Today’s News 21st March 2024

• "It's Not About Trump": American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again In Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort
  “It’s Not About Trump”: American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again In Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort

  By Matt Taibbi of the Racket News substack

  

  The German people are famous for putting everything in print, even things they shouldn’t, and in this instance at least, American playwright and author CJ Hopkins is glad. “The irony,” he says, laughing. “The Germans, always documenting everything.”

  In a letter from the Berlin Prosecutor’s file on Hopkins, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA, analogous to our FBI) acknowledges receipt of a document from a government office describing an effort to have tweets deleted. “The Hessen Gegen Hetze reporting office,” the highlighted portion reads, “has already initiated measures to delete the relevant post on the social network”:

  

  Hopkins reached out to me after listening in disgust to the Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court hearing Monday. Standing was a big issue: our government said plaintiffs like Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Aaron Kheriaty lacked definite proof that the government was responsible for suppressing their speech. No such issue exists in CJ’s case, as you can see.

  Hopkins also wanted Americans who might be up in arms about the specter of legalized censorship in their own country to see that the phenomenon has also spread to virtually every Western democracy, often in more extreme forms than we’ve seen so far in the United States.

  CJ’s unique insight involves his ludicrous German case, which as you’ll read in the Q&A below has taken bizarre turns since we last checked and will now go to trial yet again. As an expat following the American situation from afar, he’s seen how the authoritarian tide is rising in similar or worse ways all around the globe.

  Hopkins is facing the business end of the German version, among the worst. As detailed last June, he was charged with “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” The crime? Using a barely detectible Swastika in the cover image of his book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich. Far from “furthering the aims” of Nazism, he was criticizing them by comparing Nazi methods and laws to those of modern health authorities. The offending image:

  

  Hopkins went to trial in January and delivered an impassioned plea to the court. “Every journalist that has covered my case, everyone in this courtroom, understands what this prosecution is actually about,” he said. “It has nothing to do with punishing people who actually disseminate pro-Nazi propaganda. It is about punishing dissent, and making an example of dissidents in order to intimidate others into silence.”

  Though the judge was clearly not a fan of Hopkins — a courtroom account by Aya Velázquez, which I recommend reading, described how the judge said CJ’s statements were “ideological drivel,” just “not punishable by law” — he won on the law.

  After acquittal, he was made aware that technically the case wasn’t over, because thanks to a quirk of German jurisprudence, the prosecutor had a week to file an appeal. Hopkins was unconcerned. “I doubt he will [re-file]. He made a total fool of himself in front of a large audience yesterday,” he wrote. “I can’t imagine that he will want to do that again.”

  Bzzt! Wrong. The prosecutor re-filed charges. The prosecutorial theory in the Hopkins case was based on a bizarre interpretation of hate crime, essentially asserting that if you have to think about an image to realize it’s satire, it can’t be allowed. If that idea spreads, it would make comedy or even sharp commentary impossible. This is why his indictment, and the similar investigation of Roger Waters, are really serious moments. Not to be heavy-handed, but eliminating the loophole for satire or mockery is exactly what Waters meant by “Another Brick in the Wall.” Before you know it, it’ll be too high to see over:

  MT: You got charged again?

  CJ Hopkins: No… I got acquitted. I went to trial on the 23rd of January, and I wrote this up and I’ll send it to you so you can just look at the whole account. But at the trial I made a big aggressive statement that people republished all over the place. The judge acquitted me, and then called me all kinds of names and then put on her covid mask and stalked out of the courtroom. She called me a Schwurbler, which in German is kind of an idiot, I guess a babbler or someone.

  Anyway, I read that statement, which pissed them all off, but she said, “Okay, you’re an idiot, but that’s not against the law, so you’re acquitted.” So I thought, “Great. This is over. I’m acquitted.” The prosecutor had no case whatsoever, and it was really embarrassing, and I figured it was all done, but my attorney reminded me: oh no, the prosecutor can appeal. Which he did. So now I’m facing another trial in appeals court. It’s not new charges, it’s the same charge, but the prosecutor’s appeal of my acquittal.

  MT: The double jeopardy thing isn’t big in Germany, I take it?

  CJ Hopkins: No.

  MT: Are they going to make a different argument?

  CJ Hopkins: I have no idea what they’re going to do. They have no argument… I mean, they put my tweets up on an overhead projector, like we were back in high school, and interrogated me about whether the Swastika was on top of the mask or behind the mask, that sort of thing. The prosecutor’s argument was basically, “We don’t believe that Mr. Hopkins is a Nazi, or pro-Nazi, we don’t believe he was trying to spread Nazi propaganda, but he nonetheless spread Nazi propaganda. because his tweet” – and this is a great part of their argument – “because if people saw his tweets, they would have to stop and think for a minute to figure out what they meant.”

  MT: Essentially you can’t have satire, because that requires a person to have at least one thought.

  CJ Hopkins: You can’t make people think. You’ve got to have beat-you-over-the-head messaging. I think the whole point of this… I’m sure it’s like the plea-bargain thing in the States. They figure if they hit you with a 3,600 Euro fine, you’re going to pay three times that much to fight it in court, so you’re just going to pay the fine and go away. I don’t think they ever expected to end up in court, and I have no idea what the prosecutor is doing with this appeal. The judge a few weeks later submitted a written verdict, which is strongly in my favor. She pretty much reiterated my attorney’s arguments and made it absolutely clear that what I did falls under the exceptions to the statute, and there’s nothing here to prosecute. Nonetheless, the prosecution’s going ahead.

  MT: Did you have much Western news coverage?

  CJ Hopkins: Right before the trial I had you, then Neue Zürcher Zeitung, which is the big paper of record in Switzerland, and James Kirchick at The Atlantic, who was a big help. I think it put a lot of pressure on the judge. My lawyer made her aware that Germany was being portrayed as a laughingstock in the international press. Aside from The Atlantic, it was all independent alternative media.

  MT: In the Murthy Supreme Court case in the States Monday, there was an issue with what they call “traceability.” I see you don’t have a traceability issue, with this document from your case file?

  CJ Hopkins: Exactly. That’s why I sent it to you. Unquestionably, this is a government office, directly involved with removing the tweets. The other thing that I was going to say, is that I’m looking at things like the Supreme Court case from a non-U.S. perspective. I’m outside of it. I’m watching the legislation that’s getting rolled out in Ireland and the UK and what’s happening to me here and what’s going on in the States, and it’s so obviously much broader than just a red-blue political story in the US. This is happening throughout the Western democratic countries.

  I’m just desperate to get that across to people. I think it’s so easy for people to get locked into what’s going on in their own country and not see the bigger picture.

  MT: What’s an example?  

  CJ Hopkins: There was just a piece in The Herald, in Scotland. The police were being trained there on how to crack down on abusive hate speech. According to this new legislation that’s rolling out and in the training manual, they were saying this could take place in comic performances or stage plays. People are being arrested in the UK for protest signs.

  If I can just put one little bug in your head, Matt, to whatever degree you can tweak people and let them know: “Hey, it’s not just Trump and the Democrats and the liberals and the woke people and all that.” This is happening all over the West, in all these different countries. I think that’s one thing that my case does, it provides folks with an opportunity to remind them that this is happening all over. The old rules don’t apply.

  MT: Good luck with your case.

  CJ Hopkins: Take care.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 03/21/2024 – 02:00

• Biden, Lenin, And Immigration Language: Gingrich
  Biden, Lenin, And Immigration Language: Gingrich

  Authored by Newt Gingrich via RealClear Wire,

  As an historian, it has been fascinating to watch the left try to impose new language to describe people in the country illegally.

  

  The left has gradually pushed accepted language away from “illegal aliens” (the term in law), to “illegal immigrants” (the most common term), to “undocumented immigrants” (the left’s current favorite term), and now to “newcomers” (the Joe Biden White House’s latest experiment in gaining language dominance).

  It all reminds me of Vladimir Lenin’s great language coup of 1903.

  The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party met secretly in Brussels. (The Czar’s secret police made it impossible to meet openly in Russia). At the meeting there was a split between Lenin’s hardline revolutionary faction and a more moderate democratic wing. Lenin’s faction was the smaller group, but they claimed the title Bolshevik (which means “greater faction” or majority). Group with the most votes were foolish enough to accept the title Lenin gave them, which was Menshevik, meaning minority. That language dominance and branding gave Lenin an enormous advantage in the following two-decade struggle to overthrow the Czar and create Soviet Russia.

  At least as far back as the French Revolution, the left has had a passion for labeling things and ideas to gain language dominance.

  This process as applied to illegal immigration began at least 25 years ago for me. That’s when I first remember being lectured that using the term “illegal immigrants” was wrong, and I should learn to say “undocumented.”

  I thought this was nuts then, and I still do now. By definition, the people we were describing are illegal. Their first act on entering the United States is to break the law. Their decision to do so is an insult to every legal immigrant who patiently followed the rules and entered the United States legally.

  In late February, the Biden White House had a handout which said, “The bill also includes $1.4 billion for cities and states who are providing critical services to newcomers.” The reaction to replacing “illegal immigrant” with “newcomer” was so harsh that the Biden team dropped it. But their goal was clear.

  This process of normalizing weird and radical ideas goes on constantly on the left. Think of pushing transgenderism on children, kneeling during the pledge of allegiance, ignoring the destruction caused by the Black Lives Matter riots, etc.

  The problem for the left is that illegal immigration may be the battlefield on which they can’t win.

  The latest absurdity began when Biden responded to jeers from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene during his State of the Union Address. He said, “Lincoln (sic) Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?”

  Note that even in acknowledging a young woman who was killed by an illegal immigrant, Biden had to immediately cover it with thousands being killed by legal immigrants and citizens. The illegal immigrant could not be the focus.

  Of course, he got Riley’s name wrong, but the left immediately attacked him for using the term “illegal.” This includes former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Biden promptly began trying to backtrack. In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, Biden acknowledged his sin of language, “I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal,’ it’s ‘undocumented.’”

  But Biden couldn’t stop there. He had to be pro-illegal immigrant. “I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. Look, they built the country. The reason our economy is growing,” he said.

  Biden’s defense of illegal immigration hurt him with the average American – and his use of “illegal” hurt him with his leftwing allies.

  His confusion made him look weak. So, in another act of language dominance, the White House simply decided he really never apologized for saying “illegal” in the first place.

  As The Hill reported:

  “White House deputy spokesperson Olivia Dalton attempted to clarify on Monday, telling a reporter that ‘the president absolutely did not apologize’ despite his expression of regret.

  “‘There was no apology anywhere in that conversation,’” Dalton told reporters on Air Force One. ‘He did not apologize. He used a different word. I think what we should be really clear about is the facts.’”

  Biden (and his press team) may be confused, but the American people are not. As Scott Rasmussen reported:

  “Our recent polling found that 55% of voters believe ‘illegal immigrant’ is the proper term and another 8% prefer ‘illegal alien.’ While 63% favor use of ‘illegal,’ just 24% prefer ‘undocumented migrant.’

  “Among traditional Democrats, 54% prefer ‘illegal’ and 33% ‘undocumented.’ But [Bernie] Sanders Democrats prefer ‘undocumented’ by a 48% to 30% margin. It is the progressive Democrats who forced Biden to apologize. This just moves him even further from the mainstream.”

  Let’s be clear: Laken Riley was reportedly killed by an illegal immigrant. That illegal immigrant was in Athens, Ga. because of Biden’s insane policies which favor an open border and prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.

  No word games can overcome those facts.

  For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 23:00

• For Real Estate, Rate Cuts Can't Come Soon Enough
  For Real Estate, Rate Cuts Can’t Come Soon Enough

  By Michael Msika and Macarena Munoz, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and strategists

  Real estate stocks just can’t seem to catch a break. Among this year’s worst performing sectors in Europe, even the prospect of interest rate cuts might not immediately reverse this year’s downward spiral.

  Real estate is dismally lagging the broader equity index so far in 2024, with losses of 8% and erasing the outperformance seen at the end of last year. Dovish signals this week from the Federal Reserve and Bank of England could bring some relief, but few expect this to be forthcoming from the Fed.

  Javier Miralles, equity fund manager at Mapfre Asset Management, reckons it’s still early for investors to position in real estate “as a strategic call betting on the rate drop.” Recent strong inflation data could well induce the Fed to send a higher-for longer message, he says, adding that “when rates are lowered, there will be a re-rating of the sector but it is still risky to position yourself like this.” 

  

  The first Fed cut is now expected in June, compared with March just a few months ago. What’s more, just three reductions are priced for this year, versus more than five last December. While this pushback hasn’t affected the broader market, real estate stocks have been hit badly. That’s possibly because of other sector-specific issues, including the commercial real estate overhang and mark-to-market property values.

  “The problem for the sector in recent months is not so much in the swings in expectations of rate cuts, but in the fall in asset valuation, and how this affects its debt ratios and the need to forcefully sell properties,” says Roberto Scholtes, head of strategy at Singular Bank. The valuation adjustment could be almost complete in Britain, he says, but is less far along in continental Europe.

  

  The depreciation of assets increases loan-to-value ratios, in some cases it’s even threatening to exceed the covenants of the loans and bonds. That can force real estate companies to sell assets at a time of low liquidity and weak investor appetite, Scholtes notes. However, he expects the adjustment to be complete in the second half of this year, which alongside upcoming rate cuts, should allow the property sector to start its recovery. For the time being, he remains underweight.

  

  For Citi analyst Aaron Guy, what stands out is the discrepancy in views between company executives and investors. Recent panel discussions his bank organized on European and UK real estate featured CEOs who were confident the worst was over for the sector. Conversations with investors, on the other hand, revealed a high degree of caution.
  “This dislocation of positive CEOs and more cautious investors is likely a significant factor behind most CEOs noting their stocks trading at significant and excessive discounts and are opportunistically inexpensive,” Guy says.

  

  Goldman Sachs analysts including Jonathan Kownator point out that historically, an environment of falling rates, together with high – but falling – inflation, has tended to create a positive tailwind for real estate. They see “property valuations close to the bottom,” while debt maturities are “largely manageable.”

  

  Meanwhile short-sellers have zeroed in on the sector, which is among the most actively targeted in Europe, according to S&P Global data. Real estate management and development stocks have the highest percentage of shares out on loan — an indication of short interest — at 0.37% of market cap, versus less than 0.19% for the overall European stock market. Some names, such as Segro, Unibail-Roadamco-Westfield, Balder and SBB have even higher stock-on-loan ratios, the data shows. With such high figures, any positive central bank message this week could well see a short squeeze unfold on property stocks.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 22:40

• What If The President Ignores The Supreme Court?
  What If The President Ignores The Supreme Court?

  Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Who or what enforces the edicts of the court? Mostly it is the executors of state power. What if they don’t want to because they disagree with the courts? At that point, we’ve got a problem.

  

  Let’s consider.

  Next week, the Supreme Court hears arguments in Murthy v. Missouri over a major free speech issue. The question is whether the federal government can, directly or indirectly, impose itself on social media companies to game their policies in a particular way according to policy priorities of the government itself.

  The First Amendment suggests the answer is no. It says that government cannot impose laws “prohibiting the free exercise” or otherwise “abridging the freedom of speech.” Social media is all about speech. For government to game the system in its favor is a major intervention in rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by the government.

  This principle has been routinely tested from the early years. The Sedition Act of 1798 targeted newspaper editors who criticized the president. There was outrage about that and it swept Thomas Jefferson into office who repealed the cursed thing.

  That was hardly the end. Censorship was tried again in 1835, 1861, 1918, 1940, 1954, and so on, and each time the First Amendment eventually prevailed. And yet underlying this long experience is always the push by government to control the channels of distribution of information.

  Now that every citizen is in a position to be a distributor of information to a broad audience via new technologies, we have government exercising its penchant to want to control. The Constitution of the United States, unique in the world for this protection of free speech, stands against this.

  That seems rather simple. Surely the court will agree.

  Maybe or maybe not.

  Here’s the problem. A massive censorship industrial complex extending from federal agencies to every major digital tech platform has been constructed over the last eight years, and went into full effect in 2020. It still exists today. This largely happened out of the public eye. Even four years ago, it was barely known. The cases of banned accounts and throttled postings seemed isolated and often just an unfortunate exercise of editorial zeal.

  But FOIAs and court discovery have unearthed tens of thousands of pages of receipts, so that the problem is not isolated or random but gargantuan and systematic. It involves dozens of federal agencies, non-government organizations working as contractors, universities on contract either directly or indirectly, and even embedded employees at social media companies. The censorship network is so elaborate at this point that it is truly an industry—an illegal one!

  The 5th Circuit looked at the evidence and was so alarmed that it issued a pre-trial injunction against the federal government, namely many agencies in particular. District Court Judge Terry Doughty described what he saw as “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history” and “akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.”

  The appeals court agreed but delayed the injunction pending a Supreme Court judgment. That is the issue the court takes up next week.

  Here’s the trouble. I seriously doubt that these justices know much about the existence of this machinery. That’s understandable. Most people had no idea that it was being constructed and deployed. After all, when censorship is effective, most people are put in a position of not knowing what they do not know.

  And that’s the whole point: to deny the public information. In this case, the machinery worked to massively distort information on so-called Russiagate, COVID in every aspect of that and what it implies, and the 2020 election, the outcome of which was likely affected by the censorship. For a time there—and we should never have gotten used to this—it seemed like every mainline information outlet became a regime megaphone.

  Sadly, the courts have been denied information too. Now the highest court is hearing the case. Any fair hearing and judgment will result in an upholding of the injunction. It might not go that way. Or two other possibilities: the court sides with the Biden administration and for censorship, or simply kicks the can down the road to wait for the trial phase. In that case, the core problem could stay in litigation for many years!

  If either of those latter two decisions comes down, every federal agency will have a green light to continue and expand its aggressive intervention in information networks. Even independent platforms will feel the heat. The goal is quite clear: for the public to see and hear no information that fundamentally contradicts regime priorities. That’s the result the Biden administration hopes for, and not just on behalf of President Biden but the entire deep-state apparatus that built this censorship industrial complex in the first place.

  The stakes are extremely high. If this thing goes the wrong way, free speech in the United States is toast and the First Amendment will be a dead letter.

  But let’s just suppose there is a good result: the court sides for the plaintiffs, the injunction is immediately upheld, and goes into effect upon the release of the opinion. The social media companies would have lost nothing but their chains. They can still enforce terms of service and community standards but they will no longer be under pressure from any state actor.

  Sorry to ask this question but it must be asked: who precisely is going to enforce this?

  The pathetic answer is that the people and agencies charged with implementing the injunction are the same people against whom the injunction is targeted.

  Do you see the problem here? It is a major flaw in the way the system works. We have to trust the government, whose power is being limited by the courts to limit itself. That’s because the judiciary has no army, no inherent coercive power, no ability directly to punish those who go against its edicts against the enforcers themselves.

  In other words, even a good judgment here does not mean that we are out of the woods.

  There will still be the need for citizen oversight and resistance because the censorship industry will not simply stop existing.

  Another problem: the Biden administration is increasingly attempting to discredit the Supreme Court. This has been going on for a few years now. At the State of the Union address, President Biden directly attacked members of the Supreme Court who were sitting right there. I’m not sure that has ever happened before. And earlier this month, he bragged how his new student loan forgiveness actions are in defiance of the court. Their decision “didn’t stop me,” Mr. Biden said.

  This is an extremely dangerous trajectory we are on. The Supreme Court seems poised to rule against many practices by the executive department of the federal government. This hasn’t happened very often in U.S. history. How precisely this is enforced amounts to a large stress test of the American system itself. There is every reason to believe that the people in charge today do not even believe in that system.

  Is this a flaw in the structure? Sort of but it’s a problem with every system. If institutions collapse, they collapse, and there is no technical fix. Ultimately freedom is preserved by a public consensus in its favor and leaders willing to make it so. It appears that public opinion is the only real and final check on tyranny.

  A final factor here. Notice the mad rush by Google, Facebook, and others to implement artificial intelligence throughout its operation. If they can work with federal officials to make their curation and censorship merely a product of machine learning, they will eliminate all fingerprints from their dirty deeds. This bears watching as well.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 22:20

• Watch: Migrant TikToker Tells Other Illegals How To "Invade" Homes In America
  Watch: Migrant TikToker Tells Other Illegals How To “Invade” Homes In America

  The Marxist destruction of private property rights is on full display after a viral video circulating TikTok, then posted on X, shows a migrant informing other migrants how to “invade” unoccupied homes across America and take advantage of progressive squatting laws. 

  “I found out that there is a law that says that if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it,” the migrant said in a video on TikTok, which Collin Rugg first posted on X. 

  The migrant said he has African friends who have taken over seven homes thanks to squatting laws. 

  NEW: TikToker is going viral by telling illegal immigrants how to “invade” homes in America thanks to progressive squatting laws

  Remarkable.

  “We can invade a house in the USA, what do you think about this new law?” a video from one TikTok user read.

  The man said he has African… pic.twitter.com/b92DT9fYq7

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 20, 2024

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  The video is very concerning because progressive squatting laws are getting out of control. These laws are being abused, and landlords are being screwed. 

  Take, for instance, a woman who found her home full of people squatting illegally was arrested this week for changing the door locks. 

  NEW: New York City homeowner gets arrested after changing the locks on *her own home* after it got taken over by squatters.

  Never do business in New York.

  In NYC, anyone can simply claim “squatter’s rights” after 30 days of living at a home which isn’t even enough time for the… pic.twitter.com/xkcfYM9l7u

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 19, 2024

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  “It’s starting to feel like illegal immigrants have more rights than actual citizens,” one X user said. 

  It’s starting to feel like illegal immigrants have more rights than actual citizens

  — TheRightGuy (@TheRightGuy101) March 20, 2024

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  Here’s what other x users are saying:

  Lax squatting laws reward the scummiest people of society.

  And thanks to social media, many will now be taking advantage of it.

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 20, 2024

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  This. People need to flee blue cities and states.

  — Honeywell N. Todd (@HoneywellNTodd) March 20, 2024

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  Take note of what states these squatting laws are getting out of hand 🤔

  — Foxy’s Crime Scenes (@thewaryfox) March 20, 2024

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  Psychopaths and sociopaths don’t blink as frequently as you and I because they don’t have that emotional background noise that can affect it.

  Count his blinks.

  — The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) March 20, 2024

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  What baffles some is why squatters even have rights in the first place. 

  Americans owning multiple properties should be alert for migrants attempting to seize their home. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 22:00

• New York Doomed To Be Migrant Central – Other Cities Take Note
  New York Doomed To Be Migrant Central – Other Cities Take Note

  Authored by Betsy McCaughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Mayor Eric Adams’ agreement, announced Friday, to limit the time illegal immigrants can stay in shelters at taxpayers’ expense, is smoke and mirrors. It’s designed to fool you into thinking he’s solving a problem when he’s actually caving to the illegal immigrant industrial complex.

  

  Adams claims the agreement, with the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, will allow the city to evict adult migrants from city-run shelters after 30 days, saving taxpayers money and limiting the need for more shelters. Not true.

  The fine print says illegal immigrants have a shot at staying longer if they obtain a driver’s license, follow shelter rules, and show good behavior, or—get this one—apply for public benefits. And this is a “non-exhaustive” list of reasons making illegal immigrants eligible to stay longer.

  The agreement also applies only to single adults. A staggering 78 percent come with children and get priority placement in hotels. The city currently spends a whopping $387 a night for food and a roof alone for each family, and shells out more money for free medical care, education, and legal services. This agreement does zero to alleviate those staggering costs.

  The deal dooms New York City to fiscal disaster, because it will continue to be the No. 1 destination for illegal immigrants seeking a free roof over their heads. The Big Apple is now Migrant Central.

  Worst of all, nothing in the agreement empowers the mayor to evict troublemakers who have repeat run-ins with police. The illegal immigrants who beat up cops in Time Square were living in shelters, courtesy of taxpayers, and already had long rap sheets.

  When troublemakers are arrested and give a shelter address, the shelter should be contacted and told they no longer qualify. Why should taxpayers be footing the bill to house criminals?

  Notorious gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 recruit from the shelters. How convenient that taxpayers pay to house these gangs’ lackeys.

  In October, Adams imposed a 30-day limit on adult migrants but wound up in court when Legal Aid and the Coalition challenged. A long negotiation ensued, ending with Friday’s agreement.

  Since 1981, Legal Aid and the Coalition have fought successfully to impose a “right to shelter” on New York. Now these two self-appointed guardians of the downtrodden—not elected by anyone—insist that the “right” applies not just to New Yorkers but anyone from anywhere in the world who wants shelter here. That’s crazy.

  After months of negotiating, Adams capitulated. No one at the table was looking out for taxpayers or New Yorkers who see their services being cut and their neighborhoods disrupted by the proliferation of shelters. The multibillion-dollar shelter industry came out a winner, but Joe Public got shafted.

  As the agreement was announced, Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom praised the “right to shelter” and Legal Aid Society for the work they do. They’re all in bed together.

  Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid attorney, explained that despite the settlement, “no migrant would be left out on the streets.” In fact, the agreement bans the city from even making illegal immigrants sleep overnight in chairs while waiting to be placed, imposing stricter shelter requirements than before.

  A “right to shelter” for anyone who shows up on Gotham’s doorsteps means New Yorkers who want sanitation services, police and fire protection, and other city amenities go to the back of the line. Their services get cut to pay for sheltering illegal immigrants. Adams needs to battle aggressively, up through the highest courts, to get that “right” reexamined.

  Only New York has a “right to shelter,” and it makes the city the top destination for illegal immigrants. New York City spends more than 10 times as much as Los Angeles per illegal immigrant and more than five times as much as Chicago.

  To top it off, the agreement and the Adams administration are renaming illegal immigrants as “new arrivals,” whitewashing the laws they broke to get here.

  Expect hundreds of thousands more to see these welcome signs and come. Who wouldn’t come?

  On Sunday, Adams praised the city’s “responsible policies” and blamed “Republican extremists” for the border crisis. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but the crisis here in New York City is due to the lavish benefits local Democrats insist on offering “new arrivals.” There’s no whitewashing that.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 21:40

• RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick
  RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick

  Authored by Roger L. Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  I interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Epoch TV’s “Roller Coaster” series and also attended one of his birthday parties. In both instances, I liked the man, found him to be intelligent and personable, and also unafraid to take stands against the über-conformist Democratic Party, notably on health care and, to some degree, on the dangers of the Central Intelligence Agency.

  

  Although I have been an unabashed Donald Trump supporter since he came down the escalator and continue to be so, I would not have been disappointed, even pleased, had former President Trump chosen Mr. Kennedy as his vice-presidential candidate.

  Unlikely as it may have been, it could have helped bring our fractured country together.

  No longer.

  If reports are true—and, in that regard, the website name www.kennedyshanahan.com was reportedly registered by one of his campaign operatives on March 13—Mr. Kennedy has chosen attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.

  I find this bizarre, to say the least, not to mention disappointing.

  Whatever his intentions, such a ticket would drive this country even further apart because Ms. Shanahan is a self-described “progressive.” But that’s only the tip of a disturbing iceberg I will get to in a minute.

  Let’s start with this. Mr. Kennedy, of all people, should know that the basic requirement for a vice presidential candidate, now more than ever, is that a person be qualified to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice.

  We have had disasters in that regard, dodging several bullets, including vice presidents Spiro Agnew, Mike Pence, and (for now, holding one’s breath) Kamala Harris.

  Mr. Trump has made clear that qualification for the presidency is now his first consideration, as it should be.

  What do we know of Ms. Shanahan?

  Not much, except that she is a philanthropist to largely progressive causes and that she is very rich.

  She reportedly helped pay for Mr. Kennedy’s Super Bowl ad to the tune of $4 million via a Super PAC. The ad got mixed reviews and ended up with the candidate apologizing to his family

  How rich Ms. Shanahan really is is unclear, but it is clear the bulk of her money comes from her divorce from Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and, depending on the source, the ninth richest man on the planet.

  RFK Jr’s campaign had been luffing and needed a boost. He looked to the financial. It’s hard to blame him, because that’s the putrid state of American politics. But if you’re trying to run an honest broker campaign against corrupt traditional parties, it’s not the best approach. It’s actually a turn-off.

  This is rather sad because of the optimism and excitement he initially engendered.

  It was said that much of RFK Jr’s appeal was with the more libertarian right, not the increasingly leftist Democrats. I thought that was accurate. I would imagine that unfortunately those days are over if the nomination of the “progressive” Ms. Shanahan is real. Who will RFK Jr. appeal to now?

  Of course the candidate is not confirming this nomination until March 26. We shall see.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 21:20

• Study Says "Interpersonal Racism" Linked To Heart Problems In Black Women
  Study Says “Interpersonal Racism” Linked To Heart Problems In Black Women

  By Caleb Nunes of The College Fix

  “Interpersonal racism” might lead to higher rates of coronary heart disease, according to a recent study. But a health scholar who spoke to The College Fix questioned the findings.

  “Perceived experiences of interpersonal racism in employment, in housing, and with the police were associated with higher incidence of CHD among Black women,” the study from Boston University epidemiologist Shanshan Sheehy concluded. However, “perceived racism in everyday life was not associated with higher risk,” Dr. Sheehy wrote.

  

  She wrote the study, published in the American Heart Association journal, with Michelle Albert, the most recent president of the group. The paper used data from nearly 50,000 black women beginning in 1997.

  The study found that after adjusting for multiple variables, the link between racism and heart problems was “no longer statistically significant,” meaning the connection could be explained by chance. 

  Sheehy did not respond to two emailed requests for comment on the paper, including the claim “racism is highly prevalent in America.”

  The research director at Do No Harm said the extensive data set is a strength of the study, but there are many problems with its designs.

  Ian Kingsbury said, “the association [of interpersonal racism] is not significant when it comes to myocardial infarction,” in his emailed comments to The Fix.

  When it comes to coronary heart disease, Kingsbury said “there is no association with self-reported racism in everyday life but an association with self-reported discrimination in employment, housing and interactions with police.”

  There could be a confounding variable at play.

  Kingsbury said those reporting higher levels of racism in everyday life “are more anxious and prone to conflict,” and people with these personality traits have higher incidence of coronary heart disease.

  When asked about the strengths of this paper, Kingsbury said the paper “connect[ed] data collected decades ago to contemporary health outcomes.”

  Weaknesses included “overstating…findings” as well as a “lack of candor around the limitations of self-reported racism as a measure of actual racism.”

  He said the medical community should not use this paper. The results are “unconvincing” he said, when other variables are taken into consideration.

  Kingsbury said, “it’s unclear how [the results] would be actionable” and said there is a growing view doctors are “people who can solve all the world’s problems.” This often “invites activism into medical training at the expense of technical expertise.”

  Other studies have tried to connect police interactions with health problems.

  For example, a University of Minnesota researcher found a correlation between police stops in a neighborhood and preterm births. However, the researcher, Rachel Hardeman, could not identify any woman who had an interaction with police and then had a preterm birth.

  Furthermore, black immigrant women had better pregnancy outcomes than even white women, according to the study.

  That did not stop Hardeman from blaming racism.

  “These findings suggest that racialized police patterns borne from a history of racism in the United States may contribute to racial disparity in preterm birth,” the Planned Parenthood board member wrote.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 21:00

• Ukraine Drones Again Target Strategic Bomber Base Deep Inside Russia
  Ukraine Drones Again Target Strategic Bomber Base Deep Inside Russia

  On Wednesday a wave of Ukrainian drones targeted a well-known airbase deep inside Russia which is home to strategic bombers. The air base, called Engels 2, is near the Russian city by the same name, and nearby residents reported hearing at least four explosions during the attack.

  The Main Directorate of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) has since owned up to the attack, with sources in Russia confirming to international media that “targets had been hit” and the damage is being assessed.

  

  Some drones may have been intercepted, however, with Roman Busargin, the governor of the Russian region of Saratov, describing in a statement that a drone attack was “repelled”. This attack is significant given Engels is located over 600km from the Ukraine border. But it’s not the first time it has come under attack during the war.

  In December of 2022 there were reports that two Tu-95 bombers were damaged in a similar drone operation from Ukraine. Later that same month explosions were reported at the airbase but the extent of damage on the ground was unclear. During this latter attack, three Russian servicemen were reportedly killed by falling debris after UAVs were intercepted.

  A well-known Russian Telegraph channel which reports breaking news related to the Ukraine war said of this newest assault on the airfield: “Preliminary data suggests the anti-aircraft defense system was activated. Residents report hearing a prior siren. There is no official information on casualties or damages.”

  Ukraine-based media sources have speculated that something was hit at Engels:

  Meanwhile, social media users mentioned a fire at the airfield area post-explosions, with rescuers quickly arriving.

  One commentator, residing near the airfield, wrote, “There was at least one direct hit, the rest (of the drones) likely shot down by anti-aircraft missiles. Then came the fire trucks, ambulances, police with flashing lights.”

  Engels has long been known to house both Tu-160 and Tu-95MS long-range bombers which are being used in Ukraine, thus it remains a high priority target for Ukraine’s cross-border attacks against Russian territory.

  The Kremlin has accused Western intelligence with assisting in such operations. This recently found some degree of positive confirmation in a damning New York Times story detailing the extent of the CIA’s presence in Ukraine going back a decade. The CIA established intelligence outposts along the border with Russia, many of which are likely directing these attacks into Russian territory.

  

  Feeling emboldened by a string of ‘successes’, including prior attacks and bombings in Crimea but especially destruction of oil refineries, Ukraine forces will likely try to continue hitting targets inside Russia, also as their capability grows given they have been supplied with ever-longer range rockets from the US and NATO countries

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 20:40

• Boeing Has Been Prioritizing Production Over Safety, FAA Chief Says
  Boeing Has Been Prioritizing Production Over Safety, FAA Chief Says

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Michael Whitaker said on March 19 that his impression from a recent visit to Boeing’s facilities suggests that there are issues within the aerospace giant’s safety culture.

  

  During an interview with NBC Nightly News, Mr. Whitaker said the FAA’s audit and a culture survey of Boeing revealed that the aircraft maker’s “priorities have been on production, and not on safety and quality.”

  “So what we really are focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality,” the FAA administrator told the media outlet.

  When asked if certain protocols were not being met regarding how the aircraft manufacturer approached airplane production, Mr. Whitaker said: “Not what you would have expected if safety is the first priority.

  “Whenever someone comes into the FAA to brief on their company, the first thing I expect is to talk about safety because we all have to start there.

  “If it’s not safe, then the whole system is not working the way it should.”

  FAA Audit on Boeing

  The FAA initiated a six-week audit on Boeing’s manufacturing processes for the 737 Max jetliner after a panel blew off one of the planes during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5.

  The Alaska Airlines flight was en route to Ontario, California, from Portland, Oregon, when its door plug blew off, forcing the pilots to turn back and make an emergency landing.

  

  The FAA published its 50-page report on Feb. 26, noting that its experts had identified 27 areas in which Boeing’s safety procedures and culture were insufficient.

  According to the report, experts observed a “disconnect” between Boeing’s senior management and other members of the organization when it comes to safety culture.

  The report also found a “lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization” and could not find a “consistent and clear” process for employees to report safety concerns.

  “The procedures and training are complex and in a constant state of change, creating employee confusion, especially among different work sites and employee groups,” the report reads.

  Experts also highlighted “hesitation in reporting safety concerns for fear of retaliation,” noting that managers at the plane manufacturer authorized to oversee employee performance evaluations, salary decisions, promotion, and disciplinary actions are also tasked with investigating safety concerns.

  The company was given 90 days to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality-control issues.” Mr. Whitaker has urged Boeing to make “real and profound improvements.”

  

  Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s commercial plane division, said in a March 12 update that the “vast majority” of violations found by the FAA involved workers not following Boeing’s approved procedures.

  Mr. Deal said Boeing will take remedial steps that include “working with each employee noted with a non-compliance during the audit to ensure they fully understand the work instructions and procedures.”

  The company will also add weekly compliance checks for all work teams in the Renton, Washington, factory, where Max jets are assembled, he said.

  “We will assess our status in the factory and, if needed, put mitigation plans in place. We will not hesitate in stopping a production line or keeping an airplane in position,” Mr. Deal stated.

  The Alaska Airlines mishap is not the only recent incident to cause concern. On March 7, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200ER plane lost a wheel shortly after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport. On Jan. 20, a Boeing 757 jet operated by Delta Air Lines lost its nose wheel while preparing for takeoff in Atlanta.

  Katabella Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 20:20

• US Military Desperately Seeking To Stay In Niger Despite Order To Leave
  US Military Desperately Seeking To Stay In Niger Despite Order To Leave

  The Pentagon is desperately seeking to stay in Niger despite the military-led government telling US troops to leave in the wake of accusations from American officials that Niger could be poised to transfer uranium to Iran. Niger was outraged at the allegations and rejected them.

  “The Pentagon is working with Niger officials, seeking a way for U.S. troops to stay in the country — a key base for counterterrorism operations in sub-Saharan Africa — following a weekend directive that they leave,” The Associated Press reports.

  

  Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US is seeking “clarification” from Niger officials and is still engaged in lengthy and direct” discussions with the junta leaders. Washington has warned the West African nation against forging deeper ties with ‘rogue’ actors like Russian and Iran. 

  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that the Biden administration is “closely monitoring the Russian defense activities” there in order “to assess and mitigate potential risk to U.S. personnel, interests and assets.” Wagner Group is one major Russian mercenary outfit which has made deep inroads into the region.

  Over the weekend, Niger’s military-led government which is called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) declared US flights over Niger territory to be “illegal”. 

  Last year’s coup in the country saw a military-led government come to power, which from the start signaled rough and uncertain times ahead for US-Niger relations. A Saturday statement by Nigerien junta spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said, “Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism.”

  This charge of the US not respecting the West African nation’s sovereignty comes in reaction to recent Western intelligence claims that Niger is engaged in secret talks and deal-making to grant Iran access to its uranium. Singh in a Monday briefing had said, “We were troubled on the path that Niger is on.”

  According to the latest back-and-forth between junta leaders and the Pentagon:

  “The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer,” he [Insa Garba Saidou, an advisor to Niger’s generals] told The Associated Press.

  Singh said the U.S. was aware of the March 16 statement “announcing the end of the status of forces agreement between Niger and the United States. We are working through diplomatic channels to seek clarification. These are ongoing discussions and we don’t have more to share at this time.” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the discussions were prompted by Niger’s “trajectory.”

  “We are in touch with transition authorities to seek clarification of their comments and discuss additional next steps,” Patel said.

  When will Congress learn? Billions $$ burned up trying to buy “democracy” in Africa. https://t.co/e5su1Tuhkl

  — Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 20, 2024

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

  American officials are now worried about the major drone base only recently built at a cost of $110 million called Air Base 201, which was crucial for Pentagon drone surveillance operations over the region. Likely it will now have to be shuttered.

  International reports estimate that some 1,000 or more US troops and contractors remain in the country, with most of them manning the airbase. Much of the population looks upon the US as an ‘imperial’ power, also given the history of the Western powers in Africa, particularly starting in the 19th century and what historians dub “the Scramble for Africa”. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 20:00

• Biden Campaign Distances Itself From Mysterious Big Dem Donor 'Chairman G'
  Biden Campaign Distances Itself From Mysterious Big Dem Donor ‘Chairman G’

  Authored by Soobin Kim and Bradley Hope via whalehunting.projectbrazen.com,

  Last fall, we reported on a man named Gaurav Srivastava who pretended to be a CIA operative to allegedly fleece the sanctioned Dutch oil trader Niels Troost. The ruse was simple, according to extensive recorded conversations: hand over half your company to me, a secret spy, and I’ll protect you from the US government because … I’m a secret spy.

  

  In the following months since our original article, it emerged that Srivastava – or “Chairman G,” as he likes to be called – is a big time political donor in the United States.

  • Whale Hunting can exclusively reveal that FBI agents in Los Angeles have been interviewing Srivastava’s current and former associates about his campaign donations, claims of being a federal officer and other financial affairs.

  • We also confirmed from a staff member for the Washington State Democratic Party that the Biden campaign is in the process of quietly refunding thousands of dollars of his political donations.

  The FBI inquiries — ongoing for last several months — may lead nowhere, but the Biden campaign’s decision to start refunding donations suggests there are deeper issues afoot for Srivastava.

  “All allegations raised in this story are false,” a spokesman for Srivastava told us (full statement and more details on the news after the jump).

  

  The culmination of Srivastava’s rise to public life came alongside a more than $1 million donation in 2022 to the Atlantic Council, a DC-based think tank. The money underwrote a conference in Bali, where he was a “co-host” and rubbed shoulders with business magnates, political honchos and John Legend.

  But that relationship isn’t going smoothly. The Atlantic Council terminated its relationship with Srivastava, Politico reported last month, and returned additional funds donated by Srivastava in 2023.

  “We made the decision to terminate our relationship with Mr. Srivastava in May 2023 upon learning new information because of our donor review process. For example, we learned that The Gaurav & Sharon Srivastava Family Foundation was not an established 501C3 in April of 2023, despite Mr. Srivastava’s representation to the Council that this was a registered foundation,” the spokesperson told Politico.

  Srivastava’s lawyer told Politico the Atlantic Council made the decision after they “disagreed” about how a gift would be implemented. (Small note: Recipients of gifts usually try very hard to implement the handover of gifts.)

  Alongside his campaign to solve global food security he also became a big spender on political campaigns. Among Srivastava’s key advisors for how to best disperse funds for political purposes were Greg Schultz (Biden’s 2020 campaign manager) and Ret. General Wesley Clark. They didn’t respond to requests for comment.

  The Federal Election Commission’s database of individual contributions shows that Srivastava contributed at least $1 million to political campaigns and committees in the United States. As an Indian national he is eligible to donate to political campaigns as a Green Card holder. Lo and behold, the donations led to a photo op with Biden which you can find here.

  Since 2022, Srivastava has made sizeable donations – including over $500,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $500,000 to Senate Majority PAC.

  One mystery we are continuing to investigate: Whale Hunting discovered publicly available evidence suggesting Srivastava contributed over $116,000 using the personal details of an individual with the same name who resides in the same city. The funds were donated under the previous employer, occupation and mailing address of the namesake, who denies making the donations.

  It’s unclear how those donations were made. Impersonating another individual to make a political contribution is strictly prohibited by law.

  The single biggest recipient for the donations made with the namesake’s personal details was the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee for Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election, which received $50,000. About a dozen state Democratic parties across the U.S. also received funds through the Biden Victory Fund.   

  “The Biden campaign is aware of the issue and the donation is in the process of being refunded,” a staff member with Washington State Democratic Party, which received these funds, told Whale Hunting in an email.

  It’s unclear the exact allegations the FBI is investigating, but among the questions they’ve presented current and former associates of Srivastava have been queries about his political spending, source of funds, involvement in international money transfers and other topics related to the allegations already aired publicly about Srivastava in a litany of lawsuits.

  Srivastava’s spokesman’s full comment here:

  All allegations raised in this story are false. The source for this story and others, including 87 paid stories on obscure websites, is tied to a Russian asset facilitating the unfettered trade of Russian oil as made clear by the U.K. sanctions. There’s a direct through-line between Russia, a barrel of oil and the high price of gas at the pump squeezing the American consumer. The slanderous suggestion of a fabricated relationship between Mr. Srivastava and a U.S. intelligence agency was orchestrated by the same Russian asset relied on as a source for your stories and designed by that Russian asset to put a target on his back, threatening the safety of him, his friends and family.

  So if your year is off to a bad start, think about what Srivastava is now dealing with: being on the Feds’ radar, juggling a glut of lawsuits brought on by all the people he’s allegedly stiffed – from his former interior designer to former landlord to former business partners – and witnessing the collapse of his carefully crafted reputation. 

  In the meantime, Whale Hunting will be chasing this story to fill its gaping plot holes, one among them being where on earth Chairman G got the funds to make the donations in the first place. If you have any insight, please get in touch!

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 19:40

• Major Jeweler Sees Youngsters Postponing Engagements In Era Of Failed Bidenomics
  Major Jeweler Sees Youngsters Postponing Engagements In Era Of Failed Bidenomics

  Signet Jewelers Ltd., the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales, had previously signaled to investors that there would be an upswing in US engagements this year as dating patterns returned to normal. But that forecast was downgraded on Wednesday as the jeweler warned that persistently high inflation and job market uncertainty have forced some young folks to delay engagements. 

  “If right now they’re worried about their jobs or they’re still paying a little bit more for rent or for gas, then they might wait a few months for that engagement,” Gina Drosos, the CEO of SignetSignet, explained in a Wednesday interview quoted by Bloomberg.

  Signet previously told investors that 2024 would be the year of an upswing in US engagements. However, this outlook was revised on Wednesday, and the number of engagements for the year is expected to rise between 5% and 10% versus the previous forecast of 10%. 

  

  Drosos said 2.1 million couples were engaged last year, the lowest in years, but recovered from the dating dry spell during Covid. Still, the number is well below the 2.8 million level seen pre-2020. 

  The downshift in the outlook comes after three years of elevated inflation, which has strained consumers’ finances. 

  In the era of failed Bidenomics, Gen-Zers and millennials have flooded social media platforms, complaining about their financial hardships:

  The struggle is real for the new generation, which is just now learning that working a 9-5 isn’t as easy as college. pic.twitter.com/FvAeYkTddt

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 25, 2023

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

  A lot of people seem to think this mindset is unique to Gen Z. It’s not.

  Every generation goes through this. Watch Reality Bites, where a group of 20-somethings in the early 90s deal with the exact same struggles and emotions as described in this video.

  pic.twitter.com/7h1gAN3c7R

  — Matthew Kobach 🍕 (@mkobach) October 20, 2023

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

  For youngsters who have already planned a wedding, average costs hit a new record high in 2023, exceeding $30,000, according to The Wedding Report, a research company that tracks wedding data. 

  Drosos added, “Wouldn’t it be great if the Fed lowered interest rates and if consumer confidence got on a really consistent upswing?” She noted that easing financial conditions would push the number of 2024 engagements to the high end of Signet’s guidance. 

  The obsession with lavish weddings is over for the average couple. Say goodbye to elaborate floral displays, a beautiful venue on a golf course, crab cakes and steak for dinner, fancy champagne toasts, live bands, open bars, chocolate fountains, and multi-tiered cakes, as an increasing number of folks are opting for courthouse weddings in the era of failed Bidenomics. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 19:20

• How The Democrats Plan To Steal The Election
  How The Democrats Plan To Steal The Election

  Authored by Llewellyn Rockwell via LewRockwell.com,

  Biden and Trump have clinched the nominations of their parties for President. Everybody is gearing up for a battle between them for the election in November. It’s obvious that Biden is “cognitively impaired.” In blunter language, “brain-dead”. Partisans of Trump are gearing up for a decisive victory.

  But what if this battle is a sham? What if Biden’s elite gang of neo-con controllers won’t let Biden lose?

  

  How can they stop him from losing? Simple. If it looks like he’s losing, the elite forces will create enough fake ballots to ensure victory. Our corrupt courts won’t stop them. They have done this before, and they will do it again, if they have to.

  I said the Democrats have done this before.

  The great Dr. Ron Paul explains one way they did this in 2020. The elite covered up a scandal that could have wrecked Biden’s chances:

  “Move over Watergate. On or around Oct. 17, 2020, then-senior Biden campaign official Antony Blinken called up former acting CIA director Mike Morell to ask a favor: he needed high-ranking former US intelligence community officials to lie to the American people to save Biden’s lagging campaign from a massive brewing scandal.

  The problem was that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, had abandoned his laptop at a repair shop and the explosive contents of the computer were leaking out. The details of the Biden family’s apparent corruption and the debauchery of the former vice-president’s son were being reported by the New York Post, and with the election less than a month away, the Biden campaign needed to kill the story.

  So, according to newly-released transcripts of Morell’s testimony before the House judiciary Committee, Blinken “triggered” Morell to put together a letter for some 50 senior intelligence officials to sign – using their high-level government titles – to claim that the laptop story “had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.”

  In short, at the Biden campaign’s direction Morell launched a covert operation against the American people to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election. A letter signed by dozens of the highest-ranking former CIA, DIA, and NSA officials would surely carry enough weight to bury the Biden laptop story. It worked. Social media outlets prevented any reporting on the laptop from being posted and the mainstream media could easily ignore the story as it was merely “Russian propaganda.”

  Asked recently by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) why he agreed to draft the false sign-on letter, Morell testified that he wanted to “help Vice President Biden … because I wanted him to win the election.”

  Morell also likely expected to be named by President Biden to head up the CIA when it came time to call in favors.

  The Democrats and the mainstream media have relentlessly pushed the lie that the ruckus inside the US Capitol on Jan. 6th 2021 was a move by President Trump to overthrow the election results. Hundreds of “trespassers” were arrested and held in solitary confinement without trial to bolster the false narrative that a conspiracy to steal the election was taking place.

  It turns out that there really was a conspiracy to steal the election, but it was opposite of what was reported. Just as the Steele Dossier was a Democratic Party covert action to plant the lie that the Russians were pulling strings for Trump, the “Russian disinformation campaign” letter was a lie to deflect scrutiny of the Biden family’s possible corruption in the final days of the campaign.

  Did the Biden campaign’s disinformation campaign help rig the election in his favor? Polls suggest that Biden would not have been elected had the American electorate been informed about what was on Hunter Biden’s laptop. So yes, they cheated in the election.

  The Democrats and the mainstream media are still at it, however. Now they are trying to kill the story of how they killed the story of the Biden laptop. This is a scandal that would once upon a time have ended in resignation, impeachment, and/or plenty of jail time. If they successfully bury this story, I hate to say it but there is no more rule of law in what has become the American banana republic.” See here.

  But the main way the election can be rigged is by fraudulent “voting.” It’s much easier to do this with digital scanning of votes than with old-fashioned ballot boxes.

  Dr. Naomi Wolf explains how electronic voting machines make it easier to steal elections:

  “People could steal elections in this ‘analog’ technology of paper and locked ballot boxes, of course, by destroying or hiding votes, or by bribing voters, a la Tammany Hall, or by other forms of wrongdoing, so security and chain of custody, as well as anti-corruption scrutiny, were always needed in guaranteeing accurate election counts. But there was no reason, with analog physical processing of votes, to query the tradition of the secret ballot.

  Before the digital scanning of votes, you could not hack a wooden ballot box; and you could not set an algorithm to misread a pile of paper ballots. So, at the end of the day, one way or another, you were counting physical documents.

  Those days are gone, obviously, and in many districts there are digital systems reading ballots.” See here.

  This isn’t the first time the Left has stolen an election. It happened in the 2020 presidential election too. Ron Unz offers his usual cogent analysis:

  “There does seem to be considerable circumstantial evidence of widespread ballot fraud by Democratic Party forces, hardly surprising given the apocalyptic manner in which so many of their leaders had characterized the threat of a Trump reelection. After all, if they sincerely believed that a Trump victory would be catastrophic for America why would they not use every possible means, fair and foul alike, to save our country from that dire fate?

  In particular, several of the major swing-states contain large cities—Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Atlanta—that are both totally controlled by the Democratic Party and also notoriously corrupt, and various eye-witnesses have suggested that the huge anti-Trump margins they provided may have been heavily ‘padded’ to ensure the candidate’s defeat.” See here.

  In a program aired right after Biden’s pitiful State of the Union speech, the great Tucker Carlson pointed out that Biden’s “Justice” Department has already confessed that it plans to rig the election. It will do this by banning voter ID laws as “racist.” This permits an unlimited number of fake votes:

  “If Joe Biden is so good at politics, why is he losing to Donald Trump, who the rest of us were assured was a retarded racist who no normal person would vote for? But now Joe Biden is getting stomped by Donald Trump, but he’s also at the same time good at politics? Right.

  Again, they can’t win, but they’re not giving up. So what does that tell you? Well, they’re going to steal the election. We know they’re going to steal the election because they’re now saying so out loud. Here is the Attorney General of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer of this country in Selma, Alabama, just the other day.

  [Now Carlson quotes the Attorney General, Merrick Garland:]

  “The right to vote is still under attack, and that is why the Justice Department is fighting back. That is why one of the first things I did when I came into office was to double the size of the voting section of the Civil Rights Division. That is why we are challenging efforts by states and jurisdictions to implement discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot, including those related to mail-in voting, the use of drop boxes and voter ID requirements. That is why we are working to block the adoption of discriminatory redistricting plans that dilute the vote of Black voters and other voters of color.

  [Carlson then comments on Garland:]

  “Did you catch that? Of course, you’re a racist. That’s always the takeaway. But consider the details of what the Attorney General of the United States just said. Mail-in balloting, drop boxes, voter ID requirements. The chief law enforcement officer of the United States Government is telling you that it’s immoral, in fact racist, in fact illegal to ask people for their IDs when they vote to verify they are who they say they are. What is that? Well, no one ever talks about this, but the justification for it is that somehow people of color, Black people, don’t have state-issued IDs. Somehow they’re living in a country where you can do virtually nothing without proving your identity with a government-issued ID without government-issued IDs. They can’t fly on planes, they can’t have checking accounts, they can’t have any interaction with the government, state, local, or federal. They can’t stay in hotels. They can’t have credit cards. Because someone without a state-issued ID can’t do any of those things.

  But what’s so interesting is these same people, very much including the Attorney General and the administration he serves, is working to eliminate cash, to make this a cashless society. Have you been to a stadium event recently? No cash accepted. You have to have a credit card. In order to get a credit card you need a state-issued ID, and somehow that’s not racist. But it is racist to ask people to prove their identity when they choose the next President of the United States. That doesn’t make any sense at all. That’s a lie. It’s an easily provable lie, and anyone telling that lie is advocating for mass voter fraud, which the Attorney General is. There’s no other way to read it. So you should know that. You live in a country where the Attorney General is abetting, in fact calling for voter fraud, and that’s the only chance they have to get their guy re-elected.” See here.

  Because of absentee ballots, the voting can be spread out over a long period of time. This makes voting fraud much easier. Mollie Hemingway has done a lot of research on this topic:

  “In the 2020 presidential election, for the first time ever, partisan groups were allowed—on a widespread basis—to cross the bright red line separating government officials who administer elections from political operatives who work to win them. It is important to understand how this happened in order to prevent it in the future.

  Months after the election, Time magazine published a triumphant story of how the election was won by “a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.”  Written by Molly Ball, a journalist with close ties to Democratic leaders, it told a cheerful story of a “conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes,” the “result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans.”

  A major part of this “conspiracy” to “save the 2020 election” was to use COVID as a pretext to maximize absentee and early voting. This effort was enormously successful. Nearly half of voters ended up voting by mail, and another quarter voted early. It was, Ball wrote, “practically a revolution in how people vote.” Another major part was to raise an army of progressive activists to administer the election at the ground level.

  Here, one billionaire in particular took a leading role: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

  Zuckerberg’s help to Democrats is well known when it comes to censoring their political opponents in the name of preventing “misinformation.” Less well known is the fact that he directly funded liberal groups running partisan get-out-the-vote operations. In fact, he helped those groups infiltrate election offices in key swing states by doling out large grants to crucial districts.

  The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an organization led by Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla, gave more than $400 million to nonprofit groups involved in “securing” the 2020 election. Most of those funds—colloquially called “Zuckerbucks”—were funneled through the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a voter outreach organization founded by Tiana Epps-Johnson, Whitney May, and Donny Bridges. All three had previously worked on activism relating to election rules for the New Organizing Institute, once described by The Washington Post as “the Democratic Party’s Hogwarts for digital wizardry.”

  Flush with $350 million in Zuckerbucks, the CTCL proceeded to disburse large grants to election officials and local governments across the country. These disbursements were billed publicly as “COVID-19 response grants,” ostensibly to help municipalities acquire protective gear for poll workers or otherwise help protect election officials and volunteers against the virus. In practice, relatively little money was spent for this. Here, as in other cases, COVID simply provided cover.

  According to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), Georgia received more than $31 million in Zuckerbucks, one of the highest amounts in the country. The three Georgia counties that received the most money spent only 1.3 percent of it on personal protective equipment. The rest was spent on salaries, laptops, vehicle rentals, attorney fees for public records requests, mail-in balloting, and other measures that allowed elections offices to hire activists to work the election. Not all Georgia counties received CTCL funding. And of those that did, Trump-voting counties received an average of $1.91 per registered voter, compared to $7.13 per registered voter in Biden-voting counties.

  The FGA looked at this funding another way, too. Trump won Georgia by more than five points in 2016. He lost it by three-tenths of a point in 2020. On average, as a share of the two-party vote, most counties moved Democratic by less than one percentage point in that time. Counties that didn’t receive Zuckerbucks showed hardly any movement, but counties that did moved an average of 2.3 percentage points Democratic. In counties that did not receive Zuckerbucks, “roughly half saw an increase in Democrat votes that offset the increase in Republican votes, while roughly half saw the opposite trend.” In counties that did receive Zuckerbucks, by contrast, three quarters “saw a significant uptick in Democrat votes that offset any upward change in Republican votes,” including highly populated Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, and DeKalb counties.

  Of all the 2020 battleground states, it is probably in Wisconsin where the most has been brought to light about how Zuckerbucks worked.

  CTCL distributed $6.3 million to the Wisconsin cities of Racine, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, and Kenosha—purportedly to ensure that voting could take place “in accordance with prevailing [anti-COVID] public health requirements.”

  Wisconsin law says voting is a right, but that “voting by absentee ballot must be carefully regulated to prevent the potential for fraud or abuse; to prevent overzealous solicitation of absent electors who may prefer not to participate in an election.” Wisconsin law also says that elections are to be run by clerks or other government officials. But the five cities that received Zuckerbucks outsourced much of their election operation to private liberal groups, in one case so extensively that a sidelined government official quit in frustration.

  This was by design. Cities that received grants were not allowed to use the money to fund outside help unless CTCL specifically approved their plans in writing. CTCL kept tight control of how money was spent, and it had an abundance of “partners” to help with anything the cities needed.

  Some government officials were willing to do whatever CTCL recommended. “As far as I’m concerned I am taking all of my cues from CTCL and work with those you recommend,” Celestine Jeffreys, the chief of staff to Democratic Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich, wrote in an email. CTCL not only had plenty of recommendations, but made available a “network of current and former election administrators and election experts” to scale up “your vote by mail processes” and “ensure forms, envelopes, and other materials are understood and completed correctly by voters.”

  Power the Polls, a liberal group recruiting poll workers, promised to help with ballot curing. The liberal Mikva Challenge worked to recruit high school-age poll workers. And the left-wing Brennan Center offered help with “election integrity,” including “post-election audits” and “cybersecurity.”

  The Center for Civic Design, an election administration policy organization that frequently partners with groups such as liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund, designed absentee ballots and voting instructions, often working directly with an election commission to design envelopes and create advertising and targeting campaigns. The Elections Group, also linked to the Democracy Fund, provided technical assistance in handling drop boxes and conducted voter outreach. The communications director for the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, an organization that advocates sweeping changes to the elections process, ran a conference call to help Green Bay develop Spanish-language radio ads and geofencing to target voters in a predefined area.

  Digital Response, a nonprofit launched in 2020, offered to “bring voters an updated elections website,” “run a website health check,” “set up communications channels,” “bring poll worker application and management online,” “track and respond to polling location wait times,” “set up voter support and email response tools,” “bring vote-by-mail applications online,” “process incoming [vote-by-mail] applications,” and help with “ballot curing process tooling and voter notification.”

  The National Vote at Home Institute was presented as a “technical assistance partner” that could “support outreach around absentee voting,” provide and oversee voting machines, consult on methods to cure absentee ballots, and even assume the duty of curing ballots.

  A few weeks after the five Wisconsin cities received their grants, CTCL emailed Claire Woodall-Vogg, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, to offer “an experienced elections staffer that could potentially embed with your staff in Milwaukee in a matter of days.” The staffer leading Wisconsin’s portion of the National Vote at Home Institute was an out-of-state Democratic activist named Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein. As soon as he met with Woodall-Vogg, he asked for contacts in other cities and at the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

  Spitzer-Rubenstein would eventually take over much of Green Bay’s election planning from the official charged with running the election, Green Bay Clerk Kris Teske. This made Teske so unhappy that she took Family and Medical Leave prior to the election and quit shortly thereafter.

  Emails from Spitzer-Rubenstein show the extent to which he was managing the election process. To one government official he wrote, “By Monday, I’ll have our edits on the absentee voting instructions. We’re pushing Quickbase to get their system up and running and I’ll keep you updated. I’ll revise the planning tool to accurately reflect the process. I’ll create a flowchart for the vote-by-mail processing that we will be able to share with both inspectors and also observers.”

  Once early voting started, Woodall-Vogg would provide Spitzer-Rubenstein with daily updates on the numbers of absentee ballots returned and still outstanding in each ward­­—prized information for a political operative.

  Amazingly, Spitzer-Rubenstein even asked for direct access to the Milwaukee Election Commission’s voter database:

  “Would you or someone else on your team be able to do a screen-share so we can see the process for an export?” he wrote.

  “Do you know if WisVote has an [application programming interface] or anything similar so that it can connect with other software apps? That would be the holy grail.”

  Even for Woodall-Vogg, that was too much.

  “While I completely understand and appreciate the assistance that is trying to be provided,” she replied, “I am definitely not comfortable having a non-staff member involved in the function of our voter database, much less recording it.”

  When these emails were released in 2021, they stunned Wisconsin observers. “What exactly was the National Vote at Home Institute doing with its daily reports? Was it making sure that people were actually voting from home by going door-to-door to collect ballots from voters who had not yet turned theirs in? Was this data sharing a condition of the CTCL grant? And who was really running Milwaukee’s election?” asked Dan O’Donnell, whose election analysis appeared at Wisconsin’s conservative MacIver Institute.

  Kris Teske, the sidelined Green Bay city clerk—in whose office Wisconsin law actually places the responsibility to conduct elections—had of course seen what was happening early on. “I just don’t know where the Clerk’s Office fits in anymore,” she wrote in early July. By August, she was worried about legal exposure: “I don’t understand how people who don’t have the knowledge of the process can tell us how to manage the election,” she wrote on August 28.

  Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich simply handed over Teske’s authority to agents from outside groups and gave them leadership roles in collecting absentee ballots, fixing ballots that would otherwise be voided for failure to follow the law, and even supervising the counting of ballots. “The grant mentors would like to meet with you to discuss, further, the ballot curing process. Please let them know when you’re available,” Genrich’s chief of staff told Teske.

  Spitzer-Rubenstein explained that the National Vote at Home Institute had done the same for other cities in Wisconsin. “We have a process map that we’ve worked out with Milwaukee for their process. We can also adapt the letter we’re sending out with rejected absentee ballots along with a call script alerting voters. (We can also get people to make the calls, too, so you don’t need to worry about it.)”

  Other emails show that Spitzer-Rubenstein had keys to the central counting facility and access to all the machines before election night. His name was on contracts with the hotel hosting the ballot counting.

  Sandy Juno, who was clerk of Brown County, where Green Bay is located, later testified about the problems in a legislative hearing. “He was advising them on things. He was touching the ballots. He had access to see how the votes were counted,” Juno said of Spitzer-Rubenstein. Others testified that he was giving orders to poll workers and seemed to be the person running the election night count operation.

  “I would really like to think that when we talk about security of elections, we’re talking about more than just the security of the internet,” Juno said. “You know, it has to be security of the physical location, where you’re not giving a third party keys to where you have your election equipment.”

  Juno noted that there were irregularities in the counting, too, with no consistency between the various tables. Some had absentee ballots face-up, so anyone could see how they were marked. Poll workers were seen reviewing ballots not just to see that they’d been appropriately checked by the clerk, but “reviewing how they were marked.” And poll workers fixing ballots used the same color pens as the ones ballots had been filled out in, contrary to established procedures designed to make sure observers could differentiate between voters’ marks and poll workers’ marks.

  The plan by Democratic strategists to bring activist groups into election offices worked in part because no legislature had ever imagined that a nonprofit could take over so many election offices so easily.

  “If it can happen to Green Bay, Wisconsin, sweet little old Green Bay, Wisconsin, these people can coordinate any place,” said Janel Brandtjen, a state representative in Wisconsin.

  She was right. What happened in Green Bay happened in Democrat-run cities and counties across the country. Four hundred million Zuckerbucks were distributed with strings attached. Officials were required to work with “partner organizations” to massively expand mail-in voting and staff their election operations with partisan activists. The plan was genius. And because no one ever imagined that the election system could be privatized in this way, there were no laws to prevent it.

  “Such laws should now be a priority.” See here.

  Let’s do everything we can to publicize the steal. That way, we have a chance to prevent it.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 19:00

• Badass 'Vigilantes' Show Up Evict Squatters At NY House Where Homeowner Arrested
  Badass ‘Vigilantes’ Show Up Evict Squatters At NY House Where Homeowner Arrested

  A pair of vigilantes showed up to a house in Queens, New York where the homeowner was recently arrested for changing the locks on her own house in order to try and evict squatters.

  

  On Tuesday afternoon, two unidentified men driving a black pickup truck pulled into the driveway of the Flushing home in search of the squatters.

  

  “We are looking to get this guy out,” one of the men told the Daily Mail. “I am here to talk to him. I want to see why he is here.”

  The owner, Adele Andaloro, 47, was in the process of selling the inherited property valued at roughly $1 million, when the squatters moved in.

  

  One of the neighbors on the block, who saw what transpired, said ‘holy c**p,’ and said she had no idea that the squatter issue was causing so much backlash.

  Many of the neighbors are baffled by the ordeal – and say they want to know how the squatters gained access into the house in the first place.

  ‘It’s disgusting,’ one person said, who mentioned that he has seen one of the squatters walking around outside.

  He added sarcastically: ‘I wish I could live rent free.’ -Daily Mail

  

  Another neighbor told the Mail that she had seen concerning activity at the house over the past few weeks – including one of the squatters carrying a door into the house one night.

  “I actually saw the door go into the house. The guy looked at me then looked away,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

  “They are doing construction on the house all night long,” said another neighbor. “I heard a drill and saw through my window that they were drilling holes into the wall and putting up boards.”

  

  Andaloro’s arrest was captured on video.

  NEW: New York City homeowner gets arrested after changing the locks on *her own home* after it got taken over by squatters.

  Never do business in New York.

  In NYC, anyone can simply claim “squatter’s rights” after 30 days of living at a home which isn’t even enough time for the… pic.twitter.com/xkcfYM9l7u

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 19, 2024

  According to locals, Andaloro lived in the house with her daughter and mother. When her mother passed away several years ago, she stayed in the house and rented out the basement to an older man and his dog. After the man moved out of state, Andaloro put the house on the market – when the squatters showed up. 

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 18:40

• Watch: Biden Bizarrely Wanders Off Stage Mid Event To Pull Faces At A Baby
  Watch: Biden Bizarrely Wanders Off Stage Mid Event To Pull Faces At A Baby

  Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

  Joe Biden wandered off stage during an event in Phoenix, Arizona so that he could pull funny faces at a baby.

  

  Biden suddenly walked off camera while his campaign manager was introducing him at a Mexican diner in front of literally dozens of people who had shown up to see him.

  Biden gets distracted and wanders off stage pic.twitter.com/Rk9VczNa20

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 19, 2024

  When he came back, Biden announced “Well folks, I have to tell you straight up… I like you all, but I couldn’t resist that little baby.”

  He reportedly asked the mother holding the child “how old?”

  The rest of the appearance was the usual Biden vs teleprompter slur fest:

  BIDEN (struggling to read the giant teleprompter right in front of him): “And we’ve cut deficit by over by the time it’s out over $2 trillion we’ve cut the deficit!”

  (No, he didn’t. He ADDED to the deficit.) pic.twitter.com/zze8QPfTjX

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 20, 2024

  Biden claims he’s a “researcher in history” pic.twitter.com/VNu2ums9j1

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 20, 2024

  The reason Biden was holding this Mexican Diner event is that Donald Trump leads Biden among Hispanic voters 39% to 34%, according to a  USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released in January. 

  A New York Times/Siena College Poll released in February also found Biden losing the Hispanic vote to Trump, 40% to 46%.

  Biden’s popularity among minority demographics is tanking, while Trump’s is soaring.

  *  *  *

  Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 18:20

• Attention Gen-Zers: Baltimore City Wants To Sell $1 Homes 
  Attention Gen-Zers: Baltimore City Wants To Sell $1 Homes 

  The failed leftist mayor of Baltimore City, Brandon Scott, wants to practically give away vacant row homes to attract new residents and expand the tax base. This initiative comes as the city’s population crashes to a century-low and lawless neighborhoods are littered with vacant row homes. 

  Bloomberg reports Mayor Scott plans to offer residents more than 200 city-owned vacant properties for $1 each. However, those residents must rehab the homes and live in them. The proposal could be voted on as soon as Wednesday. 

  

  WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren recently attended an oversight hearing at City Hall where several council members asked Scott’s administration to postpone a vote on the measure. 

  “There are so many risks and hazards associated with these vacant properties,” resident Maurice Brock told WJZ’s Hellgren. 

  Brock said, “It’s a definite safety risk for citizens, for city employees and firefighters.”

  We spoke to people in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood, which has a high concentration of vacant homes, about what can be done to rehab so many crumbling properties. @wjz pic.twitter.com/eDo45gmVsH

  — Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) March 5, 2024

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  Five decades of Democratic control have produced a massive exodus of the population, leaving 13,500 vacant homes across the city. Those who wish to stay anonymous but have participated in rehabbing vacant row homes in the city before, tell us the figure is much higher. 

  Bloomberg noted Scott’s plan to sell vacant homes is reminiscent of the city’s “dollar house” program from the 1970s. 

  The move to revitalize Baltimore (or at least attempt) comes as the city’s total population recently crashed to a 100-year-low, losing nearly 40% of its people since the peak of almost a million in the early 1960s. 

  

  Who in their right mind would buy a vacant home in an imploding city? 

  

  Baltimore City is a prime example that whatever Democrats touch turns to dust.

  As for Gen-Zers and millennials who have been priced out of homes – well now is your chance to buy at the rock bottom. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 18:00

• Pace Of EV Adoption Must Quadruple To Reach Illinois' Goal
  Pace Of EV Adoption Must Quadruple To Reach Illinois’ Goal

  Authored by Mark Glennon and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

  It will take a mighty big change of fortune for the electric vehicle (EV) industry to meet Illinois’ goal of one million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030.

  Gov. JB Pritzker repeated that target last week, but trends are pointing somewhere else.

  The hard numbers are EV registrations in Illinois, published by the Illinois Secretary of State. For the most recent 12-month period, Illinois added just 32,478 vehicles to its EV registration rolls. That’s 8,120 per quarter.

  But to reach the target of one million by 2030, that number would have to increase to about 34,000 per quarter — a four-fold increase, as shown in this chart:

  

  Those numbers may be generous because they assume that all registered EVs will stay on the road through 2030. More importantly, in the latest quarter, new EV registrations dropped to just 4,997, well below the average for the year of 8,120 used above to calculate the needed 4X improvement.

  The recent drop in the quarterly increase in EV registrations no doubt reflects the new reality for EVs, which was summed up in a CNBC article last week headlined, “EV euphoria is dead. Automakers are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.” From that CNBC article:

  Now the hype is dwindling, and companies are again cheering consumer choice. Automakers from Ford, General Motor, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.

  Even U.S. EV leader Tesla, which is estimated to have accounted for 55% of EV sales in the country in 2023, is bracing for what “may be a notably lower” rate of growth, CEO Elon Musk said in late January.

  The gap between Illinois’ target and the EV adoption rate is roughly consistent with the numbers at a national scale, where EV sales need to rise 500 percent by 2032 to hit federal emissions targets.

  EV optimists point to the expectation of lower priced vehicles coming to showrooms soon and more charging stations coming online, shortages of which have impaired EV demand. They also point to consistent year-over-year improvement in EV sales. That may be true, but a 4X jump in the rate of EV adoption looks questionable at best, and record sales are not enough. To make the EV industry financially viable, far more sales are needed than at the current pace.

  So far, Illinois seems unconcerned, and more taxpayer money will go into the effort. Last week, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced round one of the Illinois National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, which will provide up to $50 million for the construction of 46 charging stations across the state.

  Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been bet on EVs, making it a historic chapter in government central planning. So far, the numbers look bad.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 17:40

• $500 Per Hour Tutors Are Back In Vogue Now That Colleges Have Decided SATs Are, In Fact, A Necessity
  $500 Per Hour Tutors Are Back In Vogue Now That Colleges Have Decided SATs Are, In Fact, A Necessity

  It was just about a month ago we noted that SATs were once again being reconsidered by colleges who had reduced or eliminated their requirement due to (pick one: diversity, racism, climate change, equity, gender affirmation). 

  As a result of the comeback, Bloomberg noted this week that tutors, sometimes costing $500 per hour, are all of a sudden back in vogue. 

  Bloomberg wrote that demand for SAT tutoring and prep centers is surging as several top colleges reintroduce mandatory SATs, and students adapt to the SAT’s new digital format.

  Kaplan reported a significant enrollment increase, attributed to digital testing and the reinstatement of testing requirements by institutions and three Ivy League schools—Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown—have reinstated mandatory SATs, alongside MIT and the University of Texas at Austin. This shift has left many students scrambling for preparation before early application deadlines.

  Companies like The Princeton Review have also seen a spike in interest for prep services.

  

  Parents Bloomberg profiled are once again investing in tutoring services for their children to improve their chances of success. The debate over standardized testing’s fairness persists however, with critics arguing it favors wealthier students who can afford extensive prep. But those winning the argument still claims that standardized tests provide valuable benchmarks for admissions, potentially aiding in diversifying the applicant pool.

  We noted last month in a piece from American Greatness, that according to Axios, multiple colleges used the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to weaken the importance of SAT and ACT test scores in most student applications. But in recent weeks, several schools have reversed course; Yale is considering repealing its prior policy of making SAT/ACT requirements optional, with Dartmouth already reinstating the requirements earlier this month. MIT reversed a similar policy back in 2022.

  Other schools that have eliminated SAT/ACT requirements include Harvard and Columbia. Harvard, along with Cornell and Princeton, have extended their policy of making the scores optional, while Columbia’s policy remains permanent.

  One of the motivating factors behind the reversal is ongoing research showing a clear correlation between students’ standardized test scores, and their subsequent academic performance and graduation rates in college. Some schools had previously opposed the test requirements for reasons of “diversity,” baselessly accusing the tests of being “racist” and against minority students.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 03/20/2024 – 17:20

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