Feb 17

Today’s News 17th February 2021

  • How Conspiracy Theorizing May Soon Get You Labelled A "Domestic Terrorist"
    How Conspiracy Theorizing May Soon Get You Labelled A “Domestic Terrorist”

    Authored by Matthew Ehret via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

    If you are starting to feel like forces controlling the governments of the west are out to get you, then it is likely that you are either a paranoid nut job, or a stubborn realist.

    Either way, it means that you have some major problems on your hands.

    If you don’t happen to find yourself among the tinfoil hat-wearing strata of conspiracy theorists waiting in a bunker for aliens to either strike down or save society from the shape shifting lizard people, but are rather contemplating how, in the 1960s, a shadow government took control of society over the dead bodies of many assassinated patriots, then certain conclusions tend to arise.

    Three Elementary Realizations for Thinking People

    The first conclusion you would likely arrive at is that the United States government was just put through the first coup in over 58 years (yes, what happened in 1963 was a coup). Although it is becoming a bit prohibitive to speak such words aloud in polite society, Nancy Pelosi’s official biographer Molly Ball, recently penned a scandalous Time Magazine article entitled ‘The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign that Saved the 2020 Elections’ which admitted to this conspiracy saying:

    “Even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream- a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.” (Lest you think that this was a subversion of democracy, Ball informs us that “they were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.”)

    Another conclusion you might come to is that many of the political figures whom you believed were serving those who elected them into office, actually serve the interests of a clique of technocrats and billionaires lusting over the deconstruction of western civilization under something called “a Great Reset”. Where this was brushed off as an unfounded conspiracy theory not long ago, even Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister (and neo-Nazi supporting Rhodes Scholar) Chrystia Freeland decided to become a Trustee of the World Economic Forum just weeks ago. In this role, Freeland joins fellow Oxford technocrat Mark Carney in their mutual endeavor to be a part of the new movement to decarbonize civilization and make feudalism cool again.

    Lastly, you might notice that your having arrived at these conclusions is itself increasingly becoming a form of thought-crime punishable in a variety of distasteful ways elaborated by a series of unprecedented new emergency regulations that propose extending the definition of “terrorism”. Those implicated under the new definition will be those broad swaths of citizens of western nations who don’t agree with the operating beliefs of the ruling oligarchy.

    Already a 60 day review of the U.S. military is underway to purge the armed forces of all such “thought criminals” while McCarthyite legislation has been drafted to cleanse all government jobs of “conspiracy theorists”.

    Another startling announcement from the National Terrorism Advisory Bulletin that domestic terrorists include: “ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority [and] perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.”

    While not yet fully codified into law (though it will be if not nipped in the bud soon), you can be sure that things are certainly moving fast as, before our very eyes, the right to free speech is being torn to shreds by means of censorship across social media and the internet, cancelling all opinions deemed unacceptable to the ruling class.

    The Conspiracy to Subvert Conspiracy Theorizing

    This should not come as a surprise, as Biden’s new addition to the Department of Homeland Security is a bizarre figure named Cass Sunstein who famously described exactly what this was going to look like in his infamous 2008 report ‘Conspiracy Theories’ (co-authored with Harvard Law School’s Adrien Vermeule). In this under-appreciated study, the duo foresaw the greatest threat to the ruling elite took the form of “conspiracy theorizing” within the American population using as examples of this delusion: the idea that the government had anything to do with the murders of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, or the planning and execution of 9-11.

    Just to be clear, conspiracy literally means ‘two or more people acting together in accord with an agreed upon idea and intention’.

    The fact that Vermeule has made a legal career arguing that laws should be interpreted not by the “intentions” of lawgivers, but rather according to cost-benefit analysis gives us a useful insight into the deranged mind of a technocrat and the delusional reasoning that denies the very thing which has shaped literally ALL of human history.

    In their “scholarly” essay, the authors wrote “the existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the government’s antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be.” 

    After establishing his case for the threat of conspiracies, Sunstein says that “the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups”.

    Not one to simply draw criticisms, the pro-active Sunstein laid out five possible strategies which the social engineers managing the population could deploy to defuse this growing threat saying:

    “(1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing.

    (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories.

    (3) Government might itself engage in counter speech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories.

    (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counter speech.

    (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help”.

    (I’ll let you think about which of these prescriptions were put into action over the ensuing 12 years.)

    Cass Sunstein was particularly sensitive to this danger largely because: 1) he was a part of a very ugly conspiracy himself and 2) he is a world-renowned behaviorist.

    The Problem of Reality for Behaviorists

    As an economic behaviorist and lawyer arguing that all “human rights” should be extended to animals (blurring the line separating human dynamics from the law of the jungle as any fascist must), Sunstein has spent decades trying to model human behavior with computer simulations in an effort to “scientifically manage” such behavior.

    As outlined in his book Nudge (co-authored with Nobel Prize winning behaviorist Richard Thaler), Sunstein “discovered” that people tend to organize their behavioral patterns around certain fundamental drives, such as the pursuit of pleasure, avoidance of pain, and certain Darwinian drives for sex, popularity, desire for conformity, desire for novelty, and greed.

    One of the key principles of economic behaviorism which is seen repeated in such popular manuals as Freakonomics, Nudge, Predictably Irrational, The Wisdom of Crowds, and Animal Spirits, is that humans are both biologically determined due to their Darwinian impulses, but, unlike other animals, have the fatal flaw of being fundamentally irrational at their core. Since humans are fundamentally irrational, says the behaviorist, it is requisite that an enlightened elite impose “order” upon society while maintaining the illusion of freedom of choice from below. This is the underlying assumption of Karl Popper’s Open Society doctrine, which was fed to Popper’s protégé George Soros and which animates Soros’ General Theory of Reflexivity and his Oxford-based Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).

    This was at the heart of Obama’s science Czar John Holdren’s call for world government in his 1977 Ecoscience (co-written with his mentor Paul Ehrlich) where the young misanthrope envisioned a future utopic world governed by a scientifically managed master-class saying:

    “Perhaps those agencies, combined with UNEP and the United Nations population agencies, might eventually be developed into a Planetary Regime- sort of an international superagency for population, resources, and environment. Such a comprehensive Planetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable”.

    The caveat: If Darwinian impulses mixed with irrational “animal spirits” were truly all that animated those systems which behaviorists wish to map and manipulate (aka: “nudge” with rewards, punishments), then a scientific priesthood would indeed be a viable and perhaps necessary way to organize the world.

    Fortunately, reality is a bit more elegant and dignified than behaviorists wish to admit.

    Why Computer Modellers Hate Metaphysics

    On a closer inspection of history, we find countless instances where people shape their individual and group behavior around sets of ideas that transcend controllable material impulses. When this happens, those individuals or groups tend to resist adapting to environments created for them. This incredible phenomenon is witnessed empirically in the form of the American Revolution, Warsaw Ghetto Uprisings, Civil Rights movements, and even some bold manifestations of anti-lockdown protests now underway around the world.

    Among the most troublesome of those variables which upset computer models are: “Conscience”, “Truth”, “Intentions”, “Soul”, “Honor”, “God”, “Justice”, “Patriotism”, “Dignity”, and “Freedom”.

    Whenever individuals shape their identities around these very real, though immaterial (aka: “metaphysical”) principles, they cannot be “nudged” towards pre-determined decisions that defy reason and morality. Adherence to these principles also tends to afford thinking people an important additional edge of creative insight necessary to cut through false explanatory narratives that attempt to hide lies behind the appearance of truth (aka: sophistry).

    As witnessed on multiple occasions throughout history, such individuals who value the health of their souls over the intimidating (and extremely malleable) force of popular opinion, will often decide to sacrifice personal comfort and even their lives in order to defend those values which their minds and consciences deem important.

    These rare, but invaluable outliers will often resist policies that threaten to undo their freedoms or undermine the basis of their society’s capacity to produce food, and energy for their children and grandchildren. What is worse, is that their example is often extremely contagious causing other members of the sheep class to believe that they too are human and endowed with unalienable rights which should be defended.

    The Intentions Ordering World History

    Perhaps, most “destructive” of all is that these outlier people tend to look for abstract things like “causes” in historical dynamics shaping the context of their present age, as well as their current geopolitical environment.

    Whenever this type of thinking is done, carefully crafted narratives fed to the masses by an enlightened elite will often fail in their powers to persuade, since seekers after truth soon come to realize that IDEAS and intentions (aka: conspiracies) shape our past, present and future. When the dominating intentions shaping society’s trajectory is in conformity with Natural Law, humanity tends to improve, freedoms increase, culture matures and evil loses its hold. Inversely, when the intentions animating history are out of conformity with Natural Law, the opposite happens as societies lose their moral and material fitness to survive and slip ever more quickly into dark ages.

    While sitting in a jail in Birmingham Alabama in 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. described this reality eloquently when he said:

    “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust… One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”

    From Plato’s organization of his Academy and efforts to shape a Philosopher King to beat the forces of the Persian Empire, to Cicero’s efforts to save the Roman Republic, to Augustine’s battles to save the soul of Christianity all the way to our present age, conspiracies for the good and counter-conspiracies for evil have shaped history. If one were to begin an investigation into history without an understanding that ideas and intentions caused the trajectory of history, as is the standard practice among history professors dominant in todays world, then one would become incapable of understanding anything essential about one’s own reality.

    It is irrelevant that behaviorists and other fascists wish their victims to believe that history just happens simply because random short-sighted impulses kinetically drive events on a timeline- the truth of my claim exists for any serious truth seeker to discover it for themselves.

    Back to our Present Sad State of Affairs

    Now we all know that Sunstein spent the following years working as Obama’s Regulatory Czar alongside an army of fellow behaviorists who took control of all levers of policy making as outlined by Time Magazine’s April 13, 2009 article ‘How Obama is Using the Science of Change’. As the fabric of western civilization, and traditional values of family, gender, and even macro economic concepts like “development” were degraded during this period, the military industrial complex had a field day as Sunstein’s wife Samantha Power worked closely with Susan Rice in the promotion of “humanitarian bombings” of small nations under Soros’ Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

    After the Great Reset Agenda was announced in June 2020, Sunstein was recruited to head the propaganda wing of the World Health Organization known as the WHO Technical Advisory Group where his skills in mass behavior modification was put to use in order to counteract the dangerous spread of conspiracy theories that persuaded large chunks of the world population that COVID-19 was part of a larger conspiracy to undermine national sovereignty and impose world government.

    The head of WHO described Sunstein’s mandate in the following terms:

    “In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are using a range of tools to influence behavior: Information campaigns are one tool, but so are laws, regulations, guidelines and even fines…That’s why behavioral science is so important.”

    Today, hundreds of Obama-era behaviorists have streamed back into influential positions of government under the new “scientifically managed”, evidence-based governance coming back to life under Biden promising to undo the dark days of President Trump.

    Ideologues who have been on record calling for world government, the elimination of the sick and elderly (see Obamacare architect Ezekiel Emmanuel’s Why I Hope to Die At 75), and population control are streaming back into positions of influence.

    If you think that anything they have done to return to power is unlawful, or antithetical to the principles of the Constitution, then these technocrats want you to know that you are a delusional conspiracy theorist and as such, represent a potential threat to yourself and the society of which you are but a part.

    If you question World Health Organization narratives on COVID-19, or doubt the use of vaccines produced by organizations like Astra Zeneca due to their ties to eugenics organizations then you are a delusional conspiracy theorist.

    If you doubt that global warming is caused by carbon dioxide or that implementing the Paris Climate accords may cause more damage to humanity than climate change ever could, then you must be a conspiracy theorist.

    If you believe that the U.S. government just went through a regime change coordinated by something called “the deep state”, then you run the risk of being labelled a delusional threat to “the general welfare” deserving of the sort of treatment dolled out to any typical terrorist.

    It appears that the many comforts we have taken for granted over the past 50-year drunken stupor called “globalization” are quickly coming to an end, and thankfully not one but two opposing intentions for what the new operating system will be are actively vying for control. This clash was witnessed in stark terms during the January 2021 Davos Summit, where Xi Jinping and Putin’s call for a new system of win-win cooperation, multipolarity and long-term development offset the unipolar zero-sum ideologues of the west seeking to undo the foundations of industrial civilization.

    Either way you look at it, conspiracies for good and for evil do exist now, as they have from time immemorial. The only question is which intention do you want to devote your life towards?

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 23:50

  • Putin Reportedly "Interested" In Elon Musk's Proposal For The Two Men To Speak
    Putin Reportedly “Interested” In Elon Musk’s Proposal For The Two Men To Speak

    On Sunday, we were among the first to note that Elon Musk had reached out to Vladimir Putin and asked for a “conversation” – ostensibly about bringing his companies to Russia – and hopefully not to just immediately surrender secrets related to the U.S. space program to Russia. 

    Whether the offer by Musk is telegraphing that his clout in China could be running out, or it’s just another case of “Musk being Musk”, his offer didn’t appear to fall on deaf ears.

    It didn’t take long for Chinese media to confirm that a “conversation” could actually happen between Musk and Putin. State-affiliated outlet People’s Daily reported on Monday that Putin was “interested” in Musk’s offer. 

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    It raised a lot of questions from investors – namely, what would the optics if another major company CEO with ties to the U.S. Space Program reached out and made the same offer?

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    But there was at least one investor on FinTwit that gave Musk the benefit of the doubt.

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    Recall, on Sunday, we wrote that Elon Musk tweeted the official English twitter account of the Kremlin, i.e., Vladimir Putin, saying “would you like join me for a conversation” on the popular (and so far invite-only) new audio social network Clubhouse.

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    He then followed up in google-translated Russian “it would be a great honor to speak with you.”

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    We continue to wait for more context on this story as it develops. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 23:30

  • Rockets Pound US Base In Northern Iraq Leading To Casualties
    Rockets Pound US Base In Northern Iraq Leading To Casualties

    Submitted by South Front,

    The United States has already started bearing the consequences of the decision of the Biden administration to halt the troop drawdown from the Greater Middle East.

    On February 15th, 14 rockets struck the area of the US military base near Erbil International Airport, 4 of them within the compound, 10 of which were near strikes. One private contractor was killed and 5 were injured. In a rare event, 1 US service member was also wounded.

    The location of the attack coincides with Turkey’s operation “Claw Eagle 2” which targets the alleged Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions. Most of northern Iraq was on edge, as a result.

    Turkey and the US, as NATO allies appear to not be cooperating whatsoever, as they’re pursuing separate goals in largely the same areas of the Middle East.

    Ankara’s activities contribute to the chaos of the Middle East situation, as it targets the PKK, while the US mostly targets and is targeted by Iranian-backed forces.

    Another US ally, this time one that aligns its activities with it – Israel struck unknown targets around Damascus.

    It launched missiles from the occupied Golan Heights, and many of them were intercepted by Syrian air defenses, however, some landed on their targets. It is unclear what was targeted and what the damage was.

    There have been no strikes by Israel through Lebanese airspace after a drone was downed, and Hezbollah vowed to attempt to destroy any Israeli aircraft that encroaches on its airspace.

    Movements throughout the Middle East are beginning for the US and its allies.

    In Iraq, many of the targeted convoys in the last several weeks have reached their destinations.

    With a lack of reports of convoy targeting, it would appear that the currently static positions are under threat.

    Iran is continuing its movements, undermining US and Israeli influence, and it has had general success in recent weeks. The US is fighting back against it.

    On February 11th, a truck moving supplies for an Iranian-backed unit, al-Haydariyun, was targeted near Syria’s border with Iraq.

    According to the Resistance Media Network, the truck was targeted by a drone likely operated by the US military.

    In Yemen, the US said it would attempt to impose a peace deal, on its own terms. It claims to stop supporting Saudi Arabia’s genocidal intervention. Washington, however, also continues providing defensive services and intelligence.

    Following Joe Biden’s first foreign policy speech, the time for the US to move has come. In the coming days, the “fight against ISIS” is sure to ramp up, alongside various other movements throughout the Middle East.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 23:10

  • Israeli Hospitals Brace For Rising Numbers Of Children Infected With COVID As Schools Re-Open
    Israeli Hospitals Brace For Rising Numbers Of Children Infected With COVID As Schools Re-Open

    Just as it led the world during the vaccination process (with only a few suspicious deaths), Israel is on track to lead the US and Europe in reopening schools and its broader society. And its hospitals are already bracing for a surge in deadly infections (worsened by individuals’ complications and the “post-COVID” syndrome) as the cases of five desperately ill children captivate the country.

    Israel isn’t yet vaccinating children under the age of 16 at this stage even as schools are set to reopen, but public health officials are already out telling the press and the public, not to worry, because Israel will have a team of doctors at the ready.

    Here’s more from Haaretz:

    On Sunday, the head of the general medicine division at the Health Ministry, Dr. Sigal Liverant Taub, wrote a letter to hospital administrators urging them to adjust their infrastructure to suit children, and to prepare their daily medical teams to treat young people by February 25.

    “In the upcoming two months, we expect an upward trend in infection in children of all ages in Israel,” Liverant Taub wrote. “Evidence is accumulating for higher infection rates of the British variant, whose prevalence in Israel is about 80 percent, among children.”

    The doctor added that treating children in the same fashion as adults “is not a solution that we want, and therefore we must prepare infrastructure specifically for children, [staffed] by a team that is skilled in treating children alone.”

    These statements are landing as five Israeli children have been hospitalized in Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava for COVID-19 and its complications, one of them in serious condition. Three of them (a 13-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 1.5-year-old) have active COVID-19 infections.

    One of the doctors treating the children added that COVID complications can be unpredictable.

    Dr. Dganit Adam, the director of Meir Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, said that “We are witness to the fact that despite everyone being certain that children are not endangered by the coronavirus, there are an increasing number of children being hospitalized for COVID-19 and the complications that follow it.”

    She added, “Some come to us in a more complicated medical state. It’s important to be aware of this and to pay attention to symptoms after coronavirus infection – fever, rashes, redness in the eyes and other symptoms, even a month after falling ill.”

    In other news, back in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest announcement about the positivity rate in the Empire State declining to a new post-November low has got markets people talking about the outlook for the economic reopening in the US.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 22:50

  • National Guard To Stay In DC "Through Fall 2021", Why?!
    National Guard To Stay In DC “Through Fall 2021”, Why?!

    Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

    A leaked email suggests that there are plans to keep the National Guard in Washington DC beyond the previously discussed deadline of March 12th, and throughout the Summer AND Fall.

    A report by FOX 5 cites an internal email seen by reporters that reveals The National Security Council is asking the Department of Defense to engage Capitol Police on planning for post-March 12th support.

    The report notes that there will be a meeting for agencies to discuss the matter next Wednesday, February 17th.

    The email was written by Robert Salesses who is covering the duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security.

    It states:

    “If it’s not possible to sustain at the current level with NG personnel, we need to establish the number of NG personnel (DCNG and out-of-state) we can sustain for an extended period – at least through Fall 2021 – and understand additional options for providing DoD support, to include use of reserve personnel, as well as active component.”

    While troops were expected to stay in DC for the duration of the impeachment sideshow, owing to “security concerns,” it now appears that they will remain even longer.

    The Pentagon has confirmed that there are still around 6000 National Guard troops in DC. While there have been indications that the number will be reduced to 5000 within a month, there have been no other indications of when troops will be stood down.

    There is also no indication of when the huge razor wire topped security fencing will be removed from around Capitol Hill.

    The Guard have been given virtually no information about what they are required to do, with one soldier previously describing the situation as “very unusual for any military mission.”

    As we reported last month, thousands of the troops were forced to sleep OUTSIDE and in a parking Garage near the Capitol building after a Democratic lawmaker complained that ONE guardsmen was not wearing a face mask.

    The estimated cost of keeping the security measures is so far close to $500 million.

    Without a legitimate reason to keep troops in DC any longer, Americans can only assume that the Biden administration and the Democrats feel their grip on power needs protecting by a permanent military presence.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 22:30

  • Stunning Images Reveal Massive Commercial Jet Parking Lot Amid Travel Collapse
    Stunning Images Reveal Massive Commercial Jet Parking Lot Amid Travel Collapse

    Pilot and photographer Jassen Todorov captured stunning images of hundreds of commercial jets parked in airfields across the US amid the downturn in air travel thanks to the virus pandemic, according to Daily Mail. 

    Todorov’s images include billions of dollars worth of commercial jets parked at dusty airfields across the country. 

    The images give light to new data from travel firm Cirium, who outlines in a recent report the number of single-aisle aircraft in service has plunged since the beginning of the year amid a flare-up of US COVID-19 cases and increased restrictions. 

    Cirium’s data showed single-aisle aircraft in service fell below the 8.8k mark on Feb. 5, a drop of 15% compared with Jan. 3 figures. 

    Following months of surging air travel numbers into the 2020 holiday season, US passenger volumes dove in late January to their lowest levels in six months. 

    Todorov captured more pictures of commercial jets parked at airfields. It appears reopening optimism two months into vaccination rollouts has yet to bring a “V-shaped” recovery to the airline industry. 

    Demand for used private jets is soaring as rich people do not want to fly first class anymore amid fears of being infected. 

    On top of this all, remote working and teleconferencing have resulted in a permanent shift lower in business travel, which was the bulk of all travel. The pandemic is expected to keep commercial airlines in a state of depression for a few years. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 22:10

  • Navy Scrambles As Deployed Sailors Test COVID-19 Positive On Previously-Stricken Carrier
    Navy Scrambles As Deployed Sailors Test COVID-19 Positive On Previously-Stricken Carrier

    Akin to a similar outbreak scenario aboard the same aircraft carrier which took it out of commission last year during the early phase of the pandemic, the USS Theodore Roosevelt is once again entering what essentially appears like quarantine, now undertaking “aggressive mitigation” measures after three sailors tested positive for COVID-19. 

    After being placed in isolation they are expected to be flown off ship. According to a US Navy statement, “The sailors’ cases were identified during random command surveillance testing, which has been taking place as part of a holistic COVID-19 mitigation effort that includes physical distancing, additional cleaning and mandatory mask-wearing on the ship, U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Myers Vasquez told USNI News.”

    USS Theodore Roosevelt, Getty Images

    This suggests a wider outbreak may be in progress aboard the carrier, but so far others identified which had close contact with infected individuals have tested negative and are said to be in quarantine.

    The first time the Roosevelt faced an outbreak it involved over 1,200 eventual infections, with one death, all of which took the nuclear-powered carrier out of commission, forcing it to dock at Guam and cut short its slated mission last May. Like the majority of the prior wave of infections the first time, the three sailors are asymptomatic.

    Currently the carrier strike group is on its second deployment within a year, now operating in the Pacific and off a recent port call in Guam. According a Navy spokesperson, necessary precautions were taken during a late February through early January port call:

    During the Guam visit, sailors were allowed off the ship, but measures were put in place to keep them from coming into contact with anyone outside their COVID-free bubble. A section of the beach was cordoned off for them, and they were not supposed to come in contact with other personnel on the pier, Vasquez said.

    The US Navy further said new protocol to prevent further COVID-19 spread aboard the ship has been implemented with the ultimate goal of ensuring it remains operational.

    “The ship is following an aggressive mitigation strategy in accordance with Navy and CDC guidelines to include mandatory mask wearing, social distancing, and proper hygiene and sanitation practices. U.S. Pacific Fleet is committed to taking every measure possible to protect the health of our force. USS Theodore Roosevelt is currently underway and remains fully operational,” the Navy said.

    The devastating rapid spread of the virus aboard the ship last spring into early summer marked a massive crisis for the Navy. It not only temporarily took the ship out of commission, but saw Chinese state media mocking the ‘weakness’ of the Pentagon’s Pacific forces and deployments at the time. It also resulted in the Roosevelt’s prior commander, Capt. Brett E. Crozier being relieved – also with the Secretary of the Navy later forced to resign over the crisis’ mishandling.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 21:50

  • WHO Issues 'Alert' To Six African Nations After Recent Ebola Outbreaks
    WHO Issues ‘Alert’ To Six African Nations After Recent Ebola Outbreaks

    After the West African country of Guinea reported its first confirmed Ebola deaths since 2016, prompting the declaration of an “epidemic situation,” the World Health Organization (WHO) has alerted six countries to watch out for further spread of the disease, according to Reuters.

    The news comes as Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday in the first resurgence of Ebola in West Africa since the 2013-2016 outbreak, while the Democratic Republic of Congo reported its first resurgence on Feb. 7. Liberia was also mentioned as among the countries that received an “alert”.

    “We have already alerted the six countries around, including of course Sierra Leone and Liberia, and they are moving very fast to prepare and be ready and to look for any potential infection,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris told a Geneva briefing. -Reuters

    The other countries that received a warning weren’t named.

    According to the WHO’s Harris, health authorities had identified close to 300 Ebola contacts in the Congo outbreak and around 109 in Guinea, as doctors and nurses race to prevent the spread of disease.

    Gene sequencing of Ebola samples from both Congo and Guinea is allowing scientists to learn more about the origins of the new outbreaks and identify the strains that are spreading, Harris added.

    “We don’t know if this is down to Ebola persisting in the human population or if it’s simply moving again from the animal population but the genetic sequencing that’s ongoing will help with that information,” she said.

    Given current global pandemic awareness combined with the fact that Ebola victims are easy to identify by the rapid onset of vomiting and, later, bleeding from orifices (as opposed to the significantly less deadly COVID’s asymptomatic spread), we are hopeful that these latest African outbreaks can be quickly contained.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 21:30

  • This Is What Hedge Funds Bought And Sold In Q4: Complete 13F Summary
    This Is What Hedge Funds Bought And Sold In Q4: Complete 13F Summary

    In the aftermath of late January’s massive short squeeze fireworks, 13F reporting season – which had lost much of its luster in recent years as hedge funds lost much of their impact in a centrally-planned world – was once again interesting, if only to find who had extra exposure to the January short-squeeze turmoil. Of course, we should caveat that as usual, all of the positions disclosed in today’s round of 13Fs were stale by at least 45 days, and as such there has certainly been significant rotation out of the high beta and most shorted names in late January and early February.

    With that said, and as noted earlier, the big highlight was Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway which trimmed its Apple holding in the fourth quarter, while reporting formerly secret stakes in Verizon ($8.6BN), Chevron ($4.1BN) and Marsh & McLennan ($499MM).

    Berkshire’s reduction in Apple stood in contrast to other positions investment funds revealed in regulatory filings for the quarter, which showed several favoring megacap tech companies according to Bloomberg which notes that Microsoft has been an early winner in 13F filings released so far as major hedge funds bought positions. The software maker was a top new buy at Bridgewater and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, while D1 Capital Partners and Tiger Global Management also boosted their stakes.  A handful of Tiger Cubs (firm run by alumni of Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management) also boosted their stakes in Microsoft with Viking, Tiger Global and Maverick all adding to their positions in the software giant, which gained just 6% in the quarter.

    Another megacap technology company, Facebook, was a top new buy at Gabe Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management, although it is likely that after the fund’s flameout, it was likely forced to liquidate some or all of its stake.

    Meanwhile, recent initial public offerings Airbnb and DoorDash also received attention from funds. Both companies were top new buys at Tiger Global and Temasek. Banks have been more divisive. Bridgewater snapped up shares of JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup, while Berkshire exited its positions in PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and JPMorgan, and it cut its stake in Wells Fargo.

    Going down the list, Bloomberg notes, that Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management increased its stakes of 26 companies in the fourth quarter, including adding 1.63 million shares of Walt Disney which surged 46% in the period. That brought Coatue’s stake in the world’s largest entertainment company to about $2 billion at year-end, making it the fund’s biggest long U.S. holding. At the same time, Coatue cut its exposure to the tech sector by about 6%, but it could be that the firm was just rebalancing the portfolio given the jump in those shares.

    Tiger Global made a notable move in selling a major chunk of its Sunrun stake — it sold an investment that has been incredibly profitable for Chase Coleman’s firm. Tiger Global made $1.5 billion on the solar company’s stock last year, and it has been among the best performers in Tiger Global’s hedge fund and long-only fund.

    Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is pursuing investments on video-game makers. The Riyadh-based Public Investment Fund bought stakes in Activision Blizzard Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. The three stakes had a combined value of almost $3.3 billion at the end of December, according to its filing.

    Below  is a snapshot summary of some of the key position changes revealed at the more popular hedge funds in the 4th quarter, courtesy of Bloomberg.

    ADAGE CAPITAL PARTNERS

    • Top new buys: TSLA, KSS, WORK, EV, RL, SO, AVIR, CEO, APSG, STPK
    • Top exits: ST, CVX, OC, BECN, HI, KURA, FSR, AZO, FIVE, AZN
    • Boosted stakes in: ALXN, XOM, GE, EMR, DOV, EOG, DIS, GOOGL, PXD, GOOG
    • Cut stakes in: FTV, W, HZNP, MRK, CRM, HON, SRPT, ITT, LPX, FIS

    APPALOOSA

    • Top new buys: OXY, XLE, QCOM, M, KMX, KSS, EPD, XOP, EWY, ADS
    • Top exits: T, MO, BSX
    • Boosted stakes in: AMZN, FB, MSFT, TWTR, UNH, HCA, ET, AMLP, ADBE, CRM
    • Cut stakes in: PCG, BABA, WFC, SQ, MA, EMR, V, PYPL, NFLX, SYY

    BALYASNY ASSET MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: MSFT, DIS, WORK, KO, IPHI, XLNX, COO, JBHT, AAPL, INTU
    • Top exits: LULU, SCHW, WDAY, SWKS, SHOP, QCOM, KNX, COST, WFC, FDX
    • Boosted stakes in: V, BAC, GOOGL, MXIM, TEAM, BABA, NFLX, RP, PANW, TSCO
    • Cut stakes in: ATVI, AMZN, TGT, TJX, WLTW, OTIS, CTSH, MCD, MIDD, BIIB

    BAUPOST GROUP

    • Top new buys: INTC, MPC, ADV, FNF, RBAC, VSPR, RADI, DGNS
    • Top exits: HPQ, MCK, AMAT, HWM
    • Boosted stakes in: QRVO, FB, SSNC, CLNY, PEAK, EBAY
    • Cut stakes in: FOXA, GOOG, PSTH, VIST, ATRA

    BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

    • Top new buys: VZ, CVX, MMC
    • Top exits: GOLD, MTB, PNC, PFE, JPM
    • Boosted stakes in: ABBV, MRK, TMUS, BMY, KR, RH
    • Cut stakes in: WFC, SU, LILAK, GM, USB, AAPL

    BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATES

    • Top new buys: JPM, BAC, MSFT, C, WFC, MS, GS, SCHW, USB, AON
    • Top exits: TSLA, LULU, LOW, SHW, JCI, HD, DD, ECL, KMX, MAS
    • Boosted stakes in: WMT, PG, PDD, IEMG, KO, JNJ, PEP, VWO, COST, IVV
    • Cut stakes in: GLD, NTES, DHI, LEN, VFC, WDAY, TT, PPG, ODFL, SPLK

    COATUE MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: DASH, XPEV, API, AYX, SFIX, ROOT, LYFT, ROKU, BA, LSPD
    • Top exits: SMAR, LBRDK, SDC, NAT, DHT, EAF, TNK, LUMN, SSYS, DDD
    • Boosted stakes in: DIS, UBER, SQ, NUAN, Z, PYPL, PINS, EXPE, SE, SNOW
    • Cut stakes in: PLAN, NKLA, GDOT, AEO, URBN, FB, DXCM, DOCU, DDOG, BEKE

    CORSAIR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: DNMR, JIH, CCX, LAUR, NRZ, NVGS, LEAF, LNG, SATS, ATH
    • Top exits: FMC, NWSA, QQQ, CDR, KLR
    • Boosted stakes in: WMB, GSAH, GDDY, VRT, NATR, STAR, CUBI, ECPG, ENZ, GVA
    • Cut stakes in: PSTH, AON, CC, BXRX, BH, IQV, PLYA, GLD, BBCP, LKQ

    CORVEX MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: GOOGL, FISV, WDAY, CCEP, AEO, GPN, RADI, STPK, FB
    • Top exits: BABA, CMCSA, ILMN, ACM, TWTR, NAV, LYV, MSGS, PCG
    • Boosted stakes in: FE, ATVI, ATUS, AMZN, JPM, DIS, ZEN, ADBE, FIVE
    • Cut stakes in: EXC, CNP, EVRG, HUM, TMUS, NFLX

    D1 CAPITAL PARTNERS

    • Top new buys: BKNG, DDOG, AMZN, DECK, MRVI, BAX, DRI, TEAM, BX, EDU
    • Top exits: IR, PNC, CLVT, DT, MSGS, MU, SMAR, KRC, BABA, ESS
    • Boosted stakes in: MSFT, EXPE, NFLX, FB, GOOGL, DIS, RH, JPM, DHR, TGT
    • Cut stakes in: LYV, CVNA, AVB, ORLY, HPP, BLL, LVS, DEI, AAP, RACE

    DUQUESNE FAMILY OFFICE

    • Top new buys: CMI, RUN, LIN, ASHR, SMH, NYT, ABCL, AA, FSLR, ARRY
    • Top exits: BABA, NFLX, GDX, FB, ALNY, XLI, FIS, VZ, BKNG, WEN
    • Boosted stakes in: PANW, DIS, CVNA, TMUS, SBUX, TECK, NET, RETA, CCL, IQV
    • Cut stakes in: JD, GOLD, GOOGL, SMAR, WDAY, PYPL, LYV, PENN, AMZN, FSLY

    ELLIOTT MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: EVRG, T, PSA, FFIV, SNAP, PINS, FNV, XOP
    • Top exits: EBAY, WELL, RILY
    • Boosted stakes in: DELL

    EMINENCE CAPITAL

    • Top new buys: WSC, EXPE, AN, GOOG, ADI, GDDY, MA, FIS, JWS, GH
    • Top exits: JPM, BAC, QSR, RJF, VTR, KDP, AZO, DHI, VICI, SHAK
    • Boosted stakes in: CTVA, RP, LH, MIC, DFS, PANW, NEWR, RRR, TPX, COF
    • Cut stakes in: ASH, CPRI, SEE, CHNG, FISV, DD, PSTG, BABA, UBER, WELL

    ENGAGED CAPITAL

    • Top new buys: GIL, QUOT
    • Top exits: MED, JACK, MX
    • Boosted stakes in: STKL, NCR, MGLN, IWM

    FIR TREE

    • Top new buys: ABBV, OUT, SPR, BSX, HHC, PRO, CONX, IMPX, CRHC
    • Top exits: EIX, FLT, PSTH, EXC, CUK, ETWO, JWS, GIX, UWMC, LOTZ
    • Boosted stakes in: LAMR, CMCSA, MSGE, ANTM, PRPB, FIS, YAC, AMHC, CTXS
    • Cut stakes in: FE, LYV, SLM, TMUS, EXPE, CCIV, WPF, THCA, CNC, HEC

    GREENLIGHT CAPITAL

    • Top new buys: DNMR, FUBO, ADT, CLOV, SATS, SONO, NPA
    • Top exits: INTC, INGR, PVH, GHC, CRY, KW, VAPO, AMRN, GPORQ
    • Boosted stakes in: REZI, TECK, CNX, DDS, AAWW
    • Cut stakes in: JACK, ICPT, GLD, CC, CCK, NCR, CHNG, AER

    ICAHN

    • Top new buys: BHC, DAN
    • Boosted stakes in: IEP, XRX
    • Cut stakes in: TEN, LNG

    JANA PARTNERS

    • Top new buys: LH, THS, TGNA, GRA
    • Top exits: ELY, BCO
    • Boosted stakes in: PRSP, EHC
    • Cut stakes in: SPY, BLMN, NEWR

    LANSDOWNE

    • Top new buys: UNP, GE, ENIA, PSX, HTOO, EEM, VXX, GLD, UVXY
    • Top exits: FSLR, COG, EQT, CDE, PAAS, UNVR, LOOP, QS, RIDE, GDXJ
    • Boosted stakes in: TSM, AMAT, ADI, AES, BLDP, AG, TMUS
    • Cut stakes in: C, ED, IDA, LUV, NSC, BKNG, DAR, UAL, REGI, VMC

    LONG POND

    • Top new buys: PHM, SUI, ELS, AMH, NNN, SRC, FR, ABNB, LSI, EXP
    • Top exits: HLT, SHO, SBRA, PEAK, WELL, PGRE, HPP, EXPE, KRC, H
    • Boosted stakes in: EQR, AVB, WH, UDR, GLPI
    • Cut stakes in: DEI, JBGS, MGP, MAA, LVS, ESS, CPT, HGV

    MAGNETAR FINANCIAL

    • Top new buys: OPEN, XLNX, ALXN, PNM, NAV, AJRD, WORK, HMSY, OSB, CCX
    • Boosted stakes in: IPHI, CIIC, BSX, AZN, NPA, MRK, EXPC, JIH, IPV, FSRV
    • Cut stakes in: ADCT, MPLN, MP, EHC, UBER, ABBV, WLTW, GRUB, VAR, PSTH

    MAVERICK CAPITAL

    • Top new buys: SEER, MGM, PLD, GTLS, WYNN, IBP, SQZ, DASH, DGNS, CROX
    • Top exits: DLTR, GPN, TMUS, WEN, BBBY, UAA, FND, CRI, FTCH, FDX
    • Boosted stakes in: AMAT, FLT, ADBE, FB, GME, MSFT, ATRA, GOOG, NKTR, JACK
    • Cut stakes in: HUM, GLW, KKR, AMZN, LOGI, APD, ZNGA, DXC, CCK, CNC

    MELVIN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: FB, COUP, MELI, NFLX, PAGS, CRWD, SPGI, GWW, ADI, XRAY
    • Top exits: DOCU, MCD, TJX, LOW, PYPL, WDAY, SBAC, DPZ, BURL, EAT
    • Boosted stakes in: MA, EXPE, GOOGL, TEAM, V, HLT, AMD, NUAN, LVS, NKE
    • Cut stakes in: BABA, NOW, AMZN, AZO, DDOG, SE, AAP, LH, ALGN, FISV

    OAKTREE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: COLD, LU, OAS, CRC
    • Top exits: MEG, BIDU, CEO, SQM, CCS, GTXMQ, GTH, XPEV, API, MSGE
    • Boosted stakes in: ITUB, VALE, BBD, PBR, CX, IBN, AZUL, NMIH, SMCI, TRMD
    • Cut stakes in: TSM, UNIT, MELI, INDA, KC, COOP, ALLY

    OMEGA ADVISORS

    • Top new buys: GM, WSC, CMCSA, BGS, ORCC, DMAC
    • Top exits: LEE
    • Boosted stakes in: MP, COOP, ATH, ET, STKL, SNR, NAVI, VRT, GCI, FCRD
    • Cut stakes in: AMCX, SRGA, MGY

    PERSHING SQUARE

    • Cut stakes in: LOW, QSR, SBUX, A, HLT

    SOROBAN CAPITAL

    • Top new buys: LOW, GWRE, PLNT
    • Boosted stakes in: MSFT, ATUS, AMZN, FIS, YUM, MAR, ADI, GOOGL
    • Cut stakes in: RTX, CSX, PSTH, UNP, HLT, ARMK, FISV

    SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: QS, EEM, CLVT, ELAN, ALLY, UPST, SYF, XLNX, AMZN, EV
    • Top exits: DKNG, XLI, MCHP, U, MCHI, MTG, SIRI, RNR, BXMT, C
    • Boosted stakes in: LQD, ATVI, DIS, DHI, NLOK, DEN, GOOGL, AXTA, NXPI, OMF
    • Cut stakes in: HAIN, VICI, DRI, SE, PCG, VST, AGNC, CBB, FE, VAR

    STARBOARD

    • Top new buys: ON
    • Top exits: SPY
    • Boosted stakes in: ACIW, CTVA, NLOK, CVLT, ACM, IWM, BOX, IWR
    • Cut stakes in: AAP, IWN, SCOR, CERN, GDOT, MMSI

    TEMASEK HOLDINGS

    • Top new buys: DASH, WISH, XLB, XLI, MSFT, SQZ, EWZ, CRM, ABNB, ADBE
    • Top exits: DD, GOVT, XLK, USIG, XLV, FUTU, XLP, ROK, CGNX
    • Boosted stakes in: PYPL, V, AMZN, MA, SCHP, DDOG, UBER, ASLN
    • Cut stakes in: TME, DELL, XLY, SE, FTCH, HDB

    THIRD POINT

    • Top new buys: UPST, GOOGL, APTV, SWK, NKE, CTLT, LESL, KMX, RH, UNH
    • Top exits: FTV, SQ, CZR, GDRX, TXG, PTVE, CD
    • Boosted stakes in: INTU, AVTR, PLNT, TDG, MSFT, SPGI, SHY
    • Cut stakes in: BABA, AMZN, FIS, CRM, ADBE, PINS, JD, FB, EXPE, GB

    TIGER GLOBAL

    • Top new buys: DASH, COUP, ONEM, AI, YSG, ABNB, SQ, INTU, MSP, ASO
    • Top exits: GOOGL, TME, CDAY, FTCH, CDLX, TENB, BILI
    • Boosted stakes in: UBER, SE, PTON, DOCU, MSFT, EGHT, WDAY, NOW, SNOW, SHOP
    • Cut stakes in: RUN, FB, TWLO, MDB, ZM, PLAN, PYPL, NFLX, SMAR, FLT

    TUDOR INVESTMENT

    • Top new buys: AI, ABNB, SOXX, XLF, EWZ, ICLN, MDLZ, RSG, PG, TEKK
    • Top exits: KC, KDP, BDX, RPAY, ADT, ADI, ARE, TROW, MAS, SHW
    • Boosted stakes in: WORK, SPY, ALXN, MXIM, VAR, EV, GRUB, WLTW, AAPL, UBER
    • Cut stakes in: PCG, FSLR, RXT, GDRX, LSI, DLR, DIS, V, XOM, LIN

    VIKING GLOBAL INVESTORS

    • Top new buys: UNH, ABCL, DIS, PANW, NOW, HIG, GE, HCA, FB, APD
    • Top exits: CMCSA, CME, RTX, ADI, EXAS, BILL, TEAM, CDAY, ANTM, ALL
    • Boosted stakes in: MSFT, V, GOOGL, FLT, FIS, ZBH, BSX, SE, TMUS, AVTR
    • Cut stakes in: TMO, AXP, LVS, CNC, HLT, AMZN, CSGP, AVB, BKNG, BPMC

    WHALE ROCK CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

    • Top new buys: DIS, UBER, ZS, SMAR, EXPE, FTCH, TRIP, BILI, EGHT, PDD
    • Top exits: W, BABA, MSFT, AVLR, FTNT, STNE, AMD, AYX, CDAY, NOW
    • Boosted stakes in: CRWD, CVNA, TSM, PINS, CREE, MDB, FIVN, SQ, SE, CRUS
    • Cut stakes in: AMZN, JD, FB, ZM, OKTA, SHOP, COUP, NVDA, MPWR, FSLY

    Source: Bloomberg

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 21:10

  • JPM: "Bond Yields Are Likely To Move Higher From Here" But The Real Question Is "What's Behind The Move"
    JPM: “Bond Yields Are Likely To Move Higher From Here” But The Real Question Is “What’s Behind The Move”

    According to the closing market intelligence recap from JPMorgan’s Andrew Tyler, most of today’s conversations at the largest US commercial bank surrounded the impact of bond yields on equity prices, and to be sure with the 10Y pushing through 1.3%, a yield level last seen in late Feb 2020, the surge in yields has started hitting risk assets which closed lower on the day led by small caps and duration sensitive sectors.

    Here JPM interjects that while the jump in yields matters, from a trader’s perspective, the question “why yields are rising” matters even more. As JPM futures trader Matt Booras explains, if yields are rising for “good reasons” such as increasing GDP forecasts, then stocks will be fine. However, if there is a “bad” yield rising event such as a lack of demand for US Treasuries then stocks may come under pressure. Irrespective of the reason, Booras is looking for yields to eventually compress multiples which could disproportionately hit Tech while Cyclicals still move higher.

    Focusing on the question of how rising bond yields will impact equities, JPM strategist Mislav Matejka makes the following observations:

    • Bond yields are likely to move higher from here, and that the move should be absorbed well by the equity market.
    • Bond yields are likely to move up further, reflecting not just the upcoming normalization inactivity, starting in Q2, but also the potential for overshooting given pent-up demand and continued fiscal support. A significant gap remains open between bond yields and inflation forwards, and between bond yields and US PMIs.
    • JPM would not expect the stocks-bonds correlation to break down while US 10-year yields are sub 2%, especially if the central banks’ liquidity provision remains ample, and growth backdrop positive. P/Es did not tend to de-rate during cyclical earnings upswings.
    • Bond yields would need to move up by 100-200bp in order to erase the equity attractiveness.
    • What to favor when yields are rising? The sectoral leadership remains clear around bond yield moves, with Financials and Cyclicals at the top, and the Defensives, in particular Healthcare and Food Producers, at the bottom. Tech generally aligned with the latter group. Stock baskets in report. Regionally, Eurozone and Japan score high, while the UK tended to be the worst.

    Finally, looking at the recent blowout in swap spreads and addressing the possibility that MBS hedgers will engage in convexity hedging, resulting in an even sharper move higher in yields, JPM’s rates trader Ryan Wald writes “are we going to have convexity paying? We may. Is it going to be to the extent that we experienced in the previous two convexity events? Not likely. Reason is due to the difference in who currently owns large percentages of the MBS market and how they choose to hedge their duration gaps. In ’03 the GSE’s were responsible, and in ’13 taper tantrum it was the REITs. Both of these entities actively hedged their duration gap. In current times, a large percentage of MBS ownership has shifted towards commercial banks. And because banks are net running a very large duration short which only continues to grow on the back of the Fed’s QE program… Any duration extension on the back of a convexity event would be welcomed, as opposed to being actively hedged.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 20:50

  • 'Woke' Teachers Want Shakespeare Canceled: "This Is About White Supremacy And Colonization"
    ‘Woke’ Teachers Want Shakespeare Canceled: “This Is About White Supremacy And Colonization”

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    “Too Woke, Or Not Too Woke?”

    While the House managers were quoting Shakespeare in their case against President Donald Trump last week, it appears that the Bard may soon be less known than “Poor Yorick” who we once knew so well.

    There is a growing campaign by teachers to drop Shakespeare and other Western literature from classes. One group, #DisruptTexts, insists “This is about White supremacy and colonization.”

    Lorena German, National Council of Teachers of English Anti-Racism Committee chair and a co-founder of the Disrupt Texts forum, insisted “everything about the fact that he was a man of his time is problematic about his plays. We cannot teach Shakespeare responsibly and not disrupt the ways people are characterized and developed.”

    We previously discussed how the portrait of William Shakespeare was removed at the University of Pennsylvania’s English Department as a statement for greater racial sensitivity and diversity. Students are increasingly being deprived of such foundational classics as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Macbeth,” “King Lear” or Richard III. These are works that are not only masterpieces but shaped generations of later works and continue to be referenced in modern writing.  Yet, this is a movement that has been building since 1987 when Jesse Jackson led Stanford undergraduates chanting, “Hey, ho, Western Citv has got to go!”

    Amanda McGregor, a Minnesota-based librarian wrote in the January issue of School library journal  that “Shakespeare’s work is full of problematic and outdated ideas, lots of misogyny, racism, homophobia, class discrimination, anti-Semitism, misogyny”

    German insisted that Shakespeare “is not ‘universal’ in a way that other authors are not. He is not more ‘timeless’ than anyone else.”

    Some teachers advocating replacing Shakespeare with such works as “Hunger Games.”

    Shakespeare could have seen his coming when he wrote in As You Like It that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”

    However, the exiting of Shakespeare will come at a terrible cost for our students. While Shakespeare appears the new rallying cry for woke teachers, he is “a man more sinned against than sinning.” 

    If he is stripped away from our reading lists, our students will be the poorer for it.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 20:30

  • US CDC Weighs Extending Interval Between COVID Jab Doses
    US CDC Weighs Extending Interval Between COVID Jab Doses

    In what could become another major messaging flip-flop from the CDC, after repeatedly urging all eligible Americans to make sure not to miss their second follow-up dose of the COVID vaccine, Bloomberg reports that the scientific professionals managing the US COVID response are weighing recommendations to extend the interval between the first and second dose as supplies run low.

    The CDC’s advisory committee has reportedly debated the idea, which will be taken up by the full committee and provide official guidance, according to a Bloomberg report. Jose Romero, chairman of the committee and Arkansas health secretary, reportedly declined to comment officially.

    Such a delay would be a big shift from just a few weeks ago, when US health officials rejected a dose-stretching policy adopted by the UK which allowed up to 12 weeks between shots. Most drugmakers have agreed, saying that policies should follow the protocols used in the shots’ testing, in which the intervals were set at three or four weeks.

    But apparently the situation has changed, or is changing. Despite all the fearmongering about the COVID “mutant” strains (another possibility repeatedly denied by Dr. Tony Fauci and other top health officials until it finally became a reality), Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York affirmed earlier that the state’s positivity rate had fallen to its lowest level since November (though Cuomo is also now embroiled in a worsening scandal over allegedly lying about COVID deaths in NY’s nursing homes.

    “We know that until we have sufficient vaccine, there is the requirement to have some sort of prioritization scheme,” Clay Marsh, West Virginia’s Covid-19 czar, said in an interview.

    “The next question is, is it better to put a single dose in the arms of more people?”

    The CDC is weighing the shift, which could slow down the vaccination process, while President Biden is doing everything in his power to hit the 100MM vaccinated mark by his 100th day in office.

    While supplies have been cited in some reports, we also note demand could also become an issue as not just vaccine-skeptics, but weather-impacted travel restrictions (see Texas for example) mean there are not enough arms to jab.

    And unfortunately, it seems some states have been overwhelmed by the task of trying to get enough doses for the most urgently needed patients, all of which have forced both the FDA and CDC to “moderate” their stance about delaying the second dose.

    Though we do question the ‘science’ here? Is the science of vaccine efficacy protocols being sacrificed at the alter of inept local government logistics?

    Jesse Goodman, former chief scientist at the FDA, warned that the big fear is that letting up the gas on vaccines will let new terrible COVID mutations fester and spread.

    Still, the states likely won’t move on the official policy without a go-ahead from the Feds.

    “Our strategy for Covid constantly needs to balance what our national experts say,” he said, “but also it’s our responsibility to our citizens to make sure we’re constantly trying to push the envelope.”

    At the end of it, the message is a little muddled: Get your second COVID shot just in case any new scary COVID mutants pop up (or continue to spread), but if you can’t, don’t worry about it.

    At least, as far as vaccinations are concerned, the US is still ahead of Europe.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 20:10

  • Media Silence After Biden Removes Petitioning From White House Website
    Media Silence After Biden Removes Petitioning From White House Website

    Authored by Eric Garris via AntiWar.com,

    It appears that the ‘We the People’ petition system has been taken off the White House website. Here is an archive of what it looked like before Biden took office.

    The system has been around for many years. At any given time, hundreds of petitions were active. If you get 100,000 signatures, the White House is supposed to give an answer. You may remember that there was an active “Free Assange” petition that the Obama Administration was obligated to answer (and gave a bad answer).

    When Trump took office, he briefly discontinued it but put it back up after a media uproar.

    Now it appears the Biden White House has removed it. The website used to be here:
    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov

    This URL, as well as URLs for all currently-active petitions, just forward to the White House front page. I explored the website and could not find any mention of it. The link used to appear in both the “Contact” and “Get Involved” links, but it is gone from both.

    I have seen nothing about this in the media. When I Google “White House Petition System Down” and other similar searches, I only get 4-year-old articles about the time that Trump temporarily disabled it.

    Wikipedia says that the system was taken down the day Biden took office: On January 20 2021, the day the Inauguration of Joe Biden took place, the website’s address started redirecting to the White House’s website home address.

    AFP/Getty Image

    This is a terrible event, and it must be publicized, and Biden must be made to reverse this decision.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 19:50

  • House Hearing On GameStop Fiasco Will Focus On "Short Selling And Stock Manipulation"
    House Hearing On GameStop Fiasco Will Focus On “Short Selling And Stock Manipulation”

    In order to affect change, one has to understand the problem before them. It is by those standards we can confidently say we are near-certain that this week’s upcoming congressional hearings on the GameStop fiasco will be both a useless circus and a intellectual farce.

    But just in case we had any doubt left, the nationally televised exercise in Congressional incompetence when it comes to all things capital markets is now said to be focusing on “short selling and stock manipulation”.

    In addition to short selling and stock manipulation, Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the hearing would also focus on “consumer protection, short squeezes, and the roles of ‘gamification’ of trading and social media” – which should be a hoot, considering precisely nobody in congress comprehends equity valuations, how capital markets work, what a short squeeze is – or really anything other than how to trade on inside government information. 

    The topics were reportedly sent out Monday in a “memo sent to members of the House Financial Services Committee by Democratic staff.” The memo says that the GameStop chaos “raises questions regarding whether legislators and regulators should take a closer look at existing rules governing short sales and related disclosures, as well as the conflicts between the practice of payment for order flow and firms’ best execution obligations.”

    Lest we forget, it was short sellers who were the target in the GameStop run up, not the parties who may have conspired to manipulate the price of the security artificially by buying it all at once. Though we can’t say we are surprised that Congress already appears to be off-base, before the hearing has even started.

    The memo also says: “It also raises important questions about the efficacy of anti-market manipulation laws and whether technology and social media have outpaced regulation in a manner that leaves investors and the markets exposed to unnecessary risks.”

    Short seller Jim Chanos weighed in earlier today with his response to Vlad Tenev, who is reportedly hiding out in a hotel and has been getting on our nerves, as we noted over the weekend. 

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

    Other traders were…well, less than optimistic about the hearing’s ability to affect change. 

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

    We think one trader has the right idea of how to watch the hearing:

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

    Other traders showed their unending confidence in Maxine Waters’ ability to comprehend the situation.

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

    And of course, the main focus of this hearing shouldn’t be “evil short sellers”, but rather Citadel’s cozy and relatively unknown relationship with Robinhood and why Robinhood, who positions itself as an app for the little guy while funneling orders to Citadel in exchange for cash, didn’t have the liquidity to perform its basic functions when market participants all threw their hat in the same ring.

    You can read our entire explanation of just how cozy Robinhood and Citadel are – and, more importantly, how they make their money, here. 

    As for our thoughts on the hearing? We think the Chez Quis Maitre D’ said it best.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 19:30

  • Surge In Anti-Asian-American Violence Prompts NYC Restaurateurs To Take Action
    Surge In Anti-Asian-American Violence Prompts NYC Restaurateurs To Take Action

    Authored by Tanay Warerkar via NY.Eater.com,

    A group of prominent Asian-American chefs and restaurants owners in New York – who represent some of the top restaurants in the city including Málà Project, Fish Cheeks, and Nowon – have teamed up to raise awareness about the recent rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, particularly the elderly, in the United States.

    Heart of Dinner’s Yin Chang (left) and Moonlyn Tsai packaging meals for elderly Asian Americans,  Dan Ahn [Official]

    The effort, called #EnoughIsEnough, was spearheaded by Eric Sze, chef and owner of East Village Taiwanese restaurant 886, who says he was prompted to take action after seeing videos of attacks on older Asian Americans in the Bay Area last week and how he felt that it hadn’t been covered enough by the mainstream media in the U.S. in the immediate aftermath. The campaign has already raised more than $4,000 as of this morning.

    Sze reached out to a bunch of his friends in the restaurant industry and together the group decided that they would focus on donating meals to homeless shelters, particularly those located in areas like Chinatown with a large Asian-American population, and parts of Harlem and the Bronx, which have larger Black and brown populations.

    The group is currently raising funds through an online campaign and was initially hoping to raise $10,000 to serve 1,000 meals on February 23 and 24. The fundraised blew past the $10,000 mark in just two and half hours, according to Sze, and group has since increased the ask to $20,000, with plans to double the number of meals served as well. Some of the organizations they’ve identified so far for meal distribution include the Bowery Mission, the Bronx Family Shelter, and Welcome to Chinatown.

    Yin Chang ( extreme left) and Moonlyn Tsai delivering meals to an older Asian American couple during the pandemic,  Alex Lau [Official]

    Kopitiam co-owner Moonlyn Tsai, who along with her girlfriend Yin Chang runs Heart of Dinner, will be leading the meal delivery efforts in Chinatown on February 24. During the early months of the pandemic, Tsai and Chang’s organization was at the forefront of delivering meals to the elderly Asian population in Chinatown, many of whom were homebound and weren’t receiving culturally appropriate meals. Heart of Dinner will be doing much of the same in a couple of weeks, utilizing its existing network, and delivering 500 meals to the Chinese American Planning Council, Hamilton Madison House, and Nanoom House, in total, along with some direct deliveries to people’s homes.

    “It is really heartwarming to see a community banding together through food,” says Tsai, adding that she was particularly heartened that her friends in the restaurant industry came together so quickly despite most of them facing challenges operating their restaurants during the pandemic.

    An additional 500 meals will go to shelters in Harlem and the Bronx. In addition to the meal donations, the group is also organizing virtual cooking classes with chefs like Helen Nguyen of the modern Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Social, and Lucas Sin from Junzi Kitchen that will take place on February 22. Called the “Lunar Banquet for Uncle Vicha,” the event recognizes not the just the start of the Lunar New Year but is also aimed at honoring the memory of Vicha Ratanapakdee, the 84-year-old San Franciscan, who died after he was pushed by a teenager onto the pavement.

    The campaign honors the memory of 84-year-old San Franciscan Vicha Ratanapakdee, who died after a teenager pushed him on to the pavement,  Jonathan D. Chang [Official]

    The chefs will be utilizing Essex Pearl’s kitchen at the Market Line on the Lower East Side to film the cooking demonstrations, and details for those classes will be emailed to folks after they make a donation to the campaign.

    Others like Amelie Kang, the owner of Málà Project, and Sakura Yagi, of T.I.C. Restaurant Group, are planning to raise awareness about the rise in hate crimes through their restaurants’ and personal Instagram accounts.

    One part of this coordinated effort is to raise awareness so more mainstream media outlets will increase coverage of crimes against Asian Americans. The New York City Police Department created a Asian Hate Crimes Task Force last year in response to a major spike in verbal and physical assaults toward Asian Americans during the pandemic; earlier on in the pandemic, several Chinese restaurants in the city reported vandalism and harassment shortly after the state-mandated shutdown in March last year. Even before the shutdown, Chinese restaurants in the city were already seeing a massive drop in sales due to xenophobia and misinformation spreading about the virus.

    [ZH: As an awkward reminder, while some would like to push the narrative that Trump’s rhetoric against China is responsible for the recent attacks, Black-on-Asian violence isn’t a new thing, and has been documented in the Bay area for more than a decade. Raising the question, are we supposed to believe that black thugs have been taking direction from former President Trump (who received just 12% of the black vote).]

    In March last year, Russell Jeung, a professor at the San Francisco State University teaching Asian-American studies created a tool to track hate-related incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. By the end of last year, it had recorded more than 2,800 incidents that were self-reported, according to USA Today.

    Eric Sze preparing meals for hospital workers earlier in the pandemic, 886 [Official]

    Another part of the campaign, however, is to encourage other Asian Americans to speak out about incidents or harassment and to encourage others in the Asian American community to start similar initiatives.

    “We want to empower people who feel like their opinions don’t matter,” says Sze.

    “Sometimes in Asian cultures it’s nailed into your head that your voice doesn’t matter and that you have to conform. But this needs to change and we need to inspire more people to speak out, not just in the food industry, but in the fashion industry, and in tech as well.”

    For now, Sze and the rest of the group are focussed on the meal delivery aspect of the initiative and are continuing to raise funds for the effort. Details for the potential Instagram neighborhood food tours will follow in the near future.

    Here’s a full list of the restaurants participating in this effort:

    • 886
    • Junzi
    • Nguyen Coffee Supply
    • Fishcheeks
    • Saigon Social
    • Mala Project
    • Heart of Dinner
    • Double Chicken Please
    • Win Son
    • Nowon
    • Madame Vo
    • Ho Foods
    • Bessou
    • Very Fresh Noodles
    • Di An Di
    • Patisserie Fouet
    • Milk & Cream Cereal Bar
    • Feed Forward
    • Aqua Best
    • Essex Pearl
    • T.I.C Restaurant Group (Rai Rai Ken, Shabu Tatsu, Cha An, etc)
    • Southeast Asia Food Group

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 19:10

  • Kraft Heinz, Conagra Will Start Passing On Soaring Food Costs To Consumers
    Kraft Heinz, Conagra Will Start Passing On Soaring Food Costs To Consumers

    Stagflation for the masses?

    Cost of living is about to soar and all the average joe has to cover it is a $1400 check from Uncle Joe.

    Late last year we noted that SocGen’s Albert Edwards warning readers that it could be time to start “panicking” about soaring food prices. 

    Edwards’ research said, “keep a very close eye as to whether we see a repeat of the 2010/11 surge in food prices” because “on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Arab Spring, and with poverty having already been made much worse by the pandemic, another food price bubble could well be the straw to break the very angry camel’s back.”

    While it’s not quite the spring of 2021 just yet, there are indications that soaring food costs are about to get passed on to consumers – this is terrible news for working-poor folks who are already suffering from housing and food insecurities. 

    According to Reuters, Kraft Heinz Co and Conagra Brands Inc warned Tuesday that price increases of wheat, sugar, and other commodities are becoming more expensive due to elevated demand. 

    Conagra executives told Reuters that increased prices for edible oils, pork and eggs, and packaging might force it to pass it along to consumers in the form of higher prices. 

    Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio said inflation is everywhere in the agri complex.

    He said inflation in “everything related to grains” is being observed, and it may result in price increases of some categories, including mac and cheese and mayonnaise, later this year. 

    Is it time to worry about food inflation? 

    According to Edwards, the answer is “yes.” 

    In December’s CPI print, food inflation was very notable on Jan. 13. The report said:

    The food at home index increased 3.9 percent over the past 12 months. All six major grocery store food group indexes increased over the period. The largest increase was the meats, poultry, fish, and eggs index which rose 4.6 percent as the beef index increased 5.3 percent. The smallest increases were for the cereals and bakery products and the fruits and vegetables indexes, which both increased 3.2 percent over the last 12 months. The index for food away from home rose 3.9 percent over the last year. The index for limited service meals rose 6.0 percent and the index for full service meals rose 3.0 percent over the span.

    Also, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index rose for a seventh consecutive month in December, led by dairy products and vegetable oils. 

    So, as the surge in global food prices remains anything but transitory, major food producers are set to pass on those food costs for consumers at a time when millions of them can barely afford rent and or feed their families. 

    Of course, while food prices are surging around the world, the well-managed signals in official inflation data remains relatively low… enabling central planners to keep the spigots wide open (no matter what the consequences).

    As we noted previously, while central bankers walk around with their heads in the clouds, a team at C+R Research has surveyed more than 2,000 American consumers to find out how they have “adjusted” to these higher prices, which have come amid a surge in unemployment. Their findings aren’t all that surprising: 85% of consumers said that their budgets had been impacted by having to pay more for groceries. Milk, eggs and meat are the top staples that Americans are paying more for.

    And given the headlines today, things are about to get even worse.

    To sum up, prepare for major food companies to start jacking up food prices. We assume this will not sit well in the stomachs of already-broke consumers. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 18:50

  • Trump Declares War On Mitch McConnell, Calls Him "A Dour, Sullen, And Unsmiling Political Hack"
    Trump Declares War On Mitch McConnell, Calls Him “A Dour, Sullen, And Unsmiling Political Hack”

    Donald Trump has some choice words for Senate Mitch McConnell (R-KY), after the Senate Minority Leader voted to acquit the former president, only to go on a tirade on the Senate floor (followed by a Wall Street Journal interview) in which he blamed Trump for the Jan. 6 incursion into the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

    “They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth—because he was angry he’d lost an election,” said McConnell. “Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

    McConnell also blames Trump for the GOP losing control of the Senate in January after two GOP candidates lost their races after failing to support Trump’s multiple challenges to the 2020 US election. “We all know why that occurred,” McConnell told the Journal on Monday.

    Trump is having none of it, writing in a scathing Tuesday letter that “Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.”

    “McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse.”

    He also suggested that the McConnell family’s “substantial Chinese holdings” give him “no credibility on China.”

    The former president also had some thoughts on Georgia, which he said was a “complete election disaster,” in which “McConnell did nothing, and will never do what needs to be done to secure a fair and just electoral system into the future. He doesn’t have what it takes, he never did, and never will.“

    Trump’s only regret? That he backed McConnell after the Kentucky Senator “begged” for his support – without which Trump says McConnell would have lost. “He went from one point down to 20 points up, and won,” said the former president, adding “How quickly he forgets.“

    Read below:

    Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

    The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political “leaders” like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm. McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse. The Democrats and Chuck from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse. The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle—they’ve never had it so good—and they want to keep it that way! We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell’s Beltway First agenda or Biden’s America Last.

    In 2020, I received the most votes of any sitting President in history, almost 75,000,000. Every incumbent House Republican won for the first time in decades, and we flipped 15 seats, almost costing Nancy Pelosi her job. Republicans won majorities in at least 59 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers, and the Democrats failed to flip a single legislative chamber from red to blue. And in “Mitch’s Senate,” over the last two election cycles, I single-handedly saved at least 12 Senate seats, more than eight in the 2020 cycle alone—and then came the Georgia disaster, where we should have won both U.S. Senate seats, but McConnell matched the Democrat offer of $2,000 stimulus checks with $600. How does that work? It became the Democrats’ principal advertisement, and a big winner for them it was. McConnell then put himself, one of the most unpopular politicians in the United States, into the advertisements. Many Republicans in Georgia voted Democrat, or just didn’t vote, because of their anguish at their inept Governor, Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and the Republican Party, for not doing its job on Election Integrity during the 2020 Presidential race.

    It was a complete election disaster in Georgia, and certain other swing states. McConnell did nothing, and will never do what needs to be done in order to secure a fair and just electoral system into the future. He doesn’t have what it takes, never did, and never will.

    My only regret is that McConnell “begged” for my strong support and endorsement before the great people of Kentucky in the 2020 election, and I gave it to him. He went from one point down to 20 points up, and won. How quickly he forgets. Without my endorsement, McConnell would have lost, and lost badly. Now, his numbers are lower than ever before, he is destroying the Republican side of the Senate, and in so doing, seriously hurting our Country.

    Likewise, McConnell has no credibility on China because of his family’s substantial Chinese business holdings. He does nothing on this tremendous economic and military threat.

    Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership.

    Prior to the pandemic, we produced the greatest economy and jobs numbers in the history of our Country, and likewise, our economic recovery after Covid was the best in the world. We cut taxes and regulations, rebuilt our military, took care of our Vets, became energy independent, built the wall and stopped the massive inflow of illegals into our Country, and so much more. And now, illegals are pouring in, pipelines are being stopped, taxes will be going up, and we will no longer be energy independent.

    This is a big moment for our country, and we cannot let it pass by using third rate “leaders” to dictate our future!

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 18:30

  • Berkshire Reveals New Positions In Chevron, Verizon; Exits JPM; Trims Apple, Wells: Full 13F Summary
    Berkshire Reveals New Positions In Chevron, Verizon; Exits JPM; Trims Apple, Wells: Full 13F Summary

    Ahead of today’s 13F filing by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, rumors were rife that the Omaha billionaire would unveil a stake in Exxon or some other oil major. Well, the rumors were this close to being correct because instead of Exxon, Berkshire just filed 13F indicating that as of Dec 31, 2020 – in which it revealed stock holdings amounting to $270BN – it owned $4.1 billion or 48.5 million shares of the 2nd largest US major, Chevron, which it had accumulated previously in secret, sparking a 3% jump in its shares. Those wondering if and how much Exxon shares were purchased by Berkshire will have to wait another three months.

    Among the other most notable changes, Berkshire trimmed its Apple holdings by 6.4% from 947.5 million share to 887.1 million. The reduction left Berkshire with Apple stock valued $120 billion at the end of 2020, according to another filing.

    Berkshire also unveiled a sizable new position in Verizon (146.7MM shares which were worth $8.6BN on Dec 31) and a smaller new holding in insurer Marsh & Mclennan ($500MM stake for 4.3 million share). Curiously, these new positions had been granted confidential status and not revealed in a third-quarter regulatory filing, according to an updated document released Tuesday, which means that Buffett started as accumulating the shares in the 3rd quarter

    While Berkshire added to its stake in BoNY, T-Mobile and Kroger, the company also shifted a recent bet on drugmakers by increasing its a stake in Merck (+28.1%), Abbvie (+20.1%) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (+11.2%) while exiting completely a recent investment in Pfizer.  Buffett’s conglomerate also cut a few bank holdings, exiting JPMorgan, PNC Financial and M&T Bank while slashing its Wells Fargo & Co. stake by 58.8%. The company also trimmed its investment in General Motors cutting that holding by 7.5MM shares to a stake valued at roughly $3 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.

    Amusingly, after causing ripples in the precious metal market last year when Berkshire revealed a modest stake in gold miner Barrick Gold, in Q4 Berkshire completely exited said holding. As Bloomberg notes, “the investment was a surprise when it was revealed last year, given Buffett’s years of chiding the precious metal.”

    A full breakdown of Berkshire’s Q4 13F is below:

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 18:08

  • Hello Clean Energy Advocates, What Do We Do When The Wind Turbines Are All Frozen?
    Hello Clean Energy Advocates, What Do We Do When The Wind Turbines Are All Frozen?

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

    The wholesale price of electricity spikes 10,000% in a Texas power outage. Among other problems, the wind turbines are all frozen.

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

    Wholesale Price of Electricity Spikes 10,000% 

    As a background on the clean energy debate, please consider The Wholesale Price of Electricity Spikes 10,000% in Texas Power Outage.

    Let’s discuss wind turbines, natural gas, and coal.

    A Deep Green Freeze

    The Wall Street Journal editorial board says “Power shortages show the folly of eliminating natural gas—and coal.” 

    I agree with some of what they say and disagree with parts of it as well.

    Please consider A Deep Green Freeze by the WSJ. 

    Gas and power prices have spiked across the central U.S. while Texas regulators ordered rolling blackouts Monday as an Arctic blast has frozen wind turbines. Herein is the paradox of the left’s climate agenda: The less we use fossil fuels, the more we need them. 

    A mix of ice and snow swept across the country this weekend as temperatures plunged below zero in the upper Midwest and into the teens in Houston. Cold snaps happen—the U.S. also experienced a Polar Vortex in 2019—as do heat waves. Yet the power grid is becoming less reliable due to growing reliance on wind and solar, which can’t provide power 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

    Texas’s energy emergency could last all week as the weather is forecast to remain frigid. “My understanding is, the wind turbines are all frozen,” Public Utility Commission Chairman DeAnn Walker said Friday. “We are working already to try and ensure we have enough power but it’s taken a lot of coordination.”

    Wind’s share has tripled to about 25% since 2010 and accounted for 42% of power last week before the freeze set in. About half of Texans rely on electric pumps for heating, which liberals want to mandate everywhere. But the pumps use a lot of power in frigid weather. So while wind turbines were freezing, demand for power was surging.

    California progressives long ago banished coal. But a heat wave last summer strained the state’s power grid as wind flagged and solar ebbed in the evenings. After imposing rolling blackouts, grid regulators resorted to importing coal power from Utah and running diesel emergency generators.

    Liberals claim that prices of renewables and fossil fuels are now comparable, which may be true due to subsidies, but they are no free lunch, as this week’s energy emergency shows. The Biden Administration’s plan to banish fossil fuels is a greater existential threat to Americans than climate change.

    Greater Existential Threat 

    The Journal claims “The Biden Administration’s plan to banish fossil fuels is a greater existential threat to Americans than climate change.”

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    I agree 100%. 

    But what to do about it? 

    Clean Energy

    I am a big fan of natural gas and believe it is clean energy. The byproduct of burning natural gas is carbon dioxide and water. 

    Neither is a pollutant in any way shape or form. Plants even need carbon dioxide to survive. 

    Coal is another matter. 

    Burning coal releases SO2 and NOx pollutants that cause Acid Rain, huge respiratory problems and will devastate forests.

    If the atmosphere is polluted with sulfur dioxide (SO2) or nitrogen oxides (NOx), rain becomes oxidized by ozone (O3) or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to form H2SO4 or HNO3 before falling to the ground. They are known respectively as sulfuric and nitric acid. 

    Acid rain will dissolve panty hose on the spot.

    There is a huge difference between burning coal and burning natural gas.

    Anti-Coal, Pro-Natural Gas

    For environmental reasons, I am anti-coal but very much in favor of Natural Gas. 

    Problems arise as happened last year in California and this week in Texas when pressure to eliminate all carbon wins over common sense. 

    Where is the CO2 Coming From? 

    CO2 Stats

    • Please note that the US reduced its carbon footprint from 6.13 billion tons in 2007 to 5.28 billion tons in 2019.
    • Meanwhile, China increased its footprint from 6.86 billion tons in 2019 to 10.17 billion tons in 2019.
    • In the same timeframe, global output rose from 31.29 billion tons to 36.44 billion tons.
    • In 2007, the US accounted for 19.6% of the total global carbon footprint.
    • In 2019, the US accounted for only 14.5% of the total global footprint.

    Wind Not Reliable

    Wind is not a reliable source, as we have just proven in spades, twice over. 

    Yet, despite the facts that US carbon output is shrinking and the US only accounted for  14.5% of the total global footprint, the absurd push to eliminate all US carbon presses on.

    John Kerry’s Straw Man Climate Arguments

    John Kerry is Biden’s climate czar.

    He blamed 4 hurricanes on climate change as if throwing any amount of money at the alleged problem would have stopped the hurricanes.

    For discussion, please see Kerry’s Straw Man Argument for Wasting Money on Climate Change

    GM to Phase Out Gas-Powered Vehicles by 2035, Carbon Neutral by 2040

    One day after Kerry’s ridiculous rant, I noted GM to Phase Out Gas-Powered Vehicles by 2035, Carbon Neutral by 2040.

    Assuming one believes CO2 is a problem, this is the way problems are solved.

    GM is not doing this to save the world, it is doing this because market forces mandate a change.

    Similarly, solar power will come into play as storage technology improves.

    The free market, not populist ideas will solve real world problems.

    $90 Trillion Solutions 

    In 2015, Business Insider noted A Plan Is Floating Around Davos To Spend $90 Trillion Redesigning All The Cities So They Don’t Need Cars

    The $90 trillion proposal came from former US vice president Al Gore, former president of Mexico Felipe Calderon, and their colleagues on The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. 

    “We cannot have these cities with low density, designed for the use of cars,” he said. “We recommend those cities should have more density and more mass transportation.” Together with a program for reforming land use, and bringing deforestation to zero, the total cost of this plan would most likely be $90 trillion in future investment, Calderon said.

    AOC’s New Green Deal

    Also recall AOC’s Green New Deal Pricetag of $51 to $93 Trillion vs. Cost of Doing Nothing.

    A Word About Cherry Picking Data

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    On February 3, I noted Climate Change Moves to the Forefront of Biden’s Legislation

    “It’s long past time for the Senate to take a leading role in combating the existential threat of our time: climate,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

    The “existential threat” is politicians seeking $90 trillion solutions to hyped-up problems, not natural gas.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/16/2021 – 17:50

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