- Escobar: Putin, Xi Running Circles Around Biden's Hybrid War
Escobar: Putin, Xi Running Circles Around Biden’s Hybrid War
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
Russia and China’s announcement of an independent financial trading platform will free nations under US sanctions from western intrusion into their commercial activities…
Vladimir Putin got straight to the point. At the opening of his one hour and fourteen minute video conversation with Xi Jinping on 15 December, he described Russia-China relations as “an example of genuine inter-state cooperation in the 21st century.”
Their myriad levels of cooperation have been known for years now – from trade, oil and gas, finance, aerospace and the fight against Covid-19, to the progressive interconnection of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).
But now the stage was set for the announcement of a serious counter-move in their carefully coordinated ballet opposing the relentless Hybrid War/Cold War 2.0 combo deployed by Empire.
As Assistant to the President for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov succinctly explained, Putin and Xi agreed to create an “independent financial structure for trade operations that could not be influenced by other countries.”
Diplomatic sources, off the record, confirmed the structure may be announced by a joint summit before the end of 2022.
This is a stunning game-changer in more ways than one. It had been extensively discussed in previous bilaterals and in preparations for BRICS summits – mostly centered on increasing the share of yuan and rubles in Russia-China settlements, bypassing the US dollar, and opening new stock market options for Russian and Chinese investors.
Now we’ve come to the crunch. And the catalyzing event was none other than US hawks floating the – financially nuclear – idea of expelling Russia from SWIFT, the messaging network used by 11,000+ banks in over 200 countries, as well as financial institutions, for rapid money transfers worldwide.
Cutting off Russia from SWIFT would be part of a harsh new sanctions package developed in response to an ‘invasion’ of Ukraine that will never happen – mainly because the only ones praying for it are professional NATO warmongers.
Profiting from a strategic blunder
Once again, an American strategic blunder offers the Russia-China self-described “comprehensive strategic partnership” the chance to advance their coordination.
Ushakov put it very diplomatically: it’s time to bypass a SWIFT mechanism “influenced by third countries” to form “an independent financial structure.”
That amounts to a serious game-changer for the entire Global South – as scores of nations yearn to be released from a de facto US dollar dictatorship, complete with recurring Fed quantitative easing circus packages.
Russia and China have been experimenting with their alternative payment systems for quite a while now: the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) and the Chinese CIPS (Cross Border Interbank Payment System).
It won’t be easy, as the most powerful Chinese banks are deep into SWIFT and have expressed their reservations about SPFS. Yet, they will have to inevitably integrate prior to the launch of the new mechanism, possibly in late 2022.
Once the most important Russian and Chinese banks – from Sberbank to the Bank of China – adopt the system, the path opens for other banks across Eurasia and the Global South to join in.
In the long run, SWIFT, prone to non-stop American political interference, will be increasingly marginalized, or restricted to Atlanticist latitudes.
Bypassing the US dollar, on trade and all sorts of financial settlements, is an absolutely central plank of the ever-evolving Russia-China notion of a multipolar world.
The road will be long, of course, especially when it comes to offering a solid counterpoint to the US-controlled global financial system, a maze that includes the humongous investment houses of the BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street variety, with their interlocking shareholding of virtually every major multinational company.
Yet a SWIFT escape will rapidly gain momentum, because it is inextricably linked to a series of developments that Putin-Xi touched upon in their conversation, the most important of which are:
1. The progressive interconnection of BRI and EAEU, offering expanding roles to the BRICS-run New Development Bank (NDB) as well as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
2. The increasing geopolitical and geo-economic reach of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), especially after the admission of Iran in October.
3. And crucially, the upcoming Chinese presidency of the BRICS in 2022.
China in 2022 will invest deeply in BRICS+. This expanded BRICS club will be linked to a development process that includes:
1. The consolidation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a massive East Asia trade deal uniting China, the ASEAN 10 and Japan, and South Korea, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
2. The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA).
3. And the memoranda of understanding signed between the EAEU and MERCOSUR and between the EAEU and ASEAN.
Anchoring West Asia
Yaroslav Lissovolik, one of the world’s leading experts on BRICS+, argues that it’s now time for BRICS+ 2.0, operating in a system that opens “the possibility for bilateral and plurilateral agreements to complement the core network of regional alliances formed by BRICS countries and their respective regional neighbors.”
So if we’re talking about a major qualitative jump in terms of economic development across the Global South, the question is inevitable. What about West Asia?
All these interconnections, plus an escape from SWIFT, will certainly profit the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), arguably the flagship BRI project, to which Beijing plans to annex Afghanistan.
CPEC will be progressively connected to the future Iran-China corridor via Afghanistan, part of the 20 year Iran-China strategic deal in which BRI projects will be prominently featured. Iran and China already trade in yuan and rials, so settlements between Iran and China in a non-SWIFT mechanism will be a given.
What happened to Iran is a classic example of SWIFT becoming hostage of imperial political manipulation. Iranian banks were expelled from SWIFT in 2012, because of pressure from the usual suspects. In 2016, access was restored as part of the JCPOA, clinched in 2015. Yet in 2018, under the Trump administration, Iran was once again cut off from SWIFT.
None of that will ever happen with Iran joining the new Russia-China mechanism.
And that leads us to the interconnection of China’s BRI expansion in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The reconstruction of Syria may be largely financed via the non-SWIFT mechanism. Same for China buying Iraqi energy. Same for the reconstruction of a Yemen possibly hosting a Chinese-owned port, part of the “string of pearls.”
Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Israel may remain in the US financial sphere of influence, or lack thereof. And even if there is no BRICS nation anchoring West Asia, and no regional integration economic agreement on the horizon, the role of the economic integrator is bound to be eventually played by China.
China will play a similar role to Brazil anchoring MERCOSUR, Russia anchoring the EAEU and South Africa anchoring the SADC/SACU.
Both BRI and the EAEU will get a tremendous boost by bypassing SWIFT. You simply can’t go multipolar if you trade using (devalued) imperial legal tender.
BRI, EAEU and those interlocking economic development agreements, combined with digital technology, will be integrating billions of people in the Global South.
Think of a possible, auspicious future spelling out cheap telecom delivering financial services and world market access, in a non-dollar environment, to all those who have been so far cut off from a truly globalized economy.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 12/19/2021 – 00:00 - Mapped: The Most Common Illicit Drugs In The World
Mapped: The Most Common Illicit Drugs In The World
Despite strict prohibitory laws around much of the world, many common illicit drugs still see widespread use.
Humans have a storied and complicated relationship with drugs. Defined as chemical substances that cause a change in our physiology or psychology, many drugs are taken medicinally or accepted culturally, like caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol.
But, as Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach details below, many drugs – including medicines and non-medicinal substances taken as drugs – are taken recreationally and can be abused. Each country and people have their own relationship to drugs, with some embracing the use of specific substances while others shun them outright.
What are the most common drugs that are considered generally illicit in different parts of the world? Today’s graphics use data from the UN’s World Drug Report 2021 to highlight the most prevalent drug used in each country.
What Types of Common Drugs Are Tracked?
The World Drug Report looks explicitly at the supply and demand of the international illegal drug market, not including commonly legal substances like caffeine and alcohol.
Drugs are grouped by class and type, with six main types of drugs found as the most prevalent drugs worldwide.
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Cannabis*: Drugs derived from cannabis, including hemp. This category includes marijuana (dried flowers), hashish (resin), and other for various other parts of the plant or derived oils.
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Cocaine: Drugs derived from the leaves of coca plants. Labeled as either cocaine salts for powder form or crack for cocaine processed with baking soda and water into rock form.
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Opioids: Includes opiates which are derived directly from the opium poppy plant, including morphine, codeine, and heroin, as well as synthetic alkaloids.
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Amphetamine-type Stimulants (ATS): Amphetamine and drugs derived from amphetamine, including meth (also known as speed), MDMA, and ecstasy.
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Sedatives and Tranquilizers: Includes other drugs whose main purpose is to reduce energy, excitement, or anxiety, as well as drugs used primarily to initiate or help with sleep (also called hypnotics).
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Solvents and Inhalants: Gases or chemicals that can cause intoxication but are not intended to be drugs, including fuels, glues, and other industrial substances.
The report also tracked the prevalence of hallucinogens—psychoactive drugs which strongly affect the mind and cause a “trip”—but no hallucinogens ranked as the most prevalent drug in any one country.
*Editor’s note: Recreational cannabis is legal in five countries, and some non-federal jurisdictions (i.e. states). However, in the context of this report, it was included because it is still widely illicit in most countries globally.
The Most Prevalent Drug in Each Country
According to the report, 275 million people used drugs worldwide in 2020. Between the ages of 15–64, around 5.5% of the global population used drugs at least once.
Many countries grouped different types of the same drug class together, and a few like Saudi Arabia and North Macedonia had multiple different drug types listed as the most prevalent.
But across the board, cannabis was the most commonly prevalent drug used in 107 listed countries and territories.
How prevalent is cannabis worldwide? 72 locations or more than two-thirds of those reporting listed cannabis as the most prevalent drug.
Unsurprisingly these include countries that have legalized recreational cannabis: Canada, Georgia, Mexico, South Africa, and Uruguay.
How Common Are Opioids and Other Drugs?
Though the global prevalence of cannabis is unsurprising, especially as it becomes legalized and accepted in more countries, other drugs also have strong footholds.
Opioids (14 locations) were the most prevalent drugs in the Middle-East, South and Central Asia, including in India and Iran. Notably, Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium, supplying more than 90% of illicit heroin globally.
Amphetamine-type drugs (9 locations) were the third-most common drugs overall, mainly in East Asia. Methamphetamine was the reported most prevalent drug in China, South Korea, and Japan, while amphetamine was only the most common drug in Bangladesh.
However, it’s important to note that illicit drug usage is tough to track. Asian countries where cannabis is less frequently found (or reported) might understate its usage. At the same time, the opioid epidemic in the U.S. and Canada reflects high opioid usage in the West.
As some drugs become more widespread and others face a renewed “war,” the landscape is certain to shift over the next few years.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 23:25 -
- US Builds Software To Predict China's Response To Military Action
US Builds Software To Predict China’s Response To Military Action
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US military has built software to predict Beijing’s reactions to US actions in Asia, such as military activity near China and arms sales to allies in the region, Reuters reported this week.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks was briefed on the new software on Tuesday during a visit to US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. The tool examines data going back to early 2020 of China’s responses to provocations from the US.
File image: AFP/Getty “With the spectrum of conflict and the challenge sets spanning down into the grey zone. What you see is the need to be looking at a far broader set of indicators, weaving that together and then understanding the threat interaction,” Hicks said in an interview days ago.
Since 2020, the US has significantly increased its military activity in the South China Sea and other sensitive areas near China. Unsurprisingly, China has responded by holding more military drills in the region.
A US official told Reuters that China’s condemning of a joint naval patrol between the US and Canada through the Taiwan Strait and similar incidents fueled demand for the tool, although Beijing has always denounced US transits through the waterway.
Further, it will seek to calculate “strategic friction” – as a US defense official put it:
It looks at data since early 2020 and evaluates significant activities that had impacted U.S.-Sino relations. The computer-based system will help the Pentagon predict whether certain actions will provoke an outsized Chinese reaction.
The software will also try to predict China’s responses to congressional delegation visits to Taiwan, which have increased over the past year. Since the Trump administration, the US has taken more steps to boost diplomatic ties with Taipei, drawing the ire of Beijing.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 22:50 - Meet The Scientists Hunting For The Next Variant Of Concern
Meet The Scientists Hunting For The Next Variant Of Concern
America has some of the most advanced medical research capabilities in the world. So why is it that a small group of labs in South Africa seems to be a step ahead of everybody else when it comes to sniffing out new variants?
The group first gained notoriety for discovering the beta variant and alerting the world to its presence. But most people probably became familiar with Alex Sigal, Tulio de Oliveira and their work at a gene-sequencing laboratory in the South African port city of Durban when they announced the discovery of the omicron variant, the latest “variant of concern” while Americans were enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner.
What is it that makes their lab so successful? Well, it looks like Bloomberg has finally found the answer in a profile of the Africa Health Research Institute, as it’s formally known.
South African scientists became experts at combating viruses almost by necessity, They have been hard at work fighting AIDS, Turburculosis and other viruses – work that has made them a magnet for the world’s best epidemiologists.
Because of this, Sigal’s lab has become a kind of training ground for scientists across the continent. It was the first to test omicron against blood plasma from people who’d received two doses of the Pfizer jab. They also developed a theory claiming that immunodepressed people might be breeding grounds for mutants since they’re so vulnerable.
One reason for its success with finding new variants: South Africa has set up a network of seven genomic surveillance labs with one at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and six at academic institutions.
Sigal works with Tulio de Oliveira, the Brazilian head of the gene-sequencing laboratory Krisp.
“There’s a lot of technical capacity in South Africa to do genomic sequencing of pathogens because we’ve built up that expertise over many years for HIV and TB,” said Richard Lessells, a Scottish infectious diseases specialist at Krisp. “Very early on in the pandemic, we recognized that genomic sequencing and genomic surveillance was going to be very important.”
Since the discovery of omicron, many of the scientists working in the lab have been dealing with sleepless nights.
“I’ve been working to get the Pfizer vaccine efficacy study ready,” said Sigal, who becomes animated when he watches a time-lapse video of the omicron variant attacking cells. “I worked through the night.”
Put another way: the more variants they “discover”, the more prestige and funding they will be rewarded with.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 22:15 - Shellenberger: Why Democrats Self-Destruct On Crime
Shellenberger: Why Democrats Self-Destruct On Crime
Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,
Progressives still deny rising crime even as it undermines Joe Biden’s presidency…
As progressives including Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio (left) and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (right) deny crime, President Joe Biden’s popularity suffers.
Over the last 18 months, many progressives and Democrats have argued that public concern over crime, particularly in liberal cities, doesn’t reflect reality. “Overall crime [in San Francisco] was down 25 percent from 2019,” noted Washington Post columnist Radley Balko in July, “and all major categories of crime remained well below their five-year average.” Said progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) earlier this month, “A lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out. I believe a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up.” And, last week, Philadelphia’s progressive District Attorney, Larry Krasner, said, “We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence.”
But homicides, shoplifting, and crime in general did indeed rise in 2020, and rose even more in 2021, including well above the five-year average. Homicides, the worst of all crimes, increased 30 percent nationwide in 2020. Whether or not shoplifting was the sole or even main reason Walgreens has been closing stores in San Francisco, there is no question they were being regularly ransacked by shoplifters, harming revenues, and putting employees in danger. And burglaries increased 50 percent in San Francisco between 2019 and 2021, while brazen “hot prowl” burglaries, where residents are at home while criminals steal, doubled.
It’s true that some crimes declined in 2020, and that many crimes are still far below what they were in the 1980s and 1990s. The national murder rate in 2020 was still 40% lower than where it hovered in the 1980s and 1990s. There were 175 homicides in Oakland in 1992 in and 102 in 2020. As for San Francisco, wrote Balko, “Murders did increase in 2020, but only by 14 percent (from 41 to 47) from a 56-year low in 2019.”
But over two-thirds of America’s largest cities will have more homicides in 2021 than in 2020, and at least 13 big cities will set all time records for homicides, including Philadelphia, Austin, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Rochester, Toledo, Indianapolis, Portland, Minneapolis, Louisville, Columbus, Albuquerque, and Tucson.
And many of the crimes that declined in 2020 did so due to covid, and have since increased. Car break-ins in San Francisco declined temporarily from reduced tourism in 2020 but have since skyrocketed to new heights, reaching 3,000 in November. Many San Francisco business leaders and residents say they no longer bother reporting crimes. Now, big cities are seeing a wave of spectacular smash-and-grab burglaries of luxury stores like Louis Vuitton by criminal gangs.
The downplaying of crime by progressive Democrats has provoked a backlash from moderate Democrats. Last Friday, former Philadelphia mayor, Michael Nutter, who is black, accused Krasner, who is white, of “white privilege” and “white wokeness… to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them black and brown.”
Higher crime, and the downplaying of it by progressives, could hurt Democrats in 2022 and 2024 Congressional and presidential elections. In 2020, more voters said they trusted Republicans more than Democrats on law enforcement and criminal justice. Since then, crime has worsened. The share of Americans who say they support Biden’s handling of crime declined from 43 percent in October to 36 percent last week. And the percentage of Americans who say crime in their local area is getting worse rose from 38 to 51 percent between 2020 and 2021.
None of this should come as a surprise to Democrats. After the 2020 elections, Biden ally Rep. James Clyburn said that the progressive “Defund the Police” slogan was partly responsively for Democrats failing to win a stronger majority in the Senate. His complaints were widely publicized and debated. And many party leaders, including Biden, remember how, from the 1970s through the early 1990s, Democrats lost elections and political power due to the public perception that they were too soft on crime.
Why, then, do so many progressives and Democrats continue to deny the crisis of crime, violence, and lawlessness?
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 21:40 - Exactly Which Dystopian Novel Are We Living In?
Exactly Which Dystopian Novel Are We Living In?
There’s a debate going on among the disaffected/terrified over which dystopian novel we’re now living in.
As John Rubino remarks, some point to social media addiction and designer drugs to suggest Brave New World.
Others see mass surveillance and pandemic lockdowns as putting us squarely in 1984.
Still others cite online censorship and cancel culture as favoring Fahrenheit 451.
Each of these opinions seems valid, which is confusing.
A prisoner should know the shape of their cell. So it’s a relief to find out that someone (not sure who) has settled the argument by creating the following Venn diagram (Tweeted by our friend David Morgan).
Turns out we’re not in a single dystopian novel. We’re in all of them simultaneously.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 21:05 - Parents Erupt At California School Board Meeting Over Alleged 'Coaching' Of Students Into LGBTQ Club
Parents Erupt At California School Board Meeting Over Alleged ‘Coaching’ Of Students Into LGBTQ Club
Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,
A mixed crowd of more than 150 people packed a school board meeting in Salinas, Calif., on Dec. 15 as frustrated parents clashed with supporters of two teachers accused of subverting parents and recruiting middle school students into a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club.
Jessica Konen, one of about 30 people who spoke during an extended public comment period, told the board that school staff indoctrinated her child and usurped her parental authority.
Konen blasted the board and accused teachers and staff of coaching her gender dysphoric daughter through the Equality Club, an LGBTQ+ support group now called the You Be You (UBU) Club at Buena Vista Middle School.
“I stand here today in front of all of you because I am outraged. Is this really barely coming to light? Are you guys serious?” she said.
“How could you even allow this? How could you even have this meeting to question it? How dare you let these teachers come in and act as if they have done nothing wrong? A mistake? How long of a mistake?”
Konen went public with her story after controversy erupted over an audio recording leaked to “Irreversible Damage” author Abigail Shrier and The Epoch Times that revealed two teachers at a California Teachers Association (CTA) conference dismissing parents’ concerns about homosexual and transgender indoctrination at school.
The two seventh-grade teachers from Buena Vista Middle School in Salinas, Calif., were recorded coaching other teachers how to hide the nature of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning (LGBTQ+) Clubs, also known as GSA clubs, from parents. They led a workshop called “How we run a ‘GSA’ in Conservative Communities” at the CTA’s “2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference, Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities” in Palm Springs, Calif., from Oct. 29 to 31.
Spreckels Union School District (SUSD) has since suspended the teachers with pay pending the outcome of an independent third-party investigation.
A school board meeting in Salinas, Calif., on Dec. 15, 2021. (Courtesy of Josey Schenkoske)
At the Dec. 15 Spreckels Union School District (SUSD) meeting, Konen accused Buena Vista Middle School staff of failing to tell her that child might be having suicidal thoughts based on internet searches, while some school staff allegedly knew about them.
“They didn’t tell me that my child was suicidal,” she said. “You allow these teachers to open their classrooms, teaching predatorial information to a young child, a mindful child that doesn’t even know how to comprehend it all. How do you not know what’s going on your own campuses? Did you think that no parent would ever come forward? You will not quiet me today. I will stand here today and protect my child along with every other child who has not come forward yet.”
“Do they have psychiatry degrees that I was unaware of, because I didn’t hire them? I did not hire them to sit there and nitpick my child’s brain. You took away my ability to parent my child,” Konen added.
She accused Buena Vista Middle School teachers and administrators of contributing to her daughter’s gender confusion.
“You planted seeds,” she said. “Your job was to educate my child in math, science, English, etc. Do your job and let me do mine!”
Parents cheered and applauded her speech.
Preceding Konen’s comments, her father, Gunter Konen, told the board he was infuriated when he found out how Konen and his granddaughter had been treated. He said his granddaughter was a straight-A student before she was “coached” by staff on gender issues.
“She’s the one that’s confused, because she was coached,” he said.
“[Child Protective Services] was called on my daughter because she went to school to have a discussion with the teacher for hiding the fact that [her daughter] was given a new name—a boy’s name,” he said.
Suggesting to a girl that she may be a boy or to a boy he may be a girl is wrong, he said.
“That’s just vile nonsense,” he said.
“I think education needs to be grounded on truth,” Gunter Konen said. “I just feel that our kids are impressionable at that age, and we should keep the parents informed. I say resign or repent.”
Cheryl Duffus, a parent of two boys who attended Buena Vista Middle School said she has complained to administration multiple times about how one of the teachers had taken pushed LGBTQ activism to “unacceptable” levels.
“On one occasion, I picked my youngest one up from school during an all-school assembly, where he and other students were supposed to walk under a rainbow arch in the inner court to support the club. This was an all-school event, not just for members of the GSA club,” Duffus said.
After the incident, the principal assured Duffus he would talk to one of the teachers about the activism and ask her to “tone it down.”
Duffus said four other parents made similar complaints to Tarallo the same year: 2015.
“This issue is not about a GSA club on campus. It has nothing to do with that. This issue is about deceiving parents, stalking children, and these are children. They’re 12 years old,” she said.
What happened to Jennifer Konen and her family was “horrific,” she said.
A crowd of more than 150 people packed a school board meeting in Salinas, Calif., on Dec. 15, 2021. (Courtesy of Josey Schenkoske)
Board Comments
Trustee Michael Scott said he supports the decision to conduct a third-party investigation surrounding the UBU Club in light of the leaked audio.
However, he accused Shrier of framing what’s happening with transgender youth “in terms of a war.”
“We are not at war here. Everyone loses in a war,” Scott said. “War is completely contrary to our core values of compassion, kindness, and respect. I believe we should do everything we can to support and be inclusive,” Scott said.
“I am hopeful the third-party investigation will provide a clearer picture of the circumstances surrounding the UBU Club,” he said.
Any subsequent action should be responsive to the values, beliefs, and priorities of the community which are to be inclusive and “social emotionally” supportive.
“As we navigate this situation, I hope we can adhere to the values of compassion, kindness, and respect,” Scott said.
Other trustees called for the same values.
“I just want to stress my commitment to the support and safety of all of our students,” said Trustee Stephanie McMurtrie Adams. “I will continue to work to ensure equity for all of our students, both academically and socially, emotionally.”
“I, too, would like to echo was previously been said,” Trustee Jennifer Kato said.
Supt. Eric Tarallo said the UBU Club “has not been disbanded,” but has been suspended while the investigation is carried out. He called for kindness, respect and civility.
“We’re living through incredibly difficult and divisive times, that seem get worse every month,” Tarallo said.
SUSD President Steve McDougall said the district has received hundreds of emails since the controversy surfaced in mid-November and that SUSD is doing its best to deal with the situation.
A man speaks at a school board meeting in Salinas, Calif., on Dec. 15, 2021. (Courtesy of Josey Schenkoske)
“We’re going to do it right. We’re going to do it within the law. We’re going to find out what we need to do moving forward once this independent investigation has concluded at that time, and not before. And that’s the way it’s going to be if I’m going to be involved with it,” he said.
Vicki Nohrden, a parent and grandparent, blasted the board for preaching about compassion, kindness and respect while disregarding parental rights.
“Respect is so important,” she said. “What I think is lacking is we are not respecting the parents when parents don’t have a voice and a place of authority in their children’s world, and the school seeks to undermine that authority.”
Nohrden called for school choice, “because when monies aren’t being spent in the way they should be spent to educate our children with an education—not an indoctrination—then things are out of order.”
She touted Shrier’s book “Irreversible Damage,” which examines the alarming surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls.
Nohrden criticized school staff for reporting parents to Child Protective Services (CPS) for not using transgender names and pronouns of their child’s choosing, or for not being “emotionally supportive” enough in the minds of some activist teachers.
“The thing that concerns me the most is when schools want to undermine the authority of the parents,” she told the board.
“I worked as a court-appointed special advocate for children. I really care about the community, but when somebody disagrees with a mindset and then sends CPS to somebody’s house, I say that is absolutely out of order,” Nohrden said.
Grant Cremers, a father of three children who attended SUSD schools including Buena Vista, said he supports the UBU, but not how it was run. He suggested that the entire board and administration should be investigated, not just the two teachers.
“There’s a history here. The board probably needs to be part of the investigation, not overseeing the investigation,” he said.
“This is not easy to talk about,” he said. “These were teachers that we knew and supported in the classroom, and their actions have gone too far. They’ve used predatory tactics to push political activism on our school grounds to our children.”
Tanya Navarro said the controversy is not that a LGBTQ+ support club exists, but the way in which the teachers conducted themselves and the way it was run. She called for a district-wide investigation, and suggested police—not a third-party investigation firm—should lead it.
Navarro said there should have been more transparency about the intent of the UBU club, so that parents, like herself, would have had a chance to explain to their children “what our convictions and our religions and our perspectives and ideologies are.”
“But, when you force and impose upon them, that is immoral. That is wrong,” she said.
Teacher Supporters
Katherine Beck, a former student who said she attended the LGBTQ+ club at Buena Vista when it was called the “Equality Club,” expressed support for the club and the teachers who ran it.
“I first attended the UBU, then called the Equality Club, meeting when I was in the sixth grade,” she said. “I was not sought after. I was not pressured, and I was not forced into attending the meeting. Nor was I ever pressured or forced into being anyone but who I already was,” she said.
“I learned about the club the same way every other student at Buena Vista learned about the club; Through the club’s slide on morning announcements,” Beck said. “I joined the club because I was sick of dealing with lunchtime middle school drama. When I wanted to attend a meeting I did. And when I wanted to hang out my friends, I did that too. It’s true that the Equality Club did not keep records, did not take attendance, and did not have club officers, but that’s the case with all clubs at Buena Vista, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.”
During her time in the club, students led their own discussions on a wide range of topics “from racism to disabilities to Yes, LGBTQ issues,” Beck said.
The club was “never a secret to the school board, nor to the school administration,” she said.
Jennifer Ruttschow, whose children attend SUSD schools including Buena Vista, said she supports the two teachers, the UBU Club and the morning announcements, which one of the teachers said in the audio are used to promote LGBTQ inclusivity and the club.
“Suspending the UBU club and morning announcements that are created by students is a disservice to students, the very people that our district is here to serve,” Ruttschow said.
“I support these teachers being in the classroom and providing extracurricular activities so that my children are provided with opportunities not only to learn about kindness and inclusion, but opportunities to implement them in real life situations,” she said.
Sam Gomez, a former SUSD student of Buena Vista who is now the deputy director of The Epicenter, a youth-led support group for at-risk youth in Monterey County, told the board she wishes that LGBTQ clubs would have existed when she went to school.
“In 2006, I was a seventh grader at one of us the middle school. During this time, I was outed by a classmate, and shortly after the entire school learned about me being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. There were mixed reactions, including judgmental stares from peers, supportive encouragement from other classmates, and unfortunately the disapproval by some parents,” said Gomez.
Some of the parents would no longer allow their children to be friends with her, she said.
“As a 12-year-old child this negatively impacted my mental health and led to some seriously negative habits including self-harm. I did not have support at home, and I was terrified of being outed to my family at the time because of their negative views towards the LGBTQ+ plus community,” she said.
Gomez called for more resources for LGBTQ+ inclusivity at the school and “competency training” for teachers and staff.
Thomas Caldeira-Perry told the board there was no violation of students’ privacy and that the club has always been run with “full and utmost” transparency.
“I am the son of highly respected and award-winning teacher Lori Caldeira as well as a Buena Vista Middle School alumni. I am here to speak on behalf of my family, my mother on the impact that these recent events have had on us,” he said.
Perry attacked Shrier over her article based on the leaked audio recording.
“There are great many assumptions and accusations being made as a result of a political third-party blogger with a very clear anti-LGBT agenda, who’s looking only to boost the sales of her discredited book. While she sits completely uncaring of the destruction she has caused, my mother and Ms. Baraki continue to be victimized by targeted and hate speech due to the district’s knee-jerk reaction and fear-based response,” he said.
A source who goes by the pseudonym Rebecca Murphy attended the CTA conference. She told The Epoch Times following the SUSD board meeting that Shrier’s article was “spot on.”
“It was completely accurate,” she said.
Murphy said most parents would be “appalled” and “aghast” as she was to watch and listen to the two activist teachers describe the challenges they faced in concealing the nature of the GSA clubs from parents.
Meanwhile, Shrier told The Epoch Times in an email on Dec. 16, “I stand by every word of my reporting.”
Dalila Epperson said she has been attending school board meetings with other parents since late May.
“One of the things we’ve been noticing is that the school boards have not been listening to us,” she said.
Parents have been receiving leaked information similar to what Shrier wrote in her article for the last year and a half, Epperson said.
“That’s why the parents have been so upset,” she said.
Preceding the meeting, the Voices of Monterey Bay published a letter signed by several local politicians and community leaders in support of the You Be You (UBU) Club.
Assembly Member Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay), who signed the letter, did not respond to inquiries preceding the Dec. 15 meeting.
The next SUSD school board meeting is set for Jan. 6.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 20:30 - North Korea Marks Anniversary Of Prior Ruler's Death With 11-Day Ban On Laughing
North Korea Marks Anniversary Of Prior Ruler’s Death With 11-Day Ban On Laughing
North Korea is marking the 10th anniversary of former leader Kim Jong-Il’s death in somewhat characteristically bizarre ways, with dictates from Pyongyang saying citizens must mourn on a “unified” front that includes a ban on laughing for 11 days.
More than mere commemorative moments of silence, all instances of general enjoyment have been banned during the week-and-a-half period, including shopping, recreation, and alcohol consumption. Even going for groceries is on the list of banned activities, according to Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service.
Mourning ceremony for NK’s prior dictator. AFP via Getty Images “During the mourning period, we must not drink alcohol, laugh or engage in leisure activities,” a resident of the northeastern city of Sinuiju was cited in the US state-funded publication as saying. The source added that “In the past many people who were caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning period were arrested and treated as ideological criminals. They were taken away and never seen again.”
“Even if your family member dies during the mourning period, you are not allowed to cry out loud and the body must be taken out after it’s over,” the source told RFA further. “People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period.”
While RFA is an American government-linked media agency, and so the report should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt, this type of strict mourning is somewhat common in many Eastern cultures from the Levant to East Asia, at least on a local level and within families. But strict dictates imposed on a national scale is something perhaps only common to the DPRK.
Dubbed by Pyongyang officials “the parent of our people,” Kim Jong Ill’s death anniversary commemoration ceremony observed in the capital included the following according to NY Post…
Cars, trains and ships blew their horns, the Hermit Kingdom’s flags were lowered to half-staff and people flocked to Pyongyang’s Mansu Hill to lay flowers and bow before giant statues of Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, who ruled for 46 years.
Image source: KCNA/KNS Kim Jong Un participates in annual tributes to his late father, Kim Jong-il, who died on December 17, 2011 – reportedly of a heart attack at the age of 69.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 19:55 - A Delusional AOC Provides The Tweet Irony Of The Day
A Delusional AOC Provides The Tweet Irony Of The Day
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
AOC Irony
People want to “but Manchin” everyone to death, but learned helplessness is not a disposition that inspires confidence or support.
The President has tools at his disposal. Leadership has tools at their disposal. If it really is just 1-2 votes, Senate should force a vote on BBB
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 17, 2021
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No Progressive princess, what’s happening is the public is sick of your progressive cohort for hijacking the Democratic Party to the extreme Left.
The vote in Virginia and near loss in New Jersey were not because of failure to pass programs. The vote is because you want to pass extreme Progressive bills.
Senate Parliamentarian Irony
Yesterday, the Senate Parliamentarian correctly ruled that immigration reform is not a budget item.
Whether you are for or against reform, clearly it’s not a budget item and that means it cannot be part of Build Back Better.
Let’s tune into what a delusional AOC thinks.
Good thing the Parliamentarian’s guidance here is non binding! It’s just guidance.
The Senate can still include a path to citizenship in BBB and call a vote on it, which is why we have called on them to do so. https://t.co/lbHJWDaghj
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 17, 2021
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Say What?
Sure .Schumer can introduce a vote. And it will take 60 Senators to pass it.
More Delusion
As this was playing out, the conventional beltway groupthink was that the progressives were being ‘unreasonable’ in not trusting there were the votes in the Senate to get this done. https://t.co/QQM8Dt3LTU
— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) December 17, 2021
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“I didn’t think he [President Biden] could promise the Senate. He promised anyway. It’s time for him to deliver“
Another Say What?!
Biden made a promise that was not his to make. And the only way he can deliver is by doing what Manchin wants.
There is no way Biden can “force” the Senate to deliver a Progressive mandate.
Manchin’s Demand List
-
$1.7 Trillion fully paid budget up from $1.5 Trillion – Position since April
-
Means-testing child-care subsidies and the child tax credit – Position since April
-
Concerned over inflation – Position since April
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No timeline gimmicks of expiring programs to make a fake budget – Position since April
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No paid family leave – Position since April
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No new entitlements that aren’t means-tested or don’t require work – Position since April
In addition to the above, Manchin will not go along with proposals to change Parliamentary rules, pack the court, or end the filibuster. Those have been his position forever.
What did Pelosi, AOC, and the House do?
They ignored every one of Manchin’s requirements.
And now, AOC moans about delusion. Wow, talk about the need to look in the mirror.
A Democrat bloodbath is likely in November of 2022.
Meanwhile, if the delusional Progressive stick with the same plan, Build Back Better will not pass at all. And that would be a great thing.
The final irony is that in order to kill BBB entirely, we must now hope Progressives keep doing what they’re doing.
Go for it AOC!
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 19:20 -
- The 16 US Cities That Hit All-Time Homicide Records This Year
The 16 US Cities That Hit All-Time Homicide Records This Year
As we’ve observed over the past days and weeks, murder records are being shattered all over America, which many major cities seeing all-time murder highs for 2021, and others hitting three decade peaks.
According to data collected by Fox News based on local police departments and local media tracking, no less than 16 cities have set new homicide records in 2021. This still with a couple weeks to go before the close of the year.
Image source: AP The mayor of one of the cities on the below list recently decried, “It’s terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy and this needs to stop,” according to the words of Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat.
Not making the grim list below, though fast approaching their historic record homicide highs this year, are also Houston, Memphis, Oakland, and Greensboro, North Carolina. Here are the 16 cities which have seen homicide records smashed this year, listed in alphabetical order.
* * *
1. Albuquerque, New Mexico
Homicides in 2021: At least 107.
Previous record: 93 in 2019.
2. Atlanta, Georgia
Homicides in 2021: At least 150.
Previous record: 145 in 2020.
Fox notes that “Homicide numbers in Atlanta in 2021 reflect a 30-year record. The city saw 241 homicides in 1990, according to a report.”
3. Austin, Texas
Homicides in 2021: At least 88.
Previous record: 59 in 1984
4. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Homicides in 2021: At least 115 (unofficial).
Previous record: 110 in 2020.
5. Columbus, Ohio
Homicides in 2021: At least 179.
Previous record: 177 in 2020.
Defund the police?…
As crime rates continue to rise in cities both large and small across the U.S., including record-breaking homicide numbers in many places, city leaders are calling for more funding for police. https://t.co/7GDT4dv5uC
— WLOS (@WLOS_13) December 17, 2021
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6. Indianapolis, Indiana
Homicides in 2021: At least 258.
Previous record: 233 in 2020.
7. Jackson, Mississippi
Homicides in 2021: At least 129.
Previous record: 128 in 2020.
8. Louisville, Kentucky
Homicides in 2021: At least 179.
Previous record: 111 in 2016.
9. Macon, Georgia
Homicides in 2021: At least 52.
Previous record: 48 in 1992.
10. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Homicides in 2021: At least 190.
Previous record: 186 in 2020.
11. New Haven, Connecticut
Homicides in 2021: At least 25.
Previous record: 23 in 2011.
12. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Homicides in 2021: At least 524.
Pevious record: 500 in 1990.
13. Portland, Oregon
Homicides in 2021: At least 84.
Previous record: 70 homicides in 1987.
14. Rochester, New York
Homicides in 2021: At least 80.
Previous record: 69 in 1991.
15. St. Paul, Minnesota
Homicides in 2021: At least 35.
Previous record: 34 in 1992.
16. Tucson, Arizona
Homicides in 2021: At least 92.
Previous record: 79 in 2008.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 18:45 - Pandemic Could Be Solved Quickly If Politics Thrown Out: Dr. Ben Carson
Pandemic Could Be Solved Quickly If Politics Thrown Out: Dr. Ben Carson
Authored by Harry Lee and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times,
“We’ve been having tunnel vision” dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ben Carson told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.
“Let’s throw the politics out. We could solve this problem pretty quickly,” he stated in an interview that will premiere on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. New York time.
“Let’s open this thing up to all the different mechanisms,” said Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian award in the nation—in 2008 for his work. He retired in 2013 and ran for the presidency in 2016, before serving as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Trump administration.
“Let’s look around the world at things that work. Let’s look at the fact that on the western coast of Africa, there’s almost no COVID. And let’s ask ourselves, why is that? And then you see, it’s because they take antimalarials, particularly hydroxychloroquine. Let’s study that. Let’s see what’s going on there.
“Let’s listen to these physician groups who’ve had incredible success with ivermectin. Let’s look at the results with monoclonal antibodies. Let’s look at all of these things. Let’s put them all in our armamentarium so that we don’t have a one-size-fits-all system.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at one time had authorized hydroxychloroquine for treating certain COVID-19 patients but quickly revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) in June 2020, claiming no data showed its effectiveness.
The FDA hasn’t approved or issued an EUA for ivermectin to treat COVID-19, citing the same reasons.
Using hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients has been highly controversial. Some studies show, and some doctors claim, that hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin can effectively treat COVID-19 patients. A vaccine confidence insight report (pdf) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labeled such claims as misinformation or disinformation.
“COVID is a virus. Viruses mutate. That’s what they do. And they will continue to mutate,” Carson said.
Carson pointed out that fortunately, most of the time, viruses become a little weaker with each mutation.
“We can admit that and deal with it, or we can take every little mutation and every little change and try to make it into a crisis so we can frighten people and control their lives more,” Carson said.
The latest variant has been named Omicron. During a White House COVID-19 Task Force briefing on Dec. 15, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that she expected Omicron cases to increase in the coming weeks, urging people to take preventive measures such as being vaccinated and getting booster doses.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Carson said he has some concerns with how COVID-19 is being utilized to “manipulate and frighten people.”
“We should be using every tool available to us to fight the pandemic. There’s no question about that,” Carson said.
“But that means, you know, therapeutics, which had been poo-pooed. And I understand why. Because in order to get an EUA—an emergency use authorization—to pursue the vaccines, you can’t have anything that’s effective as an alternative. So, that’s a defect in our system, we need to get rid of that.
“I think a lot of people died unnecessarily because we had that attitude,” Carson added. He shared that when he contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and was severely ill, monoclonal antibodies saved his life. He said monoclonal antibodies weren’t really utilized the way they should have been early on.
The FDA issued its first EUA for monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19 patients in November 2020.
“There are many things that have been very effective that we have not pursued, including natural immunity,” Carson said.
“Well, why wouldn’t you collect that information? Why wouldn’t you want to know that? The only reason you wouldn’t do that is because you didn’t want to know the answer,” he said. “Because it didn’t fit very neatly into what you’re trying to do, which is get everybody to be vaccinated.”
That’s one of the reasons people are losing confidence in federal health agencies, he suggested.
Last month, the CDC said it had no record of naturally immune people transmitting the CCP virus.
“A lot of people who probably should be vaccinated are not doing it because they see these inconsistencies, these things that make absolutely no sense,” Carson said. “This demand that everybody get a vaccination, except if you’re coming across the southern border illegally, then it’s not all that important.”
Carson also opposes forcing children to be vaccinated.
First-grade student, 6-year-old Leonel Campos, receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Arturo Velasquez Institute in Chicago, on Nov. 12, 2021. ( Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“We have a situation where you have the government advocating that children be vaccinated, even though the risk for death for a child with COVID is 0.025 percent, essentially the same as it is for seasonal flu. You don’t see us doing all this every year for seasonal flu,” Carson stated.
“The risk of mortality for a healthy child is approaching zero, and yet we’re saying do this without knowing what the long-term risks are?” he said.
“And why would you subject an innocent child to a lifetime of unknown risk? It just makes absolutely no sense.
“We need to have faith in our government. We need to have faith in our health care systems. And by injecting politics into it, I think we have put ourselves behind the eight ball. It’s going to take a while to reestablish that trust,” he said.
“Why not learn how to look at what’s logical and what makes sense? And why not encourage discussion of those things, rather than everybody getting their respective corners and shooting hand grenades at each other?”
The way out is real leadership, he said.
“The only path is strong leadership. We don’t have that.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 18:10 - Man Thrown Off United Flight After Using Red Thong As A Mask
Man Thrown Off United Flight After Using Red Thong As A Mask
A Cape Coral man has been banned from flying by United Airlines after using a red thong as a mask.
Passenger Adam Jenne was flying from Fort Lauderdale to Washington D.C. but was escorted off of his flight before it took off. He was officially asked to leave the flight for “failing to comply with the federal mask mandate”.
Jenne wasn’t shy about his reasoning for using the thong as his mask. “I think the best way to illustrate absurdity is with absurdity,” he said, according to NBC 2.
He also had no problem admitting that this wasn’t his first time using the thong as his mask.
He told NBC: “Every single flight has been met with different reactions from the flight crew. Some with a wild appreciation, others confrontational.”
But for every flight in the past, Jenne has made it to his final destination, the report says. This time, he wound up in the custody of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
“Eventually, they called TSA and airport security. I ended up staying at the gate for about 45 minutes,” he said. He also said others then followed his lead, taking off their masks and walking off the plane in protest.
“I think it’s a testament to passengers having had enough, citizens having had enough. This is just nonsense,” he continued. “My intention was not to ruin anybody else’s day.”
United Airlines stated: “The customer clearly wasn’t in compliance with the federal mask mandate and we appreciate that our team addressed the issue on the ground prior to takeoff, avoiding any potential disruptions on the air.”
Jenne concluded: “It’s all nonsense. COVID doesn’t know that we’re at cruising altitude. It’s stupid. The whole thing is theater. Hopefully, Spirit Airlines has a better sense of humor tomorrow.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 17:35 - Survey Calls Facebook "Worst Company Of 2021"
Survey Calls Facebook “Worst Company Of 2021”
Authored by Nicholas Dolinger via The Epoch Times,
Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, was declared “the worst company of 2021” in the results of an audience survey conducted by Yahoo Finance.
The poll, which surveyed 1,541 readers, saw Facebook receive 8 percent of the total votes for the ignominious distinction.
Respondents were polarized in their assessments of the tech company and expressed contradictory reasons for their disdain. Conservatives and dissidents expressed frustration with the tech company for being overly censorious and discriminating against their views. However, progressives often complained that the company did not go far enough in its efforts to eradicate perceived misinformation, with many claiming that the company was inadequately suppressive of skeptical views regarding the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic and the 2020 United States presidential election.
Last September, Facebook fell under scrutiny for The Facebook Files, a series of investigative reports published by the Wall Street Journal and based on leaks provided by whistleblower Frances Haugen. Much of the publicity around the leaks focused on the impact of Instagram (a subsidiary of Meta Platforms) on teenage girls, and the company’s alleged indifference to those concerns. Haugen also alleged that Facebook’s potential for radicalization has contributed to genocides in Myanmar and Ethiopia, among a myriad of other concerns expressed in the reports.
Additionally, the company has been under the scrutiny of antitrust regulators for several years. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of 48 states sued Facebook for alleged violations of antitrust laws. That particular case against the company was dismissed as legally insufficient, but the lawsuit is still pending as the court considers dismissing the case outright.
Perhaps owing to this negative publicity, Facebook rebranded the parent company which oversees its platforms as Meta Platforms last October. The new name coincides with Zuckerberg’s increasing emphasis on the concept of the “metaverse,” a concept in which the internet would be presented as a simulated, three-dimensional world accessible through virtual reality. The proposed Facebook metaverse has been no less controversial, with critics calling it everything from ridiculous to dystopian.
Still, Meta’s stock value has seen 22 percent growth in the past year—lagging somewhat behind the S&P, but hardly a crisis for investors. For strictly financial concerns, Meta appears in much better shape than the second-place finisher for worst company of 2021: the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has seen its stock price plummet by over 50 percent after a tumultuous year of harassment by the Chinese Communist Party.
However, Facebook has seen itself dogged by controversy since its inception, and this has not deterred it in its rise to become an information powerhouse. It is thus unclear whether such negative publicity will serve as a significant deterrent to the company, which still persists as a leader in social media even despite the ensemble of negative publicity it has received.
Facebook/Meta Platforms did not respond to a request for comment.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 17:00 - Timing The Crash: Why "Buy The 1st Rate Hike, Sell The Penultimate Hike" Won't Work This Time
Timing The Crash: Why “Buy The 1st Rate Hike, Sell The Penultimate Hike” Won’t Work This Time
Speaking on CNBC, the FOMC’s most clueless member – NY Fed president John Williams who runs the world’s most important trading desk yet has zero trading experience and every market crisis shows it – said that the Fed is “very focused” on taming “too high” inflation and will be able to do so without causing a recession.
That, of course, is a lie: as we last week, virtually every single rate hike cycle since before the Great Depression ended in disaster (and/or recession)…
… and this time won’t be any different, just like the brief bear market at the end of 2018 which ended the Fed’s last rate hike cycle, wasn’t any different.
Guaranteeing that there will be a very sad ending (at least until the next QE/NIRP/ETF purchases at which point everything will go vertical) is that in keeping with the long-running theme from BofA CIO Michael Hartnett that we are about to get the double whammy of “Inflation Shock…Rates Shock“, Hartnett writes in his latest Flow Show “here come the central banks…Fed to end QE in March & hike thrice in ’22, BoE hiked 15bps despite Omicron surge, Norges hiked 25bps, ECB tapering & hinting rate hike in ’22; in contrast in EM…swaps market hinting China could cut 50bps next Monday & Turkey aggressively easing (Turkish stocks up 54% in local-FX terms & down 27% in US$-terms YTD).”
However, while everyone knows how it all ends – in both nominal and real terms – the question is when.
And here we get some useful insight from Hartnett who reminds us of the “wonderful old market adage” to “buy the 1st hike, sell the penultimate rate hike” because “first rates hikes are “good” hikes on back of strong growth and mid-cycle bull market.”
But this time, the BofA strategist says that this market-timing adage is “wrong” as inflation is already out of control and even with speedier end to QE, and central banks are only slightly less out of control.
As a result, Hartnett writes that tighter financial conditions remain his key investment forecast into ’22, and his favorite trades are as follows:
- Tighter financial conditions = long US$, long MOVE/VIX, short credit, short PE/XBD.
- EPS deceleration/flatter yield curve/high CPI = long quality, defensives, yield & shortextended cyclical (SOX/XHB), long commodities to hedge inflation
- Contrarian = short Nasdaq (“hubris”), long EM/China (“humiliation”).
Which brings us back to the point up top, namely that inflation always precede Recessions: whether driven by asset, housing, commodity, consumer or labor, inflation is like a very high body temperature, and must be reduced via tightening or recession to return the body to normal and ensure future good health.
And while global growth is good right now (despite Omicron risks) with just 6% of investors forecasting recession in ’22 (a recent FMS finding we mocked last week), the risk that the coming “rates shock” quickly morphs a into “recession scare” is high.
Finally, according to Hartnett, UK mid-cap stocks and yield curve are the best leading indicator of “policy error” – case in point, in 2017/18 BoE’s 1st rate hike was the penultimate rate hike, and markets were sold.
How to best position for the coming pain? As BofA puts it, “Defence until Capitulation and/or new Declaration of Indulgence“, or in other words, remain defensive and bearish until a) positioning shows full-blown capitulation and/or b) credit events/losses on Wall St force central banks to announce reversal of tightening.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 16:25 - White House To Unvaxx'd: "You're Looking At A Winter Of Severe Illness And Death"
White House To Unvaxx’d: “You’re Looking At A Winter Of Severe Illness And Death”
Authored by Nick Ciolino via The Epoch Times,
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients predicts a winter of severe illness and death for Americans who decide to not take the vaccination for the CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
“For the unvaccinated: you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death,” said Zients during a White House COVID-19 update Friday.
“For yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”
The grim message from the White House comes a day after a panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unanimously voted to recommend the agency tell the public that the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are preferred to the jab from Johnson & Johnson (J&J).
“Any vaccination is better than no vaccination,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky of the J&J jab after endorsing the panel’s recommendation.
Additionally, Pfizer-BioNTech announced Friday they will add a third vaccine dose to ongoing clinical trials on children as young as six months as two doses do not produce a robust immune response in kids 2 to 5 years old.
Meanwhile, the national average for daily COVID cases ticks up to about 119,500 per day as have the average daily deaths and hospitalizations with about 7,800 new admissions and about 1,200 deaths each day.
This despite more than 60 percent of the population being considered fully vaccinated.
Public health officials continue to push vaccines even though without a booster shot, data shows the jabs to be only nominally effective against the new, more transmissible Omicron variant which is expected to become the dominant strain of COVID in the U.S. in the coming weeks.
“Clearly unvaccinated individuals [sic] are really at a high risk of serious involvement, including hospitalization,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s Chief Medical Advisor.
Fauci concedes “it’s still up in the air” as to how the severity of the Omicron variant compares to the previous Delta and Alpha strains of COVID.
Pfizer-BioNTech continues to advance the development of a variant-specific vaccine for Omicron and expects to have it available by March.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 15:50 - Defense Rests In Ghislaine Maxwell Case After Just 2 Days Without Calling Socialite To Testify
Defense Rests In Ghislaine Maxwell Case After Just 2 Days Without Calling Socialite To Testify
The defense in the Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking trial rested after just two days of presentation, as her attorneys attempted to erode her accusers’ credibility and suggest that she and Jeffrey Epstein were innocent, law-abiding people.
Maxwell elected not to testify, telling the court “The government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and so there’s no need for me to testify.”
The defense called on nine witnesses, some of whom told of Epstein’s charitable donations, and innocent relationships he had with young daughters of family friends (as opposed to many of Epstein’s accusers, who were often in poor financial condition and recruited from outside Epstein’s circle). Witnesses also testified to Epstein and Maxwell’s interest in “professional” messages, as opposed to accusers who say Ghislaine instructed them on how to best sexually please the pedophile and his friends.
Maxwell’s lawyers attacked the memories of the accusers over incidents which happened more than 20 years ago in some cases.
Prior to resting, the defense called the last of its witnesses – including two FBI agents who reviewed interview summaries known as FD-302s. According to the Epoch Times, agents Jason Richards and Amanda Young who had signed off on the forms had interviewed alleged Epstein victims.
Under cross-examination by prosecuting attorney Maurene Comey, both witnesses testified that recording devices were not used in any of the interviews, the alleged victims never attested to the accuracy of the summaries before they testified, and that specifically, “Jane” was not given hers to review before she appeared as a witness for the prosecution.
Another witness for the defense was Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former girlfriend of Epstein. They dated from 1983 to around 1991. She and Epstein remained friends, even after she started a family with her husband, Glenn Dubin.
Andersson-Dubin testified she never saw any inappropriate behavior by Epstein with teenage girls.
Cimberly Espinosa, who was Maxwell’s assistant for six years, testified that she never saw her boss or Epstein acting inappropriately with underage girls, adding that Epstein was “a giver” was paid for her personal trainer and gave her a watch.
The 55-year-old Espinosa said Epstein and “Jane” had a “loving relationship.” Jane says Epstein sexually abused her, and was coached by Maxwell on how to give Epstein sexualized massages, according to Bloomberg.
Espinosa told jurors that she didn’t see any improper behavior by the financier at his Manhattan office shared by Maxwell and that she had booked massage appointments for the duo at well-known Manhattan spas. She said that Maxwell began dating other men, and that she and Epstein would come and go from the office at separate times. –Bloomberg
Former Epstein employee Michelle Healey also testified, saying that when she met “Jane” for the first time, “She looked like a grownup to me” with “a lot of makeup on.”
Healy praised Maxwell, saying the British socialite “taught me a lot,” adding “I respected her. She’s tough, but she’s great.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 15:15 - Dollar Illiquidity – The Ironic Yet Ignored Spark For The Next Crisis
Dollar Illiquidity – The Ironic Yet Ignored Spark For The Next Crisis
Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,
In October of 2019, I began writing/warning of the ignored yet ominous signals coming out of the repo and Eurodollar markets and what the illiquidity (i.e., lack of availability) of U.S. Dollars portended for our markets in the coming years.
Well, those years have since arrived.
Such dollar illiquidity may seem hard to imagine in a world otherwise awash in printed currencies and expanding money supplies.
But what I warned then is no different than what is happening now: The Fed is gonna need to print a lot more dollars.
In other words, today’s hawks will once again become tomorrow’s doves.
Why?
Because there were and are just not enough liquid dollars today to meet the fantastic array of nuanced and complex dollar demand in both U.S. and global markets.
The First Tremors—2019 Repo Woes
As Egon von Greyerz and I have said many times, the first overt signs of this danger in the cash-poor (i.e., illiquid) repo market which reared its “repo head” in September of 2019.
This was a neon-flashing signal of long-term trouble ahead. And it had nothing to do with COVID…
Informed investors in the autumn of 2019 had sifted through all the confusing minutia and noise behind the September panic in the otherwise open-fraud scheme that is the U.S. repo market (i.e., private banks levering GSE deposits for guaranteed payouts from Uncle Sam which the U.S. taxpayer funds).
Despite all this noise, and despite being completely ignored (and deliberately downplayed) by an otherwise teenage-savvy mainstream financial media, the entire repo story simply boiled down to this: There weren’t enough available dollars to keep it (and the banks) going.
As a result, the 2019 Fed printed more dollars and immediately dumped a $1.5 trillion rollover facility into the repo pits.
Much, much more followed.
After all, there’s nothing a money printer can’t temporarily solve.
Unfortunately, however, this gaping wound in the repo markets was not an isolated event, but rather a symptom of a much larger and systemic problem that was equally responsible for the crisis of 2008, namely: Not enough dollars.
More importantly, such dollar illiquidity will be the key factor in the next financial crisis.
Second Tremor: The Misunderstood Eurodollar Market
This percolating liquidity crisis has a lot to do with the Eurodollar market, an ignored little corner of the global financial cesspool which very few investors understand.
This is because the Fed and the U.S. Treasury are still perceived as the official overseers of U.S. Dollar supply.
Many investors still assume that these institutions know what they are doing and are “in control.”
If only this were true…
In reality, the Fed is becoming increasingly cornered and dysfunctional when it comes to managing U.S. Dollar liquidity.
Why?
Because the Fed is not in fact in control of the supply of U.S. Dollars; instead, more of the power lies in the media-ignored Eurodollar markets.
THE Ticking Time Bomb
Almost no one gets the Eurodollar “thing.” Almost no one sees it, yet it’s a ticking time bomb.
So, what is the ticking time bomb that almost no one is publicly touching upon?
What is the silent poison lurking beneath our national and global market system which no one at the Eccles Building, the White House, or the Treasury Department is discussing, let alone fully understanding?
How the Eurodollar System is Quietly Killing U.S. and Global Markets
In basic terms, a Eurodollar is just a U.S. Dollar held on deposit anywhere (not just in the Eurozone) outside of the U.S.
Simple enough.
One can therefore think of foreign banks like SocGen or Deutsche Bank making simple, clean, and direct loans to foreign companies denominated in these “Euro” dollars – i.e., U.S. Dollars held overseas.
But nothing the big banks do ever stays simple, clean, or direct for very long.
These bankers just can’t help themselves when it comes to leverage, short-term profits and long-term distortions. This is particularly true of what they’ve done with the Eurodollar.
A Brief History of Distortion
In fact, Eurodollars have been floating around the world in greater force since the mid-1950s.
But banks (and bankers) always come up with clever ways to make simple Eurodollar transactions complex, as they can easily hide all kinds of greed-satisfying and wealth-generating schemes behind such deliberate Eurodollar complexity.
Specifically, rather than foreign banks using U.S. Dollars overseas (i.e., Eurodollars) to make simple, direct loans to corporate borrowers that can be easily tracked and regulated on the asset and liability columns of offshore bank balance sheets, these same bankers have spent the last few decades getting more and more creative with the Eurodollar – which is to say, more and more toxic and out of control.
Rather than using Eurodollars for direct loans from Bank “X” to Borrower “Y,” offshore financial groups have been busy using these Eurodollars for complex inter-bank borrowing, swap schemes, futures contracts, and levered derivative transactions.
In short, and once again: More derivative-based poison (and extreme banking risk) at work.
The Fed Losing Control of Its Own Dollar
These mind-numbingly complex Eurodollar transactions have acted as extreme dollar multipliers entirely outside the purview or control of regulatory bodies like the Fed and now exist at what is essentially infinite leverage multiples.
When U.S. banks like Bear Sterns or Lehman Brothers, for example, were leveraging U.S. Dollars in subprime derivative landmines at leverage multiples of 60:1, that was a problem.
A big problem. Remember?
Unfortunately, what we have been seeing (and the media ignoring) in the unregulated Eurodollar market is a leverage ratio of U.S. Dollars that is much, much, much higher – and makes the Bear Sterns of 2008 seem like child’s play by comparison today.
And what this basically boils down to is that the actual amount of U.S. Dollars in overseas, shadow banking Eurodollar transactions is massively beyond the pale of what the Fed thinks it is, and, more importantly, is massively beyond the pale of anything that even the Fed can control.
How Can There Be a Dollar Shortage?
But wait, you’re probably asking: Matt, you just warned there’s not enough dollars, but now you’re saying that such Eurodollar schemes have dramatically increased (i.e., levered) the amount of dollars in circulation.
What gives?
Well, stick with me.
You see, all those complex derivative schemes in Eurodollars increases their amount, but then tangles them up into so much non-liquid confusion that the end result is far fewer dollars in actual circulation.
Crazy but true.
Thus, as Powell tinkers with adjusting interest rates and printing or tapering more money here in the U.S. to ostensibly “control” the amount and price of U.S. Dollars, he is effectively chasing windmills, or playing chess as Rome burns.
There are now trillions in uncontrollable/unregulated U.S. Dollar liabilities floating around (and clogging up) an uber-complex international banking and Eurodollar based derivatives system.
Unfortunately, this system is so interconnected and beyond the measures of complexity theory that trying to untie these Eurodollar financial knots and counter-party complexities would be akin to untying the knots of 1,000,000,000 fly-fishermen all at once.
In other words, impossible.
With all these U.S. Dollars (trading as “Eurodollars”) tied up in countless and unregulated banking schemes and derivative instruments, the actual amount of available U.S. Dollars is inextricably tied up in all these toxic “knots.”
As a result, there are simply less dollars available for use (including emergency use) in these over-levered/risk-high markets – which is what the fancy lads call a “liquidity problem.”
In fact, despite all the well-deserved attention subprime mortgages received for being the cause of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, here’s a little secret from inside Wall Street:
The subprime instruments were the “patient zero” of the 2008 disaster, but the real killer in 2008 was dollar illiquidity, much of which was tied up in these Gordian Eurodollar knots of which almost no one understands, discusses or knows how to control.
In short: Today we have a similar ticking time bomb. A Eurodollar time bomb.
Defusing the Eurodollar Liquidity Crisis?
So how can we diffuse this ignored and misunderstood time bomb?
Well, even the grandfather of debt, John Maynard Keynes, warned about this in 1944; the head of the People’s Bank of China warned about this in 2011; and in the summer of 2019, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned about this at the Fed’s little banker retreat in Jackson Hole.
What was the suggested option from the head of England’s central bank?
Simple – we need to replace the U.S. Dollar as the world’s reserve currency with a neutral, electronic currency to settle international payments with a new, floating system that replaces the dollar.
That’s a big deal. And yet it never made the headlines. Big shocker, eh?
The sad but hidden and otherwise undeniable truth of the matter is that the U.S. Dollar is no longer under the control of an increasingly clueless Federal Reserve.
Every Crisis is a Liquidity Crisis
When the supply of dollars tightens/shortens, crisis always follows, every time, for every market crisis is, at root, a liquidity crisis.
Again, we saw a brief taste of this dollar shortage during the repo scare of September 2019.
But that was mere child’s play compared to what prior crises of dollar illiquidity can and have done to markets, as we saw in 2008, when our markets suffered over $2 trillion (!) in U.S. Dollar shortages (aka, “funding gap”).
How was this “gap” filled?
You guessed it: Global money printing gone wild.
Going forward, and with the recent (and completely downplayed) tremors of the cash-poor repo market still in our rear-view mirror, the insiders in D.C. and Wall Street are bracing themselves for further crises of dollar illiquidity – i.e., major market disasters driven by “funding gaps” – aka a lack of enough dollars.
The Fed knows this as well – but just barely. They certainly are in no position today to simply release the U.S. Dollar from its global reserve status.
That takes years, but the IMF has effectively telegraphed that it’s coming.
In the interim, this means that the only current tool available to the Fed when the next dollar-liquidity crisis sends our markets and economy over yet another cliff will be more desperate and last-minute money printing, despite the fact that they are now signaling a taper for early 2022 (!).
Longer term, such inevitable money printing will be good for gold.
Told You So…
In 2019 and 2020, I warned of this. I warned of massive, unimaginable money printing and full-on debt monetization ahead due to massive dollar illiquidity.
In case you don’t believe me, just see for yourselves in this re-published, ad-hoc warning originally released in March of 2020, here.
Since that warning, the Fed’s balance sheet has more than doubled.
Facts really are stubborn things, no?
Investing in the New Abnormal
Of course, such measures have nothing at all to do with capitalism or free markets.
Central and commercial banks have kissed those old values and systems goodbye.
Today, we now live, invest, and trade in a centralized market in which central banks have and are losing control over the supply of the U.S. Dollar in offshore, shadow banking Eurodollar schemes who’s embedded, levered, illiquid and complex risks, dangers, and extremes are understood by only a handful of insiders and would frankly require hundreds of more pages here to fully unpack.
What YOU need to take away from all of this complexity is quite simple: Normal business cycles are now extinct, replaced instead by central bank liquidity cycles which ultimately destroy currencies.
Natural supply and demand forces, including for dollars, has been replaced by money printing from the central banks.
More and more dollars will be printed down the road, not because we “think so,” but simply because there is literally no other way to keep this now totally rigged-to-fail system afloat.
As for market volatility and the safety and growth of your money in such a toxic and complex backdrop, we admit that it is becoming increasingly hard to rely upon old predictive measures of market risk or even recession timing to fully make sense of the Twilight Zone in which we now find our capital markets.
We truly are in uncharted and completely distorted waters, where risk outweighs reward at nearly every turn.
This is new terrain for all of us.
The Current Landscape – Hawkish Hubris
Thus, if you are wondering why the USD is up (relatively, as opposed to purchasing-power) despite insane levels of mouse-clicked money creation and broad money supply expansion, it’s simple: Those dollars are tied up in a derivative-based Eurodollar ball of knots.
With not enough liquid dollars available, dollar-demand is up, and hence so is the USD.
Needless to say, for those nations who owe USD-denominated debts, finding and paying for the owed dollars is getting harder, which explains why the Turkish lira is tanking, dropping 30% vs. the USD in November alone…
Other cracks as well as signals in this distorted, Dollar-thirsty financial landscape include more volatility now and ahead.
Recent swings in the S&P 500 (worst quarter since 2011) and BTC’s 20% drop in perfect tandem with the Wall Street sell-off are obvious examples, as well as harbingers of more pain to come, despite Jim Cramer’s pathetic (December 9th) cry that the U.S. is “the strongest economy ever seen,” and a “marvel to behold.”
Poor Cramer was likely referring to the Atlanta Fed’s bullish GDP estimate for Q4:
But cheerleaders like Cramer are overlooking the flattening U.S. yield curve which suggests the bond market feels such strength is temporary at best.
The Future Landscape—Doves (and Pain) Ahead
Meanwhile, as dollar illiquidity rises, and pandemic benefits fade, the Fed stubbornly sticks to its hawkish plan to taper/tighten liquidity into 2022—thereby adding gasoline to a risk asset fire and fiscal cliff crushing just about every asset class but the USD, UST and the VIX.
With the U.S. debt/GDP at a ratio of 122%, any hope for sustainable GDP growth and the delevering of US debt in such a backdrop without causing markets to tank is pure fantasy.
In other words: tic toc, tic toc…
In short, if the taper collides with the aforementioned yet hidden dollar illiquidity, get ready for an extremely bumpy and unpleasant 2022 and hence a sudden reversal of the Fed’s now hawkish stance.
When the doves and extreme money printing (and hence currency debasement) return, gold will be waiting, as always, to get the last word.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 14:40 - Ringing The Bell On Record Stock Inflows: Long Onlies See Biggest Outflow Since March 2020 Crash
Ringing The Bell On Record Stock Inflows: Long Onlies See Biggest Outflow Since March 2020 Crash
When it comes to equity market fund flows, the one defining feature of 2021 was the unprecedented reversal of years of outflows (or at best stagnant inflows), culminating in a record flood of new money entering equity funds as retail investors awoke from their decade-long hibernation (with the help of trillions in stimmies).
But with stocks now entering a period of extended turbulence coupled with violent drawdowns (at least until the Fed’s new put strike price emerges) now that the Fed has again ushered in a rate hiking cycle, the relentless avalanche of fund flows is finally starting to ebb.
According to the latest EPFR data compiled by BofA’s Michael Hartnett, last week saw the largest “flight to safety” inflow to Treasuries since Jul 2020, for $3.6BN, the largest outflow from IG bonds since Mar 2021 ($6.4bn); as well as the largest monthly outflow from HY & EM bonds since Apr’20, amounting to $2.9bn.
Most importantly, last week also saw the largest outflow from long-only developed market equity funds since Apr 2020 at $26.0 billion, a clear signal that sentiment may have well peaked.
… curiously offset by the largest inflow to tech since Feb’21 at $4.4 billion (which makes some sense since tech is really just a super long-duration instrument); as well as the largest inflow to consumer stocks since Dec’20 at $2.5bn.
That said, as Goldman further breaks down the flow data, net flows into all global funds reversed in the week ending December 15n (+$32bn vs +$11bn the prior week) due to a surge in demand for US-dedicated products: As shown in the chart below, global equity inflows excluding US-dedicated products were negative; net selling of EM benchmark products accelerated, while outflows from Western European shares moderated.
Finally, while money market cash has continued to rise in recent weeks (despite repeated predictions that the money on the sidelines will enter the stock market)…
… it remains a relatively small fraction of global equity market cap.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 14:05 - US Accuses China Of Developing Brain Control Technology
US Accuses China Of Developing Brain Control Technology
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Brain Control Blacklist
Over alleged brain-control weaponry, the Biden Administration Blacklists 34 Chinese Entities.
The Biden administration said Thursday it imposed trade restrictions on more than 30 Chinese research institutes and entities over human rights violations and the alleged development of technologies, such as brain-control weapons, that undermine U.S. national security.
The Commerce Department accused China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes of using biotechnology “to support Chinese military end uses and end users, to include purported brain-control weaponry,” according to a notice in the Federal Register.
The Washington Post had these interesting comments.
“The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “Unfortunately, [China] is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups. We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security.”
The State Department has deemed as “genocide” China’s repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, which includes the use of forced labor and sterilization. The U.S. intelligence community has said that China has established a “high tech surveillance system” across Xinjiang “as part of its apparatus of oppression,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
As a part of that system, authorities not only use biometric facial recognition for mass surveillance, but also have collected DNA samples from all Xinjiang residents ages 12 to 65, the official said.
Under China’s “military civil fusion” strategy, Beijing is seeking to use emerging biotechnologies to support future military applications, including sponsoring research on gene editing, human performance enhancement, brain machine interfaces and biological materials, the official said.
“We’ve had concerns about China’s activity in the biotechnology space for quite a while,” the official said, adding that targeting firms and bolstering the U.S. biotechnology sector will be a “continued area of focus for us.”
“The Official, Said …..” What Official? Brain Machine Interfaces?
Somehow the WaPo managed to write up its lead paragraph as follows:
The Biden administration said Thursday it is adding China’s top military medical research institute to an export blacklist in response to concerns about Beijing’s use of emerging technologies such as biometrics and brain-control weapons in ways that U.S. officials say threaten national security.
Federal Register
In a very lengthy sentence that names companies that are blacklisted, the actual statement by the Federal Register says “its eleven research institutes use biotechnology processes to support Chinese military end uses and end users, to include purported brain-control weaponry. This activity is contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests under § 744.11(b) of the EAR.”
I have no idea what China is or isn’t doing, nor it seems does the Federal Register. The word “brain” appears only once in the document preceded immediately by the word “purported”.
What’s Going On?
The Biden administration wants to sanction China over human rights abuses just as Trump sanctioned China over trade disputes.
Meanwhile, let’s take a look at how mind control works in the US.
Build Back Better Costs Nothing
I Won Big
It’s Transitory
Yeah Right!
Yellen was still sticking with the transitory meme as late as October 21. She had to, because that is what Biden wanted.
It’s now so ridiculous, even Fed Chair Jerome Powell is willing to throw the word away. Yellen officially tossed it as well.
Now the “yeah, right” messages is from Biden who still says Build Back Better costs nothing (amusingly he also says it’s fully paid for), and BBB will not add anything to inflation.
Nearly all the Democrats go along with this nonsense for one of two reasons (It supports what they want, they are dumb enough to believe anything their president says).
Regarding the latter, most people will believe anything the leaders of their political party says, no matter how ridiculous.
Repeating Lies
Repeat the lies enough times and even some of the initial skeptics will start believing nearly anything.
Heck, an entire legion of complete fools actually believes rising inflation is a good thing while simultaneously moaning about it!
That’s how brain control works in practice.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/18/2021 – 13:30
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