Jun 13

Today’s News 13th June 2023

  • Burisma Owner Allegedly Recorded Biden Bribe Convos As 'Insurance Policy' — And FBI Covered Up: Grassley
    Burisma Owner Allegedly Recorded Biden Bribe Convos As ‘Insurance Policy’ — And FBI Covered Up: Grassley

    Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday dropped yet another bombshell in the recent spate of Biden corruption headlines – that the foreign national who allegedly bribed then-VP Joe Biden kept seventeen secret recordings of both Hunter and Joe Biden as an ‘insurance’ policy.

    According to the Washington Examiner, that foreign national is Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky.

    Two of the recordings are allegedly between Joe Biden

    “The 1023 produced to that House Committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them. Seventeen total recordings,” Grassley said during a speech on the Senate floor.

    “These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden,” he continued. “More than that, the FBI made Congress review a redacted unclassified document in a classified facility. That goes to show you the disrespect the FBI has for Congress.”

    Watch:

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsSo the FBI covered up the claim that Burisma’s owner had secret recordings between he and the Bidens as an ‘insurance policy,’ according to Grassley.

    More via the Examiner;

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware is handling the ongoing federal criminal investigation into Hunter Biden. It is allegedly up to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-appointed holdover, to decide whether to indict the president’s son. In February 2021, Joe Biden asked all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump for their resignations, with Weiss a rare exception.

    “What is U.S. Attorney Weiss doing with respect to these alleged Joe and Hunter Biden recordings that are apparently relevant to the high-stakes bribery scheme?” Grassley asked Monday.

    Sources previously told the Washington Examiner that the Burisma owner discussed an alleged bribe of $5 million to Joe Biden and of $5 million to Hunter Biden, according to the paid FBI informant who said he heard this from Zlochevsky. The sources said Zlochevsky said he believed it would be difficult to unravel the alleged bribery scheme for at least 10 years because of the number of bank accounts involved.

    Zlochevsky’s alleged reference to Joe Biden as the “big guy” appears independent of the apparent reference to the now-president as the “big guy” by a Hunter Biden business associate during negotiations with Chinese intelligence-linked businessmen. The China-related reference occurred in a May 2017 email not made public until October 2020.

    And as Just the News notes;

    The FD-1023 includes allegations from a confidential human source that the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board in order to use his father’s influence to stifle an investigation from then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin into the firm. Shokin was removed from his post in 2016 and the FD-1023 indicates that two Biden family members received $5 million each for their trouble.

    Also on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) subpoenaed Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devin Archer, demanding he sit for a deposition this week according to CBS News.

    In a letter to Archer’s attorney, Comer wrote that Archer had “played a significant role in the Biden family’s business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine.”

    “Additionally, while undertaking these ventures with the Biden family, your client met with then-Vice President Biden on multiple occasions, including in the White House,” he continued.

    Archer’s potential testimony to the GOP House Oversight Committee is a significant milestone in the congressional probe. Archer served alongside Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, a Ukraine energy company, beginning in 2014. During this period, then-Vice President Joe Biden was deeply involved in Ukraine policy, an era when his opponents say the energy firm was involved in corruption.

    An independent forensic review of Hunter Biden’s laptop data by CBS News confirmed hundreds of communications between Hunter Biden and Archer, specifically, emails that suggest working meals were arranged before or after Burisma board meetings.  Archer is widely believed to have facilitated Hunter Biden’s entry onto Burisma’s board. -CBS News

    Meanwhile, and we’re sure it’s unrelated, Biden had to cancel meetings today to take care of a sudden ‘root canal.’

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 20:40

  • Female-Only Spa With Compulsory Nudity Must Admit 'Transgender Women' With Penises: Judge
    Female-Only Spa With Compulsory Nudity Must Admit ‘Transgender Women’ With Penises: Judge

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

    A spa that for years has served only women must admit men if they claim to be women, a judge has ruled.

    A sign of segregated male and female restrooms  (thitiwat_t1980/Shutterstock)

    The constitutional rights of the owners, employees, and patrons of the Olympus Spa in Washington state weren’t infringed when officials in the state ordered the facility to provide services to “transgender women” with male genitalia, Washington District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein said in a June 5 ruling.

    The spa was described by its owners, who are Christian, as being designed based on the belief that “a male and a female should not ordinarily be in each other’s presence while in the nude unless married to each other,” according to a complaint filed by the owners.

    Many services provided by the spa require patrons to be fully naked, and the employees who work on-site are all female.

    Requiring admission of men claiming to be women violates the Constitutional rights to freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, and freedom of association, the spa owners, workers, and patrons asserted.

    Rothstein disagreed, finding that a state law called the Washington’s Law Against Discrimination “does not discriminate on its face, and it does not by its terms favor a particular religion or the non-exercise of religion.”

    That means the law survives if it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental purpose. Rothstein said the law’s legitimate purpose is, as stated in the law, to protect “the public welfare, health, and peace of the people of this state.”

    She also said that the Washington Human Rights Commission, which investigates complaints of violations of the law, in its order to the spa to remove language about only admitting “biological women,” didn’t infringe on the plaintiffs’ rights.

    “The compelled speech to which Olympus Spa points is ‘plainly incidental’ to the [law]’s regulation of discriminatory conduct,” Rothstein said.

    By way of analogy, she quoted a U.S. Supreme Court ruling: “‘Congress … can prohibit employers from discriminating in hiring on the basis of race,’ and ‘that this will require an employer to take down a sign reading “White Applicants Only” hardly means that the law should be analyzed as one regulating the employer’s speech rather than conduct.’”

    The free association claim also failed because the only requirement placed on patrons was that they be female, which is outside the protection based on freedom of association, the judge said.

    “The Court does not minimize the privacy concerns at play when employees are performing exfoliating massages on nude patrons. Aside from this nudity, though, there is simply nothing private about the relationship between Olympus Spa, its employees, and the random strangers who walk in the door seeking a massage,” she said. “Nor is there anything selective about the association at issue beyond Olympus Spa’s ‘biological women’ policy.

    “The Court therefore has little difficulty concluding that the personal attachments implicated here are too attenuated to qualify for constitutional protection.”

    Lawyers for the state and the plaintiffs didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    The spa can file an amended complaint within 30 days, the judge said. She ruled in the federal case because she’s a visiting federal judge. She was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter.

    Alleged Discrimination

    The situation started when Haven Wilvich, a male who identified as a woman and hasn’t undergone sex change surgery, complained to the state commission, alleging the spa’s policy was in violation of the state law against discrimination.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 20:20

  • CPI Set For "Historic" Drop Over "Next Two Months"
    CPI Set For “Historic” Drop Over “Next Two Months”

    Earlier today, we said that tomorrow’s CPI print is “the event of the week in terms of potential vol as it could impact final pricing for the FOMC and impact terminal pricing as well” (a full preview is coming shortly). And while the actual inflation number may come in fractionally below or above expectations, what markets are focusing instead on – and the reason for today’s frenzied market meltup which sent risk assets to a fresh 52-week high, is what traders expect will happen not just tomorrow but over the next 2 months. That’s because according to calculations by Credit Suisse chief strategist Jonathan Golub, while tomorrow’s CPI print may come in just above the median consensus forecast, at 4.2%, it is next month’s number that will be the shocker.  According to Golub, the June number (which will be released on July 12) will print at 3.2%.

    Should this play out as expected, Golub writes, “this would represent one of the greatest drops  experienced in a 2-month period over the past 70 years. Historically, similar declines have only occurred during periods of economic upheaval, such as the onset of COVID, the Great Recession, and in 1975 during the Great Inflation.”

    There is, however, one big caveat: this particular drop will not indicate some economic calamity has been unleashed, instead it merely represents a favorable base effect. As Golub explains, “it is important to note that this expected decline is the result of base effects, rather than a shift in incoming inflation, and should not be extrapolated into the future.” As a result, the now defunct Swiss bank whose research division will soon become part of UBS, does not believe that “this likely decline will result in any shift in Fed policy.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 20:00

  • "Rantings Of A Demagogue" – Parents Angered By Princeton President's Graduation Address
    “Rantings Of A Demagogue” – Parents Angered By Princeton President’s Graduation Address

    Authored by Abigail Anthony via The College Fix,

    A large contingent of parents of graduating seniors who sat through Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber’s recent commencement address described it as hypocritical and a “woke sermon” in interviews with The College Fix.

    They scoffed at his claim that the Ivy League institution is a bastion of free speech and bristled at his embrace of all kinds of diversity except intellectual diversity.

    “President Eisgruber’s commencement speech was a disgrace,” a mother of a graduating senior told The College Fix in an email.

    “The primary assault on free speech takes place on every campus in this country – including Princeton.”

    “It takes the form of blocking and shouting down faculty and invited speakers who dare to stray from the liberal orthodoxy,” she said. 

    “…He chose to use his 2023 commencement address to deliver the rantings of a demagogue.”

    Eisgruber told the audience “we must stand up and speak up together for the values of free expression and full inclusivity for people of all identities.”

    “There are people who claim, for example, that when colleges and universities endorse the value of diversity and inclusivity or teach about racism and sexism, they are ‘indoctrinating students’ or in some other way endangering free speech,” he said.

    Eisgruber also criticized Florida legislation without specifying which bills, suggesting students in Florida are now living in fear. He denounced other newly passed laws across the nation that have reined in illiberalism.

    “Some of these bills prohibit discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity. Some prohibit teaching disfavored views about race, racism, and American history. Others seek to undermine the institutional autonomy of colleges and universities or to abolish tenure, thereby enabling politicians to control what professors can teach or publish,” he said.

    More than 10 parents who attended the graduation ceremony expressed their disappointment and anger with Eisgruber’s speech in interviews with The College Fix. Most asked to remain anonymous.

    “I was taken aback by the audacity of [Eisgruber’s speech] and the disingenuousness of it, even the dishonesty of it. As far as I can tell, no one else in the country has done more to undermine the protections that tenure gives to independent thought and independent scholarly activity than he has,” Christopher Nadon, the father of a graduating Princeton student, told The Fix.

    Nadon, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, added that former Princeton Professor Joshua Katz was “stripped of tenure obviously for his political speech.”

    Katz, a longtime classics professor, was fired last year after he published an op-ed criticizing faculty proposals for anti-racism initiatives at the University and criticized a group of far-left black activists.

    Katz had previously faced a fourteen-month investigation for a consensual relationship that occurred over fifteen years ago with a then-undergraduate, for which he had already been disciplined with a one-year suspension without pay. Princeton opened a second investigation after Katz published the op-ed.

    “It was so hypocritical to say, ‘Oh, tenure is being threatened, and books are being censored,’ when voices are being censored and opinions are being censored and run off the campus,” Nadon said.

    Several parents interviewed by The Fix also compared Eisgruber’s speech to a religious address.

    “Eisgruber’s woke sermon was inappropriate for a college commencement and a captive audience that was forced to sit through it,” said a father of two Princeton alumni, one of whom graduated in the class of 2023.

    “As a father, I felt a great deal of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, Princeton University has been very welcoming and generous to my child.”

    “On the other hand, Eisgruber was indirectly condemning Governor [Ron] DeSantis’ Florida law that is aimed to protect their children from physical and chemical mutilation before they reach age 18 and can make a more informed and rational decision,” he added.

    Another parent of a graduating senior told The Fix that Eisgruber’s speech attributed personal political views to the institution, thereby instructing students “what” to think and not “how to think.”

    “Eisgruber gave a very biased, sermon-like, condescending commencement speech that was disrespectful of at least half the audience, both in the student population and in the parent population,” a parent said via email. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are consequences on the donor front.”

    Robert Gagnon, the father of a graduating senior and a professor at Houston Christian University, wrote directly to President Eisgruber to express disapproval.

    “As a President, you undoubtedly believed that you were exercising your free-speech rights,” he wrote.

    “Yet in doing so you were trampling on the rights of others to free speech by using your office to make those under your authority feel that what would happen to racists would happen to them if they expressed a dissenting view on ‘LGBTQ’ orthodoxy.”

    Gagnon shared his letter to Eisgruber with The Fix.

    “You have a greater obligation at Princeton than all others, precisely because you occupy the highest office, to assure people who disagree with you that they are respected and valued, not that they are the moral equivalent of racists,” Gagnon continued. “You expressed no concern that studies have shown that conservative college students already feel like pariahs and are afraid to express their point of view in the classroom for fear of administrative retaliation, including at Princeton.”

    A parent of a graduating senior in the humanities similarly criticized Eisgruber for espousing an “orthodoxy.”

    “Eisgruber’s commencement remarks were not only disheartening. He delivered a one sided angry polemic from his bully pulpit leaving no doubt about the preferred orthodoxy at Princeton,” the parent wrote.

    “It begged [the question of] who he was pandering too and why? It certainly didn’t seem [to be] a message intended for the students.”

    A recent survey of Princeton students found a majority of self-described “conservative” and nearly half of “moderate” seniors are “very uncomfortable” or “somewhat uncomfortable” sharing their views on campus. By contrast, the survey found that less than five percent of students who identified as “very liberal” reported being “very uncomfortable” or “uncomfortable” sharing political views.

    Another recent survey of Princeton students found 76 percent believe it’s acceptable to shout down a speaker.

    “President Eisgruber’s speech made good points about equality and freedom of expression but was hypocritical,” said a mother whose graduating daughter was the second child to attend Princeton for an undergraduate degree.

    “While he speaks out against censorship in virtuous tones, Mr. Eisgruber’s administration fosters a campus environment where minority viewpoints (conservative, traditional, religious, etc.) are canceled, and those who would express such views are intimidated,” she said.

    “Senior survey results indicate Princeton students feel under a gag order. Practice what you preach.”

    Another parent, who is a teacher at a Christian school, wrote to The College Fix that “President Eisgruber displayed either a shocking lack of comprehension of his audience by assuming that all the students and parents would be on board with such a left-leaning speech or else he simply did not care about offending his audience.”

    “I believe the latter is probably the case. He himself is surrounded by a liberal bubble in which all are convinced that they have the moral high ground and that anyone who does not support their policies is a bigoted danger to society,” the parent continued.

    In addition to parents who attended the ceremonies, undergraduates also criticized Eisgruber’s speech.

    “Any reasonable person observing Eisgruber’s sermon would conclude that its content has no place in the President’s Commencement address,” rising Princeton senior Matthew Wilson, a College Fix alumnus, wrote in the Daily Princetonian. “It was a grave mistake for Eisgruber to offer such ideological and divisive remarks at Commencement — purportedly under the moralizing banner of inclusivity, but in reality with the express aim of excluding, marginalizing, and suppressing the voices of those who dispute his particular account of social justice.”

    Junior Danielle Shapiro wrote in The Princeton Tory, the undergraduate conservative publication, that “Eisgruber’s departing message was misguided for its substantial focus on political activism and its departure from the core purpose of Princeton and universities like it: truth-seeking and the production and dissemination of knowledge.”

    Another aspect of the president’s hypocrisy, according to Nadon, played out in more than  his main speech.

    Nadon also attended the Princeton ROTC commissioning ceremony, where Eisgruber delivered remarks which contrasted what he had said just hours earlier to the entire graduating class and further revealed the president’s hypocrisy, he said.

    “As a student of our country’s Constitution, I find myself inspired by a singular fact about this ceremony every time that I participate in it: each of you will make a solemn promise to defend the Constitution of this United States — not our land, not our wealth, not even our people, but our Constitution,” Eisgruber told the newly commissioned officers.

    “It shows Eisgruber’s political tremor: he’ll say basically whatever is required by the particular audience,” Nadon told The Fix. “For the president of an institution that has a thirty billion dollar endowment to be complaining about people trying to rein in some of the craziness on campus—through a democratic representative process—is just another element of hypocrisy.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 19:40

  • As Panama Canal Hit With Draft Restrictions, Goldman Says Shippers Have Three Options
    As Panama Canal Hit With Draft Restrictions, Goldman Says Shippers Have Three Options

    Panama Canal officials have enforced a vessel draft restriction because of a severe water crisis. We noted in a piece weeks ago titled “Panama Canal Hit By Shipping Restrictions As Water Crisis Set To Worsen” that some of the largest vessels in the world had to comply with new restrictions. 

    Goldman’s Patrick Creuset told clients Monday morning that water levels on the Panama Canal are 5% below the five-year average, with forecasts by the Panama Canal Authority that point to a drop of 8% by August. 

    Creuset said the average draft needed for the largest neo-Panamax vessels to sail the canal is 50 feet or 15.2 meters. But since the end of May, draft restrictions have been enforced for vessels to maintain 44.5 feet or 13.6 meters, which will likely be reduced to 43.5 feet or 13.3 meters in the coming weeks. 

    “This would mean that the largest neo-Panamax vessels that hold c.14,000 TEU [Twenty-foot equivalent unit] may need to cross nearly half-empty,” Creuset continued. As a result, this would reduce cargo for some of the world’s largest containerships traversing major shipping lines, such as those between Asia and the US Gulf Coast and US East Coast. 

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    Unlike corporate media, Creuset points to El Nino as the reason for drought conditions across Panama, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

    The Goldman analyst said, “The main tradelane that would be affected is the Asia-US East Coast trade, accounting for about half of the cargo capacity crossing the canal.” He added, “Other trades, such as USEC (US East Coast) to LatAm West Coast (2nd largest trade) or LatAm intercoastal, appear less likely to be affected, given the generally smaller vessel sizes deployed.”

    There are three options to deal with the draft restrictions. He laid out the following:

    • The first option is to continue to use the Panama Canal and deploy more ships for the same amount of cargo, while optimizing cargo mix (heavier boxes onto smaller vessels).
    • The second would be to reroute via Suez on even larger vessels (=lower unit costs), however adding c.15% to the voyage time, e.g. from China to the USEC.
    • The third option is to go through US West Coast ports & intermodal.

    However, Creuset pointed out, “This last option, however, looks less certain, given the uncertainty around current labour tensions on the USWC. We therefore see a combination of options 1 and 2 as the most likely.” 

    The average vessel size crossing the canal in 2022 was around 7,000 TEU. Current draft restrictions wouldn’t affect these vessels, though much larger vessels (>9,000 TEU) sailing from Asia to US East Coast would be impacted. 

    “These types of vessels would need to load at least 20% less cargo than normal to comply with the new draft restrictions, and up to 40-50% less for the largest vessels, we estimate,” Creuset said. 

    About 7% of all global container trade crosses the canal. “If the majority of vessels currently transiting had to load between 20-40% less than normal, this could potentially absorb around 2% of world container shipping capacity. Some of this we believe could be cushioned by a shift of services through Suez, where the added voyage distance can be largely offset by the lower unit cost of using of larger vessels,” the analyst noted. 

    Creuset said canal draft restrictions fell to 44 feet in the summer of 2019 without causing major supply chain disruptions.

    But with El Nino impacts underway, what disruptions could be sparked later this summer remains to be seen. 

    And the good news:

    Overall, we believe temporary draft restrictions on the Panama Canal alone would not be sufficient to materially alter the supply-demand balance in shipping.

    But he notes supply chain disruptions could emerge if this happens: 

    We think it would likely take a confluence of shocks to create renewed, material supply chain stress. For example, prolonged draft restrictions on the Panama Canal coupled with extensive labour disruption in USWC ports amid a strengthening of consumer & import demand in 2H could be enough to tighten shipping capacity on a regional basis. This could lead to temporarily higher rates on the Pacific and perhaps some long-haul LatAm trades. 

    Keep an eye on the Panama Canal’s situation this summer, as well as any potential supply chain disruptions resulting from additional draft restrictions. 

    More in the full note available to pro subs.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 19:20

  • Saudi Arabia, China Ink $10 Billion In Investment Deals
    Saudi Arabia, China Ink $10 Billion In Investment Deals

    Via The Cradle,

    Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment signed $10 billion worth of investment agreements with Chinese companies on June 11, the first day of the 10th Arab-China Business Conference in Riyadh.

    The deals include a $5.6 billion agreement with Chinese electric car maker Human Horizons for automotive research, development, manufacturing, and sales of luxury electric vehicles. Other investment agreements span sectors such as technology, renewables, agriculture, real estate, minerals, supply chains, tourism, and healthcare, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

    Via AFP

    Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said in a speech at the conference that China remains the largest trading partner of Arab countries, with the volume of trade exchange reaching $430 billion in 2022, up 31 percent from the previous year.

    The kingdom makes up 25 percent of this volume. According to Bin Farhan, 2022, trade between Riyadh and Beijing reached $106.1 billion.

    The Saudi official stressed that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Riyadh in December 2022 “further strengthened political, economic, investment and trade ties between the two friendly countries.” Several agreements worth more than $50 billion were signed during Xi’s visit, which coincided with the launch of the first China-Arab States Summit and China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit.

    In response to growing discontent over historically lopsided ties between Arab states and the US, China has made significant diplomatic and economic inroads across West Asia.

    In March, Saudi Aramco – the world’s biggest crude exporter – agreed to acquire a 10 percent interest in Chinese producer Rongsheng Petrochemical for $3.6 billion. Under the deal, Aramco would supply 480,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian crude oil to Rongsheng affiliate Zhejiang Petroleum and Chemical Co Ltd (ZPC) under a long-term sales agreement.

    Aramco is also building a 300,000 bpd refining and ethylene-based steam cracking complex in China’s Panjin City with Chinese partners Norinco Group and Panjin Xincheng Industrial Group (PXIG).

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    Beijing is also responsible for securing a landmark rapprochement deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which also led to the restoration of ties between the kingdom and Syria.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 19:00

  • Women's Group To Spend "Tens Of Millions" To Boost Kamala's Image
    Women’s Group To Spend “Tens Of Millions” To Boost Kamala’s Image

    In an unprecedented move, a political group has committed to spend waste “tens of millions of dollars” to improve the reputation of a sitting vice president. 

    In a testament to just how big a political liability Harris is, Emily’s List, a group focused on electing pro-abortion, Democrat women, told Politico that it’s going all-out to polish her terrible image during the 2024 election. 

    “We’re going to tell the story about who she is, what she’s done, support her at every turn and really push back against the massive misinformation and disinformation that’s been directed towards her since she’s been elected,” said Emily’s List president Laphonza Butler.

    The prospect of a second Biden term is positively underwhelming to a wide, bipartisan swath of Americans: An April NBC poll found 70% don’t think Biden should run for re-election. For half of those who feel that way, Biden’s age figured as a “major” reason.  

    Of course, it’s not just his age: Seemingly every week, Biden publicly showcases his deepening mental and physical frailty. He would be 86 at the end of a second term. Add it all up, and 2024 voters are going to be intensely focused on the fact that Harris is a heartbeat — or head-banging stumble — away from the Oval Office.    

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    “She is a boogeyman that Republicans can [and will] use when it comes to pushing their message,” said an unnamed senior Republican strategist.

    According to FiveThirtyEight‘s polling composite, Harris has a 56% disapproval rating — slightly worse than Biden — with just 37% approving of her performance. Harris defenders pin the public’s dim view of her on bias against black women and the Biden administration’s mismanagement of her public relations:

    “The White House team themselves didn’t fully understand early on the differences that when you have a woman in this role, it has to look different,” said an anonymous Harris ally. “You have to do it differently. You can’t just do it the way you would with a white man, because again, people have never seen it before.” 

    We think it has a lot more to do with the fact that every time she opens her mouth, Harris sounds like a high school student who’s called on after skipping the reading assignment: 

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    Of course, when she can’t come up with a word salad, there’s always her trademark cackling — which, all by itself is worth at least a 15-point approval-rating hit: 

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 18:40

  • Why Boomers Don't Trust Bitcoin (And How To Convince Them To Open Their Minds)
    Why Boomers Don’t Trust Bitcoin (And How To Convince Them To Open Their Minds)

    Authored by Dan Weintraub via BitcoinMagazine.com,

    As with every generation, baby boomers are skeptical of the innovations embraced by youth. But they can’t miss out on Bitcoin…

    Trust is a funny thing. Generationally speaking, one could make the argument that it is the job of the younger generation to essentially tell us older folks to go fly a kite (perhaps in more raw terms, and metaphorically of course) when it comes to our values, our norms, our advice, etc. Music provides an apt cultural landscape on which to view this tension.

    THE SAME OLD SONG

    In every generation, emerging and evolving musical forms have been decried by the older, traditional set as being bad music, noise, even not music at all. In the late 1950s, Walter Cronkite referred to jazz as “musical noise,” and his words were not offered as praise. Rockabilly of the 1950s was surely detested by many in the traditional country community. The music of the Summer Of Love was rejected by many parents who likely embraced jazz and bebop. Punk rockers were undoubtedly met with blank stares and utter contempt by their hippie parents, and rap continues to be the object of musical scorn the world over. The point is clear: Tradition hates innovation, mostly because tradition doesn’t understand innovation and feels threatened by this new iteration. And yet, the truth remains; it’s all just music.

    Here’s where things get a bit complicated.

    It’s one thing to not understand, dislike, even personally reject something new. It’s another thing entirely to discredit the new, to actively fight against the new, to try and destroy the new. And within that effort to destroy and to bury the new form of expression, those seeking to kill off the new thing will, in their rather tired and sad desperation, create false narratives and stories to rationalize their adherence to traditional ways. Unfortunately, these narratives can become so powerful, that they lead to the development of institutions and movements guided entirely by falsehood, led by self-serving and power-hungry zealots, armed with all of the cultural weaponry that tradition has at its disposal; shameless and conscienceless, these forces will often go to extreme lengths to kill the thing that they have decided, in their self-concerned ignorance, is evil.

    As much as I hope that, somewhere far in the future, such destructive and reductive forces can be disempowered by truth-informed mechanisms like the Bitcoin protocol, I am not holding my breath. But in the present, the power of verification — that very thing that makes Bitcoin such a revolutionary moment — can be leveraged by the Bitcoin community as a way to bridge the generational gap, to push back against the narratives that baby boomers and others embrace in their rejection of Bitcoin, and to move the protocol adoption curve forward.

    MY BITCOIN PITCH TO FELLOW BOOMERS

    Here’s my point:

    My generation (I’m a youthful 61) has many qualms with Bitcoin. Some of these concerns are valid (old people hate volatility), while others are informed by entirely false narratives and prejudices. And just like with the musical examples above, so many of these false narratives are incredibly difficult to disarm; for embedded within these rejections of something new there exists a desperate clinging to something understandable, something empowering, something unifying in its self-righteous disgust and self-concentered defensiveness.

    Now granted, I’m a boomer, so I have a little more natural validity when I speak with my peers about Bitcoin. I’m not the AirPods-wearing, yoga-mat-toting, entirely-self-absorbed and personal-development-obsessed millennial who my generation loathes so very much (wry smile). But even such affinity does not get me far with Bitcoin. Rejection narratives come hot and they come quickly: environmental degradation, dark web currency, gambling casinos that make TikTok’ers rich, etc.

    My strategy in pushing back against these arguments goes back to music:

    “Look,” I say “You may be right. Bitcoin may be energy intensive and not helpful to the environment. Bitcoin may be used by scammers and defrauders as part of their schemes to get rich. Bitcoin may be the currency, or one of the currencies, of a generation of social-media heads, people who you hold in such contempt. This may all be true. But I would argue three things: One, that you are embracing arguments that you have heard but have not investigated yourself; Two, that you are basing your hatred and rejection of Bitcoin not on the merits of Bitcoin, but on the way Bitcoin shows up in the world (just like our parents rejected our music, because it came with long hair and blue jean jackets); And three, that you are rejecting Bitcoin because you don’t understand it, which is so very much what all older generations do about shit they don’t get.”

    And then I say this:

    “There’s one thing about Bitcoin that makes it different from anything else in the world, and that is the dynamic of verification. Ignore all of the other stuff just for a second, if you can. I am entirely willing to stipulate that, after you do your own research and after you challenge your own prejudices toward those yucky millennials (another wry smile) that you may still reject Bitcoin, but hear me out on this one thing, this one really cool and rather revolutionary element of Bitcoin: Unlike every other human interaction in the world, Bitcoin does not ask us to put our blind trust in anyone else. No one owns it or controls it, so we’re not being asked to trust the words and deeds of bankers or government officials or scammers or anyone; no one can hack it (take some time to learn about why), so it is, even in its volatility as an investment, the most secure network of all time; and no can destroy it, because it is software that runs on millions of computers, all of which are verifying each and every transaction that takes place.”

    And then this:

    “Look, I’m not saying you should invest in bitcoin. And lord knows that in a world replete with greedy people and liars, bitcoin is just as apt to be used by these people as are dollars or gold or real estate or whatever gets them rich. And truth be known, millennials make me roll my eyes as well. But you know what, that’s my generational B.S. It’s my own crap. Just like my parents shook their heads at my Grateful Deadness and my punk rockness, I shake my head toward millennials. But that rigidity and silliness shouldn’t inform my views about an emerging monetary technology and protocol. If it does, then I am guilty of the very thing that we blamed our parents for being guilty of 40 years ago. I don’t want to be part of yet another anti-intellectual generation that rejects stuff it doesn’t understand, or that embraces false narratives about things because those are the narratives we are exposed to the most.”

    And then my closing:

    “All I’m asking is that you take a moment and consider what a world in which verification of truth, rather than trusting someone else’s words, might look like. For example, bitcoin and the Bitcoin network could have totally ended all of the stuff about stolen elections, because within this realm of verification there exists the ability to validate and verify each and every transaction (every vote) beyond any doubt. Also, with the Bitcoin network and protocol, you can say goodbye to things like identity theft and credit card scams and being double charged for stuff you didn’t buy; because with Bitcoin every, every, every transaction is verified on an entirely secure network by tens of thousands of computers running unhackable software. And the thing is, there are so many examples of how verification could make the world in which we live so much better, because when we can verify stuff then we end up trusting the whole process. So all I’m asking is to do a little investigation about this thing before you reject it; you may find, despite yourself, that as you get it more, your appreciation for it changes.”

    We live in a world in which trust is an ever-diminishing construct. As I noted in my first two pieces in this series, as trust continues to erode, we, as a species, are in increasing trouble and distress. I totally grok why my generation doesn’t trust Bitcoin. But I also get that our mistrust is informed by false narratives, by petty prejudices, and by a tenacious adherence to things we understand and know. The thing about Bitcoin that makes it so novel, and so elegant, is that the protocol, by way of example, cuts through all of the falsehood. This I feel is the most powerful thing about Bitcoin, and this I feel is a route toward bringing more and more people into the fold.

    Virtually everyone on the planet, boomers included, is concerned about the direction we are heading as a species. And at the heart of this fear is the fact that we can’t trust anything anymore. Bitcoin changes this through its inviolable verification mechanism. It begins with money, property, assets. Who knows where it ends.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 18:20

  • North Korea's Kim Thanks Putin For Implementing "Sacred Cause" Of Fighting "Imperialists" 
    North Korea’s Kim Thanks Putin For Implementing “Sacred Cause” Of Fighting “Imperialists” 

    North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has sent a glowingly supportive message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Russia’s National Day.

    Kim has pledged his “full support and solidarity”, according to state media. Celebrated every year on June 12 since 1992, the national day commemorates the creation of the post-Soviet Russian Federation, including the establishment of the Russian presidency and constitution. 

    Kim said, according to state media KCNA: “The DPRK people are extending full support and solidarity to the people of your country in their all-out struggle for implementing the sacred cause to preserve the sovereign rights, development and interests of the country against imperialists’ high-handed and arbitrary practices.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 18:00

  • Notes From The Memory Hole: The Great Double-Talking Vaccine Scientist
    Notes From The Memory Hole: The Great Double-Talking Vaccine Scientist

    Authored by Matt Orfalea and Matt Taibbi via Racket News,

    Few health figures have been more visible during the pandemic than Dr. Peter Hotez. Interviews by the Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development are a master class in modern day branding, as the good doctor seldom appears without an instantly recognizable ensemble of lab coat, specs, and bow tie. (If cable TV had a Halloween Party, Hotez-in-a-bag would surely have been one of the most popular get-ups from 2020 on.) Hotez advertises his marketing acumen, making sure every time he appears on air that the shot is crammed with posed copies of his books. He’s become a legit pop culture phenom, appearing with Trevor Noah, TMZ, CNBC, CNN, Fox and beyond.

    Like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Hotez was among the most prominent members of the “Your child will die in shrieking agony if you don’t get the shot” school of pandemic messaging. As Matt Orfalea’s brutal new video shows, however, he accrued more contradictory dosage recommendations on this score than Imelda Marcos had shoes.

    For those of us who wanted to believe authorities, such messaging about the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines, and the necessity of inoculation to save not only our own lives but those of our children and our neighbors’ children, was powerful stuff. “If you wait,” you see him saying, “it’s going to be too late to protect your child.”

    How could you not believe him? He’s in a lab coat! But fear not: “I’m strongly recommending for adolescents to get their two doses of vaccine,” he said. “Two doses of vaccine are fully immunized.”

    As Orf shows, Hotez from there went on to release one sad-trombone update after another. First: “We’re seeing that two doses is not holding up well for emergency room visits.” Then it was, “You need that third immunization, triple the amount… We were always a three dose vaccine.”

    Then the third immunization didn’t “hold up,” either, so: “We have to consider some out of the box things — a fourth immunization.” Next: “A fifth immunization. Five.”

    But don’t worry, “I don’t think we’re gonna need an annual booster like flu,” until he said exactly that, only worse: “Every, you know, few months, we may need another booster.”

    Subscribers to Racket News can read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 17:40

  • US Lawmakers File "SEC Stabilization Act" To Fire Gary Gensler
    US Lawmakers File “SEC Stabilization Act” To Fire Gary Gensler

    Authored by Derek Andersen via CoinTelegraph.com,

    United States Rep. Warren Davidson has introduced the “SEC Stabilization Act” into the House of Representatives, announced on June 12. One of the bill’s main provisions is to fire Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler. 

    Davidson said in a statement:

    “U.S. capital markets must be protected from a tyrannical Chairman, including the current one. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to fix the ongoing abuse of power and ensure protection that is in the best interest of the market for years to come. It’s time for real reform and to fire Gary Gensler as Chair of the SEC.”

    Davidson declared his intention to introduce the bill earlier this year. He made that announcement in reply to a tweet by Coinbase legal chief Paul Grewal. Rep. Tom Emmer is the co-author of the bill. Emmer said, “The SEC Stabilization Act will make common-sense changes to ensure that the SEC’s priorities are with the investors they are charged to protect and not the whims of its reckless Chair.”

    According to Fox News, the bill would remove Gensler from office and redistribute power between the SEC chair and commissioners. It would also add a sixth commissioner to the agency, disallow any party from holding a majority on the commission and create an executive director position.

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    Although the lawmakers did not mention cryptocurrency in their statements, both Davidson and Emmer are known to be pro-crypto and critical of Gensler’s leadership at the SEC.

    Emmer has, for example, called Gensler a “bad faith regulator,” and Davidson is the vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s new  Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion.

    An SEC spokesman declined to comment when approached by Cointelegraph. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 17:20

  • The Shanghai International Gold Exchange And Its Role In De-Dollarization
    The Shanghai International Gold Exchange And Its Role In De-Dollarization

    By Jan Nieuwenhuijs of Gainesville Coins

    This article is a primer on the Chinese gold market, more specifically the Shanghai International Gold Exchange (SGEI). The SGEI facilitates “offshore” gold trading in renminbi and can play a crucial role in de-dollarization, as it allows countries to use renminbi as a trade currency that can be converted into gold without affecting China’s balance of payments. De-dollarization can be accomplished by using yuan to settle international trade and store surpluses in gold through the SGEI.

    Introduction

    In the Chinese gold market two circuits can be distinguished. Simplified, there is gold trading in the domestic market and in Free Trade Zones (FTZs). The domestic market is separated from FTZs and the rest of the world by the Chinese central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), that controls import into and export from the domestic market. Gold import and export between FTZs and the rest of the world is not regulated by the PBoC. The SGEI is located in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) to spur international gold trading in renminbi.

    The Chinese Domestic Gold Market

    Let’s first examine the Chinese domestic gold market with the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) at its core before we discuss the ins and outs of the SGEI.

    Prior to 2002 the PBoC was the primary dealer in the Chinese gold market. With the launch of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) in 2002 the market was slowly liberalized and took over price setting and gold allocation from the central bank. By 2007 liberalization was completed as by then most wholesale supply and demand flowed through the SGE.

    Laws and tax incentives funnel most supply—mine output, imports, and recycled gold—towards the SGE, which for liquidity reasons automatically attracts most demand. The SGE has its own chain of integrity, meaning only certified refineries can load-in gold bars into SGE vaults. To guarantee all metal in the SGE vaulting system is of the right quality, bars withdrawn from the vaults are not allowed to re-enter before having been remelted by a certified refiner. Every month the SGE publishes the tonnage of gold withdrawn from its vaults, which can be interpreted as wholesale demand.

    From the SGE rulebook:

    gold bullion will no longer be accepted into any [SGE] Certified Vault once it has been withdrawn by a member or customer.

    Import into and export from the domestic market is referred to as “general trade,” and in the case of gold it’s controlled by the PBoC. Twenty or so enterprises are authorized to import and export standard gold*, but for every batch they need a new License by the PBoC. Because the Chinese government has a policy of storing gold among the people to strengthen China’s economic security, imports are usually not restricted, as opposed to exports that are more or less prohibited. Panda Coins, for example, will be allowed to be exported from the domestic market, but that’s about it.

    Since 2004 jewelry fabricators and alike located in mainland China can sell their products abroad though “processing trade.” For processing trade no PBoC License is required; under this framework enterprises can freely import into and export gold from FTZs. A fabricator can import raw materials into a FTZ, manufacture products, and export the finished goods. Needless to say, any entity wanting to import gold from a FTZ into the domestic market needs approval by the PBoC.

    The Shanghai International Gold Exchange

    To slowly open up China’s financial markets, enhance the connection between the international gold market and the Chinese domestic market, and push renminbi internationalization the SGEI was launched in 2014 in the SFTZ. The SGE is often referred to as the Main Board (MB) and the SGEI as the International Board (IB). The SGEI is fully owned by the SGE (the Exchange hereafter).

    Both foreign and Chinese residents can trade MB as well as IB gold contracts on the Exchange. Though, foreigners can only load-in and load-out gold into and from IB vaults in the SFTZ, while Chinese residents can only load-in and load-out gold into and from MB vaults in the domestic market. The exception is that those eligible to import gold under general trade may sell gold located in IB vaults into the domestic market**. Below is an overview of what privileges which traders have with respect to MB and IB contracts.

    Foreigners and Chinese residents can thus add liquidity to MB and IB contracts but can only physically move metal on their own side of the fence. As a result, neither will trade gold on the other side for reasons other than making markets, arbitrage, and speculation. Chinese long-term investors, in example, are not likely to buy metal in the SFTZ as they can’t withdraw that metal. Foreigners wanting to withdraw and repatriate will trade IB contracts.

    Another feature of the Exchange is that it commingles onshore and offshore renminbi, providing a platform for arbitrage between the two.

    China’s Balance of Payments, Cross-border Trade Statistics, and SGE Withdrawals

    To understand everything related to the SGEI, we need to drill a little deeper into international trade. What is often misunderstood is that a country’s current account—part of its Balance of Payments, BOP—is not a reflection of goods and services crossing its border. Current accounts register the value of goods and services exchanged between domestic and foreign residents, wherever these residents are located. Cross-border trade statistics (International Merchandise Trade Statistics, IMTS), on the other hand, record the value of goods physically being moved across borders irrespective of the buyer and seller’s nationalities.

    Should a European bullion bank ship gold from London to an SGEI vault in the SFTZ, this will show up in global IMTS but doesn’t affect China’s BOP. When this batch is bought by an Indian investor, withdrawn from an SGEI vault, and exported to a designation of the owners’ discretion, the trade has circumvented China’s current account although it was settled with yuan. To be clear, for IMTS data it’s irrelevant if goods are shipped into a FTZ or the domestic market, as long as it crosses an international border an import and export are recognized.

    Now we have reached a basic understanding of the SGEI, we need to examine a few additional elements to complete our analysis. Regarding IMTS figures, only non-monetary gold movements across borders are recorded. Monetary gold, which is metal owned by a monetary authority such as a central bank, is exempt from being reported in IMTS. From the United Nations IMTS rulebook:

    Since monetary gold is treated as a financial asset rather than a good, transactions pertaining to it should be excluded from international merchandise trade statistics.

    We could be misled when reviewing Chinese net import, in example, if a bank imports gold into the SFTZ, which is then bought by the central bank of Saudi Arabia (SAMA) on the SGEI, and then invisibly exported as monetary gold. The moment SAMA buys non-monetary gold, the metal is monetized—as prescribed by the IMF—and is subsequently eclipsed from cross-border trade statistics. This is how central banks move gold across the globe under the radar. IMTS would display the non-monetary gold import into China but not the monetary gold export, leading to an overstatement of Chinese net import. The reverse is also true: a central bank shipping monetary gold to the SFTZ would be invisible until it is bought by the private sector and de-monetized.

    In final, the Exchange discloses an aggregate number for the monthly weight of gold withdrawn from SGE and SGEI vaults combined. At the surface, this number is difficult to put into perspective. Total load-out volume could all end up in the domestic market—being a useful reflection of Chinese wholesale demand—or a chunk of it is exported as (non-)monetary gold from the SFTZ. Luckily, I have insider knowledge from a source at the SGEI. In 2015, this person told me that virtually all IB trading was done by Chinese banks for importing gold into the domestic market. More recently he wrote me that little gold withdrawn from IB vaults is exported abroad. Total withdrawals thus mainly relate to Chinese demand.

    Conclusion

    As demonstrated, gold trading in renminbi on the SGEI can be compared to offshore gold trading in the London Bullion Market with US dollars. As such, the SGEI is part of China’s ambitions to internationalize the renminbi to the detriment of the dollar.

    Many commentators in the financial blogosphere state China’s closed capital account is holding back the offshore renminbi market from competing with the Eurodollar (offshore dollar) market. True, though PBoC swap lines promote the international use of renminbi, and as Zoltan Pozsar noted in the In Gold We Trust 2023 report: “China has a swap line with everybody.” With which he meant thirty-two counterparties.

    Confirming what we have discussed is a speech by Teng Wei, Deputy General Manager of the Shanghai International Gold Exchange, from 2016:

    The international board uses renminbi for pricing and settlement, which effectively connects the onshore and offshore renminbi market …. It also provides a new channel for the return of funds, which is a useful exploration for expanding the cross-border flow of renminbi and steadily promoting the internationalization of renminbi.

    …

    The journey of the Shanghai International Gold Exchange will epitomize the opening of China’s financial markets to the outside world and play an important part in the internationalization of the renminbi. With Shanghai becoming the third most important market in the world after London and New York, the Chinese gold market will make a great contribution to the internationalization of the renminbi.

    Renminbi reserve currency status is still far away because yuan held overseas can’t freely be invested in Chinese assets such as bonds and other securities due to China’s closed capital account. Renminbi can, however, be converted into gold without limits.

    Last month Russian news outlet TASS reported the BRICS nations are working on a common currency for international payments. “The idea of creating a common currency, although I would probably call it a payment unit inside BRICS countries, is floating around and is being discussed. We also have proposals about using digital financial assets supported by real assets, for example gold stable coins,” Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

    These gold stable coins are most likely to represent gold held in SGEI vaults, Moscow, or other cities in Brazil, South-Africa, or India. Time will tell if the BRICS will materialize this new payment system that incorporates gold, and if the SGEI will be used more by international players.

    Appendix

    * In China standard gold must be a bar or ingot weighing 50g, 100g, 1Kg, 3Kg or 12.5Kg, with a minimum fineness of 995.0, 999.0, 999.5, or 999.9 parts per thousand.

    ** Technically, an enterprise eligible for import may load-in metal into IB vaults and sell these metals as deliverable on the MB, provided it has a PBoC License. When the buyer wants to withdraw this gold, the Exchange will make sure it will be loaded out from a vault in the domestic market. That is the easy way of explaining it. For the exact rules please read the Detailed Delivery Rules of Shanghai Gold Exchange:

    The Exchange has established a network of Certified Vaults to facilitate physical delivery through the Exchange as well as bullion storage and other transactions by members and customers. Certified Vaults are classified into Main Board Certified Vaults (the MB Certified Vaults) and International Board Certified Vaults (the IB Certified Vaults). MB Certified Vaults provide bullion storage, load-in and load-out services to Domestic Members and Domestic Customers. IB Certified Vaults provide bullion storage, load-in and load-out services to International Members, International Customers, and any Domestic Members and Domestic Customers who are qualified to import and export gold [have a PBoC License], as well as in acting as their agent in making customs declarations for bullion to be transported into or out of bonded zones [FTZs]. IB Certified Vaults shall accept the supervision of the customs authorities of China.

    …

    Authorized International Members and International Customers may deposit International Board bullion into IB Certified Vaults and, subject to relevant approved quota [PBoC License], may deposit Main Board bullion into IB Certified Vaults. No International Member or International Customer is permitted to deposit bullion into MB Certified Vaults.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 17:00

  • Watch: McCarthy Destroys CNN Reporter When Asked About Classified Doc Scandal
    Watch: McCarthy Destroys CNN Reporter When Asked About Classified Doc Scandal

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may be facing a revolt from Freedom Caucus House Republicans over his Dem-friendly debt deal, but he also may have just earned a few points back obliterating a CNN reporter who asked about former President Donald Trump’s document scandal.

    “The idea of equal justice is not playing out here,” McCarthy said, calling it a “real concern to all Americans.”

    “You’re with CNN, right?” McCarthy asks the reporter, who acknowledges that she is.

    “So let’s talk about this even further because when somebody weaponizes government and they actually get removed from government – let’s take Andrew McCabe –“

    As soon as McCarthy mentions McCabe, the reporter gets extremely defensive – cutting him off and exclaiming “but this is a different case! This is a different set of circumstances, right? I mean the former president is accused of misleading law enforcement, of a conspiracy of obstructing justice… that’s a different set of facts. Are you prepared to defend him as the former president..” she regurgitated.

    To which McCarthy shot back – “Are you prepared to defend your network, CNN … [reporter tries to interject] … you can’t put words in my mouth, even though your network can hire Andrew McCabe, who was fired from the FBI for leaking classified documents. Did you remove him from your network? No, you continue to put him on to give judgement against President Trump,” he said.

    “You also hired Clapper…” he continued – only to be cut off once again.

    McCarthy simply ignores the next question and continues his sentence.

    “So your network hires Clapper, who literally lied to the American public, one of 51 other individuals that had briefings and used it politically to tell the American public that a laptop was Russia collusion, even though it had all this information about the Biden administration. Are you prepared to get rid of those people from your network? Because my concern as a policymaker is that when you weaponize government, and now you’re weaponizing networks, that is wrong.”

    “So we will take all of our power to make sure that the legal system in America puts the blinders back on and people are treated fairly. And I have a real problem that your network actually pays people who did classified information and then lied to the American public to try to influence a presidential election – and then you put them on your network to give an opinion about a president…  …what your network has done has weaponized at the same time.”

    Watch:

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMeanwhile in other deep state debacles – Rep. Nancy Mace put Keith Olbermann in his place after he claimed that Hillary Clinton’s team never destroyed government devices with a hammer.

    Still waiting on Kinzinger’s community note for doing the same thing.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 16:40

  • 11 Signs That Our Economic Problems Are Accelerating A Lot Faster Than Most People Were Anticipating
    11 Signs That Our Economic Problems Are Accelerating A Lot Faster Than Most People Were Anticipating

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    A lot of the “experts” have been telling us that economic conditions are likely to really start deteriorating later in the year, but here we are in June and the economy is beginning to unravel a lot quicker than most of them had anticipated.  The housing bubble is imploding, existing home sales are plunging all over the nation, foreclosures are surging, manufacturing numbers have fallen into contraction territory and jobless claims are rising.  We are building up a tremendous amount of momentum in the wrong direction, and just about everyone agrees that the outlook for the remainder of 2023 is not promising.  So if things are this bad now, what will they look like in six months?

    For a long time, the U.S. economy was “remarkably resilient”, but now things have started to change in a major way.

    The following are 11 signs that our economic problems are accelerating a lot faster than most people were anticipating…

    #1 We just learned that foreclosure-related filings were up 14 percent last month compared to the same period a year ago…

    As the cost of living in the U.S. continues to climb, foreclosures are also on the rise.

    May foreclosure-related filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, were up 7% from April and up 14% from a year ago, to 35,196 properties, according to the real estate data group ATTOM.

    #2 We are being warned that foreclosure filings are on an “upward trajectory” which suggests “heightened activity” in the months ahead…

    “The recent increase in foreclosure filings nationwide indicates a trend that has been observed throughout the year, and what we have expected to occur,” Rob Barber, ATTOM’s CEO, said in a statement. “This upward trajectory suggests the possibility of continued heightened activity, and with foreclosure completions seeing the largest monthly increase this year, we will continue to monitor the potential impacts this may have on the housing market.”

    #3 As the housing bubble bursts, sales of existing homes are falling all over the nation.  For example, sales of existing homes in central Indiana have now declined for 16 months in a row…

    Sales of existing homes in central Indiana dropped 14.8% in May—the 16th straight month that sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis.

    Closed sales of existing homes in the 16-county area in May totaled 2,901, down from 3,406 in the same month of 2022, according to the latest monthly data from the MIBOR Realtor Association.

    #4 One recent study found that a whopping 8 million Americans currently live in a household that is behind on paying rent.  Many are just barely surviving from month to month like this single mother that was recently profiled in the Los Angeles Times…

    Evelyn Arceo holds down a full-time job as a baker at Universal Studios Hollywood, earning $19 an hour. But even when she gets a few hours of overtime at the theme park, the single mother of four can barely afford the rent of her one-bedroom apartment in Panorama City.

    On her salary, buying a home is out of the question.

    Already, her monthly rent of $1,300 is “just too expensive at this point,” Arceo said, with late fees of $40 to $50 compounding her financial plight. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on time on my rent.”

    #5 The most epic commercial real estate crisis in U.S. history has begun, and we are being warned that the two massive defaults in San Francisco that recently made headlines all over the world could just be the tip of the iceberg…

    News of Park Hotels & Resorts’ plan to surrender ownership of two of San Francisco’s largest hotels is the beginning of what could potentially become a mass exodus of hotels from the city as 30 additional properties are facing massive loans due over the next two years.

    The company behind the hotels announced Monday it had stopped making payments on its $725million loan that is due in November for the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels.

    #6 Major corporate bankruptcies are happening at the fastest pace that we have seen since 2010…

    US corporate bankruptcies crept higher in May over the prior month as higher interest rates and a slowing economy are pushing many companies over the edge.

    S&P Global Market Intelligence recorded 54 corporate bankruptcy filings during May, a slight rise from 52 April. In the first five months of the year, 2023 has recorded more filings than any comparable period since 2010.

    #7 Initial jobless claims just rose to their highest level in almost two years…

    Initial jobless claims surged last week to 261k (up from 233k prior and well above the 235k exp) – its highest since Oct 2021.

    #8 According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, during the first five months of this year the number of announced job cuts was up 315 percent compared to the same five months last year.

    #9 U.S. manufacturing has now fallen into contraction territory…

    S&P Global data showed that the US manufacturing sector fell into contraction territory in May. A similar survey released by the Institute for Supply Management showed the industry contracted for the seventh consecutive month in May, at a faster pace than in the prior month.

    #10 European manufacturing has also dropped into contraction territory…

    Among manufacturers in the eurozone, production, new orders and backlogs all fell in May as the sector contracted at a faster pace that month, according to S&P Global figures. The 20-nation currency area’s industrial production fell sharply in March, mostly due to a plunge in Ireland. The indicator measures the output of manufacturers, miners, and utility companies.

    #11 It is being reported that new numbers show that the EU “entered a recession in the first quarter of this year”…

    The euro zone entered a recession in the first quarter of this year, and economists are not optimistic for the coming months.

    The 20-member bloc reported gross domestic product of -0.1% for the first quarter, according to revised estimates from the region’s statistics office, Eurostat, released Thursday.

    What I have just shared with you is certainly quite a bit of bad news.

    But if I am correct, conditions will continue to deteriorate throughout the rest of this year and into 2024.

    We live at such a critical moment in human history, and those that have been waiting for life to “return to normal” can stop waiting.

    The pace of change is picking up speed with each passing month, and most of us are simply not prepared for the craziness that is ahead.

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 16:20

  • Bonds, Banks, Bullion, & Black Gold Dip As Mega-Cap Tech Continues To Rip
    Bonds, Banks, Bullion, & Black Gold Dip As Mega-Cap Tech Continues To Rip

    Ahead of a potentially chaotic week with CPI, FOMC, and Quad-Witch OpEx, today was relatively ‘quiet’ on the headline-front.

    Tesla’s stock price rose for the 12th straight day – the longest winning streak in the company’s history…

    …now up over 100% YTD…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Apple broke out to a new all-time record high…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And that helped drag Nasdaq to outperform, as The Dow and Small Caps lagged. But all the majors ended green. NOTE the wild swings in Russell 2000 around the cash open…

    As Nasdaq continued to reverse last week’s losses relative to Small Caps…

    Source: Bloomberg

    With 4320 a key level – linked to the JPM Collar – it appears 0-DTE traders aggressively bought puts as the S&P neared that level, but failed to inspire any downside momentum… and in the end being forced to unwind (prompting 0-DTE call-buying)…

    Source: SpotGamma

    And today’s winning lottery ticket goes to…

    Citizens, KeyCorp, and Truist were all hammered today – weighing on the overall bank index – on margin (NIM) compression, rising charge-offs, and lowered revenue guidance respectively…

    Last week’s surge in value relative to growth has now been erased…

    Source: Bloomberg

    VIX rose back to a 14 handle today (despite the gains in stocks) reverting higher after VVIX’s decoupling…

    Source: Bloomberg

    VIX1D soared today – just as it did ahead of last month’s CPI…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasuries were mixed today with the short-end outperforming. The last hour saw buying across the curve though which left only 10Y and 30Y yields marginally higher…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar ended higher after weakness overnight, with the green back bid thru the US session…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Crypto is down from Friday, after a total SNAFU liquidation on Saturday took the entire asset-class down in minutes…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Gold dropped again today, erasing last week’s spike…

    Oil prices tumbled today – not helped by Goldman slashing their year-end forecast – with WTI testing a $66 handle, its lowest close since March…

    Finally, stocks continue to look through tightening financial conditions…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …hoping beyond all rationality for The Fed’s next handout.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 16:01

  • Moving To 'Wall Street South' From NYC Can Save You Up To $200k
    Moving To ‘Wall Street South’ From NYC Can Save You Up To $200k

    New York-based investment firms have been moving to the Sunshine State. Firms like Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global Management, and D1 Capital Partners have all announced plans to move offices and executives to “Wall Street South” in South Florida. Those who make the leap from Manhattan to Brickell will find an improved cost of living and lower taxes. 

    The Finance website SmartAsset found those making $650,000 per year in Manhattan could save $195,000 if they move to Miami because of cheaper living costs and lower taxes. Even someone making $150,000 in Manhattan can save upwards of $49,000 per year by moving to Wall Street South. 

    Here are the tax and cost of living savings from NYC to Miami

    And why not? The weather is a tropical delight (minus hurricane season), people are friendlier, and progressives have yet to ruin the state. Some things don’t have a price… 

    For those in San Francisco earning $650,000, relocating to South Florida may not offer as substantial cost savings as it would for New Yorkers. However, they can still expect to save approximately $153,000. 

    Meanwhile, higher earners from Chicago can expect to save very little on the move. 

    Despite the minimal cost savings on the move, Chicagoans must consider South Florida isn’t a warzone. Some things in life, like safety, are invaluable and cannot be quantified monetarily. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 15:45

  • Can Americans 'Handle The Truth'?
    Can Americans ‘Handle The Truth’?

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    We’re Not Finished

    “You give me a piece of ground and a sword and I am going to take back this country with your help and the help of all the homeless Democrats and Republicans who are Americans first.” 

    – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

    If you’re wondering why our country is lost in lunatic raptures of lawless Lawfare and futile MAGAry, it’s because our economy has already collapsed, and our culture and politics with it downstream have also collapsed into spectacular degeneracy. It has already happened. Maybe you don’t know it.

    The business model is broken. We’re a shadow of the industrial economy that won a great war and enjoyed a boisterous peace.

    You can’t replace ball bearing factories with theme parks and hedge funds. Sorry. The full faith and credit of the USA is not embodied in those frivolities, so our money is losing its mojo fast.

    But get this: we will go on.

    This is not the end of the world or the end of history. It is the end of an era. Believe it or not, the economy will fix itself, it just won’t be what it was in 1957. It won’t be what the techno-supremacists think, either. (You need a dependable electric grid to run all those server farms and the apps they serve, and the AI supposedly looming.) It will fix itself because when things fail, as they are doing now, a lot of opportunities will open up to do things differently, even very differently.

    When the chain stores fail along with their twelve-thousand-mile supply lines, Americans will figure out how to find stuff, make stuff, move stuff, and sell stuff at a smaller scale, maybe back on your Main Street (if it’s still there). There will be a lot less stuff, of course. But it may be enough stuff, and some of you will be busy making stuff of some kind. Imagine an economy where practically everybody has a useful role to play. Do you know how much more important it is to lead a purposeful, active life than to be lost in leisure and anomie with more stuff than you know what to do with? Which is where we’re at now, even for many who are statistically “poor.”

    When the Happy Motoring colossus tweaks out, we’ll spend less time moving around and more time doing useful things, staying put around the places where we live. We’d be lucky if we could keep some railroads going, but the prospects are not great for that now. Sorry, we blew it. Should have re-started that project in 1970 when the handwriting was on the wall. (We made a lot of bad choices.) Cars and trains require elaborate networks of many interdependent technologies all integrated smoothly at the giant scale — oil, steel, plastics, electronics — and all of that is disintegrating. Pretty soon, you can forget about airplanes, too. That leaves… what? Yes, boats and horses. I know… it sounds inconceivable. Wait for it.

    When our grotesque medical racketeering matrix fails, doctors will practice medicine at smaller scale, probably without advanced pharmaceuticals and techno-diagnostics. They’ll open small local clinics while zombies squat in the broken mega-hospitals. You’ll have to pay in cash, whatever form that comes in. You’ll have to take care of yourself, too, but there will be a whole lot less enticing, engineered, toxic crap available to stuff into your body — Froot Loops, Hot Pockets — and the food markets won’t be all that super. There will certainly be less food altogether, but there will be fewer of us to feed, and more of that fewer-of-us will be busy producing that food, one way or another.

    That’s the reality I see coming. As you’ve seen vividly, the journey from where we were in, say, the year 2000, to where we’re going has been psychologically disordering at the mass scale. These days, people who ought to know better express ideas that would have gotten them laughed out the room in 1999. The catch is that few of you know that this mass disordering grew out of fear of the journey. It was a phenomenon of infectious mass anxiety over something only dimly apprehended. You just thought it was about bad people.

    You’re now faced with the question: how to avoid committing suicide, directly or inadvertently, personally or as a whole society, slowly or quickly? — and its corollary, how to get through the madness in the meantime? Politics happen whether you pay attention to it or not. Politics is concerned with how a society navigates through history. Today, it seems that either A) somebody is steering badly; B) Nobody is steering; or C) some outside force has commandeered the ship’s wheel and is steering for us.

    Any way you look at that, we need somebody to steer.

    Mr. Trump has volunteered to try doing it again. The first time, forces in every quarter of American power set out to bushwhack, sandbag, harass, hector, and hound him. In the process, they just about destroyed the rule of law. Then they simply dis-elected him surreptitiously, something you’re not supposed to say, but there it is, like so much meat on the table. Now they’re trying to hoo-rah him into jail. Whatever you think of his, er, complex personality, you must admire his perseverance through adversity. If he somehow manages to wriggle through the present obstacle course of Lawfare chicanery, his next term would be an extravaganza of retribution. The spectacle would provide much satisfaction but, in the end, it would just be a sideshow, and it is not the same thing as taking care of business.

    “Joe Biden,” of course, the man who is not really even there, is only pretending to run for reelection, or at least a coterie around the Oval Office is pretending for him while they try to figure out what to do. They’re in an awful quandary. They hold all the levers of power and they have no other credible candidate, not a living soul, in their own official hatchery.

    Outside of that ghastly edifice, Robert F. Kennedy is making a determined flanking move, an end-run near the sidelines. The Democratic Party in all its florid and mendacious lunacy is pretending to not notice him, especially their praetorian news media that is the vector for America’s mass mental illness. Mr. Kennedy put it so simply in April when he announced a run to preside over the stupendous mess that is our government. He said his mission is an experiment to see what happens when you tell Americans the truth. Hold that thought. How long has it been since you thought anything like that was possible?

    There’s a broad-based assumption across the land, derived from our fading prime artform, the movies, that Americans can’t handle the truth. Like so much else in our national life, that is probably erroneous… fake truth. And what is so striking in Mr. Kennedy’s performance so far is an absence of fakery. It’s more than refreshing, it’s… startling. Makes you blink, a little bit. Makes you remember what it’s like to not be lied-to incessantly. Makes you want to see more of it because it gives you strength when you thought you were finished.

    Get this now: our world is changing, and deeply, but we’re not finished.

    *  *  *

    Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 15:25

  • I-95 Bridge Collapse In Philadelphia Sparks 'Major Traffic Disruption', May Snarl Supply Chains
    I-95 Bridge Collapse In Philadelphia Sparks ‘Major Traffic Disruption’, May Snarl Supply Chains

    Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg warned the I-95 bridge collapse in Northeast Philadelphia would cause “major disruption” for regional transportation and commuters. The stretch of I-95 will be closed for at least a month while the bridge is being rebuilt. 

    On Monday, Buttigieg addressed the American Council of Engineering Companies in Washington. He said his agency is working with state and local officials to rebuild the bridge and will provide financing and technical support. 

    Buttigieg warned summer travel on the I-95 through Philadelphia could be a nightmare:

    “This is not just about commutes.

    “This is also about supply chains, about 150,000 vehicles a day, and a good percentage of that is trucking. For both vehicle passenger traffic, and for goods moving supply chains, this is going to be a major disruption in that region.” 

    I-95 is a major artery for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and the entire East Coast.

    The bridge that collapsed Sunday morning was due to a tanker fire underneath. 

    The highway sees, on average, 150,000 vehicles a day. Traffic chaos is already underway:

    Tumar Alexander, managing director for the City of Philadelphia, told CBS News that the I-95 closure will have “a significant impact to this community for a while.”

    “95 will be impacted for a long time,” Alexander said. 

    Jana Tidwell, a spokesperson for AAA Mid-Atlantic, told Bloomberg that the I-95 closure comes as peak driving is nearing on a seasonal basis. 

    Also, on Monday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declared a disaster emergency to tap federal funds to rebuild the bridge as quickly as possible. 

    Shapiro, on Sunday, told reporters the bridge rebuild could take “some number of months.” 

    If you pass Philadelphia this summer, avoid traveling on the I-95 and other highways during peak travel hours. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 15:05

  • DOJ Fatigue: Is Special Counsel Smith Singing To An Empty Room?
    DOJ Fatigue: Is Special Counsel Smith Singing To An Empty Room?

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Below is my column in the Hill on the Trump indictment and why so many citizens have little interest in its content or charges. The reaction of many citizens vividly shows the costs of years of biased and inconsistent decisions involving Democratic and Republican figures. The result is what you now see. The Justice Department has lost the room.

    Here is the column:

    When Special Counsel Jack Smith walked before cameras on Friday after the release of the Trump 44-page indictment against former President Donald Trump, he started with arguably his most difficult case to make.

    He declared “we have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone.”

    After years of scandal and documented political bias by key Justice officials, the line likely left many skeptical, assuming many were even watching.

    The indictment was clearly a pitch to the public that this is a prosecution entirely removed from recent history.

    We’re also meant to not think about the fact that the Biden Administration is charging the leading candidate to opposed him in the upcoming election.

    This indictment has merit, but the Justice Department lost the right to expect trust from the citizens years ago — long before the damning Inspector General’s Report and the recent report of Special Counsel John Durham.

    To make matters worse, the same suspects have surfaced to celebrate Trump’s expected demise — and remind the public the perceived double standard in Washington.

    Peter Strzok, the FBI special agent who was fired over his anti-Trump bias in the Russian collusion investigation, cheered the indictment by tweeting a photo of handcuffs with Trump’s image.

    Strzok seems to think that it is a good thing for Smith to remind everyone of how he promised his colleague and lover Lisa Page that she did not have to worry about Trump being elected because they had an “insurance policy” to “stop it.”

    Hillary Clinton went on social media to hawk her line of merchandize mocking the case against her for storing classified material on her personal server and then destroying tens of thousands of emails sought by the Congress.

    She sent out a picture mocking Trump while wearing her “But Her Emails” hat.

    With millions of Americans wondering why Trump is being charged but Clinton was given a pass, Clinton decided to do a victory lap.

    And hey, why not: James Comey is back.

    It was Comey who declined to prosecute Clinton despite finding that she violated federal rules and handled classified material “carelessly.” He then launched a Russian collusion investigation that Durham found lacked minimal support against Trump.

    Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to mishandling classified White House documents that were recovered at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

    Trump unlawfully kept hundreds of documents after leaving office — including papers detailing America’s conventional and nuclear weapons programs, potential weak points in US defenses, and plans to respond to a foreign attack, federal prosecutors charged Friday.

    The 45th president stored boxes containing the documents throughout his estate, including “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room,” according to a 49-page indictment filed in Miami federal court Thursday.

    The indictment against Trump was unsealed hours after the 76-year-old announced he had been charged by Jack Smith, the special counsel tapped in November to examine Trump’s retention of official documents at Mar-a-Lago.

    The indictment is the former commander in chief’s second since leaving office and marks the first time in US history a former president has faced federal charges.

    In April, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.

    Nevertheless, Comey chose this month to declare that, in the 2024 election, “it has to be Joe Biden.”

    For critics, that is consistent with his views and actions before he was fired as FBI director.

    After Trump was indicted in a raw political prosecution in New York, Comey also went public to declare it a “good day.”

    So in the court of public opinion, past history and hypocrisy may mean that few are swayed about whether they back Trump or not. Which leaves the criminal court.

    This indictment has some devastating elements, including an audiotape in which Trump tells two visitors about a highly classified attack plan on Iran while admitting that it remained unclassified.

    That tape directly contradicts his past claims of declassification and suggests that Trump was using the document as a type of trophy.

    There are also damaging statements from former staff and counsel alleging that Trump actively sought to conceal documents.

    Smith is now left in a battle not with Trump but time.

    There are a variety of challenges expected from the Trump team, including arguing that the government misused the civil statute of the Presidential Records Act to launch a criminal prosecution.

    They are likely to cite a 2012 opinion that Bill Clinton could remove classified tapes with foreign leaders — even if the tapes are designated to be presidential records.

    Amy Berman Jackson declared “the [Presidential Records Act] does not confer any mandatory or even discretional authority on the archivist. Under the statute, this responsibility is left solely to the president.”

    The Trump team is likely to litigate that and other questions.

    While there are good-faith arguments to make in rebuttal, it will take time.

    And if enough time passes, the ultimate judgment in the case will be the millions of jurors in the coming election.

    Not only can Trump pardon himself, but fellow candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy has also suggested that they will also pardon him.

    Smith’s case could end with a stroke of a pen.

    It seems for both Comey and Smith, it has to be Biden in 2024.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/12/2023 – 14:45

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