Jul 11

Today’s News 11th July 2022

  • Date-Rape Drugs Crash German Chancellor's Summer Party
    Date-Rape Drugs Crash German Chancellor’s Summer Party

    German police are investigating at least nine women suspected of being targeted with date rape drugs at an invite-only event hosted by the German chancellor’s political party. 

    German newspaper Tagesspiegel first broke the troubling story about Wednesday’s annual summer party for Social Democratic Party (SDP), which Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended. 

    A police investigation was opened after a 21-year-old woman felt dizzy hours into the party. The following day, she could not recall what happened the previous night and was sent to the hospital for blood tests. 

    SDP’s co-leader, Lars Klingbeil, told Welt television he was “furious that something like this could happen at the event.” He said SDP leadership is speaking with authorities to find the “perpetrator or perpetrators” responsible for the attacks on women. 

    “I advise all those concerned to file a complaint,” SPD’s Katja Mast tweeted, while a party spokesman told AFP on Saturday there was “still a lot of uncertainty; the police are investigating.”

    The spokesperson said there could be other cases adding nine women who have already come forward. 

    The SPD sent an email to all invitees condemning a “monstrous act which we immediately declared to parliamentary police.”

    Tagesspiegel published a letter from the SPD parliamentary group leader Mathias Martin to colleagues explaining, “At our summer party, there were obviously attacks on colleagues with knockout drops.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/11/2022 – 02:45

  • The Great Awakening Continues – 'Ve Vil Not Eet Ze Bugz, Klaus'
    The Great Awakening Continues – ‘Ve Vil Not Eet Ze Bugz, Klaus’

    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

    — THE USUAL SUSPECTS

    When the Canadian truckers descended in peace on Ottawa protesting the vaccine mandate of Justin TrueDOH! it was obvious to many that something fundamental had changed. This wasn’t some Davos Crowd psy-op like burning down Minneapolis or a Million Vagina March.

    This was a real awakening of the opposition to the Great Reset. Destroying the livelihoods of the people who bring the goods to our stores was a step too far. Even the most normalcy-biased shitlib had to do a double take at what was happening with the COVID vaccines.

    How did we get here so fast?

    Davos’ agenda has accelerated in recent months as major events force their hand. From Jerome Powell’s war on the offshore dollar markets to Putin choosing the whether he hangs or we drown, the pillars of their powerbase are crumbling under the weight of their ambitions.

    Most people can’t conceive of what these big shifts actually mean. Sadly, they still rely on what small amount of information they get from their overlords to form their opinions. But that information has become so ludicrous, so low quality, it’s got enough people open to questions they would have never contemplated previously.

    It’s a start. And once the last vestiges of trust in our media melts away, we’ll see a whole lot more than the protests we’ve seen to date.

    Yes, things can get worse.

    That said, the catalyst for Europe’s farmers rising up was the crazy miscalculation of Davos‘ minions TrueDOH! and his Ukrainian diaspora bagwoman Chrystia Freeland. Freezing the accounts of truckers and trampling peaceful protestors with horses woke way too many people up.

    When you anger the banks, radicalize normies, and create a nationwide bank run you set a countdown timer on your rule.

    First they came for the truckers to engineer a supply crisis. People supported them in droves and were trampled.

    Now they came for the Dutch farmland to further engineer a food crisis and the farmers took up the Truckers’ flag.

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    For weeks I’ve wondered whether the spate of fires at food processing facilities all across North America were sabotage or just the natural downstream effect of overworked people and under-maintained equipment.

    It’s a fair point to consider rather then just go off half-cocked about evils of Davos. Because in the end, it doesn’t matter what the truth is (likely a mixture of both), these breakdowns are all their fault anyway.

    Thank that idiotic COVID policy.

    But how about fertilizer train derailments?

    Or a thousand dead cows from heat prostration?

    When the Farmers Revolution began in the Netherlands I realized this was something deeper. And I was glad for it. The Great Awakening that began in Ottawa and spread worldwide then has metastasized into a real political nightmare for Klaus Schwab and his merry gang of nihilist midwits.

    You know they are on auto-pilot seizing the land of efficient Dutch farmers. The Netherlands is routinely praised by Davos as a kind of sustainable agriculture Mecca. So why go after them? Why not further demonize American farmers. I mean everyone just knows Americans are wasteful and dirty pigs, right?

    And then I came across the plans for Tristate City and, for me, it all clicked into place.

    Bankrupt the farmers through legislative fiat and seize their land to build the Davos Smart City of the Future. The perfect “Capitol of the Corporatocracy.”

    Try googling anything about this connection and you’ll find very little. Look at a Twitter search of “Tristate City” and come to your own conclusions.

    Think Minority Report but with Germans.

    Periodic Revolution

    Davos’ War Against the Periodic Table continues unabated. But notice how they aren’t going after truly poisonous elements like Mercury (Hg) or Thallium (Tl) or even Arsenic (As). FYI, due to their extreme chemistry they are actually easy and cheap to deal with.

    No they are going after the building blocks of life itself — Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Sulfur (S), or CHNOPS.

    We have the stated goal of ‘decarbonization’ worldwide.

    Phosphorus and Nitrogen have been attacked relentlessly as outgrowths of the war on ‘chemical fertilizers,’ smokestack emissions, etc. for decades now.

    Our entire transport industry has been made less efficient, raising the costs through unnecessary low-sulfur diesel and bunker fuel rules.

    Now we’re supposed to cheer LNG-powered small dry weight tonnage ships as PROGRESS! Yeah, a $350 million boat for moving goods from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico. Brilliant!

    Let’s use the most expensive fuel imaginable (liquefied methane) for shipping, an industry where fuel costs are literally everything.

    But I thought fracking BAD!

    All under the rubric of clean air and buzzwords like ‘sustainability.’

    Now I’m all for a clean environment and dealing with real pollution which hampers human life and even the greater ecosystem/food web, but cows producing nitrogen are a part of the natural cycle of this essential element.

    What’s next? Legislating away volcanoes?

    Anti-Transhumanism

    It’s all downstream of convincing so many people to view themselves as a pollutant and to separate human activity out as ‘not-natural.’ Think of the argument framing here and it’s very simple. Humanity is not a part of the ‘natural world.’ Our activities are not an outgrowth of ‘nature’s pure design.’

    This is literally the argument about man-made Climate Change. Too bad they had to define man’s energy inputs to the environment in the most idiotic (and inaccurate) way imaginable, by ignoring more than 90% of the energy the sun and the Universe imparts to our planet.

    Now add in the basic understanding that everyone has a religion, even atheists. They just turn to worshipping something else. They go from gathering in churches to courthouses, cathedrals to classrooms, and temples to tract housing.

    The bottom line folks is this, “Everyone believes in something, even nihilists.”

    But this anti-humanism is far worse than any ‘Original Sin’ doctrine of Christianity. There the message is that we are flawed but redeemable because we carry the spark of the divine within us. The path to enlightenment is self-discovery and self-improvement.

    There the existential threat is your own legacy, nothing more. It’s an inward journey.

    Now the Climate religion has merged cynically with the hubris and colonialism of Davos to create something horrific and deadly. And since they have control over the sacred texts now, they are now crusaders who will not be stopped by people refusing to comply.

    You will be assimilated through the hammer and sickle masking the sword and shield.

    It’s for the greater good, after all.

    The memes are real, folks. We are the carbon they want to reduce. We are the livestock the think they can farm. The full force of their program to reduce us back to when we used to eat bugs to survive is here.

    Is that the legacy you want to leave this world with?

    If we don’t stop this here, there isn’t much room left to retreat. And if you doubt me, go talk to a farmer.

    Think Global, Act Local just took on a raft of deeper meanings. It’s past time we put them into action.

    *  *  *

    Join my Patreon if you don’t want to be reduced

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/11/2022 – 02:00

  • Biden Admin Wasting $10.6 Billion On Pfizer's COVID-19 Paxlovid Flop
    Biden Admin Wasting $10.6 Billion On Pfizer’s COVID-19 Paxlovid Flop

    Authored by Dr. David Gortler via thebluestateconservative.com,

    Back in November 2021, the White House paid drugmaker Pfizer nearly $5.3 billion ($5,290,000,000) for 10 million treatment courses of its experimental COVID-19 treatment.  Paxlovid is an antiviral combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir.

    Ritonavir was developed in 1989 and nirmatrelvir was developed in 2020.  In other words, Paxlovid wasn’t developed from scratch to treat COVID-19; the compounds already existed.

    In December 2021 Pfizer claimed initial study findings showed that Paxlovid cut the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infections.  Without context this statement is grossly misleading.  Just about everyone who gets the existing COVID-19 mutation will have mild or moderate disease yet, the drugmaker limited its study to people who were unvaccinated and who faced the greatest risk from the virus due to age or health problems, such as obesity.  An updated more recent analysis from 1,153 patients (out of a possible 2,246 patients) showed a lackluster, non-significant 51% relative risk reduction.  A sub-group analysis of 721 vaccinated adults with at least one risk factor for progression to severe COVID-19 showed a non-significant relative risk reduction in hospitalization or death (treatment arm: 3/361; placebo: 7/360)

    According to Pfizer’s official June 14th 2022 press release, results from the Phase 2/3 of the amended Paxlovid EPIC-SR (Evaluation of Protease Inhibition for COVID-19 in Standard-Risk Patients) study showed:

    • Paxlovid, the novel primary endpoint of self-reported, sustained alleviation of all symptoms for four consecutive days was not met.
    • Pfizer will cease enrollment into the EPIC-SR trial due to low rate of hospitalization or death in the standard-risk population.

    Tucked within Pfizer’s press release was the following financial nugget for investors:  “The results from these additional analyses are not expected to impact Pfizer’s full-year 2022 revenue guidance.”  The reason for that is: Pfizer already has $5.3 billion in hand from taxpayers, and has locked in “blockbuster status” (defined as one billion dollars in sales of a single drug).

    In addition to the $5.3 billion already committed, in January the U.S. announced a confidential additional “commitment” to order an additional 10 million doses (at the price of 5.3 billion dollars more, for a total of $10.6 billion) giving Pfizer highly sought after “super blockbuster status” (defined as having 10 billion dollars in sales of a single drug).  “The administration is firmly committed to proceeding with the (additional) purchase” a White House official stated in April 2022.

    According to Bloomberg, The White House initially sought $22.5 billion in new pandemic funding. Democrats were prepared to include just over $15 billion in a broad government spending bill earlier this year, but it was removed amid disputes with Republicans about whether it should be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the government.

    The $10 billion Senate bill includes a requirement that at least half the money must be spent on therapeutics, but why did Biden gamble every dollar on one, single drug from one single drugmaker? Why was Pfizer chosen to satisfy the therapeutics clause by itself?

    Pfizer Altered its Paxlovid Protocol. . . After Receiving its first $5.3 billion:  

    As we can see, FDA Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) don’t always work out as they should, but in this case, it was because of some manipulative action by Pfizer and an outrageous and risky bet by the Biden White House.

    That’s because with no public mention, Pfizer had secretly lowered its own bar following its EUA after the White House had committed to purchasing $5.3 billion dollars of product.  Pfizer stated:

     

    “Following the Emergency Use Authorization of Paxlovid for individuals at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19, the protocol was amended to exclude high-risk individuals and allow enrollment of patients without risk factors for progression to severe COVID-19 who were either unvaccinated, or whose last COVID-19 vaccination occurred more than 12 months from enrollment.”  (emphasis added)

    This way, Pfizer was able to administer its drug to a less severely ill, and healthier population in hopes of having a superior efficacy signal and a decreased safety signal, but it still failed to show an adequate clinical effect on any of its prospective protocol-established endpoints.

    Secret FDA Meetings Sound Familiar?  That’s Because it’s Happened Before:  

    In order to amend the protocol following FDA submission, Pfizer would have had to have communicate about it with the FDA formally and in writing.  A former Pfizer non-scientist executive, Patrizia Cavazzoni is now the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, would have had to approve the change.  Interestingly, Pfizer’s protocol amendment was kept under such tight wraps, that it was not known about until the Pfizer June 2022 press release.  About a week prior, Yale University’s YaleMedicine publication had even published a lengthy article on the benefits of Paxlovid as quoting the outdated original protocol endpoints.  On June 7th 2022, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla had announced plans to spend over $100 million to increase Paxlovid production and committing to hire hundreds of new employees as its way to maintain appearances with the White House and Pfizer investors.

    Paxlovid is not the first example of “secret” and scientifically questionable decisions have been made outside of standard channels at the FDA under Patrizia Cavazzoni’s watch.  About a year ago, secret meetings surrounded Biogen’s multi-billion-dollar monoclonal antibody drug aducanumab (Aduhelm) for Alzheimer’s Disease, which had failed both safety and efficacy on every study it had attempted.  However following contentious and potentially illegal and unethical back-channel meeting with Biogen executives.  Biogen’s drug was approved by Cavazzoni against advice from FDA advisory committee members and FDA employees.  Cavazzoni affirmed her decision by writing a comically inadequate 1.5 page justification — which mostly quoted others’ opinions and did zero to address their debatable hypotheses.  Nearly every medical commentator  scolded Cavazzoni’s approval of aducanumab, calling it things like “false hope,” “bad medicine,” “disgraceful,” “dangerous” “a disaster” or “a new low.”  The circumstances surrounding Pfizer’s Paxlovid and clinical outcomes are similarly awful.

    But unlike Biogen, I couldn’t even find any online record of a meeting, justifying the protocol amendment for Paxlovid by Cavazzoni, — let alone an inadequate one.  Pfizer would have had to provide detailed reasoning in its protocol amendment and the FDA kept those requests and those changes a secret.  Its just another example of the total lack of FDA transparency.

    I had opined in an op-ed article a year ago that Cavazzoni would continue to make questionable decisions due to her close ties and extended history of employment in big pharma.  Most of Cavazzoni’s career shows her working as a non-scientist big pharma executive.   She also has a conspicuous lack basic scientific or research experience for holding such a critical public health position. Unfortunately, I was correct, but it’s the taxpayer that will bear the failed Paxlovid gamble.

    The White House Wasted Many Billions and Looks Stupid(er) 

    One question is:  why did the White House commit to and cut a blank check of taxpayer dollars before obtaining conclusive findings?

    It’s not as if Pfizer is hurting for money or that Americans don’t already have multiple alternative inexpensive generic alternatives with an voluminous amount of peer-reviewed evidence behind them, covering decades and hundreds of thousands of patients.  Still the Biden White House made the choice to purchase Paxlovid and ignore the historic 6th century BCE wisdom from the Proverbs of Ahiqar and “throw away two in the hand (ie, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin) for one in the bush (Paxlovid).”

    Americans Never Needed Paxlovid; Omicron/Delta COVID-19 Symptoms Are Mild. 

    What we all have known for some time is that the dominant mutated variants of Delta and Omicron (which comprise >99%, of current cases per the CDC) infections are mild, and deaths and hospitalizations are down because most people only get minimal to moderate cold-like symptoms these days.  Even Johns Hopkins shows all-time record lows in COVID-19-related hospital ICU admissions.

    Pfizer may have exaggerated its experimental product and been deceptive about changing its protocol without informing the public.  By trusting Pfizer and making a considerable gamble with taxpayer funds, the White House flushed $5.3 billion taxpayer dollars largely down the drain.  The White House is now on the hook for an additional $5.3 billion for a total of $10.6 billion for an ineffective COVID-19 treatment that Pfizer had already developed, when they could have spent almost nothing and promoted the established safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin with an established, superior outcome.  More practically, since Delta and Omicron are mild, we could have just let COVID-19 mutations run their course and treat infections symptomatically with available generic pharmacology so that individuals can obtain natural immunity.

    What a preposterous and outrageous waste of taxpayer money.  Will President Biden or anyone else be held responsible?  I think we all know the answer to that.

    By Dr. David Gortler

    Dr. David Gortler is a pharmacologist, pharmacist, and FDA and health care policy oversight fellow and FDA reform advocate at the Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank in Washington, DC. He was a professor of pharmacology and biotechnology at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as a faculty appointee to the Yale University Bioethics Center.  While at Yale, he was recruited by the FDA and become a medical officer who was later appointed as senior advisor to the FDA commissioner for drug safety, FDA science policy, and FDA regulatory affairs.  He is an exiled columnist from Forbes, where he used to write on drug safety, healthcare politics, and FDA policy.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 23:30

  • 42-Foot Tsunami Would Hit Seattle In Minutes After Quake, Study Finds
    42-Foot Tsunami Would Hit Seattle In Minutes After Quake, Study Finds

    The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a terrifying new simulation of a monster earthquake rocking the Seattle Fault that would produce a tsunami as high as four stories in the central business district of Seattle.

    “Tsunami waves could be as high as 42 feet at the Seattle Great Wheel and will reach inland as far as Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park,” Washington State DNR tweeted. 

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    Washington Geological Survey division of DNR wrote in a press release that a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on the Seattle Fault would generate tsunami waves over 40 feet tall and hit the downtown district in less than three minutes.

    Geologists said the last known quake on the Seattle Fault occurred more than one thousand years ago, and geologic evidence shows at least five quakes of an estimated magnitude 6.5 occurred on the fault in the last 3,500 years. 

    “Most often, when we think of tsunamis, we think of our outer coast and communities along the Pacific Ocean. But there’s a long history of earthquakes on faults in Puget Sound.

    “While the history of earthquakes and tsunamis along the Seattle Fault is less frequent than the Cascadia subduction zone, the impacts could be massive. That’s why it’s critical these communities have the information they need to prepare and respond,” Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said in the release. 

    The study was “conducted to help local and state emergency managers and planners develop and refine response and preparedness plans for a tsunami in the middle of Washington’s largest population center and economic hub,” the release said.

    An earthquake swarm off the Pacific Northwest coastline in late December incited fears that the next big tsunami could be nearing. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 23:00

  • Rep. Gohmert: "Violations Of American Rights" Of Jan. 6 Prisoners "Mind Blowing"
    Rep. Gohmert: “Violations Of American Rights” Of Jan. 6 Prisoners “Mind Blowing”

    Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    At a press conference in Washington, three GOP representatives joined forces with the Patriot Freedom Project and family members of Jan. 6 prisoners to call out the injustice and denial of due process rights for those incarcerated. According to Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), the “violations of American rights” is “mind-blowing.”

    Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) delivers remarks at a June press conference regarding the denial of due process rights for Jan. 6 prisoners. (Cynthia Hughes/Patriot Freedom Project)

    “We are extremely concerned to see a Department of Justice, not about justice,” Gohmert said at the press conference. “It’s about vengeance. It’s about intimidation and the tactics that we’ve been seeing from this DOJ and the disregard for rights coming out of investigations showing the FBI lied, intel lied. The DOJ lies. It ought to concern every single American.”

    Rep. Troy Edwin Nehls (R-Texas), Patriot Freedom Project Founder Cynthia Hughes, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). (Courtesy of Cynthia Hughes)

    “As a former felony judge and chief justice, it’s particularly mind-blowing for me during a time when we should have the most fair courts in our history. We have more violations of American’s rights than even under the Hoover FBI,” Gohmert told The Epoch Times in a June 22 interview. “It’s just incredible. People that have been nominated and confirmed by the Senate as federal judges, granting warrants that don’t specify with any particularity—as the Constitution requires—what they’re for. What’s worse, when they find out they were lied to under oath by DOJ. But they’re not really bothered. They don’t do anything about it. For heaven’s sake. Have respect for your position if you have no respect for yourself.”

    Also in attendance were Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

    Reps. Troy Edwin Nehls (R-Texas), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and Cynthia Hughes, founder of the Patriot Freedom Project. (Courtesy of Cynthia Hughes)

    According to Cynthia Hughes, founder of the Patriot Freedom Project, the press conference was “a great day.”

    “We finally got some support from people in congress, which we needed,” Hughes told The Epoch Times. “We are feeling powerful and strong.”

    Hughes also said she was glad to finally have the opportunity to “personally call out [Rep.] Liz Cheney and know that she could possibly hear about that.”

    “Things are finally moving,” Hughes said. “I think we moved the needle. I just looked at representatives and the incredible women around me and I think we felt more hope than we ever have in almost 18 months now. It was a good thing.”

    Family Members Speak

    Following the press conference, The Epoch Times was able to speak with each of the family members to learn the stories of their loved ones they say the rest of the media refuses to tell. They want the American people to learn about the citizens their government has locked away in prison.

    Thomas Caldwell

    Sharon Caldwell of Berry Hill, Virginia, said she is grateful for Cynthia Hughes and the Patriot Freedom Project for the opportunity to have a press conference where she and the wives, mothers, and family members of Jan. 6 prisoners could speak about what they are going through.

    Sharon and Thomas Caldwell at the Peace Monument in Washington, during the Jan. 6, 2021, protest. (Courtesy of Sharon Caldwell)

    “Some of us have done interviews on the news but we never really had the support of Congress people,” Caldwell told The Epoch Times. “I felt like we had that [at the press conference] with three GOP representatives. It was awesome.”

    Sharon’s husband, Thomas Caldwell, has been charged with “Seditious Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and Aiding and Abetting Conspiracy to Prevent an Officer From Discharging Any Duties Tampering with Documents or Proceedings and Aiding and Abetting” (pdf).

    According to the Save Our Farm website, “the DOJ has falsely claimed that [Thomas] commanded a group called the ‘Oath Keepers’ to overthrow the U.S. government.  The allegations are ridiculous and outrageous.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 22:30

  • "No Place For Virtue-Signaling In Finance" – HSBC 'Responsible Banking' Head Quits
    “No Place For Virtue-Signaling In Finance” – HSBC ‘Responsible Banking’ Head Quits

    It has been just over a month since HSBC reportedly suspended a senior executive after he questioned the risk climate change plays on financial markets, arguing investors shouldn’t worry about it, according to Financial Times. 

    Stuart Kirk, global head of responsible investing at HSBC Asset Management, told an audience in late May in London at a Financial Times Moral Money conference, “there always some nut job telling me about the end of the world.”

    In a resignation letter, posted to LinkedIn, Kirk explained that HSBC’s behaviour towards him since the speech has made staying in the role, ironically, “unsustainable”.

    Kirk’s post on LinkedIn highlighted issues around freedom of speech and the damage caused by cancel culture.

    “Investing is hard. So is saving our planet. Opinions on both differ. But humanity’s best chance of success is open and honest debate. If companies believe in diversity and speaking up, they need to walk the talk. A cancel culture destroys wealth and progress,” he wrote.

    “There is no place for virtue signalling in finance. Likewise as a writer, researcher and investor, I know that words or trading shares can only achieve so much. True impact comes from the combination of real-world action and innovative solutions.”

    Read the full letter below: (emphasis ours)

    Today I wish to announce that I have resigned as global head of responsible investing at HSBC Asset Management.

    Ironically given my job title, I have concluded that the bank’s behaviour towards me since my speech at a Financial Times conference in May has made my position, well, unsustainable.

    Funny old world.

    Over a 27-year unblemished record in finance, journalism and consulting I have only ever tried to do the best for my clients and readers, knowing that doing so helps my employer too.

    Investing is hard. So is saving our planet. Opinions on both differ. But humanity’s best chance of success is open and honest debate. If companies believe in diversity and speaking up, they need to walk the talk. A cancel culture destroys wealth and progress.

    There is no place for virtue signalling in finance. Likewise as a writer, researcher and investor, I know that words or trading shares can only achieve so much. True impact comes from the combination of real-world action and innovative solutions.

    Which is why I’ve been gathering a crack group of like-minded individuals together to deliver what is arguably the greatest sustainable investment idea ever conceived. A whole new asset class. Sounds fanciful – but I am not one for hyperbole, as viewers of my presentation know well.

    To be announced later this year, the first project will underline the central argument in my speech: that human ingenuity can and will overcome the challenges ahead, while at the same time offering huge investment opportunities.

    Meanwhile, I will continue to prod with a sharp stick the nonsense, hypocrisy, sloppy logic and group-think inside the mainstream bubble of sustainable finance. Follow me on LinkedIn if you want to learn the right way to think about ESG – and let me tell you, most of what’s out there is bonkers.

    Finally, can I take this opportunity to thank the tens of thousands of people – from chief executives and congressmen to scientists and mom and pop investors – who contacted me from around the world offering their support and solidarity over the past two months.

    You have given me strength during what has been a tumultuous time for me and my family. It is for you that the next chapter in my career will be devoted. Please forward this to anyone you know who cares about money and planet earth.

    *  *  *

    Watch Kirk’s full comments from May here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 22:00

  • Biden's Dubious Tale Of 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Gets Dismantled
    Biden’s Dubious Tale Of 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Gets Dismantled

    Last week President Biden regurgitated a single-sourced claim that a 10-year-old girl was raped and forced to cross state lines to get an abortion.

    “This isn’t some imagined horror. It is already happening. Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life,” the president said during the signing of an executive order on abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade.

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    The claim – sourced to Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, Caitlan Barnard – went viral, with multiple outlets breathlessly repeating it despite it having just one source, with no corroboration.

    According to Barnard, she “received a call from ‘a child abuse doctor’ in Ohio who had a 10-year-old patient who was six weeks and three days pregnant.” The Star reported that the child “was on her way to Indiana to Bernard’s care.”

    This doesn’t add up…

    It was so suspect that the Washington Post‘s resident fact checker, Glenn Kessler, declared that the claim did not meet journalistic standards.

    “This is the account of a one-source story that quickly went viral around the world — and into the talking points of the president,” wrote the fact checker.

    Kessler noted that “The only source cited for the anecdote was Bernard. She’s on the record, but there is no indication that the newspaper made other attempts to confirm her account.”

    When Kessler reached out to the journalist who wrote the piece for the Indianapolis Star, the journalist who wrote the piece ghosted him. The paper’s executive editor, Bro Krift, wrote “The facts and sourcing about people crossing state lines into Indiana, including the 10-year-old girl, for abortions are clear. We have no additional comment at this time.”

    Kessler notes what journalist Megan Fox pointed out days ago – that “Under Ohio law, a physician, as a mandated reporter under Ohio Revised Code 2151.421, would be required to report any case of known or suspected physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect of a child.” 

    “As a spot check, we contacted child services agencies in some of Ohio’s most populous cities, including Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo. None of the officials we reached were aware of such a case in their areas.”

    What’s more, abortion by 10-year-olds is very rare – with the Columbus Dispatch reporting that in 2020 there were just 52 girls under the age of 15 in the state who received abortions.

    Now, for a master class in breaking down bullshit – here’s Megan Fox’s Jul 5 Twitter thread which dismantles the original claim.

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    To read the rest, click on any of the tweets above.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 21:00

  • Salon Website Corrects Year-Old Headline Saying DeSantis Forces Students To Register Political Views
    Salon Website Corrects Year-Old Headline Saying DeSantis Forces Students To Register Political Views

    Authored by Rita Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Left-wing outlet Salon changed a year-old headline, after falsely stating Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a 2021 bill that forces Florida’s students and professors to register their political views with the state.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference held at the Cox Science Center & Aquarium in West Palm Beach, Fla., on June 8, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

    The original headline published in June 2021, which read “DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state,” has recently been updated with “DeSantis signs bill requiring survey of Florida students, professors on their political views.” In its latest version, the editorial team added a correction, claiming the change was made “to more accurately reflect the language of the bill in question.”

    Salon Executive Editor Andrew O’Hehir told CNN that the old headline “conveyed a misleading impression of what the Florida law actually said, and did not live up to our editorial standards.”

    Previous efforts by DeSantis’s office seeking a correction last year, however, were in vain, said his spokesperson Christina Pushaw.

    “It should have happened much sooner,” Pushaw told CNN in a Thursday email. “The Salon reporter and editors should have read the legislation before writing an article about it.”

    The Florida law in question (pdf), signed by DeSantis in June last year, requires state colleges and universities to conduct annual viewpoint diversity surveys, so as to collect feedback from Florida’s post-secondary students on the intellectual freedom of the campus environment.

    Participation in the survey is both anonymous and voluntary, Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the Republican governor, told Fox News on Wednesday.

    “This same fake claim was circling the liberal Twittersphere after the bill was signed in 2021. It was debunked then. It has been debunked again, now,” Griffin said.

    The recent correction came after the 2021 Salon story resurfaced and went viral on Twitter last week, widely promoted by high profile liberal users including Florida agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor to challenge DeSantis. As multiple fact-checks appeared debunking the narrative, she later deleted her post linking to the Salon story.

    Novelist Stephen King, a vocal critic of Republican politics with over 6.7 million Twitter followers, also posted the story on July 5 and received more than 25,000 shares and 135,000 likes.

    King eventually deleted it four days later and publicly apologized on Saturday. “That really was fake news,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “Sorry.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 20:30

  • An Increasingly Hungry World: 8 Key Takeaways From The Food Inflation And Security Symposium
    An Increasingly Hungry World: 8 Key Takeaways From The Food Inflation And Security Symposium

    Morgan Stanley recently held a virtual Food Inflation & Security Symposium, in which the bank discussed a wide range of topics with experts from around the world. The Symposium followed the publication of the bank’s global collaborative note that involved over 30 Morgan Stanley analysts, entitled “Food Security & Inflation: From Seeds to Stores” (the note is available to professional subs).

    Below we summarize the bank’s key takeaways and variables that will drive future food prices, along with associated impacts to businesses and geopolitics.

    1. The majority view among experts and executives broadly matched Morgan Stanley’s view that food prices will likely reach a peak in 2022, a view that is below consensus among investors and below forward commodity prices. That said, there was significant discussion during multiple Symposium sessions around the magnitude of variables that could impact pricing, variables that are challenging to predict. For example, a chemical company executive viewed potash prices as likely to have already hit a peak, but the executive also believed that potash prices would remain high, representing a disconnect from prior periods of much lower fertilizer prices. Other experts pointed out the magnitude of impacts to food prices from crucially important (and challenging to predict) variables such as weather (especially in South America over the next several months), energy prices and geopolitics (and many speakers highlighted how closely these last two variables are linked).

    2. Regarding the outlook for grain prices, with fertilizer prices declining, farmers are still investing sufficiently to drive strong yields, which supports the bank’s view that grain prices will peak in 2022. That said, weather could take the world to Morgan Stanley’s high price case on grains, especially as the odds of a third consecutive La Niña are increasing (last time this happened was in 2001), and soil in Brazil and Argentina is already dry. This could be disruptive to inventories in the next year and has become a key concern. Market players are less worried about USA weather and crops, and in their views yields should be good, bringing more inventories and relief to short-term prices. Market players believe export restrictions generate short-term stress but gradually fade away, and were not overly concerned about the impacts of the reduction in Ukrainian supply.

    3. Protein prices, especially beef, could continue to rise, a dynamic that MS analyst, Ricardo Alves, has emphasized in recent reports including. The quote from Ricardo’s recent “Beef Super Cycle” report that has resonated with many investors: “Our in-depth supply & demand analysis shows that there’s just not enough beef in the world right now.” Beef is the most expensive protein, so of course demand is related to trade-down issues (pork and chicken relations), but there are multiple trends that favor strong continued demand for beef (e.g. China with gradual urbanization process, higher income per capita, higher and gradual penetration of beef).

    4. Impacts to “downstream” industries: packaged Food companies are likely to face increasing retailer pushback to higher pricing as the leverage is shifting from suppliers to retailers. For many “downstream” industries such as Packaged Food producers, Morgan Stanley’s base case food price estimates would be in-line to modestly bullish (in the sense that margin impacts from higher food prices may be somewhat overdone among the investor community). While input cost pressures are likely to moderate, consumers’ increasing focus on value when food shopping and greater retailer pushback to higher pricing can weigh on packaged food companies’ topline outlook. The expert discussion highlighted that retailers’ increasing focus on costs and offering consumers value should lead to tougher price negotiations.

    5. Geopolitical issues may continue to pressure existing food supply chains, with no easy short term fix. NATO recently stated the probability of the Russia/Ukraine conflict turning into a years-long war and under such conditions, it would be difficult to envision stable supply chain and trade corridors that could be established for agricultural commodities in the Ukraine. Similarly it’s difficult to envision sanctions on Russia being lifted, which should continue to create friction for their food exports. As Morgan Stanley details in its recent Blue Paper, the food issue is part of a larger secular challenge to supply chains from geopolitical issues. The twin trends of Slowbalization and the move to a ‘Multipolar World’ are forcing a rewiring of the global economy, where companies will out of necessity for supply chain security and public policy compliance invest in geographical diversification of supply chains. These transitions can be costly and have unintended consequences as they evolve. They also drive opportunities for the companies and countries that will be called on to build and house new supply chains.

    6. The impacts of elevated food prices are dramatically different at the national level, with some countries benefiting (such as Argentina and Brazil), while other countries are likely to experience multiple negative impacts. For instance, countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen rely on food aid while not having offsetting oil revenues. Only Nigeria has oil revenues to offset food costs. While food prices are down from recent record highs, prices are still higher than any time since 1974. The ranks of deeply food import-dependent countries are growing. In the United States, programs such as food stamps and school meal programs impact tens of millions of Americans. Though inflation-based indexing and maximum benefit policies have been put in place in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the shift back to pre-Covid policies is poised to significantly impact everyone receiving benefits from any one of 18 programs. Sizing it up, the 18 programs grew from $50b to $150b in program size during Covid. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) alone is $100b. Every three months, the US HHS must extend the Public Health Emergency designation, currently in place through August this year. HHS has indicated that it would give the states a two-month notice prior to expiration. Seven states have already come off the public health emergency, and once it is over, a state may step in to offset a reduction in benefits. However, the amount of government assistance that goes away is likely to be stark. A silver lining would be if the loss of maximum benefits creates a sufficient incentive to increase labor force participation.

    7. The biggest game-changer for AgTech in the last 5 years has not been new innovation so much as cheap computing power. Technology is no longer a nice-to-have but rather a must-have. New technologies from drones to precision fertilizers can deliver 7-15% returns improvements within year one; importantly agnostic to the size of fields which had always been a limiting factor for smaller landowners. However, the biggest challenge at the moment remains sourcing labor. While automation tools are available, there is no expeditious solution in current markets.

    8. Sustainability implications are complex and require a nuanced approach from investors. ESG must address both food security and sustainable approaches to food production, which in some instances, have a complicated relationship. In the current backdrop, historic parallels of food-related social unrest emphasize the social considerations of economically producing sufficient amounts of food. Long-term, however, unsustainable farming practices contribute to climate change, a key structural risk to food security. According to MS panelists, investors should “realistically” approach solutions that have no agreed upon definition from a sustainability perspective – such as gene editing. Investors should also recognize farmers are often too “risk saturated” to realize potentially lower yields from a shift toward regenerative farming practices. As a result, corporates that are dependent on farmers, a critical and climate-vulnerable part of the supply chain, should consider supporting the industry’s transition by absorbing some of this risk.

    More in the full Morgan Stanley note available to pro subs.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 20:00

  • Ghislaine Maxwell Appeals Verdict, Sentence In Sex Trafficking Case
    Ghislaine Maxwell Appeals Verdict, Sentence In Sex Trafficking Case

    Authored by Dave Paone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has filed an appeal of both her conviction and sentence.

    In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell (R) is seated beside her attorney Christian Everdell as they watch the prosecutor speak during her sentencing, on June 28, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

    Maxwell was found guilty in federal court for her role in trafficking young women for the sexual pleasure of her employer and one-time romantic partner, Jeffrey Epstein.

    In December, Maxwell was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking, including one count involving a minor. On June 28, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $750,000.

    Sarah Ransome (R) and Elizabeth Stein, victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, speak to the media outside a federal court in New York on June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

    On July 7, attorney Bobbi Sternheim filed a two-page notice of appeal with the court and paid the $505 docketing fee.

    Presiding Judge Alison Nathan had advised the 60-year-old Maxwell of her right to appeal before she handed down the sentence.

    Immediately afterward, some people expressed outrage at such a short sentence, compared to how many years of abuse her victims had suffered.

    There has also been a public demand for Maxwell to release the names of Epstein’s friends—supposedly famous and powerful men—who took part in the abuse.

    In her victim impact statement read at the sentencing, Sarah Ransome referenced those men.

    “I became, against my will, nothing more than a sex toy with a heartbeat and a soul for the entertainment of Epstein, Maxwell, and others,” Ransome said. “I was subjected to sexual predation multiple times per day, both in his New York mansion and on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    “On one visit to the island, the sexual demands, degradation, and humiliation became so horrific that I tried to escape by attempting to jump off a cliff into shark-infested waters.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 19:30

  • Chinese Bank Run Turns Violent After Angry Crowd Storms Bank of China Branch Over Frozen Deposits
    Chinese Bank Run Turns Violent After Angry Crowd Storms Bank of China Branch Over Frozen Deposits

    While the world of high, and not so high finance, is obsessing over the volatility of cryptos and recent painful losses for overlevered players who – much to the amazement of plain vanilla equity investors – were not bailed out by a magnanimous Fed (which however only rescues stock markets, not cryptos), things in China with its $54 trillion financial system, or more than double the size of assets across US commercial banks, are once again getting heated.

    As Reuters reports, a large crowd of angry Chinese bank depositors faced off with police Sunday in the city of Zhengzhou, and many were injured as they were taken away, amid the freezing of their deposits by some rural-based banks.

    The banks froze millions of dollars worth of deposits in April, telling customers they were upgrading their internal systems. The banks have not issued any communication on the matter since, depositors said.

    According to Chinese media the frozen deposits across the various local banks could be worth up to $1.5 billion and authorities are investigating the three banks.

    On Sunday, about 1,000 people gathered outside the Zhengzhou branch of China’s central bank on Sunday to demand action; they held up banners and chanted slogans on the wide steps of the entrance to a branch of China’s central bank in the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province, about 620 kilometers (380 miles) southwest of Beijing.

    People hold banners and chant slogans during a protest at the entrance to a branch of China’s central bank in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan Province. A large crowd of angry Chinese bank depositors faced off with police Sunday, some reportedly injured as they were roughly taken away

    The protesters are among thousands of customers who opened accounts at six rural banks in Henan and neighboring Anhui province that offered higher interest rates. They later found they could not withdraw their funds after media reports that the head of the banks’ parent company was on the run and wanted for financial crimes.

    Videos and photographs on social media showed depositors waving banners and throwing plastic bottles at approaching security guards who then roughly dragged some of the protesters away.

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

    Besides uniformed police, there were the teams of men in plain T-shirts. A banking regulator and a local government official arrived, but their attempts to talk to the crowd were shouted down.

    “We came today and wanted to get our savings back, because I have elderly people and children at home, and the inability to withdraw savings has seriously affected my life,” said a woman from Shandong province, who only gave her last name, Zhang, out of fear of retribution. Zhang and another protester, a man from Beijing surnamed Yang, told the AP the protesters had heard from the officials before and don’t believe what they say.

    The police then announced to the protesters from a vehicle with a megaphone that they were an illegal assembly and would be detained and fined if they didn’t leave. Around 10 a.m., the men in T-shirts rushed the crowd and dispersed them. Zhang said she saw women dragged down the stairs of the bank entrance. Zhang herself was hit, and said she asked the officer, “Why did you hit me?” According to her, he responded: “What’s wrong with beating you?”

    Yang said he was hit by two security officers including one who had fallen off the stairs and mistakenly thought in the chaos that Yang had hit or pushed him.

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

    “Although repeated protests and demonstrations don’t necessarily have a big impact, I think it is still helpful if more people get to know about us, and understand or sympathize with us,” Yang said. “Each time you do it, you might make a difference. Although you will get hit, they can’t really do anything to you, right?”

    “I feel so aggrieved I can’t even explain it to you,” Zhang, 40, told Reuters. Zhang said he had been hoping to retrieve about 170,000 yuan ($25,000) deposited with one of the banks, the Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank.

    Zhang said he had suffered injuries to his foot and thumb, and was taken away by four unidentified security personnel at around midday. Security personnel outnumbered protesters by around three to one, he said.

    “They did not say they would beat us if we refused to leave. They just used the loudspeaker to say that we were breaking the law by petitioning. That’s ridiculous. It’s the banks that are breaking the law.”

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

    The banks, which include the Yuzhou Xinminsheng Village Bank and the Shangcai Huimin Country Bank, are under investigation by the authorities for illegal fundraising, the state-run Global Times reported.

    The protesters were eventually bused to various sites where Zhang said they were forced to sign a letter guaranteeing they would not gather anymore. Late Sunday, Henan banking regulators posted a short notice on their website saying that authorities are speeding up the verification of customer funds in four of the banks and the formulation of a plan to resolve the situation to protect the rights and interests of the public.

    More than 1,000 depositors from across the country had planned to gather in Zhengzhou last month to try to withdraw their money but they were unable to when their COVID-19 health codes, which determine if one can travel, switched to a “no travel” status.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 19:00

  • Biden's Mental Decay
    Biden’s Mental Decay

    Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

    The President of the sole global superpower is confounded by a teleprompter. The Commander in Chief of the most powerful military in the world, with 700+ military spanning the globe and nearly 4,000 nuclear warheads, can barely make it through public appearances.  

    He wouldn’t pass a driver’s test, unable to distinguish between a pedestrian or a stop sign. But he has his finger on the nuclear trigger.

    Just this week he was defeated (yet again) by text on a screen. “End of quote. Repeat the line.” Watch this:

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    Then there was the cover-up. One can imagine the emergency meeting of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, et al. They’re already dealing with record inflation, a tanking stock market, and the economy on a verge of a recession. What do they say to that? They claim the US is “stronger economically than we have been in history,”

    And now they’re left with this mess to clean up. They’re probably thankful, in a way. Another Biden public screw-up is a welcome relief compared to addressing formula shortages. They’ve handled his gaffes before. To the rescue was Assistant White House Press Secretary Emilie Simons to cover for her boss. She falsified Biden’s statement, begging the public to ignore the words from Biden’s mouth.

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

    The official White House website has doubled-down on the denial of reality, making up words that were never said to protect a President who may not be able to remember what he had for breakfast.

    This isn’t Biden’s first public embarrassment, and it certainly won’t be his last. Those who have been paying close attention know they’re a regular occurrence. There will be another one in a few days. His public appearances are, for the most part, heavily scripted and before a friendly audience. Say a few words and talk to some folks before making an exit. And President Biden isn’t up to the challenge, vanquished by the easiest parts of his presidency.

    There was the time he tried to “shake thin air” after a speech and walked off stage bewildered, unsure of where to go.

    Or, recall his fumbled introduction of Judge Ketanji Jackson. “America is a nation that can be defined in a single word: ASUFUTIMAEHAEHUTBW.”

    And when he was rescued from questions on foreign policy by the Easter Bunny.

    And when Biden checked his notes to answer a question about Russia in a staged appearance at a general store.

    Apparently he goes nowhere without the paper crutch prepared by his handlers. Issues relating to Russia – from the war in Ukraine to the expansion of NATO, etc. – are certainly briefed to the President on a daily basis. And his memory is so bad, his intellect is so defeated, that he cannot recall his constant briefing.

    If you need further proof of his mental state, there’s this “cheat sheet,” where he is instructed on how and when to enter the room and leave the room.

    “YOU enter the Roosevelt room…”

    “YOU take your seat.”

    “YOU depart.”

    The troubling thing is that most of the presidency is off-script.

    How do you address inflation and families being priced-out of groceries when you struggle through a press conference?

    How do you formulate a strategy about China or Russia when you rely on a cheat sheet for a 5-minute meeting?

    Make no mistake, Biden’s senility is one of the biggest stories in the world. The media’s silence on this matter is telling. Never before has the press tried to so hard to ignore so big a story (I venture this is bigger than Hunter’s laptop), as they’re afraid of what a correct assessment of Biden’s facilities might reveal. Ask whether Dementia-in-Chief is a threat to national security or economic recovery.

    Also revealing is the media’s attempts to explain-away or otherwise repackage Biden’s mental and physical deficiencies. Peter Baker, writing for The New York Times, says Biden’s “age has increasingly become an uncomfortable issue for him, his team and his party.” Of course, Biden’s age isn’t the issue per se – it’s Biden’s mind. “Age” is just The New York Times’ way of being polite, of serving the Biden Administration.

    To make matters worse, there was the unbelievable “uniform” reporting of Biden’s competence by those interviewed by Baker:

    In interviews, some sanctioned by the White House and some not, more than a dozen current and former senior officials and advisers uniformly reported that Mr. Biden remained intellectually engaged, asking smart questions at meetings, grilling aides on points of dispute, calling them late at night, picking out that weak point on Page 14 of a memo and rewriting speeches like his abortion remarks on Friday right up until the last minute.

    Those comments by Biden’s closest advisors and Democrat officials are certainly contrasted by how they treat Biden, and Baker unfortunately makes no effort to push-back on that point. As Baker concedes: “He stays out of public view at night and has taken part in fewer than half as many news conferences or interviews as recent predecessors.”

    “Out of public view at night.” Could it be because Biden struggles with sundowning, which causes confusion, aggression, anxiety, and depression? Baker doesn’t ask.

    But – if you have any concerns about Biden’s health or acuity – don’t worry. The New York Times has found experts that “put Mr. Biden in a category of ‘super-agers’ who remain unusually fit as they advance in years.”

    Sadly, Baker doesn’t challenge that conclusion either. And what an easy challenge it would have been.

    There’s the old cliché that journalists must speak truth to power. As Chomsky once observed, speaking truth to power is pointless because the powerful already know the truth. Better to speak truth to the powerless. As to Biden’s age-related failures – dare I say dementia – the press has chosen to avoid speaking the truth to the power and the powerless.

    How much it matters is another story. This is likely a one-term president and the public is seeing Biden’s real-time deterioration for themselves.

    But – if the press is willing to cover-up Biden’s dementia – then what other stories are they euthanizing?

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 18:30

  • "Your Gas Guzzler Kills" – Radical Climate Group Deflates Bay Area SUV Tires
    “Your Gas Guzzler Kills” – Radical Climate Group Deflates Bay Area SUV Tires

    Radical environmentalists in the San Francisco Bay Area are making life painful for hardworking people who drive SUVs by deflating their tires in the name of ‘climate change.’ 

    “ATTENTION – Your gas guzzler kills. We have deflated one or more of your tires. You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car,” UK-based group “Tyre Extinguishers” wrote in leaflets left behind on targeted vehicle windshields. 

    “We did this because driving around urban areas in your massive vehicle has huge consequences for others … and “taking actions into our own hands because our governments and politicians will not,” the leaflet continued. 

    SFGate said Vacaville, a town in Solano County, about 35 miles from Sacramento and 55 miles from San Francisco, had a string of residents report the group recently targeted their SUVs. 

    “As far as we know, this is the first action in the Bay Area – the first of many!” Marion Walker, a spokesperson for Tyre Extinguishers, told SFGate via an email statement. 

    Vacaville Police Department said they got a call from at least one SUV owner and observed reports on social media. 

    Tyre Extinguishers’ website lays out how “How To Spot An SUV” and “How To Deflate An SUV Tyre,” along with PDF leaflets that can easily be printed. 

    The group’s grassroots efforts have targeted SUVs in other metro areas, including New York City, Chicago, and Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

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

    Climate extremists don’t realize that lowering a vehicle’s tire pressure can put a driver and its occupants at serious risk of a road accident that could cause injury or death. Low tire pressure reduces grip and responsiveness of the vehicle and may result in loss of control. 

    Also, these so-called climate change warriors are targeting suburbs, towns, and cities to attack the “privileged few that flaunt their wealth” with SUVs. It sounds like the group of lawbreakers is trying to spark more class warfare and division in a country that is already heavily polarized. 

    The question remains how these mischievous ‘greenies’ are getting around town, considering some areas they’ve already targeted are inaccessible by public transportation or too far to bike or walk. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 18:00

  • Now An Outbreak Of The Marburg Virus Has Begun
    Now An Outbreak Of The Marburg Virus Has Begun

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    Why are so many unusual outbreaks of disease suddenly happening all over the planet?  We were already dealing with a seemingly endless global pandemic coming into 2022, and so far this year a bird flu pandemic has resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of our chickens and turkeys, the worst monkeypox outbreak in history has spread like wildfire in the western world, and now it is being reported that there is an outbreak of the Marburg Virus in Africa.  We have already lost our opportunity to contain monkeypox, and that is really bad news.  But if authorities are not able to successfully contain this new Marburg outbreak, we could potentially be facing a scenario that is downright apocalyptic.

    The new outbreak of the Marburg Virus is happening in Ghana.  The two victims that have died so far did not know each other, and officials believe that this is evidence that “the disease is spreading more widely”…

    Two people are believed to have died from the extremely deadly Marburg virus in Ghana as officials gear up for a potential outbreak.

    The patients, from the country’s southern Ashanti region, were not known to each other, suggesting the disease is spreading more widely.

    Initial tests came back positive for the virus and the samples are being reanalysed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

    Global health authorities have always warned that the Marburg virus is a good candidate for a horrifying global pandemic because it can have a very long incubation period.  The following information comes from the World Health Organization…

    The incubation period (interval from infection to onset of symptoms) varies from 2 to 21 days.

    Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise. Muscle aches and pains are a common feature. Severe watery diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cramping, nausea and vomiting can begin on the third day. Diarrhoea can persist for a week. The appearance of patients at this phase has been described as showing “ghost-like” drawn features, deep-set eyes, expressionless faces, and extreme lethargy.

    All of that sounds terrible, but the next stage of the disease is truly nightmarish…

    Many patients develop severe haemorrhagic manifestations between 5 and 7 days, and fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple areas. Fresh blood in vomitus and faeces is often accompanied by bleeding from the nose, gums, and vagina. Spontaneous bleeding at venepuncture sites (where intravenous access is obtained to give fluids or obtain blood samples) can be particularly troublesome. During the severe phase of illness, patients have sustained high fevers. Involvement of the central nervous system can result in confusion, irritability, and aggression. Orchitis (inflammation of one or both testicles) has been reported occasionally in the late phase of disease (15 days).

    In fatal cases, death occurs most often between 8 and 9 days after symptom onset, usually preceded by severe blood loss and shock.

    The largest previous outbreak of the disease was in 2005.

    During that outbreak, 88 percent of the victims died…

    The largest outbreak to date was in Angola in 2005, when 374 caught the virus and 329 died – a fatality rate of 88 percent.

    A disease that has a death rate of way less than one percent ended up paralyzing much of the planet for months on end.

    So what do you think will happen if the Marburg Virus becomes a true global pandemic?

    Needless to say, the panic would be off the charts, and there is no cure and no vaccine…

    The Marburg virus is a top concern for public health officials who are worried about the next pandemic. It has the potential to cause serious public health emergencies but there are currently no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus.

    Meanwhile, the number of monkeypox cases continues to rise at an exponential rate.

    When I wrote about monkeypox yesterday, there were 7,534 global cases.  Unfortunately, Friday was the worst day for this outbreak so far by a very wide margin, and now there are 9,109 global cases.

    I had been hoping that this outbreak would fade after the initial spike of cases, but instead it seems to be rapidly picking up momentum.

    Here in the United States, it has already spread to 39 different states and the total number of cases has now risen to 790.

    If the number of cases continues to double at a very fast pace, it won’t be too long before we have a major national crisis on our hands.

    Let us hope that doesn’t happen, because this is a disease that you definitely do not want to get.

    This highly mutated version of monkeypox causes extremely intense pain.  In fact, one victim that was interview by NBC News said that it was “the worst pain in my life”.

    Since monkeypox causes very ugly sores on the skin, many have suggested that this sounds eerily similar to a future scenario that I described in my books.

    But we don’t know if monkeypox will become a true global pandemic yet.  We will just have to wait and see what happens.

    Of course COVID has been a global pandemic for a long time, and now it is being reported that a new subvariant that is becoming dominant in the western world is “the worst so far”…

    The latest subvariant of the novel coronavirus to become dominant in Europe, the United States, and other places is also, in many ways, the worst so far.

    The BA.5 subvariant of the basic Omicron variant appears to be more contagious than any previous form of the virus. It’s apparently better at dodging our antibodies, too—meaning it might be more likely to cause breakthrough and repeat infections.

    Despite everything that they have tried, authorities have failed to stop this pandemic.  Our planet has been hit by wave after wave, and now hospitalizations in the U.S. are spiking once again…

    Eighteen states reported more cases in the week of June 30-July 7 than in the week before, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.

    That has also led to a rise in hospitalizations, with hospitals in 40 states reporting more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier. Thirty-eight states had more patients in intensive care beds, and 17 states reported more deaths than a week earlier.

    Personally, I am far, far more concerned about monkeypox.

    If the number of monkeypox cases continues to explode like it has been, it won’t be too long before there is widespread panic among the general public.

    And if the Marburg Virus starts getting loose in the western world we will be facing a scenario that is absolutely unthinkable.

    So hopefully authorities in Africa are on top of this, because the death toll from a full-blown global pandemic would be off the charts.

    *  *  *

    It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 17:30

  • Trump Calls Elon Musk "Another Bullshit Artist"
    Trump Calls Elon Musk “Another Bullshit Artist”

    Former President Donald Trump called Tesla CEO Elon Musk “another bullshit artist” after the richest man in the world announced he was pulling out of a deal to buy Twitter.

    “One of our highest priorities under a Republican Congress will be to stop left-wing censorship and to restore free speech in America,” Trump said during a “Save America’ campaign-style rally on Saturday. “And go out, by the way while I’m here and sign up now, for Truth Social. It’s hot as a pistol and you see that I called that one, right? Elon. Elon”

    “Elon is not going to buy Twitter. Where did you hear that before? From me,” Trump continued.

    “He’s got himself a mess.”

    “You know, he said the other day, ‘I’ve never voted for a Republican.’ I said I didn’t know that. He told me he voted for me. So he’s another bullshit artist but he’s not going to be buying it. Although he might later. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen? He’s got a pretty rotten contract. I looked at his contract, not a good contract. Sign up for Truth. We love Truth.”

    Watch:

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 17:00

  • Tyranny On Autopilot: LA County Set To Resume Mask Mandate
    Tyranny On Autopilot: LA County Set To Resume Mask Mandate

    Authored by Adam Dick via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

    People in the city and county of Los Angeles, California have suffered under some the more extreme coronavirus crackdown measures in America.

    And, one of those authoritarian measures — the county’s mask mandate — may be about to make a comeback under county policy to automatically reimpose the mandate if the coronavirus “community transmission” in the county is determined to have risen to what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers “high” and stay at that level for two weeks.

    Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer is advising that the mask mandate will return before the end of this month if the current trend of increasing “cases” continues.

    Insanity upon insanity. Tyranny on autopilot.

    The coronavirus circulating today is different than what was circulating when Los Angeles County previously mandated mask wearing. Yet, the county has put the reimposing of the same supposedly responsive policy on autopilot. Further, masks, while causing known health detriments, have not been shown to provide net protection against the spread of any coronavirus.

    The county might as well mandate each person in the county carry a rabbit’s foot in his pocket to ward off infection. Most importantly, mask mandates impinge on liberty and exceed proper governmental bounds.

    Nonetheless, if a number on the county’s CDC-inspired chart crosses an arbitrary level and stays there or higher for two weeks, the county is set to reimpose a draconian mask mandate.

    A previous Los Angeles County government imposed mask mandate ended in March when “community transmission” dropped below the “high” level. Fortunately for people in the county, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva had declared in July of last year that the county sheriff’s department would decline to enforce the mandate.

    Of course, you can count on politicians on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to be displeased by such refusal to enforce the mandate. For reasons surely including his refusal to enforce the county government’s previous mask mandate, Villanueva now finds himself in jeopardy of being fired by county board members.

    Next week, the county board is considering placing on the same November election ballot on which Villanueva is a candidate for reelection a measure designed to give the county board the means to remove an elected county sheriff from office.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 16:30

  • The Façade Of California's Economy Is About To Crumble
    The Façade Of California’s Economy Is About To Crumble

    Statistical data and economic projections can be incredibly misleading without taking context into account.   This fact is often exploited by governments around the world, and there is probably no better example than the state of California. 

    There is an old mantra when it comes to warfare, which is to never buy into your own propaganda.  That is to say, never buy into the lie that you are “winning” if you are actually losing.  The economic and political news coming out of California is consistently dismal these days, and yet state politicians and bureaucrats continuously insist that things have never been better.  Furthermore, they really know how to spin their data.  

    For example, CA has been losing more people to relocation in the past few years than at any time in the past century.  Try to research this subject matter and you will be buried in an avalanche of pro-Cal fluff pieces from the local media designed to obscure the problem.  State numbers indicate a loss of 117,000 people in 2021 alone (on top of huge losses in 2019 and 2020), but this number does not mention context.  Over 280,000 people LEFT the state in 2021 for a number of reasons, though covid lockdowns and vax mandates seem to be high on the list.  But the government then adds new residents to the mix to diminish the losses.

    Who are these new people moving into CA?  Mostly illegal immigrants according to border patrol numbers.  Illegal border crossing in California in 2021 hit the highest levels since the height of the Obama era in 2008.  Between 2.3 million and 2.6 million illegals reside in the state today, and that’s one quarter of the estimated 11 million illegals that live in the entire US.  In other words, CA lost 280,000 legal citizens last years and is replacing many of them with people who are not citizens at all, then they claim the population decline is “not that bad.”  

    This process slowed down slightly during the covid pandemic, but only because of the strict lockdown rules enacted on the southern border.  Now that Joe Biden has lifted those rules and even encouraged illegal immigration through promises of potential citizenship, the floodgates have reopened and California is a major pipeline.

    The types of people leaving CA in droves are a mix of middle income families and business owners.  Beyond the lockdown madness of the past couple of years, there is also the issue of  one of the highest tax rates in the US combined with some the most strict permit, employment and property regulations in the country.  California’s tax burden is third highest in the nation under New York and Hawaii, and it is rated one of the most expensive states to start a business.  These fiscal conditions are brutal on small business owners, who employ around 48% of California’s workforce.    

    The state is rated almost every year as the single worst place in the US to do business by various surveys, and for good reason.

    The biggest economic problem in the state right now is perhaps not their propensity for draconian restrictions or taxation, but the issue of property prices and living costs.  In 2021 the median home price in CA rose to $800,000, that’s almost double the US average of $430,000.  The average rental cost is $2500 per month, while the median rent in the US is $1,300.  The cost of living in CA (and many blue states) is simply prohibitive.

    Another way the state government tries to obscure their economic failings is by citing GDP stats, which if taken out of context makes the state seem like the most successful in the nation.  An official GDP of $3.4 trillion is quite the distraction, but once we take into account the fact that government spending is calculated as a part of GDP, it’s far less impressive.  

    California is a massive spender, with over $516 billion in state and local expenditures in 2019 according to the US Census Bureau.  A large portion of this spending is considered part of CA’s GDP.  A business powerhouse?  Not so much.  A government spending and taxation powerhouse?  Absolutely.  

    California has the fifth largest standing debt of any state in the US, with over $362 billion in total liabilities including unfunded liabilities.  Now, with stagflation hitting hard and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates there is talk of another Great Recession, and voices within CA are starting to get worried.  They know that the state is highly dependent on two primary industries:  Agriculture and government spending.  With drought causing severe water shortages and debt getting more expensive to maintain, a recession at this time could pull the rug out from under the the state economy and unmask the facade.  

    “Experts” in the state are calling for even MORE government spending to avoid a repeat of the recession crisis of 2008/2009, which means attempting to artificially drive up GDP by borrowing more money from the Federal Government and the Federal Reserve.  In other words, Gavin Newsom and the Democrats in charge are anxious to fight inflation with more inflation.  

    This is a disaster waiting to happen.  CA is not the only state with these problems, but it is one of the largest and most unstable.  The hundreds of thousands of people relocating every year see the writing on the wall, and are smart to get out while they can.  After decades of consistent government mismanagement the golden goose is about to expire.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 16:00

  • Morgan Stanley: Soaring Dollar Will Crush Earnings Growth And Snuff The Rally In Stocks
    Morgan Stanley: Soaring Dollar Will Crush Earnings Growth And Snuff The Rally In Stocks

    By Michael Wilson, Morgan Stanley chief US equity strategist

    One of the more popular views over the past decade has been the eventual demise of the US dollar. After all, with the Fed printing so many dollars since the global financial crisis and then doubling down after the Covid pandemic hit two years ago, this idea has merit. Indeed, the meteoric rise in cryptocurrencies was essentially a bet on the entire fiat currency world coming unglued. However, after the GFC, these printed dollars never made it into the real economy as they were simply used to patch up broken balance sheets from the housing bust. Therefore, M2 growth never got “out of hand”, exceeding 10% on a year-on-year basis only briefly in 2009 when QE first began and then again in 2012 when QE3 was started to help to offset the sovereign debt crisis. In fact, during the entire period after the Fed first embarked on QE in November 2008 through the end of the cycle in March 2020, M2 growth averaged just 6% – right in line with the long-term trend of M2 and nominal GDP growth. As a result, the US dollar maintained its reserve currency status and rose almost 40% during that decade.

    However, as we pointed out back in April 2020, the stimulus provided during Covid was very different. At the time, we suggested that the coordinated fiscal and monetary policy was unprecedented and akin to “helicopter” money as described by Milton Friedman in his seminal paper back in 1969 and referenced by Ben Bernanke in 2002 as a tool the Fed could always use to avoid a deflationary trap. In other words, the seeds of today’s inflation were sown in those early months right after the pandemic with the first dose of helicopter money. That first drop was arguably necessary to prevent a deflationary bust. But, handing out free money is very popular with the people, so there were two more doses – one by each party – administered in January and March 2021 after we had an effective vaccine to help to reopen much of the economy. The result is that M2 growth exploded and since February 2020 has averaged 17%, or 3x the long-term trend – a truly unprecedented outcome that left us with much more inflation than was desired. Consequently, the US dollar fell sharply from March 2020 to March 2021 but, once M2 growth peaked, so did the dollar’s decline. Now, with the Fed reversing course so quickly and the checks having stopped long ago, M2 growth has fallen all the way back to its long-term trend of just 6%. Given the projected path for rate hikes and quantitative tightening, M2 growth is likely to fall even further and the dollar is unlikely to show any signs of demise until the Fed pivots, which seems unlikely any time soon, especially after Friday’s strong jobs report.

    So why does this matter so much for stocks? Based on the extreme rally so far this year, the DXY is now up 16% year on year. This is about as extreme as it gets historically speaking and, unfortunately, it typically coincides with major financial stress in markets, a recession, or both.

    Ultimately, the Fed wants a meaningful economic slowdown to curtail inflation and a stronger dollar is part of that cocktail. From the standpoint of stocks, the stronger dollar is going to be a massive headwind to earnings for many large multinationals.  This could not be coming at a worse time as companies are already struggling with margin pressure from cost inflation, higher/unwanted inventories, and slower demand.

    The simple math on S&P 500 earnings from currency is that for every percentage point increase on a year-on-year basis it’s approximately a 0.5x hit to EPS growth. At today’s 16% year-on-year level, that translates into an 8% headwind for S&P 500 EPS growth, all else equal.

    Of course, things can change quickly, but it doesn’t seem likely until M2 growth stops slowing, which will require a Fed pivot. The main point for equity investors is that this dollar strength is just another reason to think earnings revisions are coming down over the next few earnings seasons, which starts next week. Therefore, the recent rally in stocks is likely to fizzle out before too long.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 15:30

  • Housing Crisis Worsens As Affordability Reaches Record Low
    Housing Crisis Worsens As Affordability Reaches Record Low

    Just as we warned back in March, housing affordability, as measured by Goldman Sachs, has deteriorated to its worst level on record.

    The recent decline in affordability has been driven largely by higher mortgage rates. This stands in contrast with last year, when higher home prices were the main driver…

    As mortgage rates (and home prices) have soared, rental affordability has held up better than mortgage affordability…

    The housing market has cooled significantly in recent weeks as buyers have stepped back from the market. Sales of previously owned homes slid in May for the fourth straight month.

    “I don’t know that we’ll ever see affordability again like we saw in the last year or two,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial Corp.

    Even The Dallas Fed recently admitted that the US housing market is suffering “abnormal market behavior” for the first time since the boom of the early 2000s. They add to what Goldman says, citing clear reasons for concern in certain economic indicators – the price-to-rent ratio, in particular, and the price-to-income ratio – which show signs that house prices appear increasingly out of step with fundamentals.

    While The Dallas Fed notes that historically low interest rates are a factor, they point out that rates do not fully explain housing market developments.

    Other drivers have played a role, including pandemic-related U.S. fiscal stimulus programs and COVID-19-related supply-chain disruptions and associated policy responses.

    The resulting fundamental-driven higher house prices may have fueled a fear-of-missing-out wave of exuberance involving new investors and more aggressive speculation among existing investors.

    Last week saw mortgage rates fall significantly but “rates are still significantly higher than they were a year ago, which is why applications for home purchases and refinances remain depressed,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting.

    “Purchase activity is hamstrung by ongoing affordability challenges and low inventory, and homeowners still have reduced incentive to apply for a refinance.”

    Speaking to Fox Business, Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather pointed out that higher interest rates are pushing buyers away from the housing market, and sellers are unwilling to drop prices at present. But things could change once the economy begins to weaken.

    “Rate movement depends on Federal Reserve policy and how the market anticipates that, so it makes forecasting incredibly difficult,” said Lien Kiefer, an economist at Freddie Mac.

    “Given all the volatility in the market, it’s hard to say how rates will behave week to week. But the risks are kind of balanced – I don’t think they’ll move dramatically higher or lower.”

    That means borrowers could see mortgage rates hover around 5% well into 2023.

    Finally, Goldman expects affordability will linger at historically challenging levels through year-end.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/10/2022 – 15:00

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