May 21

Today’s News 21st May 2022

  • Conrad Black: The Swamp Must Be Drained
    Conrad Black: The Swamp Must Be Drained

    Op-Ed authored by Conrad Black via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Democrats are increasingly desperate as the return of Donald Trump becomes more likely each week.

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the American Freedom Tour at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, on May 14, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

    They are muddling the sequence of events that got us to the present impasse: Trump ran against the corrupt back-scratching, log-rolling society of the OBushintons—the Clinton pay-to-play schemes, the Biden sales of influence and access, the semi-disguised socialist racism elitism of the Obamas, and the flabby sameness and ineffectuality of the Bush–McCain–Romney–McConnell–Ryan Republicans. Trump sensed the people were dissatisfied with the bipartisan Swamp, and he ran as strenuously against the Bushes and McCain and Romney in 2016 as he did against the Clintons and Obamas.

    The anti-Trumpers of both parties, in the most legally questionable presidential election in U.S. history, eased Trump out in 2020 with the aid of 4.8 million harvested ballots, 95 percent of the national political media, and 70 percent of the campaign money, to bring in (unintentionally, one assumes, although there was plenty of warning) the most incompetent regime in the country’s history.

    In 2020, the Washington establishment demonstrated the accuracy of Trump’s claims of how corrupt and unscrupulous it was, and Biden has demonstrated that it’s even more incompetent at government than Trump alleged.

    The Swamp must be drained, and distasteful though he might be in some ways, probably no one less formidable in his egocentricity and demagogic talents than Trump could drain the Swamp. The Republicans between Reagan and Trump were all inducted into it themselves, and the Republican “Never-Trumpers” are as fierce in their animosity toward the former president as toward the Democrats, and as the Democrats are toward Trump. Only Trump can finish the job.

    This is why the latest anti-Trump wheeze is to send Biden and Trump out to pasture together, as if it were an even trade: The Democrats get rid of their two biggest problems, and the Republicans return to being doormats, awarded the White House and the speaker’s chair at times as long as they don’t interrupt the majestic slide into the Democratic socialist paradise (with a permanent free tax-lunch for their rich friends in Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood).

    Biden is irrelevant and Trump has the stamina of a 40-year-old; the call for joint retirement is bunk on all counts.

    Pennsylvania illustrates the political polarization of the country and also provides the solution. The Democrats will nominate a Sandersite leftist for U.S. senator and the Republicans will almost certainly win with a Trumpite—a description that fits all four of their front-runners, and all four are more or less carpetbaggers. The Republican nominee will be another senator whose loyalty is to Trump, if he returns as president, and not to Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

    The walls are closing in on the Democrats, to use one of their favorite, completely dishonest phrases about Trump when they were trying to sell the gigantic fraud that he had colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election.

    The Democrats hid their innocuous candidate in 2020 in his basement on grounds of COVID-19, while using the same justification for drastic changes in key states of voting and vote-counting rules, changes that were often effected illegally, and the judiciary abdicated and refused to judge any of the serious complaints on their merits. It was the most dangerously illegal assault on the integrity of the election process and on the constitutional balance of powers in the country’s history.

    The problem is not that both 2020 candidates are now too elderly. The problem is that 2020 and the run-up to it demonstrated that the Swamp is as venal and self-interested and corrupt as Trump said in 2016, and they are back. If we go back to business as usual—a stronger Democrat than Biden and a compliant consensus Republican—the rot of 2016 accelerates.

    When the congressional Republicans, though most of them weren’t really supporters of his, appreciated his program, and between the Republican majority in Congress in the first two years and the prerogatives of executive action, Trump got much of his program through, despite unprecedented harassment. The authors of the perfidious fraud of the 2020 election were rescued by Trump’s inept response and the abdication of the judiciary.

    Trump inadvertently collaborated with his enemies by bungling the daily COVID-19 briefings, bungling the first debate by his belligerency, and warning about ballot harvesting but not challenging it legally from the outset, comprehensively, and only sending poor Rudy Giuliani out on a trick or treat show when the battle was over.

    These were the circumstances that caused Trump to call 250,000 of his supporters to the Ellipse adjacent to the White House on Jan. 6, 2021. He enumerated his grievances against the electoral process and the courts’ failure to try the important cases, and having unsuccessfully urged the mayor of Washington and the speaker of the House of Representatives to provide enhanced security for the Capitol on that day, he urged the crowd to demonstrate at the Capitol but to do so “peacefully and patriotically.” This provoked the second asinine stab at impeachment, now ostensibly to remove Trump from an office that he had already vacated.

    Trump thus provoked in four years a 100 percent increase in the number of presidential impeachments that had occurred in the previous 228 years of its history—the march of the criminalization of policy differences. (None of the four was justified.)

    The House of Representatives committee to investigate Jan. 6, stuffed with pathological Trump-haters of both parties and from which Nancy Pelosi barred a couple of Trump’s more prominent defenders, will excavate a new low in malicious partisanship and will televise its hearings in June. No one believes them and no one cares; Jan. 6 isn’t the point and wasn’t an insurrection.

    There were many months of arrests and interrogations in which it must be assumed that prosecutors resorted extensively to their widespread practice of grossly abusing the plea-bargain rules to suborn and extort perjured inculpatory evidence against their real target, Trump and his organization, with promises of minimal sentences and immunity from prosecution for perjury. This has not turned up anything, and the last thing Trump wanted was anything that could be imputed to him as an attack on constitutional government. That charge is a bit rich coming from this gang of Democrats.

    The Democrats have tried to distract the country with the abortion question, but it isn’t working any more than the country believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the oil companies are responsible for the highest gasoline price in American history. Their latest gambit is to try to whip up hysteria one more time on COVID-19, but that won’t fly either. The only person who had anything right about COVID-19 was Trump with his imaginative and determined pursuit of a vaccine.

    The Trump-haters of both parties who rattled the windows of Washington when they heaved a sigh of relief at Trump’s departure are only now emerging from denial that he’s about to run over them with a steamroller much larger and more fueled by righteousness than the one they drove over him.

    Woke, 1619 revisionism, racist disinformation, and violent protest: All have to be torn up, root and branch. But if Trump does return, he must give less ammunition to his enemies. American history and public policy are not all about him, and the presidency of the United States is such a great office it requires its occupants to behave with a higher level of civility and dignity than Donald Trump often did when he was president.

    He will return to that office and do better in it if he’s less needlessly abrasive and self-obsessed.

    The country can start again in 2028 with new leaders, a fully house-trained post-Trump Republican Party, and a rebuilt Democratic Party over the Ozymandian wreckage of Biden–Sanders–Harris–Schumer–Pelosi.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 23:40

  • America's Appetite For Guns Has Soared Since Dot-Com Bubble
    America’s Appetite For Guns Has Soared Since Dot-Com Bubble

    Thanks to executive orders from Joe Biden, the ATF has released its annual report on the firearms industry and commerce.

    According to that report, there has been a massive increase in firearms ownership and a significant increase in firearms manufacturing.

    The report, titled “Firearms Commerce in the United States – Annual Statistical Update 2021,” sheds light on the number of firearms manufactured per year, firearms imports & exports, NFA forms filed, and more.

    According to the report, firearms manufacturing has tripled since the year 2000. It continues to increase over time, with manufacturing reaching a high of 11,497,441 firearms made in 2016, likely due to the demand caused by the 2016 election (there is no data for 2020 or 2021 in the report).

    Clearly, Americans’ appetite for firearms has increased dramatically over the years, with demand being met by a huge rise in imports…

    Handguns dominated the imports…

    Additionally, based on background check data, one would expect that the numbers for 2020 & 2021 would be significantly higher than previous years as well…

    This fits with the fact that many Americans who have traditionally opposed firearms-ownership bought guns in the face of civil unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic during those years.

    Interestingly, the amount of tax revenue stemming from the National Firearms Act is also included in the report. The NFA, as it is commonly known, is a 1934 law that regulates and taxes the purchase of machine guns, short-barreled rifles, and silencers.

    ATF reports that since 2000 the revenue from NFA tax has increased from around $2 Million to $51.6 Million in 2020, including a 635% increase in Form 4 applications alone. (The ATF Form 4 is used to transfer a suppressor, machine gun, or SBR from a dealer to an individual.)

    This increase could represent a significant change in market demand as more and more Americans dive into serious firearms ownership.

    In the introduction to the report, the ATF’s current interim director, Gary M. Restaino, noted that the purpose was to: “prevent diversion of these firearms from the legal to the illegal market.”

    Is it possible that ATF published this data to support gun control legislation?

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    Read the ATF’s report here. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 23:20

  • USAF Successfully Tests Hypersonic Weapon As It Races To "Field Weapon To Warfighters"
    USAF Successfully Tests Hypersonic Weapon As It Races To “Field Weapon To Warfighters”

    After several failed tests, the U.S. Air Force successfully tested a hypersonic missile off the Southern California coast last week. 

    USAF reports on May 14, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress belonging to the 419th Flight Test Squadron and the Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base, California, successfully released an AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California. 

    Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, the USAF’s program executive officer, said the ARRW test was a “major accomplishment by the ARRW team, for the weapons enterprise, and our Air Force.” 

    “The team’s tenacity, expertise, and commitment were key in overcoming the past year’s challenges to get us to the recent success. We are ready to build on what we’ve learned and continue moving hypersonics forward,” Heath said.

    Lt. Col. Michael Jungquist, 419th FLTS commander, said, “the test team executed this test flawlessly.” 

    The test follows three consecutive failed tests, while both Russia (see: here) and China (see: here) have completed successful tests and or fielded the super fast weapons on the modern battlefield. 

    It’s no secret the U.S. is falling behind the hypersonic weapons race as the largest military in the world, in terms of size and defense budget, has yet to field hypersonic weapons that travel five times greater than the speed of sound. 

    The Biden administration revealed a new trilateral security pact between Australia – United Kingdom – United States (AUKUS) partnership, a move to “accelerate the development of advanced hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities,” the White House said last month. 

    Jungquist said, “We’re doing everything we can to get this game-changing weapon to the warfighter as soon as possible.” 

    The USAF did not mention when the ARRW would enter series production or a timeline on when it would be fielded. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 22:40

  • Victor Davis Hanson: Is Biden's "Success" Our Mess?
    Victor Davis Hanson: Is Biden’s “Success” Our Mess?

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

    If an administration deliberately wished to cause havoc on the border, to ensure fuel was nearly unaffordable, to create a crime wave, to spark 1970s hyperinflation, and to rekindle racial tensions, what would it have done differently than what President Joe Biden has done?

    So is Biden malicious, incompetent, or a wannabe left-wing ideologue?

    When pressed about inflation and fuel price hikes, Biden either blames someone or something else, gets mad at the questioner, or claims former President Donald Trump did it.

    His administration apparently believes things are going well and according to plan.

    When polls disagree, his team either believes the American people are brainwashed or that they themselves have not supplied sufficient propaganda. So they never pivot or compromise, but rededicate themselves to continued failure.

    Why? Apparently, what most in the country see as disasters, Biden envisions as success.

    Take the border – or rather its disappearance.

    Never in U.S. history has an administration simply canceled immigration laws, opened the border, and welcomed in millions of illegal aliens. All arrive illegally, and without audit, or vaccinations and tests in times of a pandemic.

    Cartels now import lethal drugs at will into the United States. We have no idea how many terrorists walk across the border each day.

    Almost all the entering millions who break the law are poor, without high school diplomas or English skills, and in dire need of massive federal and state housing, food, education, legal, and health subsidies.

    Do the leftists in Washington believe that millions of dependent new residents will look to the Left for decades of support and soon find ways to reciprocate with fealty at the polls? Is that why Democrats brag in unapologetic tribalist fashion about changing the demography of the electorate?

    Former President Barack Obama’s energy secretary-designate Steven Chu once gaffed in the 2008 campaign when he openly wished that U.S. gas prices would reach European levels.

    In truth, the Left has always believed the only way to achieve their objectives of discouraging driving, forcing middle-class Americans onto trains and buses, and persuading them to live in urban high-rises rather than drive carbon-spewing cars from spacious suburban ranch-style homes was to encourage high fuel prices.

    Is that agenda why Biden, during the current energy crisis, simply canceled new federal oil and gas leases? As diesel hits $7 a gallon in California, why else did he refuse to finish the Keystone XL pipeline or reopen Alaskan oil fields?

    Inflation continues officially to exceed 8% per annum. Most consumers feel it is double that when they pay for food, fuel, building materials, houses, or rent – the essential stuff of life.

    What did the Biden Administration expect would follow from keeping real interest rates at near zero, while printing trillions of dollars at the moment supplies were short and demand was spiking?

    Or did it think inflation more fairly “spreads the wealth”? Does it prompt new necessary attacks on “corporate greed?” Does it demand more federal intervention and socialist policies?

    If inflation is “bad” for most, it may not seem so to this left-wing administration.

    Violent crime is on its way to 1970s levels. The combination of defunding the police, radical city and county prosecutors who don’t charge or lock up criminals, and emptying jails and prisons have ignited a national crime wave.

    The Biden Administration shrugs. It offers no new federal help to fund more police or charge freed criminals under applicable federal statutes.

    Does it think it is more socially just to let criminals free than incarcerate them?

    Does it buy into “critical legal theory” that laws do not reflect ancient ideas of right and wrong, but instead are “constructed” by the privileged to oppress the already oppressed?

    Is what Americans see as dangerous crime something the Biden zealots applaud as tough social karma?

    Americans are tired of the new woke tribalism. Judging individuals on the basis of their race, gender, or superficial appearance is amoral, and contrary to the entire civil rights movement, and the U.S. Constitution.

    It destroys any idea of meritocracy and divides the country artificially into supposed victims and victimizers.

    But do the Biden people see it that way?

    Or do they promote racial tensions and tribalism, as welcome revolutionary fervor?

    In that regard, the Bidenites promote identity politics as a good way to stir up the pot, to demonize supposed oppressors and deify the oppressed – all as a way of retaining political power. For the Left, living in a socialist nation controlled by an elite is far preferable to living in a free and prosperous one answerable only to the people.

    The public believes the Biden Administration has failed America, with disastrous results due either to its incompetence, belligerence, or left-wing zealotry.

    But Biden and his delusional team seem delighted with what they have wrought.

    In sum, what Americans see as an abject catastrophe, they cheer on as a stunning and planned success.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 22:20

  • Indonesia Lifts Palm Oil Export Ban As Supply Improves  
    Indonesia Lifts Palm Oil Export Ban As Supply Improves  

    After nearly a month, Indonesia will lift an export ban on palm oil starting Monday, which could ease tight edible oil markets worldwide and reduce some of the pressure on soaring food prices. 

    “Based on the current supply and price of cooking oil and considering that there are 17 million workers in the palm oil industry, both working farmers and other supporting staff, I have decided that the export of cooking oil will reopen on Monday, May 23,” President Joko Widodo said in a statement on Thursday. 

    Indonesia is the world’s biggest shipper of edible oils, accounting for nearly 60% of global palm oil production. Palm oil is used in everything from food manufacturing to beauty products to biofuel. The export ban was the most significant act of crop protectionism globally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that choked the world off of edible oil supplies from the Black Sea region. Sending prices sky-high. 

    Widodo decided in late April to impose the export ban because domestic prices were rising and stockpiles were shrinking. The ban authorized shipments of palm oil to be rerouted into domestic supplies. The president expects domestic prices to ease in the coming weeks. 

    “Consumers can breathe a sigh of relief now,” Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, head of trading and hedging strategies at Kaleesuwari Intercontinental, told Bloomberg. 

     

    Presidential ratings for the Widodo have slid to a six-year low due to Indonesians’ growing discontent with soaring food prices. 

    Bloomberg notes the ban was lifted after hundreds of farmers protested the government, “saying their incomes have suffered because prices of their fresh fruit bunches plunged.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 22:00

  • Louisiana's Department Of Education Shifts From CRT To American Exceptionalism
    Louisiana’s Department Of Education Shifts From CRT To American Exceptionalism

    Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Louisiana public schools are closing the door to woke ideologies in social studies curricula and turning instead to American exceptionalism.

    “If you look throughout the course of American history, you see that we have always been on a quest for freedom, whether it was the signers of the Declaration of Independence or the abolishment of slavery,” Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told The Epoch Times.

    A detail from the painting “Declaration of Independence” by John Trumbull (1826), depicting the Committee of Five: (L–R) John Adams, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. (Public Domain)

    Brumley oversaw the process that led to the adoption of the Louisiana Department of Education’s new social studies standards, which were approved by the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in March 2022 and will go into effect in 2023.

    Though content standards are supposed to be revised every seven years, Brumley said they hadn’t been changed since 2011.

    “That’s something I wanted to take on because, frankly, the children deserve better,” he said.

    The current standards made it difficult for students to look at history chronologically, Brumley said, with fourth graders learning about the American Revolution, then not studying the French Revolution until late in the fifth grade.

    Because of this, better sequencing of content became one of the goals for the new standards, as well as the incorporation of multiple historical perspectives that told “the whole story,” he said.

    Accessibility for the public was also a top priority, Brumley said.

    “We recognized how politically combustible these conversations are in our society, and we wanted to get it right for every American,” Brumley said.

    This began a year-long process involving community members, parents, and students workshopping draft standards, the first set of which were produced by a steering committee.

    “It initially began with a couple of different workgroups that wrote a set of draft standards independent from the department, and we just facilitated the process,” Brumley said.

    That draft received “overwhelmingly negative” criticism, one of the reasons being the incorporation of critical race theory (CRT), which Brumley had said he would not allow in the K–12 school system.

    Based on the feedback taken from public comments, the drafts were revised into something called the Freedom Framework.

    “We have the quest for freedom embedded in the American story throughout the course of our history, and for me, instead of approaching a set of standards through other ideologies, we felt like the sweet spot for us was the Freedom Framework, because that sets the tone for the greatness of our country,” Brumley said.

    That greatness includes recognizing where there has been the need to eradicate barbaric institutions like slavery and racist policies, he said.

    Proponents of teaching CRT in schools have said CRT teaches “real, black history,” and that the removal of CRT from schools is as an attempt to “whitewash” history.

    However, Brumley said the entirety of America’s history will be taught, including its mistakes.

    “We did not shy away from some of the most challenging points in American history,” he said. “In fact, we went above and beyond to capture those moments in history when we needed to self-correct, but at the same time, we weren’t going to allow for any form of indoctrination to be a part of these standards,” he said.

    Telling the whole story doesn’t just mean obsessing over the ugly chapters of American history, Brumley said, but instead examining its innate exceptionalism.

    “That’s the beauty of a constitutional republic as opposed to other forms of government, because in order to form a more perfect union, over the course of time we’ve had to self-correct,” he said. “This is what our Founding Fathers intended.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 21:40

  • "I Am Indeed Out For Blood": Musk Says 2016 Hillary Tweet 'Absolutely' Disinformation, Asks Parag To Weigh In
    “I Am Indeed Out For Blood”: Musk Says 2016 Hillary Tweet ‘Absolutely’ Disinformation, Asks Parag To Weigh In

    Update (1645ET): Elon Musk has waded into the Sussmann trial – tweeting on Friday that it’s “absolutely correct” that a 2016 tweet from Hillary Clinton was “misleading disinformation.”

    A week before the 2016 election, Clinton notably tweeted “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” to which user @veespike asked Musk: “@elonmusk I have reported this tweet as misleading disinformation to the powers that be at @twitter. I would be interested to know if, when you receive control over the company, anything was done with this at any level. Pls advise soonest.”

    “You are absolutely correct,” Musk replied, adding “That tweet is a Clinton campaign hoax for which their campaign lawyer is undergoing a criminal trial.”

    Musk then asked Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and top Twitter attorney Vijaya Gadde to weigh in.

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    Musk then got into an argument with a pro-Hillary account, “Tesla Facts” (@truth_tesla), which suggested Elon was lying.

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    The richest man in the world replied to several other people in the thread. He’s gone all-in folks.

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    Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook dropped a bombshell in court on Friday – testifying that Hillary Clinton approved the dissemination of allegations that then-candidate Donald Trump had a covert communications channel with a Russian bank, despite campaign officials not being “totally confident” in the rumor, according to Fox News.

    Mook, who was called to the stand by the defense team for former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann, was asked under cross-examination about the campaign’s understanding of the allegations against Trump, and whether the campaign planned to release it to the media.

    He told prosecutor Andrew DeFillippis that he was first briefed by campaign general counsel Marc Elias, who was a partner with Perkins Coie at the time, adding that he was told the data had come from “people that had expertise in this sort of matter.”

    Mook said the campaign was not totally confident in the legitimacy of the data, but had hoped to give the information to a reporter who could further “run it down” to determine if it was “accurate” or “substantive.”

    He also said he discussed whether to give the information to a reporter with senior campaign officials, including campaign chairman John Podesta, senior policy advisor, now White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and communications director Jennifer Palmieri. -Fox News

    “I discussed it with Hillary as well,” said Mook, who added “I don’t remember the substance of the conversation, but notionally, the discussion was, hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter.”

    When asked how Clinton responded, Mook said: “She agreed to that.“

    “A reporter could vet the information and then decide to print it,” he added.

    And then of course, Hillary did this:

    Of note, after previously denying the prosecutions request to include the tweet into evidence, he approved it on Friday.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsSussman has been charged with lying to the FBI when he told General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 – less than two months before the US election – that he wasn’t doing work “for any client” when he presented the Alfa Bank “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communicates channel” between the Trump organization and the Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank.

    Special Counsel John Durham alleges that Sussman was in fact working for the Clinton Campaign and tech executive Rodney Joffe. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 21:38

  • Anti-Government Protests Spread In Iran After Flour-Based Food Staples Jump 300%
    Anti-Government Protests Spread In Iran After Flour-Based Food Staples Jump 300%

    Large-scale street protests have been raging in Iran since last week, as inflation and the war in Ukraine have driven flour-based food staples to jump by as much as 300% – this also after the government moved to cut food subsidies.

    Amid the soaring prices, already in an economy devastated by years of US sanctions gong back to the Trump administration’s pullout of the JCPOA nuclear deal, the central government has few options in terms of relief for the populace given assets abroad remain frozen.

    Illustrative, prior protest: AP

    Demonstrators have been outraged over food prices and lack of urgent supplies such as medicines, leading to clashes with police deploying riot control measures. 

    According to the latest reports, “Social media footage not verified by Reuters showed at least six people killed and dozens injured in past days. There has been no official comment on any death toll.” However, these widespread reports have been hard to verify.

    Reuters observed that “On Thursday footage posted on social media showed intense clashes in cities including Farsan in central Iran, where riot police fired live rounds at demonstrators. In Shahr-e Kord and Hafshejan, security forces used teargas and clubs to disperse the protesters.”

    Over the past several days sporadic internet cuts have been reported in some provinces, which is part of the central government’s playbook for preventing large-scale street rallies from taking place.

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    “Iranian officials have also blamed the price hikes on the smuggling of heavily subsidized flour into neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan,” The Guardian wrote of recent street clashes.

    Last Sunday saw demonstrations break out reportedly across 40 cities and towns, chiefly concentrated in the south and southwest, and a handful of cities in the north. They’ve reportedly spread to or near the capital of Tehran, according to a Friday report in Middle East Monitor:

    Anti-government protests sparked by rising food prices in Iran have spread to at least six provinces including the capital, Tehran.

    Earlier this month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi approved subsidy reforms aimed at controlling commodity prices in a bid to mitigate the impact of rising global wheat prices and US sanctions on the Iranian economy.

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    Other countries in the region, particularly Lebanon and Syria, have seen people’s ability to access affordable food products and basic staples worsen. Middle East and North Africa populations are expected to be hit hardest by supply blockages out of both Ukraine and Russia. In particular war-torn Ukraine was the fourth-largest exporter of maize (corn) in the 2020/21 season, and the sixth-largest wheat exporter in the world, according to the International Grains Council.

    Prior to the Russian invasion, there were 6 million tons of wheat and 15 million tons of corn ready for export.  Farmers in top growing areas in the southern part of the country, such as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, have halted sowing operations due to the lack of farm equipment, shortage of diesel, fertilizer, and seed as the disruptions caused by the conflict.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 21:20

  • Pentagon Clears Itself Of Blame In Syria Strike That Killed 'Piles' Of Women & Children
    Pentagon Clears Itself Of Blame In Syria Strike That Killed ‘Piles’ Of Women & Children

    Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams,

    No US personnel will be held accountable for a March 2019 airstrike that killed scores of Syrian civilians including women and children, the Pentagon said this week in announcing that an internal investigation into the massacre found that no laws of war were broken and that there was no cover-up of the incident as alleged in a New York Times exposé.

    An executive summary of a classified investigation led by U.S. Army Gen. Michael Garrett stated that “no rules of engagement (ROE) or law of war (LOW) violations occurred” in connection with the March 18, 2019 strike near the Syrian town of Baghuz that, according to an initial battle assessment, killed around 70 people.

    While finding that “policy compliance deficiencies at multiple levels of command led directly to numerous delays in reporting” the civilian casualties, and that “administrative deficiencies contributed to the impression” that the Pentagon did not take the incident seriously, the probe concluded there was “no malicious or wrongful intent” by the military, and that there was “no evidence” to support allegations of a cover-up.

    Heavy smoke rises above Islamic State’s last remaining position in the Syrian town of Baghuz during battles with the Syrian Democratic Forces on March 18, 2019. AFP via Getty Images

    However, a former evaluator in the Defense Department inspector general’s office who attempted to investigate the Baghuz strike said he personally witnessed Pentagon brass trying to bury reports of the bombing.

    “It’s the standard government line: Mistakes were made but there was no wrongdoing,” Eugene Tate told the Times in response to Garrett’s summary. “But if the same mistakes were being made over and over again for years, shouldn’t someone have done something about it? It doesn’t sit well with me, and I’m not sure it should sit well with anyone else.”

    “The investigation says the reporting was delayed,” Tate added. “None of the worker bees involved believe it was delayed. We believe there was no reporting.”

    The airstrike remained concealed from the public until the publication of a November 2021 Times investigation, which also revealed that a secretive Special Forces unit, Task Force 9, was responsible for the attack. One strike cell within the task force known as Talon Anvil reportedly killed and wounded Syrian civilians at 10 times the rate of similar units’ airstrikes.

    According to Pentagon officials familiar with the contents of Garrett’s classified report, the military concluded that 56 people died in the Baghuz strike—52 Islamic State militants and four civilians—when a U.S. F-15E attack jet dropped a single 500-pound bomb on a large group of people.

    However, evaluators appear to have used a standard adopted during the administration of former President Barack Obama under which all military-aged males in a blast zone are classified as combatants regardless of their actual status. The officials’ claim stands in stark contrast with what U.S. personnel quoted in the Times exposé reported seeing at the time of the attack. According to the report, U.S. troops watching real-time footage of the strike “looked on in stunned disbelief,” according to an officer who was there, with one military analyst stating that “we just dropped on 50 women and children.”

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    After the strike, civilian observers “found piles of dead women and children,” according to Times reporters Dave Philipps and Eric Schmitt, who spent months investigating the attack. “A legal officer flagged the strike as a possible war crime that required an investigation. But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike,” the pair explained. “The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized, and classified. United States-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified.”

    Responding to Garrett’s summary, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memorandum Tuesday that “our efforts to mitigate and respond to civilian harm resulting from U.S. military operations are a direct reflection of U.S. values,” and that “protecting innocent civilians is fundamental to our operational success and is a strategic and moral imperative.”

    However, U.S. bombs and bullets have killed more foreign civilians than those of any other armed force in the world in recent decades. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, at least 900,000 people—including nearly 400,000 civilians—have died during the course of the 21-year U.S.-led War on Terror. 

    Throughout the war, few US troops—and even fewer people higher up the chain of command—have been held accountable for harming civilians. When asked during a Tuesday press conference why no one being held accountable for the Baghuz strike, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby replied, “I understand the questions about accountability, I get it.”

    “In this case, Gen. Garrett found that the ground force commander made the best decisions that he could, given the information he had at the time, given a very lethal, very aggressive threat, in a very confined space,” he added. “It is deeply regrettable… we apologize for the loss of innocent life.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 21:00

  • Quick Shot Of Heat To Roast 100 Million People In Northeast
    Quick Shot Of Heat To Roast 100 Million People In Northeast

    About 100 million people in the Northeast will be blasted with a quick shot of heat and humidity this Saturday and Sunday. High temperatures are expected to range between the upper 80s and mid-90s from Ohio to Washington, D.C. to Baltimore to Philipehia to New York City. 

    AccuWeather meteorologists say some cities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast could see the hottest conditions since last August. In some metro areas, record highs for this time of year that have stood the test of time could be broken. 

    Daily record highs that have stood since the World War II and Great Depression eras will be challenged at a number of locations. At Philadelphia, temperatures could approach the record of 95 set in 1934 on Saturday. In both Raleigh, North Carolina, and Albany, New York, the daily records for Saturday, May 21, were set in 1941. The record in Raleigh is 96, while the record in New York’s state capital is 91. -AccuWeather

    “Early season heat with likely record high temperatures will spread from the South into the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast on Friday, Saturday, and perhaps Sunday,” the National Weather Service said. The agency has issued a Heat Advisory along the I-95 corridor in the Northeast. 

    It’s the first time since 2006 that a Heat Advisory for New York City has been issued for this time of year. Tomorrow, high temps in Central Park could reach 93 degrees, tying a record for the date. The quick blast of heat comes as temperatures in the urban park between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan haven’t even breached 80 degrees yet this year. 

    “The brunt of it should just be a one-day thing … at the minimum, we will be close to all the records in NYC,” Matt Wunsch, a weather service meteorologist on Long Island, told Bloomberg.

    Wunsch said it’s difficult for temperatures in the Northeast to get so hot this time of year because the Atlantic Ocean water temperatures are still very cool. However, the heat is coming from Great Plains, where a megadrought continues to ravage the area. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 20:40

  • Is The Woke Corporate 'Worm' Finally Turning?
    Is The Woke Corporate ‘Worm’ Finally Turning?

    Authored by Scott Shepard via RealClearMarkets.com,

    More than a few executives appear to be glimpsing the high costs of politicized corporate management…

    A chief driver of these revelations is surely the rolling market correction that has characterized 2022. At one point last week, the Nasdaq was down 29 percent from its December 31st close.

    Adam Smith once noted that “there’s a lot of ruin in a nation,” by which he meant that a country can screw up very many things while still trudging along. In good financial times there can be a lot of ruin in a company, too. When profits are high (or speculative backing is fulsome) and share prices are rising, companies can afford to indulge the whims of their executives or bow to the demands of pressure groups, even if there’s a lot of ruin in those whims or demands. When things get tight, though, the ruin becomes clearer – and thus less supportable. As Jack Kennedy did not but might have said as a corollary: “a falling tide reveals many barnacles.”

    In this lowering tide, woke is revealing itself as a barnacle, and companies are responding accordingly. The revelation is being assisted, and the response hastened, by external events that have uncovered even to the unthoughtful what should have been clear: taking a highly partisan role in American politics will engender (and is engendering) a political response from those who oppose the partisan stance. Exhibit one is the case of DeSantis & Florida v. Chapek & Disney, but the parade of horrible consequences that increasingly append to corporate wokeness is lengthening speedily, as has been considered in these pages before. Consider, for instance, exhibit two: Disney’s reputation has declined substantially since Chapek stood up for, you know, “all stakeholders.” Funny, that.

    Given those prime exhibits, it seems proper to start with Disney. Chapek somehow remains as CEO, but a (potentially only interim) fall guy for the hurray-for-grooming debacle was found: Geoff Morrell, the company’s chief corporate affairs officer, who had been at Disney for all of about three months. (Mind, mice might be slow learners. Morrell’s replacement is Kristina Schake. Her resume suggests that she might not have been the candidate best suited to address a problem of pandering too much to the far Left, while paying too little attention to market and civic realities.)

    Perhaps more to the point, because less performative: Hulu, mostly owned by Disney, has just cancelled a project, two years in the making already, that would have fantasized about the career of an imaginary Hillary Clinton who had become a Northwestern University law professor. Naturally in this rendering, she becomes president – or she would have, until this partisan gagfest was cancelled.

    In this move Disney and Hulu followed Netflix, which amid rounds of layoffs, informed its less objective (and less stable) employees that it would no longer bow to their “demands” that nothing air on Netflix that offends their precious sensibilities. In a display of maturity that can be summonsed by a 70 percent stock-value crash and evidence that there is no more market to gain on current trajectories, Netflix declared to employees that “depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.”

    It turns out that Dave Chappelle is popular, while Hannah Gadsby is not. Extrapolate that to everything, and the impetus of Netflix’ abrupt race up the knowledge curve becomes clear.

    Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav likewise looks set to turn CNN into … something profitable, which means something other than the unhinged falsehood and embarrassment factory it became under the recently fired and disgraced CNN chief Jeff Zucker. And the CW, Warner’s co-owned television station (the successor, in fact, to the WB, or Warner Brothers network), has lain waste to its woke-teen servicing, ratings-repelling schedule. Perhaps more recognition that blue-check Twitter and Tik-Tok are unreliable guides to public sentiment, or leading economic indicators.

    The muted response to the draft of the Dobbs opinion likewise stands in deep contrast to the race to condemn Georgia’s election-integrity law last spring, and to the response to previous state efforts to make U.S. abortion laws resemble those of most European countries. While hundreds of companies condemned the Georgia law without reading it, only to look fairly foolish afterward, few have made any statements in response to Dobbs. Even Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, who regularly mistakes his personal political preferences for revealed truth, remembered, when asserting that Roe is “settled law,” that his personal political opinions, or legal hot-takes, do not always transmutate instantly into formal company policy.  (Moynihan, a rich white guy who’s a big fan of equity-based discrimination again poorer white guys, would do well to remember the “settled law” precedent in that regard, given the very settled law that race- and sex-based discrimination is unconstitutional, whatever the excuse for it.)

    The few companies that have leapt into the abortion debate include Starbucks and Amazon, which both presently battle incipiently successful unionization efforts. It seems at least plausible that their eagerness to move sprang from their desire to appease woke employees who would otherwise have been the most potentially willing to sign up for a union – failing to recognize the distinct possibility that they would thereby also sign their own pink slips, as their unions priced their shops out of competition. If so, this seems like another move that misunderstands the imperatives of the moment.

    Other companies have moved to reinforce company protections for viewpoint diversity – a necessity in difficult times, when the luxury of static thinking becomes unaffordable – and against employment discrimination, whether equity-based or not. Salesforce and Dell agreed (disclosure: with the shop I lead) to add “political viewpoint” to their enforceable nondiscrimination policies. Target agreed to add an explicit protection against the company’s using forbidden characteristics like race, sex and orientation in its employment, promotion and retention processes or determinations. Each of these companies stated that the equal-employment policy changes reflected already established and standard company practices, which made it a simple and wise move for them to amend their policies accordingly.

    Finally, it’s possible that even BlackRock may be humbling itself just enough to recognize reality. The company recently announced that it was “not likely to support those (shareholder proposals) that in our assessment, implicitly are intended to micromanage companies. This includes those that are unduly prescriptive and constraining on the decision-making of the board or management, call for changes to a company’s strategy or business model or address matters that are not material to how a company delivers long-term shareholder value.”

    While this could mean anything or nothing, it does appear as though BlackRock is supporting a smaller share of climate-catastrophist proposals this year. Mind you, this does not mean that BlackRock has come to its senses, or to moral sense, in its ESG activities. CEO Larry Fink has just been slavering in hope that monstrously high fuel prices will push consumers to “green” energy, failing to recognize the total costs of such energy (including the environmental harms) while continuing to confuse climate and weather. What galloping energy costs will do is simply to force the poor and middle class to live wildly more constrained and less fulfilled lives. But that’s lagniappe for Larry, who can travel the world in his temperature-modulated private jet without having even to glimpse the hoi polloi, shackled by energy poverty in their immediate neighborhoods and their insufficiently heated and cooled homes.

    BlackRock and Fink still cling to the illegal and immoral discrimination of “equity,” and try to force it on other American corporations by misusing the proxy votes generated by their investors’ capital. At the same time they collude with the SEC to keep BlackRock shareholders from even having a vote on a proposal about whether BlackRock should protect against viewpoint discrimination at its shop – where viewpoint discrimination is clearly a massive concern. This holistic endorsement of across-the-board discrimination by BlackRock, in sharp contrast to the dedication to nondiscrimination shown by Target, Dell and Salesforce, provides sufficient evidence that BlackRock and Fink are about the last people who should be dictating social, environmental and moral policy to anyone at all.

    Well, ok. So maybe BlackRock and Fink haven’t learned anything yet, and will require more direct tutelage. And certainly the remaining evidence doesn’t run entirely in the good direction either. But as my sainted grandmother used to put it, if she found herself first behind and then catching up in one of our endless games of rummy, “the cheese is more binding.” And if she pulled ahead, she noted that the worm had turned.

    The worm has not yet turned, but the cheese begins to bind.

    *  * *

    Scott Shepard is a fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research and Director of its Free Enterprise Project.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 20:20

  • Another Long Shot? Last-Minute Addition Fenwick Has 50-1 Odds In Preakness
    Another Long Shot? Last-Minute Addition Fenwick Has 50-1 Odds In Preakness

    The next leg in the Triple Crown will be on Saturday at the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Since Kentucky Derby winner “Rich Strike” is out of this race, the owner’s choice, another long shot has entered and sparked a lot of buzz in the horse community. 

    On Monday morning, a last-minute addition to the Preakness was Villa Rosa Farm and Harlo Stable’s Fenwick, trained by Kevin McKathan.

    “Fenwick has the longest odds of any horse in the field of nine for Saturday’s Preakness,” according to AP News. The horse finished last in the most recent race in April and has only one once in a six-lifetime start. 

    Similar to Rich Strike, both horses only won once. Rich Strike then became the second-biggest long shot (80-1) to win the Derby. 

    After Fenwick was added to the Preakness, owner Jeremia Rudan said, “this is one of those deals where you can stop and take a breath and say: ‘You know what, we can do this’… It can happen.”

    Here are the odds for the upcoming race. 

    “You’re going to need that racing luck to have something like an 80-1 win again,” said trainer Tim Yakteen, who has Armagnac running in the face. “It doesn’t happen very often.”

    Derby runner-up Epicenter has 6-5 odds and is the favorite for the race in Baltimore this weekend. After the Preakness, the last leg of the Triple Crown will be held in New York at the Belmont Stakes on June 11, where Rich Strike will make a return. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 20:00

  • Argentina's Inflation Problem
    Argentina’s Inflation Problem

    Authored by Jack Raines via Young Money,

    This article is based on a combination of my own experiences in Argentina and my subsequent research after I came back to the US. I know some of my readers are from Argentina, and others are probably much more knowledgeable than me on this topic. If I’m dead wrong about something, or if you have a good personal anecdote, let me know. I would love to learn more about my favorite South American nation.

    What Inflation?

    In March 2022, the US CPI reading showed an 8.5% year-over-year inflation print, the highest since 1981. Pretty rough, right? Well in March 2022, Argentina recorded a 6.7% month-over-month inflation print. The country’s year-over-year print was 55.1%.

    Argentine bank accounts pay 45% interest on deposits, which sounds great if the value of your currency isn’t getting cut in half every year. Used cars, a depreciating asset in most of the world, are investments that retain value better than the national currency in Argentina.

    Trust in the government is minimal at best, and the ultra-wealthy store their capital in international bank accounts. 

    What does everyone else do? Hoard dollars. When you are dealing with 50% inflation every year, 8% inflation is a dream come true. Those that have enough money to save extra cash exchange their pesos for dollars as quickly as possible, as the dollar is the best inflation hedge they have.

    These dollars aren’t stored in bank accounts. They’re kept in safes, under mattresses, and anywhere else that the government can’t touch them.

    The constant exchanging of pesos for dollars has created a vicious cycle: an already weak currency continues to lose value as consumers dump it as quickly as possible.

    Two years ago, the Argentine government sought to stop this flight to dollars by instituting a $200 peso-dollar monthly exchange limit, but this rule simply expanded the black market for dollars.

    Argentina now has two currency exchange rates:

    • The quoted rate
    • The informal rate

    The quoted rate, which sits around 100 pesos per dollar right now, is what any bank will pay you for your dollars. However, demand for dollars is so high that the unofficial exchange rate trades at a 100% premium: 200 pesos per dollar. Because inflation is so rampant, the local population will pay double the market price to get their hands on dollars.

    If you are an American tourist, it’s a great deal. Bring a few thousand bucks and you can live like a king. If you are a local Argentine, this exchange is born out of desperation. Without access to dollars, your purchasing power will quickly diminish.

    So how did we get here?

    What Went Wrong

    Argentina is a unique case study in economic development, because as recently as 80 years ago it was poised to rival the US in global influence. During the first three decades of the 20th century, the South American nation outgrew both Canada and Australia in population, total income, and per capita income. In fact, in 1913 Argentina was the 10th wealthiest country per capita. (For perspective, Argentina was 89th in 2020, and the United States was 10th).

    Yet the rest of the world has largely flourished since the end of World War II, while Argentina has floundered. What went wrong?

    In the 1940s, it seemed like the South American nation would be a superpower for the rest of the 20th century. Argentina was one of the world’s leading agriculture exporters, the country was industrializing quickly, and unlike war-torn Europe, it had remained relatively stable since gaining its independence. Italians, Spaniards, and other Europeans immigrated to Argentina by the millions, seeking opportunity in a new land. Buenos Aires was becoming the New York of the southern hemisphere.

    However, in 1946 Juan Perón came to power, setting in motion 75 years of decline and stagnation. On a global scale, the first four decades of the 20th century were filled with war and economic depression. As a result, Perón implemented a series of import substitution policies, such as high tariffs, to make the country less dependent on international markets.

    However, the timing couldn’t have been worse, as the post-WW2 era brought us an explosion of international trade. Consumers around the world benefited from cheap imports, while businesses had access to exponentially larger customer bases. Argentina missed the bus.

     While the goal was to make Argentina an independent nation, the reality was a blossoming world power exited international markets before the biggest expansion of global trade in history.

    The consequences of protectionism cannot be overstated. Argentina was previously an agriculture superpower, but protectionist policies forced the country to divert resources away from its strongest sector to increase industrial production. Domestic production couldn’t compete with the lower prices of international goods, and consumers suffered.

    Peronist economic policy didn’t stop here. Rent and price controls were pervasive, with the government going as far as setting menu price limits for restaurants.

    Government spending exploded as companies across a variety of sectors were nationalized, and Perón distorted property rights and the freedom to contract.

    Heavy government spending, widespread nationalization, and minimal international trade were a recipe for disaster.

    Peronist policies stifled economic growth, locked Argentina out of international markets, sowed seeds of distrust, destroyed their currency, and created a 70+ year cycle of hyperinflation and economic stagnation.

    Perón was overthrown after a decade in power, but Argentina’s fate had been sealed. 

    Over the next 50 years, governing power shifted hands several times through coups and “elections,” the nation repeatedly defaulted on its debts and changed currencies, and inflation wreaked havoc on the purchasing power of local consumers.

    Perspective

    8% inflation sucks. Inept government policies suck. But our problems in the US are minute compared to elsewhere in the world. The reality is that we live in a country with a stable currency, a stable government, and unlimited opportunities. 

    In the US, we are worried about whether the market is going to maintain its 9% annual returns. In Argentina, they worry about whether or not their currency will exist tomorrow. Americans invest in stocks, bonds, index funds, and real estate. Argentines hoard dollars under their mattresses and buy used vehicles as investments to fight hyperinflation.

    The craziest part about this whole thing? There is an alternative timeline where Argentina rivals the US in global influence in 2022.

    Just a few generations ago, Argentina was poised to be the world power of the southern hemisphere. The peso was as stable as the US dollar and British pound, Buenos Aires was one of the world’s premier cities, and immigrants moved to the nation by the millions in search of opportunity.

    However, a single decade of government incompetence led to generations of decline.

    Despite the issues that we do have in the US, we won the lottery of opportunity by being born here. We don’t have to worry about our dollars being worthless or our government being overthrown by a coup. Had a few events in history been different, we could be looking at a different reality right now.

    Life in the US isn’t perfect, but it’s important to have a little perspective about this stuff. If our biggest problem is 8% inflation, are our problems really all that big?

    – Jack

    If you liked this piece, make sure to subscribe!

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 19:40

  • Melvin Capital Investors "Fuming" At Fund's "Fairweather Money Management" Strategy And "Abrupt" Shut Down
    Melvin Capital Investors “Fuming” At Fund’s “Fairweather Money Management” Strategy And “Abrupt” Shut Down

    While the meme stock “apes” may be cheering the demise of Melvin Capital, the fund’s LPs aren’t quite as thrilled about its decision to call it quits.

    After returning “roughly 30% in annualized gains” for years, the fund is “abruptly” shutting down – and some investors were caught by surprise, according to a new report from Bloomberg. 

    The report says that the investors were hopeful that Melvin – and its CIO Gabe Plotkin – could recoup its losses. They referred to shutting the fund down as “fair-weather money management”. 

    Plotkin, meanwhile, has already started winding down the fund’s positions and “effectively freeing some 40 employees at the firm from working below the so-called high-water mark that they’d have to crest to resume performance fees,” Bloomberg wrote.

    Andrew Beer, managing member of New York-based Dynamic Beta Investments, commented: “Only in hedge-fund-land does someone get paid hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on Jan. 1, incinerate half of clients’ capital a few weeks later, fail to recover over the next year or so, then suddenly shut the doors.”

    He added:

    “There are plenty of hedge fund managers who were paid a lot one year, went through difficult drawdowns then worked for years to claw their way back. Melvin obviously isn’t one of them.”

    In a letter to clients, Melvin called the last 17 months “incredibly trying” and stated:

    “I have given everything I could, but more recently that has not been enough to deliver the returns you should expect. I now recognize that I need to step away from managing external capital.”

    Despite this, one investor told Bloomberg they were confident Plotkin could return and be successful again some day. 

    Plotkin had previously toyed with the idea of reworking the fund’s high water mark, but ditched the plans after some investors “fumed” over the idea.

    One of his backers, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, concluded: “If his heart’s not in it, he did the right thing to return money to investors.” 

    As we noted hours ago, Plotkin started Melvin at the end of 2014 after leaving Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, and posted returns of about 30% a year through 2020, thanks to the Fed’s QE.

    The party rapidly ended when the Steve Cohen protege was outsmarted by a few thousands “apes” in January 2021 – that’s when a group of ragtag retail investors instituted a short squeeze (orchestrated by Senvest Partners) against Melvin’s shorts, including GameStop, pushing the hedge fund to a 55% loss.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 19:20

  • Jack Dorsey's Block Wants To Create Economic Empowerment With Bitcoin
    Jack Dorsey’s Block Wants To Create Economic Empowerment With Bitcoin

    Authored by ‘NAMCIOS’ via BitcoinMagazine.com,

    Among Block’s initiatives to further the Bitcoin ecosystem shared in its 2022 Investor Day is the development of an open-source bitcoin mining ASIC chip.

    Block’s overarching purpose is to drive economic empowerment in the world and Bitcoin plays a central role in that mission, its chief executives said during the firm’s first Investor Day since 2017 on Wednesday.

    “We believe Bitcoin is going to have a profound impact on financial services, particularly as a tool for economic empowerment and as a global currency for the internet,” Block’s finance lead Amrita Ahuja said during the online event following a statement that the company has “just scratched the surface” for driving further adoption of bitcoin in the U.S. and globally.

    Ahuja shared her thoughts after Block chief Jack Dorsey opened the event with an introductory panel explaining the broader goal of the company and how it plans to achieve it.

    Dorsey, a long-time Bitcoin proponent, said that Block’s approach is to create “an ecosystem of ecosystems” – with each business sector being dedicated to building an ecosystem on itself that can not only scale but feed back into other ecosystems across the organization.

    CASH APP AND SPIRAL – A CASE STUDY

    Cash App’s recent integration of the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s overlay protocol for faster and cheaper payments, is an example of how Block seeks to have different business units producing products that can feed back on each other.

    The money transmitting app added support for Lightning payments through the Lightning Development Kit (LDK), software developed by Spiral, an independent subsidiary of Block focused on developing and funding open-source Bitcoin projects.

    “Bitcoin is the best version of money,” said Spiral lead Steve Lee.

    “With our help, we believe it can become the world’s preferred currency.”

    Cash App was one of the first business units of the company that was then Square to integrate Bitcoin. The application added bitcoin buying and selling capabilities along with a custody solution for customer funds back in 2018, its lead Brian Grassadonia said in the event.

    Since launching the feature, Cash App has had more than 10 million monthly active users buying bitcoin in the app and the spread fees charged by Block on such purchases have become one of the main revenue drivers for Block. Cash App’s gross profit has grown by 44x since 2017, Ahuja showed in the event.

    The integration of Bitcoin into Block’s business model has become more widespread since Dorsey left his post as Twitter CEO – and now goes beyond a bitcoin exchange in-app.

    THE BITCOIN ECOSYSTEM

    A core aspect of Block’s business is what it calls the Bitcoin ecosystem, which falls under the “emerging initiatives” of the company that are not as established as Square or Cash App – which have both found product-market fit and managed to scale their business model, according to Ahuja.

    In addition to previously-mentioned Spiral, Block’s Bitcoin ecosystem is composed of an open-source business called TBD, and the company’s Bitcoin wallet and mining initiatives.

    BITCOIN WALLET

    Block seeks to create a Bitcoin wallet for the masses, uniting security and ease of use to make self-custody accessible to those new to Bitcoin.

    The product aims to encourage regular folks to hold the keys to their bitcoin funds as opposed to resorting to custodians amidst more complicated self-custody setups that are popular today. In the same way that Spiral’s LDK helps developers and businesses more easily integrate Lightning to their applications, Block wants to facilitate self-custody for end users, explained Block’s Bitcoin hardware wallet lead Jesse Dorogusker.

    “If you don’t have the key, you don’t have the money,” said Dorogusker.

    “We want to build a safe and easy way for people to custody their own bitcoin. Our wallet breaks up the secret key into three pieces: mobile app, hardware device and a self-service recovery tool.”

    The company seeks to avoid single points of failure with this approach, which it claims could improve the user experience around bitcoin self-custody – which currently revolves around 12 or 24 seed words.

    BITCOIN MINING ASIC

    Block’s Bitcoin ventures also extend to the mining industry.

    The company said it is focused on creating an open system that would cut back on the concentration around Chinese manufacturers of bitcoin mining ASIC chips. The approach – an open-source setup – has the potential to reduce risks and increase competition, Dorogusker said.

    “We want to build our own bitcoin ASIC,” Dorogusker, who also leads the mining initiative, explained.

    “Our ASICs will be available for sale and will all be open source.”

    The company had previously stated that it would develop an open bitcoin mining system, and a job post by Block was spotted in January seeking a team to produce a “next-generation” bitcoin mining ASIC. However, this was the first time that the company shared that it would be producing an actual bitcoin ASIC which would be open source.

    DECENTRALIZED BITCOIN EXCHANGE

    In addition to a bitcoin wallet and a bitcoin miner, Block is also tip-toeing into bridging the traditional finance world with the burgeoning system through the cryptic TBD unit.

    “TBD’s mission is to bridge the old to the new,” TBD lead Mike Brock said.

    “We are building a new open-source company from the ground up focused on open protocols and open standards that all participants in the economy can benefit from. What Red Hat did for Linux, TBD can do for money, payments and identity.”

    Brock went on to explain that under the “old” model as he calls it, which relies on centralized entities, 1.1 billion people are unable to prove their identities. TBD wants to bring a secure, decentralized identity standard to enable not only such customers to benefit from a more accessible and fair protocol but also for businesses to lower their costs.

    “Under the new financial system, you can create your own digital identity and use all of those services that require identity verification,” Brock said.

    “You can also create a digital wallet to hold bitcoin or stablecoins, and you can convert stablecoins into bitcoin directly without leaving the app because it is integrated to tbDEX.”

    “If we’re going to have an internet-native currency, we need trust, and trust comes from time, openness and transparency which are principles that are embodied in the Bitcoin system,” Brock said when asked by Dorsey why he believed in Bitcoin in the first place.

    “We are building a network that provides better experiences for financial access around the world,” Brock said in closing thoughts.

    FROM BUSINESSES TO CONSUMERS

    Just as Square caters to businesses and Cash App targets consumers, so Block’s Bitcoin ventures seek to provide a round-up of solutions that collectively empower retail and institutional investors in the decentralized and digital economy.

    Amidst a sea of early-stage Bitcoin initiatives, most of the details remain unknown as the company takes steps toward building its products by iterating between ideation and feedback-gathering from the community. It remains to be seen whether Dorsey will be able to stir the corporate ship to enhance economic empowerment with open Bitcoin systems beyond the independent work of Spiral.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 19:00

  • "Who Cares If Miami Is Underwater In 100 Years" – HSBC Global AM Head Slams "Nut Job" Climate-Alarmists
    “Who Cares If Miami Is Underwater In 100 Years” – HSBC Global AM Head Slams “Nut Job” Climate-Alarmists

    What do the world’s richest person [Elon Musk] and a top HSBC Asset Management global head have in common? Well, they both called out the absurdity behind ESG investing. 

    On Tuesday, Tesla was removed from the ESG version of the S&P 500 Index. Musk went on a tweet rant on Wednesday, calling out ESG investing as a “scam,” noting “phony social justice warriors have weaponized it.” 

    He said, “S&P Global Ratings has lost their integrity,” considering companies like Exxon Mobil (fossil fuels), Apple (China slave labor), and Amazon (which is working against unions) remain in the index. 

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

    On Thursday, in London, at a Financial Times Moral Money conference, Stuart Kirk, global head of responsible investing at HSBC Asset Management, questioned the risk climate change plays on financial markets, arguing investors shouldn’t worry about it. 

    Kirk said the drumming up of climate change problems is similar to Y2K, explaining that “some nutjob” has always told him the “end of the world” is nearing. 

    Titled “Why investors need not worry about climate risk,” he asked: “Who cares if Miami is six meters underwater in 100 years?”

    Kirk noted: “Amsterdam has been six meters underwater for ages and that is a really nice place. We will cope with it.”

    He doesn’t disagree with climate science but said “there will be fires” and humans are good at adapting and navigating challenging times. 

    Kirk said HSBC spends too much time on ESG: 

    “One of the tragedies of this whole debate, which we obsess about at HSBC, is that we spend way too much on mitigation and financing and not enough on adaption financing.” 

    He then points out some climate alarmists traveling around the world, promoting apocalyptic warnings, such as those from ex-BoE head Mark Carney. 

    “I completely get that at the end of your central bank career there are still many, many years to fill in. You have to say something, you have to fly around the world to conferences, you have to out-hyperbole the next guy, but I feel like it is getting a little bit out of hand.”

     Here are some of the nut jobs he lists off, spouting impending climate doom. 

    He noted that ex-central bank climate alarmists had skewed their climate-related financial models with interest rate shocks to get an apocalyptic scenario they were looking for: A way to manipulate statistics to get a scary outcome: Fear sells. 

    “What they have done is [factor] a gigantic interest rate shock on all the Bank of England and central bank scenarios to get a nasty number.” 

    He said with a big bank like HSBC — the average loan length is around six. So at year seven, “what happens to the planet in year seven is actually irrelevant to our loan book.” 

    Watch Kirk’s full interview here. 

    Musk is not a lone wolf decrying the ESG nonsense in financial markets as the top HSBC investment head makes a valid point why investors need not worry about climate risk. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 18:40

  • "Anything We Touch Is A Weapon": New US PsyOps Recruitment Video Casts Spotlight On China Threat
    “Anything We Touch Is A Weapon”: New US PsyOps Recruitment Video Casts Spotlight On China Threat

    Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times,

    The phrase “A threat rises in the east” is superimposed over rolling footage of Chinese and Russian military parades. Ethereal, eerie music plays as cinematic impressions of the Eurasian alliance between China and Russia are interspersed with images of the last century’s most emblematic struggles for democratic values.

    The video “Ghosts in the Machine” by the U.S. Army’s 4th Psyop Group displays an ominous warning about the threat from China and Russia. (Screenshot)

    There is footage of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a free speech protest in Hong Kong, the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad, and the resolute stand of Tiananmen Square’s “Tank Man.”

    This is not some documentary about the myriad threats democracy has faced time and time again, but a new video created by the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group and shared on social media by U.S. Special Forces Command.

    Equal parts recruiting video and actual psychological warfare, the project might best be described as a proof-of-concept for the military’s capability to build confidence at home and to instill fear abroad.

    The video, aptly titled “Ghosts in the Machine,” opens with a quote from “The Art of War,” written by Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu some 2,500 years ago:

    “If your opponent is of a choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.”

    At first glance, one might think that the quote suggests that the Chinese Communist Party has been pretending to be weak for years in order to lull the United States into a false sense of superiority. By the end of the three and a half minutes of growing unease, however, one wonders whether it has not been the other way around all along.

    Indeed, that may be just the purpose of Ghost in the Machine. After all, the video itself is psychological warfare.

    The Sugar-Coated Pill

    To realize the importance of psychological operations such as Ghosts in the Machine, one needs to look beyond its visage of cinematic splendor and intentional creepiness, and penetrate to the threat that the video is working against.

    According to innumerable reports from the nation’s think tanks and institutions of higher learning, the United States is in a war, though its leadership seems largely unaware of it. It is a war without conventional weapons, but that is nevertheless being fought in hearts and minds everywhere. Indeed, it is a war on the minds of Americans everywhere.

    It is the psychological campaign of unrestricted hybrid warfare perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with the purpose of eradicating the United States’ will to defend itself and preserve democratic values.

    According to one report (pdf) published by the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute earlier this month, this psychological warfare is one part of a suite of so-called cognitive operations used by China’s communist regime to undermine U.S. security.

    “Cognitive operations involve using psychological warfare to shape or even control the enemy’s cognitive thinking and decision-making,” the report stated.

    Indeed, the report quotes directly from the primary propaganda organ of the Chinese military, the PLA Daily, that the ultimate aim of cognitive operations is to “manipulate a country’s values, national spirit/ethos, ideologies, cultural traditions, historical beliefs, etc., to prompt them to abandon their theoretical understanding, social system and development path, and achieve strategic goals without victory.”

    In not so many words, it is a military campaign against the United States to convince Americans to give up their society without fighting.

    It is, according to a report by the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (pdf), a “long-standing Chinese government strategy to exploit foreign media to deliver Chinese propaganda.” The goal of which is to destabilize and otherwise interfere in the political processes of the United States by offering a “sugar-coated pill,” something easy to swallow but lethal to consume, often in the form of anti-American propaganda disguised as domestic information and reproduced online.

    “According to the PLA, China is already in constant battle over the narrative of China’s rise and the PLA’s intentions with other nations, both inside and outside of China, and, most prominently, against the United States,” the report said, referring to the acronym for the People’s Liberation Army, the official name of the regime’s military.

    The roots of the CCP’s psychological warfare go deep, and their tendrils can be seen crawling rampant across Western media in the form of Twitter bots, sponsored newspaper articles, and state-sponsored misinformation. And the onslaught has been going on for decades.

    Unrestricted Warfare

    The CCP’s current efforts can be traced back to the 1999 book “Unrestricted Warfare.” Written by two retired PLA colonels, the book described the strategy and operations through which China could overcome the United States—without being embroiled in kinetic warfare.

    Unrestricted Warfare argued that the United States’ weakness was the widespread belief among American military and political leadership that military dominance was solely dependent on technological means, rather than legal, economic, or social factors.

    The book, therefore, advocated the use of lawfare, economic warfare, terrorism, and data and supply chain network disruption as various means of undermining the U.S. military.

    Much of the book’s proposed strategy was later codified as the “Three Warfares Strategy” in a 2003 document published by the PLA and titled “Political Work Guidelines of the People’s Liberation Army.”

    Since then, the CCP has worked tirelessly to adapt the Three Warfares Strategy to the social media era, using social networking platforms as tools of war to combat the minds of the party’s enemies. Moreover, the introduction of Three Warfares has helped to underscore the promulgation of military-civil fusion, a CCP strategy that seeks to erode any boundary between civilian and military spheres, thus accelerating the erosion of distinctions between war and peace.

    To that end, it is vital to understand that the PLA is not a military of the Chinese state, but a wing of the Chinese Communist Party. Thus, the entire military apparatus of China is designed to defend and promote communism first and foremost.

    Party Above All

    How the Chinese military serves the whims of the CCP rather than the interests of the Chinese people was elucidated by retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding during an interview with EpochTV’s “China Insider” on May 12.

    “The People’s Liberation Army is the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party,” Spalding said. “In the West, we consider the military to be a protector of the state, which in a democracy includes the people. In China’s case, the People’s Liberation Army is actually a party army, so it protects the party’s prerogatives.”

    “Unlike a national army dedicated to the defense of a state and its people, the Chinese military’s purpose is to create political power for the party.”

    According to a report (pdf) by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, U.S. leadership believed for years that the CCP’s psychological warfare efforts were a thing of the past.

    Such beliefs were proven wrong, however, with the rise of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping in 2012, whose rule has overseen a resurgence of party initiatives pushing psychological operations as a core part of Chinese national strategy.

    Xi has referred to the work of organizations that engage in psychological operations for the CCP as China’s “magic weapons.” Those organizations include, most predominantly, the General Political Department within the PLA and the United Front Work Department, the latter of which is charged with overseeing the regime’s overseas influence operations and answers directly to the CCP’s Central Committee.

    Indeed, since the ascension of Xi, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua has gone so far as to explicitly characterize the PLA’s psychological warfare and political work as “thoroughly implement[ing] Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.”

    Importantly, according to the Johns Hopkins report, the CCP’s psychological warfare units under Xi have sought to leverage social media as a key component of “cognitive domain operations” in order to scale Chinese propaganda to a global audience, and to sway, anger, and misinform the citizens of foreign nations to the benefit of the party.

    “China uses the tools of information and finance to advance political warfare on a global scale,” Spalding said.

    “It’s a type of warfare that is completely alien to the way that we think of warfare.”

    Thus, while U.S. military leaders and members of Congress have harped on budget proposals and the number of ships being built for the Navy, the CCP has already committed itself to winning a war without firing a shot.

    Brave New World

    At the heart of the CCP’s efforts to assault the minds of the American public, then, is the critical ability of social media and related technologies to create content that can have a real-world effect.

    “[T]he PLA is developing technologies for subliminal messaging, deep fakes, overt propaganda, and public sentiment analysis on Facebook, Twitter, LINE, and other platforms,” according to a report by the RAND Corporation (pdf).

    “Other articles also suggest that the PLA could blackmail or tarnish the reputation of politicians as well as co-opt individual influential civilian social media users to extend the reach of Chinese propaganda while obfuscating its Party origins.”

    It is through this “hostile social manipulation on foreign platforms” that the CCP can essentially launder state-backed propaganda through proxy channels in the way a mobster might launder ill-gotten gains through a front organization. By obfuscating the origin of social media posts and using technologies such as deep fakes, the party can more effectively diminish American confidence in the United States’ ability and worthiness.

    “What they’ve been able to do is use proxies in the West to have the same control over the narrative in the West that they have within China,” Spalding said.

    “We have no institution in the West that is tasked with understanding this form of warfare.”

    Spalding’s comments were in line with recent remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said that the CCP was exploiting the United States’ free and open information channels and social media networks to promote authoritarianism abroad and strike at the heart of American democracy.

    Ghosts in the Machine

    The sudden appearance of a recruitment video for psychological warfare units in the U.S. military is perhaps not such a mystery, given the battles being waged against the American mind.

    The primary objective of the CCP’s efforts is to create doubt, fear, and exhaustion to such an extent that American leadership will make mistakes in planning and executing strategy. Likewise, the U.S. Army’s “Ghosts in the Machine” video lifts the mirror at the effort.

    “Anything we touch is a weapon,” the video says, before flashing the motto of the 4th Psychological Operations Group, “Verbum Vincet”—”the word will conquer.”

    The message is clear enough, China’s transnational campaign of repression and psychological terror is not without recourse. The psychological warfare apparatus of the American military and intelligence communities have changed history before and can do it again.

    It is surely not by accident that images of the famous Tiananmen Square protests were interlaced with videos of pro-democracy revolutions, or that footage of the PLA marching was juxtaposed with the fall of the Soviet Union.

    The United States has toppled great powers from within and from without, the video implies, and can do so again.

    As the video so abruptly states, “We are everywhere.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 18:20

  • Federal Judge Blocks Biden Admin's Termination Of Title 42
    Federal Judge Blocks Biden Admin’s Termination Of Title 42

    With Title 42 – the Trump-era border management policy that allowed officials to quickly expel foreign nationals at the border due to health concerns – due to end on Monday (as part of the Biden admin’s overhaul of the immigration system – that is clearly working so well), a Federal Judge from Louisiana issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Biden admin from terminating the Trump-era policy.

    As we detailed previously, U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee, announced on April 25 his intent to enter a temporary restraining order that forces the administration to keep enforcing Title 42.

    He delayed the actual decision because he took issue with some of the language proposed by the states, and out of a desire to ensure the order doesn’t interfere with the “legitimate use of law enforcement discretion” afforded to immigration enforcement officials. He offered that he wanted the order to, “in the least disruptive way” address the states’ concerns.

    Summerhays directed the parties to confer and try to reach an agreement on certain issues and, if they couldn’t, he said they would hold another status conference to hammer out the differences.

    They apparently have not and so Summerhays granted a preliminary injunction to a group of GOP state attorneys general challenging the policy change.

    In an earlier hearing, Summerhays said the plaintiff states, which include Missouri and Louisiana, have demonstrated that the federal government likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) with its April 1 announcement that the emergency order would be terminated in May, according to the transcript.

    “I also find that the record supports a showing of immediate and irreparable harm. The states contend that the termination of the Title 42 suspension orders will result in increased costs and burdens, including increased healthcare costs. The Court concludes that the record supports these allegations and that the fact of those increased costs is sufficient to support injunctive relief,” Summerhays said.

    “The Court also finds, as far as the balance of harms, that a temporary restraining order restoring the status quo to immediately prior to the April 1st order will result in little injury to the defendants, and that any such injury is outweighed by the injury caused by a result of the implementation of the April 1st order without the states having an opportunity to fully vet their APA claims, and that a temporary restraining order will not disserve the public interest.”

    The states had argued in filings that the Biden administration wouldn’t suffer from a block against scaling back the order, since the administration itself delayed the termination until May 23.

    As The Hill notes, the injunction is a political victory for the red states that brought suit, but it could also help the Biden administration ease pressure on immigration, as high numbers of crossings are expected to continue throughout the summer.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that his agency is preparing for a possible flood of immigrants attempting to enter the United States through its southern border when Title 42 border restrictions were supposed to be lifted next week.

    As we noted previously, the head of the Border Patrol union warned that drug cartels would seize “complete control” of the southern border, as a Trump-era public health order to expel illegal immigrants is to expire on Monday.

    “That we just don’t have anybody in the field, that we just can’t patrol the border,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said during Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” after being asked about the “worst-case scenario” once the law ends on May 23.

    He said the Border Patrol system is running out of capacity as overwhelmed border agents will be largely held up by processing asylum-seeking illegal immigrants, either refereeing their claims or expelling them back to their home countries.

    “When you look right now, we already start our shifts with 50 percent of our resources not even performing enforcement activities. They’re in administrative duties. Once this explodes, we’re going to have nearly 100 percent of our people doing administrative duties rather than enforcement duties.”

    “That’s going to give complete control to the cartels. That’s a scary situation to be in,” he added.

    Finally, we note that timing of the block could be very good for the Biden administration as anxiety over MonkeyPox spread begins to build.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 18:00

  • FBI Lawyer Admits Knowing Clinton Was Behind Trump Allegations Would Have Changed Things
    FBI Lawyer Admits Knowing Clinton Was Behind Trump Allegations Would Have Changed Things

    Authored by John Haughey and Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    The FBI lawyer who served as a conduit for flimsy allegations against Donald Trump said May 19 he would have acted differently if he knew Trump’s rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, was behind the claims.

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during an event in New York on Feb. 17, 2022. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

    James Baker, who now works for Twitter, said that he likely would not have have met with Michael Sussmann, who is accused of passing on data that allegedly linked Trump’s business to a Russian bank, if he knew Sussmann was acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

    “I don’t think I would have,” Baker said on the stand in federal court in Washington.

    Knowing Trump’s opponent was behind the allegations “would have raised very serious questions, certainly, about the credibility of the source” and the “veracity of the information,” Baker said. It would also have heightened “a substantial concern in my mind about whether we were going to be played.”

    The testimony bolsters a key piece of special counsel John Durham’s case against Sussmann—that knowing the sources propelling Sussmann to meet with Baker would have altered how the FBI analyzed the information, which the bureau ultimately found did not substantiate the claims of a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.

    “Absent Sussmann’s false statement, the FBI might have taken additional or more incremental steps before opening and/or closing an investigation,” prosecutors said in Sussmann’s indictment, which charged him with lying to the FBI.

    Defense lawyers have argued that the impact of Sussmann’s alleged lie was “trivial or negligible.”

    Sussmann met Baker in the FBI lawyer’s office on Sept. 19, 2016, just weeks before the presidential election. No other persons were present.

    Baker said Thursday that would not have been the case if he knew the Clinton campaign’s involvement. He said he likely would have directed Sussmann to other FBI personnel—bureau lawyers don’t typically receive information—or would have still met with Sussmann, but made sure other personnel were present.

    “I was willing to meet with Michael alone because I had high confidence in him and trust,” said Baker, who has described Sussmann as a friend. “I think I would have made a different assessment if he said he had been appearing on behalf of a client.”

    Michael Sussmann arrives at federal court in Washington on May 18, 2022. (Teng Chen/The Epoch Times)

    Sussmann told Baker in a text message the night before the meeting that he had sensitive information he wanted to pass on but that he was doing so on his own accord, not on behalf of any clients. Baker testified that Sussmann repeated the lie during the meeting. Sussmann later told a congressional panel that the information was given to him by a client.

    “I think it’s most accurate to say it was done on behalf of my client,” Sussmann said, apparently referring to Rodney Joffe, a technology executive who has said he was promised a position in the government if Clinton won the election.

    While Sussmann, Joffe, and others worked on the white papers that he ultimately passed to Baker, the lawyer was billing the Clinton campaign, according to billing records. Sussmann also told the campaign about the allegations before he met with Baker, though the campaign allegedly did not approve the meeting.

    Sussmann was well-known to the FBI, having worked with the bureau on multiple cases, including the alleged hack of Democratic National Committee servers. Sussmann “had a vibrant national security practice that had contact with the FBI a lot,” Baker said. Sussmann worked for Perkins Coie, which was the Clinton campaign’s law firm during the 2016 election, and has a long history of working with Democrats.

    On cross-examination, Sean Berkowitz, representing Sussmann, hammered Baker over inconsistencies in his testimony and what he’s said before.

    Baker, for instance, told the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General in 2019 that Sussmann said he had information stemming from “people that were his clients.” Baker said he was using a “shorthand way” of describing the cyberexperts with whom Sussman was working.

    In 2018, testifying to a House of Representatives panel behind closed doors, Baker said he couldn’t remember whether he knew at the time that Baker was representing the Clinton campaign. “I don’t know that I had that in my head when he showed up in my office,” Baker said at the time.

    “I just find that unbelievable that the guy representing the Clinton campaign, the Democrat National Committee, shows up with information that says we got this, and you don’t ask where he got it, you didn’t know how he got it,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) responded.

    “I was uncomfortable with being in the position of having too much factual information conveyed to me, because I’m not an agent. And so I wanted to get the information into the hands of the agents as quickly as possible and let them deal with it. If they wanted to go interview Sussmann and ask him all those kinds of questions, fine with me,” Baker said.

    According to Baker’s testimony and previous remarks from Sussmann, no agents ended up asking those kinds of questions.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/20/2022 – 17:40

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