchers at the NY Fed wrote in a blog post. 

  Given that we already covered this in a report titled Credit-Card & Auto Delinquencies Soar, Especially Age Group 18-39, as well as other eye-opener credit reports in recent weeks:

  • Banks Report Tighter Standards, Weaker Loan Demand But Some Improvement As Financial Conditions Ease
  • Stunning Collapse In Credit Card Debt Change As Average APR Hits New All-Time High

  … perhaps there is reason to believe an increasing number of households have hit the proverbial brick wall despite the Biden administration cheering ‘Bidenomics’ on legacy corporate media outlets. 

  The households who piled on insurmountable auto and credit card debt through the Covid era and the current high-interest rate environment are likely the folks running into financial turmoil. 

  An Edmunds report from last year showed the percentage of drivers with plus $1,000 monthly payments jumped to an all-time high of 17.1% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 16.8% in the first quarter. The reason is that the average amount financed for a new vehicle is around $40,000, plus auto loan rates are at a generational high.

  “The double whammy of relentlessly high vehicle pricing and daunting borrowing costs is presenting significant challenges for shoppers in today’s car market,” Edmunds’ director of insights Ivan Drury said last year. 

  This leads us to two posts made by X user Clown World. They shared what appears to be an auto dealer sharing several images online of new customers financing vehicles with payments that are as much as monthly mortgage payments. 

  One person purchased a 2023 Tahoe with $2,550 monthly payments on an 84-month term! 

  

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

  Another person bought a 2023 Sierra 2500 Denali with $3,000 monthly payments, locked in a 96-month term! 

  What a deal 😅😳 pic.twitter.com/r0Sjhma5gC

  — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) February 9, 2024

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

  Here’s what folks on X said in response to the two posts:

  $288,000 for a truck that will depreciate to 1/5 of that long before it’s paid off.

  — Caballero 🏹 (@HughAkston0) February 9, 2024

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

  Dude could be almost 1/3 of the way through a 30 year mortgage on an expensive house when he pays off his truck.

  — Branos (@thesonofbran) February 9, 2024

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

  What’s with this trend of people posting their garbage “deals” at dealerships.
  Nice flex 😂

  — T M (@T_morgan61) February 9, 2024

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

  The repo industry silently cheers. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/09/2024 – 18:00

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