Feb 19

Today’s News 19th February 2025

  • China FX Outflows Soar As Beijing Prepares For Next Currency Devaluation, Priming Next Bitcoin Doubling
    China FX Outflows Soar As Beijing Prepares For Next Currency Devaluation, Priming Next Bitcoin Doubling

    Back in October 2023, when we pointed out that China’s FX outflows had just hit a whopping $75BN – the single biggest monthly outflow since the 2015 currency devaluation – we concluded that the “unfavorable interest rate spread between China and the US will likely imply persistent depreciation and outflow pressures in coming months”, or in other words, “September’s biggest FX outflow in years is just the beginning, and very soon – in addition to geopolitics and central banks – the world will also be freaking out about the capital flight out of China… not to mention where all those billions in Chinese savings are going and which digital currency the Chinese are using to launder said outflows.”

    We wrote that on October 20, 2023, when Bitcoin was trading just under $30,000, a level it had been for much of 2023. And, just as we correctly predicted at the time…

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    … following this surge in Chinese FX outflows, bitcoin – traditionally China’s preferred means to circumvent Beijing’s great capital firewall since gold is, how should one put it, a bit more obvious when crossing borders – promptly soared more than 100% in the next 4 months.

    That was just the start, because only a few months later, in July 2024, we wrote the follow up as China’s capital flight returned with a vengeance, namely “China FX Outflows Soar As Beijing Dumps Record US Securities, Priming Next Bitcoin Surge” which coincided with a Reuters report according to which, it was China’s massive wall of inert capital that has been one of the key drivers of bitcoin moves, and never more so than during periods of FX and capital outflows which usually precede some form of capital controls… which regular (and hopefully very rich) readers will of course, recall has been our core, and unwavering, bitcoin thesis since 2015!

    In any event, the sharp resumption of Chinese capital outflows, which we also highlighted in July, is why we also predicted at the time that “almost a year after our first correct prediction that China’s spike in FX outflows would send bitcoin surging, it’s time to do it again.”

    You’ll never guess what happened next! And in case you really can’t, here is the answer: bitcoin exploded again, nearly doubling again over the next 5 months!

    We bring all this up because more than a year after our first correct prediction that China’s spike in FX outflows would send bitcoin surging, and almost six months after our second correct prediction that China’s spike in FX outflows would send bitcoin surging (sic), it’s time to do it again.

    One wouldn’t know it, however, if one merely looked at the official Chinese FX reserve data published by the PBOC, here nothing sticks out. In fact, at $3.2 trillion, reported Chinese reserves are now near the highest level in past nine years, and monthly flows are very much stable as shown in the chart below, with the latest month indicating a modest uptick in Fx reserves.

    The problem, of course, is that as we have explained previously China’s officially reported reserves – and any official economic “data” for that matter – are woefully and purposefully inaccurate.

    Instead, if one uses our preferred gauge of FX flows, one which looks at i) onshore outright spot transactions; ii) freshly entered and canceled forward transactions, and iii) the SAFE dataset on “cross-border RMB flows, we find that China’s net outflows were a massive $82 billion in January, which is a staggering burst of capital flight, one larger than the spike in FX outflows we first highlighted in October 2023, and the second biggest going back all the way to the great Chinese devaluation of 2015!

    The data shows roughly equal contributions from both the current account channel showed, which sizeable FX outflows in January, as well as what has been dubbed “unusual cross-border RMB flow.”

    Here are the details: in January, we saw $42bn in net outflows via onshore outright spot transactions, and slight outflows via freshly entered and canceled forward transactions. Another SAFE dataset on “cross-border RMB flows” showed outflows of $40bn in the month, suggesting net receipts of RMB from onshore to offshore. Combined, our preferred FX flow measure therefore suggests $82 billion in net FX outflows in January, in comparison with US$8bn net FX outflows in December.

    The current account channel showed sizable net outflows (US$21bn in January vs. US$2bn inflows in December). There was a net inflow of US$14bn related to goods trade in January vs. an inflow of US$35bn in December. While we do not yet have the January goods trade data (which will be released along with February trade data in March), historical patterns suggest a larger January trade surplus when the Lunar New Year date is earlier than usual like this year. The smaller inflows therefore imply that goods trade surplus FX conversion ratio likely declined in January from 33% in December. The FX outflows related to services trade deficit edged up to $33bn (vs. an outflow of $32bn in December). The income and transfers account showed outflows of US$2bn in January, slightly higher than the US$1bn outflows in December.

    Turning to the far more important portfolio investment channel (which is where crypto flows tend to be located) we find net FX outflows in November (US$0.2bn in January vs. US$1.3bn outflows in December). Bond Connect flows showed US$3bn outflows vs. US$2bn inflows in December. The cross-border RMB outflows might be partly due to the US$16bn Southbound flows from onshore to offshore, though this is not captured by the portfolio investment channel of FX settlement.

    Meanwhile, as noted above, the official FX reserves (released earlier in the month) edged up to US$3,209bn in January from US$3,202bn in December. One possible explanation for this odd divergence is that FX valuation effects raised FX reserves by $5bn in January, so after adjusting for FX valuation effects, FX reserves increased US$1bn. In addition, Goldman notes that commercial banks’ net external assets rose by US$15bn in January (vs. a US$72bn increase in December

    Luckily, there is a simple “sanity check” way to confirm that the capital inflows story is propaganda, and China is once again suffering another scorching period of capital flight: just look at FX. Indeed, after after the yuan surged in the fall, coinciding with a period of relative dollar weakness, since October we have seen a surge in the USDCNH spot, as one would expect when there is capital flight, most likely driven by rising fears of Trump tariffs and the implicit devaluation the yuan would suffer in order to offset tariffs which according to Trump would start around 10% and likely rise much higher.

    But wait there’s more.

    Where the capital flight story gets really interesting, is when we look at what Chinese public and private entities were doing with US assets according to official Treasury data. What we find is that according to Treasury International Capital data, in December Chinese investors sold $14BN in US securities (bonds, MBS, corporate bonds, and stocks), and more notably, following a record sale in May, China has been a constant seller of US securities in the past 6 months!

    So if one had to guess what was going on, as the yuan slumped in October, November and December (before a modest bounce on unfounded hopes that Trump’s tariffs will be far less punitive than expected) as the capital flight resumed, the hit to the yuan would have been even bigger had China not liquidated a record amount of US securities starting in May, while the PBOC was buying much more gold, and while China’s middle and upper classes were quietly buying up bitcoin through Macau and other illicit venues.

    And while Chinese policymakers are still keen on maintaining FX stability (or at least create that impression) as the countercyclical factors in the daily CNY fixing remained deeply negative and front-end CNH liquidity tightened notably in recent weeks, the reality is that with China desperate to boost its exports at a time when its great mercantilist competitor, Japan, has hammered the yen to the lowest level in 3 decades, it is only a matter of time before the currency devaluation advocates win, as they did in 2015. No surprise that the biggest China-related story in recent months came from Reuters, and reported that Beijing in already planning how to devalue the yuan in response to Trump tariffs. And if you really want to see what capital flight from China really looks like, just wait until we get another 2015-style “one-time” devaluation.

    As an aside, we hope we don’t have to remind readers that the first big trigger for bitcoin’s unprecedented eruption higher starting in 2015 was – you guessed it – China’s August 2015 FX devaluation, as we correctly noted at the time when we predicted that bitcoin would explode from $250 to the thousands; in retrospect we were very conservative.

    So don’t be surprised if in the next 6 months Bitcoin doubles again – for the third time in the past year – and the move has little to do with ETF inflows, the halving, a pro-crypto Trump administration, or frankly anything else taking place in the US, and instead is entirely driven by China’s massive wall of money which at last check was almost 3x bigger than the US.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 23:54

  • Beijing Underground Command Center Signals Preparation For Conflict
    Beijing Underground Command Center Signals Preparation For Conflict

    Authored by John Mills via The Epoch Times,

    The media recently reported that China’s People’s Liberation Army is building the world’s biggest military base underground in possible preparation for conflict with the United States.

    Large enough to fit 10 Pentagons, the new super large facility should not be a surprise – it is a logical and iterative next step of a long program of underground facilities by China. The command center is on the western outskirts of the capital city of Beijing.

    In about 2011, stories began to appear around China’s “Underground Great Wall.”

    “In March 2008, China’s state-run CCTV network broke the news about a 5,000-kilometre-long network of hardened tunnels built to house the Chinese Second Artillery Corps’s (sic) increasingly modern force of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles,” The Diplomat reported on Aug. 20, 2011.

    Hui Zhang of Harvard’s Belfer Center downplayed China’s Underground Great Wall and explained it was only “defensive in nature.”

    Prior to the Underground Great Wall, the People’s Liberation Army Navy built a large underground submarine base on Hainan Island that is still being expanded and improved.

    The new command center in Beijing is described by online media BulgarianMilitary.com as a “command-and-control center for the PLA in wartime.“ The report notes that ”the site’s sheer scale, combined with its underground elements, points to a design built for survival,“ and  ”experts believe that the complex will feature a series of underground nodes, perhaps even a hidden subway system, all interconnected by subterranean passageways.”

    When completed, this facility—now dubbed the “Beijing Military City” by Western military analysts—will be the largest underground command center in the world, possibly in history.

    Western Equivalents Are Limited in Comparison

    Zhang of the Belfer Center described the Beijing Military City as defensive in nature. That is one viewpoint but should also be measured and compared in terms of equivalency in the West. The challenge is that there is little equivalency in the West in modern times.

    There are underground facilities dating back to the Cold War days in the West, but most have been decommissioned. Canada’s “Diefenbunker” in Ottawa is a museum and tourist attraction. In the UK, there was the Central Government War Headquarters (CGWHQ), close to Bristol, about 100 miles due west of London, which could accept about 4,000 to 5,000 essential personnel for the Continuity of Government (COG).

    In the United States, there was The Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, where, at one time, Congress would relocate to in case of conflict; it is now a museum with a gift shop. The Pentagon contains the existing National Military Command Center, which is in the above-ground basement, but also has a backup at Raven Rock and air and ground mobile alternate command posts. The White House has an alternate facility for COG, if necessary.

    Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, has an underground facility that is being rebuilt due to a flood in 2019 that damaged part of the facility. The vaunted and historic Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was essentially closed around 2005 but was reopened beginning in 2015 as a backup for the above-ground facilities below at Peterson Air Force Base.

    Most of the Cold War facilities in the West closed because there was a perception there was no compelling reason to keep them open, along with the enormous maintenance costs to keep them operational. The reality is that all of these Western facilities, whether they are active or museum pieces, would fill up only a small portion of the operational side of the underground Beijing Military City currently under construction.

    China’s New Underground Headquarters

    The message being sent from the construction is a theme of preparation for conflict. Bulgarian military expert Boyko Nikolov said, “This isn’t just about protecting assets; it’s about creating a self-sustaining, impenetrable hub that could coordinate China’s war efforts from the shadows.”

    Dennis Wilder, former head of the China analysis section at CIA and senior adviser for Asia at the White House, said, “If the report is correct, it is a sign of China’s intention to build not only world-class conventional power but also advanced nuclear war fighting capabilities.”

    The iterative buildup from the Hainan underground submarine base to the underground “Great Wall” for China’s ground-based nuclear force to the now-revealed Beijing Military City is likely the largest aggregation of underground military facilities in history. The indicators are that it is part of a pathway to conflict. Noted China expert Gordon Chang has framed it as “China is preparing for war, America is not.”  The assessment cannot be clearer or starker.

    China is building and expanding underground facilities as protected wartime command and control centers to ensure COG. The West has nominal equivalent facilities; most have been converted into museums that would need significant modernization and time if they were to be brought back into service.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 23:25

  • US Flies Bomber Group Over Middle East In Warning To Enemies
    US Flies Bomber Group Over Middle East In Warning To Enemies

    The Pentagon has confirmed that it deployed a pair of strategic bombers over the Middle East on Tuesday, accompanied with fighter jet escorts as well as refueling aircraft, in order “to demonstrate force projection capabilities in the region.”

    US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that “live munitions drops at ranges in several partner nations” were part of the mission, making it a rare ‘live-fire’ exercise and warning to regional enemies.

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    CENTCOM further described that this shows the US “ability to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict.”

    Tehran will no doubt see this as a threat aimed at the Islamic Republic, given Trump’s recent words saying the Iranians should negotiate a new deal to end their nuclear program, or else potentially face American bombs. The Houthis could also come under attack, given they are threatening to start up Red Sea shipping attacks if the Gaza ceasefire collapses.

    The provocative bomber exercise and flyover of the region also comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Israel Sunday. Prime Minister Netanyahu during that visit urged a muscular anti-Iran policy by Washington, after Trump restored ‘maximum sanctions’.

    Importantly, Netanyahu declared that Israel and the US should “finish the job” against Iran. Israeli officials have frequently floated the idea of preemptive attack against Tehran and nuclear facilities.

    Iran has meanwhile said it won’t respond to such threats, and has described that even if it wanted a deal, it can no longer trust Washington given it agreed to the JCPOA nuclear deal under Obama, and then Trump pulled out of it in 2018.

    Tuesday’s flyover included live ordinance drops…

    Via CENTCOM

    But it remains that Iran’s position in the broader Middle East has been greatly weakened. Israel has essentially decimated Hezbollah’s top leadership in Lebanon, and President Assad of Syria was forced to flee the country late last year. This corresponded with Iranian advisors and proxies withdrawing from Syria, and now Israel has free reign and is occupying large portions of southern Syria.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 23:00

  • Is Our Five-Year Nightmare Finally Over?
    Is Our Five-Year Nightmare Finally Over?

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the US is the ultimate repudiation of the Covid policy response. 

    The scheme of lockdown-until-vaccination was the biggest effort of government and industry on a global scale on historical record. It was all designed to transfer wealth to winning industries (pharma, online retail, streaming services, online education), divide and conquer the population, and consolidate power in the administrative state. 

    By 2021, RFK, Jr., had emerged as the world’s most vocal, erudite, and knowledgeable critic of the scheme. In two brilliant books – The Real Anthony Fauci and The Wuhan Cover-Up – he documented the entire enterprise and dated the evolution of the pandemic industry from its postwar inception to the present. There was simply no way to read these books and think about the corporatist cabal in the same way. 

    The circumstances that led to his appointment at HHS are themselves implausible and remarkable. Perceiving President Biden to be a weak candidate – one who had forced masks and shots on the population and brutally censored tech and media – he decided to make a run for president, presuming that there would be an open primary. There wasn’t one, so he was forced into an independent run. 

    That effort was chewed up by the usual political dynamic that befalls every third-party effort – too many ballot-access barriers plus the usual logic of Duverger’s law. That left the campaign in a difficult spot. At the same time, two huge political shifts had become clear. The Democratic Party had become a vessel and a front mainly for the administrative state with a veneer of woke ideology, while the Republican Party was being taken over by refugees from the Democrats, in effect creating a new Trump party out of the remnants of the other two. 

    The rest is legendary. Trump linked up with Elon Musk to do to the federal government what he did when he took over Twitter, taking the company private, gutting the place of embedded federal assets, and firing 4 out of 5 workers. In the midst of this, and faced with a terrifying flurry of legal attacks, Trump dodged an assassin’s bullet. That triggered terrible memories of RFK, Jr.’s father and uncle, and thus sparked discussions about coming together. 

    Within a matter of weeks, we had a new coalition that brought together old antagonists, as many people and groups seemingly in the same instant realized their conjoined interests in cleaning up the corporatist cartel. With the newly freed platform of X to reach the public, MAGA/MAHA/DOGE was born. 

    Trump won and chose RFK, Jr., to lead the most powerful public health agency in the world. The barrier was Senate confirmation, but that was achieved through some incredible triangulation that made it extremely difficult to vote no. 

    In the big picture, you can measure the size of this titanic shift in American politics by the way the votes in the Senate lined up. All Republicans but one voted for the most prominent scion of the Democratic Party to head the health empire while all Democrats voted no. That alone is striking, and a testament to the power of the pharma lobby, which, during the hearings, was exposed as the hidden hand behind the most passionate opponents of the confirmation. 

    Is our nightmare over? Not yet. Writing not even a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump, it is still unclear just how much authority he truly exercises over the sprawling executive branch. For that matter, no one can even agree on how large this branch is: between 2.2 million and 3 million employees and somewhere between 400 and 450 agencies. The financial bleed in this realm is unthinkable and far worse than even the biggest cynic can imagine. 

    Five former secretaries of the Treasury took to the pages of the New York Times with a shocking claim. “The nation’s payment system has historically been operated by a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants.” This has included a career employee called “fiscal assistant secretary—a post that for the prior eight decades had been reserved exclusively for civil servants to ensure impartiality and public confidence in the handling and payment of federal funds.”

    There is no reason even to read between the lines. What this means is that no person voted into office by the people and no one appointed by such a person has access to the federal books since 1946. This is startling beyond belief. No owner of any company would ever tolerate being barred from the accounting offices and payment systems. And no company can offer any public stock without independent audits and open books. 

    And yet almost 80 years have gone by during which time neither has been true for this gigantic enterprise called the federal government. That means that $193 trillion has been spent by an institution that has never faced granulated oversight from the people and never met the normal demands that every enterprise faces every day. 

    The usual habit in Washington has been to treat every elected leader and their appointments as temporary and transitory marionettes, people who come and go and disturb little to nothing about the normal operations of government. This new administration seems to have every intention to change that but the job is inconceivably challenging. As much public support as MAGA/MAHA/DOGE enjoy for now, and as many people from those groups are getting embedded in the power structure, they are outnumbered and outmaneuvered by millions of agents of the old order. 

    This transition will not be easy if it happens at all. 

    The inertia of the old order is mighty.

    Even on the issue of health and pandemics, there is already confusion. 

    CBS News has reported that Fauci-loyalist and mRNA pusher Gerald Parker will head the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response or OPPR. The report cited only unnamed “health officials” and the appointment has been celebrated by Scott Gottlieb, the Pfizer board member who nudged Trump into backing lockdowns in 2020. 

    All the while, this appointment has not been confirmed by the White House. We do not know if OPPR, created by Congressional charter, will even be funded. The reporter will not reveal his sources – raising the question of why any appointment having to do with health should be surrounded by such cloak-and-dagger machinations. 

    If Dr. Parker becomes ensconced in this position and another health emergency is declared, this time for Bird flu, HHS and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will not be in any kind of decision-making position at all. 

    The larger problems have to do with a broader question: is the president really in charge of the executive branch? Can he hire and fire? Can he spend money or decline to spend money? Can he set policy for the agencies? 

    One might suppose that the whole answer to these questions can be found in Article 2, Section 1: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” And yet that sentence was written almost 100 years before Congress created this thing called the “civil service” that nowhere appears in the Constitution. This fourth branch has grown in size and power to swamp both the presidency and the legislature. 

    Courts are going to have to sort this out, and already an avalanche of lawsuits has hit the new administration for daring to presume control over agencies and their activities of which the president is and must necessarily be held accountable. Lower federal courts seem to be demanding that the president be that in name only, while the Supreme Court might have a different opinion. 

    The much-ballyhooed “constitutional crisis” consists of nothing other than an attempt to reassert the original constitutional design of government. 

    This is the background template in which RFK, Jr., takes power at HHS, and oversees all the sub-agencies. These agencies played a huge role in covering for the attack on liberty and rights over five years. His confirmation is a symbolic repudiation of the most egregious public policies on record. And yet, the repudiation is entirely implicit: there has been no commission, no admission of error, no one truly held responsible, and no real accountability. 

    The trajectory on which we find ourselves affords many reasons for champagne celebrations, but sober up quickly. There is a very long way to go and enormous barriers in place to get us to the point that we are really safe again from the marauding corporatist/statist complex and their plots and schemes to rob the public of rights and liberties. In the meantime, to invoke a common phrase, keep these new appointees in your thoughts and prayers.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 22:35

  • Jewish Miami Man Randomly Shoots Two Israelis He Hoped Were Palestinians
    Jewish Miami Man Randomly Shoots Two Israelis He Hoped Were Palestinians

    A wacky story of anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab animus played out in Miami Beach on Saturday night, as a Jewish American mag-dumped a pistol at two visiting Israeli nationals, telling police he attacked them because they were Palestinians. It gets nuttier: After the shooting, one of the Israeli victims reportedly posted “Death to the Arabs” on his social media account, declaring the attack was an act of antisemitism. 

    Police say that, at 9:30 pm on Saturday, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman was driving south on Pine Tree Drive before executing a U-turn at 48th Street and then stopping. His victims were in a Hyundai behind him and in the next lane. “[Brafman] then exited his vehicle and remained on the driver’s side,” the police report says. “As the victims were driving past him, he shot at the victim’s vehicle 17 times, unprovoked, striking both victims.”

    Police say Mordechai Brafman, a married plumber, told them he’d spotted two Palestinians and spontaneously killed both without provocation (Miami-Dade booking photo)

    Brafman, 27, has been booked into Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on two counts of attempted murder. When he was interviewed by police, Brafman was quick to admit to his intent and motive, as he “spontaneously stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both,” police say.  

    He was wildly wrong about the ethnicity of his victims — and the efficacy of his pistol work. Despite firing 17 shots, he only managed to hit one of the Israelis, Ari Rabi, in the shoulder, while grazing Rabey’s father in the forearm. Rabi made his own false conclusions about what transpired. According to a Facebook screenshot posted on X and credited by The Guardian, Rabi posted pictures of himself and his shot-up vehicle, along with this narrative, which is Facebook’s imperfect translation of the original Hebrew: 

    “My father and I went through a murder attempt against anti-Semitic background. They tried to murder us in the heart of Miami but the creator of the world is with us so he didn’t go. I want to say thank you to everyone for their support it is not taken granted with Israel Live. . Death to the Arabs .” 

    Israeli citizen Ari Rabi reportedly posted “Death to the Arabs” to his social media account after being shot by a fellow Jew (Ari Rabey – Facebook) 

    “It is deeply ironic and telling that both the alleged pro-Israel perpetrator and the pro-Israel victim in the Miami Beach shooting reportedly hold racist anti-Palestinian views,” said Nihad Awad, National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “Policymakers in our nation should stop fomenting the anti-Palestinian hate that led to the genocide in Gaza and to hate crimes in America.”

    Rabi struck a different tone when talking to CBS News about the incident: “A life shouldn’t just be taken away from anyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, what religion you are, or where you’re from. People should just live in peace.” Speaking of different tones, Brafman in 2023 told a local TV station that “I’d love to see some unity and people come together,” as he commented on incidents in which Israeli flags and pro-Israeli banners were yanked from the eaves of a bagel shop he frequented:

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    Brafman’s lawyer quickly attributed his client’s attempted murder of two randomly-selected “Palestinians” to mental health problems. “It is believed that his ability to make sound judgments was significantly compromised,” Dustin Tischler told the Miami Herald. “We are…committed to working with healthcare professionals to ensure Mr. Brafman receives the appropriate and necessary treatment. 

    The bizarre episode has drawn light media attention. It’s safe to say that, if a Palestinian-American shot two vacationing Arabs in Miami because he thought they were Israelis, the story would have a very high media profile, with the incident decried as terrorism and exploited by US and Israeli politicians to advance pro-Israel policies.  

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 22:10

  • ESG And DEI Are Down But Not Out, Analysts Say
    ESG And DEI Are Down But Not Out, Analysts Say

    Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Despite recent eulogies for the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, many insiders say the funeral is premature.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

    “Their demise is inevitable, and it has been accelerated,” David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of the Bahnsen Group and formerly an asset manager at Morgan Stanley, told The Epoch Times.

    However, “they are not over,” he said.

    The ESG movement began two decades ago with a U.N. initiative, sketched out in a 2004 position paper called Who Cares Wins, to get private companies in line with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

    Those goals included, among other things, climate action and gender and racial equity, and they aligned with corporate trends such as “conscious capitalism” and “stakeholder capitalism,” which redirected companies from merely serving owners to serving employees, the community, and the environment.

    Institutional asset managers gave the ESG movement critical leverage over companies because they collectively own about 80 percent of the shares in S&P 500 companies. Immediately upon its introduction, ESG was endorsed by 23 financial institutions collectively representing more than $6 trillion in assets at the time.

    Most major banks, asset managers, and insurance companies quickly joined U.N.-sponsored climate clubs, including the Net Zero Banking Alliance, the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, and the Net Zero Insurance Alliance. This was followed by a proliferation of ESG rating agencies, consultants, accountants, and others dedicated to measuring companies’ compliance with ESG criteria.

    Twenty years later, the winds appear to have shifted. In 2024, half of the Net Zero Insurance Alliance members quit, while the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative suspended its activities in January after several of its largest members, including BlackRock, left the group.

    A 2024 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order that required listed companies to produce audited reports of their CO2 emissions and their plans to reduce them, faced numerous court challenges and was recently shelved. And on the social justice front, a parade of companies recently announced that they are downsizing their diversity programs.

    “ESG is on death watch,” Daniel Cameron, CEO of the 1792 Exchange, an analytics nonprofit, told The Epoch Times. “You saw a lot of iconic brands last year walk away from DEI in particular.”

    Companies stepping back from diversity programs include Amazon, Google, Target, Meta, Walmart, Boeing, Molson Coors, Lowe’s, Ford, Toyota, Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniels, Caterpillar, John Deere, McDonald’s, Nissan, Stanley Black & Decker, and Tractor Supply.

    People pass a sign for JPMorgan Chase & Co. at its headquarters in New York City on Oct. 2, 2012. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Rethinking or Rebranding

    Some experts say this trend may be little more than rebranding.

    “Boeing, who just got rid of its [DEI] department, noted in the press release that none of them were laid off; they were distributed across the company in other roles,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research and a longstanding critic of ESG, told The Epoch Times.

    And many companies, including Apple, Cisco, Costco, Microsoft, Delta Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase have defended their DEI programs and insist they will keep them in some form.

    Tim Schwarzenberger, portfolio manager at Inspire Investing, says the notion that “DEI is dead or it’s on life support” is wrong.

    “I was talking to a major energy company, talking to their chief diversity officer—they have their livelihood on the line,” Schwarzenberger told The Epoch Times.

    Defenders say that the ideas behind ESG have been wrongly maligned.

    BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, formerly an outspoken advocate for ESG, stated in 2023 that he no longer uses the term because it has been “politicized and weaponized.”

    “DEI is not a synonym for the ’S’ in ESG,” Julie Anderson, a professor of management at American University’s Kogod School of Business, told The Epoch Times. “When I refer to the ‘S,’ it’s usually labor, health, and human rights.

    “Politics has intentionally conflated and stolen the ‘S’ category and turned it into a gender and racial issue, which is a fraction of what it really is.”

    Whether it goes by ESG or another name, its underlying principles appear to be alive and well.

    According to a November 2024 study on ESG-related shareholder proposals by Harvard Law School, over the past decade, “the number of proposals on environmental and social topics exploded, surpassing the governance and compensation topics that had dominated the discourse in mid-2010s.”

    The study found that environmental and social proposals accounted for 62 percent of the total in 2024, up from 44 percent in 2014. More recently, environmental and social proposals increased by 57 percent between 2020 and 2022 and hit a record of 610 proposals for the year ending in June 2024.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 21:45

  • Woman Robs Princeton TD Bank Of More Than $60,000 Using Painted Water Gun
    Woman Robs Princeton TD Bank Of More Than $60,000 Using Painted Water Gun

    After 4 years of Soros-funded DAs and a soft-on-crime administration, it’s just getting too bold, brazen and downright easy for criminals.

    Now, a New Jersey woman allegedly robbed a TD Bank in Princeton with a painted water gun, escaping with $60,500, according to the New York Post.

    Ciara Brascom, 39, allegedly robbed a TD Bank in Princeton using a painted squirt gun, prosecutors say.

    Wearing a COVID mask, red glasses, and a blue hat, she pulled the toy gun from her pocket and handed the teller a note demanding money, threatening to use the weapon if the alarm sounded.

    A teller led Brascom to the vault, where she grabbed the cash and fled, prosecutors allege. She was identified and charged in September after meeting with federal agents in Princeton. Brascom later admitted financial struggles drove her to the crime, authorities said.

    The complaint says: “In particular, she admitted that she went to a store to purchase an imitation, toy gun that looked like an authentic gun to use during the robbery.”

    “She stated that the store lacked such a toy gun, so she instead purchased a pack of water pistols and can of black spray paint to make it look more realistic,” it continues. 

    The New York Post report said that she carried the cash out in her hands.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 21:20

  • How A US Iron Dome Could Reshape Global Nuclear Relations
    How A US Iron Dome Could Reshape Global Nuclear Relations

    Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is already searching for cutting-edge missile defense technologies after President Donald Trump signed a new executive order, calling for an “Iron Dome for America.”

    An illustration of a potential U.S. defense system that President Donald Trump is directing agencies to investigate. Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Getty Images

    The executive order gave the Department of Defense 60 days to evaluate the U.S. missile defense network and overhaul it with hypersonic weapon sensors, space-based missile interceptors, and other so-called “non-kinetic” missile defense capabilities.

    Trump has also tasked military leaders with conceiving new ways to stop incoming threats earlier than ever before, including before they launch.

    Four days after Trump signed the order, the Missile Defense Agency published a request for information from arms industry insiders on promising advancements to meet Trump’s call for a better missile defense shield.

    The quick turnaround suggests the Trump administration is urgently pursuing advanced new strategic defenses at a moment of growing U.S. competition with Russia and China.

    Both nations have made advances in offensive strategic weapons technology in recent years, and the U.S. military has struggled to keep pace.

    While Trump’s order calls for several new missile defense capabilities, a major focus is on evaluating what systems already exist and whether they’re deployed in the right manner to protect the United States and forward-deployed U.S. troops and allies.

    Daniel Flesch, a senior policy analyst for the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation, described Trump’s order as a holistic approach that expands on capabilities the U.S. military already has.

    President Donald Trump signs executive orders at the Capital One Arena in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    “Where are the gaps, and where do we need to develop or invest?” Flesch told The Epoch Times.

    The launch trajectory of a strategic weapon like a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is generally divided into three phases.

    The “boost phase” is the initial stage as a weapon burns its propellant at launch. After a ballistic missile expends most of its propellant in the liftoff, it begins its main course of flight toward its target, known as the “midcourse.”

    Finally, after reaching the apex of its trajectory, a ballistic missile will fall toward its target in what’s known as the “terminal phase” of its trajectory.

    The U.S. Navy currently has both land and ship-based variants of the SM-3 missile that can intercept enemy ballistic missiles in space, at the height of their mid-course flight. The U.S. Army also has ground-based interceptors for mid-course interceptions.

    For ballistic missile interceptions in the terminal phase of flight, the Navy has the ship-based SM-6 missile, while the Army has the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and newer variants of the Patriot air-defense missile system.

    The midcourse presents the largest window for an intercept but requires sophisticated interceptors capable of reaching ballistic missiles at high altitudes, including in space.

    Terminal phase interceptors don’t have to reach as high as midcourse interceptors, but it’s a narrow and high-stakes window to stop a ballistic missile before it reaches its final target.

    The boost phase presents an attractive opportunity to stop a missile threat because the missile is less capable of evading interceptors or deploying decoys, but detecting a launch in this early stage is difficult, as is having an effective system in position to stop it.

    The U.S. Army test fires a Patriot missile, a mobile missile defense interceptor deployed by the United States. Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images, U.S. Army

    Along with new and improved sensors for tracking the trajectory of weapons throughout their flight, Trump’s order envisions a network of space-based interceptors that could stop threats in their boost phase.

    Weapons researchers have long considered high-powered lasers as one potential option for boost phase interceptions.

    The United States and Israel have both seen advancements with lasers for intercepting drones and missiles, but more improvements may be needed to effectively counter sophisticated ballistic missiles.

    Trump’s order could potentially renew development for an airborne laser system for boost-phase interceptions, such as the U.S. Air Force’s shelved Boeing YAL-1 airborne laser aircraft.

    A ‘Star Wars’ Sequel

    Trump’s Iron Dome for America takes direct inspiration from the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a missile defense program President Ronald Reagan put in motion in 1983.

    “President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized,” Trump’s order states.

    SDI indeed looked to develop space-based and non-kinetic interception capabilities that many critics dismissed as figments of science fiction. The initiative was referred to, often derisively, as Reagan’s “Star Wars” program.

    Trump’s concept for a network of space-based interceptors bears a close resemblance to at least one SDI concept, codenamed “Brilliant Pebbles,” which called for the deployment of potentially thousands of small satellites, each armed with interceptors to stop enemy ballistic missiles in the boost phase.

    Read the rest here…

     

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 20:55

  • Destroyed Home Among Pacific Palisades Fire Rubble Receives More Than 60 Offers
    Destroyed Home Among Pacific Palisades Fire Rubble Receives More Than 60 Offers

    It turns out that one person’s fiery rubble and personal tragedy is another’s treasure…

    That seems to be the case now that one home destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire has received more than 60 offers.

    The home has been reduced to rubble except for two chimneys and a few brick columns and hit the market for $999,000 just 10 days after last month’s blaze, according to Bloomberg.

    Now, after receiving over 60 offers, it’s now in escrow for well over $1 million, the listing agent said.

    Richard Schulman, the listing agent, commented: “I can just tell you, generally, that people selling are going to take a huge financial hit.”

    Bloomberg writes that the sale highlights tough choices for fire victims. Seller Terri Bromberg is accepting far less than her home’s pre-fire value instead of waiting to rebuild after 20 years of ownership.

    Before and after (Photo: Bloomberg)

    Most homeowners affected by January’s Palisades and Eaton fires, which killed 29 people and destroyed over 11,000 homes, are still weighing their options. Cleanup has just begun, and reconstruction could take years.

    The burned home, built in 1976, last sold for $1.54 million in 2005 and was once valued at $2.7 million. In contrast, Pacific Palisades’ median home price was $3.97 million at the end of last year.

    The listing described the property as “a blank canvas for visionary buyers.” Investors offered as little as $600,000, while the top bidder plans to rebuild and sell for at least $3.2 million, according to agent Schulman.

    “We thought there was an advantage to be one of the first to market,” Schulman said. “It was intentionally a teaser asking price.”

    Seller Terri Bromberg, a widow nearing 70, said she hasn’t “crunched the numbers” but most of her insurance payout will cover the $656,000 mortgage. The fire destroyed everything—“turned to dust,” she said—including her artwork, her late husband’s Grammy awards, and her wedding ring.

    An artist specializing in glassware, Bromberg is buying a smaller home in Santa Monica to live and work with her daughter and son-in-law, who narrowly escaped the fire.

    “My daughter said she doesn’t want to go back and live in the hills. It was too scary,” Bromberg said. “It used to be paradise. Eventually it will return.”

    *  *  *

    Great news! Our most popular supplement Astaxanthin – the ultimate antioxidant, is back in stock at ZH Store. Grab some today!

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 20:30

  • Bird Flu Is A Rerun Of The COVID Playbook
    Bird Flu Is A Rerun Of The COVID Playbook

    Authored by Clayton Baker, MD, via The Brownstone Institute,

    Bird flu can be very confusing. This is true because, as is so often the case with our government, those who claim to be trying to solve the problem – our so-called “public health” and “pandemic preparedness” “experts” – are actually the ones who created the problem. What is worse, they are actively seeking to perpetuate it.

    In this brief article, my goal is to explain what is happening with H5N1 Bird flu in the clearest, most fundamental terms. I hope to make it so clear that all our elected officials can understand what is going on, and therefore can take action to stop it.

    The key to understanding the current Bird flu panic is this: Bird flu is a complete rerun of the Covid script. There is just one twist:

    • Last time, with Covid, the pandemic-planning bioterrorists directly blackmailed us by taking away our civil rights, in order to coerce us to accept their unsafe and ineffective vaccines. 

    • This time, with Bird flu, the pandemic planning bioterrorists are indirectly blackmailing us by targeting our food, in order to coerce us to accept more of their unsafe and ineffective vaccines into our food supply and those who supply it.

    Here is their playbook. Learn it, and you can understand how to put an end to it.

    Let’s review. What happened during Covid? 

    1. Over many years, bioweapons scientists, under the guise of “pandemic preparedness,” genetically manipulated a bat coronavirus to be both transmissible and virulent in humans. In other words, they created a bioweapon.

    2. Meanwhile, they also developed and patented technologies for vaccines against that same virus. In other words, they created the countermeasure to their bioweapon.

    3. In late 2019, the lab-manipulated coronavirus bioweapon, SARS CoV-2, was leaked from a lab. 

    4. While the countermeasure vaccines were rushed into production, “public health” authorities took advantage of the lab leak by denying its occurrence, while simultaneously coercing governments to impose lockdowns and other civil rights violations on the human population.

    5. To perpetuate the lockdowns, “public health” authorities performed indiscriminate PCR testing for the virus among the population, knowing full well this would generate countless false positives.

    6. The authorities used this excessive testing along with media-generated fear-mongering and governmental abuse of power, to prolong the lockdowns and the civil rights abuses.

    7. The lockdowns and civil rights abuses were used to blackmail the population into mass acceptance of the vaccines into their own bodies, in exchange for a return to normal life.

    What is happening now, with H5N1 Bird flu?

    1. Over many years, bioweapons scientists, under the guise of “pandemic preparedness,” have genetically manipulated the H5N1 avian influenza virus to cross classes of animals and even become more transmissible to humans. In other words, they created a bioweapon.

    2. Meanwhile, they also developed and patented technologies for vaccines against that same virus. In other words, they created the countermeasure to their bioweapon.

    3. In early 2022, a lab-manipulated Bird flu bioweapon leaked from the USDA Southeast Poultry Lab in Athens, GA. Multiple Bird flu leaks have also occurred from other labs.

    4. While the countermeasure vaccines are being rushed into production, “public health” authorities take advantage of these lab leaks by denying their occurrence, while simultaneously coercing our government to impose mass slaughter of farm animals, creating food shortages for the human population.

    5. To perpetuate the mass slaughter and worsen food shortages, “public health” authorities are performing indiscriminate PCR testing for the virus among the animal population and farmers, knowing full well this will generate countless false positives.

    6. Authorities are using this excessive testing along with media-generated fear-mongering and governmental abuse of power, to prolong the mass slaughter of farm animals and the food shortages.

    7. The mass slaughter of farm animals and resulting food shortages are being used to blackmail the population into mass acceptance of the vaccines in their food supply, in exchange for a return to normal life.

    This is not conspiracy theory. This is basic pattern recognition.

    The “pandemic planners” are operating just like a moderately competent, if unimaginative, high school football coach. If you run a play, and it works, run it again. Keep running it until they stop it.

    How do we stop it?

    Here’s how:

    1. End the brutal mass slaughter of poultry flocks immediately. This disgusting, death-wish practice is directly analogous to the deadly and unconstitutional human lockdowns during  Covid. It is also an act of biological terrorism. It traumatizes farmers, wastes resources, creates food shortages, is inhumane in the extreme to animals, and does nothing to stop the virus. Let the flocks develop natural immunity. Slaughtered flocks cannot develop natural immunity to a virus, just as locked-down human populations cannot either. Sound familiar?

    2. End the indiscriminate PCR testing for Bird flu in animals and humans immediately. A positive PCR test is like the proverbial grand jury indictment – you can get one on a ham sandwich if you try hard enough. Willy-nilly PCR testing creates innumerable false positives, which fuels the fear porn and hysteria, paralyzes decision-makers, and promotes population-wide blackmail. 

    3. The USDA appears to be acting as a rogue agency. The USDA’s leadership needs to be thoroughly reviewed and, well, culled. All those attached to the pandemic preparedness industry, and all those perpetuating the fear-mongering, irresponsible mass PCR testing, mass slaughter of animals, etc. must be immediately removed from the agency. They represent not only a threat to animals and the food supply but to President Trump’s entire second term.

    4. The personnel at the CDC need a similar prompt and thorough overhaul. The CDC, while somewhat chastened by President Trump’s executive order silencing HHS agencies, and benefitting from the departure of former Director Mandy Cohen, is still led by Biden-era appointments whose past resumes raise serious doubt about their willingness to abandon the  Covid-era “pandemic planning” model of public health. For example, acting director Susan Monarez, PhD’s bio shows multiple Deep State connections to the pandemic preparedness industry. Should she remain at the CDC?

    5. The USDA Southeast Poultry Research Lab in Athens, Ga. should be shut down and thoroughly investigated.

    6. The Kawaoka Bird flu lab at the University of Wisconsin, which has been doing reckless gain-of-function research for decades, and which has had multiple lab leaks, should be shut down and investigated as well.

    7. Brooke Rollins, the new USDA Secretary, needs to be fully briefed on H5N1 Bird flu by honest experts who are not embedded in the pandemic preparedness industry. Individuals such as Meryl Nass, MD, and Peter McCullough, MD and his team would both be excellent choices.

    8. President Trump should follow through on his 2024 promise to disband the redundant, Biden-created Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR). Mr. Trump’s instinct was correct then, and it remains correct now.

    9. The $590 Million dollar Bird flu vaccine development contract to Moderna that the Biden administration approved a couple of days before President Trump’s inauguration should be cancelled. 

    10. The USDA’s reported “conditional approval” of a Bird flu vaccine with Zoetis should be cancelled. Bird flu vaccination in poultry flocks has been demonstrated in other countries to select for more virulent strains. Furthermore, the CEO of Zoetis has close ties to Pfizer, BlackRock, and the Gates Foundation, all well-established bad actors during the Covid era. Beware, Mr. President.

    The “pandemic preparedness” racket isn’t as complicated as it seems. Once one comes to terms with the fact that the arsonists are running the fire department – as they have been demonstrated by DOGE to be doing in so many other areas of government as well – we can recognize what is actually happening and apply the necessary solutions.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 20:05

  • CIA Reportedly Flying MQ-9 Spy Drones Over Mexico As Cartel Fight Nears
    CIA Reportedly Flying MQ-9 Spy Drones Over Mexico As Cartel Fight Nears

    US Air Force spy planes have recently conducted signals intelligence (SIGINT) operations along the US-Mexico border, while Green Berets from the US Army’s 7th Special Forces Group have been deployed to a naval facility in Campeche—a Mexican port city on the Gulf of Mexico—for what’s described as a “training mission.” These developments offer a clearer picture of President Trump’s emerging strategy to combat Mexican cartels, which have fueled a drug death catastrophe of 100,000 Americans per year. This approach aligns with Trump’s designation of these cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” 

    The CIA, operating under the Trump administration, has been secretly deploying unarmed (at the moment) General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones over regions of Mexico dominated by heavily armed drug cartels, according to a CNN report. The report comes from current and former officials with knowledge of ongoing national security operations, shedding light on what is happening under the cloak of darkness – in preparation to disrupt and dismantle drug cartels. 

    Here’s more from the report:

    Some current and former officials say designating cartels as terrorist groups could potentially lay the groundwork for direct US strikes against the cartels and their drug labs in Mexico.

    The CIA has flown surveillance drones to hunt cartels inside Mexico before, according to a former and a current US official, under at least one small program that partnered with Mexican authorities.

    But the more recent flights were communicated to Congress by the Trump administration using a particular notification reserved for new or updated covert programs that the CIA intends either to conceal or deny, a source familiar with the matter said — suggesting that the flights represent a distinct escalation. The notifications made no mention of Mexican partners, the source said.

    CIA spokesperson told the media outlet that “countering drug cartels in Mexico and regionally is a priority for CIA as a part of the Trump Administration’s broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco-trafficking. Director [John] Ratcliffe is determined to put CIA’s unique expertise to work against this multifaceted challenge.”

    Here’s the latest:

    Beyond spy planes and drones conducting SIGINT and other surveillance operations in the region, as well as US Special Forces operators in Campeche, this should all be viewed as the beginning innings of the war against cartels. We suspect financial sanctions could be used to pressure Mexican banks to disrupt cartel financial networks. 

    This is what ‘America First’ looks like. 

    … and Kyle Bass could never be happier… 

     

     

     

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 19:40

  • Education Department Cuts $600 Million From Ideological Training Programs For Teachers
    Education Department Cuts $600 Million From Ideological Training Programs For Teachers

     Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Education Department on Monday said it has canceled $600 million in grants for educator training programs that promote “divisive ideologies.”

    Unused desks sit in an empty elementary school classroom at Hazelwood Elementary School in Louisville, Ky., on Jan. 11, 2022. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

    The grants had been awarded to teacher preparation programs that trained future educators in what the department said were “inappropriate and unnecessary topics,” such as critical race theory, which promotes the fundamental framework view that racism is embedded in all institutions and aspects of society; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and social justice activism. Some of the defunded programs also included race-based teacher recruitment and staffing strategies, according to the department.

    The department provided examples of the defunded training programs, including those that required educators to acknowledge “systemic inequities” like racism and “critically reassess” their own teaching practices. Others offered professional development workshops on “Building Cultural Competence,” “Dismantling Racial Bias,” and “Centering Equity in the Classroom.”

    Some initiatives guided teachers to “interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students.” There were also programs promoting an “abolitionist pedagogy” which, according to Bettina L. Love, the professor who coined the term, applies a “critical race lens” to classrooms and encourages teachers to organize marches and boycotts against their colleagues perceived as “racist, homophobic, or Islamophobic.”

    The decision to cut these grants aligns with the broader cost-cutting measures led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body led by Elon Musk, and with President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives across the federal government.

    Trump on Jan. 21 signed an executive order directing government educational institutions to end all DEI efforts.

    “Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,” the order read. “The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination.”

    A study by Parents Defending Education, an independent organization that rallies against ideological indoctrinations in K-12 schools, found that since 2021, the Education Department has spent at least $1 billion on various DEI-related initiatives. That includes approximately $490 million on DEI hiring efforts, $343 million on DEI programming, and $170 million on DEI-related mental health programs.

    Over the weekend, the Education Department reaffirmed its stance that DEI initiatives conflict with federal non-discrimination laws. Its civil rights enforcement division warned that failure to ensure compliance could result in a loss of federal funding.

    “The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a letter sent to the education departments in all 50 states.

    While emphasizing the obligations under Title VI, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on race for institutions that receive federal dollars, the letter also referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision, which found it unconstitutional for public and private colleges to use racial preferences in admissions.

    “At its core, the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” the letter said.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 19:15

  • Goldman Turns Bullish On Starlink Satellite Parts Supplier As Space Race Accelerates
    Goldman Turns Bullish On Starlink Satellite Parts Supplier As Space Race Accelerates

    The space race to connect the world to the internet is led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Starlink, alongside competitors like OneWeb, Amazon, and Telesat. These players are deploying massive constellations of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, with plans to launch tens of thousands of new units by the decade’s end, with some 7,000 LEO satellites already orbiting the planet every 90 minutes. 

    With tens of thousands of new LEO satellites slated for deployment over the next five years, Goldman analysts have identified the global leader in satellite components—particularly hollow metallic waveguides. These waveguides are used in microwave or mmWave components, such as power amplifiers, filters, circulators, and isolators. Such components are integral to both LEO satellites and ground-based gateways used by Starlink and Amazon, which transmit data skyward to be relayed around the globe.

    Goldman’s Allen Chang, Verena Jeng, and others informed clients Monday that they initiated a “Buy” on Universal Microwave Technology (UMT) because of its unique exposures to the mmWave/ microWave components for LEO satellites as launch plans for these satellites are accelerated. 

    Chang and the team provided clients with additional insight into UMT’s current position as a global leader in LEO satellite components for mmWave/ microWave components:

    We expect LEO satellites to be a standard service in the 6G era starting in 2030, driving network deployment to grow at 49% CAGR in 2025-27E. Major global satellite operators target to launch an additional 80k units (vs. 7k in the sky currently) in the coming 5 years.

    The acceleration of LEO satellite launches will drive UMT’s revenues: we expect UMT’s LEO satellite revenues to grow at 40% CAGR in 2024-28E to NT$9bn in 2028E or 77% of total revenues. LEO satellites carry higher GM than UMT’s traditional telecom products, driving the blended GM to 55.5% in 2028E (vs. 51.3% in 2024E).

    The analysts expect an accelerated ramp-up of satellite network deployment, such as Starlink’s Direct to Cell connection, and other companies deploying LEO satellites to greatly benefit UMT.

    UMT’s projected revenues:

    The company is poised to maintain a leading role for years to come, as analysts noted, due to “barriers to entry of satellite microwave components.” 

    Here’s more color: 

    Unlike smartphones/ consumer electronics RF (radio frequency), satellites use microwave/ mmWave with higher frequency and a more complicated structure with high-precision processing, which is difficult for consumer-grade supply chain players to enter.

    Their 12-month price target is around NT$591 (implying a 51% upside) based on 25x 2027E discounted P/E. 

    UMT shares trading in Taiwan…

    In a separate note, the analysts provided clients with a broader overview of companies entering LEO supply chains.

    What comes after the AI bubble? Potentially, it’s the space bubble. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 18:50

  • Alleged DOGE Imposters Demand Records From San Francisco City Hall
    Alleged DOGE Imposters Demand Records From San Francisco City Hall

    Authored by Rahel Acenas via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Authorities in San Francisco are looking for three men who entered San Francisco City Hall on Friday, posing as employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

    The San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2004. Hector Mata/AFP via Getty Images

    The suspects entered various offices and demanded access to records “related to alleged wasteful government spending and fraud,” according to a statement by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.

    The three men were wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats and DOGE shirts and authorities believe they were imposters.

    “We do not believe the individuals requesting access to City files were representatives from DOGE,” the sheriff’s office said.

    City Hall employees refused to hand over any information and alerted law enforcement. By the time authorities had arrived, however, the three suspects had left the building.

    The sheriff’s office is now reviewing surveillance videos and “using other investigative tools to pursue leads,” it said.

    DOGE, an advisory panel launched by Trump, has been tasked with weeding out wasteful federal government spending, fraud, and abuse.

    California recently joined 18 other states in suing the federal government to stop DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records including Americans’ social security and bank information. The court granted a temporary restraining order while the states seek a preliminary injunction.

    “Our country cannot afford to have people in the driver’s seat who move fast and break things, especially when the things they’re breaking are critical and sensitive systems that millions of Americans’ rely on,” Attorney General Bonta said in a statement. “The President does not hold the power to give Americans’ bank account and social security numbers to anyone he’d like—and as of Friday night, he must stop doing so.”

    Meanwhile, a judge in Washington on Feb. 14 declined a request by unions and nonprofits for a temporary restraining order to prevent the DOGE team from gaining access to records at the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Musk defended DOGE’s efforts to drastically cut spending, saying that Americans voted for major change and that the Trump administration is delivering.

    President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 11 directing government agencies to consult with DOGE on slashing the federal workforce and “eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity.”

    The order calls for massive cuts, including a directive “that each agency hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.”

    The executive order provides some exemptions, including to the military and law enforcement.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 18:25

  • Trump Warns 25% Tariffs On Cars, Drugs And Chips Coming In April
    Trump Warns 25% Tariffs On Cars, Drugs And Chips Coming In April

    With Wall Street growing more confident by the day that Trump’s tariffs are nothing but hot air, and pushing stocks to new record highs, today after the close President Donald Trump tried to reassure the market that tariffs are indeed coming and said he would likely impose tariffs on auto, semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports of around 25%, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2.

    The new duties, if implemented, would widen the president’s trade war. Trump previously announced 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum that are set to take effect in March, but Tuesday’s comments are his most detailed yet in specifying other sectors that would be hit with fresh barriers.

    “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25%,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs.

    Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductor chips, the president said: “It’ll be 25% and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over a course of a year.” Trump added that he wanted to give companies “time to come in” before announcing new import taxes.

    “When they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here there is no tariff, so we want to give them a little bit of a chance,” he said.

    As noted last week, Trump also threatened other streams of tariffs, all part of an effort to rebalance the US’s trading relationships across the globe. The president has long accused other countries of ripping off the US and views import duties as a way to bring industries back to America and collect more revenue. Many economists say they would raise consumer prices for Americans and stymie the fight against inflation.

    The president has said he would apply “reciprocal” levies on a country-by-country basis as soon as April, though specifics are still being determined. He has also threatened duties on some of the US’s biggest trading partners, such as a 10% rate already applied to China and 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico that have been deferred until at least March 4. The measures would stack on top of one another, meaning that Mexican and Canadian producers in certain sectors could pay as many as three tariffs.

    Altogether, Trump’s moves, if enacted, would remake supply chains and trade flows — and US prices. Tariffs are paid by importers and often passed onto consumers, though sometimes offset by price reductions abroad.

    The direction of President Trump’s tariff strategy became clearer over the past week, shifting away from the broad, universal levies that some Wall Street analysts had anticipated. Rather than imposing universal tariffs, the administration issued an executive order last Thursday establishing a reciprocal tariff policy for all current and potential US trading partners. By the weekend, Trump doubled down on reciprocal tariffs, stating that the move would ensure “a level playing field for American workers.” 

    On Monday, Goldman’s Jan Hatzius, Alec Phillips, David Mericle, Ronnie Walker, and others penned a note for clients titled “Earnings Season Takeaways: Animal Spirits Over Tariffs.” 

    In the note, the analysts provided a visual for clients showing that the percentage of management teams in corporate America discussing ‘tariffs’ this earnings season has surpassed 40%, far exceeding the previous peak (of around 30%) during Trump’s first term, when he initiated the trade war with China.

    More color from the analysts:

    Management references to tariffs soared amid the start of a second trade war (Exhibit 3). After signing orders imposing new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, President Trump delayed the Canada and Mexico tariffs until March 4. We think a further extension is likely, but the tariff risk for both countries is likely to remain until at least the conclusion of the USMCA review slated for mid-2026. In addition to the China tariffs that have already been implemented, we expect tariffs on imports from China to rise further, for the announced steel and aluminum tariffs to be implemented, and for new tariffs on EU autos and critical imports (i.e. oil, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and other electrical equipment) to ultimately be implemented.

    Latest commentary from management teams about the ongoing tariff situation:

    On tariff impacts, the analysts noted: “Analyst expectations for capex—a proxy for company guidance—similarly suggest that the escalation in tariff policy will weigh on the investment decisions of the exposed companies.” 

    They added, “Similar to last quarter, companies suggested that they could mitigate the impact of tariffs by passing along the higher cost to customers and stockpiling goods before their implementation.”

    After last week’s CPI and PPI—both of which printed hotter than expected—coupled with the tariff war, fears have emerged of a redux of the mid-1970s …

    Last week, readers were given a roadmap for the next iteration of Trump’s trade war—reciprocal tariffs—(read: here). 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 18:00

  • Watch: Trump Calls Out Massive Social Security Fraud After DOGE Exposes Ancient 'Vampires'
    Watch: Trump Calls Out Massive Social Security Fraud After DOGE Exposes Ancient ‘Vampires’

    Update (1800ET): During a Tuesday press conference, President Trump rattled off some of the massive waste, fraud and abuse found by Elon Musk’s team at DOGE – including thousands of Social Security recipients listed as being more than 200 years old, to which Musk joked “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”

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    Listen to Trump go into detail on other terrible things DOGE has found:

    Insane!

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    *  *  *

    Great news! Our most popular supplement Astaxanthin – the ultimate antioxidant, is back in stock at ZH Store. Grab some today!

    *  *  *

    Acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, resigned on Sunday after a standoff with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) over access to sensitive government records.

    Former acting commissioner of Social Security, Michelle King

    The same day, Musk posted what he says could be the ‘biggest fraud in US history‘ in which millions of ‘people’ over the age of 100 are collecting payments.

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    King – who worked at the agency for over 30 years, left her position this weekend after refusing to give DOGE staffers access to sensitive information, such as the fraudulent payments to ‘vampires’ – with at least one recipient being older than the United States itself.

    Which of course is the exact reason career employees shouldn’t be holding the keys to the castle with the new sheriff in town.

    According to the Washington Post, “Administration officials have also been skeptical of career employees’ efforts to guard federal data, maintaining that political appointees should also be able to access it, particularly if necessary to root out wasteful or erroneous spending.”

    In the wake of King’s departure, President Donald Trump appointed Leland Dudek – a manager in charge of Social Security’s anti-fraud office, as acting commissioner, while the Senate vets Trump nominee Frank Bisignano. Dudek had previously posted positive remarks on social media over DOGE’s efforts to cut  waste, fraud and abuse throughout the US government.

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    Trump picking Dudek to take over for King bypassed ‘dozens of other senior executives who sat higher in the agency’s leadership heirarchy, touching off alarm in and around the agency,’ according to WaPo.

    “At this rate, they will break it. And they will break it fast, and there will be an interruption of benefits,” said former Social Security commissioner under Biden, Martin O’Malley – a former Maryland governor.

    “It’s a shame the chilling effect it has to disregard 120 senior executive service people,” O’Malley continued. “To pick an acting commissioner that is not in the senior executive service sends a message that professional people should leave that beleaguered public agency.”

    Yes jackass, that’s the point.

    On Monday evening, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had been fighting “fake news reporters” trying to “fearmonger” about Social Security payments.

    DOGE’s access to records across the federal government have prompted disputes with senior officials at various agencies. Perhaps most prominently, the highest-ranking civil servant at the US Treasury Department quit after similarly refusing to grant Musk’s team access to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which manages over $5 trillion in annual payments.

    On Sunday, the Post reported that DOGE is looking to access a heavily guarded IRS system that contains detailed information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country. For some reason, Democrats seem to be the only ones freaking out about this.

    And again, that’s the point.

    *  *  *

    Our most popular supplement Astaxanthin – the ultimate antioxidant, is back in stock at ZH Store! Grab some today.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 17:59

  • In Dealing With China, Trump May Have A Trick Up His Sleeve
    In Dealing With China, Trump May Have A Trick Up His Sleeve

    Authored by Bonner Russel Cohen via RealClearEnergy,

    China is the only country in the world that can seriously challenge America’s longstanding status as the globe’s top dog. And a rejuvenated United States is the only thing standing in the way of an ambitious China ascending to the peak of the heap. The reemergence of a bipolar world in the 21st century – replicating the old U.S.-U.S.S.R. rivalry of the Cold War era – is the no-longer-to-be-ignored reality of our time.

    However, unlike the late Soviet Union – sometimes referred to as “Haiti with missiles” – China is an economic powerhouse, one that puts is technological prowess in the service of its geostrategic aspirations. ”China has roughly nine times as many engineers as the U.S. and perhaps as many as 15 times as many science and technology graduates,” George Gilder recently noted in the Wall Street Journal. This gives China a decisive edge in a world where rapid advances in technology have far-reaching economic and military implications. 

    There are, however, things that Trump and his team can do, and in some cases are already doing, that can turn the tables on Beijing. With the departure of the geopolitically inept Biden administration, Washington can now harness its considerable geological assets to the disadvantage of its rival in the Far East.

    Beijing was quick to realize the importance of gaining control of both the mining and processing of rare earths and other critical minerals, which it had largely done by the time the U.S. and other industrialized countries embarked on their climate-driven green energy transition. Beijing was not so foolish; to meet its own energy needs, it built hundreds of coal-fired power plants. Abandoning fossil fuels, which the United States has in abundance, and embracing green energy, the supply chain for which is largely controlled by China, could benefit only one country. And for a while, China’s bet looked to be paying off. 

    But China’s dominance of such sectors as electric vehicles, batteries that power EVs and serve to backup intermittent wind and solar energy, and the raw materials in wind turbines and solar panels makes the Middle Kingdom vulnerable to Trump’s renewed embrace of “American energy dominance.” One of Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders titled “Unleashing American Energy” includes directives revoking the EV mandate, freezing unspent funds for green energy, expediting approval of liquid natural gas (LNG) export facilities, and streamlining the permitting process for oil and gas leasing, exploration, development, and production. It also speeds up the approval process for new pipelines and other critical fossil-fuel infrastructure. 

    Another, less-reported section of Trump’s order focuses on the mining of critical minerals. It instructs federal agencies to identify all regulations, policies, and orders “that impose undue burdens on domestic mining and processing of non-fuel minerals and undertake steps to revise or rescind such actions.”

    The geostrategic case for promoting the mining and processing of critical minerals in the U.S. is compelling. “China now produces 80-90% of the world’s rare-earth minerals, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Yet China has only about 37% of the world’s estimated reserves,” notes Greg Walcher, president of the Natural Resources Group LLC. “Relying on China for critical minerals is obviously not smart, not safe, nor necessary.” 

    Known to the public for their unpronounceable names, rare earths – which are actually quite abundant – have a variety of commercial and military applications. They include smartphones, MRI equipment, satellites, jet engines, night-vision goggles, sonar on submarines and other naval vessels, and real-time imagery and targeting for surveillance and reconnaissance flights by unmanned aerial systems – just to name a few. 

    Taking rare earths and other valuable minerals seriously means upgrading the nation’s hollowed-out domestic supply chain for these natural resources. This is the purpose behind Trump’s order to eliminate “undue burdens on domestic mining and processing” of these strategically important minerals. That, of course, will be easier said than done, because Trump’s initiative will be challenged by lawsuits launched by activists determined to cripple America’s industrial base.

    Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark must be seen in this light. The icy island where the North Atlantic meets the Arctic abounds in mostly untapped mineral resources. In bringing the giant island under American jurisdiction, in whatever form, Trump can deny China (and Russia) access to Greenland’s riches while solidifying the U.S. presence in the Arctic. 

    Another Trump executive order temporarily halts offshore wind leases in federal waters and pauses approvals, permits, and loans for offshore and onshore wind projects. Aside from signaling to investors that putting their money into capital-intensive wind projects may not be a good idea, the order undercuts Beijing’s investment in raw materials used in wind energy. 

    “Wind farms require 10 times the amount of critical minerals as natural gas power plants and 1.6 times as much as nuclear power plants,” writes the Heritage Foundation’s Austin Gae. 

    China is the world’s leading supplier of raw materials that go into wind turbines, including in the U.S. Trump is deliberately shrinking the U.S. market for wind turbines and for the predominately Chinese-supplied raw materials that go into them. The goal is to play to America’s strengths, which lie in fossil fuels and a rejuvenated nuclear-power industry, while lowering our dependence on China by turning away from wind and solar power.

    This is a winning strategy.

    Bonner Russell Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior policy analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 17:40

  • Trump Blasts Critics Of His Ukraine Peace Initiative, Including Zelensky, Questions Where Hundreds Of Billions Went
    Trump Blasts Critics Of His Ukraine Peace Initiative, Including Zelensky, Questions Where Hundreds Of Billions Went

    Update(1735ET): President Trump in an afternoon press Q&A from Mar-a-Lago went off on those attacking his Ukraine peace initiative, which saw Secretary of State Rubio and national security advisor Walz lead a delegation in 4+ hours of talks with FM Lavrov and the Russians in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia earlier in the day.

    “I want to see peace. Look, you know why I want it? Because I don’t want all these people killed anymore. I’m looking at people that are being killed — and they’re Russian and Ukrainian people, but they’re people,” Trump emphasized.

    His tone on Zelensky was decidedly negative, and he defended his administration’s stance on holding Kiev to new elections, saying this is necessary if the Ukrainians want a seat at the table. Watch:

    FOX: We’re hearing that Russia wants to force Ukraine to hold new elections in order to sign a sign a peace deal. Is that something that the US would ever support?

    TRUMP: We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law … the leader in Ukraine, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating… the country has been blown to smithereens… the country looks like a massive demolition site.

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    On a similar theme, at one point he was asked what his message is to Ukrainians who feel betrayed by his administration, again as the US pursues negotiations with Russia while sidelining both Zelensky and EU officials. Trump responded bluntly:

    “I hear they’re upset about not having a seat. Well, they’ve had a seat for three years.”

    Trump was further asked about how he would prevent Russia from installing a puppet government in Ukraine. He remarked that none of this is about personalities, but about getting the job done, saying he likes Zelensky “personally” but that’s not what this is all about.

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    “You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should’ve never ever happened, even without the United States,” Trump said, underscoring that the conflict and slaughter started under Biden.

    “Look we had a president who was grossly incompetent, he had no idea what he was doing – he said some very stupid things, like going in for portions,” Trump continued.

    “This is something that would have never happened. And I used to discuss it with Putin. President Putin and I used to talk about Ukraine – it was the apple of his eye… I used to tell him ‘don’t go in’ – and he understand that, he understood it fully… I want to see if I can save maybe millions of lives.” You might “end up in World War 3,” Trump warned, if the conflict keeps escalating and with no efforts to make peace.

    And more:

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    Importantly, Trump also asked where the billions upon billions given to Ukraine went.

    “We gave them I think $350 BILLION… where is all the money that’s been given? Where is it going? I don’t see any accounting!”

    “…so I want to see peace… I don’t want to see all these people killed anymore.” He noted that Europe has “only given a small percentage of that” – even though this most directly impacts the security of Europe.

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    “I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land and no people would have been killed and no cities would have been demolished… President Biden in all fairness doesn’t have a clue”.

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    * * *

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Tuesday he is cancelling his scheduled state visit to Saudi Arabia following the conclusion of US-Russia talks there.

    He’s been on a Middle East diplomatic tour to gain support for his country now three years in to the Russia-Ukraine war, which took him to the UAE, Turkey, and Wednesday he was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia to meet with the kingdom’s leadership. The Saudi trip had been planned before it was known that the US-Russia talks would take place.

    “Zelensky CANCELLING trip to Saudi Arabia following US/Russia talks. Zelensky will now return to Kyiv from Ankara, Turkey,” Fox News has reported. He now says he plans to visit in March. Zelensky is clearly trying to lash out at Washington.

    Image: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service

    Without doubt this is to signal his anger about being cut out of talks toward ending the Ukraine war. The Kremlin hailed Tuesday’s four-and-half hour meeting in Riyadh, with Rubio leading the US side and Lavrov leading the Moscow delegation, as “successful”. European officials were also noticeably absent from the meeting, which was hosted and mediated by the Saudi government.

    Zelensky had issued a prior warning while in the UAE: “Ukraine will not accept. Ukraine knew nothing about this. And Ukraine regards any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as having no results,” he had said.

    “Ukraine will not take part in the negotiations. Ukraine did not know they were planned. And the visit to the region was planned long before the US decided to meet Russia there,” he continued.

    The fact that a high-level peace meeting was taking place without Zelensky or any Ukrainian representation, at the very moment he was in the region, is being felt as adding insult to injury from the Trump administration.

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    Top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov has explained the need for Zelensky’s absence from talks as follows: “I don’t know what they [Kiev officals] could do at the negotiating table. If their aim is to cunningly extract a deceptive truce while secretly preparing for continued war—true to their habits and nature—then why invite them at all?” according to TASS.

    The US and Russian sides have vowed to continue the peace negotiations going, hopefully leading to a face-to-face meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Riyadh meeting issued a statement revealing an agreement for election to be held in Ukraine, which Zelensky certainly isn’t going to like (and probably won’t agree to), given also he just recently argued that martial law prevents this. 

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    But Putin has said negotiations with Ukraine remain a non-starter so long as Zelensky refuses to hold elections. The Russian leader has said this makes him ‘illegitimate’ and thus he can’t legally sign any peace terms.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 17:35

  • BLM "Activist" Who Shot Disabled Veteran Released After Serving Just 3 Years Of 11 Year Sentence
    BLM “Activist” Who Shot Disabled Veteran Released After Serving Just 3 Years Of 11 Year Sentence

    BLM activist and Alamosa attorney James Edward Marshall IV, 33, who shot a disabled veteran during a 2020 Colorado riot, has been released to a halfway house after serving just three years of an 11-year sentence, according to the Post Millennial. 

    Originally facing multiple violent charges, he took a plea deal under former DA Alonzo Payne, pleading guilty only to tampering with a deceased body, court records show.

    In June 2020, Marshall IV shot disabled veteran Danny Pruitt in the head while Pruitt was stopped at an intersection near a BLM protest in Alamosa, Colorado.

    Armed with a 9mm Glock, Marshall fired into Pruitt’s truck, critically injuring him. Pruitt, who survived after a 17-day coma, suffered permanent brain damage and struggles with memory, speech, and motor skills.

    The Post Millennial reports that, at the time, Marshall claimed self-defense, but authorities found Pruitt posed no threat.

    His plea deal, which dropped all violent charges in exchange for a guilty plea to tampering with a deceased body—a nonviolent third-degree felony—sparked outrage. The deal omitted any acknowledgment that a weapon was used or that Pruitt survived.

    Attorney Matthew Beresky of the Rocky Mountain Victim Rights Center condemned the plea deal, calling it an affront to justice that ignored the severity of the crime and denied Pruitt his rights. He criticized allowing James Marshall to plead guilty to abusing a corpse when Pruitt was still alive.

    The controversial deal contributed to the 2022 disbarment of DA Alonzo Payne, reportedly linked to George Soros.

    Payne was found guilty of violating victims’ rights, failing to communicate with key legal parties, and frequently dismissing or mishandling cases. Before his disbarment, he admitted neglecting crime victims and struggling with complex cases.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 02/18/2025 – 17:20

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