Today’s News 14th May 2022

• The Race To Break The Russia-China Alliance & The "Ukraine Of The Asia Pacific"
  The Race To Break The Russia-China Alliance & The “Ukraine Of The Asia Pacific”

  Authored by Matthew Ehret,

  There is a window of opportunity open for the west to recognize the total failure of the unipolar model before the point of no return has passed.

  

  It has become commonplace western media and armadas of geopolitical think tankers to paint today’s Russia-China alliance as a matter of either “momentary convenience”, or as a strained partnership between two competing authoritarian regimes with global imperial aspirations.

  However, if one simply looks at the facts as they are without the filter of “experts” telling you how to interpret reality, it becomes extremely clear that those cynical geopolitical assessments painted by geopolitical opinionators are doing little more than trying to analyze life through lenses that only see dead corpses. It isn’t that such analysts aren’t necessarily concerned with the truth (although more than a few aren’t), but due to their fundamental axioms, their limited minds cannot contemplate a system organized by a non-Hobbesian parameters either past, present or future. It is for this reason that such opinionators cannot understand the nature of the Russian-China alliance nor can they see or understand the stark parallels in the asymmetrical war efforts to destroy either Eurasian power.

  Due to this intellectual blindness, even among many intelligent experts within the alternative media community, I will take this opportunity to briefly assess some of the key elements of the parallel features of both operations that have been deployed to destroy both Russia and China. We will begin by looking at the color revolutionary tactics, followed by ‘Gladio stay behinds’, military encirclement, biowarfare and finally the use of ‘fifth columns’.

  Color Revolutionary Tactics

  Over the past decades, both Russia and China have contended with obsessive efforts to carve up and destabilize their governments utilizing “democracy promoting/anti corruption” organizations tied to western intel have fortunately failed to Balkanize them as seen in the tragic case of Yugoslavia.

  The late geopolitical guru Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote passionately of his vision of a carved-up Russia in his 1997 Grand Chessboard saying: “A loosely confederated Russia- composed of a European Russia, a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern Republic- would find it easier to cultivate closer economic regulations with Europe, with the new states of Central Asia and with East Asia, which would thereby accelerate Russia’s own development.”

  Over the years, western funded movements in China have arisen calling openly for breaking up China into no less than five ethno-nationalist micro-states called ‘East Turkestan, The Free State of Tibet, Canton and Manchuria.’

  Purged multibillionaire deep state operative Guo Wengui (aka: Miles Guo), now operating from New York, has gone so far as to establish an international insurrectionary organization called ‘The New Federal State of China’ with a shiny new flag, constitution and cheesy anthem for the post-CCP China which will undoubtedly happen any day within Guo’s wildest imagination.

  The leaders of both nations have clearly identified “color revolutionary” tactics as an active form of asymmetrical warfare leading both states to ban a wide spectrum of western-funded NGOs (or if permitted to exist within their territories to be forced to register as ‘foreign agents’). While the color revolution financing king George Soros was banned from China back in 1989, Russia took longer to gain the power and confidence to ban the economic hitman’s Open Society operations which finally occurred in 2015.

  Gladio-type “stay-behinds” on their borders.

  The asymmetrical warfare tool basket doesn’t stop at color revolutionary tactics, but relies upon networks of provocateurs and extremists who often find their roots in the non-punishment of virulent war criminals in the wake of WW2.

  Those second and third generation fascist stay-behinds who were incorporated into western intelligence under the helm of NATO after WW2 remains one of the most uncomfortable and dangerous secrets of the modern age.

  Weaponized ideological groups carefully groomed by Anglo-American intelligence since WWII and who continued to glorify Nazi-collaborators as “great heroes” played a major role both during the Cold War, and also today’s Banderite-filled age with neo-Nazi battalions driven obsessively to carry out jihad against Russia as their spiritual forefathers had done during WW2.

  This problem is not isolated to Eastern Europe, but persists in China’s own back yard where the American military colony of Japan still maintains a strong tradition of treating WWII fascist war criminals as heroes (much to China’s chagrin).

  One of the largest parties occupying 30% of the Japanese parliamentary seats (and headed by former PM Shinzo Abe) is the Nippon Kaigi party which claims openly that “Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia” during WW2.

  Despite many anti-fascist impulses in Japan seeking to maintain peaceful coexistence with their Eurasian neighbors, the Nippon Kaigi goes so far as to deny that Japan committed any atrocities to the Chinese during WW2 while trying to maintain the thesis that Japan was on the side of justice by working with Hitler. Keep in mind that this is also the same colony (now hosting over 50,000 US troops) which saw former PM Shinzo Abe call publicly for acquiring US-owned nuclear weapons to defend against China one week after Zelensky made that same call on behalf of Ukraine in Munich on February 19th.

  Full Spectrum Dominance: Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific

  Like Russia, who has watched “full spectrum dominance” wrap around her perimeter over the course of 20+ years, China has also been looking at ongoing efforts to create a “NATO of the Pacific” termed “the Quad” in her backyard.

  This toxic idea has been championed by NATO-connected think tanks like the Atlantic Council and CFR for years and grows directly out of Obama’s 2012 ‘Asia Pivot’ strategy which saw a broad extension of missile systems, trident-bearing submarines, provocative “freedom of navigation” exercises, military bases and efforts to impose US-controlled governments hostile to China in the Pacific region.

  The ABM-aspect of this program (which experts agree can be easily converted from “defensive” into “offensive”) is reflected in the THAAD missile system already stationed in South Korea which currently hosts over 28,000 US troops. Nominally justifying its existence to stop the “North Korean threat”, the reality is that this system has always been aimed at China.

  

  Describing the $762 billion National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 which received nearly total bipartisan support, analyst Michael Klare observed:

  “The gigantic 2022 defense bill — passed with overwhelming support from both parties — provides a detailed blueprint for surrounding China with a potentially suffocating network of U.S. bases, military forces, and increasingly militarized partner states. The goal is to enable Washington to barricade that country’s military inside its own territory and potentially cripple its economy in any future crisis. For China’s leaders, who surely can’t tolerate being encircled in such a fashion, it’s an open invitation to… well, there’s no point in not being blunt… fight their way out of confinement.”

  Taiwan as Ukraine of the Pacific

  Obviously within this entire mess, Taiwan (which has been an Anglo-American plaything since 1949) is currently acting like the “Ukraine of the Pacific” with many leading agents operating throughout the government calling openly for US military defense of China’s autonomous province from the “evil commie” mainlanders.

  Biden himself has pledged that Taiwan can “count on America’s support” were an invasion to break out at any time. These supportive words were backed up with a $750 million deal to provide a Howitzer military system to Taiwan in August 2021, a $100 million deal to supply and upgrade Taiwan’s patriot missile systems on February 8, 2022 and another $95 million missile deal on April 6, 2022. After the second of these three deals, the Taiwanese foreign ministry sounded like it was trying to out-Zelensky Zelensky saying:

  “In the face of China’s continued military expansion and provocative actions, our country will maintain its national security with a solid defence, and continue to deepen the close security partnership between Taiwan and the United States.”

  China’s concerns over the vast expansion of US efforts to turn Taiwan into a Pacific Ukraine (including a doubling of military officials in the US embassy compound in the past year) are very real.

  Biowarfare in the 21st Century

  Then there is the serious issue of the Pentagon’s bioweapons infrastructure that has demonstrated an ethnic-targeting feature as outlined in the September 2000 PNAC manifesto “Rebuilding Americas Defenses”. In this bone-chilling neocon manifesto, its authors stated that in the 21st century “combat will likely take place in new dimensions: In space, cyber-space and perhaps the world of microbes… advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool”.

  Today over 320 Pentagon-run biolabs are scattered strategically around the world with a very active program titled “Jupitr” and “Centaur” located in in South Korea. This later program has caused grave concern to both the Chinese and many Koreans since Obama launched inaugurated the program in 2010 with an executive order that stated “a robust and productive scientific enterprise that utilizes biological select agents and toxins is essential to national security.”

  This was the same team that brought us the Obama-Lugar partnership that established a vast bio-laboratory infrastructure in Georgia while Obama was still just another Soros-controlled Senator with Presidential ambitions.

  Work on some of the deadliest toxins in the world has been conducted within the US run biolabs which include work on botulinum, ricin, staphylococcal, anthrax, plague and more. In 2015 the US military was caught illegally shipping samples of live anthrax via FedEx to the US laboratory at the Oran Air base 70 km south of Seoul resulting in civilian protests across the nation although no evidence of any change in policy by the Americans.

  Japan’s sordid past is again brought back into the story, as Finian Cunningham’s recent Strategic Culture Foundation study on the origins of US bioweapons complex zeroed in on the Military Industrial Complex’s absorption of the genocidal “Unit 731” under the control of Shiro Ishii. Cunningham wrote:

  “Ishii’s Unit 731 is estimated to have caused up to 500,000 deaths during the war from the use of biological warfare by dropping pathogens from airplanes on Chinese cities in Hunan and Zhejiang provinces. The unit also carried out diabolic forced experiments on Chinese and Russian prisoners of war to study the epidemiology of diseases and vaccines. Inmates were infected with pathogens and subjected to horrible agonizing deaths… Shiro Ishii and his criminal network were never brought to trial following the war despite earnest Soviet requests. Instead, the Americans who occupied mainland Japan granted him and his team of doctors immunity from prosecution in exchange for exclusive access to the biological and chemical warfare experiments. The Pentagon assigned its experts from Fort Detrick, Maryland, to tap the Japanese trove of data.”

  This list would not be complete without the last consideration…

  Fifth Columnists in Russia and China

  Leaders within both nations have been contending for years with World Economic Forum fifth columnists like Anatoly Chubais in Russia and WEF Trustee Jack Ma (and more than a few other Shanghai Clique connected technocrats and billionaires) both inside and outside of China. Some observations on those foreign influences still exerting relevant influence within China via Shanghai as a hotbed for international finance was Emanuel Pastreich who wrote:

  “Shanghai is riddled with global financial interests, with the head offices (or certainly the major branch) for all major multinational investment banks and multinational corporations located there. Their impact on the Chinese economy remains immense.

  Shanghai has a history of over a hundred years as a center for global capital with a parasitic relationship to the rest of the nation. It was Shanghai, after all, that offered extraterritoriality to citizens from imperial powers until the 1940s.”

  Luckily, since the ousting of Soros, many of the worst elements of China’s deep state have been incrementally de-weeded in bursts starting in 1989, then 1997, and the largest robust purge begun in 2012 and continuing to this day.

  Some of the biggest operatives purged by Xi’s crackdown on corruption include Ma Jian (former Deputy Director of China’s National Security Bureau), Zhang Yue (former legal affairs secretary of Hebei), Bo Zilai (former Communist Party Secretary of Chonqing), Xu Caihou (Vice Chair of China’s Military Commission), and billionaire Pony Ma (to name but a few).

  There has been an obvious clash between these traitorous forces and genuine patriots in both nations committed to their peoples’ survival in opposition to the religious like commitment to depopulation, cultural mediocrity and global enslavement.

  Beyond Simply Survival

  Russia and China’s commitment to survival and cooperation goes far beyond utilitarian concerns as outlined by their February 4th joint statement for Cooperation Entering a New Era which called for the further integration of the EAEU and BRI, military intelligence harmonization under the growing SCO and broader international integration of the multipolar system.

  Among its many important points, the statement read:

  “The sides are seeking to advance their work to link the development plans for the Eurasian Economic Union [EAEU] and the Belt and Road Initiative with a view to intensifying practical cooperation between the EAEU and China in various areas and promoting greater interconnectedness between the Asia Pacific and Eurasian regions.

  The sides reaffirm their focus on building the Greater Eurasian Partnership in parallel and in coordination with the Belt and Road construction to foster the development of regional associations as well as bilateral and multilateral integration processes for the benefit of the peoples on the Eurasian continent.”

  There is still a window of opportunity open for the west to wake up and recognize the total failure of the unipolar model of imperial governance before the point of no return has passed. Whether or not the moral fitness to conduct this exercise in humility still exists remains to be seen.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 23:40

• Synthetic Biology: The $3.6 Trillion Science Changing Life As We Know It
  Synthetic Biology: The $3.6 Trillion Science Changing Life As We Know It

  Synthetic biology (synbio) is a field of science that redesigns organisms in an effort to enhance and support human life. According to one projection, this rapidly growing field of science is expected to reach $28.8 billion in global revenue by 2026.

  As Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang details below, although it has the potential to transform many aspects of society, things could go horribly wrong if synbio is used for malicious or unethical reasons. This infographic explores the opportunities and potential risks that this budding field of science has to offer.

  

  What is Synthetic Biology?

  We’ve covered the basics of synbio in previous work, but as a refresher, here’s a quick explanation of what synbio is and how it works.

  Synbio is an area of scientific research that involves editing and redesigning different biological components and systems in various organisms.

  It’s like genetic engineering but done at a more granular level—while genetic engineering transfers ready-made genetic material between organisms, synbio can build new genetic material from scratch.

  The Opportunities of Synbio

  This field of science has a plethora of real-world applications that could transform our everyday lives. A study by McKinsey found over 400 potential uses for synbio, which were broken down into four main categories:

  • Human health and performance

  • Agriculture and food

  • Consumer products and services

  • Materials and energy production

  If those potential uses become reality in the coming years, they could have a direct economic impact of up to $3.6 trillion per year by 2030-2040.

  1. Human Health and Performance

  The medical and health sector is predicted to be significantly influenced by synbio, with an economic impact of up to $1.3 trillion each year by 2030-2040.

  Synbio has a wide range of medical applications. For instance, it can be used to manipulate biological pathways in yeast to produce an anti-malaria treatment.

  It could also enhance gene therapy. Using synbio techniques, the British biotech company Touchlight Genetics is working on a way to build synthetic DNA without the use of bacteria, which would be a game-changer for the field of gene therapy.

  2. Agriculture and Food

  Synbio has the potential to make a big splash in the agricultural sector as well—up to $1.2 trillion per year by as early as 2030.

  One example of this is synbio’s role in cellular agriculture, which is when meat is created from cells directly. The cost of creating lab-grown meat has decreased significantly in recent years, and because of this, various startups around the world are beginning to develop a variety of cell-based meat products.

  3. Consumer Products and Services

  Using synthetic biology, products could be tailored to suit an individual’s unique needs. This would be useful in fields such as genetic ancestry testing, gene therapy, and age-related skin procedures.

  By 2030-2040, synthetic biology could have an economic impact on consumer products and services to the tune of up to $800 billion per year.

  4. Materials and Energy Production

  Synbio could also be used to boost efficiency in clean energy and biofuel production. For instance, microalgae are currently being “reprogrammed” to produce clean energy in an economically feasible way.

  This, along with other material and energy improvements through synbio methods, could have a direct economic impact of up to $300 billion each year.

  The Potential Risks of Synbio

  While the potential economic and societal benefits of synthetic biology are vast, there are a number of risks to be aware of as well:

  • Unintended biological consequences: Making tweaks to any biological system can have ripple effects across entire ecosystems or species. When any sort of lifeform is manipulated, things don’t always go according to plan.

  • Moral issues: How far we’re comfortable going with synbio depends on our values. Certain synbio applications, such as embryo editing, are controversial. If these types of applications become mainstream, they could have massive societal implications, with the potential to increase polarization within communities.

  • Unequal access: Innovation and progress in synbio is happening faster in wealthier countries than it is in developing ones. If this trend continues, access to these types of technology may not be equal worldwide. We’ve already witnessed this type of access gap during the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, where a majority of vaccines have been administered in rich countries.

  • Bioweaponry: Synbio could be used to recreate viruses, or manipulate bacteria to make it more dangerous, if used with ill intent.

  According to a group of scientists at the University of Edinburgh, communication between the public, synthetic biologists, and political decision-makers is crucial so that these societal and environmental risks can be mitigated.

  Balancing Risk and Reward

  Despite the risks involved, innovation in synbio is happening at a rapid pace.

  By 2030, most people will have likely eaten, worn, or been treated by a product created by synthetic biology, according to synthetic biologist Christopher A. Voigt.

  Our choices today will dictate the future of synbio, and how we navigate through this space will have a massive impact on our future—for better, or for worse.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 23:20

• These Are The American Cities Where Rents Rose The Most
  These Are The American Cities Where Rents Rose The Most

  Amid a historic stretch of inflation over the last year, the cost of housing (especially rent) has been one of the most significant pressures on household finances.

  Renters in many markets are seeing increases of 20% or more as they sign new leases, and, with the nationwide rental vacancy rate at just 5.6%, renters have few alternatives to find more affordable housing.

  

  The current state of the rental market is a product of both supply and demand, with issues compiling over time and being exacerbated since the pandemic began.

  

  Source: Stessa

  On the supply side, the US has an estimated shortage of nearly 4 million housing units. Zoning and density restrictions have made it more difficult to add housing stock in many locations, both for rentals and owner-occupied units.

  With rising real estate prices, 70% of the growth of the rental market since 2009 has come from higher-income earners who might otherwise have bought a home.

  

  Source: Stessa

  And as more high earners enter or stay in the rental market, builders and developers are incentivized to provide more luxury units, which means less new stock to meet the needs of low- and middle-income earners.

  

  Source: Stessa

  The pandemic-era economy has made all of these issues worse.

  Meanwhile, these are the small and midsize cities where rents have risen the most (and the least).

  

  The spike in home values and rising interest rates are putting homeownership further out of reach for many would-be buyers, keeping more people in the rental market.

  Builders and developers are also struggling to keep up with heightened demand while managing costs. Ongoing supply chain challenges have made it more time-consuming and expensive to obtain building materials, while the tight labor market has left hundreds of thousands of construction positions unfilled.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 22:40

• Today’s 'Diversity' Oaths Resemble 1950s 'Loyalty' Oaths
  Today’s ‘Diversity’ Oaths Resemble 1950s ‘Loyalty’ Oaths

  Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  It is rare to meet someone with true moral courage, someone who risks everything to do what he knows is right. I was privileged to know such a man, George Anastaplo. His story, set during the Red Scare of the 1950s, needs to be told because it applies today, when political zealots again demand rigid conformity.

  

  George, a boy from rural Illinois, refused to bow down to the most powerful lawyers in his home state. He knew their demands were wrong, even though he could have easily and truthfully said “yes” to their substance. He refused solely because he thought asking him violated basic guarantees in the U.S. Constitution.

  The time was the early 1950s, and the demands came from ideological crusaders on the right, who insisted on anti-communist loyalty oaths. Today’s crusaders come from the left, demanding pledges of support for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI). More on today’s ideological frenzy in a moment, but first, George’s story.

  Born in downstate Illinois, the son of Greek immigrants, George’s most formative experience was serving in World War II, where he was a navigator on B-17 and B-29 bombers. In the service, he told me, he met soldiers with backgrounds and life experiences far different from anyone he had known growing up. For someone as bright and curious as George, that experience opened up a wider world.

  After the war, George moved to the big city and went to the University of Chicago, where he earned his undergraduate and law degree (top of his class, 1951). He passed the bar exam and had only one more step before pursuing his chosen profession. Like all applicants, he had to answer a few questions from the Illinois State Bar Association.

  The examination began with some standard questions about communism. Those should have been easy since George abhorred Marxism. Still, George’s answers, focused on civil liberties, were not what the bar association wanted to hear. First, he noted that dissent and even revolution were integral features of America’s constitutional history. Then, the hapless members asked George the big question: “Are you now or have you ever been … ?”

  George Anastaplo refused to answer. He could have truthfully said, “No.” End of story. He could have noted that his parents’ homeland was fighting a brutal civil war to prevent communists from seizing control. He could have done all that, but he refused. His three-fold reply was that (1) the Constitution guaranteed freedom of association; (2) it was not illegal to belong to the Communist Party; and, most important, (3) it was totally improper for the Illinois Bar Association to ask him that question – or any question about an applicant’s political affiliation. His application to practice law was promptly denied.

  So, George and the Illinois Bar Association then did what all good American attorneys do: they sued each other. The constitutional challenge, in which George represented himself, took a full decade to reach the Supreme Court. It was the only case George ever argued, and he lost it despite a powerful dissent from Justice Hugo Black.

  “Too many men are being driven to become government-fearing and time-serving because the Government is being permitted to strike out at those who are fearless enough to think as they please and say what they think,” Justice Black wrote. “This trend must be halted if we are to keep faith with the Founders of our Nation and pass on to future generations of Americans the great heritage of freedom which they sacrificed so much to leave to us.”

  George also received strong support from Leo Strauss, the great political philosopher and a seminal figure in conservative thought. He congratulated George for his “brave and just action” and added, “If the American Bench and Bar have any sense of shame, they must come on their knees to apologize to you.” Of course, they never did.

  George was never admitted to the bar. Instead, he taught political philosophy for six decades, wrote multiple books on political thought and civil liberties, eventually teaching at Loyola University’s law school. He was also our neighborhood Socrates, walking the streets of Hyde Park (near the University of Chicago) into his mid-80s, meeting friends and engaging in the kind of rigorous conversations recounted in Plato’s Dialogues.

  Why does George Anastaplo’s moral courage matter for us today? Because we are enduring another age of ideological zealotry, coupled with demands to “sign or resign.” Or never be hired in the first place.

  Today’s clearest analogy to anti-communist oaths are those demanding adherence to statements of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” The crucial point here is not the specific content of DEI statements. You might agree or disagree with them. The crucial point is that it is improper to make these demands for political conformity.

  Such demands are, unfortunately, commonplace on university campuses. So are the bureaucracies that enforce them. Those demands and those bureaucracies are antithetical to the basic mission of a university, where freedom of expression and diversity of viewpoint should be core values, vigorously protected.

  Instead, every university has its burgeoning DEI bureaucracy, which writes these statements, runs seminars to indoctrinate students, staff, and faculty, and punishes the recalcitrant. Many departments won’t even consider hiring someone who refuses to kneel in obedience.

  Here, for example, is Berkeley’s “Rubric for Assessing Candidate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging,” which it urges departmental search committees to use. (“Belonging” is a nice additional touch, isn’t it?) Note that voters in Deep Blue California strongly favor “merit” and have twice rejected any racial advantages in admissions. They are clearly opposed to what the university administrators are trying to impose here. No matter. Being a bureaucrat means never having to say you are sorry – or paying any attention to the desires of the taxpayers who pay your salary.

  Another recent example comes from George Anastaplo’s home state, from one of the country’s great research institutions, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The top academic officer there, Provost Andreas Cangellaris, recently announced that the university “will soon require all faculty members to submit a diversity statement to be considered for tenure or promotion.” So, if you study quantum physics, organic chemistry, statistics, or artificial intelligence, you must pledge allegiance to an ideological statement far removed from your field of academic excellence. Until now, the university had been requiring DEI statements on a “voluntary basis.” Yeah, sure. Imagine refusing and trying to get hired?

  I know what my friend George Anastaplo would do because he already did it. He would refuse to buckle to the DEI bureaucrats. He would fight the good fight all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary, where today’s justices might listen more closely to Hugo Black’s powerful dissent:

  The entire course of [George Anastaplo’s] life, as disclosed by the record, has been one of devotion and service to his country-first, in his willingness to defend its security at the risk of his own life in time of war and, later, in his willingness to defend its freedoms at the risk of his professional career in time of peace. The one and only time in which he has come into conflict with the Government is when he refused to answer the questions put to him by the Committee about his beliefs and associations. And I think the record clearly shows that conflict resulted, not from any fear on Anastaplo’s part to divulge his own political activities, but from a sincere, and in my judgment correct, conviction that the preservation of this country’s freedom depends upon adherence to our Bill of Rights.

  We need a lot more people like George Anastaplo, and a lot fewer like Andreas Cangellaris and his heavy-handed cadre of DEI enforcers. We need a lot more people with George Anastaplo’s integrity in public and private universities, in K-12 schools, and in private businesses and nonprofits. His courage and his reverence for America’s Constitution are an enduring model.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 22:20

• Mapped: Solar And Wind Power By Country
  Mapped: Solar And Wind Power By Country

  Wind and solar generate over a tenth of the world’s electricity. Taken together, they are the fourth-largest source of electricity, behind coal, gas, and hydro.

  Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti shows in the infographic below, the use of electricity from these two clean sources varies significantly across different nations, based on data from Ember.

  

  Europe Leads in Wind and Solar

  Wind and solar generated 10.3% of global electricity for the first time in 2021, rising from 9.3% in 2020, and doubling their share compared to 2015 when the Paris Climate Agreement was signed.

  In fact, 50 countries (26%) generated over a tenth of their electricity from wind and solar in 2021, with seven countries hitting this landmark for the first time: China, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Argentina, Hungary, and El Salvador.

  Denmark and Uruguay achieved 52% and 47% respectively, leading the way in technology for high renewable grid integration.

  

   

  From a regional perspective, Europe leads with nine of the top 10 countries. On the flipside, the Middle East and Africa have the fewest countries reaching the 10% threshold.

   

  Further Renewables Growth Needed to meet Global Climate Goals

  The electricity sector was the highest greenhouse gas emitting sector in 2020.

  According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the sector needs to hit net zero globally by 2040 to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees. And to hit that goal, wind and solar power need to grow at nearly a 20% clip each year to 2030.

  Despite the record rise in renewables, solar and wind electricity generation growth currently doesn’t meet the required marks to reach the Paris Agreement’s goals.

  In fact, when the world faced an unprecedented surge in electricity demand in 2021, only 29% of the global rise in electricity demand was met with solar and wind.

  Transition Underway

  Even as emissions from the electricity sector are at an all-time high, there are signs that the global electricity transition is underway.

  Governments like the U.S., Germany, UK, and Canada are planning to increase their share of clean electricity within the next decade and a half. Investments are also coming from the private sector, with companies like Amazon and Apple extending their positions on renewable energy to become some of the biggest buyers overall.

  More wind and solar are being added to grids than ever, with renewables expected to provide the majority of clean electricity needed to phase out fossil fuels.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 22:00

• "Wrongfully Detained" WNBA Star's Russian Detention Extended After Seen In Court For 1st Time
  “Wrongfully Detained” WNBA Star’s Russian Detention Extended After Seen In Court For 1st Time

  Earlier this month the US government declared a change in status regarding WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was arrested and held by Russian authorities starting in February, prior to the start of the war in Ukraine. The State Dept. had for the first time deemed her “wrongfully detained”.

  “The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is among the highest priorities of the U.S government,” the prior statement said. “The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained US citizen Brittney Griner.” It explained: “With this determination, the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens will lead the interagency team for securing Brittney Griner’s release.”

  And now a Russian court has extended her detention for another 30 days, according to sources cited by ESPN on Friday. She had reportedly requested to be placed under house arrest, which has been denied.

  

  Russian authorities had charged her with trying to smuggle narcotics after flying from New York to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The accusations appear to step from customs agents finding vape cartridges containing hashish oil, but Western officials have of late voiced their belief that the now lengthy detention and legal saga is politically motivated.

  International reports have noted that based on strict Russian drug laws, Griner could be facing up to 10 years in prison. Her Friday court appearance was the first time she’d been photographed since the start of her ordeal:

  The 6-foot-9 center for the Phoenix Mercury was seen in handcuffs wearing an orange hoodie with her hood over her head. Griner’s pre-trial extension was extended for one month. She was set to have her first hearing over the allegations, which if found guilty can carry a penalty of 10 years in prison.

  Staring in March the US Embassy in Moscow complained that Griner has been locked from proper consular access while being held abroad. A statement said the State Dept. officials “continues to press, thus far unsuccessfully still, for consular access … for all detainees and that includes Ms. Griner.” The statement at the time added: “We’re deeply concerned about our inability to access any of these US citizens in recent months.”

  Last week the U.S. State Department reclassified Brittney Griner as “wrongfully detained,” which means they will not wait for her case to go through the Russian legal system and will instead negotiate for her return home.

  1/2 pic.twitter.com/kmlDIahfDy

  — Arlene Christie (@HighwayOfTearz) May 13, 2022

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

  The other citizens referenced included former US Marines Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed. But it late April, Trevor Reed was released and allowed to return back to the United States as part of a rare prisoner swap brokered between Moscow and Washington.

  In return,  Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko had been freed from US custody. The former Russian pilot had been serving a 20-year sentence in the US on drug charges.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 21:20

• Texas Power Grid Warns Of Record Demand Amid Back-To-Back Triple-Digit Heatwaves
  Texas Power Grid Warns Of Record Demand Amid Back-To-Back Triple-Digit Heatwaves

  An early summer heatwave pattern continues to boil parts of the Central and Southern Plains. This means parts of Texas will continue to roast with temperatures forecasted to reach triple digits next week. 

  

  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s power grid operator, is already warning of record energy demand next week as customers crank up the AC.  

  Power consultant Doug Lewin, who actively monitors the Texas grid, told FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth that triple-digit temperatures are very concerning because it’s “still not even summer.” 

  On Tuesday, ERCOT reported power grid demand jumped to 70,703 megawatts, smashing the May 2018 record demand of 67,271 megawatts due to an early week heatwave. Now the next round of heat has the power grid operator concerned. 

  ERCOT issued an operating conditions notice (OCN) for extremely hot weather. The OCN begins on Friday and lasts through next Wednesday. The grid operator ensured customers it had enough power to meet the demand spike. 

  The National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office warns that “more triple-digit heat is in store for early next week.”

  Some areas west of Highway 83 were able to get some much needed rain Tuesday night, but the hot and dry pattern will resume for the next several days. More triple digit heat is in store for early next week. pic.twitter.com/aA6Ylcrrgx

  — NWS Austin/San Antonio (@NWSSanAntonio) May 11, 2022

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

  High temperatures across the Dallas/Fort Worth areas are expected to flirt with triple digits on Sunday through next week. 

  

  Back-to-back heatwaves hitting parts of Texas when power plants usually go offline for maintenance is concerning, though the latest from ERCOT is that they have everything under control. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 21:20

• CDC Admits It Can't Back Claim That Vaccines Don't Cause Variants
  CDC Admits It Can’t Back Claim That Vaccines Don’t Cause Variants

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

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it does not have documents backing its claim that COVID-19 vaccines do not cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

  

  The CDC’s website calls it a myth that the vaccines cause variants.

  “FACT: COVID-19 vaccines do not create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent new variants from emerging,” the website states.

  “New variants of a virus happen because the virus that causes COVID-19 constantly changes through a natural ongoing process of mutation (change). As the virus spreads, it has more opportunities to change. High vaccination coverage in a population reduces the spread of the virus and helps prevent new variants from emerging,” it also says.

  The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit, asked the CDC in Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation supporting the claim.

  In one request, the group asked for “All documents sufficient to support that COVID-19 vaccines do not create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.”

  Another requested “All documents sufficient to support that the immunity conferred by COVID-19 vaccines does not contribute to virus evolution and the emergence of variants.”

  The CDC has now responded to both requests, saying a search “found no records responsive” to them.

  The first response came in January (pdf); the second came on May 4 (pdf).

  If the CDC is making declaratory statements, the agency should have documents supporting them, Aaron Siri, an attorney representing ICAN, told The Epoch Times.

  The responses are “very troubling,” Siri said. “I thought the CDC was a data-driven organization, that they made their decisions based on the studies and the science and the data.”

  The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

  ICAN has been one of the more prolific requesters of information from the CDC during the pandemic. Many requests have yielded information. Others have not.

  In this case, the CDC should act to ensure continued public trust, Siri says.

  “Remove the language or provide the evidence,” he said. “There obviously are going to be instances where recommendations from the CDC might prove helpful or useful. And I think they do a disservice to everybody by hurting their own credibility by making statements that they either don’t have support or won’t produce the support for.”

  Scientists outside the CDC have also said that vaccines can help prevent new variants.

  “As more people get vaccinated, we expect virus circulation to decrease, which will then lead to fewer mutations,” the World Health Organization says on its site.

  But many of the claims relied on the vaccines being able to stop infection from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19. The vaccines are increasingly unable to do so, particularly against the newest dominant strain, Omicron.

  Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, a virologist, is among those who say that the vaccines themselves are behind new variants.

  “All COVID-19 vaccines fail in blocking viral transmission, especially transmission of more infectious variants. This is a huge problem as viral transmission is now increasingly taking place among healthy people in general and vaccinees in particular (as their S-specific Abs do not sufficiently neutralize S variants),” Vanden Bossche says on his website. “The resulting suboptimal S-directed immune pressure serves as a breeding ground for even more infectious variants.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 21:00

• Watch: Tesla Model 3 Goes Airborne, Crashes Through Front Entrance Of Columbus Convention Center
  Watch: Tesla Model 3 Goes Airborne, Crashes Through Front Entrance Of Columbus Convention Center

  A Tesla Model 3 made a dramatic entrance when it crashed through the glass exterior of the Greater Columbus Convention Center, located in downtown Colombus, Ohio, at a high rate of speed that caused $350k worth of damage, according to local news The Columbus Dispatch. 

  Columbus police received a call around 1230 on Wednesday, May 4, about a Model 3 exceeding 70 mph and plowed into a barrier before going airborne — crashing through the center’s entrance. 

  

  The police report said a 63-year-old driver “lost control of his brakes and was unable to stop.” 

  

  

  This week, the Dispatch released new security footage of the accident. The video is shocking, and miraculously nobody was injured except for the driver. 

  The convention center estimated the crash caused $350k in damage, including the entire front entrance, sprinkler system, power lines, carpeting, drywall, and wall coverings that need to be replaced. 

  

  

  Ladbible notes the NTSB Office of Highway Safety in Washington, D.C. said they aren’t investigating the crash. 

  “The NTSB has decided not to pursue an investigation of this crash.

  “Tesla checked their system, and they did not receive any telematics data from this crash.

  “The vehicle ECM would likely have retained the data.

  “We are interested in any vehicle that is operating under some sort of autonomous mode or utilizing an autopilot feature. 

  “Presumably, the vehicle still has the electronic data recorder, so if we wanted to get that data, we could, if we had decided to investigate it,” said Thomas Barth, the agency’s special investigations chief.

  According to police, the driver was charged with failure to control the vehicle, and there was no mention in the crash report if Autopilot was engaged. 

  Last month, a Tesla Model 3 was driving down a stretch of California highway when the car’s computer allegedly froze. The car’s accelerator was unresponsive and stuck cruising at 83 mph. The driver managed to slow the vehicle down with brakes. 

  The NTSB has investigated numerous accidents involving Tesla vehicles over the years, especially ones on Autopilot.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 20:40

• "You've Been Flagged As A Threat": Predictive AI Technology Puts A Target On Your Back
  “You’ve Been Flagged As A Threat”: Predictive AI Technology Puts A Target On Your Back

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

  “The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.”

  – Milton Friedman

  You’ve been flagged as a threat.

  Before long, every household in America will be similarly flagged and assigned a threat score.

  Without having ever knowingly committed a crime or been convicted of one, you and your fellow citizens have likely been assessed for behaviors the government might consider devious, dangerous or concerning; assigned a threat score based on your associations, activities and viewpoints; and catalogued in a government database according to how you should be approached by police and other government agencies based on your particular threat level.

  If you’re not unnerved over the ramifications of how such a program could be used and abused, keep reading.

  

  It’s just a matter of time before you find yourself wrongly accused, investigated and confronted by police based on a data-driven algorithm or risk assessment culled together by a computer program run by artificial intelligence.

  Consider the case of Michael Williams, who spent almost a year in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Williams was behind the wheel when a passing car fired at his vehicle, killing his 25-year-old passenger Safarian Herring, who had hitched a ride.

  Despite the fact that Williams had no motive, there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, no gun was found in the car, and Williams himself drove Herring to the hospital, police charged the 65-year-old man with first-degree murder based on ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection program that had picked up a loud bang on its network of surveillance microphones and triangulated the noise to correspond with a noiseless security video showing Williams’ car driving through an intersection. The case was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence.

  Although gunshot detection program like ShotSpotter are gaining popularity with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and courts alike, they are riddled with flaws, mistaking “dumpsters, trucks, motorcycles, helicopters, fireworks, construction, trash pickup and church bells…for gunshots.”

  As an Associated Press investigation found, “the system can miss live gunfire right under its microphones, or misclassify the sounds of fireworks or cars backfiring as gunshots.”

  In one community, ShotSpotter worked less than 50% of the time.

  Then there’s the human element of corruption which invariably gets added to the mix. In some cases, “employees have changed sounds detected by the system to say that they are gunshots.” Forensic reports prepared by ShotSpotter’s employees have also “been used in court to improperly claim that a defendant shot at police, or provide questionable counts of the number of shots allegedly fired by defendants.”

  The same company that owns ShotSpotter also owns a predictive policing program that aims to use gunshot detection data to “predict” crime before it happens. Both Presidents Biden and Trump have pushed for greater use of these predictive programs to combat gun violence in communities, despite the fact that found they have not been found to reduce gun violence or increase community safety.

  The rationale behind this fusion of widespread surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, precognitive technology, and neighborhood and family snitch programs is purportedly to enable the government takes preemptive steps to combat crime (or whatever the government has chosen to outlaw at any given time).

  This is precrime, straight out of the realm of dystopian science fiction movies such as Minority Report, which aims to prevent crimes before they happen, but in fact, it’s just another means of getting the citizenry in the government’s crosshairs in order to lock down the nation.

  Even Social Services is getting in on the action, with computer algorithms attempting to predict which households might be guilty of child abuse and neglect.

  All it takes is an AI bot flagging a household for potential neglect for a family to be investigated, found guilty and the children placed in foster care.

  Mind you, potential neglect can include everything from inadequate housing to poor hygiene, but is different from physical or sexual abuse.

  According to an investigative report by the Associated Press, once incidents of potential neglect are reported to a child protection hotline, the reports are run through a screening process that pulls together “personal data collected from birth, Medicaid, substance abuse, mental health, jail and probation records, among other government data sets.” The algorithm then calculates the child’s potential risk and assigns a score of 1 to 20 to predict the risk that a child will be placed in foster care in the two years after they are investigated. “The higher the number, the greater the risk. Social workers then use their discretion to decide whether to investigate.”

  Other predictive models being used across the country strive to “assess a child’s risk for death and severe injury, whether children should be placed in foster care and if so, where.”

  Incredibly, there’s no way for a family to know if AI predictive technology was responsible for their being targeted, investigated and separated from their children. As the AP notes, “Families and their attorneys can never be sure of the algorithm’s role in their lives either because they aren’t allowed to know the scores.”

  One thing we do know, however, is that the system disproportionately targets poor, black families for intervention, disruption and possibly displacement, because much of the data being used is gleaned from lower income and minority communities.

  The technology is also far from infallible. In one county alone, a technical glitch presented social workers with the wrong scores, either underestimating or overestimating a child’s risk.

  Yet fallible or not, AI predictive screening program is being used widely across the country by government agencies to surveil and target families for investigation. The fallout of this over surveillance, according to Aysha Schomburg, the associate commissioner of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, is “mass family separation.”

  The impact of these kinds of AI predictive tools is being felt in almost every area of life.

  Under the pretext of helping overwhelmed government agencies work more efficiently, AI predictive and surveillance technologies are being used to classify, segregate and flag the populace with little concern for privacy rights or due process.

  All of this sorting, sifting and calculating is being done swiftly, secretly and incessantly with the help of AI technology and a surveillance state that monitors your every move.

  Where this becomes particularly dangerous is when the government takes preemptive steps to combat crime or abuse, or whatever the government has chosen to outlaw at any given time.

  In this way, government agents—with the help of automated eyes and ears, a growing arsenal of high-tech software, hardware and techniques, government propaganda urging Americans to turn into spies and snitches, as well as social media and behavior sensing software—are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports aimed at snaring potential enemies of the state.

  Are you a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder? Have you expressed controversial, despondent or angry views on social media? Do you associate with people who have criminal records or subscribe to conspiracy theories? Were you seen looking angry at the grocery store? Is your appearance unkempt in public? Has your driving been erratic? Did the previous occupants of your home have any run-ins with police?

  All of these details and more are being used by AI technology to create a profile of you that will impact your dealings with government.

  It’s the American police state rolled up into one oppressive pre-crime and pre-thought crime package, and the end result is the death of due process.

  In a nutshell, due process was intended as a bulwark against government abuses. Due process prohibits the government of depriving anyone of “Life, Liberty, and Property” without first ensuring that an individual’s rights have been recognized and respected and that they have been given the opportunity to know the charges against them and defend against those charges.

  With the advent of government-funded AI predictive policing programs that surveil and flag someone as a potential threat to be investigated and treated as dangerous, there can be no assurance of due process: you have already been turned into a suspect.

  To disentangle yourself from the fallout of such a threat assessment, the burden of proof rests on you to prove your innocence.

  You see the problem?

  It used to be that every person had the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof rested with one’s accusers. That assumption of innocence has since been turned on its head by a surveillance state that renders us all suspects and overcriminalization which renders us all potentially guilty of some wrongdoing or other.

  Combine predictive AI technology with surveillance and overcriminalization, then add militarized police crashing through doors in the middle of the night to serve a routine warrant, and you’ll be lucky to escape with your life.

  Yet be warned: once you get snagged by a surveillance camera, flagged by an AI predictive screening program, and placed on a government watch list—whether it’s a watch list for child neglect, a mental health watch list, a dissident watch list, a terrorist watch list, or a red flag gun watch list—there’s no clear-cut way to get off, whether or not you should actually be on there.

  You will be tracked wherever you go, flagged as a potential threat and dealt with accordingly.

  If you’re not scared yet, you should be.

  We’ve made it too easy for the government to identify, label, target, defuse and detain anyone it views as a potential threat for a variety of reasons that run the gamut from mental illness to having a military background to challenging its authority to just being on the government’s list of persona non grata.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, you don’t even have to be a dissident to get flagged by the government for surveillance, censorship and detention.

  All you really need to be is a citizen of the American police state.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 20:20

• Gen Z Homebuyers Flock To These Inexpensive Metro Areas 
  Gen Z Homebuyers Flock To These Inexpensive Metro Areas 

  A new study by Lending Tree found Generation Z (ages 18 to 24) are purchasing homes in America’s least expensive “flyover” cities while barely entertaining homeownership in pricey coastal cities. 

  The study analyzed new mortgages across the country’s 50 top largest metros in 2021. Salt Lake City topped the list for Gen Z homebuyers, with 16.60% of mortgages. The second was Louisville, Kentucky, with 15.86% of mortgages, and Oklahoma City was third, with 15.34% of mortgages. These areas are relatively inexpensive in terms of homeownership and cost of living. 

  

  Metro areas with the lowest Gen Z homebuyers were San Francisco, New York, and San Jose. Homes in these areas are pricey, and the cost of living is expensive.

  

  Behaviors of this emerging young generation reveal they’re flocking to metro areas where they can afford, possibly due to affordability constraints. The typical Gen Z homebuyer had an average credit score of around 700. They made up almost 10% of all home purchases in 2021. 

  Since the study was only for the 2021 year, it remains to be seen how soaring mortgage rates in 2022 have changed their buying patterns. Perhaps, this generation has an even greater motivation to seek lower-cost metro areas, partly because of affordability and remote work.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 20:00

• Cenk Uygur Claims Joe Rogan "Hates" Transgenders Because He Had Sex With Them
  Cenk Uygur Claims Joe Rogan “Hates” Transgenders Because He Had Sex With Them

  Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

  The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur went on a bizarre, angry rant during which he suggested that Joe Rogan’s “hatred” for transgender people is driven by the fact he has had sex with them.

  

  Yes, really.

  Uygur was responding to Rogan pushing back against attempts to ban the word “groomer” on social media, a pejorative term for leftists, particularly those with LGBT proclivities, who attempt to expose children to information about sexual identities at a young age.

  The podcast host claimed that educators who are members of the LGBT community are “indoctrinating” young people “for their own sexual pleasure” and questioned the real motive behind attempting to censor the word “groomer”.

  “Do you not like it because you don’t want children to be groomed, or do you not like it cause it’s a pejorative that’s used against the left?” asked Rogan on episode 1817 of his show.

  Uygur responded by launching a campaign to find transgender people who had slept with Rogan, claiming that his discussion of trans issues was some kind of sexual hang-up.

  Cenk Uygur is on a hunt for trans people that he is fantasizing had sex with Joe Rogan, and urging these trans people to contact Cenk and tell him all about it: pic.twitter.com/y0ODFvVwuZ

  — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 12, 2022

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

  “By the way, if you’re the trans person or several people that slept with Joe Rogan, can you let us know? Because it’s obvious that it’s personal with him,” ranted Uygur.

  “Okay Joe, you slept with a person like that. There’s nothing wrong with it! Get over it! Get over it! Get over it, Joe! It’s super obvious that you’re super into trans people and you’re taking out your hatred over yourself on them, and you’re making their life dangerous,” he added.

  The clip went viral on Twitter, with many people making fun of the Young Turks host.

  “Cenk is just embarrassing himself at this point,” wrote one.

  “This is a transparently desperate attempt to get Joe Rogan to mention TYT on his JRE podcast. Cenk gonna Cenk,” said another.

  “It’s terrifying that anyone takes this man seriously,” added another.

  Rogan also recently addressed the controversy surrounding the participation of swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, in women’s events.

  “That might be the woke straw that breaks society’s camel’s back,” he said. “Women are so frustrated because if you – or parents if your daughter is competing and they’re competing against trans women, it’s not fair.”

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 19:40

• The Number Of Rich Americans Buying Second Passports Has Skyrocketed 300% The Last 3 Years
  The Number Of Rich Americans Buying Second Passports Has Skyrocketed 300% The Last 3 Years

  In another note of optimism for our country, Americans with money are officially starting to stockpile second passports as “Plan B” for their families.

  In fact, Americans who are citizenship or residency in foreign countries “has skyrocketed” over the last 3 years, according to a new report from Insider/Yahoo News. The report says that billionaires and entrepreneurs, along with celebrities, are all looking for a backup plan to the red, white and blue, should the proverbial stuff hit the fan.

  Among the worries of the rich remain Covid, climate change and political turmoil, the report says.

  There are more than a dozen countries that offer what are called “golden passports” and visas, the report says. These passports allow foreigners to get citizenship solely for investments in the country.

  For example, Malta has a program where you can receive citizenship for investing $1.1 million. In Austria, that number is $9.5 million.  

  Latitude Residency & Citizenship helps guide high net worth individuals through the application process. They say inquires from the U.S. are up 300% between 2019 and 2021. Another firm, Henley & Partners, has said that sales to American nationals were up 327% over the same time period. 

  

  One partner at Henley said there are “four C’s” driving his citizenship industry right now: COVID-19, climate change, cryptocurrency, and conflict.

  The executive told Insider: “In the very strict lockdowns there was a point where if you only had an American passport, you could not enter Europe. I think that made a lot of particularly ultra high net worth individuals realize that they’re potentially a little bit more fragile than they thought.”

  Reaz Jafri, CEO of Dasein Advisors, told Insider that he had seen more inquiries from Americans in the last 3 years than he had in the 20 years prior to that, combined. 

  “We’ve all lived through the past two and a half years. It all just reminded us how vulnerable and frail we are, and people who have means are accepting that it will happen again — and they don’t want to be caught off guard,” Jafri said.

  Ezzedeen Soleiman, a managing partner at Latitude, commented: “We see these programs as an insurance policy. We’ve had some billionaires approach us and ask what’s the best place to live if there’s a climate catastrophe, or if there’s another storm, or another global pandemic.”

  Has any of the immigration lawyers cashing these millionaire’s checks told these geniuses that a climate catastrophe would likely affect the entire Earth and not just the United States?

  We digress…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 19:20

• Midland, Texas Residents Suffer From Scorching 10% Inflation
  Midland, Texas Residents Suffer From Scorching 10% Inflation

  Midland, Texas is just one of the many American cities that is struggling to keep pace with scorching inflation in the country.

  The city, whose economy relies on oil, was called the “number 1 spot for inflation” by a new Bloomberg profile of its residents, who shared stories of how the rising cost of living was negatively affecting everyday life. 

  Inflation in Midland has been at about 10% for the last 6 months, the article notes, resulting in “menus at local restaurants [with] sticky notes telling diners that prices have been raised” and a gallon of gas reportedly costing about $6.

  Additionally, “hundreds of cars” line up outside the area’s largest food bank every Wednesday. The West Texas Food Bank in Odessa has seen a line of cars growing longer every week, with numbers rivaling that of what they were doing peak Covid crisis in 2020. 

  Jesus and Nativia Zepda, who have waited in the line, told Bloomberg: “The only food I can buy at the grocery store anymore is eggs and beans.”

  Another resident, Eduardo Gama, told Bloomberg that his wages haven’t kept up with inflation. Libby Campbell, chief executive officer of the West Texas Food Bank, said: “With the cost of living out here and inflation — people just aren’t able to keep up.”

  Single mom Melinda Hernandez lives with her 19 year old son in southern Midland. She lost her primary job and has been delivering pizza’s for $10/hour. She said: “I don’t want to fail my son and it’s my fear.”

  

  Legendary Barn Door Steakhouse owner Roy Gillean, who is based on Odessa, has raised the price of his Tomahawk steak “several times”. It’s priced at $62 but should be priced “closer to $70,” he said. 

  Bo Garrison, owner of Permian Dirt Works LLC, was told there were no more bulldozers available for him, nor were their any additional Ford F-250’s to be bought “until at least 2023”. Garrison’s business use about two dozen trucks, excavators and bulldozers on a daily basis. 

  He has raised wages up to 20% over the past year and pays “nearly double” what he paid for fuel a few months ago. “How much cash do I keep putting in without knowing what will happen in the end?” he said.

  “Now I gotta cross my fingers and pray that my mechanics are taking care of the equipment because if they break, that’s it,” he told Bloomberg. 

  Nonprofit Christmas in Action, which repairs homes for elderly owners, said that water heater prices have “doubled” along with lumber and siding over the past year. Nathan Knowles, director of operations, told Bloomberg: “When prices make a big jump like this, they just don’t come back down.”

  The biggest health-care provider in the region, Medical Center Health System, will be asking insurers in October to reimburse more for procedures. President Russell Tippin said: “The only thing I know is that it will go up and if it goes up, it’ll come down. But this is the first time I’ve doubted that. West Texas is experiencing double inflation — oil inflation and then the inflation of gas and milk and everything else.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 18:40

• Fusion GPS Loses Its Fight Over "Privileged" Documents
  Fusion GPS Loses Its Fight Over “Privileged” Documents

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

  We’ve documented the ongoing battle to obtain Fusion GPS e-mails and documents in the Michael Sussmann case. At issue in the Sussmann case are 38 e-mails and attachments between and among Fusion GPS, Rodney Joffe, and Perkins Coie. These 38 e-mails and attachments are among approximately 1,500 documents that Fusion GPS withheld from production to the grand jury based on “privilege.”

  

  What Fusion GPS has to produce.

  Today, the court in the Sussmann case made an important ruling and rejected, in large measure, Fusion’s assertion of attorney-client or work-product privilege:

  

  Fusion GPS will have to produce these documents to Special Counsel Durham by May 16, 2022. What do these e-mails and documents contain? The court’s order provides guidance, stating they relate to:

  Internal Fusion GPS e-mails discussing the Alfa Bank data and e-mails circulating draft versions of the Alfa Bank white papers that were “ultimately provided to the press and the FBI.”

  Here are some examples of what these e-mails might include. These are privilege logs in Fusion GPS’s other litigation relating to the Alfa Bank hoax.

  

  

  The other emails.

  This leaves 16 e-mails and documents remaining. For now, Durham will not get them. These are divided into two categories:

  1. Eight of the e-mails involve internal communications among Fusion GPS employees. The court was “unable to tell from the emails or the surrounding circumstances whether they were prepared for a purpose other than assisting Perkins Coie in providing legal advice to the Clinton Campaign in anticipation of litigaiton.” Coming from the court, that’s a long way of saying that the sworn declarations of Fusion/Clinton lawyers (Levy and Elias) were sufficient to meet the “privilege” burden. This doesn’t mean that Durham can’t overcome this hurdle – just that it hasn’t been overcome yet.

  2. The other eight e-mails and attachments include those among Fusion GPS’s Laura Seago, Sussmann, and Rodney Joffe. The court observed that the e-mails are consistent with Joffe’s assertion of privilege.

  With respect to the Joffe e-mails, we note that he is still a subject – perhaps a target – of the Special Counsel’s investigation. Here’s a portion of the transcript from an evidentiary hearing in the Sussmann case that discusses their ongoing investigation into Joffe:

  

  Because the investigation into Joffe is ongoing, it makes sense that the Special Counsel is hesitant to disclose to the court information that could overcome this purported “privilege.” Keep in mind the crime-fraud exception, where communications are not considered privileged where they “are made in furtherance of a crime, fraud, or other misconduct” (citation omitted). In other words, the Special Counsel may still be able to get Joffe’s e-mails – assuming Joffe is charged under 18 USC 1031. He can also get them through the grand jury process, as we saw with Mueller’s investigation of Paul Manafort.1

  I’ll also add that the fact that privilege applies to some of these documents strengthens the Special Counsel’s argument that Sussmann was representing a client when he met with then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016.

  As to the e-mails and documents Durham will obtain, he cannot use them during trial. The court considered Durham’s efforts to be too close to the May 16, 2022 trial date to allow these e-mails and documents into trial. I’m not sure that matters. Sussmann is facing a false statement charge, and the court observed these e-mails are not “particularly revelatory.”

  Finally, while “Court takes no position on the other approximately 1500 documents that Fusion GPS withheld as privileged,” we can assume based on this ruling that the majority of those documents would not be privileged. Durham will likely get most of them.

  For those interested: After I wrote this post, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau filed this request for a protective order. Lichtblau will be called as a witness by Sussmann’s attorneys to discuss “communications between Mr. Sussmann and Mr. Lichtblau” – meetings at which Rodney Joffe was present (that confidentiality privilege was waived).

  The Special Counsel has refused to limit Lichtblau’s testimony to that narrow topic:

  

  Durham is taking this position because Lichtblau was in contact with Peter Fritsch (and Glenn Simpson) of Fusion GPS leading up to the 2016 election. Fritsch was feeding Lichtblau Fusion “opposition research” (what we might accurately call bullshit), and Lichtblau was at least somewhat receptive, though not salivating like Franklin Foer. These are relevant to the broader “media relations” strategy that Sussmann and Fusion GPS pursued on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

  Here are the e-mails:

  

  

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 18:20

• Days After Federal Mask Mandate Lifted, In-Air Unruly Passenger Incidents Plunge
  Days After Federal Mask Mandate Lifted, In-Air Unruly Passenger Incidents Plunge

  It’s amazing what happens when you stop forcing people to wear masks. 

  After several years where in-air confrontations and unruly passengers became the norm for air travel, with most disputes arising over people wearing or not wearing masks, incidents have started to level off now that masks are no longer required. 

  It’s almost as if people don’t like being micromanaged…

  The unruly passenger rate has fallen for the second week in a row, Bloomberg noted this morning, following the April 18 decision by a judge to end mask mandates on U.S. airlines and mass transportation. 

  

  The FAA reported 2.1 unruly incidents per 10,000 flights in week ending May 1, Bloomberg reported. This is the lowest rate since cases started surging in early 2021 with, again, a “majority” of those cases related to the federal mask mandate.

  There have been 1,344 cases registered as of May 10, below last year’s record of 5,981 cases.

  Remember back in February we noted that unruly incidents had hit 27 year highs. At the time Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian had officially asked the Biden DOJ to help deter aggressive behavior on flights, telling AG Merrick Garland that a no-fly list “will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft.”

  We noted that last year, 72% of the 5,981 reports of pandemic-era passenger incidents were related to masks according to the FAA, which launched investigations into more than 1,105 more serious incidents in 2021 – over 3x the previous high since the agency began collecting data in 1995.

  According to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a unified no-fly list was being considered at the time.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 18:00

• Growing Number Of COVID-19 Deaths Among Vaccinated People: Federal Data
  Growing Number Of COVID-19 Deaths Among Vaccinated People: Federal Data

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

  An increasing number of COVID-19 deaths are occurring among individuals in the United States who have been vaccinated, according to federal data.

  

  In August of 2021, roughly 18.9 percent of COVID-19 deaths happened among individuals who were vaccinated, an ABC News analysis of the data shows. Six months later in February 2022, that figure had risen to over 40 percent as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant made its way across the globe.

  Similarly, in September 2021, just 1.1 percent of COVID-19 deaths occurred among Americans who had been fully vaccinated and boosted once. Five months later in February, that percentage had jumped to about 25 percent, according to ABC News.

  A separate analysis of federal data by CNN shows that in the second half of September 2021—when the Delta variant was at its peak—less than a quarter of all COVID-19 deaths were among individuals who were vaccinated with at least two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccines or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. However, just months later in January and February as Omicron surged, that figure had jumped to 40 percent.

  Some experts believe the increase in deaths among fully vaccinated people or “breakthrough infections” in those who have received all their shots is not overly concerning, saying it is because while more and more people become fully vaccinated, new variants emerge and vaccine protection begins to wane as fewer people continue to get booster shots.

  “These data should not be interpreted as vaccines not working. In fact, these real-world analyses continue to reaffirm the incredible protection these vaccines afford especially when up to date with boosters,” said John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

  Despite an increasing number of deaths among the vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that vaccines are safe and effective. Data from the government agency says that overall, the risk of death from COVID-19 is roughly five times higher in unvaccinated individuals than in those who have had at least their initial dose of a vaccine.

  However, in some cases, serious adverse events such as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (blood clots), myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), and pericarditis (inflammation of the outer lining of the heart) have been documented.

  As of May 4, around 257.9 million people in the United States, or 77.7 percent of the total population in the nation have received at least one dose of vaccine, while roughly 219.9 million people, or 66.2 percent of the total U.S. population, have been fully vaccinated.

  Around 100.9 million of those who are fully vaccinated have received a booster shot, while 49.4 percent of those eligible for booster shots have not yet had one.

  As the Omicron variant swept through the nation, an increasing number of vulnerable, older populations were being hospitalized, and 73 percent of deaths have been among those 65 and older, despite the fact that 90 percent of seniors have had all of their vaccine shots.

  However, a large percentage—a third of them—have not yet had their booster jab.

  “This trend in increased risk among the elderly further supports the need for community-wide immunization,” Brownstein said. “Older populations, especially those with underlying conditions, continue to be at great risk of severe complications, especially as immunity wanes. The best way to protect them is to make sure everyone around them is fully immunized.”

  The data comes a month after pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna said that preliminary results from its study on a COVID-19 vaccine intended to protect against variants showed that it outperformed the company’s currently authorized booster shot, mRNA-1273.

  Moderna said on April 19 that its mRNA-1273.211 shot, its first bivalent booster vaccine candidate, showed “superiority” against the Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants of the virus one month after being administered, compared to the booster shot of its original vaccine currently in use.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 17:40

• Wheat Farmland Under Threat Worldwide As USDA Reveals Dismal Grain Outlook
  Wheat Farmland Under Threat Worldwide As USDA Reveals Dismal Grain Outlook

  Across the world, top wheat-producing regions are experiencing adverse weather conditions that could threaten production. In places like Ukraine, a military invasion by Russia has slashed production significantly. All of this suggests the world is on the cusp of a food crisis. 

  Droughts, floods, and heatwaves have plagued farmland in the U.S., Europe, India, and China. As for Ukraine, the world’s largest wheat producer, the war could slash production by upwards of a third. There’s one exception: Russia, which is expected to have a bumper crop as wheat prices soar. 

  “If there was ever a year where we needed to see optimum conditions and strong yields around the world, this was going to be it.

  “Clearly that situation is not being seen. It adds more risk to this highly volatile situation,” said James Bolesworth, managing director at CRM AgriCommodities, told Bloomberg. 

  Bloomberg provides a current snapshot of what’s happening globally in wheat markets. 

  European Union 

  Warm, dry weather is a burgeoning concern in the world’s top wheat exporter, after a favorable start to spring. Crops in half the wheat belt lack rain at the onset of a key development period, and temperatures in top grower France have soared to summer-like levels unseasonably early. While the production outlook could still brighten, much will hinge on whether the water deficit eases in the next few weeks.

  “If the lack of rain persists until the end of the month, we’ll have to look again at our yield forecasts,” said Aurelien Blary, a crop analyst at Strategie Grains.

  United States

  Dryness plaguing the U.S. Central Plains has already led some growers to write off parched hard red winter wheat, used by millers and bakers for bread flour. Harvests in top producer Kansas start next month, and output will fall “well below” the five-year average, said Aaron Harries, vice president of research and operations for Kansas Wheat. Crop insurance agents expect some fields to yield zero to five bushels an acre, versus the normal 35 to 40 bushels, he said.

  The supply pinch threatens to send elevated grain prices even higher, worsening inflation across supply chains and hurting U.S. exports. “Everything west of the Mississippi River needs rain,” Harries said. “If we don’t have those regular showers, the size of the crop will get smaller every day.”

  Meanwhile, excessive rains further north are making it tough to plant spring wheat used to make bagels and pizza. Minnesota farmer Tim Dufault estimates his state has already lost about 5 bushels per acre in yield potential from the delays. Sowing in North Dakota has been “painfully slow,” with only 8% seeded versus nearly two-thirds at this time last year, according to the state’s wheat commission. 

  Canada

  Similar dueling weather problems are playing out across the border. Cool temperatures delayed seeding in Canada, and producers are now trying to plant in fields that are either too wet or too dry.

  Drought is a concern in southern Alberta, a growing area for spring wheat and durum used in pasta. Moisture there is lower than a year ago and dry, windy conditions are eroding soils, according to its agriculture ministry. Further east in Manitoba, a series of storms have sidelined farmers. More rain is in the forecast this week, casting doubt on progress anytime soon.

  “Virtually 99% of the farmers haven’t got to the field yet,” said Bill Campbell, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, noting it may take a week for things to dry once the rain stops. “It’s back to square one.”

  India

  Blistering heat scorched wheat fields in the world’s second-biggest grower, damping expectations for exports to alleviate a global shortage. March temperatures soared to the highest ever for the month in records going back to 1901, parching the crop during a crucial period. That spurred estimates that yields will slump 10% to 50% this season.

  The food ministry cut its production forecast to 105 million tons, from an earlier outlook of 111 million tons, and some traders think the crop will be even smaller. Severe heatwaves are continuing in parts of northern India, which may cause some harvest delays if people avoid going out. 

  China 

  China leads global wheat production, and there are concerns about its winter wheat after unusual autumn floods. Videos on social media show acres being cut down before maturation by farmers hoping to get a better price selling it for animal feed. 

  Fields are due to be harvested in about 20 days, and officials are investigating whether there has been any illegal destruction. China will want to limit its dependence on foreign supply after becoming one of the top importers over the past two seasons.

  Black Sea

  Soil moisture is satisfactory in Ukraine, buoying yield prospects. But the war will curb production, and there’s worries about where to store the crop as backlogged exports leave silos bulging with last year’s grain.

  Russia has also seen favorable weather and could reap a near-record harvest. That’s bolstered shipment prospects, although freight and insurance costs are high and some merchants are shunning its commodities.

  On Thursday, wheat prices in Chicago rose 3.5% following the release of one of the most important World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports published by the USDA this year. 

  

  WASDE showed wheat production in Ukraine is expected to plunge by one-third this season compared with last year. The report also noted global corn production would decline while rice production could hit a record. 

  AGRICULTURAL MARKETS: The USDA just published its first really detailed look at 2022-23 crop year, painting a tight outlook for corn and wheat, with production down. On the other hand, rice will enjoy a larger — and record high — harvest | #OATT #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/MJgXcZRje4

  — Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) May 12, 2022

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

  Meanwhile, President Joe Biden on Wednesday outlined efforts to increase plantings to offset expected declines in global grain production. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 17:20

• Rivian Collapse, Potential Brownouts, Highlight The Danger Of Illinois Lawmakers Picking Winners And Losers
  Rivian Collapse, Potential Brownouts, Highlight The Danger Of Illinois Lawmakers Picking Winners And Losers

  By Ted Dabrowski and John Klinger of Wirepoints

  Electric car-maker Rivian’s stock price collapse is a clear example of why Illinois politicians have no business trying to pick industry winners and losers. And so are the warnings of potential brownouts in downstate Illinois. 

  Start with companies. Back in November 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the “Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois Act,” a green energy bill that provided a series of subsidies and tax breaks to electric vehicle and parts manufacturers.

  The law was quite clear in its intentions: “It is the intent of the General Assembly that Illinois should lead the nation in the production of electric vehicles. The General Assembly finds that, through investments in electric vehicle manufacturing, Illinois will be on the forefront of emerging technologies that are currently transforming the auto manufacturing industry.”

  Lawmakers were counting on Illinois becoming an EV manufacturing powerhouse emerging around the Rivian plant in Normal, Illinois, as well as improved prospects for the Ford factory in South Chicago and the Stellantis plant near Rockford.

  Rivian’s stock price grew rapidly, jumping 120% in the short time between the company going public (IPO price was $78) and the day before the bill was signed. On November 15, 2021, Rivian’s stock price hit a peak of $172.

  It’s been all downhill from there. Today the carmaker’s stock price is down to just over $20, a drop of nearly 90 percent.

  

  The automaker’s slide had a number of causes, starting with the fact that Rivian is a startup and all the risks that entails. There have been manufacturing issues, skyrocketing material costs and supply-chain problems. Not to mention the fact that the company lost out on even more potential subsidies when the federal Build Back Better bill died. 

  And then there’s all the bad news related to Ford. Last November, Rivian and Ford terminated a partnership to jointly develop a vehicle. More recently, Ford elected to dump 8 million shares of Rivian. On top of that, Ford manufactures the F-150 Lightning, a direct competitor to Rivian’s vehicles.

  That’s not to say Rivian can’t one day be a market leader. Anything can happen. But the point is nobody knows – certainly not government bureaucrats. Pritzker and other Illinois lawmakers shouldn’t be gambling with taxpayer dollars based on an ideological whim.

  Now to industries. Pritzker and his supermajorities have also bet the ranch on renewable energy, primarily wind and solar. Goodbye to all carbon-based energy – and even nuclear.

  Under the green energy omnibus package the legislature passed last year, Illinois will have to have 50% of its electricity production from renewable sources by 2040 and 100% from clean energy sources by 2050. Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), called the bill “the most aggressive, most progressive climate bill in the nation.”

  Reaching those goals will be exceptionally difficult and expensive. And according to the industry experts Wirepoints talked to, there’s no real plan for how to get there. In fact, Wirepoints FOIA’d the governor’s office for his plan to achieve “100% from clean energy sources by 2050.” We never got one.

  The omnibus bill was simply the culmination of politicians’ long war on carbon-based energy – and coal in particular. Illinoisans may soon be dealing with the consequences of that war. Solar and wind have not kept pace with the capacity lost as fossil fuel plants have been shut down.

  In fact, Melville Nickerson with NRG Energy warned during a recent Illinois House committee hearing of “the potential for rolling blackouts in central and southern Illinois” this summer.

  Again, it’s hard to know how all this will play out. But once again, it’s Illinois bureaucrats making another bet, not only with taxpayer dollars, but with Illinoisans’ quality of life.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 05/13/2022 – 17:00

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