Today’s News 10th March 2024

• Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?
  Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

  Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The headlines coming out of the Super Tuesday primaries have got it right. Barring cataclysmic changes, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be the Republican and Democratic nominees for president in 2024.

  

  With Nikki Haley’s withdrawal, there will be no more significantly contested primaries or caucuses—the earliest both parties’ races have been over since something like the current primary-dominated system was put in place in 1972.

  The primary results have spotlighted some of both nominees’ weaknesses.

  Donald Trump lost high-income, high-educated constituencies, including the entire metro area—aka the Swamp. Many but by no means all Haley votes there were cast by Biden Democrats. Mr. Trump can’t afford to lose too many of the others in target states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.

  Majorities and large minorities of voters in overwhelmingly Latino counties in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and some in Houston voted against Joe Biden, and even more against Senate nominee Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas).

  Returns from Hispanic precincts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts show the same thing. Mr. Biden can’t afford to lose too many Latino votes in target states like Arizona and Georgia.

  When Mr. Trump rode down that escalator in 2015, commentators assumed he’d repel Latinos. Instead, Latino voters nationally, and especially the closest eyewitnesses of Biden’s open-border policy, have been trending heavily Republican.

  High-income liberal Democrats may sport lawn signs proclaiming, “In this house, we believe … no human is illegal.” The logical consequence of that belief is an open border. But modest-income folks in border counties know that flows of illegal immigrants result in disorder, disease, and crime.

  There is plenty of impatience with increased disorder in election returns below the presidential level. Consider Los Angeles County, America’s largest county, with nearly 10 million people, more people than 40 of the 50 states. It voted 71 percent for Mr. Biden in 2020.

  Current returns show county District Attorney George Gascon winning only 21 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary. He’ll apparently face Republican Nathan Hochman, a critic of his liberal policies, in November.

  Gascon, elected after the May 2020 death of counterfeit-passing suspect George Floyd in Minneapolis, is one of many county prosecutors supported by billionaire George Soros. His policies include not charging juveniles as adults, not seeking higher penalties for gang membership or use of firearms, and bringing fewer misdemeanor cases.

  The predictable result has been increased car thefts, burglaries, and personal robberies. Some 120 assistant district attorneys have left the office, and there’s a backlog of 10,000 unprosecuted cases.

  More than a dozen other Soros-backed and similarly liberal prosecutors have faced strong opposition or have left office.

  St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner resigned last May amid lawsuits seeking her removal, Milwaukee’s John Chisholm retired in January, and Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby was defeated in July 2022 and convicted of perjury in September 2023. Last November, Loudoun County, Virginia, voters (62 percent Biden) ousted liberal Buta Biberaj, who declined to prosecute a transgender student for assault, and in June 2022 voters in San Francisco (85 percent Biden) recalled famed radical Chesa Boudin.

  Similarly, this Tuesday, voters in San Francisco passed ballot measures strengthening police powers and requiring treatment of drug-addicted welfare recipients.

  In retrospect, it appears the Floyd video, appearing after three months of COVID-19 confinement, sparked a frenzied, even crazed reaction, especially among the highly educated and articulate. One fatal incident was seen as proof that America’s “systemic racism” was worse than ever and that police forces should be defunded and perhaps abolished.

  2020 was “the year America went crazy,” I wrote in January 2021, a year in which police funding was actually cut by Democrats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. A year in which young New York Times (NYT) staffers claimed they were endangered by the publication of Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) opinion article advocating calling in military forces if necessary to stop rioting, as had been done in Detroit in 1967 and Los Angeles in 1992. A craven NYT publisher even fired the editorial page editor for running the article.

  Evidence of visible and tangible discontent with increasing violence and its consequences—barren and locked shelves in Manhattan chain drugstores, skyrocketing carjackings in Washington, D.C.—is as unmistakable in polls and election results as it is in daily life in large metropolitan areas. Maybe 2024 will turn out to be the year even liberal America stopped acting crazy.

  Chaos and disorder work against incumbents, as they did in 1968 when Democrats saw their party’s popular vote fall from 61 percent to 43 percent.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 23:20

• Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence
  Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

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

  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reviewed no data when deciding in 2023 to keep its COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place.

  

  VA Secretary Denis McDonough said on May 1, 2023, that the end of many other federal mandates “will not impact current policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

  He said the mandate was remaining for VA health care personnel “to ensure the safety of veterans and our colleagues.”

  Mr. McDonough did not cite any studies or other data. A VA spokesperson declined to provide any data that was reviewed when deciding not to rescind the mandate. The Epoch Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act for “all documents outlining which data was relied upon when establishing the mandate when deciding to keep the mandate in place.”

  The agency searched for such data and did not find any.

  “The VA does not even attempt to justify its policies with science, because it can’t,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.

  “The VA just trusts that the process and cost of challenging its unfounded policies is so onerous, most people are dissuaded from even trying,” she added.

  The VA’s mandate remains in place to this day.

  The VA’s website claims that vaccines “help protect you from getting severe illness” and “offer good protection against most COVID-19 variants,” pointing in part to observational data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that estimate the vaccines provide poor protection against symptomatic infection and transient shielding against hospitalization.

  There have also been increasing concerns among outside scientists about confirmed side effects like heart inflammation—the VA hid a safety signal it detected for the inflammation—and possible side effects such as tinnitus, which shift the benefit-risk calculus.

  President Joe Biden imposed a slate of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021. The VA was the first federal agency to implement a mandate.

  President Biden rescinded the mandates in May 2023, citing a drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. His administration maintains the choice to require vaccines was the right one and saved lives.

  “Our administration’s vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations,” the White House said.

  Some experts said requiring vaccination meant many younger people were forced to get a vaccine despite the risks potentially outweighing the benefits, leaving fewer doses for older adults.

  “By mandating the vaccines to younger people and those with natural immunity from having had COVID, older people in the U.S. and other countries did not have access to them, and many people might have died because of that,” Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times previously.

  The VA was one of just a handful of agencies to keep its mandate in place following the removal of many federal mandates.

  “At this time, the vaccine requirement will remain in effect for VA health care personnel, including VA psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, nursing assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, peer specialists, medical support assistants, engineers, housekeepers, and other clinical, administrative, and infrastructure support employees,” Mr. McDonough wrote to VA employees at the time.

  “This also includes VA volunteers and contractors. Effectively, this means that any Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employee, volunteer, or contractor who works in VHA facilities, visits VHA facilities, or provides direct care to those we serve will still be subject to the vaccine requirement at this time,” he said. “We continue to monitor and discuss this requirement, and we will provide more information about the vaccination requirements for VA health care employees soon. As always, we will process requests for vaccination exceptions in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.”

  The version of the shots cleared in the fall of 2022, and available through the fall of 2023, did not have any clinical trial data supporting them.

  A new version was approved in the fall of 2023 because there were indications that the shots not only offered temporary protection but also that the level of protection was lower than what was observed during earlier stages of the pandemic.

  Ms. Manookian, whose group has challenged several of the federal mandates, said that the mandate “illustrates the dangers of the administrative state and how these federal agencies have become a law unto themselves.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 22:10

• China Plans $27BN 'Big Fund' To Counter US' Tech War
  China Plans $27BN ‘Big Fund’ To Counter US’ Tech War

  China is preparing to raise billions of dollars for its largest-ever semiconductor fund, aiming to fast-track the advancement of cutting-edge technologies in response to Washington’s worsening trade and tech war. 

  According to Bloomberg, China’s National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund is pooling capital from local governments, their investment arms, and state-owned enterprises. Sources familiar with the situation said the fund is expected to collect more than 200 billion yuan, or $27 billion. 

  Referred to as the “Big Fund,” the state-backed entity will help finance several pools of capital managed by other general partners under a “fund of funds” structure to increase deal sourcing and investment strategies to boost semiconductors and artificial intelligence investments. This comes as the Biden administration prepares to escalate technology trade curbs. 

  The people also said negotiations about the fundraising are progressing and subject to change, and it could take months to finalize. 

  Bloomberg pointed out that Big Fund will assist domestic companies, such as Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, in becoming less reliant on advanced processors and semiconductor equipment from the US or Europe. 

  

  “Beijing’s goal now is to pool valuable capital across the country for major projects, a key element in President Xi Jinping’s “whole nation” approach,” according to the source.

  China’s drive towards self-reliance follows the US and its allies, such as the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, ratcheting up trade restrictions on advanced semiconductor technology over the last year.

  And just how reliant is Huawei on the US? 

  In a separate Bloomberg report earlier today, it was revealed that Huawei and SMIC relied on US technology to produce advanced 7-nanometer chips for the Mate 60 Pro released last year. 

  This suggests that China still can’t entirely replace some foreign components from its most advanced chips. 

  The Big Fund is a clear move by Beijing to increase technological self-sufficiency from the West. 

  Meanwhile, the Biden administration is spending tens of billions of dollars to boost the US semiconductor industry and reduce its reliance on China. 

  All this simply reinforces the global shift to a multi-polar state.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 21:35

• University Of Virginia Spends $20 Million On 235 DEI Employees, With Some Making $587,340 Per Year
  University Of Virginia Spends $20 Million On 235 DEI Employees, With Some Making $587,340 Per Year

  By Adam Andrzejewski of Open The Books substack

  The University of Virginia (UVA) has at least 235 employees under its “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” banner — including 82 students — whose total cost of employment is estimated at $20 million. That’s $15 million in cash compensation plus an additional 30-percent for the annual cost of their benefits.

  

  In contrast, last Friday, the University of Florida dismissed its DEI bureaucracy, saving students and taxpayers $5 million per year. The university terminated 13 full-time DEI positions and 15 administrative faculty appointments. Those funds have been re-programmed into a “faculty recruitment fund” to attract better people who actually teach students.

  No such luck for learning at Virginia’s flagship university – founded by Thomas Jefferson no less. UVA has a much deeper DEI infrastructure.

  Reform or abolition must await this summer’s anticipated changes in the school’s Board of Visitors. At least until then, the very highly compensated, generally non-teaching, DEI staffers are safely embedded throughout the entire university – while costing students and taxpayers a fortune.

  Our team of auditors at OpenTheBooks.com reviewed the university payroll file for 2023 to sort out the DEI position head counts, compensation, and then estimated the cost of benefits.

  Meet The Top Paid DEI Executives

  Martin N. Davidson, senior associate dean of the Darden School of Business & global chief diversity officer, earns the most in a DEI role, at $452,000, or $587,340 including benefits. For comparison, Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia earned $175,000.

  The second most highly compensated DEI executive is Kevin G. McDonald, the vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion and community partnerships, who takes home $401,465, or an estimated $520,000 with benefits.

  Those in DEI leadership roles such as vice presidents, associate/assistant deans, directors, assistant directors and managers earned up to $312,000 last year, or $400,000 with benefits.

  When McDonald began in his position in August 2019, he was making $340,000, eligible for a 10-percent bonus every year. His first year, he was given a $25,000 recruitment bonus and up to $30,000 for relocation costs, according to UVA records provided through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

  Some of the DEI chiefs have been transparent about their philosophies during their public comments. For example, Rachel Spraker, an assistant vice president for equity & inclusive excellence – where she earned $186,800 last year or $242,840 with benefits – described the opioid epidemic in Appalachia as an example of “white toxicity.”

  DEI staff aren’t the only well-paid employees in controversial roles at UVA.

  Lanice Avery, an assistant professor of psychology in the departments of Psychology and Women, Gender and Sexuality, makes $102,200 ($132,860 with estimated benefits). She runs the Research on Intersectionality, Sexuality, and Empowerment (RISE) Lab at UVA and writes and speaks about black, female sexuality, and describes herself as a “board-certified sexologist” and speaks online about her orgasms.

  

  UVA’s DEI Infrastructure

  What does the DEI bureaucracy do?

  There are 187 UVA employees and students dedicated to “assist and monitor all units of the University in their efforts to recruit and retain faculty, staff, and student from historically underrepresented groups and to provide affirmative and supportive environments for work and life…”

  Here are some of the university agencies committed to the DEI mission. If you think you are seeing double in this list, you are right:

  • Equity Center (110 employees total: 37 employees +73 students),
  • Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (17 employees +1 student),
  • Multicultural Student Services (6 employees +10 students),
  • Office of Diversity & Engagement (3 employees + 4 students)
  • Center for Diversity (4 students)

  Included in the DEI employment roster are another 31 people working in DEI roles sprinkled throughout other departments, including the Urology Department, in Occupational Programs, for the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and other areas.

  Then, there are another 48 employees and students working in roles related to DEI and advancing equality for women, minorities, etc.

  • Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center (21 employees, including 4 undergrad students/interns)
  • Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (16 employees working on Title IX compliance, sexual misconduct investigations and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, among other things)
  • Office of African American Affairs (4 employees)
  • Center for Global Health Equity (4 employees and 3 student employees working on providing health services to mostly Third World countries)

  Not included in the DEI numbers for this investigation were the Women, Gender and Sexuality Department with 10 professors making a collective $857,103 last year ($1.1 million with benefits) and the Psychology Department with 87 employees making $8.4 million ($11 million with benefits).

  Adding to the confusion, the university has consistently undercounted DEI staffers in presentations to the public. In April 2023, Kevin McDonald told the New York Times that UVA had only 40 DEI employees. In May 2023, a presentation to the Board of Visitors claimed UVA had only 55 DEI positions.

  Even our list of 235 employees is not complete. Here is a great example of an executive with a hidden DEI mission:

  Kimberley Barker, Librarian for Digital Life ($80,000, or $104,000 with benefits). Barker isn’t in our database, however, she is the DEI leader for the Health System Library – the “IDEA (Inclusion Diversity Equity Accessibility) lead. Her university bio page lists her as the “Librarian for Belonging and Community Engagement.”

  Summary

  UVA was founded by Thomas Jefferson, the author of our Declaration of Independence. Jefferson’s work presented the moral case for a common freedom among all men. The university has an historic opportunity to promote the time-tested principles:

  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

  But, instead of working towards the ideal of the Shining City on the Hill under Jeffersonian principles, his university embraced the divisive quotas of the neo-Marxist DEI crowd.

  Tens of millions of dollars in student tuition and taxpayer monies are flowing into promoting anti-American notions and radical philosophies that judge the color of one’s skin instead of the content – and competence – of their character.

  Students, taxpayers and all who care about learning can look to Florida as the beacon of a new day. Perhaps Virginia, a birthplace of our Constitutional republic, home to birth places of individual rights and freedoms in America, will emulate the model.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 21:00

• Watch: Col. Douglas Macgregor (Ret) Provides Nation With Alternative View Of The State Of The Union
  Watch: Col. Douglas Macgregor (Ret) Provides Nation With Alternative View Of The State Of The Union

  “I want to respectfully present an alternative view of the State of The Union,” retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor said in a video posted on X. 

  Macgregor begins by explaining how the Constitution mandates that the government promote the general welfare. This obligates Washington to secure the basic necessities of life, such as energy, food, and shelter. 

  “Regrettably, the current administration is failing to perform these tasks,” Macgregor said. 

  

  The combat war veteran and former senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense under the Trump administration, who is now the CEO of the media company “Our Country, Our Choice,” said Biden claims the economy is booming but noted that “much of it comes from government spending and employment,” adding that the government share of GDP is 42%—including federal, state, and local spending. 

  “This outrageous share is similar to what it was in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s—before the collapse. Rampant inflation stemming from this government share of the economy makes it difficult for families to buy nutritious food,” Macgregor said. 

  He touched on runaway inflation, which has decimated households in recent years, indicating that families are struggling to survive in the era of failed Bidenomics. 

  Macgregor segways into an ominous warning that ZeroHedge readers have understood for years: “Our national security is compromised.” 

  He warned about broken supply chains, power plants, and manufacturing facilities lacking critical spare parts. He blasted “ill-conceived domestic policies” that have sparked widespread job loss and homelessness. 

  Macgregor then focused on how decades of empire-building have drained America’s resources. 

  He pivoted back to the bloated government, explaining that there are between 12 and 25 million government workers and contractors. He added that this is all happening as national sovereign debt skyrockets to $34 trillion—or $1 trillion every three months. 

  Hedge Fund Manager: The US Issues $1 Trillion In Debt Ever 100 Days, Just Imagine The Pace Of Deficit Spending In A Deep Recession https://t.co/oNpU9C4JzH

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 4, 2024

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  “It’s impossible to drain the swamp with unsound money and colossal debt that we cannot sustain,” Macgregor said. 

  He continued: “Tragically, DC beltway politicians are controlled by the so-called donor class. This form of corruption is enabled by a cancerous central banking system … this ruling class orchestrates endless wars, enriching themselves and their cronies while sending our soldiers to serve in foreign lands of marginal strategic interest to the United States.” 

  Macgregor then warned about the invasion on the open southern border, indicating, “This uncontrolled influx is straining our resources, overwhelming our communities, and destroying our prosperity.” 

  “Reckless calls to defund and punish the police have crippled law enforcement. Officers are underfunded, undermanned, and unable to protect our citizens, making our cities unsafe for all, especially women, children, and the elderly,” he said. 

  Listen to Macgregor’s alternative State of The Union speech compared with Biden’s ridiculous speech, which focused on funding Ukraine and anti-Trump talk. 

  Col. Douglas Macgregor offers his State of our Union address.pic.twitter.com/a3WbQKMKjX

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 8, 2024

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  Perhaps Macgregor is the kind of leader this nation needs to save it from globalists and radical leftists who attempt a controlled demolition. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 20:25

• COVID Showed Us Who Really Rules America
  COVID Showed Us Who Really Rules America

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  This month marks the fourth anniversary of one of the most disastrous assaults on human rights in American history. It was on March 16, 2020 that the President Trump issued “guidelines” for “15 days to slow the spread” which stated that “Governors of states with evidence of community transmission should close schools in affected and surrounding areas.”

  The administration instructed all members of the public to “listen to and follow the directions of your state and local authorities.”

  

  It was at this time that an American president, for the first time in American history, introduced the idea that it was possible—and perfectly legal—for government institutions to “close down” the economy by forcibly shutting, en masse, countless businesses, schools, and churches. Trump stated repeatedly in press conferences that it was up to government officials to decide “if we open up.” It quickly became standard procedure for health bureaucrats, governors, and media figures to casually speak of “closing the economy” or “opening up” as if we were talking about a coffee shop deciding on closing time.

  Meanwhile, across the country, local law enforcement officers willingly worked to arrest or harass business owners, worshipers at church, soccer moms at the park, and anyone else with the temerity to venture outdoors for activities not approved by the ruling class. 

  The small minority of Americans that remained committed to human rights and private property soon discovered how powerless they really are. Many dissenters were dismayed by a lack of action from the courts, and how elected officials were apparently unwilling or unable to rein in the vast new powers of “health” officials. Was there nothing that could limit the state’s power? This was confusing for many people because many have been (and remain) enamored of the idea that written constitutions limit state power when it matters most. 

  Many dissenters learned a valuable lesson from the experience, however: during the Covid Panic of 2020 and 2021, it became abundantly clear how little constitutional government and the so-called “rule of law” actually limit a regime’s power in times of perceived emergency. It is during emergencies, in fact, when we learn who really holds political power, and how ineffective are constitutional measures designed to limit it.

  True Power Is Revealed by Emergencies 

  As the Covid Panic revealed to us, the real, de facto ruling class is the executive state which effortlessly ruled by decree during the covid crisis. This ruling clique—an oligarchy of governors, academic “experts,” media billionaires, and countless nameless and faceless unelected bureaucrats—has illustrated in recent years how irrelevant elected lawmakers can be to the use of political power.

  This problem is not new, nor have scholars only recently noticed it. Libertarian political scientists Carlo Lottieri and Marco Bassani have noted that the problem of emergency power has long been a concern for radical free-market liberals, especially those of the Italian school of elitism. These scholars recognized that political power in times of emergencies is exercised by individual persons who are unconcerned with abstract limits on their power. This fact is fundamentally at odds with the abstractions of the constitutionalists who imagine that the state monopoly on coercion can be rendered relatively harmless via written constitutions. That is, the constitutionalists believe the written law will somehow restrain the ruling class, even in emergencies. 

  In practice, however, this doesn’t happen. Lottieri and Bassani explain what the constitutionalists get wrong:

  The constitutionalist claim to justify the State’s monopoly of violence has been challenged directly by the radical libertarian tradition (Molinari) and by individualist anarchists (such as Lysander Spooner). However, an important role in bringing the modern State into perspective has also been played by European political realism and, in particular, by Carl Schmitt and the Italian elitist scholars (Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto).

  Schmitt’s importance rests very much on his intuition that in every State there is first a political dimension and then a decision, which cannot be obscured by the so-called “impersonality” of law and the “super-individuality” of orders. Beyond the apparent abstraction of the State … Schmitt uncovered choices, interests, and, in short, people that impose their will on others.

  The constitutional thought of classical and contemporary liberalism has constantly tried to neutralize politics, but it has failed. … [T]he real sovereign is the political group that has the final decision about the critical situation, in the state of emergency. The locus of sovereignty thus becomes the political entity (which in our time is the State), and the decision on the state of emergency is the ultimate test of sovereignty. Legal positivism tried hard to refute the importance of this notion, but critical decision making is paramount in the development of human relations.

  Lottieri further notes that the fantasy of a neutral regime constrained by mere legal barriers is “simply impossible.” Yet, the naive view has often made the state appear less dangerous and has convinced many to accept the state’s monopoly of violence. 

  This is illustrated in the fact that the efforts to implement lockdowns in the United States were thoroughly bipartisan. Opposition to lockdowns was virtually nonexistent within regime institutions themselves. The Trump administration, the CDC, the legacy media, social media, state medical boards, state governors, and local health officials were all more or less in lockstep in March and April 2020. Resistance came overwhelmingly from non-elites; from ordinary people who were being persecuted by state agents—i.e., law enforcement officers and health officials—for opening businesses and attending church. It was only after non-elite political opposition began to look uncontrollable that some state institutions began to relent. 

  Yet, even as some pockets of resistance appeared, national elites remained virtually untouched and the federally declared “state of emergency” persisted until May 2023. 

  Perhaps the most important tool of the elites during all this—the monopoly power over the creation of money—was strengthened to levels never before seen. In a normal world, the power to destroy countless Americans’ livelihoods by decree would have faced fierce and immediate—and perhaps violent—opposition. The elite’s ability to create money via the central bank, however, essentially provided a means of bribing the public into compliance. It worked, and much of the public still doesn’t even make a connection between this ruse and the current impoverishment of the public via price inflation. 

  The Regime Is Still in Control 

  Now, nearly four years later, the regime and its elites have faced no real reckoning over their nearly untrammeled attacks on human rights and private property. Federal courts have been extremely cautious to avoid any ruling that might significantly reduce the emergency powers of the regime. The courts have taken exception with how the regime executed certain policies, such as when the court struck down the administration’s attempt to impose a nationwide vaccine mandate via OSHA. Yet, most challenges to government mandates were left unanswered because legal challenges were declared moot as the regime ended its mandates—for the moment. As a result, these powers will remain available to the regime the next time it decides to declare an emergency.  

  Moreover, in times of crisis, regimes can justify virtually anything using a complex legal system in which interpretations are extremely flexible. We see this, for example, in the federal moratorium on evictions which relied on paper-thin legal claims. Whether or not the legal claims seem plausible to a normal person—i.e., a person outside the ruling class—is immaterial. What matters is that the ruling regime is able to twist legal meanings and interpretations to its own purposes to essentially rule by decree during the crisis.

  Unfortunately, we find very few of the powers seized and exercised during this period are convincingly curtailed. Most of these powers—especially those of the central bank—will return in force during the next “emergency,” even if the regime has to rely on slightly different legal claims and methods. 

  The Regime Will Take Whatever Power It Can 

  The regime’s efforts to exercise vast new powers were supercharged by the fact that the public offered so little resistance. The “free money” from the central bank helped in this, but the bribery was only part of the equation. The unfortunate fact is much of the public accepted the claims of the elite “experts” that the lockdowns and mandates were all perfectly legitimate and fully necessary. 

  During the Covid Panic, we saw Ludwig von Mises’s views on political power played out in real time. Mises understood that political power is not limited by words on parchment or legal theories. Power is limited only by ideological resistance to the state that then manifests as practical political opposition. Mises writes: 

  Thus, there has never been a political power that voluntarily desisted from impeding the free development and operation of the institution of private ownership of the means of production. Governments tolerate private property when they are compelled to do so, but they do not acknowledge it voluntarily in recognition of its necessity. Even liberal politicians, on gaining power, have usually relegated their liberal principles more or less to the background. The tendency to impose oppressive restraints on private property, to abuse political power, and to refuse to respect or recognize any free sphere outside or beyond the dominion of the state is too deeply ingrained in the mentality of those who control the governmental apparatus of compulsion and coercion for them ever to be able to resist it voluntarily. A liberal government is a contradictio in adjecto. Governments must be forced into adopting liberalism by the power of the unanimous opinion of the people; that they could voluntarily become liberal is not to be expected. 

  We have every reason to believe that federal, state, and local covid-related emergency powers would have been exercised with far greater enthusiasm by the regime had it not been for the resistance of the vocal minority. 

  If we want to know what really limited the regime’s power during the Covid Panic, we must look to the “do-not-comply” activists who were willing to lose jobs and social status as a result of their opposition to the regime. It was primarily the people portrayed as crazed malcontents by the regime who stood between the regime and the full use of its power. The US constitution and the Bill of Rights played virtually no role in limiting the state’s power during the emergency. The naive view of constitutionalism would have us believe that everything worked as designed as the “balance of powers” maintained a rule of law. That’s not what happened. What remains of freedom today was saved by nothing other than the limited amount of public resistance that made the regime think twice about extending indefinitely its experiment in tyranny. 

  This partial victory does not mean the regime has been defeated, of course. The elites have been slightly chastened, but they have kept most of their powder dry and simply wait for the next emergency during which these powers can again be exercised with at least as much vigor.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 19:50

• Biden Apologizes For Saying "Illegal" As Trump Hosts Laken Riley's Family At Rally
  Biden Apologizes For Saying “Illegal” As Trump Hosts Laken Riley’s Family At Rally

  President Joe Biden has apologized for accurately using the term “illegal” during Thursday night’s State of the Union address during a tense exchange with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over the murder of Laken Riley – whose name Biden mispronounced before uttering the verboten word that clearly upset the left.

  

  During the SOTU, Greene taunted Biden to say Riley’s name – adding that she was killed “by an illegal.”

  “Lincoln. Lincoln Riley,” Biden responded, mispronouncing Laken’s name. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” Biden continued.

  This sent the left into histrionics, with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) firing the first shot – scolding Biden during an appearance on CNN.

  Nancy Pelosi just criticized Biden for using the term “illegal” when describing Laken Riley’s killer instead of “undocumented”

  You can’t make this up pic.twitter.com/6DGzEc7VZw

  — johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) March 8, 2024

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  Biden was then confronted outside of Air Force One over the comment, for which he reframed his words as as “Technically, not supposed to be here.”

  Even Joe Biden knows that Democrats have lost the plot on illegal immigration and is not walking back his statement, while former Speaker Pelosi & his campaign advisors are still worried about hurting their feelings with semantics.

  Biden sees the polls.pic.twitter.com/qCJQ3xoRIT https://t.co/iQofUwtLd9

  — ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) March 9, 2024

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  And so, Biden’s handlers (or whoever) thought it would be a great idea to make the elderly sitting President apologize on national television – yet didn’t think it important enough to apologize to Laken Riley’s family for mispronouncing her name, or causing the border crisis that may have been directly responsible for her death.

  “I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,” Biden told MSNBC‘s Jonathan Capehart in Atlanta.

  NEW: President Biden tells @CapehartJ that he regrets using the word “illegal” during his State of the Union speech to refer to the alleged killer of Laken Riley.

  “I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s undocumented.”

  Tune in at 6pm ET on MSNBC for the full interview. pic.twitter.com/EX7XuyhF1N

  — MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 9, 2024

  In response to Biden’s apology for offending illegals, former President Trump has called on Biden to apologize to Riley’s family for mispronouncing her name, as opposed to “apologizing for the word he used” to describe her killer.

  President Trump on Laken Riley’s Killer:

  “I say he is an illegal alien, he is an illegal immigrant, he is an illegal migrant, and he should have never been in our country, and he wouldn’t have been under the Trump policies.” pic.twitter.com/vQsoNmFNq6

  — Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) March 9, 2024

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

  Trump also hosted Riley’s family at a Saturday rally, where he blamed Biden for her death.

  BREAKING: Trump with Laken Riley’s family and friends backstage at his rally. pic.twitter.com/htxsmgbnWg

  — Leading Report (@LeadingReport) March 10, 2024

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

  “He should be apologizing to the family as opposed to apologizing for the word that he used which is an accurate description,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, calling Biden’s response “tone deaf” and a “pivotal moment” that highlights the candidates’ “two very distinct differences in approach on the border invasion.”

  “There’s a clear difference,” said LaCivita. “One is sympathetic, coddling, and making excuses. And one wants to put a stop, put an end to it.”

  Biden was roundly chastised on X;

  He apologizes to Laken Riley’s murderer https://t.co/oZNFhou9FG

  — Banana Republic Justice Swan 🍌 (@TheWuhanClan) March 9, 2024

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  Liberals aren’t upset she was murdered, they’re upset he offended the murderer

  Once you understand this, their fried mental model falls into place https://t.co/IgiGk85bF5

  — Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 9, 2024

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

  It was fine to disrespect the deceased? Laken Riley’s life was tragically taken by a multiple offender illegal who was let into the country by the Biden administration. https://t.co/g6acorRvkp

  — JamieRJN (@JamieRJN) March 9, 2024

  Expressing regret for accurately describing the Venezuelan illegal alien charged with bashing in Laken Riley’s skull as an “illegal” is a remarkable moment.

  The one and only time Biden mentions her name – he botches it – and now he hopes to avoid offending her alleged killer.

  — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 9, 2024

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

  And it wasn’t lost on the Daily Wire‘s Matt Walsh that Biden falsely claimed that illegal immigrants built America.

  The far more outrageous portion of this clip is where he claims that illegal aliens “built the country.” That’s not remotely close to true. Illegals comes here to leech off of what has already been built. https://t.co/l8OOsTuQyJ

  — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 9, 2024

  Meanwhile, Biden’s back to slurring…

  Biden is slurring hard tonight 😳 pic.twitter.com/pMsJKHZVyR

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 9, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 19:15

• Harvard's "Oddities Collector" Gets Probation After Unlawful Trafficking In Human Body Parts
  Harvard’s “Oddities Collector” Gets Probation After Unlawful Trafficking In Human Body Parts

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  In the old days, Jeremy Pauley of Thompson, 42,  would have been called a “grave digger” or “body snatcher.”

  However, the harvester of Harvard Medical School’s cadavers  preferred “oddity collector,” thank you very much.

  Now, despite an extensive illegal operation in trafficking body parts, Pauley was spared any jail time by federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

  

  Thompson will serve two years of probation after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property.

  The prosecutors dropped charges for dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and receiving stolen property.

  According to the Justice Department, Pauley “admitted to his role in a nationwide network of individuals who bought and sold human remains.” His macabre business involved buying body parts from cadavers donated for medical research before their scheduled cremations. His inside source was Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School.

  Lodge allegedly ran a type of cadaver market in which he would allow customers to come into the morgue and pick out parts they wanted. Harvard insists that it was entirely unaware of the operation and has condemned the conduct of all those involved.

  Pauley had other alleged sources like Candace Chapman Scott, an employee at a Little Rock mortuary. Scott even used Facebook Messenger to send pictures of her inventory including a brain and the heart.

  When police went to his house, Pauley told officers that collected “oddities” and that he had 15 to 20 human skulls he had legally purchased in his possession. Later the police returned with a search warrant and found three five-gallon buckets filled with human remains.

  The FBI has since arrested three other individuals who allegedly trafficked stolen body parts, including Lodge, Lodge’s wife Denise Lodge, Katrina Maclean of Salem, Massachusetts, and Joshua Taylor of Pennsylvania.

  Denise Lodge pleaded guilty to the interstate transport of stolen human remains and faces 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Yet, the “oddities collector” will not go to jail under this plea.

  Likewise, Harvard will not be held accountable. Last month, Judge Kenneth W. Salinger dismissed the claims against Harvard and Anatomical Gift Program managers Mark F. Cicchetti and Tracey Fay, citing their immunity under Massachusetts’ Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA).

  In the opinion below, Salinger found that Harvard was protected under the Massachusetts Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.  That Act includes a “good faith clause” in the agreement for body donations that excuses even negligence.

  A person who acts in accordance with thischapter . . . or who attempts in good faith to do so, shall not be liable for the act in a civil action, criminal prosecution or administrative proceeding.
  GL.. c.113A,§18(a).

  Salinger held that:

  “It follows that a plaintiff cannot overcome the qualified immunity of someone who received a lawful anatomical gift by showing that the recipient was negligent in handling the gift, because a showing of negligence would not demonstrate an absence of good faith.”

  So Harvard walks and the “oddities collector” gets no jail time. For its part, Massachusetts hardly appears aggressive in its policing of this area. It may not be an expressly pro-robber digger jurisdiction, but it does not exactly come off as a vigilant monitor of medical schools.

  This may or may not be an actual film from the Massachusetts UAGA inspection unit:

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 18:40

• Army Intel Soldier Charged With Selling Secrets About US Weapons, Ops
  Army Intel Soldier Charged With Selling Secrets About US Weapons, Ops

  An active duty US Army intelligence analyst was arrested on Thursday for sending secret military documents to an unidentified foreign national over a nearly 2-year period. The charges include the unlawful export of defense information to China, but the indictment doesn’t indicate if the foreign national was working for a government. 

  Sergeant Korbein Schultz was arrested at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he’s assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and holds a Top Secret clearance. According to the 25-page indictment, Schultz provided someone identified only as “Conspirator A” — who claimed to reside in Hong Kong — with “information regarding the operability of sensitive U.S. military systems and their capabilities.” Those systems included F-22A fighters, the HH-60W helicopter, intercontinental ballistic missiles, B-52 bombers, air defense systems, HIMARS rocket launchers and hypersonic weapons. 

  

  Schultz, a native of Dallas exurb Wills Point, received 14 payments that totaled some $42,000. It’s not clear if this Sergeant Schultz will plead “I know nothing!” 

  In addition to weapon-specific information, prosecutors say Schultz also shared big-picture documents, including US research on foreign countries such as China, studies on the future development of US military forces, and recaps of American military drills and operations. The files included documents, maps, manuals and photographs. 

  Conspirator A’s identity was revealed to the grand jury that indicted him, but, for now, it’s a secret to the rest of us. The indictment only describes the individual as “a foreign national purporting to reside in Hong Kong” who claimed to work for a “geopolitical consulting firm based overseas.” The word “purported” would seem to suggest that investigators either don’t know if Conspirator A lived in Hong Kong, or they know that he or she doesn’t. The indictment doesn’t say if Conspirator A was working for a government.

  There’s something of a disconnect between the indictment — which includes multiple charges of Unlawful Export of Defense Articles to China — and the Department of Justice press release, which doesn’t mention the China aspect. However, the Export Control Act charges imply that investigators are confident the recipient was in China. 

  

  Conspirator A sent a variety of specific requests to Schultz. At the outset of the illicit arrangement, Schultz was requested to share lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, and “with those lessons, what the United States could and should do to help defend Taiwan from an attack,” reads the indictment.

  After fulfilling that request in the summer of 2022 and receiving a whopping $200, Schultz is said to have proposed a long-term relationship. Prosecutors say it kept going until his recent arrest. In August 2022, he told Conspirator A that he wished he could be Jason Bourne. Then there’s this amusing anecdote: 

  On or about May 20, 2023, Conspirator A told KORBEIN SCHULTZ that Conspirator A would like to meet him at a Formula 1 race overseas and make him a “senior partner” with a “big signing bonus.” KORBEIN SCHULTZ responded, “Oh snap!”

  “The conduct alleged in today’s indictment represents a grave betrayal of the oath sworn to defend our country,” said FBI Executive Assistant Director Larissa Knapp. “Instead of safeguarding national defense information, the defendant conspired with a foreign national to sell it, potentially endangering our national security.”

  The arrest of Sergeant Schultz comes just days after a retired Army lieutenant colonel was charged with sending Ukraine war secrets to a ‘woman’ he met with on a foreign dating site, in what appears to have been a classic honeypot intelligence ploy. 

  US Air Force employee indicted for leaking secrets on dating app

  The 63-year-old retired Army lieutenant colonel is accused of transmitting confidential information to a person claiming to be a woman living in Ukraine

  Details: https://t.co/9dE5LRosXz pic.twitter.com/n9xNa1pJYX

  — RT (@RT_com) March 6, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 18:05

• 'We Got To Rein Her In': Behind The Scenes Of Nuland's Early Retirement
  ‘We Got To Rein Her In’: Behind The Scenes Of Nuland’s Early Retirement

  Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson in a new interview has speculated over the reasons behind Victoria Nuland stepping down from her high-ranking position as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the number three top official in the State Department.

  Her retirement was announced by her boss Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. But the question is why now when the administration is attempting to stay the course and present a strong continued stance on Ukraine, also as Biden is still seeking to get tens of billions in defense aid through Republicans in the House.

  

  While there have been rumors that maybe she could be in poor or declining health, Johnson has told Russia’s Sputnik that the notoriously hawkish Nuland was a liability at a moment NATO and Russia are inching closer to direct nuclear-armed confrontation. 

  “My best guess here is that the CIA and the Defense Department and the NSA got this message around saying, ‘look, Victoria’s got her own agenda here,’” said Johnson.

  The former CIA official continued to speculate: “‘The president doesn’t really want to strike these ammo depots in Russia or knock down the [Crimean] Bridge. So we got to rein her in, I guess it’s time for her to go to early retirement.’”

  Another theory, though not necessarily contradictory to the above, has been advanced by professor of national security at Bowie State University Dr. Matthew Crosston.

  He laid out what “a staunch anti-Putinist Nuland was and how fervently she wanted to continue to utilize Ukraine as a platform in which to continue to weaken and/or slight Russia on the global stage — and perhaps even up the ante in that conflict with her support of sending ballistic missiles into Ukraine.” But she also knows the Ukrainian side is losing.

  She may have seen the writing on the wall as Ukraine forces are in retreat, and wanted to bail before potential total defeat:

  “She undoubtedly understood that if American support lessons or wanes, Ukraine loses, period,” Crosston pointed out. “Perhaps she did not want to be in the Administration that would be responsible for that outcome.”

  But both Johnson and Crosston would agree that with Nuland as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (in this capacity she basically ran all of US foreign policy in Europe), ceasefire talks between Kiev and Moscow remained an extremely distant prospect or even an impossibility. 

  “One thing is certain: as long as Nuland remained in that chair, there was literally no chance such talk could even be theorized. Now it can,” Crosston concluded.

  Journalist Glenn Greenwald also weighed in on Nuland stepping down in an interview with The Hill. Greenwald describes the “singular monstrousness of Victoria Nuland and her bipartisan, blood-stained, ghoulish career“…

  Nuland’s temporary replacement for under secretary upon her retirement has been announced as career diplomat John Bass, a former ambassador to Afghanistan. He is currently in the position of the undersecretary of state for management. He oversaw Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and so it is somewhat ironic that he’ll also oversee Ukraine policy at this critical juncture where Kiev is clearly against the ropes.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 18:01

• "We Will Have A Hard Landing At Some Point. I Guarantee You That…"
  “We Will Have A Hard Landing At Some Point. I Guarantee You That…”

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  Can you guess who the quote in the article title is from?  I will give you a hint.  It wasn’t me.  I know that it sounds like it could have come from me, but it actually comes from a very big name on Wall Street. 

  Ellen Zentner is Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. economist, and she is the one that said it. 

  During an interview with CNBC she warned that “the tightening impacts from monetary policy” will have enormous consequences for the U.S. economy in the months ahead…

  “We will have a hard landing at some point. I guarantee you that. We’re all wondering: When does that come?” she said.

  “The point that Dimon makes is that there are these cumulative impacts that build over time, and we are in the camp that we haven’t yet seen all of the tightening impacts from monetary policy,” she added, referring to the impact of Fed rate hikes.

  She makes a really great point.

  

  The consequences of interest rate hikes are felt over time.

  Higher interest rates have certainly started to cause a lot of problems, but if rates are not brought down soon the level of pain that we are experiencing will begin to go up dramatically.

  Unfortunately, the Fed is not likely to reduce interest rates any time soon because inflation continues to run hotter than expected…

  Inflation increased by the largest amount in almost a year, according to the Fed’s preferred measure – confirming expectations interest rates will not be cut until around June.

  The so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index – which excludes volatile food and energy prices – increased 0.4 percent between December and January.

  Marko Kolanovic, the chief market strategist for JPMorgan Chase, believes that the U.S. economy could be headed into “something like 1970s stagflation”…

  In an analyst note to clients, the bank’s chief market strategist Marko Kolanovic warned that the economy may turn away from a “Goldilocks” scenario – in which it is not expanding or contracting by too much – and enter a period of stagflation similar to that experienced in the 1970s.

  “Going back to the question of market macro regime, we believe that there is a risk of the narrative turning back from Goldilocks towards something like 1970s stagflation, with significant implications for asset allocation,” Kolanovic wrote.

  I would argue that we have already been in a period of stagflation.

  The economy has certainly been stagnating, and inflation has been unacceptably high.

  But now conditions have taken a dramatic turn for the worse in early 2024, and we are seeing some very troubling signs.

  For example, I was stunned to learn that a Canadian pension fund has just sold a stake in a Manhattan office tower for just one dollar…

  Canadian pension funds have been among the world’s most prolific buyers of real estate, starting a revolution that inspired retirement plans around the globe to emulate them. Now the largest of them is taking steps to limit its exposure to the most-beleaguered property type — office buildings.

  Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has done three deals at discounted prices, selling its interests in a pair of Vancouver towers, a business park in Southern California and a redevelopment project in Manhattan, with the New York stake offloaded for the eyebrow-raising price of just $1. The worry is those deals may set an example for other major investors seeking a way out of the turmoil too.

  The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had a 29 percent stake in Manhattan’s 360 Park Avenue South.

  The plan was to redevelop that property, but at this point the outlook for office buildings is so bad that the pension fund just wanted out.

  And so the entire 29 percent stake was sold off for just one dollar.

  Do you remember when I warned that we were heading into the worst commercial real estate crash in history?

  Well, this is what a crash looks like.

  Meanwhile, large employers all over America continue to conduct mass layoffs.

  Today, I was saddened to learn that Electronic Arts is laying off approximately 700 workers…

  Another day, another round of mass layoffs in the games industry. Electronic Arts (EA) has announced it will cut around five percent of its employees, putting almost 700 people out of a job. It’s also cancelling games and shutting down at least one development studio.

  EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced the layoffs in an email to employees, which was subsequently posted to the company’s blog on Wednesday.

  And we just learned more details about the layoffs that Citigroup is conducting…

  Citigroup is cutting nearly 300 workers in New York as it continues its massive layoff spree in an effort to rein in expenses, according to filings with the State Labor Department.

  About 239 workers in the primary banking subsidiary, 44 from its broker-dealer unit and three from its technology arm are getting cut, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices filed this week.

  In early January, the company announced that it was cutting 20,000 roles “over the medium-term,” as part of a reorganization effort. The cuts are slated to save the company between $2 billion and 2.5 billion.

  We have not seen anything like this since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.

  On Thursday, Zero Hedge published a list of 50 different mass layoffs that we have seen recently…

  1. Everybuddy: 100% of workforce
  2. Wisense: 100% of workforce
  3. CodeSee: 100% of workforce
  4. Twig: 100% of workforce
  5. Twitch: 35% of workforce
  6. Roomba: 31% of workforce
  7. Bumble: 30% of workforce
  8. Farfetch: 25% of workforce
  9. Away: 25% of workforce
  10. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
  11. LA Times: 20% of workforce
  12. Wint Wealth: 20% of workforce
  13. Finder: 17% of workforce
  14. Spotify: 17% of workforce
  15. Buzzfeed: 16% of workforce
  16. Levi’s: 15% of workforce
  17. Xerox: 15% of workforce
  18. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
  19. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
  20. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
  21. Rivian: 10% of workforce
  22. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
  23. Snap: 10% of workforce
  24. eBay: 9% of workforce
  25. Sony Interactive: 8% of workforce
  26. Expedia: 8% of workforce
  27. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
  28. Instacart: 7% of workforce
  29. Paypal: 7% of workforce
  30. Okta: 7% of workforce
  31. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
  32. Docusign: 6% of workforce
  33. Riskified: 6% of workforce
  34. EA: 5% of workforce
  35. Motional: 5% of workforce
  36. Mozilla: 5% of workforce
  37. Vacasa: 5% of workforce
  38. CISCO: 5% of workforce
  39. UPS: 2% of workforce
  40. Nike: 2% of workforce
  41. Blackrock: 3% of workforce
  42. Paramount: 3% of workforce
  43. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
  44. ThyssenKrupp: 5,000 employees
  45. Best Buy: 3,500 employees
  46. Barry Callebaut: 2,500 employees
  47. Outback Steakhouse: 1,000
  48. Northrop Grumman: 1,000 employees
  49. Pixar: 1,300 employees
  50. Perrigo: 500 employees

  Just look at that list.

  That is nuts!

  Anyone that thinks that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction is simply being delusional.

  Greg Hunter just interviewed economic analyst David Morgan, and he is warning that we are actually “entering into a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen”…

  Economic analyst and financial writer David Morgan has gone against the majority in the past with predictions that seemed unbelievable at the time. One prediction last year is the Fed not cutting interest rates in 2023. The Fed didn’t, and Morgan is still predicting there will be no Fed interest rate cut anytime soon. Now, with a record high stock market, Morgan is predicting “We are entering into a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen.”

  Global central banks were able to delay the inevitable by flooding the system with colossal mountains of money.

  But that just created a tremendous amount of inflation and now a horrifying economic crisis is coming anyway.

  So I would encourage everyone to brace themselves for the “hard landing” that is rapidly approaching, because it is going to be exceedingly painful for the unprepared.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 17:30

• Confidence In The Global Economy, By Country
  Confidence In The Global Economy, By Country

  Measuring consumer confidence in the economy is crucial for understanding both current economic strength, as well as how consumers may be expected to act in the future.

  So how do people around the world feel about the global economy?

  This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, uses survey data collected from October 20 to November 3, 2023 by Ipsos. It was first highlighted as part of our 2024 Global Forecast Series.

  

  Which Countries Feel Confident About the Economy in 2024?

  Heading into 2024, an average of 50% of polled adults felt confident that the global economy would be stronger than in 2023. But breaking down responses by country shows a vast disparity between responses.

  Here are the percentage of respondents who agreed with the following statement: “The global economy will be stronger in 2024 than it was in 2023.” We also note the change in percentage points (p.p.) compared with the same question a year prior.

  Country	Agree	Change (Year-over-year)
  🇮🇳 India	85%	+12 p.p.
  🇮🇩 Indonesia	82%	+14 p.p.
  🇨🇳 China	82%	+4 p.p.
  🇵🇭 Philippines	74%	N/A
  🇹🇭 Thailand	68%	+4 p.p.
  🇲🇾 Malaysia	62%	+8 p.p.
  🇲🇽 Mexico	62%	+6 p.p.
  🇧🇷 Brazil	60%	-13 p.p.
  🇸🇬 Singapore	59%	+4 p.p.
  🇵🇱 Poland	56%	+20 p.p.
  🇳🇿 New Zealand	56%	N/A
  🇨🇴 Colombia	54%	+5 p.p.
  🇨🇱 Chile	51%	+8 p.p.
  🇵🇪 Peru	51%	-3 p.p.
  🇦🇷 Argentina	51%	+3 p.p.
  🇿🇦 South Africa	49%	+2 p.p.
  🇦🇺 Australia	48%	+7 p.p.
  🇭🇺 Hungary	46%	+15 p.p.
  🇷🇴 Romania	45%	+8 p.p.
  🇺🇸 United States	45%	+3 p.p.
  🇪🇸 Spain	44%	+8 p.p.
  🇳🇱 Netherlands	44%	+12 p.p.
  🇹🇷 Türkiye	43%	0 p.p.
  🇬🇧 Great Britain	43%	+11 p.p.
  🇨🇭 Switzerland	43%	+8 p.p.
  🇮🇹 Italy	40%	+8 p.p.
  🇩🇪 Germany	40%	+3 p.p.
  🇨🇦 Canada	39%	+2 p.p.
  🇸🇪 Sweden	34%	+1 p.p.
  🇫🇷 France	33%	+4 p.p.
  🇰🇷 South Korea	33%	-5 p.p.
  🇵🇹 Portugal	33%	N/A
  🇯🇵 Japan	30%	0 p.p.
  🌍 Global average	50%	+4 p.p.

  At the top, India, Indonesia, and China stood as being the most confident about 2024’s economic prospects. 85% of Indian respondents agreed that the global economy will be stronger in 2024 than in 2023, while 82% of Chinese and Indonesian respondents felt the same.

  Regional disparities also become evident, with Asian countries making up the top five most confident countries and seven out of the top nine. In fact, South Korea and Japan were the only Asian countries surveyed that were not feeling confident, with Japanese respondents being the least confident (30%) and South Koreans tied for the second-least confident (33%).

  Countries in South America ranged from Brazil having a high of 60% of respondents agree with 2024 being stronger than 2023 to Chile having a “low” of 51%. North American countries were more split, with Mexico feeling more confident and Canada feeling less confident.

  Lastly, Europe stood out as being the least confident in the global economy in 2024. Only Poland (56%) had more than 50% agree that this year would be better than the last, while major economies like Germany (40%) and France (33%) sat closer to the bottom of the table.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 16:55

• The Coming Of The Police State In America
  The Coming Of The Police State In America

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

  The National Guard and the State Police are now patrolling the New York City subway system in an attempt to do something about the explosion of crime. As part of this, there are bag checks and new surveillance of all passengers. No legislation, no debate, just an edict from the mayor.

  

  Many citizens who rely on this system for transportation might welcome this. It’s a city of strict gun control, and no one knows for sure if they have the right to defend themselves. Merchants have been harassed and even arrested for trying to stop looting and pillaging in their own shops.

  The message has been sent: Only the police can do this job. Whether they do it or not is another matter.

  Things on the subway system have gotten crazy. If you know it well, you can manage to travel safely, but visitors to the city who take the wrong train at the wrong time are taking grave risks.

  In actual fact, it’s guaranteed that this will only end in confiscating knives and other things that people carry in order to protect themselves while leaving the actual criminals even more free to prey on citizens.

  The law-abiding will suffer and the criminals will grow more numerous. It will not end well.

  When you step back from the details, what we have is the dawning of a genuine police state in the United States. It only starts in New York City. Where is the Guard going to be deployed next? Anywhere is possible.

  If the crime is bad enough, citizens will welcome it. It must have been this way in most times and places that when the police state arrives, the people cheer.

  We will all have our own stories of how this came to be. Some might begin with the passage of the Patriot Act and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001. Some will focus on gun control and the taking away of citizens’ rights to defend themselves.

  My own version of events is closer in time. It began four years ago this month with lockdowns. That’s what shattered the capacity of civil society to function in the United States. Everything that has happened since follows like one domino tumbling after another.

  It goes like this:

  1) lockdown,

  2) loss of moral compass and spreading of loneliness and nihilism,

  3) rioting resulting from citizen frustration, 4) police absent because of ideological hectoring,

  5) a rise in uncontrolled immigration/refugees,

  6) an epidemic of ill health from substance abuse and otherwise,

  7) businesses flee the city

  8) cities fall into decay, and that results in

  9) more surveillance and police state.

  The 10th stage is the sacking of liberty and civilization itself.

  It doesn’t fall out this way at every point in history, but this seems like a solid outline of what happened in this case. Four years is a very short period of time to see all of this unfold. But it is a fact that New York City was more-or-less civilized only four years ago. No one could have predicted that it would come to this so quickly.

  But once the lockdowns happened, all bets were off. Here we had a policy that most directly trampled on all freedoms that we had taken for granted. Schools, businesses, and churches were slammed shut, with various levels of enforcement. The entire workforce was divided between essential and nonessential, and there was widespread confusion about who precisely was in charge of designating and enforcing this.

  It felt like martial law at the time, as if all normal civilian law had been displaced by something else. That something had to do with public health, but there was clearly more going on, because suddenly our social media posts were censored and we were being asked to do things that made no sense, such as mask up for a virus that evaded mask protection and walk in only one direction in grocery aisles.

  Vast amounts of the white-collar workforce stayed home—and their kids, too—until it became too much to bear. The city became a ghost town. Most U.S. cities were the same.

  As the months of disaster rolled on, the captives were let out of their houses for the summer in order to protest racism but no other reason. As a way of excusing this, the same public health authorities said that racism was a virus as bad as COVID-19, so therefore it was permitted.

  The protests had turned to riots in many cities, and the police were being defunded and discouraged to do anything about the problem. Citizens watched in horror as downtowns burned and drug-crazed freaks took over whole sections of cities. It was like every standard of decency had been zapped out of an entire swath of the population.

  Meanwhile, large checks were arriving in people’s bank accounts, defying every normal economic expectation. How could people not be working and get their bank accounts more flush with cash than ever? There was a new law that didn’t even require that people pay rent. How weird was that? Even student loans didn’t need to be paid.

  By the fall, recess from lockdown was over and everyone was told to go home again. But this time they had a job to do: They were supposed to vote. Not at the polling places, because going there would only spread germs, or so the media said. When the voting results finally came in, it was the absentee ballots that swung the election in favor of the opposition party that actually wanted more lockdowns and eventually pushed vaccine mandates on the whole population.

  The new party in control took note of the large population movements out of cities and states that they controlled. This would have a large effect on voting patterns in the future. But they had a plan. They would open the borders to millions of people in the guise of caring for refugees. These new warm bodies would become voters in time and certainly count on the census when it came time to reapportion political power.

  Meanwhile, the native population had begun to swim in ill health from substance abuse, widespread depression, and demoralization, plus vaccine injury. This increased dependency on the very institutions that had caused the problem in the first place: the medical/scientific establishment.

  The rise of crime drove the small businesses out of the city. They had barely survived the lockdowns, but they certainly could not survive the crime epidemic. This undermined the tax base of the city and allowed the criminals to take further control.

  The same cities became sanctuaries for the waves of migrants sacking the country, and partisan mayors actually used tax dollars to house these invaders in high-end hotels in the name of having compassion for the stranger. Citizens were pushed out to make way for rampaging migrant hordes, as incredible as this seems.

  But with that, of course, crime rose ever further, inciting citizen anger and providing a pretext to bring in the police state in the form of the National Guard, now tasked with cracking down on crime in the transportation system.

  What’s the next step? It’s probably already here: mass surveillance and censorship, plus ever-expanding police power. This will be accompanied by further population movements, as those with the means to do so flee the city and even the country and leave it for everyone else to suffer.

  As I tell the story, all of this seems inevitable. It is not. It could have been stopped at any point. A wise and prudent political leadership could have admitted the error from the beginning and called on the country to rediscover freedom, decency, and the difference between right and wrong. But ego and pride stopped that from happening, and we are left with the consequences.

  The government grows ever bigger and civil society ever less capable of managing itself in large urban centers. Disaster is unfolding in real time, mitigated only by a rising stock market and a financial system that has yet to fall apart completely.

  Are we at the middle stages of total collapse, or at the point where the population and people in leadership positions wise up and decide to put an end to the downward slide? It’s hard to know. But this much we do know: There is a growing pocket of resistance out there that is fed up and refuses to sit by and watch this great country be sacked and taken over by everything it was set up to prevent.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 16:20

• How Long Do Muslims Fast For Ramadan Around The World?
  How Long Do Muslims Fast For Ramadan Around The World?

  Ramadan starts on Sunday evening, with the first day of fasting on Monday, March 11 this year. The holy month is based on the Islamic lunar calendar which is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian solar year, and so its start shifts earlier each year.

  As Statista’s Anna Fleck details below, while the number of days of Ramadan are equal for all Muslims observing it around the world, the length of the daily fast is not.

  During Ramadan, observers vow to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual activities through daylight hours.

  This means that those living further north have to fast for much longer than their counterparts living closer to the equator or even to those in the Southern hemisphere, which is currently tilted away from the sun.

  This chart, based on data from website islamicfinder.com, shows how Muslims fasting for Ramadan in Oslo theoretically will have to do so for 15 hours and 15 minutes, while those living in Jakarta, Indonesia, will only need to fast for approximately 13 hours and 13 minutes.

  Meanwhile, those living in Melbourne will have just 13 hours and 25 minutes of daylight, depending on the exact day of the Ramadan month.

  With the dates of Ramadan moving, there can be a significant difference in the length of fasting depending on the year.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  For example, in 2013, Ramadan took place during the peak of summer for the Northern Hemisphere, with countries such as Norway experiencing sundown for only around three hours at night.

  This meant practicing communities faced fasts lasting upwards of 20 hours.

  To counterbalance this, Muslims may also observe Ramadan using the timetable of Mecca (13 hours and 30 minutes in 2024) or their nearest Muslim city.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 15:45

• Judge Blocks Biden Administration From Illegally Diverting Border-Wall Funds
  Judge Blocks Biden Administration From Illegally Diverting Border-Wall Funds

  Authored by Caden Pearsen via The Epoch Times,

  A federal judge on Friday blocked the Biden administration from unlawfully redirecting taxpayer funds away from the construction of a wall along the southern border.

  

  Southern District of Texas District Court Judge Drew B. Tipton granted a preliminary injunction after Texas and Missouri sued to stop the scheme, which included diverting the money to other projects like environmental remediation.

  “Whether the Executive Branch must adhere to federal laws is not, as a general matter, an area traditionally left to its discretion,” Judge Tipton wrote in his order. The executive branch includes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

  Judge Tipton, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled in favor of the Republican-led states, saying in his ruling that Congress should decide how money is spent, per the U.S. Constitution, and that the Biden administration is not immune from following the law.

  President Trump declared a national emergency in February 2019 and used funds from the Departments of Defense and Treasury to construct barriers at the southern border. Congress allocated $1.4 billion explicitly for border wall construction during the 2020 fiscal year to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

  However, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, issued an executive order immediately upon taking office in January 2021, terminating the emergency and halting construction. He later directed the DHS to divert the funds to ancillary projects along the border, but not the wall.

  This led to both Texas and Missouri filing separate lawsuits against the DHS, which were ultimately combined.

  The Biden administration argued that, despite certain language in the law, the DHS should be allowed to spend the money at its discretion.

  However, the judge disagreed with this argument, effectively finding that President Biden was wrong to spend funds specifically meant for wall construction on “remediation projects.”

  The judge ruled that just because the DHS claimed to have the authority to make certain spending decisions, it doesn’t mean it is free to do whatever it wants.

  “Agencies, when afforded congressionally appropriated funds, may expend them only for the proper purpose and amount, and within the authorized period of time,” Judge Tipton wrote.

  Therefore, without that discretion, the DHS’s spending decisions “run afoul” of the law, specifically violating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  Judge Tipton wrote in his order that the way Congress wrote the law was quite specific in saying the money should go to barriers along the border.

  “The central question in this case, then, is this: Has the Government obligated FY 2020 and FY 2021 funds for the ‘construction of [a] barrier system’? The answer is largely no,” the judge wrote.

  The Biden administration’s new border plan, unveiled by the Department of Defense and the DHS in June 2021 and updated about a year later, contemplated spending the funds on flood control, cleanup, and environmental remediation projects. This would include adding lighting, cameras, and detection technology at locations where a physical barrier had already been constructed.

  Under the plan, most border wall projects were canceled, and all the existing barrier infrastructure previously funded by the DOD was transferred to the DHS’s control.

  The attorneys general of Texas and Missouri, who challenged these spending decisions, hailed the ruling on Friday.

  “Today, I secured a preliminary injunction against an attempt by the Biden Administration to illegally redirect statutorily obligated funds away from the construction of a border wall,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

  “Biden acted completely improperly by refusing to spend the money that Congress appropriated for border wall construction, and even attempting to redirect those funds,” he continued. “His actions demonstrate his desperation for open borders at any cost, but Texas has prevailed.”

  Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called the ruling a “huge step” in fighting to secure the southern border.

  “The Biden Administration has failed to abide by the law to finish the construction of a wall along the southwest border,” Mr. Bailey said in a statement. “Joe Biden refuses to carry out his constitutionally mandated responsibilities, so we took him to court to force him to do his job. This is a huge step forward in the fight to secure our border at a key moment in our nation’s history.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 15:10

• Denver Asks Landlords To Rent To Illegals
  Denver Asks Landlords To Rent To Illegals

  The city of Denver, Colorado has asked landords to start renting to illegal immigrants, Denverite reports.

  

  On Tuesday, the city launched a program gathering information from landlords with property vacancies that rent for less than $2,000 per month. The city’s goal is to connect property owners with new immigrants in need of permanent housing.

  Jon Ewing, spokesperson for Denver Human Services, said the city has already started hearing from landlords who want to work with the city on the effort.

  The program was launched as the city continues to close temporary hotel shelters in an effort to scale back costs, which Mayor Mike Johnston announced at the end of February – a move he said could save the city some $60 million out of an anticipated $180 million in expenses related to the migrants.

  According to city data, the number of people being housed in the shelters has dropped from 5,200 in mid-January to 2,000 at present.

  “For ongoing housing, we’re trying to do more and better at the case navigation that gets people directly from shelter opportunities into housing, or into workforce options for normal travel, and so that continues to be our focus and it’s been successful for us over the last five weeks,” Johnson said at a press conference last week.

  The migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have been looking for long-term housing in an increasingly unaffordable housing market. Complicating matters, many new immigrants lack work authorization that would allow them to secure legal employment in order to prove their income.

  “We definitely need assistance in finding out what else is out there,” said Yoli Cassas, executive director of nonprofit ViVe Wellness, who says she opes that the city’s call to landlords will help open other housing resources that are currently unavailable.

  “It’s been great because that means we’re gonna get more inventory to work with, which is what’s needed,” Casas said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 14:35

• Scientists Discover Toxic Microplastics In Every Human Placenta Tested In Study
  Scientists Discover Toxic Microplastics In Every Human Placenta Tested In Study

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

  Harmful microplastics have been found in human placenta, with some of them known to trigger asthma, damage the liver, cause cancer, and impair reproductive function.

  

  The peer-reviewed study, published in the Toxicological Sciences journal on Feb. 17, examined the issue of nano- and microplastic (NMP) pollution in human beings. Researchers found that all 62 tested placenta samples contained microplastics, with concentrations ranging from 6.5 to 790 micrograms per gram of tissue. The placenta is an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy. It provides oxygen and nutrients to the baby while also removing waste products from the child’s blood.

  The most prevalent microplastic found in the samples was polyethylene, which accounted for 54 percent of all detected NMPs and was “consistently found in nearly all samples.”

  Polyethylene has been associated with several health complications like asthma, hormone disruption impacting reproduction, and mild dermatitis or swelling and irritation of the skin.

  Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and nylon each represented approximately 10 percent of the NMPs by weight. PVC has been linked to damage to the liver and reproductive system. The substance is carcinogenic. While nylon itself is seen as harmless, the material undergoes chemical treatments during the manufacturing processes that can pose health risks.

  The remaining 26 percent of microplastics found in the 62 tested placenta were represented by nine other polymers. Matthew Campen, Professor in the UNM Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who led the team that conducted the study, expressed concerns about the steadily rising presence of microplastics and its potential health implications.

  While plastics themselves have traditionally been seen to be biologically inert, microplastics are so small they can cross cell membranes, he noted. Mr. Campen found the concentration of microplastics in the placenta troubling as the tissue was only eight months old when tested. “Other organs of your body are accumulating over much longer periods of time,” he said.

  Mr. Campen believes the accumulation of microplastics in human tissue could explain the puzzling rise in certain health problems like colon cancer among people younger than 50, inflammatory bowel disease, and decreasing sperm counts.

  “It’s only getting worse, and the trajectory is it will double every 10 to 15 years,” he said. “So, even if we were to stop it today, in 2050 there will be three times as much plastic in the background as there is now. And we’re not going to stop it today.”

  Talking about the rising volume of microplastics in the environment, Mr. Campen said that “if we’re seeing effects on placentas, then all mammalian life on this planet could be impacted. That’s not good.”

  Microplastic Effects

  The presence of microplastics in placentas was first identified in 2020 in a study from Italy. Researchers analyzed six placentas and identified 12 microplastic fragments in four of them. “Microplastics were found in all placental portions: maternal, fetal, and amniochorial membranes,” it said.

  “Microplastics carry with them substances which acting as endocrine disruptors could cause long-term effects on human health.”

  In 2022, microplastics were discovered in the lungs of a living human being for the first time. Out of the 13 lung samples, 11 had the presence of 39 microplastics. Researchers identified 12 types of microplastics commonly found in bottles, packaging, clothing, and rope.

  A recently published study found microplastics in the majority of protein foods like chicken, pork, seafood, beef, and plant-based meat alternatives. The foods sampled in the study included processed, unprocessed, and minimally processed items.

  Roughly half the identified microplastics were fibers, which researchers said was consistent with other studies. Almost a third of the microplastics were plastic fragments.

  A 2023 study on mice found that three-week exposure to microplastics resulted in “behavioral changes as well as alterations in immune markers in liver and brain tissues. Additionally, we noted that these changes differed depending on age, indicating a possible age-dependent effect.”

  Another study conducted in mice found that nanometer-sized particles reached the brains of the animals just two hours after being exposed. A third study found that inhaled microplastic and nanoplastic particles can “alter inflammatory, cardiovascular, and endocrine activity.”

  Microplastics have also been found in breast milk. Researchers of the study called the finding a “great concern” given that nanoparticles have also been discovered in human placenta.

  “In fact, the chemicals possibly contained in foods, beverages, and personal care products consumed by breastfeeding mothers may be transferred to the offspring, potentially exerting a toxic effect,” they wrote.

  “Hence, it is mandatory to increase efforts in scientific research to deepen the knowledge of the potential health impairment caused by MP (microplastics) internalisation and accumulation, especially in infants, and to assess innovative, useful ways to reduce exposure to these contaminants during pregnancy and lactation.”

  Since the 1950s, plastic use globally has grown exponentially, leading to the generation of a metric ton of plastic waste for every individual in the world. Roughly a third of the plastic that has been produced is still in use, with much of the remaining discarded or sent to landfills where they start to break down.

  Mr. Campen pointed out that many plastics have a long half-life, which refers to the time required for half a sample to degrade.

  “So, the half-life of some things is 300 years and the half-life of others is 50 years, but between now and 300 years some of that plastic gets degraded. Those microplastics that we’re seeing in the environment are probably 40 or 50 years old,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 14:00

• Enraging Dems, 'No Labels' Group Will Proceed With Bipartisan Presidential Ticket
  Enraging Dems, ‘No Labels’ Group Will Proceed With Bipartisan Presidential Ticket

  In a move that adds a new and likely Republican-favoring variable to a 2024 presidential race that features two unpopular major party candidates, the centrist “No Labels” political organization on Friday voted to move forward with fielding a ticket of their own. 

  “Earlier today, I led a discussion with the 800 No Labels delegates from all 50 states,” said No Labels national convention chair Mike Rawlings. “They voted near unanimously to continue our 2024 project and to move immediately to identify candidates to serve on the Unity presidential ticket.” 

  Founded in 2010, No Labels bills itself as a “national movement of commonsense Americans pushing our leaders together to solve our country’s biggest problems.” It’s not a political party, but is instead configured as a 401(c)(4) social welfare organization. That structure frees the group from having to disclose its donors or report on its actions. 

  

  In 2021, No Labels launched an ambitious project to secure ballot access so it would be positioned to give a platform to a bipartisan ticket in the 2024 election “if the two major parties select candidates the vast majority of Americans don’t want to vote for in 2024.” As of late February, No Labels had secured ballot slots in 16 states, including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina. Though the group previously publicized ambitions to be on all 50 state ballots, they’re now merely aspiring to be on a “majority”

  With the Trump-Biden rematch now a virtual certainty — and 67% of Americans saying they’re tired of seeing the same candidates — No Labels on Friday held a mass online meeting where delegates gave leadership the green light to try filling a ticket — by design, pairing a Republican and a Democrat as presidential and vice-presidential candidates, in no particular order. 

  “Try” is the key word. Even as it announced it will move forward with its 2024 project, Rawlings acknowledged the group hasn’t identified candidates and may not be successful in finding a pair worth presenting to America. The selection process will be handled by the group’s leadership, who will present their recommendation to delegates for a vote. 

  Last year, it appeared centrist Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin was a favorite to run with No Labels. In February, however, Manchin ruled out a bid, saying he had no interest in becoming “a spoiler.”

  Similarly, after suspending her Republican nomination campaign last week, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley ruled out a run. “If I were to do No Labels, that would require a Democrat vice president. I can’t do what I want to do as president with a Democrat vice president,” she told journalists. 

  One relatively obscure name did surface on Friday: The Wall Street Journal reported that No Labels is considering former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican, for the top of the ticket. He served from 2019 to 2023. Duncan’s centrist resume includes rejecting the idea that Georgia’s 2020 presidential race was rigged and seizing upon the dubious Georgia racketeering indictment of Donald Trump and others as an opportunity to urge the GOP to “move past Donald Trump.” 

  

  Democrats are already feeling vulnerable in the face of broad party dissatisfaction with President Biden — to the extent that 13% of Michigan and 19% of Minnesota Dems voted “uncommitted” in their primaries. On top of that, polls suggest the presence of third-party and independent candidates give a net boost to Trump. Centrist think tank Third Way, for example, found Trump leads Biden by 0.5% in a in a head-to-head matchup. With the addition of an unnamed “moderate, independent” candidate, Trump’s lead grows to 2.5%.  

  Leftists reacted with anger to Friday’s news. “No Labels has put their dangerous, reckless thought experiment ahead of the rights and freedoms of millions of Americans and the future of our democracy,” Rahna Epting, executive director of liberal activist group MoveOn, told The New York Times. “Any candidates who join the No Labels presidential ticket will be complicit in making it easier for Donald Trump and MAGA extremists to win a second term in the White House.”

  Leftist vitriol against No Labels has been flowing for months. “Anybody who participates in this No Labels malarkey should have their lives ruined,” the Bulwark’s Jonathan Last said in December, according to No Labels. “The should lose whatever jobs they might have. They should be kicked off corporate boards” and “become social pariahs.”

  Democrats aren’t the only ones clenching their fists over No Labels — the fake-Republican grifters at the Lincoln Project are also howling. “We’ve said it for months: A vote for No Labels is a vote for Donald Trump,” co-founder Reed Galen told the Journal. “The only way to stop the disintegration of democracy is to vote to re-elect President Biden.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 13:25

• Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study
  Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

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

  People with inadequate iron levels in their blood due to a COVID-19 infection could be at greater risk of long COVID.

  

  A new study indicates that problems with iron levels in the bloodstream likely trigger chronic inflammation and other conditions associated with the post-COVID phenomenon. The findings, published on March 1 in Nature Immunology, could offer new ways to treat or prevent the condition.

  Long COVID Patients Have Low Iron Levels

  Researchers at the University of Cambridge pinpointed low iron as a potential link to long-COVID symptoms thanks to a study they initiated shortly after the start of the pandemic. They recruited people who tested positive for the virus to provide blood samples for analysis over a year, which allowed the researchers to look for post-infection changes in the blood. The researchers looked at 214 samples and found that 45 percent of patients reported symptoms of long COVID that lasted between three and 10 months.

  In analyzing the blood samples, the research team noticed that people experiencing long COVID had low iron levels, contributing to anemia and low red blood cell production, just two weeks after they were diagnosed with COVID-19. This was true for patients regardless of age, sex, or the initial severity of their infection.

  According to one of the study co-authors, the removal of iron from the bloodstream is a natural process and defense mechanism of the body.

  But it can jeopardize a person’s recovery.

  “When the body has an infection, it responds by removing iron from the bloodstream. This protects us from potentially lethal bacteria that capture the iron in the bloodstream and grow rapidly. It’s an evolutionary response that redistributes iron in the body, and the blood plasma becomes an iron desert,” University of Oxford professor Hal Drakesmith said in a press release. “However, if this goes on for a long time, there is less iron for red blood cells, so oxygen is transported less efficiently affecting metabolism and energy production, and for white blood cells, which need iron to work properly. The protective mechanism ends up becoming a problem.”

  The research team believes that consistently low iron levels could explain why individuals with long COVID continue to experience fatigue and difficulty exercising. As such, the researchers suggested iron supplementation to help regulate and prevent the often debilitating symptoms associated with long COVID.

  “It isn’t necessarily the case that individuals don’t have enough iron in their body, it’s just that it’s trapped in the wrong place,” Aimee Hanson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge who worked on the study, said in the press release. “What we need is a way to remobilize the iron and pull it back into the bloodstream, where it becomes more useful to the red blood cells.”

  The research team pointed out that iron supplementation isn’t always straightforward. Achieving the right level of iron varies from person to person. Too much iron can cause stomach issues, ranging from constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain to gastritis and gastric lesions.

  1 in 5 Still Affected by Long COVID

  COVID-19 has affected nearly 40 percent of Americans, with one in five of those still suffering from symptoms of long COVID, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Long COVID is marked by health issues that continue at least four weeks after an individual was initially diagnosed with COVID-19. Symptoms can last for days, weeks, months, or years and may include fatigue, cough or chest pain, headache, brain fog, depression or anxiety, digestive issues, and joint or muscle pain.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/09/2024 – 12:50

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