Feb 16

Today’s News 16th February 2021

  • World Won't Be Adequately Vaccinated From COVID-19 Until 2027: Specialist
    World Won’t Be Adequately Vaccinated From COVID-19 Until 2027: Specialist

    Authored by Jessie Zhang via The Epoch Times,

    An Australian infectious disease physician said it would take six years for the world to be adequately vaccinated against the CCP virus, so vaccines must be shared with developing countries to avoid “more sinister” strains emerging.

    Infectious diseases specialist and Australian National University lecturer Sanjaya Senanayake said about 70 countries have signed up for vaccination programmes. Presently, he estimates that the goal won’t be met in a year or two.

    “At the current rate of vaccination it is estimated we won’t reach global coverage of 75 percent with vaccines for about six years,” Dr Senanayake told the National Press Club on Feb. 10.

    “If we continue this global vaccine rollout while in other parts of the world infection continues unchecked, then we will see more sinister strains emerge which might have further impacts on vaccine efficacy.”

    Infectious Disease Physician Sanjaya Senanayake, Epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws and Honorary Professor of Paediatrics Robert Booy at the National Press Club in Canberra, Wednesday, February 10, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

    South Africa halted its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a small-scale trial showed it gave minimal protection of merely 10 percent against the South African variant.

    But paediatrician Robert Booy said the trial was based on 2,000 people and was, in effect, not a concern to Australia.

    “We need better studies in larger numbers over longer periods of time,” he said.

    “Then we’ll have a better understanding whether this vaccine is a problem for the South African variant or not.”

    Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly also downplayed the reports, saying they were based on a small group of people in a study not yet peer-reviewed nor published.

    “At the moment, I can absolutely say … there’s no evidence anywhere in the world AstraZeneca effectiveness against severe infection is affected by any of these variants of concern,” Kelly told reporters in Canberra last Tuesday.

    Despite ambitious plans, mutant variants of CCP virus will delay the progress of vaccinating the world. Both the UK and South African variants have been spread in Australia’s hotel quarantine since Jan. 7.

    Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack confirmed on Monday that the first shipment of Pfizer vaccines is on schedule to arrive by the end of February.

    The government is also discussing the prospects of a nationwide effort in making jabs available to Australians before the end of October.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 23:30

  • Minneapolis Quietly Spends Millions To Hire More Cops Amid Ongoing "Defund Police" Campaign
    Minneapolis Quietly Spends Millions To Hire More Cops Amid Ongoing “Defund Police” Campaign

    It seems like just yesterday that the Minneapolis PD (along with city leadership) were abandoning the city’s third precinct to a chaotic mob assembled in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.

    Not even nine months later – has led to a surge in violent crime as the city struggles from its largest wave of defections in history.

    Who could have seen that coming?

    While hundreds of thousands of Minneapolis residents have been left to struggle with the consequences, the city’s police department is quietly rushing to hire dozens of new officers (all of whom meet new conduct standards devised by the department and city leadership). City leadership has voted to spend $6.4MM on a “recruiting campaign” to hire new officers, after the city’s “available for service” headcount plummeted to 638 officers “available”, roughly 200 short of the average headcount from before the riots, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

    Even though three members of the city council voted to defund the department in the aftermath of last year’s unrest, the council quietly, and unanimously, approved the money requested by the department.

    An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on extended medical leave after Floyd’s death and the unrest that followed. With its incoming recruiting class, the city anticipates that it will have a total of 674 officers available to service by the end of the year, with another 28 in the hiring process.

    Days before this most recent City Council vote, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo promised an “update” to the application process for police recruits to include questions about whether they have have lived in Minneapolis, have degrees in criminology, social work, psychology or counseling, and whether they volunteer or participate in programs such as the Police Activities League. Deputy Police Chief Amelia Huffman said the department leadership hopes the change “will help us to really feel confident that we are recruiting the kinds of candidates we want right from the beginning.”

    Meanwhile, as Mayor Frey continues his pleas to the city council not to de-fund the department (since that could create some pretty serious quality of life concerns in his city, like, well, anarchy and chaos, even with the bad winter weather gripping the US) Minneapolis has seen a surge in violent crime in a pattern that has plagued other protest-torn cities (some have dubbed it “the Ferguson Effect” after the small St. Louis suburb where Michael Brown was killed).

    In addition to the funding for the recruitment campaign, the city also authorized a nearly $230K contract with risk management company Hillard Heintze, which is expected to produce a report analyzing the city’s response to the rioting that followed Floyd’s death.

    And what’s more, “grass roots” campaigns seeking to collect more signatures to help permanently banish the department  have taken root.

    ‘Yes 4 Minneapolis’, a coalition of local community groups, is also collecting signatures to try to get a similar proposal aimed at “defunding” the “bad” Minneapolis Police Department, and using the money to build a new department of public safety in the city, on the ballot in November. Organizers are hoping to collect 20K signatures before March 31, with non-profit money that comes from a number of places, including a half-million-dollar-grant from the George Soros-linked Open Society Policy Center.

    Incidentally, the (sure-to-be highly publicized) trial of police officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged with second-degree murder in Floyd’s killing, and three officers charged with abetting murder, is set to start next month.

    Unfortunately for the department, we doubt Chauvin’s trial will help morale – rather, it will likely serve as a potent counter-narrative for anybody even thinking about joining the department.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 23:00

  • Johnstone: Conspiracy Theories Are Caused By Government Secrecy
    Johnstone: Conspiracy Theories Are Caused By Government Secrecy

    Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

    The DC Circuit has ruled that the CIA is under no obligation to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to its involvement with insurgent militias in Syria, overturning a lower court’s previous ruling in favor of a Buzzfeed News reporter seeking such documents.

    As Sputnik’s Morgan Artyukhina clearly outlines, this ruling comes despite the fact that mainstream news outlets have been reporting on the Central Intelligence Agency’s activities in Syria for years, and despite a US president having openly tweeted about those activities.

    “In other words, the CIA will not be required to admit to actions it is widely reported as having done, much less divulge documents about them to the press for even greater scrutiny,” Artyukhina writes, calling to mind the Julian Assange quote “The overwhelming majority of information is classified to protect political security, not national security.”

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    The CIA’s brazen collaboration with dangerous extremist factions seeking to topple Damascus, and its equally brazen refusal to provide the public with any information about the extent of its involvement in Syria from the earliest stages of the violence in that nation onwards, will necessarily provide fodder for conspiracy theories.

    It is public knowledge that the CIA was involved in the Syrian war to some extent, it is public knowledge that the CIA has a well-documented history of doing extremely evil things, and it is public knowledge that the US government has long sought control over Syria. Due to the agency’s refusal to be transparent about the exact nature of its involvement in that nation, people are left to fill in the knowledge gaps with their own speculation.

    Of course they will do this. Why wouldn’t they? Why would anyone give the lying, torturing, propagandizing, drug trafficking, coup-staging, warmongering, psychopathic Central Intelligence Agency the benefit of the doubt and assume their actions in Syria have been benevolent just because the hard facts have been hidden behind a wall of government secrecy?

    Yet they will be expected to. Anyone with a sufficient degree of influence who comes right out and says the CIA knowingly armed violent jihadists with the goal of orchestrating regime change in Syria will be attacked as a crazy conspiracy theorist by the narrative managers of the establishment media. If their words are really disruptive to establishment narratives, there will be calls to deplatform, unemploy, and ban them from social media.

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    And really such is the case with all the melodramatic garment rending about the dangers of conspiracy theories today. All the fixation on the way unregulated speech on the internet has contributed to the circulation of conspiracy theories conveniently ignores the real cause of those theories: government secrecy.

    If the most powerful government in the world were not hiding a massive amount of its behavior behind increasingly opaque walls of secrecy, people would not need to fill in the gaps with theories about what’s happening, because there would be no gaps; they would simply see what’s happening.

    “But Caitlin!” one might object. “How could America engage in all its military operations around the world if it didn’t keep information about its behaviors a secret?”

    Exactly, my smooth-brained friend. Exactly.

    Government secrecy is indeed necessary for winning wars. Government secrecy is also necessary for starting those wars in the first place. US government agencies have an extensive history of using false pretenses to initiate military conflicts; if they could not hide the facts behind a veil of government opacity, the public would never engage in them. The American people would never have allowed their sons to go to Vietnam if they’d known the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a lie. They’d never have sent their sons and daughters to invade Iraq if they’d known weapons of mass destruction were a lie. They would lose the support of the public, and the international community would refuse to back them.

    Protecting the lives of foreign military and intelligence personnel is the primary argument against government transparency in the United States, a premise which takes it for granted that there need to be foreign military and intelligence personnel at all. The only reason the lives of troops and intelligence officers would be endangered without massive walls of government secrecy is because those personnel are out there facilitating imperialist acts of mass murder and tyranny. The argument is essentially “Well we can’t tell you the truth about what’s happening in our government, because it would mean we’d have to stop doing extremely evil things.”

    The argument that the internet needs strict censorship to eliminate dangerous conspiracy theories takes it as a given that simply eliminating government secrecy is impossible, which in turn takes it as a given that the US government cannot simply stop inflicting grave evils around the world. Our ability to share information with each other online is therefore ultimately being increasingly choked off by monopolistic Silicon Valley megacorporations because no one in charge can fathom the idea of the United States government ceasing to butcher human beings around the world.

    That is the real underlying argument over internet censorship today. Should people have free access to information about what their own government is doing, or should their government be permitted to do evil things in secret while people who form theories about what they’re doing are shoved further and further away from audibility? That’s the real debate here.

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    The powerful should not be permitted to keep secrets from the public. They should not be permitted to jail journalists who try to reveal those secrets to the public, and they should not be permitted to collaborate with monopolistic corporations to censor people who form theories about those secrets. The amount of secrecy you are entitled to should be directly inverse to the amount of power that you have.

    The US government has powerful agencies whose literal job is to conspire. The fact that people are punished and condemned for forming theories about how that conspiring might take place, even while those agencies are completely lacking in transparency, is abusive.

    If the government was not doing evil things in secret, then it wouldn’t need secrecy. If the government didn’t have secrecy, there would be no conspiracy theories. Stop pointing your attacks at powerless people who are just trying to figure out what’s going on in the world amidst a sea of government secrecy and propaganda, and point your attacks instead at the power structures that are actually responsible for the existence of conspiracy theories in the first place.

    *  *  *

    Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my new book Poems For Rebels (you can also download a PDF for five bucks) or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 22:30

  • Hyundai's New Robocar Can Drive And Walk 
    Hyundai’s New Robocar Can Drive And Walk 

    Flying taxis, delivery drones, and other automated vehicles have been designed to boost economic activity and transform economies in metro areas. Very few companies have focused on new technologies and applied them for extreme environments, like in rural areas or the Moon. 

    Hyundai Motor Group is changing all that. With operations based out of its New Horizons Studio in California, the South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer has designed a robocar that is not just four-wheel-drive but can also walk to maneuver the world’s most challenging terrain. 

    Called the TIGER X-1, the intelligent ground excursion robot is designed to carry payloads, not humans. It’s based on a “modular platform architecture. It features include a sophisticated leg and wheel locomotion system, 360-degree directional control, and a range of sensors for remote observation,” according to a company press release. 

    Researchers at New Horizons Studio have partnered with U.S. firms Autodesk and Sundberg-Ferar to accelerate TIGER X-1’s development. 

    Applications for TIGER X-1 could include 360-degree surface evaluation in natural disaster areas while also carrying critical payloads to remote locations. 

    “Working closely with the team at Hyundai on the TIGER X-1 vehicle, using advanced technology such as generative design to push the boundaries of increasing strength while reducing weight in transportation, is exactly what we mean when we talk about creating the new possible,” said Srinath Jonnalagadda, Vice President of Business Strategy for Design and Manufacturing at Autodesk. 

    David Byron, Manager of Design and Innovation Strategy at Sundberg-Ferar, said the “the efficiency of wheeled motion with the articulation of a quadruped to expand the possibility of reaching more remote locations.” He said, “TIGER is a modular platform design allowing different bodies to be attached to the chassis for unique applications such as cargo delivery or surveillance in locations not suitable for humans.”

    Hyundai said TIGER X-1 even could explore the moon or other planet. 

    Hyundai has also purchased a $1.1 billion controlling stake in Boston Dynamics, and there’s still no world if dystopian robot dogs and TIGER X-1 vehicle will be integrated. 

    As for now, Hyundai has made no effort to hide its interest in robotics. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 22:00

  • What Did Pelosi Know, & When? Bipartisan Support Builds For 9/11-Style Commission On Capitol Riot
    What Did Pelosi Know, & When? Bipartisan Support Builds For 9/11-Style Commission On Capitol Riot

    Via Planet Free Will News,

    Bipartisan support for a 9/11-style commission to further investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has grown bipartisan support with lawmakers urging such a body to get to the root cause of the events that day.

    “I’d like to know, did the Capitol Hill police inform the House sergeant at arms and the Senate sergeant at arms the day before the attack that they needed more troops?” Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Sunday after mentioning he believed there was a preplanned element to the highly publicized actions that took place.

    “We need to look at did Nancy Pelosi know on January 5 that there was a threat to the Capitol…

    What did President Trump do after the attack… 

    We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again, and I want to make sure that the Capitol footprint can be better defended next time,” he continued.

    Graham would add that the preplanned element had no connection to former president Donald Trump’s speech during a rally earlier that day.

    Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who unlike Graham, voted to convict the former president during the impeachment trial, also called for a 9/11-style commission, telling ABC over the weekend that “there should be a complete investigation about what happened.”

    “I think there should be a complete investigation about what happened on Jan. 6. Why was there not more law enforcement, National Guard already mobilized, what was known, who knew it, and when they knew it, all that, because that builds the basis so this never happens again in the future,” Cassidy said.

    On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Senator Dennis Coons also vocalized support for such a commission, telling ABC “there’s still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear.”

    “A 9/11 commission is a way that we make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violating of his constitutional oath president Trump really was,” Coons said on Sunday.

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    Democrat House impeachment manager Rep. Madeleine Dean also appeared on the same ABC news program Sunday, saying:

    “Of course, there must be a full commission and impartial commission, not guided by politics, but filled with people who would stand up to the courage of their conviction, like Dr. Cassidy.”

    The growing calls for the commission preceded the failure of the Senate to obtain the 67-vote threshold to convict Trump on inciting an insurrection as charged in the House’s article of impeachment.

    A 9/11-style commission is in reference to the bipartisan body set up in the wake of the collapse of the 3 World Trade Center buildings in New York in 2001. The commission’s goal was to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 21:30

  • Largest US Museum Considers Dumping Art At Auction To Fund $150 Million Shortfall
    Largest US Museum Considers Dumping Art At Auction To Fund $150 Million Shortfall

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, otherwise known as “Met,” which happens to be the largest art museum in the US, is facing a massive shortfall of $150 million because the virus pandemic has resulted in a dramatic reduction in ticket sales, according to the NYTimes. 

    “This is the time when we need to keep our options open,”Max Hollein, Met’s director, said. “None of us have a full perspective on how the pandemic will play out. It would be inappropriate for us not to consider it, when we’re still in this foggy situation.”

    Like many museums, Met is under extreme financial distress, and thanks to the Association of Art Museum Directors, a professional group that manages its members’ best practices, a two-year window has opened up where proceeds from art sales can be directed to fund operations instead of only for future art purchases. 

    The Brooklyn Museum was the first to dump $31 million of art at auctions last fall to fund its budget shortfalls. Later in the year, the Baltimore Museum of Art followed suit and sold millions of dollars of art, including paintings by Brice Marden, Clyfford Still, and Andy Warhol, to fund operations. 

    Former director of the Met, Thomas Campbell, took to Instagram over the weekend to show his disgust at Met’s management to even consider selling art. 

    Here’s what Campbell had to say:

    “Disconcerted to read that The Met is considering deaccessioning art to support operating expenses. While I know as well as anyone the complexity of running that behemoth, and I have great sympathy for those in the driving seat, I fear that this is a slippery path.” 

    It remains to be seen what collection of artwork the Met is willing to dump at auction. 

    “Every museum in the US is having these conversations,” Hollein said. “‘Do we want to use this window? What would it mean for the institution? What would it mean for the collection?’ For us not to discuss this now would be irresponsible.

    A warning shot was fired by the American Alliance of Museums late last year, who reported that at least a third of directors of 760 museums said there was a “significant risk” of closing operations within 16 months. 

    Several months ago, referring to the museum downturn, we asked this question: “Does that mean cheap art is about the hit auction houses and reverse lofty prices? ” 

    … and perhaps to answer the question above, that could certainly be the case today. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 21:00

  • UC Berkeley Reverses Its Absurd Ban On Outdoor Exercise
    UC Berkeley Reverses Its Absurd Ban On Outdoor Exercise

    Authored by Thomas Lifson via AmericanThinker.com,

    Five days after instituting an embarrassing ban on students exercising outdoors, the University of California, Berkeley, reversed itself and reinstated the ability of 2000 students isolated in dorm rooms to leave them for the purpose of exercise. Angela Ruggiero of the San Jose Mercury-News reported Friday, Feb. 12:

    UC Berkeley has reversed a ban on students exercising outdoors that was imposed earlier this week after a rise in coronavirus cases on campus.

    About 2,000 students isolated in their dorm rooms will now be allowed to exercise outside again, Cal announced on Friday afternoon. However, students are still under a strict lockdown imposed Feb. 1 that is in effect until Monday. The exercise ban went into effect this week, along with stricter restrictions as the university saw a rise in daily coronavirus cases.

    “New positive COVID-19 cases have slowed and as a result we are permitting some limited additional activities for students who are in self-sequester,” read an email sent out to students Friday.

    Only those that are not under isolation or quarantine may leave their door rooms to exercise outside during daylight hours, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Student athletes also may now leave to practice as directed and monitored by Cal Athletics.

    The exercise ban had followed on and strengthened an earlier ban on leaving dorm rooms had been imposed Feb 1, and extended on Feb 8.

    The exercise ban made national and international headlines, and elicited surprise, laughter and even scorn.

    “‘Even prisoners get to exercise!’ UC Berkeley bans solo outdoor exercise for dorm-bound students,” headlined RT.

    Campus authorities may have been embarrassed when The University of Pittsburgh published a report the day before the ban was reversed that headlined,

    “COVID-Related Depression Linked to Reduced Physical Activity”

    New research from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and University of California, San Diego, found that 61% of surveyed university students were at risk of clinical depression, a value twice the rate prior to the pandemic. This rise in depression came alongside dramatic shifts in lifestyle habits.

    “Our findings indicate the pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in the rate of anxiety and depression among young adults, especially among college students. It’s disheartening to see, since it’s been well-documented, even before the pandemic, that university-age young adults are reported as experiencing more mental health issues than previous generations,” said Osea Giuntella, assistant professor of economics at Pitt and research co-author.

    There is no Hippocratic Oath for campus bureaucrats, but if there were, the injunction “First, do no harm” would certainly apply to the exercise ban. The survival rate for people in their 20s, which would include nearly all students living on dormitories, is in the upper reaches of the 99th percentile, while, the effects of depression, including suicide, are severe.

    The University claimed its initial ban and subsequent strengthening, and then 5 days later loosening of it, were based on a “spike” in on-campus cases:

    UC Berkeley saw a spike of 164 cases the week of Jan. 31, including 154 undergraduate students, according to the university’s coronavirus dashboard. The number of cases has dropped to 84 this week, as of the latest data on Thursday, when 19 more people tested positive on campus. From Sept. 10 to Thursday of this week, the university has seen a total of 757 positive cases.

    But an examination of the dashboard reveals that it counts any positive test result as a case:

    The dashboard shows the number of positive cases for tests performed at UHS. It does not include saliva tests that were performed through the Innovative Genomics Institute’s FAST Study.

    This appears to go against the WHO’s change in its definition of a case that was announced one hour after President Biden was inaugurated:

    The guidance warned against diagnosing someone as having the virus just because he tests positive if he does not present with symptoms of COVID-19. It also warned about the high risk of false positives: “The cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load. Where test results do not correspond with the clinical presentation, a new specimen should be taken and retested using the same or different NAT technology.”

    “As disease prevalence decreases, the risk of false positive increases. The probability that a person who has a positive result (SARS-CoV-2 detected) is truly infected with SARS-CoV-2 decreases as prevalence decreases, irrespective of the claimed specificity,” the WHO continued.

    The University’s own dashboard reveals that the rate of positive tests on campus is lower than in the surrounding City of Berkeley, where people freely shop and move about.

    (source)

    There doesn’t appear to be a lot of science behind the drastic restrictions on students at Cal Berkeley, as locals call it. Did the campus bureaucrats panic?

    The University of California, Berkeley has a solid claim to worldwide standing as one of the leading producers of scientific research in the world. No fewer than ten Nobel laureates (all in the hard sciences and economics) currently teach on its faculty, including two 2020 laureates. But the University’s draconian reaction to the Covid has embarrassed it and diminished its luster.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 20:30

  • BofA Hints That Weimar 2.0 Could Be Coming
    BofA Hints That Weimar 2.0 Could Be Coming

    It’s no secret that BofA’s Chief Investment Officer has been warning that 2021 – the  year of the vaccine – is one where real inflation (as opposed to financial) will run amok sooner or later, and in his latest Flow Show he repeats his two main contentions about how events will play out in the coming months, namely “the velocity of people will rise” and “the velocity of money will (also) rise”.

    Addressing the first,  Hartnett writes that since the core 2021 trends will be “vaccine>virus”,  and “reopening>lockdown”, this means that human mobility will rise & macro data will surge particularly in Q2 when investors should expect US GDP >10%, EPS >20% CPI 3-4% Y/Y, or an economy in fullblown overhating mode. 

    This taken in conjunction with secular trends of bigger government, economic nationalism, fiscal excess, dollar debasement, War on Inequality, there is little wonder inflation breakevens & lead indicators are surging…

    … and that small US business price plans over next 3 months are at highest since Nov’18…

    … although whether or not they can actually achieve this is a different matter.

    Stepping into the realm of monetary policy, and specifically its velocity, BofA reminds us that in the past 12 months, the US has raked in a $3.5TN (17% GDP) budget deficit, coupled with the injection of $13.3TN in global central bank liquidity (15% GDP).

    Then, unafraid anymore to step on anyone’s toes, Hartnett admits that “as in pretty much every one of past 12 years, policy stimulus in 2020/21 continues to flow directly to Wall St not Main St, inciting historic wealth inequality via asset bubbles,” and to think of the mockery we were subject to (by random idiots) back in 2009 in later years, when we said the Fed’s actions would lead to precisely this.

    Anyway, Back fo BofA, which expects the “rising velocity of people” (vaccine>virus) in 2021 to engender rise in velocity of money, with the “inflation mutating” from Wall Street to Main Street, resulting in a pop in the nihilistic bubble.

    And here is the punchline: BofA reflects back on the post-WW1 Germany (whose armistice was on Nov 1918) as the “most epic, extreme analog of surging velocity and inflation following end of war psychology, pent-up savings, lost confidence in currency & authorities” and specifically the Reichsbank’s monetization of debt, similar of course to what is going on now.

    There is, of course, another name for that period: Weimar Germany, and because we all know what happened then, it is understandable why BofA does not want to mention that particular name.

    So what does all this mean for investing? Here is how Hartnett is positioned:

    Real assets will outperform financial assets: we believe 2020 marked secular low for rates/inflation, and 2020s likely decade of inflation assets>deflation, and real assets>financial (i.e., buy commodity-linked exposure, sell duration, tech and growth).

    And to that point, Hartnett notes that since 1950 real assets (e.g. commodities, real estate, collectibles) have a > 70% correlation with inflation vs. just 5% correlation with financial assets (stocks & bonds).

    Translation: Stanley Druckenmiller, and his “thesis trio” of…

    • short long-end Treasuries
    • very long commodities
    • “very very” short the dollar.

    … is about to make another killing.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 20:05

  • The "Second Amendment Preservation Act": Missouri Passes Bill To Nullify Federal Gun Laws
    The “Second Amendment Preservation Act”: Missouri Passes Bill To Nullify Federal Gun Laws

    Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man

    A bill introduced in the Nevada legislature, with the backing of the Governor, would allow tech companies to create new towns called “Innovation Zones.” The purpose of the zones is to provide flexibility to experiment with government, particularly related to integrating “innovative technologies.” These technologies can include blockchain, autonomous technology, the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, wireless technology, biometrics, and renewable resources.

    The zones would have to be created on at least 50,000 acres of currently unincorporated, unoccupied land, which is owned or purchased by the company. Also, prior to applying for the Innovation Zone status, company applicants are required to make a $250 million investment in the land. And the company must commit to spending another $1 billion over the following ten years.

    What this means:

    If the bill becomes law, this would give significant freedom for Innovation Zones to try new tax and fee systems for services at a local level. Nevada does not have a state income tax, which could allow these zones to form overall low-tax jurisdictions. It could also allow some experimentation with easing licensing requirements, since the legislation allows the zone to license businesses, but does not require it— although required state licensing would be unaffected.

    Even policing and courts would fall under the responsibility of the zone, which would certainly be an interesting development, since innovations in these areas are few and far between.

    Of course, the legislation has not even passed yet. And even if it does, it will be a long time before we see any actual Innovation Zones spring up.

    Still, it’s an encouraging development to see state governments developing plans for “Special Economic Zone” type arrangements. These have been successful in bringing business, innovation, and wealth to areas which suspend typical taxes and regulations in favor of free market principles (China has had particular success with this strategy.)

    As usual, the weak point comes down to federal taxes and regulations, which would remain unchanged in the zones.

    But there are some states that have passed legislation claiming to supersede federal control over the state governments. And you can already find many of the freedoms you desire, just by wisely choosing your local and state governments.

    What you can do about it:

    Over the past year, it has largely been state and local governments elevating their public health officials to dictator status.

    Local law enforcement have been the biggest perpetrators of civil asset forfeiture and overzealous policing. It’s the local schools which may or may not try to indoctrinate your child with the woke-Marxist Black Lives Matter curriculum we talked about last week.

    But, on the other hand, it’s county Sheriffs who sometimes openly refuse to enforce what they see as unjust laws handed down by state and federal politicians.

    You could improve your life significantly by sometimes only moving one town, county, or state away.

    There are also some interesting legal and tax structures you can take advantage of at state levels.

    For example, South Dakota law allows you to create self-settled trusts, a type of irrevocable trust that can provide asset protection from frivolous lawsuits, and reduce the amount of estate taxes owed upon death. South Dakota also has no state income or capital gains tax, meaning trust assets accumulate tax-free at the state level.

    And finally, some states have taken steps to nullify the influence of the federal government in their jurisdictions.

    For example, a bill recently introduced in the South Dakota legislature would nullify Presidential Executive Orders (EOs) if the state’s attorney general determines that the EOs violate the Constitution. Specifically, this would affect unconstitutional curbs on freedom related to COVID lockdowns, the right to keep and bear arms, and land use.

    A Missouri bill intended to nullify federal gun laws recently passed in the state’s House of Representatives.

    The Senate voted 23-8 to send the bill back to the House, where it passed earlier. The House can either accept the Senate’s changes or negotiate a compromise version. Senators voted for the bill along party lines with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. It would declare “null and void” any past, present or future federal law deemed to be an infringement on gun rights for law-abiding citizens.

    Federal agents who knowingly enforce those laws could face civil penalties stemming from lawsuits filed by Missouri residents who think their gun rights were infringed. Those workers would also be banned from future careers in state or local enforcement.

    “We want to cause a reason for law enforcement to have a healthy pause before they might infringe on the Second Amendment rights of Missouri citizens,” said Sen. Brian Nieves, R-Washington.

    Other states, such as Wyoming, South Dakota, Arizona, Tennessee, Kansas, and Alaska already have some version of federal gun law nullification on the books.

    Some of these laws prevent state law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws, while others attempt to prevent federal agencies from enforcing federal gun laws in the state. In 2011, Utah started the trend of states enacting laws which formally recognize gold and silver coins as legal tender.

    Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming all have laws on the books that either recognize gold and silver coins as legal tender, or eliminate sales and capital gains taxes on gold and silver coins, or both.

    Idaho is considering legislation that would, “hold some portion of state funds in physical gold and silver to help secure state assets against the risks of inflation and financial turmoil and/or to achieve capital gains as measured in Federal Reserve Notes.”

    This all shows that certain states are taking measures to protect their citizens from federal overreach, and to help maintain stability if the US dollar rapidly loses value. Remember, $8 trillion worth of government debt matures this year alone.  And with countries like China buying less US government debt, the Federal Reserve will likely need to step in as the buyer… with freshly printed dollars. That brings us back to wise state legislators – who see the dollar devaluation that’s ahead. 

    A lot of events took place over the past year, which many people thought were impossible. So, it makes sense to be prepared for anything.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 19:40

  • Not Again; Another Winter Storm To Batter South, Midwest, And Northeast
    Not Again; Another Winter Storm To Batter South, Midwest, And Northeast

    Our weather note last Friday titled ““Overwhelming Signal” – Major Winter Storm Threats For Million Of Americans Within Next Five Days” outlined the possibilities of major winter storms from Denver to Dallas to Chicago to Cleveland to Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states through Feb. 21. 

    As a major winter storm, named Uri by The Weather Channel, continues to spread a wintery mix across the South into parts of the Midwest and Northeast through Tuesday, another cross-country storm could be developing this week. 

    Winter Storm Viola will have a similar track as Uri and bring wintry weather to cities like Dallas-Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, and Cincinnati.

    The storm will impact areas from the Northwest into the Rockies through Monday night. Already winter storm watches and warnings have been posted. 

    Accumulating snowfall is expected on Tuesday for the southern Rockies into the Southern Plains. North Texas to Oklahoma City might also see a wintery mix. Freezing rain may be seen in Texas’s central and eastern parts and northwest Louisiana. 

    Another round of wintery weather for Texas could stress the state’s power grid operator ERCOT even further. Rolling blackouts are expected to remain through Tuesday but could extend further into the week as the second winter blast is expected in the coming days. 

    The storm will spread snow across Oklahoma and northern Texas into Arkansas, Missouri, and the Ohio Valley by Wednesday. Freezing rain and sleet could impede travel on major interstates in central and eastern Texas into northern Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley. By evening, snow will spread to the Ohio Valley, central Appalachians and mid-Atlantic.

    Thursday is when the storm is expected to arrive in the Northeast. Metro areas surrounding the Interstate 95 corridor, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, could start with snow and transition to a wintry mix or even rain.

    An ice storm could be seen across Virginia. Snowfall will also continue around the Great Lakes into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

    Snowfall forecasts show accumulating snow from Dallas to Boston between Tuesday and Friday. 

    Meanwhile, for much of the country, temperatures will remain well below their averages this week. 

    However, after this weekend, there is good news – heating degree days for the US appear to return to normal levels, which means warmer temperatures are ahead that will decrease energy demand usage.

    From the polar vortex split to major winter storm threat to energy crisis across the Great Plains – our readers were some of the first to know of this historic event. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 19:15

  • Inflation Fears And Soaring Oil Inflows: What Happens Next
    Inflation Fears And Soaring Oil Inflows: What Happens Next

    By Ryan Fitzmaurice of Rabobank

    Summary

    • Oil prices continue to be supported by a surge in capital inflows into broad-based commodity index products, in a stark reversal in trend from recent years
    • Investors want to own commodities at the moment and are willing to overlook some of the weaker fundamental inputs to focus on the bigger picture at hand
    • The one-year implied roll-yield has climbed to over 8% for both the ICE Brent contract and the Nymex WTIcontract, which is quite attractive in this extremelylow rate environment

    Board-Based Support

    It was more of the same for oil prices this week as flows into commodity index products propelled Brent crude firmly above the psychological $60/bbl level despite a rather mixed fundamental backdrop. To that end, money continued to pour into broad-based commodity ETFs this week with more than +500mm USD of capital inflows reported through Thursday, bringing the year-to-date total above the 2BN USD mark. It is worth noting that these inflows are simply what is publicly available from the ETF space, but one can be sure that the real figure is multiples of this number given institutional investors and high net worth individuals are also increasing their commodity allocations via separately managed accounts which are not required to disclose such information. These flows are all benchmarked to a predetermined commodity index, so anywhere from 25% to 50% of the notional invested winds up in the oil futures market depending on the index and the oil sector’s weighting. As noted though, the fundamental picture remains mixed at best for oil markets which can be seen in the weakening gasoline crack spread this month.

    So what exactly is driving this renewed interest in commodities if it’s not fundamentals? Well in our view, these large inflows speak to the fact that investors want to own commodities at the moment and are willing to overlook some of the weaker fundamental inputs to focus on the bigger picture at hand.

    Looking at things from a macro lens, inflation fears are increasing rapidly and there is a historic amount of capital filtering through global financial markets due to all of the stimulus programs. Ironically, the widespread inflation fears that have emerged in recent weeks and months are even becoming self-fulfilling, in a way, given investors are buying commodities to hedge these inflation fears which in turn drives commodity prices higher, thereby creating inflationary pressures.

    The “carry” trade

    On top of the renewed interest in commodity index products as an inflation hedge, the oil markets have also caught the attention of “carry” traders recently given the strong “backwardation” that has developed along the crude oil forward curves this year.

    As many experienced traders and investors know, roll-yield is a significant driver of commodity futures returns in the medium and long-term and, as such, roll-yield is a key input for many investment strategies. In fact, we wrote about the powerful impact roll-yield has on commodity futures returns in a primer we published last year and which can be found here.  As we discussed in that note, roll-yield in commodity futures is an implicit yield unlike the explicit yield that interest rate products offer. It is also dynamic in nature with no real way to effectively lock in roll-yield on a forward basis, however, the shape of the curve tends to be rather sticky as can be seen by the clusters of “backwardation” and “contango” exhibited in Figure 3 throughout the past twenty years.

    For reference, Figure 3 depicts the evolution of the WTI forward curve on a monthly basis with periods of “backwardation” shown in blue while “contango” is shown in orange. For our purposes, we are comparing the first contract maturity with the contract for the same month in the following year to determine the state of the curve. As it currently stands though, the one-year implied annual roll-yield has climbed to over 8% for both the ICE Brent contract and the Nymex WTI contract, which is quite attractive in absolute terms and even more so in relative terms, considering the 1yr US Treasury is yielding next to nothing. In addition to outright “carry” investments, there are a number of long/short systematic strategies that go “long” commodities that have positive yield and “short” commodities that do not. The dramatic shift in the oil forward curves in recent months has resulted in those strategies shifting from “short” to “long”. Roll-yield even plays a part in many of the new-age commodity indices where instead of placing a “long” position near the front of the curve, there are popular indices that seek to maximize roll-yield by going “long” the contract with the best implied roll-yield, generally within the next 13 months for liquidity purposes. So not only is roll-yield a factor for returns and determining directional money flows but also where on the forward curve those flows wind up which can be equally important.

    Looking Forward

    Looking forward, we expect to see more in the way of broad-based commodity flows this year giving the very supportive macro backdrop. Large asset allocators have been “underweight” commodities for some time now given the poor performance of the asset class this past decade. As such, we see that trend reversing and with that we are likely in the early stages of the industry shifting to an “overweight” commodity position. These investments dollars should continue to support oil prices on the margin but could ultimately weigh on the curve due to roll pressures.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 18:50

  • Eric Weinstein Implores Jack Dorsey To Stop Manipulating National Conversation, Allow 'Academic Freedom' To Overrule Twitter Police
    Eric Weinstein Implores Jack Dorsey To Stop Manipulating National Conversation, Allow ‘Academic Freedom’ To Overrule Twitter Police

    With Twitter serving as a de-facto town square to roughly 145 million daily active users, the need arises to ensure that divergent opinions are allowed to organically flourish without punishment, and that Twitter’s online ‘police force’ – the “Twitter Safety” team – can’t arbitrarily censor political rivals, or breathlessly label opinions as ‘misinformation’ because they run counter to (oft-contradictory) government policy.

    To that end, Eric Weinstein, managing director of Thiel Capital and prolific opinionator, has implored Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to stop throttling opinions that challenge mainstream narratives, and allow certain ‘heterodox tweeters’ the academic freedom to ‘watch the watchers’ and provide oversight to the Twitter police.

    Of note, Weinstein has repeatedly called out Twitter all types of censorship, including discussion and support for a third political party, blocking private messages due to ‘suspicious content,’ and the company’s inconsistent enforcement of their own rules.

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

    Weinstein’s open letter to Dorsey, which leads with a now-deleted government flip-flop over mask use, is embedded below:

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

    *  *  *

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsNow if only @Jack, and the board, and major shareholders, and whoever else dictates the flow of information on Twitter, would listen.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 18:25

  • Citi Literally Needed A Bigger Chart To Show The Latest Market Euphoria
    Citi Literally Needed A Bigger Chart To Show The Latest Market Euphoria

    When it comes to market euphoria, what can we say here that we haven’t already said countless time in the past two months:

    Well, there is maybe one thing we can add.

    In late February, when looking at the latest Citi Panic/Euphoria index we noted that it is now “off the chart” and – to paraphrase a certain movie – Citi would soon need a bigger chart.

    That’s precisely what happened, because in Citi’s latest Panic/Euphoria index as of Feb 12, the chart has indeed gotten bigger – literally – with the upper index bound on the Y-axis increasing from 1.80 To 2.10.

    We expect this to keep increasing for quite some time – especially with hundreds of billions more in “stimmies” coming in, as DB’s Jim Reid previewed earlier today…

    The upcoming stimulus checks may find their way into equity markets so if there is a bubble it may inflate more first before any correction.

    … before the euphoria – and stocks – finally breaks.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 18:00

  • Parler Returns
    Parler Returns

    Authored by Jennie Taer via SaraACarter.com,

    Free speech social media app Parler returned Monday with new computer servers, according to Interim CEO Mark Meckler (a leading voice in the Tea Party movement).

    “When Parler was taken offline in January by those who desire to silence tens of millions of Americans, our team came together, determined to keep our promise to our highly engaged community that we would return stronger than ever,” Meckler said in a statement, per The Hill.

    “Parler is being run by an experienced team and is here to stay. We will thrive as the premier social media platform dedicated to free speech, privacy and civil dialogue,” Meckler continued.

    The company did not reveal which web service will host Parler, saying instead that it is now “built on robust, sustainable, independent technology.”

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

    “We are off of the big tech platform, so that we can consider ourselves safe and secure for the future,” Meckler said.

    He added that the app will utilize artificial intelligence and human editors to crack down on illegal speech, but will remain true to its censorship-free mission.

    The site is expected to preserve all previous user data, according to sources close to Parler who spoke with SaraACarter.com.

    Meckler was recently named Interim CEO after the company ousted John Matze earlier this month.

    “Cancel culture came for us, and hit us with all they had,” Parler shareholder Dan Bongino told Just the News Monday.

    “Yet we couldn’t be kept down. We’re back, and we’re ready to resume the struggle for freedom of expression, data sovereignty, and civil discourse. We thank our users for their loyalty during this incredibly challenging time.”

    Parler first went offline in early January when Google Play, Apple, and Amazon dropped the application from its hosting platforms in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

    However, it’s unclear if the Apple App Store will host the platform with the new changes. Apple didn’t immediately respond to this reporter’s request for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 17:35

  • South Korea Latest To Doubt AstraZeneca Jab As Cuba Joins COVID Vaccine Race
    South Korea Latest To Doubt AstraZeneca Jab As Cuba Joins COVID Vaccine Race

    Summary:

    • UK PM says likely won’t need “vaccine passport” to go to “the pub”
    • UK reportedly finishes vaccinating everyone over 70 who wanted a vaccine
    • EU anti-fraud office widens probe into fake vaccines
    • WHO: notion of vaccine passports should be discussed
    • Cuba joins COVID vaccine race
    • US COVID cases fall to lowest level since October
    • Global vaccine count nears 175MM
    • US COVID case tally nears 30MM
    • France warns on “variants” spreading
    • Indian Institute agrees to supply Canada with vaccines
    • Cambodia reports first cases of UK variant
    • Tokyo infection numbers fall on daily basis

    * * *

    As the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in the US races toward the 30MM mark (the tally was at 27.6MM confirmed cases as of Monday morning, according to Johns Hopkins), new cases are tumbling to their lowest daily tallies since October, as weather – if only for a brief moment – reasserts itself as America’s favorite national topic of discussion.

    Cuba has joined the race (via Mexico, according to Bloomberg) to produce COVID-19 vaccines (while also developing its own home-grown vaccine program), however, it appears doubts about the efficacy of new mRNA vaccines are lingering.

    The US isn’t the only country seeing falling COVID rates: the global daily rate of new COVID cases has fallen to 275.9K.

    But the US is also leading the world in vaccinations, at a rate of nearly 1.7MM people per day, while more than 173MM doses of various vaccines tracked by Bloomberg have been given, according to official data.

    Worries about “regional spread” of various COVID-19 “variants” (mutated strains showing higher levels of infectiousness and increased resilience to the first generation of vaccines) remains high around the world, as France worries about variants of the coronavirus that are spreading in some northern and eastern parts of France).

    But in Brussels, the EU anti-fraud office has warned the governments of its member states to be on alert to schemers looking to sell fake COVID-19 vaccines as some members “get desperate” after the Continent’s vaccine rollout, which has been criticized by some as painfully slow.

    In the UK, PM Boris Johnson announced Monday that the government and the NHS had achieved their goal of vaccinating everyone in the country over the age of 70 who wanted a vaccine. Meanwhile, the first wave of passengers temporarily staying in British airport hotels to begin 10 days of isolation as tough new quarantine measures, justified by news about the potentially more dangerous new variants, came into effect. BoJo also said during an interview earlier that while Britons likely won’t need a “vaccine passport” to visit the local pub, the policy is still “in the mix” when it comes to international travel.

    In other news out of the US, California’s 14-day positive test rate dropped to 4.6% yesterday, the lowest since Nov. 15, while Ohio reported 1.8K cases, the fewest since October.

    Here’s some more COVID news from overnight and Monday morning:

    • India’s Serum Institute has agreed to ship COVID-19 vaccines to Canada within a month, its CEO said, a sign that a diplomatic dispute between the two countries is cooling. India earlier took umbrage after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said months-long protests by farmers on the outskirts of Delhi were “concerning” (Source: Nikkei).
    • Cambodia reports its first cases of the highly contagious U.K. variant, after three foreigners who arrived from overseas tested positive while in quarantine (Source: Nikkei).
    • Tokyo reports 266 infections, down from 371 a day earlier. While figures on Monday tend to be lower than other days, it was the ninth consecutive day for the capital to register fewer than 500 cases (Source: Nikkei).

    Finally, in the latest setback for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, South Korea has decided not to use the AstraZeneca vaccine on people 65 and older until researchers can confirm the vaccine’s effectiveness on patients in the age group, continuing a trend that began in Europe, when Germany, followed shortly thereafter by France, declined to approve the vaccine in people 65+ without further study embarrassing the UK after its government became first in the world to approve the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 17:10

  • Does Elon Musk Own $3 Billion In Dogecoin?
    Does Elon Musk Own $3 Billion In Dogecoin?

    Authored by Jamie Redman via Bitcoin.com,

    Ever since the infatuation between Elon Musk and the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin, a number of people have looked at the asset critically. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the mysterious dogecoin wallet that absorbed more than 27% of the coin’s supply since February 6, 2019. This week, the dogecoin wallet with $3 billion worth of the crypto asset has been creating odd transactions with binary messages, further adding to the speculation that the address might be Musk’s wallet.

    Cryptic Binary Code, Elon’s Birthday, and Transaction Gibberish

    The cryptocurrency dogecoin has catapulted seeing ‘much value’ and shibes everywhere have been saying “wow.” The current CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has been one individual who has created a lot of hype around the meme-based crypto asset.

    But Musk hasn’t been the only one, as people have placed signs in Times Square in New York telling people in the city they should “buy DOGE.” On social media, there are many dogecoin fans shilling the token relentlessly in an attempt to get the price to $1.

    In addition to the growing popularity of dogecoin, news.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the billion-dollar DOGE address that consumed over 27% of the entire supply since 2019.

    A touch over a month later, after the address received its first transaction on February 6, on April 2, Musk said: “dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency” Since then, the dogecoin address has managed to gather around 36.8 billion DOGE worth $3 billion today. In more recent days, speculators have assumed that the billion-dollar dogecoin address belongs to the Tesla founder.

    Then on Reddit, via the subreddits r/cryptomarkets and r/dogecoin, people have been discussing the mysterious address once again. People have begun to notice that the owner of the address has been sending odd transactions, some of which can be transcribed into binary code.

    One person who tried to figure out the binary code message said he couldn’t translate it, and that a lot of it was “gibberish.” Others discovered that one set of transactions displayed Elon Musk’s birth date. Some people have found messages being sent to the large address as well, asking if the wallet belongs to Musk. There are also a few assumptions from speculators who believe the address may belong to the exchange Robinhood.

    While trying to decipher a message one Redditor wrote:

    It’s not gibberish, I’ve gone through some of it and already found this: ?NOLEUOYTISI

    ‘One Coin to Rule Them All’

    Moreover, on Wednesday, Musk then tweeted about the meme currency again in another tweet that involved his baby son named “X Æ A-12.”

    “Bought some Dogecoin for lil X, so he can be a toddler hodler,” Musk tweeted to his followers with a video of his boy. Additionally, Musk tweeted a meme that said “one coin to rule them all,” with a picture of the hobbit’s ring from the J. R. R. Tolkien story “The Lord of the Rings.”

    Musk said:

    Frodo was the underdoge, All thought he would fail, Himself most of all.

    A lot of bitcoin proponents have been addressing the fact that Musk has been tweeting an awful lot about dogecoin (DOGE), but in the end, Tesla purchased bitcoin (BTC) for its balance sheet. To many people, this observation is meaningful and to others, specifically DOGE fans, it is not.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 16:45

  • Lincoln Project Fundraising Page Down After $90 Million Grift Unravels
    Lincoln Project Fundraising Page Down After $90 Million Grift Unravels

    The Lincoln Project, which raised over $90 million to oppose former President Trump and his allies during the 2020 election, has shuttered their fundraising page amid the organization’s spectacular implosion.

    According to the New York Post, the group’s donation page has been listed as inactive since Saturday, following weeks of turmoil which began with one of the (married) founders, John Weaver, being outed for sending lurid text messages to dozens of young men, which we then learned the group’s co-founders knew about and concealed as early as last June. What’s more, the group has been hit with accusations of misappropriation of funds, after more than half of the $90 million they raised was spent on consulting companies owned by the group’s founders – many of whom were saddled with debt when they founded the ‘project.’

    Two former Lincoln Project interns came forward last week with salacious text messages from Weaver, who was forced to resign from the organization after the story broke, and not when his co-founders found out about the allegations.

    According to the Associated Press, Lincoln Project leaders were informed in writing and phone calls of at least 10 specific allegations of harassment against Weaver as early as last June.

    …

    On Saturday, co-founder Steve Schmidt resigned from the board, while Jennifer Horn split with the group last month after a contract dispute, causing a public spat with other members.

    The Post also first reported that Schmidt interviewed for a job on then-candidate Trump’s White House bid in 2016, but the campaign chief role ultimately went to Paul Manafort. –New York Post

    Sour grapes gone wrong?

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 16:20

  • Presidents Day: Carter's Prescient Farewell Address In 1981
    Presidents Day: Carter’s Prescient Farewell Address In 1981

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    Regardless of our opinions about President Carter and his legacy, his Farewell Address is worthy of our attention and study.

    On Presidents Day 2021, I invite you to read/watch President Carter’s Farewell Address from 40 years ago. As a Washington outsider, Carter was relentlessly mocked and undermined by the Establishment, as insiders’ loathing of outsiders knows no bounds.

    In a similar fashion, the loathing of the corrupt and self-absorbed for the faithful aspiring to better world despite our weaknesses and flaws also knows no bounds, and so the establishment insiders that run the nation had no use for Carter other than as a handy whipping post.

    President Carter was not the only outsider president reviled by the Washington elites, of course; outsiders of both parties draw the fierce fire of a corrupt Establishment fearful of exposure.

    Although many reckon it good sport to make fun of President Carter’s initiatives (along with his grin, hair, accent, etc. etc. etc.), a strong case can be made that he was the first and only 21st century President the nation has elected. Every president since, regardless of party or ideology or canned speeches (Soaring Rhetoric (TM), has been embedded in a continuation of the 20th century economy, politics and Imperial Project.

    Carter was the first and only president to address DeGrowth, though the word had yet to be coined: DeGrowth is the idea that resources would eventually become scarce and thus unaffordable, and rather then pursue the insane fantasy of eternal growth on a finite planet, a new arrangement that did more with less would be needed.

    “There are real and growing dangers to our simple and our most precious possessions: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land which sustains us. The rapid depletion of irreplaceable minerals, the erosion of topsoil, the destruction of beauty, the blight of pollution, the demands of increasing billions of people, all combine to create problems which are easy to observe and predict, but difficult to resolve.

    But there is no reason for despair. Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world–water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution if we tackle them with courage and foresight.”

    President Carter was also prescient in his understanding that a nation’s greatest strength is its social cohesion, a cohesion that America’s unprecedented wealth/ income /power inequalities has undermined. Consider this excerpt from his Address:

    “Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater even than the bounty of our material blessings.”

    President Carter recognized that civil rights / liberties are not just fatuous PR to be trotted out in Soaring Rhetoric (TM) lip-service; they are the foundation of our national identity:

    “America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it’s the other way around. Human rights invented America. Ours was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded explicitly on such an idea. Our social and political progress has been based on one fundamental principle: the value and importance of the individual. The fundamental force that unites us is not kinship or place of origin or religious preference. The love of liberty is the common blood that flows in our American veins.

    We have no cause for self-righteousness or complacency, but we have every reason to persevere, both within our own country and beyond our borders.”

    President Carter recognized the fatal consequences of special interests dominating the political order, a danger that has now reached full flower in 2021:

    “Today, as people have become ever more doubtful of the ability of the Government to deal with our problems, we are increasingly drawn to single-issue groups and special interest organizations to ensure that whatever else happens, our own personal views and our own private interests are protected. This is a disturbing factor in American political life. It tends to distort our purposes, because the national interest is not always the sum of all our single or special interests. We are all Americans together, and we must not forget that the common good is our common interest and our individual responsibility.”

    Regardless of our opinions about President Carter and his legacy, his Farewell Address is worthy of our attention and study:

    President Carter’s Farewell Address to the Nation (16:56)

    *  *  *

    If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

    *  *  *

    My recent books:

    A Hacker’s Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook $17.46) Read the first section for free (PDF).

    Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World (Kindle $5, print $10, audiobook) Read the first section for free (PDF).

    Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($5 (Kindle), $10 (print), ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

    The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

    Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).
     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 15:55

  • Cuomo Insists All NY Nursing Home Deaths "Accurately Reported" In First Briefing Since "COVID Coverup"
    Cuomo Insists All NY Nursing Home Deaths “Accurately Reported” In First Briefing Since “COVID Coverup”

    Update (1434ET): Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s epic President’s Day afternoon press briefing has just wrapped up, and just as we suspected, Cuomo wanted to talk about the groundswell of support in the Empire State to finally dethrone a governor who has survived numerous scandals and primary challengers (not to mention 2.5 terms as governor), about as much as reporters wanted to interrupt their holiday weekend to ask him about it.

    But in what was perhaps an encouraging sign, Cuomo was ready, and instead of waiting for reporters to ask the question at a post-briefing Q&A, the governor and his team apparently felt this was big enough to strike first, and launched a fusillade of Cuomo disinformation, a mix of “actually running things is hard”, “do you remember what life was like a year ago?”, with just a pinch of NY’s in-the-works reopening plan to keep people interested through the first ten minutes.

    Before actually working his way up to his office’s claim, Cuomo spun a narrative, which relied on a complicated timeline of the virus’s assault on New York State, with some sobbing about Dr. Fauci and NY’s top public health official. First, Cuomo tried to distract the press by claiming that the first case of the South African COVID strain had been identified in a New York hospital, but in a patient who had arrived after being “transferred” from neighboring Connecticut.

    “To be clear, all deaths in nursing homes and hospitals were fully, publicly and accurately reported,” Cuomo said.

    “There was a delay in providing the press and the public with providing all that additional information.”

    After the big denial, Cuomo continued by warning that the problem with the state’s nursing homes needs to be fixed before the next pandemic, and that hospitals that have “these issues” must be “improved”, or else they might “fail” during the next pandemic. Cuomo also repeated that the DoJ was asking about ‘private’ for-profit nursing homes, as if to try and shift more responsibility off the state.

    The governor concluded that “I understand the public had many questions and concerns…” but Cuomo and his office were so slammed trying to report data to the DoJ, that the state simply didn’t have time to give the full picture. This, in Cuomo’s terms, irresponsibly created a “vacuum” in which “conspiracy theorists” flourished.

    The governor laid it on pretty thick toward the end. Because even with the “best medical professionals and advice on the globe”, “the truth is…with all we know…people still die in nursing homes today…we’re testing the staff twice a week…you would have to hermetically seal the nursing home.” And we definitely don’t have the budget for that…not in New York State.

    For review, Cuomo’s real sin was “not providing the information”. That mistake “created a void” in which “conspiracy theorists” flourished and had the gall to question the governor’s handling of the pandemic after somebody gave a hot tape of Cuomo’s chief of staff talking to legislative leaders in political terms.

    “This past year there is a toxic political environment and everything gets politicized,” he added, saying that “[t]here is political spin and there are facts.”

    Cuomo laid it on thick, choking back tears at times and entering the now ubiquitious “whisper mode” made famous by President Biden when he really wants you to know he is emoting.

    During the Q&A, a local TV news reporter tried to sneak in what was probably a planted question, since Cuomo went on to reaffirm that his office prioritized the federal request from the DoJ, though Cuomo insists that both the State Senate and Assembly were made aware of the DoJ request.

    * * *

    Gov. Andrew Cuomo is holding his first press briefing since his alleged cover-up of New York’s nursing home deaths was exposed last week.

    The alleged coverup was first reported by the New York Post. In an audio recording obtained by the Post, Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s chief of staff, told a small group of Democratic lawmakers that the governor’s office “basically froze” when they were asked by the U.S. Department of Justice to turn in the data, because they worried that then-President Donald Trump would use the information as a “giant political football” against them.

    “[President Trump] starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said during the private call, according to the NY Post.

    “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”

    As we detailed earlier, even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday called for a “full accounting” of whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration withheld information about deaths from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in nursing homes across the state.

    “It’s very troubling. We’ve got to know more. We now need a full accounting of what happened,” de Blasio said on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer show.”

    We suspect Cuomo will ignore it in all his prepared remarks and updates but hopefully at least one reporter will have the courage to ask…or can Cuomo somehow ‘filibuster’ his way through it unscathed?

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/15/2021 – 15:30

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