Mar 11

Today’s News 11th March 2022

  • Whitehead: The Rise Of Global Fascism And The End Of The World As We Know It
    Whitehead: The Rise Of Global Fascism And The End Of The World As We Know It

    Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “This is the way the world ends

    Not with a bang but a whimper.”

    – “The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot

    Barely three years into the 2020s, and we seem to be living out the prophesies of the Book of Revelation with its dire warnings about plague, poverty, hatred and war.

    Just as the government hysteria over the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be dying down, new threats have arisen to occupy our attention and fuel our fears: food shortages, spiking inflation, rocketing gas prices, and a Ukraine-Russia conflict that threatens to bring about a world war.

    Is this the end of the world as we know it? Or is this the beginning of the end of the world?

    Will the world end with a bang or will it end, as T.S. Eliot concludes, with a whimper?

    Robert Frost, torn between a vision of the world ending in fire (the hot flame of violence, anger and greed) or ice (the cold burn of hatred), suggests that either would suffice to do the job.

    And then there’s the Polish-American poet Czeslaw Milosz, who envisioned the day the world ends as a day like any other: “Those who expected lightning and thunder are disappointed. And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps do not believe it is happening now. As long as the sun and the moon are above, as long as the bumblebee visits a rose, as long as rosy infants are born, no one believes it is happening now… There will be no other end of the world.”

    In Milosz’ words can be found a distant echo of a warning issued by Bertram Gross in his book Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America:

    “Anyone looking for black shirts, mass parties, or men on horseback will miss the telltale clues of creeping fascism. In any First World country of advanced capitalism, the new fascism will be colored by national and cultural heritage, ethnic and religious composition, formal political structure, and geopolitical environment… In America, it would be supermodern and multi-ethnic-as American as Madison Avenue, executive luncheons, credit cards, and apple pie. It would be fascism with a smile. As a warning against its cosmetic facade, subtle manipulation, and velvet gloves, I call it friendly fascism. What scares me most is its subtle appeal. I am worried by those who fail to remember-or have never learned -that Big Business-Big Government partnerships, backed up by other elements, were the central facts behind the power structures of old fascism in the days of Mussolini, Hitler, and the Japanese empire builders.”

    Look beyond the drum-pounding distractions of war and the fear-inducing tactics of the Deep State, and consider the long-term ramifications of the so-called sanctions being levied against Russia right now: not just the governmental sanctions, but the corporate lockdowns.

    As CBS News reports, “Car shipments were paused. Beer stopped flowing. McDonald’s shut down sales of Big Macs. Cargo ships dropped port calls and oil companies cut their pipelines. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is leading some of the world’s best known brands—from Apple to Disney and Ikea—to abruptly exit a country that’s become a global outcast.”

    This is shunning on a global scale.

    Some companies, as Fortune reports, have gone above and beyond what was required by government sanctions. For instance, “major oil companies, including Exxon, BP, and Shell, ended joint investment projects with Russian oil companies. Major retailers, including H&M, Nike, Ikea, and TJX, have shut down Russian sales and closed stores. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express shut down global services in Russia… Boeing cut off support for Russian airlines and closed its offices in Moscow, while Delta ended its Russian code-sharing arrangement… FedEx and UPS shut services to Russia. Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft all have taken significant action to combat Russian aggression and disinformation.”

    “You basically have Russia becoming a commercial pariah,” confirmed economist Mary Lovely. “Pretty much no company, no multinational, wants to be caught on the wrong side of U.S. and Western sanctions.”

    Russia’s military aggression has paved the way for a show of force by a punitive Big Business-Big Government power alliance that, until recently, had been exerting itself on a smaller scale to sanction individuals whose behavior was deemed to be hateful, discriminatory, conspiratorial or anti-government.

    There’s no going back from here.

    This may well be the end of the world as we know it.

    This particular apocalypse is the fallout from a silent coup that has given the Corporate State a taste for punitive power and an understanding of the ease with which it can use that power to manipulate, control and direct the world governments.

    For good or bad, it will change the way we navigate the world, redrawing the boundaries of our world (and our freedoms) and altering the playing field faster than we can keep up.

    This new world order—a global world order—made up of international government agencies and corporations owes its existence in large part to the U.S. government’s deep-seated and, in many cases, top-secret alliances with foreign nations and global corporations.

    This powerful international cabal, let’s call it the Global Deep State, is just as real as the corporatized, militarized, industrialized American Deep State, and it poses just as great a threat to our rights as individuals under the U.S. Constitution, if not greater.

    We’ve been inching closer to this global world order for the past several decades, but COVID-19, which saw governmental and corporate interests become even more closely intertwined, shifted this transformation into high gear.

    Now, in the face of Russia’s aggression, fascism is about to become a global menace.

    Given all that we know about the U.S. government—that it treats its citizens like faceless statistics and economic units to be bought, sold, bartered, traded, and tracked; that it repeatedly lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn; and that it wages wars for profit, jails its own people for profit, and has no qualms about spreading its reign of terror abroad—it is not a stretch to suggest that the government has been overtaken by a power elite that do not have our best interests at heart.

    Indeed, to anyone who’s been paying attention to the goings-on in the world, it is increasingly obvious that we’re already under a new world order, and it is being brought to you by the Global-Industrial Deep State.

    It remains unclear whether the American Deep State (“a national-security apparatus that holds sway even over the elected leaders notionally in charge of it”) answers to the Global Deep State, or whether the Global Deep State merely empowers the American Deep State. However, there is no denying the extent to which they are intricately and symbiotically enmeshed and interlocked.

    Consider the extent to which our lives and liberties are impacted by this international convergence of governmental and profit-driven corporate interests in the surveillance state, the military industrial complex, the private prison industry, the intelligence sector, the security sector, the technology sector, the telecommunications sector, the transportation sector, the pharmaceutical industry and, most recently, by the pharmaceutical-health sector.

    All of these sectors are dominated by mega-corporations operating on a global scale and working through government channels to increase their profit margins. The profit-driven policies of these global corporate giants influence everything from legislative policies to economics to environmental issues to medical care.

    On almost every front, whether it’s the war on drugs, or the sale of weapons, or regulating immigration, or establishing prisons, or advancing technology, or fighting a pandemic, if there is a profit to be made and power to be amassed, you can bet that the government and its global partners have already struck a deal that puts the American people on the losing end of the bargain.

    We’ve been losing our freedoms so incrementally for so long—sold to us in the name of national security and global peace, maintained by way of martial law disguised as law and order, and enforced by a standing army of militarized police and a political elite determined to maintain their powers at all costs—that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it all started going downhill, but we’re certainly on that downward trajectory now, and things are moving fast.

    The “government of the people, by the people, for the people” has perished.

    In its place is a shadow government—a corporatized, militarized, entrenched global bureaucracy—that is fully operational and is not only running the country but is about to take over the world.

    Given the trajectory and dramatic expansion, globalization and merger of governmental and corporate powers, we’re not going to recognize this country (or the rest of the world) 20 years from now.

    It’s taken less than a generation for our freedoms to be eroded and the Global Deep State’s structure to be erected, expanded and entrenched.

    Yet mark my words: the U.S. government will not save us from the chains of the Global Deep State.

    The current or future occupant of the White House will not save us.

    For that matter, anarchy, violence and incivility will not save us.

    Unfortunately, the government’s divide and conquer tactics are working like a charm.

    Despite the laundry list of grievances that should unite “we the people” in common cause against the government, the nation is more divided than ever by politics, by socio-economics, by race, by religion, and by every other distinction that serves to highlight our differences.

    The real and manufactured events of recent years—the pandemic, invasive surveillance, the extremism reports, the civil unrest, the protests, the shootings, the bombings, the military exercises and active shooter drills, the color-coded alerts and threat assessments, the fusion centers, the transformation of local police into extensions of the military, the distribution of military equipment and weapons to local police forces, the government databases containing the names of dissidents and potential troublemakers—have all conjoined to create an environment in which “we the people” are more divided, more distrustful, and fearful of each other.

    What we have failed to realize is that in the eyes of the government, we’re all the same.

    When the government and its Global-Industrial Deep State partners in the New World Order crack down, we’ll all suffer.

    If there is to be any hope of freeing ourselves, it rests—as it always has—at the local level, with you and your fellow citizens taking part in grassroots activism, which takes a trickle-up approach to governmental reform by implementing change at the local level.

    One of the most important contributions an individual citizen can make is to become actively involved in local community affairs, politics and legal battles. As the adage goes, “Think globally, act locally.”

    America was meant to be primarily a system of local governments, which is a far cry from the colossal federal bureaucracy we have today. Yet if our freedoms are to be restored, understanding what is transpiring practically in your own backyard—in one’s home, neighborhood, school district, town council—and taking action at that local level must be the starting point.

    Responding to unmet local needs and reacting to injustices is what grassroots activism is all about. Attend local city council meetings, speak up at town hall meetings, organize protests and letter-writing campaigns, employ “militant nonviolent resistance” and civil disobedience, which Martin Luther King Jr. used to great effect through the use of sit-ins, boycotts and marches.

    And then, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, if there is any means left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it may rest with the power of communities and local governments to invalidate governmental and corporate laws, tactics and policies that are illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/11/2022 – 00:00

  • These Are The 50 Minerals Critical To US Security
    These Are The 50 Minerals Critical To US Security

    The U.S. aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as part of its commitment to tackling climate change, but might be lacking the critical minerals needed to achieve its goals.

    The American green economy will rely on renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, along with the electrification of transportation. However, local production of the raw materials necessary to produce these technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, is lacking. Understandably, this has raised concerns in Washington.

    In the graphic below, based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti lists all of the minerals that the government has deemed critical to both the economic and national security of the United States.

    What are Critical Minerals?

    A critical mineral is defined as a non-fuel material considered vital for the economic well-being of the world’s major and emerging economies, whose supply may be at risk. This can be due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policy, or other factors.

    In 2018, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a list of 35 critical minerals. The new list, released in February 2022, contains 15 more commodities.

    Much of the increase in the new list is the result of splitting the rare earth elements and platinum group elements into individual entries rather than including them as “mineral groups.” In addition, the 2022 list of critical minerals adds nickel and zinc to the list while removing helium, potash, rhenium, and strontium.

    The challenge for the U.S. is that the local production of these raw materials is extremely limited.

    For instance, in 2021 there was only one operating nickel mine in the country, the Eagle mine in Michigan. The facility ships its concentrates abroad for refining and is scheduled to close in 2025. Likewise, the country only hosted one lithium mine, the Silver Peak Mine in Nevada.

    At the same time, most of the country’s supply of critical minerals depends on countries that have historically competed with America.

    China’s Dominance in Minerals

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, China is the single largest supply source of mineral commodities for the United States.

    Cesium, a critical metal used in a wide range of manufacturing, is one example. There are only three pegmatite mines in the world that can produce cesium, and all were controlled by Chinese companies in 2021.

    Furthermore, China refines nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths. Despite the name, these elements are abundant on the Earth’s crust and make up the majority of listed critical minerals. They are essential for a variety of products like EVs, advanced ceramics, computers, smartphones, wind turbines, monitors, and fiber optics.

    After China, the next largest source of mineral commodities to the United States has been Canada, which provided the United States with 16 different elements in 2021.

    The Rising Demand for Critical Minerals

    As the world’s clean energy transitions gather pace, demand for critical minerals is expected to grow quickly.

    According to the International Energy Association, the rise of low-carbon power generation is projected to triple mineral demand from this sector by 2040.

    The shift to a sustainable economy is important, and consequently, securing the critical minerals necessary for it is just as vital.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 23:40

  • By Enforcing Sanctions On Russia, SWIFT May Commit Suicide
    By Enforcing Sanctions On Russia, SWIFT May Commit Suicide

    Authored by Michael Maharrey via Libertarian Institute/Tenth Amendment Center

    The government of the United States has intervened militarily in other countries for decades, against the council of founders like George Washington who advised America should “observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.”

    But the U.S. doesn’t only project power across the globe through its massive military. It also weaponizes the U.S. dollar, using its economic dominance and its privilege as the issuer of the reserve currency as a carrot-stick tool of foreign policy. The U.S. government showers billions of dollars in foreign aid to “friends.” On the other hand, “enemies” can find themselves locked out of SWIFT, the global financial system that the U.S. effectively controls using the dollar.

    SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The system enables financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized environment. Since the dollar serves as the world reserve currency, SWIFT facilitates the international dollar system. SWIFT and dollar dominance give the U.S. a great deal of leverage over other countries.

    The U.S. has used the system as a stick before. In 2014 and 2015, the Obama administration blocked several Russian banks from SWIFT as relations between the two countries deteriorated. Under Trump, the U.S. threatened to lock China out of the dollar system if it failed to follow U.N. sanctions on North Korea. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin threatened this economic nuclear option during a conference broadcast on CNBC.

    “If China doesn’t follow these sanctions, we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system, and that’s quite meaningful.”

    Locking a country completely out of SWIFT would effectively cut it off economically from the world. But there would also be consequences that ripple through other economies. For instance, a member of the Russian parliament warned locking his country completely out of SWIFT would halt the flow of goods into Europe.

    If Russia is disconnected from SWIFT, then we will not receive [foreign] currency, but buyers, European countries in the first place, will not receive our goods — oil, gas, metals and other important components.”

    Given America’s history of using sanctions as a foreign policy tool, Russia wasn’t unprepared for the move. In fact, A number of countries that know they could easily find themselves in the crosshairs have taken steps to limit their dependence on the dollar and have even been working to establish alternative payment systems. This includes Russia, China and Iran.

    Russia developed its own payment system for internal use several years ago. According to the Central Bank of Russia, 416 Russian companies and government organizations had joined the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) as of September 2018. A growing number of central banks have also been buying gold as a way to diversify their holdings away from the greenback.

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    Before ending its purchase program at the onset of the COVID pandemic, Russia was the biggest central bank buyer of gold. The Central Bank of Russia bought $4.3 billion worth of the yellow metal between June 2019 and June 2020. And the Russians were buying gold long before that. The Central Bank of Russia bought gold every month from March 2015. According to Bloomberg, “Russia spent more than $40 billion building a war chest of gold over the past five years, making it the world’s biggest buyer.”

    Meanwhile, the Russian central bank was aggressively divesting itself of US Treasuries. Russia sold off nearly half of its US debt in April 2018 alone, dumping $47.4 billion of its $96.1 billion in U.S. Treasuries. It’s not just America’s “enemies” who are worried about the U.S. abusing its economic power. Her friends are also wary, as they should be.

    After Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal,  the EU announced the creation of a special payment channel to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions and facilitate trade with Iran. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini made the announcement after a meeting with foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran. She said the new payment channel would allow companies to preserve oil and other business deals with Iran.

    This underscores a risk to the U.S. sanction policies could also have long-run consequences, eventually undermining the dollar as the world reserve currency. Economic analyst Peter Schiff warned that other countries are watching how the U.S handles its power as the issuer of the global reserve currency during the Russian-Ukraine war.

    China is looking on thinking, well, Russia is doing something America doesn’t want. They’re getting sanctioned. What if we do something that America doesn’t want? We get sanctioned. They pull the dollar out from under us. Let’s get out from under the dollar on our own. Let’s not leave this weapon in the hands of the U.S. that can be turned against us at any time.”

    If enough countries abandon the dollar, the value of the U.S. currency would collapse and create economic chaos here at home. The de-dollarization of the world economy would likely perpetuate a currency crisis in the United States. Practically speaking, it would likely lead to hyperinflation.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. government should be wary of throwing its economic weight around too glibly. It isn’t the only country with an economic nuclear option. China ranks as the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt. If the Chinese were to dump a significant amount of U.S. Treasuries, it would collapse the bond market and make it impossible for the U.S. to finance its massive debt.

    America’s undeclared wars have cost trillions of dollars. And economic sanctions are an act of war. Most people view economic sanctions as an acceptable alternative to military force. But economic warfare also comes at a cost. It’s typically not the sanctioned government that suffers. It’s the innocent people living in that country that must cope with shortages and increasing prices.

    As James Madison said, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”

    War always comes at a steep cost—whether military or economic.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 23:20

  • Parachuting Spiders To Invade East Coast, Study Finds
    Parachuting Spiders To Invade East Coast, Study Finds

    The University of Georgia announced a new invasive bright yellow, blue-black, and red spider is preparing to spread from Georgia “through most of the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.” this spring. The spider is the size of a child’s hand and will parachute through the air and travel by wind.

    Large and scary-looking Joro spiders, potentially millions of them, are expected to use their silk to carry them up and down the East Coast as early as May in a technique called “ballooning,” according to UGA Today, a publication by the University of Georgia.

    The spiders were first discovered in Georgia in 2013 and have learned to adapt to harsh climates to survive colder weather. Their northward invasion will be terrifying, but one should not fret because their fangs are often not large enough to puncture human skin.

    “People should try to learn to live with them,” Andy Davis, a corresponding author of the study and a research scientist in the Odum School of Ecology, told UGA Today.

    “The way I see it, there’s no point in excess cruelty where it’s not needed,” added Benjamin Frick, co-author of the study and an undergraduate researcher in the School of Ecology. “You have people with saltwater guns shooting them out of the trees and things like that, and that’s really just unnecessary.”

    The spider can grow about 3 inches long and appear menacing. Unlike Cicadas, these spiders could be sticking around, sort of like stink bugs and murder hornets. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 23:00

  • SCOTUS Must Clarify Confusions Surrounding Religious Liberty
    SCOTUS Must Clarify Confusions Surrounding Religious Liberty

    Authored by Adam Carrington via RealClear PublicAffairs (emphasis ours),

    Our law remains frustratingly confused on the issue of religious liberty. When the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a right to marriage for same-sex couples in Obergefell v. Hodges, it opened up many questions regarding how this new right would interact with those already in existence. In particular, what does protecting this right mean for respecting religious liberty?  

    For years, the court refused cases that could bring some potential clarity on this point – cases involving businesses seeking not to service same-sex weddings. The one case it did take, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, left the most important questions undecided.  

    Recently, however, the court added a religious liberty case to next year’s docket. This case concerns a website design company wishing not to provide its services for same-sex weddings. It signals that the court might now begin to give some judicial definition to the thorny questions that remain shrouded in Obergefell’s shadow.  

    In particular, the court will tackle how religious liberty relates to free speech. Taking up this issue may seem odd. The Constitution already contains religious provisions to address claims such as this one, namely, the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. Why turn, then, to the Free Speech Clause, which says nothing specifically about religion? 

    The court turned to this question because litigants have been doing so. Litigants have done so because the courts have afforded much greater protection to free speech claims than to free exercise ones. While recent decisions show some signs of closing that gap, overall, free speech claims do much better in court than claims involving religious liberty.  

    At the same time, whether the litigants communicate views about the mid-terms or the veracity of the Bible, speech is speech. Moreover, cases such as the one the court just took focus on what exactly speech is.  

    That statement, again, may seem silly, the ravings of someone who has lost common sense. Speech concerns the spoken word, uttered to communicate. We may add the written word here, too, just to be careful and fill in our definition. All other actions a person takes are not speech.  

    Yet, the Supreme Court long ago said that the Free Speech Clause protected more than speaking or writing words. Persons communicate opinions through a variety of gestures. We wear bands or ribbons, fly flags or burn them, all to communicate political, social, and religious opinions. 

    Where, then, do we draw the line between “expressive action” and simple actions? This point has haunted other cases the court has refused to take, such as whether taking photographs at a wedding expressed approval of that wedding. In Masterpiece Cakeshop, the court passed on deciding whether baking a cake for a wedding also celebrated that ceremony.  

    The court hopefully will begin to address some, if not all, of these issues when they hear the new case.

    We as a political community need to do so as well. We need to make sure we draw clear lines between religious liberty and the rights of gay persons; otherwise, these rights will be at stake. We must adequately show how far religious claims can extend to free speech; otherwise, how we read the Constitution will be at stake. And we must establish a clear distinction between speech and action, lest we turn every deed into expression and, consequently, every action into a political or social statement.

    The Supreme Court should seek to clarify these issues. Nothing less than liberty is at stake.  

    Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 22:40

  • One Step Closer To Stagflation: Goldman Slashes 2022 GDP Forecast To 1.75%, Sees 35% Odds Of Recession
    One Step Closer To Stagflation: Goldman Slashes 2022 GDP Forecast To 1.75%, Sees 35% Odds Of Recession

    Back in October, when Goldman revised its 2022 GDP estimate from an euphoric 3.6% to a still euphoric 3.3%, we said that this assessment was dead wrong, as it was predicted on the overly optimistic assumption that the US consumer would remain solid thanks to generous spending of “excess savings” (the biggest lie about the post-covid recovery is that US society ended up with over $2 trillion in excess savings, when in reality it was just a handful of ultra rich that benefited from government generosity) which would never materialize. Instead we said that “the contribution to consumption from excess savings will end up being far smaller than most Wall Street strategists predict (since the propensity of the top 1% to spend their savings which are instead invested in the market, is far less than the broader population).” As a result, we also told readers to “expect even more aggressive cuts to GDP growth in coming quarters – from both Goldman and its peers – even as inflation continues to rise, cementing a painful period of non-transitory stagflation for the US as the mid-term elections approach.“

    Well fast forward to today, when on Thursday night the vampire squid just confirmed we were right – again – when unleashed its most draconian GDP cut yet, saying when it – again – downgraded its US GDP forecast “to reflect higher oil prices and other drags on growth related to the war in Ukraine”, or said otherwise, to reflect the woeful state of the US consumer which it was completely wrong about 5 months ago and is now blaming it on, who else, Vladimir Putin.

    Of course, Goldman can’t admit that its entire bullish case was wrong from the beginning so instead it blames it on exogenous factors, the same factors which we have been saying for the past 6 months are pushing the US in a stagflationary recession (if not depression) as a result of dismal monetary, fiscal and energy policy, whose dire outcomes were merely precipitated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    According to Goldman chief economist Jan Hatzius, “oil and commodity prices have risen sharply since Russia invaded Ukraine. Our commodity strategists’ near-term crude oil and agricultural commodity forecasts imply an effective 0.7% drag on real disposable income that will weigh on spending in 2022.”

    Goldman, which earlier today noted that global financial conditions are suddenly the tightest they have been in the past decade as a result of soaring commodity prices and interest rates, also expects “modest drags on growth from further tightening of financial conditions, lower consumer sentiment, and slower growth in Europe, and see additional downside risks if shortages of key metals constrain US production.”

    As a result, Goldman slashes its GDP growth forecast as follows:

    • Q1 2022 to +0.5% vs 1.0% previously
    • Q2 2022 to +1.5% vs 2.5% previously
    • Q3 2022 to +2.5% vs 2.5% previously
    • Q4 2022 to +2.5% vs 2.0% previously

    Compare this to what Goldman predicted in October:

    • Q1 2022 to 4.5 vs 5.0% previously
    • Q2 2022 to 4% vs 4.5% previously
    • Q3 2022 to  3% vs 3.5% previously
    • Q4 2022 to 1.75% vs. 1.5% previously

    In other words, in 5 months Goldman has gone from 5.0% in Q1 to 0.5%. And that’s why Goldman’s economists are millionaires. Alternatively you could have simply read the following article we published at around the same time, “The Fed Just Started The Countdown To The Next Recession: Here’s When It Will Strike“, to know what is really going to happen.

    As for the full year, the bank is lowering its 2022 real GDP growth forecast to +1.75% on a Q4/Q4 basis vs. +2.0% previously, and 1 percent below the consensus of 2.7%. Compared to the bank’s 2022 GDP forecast in October, it just around 50% off the 3.3% GDP forecast then, and when we said this number will collapse precipitously. Once again, we were right and Goldman was wrong.

    And finally, while Goldman still won’t admit what is patently obvious to anyone, namely that a stagflationary recession will be here in a few months, when both Q1 and Q2 GDP print negative as CPI prints double digits, the bank at least breaches the topic of recession probability, and for the first time says that it now “sees the risk that the US enters a recession during the next year as broadly in line with the 20-35% odds currently implied by models based on the slope of the yield curve.”

    For the record, we see odds that the US enters recession this year at 100%. And once that happens, the Fed will go all in…

    Admitting that its forecast will be overly optimistic yet again, the bank concedes that “even after these downgrades, we still see risks around our growth forecast as skewed to the downside, particularly if sanctions escalate or if oil prices rise even further, for example, to the $175/bbl price target our commodity strategists see as possible if supply losses reach 4mb/d. Additionally, we have not assumed any growth hit due to metal shortages since — aside from palladium — only a small share of US commodity demand is met by Russian exports. However, if supply chain disruptions lead to challenges in sourcing key metals and other inputs that constrain production (as has already occurred for some European automakers), the negative growth impact could be more substantial.”

    Reading between the lines, it appears that Goldman agrees with our “recession assured” call, a call we have absolute certain in after Janet Yellen said she sees none.

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    Finally, Goldman also nudged up its year-end unemployment rate forecast to 3.5% (vs. 3.4% previously) to reflect “the worse growth outlook, but still expect healthy job gains in 2022 despite fairly weak GDP growth due to strong labor demand.” Here too, we disagree, and see double digit unemployment once the recession transforms into a global depression.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 22:20

  • WHO Told Ukraine To Destroy 'High-Threat Pathogens' In Labs To Prevent Disease Spread
    WHO Told Ukraine To Destroy ‘High-Threat Pathogens’ In Labs To Prevent Disease Spread

    The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy ‘high-threat pathogens’ in the country’s public health laboratories in order to prevent “any potential spills” that might infect the population during the Russian invasion, Reuters reports.

    “As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills,” said the UN agency.

    The report comes after a tense back-and-forth between US and Russian officials over “dangerous” biolabs in the country – with Russia, and then China, accusing the US military of involvement in Ukraine’s biolabs.

    On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova repeated a longstanding claim that the United States operates a biowarfare lab in Ukraine, an accusation that has been repeatedly denied by Washington and Kyiv.

    Zakharova said that documents unearthed by Russian forces in Ukraine showed “an emergency attempt to erase evidence of military biological programmes” by destroying lab samples. -Reuters

    The US has denied the allegations – issuing (among other things) a Thursday statement that “The United States does not have chemical or biological weapons labs in Ukraine,” adding that America “does not develop or possess chemical and biological weapons anywhere.”

    On Tuesday, US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland acknowledged that Ukraine “has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of. So we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach.”

    Nuland’s answer made clear that whatever is inside Ukraine’s biolabs is a serious concern, however it should be noted that there’s no public evidence of bioweapons, nor did the WHO statement make reference to biowarfare – which is a separate issue from whether the laboratories contained, or contain, dangerous pathogens which could be used in a bioweapon. 

    In response to Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova’s Wednesday claim that the US is operating a biowarfare lab in Ukraine, a Ukrainian presidential spokesperson said: “Ukraine strictly denies any such allegation.”

    The UN Security Council will convene on Friday at Russia’s request to discuss the claims.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 22:00

  • "I Am Not Suicidal": Watch As Jussie Smollett Loses it During Sentencing Hearing
    “I Am Not Suicidal”: Watch As Jussie Smollett Loses it During Sentencing Hearing

    By Blue Apples

    In an event that will likely not be publicized by the mainstream, the sad chapter of Jussie Smollett’s hate crime hoax came to a fiery conclusion on Thursday. Smollett was sentenced before a court to a 30-month probation term, ordered to pay restitution to the City of Chicago in the amount of $120,000, a fine of $25,000 that was the maximum allowed by statute, and lastly: 150 days in prison.

    Judge James Linn carefully parsed out the terms when reading Smollett his sentence. He elaborated upon the parameters of the 30 month probation by informing Smollett he would be able to travel and report by phone. Judge Linn arrived at the 150 day jail sentence last before asking Smollett if he had any questions. Smollett, after carefully removing his mask, spoke softly stating “I am not suicidal” to which Judge Linn replied “okay…” Smollett then went on by standing up and boisterously declaring that he was not suicidal, with his shouting echoing through the courthouse chambers. Smollett’s unhinged rant continued on with him stating that he was standing up for the African-American and LGBT communities in a display of self-veneration that was lacking any semblance of self-awareness. Smollett dramatically professed his innocence whilst intermittently stopping to assure Judge Linn that he respected his decision, a sentiment which certainly wasn’t reciprocated.

    Smollett’s display was a real microcosm of all of the character flaws that motivated his crimes. He’s clearly a self-absorbed person overly compensating for an inferiority complex who resigns himself to appealing to marginalized demographics of people from whom he is entirely removed from given his status as a multi-millionaire celebrity. The same brazen hubris which led Smollett to believe he’d be able to get away with staging a hate crime as a publicity stunt to capitalize on the racial tensions gripping the United States was on full display during the sentencing hearing, making it difficult to believe that any punishment will be able to teach him a lesson.

    At the very least, I’m sure his tantrum is much more entertaining than anything he’s ever acted in.

    Meanwhile, this tweet is still out there…

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 21:47

  • Majority Of Americans Make "Lifestyle Changes" As Gas Prices Hit Record Highs 
    Majority Of Americans Make “Lifestyle Changes” As Gas Prices Hit Record Highs 

    President Biden’s disastrous economy shows signs of stagflation as growth wanes, and commodity prices stage the largest weekly gain ever. Today’s inflation printed at a 40-year high as soaring commodity costs hit the working poor the hardest, who have been forced to make lifestyle changes to offset additional costs. 

    First, let’s begin with a new report from LendingClub. It shows a staggering 64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 61% in December. As costs skyrocket, the working poor see their wages stripped away by inflation. 

    “You’ve got to eat, you’ve got to commute; these are not discretionary expenses,” Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer, said. 

    New research from Yardeni Research estimates the average household will spend an additional $2,000 per year in gasoline on top of an extra $1,000 in food expenses. Adding this all up, the typical household will spend $3,000 less this year on other things. 

    This means that people living paycheck to paycheck with no savings or other safety nets will have to make abrupt lifestyle changes. 

    According to American Automobile Association (AAA), 59% of Americans are making lifestyle changes as the national average for regular gasoline at the pump hits a new record high of $4.318. If gas hit $5, three-quarters of the respondents said they would need to make lifestyle changes to offset the spike at the pump.

    Among the respondents who said they would make changes in response to higher gas prices, 80% of them said they would drive fewer miles, with some differences among different generations:

    • 18 to 34 year-olds are almost three times as likely as those 35 and over to consider carpooling (29% vs 11%), which would likely involve major changes to their daily travel plans.
    • Those 35 and over are more likely to favor combining tips and errands (68% vs 52%) and to reduce shopping or dining out (53% vs. 43%).

    Prices in some parts of the country have spiked to just under $8 a gallon. 

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    Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gas prices have risen more than 74 cents to $4.318 per gallon, a record high. The Biden administration has launched a media blitz to blame soaring prices on Putin. 

    However, when Biden was elected, gas prices averaged around $2.30 and jumped $1.230 over the last year before the attack several weeks back. That means prices jumped 53% even before the invasion, but the administration insists in their messaging that President Putin is responsible for why prices of everything are rising. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 21:40

  • Even With 'Defund The Police' Discredited, Some Schools May Still Shun The Police
    Even With ‘Defund The Police’ Discredited, Some Schools May Still Shun The Police

    Authored by Vince Bielski via RealClearInvestigations (emphasis ours),

    Des Moines this week suffered its first fatal school shooting – reigniting a controversy in the city after the district removed police officers from its schools last year.

    Police say a group of teenagers in vehicles outside Des Moines’ East High School fired multiple rounds onto school property on Monday, killing a 15-year-old boy and critically wounding two female students who were bystanders. Six teenagers, some of them current Des Moines students, have been charged with first-degree murder.

    The deadly drive-by shooting now hovers over the decision by Des Moines officials, along with about 30 districts across the country, to exile cops from schools. These moves were part of the “defund the police” movement that erupted after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It’s a movement now reeling in the face of violent crime surging nationwide, punctuated by President Biden’s State of the Union vow last week to “fund the police.”

    But in schools, at least, a decision to bring back cops — or “school resource officers,” as they are called — isn’t a slam dunk in places where students of color had been arrested at higher rates than whites.

    Des Moines (population: 214,000) provides a case in point. So far its district, half of whose students are black or Latino, has not followed schools from Maryland to California heeding pleas to restore the SROs. Instead, Iowa’s capital city is rolling out a new community-engagement safety plan to replace the cops.

    And that infuriates parents alarmed by school mayhem long before Floyd’s death moved racial justice to the front burner — parents like Lindsay LaGrange. The Des Moines mom reached her breaking point in November after a student in her son’s middle school was found with an airsoft pellet gun on campus. “My son turned in this boy to the front office, and then later this boy beats up my son after school,” she said. “Almost every day he said there’s another fight at school. The kids are not safe.”

    Police investigating after Monday’s fatal shooting outside Des Moines’ East High School. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register via AP)

    The Policing of America’s Schools

    Des Moines joined the wave of districts that hired SROs after the rash of school shootings in the 1990s, a decade capped by the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. The killing of Sandy Hook elementary school children in Connecticut in 2012 spurred more districts to follow suit. As many as 25,000 law enforcement officers are working today in all types of schools, from rural to suburban to urban, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO).

    In Des Moines, SRO was a coveted job. Cops went through a competitive hiring process, which vetted them for the patience and savvy to communicate with teenagers, said Sergeant Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department. Not every officer was a good fit. Those tapped went through training at NASRO, a crash course in seeing the world through the eyes of a teenager.

    Des Moines started its SRO program about two decades ago. The district would eventually hire 10 SROs and a supervisor – one cop for each high school and four that were shared by the middle schools. Seventy percent of SROs were white men and women. Black men made up 30%.

    Parizek said the public has harbored misconceptions about the approach. SROs weren’t placed in schools to jack up kids with a dime bag. Although an average of 287 Des Moines students were arrested annually in the years before the pandemic, the goal was prevention: to build relationships with students to deter them from trouble and to hear chatter about what’s going down in the schools. Who’s going to fight? Who has a gun?

    “The guns we recovered in 2019, we recovered them before they made it inside the school door,” Parizek said. “And this was because of the relationships that SROs had with students who provided them with information.”

    School resource officer Deb Vanvelzen: “Sometimes kids talked to me to keep their friends safe.”

    A Cop’s Story at Lincoln High

    Officer Deb Vanvelzen fit the SRO mold. She was a school teacher with a passion for working with students before becoming a cop and then an SRO from 2005 to 2019, mostly at Lincoln High.

    In addition to performing typical police duties, such as breaking up fights and disposing of drugs, Vanvelzen aimed to be part of the Lincoln community. She advised teachers on how to keep classrooms safe. She spoke with parents about how to address problems with their children. She gave students lunch money and clothing her own kids outgrew. A former high school athlete, the white cop played hoops in the gym (and in uniform) with students and ate lunch in the cafeteria with kids of color to break the ice. They talked about clothing styles.

    For a few years she sent every student a birthday card. At graduation, Vanvelzen shook everyone’s hand.

    The payoff? “Once the students saw me as trustworthy, they started talking to me and I found out things before they happened and exploded,” she said. “Sometimes kids talked to me to keep their friends safe.”

    A few years ago, a Lincoln student approached Vanvelzen with a tip about a weapon. The day before, a teen from a different school involved in a fight across the street from Lincoln had a gun. Vanzelzen then relayed the tip to the SRO at that student’s school.

    “So that SRO sees the kid in the hallway, gets him into his office, and lo and behold, he still has the gun,” she said.

    Portilda Sayon, a junior at Lincoln, said some students felt safer because of the SROs. Sayon got to know Dusty Chapline, Vanvelzen’s replacement, after Sayon had a verbal spat with other girls. The two talked a lot about Sayon’s emotional problems and issues at home. “Chappie helped me tremendously,” Sayon said.   

    Some students, however, never took to the SROs. “They don’t like cops because they had a bad experience with them before,” Sayon said.

    Vanvelzen said that she, in collaboration with the Lincoln staff, “absolutely” made the school safer. But she notes the challenge in assessing the effectiveness of SROs. There’s no way to count the number of incidents that did not happen because of her presence at Lincoln.

    The statistics are hard to interpret: there were 1,652 reported acts of physical aggression in the Des Moines middle and high schools in fiscal 2019. That number was fairly steady in the few years before SROs were removed. So perhaps the cops were keeping a lid on violence but not significantly reducing it.

    When officials examined the data, they couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion about SROs. “That’s the essential question, but we really couldn’t answer it with confidence that SROs were or weren’t making schools safer,” said Jake Troja, the district director of school climate transformation.

    How Two Students Expelled the SROs

    The campaign to remove the police was led by two Des Moines students at East High School, Endi Montalvo-Martinez and Lyric Sellers. While researching racial equity for a leadership class, Montalvo-Martinez, then a junior, learned about the controversy surrounding SROs in other cities. It meshed with the experience of some of his friends who believed racism had led SROs to stop them and search their bags.  

    So Montalvo-Martinez and Sellers, then a sophomore, wrote a sweeping anti-racist proposal in early 2020 to compel the district to remove the police, redesign its Eurocentric curriculum and hire more teachers of color.

    Jake Troja, school official: Statistics didn’t answer whether “SROs were or weren’t making schools safer.” 

    When the duo met with Superintendent Thomas Ahart, he said no. “He made excuses like there’s no funding, we can’t invest in these things,” said Montalvo-Martinez.

    Soon after that rejection, Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis ignited protests, even in quiet Des Moines, where demonstrators clashed with cops, exchanging bricks and bottles for tear gas in May of 2020. The following month, Ahart sent a letter to families, titled “We ALL Must Be Actively ANTI-Racist.”

    Montalvo-Martinez said the district’s new anti-racist pledge gave the two students more political leverage, but they still needed tactical advice on how to sway administrators and board members. Jaylen Cavil, a defund the police advocate with the Black Liberation Movement and candidate for the Iowa House, became a key adviser.

    Montalvo-Martinez and Sellers gathered arrest data from the Des Moines human rights department and student testimonials about being traumatized by SROs before making presentations to principals, teachers and school board members individually. They encountered some resistance from school staff, but in their second meeting with the superintendent, Ahart agreed that the SROs must go. “Ahart did a 180,” Montalvo-Martinez said.

    Thomas Ahart, superintendent: After Floyd’s murder, “We ALL Must Be Actively ANTI-Racist.”

    But Ahart knew that most parents probably wouldn’t back his decision. In a survey by the district, a majority of parents (66%) and students (53%) had said they supported having police in schools.

    In the heated racial politics of the moment, the arrest data – blacks students were twice as likely to be involved with a SRO than whites – became a rallying point. Montalvo-Martinez and other activists said it showed that the cops were biased and targeted blacks for arrest.

    The cops, however, generally didn’t patrol the halls and playgrounds looking to make arrests. The vast majority of arrests started with calls for help to SROs from school administrators, who were identifying the incidents and misbehaving students that they wanted the cops to handle, district officials say. “I want to make clear that SROs were not the problem even though it comes off in the media that way,” Troja said. “They were summoned” to the scene.

    In February 2021, the school board voted unanimously to end the SRO program. “Kudos to these two students for really being intentional around the process and information and lining up support on this issue,” said Teree Caldwell-Johnson, vice chair of the school board. 

    Schools Take On Violence Control

    Following the lead of other districts, Des Moines developed a SRO replacement plan for schools to handle most of the behavior problems, other than serious crimes such as possession of a weapon. This way, students would avoid the taint of a police record that could harm their job prospects after graduation.

    Officials also argued that they could improve school safety if the $900,000 spent on SROs was redeployed in support of a new, community-based approach. That included bringing community organizations like Dads on a Mission – a group of local fathers who want to have a positive influence on students – into the schools. Hall monitors were hired so high schools now have five of them rather than one SRO. And the district has been rolling out a restorative justice program, where students hash out their conflicts in discussion groups in hopes of overcoming them – a practice that has had mixed results in other districts around the country.

    “We were calling the SROs for many incidents, like physical fights in the hallways, that we could have handled ourselves,” Troja said. “Now we are approaching safety differently by allocating funds to different resources to try to get better results.”

    The new approach didn’t get off to a good start. Last fall, after 16,000 middle and high school students returned to classrooms full-time in Des Moines, officials were caught off guard by the spike in fighting and disruptive behavior. The removal of the SROs didn’t cause the surge in violence, but nor were the cops readily available to tamp it down.

    Last September, there were 83 referrals for fighting in Des Moines’ six high schools compared with 59 in the same month in 2019 – a pattern of monthly increases that continued through December. Students posted numerous disturbing videos on Snapchat of boys and girls aggressively attacking each other at different schools, with punches to the head, kicks to the stomach and stomps on the chest.

    Then there’s the matter of guns. Last year, a student brought a loaded 9mm pistol into Lincoln High, alarming parents but not surprising them. From 2016 to 2020, the staff and SROs confiscated 20 lethal weapons from students, mostly loaded guns, in this school district of 32,000 students. Des Moines police say a number of gun shots have been fired near schools that have been linked to students, but without any fatalities.

    In addition to guns, students have access to a wide arsenal of weapons. In December, a Lincoln student who had been bullied brought a taser to school and used it when he was attacked by others bearing brass knuckles and pepper spray.

    Backlash at the School Board

    Aveantai Smith moved from Arlington, Texas, to Des Moines, where she had lived about 17 years ago, assuming the schools were as safe as she remembered. Instead, she has been horrified by the brutality that her son and daughter have encountered at Lincoln High.

    Smith met with the principal, who said he’s doing everything he can to control the surge in violence. But that didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. She pulled her daughter out of Lincoln and sent her back to Texas to live with her grandmother. Her son, a football player who isn’t easily intimidated, remains at the school.

    “It’s literally outrageous,” said Smith, herself a college nursing student. “The school is not safe and secure. The fighting is on a whole different level. I’m scared to send my kids to school every single day.”

    By December a backlash was underway, with Des Moines parents calling for a return of the SROs in media interviews. The controversy came to a head at a Dec. 7 school board meeting.

    LaGrange, whose son Jeremiah was attacked by another student, has been organizing other parents on social media behind the SRO cause. She bluntly told board members during the meeting to “wake up” to the reality of the rise in violence and restore the police program to protect students.

    Critics of SROs also spoke up at the meeting, repeating the story line about racist police practices. A public school employee told the board that the police were removed for “targeting black children” and that the racist practice would return with the SROs. An activist with the Young Women’s Resource Center urged the officials to reject the “dangerous narrative” pushed by local TV station KCCI in its “campaign against black children, framing them as sources of violence within our schools.” But KCCI hasn’t singled out black students in its coverage.

    Ten days later, Superintendent Ahart was forced to crack down on students, announcing a tougher suspension policy for fighting in a letter to families. After a first fight, students can stay in school and try to resolve the conflict. After a second, they shift to 30 school days of remote virtual learning with counseling to get to the root of the problem. A third fight means two months of virtual instruction.

    With the return of some old school discipline, the number of reported high school fights dropped to 47 in January compared with 67 in the same month of 2020.

    But Ahart, who announced his resignation on Feb. 28, was silent on the question of bringing back SROs. Would having cops on-site who can quickly respond to incidents like the brawl outside of Lincoln High in September also make a difference?

    “Yes, without SROs we lose that immediate access to an officer,” Troja said. “Does that have benefits? It does. But do those benefits outweigh the benefits that we gain now with our new approach? I don’t think so, or we wouldn’t have gone down this path.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 21:20

  • Watch: Kamala's Awkward Response When Asked About Ukraine's Refugee Crisis
    Watch: Kamala’s Awkward Response When Asked About Ukraine’s Refugee Crisis

    As we predicted earlier, despite Vice President Kamala Harris being dispatched to Poland to try and smooth over the MiG jets for Ukraine fiasco, she only made things more awkward during her joint press conference with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.

    She broke into deep laughter, which perhaps made President Duda visibly uncomfortable given how long the cackle lasted when asked a series of questions about the growing Ukrainian refugee crisis impacting the region. Watch:

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    The moment was prompted after a reporter posed questions for which she seemed unprepared, after which Harris and Duda looked at each other to determine who would go first.

    “It’s an improvised system that can work for maybe two weeks but not indefinitely,” the reporter added before asking, “And I’m wondering what the United States is going to do more specifically to set up a permanent infrastructure and relatedly, is the United States willing to make a specific allocation for Ukrainian refugees?”

    “OK,” Harris then said, and proceeded to make a joke, letting loose deep laughter that seemed to continue on for an awkward length of time. One report said it lasted up to 15 seconds.

    “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” she said, laughing at her own ‘joke’. The refugee crisis which has emerged after two weeks of war in Ukraine has now been called the worst since World War 2, with the United Nations by middle of this week estimating over 2.4 million Ukrainians have fled amid the Russian invasion.

    During the presser alongside Poland’s president, VP Harris broke out into nervous laughter, via Reuters

    The New York Post and others assembled some quick reactions, after she was slammed by multiple pundits for the inappropriate moment, considering the gravity and dire nature of the situation:

    “Only Kamala Harris would find it appropriate to laugh when talking about the topic of Ukrainian Refugees,” tweeted Benny Johnson of conservative group Turning Point USA.

    “Kamala Harris has been very consistent during her live remarks with Poland’s leader,” said former Donald Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos. “She is awkwardly laughing. Again. Discussing refugees is no laughing matter. Why she laughs at this is deranged.”

    “Nothing about any of this is funny,” added Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean.

    And as The Daily Mail noted, “The vice president’s now commonplace laughter at inappropriate moments with world leaders was met with widespread criticism.”

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    Fresh numbers in The Wall Street Journal indicate that about 1.4 million Ukrainian refugees are now in Poland alone, with two refugees entering the country every three seconds at this point.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 21:00

  • Putin Tells West "Don't Blame Me" For Soaring Energy Prices, Releases Banned Exports Partial List
    Putin Tells West “Don’t Blame Me” For Soaring Energy Prices, Releases Banned Exports Partial List

    Update(18:42ET): On Thursday Russia released its list of exports that are banned as retaliation against Western sanctions. “These measures are a logical response to those imposed against Russia and are aimed at ensuring uninterrupted functioning of key sectors of the economy,” the economy ministry said.

    Notably, the only major commodity being banned is lumber, despite two days ago upon the initial announcement the Kremlin saying “certain commodities and raw materials” would fall under the ban. While not yet naming the precise list of specific items it’s said to include 200 total products…

    “The list includes technical, telecommunication and medical equipment, vehicles, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment – more than 200 items in total, including railway cars and locomotives, containers, turbines, metal and stone processing machines, monitors, projectors, consoles and panels,” the Kremlin statement says. “This measure is necessary to ensure stability in the Russian market.”

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    And more according to Reuters:

    Interfax news agency cited a source familiar with legislation being prepared as saying Russia may temporarily ban grain exports to a group of ex-Soviet countries forming part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) from March 15 to August 31, as well as sugar exports outside the EEU area.

    Also on Thursday Russian President Putin addressed soaring energy prices in the West and worldwide, saying Washington is engaged in an empty blame-game. He urged the public not to accept the US narrative that he is to blame. According to a state media translation, Putin said:

    “The prices there [for energy carriers in the EU countries] are growing, but not through our fault. This is the result of their own miscalculations. They should not blame us for this.”

    “The same applies to the surge in prices for oil and petroleum products in the United States. They announced that they were closing the import of Russian oil to the American market, prices there are high, inflation is unprecedentedly high, probably reached all-time highs. They are trying to shift blame for the results of their own mistakes on us,” the Russian leader added.

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    And more via TASS: According to him, this is obvious to market experts, “because the supply of Russian oil to the American market does not exceed 3%.”

    “This is a negligible volume, and their prices are rising. We have absolutely nothing to do with it, and even here the ban on Russian oil imports has absolutely nothing to do with it. They just hide behind these decisions in order to once again deceive their own population,” Putin said.

    He further called out US hypocrisy for seeking to quickly do deals with Maduro’s Venezuela as well as the Islamic Republic:

    “They are ready to make peace with Iran, immediately sign all the documents, and with Venezuela. They went to Venezuela to negotiate, but they should not have introduced these illegitimate sanctions,” he said. “The same will happen in relations with our country, I have no doubt about that.”

    * * *

    Update(12:45ET): European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell issued a provocative statement aimed at Moscow and Putin personally on Thursday. Borrell declared that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine starting on Feb.24 with the belief that he was quickly going to conquer Ukraine, but that “he failed”. Borrell stated of Putin: he “believed he was going to conquer Ukraine” but “he failed.” 

    The EU top diplomat continued: 

    “He believed he was going to divide us; he failed. He believed that he was going to weaken the transatlantic relationship and he failed. Now he has to stop,” he added while speaking to reporters while entering a summit of EU leaders in France’s Versailles.  

    Borrell also addressed the necessity of Europe winding down its energy dependence on Russia, saying, “we will be much safer. Have to spend less gas, use less gas, the climate requires that. For once, geopolitics and climate go together.” 

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    European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen had a similar message at the summit in Versailles, saying, “we will rethink European defense with strong capabilities. We will rethink energy. We have to get rid of the dependence of Russian fossil fuels and for that we need massive investment in renewables.”

    During the fourth round of Ukraine-Russia talks, Kiev is reported to have offered “neutrality” on the NATO question, but it went nowhere:

    Thursday’s high-level talks in Turkey between Ukrainian and Russian foreign affairs counterparts ended in no progress for a potential cease-fire or for protecting civilians in the heavily bombarded Mariupol, even after Ukraine suggested a “neutrality” proposal with security guarantees from world powers. 

    In the most senior interaction since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the failed talks between Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his counterpart, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, lasted just 90 minutes in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya. 

    Russia reportedly rejected Ukraine’s “neutrality” proposals that promised international security guarantees, according to the Financial Times. The two sides discussed a 24-hour cease-fire but did not make progress, as Russia was still seeking “surrender from Ukraine,” Kuleba said. 

    And via Bloomberg on Thursday, Russia has signaled it’s ready repay debt in increasingly worthless rubles in a fresh counterthreat to drop sactions: “Russia will repay debt in rubles if agent banks deny to unfreeze reserves or don’t respond to queries,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. He further stipulated: 

    • Repayment of debt, payment of coupons in FX will only be possible if the FX accounts of the government and central bank are “unfrozen,” he says
    • Russia “will fulfill obligations to investors in any case,” he says

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    * * * 

    With newsflow out of Ukraine having become a firehose, with market moving headlines firing every minute, traders can be forgiven if they have just given up following the narrative. To help out, here is a snapshot of all the latest market-moving news out of Ukraine from the last few hours:

    Ceasefire Negotiations:

    • Ukraine and Russia failed to make progress in halting the war at the first high-level talks between their foreign ministers since the Russian invasion began.

    • Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba says no progress on ceasefire; Russia stuck to its script; holding the meeting with his Russian counterpart was not easy; ready to meet again in this format; ready to continue engagement to stop the war. Mariupol was the most difficult situation, Lavrov did not commit to a humanitarian corridor in Mariupol. Have two tasks now: organizing humanitarian corridor from Mariupol and reaching 24-hour truce.

    • “The broad narrative he conveyed to me is that they will continue their aggression until Ukraine meets their demands, and the least of these demands is surrender,” Kuleba said.

    • Hosted by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, this was the most senior in-person meeting between Ukraine and Russia since the Russian invasion began Feb. 24.

    • The main sticking point, from a Ukrainian perspective at least, appears to be the humanitarian corridors as Kuleba noted that there was no progress on a ceasefire and the city of Mariupol was the most difficult situation. During the presser, the Mariupol, Ukraine City Council says the city is under attack from the air; residential buildings have been hit and the Deputy Ukrainian PM added that a humanitarian corridor attempting to reach the city had to turn around given the fighting.

    • Russia is open to serious talks between the two presidents “but those contacts must have added value,” Lavrov told reporters after the meeting. He reiterated that Russia is seeking the demilitarization of Ukraine.

    • “We want a Ukraine that’s friendly and demilitarized, a Ukraine in which there isn’t a risk of the creation of another Nazi state, a Ukraine where there won’t be a ban on the Russian language, on Russian culture,” Lavrov said.

    • German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Putin by phone Thursday and reiterated their demand for an immediate cease-fire. The three leaders agreed to stay in close touch in coming days, according to a statement from Scholz’s office.

    • In terms of the market reaction, Kuleba began speaking first and his remarks that there was no ceasefire progress and seemingly intimating that a Presidential-level meeting was not due imminently sparked some pressure in the equity space, hampering the ES March’22 contract by around 15-points, geopolitical-premia lent some support to WTI and Brent as well, moving to fresh incremental highs. However, the most significant move was in Spot Gold, which tested USD 2k/oz to the upside (high USD 2000.03/oz), gaining around USD 20/oz amid the commentary from the ministers.

    • Looking ahead, look for updates on Kuleba’s focus points of a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol and attaining a 24-hour truce. Additionally, for any indications towards, as suggested by Ukraine, another Foreign Ministers meeting and/or a gathering between the respective Presidents. Note, the situation at the Chernobyl nuclear plant has not developed following the power outage reported earlier in the week, during the Foreign Ministers press conference the Ukrainian Energy Minister confirmed the ongoing lack of power.

    Other Discussions/Negotiations:

    • Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says a possible meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents was discussed; but need more preparations, Reminded Ukraine that Russia had presented its proposals and Moscow wants a reply. Prepared to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine. Possible meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents was discussed; but need more preparations. No one here today was discussing a ceasefire; on oil/gas sanctions, says never used oil and gas like weapons.

    • Reminder, prior to the Foreign Ministers meeting the Russian Kremlin said the Turkey meeting could open the way for talks between Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky, awaiting the outcome of today’s Foreign Minister talks.

    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he’s willing to consider some compromises on Russia’s demand that his country abandons ambitions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and adopt a neutral position.

    • Zelenskiy’s also said that “only after the direct talks between the two presidents can we end this war,” and that there’s been no direct contact between him and Putin.

    • EU is to back Ukraine’s European bid although fast membership is unlikely, according to Sputnik citing reports.

    Energy/Economic Updates

    • UK PM Johnson told Ukrainian President Zelensky that he is committed to further tightening sanctions to impose maximum economic costs on Russia, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

    • Russian Finance Ministry said domestic banks would be allowed to lend to companies controlled by non- residents and the move will allow firms wishing to continue doing business in Russia to work as usual.

    • Morningstar Indexes determined it is necessary to reclassify Russia from emerging market to unclassified and will remove all Russian securities from the Morningstar fixed income indexes as of March 31st.

    • Ukraine gas transmission network operator says that Russian forces have taken control of gas compressor stations, which threatens transit to Europe.

    • European Union has reached the limit of its capabilities when it comes to financial sanctions against Russia, according to NEXTA citing Head of EU diplomacy Borrell, via NEXTA

    Defence/Military

    • White House said Russia’s claims of alleged US biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine are false and that the US should be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine in light of its false claims.

    • US Secretary of State Blinken discussed with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba additional security and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and discussed Russian attacks on population centres US Defense Secretary Austin spoke with Ukrainian counterpart about continued provision of defensive assistance for Ukraine.

    • Spain is ready to send a new batch of weapons to Ukraine, according to reports in Sputnik citing the Defence Minister

    Third Party Remarks

    • Pimco risks losing billions in the event of a default by Russia with the fund manager exposed to a derivative bet of at least USD 1.1bln and holds USD 1.5bln of sovereign bonds, according to FT.

    Other

    • White House said the US is continuing to engage with Iran deal partners including Russia, while it believes US and Russia share an objective on the Iran nuclear deal.

    • Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Shamkhani said nuclear talks have become more complicated every hour and that the US’s desire for a quick agreement indicates it has no will for a strong nuclear deal.

    • Iranian Supreme Leader says Iran will not bow to pressure to reduce defensive power, regional presence and progress in nuclear technology.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 20:45

  • Warmongers Against Putin's War
    Warmongers Against Putin’s War

    Authored by Kym Robinson via The Libertarian Institute,

    Revulsion to war is inconsistent for some. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought critics of this particular war to the antiwar movement, though they likely will return to their pro-war instincts when current headlines fade. For now, in the West, Vladimir Putin has been labelled as the next Adolf Hitler. Ironically Hitler was a product of the West and led a terrible invasion of Russia (a memory that lingers and moulds present day Russian foreign policy). Twenty years ago Saddam Hussein was the next Hitler. Colonel Qaddafi, Slobodan Milosevic, Mahmoud Ahmanddinejad and so on were all heads of state of terrible regimes, but they weren’t Hitler. Only Hitler was Hitler. Hitlerism was born from war and injustice, not from peace and dialogue.

    The actions of the Russian government are not justifiable. Any act that leads to the intentional or indirect murder of innocent civilians should not be embraced. On the surface many people will agree that murdering the innocent is wrong, until you pull back the layers of ideological and nationalist context. Inside of Russia and those looking at the world from a different perspective, the death of civilians at the hands of the Russian military is justifiable in the minds of some. As justifiable for the Russian state as the murder of Iraqi, Syrian, Afghan, Somali, Yemeni, Vietnamese, Panamanian, Laotian, etc civilians were to those who view the world from the eyes of the American empire.

    Should this hypocrisy be raised in the presence of a pragmatic wit often they will dismiss the past as being done and dusted. Nothing to be gained by remembering the misery of then, only the expedient importance of now and the near future matters. Putin must be stopped, ISIS halted, Assad overthrown. There is always a sense of emergency that overrules morality and reason always leading to irrationality and immoral actions. In time it will be shown that the decisions made and actions taken were foolish and vulgar, past lessons seldom learned and wiser minds never listened to when it mattered most. It was such desire for expedience by the Russian government that likely led to the invasion of Ukraine.

    The United States and its allies have recently removed their bloody swords from Afghanistan and in the past many other nations, leaving behind so many dead and suffering. None of these were defensive wars in the traditional sense, only in the definition of abstract hubris. The dead civilians were always justified by the experts and warmongers. The outcome of the war a bloody limbo of non-victory but not-defeat, where the warmongering nations face no justice. They are still heralded as the kings on the chessboard of international order despite war crimes and millions of dead civilians. Without any sense of shame they now criticize the Putin regime for its war. The specter of Hitler is often raised to justify aggressive wars, against his image but in his footsteps.

    If one were to fly the Iraqi flag or celebrate citizens resisting an allied invasion force during the height of the coalition’s war on the “Hitler of Baghdad,” one would be deemed a supporter of terrorists and suffer the wrath of neocon cancel culture. To wave the Ukrainian flag and to celebrate its defiant citizens as they oppose an invader is chic and trending because the invader they face is not a familiar. Their invader is from the outset the villain, whose motives do not matter. But our invader had reasons that do matter and those sweet worded reasons apparently can cover the stench of thousands of innocent corpses.

    It is easy for the lazy virtue signaler on social media to find cause with the white middle class of Ukraine. They are relatable, with smart phones, jobs and cars, having a day-to-day life that is similar to those in the West. Or perhaps because they are from Europe it helps too. But a starving baby in Yemen, an obliterated family in Afghanistan, or a mutilated boy in Somalia, they may as well be aliens from another planet. They still bleed and cry as any Ukrainian does and attempt to escape the horror that is visited upon their country (as you would too). They are all innocent. A civilian from anywhere in Ukraine to anywhere else in the world should not be murdered; not by roaming Nazi militias or the Ukrainian government, or from the Russian military and its proxies in the rest of the nation.

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

    For almost two decades a Global War on Terror was waged against groups considered “terrorists.” The religion of Islam itself was slurred as being an ideological breeding ground for “Islamo-fascist” head choppers. The war then saw the allied nations supporting, training, and fighting alongside such terrorist groups, even those linked with the attacks on the United States itself. In the past few years white supremacist Nazis have become the ideological fixation for Western governments, the new enemy within. Though like the slur of Hitler, what constitutes a Nazi is ill-defined. Since 2014, those who embrace the Nazi ideology of Hitler’s regime are fighting against the ethnic Russians in the Ukraine and are now supported and embraced by Western governments. This is the nature of vulgar pragmatism and war itself.

    For now it is popular to be anti-war because it is not a familiar’s war. It is easy to be anti-war when one’s own empire, national and self interest is not invested in the misery. As more become dependent on the government above them it is harder to dissent and exert independent thought and agency. Dependency validates the state; it instills it with a righteousness and importance, destroying alternatives and options while outlawing freedom. The threats and enemies, internal and abroad, necessitate a strong and powerful government, one that places security, safety, and welfare above liberty and rights. It will not stop expanding and soon dissent itself will be an unfamiliar concept. It is from war, conventional and ideological, that such powers are found. For many individuals such warfare and dependence sustains them, feeds them and they profit from it. Jobs over justice, entitlements above rights, central planning instead of choice, and security over liberty.

    When one becomes reliant on the government for their livelihood and well being, it becomes harder to criticize it openly, especially during wartime. It is why the context of nationalism and the tribe of the familiar can skew one’s morality, afford them the ability to turn a blind eye when the injustice is committed by a colleague or those of one’s own nation. The victims are marginalized, alienated, and always somehow blamed. The horrible deeds of a familiar are smothered by the greater good or removed from mind. The evil acts of the unfamiliar enemy however, in this case those committed by the Russians, can justify any course of action and condemnation. One’s consistency only needs to keep step with their loyalty to the familiar and the comfort it brings, but remain inconsistent to the march of morality itself. As Orwell put it, war becomes peace.

    If you are for a brief moment revolted by war because the warmonger does not belong to your tribe, welcome. When the bitch of necessity rears itself again for your nation to bring death and destruction to a homeland of innocent civilians, we can be sure that you will disregard the criticism and condemnation of those who are on the other side or who have always been consistent in their rejection of war.

    Welcome to the anti-war movement critics of Putin, flip floppers, and social media clout chasers, we hope that you stay. Chances are though once Putin’s war ends, another one of yours will begin. And maybe one day when you look in that mirror, you will see Hitler again.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 20:40

  • Manhattan Apartment Rents Climb To Record High As Inventory Tightens 
    Manhattan Apartment Rents Climb To Record High As Inventory Tightens 

    Appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate published a new report of the latest trends in the Manhattan apartment market. According to Bloomberg, they found that rent in the borough jumped to a record high. 

    Finding a bargain on a rental in Manhattan is near impossible today. Prices have steadily increased (read: here & here) since the pandemic low (between late 2020 and through the summer of 2021) and have steadily increased. Now rents are higher than they were during pre-pandemic times. In February, the median rent was at a record-high of $3,630 and up 28% from a year earlier.

    Rents are now 2.5% higher than the previous record set in April 2020, right before the rental market imploded during COVID as Manhattanites broke their leases and moved outside of the metro area or to an entirely different state to avoid draconian public health restrictions. Even with most white-collar workers still out of the office and remotely working or on some hybrid work schedule, people have been flooding into the borough since late 2021 in hopes of finding deep discounts. 

    Bidding wars have ensued as demand for apartments is elevated, but supply is exceptionally tight. Inventory plunged 81% from a year earlier to just over 4,500 units, the lowest for a month since February 2008. Attractive concessions were no more. Only 20% of new leases offered a free month of rent. 

    Hal Gavzie, executive manager of leasing at Douglas Elliman, said renters who had signed leases at a discount are seeing price increases of 15% to 30%. Even then, he said, tenants who rented at the pandemic lows opted to renew because inventory is so tight. 

    Gavzie said units priced around $2,500 might see between 50 to 100 inquiries in one day. Some places are in such a hot demand that prices are usually driven up. 

     A separate report by real estate firm Corcoran Group noted that the higher end of the market, especially doorman buildings, is in huge demand, where 58% of new leases were signed last month. The brokerage said that the share is the highest in more than three years.

    “With the city relaxing Covid restrictions, and more office workers and students returning to in-person work and school, I expect demand to rise even further in the near term,” Gary Malin, chief operating officer at Corcoran, said.

    “I suggest tenants enter the market prepared, patient, and willing to compromise,” Malin said. 

    Corcoran said the shortfall of new apartment buildings in the borough could add to tighter inventory and may only intensify rent prices. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 20:20

  • China Asks State-Owned Refiners To Halt Gasoline, Diesel Exports
    China Asks State-Owned Refiners To Halt Gasoline, Diesel Exports

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    Chinese authorities have asked state refiners in the country to consider halting diesel and gasoline exports next month due to heightened concerns about oil supply after Russia invaded Ukraine, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting sources familiar with the issue.

    “This is to prevent a shortage as independent refiners are under big pressure to lower throughput in the face of soaring crude oil prices,” a source with knowledge of the talks with state refiners told Reuters.

    China, the world’s largest crude oil importer, hasn’t condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is likely the country that will continue to trade with Russia regardless of any sanctions the Western allies decide to impose in the future.

    However, China is concerned about its energy security, too, considering the skyrocketing prices of energy commodities, of which it is a major importer.

    China plans to increase its crude oil, natural gas, and coal production, boost reserves of energy commodities, and keep stable imports to ensure its energy security amid skyrocketing commodities prices, the top Chinese economic planner said earlier this week.

    “Since the beginning of this year, under the combined influence of multiple factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the monetary policy shift of major economies, and especially the escalation of geopolitical conflicts, the international commodity price situation has become more severe, complex and uncertain,” Lian Weiliang, a vice-director at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a press briefing as carried by South China Morning Post.

    The upward price pressure on energy and agricultural commodities “poses a new challenge to ensure domestic supply and price stability,” Lian said.

    The planning body NDRC said over the weekend that the country would raise coal production and reserves, develop “major petroleum reserve projects,” and increase petroleum reserves, too, per Reuters.

    Last month, China said it would help run its coal-fired power plants at full capacity in a bid to ensure energy security, despite the climate goals of the world’s largest polluter. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 20:00

  • A Decade Of Elon Musk's Tweets, Visualized
    A Decade Of Elon Musk’s Tweets, Visualized

    Elon Musk is known for many things, but one of his most buzzworthy claims to fame is his online Twitter presence.

    Because of its candid nature, Musk’s Twitter feed provides the public with a unique opportunity to catch an unfiltered look into his eccentric mind.

    What can we learn from an in-depth look at Elon Musk’s Twitter feed? What subjects does he focus on the most, and how has his Twitter use changed over the past decade?

    Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang and Nick Routley sifted through his entire tweet history to find out.

    Why Bother?

    To gain a high-level understanding of Musk’s Twitter profile, our research team sifted through his entire Twitter feed and compiled 15,000 of his tweets into a comprehensive dataset.

    Why go to all the effort? Here are a few reasons why we spent months sifting through Elon Musk’s Twitter feed:

    • People care about what he has to say: Musk has over 77 million followers on Twitter, and his account is currently the 11th most followed (coming in between Ellen DeGeneres and Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India). Even run-of-the-mill replies to regular Twitter users receive thousands of shares, likes, and comments. Clearly, people are interested in his ideas and interactions.

    • Musk tweets often, and candidly: These days, it’s not uncommon for Musk to share more than 30 tweets in a single day. And his Twitter conversations cover a wide range of topics, from serious conversations about technical aspects of his products to lighthearted memes. This is highly unusual for a person in his position.

    • Some of his tweets have had a big impact: Elon’s tweets consistently make headlines and ruffle the feathers of big shots in business and politics. Elon’s Twitter fingers have moved the needle on everything from Tesla’s stock price to cryptocurrency markets.

    • He’s become a public icon: He’s currently the richest person in the world, and last year, he was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. The companies that Musk runs are also hugely influential and disruptive. In other words, no matter how you feel about him personally, he’s a pretty big deal.

    Because of the above, we thought digging into the depths of Elon Musk’s Twitter feed was a worthy pursuit. Below, we’ll get into our methodology, and how we went about analyzing the mountains of tweets.

    How We Did It: Notes on Our Methodology

    Once we scraped a decade worth of Elon Musk tweets, we dug through the data and sorted the information to answer two main questions:

    1. What are Elon Musk’s most tweeted topics?

    2. How has his Twitter activity changed over the years?

    To answer the first question, we sorted Elon’s tweets into categories (based on keywords) and ranked each category based on the volume of mentions.

    The results are visualized in the circle chart in the middle of the graphic, which shows Musk’s most tweeted subjects over the last decade.

    To answer our second question (how has Elon’s Twitter activity changed over the years) we sorted Elon’s feed into three main topics—Tesla, SpaceX, and everything else—and showed which topics dominated his feed each year.

    Main Takeaways from the Analysis

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that the two main things Elon talks about the most are Tesla and SpaceX. He’s mentioned both companies consistently over the last decade, and as the timeline shows, Tesla and SpaceX take turns in the spotlight, depending on what’s going on for the companies at the time.

    While the topics and themes of his content have remained fairly consistent, the frequency of tweets has grown over the years.

     

    Musk now uses Twitter very consistently, tweeting at least once on all but 14 days in 2021. His follower count has growth steadily over the years too:

     

    As the above graphic shows, his follower growth started to escalate between late 2017 and mid-2018 as Musk began to burst into the public consciousness. Why? A lot was happening both personally and professionally for the busy founder:

    • December 2017: Announcement on Twitter that the Boring Company was planning to release a limited edition flamethrower. 20,000 units were sold before the product was discontinued.

    • February 2018: Tesla Roadster was launched into space.

    • July 2018: 12 boys and their teacher get trapped in a cave in Thailand, and Elon gets heavily involved in efforts to try and rescue them. This includes an awkward—now deleted—tweet referring to a British cave diver as a pedophile. (Musk later won a defamation case in 2019.)

    • August 2018: Elon announces on Twitter that he’s considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share. Tesla’s share price promptly dropped after this now infamous tweet was sent.

    • Sept 2018: Musk appears on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and smokes weed with him. The spectacle grabs headlines after the podcast is published.

    • From 2016 to 2018: A highly publicized, on-again-off-again relationship with actress Amber Heard.

    No matter how outlandish or shocking his comments have been, Musk’s companies continue to see success, and people have continued to show interest in keeping up with the founder’s thoughts—and dank memes—on Twitter.

    Highlights (and Lowlights) of Musk’s Twitter History

    In the next section below, we’ll cover some of Elon’s most iconic Twitter moments, hand-selected by our research team.

    The End of the Fake Elon Era

    Elon Musk’s first real tweet was shared in 2010. Prior to that, someone was pretending to be him and using the Twitter handle @elonmusk to tweet random and controversial things.

    Luckily, the imposter didn’t gain much traction, and the real Elon Musk cleared the air on June 4, 2010, with a tweet announcing his authentic arrival onto the platform:

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

    After this initial tweet, Musk didn’t tweet again until the end of 2011, though his account was still verified that year. His Twitter activity remained relatively low until 2012.

    A Splashdown to Remember

    In May 2012, Musk went to Twitter to share his excitement after the Dragon spacecraft successfully returned home.

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

    This landing made history, as SpaceX became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

    The engagement on this tweet highlights how much larger Musk’s audience is today. The tweet above, which is highlighting some very exciting news, only has about 350 retweets.

    The Boring Company Flamethrower

    In late 2017, Musk started selling Boring Company merchandise, mostly as a joke. But products were selling, and Elon decided to take things one step further, and announced to Twitter that he’d release a Boring Company flamethrower if 50,000 Boring branded hats sold:

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

    The hats did sell out, so true to his word, Musk released a limited edition flamethrower at $500 bucks apiece. All 20,000 units sold out.

    The $20 Million Quip

    In August 2018, Musk told Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private, at $420 a share.

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

    This tweet was a cheeky reference to marijuana, but it ended up costing a fortune. The SEC sued him with fraudulent charges, claiming this irresponsible tweet misled investors.

    He ended up paying millions in fines, and had to step down as Tesla’s chairman as a result of the drama.

    Candid COVID Opinions

    Musk hasn’t been shy about sharing his thoughts on the global pandemic. On March 6, 2020, he tweeted “the coronavirus panic is dumb.” Since then, he’s been vocal about his distrust in antigen tests, and isn’t afraid to share his frustrations around lockdowns with his followers:

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

    He’s also said that the virus isn’t that deadly and that COVID-19 related deaths were inflated because doctors were wrongfully attributing deaths to the virus instead of other causes.

    Becoming the World’s Richest Human

    In 2021, Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world. His reaction was quite understated. In response to a tweet from @teslaownersSV sharing the news, he simply said, “how strange.”

    From there, he tweeted:

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

    Musk is still currently the richest person on the planet as of this article’s publication date, with a net worth of $213 billion.

    Bitcoin Boost

    Elon Musk’s foray into Bitcoin boosterism ramped up on January 29, 2021, when he added “#bitcoin” to his Twitter profile page, a move that appeared to have an impact on the price of BTC.

    Days later, Musk announced that Tesla acquired $1.5 billion in bitcoin, with plans to accept it as payment.

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

    The news caused the price of Bitcoin to jump 17% to $44,000, a record high at the time. Bitcoin remained in the spotlight through the year as the cryptocurrency continued to gather support from major financial institutions.

    Just days prior, Musk also added fuel to the speculative fire surrounding the GameStop stock. By simply tweeting the word “Gamestonk” paired with a link to Reddit’s infamous r/wallstreetbets, GME’s price exploded more than 150% higher.

    The Multi-Billion Dollar Question

    After facing backlash over his significant stockpile of wealth, Musk turned to Twitter to ask users if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock in order to pay taxes.

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

    The majority of Twitter users voted yes, and the billionaire actually followed through and sold more than $16 billion worth of Tesla stock.

    Reconnecting Ukraine

    In late February, as Russia launched its offensive in Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation called the SpaceX founder out on Twitter, asking for support.

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

    Musk would reply within 24 hours, and soon after, Fedorov would tweet a photo of Starlink terminals arriving safely in the country.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 19:40

  • Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes Set To Be Released In California And Florida
    Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes Set To Be Released In California And Florida

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes are set to be released in California and Florida in an effort to reduce the number of real, disease-carrying invasive mosquitoes.

    A transgenic Aedes aegypti OX513A mosquito, created by Oxitec, in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Oct. 26, 2016. (Miguel Schincariol/AFP via Getty Images)

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday approved use of the genetically engineered insects in pilot projects in specific districts across both states.

    The mosquitoes were made by UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an effort to combat insect-borne diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and the Zika virus.

    According to Oxitec, its “sustainable and targeted biological pest control technology does not harm beneficial insects like bees and butterflies and is proven to control the disease-transmitting Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has invaded communities in Florida, California, and other U.S. states.”

    Since it was first detected in California in 2013, the Aedes aegypti mosquito has spread rapidly to more than 20 counties throughout the state, increasing the risk of mosquito-borne diseases being transmitted to humans.

    Oxitec’s new technology consists of genetically-modified male mosquitoes, which do not bite, that will be released into the wild where they are expected to mate with females, which do bite.

    In mating with them, they will pass on a lethal gene that will effectively ensure their offspring die before reaching maturity.

    Environmental Protection officials approved two projects on Monday, one with the Delta Mosquito and Vector Control District (Delta MVCD) in California and one with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) in Florida.

    The Florida pilot project will be a continuation of Oxitec’s partnership with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District after its pilot project in the Keys in 2021.

    “Given the growing health threat this mosquito poses across the U.S., we’re working to make this technology available and accessible,” Grey Frandsen, CEO of Oxitec, said. “These pilot programs, wherein we can demonstrate the technology’s effectiveness in different climate settings, will play an important role in doing so. We look forward to getting to work this year.”

    The upcoming release of the modified insects will be the largest release in world history.

    However, critics, including scientists, public health experts, and environmental groups, are concerned about what impacts releasing the generically altered mosquitoes could have on public health as well as the environment.

    “This is a destructive move that is dangerous for public health,” Dana Perls, food and technology program manager with Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy organization, told USA Today.

    Perls said her biggest concern was the lack of widespread, peer-reviewed scientific data regarding the generically modified insects and the potential risk they could bring.

    “Once you release these mosquitoes into the environment, you cannot recall them,” she said. “This could, in fact, create problems that we don’t have already.”

    Jaydee Hanson, policy director with the Center for Food Safety said the “experiment is unnecessary and even dangerous” while pointing to the lack of prominent tropical diseases in California.

    “There are no locally acquired cases of dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya or Zika in California,” Hanson said. “Releasing billions of GE mosquitoes makes it likely that female GE mosquitoes will get out and create hybrid mosquitoes that are more virulent and aggressive.”

    “Other public health strategies, including the use of Wolbachia infected mosquitoes, could better control the Aedes aegypti in California and Florida,” Hanson added.

    The Epoch Times has contacted an Oxitec spokesperson for comment.

    According to Quartz, areas including Malaysia, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, and Panama have seen their mosquito populations drop by as much as 90 percent after similar experiments were conducted.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 19:20

  • Polish Ambassador Says Sanctions On Russia Should "Last For A Decade, Maybe 15 Years"
    Polish Ambassador Says Sanctions On Russia Should “Last For A Decade, Maybe 15 Years”

    Poland’s Ambassador to the United States, Marek Magierowski, wants the new US and EU-led sanctions on Russia which came in the aftermath of its Feb.24 invasion of Ukraine to last for ten or up to 15 years.

    He described in a live interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that the sanctions should “last for a decade, maybe 15 years.” Also amid allegations that Russian forces are targeting hospitals, which are similar to claims made in Aleppo during Russia’s prior years’ military action there, Magierowski cited “acts of barbarism in Ukraine” that he called “war crimes, atrocities.”

    Poland’s Ambassador to the US, Marek Magierowski

    On this point, he said, “I do believe and I am confident that Mr. Putin and his cronies and all his closest aides will end up in the dock, in the Hague, in the International Criminal Court, because this is what he has already fully deserved,” according to CNN.

    Here’s what he told Amanpour in the interview on how long-lasting Russia’s total economic isolation should be:

    “I think that if we wanted to retaliate for that invasion against Ukraine with punitive measures and by crippling the Russian economy, we have to be determined and ready to uphold the sanctions in a longer term. Maybe they should last for a decade, maybe 15 years, because I’m afraid we are going to live with Mr. Putin for many years to come.”   

    Magierowski additionally described that he doesn’t think a diplomatic solution is reachable, but stressed the outcome will likely be decided on the battlefield, while underscoring it’s not going well for Russia…

    “Russia is losing this war right now. Not only in the hearts and mind of Europeans and Americans or the societies of the so-called free world but Russia is losing this war literally,” the Polish ambassador said. “I don’t know whether we will find a diplomatic solution, but maybe a military solution… I believe the Ukrainian army is capable of defeating the Russian army right now.”

    But it remains that Ukraine’s army is vastly outnumbered by Russian forces, which are now said to be just a few miles outside the capital of Kiev.

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    Meanwhile, Axios has an updated list of major global businesses across multiple sectors which have abandoned Russia since the start of the invasion…

    • Yum Brands, the parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut, has suspended operations and investment in Russia.
    • McDonald’s announced it is temporarily closing all of its stores in Russia.
    • Starbucks suspended all activity in Russia.
    • Coca-Cola was suspending operations in Russia.
    • Deloitte said it “will no longer operate in Russia and Belarus,” and “will separate our practice” in the two countries “from the global network of member firms.”
    • Ernst & Young was severing ties with Russia, axing its 4,700-person business in the country.
    • PricewaterhouseCoopers was cutting ties with its Russian member, affecting 3,700 partners and staff in the country.
    • KPMG was ending its association with its 4,500 partners and staff in Russia and Belarus.
    • Estée Lauder said it was suspending “all commercial activity in Russia.
    • Boeing suspended major operations in Moscow, as well as maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines.
    • Airbus is halting supply of parts and services to Russian airlines.
    • Shell was severing ties with Russian gas giant Gazprom and ending its roughly $1 billion financing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. It’s donating profits from a recent purchase of Russian crude oil to aid Ukrainian refugees.
    • BP is exiting its nearly 20% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, and faces a potential financial hit of as much as $25 billion.
    • Exxon Mobil said it was exiting Russia oil and gas operations valued at more than $4 billion and cease new investment.
    • GM, which sells only about 3,000 cars a year in Russia,was suspending exporting vehicles.
    • Ford suspended operations.
    • BMW stopped shipments and will stop production in Russia.
    • Daimler Truck Holdings said it would no longer send supply components to its Russian joint-venture partner.
    • Volvo Cars, owned by Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Geely, halted sales and shipments.
    • Renault ceased operations and production at two assembly plants because it can’t get parts.
    • VW paused delivery of Audis already in Russia so it can adjust car prices to reflect the decline in value of the ruble.
    • Harley-Davidson suspended shipments to Russia.
    • Adidas suspended its partnership with the Russian Football Union.
    • Nike ceased online sales because it can’t guarantee delivery.
    • FedEx and UPS suspended shipments.
    • Yoox Net-A-Porter Group and Farfetch, luxury e-commerce platforms, are suspending deliveries in Russia.
    • Apple has paused product sales and limited services (including Apple Pay), on top of ceasing exports to Russia and restricting features in Apple Maps in Ukraine to safeguard civilian safety.
    • Dell stopped selling products.
    • Ericsson was suspending deliveries to Russia.
    • Walt Disney was pausing film debuts in Russia. Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universal say they won’t release films in the country.
    • Ikea was closing its Russian stores and pausing all exports and imports in the country and ally Belarus.
    • Airbnb said it was “suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus.”
    • Google suspended all online advertising in Russia.
    • Microsoft suspended all new sales of its products and services in Russia.
    • Hermès temporarily closed all of its stores in Russia.
    • Visa, MasterCard and American Express suspended all Russian operations.
    • Amazon Web Services was no longer accepting new customers Russia and Belarus.
    • Uniqlo’s owner, Fast Retailing, temporarily suspended operations in Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 19:00

  • Will The Mask Mandate For Plane Travel Ever End?
    Will The Mask Mandate For Plane Travel Ever End?

    Authored by Scott Morefield, op-ed via Townhall.com,

    Like those horses on Yellowstone that just refuse to be ridden, I’d like to think that I never, ever ‘broke’ to the habit of mask-wearing.

    It’s always awful. It’s always uncomfortable. Every moment I’m forced to wear one of those contraptions is a moment of completely unnecessary suffering enforced by power-hungry, hypochondriac tyrants whose primary goal is to make people miserable for as long as possible.

    Sure, adults and even children get ‘accustomed to’ masks over time, but those who make that argument should remember that prisoners also eventually get institutionalized. I never got used to mask wearing, and I WEAR THAT fact like a badge of honor.

    Unlike many, I was fortunate enough to be in a state where I could largely ignore the toothless ‘mask mandate’ in my county. Businesses rarely if ever raised a peep at the few maskless people who entered their doors even during the height of the pandemic. They wanted people to wear masks, but they wanted the business more so they didn’t turn customers away. But airports, airplanes, trains, and train stations are an entirely different matter. There, peasants like you and I are forced – at proverbial gunpoint – to wear masks for hours on end with little to no reprieve.

    I’ve had the misfortune of having to fly several times during this ridiculous era, and each time is a misery all its own. But having to play the Kabuki theater there when almost the entire rest of the country, including New York City, is living normally, is somehow worse.

    Last week, as Covid restrictions faded away in even the bluest of places, for the ‘crime’ of simply needing to fly to Texas I found myself again forcibly gagged while traversing a bleak, mindless hellscape where time has inexplicably stood still.

    Compared to the ‘free’ world, airports and airplanes are like dystopian, alternate realities with a forced order that has absolutely zero basis IN reality. In it, we masked zombies wander seemingly aimlessly from place to place, barely looking up, clearly agitated and unhappy yet powerless to remedy the situation lest we find ourselves on a no-fly list or, worse, in a prison cell. Forcibly muzzling passengers who have already been treated like cattle for decades is the perfect leftist power-play, and they’re playing it for maximum impact.

    As the pre-flight recording makes abundantly and obnoxiously clear down to the excruciating detail of what needs to happen after every bite and sip, travelers are expected to be fully masked from above the nose to below the mouth during every non-eating and drinking second of our existence at these infernal places. It’s torture enough on relatively short, on-time flights, but God help you if your flight is delayed, and even God won’t be able to help you if you’re stuck for hours on a tarmac inside a plane that has ‘mechanical issues.’ Breathing freely is, after all, secondary to ‘following the rules.’ 

    Traveling is stressful enough without this, and yet this is what our tyrannical overlords impose in the name of ‘safety.’

    They don’t care about your ‘comfort,’ only your obedience.

    They know damn well cloth masks aren’t worth the t-shirt material it took to manufacture them and that the recycled air on planes makes them as safe or safer than anywhere else indoors, and yet the federal travel mask mandate is likely to be extended even beyond the supposed March 18 expiration. 

    Why? I submit it’s because they can. It’s a scientific fact that if these crazed, hypochondriac power mongers could control society like they can control those places with the iron fist of the TSA, we’d be in masks forever. They can’t, of course, which is why the politics changed enough for them to ‘relax’ mandates almost everywhere.

    But airports and airplanes are a different animal. There, the ‘security theater’ practiced for decades fits perfectly with the newer but even more sinister ‘mask theater’ of the Covid era.

    If passengers are still forced to remove their shoes because of the clumsy actions of some loser more than twenty years ago, do you think forcibly muzzling people for the next two decades and beyond is an issue for these ghouls?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/10/2022 – 18:40

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