Today’s News 1st April 2023

• The Energy Transition Is A Delusion Indeed
  The Energy Transition Is A Delusion Indeed

  Authored by Benjamin Zycher via RealClear Wire,

  The “energy transition” continues to receive thunderous applause from all the usual Beltway suspects, an exercise in groupthink fantasy amazing to behold. For those with actual lives to live and thus uninterested in silliness: The “energy transition” is a massive shift, wholly artificial and politicized, from conventional energy inexpensive (Table 1b and here), reliable, and very clean given the proper policy environment, toward such unconventional energy technologies as wind and solar power. They are expensive, unreliable, and deeply problematic environmentally in terms of toxic metal pollution, wildlife destruction, land use massive and unsightly, emissions of conventional pollutants, and in a larger context large and inexorable reductions in aggregate wealth and thus the social willingness to invest in environmental protection.

  

  But the Beltway being what it is, the fantasists are impervious to reality, until the massive costs and dislocations and absurdities become impossible to ignore. (Witness, for example, California.) Even as they backtrack on their confident assertions that a modern economy can be powered with the energy equivalent of pixie dust, they argue that the emerging problems are little more than growing pains attendant upon short run rigidities, and all will be well given some more time, more subsidies, and more magical thinking.

  Uh, no. The obstacles confronting the “energy transition” are fundamental — they are caused by the very nature of unconventional energy — driven by massive costs, technical and engineering realities, severe constraints in terms of needed physical inputs, and at a political level growing local opposition to the unconventional energy facilities central to the “transition.”

  These realities — there’s that word again — are discussed in detail in a major recent paper by Mark P. Mills of the Manhattan Institute. This brief discussion cannot do it justice, but let us first quote Mills directly:

  In these circumstances, policymakers are beginning to grasp the enormous difficulty of replacing even a mere 10% share of global hydrocarbons—the share supplied by Russia—never mind the impossibility of trying to replace all of society’s use of hydrocarbons with solar, wind, and battery (SWB) technologies. Two decades of aspirational policies and trillions of dollars in spending, most of it on SWB tech, have not yielded an “energy transition” that eliminates hydrocarbons. Regardless of climate-inspired motivations, it is a dangerous delusion to believe that spending yet more, and more quickly, will do so. The lessons of the recent decade make it clear that SWB technologies cannot be surged in times of need, are neither inherently “clean” nor even independent of hydrocarbons, and are not cheap.

  Mills makes a number of hard realities clear, among which are the following:

  • The realities of the physics, engineering, and economics of energy systems are independent of any beliefs about climate change.

  • Europe, the U.S. and Canada, Australia and the other regions that have pursued power grids with a higher share of wind and solar electricity uniformly have experienced large increases in electricity costs, and even that effect hides the costs of the massive subsidies borne by taxpayers.

  • It costs at least $30 to store the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil using lithium batteries, which explains why batteries cannot compensate for the unreliable nature of wind and solar power even for days, let alone weeks. “There is no physics, never mind engineering or economies of scale” that would overcome this cost disadvantage.

  • The time cost alone of recharging an electric vehicle makes such vehicles uncompetitive, even apart from the costs of the batteries and other problems.

  • The International Energy Agency estimates that only a partial energy transition would require increases in the supplies of lithium, graphite, nickel, and rare earths by 4,200%, 2,500%, 1,900%, and 700%, respectively, by 2040. This staggering problem of materials is “inherent in the nature of SWB technologies,” which means that the cost of unconventional energy will rise even more.

  Nonetheless, the delusions continue. Mr. Amos Hochstein, an official at the Department of State, testified before a Senate committee recently that “The imperative [is] to diversify away from Russian energy dependence while accelerating the clean energy transition,” and that “The most effective way to reduce demand for Russian fossil fuels is to reduce dependence on all fossil fuels.”

  Got that? Were the Europeans to reduce their dependence upon unreliable deliveries of Russian natural gas, and increase their dependence upon unconventional energy even more unreliable, there will result an increase in European “energy security.” Wow.

  This is utter delusion, as Mills demonstrates incontrovertibly. But the Beltway continues in its imitation of George Orwell’s world, in which “War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength.” The “energy transition” translation: “Expensive Energy Is Cheap, Environmentally Destructive Energy Is Clean, and Central Planning Will Yield Utopia.” Only fools can believe such things. Much of the Beltway believes them. 

  Benjamin Zycher is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 23:40

• New Zealand Minister Slammed After Blaming 'White Cis Men' For Violence
  New Zealand Minister Slammed After Blaming ‘White Cis Men’ For Violence

  New Zealand’s so-called “violence prevention minister” is taking heat after saying it’s “white cis men who cause violence in the world.”

  

  For those who aren’t up on the thesaurus of gender identity politics, ‘cis’ is short for ‘cisgender’ – or people whose ‘gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth’ – or 99% of the population.

  Minister Marama Davidson is refusing to publicly apologize for her comments, which have received at least 90 complaints. She has allegedly apologized in private to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, according to news.com.au.

  “Trans people are tired of being oppressed and discriminated,” Davidson told a reporter for Counterspin. “I am a prevention violence minister and I know who causes violence in the world, it is white cis men. That is white cis men who cause violence in the world.”

  Transgender ideologues stage a violent protest and shut down a women’s rights demonstration, but Greens co-leader Marama Davidson says the problem is white cis men.pic.twitter.com/JofXmLs11N

  — The Zeitgeist (@TheZeitgeistNZ) March 25, 2023

   And while not apologizing, Davidson ‘clarified’ her comments, saying: “I have clarified what I intended to say and particularly affirm and acknowledge victims and survivors who may not have seen themselves in my comments and wanted to make sure I affirm their experiences.”

  When asked if she would apologise to people who felt offended, as the National Party has called for, Ms Davidson repeated she had “made things clearer in my public statement”.

  “I acknowledge that I should have been clearer in my words. I normally take incredible care. I understand the importance of my language in my work,” Ms Davidson said.

  “This is how much focus I normally take in the language that I use, which is why I have clarified it in my public statement.”

  We get it Marama, you hate white people.

  Hipkins, meanwhile, cut her some slack over the ‘cis white men’ comment.

  “She already contacted my office yesterday saying the video did not convey the message she wanted to convey,” he said. “Her office contacted mine. I think clearly words that she ended up using were not the message she was trying to convey.”

  Hipkins did say that the comment was not “particularly helpful” and that she shouldn’t have included ethnicity.

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 23:20

• Doug Casey On How Governments Use Global Crises To Take More Control
  Doug Casey On How Governments Use Global Crises To Take More Control

  Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

  International Man: Throughout history, governments have used crises—real or imagined—to eliminate freedoms, expand the power of the State, and justify all sorts of things the populace would never accept in normal times.

  After World War II, Winston Churchill famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

  This was when he and other leaders came together to form the United Nations, which they probably could not have created without the crisis of WWII.

  Ever since, it seems that each new supposed crisis causes a further centralization of global power.

  The War on (Some) Drugs, the War on Terror, the COVID hysteria, and the so-called climate crisis have all ratcheted up the centralization of power on a global scale.

  What do you make of this trend?

  

  Doug Casey: It makes sense that Rahm Emanuel, a sleazy Obama apparatchik, would have stolen the phrase from Churchill. But the statement is quite correct, regardless of the source. Government lives on crisis. As Randolph Bourne said, “War is the health of the State,” and there’s no crisis like a war. But any kind of crisis can work.

  Whenever you have a crisis—whether it’s a military, political, economic, financial, or social crisis—the mob calls for strong leaders to kiss it and make it better.

  This plays perfectly into the hands of the kind of people who work for the State. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a psychological flaw in humans, stemming from the fact that we’re pack animals.

  Pack animals want leaders.

  I’m not sure how we solve this problem other than delegitimizing the idea of the State and defanging it as much as possible. And stop lauding, even apotheosizing, its employees. But as long as the State exists, its basic impetus is to seek out crises. Crises benefit the State as an institution but also the people who work for it.

  International Man: The COVID hysteria took the cynical concept of “never let a crisis go to waste” to a whole different level. Never before had the edicts of an unaccountable global institution like the World Health Organization (WHO) affected so many people in such drastic ways.

  It seems the average person not only has to worry about local and federal bureaucrats affecting their well-being but also global ones.

  What’s your take on this?

  Doug Casey: Over the last century, the reach of the State has moved from a local, to a national, to now an international level. This is what the concept of globalism is all about.

  The good news is that the bigger and more complex anything gets—including the movement towards globalism—the more inefficient, corrupt, and unwieldy it becomes. So perhaps the idea of globalism is getting big enough to self-destruct.

  In the meantime, some of globalism’s and the State’s most effective minions are NGOs (non-governmental organizations). They are generally supported by private giving, often in estate planning. When people die, they often want to do something for the benefit of humanity. That’s an understandable emotion, although charity generally causes at least as many problems as it cures. I explain that in a previous conversation. Rich people particularly want to virtue signal since today’s society infuses them with guilt for their money. That, plus they naturally want shelter from taxes. So they give money to all kinds of NGOs. There are many thousands of them.

  NGOs are almost universally collectivist and Statist in philosophy and have strong political agendas, although they disguise overtly political objectives with “feel-good” rhetoric. Who could possibly be against agitating for world peace or fighting poverty? However, many amount to scams, few accomplish anything meaningful, and they almost all work closely with the government. Few of them produce anything but commercials, lobbying campaigns, and fat incomes for their insiders.

  Critical thinkers can help pull the rug out from under NGOs by never giving them a penny and challenging their actions.

  Speaking of globalism, NGOs, and a trend toward world government, I have to mention that vaccine passports are a definite step in that direction. There will undoubtedly be a UN organization formed to standardize vax passports because, right now, there is a myriad of vaccine passports issued by various governments on different criteria in different formats.

  An internationally accepted vax certificate will amount to a world government passport. It will probably be tied in with a Social Credit rating such as the one used by China. Naturally, that will be linked to everyone’s digital currency account with the central bank. It will become an international ID document in much the same way that driver’s licenses are effectively internal passports within the US. You’ll be nobody, and do nothing, without it.

  International Man: It seems that so-called climate change is the next crisis du jour.

  Given the trends we’ve been discussing, how do you see governments taking advantage of this alleged crisis?

  Doug Casey: Global warming, aka climate change, is an excellent form of control, perhaps even better than a virus. People are being terrified into believing they’re about to destroy the planet itself. Fear is a foolproof way to control the masses. It’s funny, actually. “The masses” is a term Marxist-Leninists are very fond of.

  Government is always presented as the friend of “the people,” “our democracy,” or “the masses.” It’s promoted as the noble, wise, and forward-thinking savior that “steps in” to stop the evil producers.

  It’s one of many false and horribly destructive memes stalking the earth today like specters. The increasing belief in government as a magic solution to problems acts to decrease the average person’s standard of living and creates all kinds of distortions throughout society. It’s turned the study of economics into a pseudoscience, and its incursions into science are discrediting the idea of science itself.

  In fact, the two big hysterias plaguing the world both center on State involvement in science—or at least scientism. One is COVID, a relatively trivial flu blown out of proportion. The other is anthropogenic global warming (AGW),which has recently been rechristened as climate change.

  In my view, both will eventually be debunked and discredited. Unfortunately, if you run counter to either narrative right now, you’ll be canceled, fired, and/or ostracized.

  It’s very much like what happened to Galileo when he ran counter to the prevailing wisdom of the Middle Ages. Of course, the ruling class doesn’t actually burn books anymore, but only because books today are mostly electronic. These attitudes constantly appear on sites like Google and Twitter.

  There’s an excellent chance that these people will discredit the very idea of science because they’ve wrapped themselves in the veil of science or, more precisely, what’s become known as “The Science.” They’re creating something much more serious than just another economic disaster.

  International Man: Many people see the government as some kind of benevolent and magical organization.

  It is this attitude that helps politicians take advantage of crises to advance their control because many people assume the government to be acting in good faith.

  What will it take to snap the average person out of this deluded hypnosis?

  Doug Casey: It’s true that many people see the government as some kind of benevolent magical organization. This attitude helps politicians to advance; they’re assumed to be acting in good faith.

  So what will it take for the average person to be snapped out of this hypnosis? Where’s the red pill when the world needs it?

  When a hypnotist approaches a crowd, he knows that some people are much more liable to be hypnotized than others. It’s a failing of human psychology that’s especially true in the political world. Some people are much more liable to be hypnotized by politics and the idea of government than others. The exceptions are critical, independent thinkers who are always a minority—and it’s always dangerous to be in the minority.

  What can we do about it? Forget about violence. That only plays into their hands. Present arguments against the idea of the State. Promote the idea of critical thinking. Expose politics as mass hypnosis. Point out that there’s absolutely nothing that government can do that the market can’t do—at least anything good.

  There are some things government does that are unique to it, like taxes, confiscations, wars, pogroms, prison systems, regulations, and secret police. These things are the essence of government and antithetical to the free market.

  I think it’s important, for instance, to point out that throughout history, the most famous government officials are actually mass murderers and criminals. They’re not benevolent.

  Look at famous rulers—the pharaohs, Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, Louis XIV, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot. Some are considered good, and some are considered bad, but they were all mass murderers. Are any of our recent presidents really any better? What happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and lots of other places—not even counting Korea and Vietnam—should make those responsible held for trial, probably followed by hanging. Nuremberg set a good example.

  It’s important to draw the crimes of the State and its minions to people’s attention constantly. Anti-propaganda is a mass hypnosis vaccine. Let that statement stand as proof I’m not anti-vaccine, per se.

  International Man: Is there any good news or cause of optimism despite all the bad news?

  Doug Casey: The bad news is that the State is bigger and more powerful than ever. The institution has evolved and become more clever. It’s more able to reach its tentacles into everything than ever in the past, including the recent episodes with Nazis and Communists.

  The good news is that it’s getting to the stage where it’s dysfunctional. Maybe the current major crises will backfire and self-destruct. Hopefully, the nation-state will be replaced by some voluntary phenomenon, like phyles, or perhaps the rise of a parallel structure within the current framework.

  Crises can be real, like the impending economic collapse, or fabricated, like COVID and AGW. Crises will always be used as excuses for government expansion, but maybe they’ve overplayed their hand this time.

  I’d like to see the State disappear, of course, but considering the way the world works, the next step might be chaos, which often follows crisis.

  *  *  *

  Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the trajectory of this trend in motion. The best you can do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation. Most people have no idea what really happens when a currency collapses, let alone how to prepare… How will you protect your savings in the event of a currency crisis? This just-released video will show you exactly how. Click here to watch it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 23:00

• "Unprecedented" Chinese Genetic Experiment May Lead To Army Of Radiation-Resistant Super Soldiers
  “Unprecedented” Chinese Genetic Experiment May Lead To Army Of Radiation-Resistant Super Soldiers

  Reports out of China continue to confirm that scientists there are still seeking to push through barriers with Frankenstein-like experimentation on genes with an eye toward the manipulation of human DNA – any and all ethical considerations be damned. What could go wrong? 

  The Hong-based South China Morning Post has a doozy of a headline out this week based on a breakthrough announcement by a team of scientists linked to the Chinese military, working in Beijing: “Chinese team behind extreme animal gene experiment says it may lead to super soldiers who survive nuclear fallout.”

  The project was first unveiled in the Chinese-language journal, Military Medical Sciences, and has been gaining more and more media attention and interest within the scientific community, but is also raising serious ethical quandaries, despite the experiment being defended by its overseers as “totally legal”.

  

  According to details, the military scientists say they’ve successfully “inserted a gene from the microscopic water bear into human embryonic stem cells and significantly increased these cells’ resistance to radiation.”

  “They said success in this unprecedented experiment could lead to super-tough soldiers who could survive nuclear fallout,” SCMP writes. The initiative involved the experimental introduction into human DNA (utilizing embryonic cells) of a key gene found the water bear. The gene in question gives the microscopic creature rare resistance to radiation and other extreme environmental effects.

  Scientists have long considered that water bears, also known as tardigrades, may hold genetic secrets which could one day be key to human survival and longevity. The eight-legged tiny animal which is smaller than a millimeter in length, has been described as follows:

  Tardigrades are tiny, cute and virtually indestructible. The microscopic animals are able to survive in a pot of boiling water, at the bottom of a deep-sea trench or even in the cold, dark vacuum of space. In August, an Israeli spacecraft carrying tardigrades as part of a scientific experiment crashed on the moon, and scientists believe they may have survived.

  Having isolated the Tardigrade’s gene capable of producing shieldlike proteins which can protect against radiation and other harms, the Chinese team said it “found a way to introduce this gene into human DNA using CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing tool now available in most bio-labs,” according to the SCMP review of the experiment.

  “In their laboratory experiment, nearly 90 per cent of the human embryonic cells carrying the water bear gene survived a lethal exposure to X-ray radiation, according to the team led by professor Yue Wen with the radiation biotechnology laboratory at the Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing,” the report continues.

  

  But the team acknowledges some huge ‘unknowns’…

  Adding an alien gene from the water bear into human embryonic cells could lead to harmful mutations, or even kill the cells because of the genetic gap between the two species, a risk Yue’s team was aware of, according to their paper.

  The shielding proteins are “unique to the water bears. The immunity response after cross-species expression is unknown, and it can lead to some safety issues“, they wrote.

  They envision possible future application of their genetic manipulation technique centered on water bear experiments in cases related to treating acute radiation sickness for first-responders, military personnel, or anyone near a nuclear fallout zone. They also foresee the era of the future ‘super soldier’ and genetically altered humans capable of surviving nuclear apocalypse.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 22:40

• FBI, US Marshals Offering $20,000 Reward In Manhunt For Former Maryland Gov. Chief Of Staff
  FBI, US Marshals Offering $20,000 Reward In Manhunt For Former Maryland Gov. Chief Of Staff

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

  The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are offering a combined US$20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Roy McGrath, the one-time chief of staff for former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

  

  The reward for McGrath’s arrest comes after he failed to appear in court on March 13 to face federal fraud and embezzlement charges.

  On Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service announced that federal authorities had raised their reward for information leading to McGrath’s arrest. The FBI and the U.S. Marshals have now each offered a US$10,000 reward for information leading to McGrath’s arrest.

  The 53-year-old McGrath is described as Caucasian, standing 5’4″, weighing approximately 145 pounds, and having brown eyes and brown hair. Photos of McGrath show him wearing eyeglasses. Federal authorities said he also has ties to Naples, Florida.

  NTD News reached out to the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service for comment, but neither organization responded before this article was published.

  McGrath Facing Fraud and Embezzlement Charges

  McGrath was indicted in 2021 on state and federal charges alleging he falsified records in order to obtain a substantial severance payment from the Maryland Environmental Service (MES).

  Federal and state prosecutors have alleged McGrath personally enriched himself by taking advantage of his positions of trust as the executive director of MES and as Hogan’s top aide. McGrath allegedly got the agency’s board to approve paying him a $233,647 severance payment—the equivalent of one year’s salary in his position—upon his departure as executive director by falsely telling them the governor had already approved the payment, according to prosecutors.

  McGrath resigned as director of the MES on May 31, 2020 to become Hogan’s Chief of Staff the next day. McGrath ultimately resigned from the position about 11 weeks later, in August of 2020, after the press began to report on his severance payout.

  McGrath also faces allegations that he falsified time sheets to claim he was at work while on two vacations in 2019. He also allegedly used state funds to pay for personal expenses, and faces additional fraud and embezzlement charges connected to about $170,000 in expenses.

  McGrath has thus far pleaded “not guilty” to the charges against him.

  He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of five counts of wire fraud; a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each of two counts of embezzling funds from an organization receiving more than $10,000 in federal benefits; and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for a single charge of falsifying a document. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.

  Missed Court Date and FBI Raid

  McGrath was due in court on March 13 as his case was nearing trial. The court was planning to begin jury selection that day, but U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman instead dismissed the prospective jurors and issued a warrant for McGrath’s arrest after he failed to appear.

  McGrath’s attorney Joseph Murtha said he believed McGrath, who had moved to Naples, Florida, was planning to fly to Maryland the night before the court appearance.

  Days later, when asked where he thought McGrath might be, Murtha said “I haven’t a clue.”

  “I didn’t see this coming,” Murtha added. “This behavior is so out of the ordinary for him. Obviously his personal safety is a concern.”

  Murtha added that he has been unable to reach McGrath by phone or email.

  FBI officials raided McGrath’s Naples home on March 15 after his failure to appear in court, but did not find him.

  NTD News reached out to McGrath’s attorneys for comment but did not receive a response before this article was published.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 21:40

• Manhattan Assistant DA Nukes Twitter Account After Anti-Trump Bias Exposed
  Manhattan Assistant DA Nukes Twitter Account After Anti-Trump Bias Exposed

  Less than 24 hours after the Gateway Pundit exposed Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Meg Reiss’ public hatred of Donald Trump on Twitter, Reiss – who’s been accused of masterminding the case against the former president, locked and then deleted her account.

  

  As TGP documented Thursday morning, Reiss ‘liked’ several anti-Trump tweets, exposing her absolute bias against the man her office is about to indict over hush money paid to former adult actress Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford).

  

  

  Of note, Trump’s alleged payment to Daniels through former lawyer Michael Cohen would normally be a misdemeanor which falls outside the statute of limitations. Not for Bragg’s office. Not for Reiss.

  

  I told you weeks ago she was driving all of this. https://t.co/faHI35QGrJ

  — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 31, 2023

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  For comparison, Hillary Clinton was allowed to pay a fine to the FEC for actual election interference with the Steele Dossier hoax her campaign paid for and then boosted throughout the media.

  As TGP further notes;

  The Institute for Innovation in Prosecution(IIP) which is a research center out of the Soros-funded John Jay College has tagged her dozens of times.

  Reiss served as the Executive Director for the IIP.”

  IIP ED @MegGReiss and @adamjohnfoss on the power of the prosecutor and how to reimagine the use of discretion to build a more equitable and effective #cjsystem #RadicalVision pic.twitter.com/Ntu8AkLjAW

  — Institute for Innovation in Prosecution (@IIP_JohnJay) April 19, 2018

  DA of Brooklyn Eric Gonzalez also tagged Reiss, who previously served in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office as the Chief of Social Justice, on several occasions too: 

  On Thursday, June 18 at 6 PM, My Chief of Social Justice @MegGReiss will be participating in @Avenues4Justice‘s virtual panel about ways to develop a humane and thoughtful approach to the treatment of young offenders during the COVID-19 crisis.

  Register: https://t.co/UejXab3HSo pic.twitter.com/AleuH3PZXf

  — DA Eric Gonzalez (@BrooklynDA) June 16, 2020

  Most of these tweets Reiss liked were while she served in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office as the Chief of Social Justice and as she served as the director of the IIP.

  However, her political bias extends into her time at the Manhattan DA’s office as well.

  Earlier in the year as she was serving as Manhattan’s Chief Assistant District Attorney she retweeted a video of Democrat representative Hakeem Jeffries giving a speech at the State of the Union.

  At one point during the video Reiss shared, Rep. Jeffries says Democrats will put “Maturity over Mar-a-Lago”.

  

   *  *  *

  And then there’s this guy…

  Tell me again about this non politically motivated secret police we have running around this country?

  Yr a certifiable psychopath @Comey . Anyone sticking around any part of DOJ come tmrw should be locked up til their crime is found.

  Play Soviet games, win Soviet prizes. https://t.co/IW8qQJZKPs

  — Amanda Milius (@AmandaMilius) March 31, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 21:34

• US Troops In Syria Treated For 'Traumatic Brain Injuries' After Recent Attacks
  US Troops In Syria Treated For ‘Traumatic Brain Injuries’ After Recent Attacks

  Via The Cradle,

  Six US soldiers have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries as a result of attacks from Iran-backed groups in Syria last week, CNN reported Thursday, in addition to the five soldiers initially reported as injured.

  A week ago, a drone strike hit the US occupation base at Kharab al-Jir military airport in Hasakah governorate, leaving at least one US contractor dead and several troops injured. US jets then bombed several locations in the city of Deir Ezzor in retaliation, targeting the Syrian army and Iranian advisors and killing eight.

  

  US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the F-15 jets were deployed from the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. In response, a Syrian rocket barrage hit the US base at Al-Omar just hours later.

  Five US soldiers were initially reported as injured following the two attacks. Injuries to the six additional soldiers were not immediately apparent, but were discovered this week after further screening. “As standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injuries,” Ryder said. “So these additional injuries were identified during post-attack medical screenings.”

  The US soldiers who were wounded in the attacks last week are all in stable condition, Ryder added. Similar brain injuries were suffered by over 100 US soldiers in 2020 after Iranian forces targeted the Ain al-Asad military base in Iraq, where US forces were stationed.

  Iran attacked the US base in retaliation for the US assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi resistance leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike at the Baghdad airport on 3 January that year.

  64 cases of traumatic brain injury were initially reported after that incident but climbed to over 100 in subsequent weeks. The number of injured increased in the weeks after the attack because symptoms of brain injuries can take time to manifest, and soldiers do not always immediately report symptoms.

  Commenting on last week’s airstrikes, US President Joe Biden said his country is “prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people,” adding that the US will “continue to keep up our efforts to counter terrorist threats in the region.”

  It’s almost like these troops are sitting ducks planted in NE Syria and Iraq to establish a tripwire for war with Iran https://t.co/T6cslINUue

  — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) March 31, 2023

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  US forces occupy northeastern Syria in an effort to maintain leverage in its conflict against the Syrian government – and, by extension, Iran. In 2011, US planners supported extremist militants, including some affiliated with Al-Qaeda, in an effort to topple the Baathist-led Syrian government. ISIS later emerged as one of the strongest of these groups.

  When the effort to topple the Syrian government through these militias failed, US planners partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight ISIS and thereby occupy Syria’s strategic oil and grain-producing northwest, which had been under ISIS control. This has allowed US officials to limit Syrian efforts to rebuild the country and has exacerbated US-imposed economic sanctions, which have further harmed Syria’s economy and increased suffering among Syria’s civilian population.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 21:20

• The Illusive Pursuit Of Energy Security In The Age Of Energy Wars
  The Illusive Pursuit Of Energy Security In The Age Of Energy Wars

  Authored by Manochehr Dorraj via RealClear Wire,

  

  From February 14, 1945, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with the Saudi king, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, aboard a U.S. destroyer in the Suez Canal to safeguard U.S. access to the massive Saudi energy reserves to last November when President Joe Biden had to walk back his treating Saudi leadership as “the pariah that they are” and go to Riyadh amid a brewing energy crisis, the United States’ dance with Saudi Arabia shows how energy security and national security have been intertwined in the thinking of American policymakers since the Second World War. 

  What has been made abundantly clear since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is that energy – and threats of withholding it –  is the instrument of new Brinkmanship.  

  Energy security is now contingent on uncertain winds of change that can be abrupt, tumultuous and profoundly disrupting. Prior to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the global energy landscape was characterized by a number of cooperative initiatives, such as Consumers-Producers dialogue, cooperation on issues surrounding global governance of energy, and cooperation on reduction of emissions, just to name a few. 

  But the Russian invasion of Ukraine abruptly halted this process and unleashed new initiatives, marked by a more belligerent use of energy as a political weapon, heralding the dawn of a new era of the energy war. Seventy-eight years later after the landmark meeting between Roosevelt and Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, energy security remains a challenging pursuit, and one the United States still hasn’t quite mastered.

  In the past, during times of economic and energy crisis, the U.S. government could count on its erstwhile ally, Saudi Arabia—who by virtue of their massive oil reserve and production capacity carries the mantel of a swing producer—to expand the supply of oil and reduce the pressure on upward trends in oil prices. The Saudi refusal to do so even after President Biden exhorted their leaders to do so last summer revealed the contours of a new dynamic that governs US-Saudi relations. 

  The Saudi refusal has Russia’s oil-stained fingerprints all over it, as it was followed by close coordination of their policy with Russia through OPEC +1 that decreased production level to further boost the price of oil. Although oil prices have come down since, the underlying insecurity in the energy markets has loomed in part due to the intended and unintended consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The rates of inflation are still relatively high in Europe and the United States, and the economic recovery is not yet complete. 

  The European economies have managed to wean themselves off dependence on Russian oil and gas and build resilience by opting for a two-pronged strategy. First, substitute Russian energy with imports from the United States, Norway, Qatar, Azerbaijan and others. Second, expand their investment in renewable energy, with the long-term goal of reducing their dependence on fossil fuel as the major source of their energy supply in the next two decades. 

  This strategy is a long-game play and may have little immediate impact.

  Despite the current momentum and investment in the energy transition, all indications are fossil fuel, especially natural gas, is going to provide the lion’s share of energy consumption in many parts of the world in the next three decades. 

  History has taught us that control of fossil fuel empowers dictators around the world either to wage war on their neighbors, use their energy assets as a political weapon to extract concessions from their adversaries abroad, or trample on the democratic rights of their people at home. As often is the case, many authoritarian regimes do both. As long as the correlation between autocracies and petro-economies – the resource curse – persists, it serves as another catalyst for energy insecurity.  

  The early stages of development of green energy so far indicate that, in so far as renewables provide diverse and multiple sources of energy with a more diffused source of control and much smaller carbon footprint, they are likely to escape the trap of rentier economies and the resource curse. 

  That is, a world supplied by renewable energy could chart a path out of the energy wars, but until then, we will all continue to live with the specter of energy insecurity.

  Manochehr Dorraj is professor of international affairs and a faculty fellow of the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 21:00

• Louisiana AG Shares Startling Findings On Censorship Collusion Between Government And Big Tech
  Louisiana AG Shares Startling Findings On Censorship Collusion Between Government And Big Tech

  Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry gives a sobering breakdown of the insidious nature of government collusion with Big Tech corporations to censor Americans, violating their 1st Amendment rights using algorithms and flagging operations. 

  Specifically, Landry, notes the problem of lack of consequences for government officials caught using their positions to suppress free speech. 

  Louisiana along with other red states are currently engaged in a lawsuit against the federal government in an effort to remove the veil obscuring vast operations to silence alternative information in favor of official narratives and propaganda.  

  Attorney General @JeffLandry‘s opening statement on Missouri v. Biden and the US Government’s censorship industrial complex:

  “The White House pressured YouTube to reduce watch time of ‘borderline’ content by 70%, the FBI boasted a 50% success rate in getting platforms to censor… pic.twitter.com/sHzNms7ceA

  — kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 30, 2023

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

  Democrats have been increasingly hostile towards those investigating Big Tech censorship, including journalist Matt Taibbi, a former Democrat now helping Elon Musk release the Twitter Files.  The general argument on the political left is that private companies “have a right to censor” whoever they want.  In other words, they are no longer denying that the censorship exists, rather, they are defending it as legal.

  

  The problem is that they are oversimplifying the issue. 

  Government collusion with corporations to censor Americans is in fact illegal according to the US Constitution.  Just because they use Big Tech as the middle-man does not mean the law is not being broken. 

  The dangers inherent in mass censorship cannot be understated, and while civil litigation might be an option for those people censored by the government there also needs to be criminal investigations and consequences for the same activities.  Otherwise, there is no incentive for the censorship to stop – It will go on forever.   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 20:40

• Is The Counter-University Movement Any Match For The DEI Juggernaut?
  Is The Counter-University Movement Any Match For The DEI Juggernaut?

  Authored by John Murawski via RealClear Wire,

  A group of intellectual mavericks made splashy headlines in 2021 when they announced plans to launch a new university in Texas called the University of Austin.   

  

  Backed by a gallery of celebrity intellectuals – its trustees and directors include former Harvard president Larry Summers, Brown University economist Glenn Loury, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen, civil rights leader and former congressman Andrew Young, and the journalists Bari Weiss and Andrew Sullivan – the startup would be dedicated to the classic ideals of open inquiry, Socratic debate, and the unfettered pursuit of truth.   

  The University of Austin is just one of a number of recent academic experiments challenging what many conservatives and independents see as a stifling leftist monoculture on campus they deem illiberal, censorious, and anti-intellectual.   

  These countercultural projects reflect a range of reformist strategies coming from inside and outside the academy. In addition to launching new schools, they are creating independent institutes as havens of free thought within existing institutions, and pushing universities to adopt statements that codify academic freedom.  

  At the same time, Republican legislatures and governors around the country are moving to shut down campus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracies at state universities. And in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking the most aggressive tack, backing legislation that would defund DEI offices and eliminate courses based on Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and other social justice ideologies.  

  This activity is generating buzz aplenty, but these projects face considerable obstacles – logistical, financial, and legal – that proponents acknowledge may be insurmountable on a meaningful scale, at least in the short term.   

  For one thing, the upstart efforts are tiny.The University of Austin plans to begin classes in the fall of 2024 with an incoming freshman class of 100 students in 27,100 square feet of rented office space. But the school is in negotiations to receive a land donation to develop its own campus within a planned residential community outside of Austin, Howland said. 

  Another countercultural startup, Hildegard College in Costa Mesa, California, plans to start entrepreneurship and liberal arts classes this fall at a shared workspace office with an incoming freshman class of just 15 students who will study math and science through the original works of Euclid, Copernicus, Kepler, Leibniz, Newton, and Descartes. They are the ultimate David up against a nationwide academic Goliath that serves more than 16 million undergraduates – thousands of whom already opt out of the system by attending more than 100 Christian colleges in the U.S. And these specialized programs are not likely to appeal to the conventional student who places a premium on good lifestyle amenities and a good athletics program.    

  “Look, there are huge cultural forces,” said Jacob Howland, the director of the University of Austin’s Intellectual Foundations program. “Is it going to fix higher education? Not this year, not in 10 years. Maybe in 50 years, I don’t know. But we know there’s a huge demand for this.”   

  The conservative, or “heterodox,” academic experiments share a common theme: a return to a core curriculum anchored in the Western intellectual tradition and a repudiation of academe’s sacrosanct verities on race and gender. In place of DEI, these traditionalist projects vaunt ideals like civil discourse, truth, logic, reason, and excellence that once reassuringly resonated through college catalogues of yesteryear.   

  These efforts are responding to a plethora of developments in academia, from mandatory anti-bias training and the rise of cancel culture, to colleges mandating that professors commit to DEI advocacy in their teaching and research. Surveys repeatedly show that professors are overwhelmingly progressive and students report that they feel intimidated into silence or acquiescence, particularly on hot-button topics like race, gender, immigration, and climate. In the latest instance of this hothouse climate, Stanford University law students, emboldened by an associate dean of DEI, heaped insults and obscenities this month at federal Judge Kyle Duncan, an appointee of President Donald Trump who had been invited to speak on campus, until U.S. marshals escorted him to safety.   

  Heritage Foundation fellow Adam Kissel, an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education under Trump, said leftist professors and academic radicals enjoyed plenty of latitude for decades to pursue their research interests, but they eventually overplayed their hand by politicizing education and tampering with the social order.    

  “Colleges broke the public trust. They’ve started trying to interfere with American culture rather than producing and disseminating new knowledge,” Kissel said. “And democracy came back knocking and said, ‘All right, we’re paying for all of this and we have a say. We trusted you and you abused that trust.’”  

  While some of these projects, like the University of Austin, profess to be nonpartisan, others lean right and are unabashedly patriotic, embracing free-market philosophy, the Founding Fathers, and character-centric leadership, loosely modeled on the philosophy of Hillsdale College, a small private Christian institution in Michigan that doesn’t accept federal funding and is active in public policy forums and Republican Party politics.   

  These academic ventures are often targets for skepticism among the tenured professoriate, and sometimes open hostility, as pet projects of conservative donors and right-wing politicians, or as escapist reactionary fantasies seeking to restore Eurocentric chauvinism that has no place in an increasingly multi-racial global culture.   

  The conservative anti-DEI pushback has taken a variety of forms. On one end of the spectrum are voluntary commitments to academic freedom, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity. They include The Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit professional organization founded in 2015 and now claiming more than 5,400 members, and the Chicago Principles, created in 2014 at the University of Chicago and since adopted by 98 institutions. The Chicago Principles proclaim that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”  

  Another tack is developing civics and democracy institutes within a state university, which allows these programs to piggy-back on the sponsoring university’s accreditation and to qualify for public and private funding. Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, launched in 2017, offers such courses as Debating Capitalism, The American Founding, and Justice & Virtue. The ASU program also organizes a lecture series that has featured progressive speakers, including Cornel West, Angela Dillard, and Lara Bazelon, and conservatives such as Ross Douthat, Jason Riley, Patrick Deneen, Harvey Mansfield, and others.   

  Others are in various stages of proposal or development and include the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Institute of American Civics, and University of Texas at Austin’s Civitas Institute. A fierce debate has broken out this year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after the board of trustees voted this year to accelerate the development of a School of Civil Life and Leadership, prompting some faculty leaders to accuse the trustees of acting without faculty input.   

  Those involved in these efforts describe academia as having flip-flopped from a culture where everyone looked the same and thought differently, to a culture where everyone looks different and thinks the same. Paul Carrese, the director of ASU’s School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership, said students should be familiar with a basic understanding of U.S. history “before you talk about transforming America in an activist way.” He said the current foment for more options in higher ed mirrors the K-12 school choice movement to create home schools, charter schools, magnet schools, and other options.  

  “The history of American higher education is littered with attempts to break away from the restrictions of traditional elite colleges,” Adam Laats, a  professor of education and history at Binghamton University, wrote in Slate when the University of Austin launched.   

  “The opportunities for failure are huge,” wrote Laats, author of “Fundamentalist U,” published in 2018 by Oxford University Press. “Alternative startup colleges have crashed — and crashed hard — when they have failed to deliver on the basics, things like providing credits, degrees, and reliable financial aid.”  

  The University of Austin plans to start by offering one bachelor of arts degree in liberal studies. It has raised $34 million, and received $122 million in pledges, toward an initial goal of $250 million, Howland said. (A member of this reporter’s family has successfully applied for one of its one-week summer courses.) 

  The school’s 22-person administrative team is currently operating out of 4,900 square feet in a rented office building that’s also occupied by several law firms, a family medical practice and a local radio station.

  However, University of Austin officials are temporarily referring to their project as “UATX,” because it doesn’t have a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; university officials are in discussions with the Texas board about relaxing some of the terms and conditions – such as the board’s requirement that UATX must hire all professors in advance of a site visit inspection – and they hope they can receive the certificate in October, he said.   

  In the midst of the initial fanfare, Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker and University of Chicago chancellor Robert Zimmer withdrew from the project’s board of advisors, less than two weeks after it was announced. Zimmer issued a statement suggesting he parted ways because he was turned off by the University of Austin’s relentless disparagement of higher education. 

  With a meaningful return to more traditional models of education highly unlikely in institutions dominated by proponents of newer models, conservatives are resorting to political muscle to force out what they see as chief agents of progressive activism: the growing armies of DEI administrators who oversee speech codes, diversity training, and bias complaints on campus. The Chronicle of Higher Education has tracked about a dozen states where Republican governors and legislatures are moving to shut down campus DEI offices, ban compulsory DEI training for professors, and prohibit the controversial practice of requiring academic job applicants to affirm their commitment to diversity and equity as instructors and scholars, a practice that has been compared to political loyalty oaths. Last month the University of Texas system suspended all DEI activities at its eight universities, after Gov. Greg Abbott warned state agencies and public universities that DEI is discriminatory and can’t be used in hiring decisions for state jobs.   

  In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his education adviser Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the conservative Manhattan Institute, are going even further.   

  Together they have executed what Rufo calls a “hostile takeover” of Florida’s smallest public university, The New College of Florida in Sarasota, by installing six conservative trustees, Rufo among them, and quickly shutting down the college’s office of diversity and equity by firing the director and reassigning four other employees.   

  RealClearInvestigations was unsuccessful in efforts to interview Rufo (a journalist who in 2021 reported on homelessness for RCI). But he has been publicly outspoken in holding that Florida can serve as a proving ground for “red state governors all over the country.”  

  “We’re going to abolish DEI bureaucracies,” Rufo declared in one of his many videos. “We’re gonna simply level them, raze them, burn them to the ground.”  

  In another video, Rufo proclaimed: “I know I’m not going to stop until it’s been abolished, and until we salt the earth.”   

  That strategy is unmistakable in Florida’s proposed legislation, HB 999, which would ban Florida’s 28 public universities and colleges from using public funds to promote or support majoring and minoring in subjects that utilize “Critical Theory,  including, but not limited to, Critical Race Theory, Critical  Race Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Radical Feminist Theory,  Radical Gender Theory, Queer Theory, Critical Social Justice, or Intersectionality” – as defined by the Board of Governors.   

  The legislation includes a mechanism to wrest control of the academy from what Rufo and DeSantis see as ideological activists who rule the campus: It would not only defund campus DEI offices and functionaries, and prohibit using state or federal funds to promote or engage in “political or social activism”; it would also dismantle a longstanding pillar of academic freedom by taking tenure reviews and hiring decisions out of the hands of academics and handing over control to trustees, who would not be “required to consider recommendations or opinions of faculty.”  

  DeSantis, widely assumed to be positioning himself as a Republican candidate for the White House, has declared that Florida is “where woke goes to die.” He is also behind another Florida bill, called the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which would prohibit professors from espousing tenets of Critical Race Theory, such as condemning white privilege and promoting racial preferences, and would make it illegal for professors to critique concepts like objectivity, merit, and colorblindness as racist. The legislation, which is headed for trial this fall, has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge as “positively dystopian.”  

  Fighting Politics with Politics  

  The sweeping proposals in Florida have caused alarm even among those who otherwise agree with DeSantis and Rufo that progressive ideology has a stranglehold on academic culture.   

  The libertarian Reason magazine denounced HB 999 as “a startling attack on academic freedom at Florida public universities.” Johns Hopkins University political scientist Yascha Mounk recently wrote that the Florida legislation is so restrictive that it would not allow him to assign his students to read philosophical articles that advocate for the concept of cultural appropriation – the idea that it’s racist for white people to adopt cultural elements of non-white cultures.   

  Jeremy Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, says that the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, if adopted in its current form, could potentially be used to prevent assigning Rufo’s articles about CRT and DEI, which amply quote critical theorists and DEI training materials, without first redacting them to block out offending quotes that express ideas targeted by the legislation.  

  The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy organization, is currently litigating to block Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act as unconstitutional censorship of free expression. FIRE says the policy would restrict a professor’s ability to discuss the social advantages or disadvantages of one’s sex or race, and would forbid professors from expressing controversial opinions, “even just for the sake of Socratic discussion.”  

  Adam Kissel said sections of the Florida legislation that dictate what is taught in classrooms are unconstitutional and likely to be stricken down by courts as impermissible “viewpoint discrimination.” But Kissel said legislatures have broad authority to choose not to fund “unserious” subjects based on critical race theory, queer theory, or fat studies, which he says are anti-intellectual pseudo-disciplines comparable to astrology.   

  Rufo has stated that with the near-total ideological capture of universities by the DEI apparatus and activist professors, where open debate is effectively shut down, political will is the only remaining option for the state to regain control of its institutions.   

  Rufo also says that Florida’s strongarm tactics are not a deviation from the standard practice, but simply mirror the strategy of the left, dubbed as “the long march through the institutions,” a bloodless revolution from within by stealth infiltration of social institutions, in which ideologues took over departments and imposed their worldview as reality and their agenda as evidence-based knowledge.     

  Speaking in apocalyptic tones in a series of videos, Rufo has spelled out a national Republican game plan for “recapturing” public universities that “have been corrupted by woke nihilism.” The conservative counter-revolution, Rufo said, will simply mirror the “left-wing playbook” and “recapture territory.”   

  He said, “I’ve spent the last two years reading my [Antonio] Gramsci, reading my [Herbert] Marcuse, reading my [Paulo] Freire, reading my [Angela] Davis, reading my Derrick Bell,” Rufo said, referring to classic leftist authors. “We’re taking those strategies. We’re re-appropriating them. We’re adapting them to a new conservative counter-revolution.”  

  Princeton University political scientist Keith Whittington said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act mirrors campus speech codes by prohibiting professors from saying white people, on account of their race, have unconscious bias and unearned privilege, on the logic that this sort of speech constitutes racial profiling and racial stereotyping.   

  “The structure of those [conservative] arguments is very familiar and they are very similar to the arguments that the Left, and that includes critical race theorists, has been making for a couple of decades now in urging us to adopt speech codes on campus and speech codes elsewhere,” Whittington said. “This is a game that more than one person can play, and you should totally expect conservatives will play this as well, and you will not like the results.”   

  Along the same lines, like critical theorists who dismiss the possibility of political neutrality, Rufo contends that “there is no such thing as a neutral institution” because state-supported universities are inherently “political in nature.” And Rufo dismisses warnings that his take-no-prisoners approach is trampling on academic freedoms, because academic freedom is already a scarce commodity in academia, and exercising political power is the nature of government.    

  “All of the BS that this is a government overreach, that’s ridiculous,” Rufo scoffed in another video. “The government determines the government. It’s like saying the people have no authority to regulate the government. It’s so tyrannical, it’s so totalitarian.”  

  Rufo has little patience for moderates who prefer compromise to confrontation. When Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker expressed disappointment about the severity of the DeSantis actions, Rufo Tweeted: “Sorry, buddy. … We’re in charge now.”  

  Academic Freedom  

  Progressive professors resent conservative political encroachment into their domain, seeing it as a violation of faculty governance, which is considered the gold standard of academic freedom. This is the line of attack against the UNC board of trustees’ vote to create the School of Civil Life and Leadership, where some faculty leaders allege the trustees didn’t sufficiently involve UNC faculty or administration. Those claims are disputed by the UNC program’s supporters, who say the institute has been six years in the making and is modeled on the Arizona State University program and a similar program founded in 2000 at Princeton University.   

  The linkage of academic freedom with faculty governance was developed during the 20th century, when the pressure against visiting speakers and outspoken professors was perceived as coming from influential trustees and powerful politicians. But now it can be used as a shield to protect abuses of academic freedom, some say.  

  Whittington said the concept of academic freedom has few safety provisions for cases where the threat comes from within academe, such as when ideologues take over and politicize departments. He acknowledged there’s a real problem with the intellectual climate of universities today, but the Florida legislation is so draconian it would turn professors into “political flunkeys.”  

  “Fundamentally they’re treating university professors similarly to how we’d treat K-12 classroom instruction and teachers,” Whittington said.   

  The legislation HB 999 has not been enacted, so it hasn’t yet faced a legal challenge, but U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s 139-page ruling in 2022 blocking the Stop W.O.K.E. Act spells out specific examples of how professors fear their lectures and discussions might be restricted if Gov. DeSantis prevails. And it illustrates classroom teaching practices that have not only become normalized, but make it virtually impossible for students to disagree with controversial theories, an issue that DeSantis, Rufo and others are concerned about. 

  According to the court ruling, Shelley Park, a tenured professor of philosophy and cultural studies at the University of Central Florida, teaches courses that “do not question whether heterosexism, sexism, or racism exist because there is already consensus” in her discipline that these “structural oppressions” are foundational truths rather than unproven theories. Park also teaches as established fact that notions of merit, objectivity, and colorblindness “function to solidify systems of oppression — disguising biased standards as ones that are allegedly neutral.”  

  Adriana Novoa, an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of South Florida, endorses the morality of collective guilt, and asserts that Argentine society – herself included – bears collective responsibility for the extermination of indigenous peoples and the wrongs committed by other individuals sharing her national origin.  

  From Crazy to Consensus  

  Over the span of several decades, ideas that were considered fringe “agitprop” have become accepted as unassailable consensus: Colorblindness is racism, sexual dimorphism is a social construct, intersectional identities provide a reliable measure of one’s oppression.

  Mark Bauerlein, a former English professor at Emory University who is one of the conservative DeSantis appointees on the New College board of trustees, talks about the conservative counter-revolution in higher education as Quixotic and doomed.  

  “The dark ages are back,” Bauerlein said. “This is the destruction of the past in order for the Utopian present to be brought into existence. You got to hand it to them – they’ve done pretty well.” 

  Still, “just because you lost doesn’t mean you stop fighting,” he said. “I mean, you do the right thing.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 20:20

• Having Solved All Other Problems, California Sets Its Sights On Banning Skittles
  Having Solved All Other Problems, California Sets Its Sights On Banning Skittles

  Sometimes after you solve all of the major crises your state is facing, as California has clearly done with rioting, looting, shoplifting, drug abuse, homelessness, insane taxes and public defecation, you have to move on to smaller issues.

  Like Skittles.

  At least that’s what’s happening in California, where a proposed bill “could force popular candies like Skittles to change their recipes — or stop selling them in California altogether”, according to a new report from SF Gate. 

  Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel introduced Assembly Bill 418 earlier this year, which seeks to “prohibit the manufacture, sale and distribution of food products containing five chemicals linked to cancer and other health risks”. 

  One of those chemicals is titanium dioxide, listed as an ingredient in Skittles. 

  

  A lawsuit was filed in California last year alleging that Skittles were “unfit for human consumption”, but it was thrown out. In 2016, Mars, the parent company of Skittles, promised to phase out the use of the chemical in its candy. 

  Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel put out a press release last month stating: “Californians shouldn’t have to worry that the food they buy in their neighborhood grocery store might be full of dangerous additives or toxic chemicals.” 

  “Many of the dangerous additives currently banned in the EU and other nations are found in processed foods and candies that are marketed to children, low-income consumers, and communities of color in the United States,” the release states. 

  Eleven organizations, including the Consumer Brands Association, the National Confectioners Association and the California Grocers Association, all wrote a letter to the California Assembly Committee on Health last week opposing the bill, however. 

  “All five of these additives have been thoroughly reviewed by the federal and state systems and many international scientific bodies and continue to be deemed safe,” they wrote. Signatories claimed that the bill “usurps the comprehensive food safety and approval system for these five additives and predetermines ongoing evaluations.”

  “We’re aware of the opposition letter and believe that the lack of meaningful arguments, data, and evidence actually strengthen the case for our legislation,” Gabriel volleyed back. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 20:00

• House Republicans Say Homeland Security Chief’s $60 Billion Budget Concedes Border Cannot Be Secured
  House Republicans Say Homeland Security Chief’s $60 Billion Budget Concedes Border Cannot Be Secured

  Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Any federal department head with a $60.4 billion annual spending request is going to see fiscal hawks on Congressional panels flash their budget-cutting knives in appropriations hearings.

  

  But when it comes to embattled United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas—literally, the face of President Joe Biden’s much-maligned border and immigration policies—House Republicans don’t want to trim his budget, they want his head on a platter.

  According to DHS, there have been 4.7 million “encounters” with illegal immigrants reported at the nation’s southern border since the Biden administration assumed office in January 2021.

  

  An estimated 1.3 million “got-aways” have eluded border agents and escaped into the country—a figure many say is underestimated by up to 20 percent.

  As a result critics, which include the entire Republican Congressional contingent as well as some Democrats, say there were more than 1,100 attacks on U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while the flow of fentanyl remains unabated across the southern border, contributing to more than 75,000 poisoning deaths attributed to the drug in 2022.

  “Mr. Secretary, you are failing at doing your job. These numbers speak for themselves,” Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) said.

  “The policies of this administration have directly contributed to this failure. In my mind, it is very clear this has been a complete failure in you doing your job and we need new leadership.

  “What will it take for you to resign and step down from this … because I see this as a complete failure. What will it take?” Hinson asked.

  Mayorkas didn’t directly respond to Hinson’s query during his two-and-a-half-hour March 29 hearing before the House Appropriation Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee.

  Nor did the DHS chief answer pointed questions about allegedly shifting funding away from already allocated money for border wall construction, or respond to queries about whether Mexican cartels should be declared foreign terrorist organizations or his claim in April 2022 that DHS had “operational control” of the border. That statement was later refuted by U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

  It was Mayorkas’s second Congressional hearing of the week and the first of two set for March 29.

  The day before, he was ripped by Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans with Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz calling for him to “be fired” or, as a bill now circulating about Capitol Hill demands, be impeached.

  “For over two years, we’ve seen skyrocketing illegal migration at the border. This policy-driven crisis continues for one reason, and one reason only, this administration is unwilling to publicly dissuade migrants from coming to the border and unwilling to take action on the authority it already has on the books,” Subcommittee Chair Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) said.

  “The Biden administration’s policies are undoubtedly driving our border security crisis,” he continued and referring to the DHS’s $60.4 billion Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget request added, “It is our job as appropriators to be good stewards of taxpayers’ money and to ensure we are not wasting money by supporting bad policies that don’t result in deserted outcomes.”

  Budget of Wasteful ‘Gimmicks’

  DHS’s FY24 budget request actually tops $103 billion with $60.4 billion defined as “discretionary.”

  The department’s 260,000 employees deal with a wide range of domestic security concerns addressed by the Transportation Security Agency, the Coast Guard, FEMA, and the Secret Service.

  “This proposal is, unfortunately, more disappointing than it is promising,” Joyce said. “The budget is full of gimmicks that mask the true cost of protecting the homeland and makes our job as appropriators that much more difficult.”

  The department’s total $60.4 billion budget request is “nearly equal to the current fiscal year,” he said but cited the $4.7 billion for the proposed Southwest Border Contingency Fund and another $1.6 billion in “illegal TSA fees” as wasteful allocations that will cost taxpayers more than $6 billion without addressing border security.

  “Now is not the time for budget gimmicks,” Joyce said.

  Demurrals On The Wall

  Republicans called the Southwest Border Contingency Fund a “slush fund” with Joyce claiming it “will spend more hard-earned tax dollars to achieve the same results with less oversight … that incentivizes this administration to not solve problems and do their job in the first place.”

  The Biden administration is more dedicated to building more infrastructure for processing illegal immigrants “and then releasing them into the interior, [which] hasn’t worked,” Joyce said.

  “Decreasing detention capacity hasn’t worked. Border security operators have been clear—without [increasing detention capacities] illegal immigration will continue unabated.”

  Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) said the $4.7 billion fund is “disturbing” because it essentially concedes the border cannot be safeguarded.

  “What has happened under this administration is instead of trying to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across the border, we’ve just gotten better at processing those immigrants,” he said.

  Cloud, House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), and Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) accused Mayorkas of funneling money from revenue streams dedicated to building the border wall established under the Trump administration to other programs and projects.

  Granger said there is $2.8 billion set aside to “complete the wall” with $200 million of that set to “go away” unless it is spent “in the next few months.”

  “We just going to let that happen?” she asked.

  Mayorkas would not answer the question but said he has approved 129 “gates and gaps” projects along stretches of the wall that already exist.

  

  The Biden administration is not going to approve any more wall construction, he said, and is espousing technologies, such as drones, and “investing in personnel.”

  “I have approved a number of projects and we will comply with our legal obligations with respect to the funds provided for the wall,” Mayorkas said.

  Cloud said DHS prevented Texas from funding portions of the wall on its own. “Right now,” he asked, “we’re paying for [the] border wall to be stored and not built. Is that correct?

  “We are indeed,” Mayorkas said.

  Cloud said Border Patrol and CPB officials themselves say, “the border wall is the most effective force-multiplier” claiming the budget request “takes money we’ve already allocated and moves it in different directions, is that correct?”

  “We will comply with our legal obligations,” Mayorkas said.

  “It’s not people or infrastructure. It’s both,” Cloud said. “You are taking what we already appropriated for border wall construction and rescinded that and want to use that for other purposes. Is that correct?”

  “Congressman,” Mayorkas replied, “we will comply with our legal obligations.”

  “That’s a well-worded way to get around” answering the question, Cloud said. “You’re missing the overall objective of securing the border by funding these little legal loopholes to get out of things.”

  “I understand we are not going to build a wall from sea to shiny sea,” Guest said, but a wall is effective in certain places in certain sectors.

  “It seems to me this administration is saying we are not going to build any walls. Walls are bad. I disagree with that, walls are beneficial. I think that they do a great job.”

  Fire ‘Border Czar’ Too

  Hinson said the Border Patrol is budgeted for 19,800 agents but now has only about 19,000. She said Ortiz maintains it needs at least 22,000 agents to effectively patrol the border.

  She said DHS should be asking for many more agents, which is an initiative his GOP critics would support.

  Mayorkas said the Border Patrol added 300 agents last year and will continue to build its ranks every year. “There is a limit to how many we can functionally hire in a particular year.”

  He said, “We need more.”

  Good luck, Hinson said. “The policies of this administration have truly affected retention” and said the budget reflects “a lack of meaningful work to address retention challenges. Throwing out increased numbers looks nice, but it doesn’t actually address the reality of the situation at the southern border.”

  Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) suggested if the administration needs more money to hire Border Patrol agents, he has some ideas.

  “It’s strange that this department wants to add 350 Border Patrol agents and 87,000 armed IRS agents,” he said, suggesting Mayorkas contact the IRS “and see if it wants to share some of that wealth with you and perhaps share some of the funding with you.”

  Harris said Mayorkas should not be the only administration official to resign over the border situation. Vice President Kamala Harris, as the designated “border czar,” should also step down, he said.

  “The last time she was [at the border] was June 2021, that’s more than 2 million crossings ago,” he said. “Our border czar should also resign because she isn’t doing her job.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 19:40

• Is There A Link Between Obesity Levels In States And Concentration Of Fast Food Stores?
  Is There A Link Between Obesity Levels In States And Concentration Of Fast Food Stores?

  The US is grappling with an obesity crisis, as approximately 4 out of 10 Americans currently meet the medical criteria for being overweight. This makes them susceptible to severe health complications like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. 

  The question is, what’s the source of the obesity crisis?.. Well, it’s likely the eating habits of Americans. 

  According to a 2018 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey, as many as 1 out of every 3 Americans eat fast food daily.  

  Fast food is associated with causing obesity because its high in calories and fat. It’s processed food packed with additives and often fried. Fast food costs less, and it’s quick, and tens of thousands of fast food restaurants with convenient drive-thrus are situated across America.

  Before examining the regions in the US with the highest concentration of fast-food restaurants, it’s important to note that 2021 CDC data showed the highest amount of obesity among Americans was spread across the Midwest, Deep South, and Rust Belt states.

  

  It’s crucial to remember the regions mentioned in the above data. When analyzing the locations of the ten largest fast-food chains in the US, it becomes apparent that many of these stores are indeed situated in the areas with the highest rates of obesity among Americans.

  Subway

  

  Starbucks

  

  McDonald’s 

  

  Dunkin

  

  Taco Bell

  

  Burger King

  

  Pizza Hut

  

  Domino’s

  

  Wendy’s

  

  Dairy Queen

  

  There might be a connection between the presence of fast-food outlets in particular regions throughout the nation and the increasing obesity rates in those areas. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 19:20

• California Man Arrested 10 Times In 31 Days, Faces 33 Charges
  California Man Arrested 10 Times In 31 Days, Faces 33 Charges

  Authored by Jason Blair via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A man in Fresno County, California was arrested 10 times within a span of 31 days, according to the Clovis Police Department.

  

  Keith Chastain’s first arrest was on Feb. 19, and his tenth was on March 21. He was booked by Clovis police six times and other agencies four times.

  Chastain, 38, faces 18 felonies and 15 misdemeanors. Charges include six stolen vehicles, vandalism, DUI, possession of a controlled substance, fraud, and more, according to authorities.

  “I don’t know what is happening in his life to cause him to steal so many people’s vehicles and property. It’s sad; I hope he gets some help,” Clovis Police Corporal Meredith Alexander told KMPH Fox 26.

  On his tenth arrest, police received a tip over the phone and caught Chastain driving a stolen truck in Old Town Clovis. Police said he was on his way to the police station in the stolen vehicle to pick up his personal property.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 19:00

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams Blames Tik Tok For 32% Surge In Car Thefts
  NYC Mayor Eric Adams Blames Tik Tok For 32% Surge In Car Thefts

  New York City Mayor Eric Adams has finally figured out the hive mind of a rash of car thefts in New York City: Tik Tok.

  The mayor has taken to blaming the social media platform this week for a growing number of grand theft autos that are taking place under his watch in New York City. He says he wants to “hold the platform accountable”, according to a new Bloomberg report. 

  Joined by New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, Adams has said the “Kia Challenge”, a Tik Tok-based viral video showing how to steal Kia and Hyundai cars, is to blame for about 109 arrests made this year related to theft of Kia and Hyundai sedans. 

  🚨Attention owners of Kia & Hyundai vehicles🚨 Criminals are using a vulnerability to bypass some car ignitions using a USB cable. While both manufacturers have said they are looking into fixing the issue, utilizing a steering wheel locking device is highly recommended. pic.twitter.com/DBziQQXN2C

  — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) December 30, 2022

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

  At a press conference Thursday, Adams said: “This really emphasizes my continuous call for the responsible behavior of social media. This challenge in particular with Kia and Hyundai, we see it as not only stealing a vehicle, but it’s stealing the future of our young people.”

  

  Car theft spiked during the pandemic and hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, the report says. Grand larceny of vehicles in New York was up a stunning 32% last year, more than any other felony. According to Sewell, most thefts are taking place in the Bronx and northern Manhattan. 

  The videos that Adams references targets Hyundais and Kias that lack an engine immobilizer, Bloomberg reports. They have made their way around social media since last September, targeting vehicles made in the 2015-2019 year range. 

  When asked about his opinion about a ban on Tik Tok due to national security concerns, however, Adams responded: “I think that it’s imperative for Congress and the federal lawmakers to do a deep dive and come up with the right way to monitor social media.”

  He concluded: “As we continue to decrease crime and move crime in the right direction, we don’t need aggravating factors such as what we’re seeing in a social media challenge of this magnitude. We don’t need social media to contribute to social disorder.”

  Every day, the NYPD works to make our city safer and keep driving major crimes down in New York City. But we’re continuing to see problems with grand theft auto. Join us now at 1 Police Plaza.
  https://t.co/4zyhYIcIf7

  — Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) March 30, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 18:40

• Where's Waldo At Club Fed?
  Where’s Waldo At Club Fed?

  Authored by Joni Ernst and Adam Andrzejewski, op-ed via NewsWeek.com,

  Government bureaucrats are slowly returning to the office after three years of working remotely. Washington, D.C. has the highest work-from-home rate in the country, and the mayor is angry because the city is a ghost town.

  

  Despite empty government cubicles, President Joe Biden tucked a 5.2% pay raise for the 1.4 million employees of executive agencies into his proposed budget. That would be the single largest pay hike for the Swamp since 1980.

  They don’t call it Club Fed for nothing.

  According to newly released data obtained from the Biden administration via the Freedom of Information Act, these same bureaucrats are already collectively making $1.2 million a minute, $72 million an hour, and over $576 million a day. And that’s just the cash compensation cost to taxpayers!

  Last year, the average salaries for employees at 109 of Washington’s 125 agencies were over $100,000 per year. And the lucrative perks included 44 days of paid time off “earned” after just three years on the job—nearly nine full weeks paid to sip margaritas on the beach.

  It’s long past time to review the “cost effectiveness gap” at the Swamp’s manifold agencies and ask why federal employees are paid so much to deliver so little in the way of results.

  For example, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is supposed to ensure the safety and soundness of our banking system. 5,800 employees and auditors at the FDIC make an average annual salary of nearly $160,000. With the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and headlines pointing to a fragile and distressed banking system, are taxpayers really getting what they’re paying for?

  Then, there are the little-known agencies, such as the Appalachian Regional Commission, where the top-paid executives make close to $176,300. The commission is charged with helping pull residents out of poverty in 423 counties across 13 states. However, since the agency was created in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson, only four counties have attained that goal.

  Besides high salaries, there were the 1 million bureaucrats who received $1.5 billion in bonuses, after a whopping 99% of federal employees were rated “fully successful.” That’s not even plausible.

  

  Cherry trees near their peak bloom on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on March 20, 2023 in Washington, D.C.CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

  As the COVID-19 pandemic waned in 2021, Congress established a $570 million federal worker relief fund. The half-billion-dollar program provided paid leave for federal workers who had children not yet back for in-person schooling. Eligible bureaucrats could earn up to $21,000 over 15 weeks.

  One of our Senate offices, alongside the other’s private organizational auditors, are now demanding answers to three existential questions posed by the reality of the modern federal workforce. Who is working? Where are they? And, most importantly, what are they doing?

  Taking stock of the administrative state is difficult: The Biden administration just redacted the names of a whopping 350,861 rank-and-file federal workers from the Fiscal Year 2022 payroll disclosure. And it isn’t that these are all intelligence officers or spies; by comparison, in the final fiscal year of the Obama administration (FY 2016), only 2,300 names were redacted.

  The administration also redacted 281,656 employee work locations.

  So, we can’t accurately map the Swamp because it’s a literal game of “Where’s Waldo?” when it comes to the modern administrative state.

  Again, we aren’t complaining about names or locations redacted from the National Security Administration, the Pentagon, or the Central Intelligence Agency, where there is a legitimate secrecy shield for national security.

  The Biden administration is deliberately hiding key information on hundreds of thousands of regular employees within the alphabet-soup of agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, and so on.

  We estimate that roughly $36 billion in salary and bonus compensation is hidden from oversight. We don’t yet know who, what, where, or how much. But we plan to find out.

  All of which raises the question: Are these federal workers actually working, and what is their real value for the American taxpayer?

  *  *  *

  Joni Ernst, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Iowa. Adam Andrzejewski is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit OpenTheBooks.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 18:20

• US Extends Carrier Deployment To Provide Military "Options" In Syria
  US Extends Carrier Deployment To Provide Military “Options” In Syria

  Following last week’s deadly attacks on US bases in northeast Syria by what the Pentagon called pro-Iran forces, the United States has announced an extension of the George HW Bush Carrier Strike Group’s deployment in the Mediterranean region. 

  “The extension of the George HW Bush Carrier Strike Group, inclusive of the USS Leyte Gulf, the USS Delbert D. Black, and the USNS Arctic, allows options to potentially bolster the capabilities of CENTCOM to respond to a range of contingencies in the Middle East,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said Friday.

  

  The George HW Bush carrier is currently near Italy and Sicily. Like with prior US military intervention in Syria, for example the major anti-government strikes on Damascus and elsewhere in 2017 and 2018 under the Trump administration, the Pentagon typically launches missiles from the Mediterranean.

  According to Reuters, “Buccino also noted a scheduled, expedited deployment of a squadron of A-10 attack aircraft to the region.”

  “One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Bush strike group was expected to remain in the European Command area of responsibility,” the report continues.

  Last Thursday, US forces mounted attacks against Iranian-linked groups in Syria after a US contractor was killed and five military service members and another US contractor were wounded in a drone strike conducted by an unknown group.

  But the Pentagon has now revised the number of American wounded upward to 12, citing “traumatic brain injuries”, per CNN: 

  Six US service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries as a result of attacks from Iran-backed groups in Syria last week.

  Four US troops at the coalition base near al Hasakah that was attacked on March 23 by a suspected Iranian drone, and two service members at Mission Support Site Green Village attacked on March 24, have been identified as having brain injuries in screening since the attacks, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Thursday.

  Gen. Ryder explained, “As standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injuries.” He added: “So these additional injuries were identified during post-attack medical screenings.”

  Warmongers in both parties say keeping troops in Syria is necessary to preserve the balance of power.

  That is simply not true.

  If they believe that, they should say it directly to the parents of Americans in Syria who have to sleep there tonight and guard oil fields against… https://t.co/YcFNoKkwQB pic.twitter.com/0SJBtjFzW2

  — Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 24, 2023

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

  Traumatic brain injuries among US troops were last reported on a large-scale in February 2020 after Iran launched cruise missiles on an American base in neighboring Iraq, in retaliation for the Jan. 3rd US killing of IRGC General Qassem Soleimani in drone strike at the Baghdad airport.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 18:00

• Banks Bust As Big-Tech Booms In Q1; Gold & Crypto Soar As Dollar Dumps
  Banks Bust As Big-Tech Booms In Q1; Gold & Crypto Soar As Dollar Dumps

  Q1 2023 – and even more specifically the month of March – can be summarized with one simple image…

  

  Bank crisis in US and EU, global war rhetoric rising, de-dollarization actions escalating, US layoffs exploding? Makes you wonder about the state of the dollar eh?

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  BUT Everything must be ok right – the S&P 500 is above pre-SVB levels (just ignore the bank stocks collapse)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  However, a bigger picture look paints a different picture as the dollar suffered its second straight quarterly decline) as Bitcoin soared over 70% and Gold jumped almost 9% (bonds and stocks were also higher in Q1)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  In equity-land, the divergence across the majors in Q1 is quite shocking as long-duration mega-cap tech (and trash) soared while Big-Caps (Dow) and Small-Caps (Russell 2000 – heavy with small financials) ended around unchanged.

  That was the Nasdaq’s best quarterly performance since Q2 2020 (and before that to Q1 2012)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  For the month, the Nasdaq is up over 8%, its biggest March advance since 2010. The Russell 2000 and Trannies were the ugliest horse in March’s glue factory…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Dow surged to its best week since November, but Small Caps outperformed, up over 3%…

  

  The last 3 Friday have seen fear over SVB, CS, & DB respectively, so 4th time was the charm this week with a major melt-up as early 0DTE negative delta flows (as the S&P broke above 2065 JPM Collar Call Strike) were rapidly unwound as stocks continued to squeeze higher and that accelerated the gains…

  

  Source: SpotGamma

  The S&P rallied all the way back up to the key 4100 level today…

  

  The S&P 500’s performance in Q1 was dominated by just 15 stocks…

  

  In fact, it gets worse, according to Bianco Research, META, AAPL, AMZN, NFLX, GOOGL, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA account for all of the S&P’s YTD return. They are up +4.6%. The other 492 stocks collectively are down for the year (-.99%).

  

  Source: Bianco Research

  Mega-Cap techs saw market caps soar with AAPL back above $2.5 trillion, MSFT back above $2 trillion, AMZN back above $1 trillion, and META and TSLA back above $500 billion…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Tech and Discretionary dramatically outperformed in Q1 while Energy and Financials lagged…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  European markets were mixed in March with Germany and France ending green while UK was the biggest loser…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  On the month, European banks are modest underperformers relative to US banks, but both are ugly…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  March was a wake-up call for commercial real estate, as Office REITs crashed hard…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  US growth stocks have dominated Q1, crushing value stocks (until this week when the ratio of Russell 1000 Value/ Growth hit the August lows). For context, this is the biggest growth/value quarter since Q1 2020 (and before that Q1 2009)

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  March saw bond vol (MOVE) explode relative to equity vol (VIX) – to the same extent as October 2008…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Thanks to March ugliness (and basically no issuance), corporate bond spreads in US and EU are wider in Q1 after blowing out wider in March, erasing all the compression from Jan/Fed…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  While stocks bounced back above pre-SVB levels, the credit market remains much more stressed (even with the rally of the last 2 days)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Q1 was a wild one for bonds with Treasury yields exploding higher on hawkish Fed realizations and then collapsing lower on safe-haven/recession anxiety over the bank crisis. Amid all the chaos, yields ended the quarter surprisingly grouped, down around 30bps or so (with the belly outperforming)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  March was a big month for the yield curve with its biggest monthly steepening since May 2013 (2s10s +32bps), ending Q1 unchanged…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Yields were all higher on the week (with the short-end underperforming)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The market’s expectations of The Fed’s actions has swung violently in Q1 from a post-payrolls-beat, post-hawkish-Powell surge (expecting rates to  be over 100bps higher by year-end) to a post-SVB failure collapse (expecting rates to be almost 100bps lower by year-end). The quarter ends with coin-flip odds of one more rate-hike before The Fed is done and then cuts starting by September…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Interestingly, the short-term yield curve is ending Q1 just a little more dovish than it started it – having been dramatically more hawkish and dovish intra-quarter…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar is set to end the quarter 1.4% lower, its first consecutive quarterly loss since 2020, amid easing concerns about the global banking sector and money market wagers on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. This is the 5th monthly drop in the dollar out of the last 6 months…

   

  Source: Bloomberg

  All the major cryptos had a good Q1, with Solana outperforming and Bitcoin gaining more than Ethereum (and that was in spite of ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bitcoin is up for the 3rd month in a row for its best quarterly gain since Q1 2021, back above $28,500 (and Ethereum is also up for 3 straight months (best Q since Q1 2021), nearing 7 month highs at $1850)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  NatGas was the standout commodity performance in Q1, collapsing 50% as warmer weather spoiled Putin’s party plans. Gold was the quarter’s best performer (along with copper – China reopening hopes) as crude closed lower…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold is up for the second quarter in a row (up over 19% in the  last 6 months – its best such gain since 2016), with its highest quarterly close in history. March saw gold rally almost 9% -its best month since July 2020 (topping $2000) once again…

  

  Oil has been on a tear for the last two weeks with WTI back above $75, but remains down on the year, after breaking below its Jan/Feb range…

  

  And finally, Q1 saw over $450 billion of inflows into Money-Market funds and over $300 billion in deposit outflows from US domestic banks…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And in case you were wondering what has sparked this sudden panic-buying in bonds, bullion, bitcoin, and big-tech? That’s easy – The Fed!!! Just as we warned would happen mid-March…

  Chase begins pic.twitter.com/DLPt5w8DG4

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 17, 2023

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

  It’s the ‘old QE’ trade writ large. But what happens next (as The Fed balance sheet actually shrunk modestly last week) and Goldman’s US Activity Index just dropped into contraction…

  

  With recessionary signals growing louder, maybe pricing in some ‘easing’ by The Fed is ‘fair’ but that appears fully priced-in to stocks at near-record high valuations (esp. mega-cap tech).

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 17:55

• Billionaires Brin, Pritzker, Zuckerman And Ovitz Issued Subpoenas In Epstein Lawsuit
  Billionaires Brin, Pritzker, Zuckerman And Ovitz Issued Subpoenas In Epstein Lawsuit

  Billionaires Sergey Brin, Thomas Pritzker, Mortimer Zuckerman and Michael Ovitz were issued subpoenas this week by the US Virgin Islands as part of its lawsuit against JPMorgan over the bank’s relationship with now-deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

  

  The subpoenas seek any communications or documents related to JPMorgan and Epstein.

  The four men are some of the wealthiest people in the U.S., and it couldn’t be determined why they were being asked for the communications and documents. In civil cases, lawyers can use subpoenas during the discovery process to get information from people who aren’t a party to a lawsuit but could provide evidence related to the case. -WSJ

  JPMorgan is being sued by the US Virgin Islands along with several Epstein accusers in a combined case over Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. The plaintiffs claim that the bank facilitated abuse by allowing Epstein to remain a client while helping send money to his victims. The lawsuit also alleges that JPMorgan turned a blind eye to Epstein’s activities after receiving referrals for high-value business opportunities.

  

  Brin is a co-founder of Google and sits on the board of parent company Alphabet. Pritzker is executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels. Ovitz is a venture capitalist and co-founder of the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and Zuckerman is a real-estate billionaire and owns US News & World Report.

  

  As we noted on Tuesday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is expected to be deposed under oath regarding the bank’s relationship with Epstein – who banked with JPMorgan for 15 years until it eventually cut ties with the convicted sex offender in 2013.

  “Jamie Dimon knew in 2008 that his billionaire client was a sex trafficker,” argued US Virgin Islands attorney Mimi Liu during a March hearing in front of Manhattan US District Judge Jed Rakoff, referring to the year Epstein was first criminally charged with sex crimes, CNBC reported earlier this month.

  Lawyers have questioned several JPMorgan employees so far in this case and another filed by an unnamed woman who accused Epstein of sexual abuse. The cases are running together in Manhattan federal court.

  JPMorgan has sought to have the lawsuits dismissed. The bank has denied that it aided Epstein and has sought to blame any relationship on former executive Jes Staley, whom the bank has sued. Mr. Staley has maintained he was friendly with Epstein but never knew about his alleged crimes. -WSJ

  “If Staley is a rogue employee, why isn’t Jamie Dimon?” Liu said during the hearing to discuss the bank’s efforts to have the USVI lawsuit against the bank dismissed, referring to former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley, who is not named in the current litigation.

  “Staley knew, Dimon knew, JPMorgan Chase knew,” Liu continued, noting that there were several cash transfers and wire transfers made by the prolific pedophile (Epstein), including several hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to several women which should have been flagged as suspicious.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/31/2023 – 17:40

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