Today’s News 22nd February 2023

• Anatomy Of A Cover-Up: The January 6 Tapes
  Anatomy Of A Cover-Up: The January 6 Tapes

  Authored by Julie Kelly via American Greatness,

  Tucker Carlson now has the equivalent of nearly five years of surveillance footage captured by U.S. Capitol Police security cameras on January 6, 2021. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) turned over the tapes to the Fox News host earlier this month, according to Axios. Carlson’s producers and researchers are already distilling the footage; the first round of clips is expected to air in a few weeks.

  

  While some grumble that McCarthy did not fulfill his promise to publicly release the footage—arguably a valid complaint—Carlson’s team undoubtedly will give the massive trove much-needed context and maximum impact. Carlson released a three-part documentary, “Patriot Purge,” in November 2021 that explained how the events of January 6 helped launch a second “war on terror” against American citizens out of step with the Biden regime.

  Since early 2021, Carlson has used his nightly show to expose the cruel treatment of Trump supporters suffering pretrial detention orders; raised questions about the use of undercover assets including FBI informants and the mysterious role of Ray Epps; asked why the case of the January 5 “pipe bomber” remains unsolved; and demanded the release of the surveillance video as late as last month.

  Releasing the video never should have been a political fight; after all, the footage was recorded on a taxpayer-paid closed circuit television system installed on public property to monitor public employees. Contrary to arguments by Capitol Police and the Justice Department, the video belongs to the public, not federal agencies.

  But both entities, with the help of D.C. District Court judges, have successfully kept the trove largely under wraps for more than two years. Even the FBI and D.C. Metropolitan Police departments signed agreements a few days after the Capitol protest to acknowledge that the tapes technically belonged to Capitol Police.

  In a sworn statement filed in March 2021, Thomas DiBiase, general counsel for the Capitol Police, insisted the footage constituted “security information” that required very limited access. “Our concern is that providing unfettered access to hours of extremely sensitive information to defendants who already have shown a desire to interfere with the democratic process will . . . [be] passed on to those who might wish to attack the Capitol again,” DiBiase warned.

  The Justice Department subsequently designated the tapes as “highly sensitive” government material subject to protective orders in January 6 prosecutions. It’s been a major battle for defendants and their attorneys to properly access all of the video tied to their cases; defendants cannot watch any clips without the presence of a legal authority and none of the footage can be shared or downloaded.

  Of course, there have been some exceptions. Capitol Police shared cherry-picked clips with the House Democrats on the second impeachment committee as well as the January 6 select committee. For example, the brief clip of Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) running through a hallway that afternoon presumably after the breach was produced from surveillance video. HBO also accessed surveillance footage for its slanted documentary on January 6. “Security” concerns, my foot.

  Imagine the universal outrage in any other situation had crucial video of what the government considered a terror attack been kept away from the public for more than two years. Influential opinion pages would have banged the drum incessantly for its release, insisting some sort of cover up was unfolding. Progressive activist groups and elected officials would demand a full accounting of what happened before, during, and after the “attack,” including all government-produced evidence. Influential lawyers and legal defense funds would lament the deprivation of due process for those involved in the allegedly heinous act.

  Instead, the usual defenders of accountability, transparency, and constitutional rights have been completely AWOL. The fight has been waged by outmatched defense attorneys in the rigged legal and judicial system in the nation’s capital. And a handful of influencers like Carlson.

  To be fair, a consortium called the Press Coalition forced a few federal judges to lift protective orders on a small amount of surveillance video. Representing more than a dozen major news companies, the coalition successfully won the release of limited security footage that, in some instances, contradicted the assertion that police did not allow protesters into the building that afternoon. Unsealed video also showed how police brutalized women inside the lower west terrace tunnel.

  In a laughable “reality check” in his article, Axios reporter Mike Allen suggested the public has seen enough surveillance video since the “Jan. 6 committee played numerous excerpts of the footage at last year’s captivating hearings.” But not only were most of the evidentiary video clips sourced from protesters’ cell phones, the surveillance video clips offered by the committee represented an infinitesimal sliver of the total collection.

  Which, notably, is much bigger than what the government has made available to January 6 defendants. Axios reported that Carlson’s team has 41,000 hours of raw footage—nearly three times the amount that the Justice Department allowed into evidence, which only covered the time period between noon and 8:00 p.m. on January 6. The tapes now in Carlson’s possession apparently covers the entire 24-hour period from “multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds.”

  One can only guess what the videos will reveal. It’s possible, even likely, the never-before-seen footage will show the elements of a preplanned attack engineered by the same political and government forces that attempted to destroy Donald Trump for the better part of six years. Will the tapes finally answer the questions that top law enforcement officials such as FBI Director Christopher Wray refuse to answer and the January 6 select committee buried—not the least of which was the role of the FBI?

  Withholding the video is only one part of the massive cover-up about January 6. Republicans should seek similar demands for records, emails, and communications from Capitol Police to expose the full scope of the cover-up. But like all good political scandals, the path to the truth begins with the tapes.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 23:40

• First 2,000-Year-Old Roman Wooden Phallus 'Used For Pleasure' Found 
  First 2,000-Year-Old Roman Wooden Phallus ‘Used For Pleasure’ Found 

  Archaeologists believe they have uncovered the first full-size Roman dildo. The 2,000-year-old six-inch piece of wood was recovered initially as a “darning tool” in 1992 in a ditch at the Roman Fort of Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, according to the study published in the journal Antiquity. 

  “I have to confess, part of me thinks it’s kind of self-evident that it is a penis,” Dr. Rob Collins, an archaeologist at Newcastle University who co-authored the paper, told the Guardian. He said, “We know ancient Romans and Greeks used sexual implements. This object from Vindolanda could be an example of one.” 

  Researchers initially unearthed the object as being a darning tool. This misidentification resulted from the tool being found alongside other tools, craft waste products, and dozens of shoes and dress accessories. 

  However, researchers have reinterpreted the six-inch piece of wood, smoothed at both ends, as a wooden phallus from the Roman era. 

  

  “What makes this a first is that it is not a small, miniature phallus,” Collins said, adding, “It’s lifesize. It’s also important because wood just doesn’t normally survive … we couldn’t find any parallels.”

  

  Collins told CNN: 

  “It very well could be a sex object and, if it is, it is the first example from the Roman world.

  “We shouldn’t be surprised by this. We know from Roman art and Roman literature that they used dildos, that they existed. But we haven’t found any examples archaeologically yet.” 

  Researchers concluded in the study that no specific use of the wooden phallus could be determined: “We hope to have prompted the search for similar objects elsewhere and encouraged their meaningful incorporation into narratives of the past.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 23:20

• Racism In The Name Of "Anti-Racism"
  Racism In The Name Of “Anti-Racism”

  Authored by Christopher Rufo via City-Journal.org,

  The University of Central Florida has adopted radical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programming that segregates students by race, condemns the United States as “white-supremacist culture,” and encourages active discrimination against the “oppressor” class, characterized as “male, White, heterosexual, able-bodied, and Christian.”

  

  Officially, UCF reports that it has 14 separate DEI programs, costing in the aggregate more than $4 million per year. But this dramatically understates the reality, which is that the ideology of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has been entrenched everywhere. The university’s administration and academic departments have created a blizzard of programs, classes, trainings, reports, committees, certifications, events, documents, policies, clubs, groups, conferences, and statements pledging UCF to left-wing racialism.

  These programs, long in the making, exploded into prominence following the death of George Floyd in 2020. As the administration signaled that it was endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement, the academic departments immediately fell into line. The sociology department pledged allegiance to BLM and blasted the “anti-Blackness at the heart of US white-supremacist culture.” The physics department released a statement promising to address “systemic anti-Black racism in policing” and its own “power and privilege.” The anthropology department published a statement denouncing white European “hegemonic systems” and vowed to “advocate for a more inclusive society based on the principles of cultural relativism.”

  The ideology that underpins the university’s DEI programming follows the basic mantras of critical race theory: America is a racist nation divided between white oppressors and minority oppressed, and society, using the logic of “antiracism,” must actively discriminate against the oppressors in order to achieve social justice. The great oppressor who occupies the “mythical norm,” according to the university’s official glossary, is “male, white, heterosexual, financially stable, young-middle adult, able-bodied, Christian.” Other groups are “minoritized,” or condemned by the “systemic and structural realities in place that push people and communities to the margins.”

  Following the George Floyd riots, the university’s administrators and faculty renewed their dedication to the DEI narrative. Ann Gleig, an associate professor of religion and cultural studies, instructed whites on campus to begin “waking up to whiteness and white privilege,” encouraging them to “educate [themselves] on systemic racism and white supremacy,” “participate in anti-racist training programs,” and “commit to having difficult conversations with white family and friends about systemic racism.” She also directed students to a set of resources, including one that encouraged whites to attend racially segregated “affinity groups” to develop their white racial consciousness and “unravel their feelings and ways of understanding without hurting people of color.”

  At the same time, S. Kent Butler, a black professor of counselor education then serving as UCF’s chief diversity officer, pushed the argument that minorities live in a state of constant fear and exhaustion. “Leaving the house is an action that may seem ordinary for some, but for individuals who deal with regular hatred and judgment . . . we live with anxiety and fear about walking into unwelcoming spaces,” he said. The responsibility for reforming society, he explained in another interview, belongs to whites. “Racism comes from slavery, from when they used to have [Black] people swinging from trees,” he said. “White people have to come to the forefront and stop the systemic system that’s been put into play by white people.”

  How do DEI bureaucracies recommend solving these problems? Through active racial discrimination, or, to use their euphemism, a policy of “racial equity.” The University of Central Florida has embedded such discriminatory practices in its programs, including faculty hiring, student activities, and scholarship opportunities.

  Regarding faculty hiring, UCF has adopted the position that merit is a “myth” that advances racism and must be corrected through active discrimination on behalf of “minoritized groups.” In its official guidebook, “Inclusive Faculty Hiring,” the university recommends tilting the hiring process toward minorities by minimizing objective measures—dismissed as “problematic heuristics”—and peppering job announcements with left-wing buzzwords such as “racial equity,” “social justice,” “anti-racist,” and “mention of specific group identities,” with the exception of those of whites.

  To reinforce this ideology, administrators also recommend that departments require potential faculty to submit an “Equity and Inclusion Statement,” which serves as a loyalty oath to left-wing ideology. At the end of the process, the university endorses explicit racial quotas. “University policy indicates that a successful search will result in a diverse pool of candidates for the final interview round that [includes at least one woman and one member of a minoritized group],” the guidebook reads (brackets in the original). “If at the time final candidates are identified and the specified parameters are not met, the search should either be restarted or the existing candidate pool should be revisited with more equitable strategies in mind.”

  Students, too, must navigate a racial filter. The university has held minority-only graduation ceremonies, and its counseling center offers racially segregated “affinity groups” and psychological programs, such as “Exploring Vulnerability in POC Spaces,” restricted to “Black-identified, Afro-Latinx and students from African-descent,” as well as other racial-conditioning groups delineated for “Asian-identified students” and “Hispanic/Latinx students.”

  UCF also advertises racially discriminatory and racially segregated scholarships that intentionally exclude European-Americans and sometimes Asian-Americans. The Professional Doctoral Diversity Fellowship, Harris Diversity Initiative Scholarship, and NSF/Florida Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Engineering & Science and National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering scholarships, for example, promise to discriminate on behalf of “underrepresented populations,” a euphemism for “African American, Hispanic, or Native American” students. Others, such as the Minority Teachers Scholarship, are explicitly segregated by race. Candidates “must be a member of one of the following racial groups: African American/Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian American/Pacific Islander, or Hispanic/Latino.” In other words, anyone but whites.

  All these racially discriminatory scholarship programs violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. But university administrators have been silently embedding “racial equity” principles into every academic process. They operate with impunity because, until recently, no one has attempted to stop them.

  This could change. Along with my Manhattan Institute colleague Ilya Shapiro, I have proposed a model policy that would outlaw these practices and abolish the DEI bureaucracy. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has promised to address the problem in the coming legislative session. It seems that Florida lawmakers have seen the DEI scam for what it is: an attempt to push left-wing racialist ideology in the guise of academic justice. As they prepare for action, state legislators should consider a maximalist position: demolishing the DEI bureaucracy down to its foundations and restoring the principle of colorblind equality to the Sunshine State’s public institutions.

  *  *  *

  Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Sign up for his newsletter here.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 23:00

• Americans Purchased These Firearms The Most In 2022
  Americans Purchased These Firearms The Most In 2022

  Post-Covid, firearm sales at the retail level soared to record levels. According to National Shooting Sports Foundation, the 2022 National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) totaled 16.4 million. While NICS checks aren’t related to actual firearms sales, it’s a proxy for gun demand. 

  

  A new monthly report from GunGenius, which uses data from Gunbroker, reveals the top-selling firearms sold online in 2022:

  1. SIG Sauer P320 semi-automatic pistol
  2. Remington 700 bolt-action rifle
  3. Sig Sauer P365 pistol

  

  Here are the top-selling handguns from last year. 

  

  Here are the top-selling rifles. 

  

  And top top-selling shotguns. 

  

  Also, the top gunmakers last year. 

  

  We have covered soaring NICS checks in the last few years but have yet to shine a light on what Americans have been panic-buying. This report offers some insight into buying trends. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 22:40

• Hopkins: The War On Insensitivity
  Hopkins: The War On Insensitivity

  Authored by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

  So, here’s a “conspiracy theory” for you.

  This one is about the global-capitalist thoughtpolice and their ongoing efforts to purge society of “insensitivity.” Yes, that’s right, insensitivity. If there is anything the global-capitalist thoughtpolice can’t stand, it is insensitivity. You know, like making fun of ethnic or religious minorities, and the physically or cognitively challenged, and alternatively gendered persons, and hideously ugly persons, and monstrously fat persons, and midgets, and so on.

  

  The global-capitalist thoughtpolice are terribly concerned about the feelings of such persons. And the feelings of other sensitive persons who are also concerned about the feelings of such persons. And everybody’s feelings, generally. So they’re purging society of any and all forms of literary content, and every other form of content, that might possibly irreparably offend such persons, and persons concerned about the feelings of such persons, and anyone who might feel offended by anything.

  By now, I assume you have seen the news about the “sensitivity editing” of Roald Dahl, the author of books like James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, The Twits, and numerous others. What happened was, Dahl’s publisher, Puffin Books, hired a little clutch of “sensitivity editors” to substantively rewrite his books, purging words like “fat” and “ugly,” and Dahl’s descriptions of characters as “bald” and “female,” and inserting their own ham-handed, “sensitized” language.

  What you may not be aware of is that Puffin Books is a children’s imprint of Penguin Random House, a multi-national conglomerate publishing company and a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, a nominally German but in reality global media conglomerate. Penguin Random House is one of the so-called “big five publishers” that control approximately 80% of the retail book market. The other four are Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, and HarperCollins.

  Together, these five corporate behemoths, with their hundreds of divisions, publishing groups, and imprints (e.g., Puffin Books), control the majority of what everyone reads. Pull a few books off your bookshelves at random and look up the imprints to see how many are owned by one of the “big five” publishers or one of their divisions or publishing groups.

  Another thing you may not be aware of is the increasing employment of “sensitivity readers” by these publishing conglomerates and their legions of imprints, and by writers aspiring to be published by these imprints. Writer’s Digest describes their function thus:

  “Publishers and authors hire them to basically cancel-proof their books before they hit the street, hoping to head off any misspoken messages . . . hoping to depict peoples in an accurate light when it comes to genre, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and more. Sensitivity edits are a publisher’s or editor’s insurance to protect reputation and ward off profit loss, just in case, and an author’s attempt to depict characters in an accurate light. Entities purchase a sensitivity read when the writing is outside of their expertise or experience, or they are uncertain they depicted details properly.”

  Penguin Random House recommends “authenticity readers” to any of its authors who are “writing outside their personal experience” (i.e., using their imaginations), to prevent them from “perpetuating stereotypes,” or exhibiting their “unconscious or internalized bias” and creating “patterns of harmful representation,” and so on.

  If this sounds to you like some kind of creepy, Orwellian-Ministry-of-Truth-type mindfuckery, that’s because that’s exactly what it is. It doesn’t really affect old farts like me — I wouldn’t let any of the big corporate publishers or their “sensitivity readers” near my writing, which they would never publish in any event, and which would likely cause them to experience seizures, and then stagger around the office looking for differently-abled-Black-transgender colleagues to kneel down in front of and apologize to — but there’s a whole generation of aspiring writers who are being conditioned to accept this as “normal.”

  The Roald-Dahl story is being framed as a “woke/anti-woke” culture-war story. It isn’t. And it isn’t an aberration. It’s part and parcel of the new global-capitalist totalitarianism that I’ve been going on and on about. The entire “Wokeness” phenomenon is. Global-capitalist cultural revolutionaries are hunting down “insensitivity” everywhere. In the arts, schools, TV shows, films, social media, et cetera. “Insensitivity” being any and all forms of deviation from global-capitalist ideology, regardless of where they fall on the left/right spectrum. I have described the process as a new form of Gleichschaltung, the systematic coordination of every element of society — or every element that matters — in conformity with global-capitalist ideology.

  So, what is global-capitalist ideology?

  Well, I told you I had a “conspiracy theory” for you. It is not a very sexy “conspiracy theory,” but it’ll have to do, because it’s all I’ve got. And, forgive me, but I’m just getting started on my second “insensitive” dystopian novel, so I’m going to explain this “conspiracy theory” with a lengthy excerpt from the introduction to The War on Populism: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. II (2018-2019), one of my collections of essays, rather than taking the time to reword it badly. It really is a rather lengthy excerpt, so, if you happen to be reading this at work (i.e., when you are supposed to be working), or if you need to get back to a Twitter-fracas, or if you have the attention span of a gnat, you might want to save it and try to read it later.

  Ready? OK, here we go.

  ‘This conflict (i.e., global capitalism versus a global “populist” insurgency) is at the root of all the madness of the last four years. To understand it, one needs to understand that it is primarily an ideological conflict, a global war for hearts and minds. Trump, Johnson, Corbyn, Sanders, and other so-called “populist” figures, were never a real threat to GloboCap, not in any material sense. They are symbols, figureheads, representations of resistance to global capitalist ideology. It is this resistance to its ideology (from both the left and the right … it makes no difference), more than any particular political leader or movement, that GloboCap has been trying to crush. It needs to put down this “populist” insurgency, so it can get on with the business of transforming the entire world into one big value-less marketplace … which is what it has been doing for last thirty years.

  This is what capitalism was built to do. Ideologically speaking, it is a simple machine, one that strips societies of “despotic” values (e.g., religious, social, cultural values … values established by kings, priests, aristocracies, artists, communities, political parties, families, et cetera) and replaces them all with a single value (i.e., exchange value), rendering everything a commodity. In essence, it is an ideological machine, a values-decoding/recoding machine, which transforms societies into markets.

  (I’ve cut a bit here, to make it somewhat less lengthy and get to the global-capitalist ideology part.)

  …

  Global capitalism’s ideology (i.e., the territory that comprises our “reality”) is unlike any other ideology in the 5,000-year history of ideology. It is an ideological territory without limits, neither internal nor external boundaries. It is a featureless territory, in which anything is possible, because nothing within it has any value, or meaning, in and of itself. It is literally a “desert of the real,” an infinite, seamless desert of values, across the lifeless surface of which the ghosts of values eternally wander, in circles, aimlessly, signifying nothing, going nowhere, for they are already there, in the only place there is to be, because the desert is everywhere, and everything.

  There is nowhere and nothing outside of this territory. There is no “outside” where anything could exist. It is one big global capitalist world, one unitary, omnipresent, capitalist “reality” … one big global marketplace, or it will be, once GloboCap finishes destabilizing and restructuring what remains of the post-Cold-War world.

  This is the story of the last thirty years. Beneath the distractions of the day, the manufactured mass hysteria, the propaganda, the fabricated outrage, the scandals, the wars, rumors of wars, the deafening roar of millions of voices shrieking gibberish on social media, conspiracy theories, real and imagined, the cheap charade of electoral politics, and so on, right out there in the open, because no one has been paying much attention, GloboCap has been mopping up, cleansing societies of their outmoded values, absorbing them into the global market … implementing ideological conformity.

  You’re familiar with this ideological conformity. We all are. You’re probably in favor of many of the “values” it purports to want to promote, anti-racism, equal rights, separation of church and state, et cetera, the traditional liberal agenda. Remember, capitalist ideology is what finally freed us from the rule of despots, kings, aristocracies, priests. (Personally, I’m extremely grateful for that.) As I explained above, capitalism did this by eradicating “despotic” values and replacing them all with a single value, exchange value, rendering everything a commodity. That doesn’t sound very appealing, however. No one wants to see themselves as just a commodity, or live in a world without any real values. So capitalism marketed itself as “democracy,” and that went over much better with the masses.

  Here we are, a few hundred years later, and “democracy” (i.e., capitalism) is running out of “despotic” values to eradicate and “liberate” us from. Sure, it still has some work to do secularizing the Middle East, and there are still a few countries that aren’t playing ball, but most of the planet has gotten with the program. Most of the values-eradicating work that remains to be done is right here at home. There are still a lot of Western consumers who haven’t completely embraced “democracy,” and who are clinging to old “despotic” values … racist values, religious values, nativist values, xenophobic values, homophobic values, transphobic values, cultural and artistic values, ableist values, alloist values, shadeism, lookism, ethnocentrism, cisgenderism, anti-Semitism, jingoism, sexism, sizeism, saneism … the list goes on and on, and on.

  Democracy (i.e., global capitalism) will not rest until it has cleansed society (i.e., the global marketplace) of these ugly, destructive, despotic values, and implemented a worldwide “code of conduct” (like the ones that most global corporations have) with universal “anti-hate-speech rules,” and “appropriate vocabulary” lists, and has erased any visible symbol of such despotic values from public view, and any references to them from school curricula, and has otherwise transformed humanity into a mass of hyper-conformist consumers who all look like models in a Benetton commercial and talk like customer service representatives.

  Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of democracy, and I’m not a fan of racism or any other type of discrimination or bigotry. I’m just trying to shed a little light on the forces behind the identity-politics zealotry that has been raging recently, and the “populist” backlash against such zealotry.

  This zealotry, this crusade for ideological conformity, is described by many leftists as a movement to establish “social justice,” and by many right-wing types as “cultural Marxism.” It is neither. Or … OK, it contains elements of both, but fundamentally it is global capitalism purifying society of despotic values, establishing that infinite, value-free, meaningless “desert of the real” I described above.’

  That’s it. I warned you that it was rather lengthy. It was written in September of 2020, so about six months into the roll-out of the New Normal.

  As for the Roald-Dahl dust-up, what will happen now (and what is currently happening) is that A-list authors, journalists, and other official mouthpieces of the global-capitalist Simulation of Culture will make a big stink for a couple days, and then Penguin Random House and the other “big-five” publishers will go on “sensitivity-editing,” and “authenticity-editing,” and otherwise aggressively homogenizing mainstream literature until it won’t really matter which books you read because they will all be minor variations of each other that will resemble nothing so much in their utterly soul-deadening, interchangeable blandness as the lobbies of corporate offices.

  Of course, if you are into the literature thing, you can always seek out and read other books by disreputable and “insensitive” authors like me who are unaffiliated with any global publishing behemoths, that is, assuming they haven’t been hidden from you behind these fake “sensitive content” warnings.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 22:20

• Russia's Wagner Chief Accuses Defense Ministry Of Treason As Spat Widens
  Russia’s Wagner Chief Accuses Defense Ministry Of Treason As Spat Widens

  Going back to the battle of Soledar, when Wanger Group was reportedly the first to enter the city and claim victory for itself, there’s been a widening rift between the mercenary outfit with links to Putin and the regular Russian military.

  The rift widened this week in a spat which is going increasingly public, as Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, often referred to as “Putin’s chef”, accused the defense ministry and its Chief of the General Staff of purposefully blocking badly needed munitions to Wagner fighters.

  

  The defense ministery stands accused of ordering national forces to withhold munitions supplies, and to avoid assisting with any air transport.

  “There is quite simply direct obstruction going on,” Prigozhin said. He’s ratcheted his rhetoric, provocatively going so far as to use the word “treason” applied to the high military chain of command, which is a first.

  “This can be equated with high treason,” he said, saying the lack of ammo supplies are to blame for his fighters “dying en masse.” The blistering words which demonstrate a clear battlefield rift came in the form of a seven-minute audio message published Monday by Wagner’s press service, wherein—

  “…an apparently angry and emotional Prigozhin said he was required to “apologize and obey” to secure ammunition for his fighters. Speaking at times with a raised voice and occasionally swearing, he said: “I’m unable to solve this problem despite all my connections and contacts.”

  Prigozhin said Russia’s military production was now sufficient to supply the forces fighting at the front and the supply difficulties his fighters were experiencing were the result of conscious decisions.

  “Those who interfere with us trying to win this war are absolutely, directly working for the enemy,” he said.

  What’s more is that Prigozhin is going straight after the generals and even Kremlin officials while appealing to popular discontent over the war’s execution. His message is likely to reverberate more among Russian hawks. He said defense ministry officials were negligent while “eating breakfast, lunch and dinner off golden plates” and regularly send their family members off to vacation in Dubai.

  

  But Wagner has proven hugely controversial even among the hawks, given things like its policy of recruiting straight from Russian prisons – including individuals convicted of violent crimes – and in return promising them freedom.

  Tensions also soared when Prigozhin and his officials said that it was Wagner alone which captured the salt mining town of Soledar, and without the help of regular forces. This was blasted by military brass, and seen as an attempt at self-promotion and and part of the firm raking in in money. Now, Wagner’s leadership says there’s a plot afoot to take down the organization.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 22:00

• Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan In Trouble At Supreme Court, Lawyers Say
  Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan In Trouble At Supreme Court, Lawyers Say

  Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  President Joe Biden’s sweeping plan to partially forgive student loans will likely receive a cool reception when the Supreme Court hears challenges to the program on Feb. 28, legal experts told The Epoch Times.

  

  Biden introduced the plan in August 2022 in a move that critics decried as a constitutionally dubious attempt to shore up Democrats’ fortunes ahead of the November 2022 congressional elections. While the Congressional Budget Office said the plan could cost about $400 billion, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania estimates the price tag could exceed $1 trillion.

  The student loan relief program is premised on the existence of the emergencies the Trump administration declared in March 2020 to combat the COVID-19 virus. The national emergency and the public health emergency enabled federal agencies to exercise expansive powers in managing the government’s pandemic response.

  In a move that could undermine the government’s legal arguments in the pending court cases, Biden’s Office of Management and Budget said in a Jan. 30 press release (pdf) that it would extend the soon-to-expire emergencies to May 11 “and then end both emergencies on that date.”

  The federal government put a pause on student loan payments and interest during the recent pandemic but then claimed in 2022 that the pandemic gave it emergency authority under the law to proceed with partial loan forgiveness. Republicans, who took the majority in the House of Representatives in January, say the emergencies aren’t justified and should be ended sooner.

  About 26 million people reportedly applied under the program before courts blocked it last year. Of those 26 million, 16 million were said to have been approved before the government stopped accepting applications.

  The Department of Education claims that it has the authority to move forward with the debt relief proposal, which would cancel as much as $20,000 in loan principal for 40 million borrowers, under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act).

  But lawmakers involved in the passage of the HEROES Act say the statute was enacted after the 9/11 terror attacks to provide student loan relief to military service members and their families and was never intended to be used to cancel debts en masse.

  The court is scheduled to hear two related cases dealing with the program, Biden v. Nebraska (court file 22-506) and Department of Education v. Brown (court file 22-535), back-to-back on Feb. 28.

  The Biden student loan forgiveness plan is flatly unconstitutional, attorney Caleb Kruckenberg of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a national nonprofit public interest law firm, told The Epoch Times.

  He said Biden unveiled the debt relief program not long after the pandemic “was over anyway [and] we all sort of understood what that meant.”

  Kruckenberg said that even if the Biden administration were successful at the Supreme Court, which he doubts, their stated authority would expire May 11.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 21:40

• Trudeau Libs Gaslight Canadians On Foreign Interference (Except When It Actually Happens)
  Trudeau Libs Gaslight Canadians On Foreign Interference (Except When It Actually Happens)

  Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

  Let’s talk foreign interference in Canadian democracy – CCP edition.

  “We will not let any foreign entities that seek to do harm to Canada or Canadians, erode trust in our democratic institutions, or question the legitimacy of our democracy.”

  — Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety

  Bombshell revelations over the weekend (although perhaps not entirely surprising) that the Chinese Communist Party actively interfered in the 2021 Federal Election in Canada to tip the scales in favour of another Trudeau minority government and the defeat of certain Conservative Party MPs who were seen as critical of the Chinese regime.

  “China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign as Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – but only to another minority government – and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing.”

  The details emerged in leaked CSIS documents which were reported by the Globe and Mail.

  Ironically, the opening quote from Bill Blair was not about China interfering in a Canadian election. Blair said that almost exactly a year ago, about the Canadian #FreedomConvoy. It was among numerous claims made by the Trudeau Liberals , the NDP to vilify the truckers – and which were endlessly repeated and amplified by the corporate press. All of which were found to be false in the ensuing inquiry into Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergency Act on Feb 14, 2022.

  

  The #FreedomConvoy myths perpetuated included:

  • MYTH: The convoy was being funded by foreign entities seeking to “destabilize our democracy” and “fund terrorism”

    REALITY: Upon examination it was found that nearly all funding to the convoy came from Canadian citizens (over 88%) and “a federal anti-terror agency in an internal memo said it saw no evidence millions raised by the Freedom Convoy were intended to bankroll terrorism”. That memo actually came out  three weeks before the Emergency Act was invoked.

  • MYTH: The Emergency Act was enacted in response to pleas from the Ottawa Police force who feared an insurgency

  • REALITY: During the hearings  it emerged  that nobody in the Ottawa Police, including then-chief Peter Sloly nor his successor Steve Bell, asked Ottawa to invoke the act.

  • MYTH: The convoy was an insurgency that violently occupied Ottawa, setting fire to apartment buildings, desecrating the Unknown Soldier Memorial statue, and sporting swastikas and confederate flags.

  • REALITY: The person who desecrated the Unknown Soldier memorial was “a woman [who] was not from Western Canada and had nothing to do with the convoy” police said.

    The people who barricaded an apartment building door and were attempting to light a fire turned out to also be locals (*cough* Antifa? *cough*) with no connection to the convoy.

    That one guy with the confederate flag and the one other guy with the swastika turned out to be the only two people at the protest wearing masks (the latter seemingly accompanied by a professional photographer). They were run out of the area by the other protesters. Speculation abounds that both were agents provocateurs, and one was named by a Freedom Convoy lawyer who accused a former Toronto Star manager and Liberal Party publicist  – although there is no mention of those allegations in the final report (the person named is suing the lawyer for defamation).

  The list goes on. The final report on the Emergencies Act Inquiry dropped over the weekend, and was a compendium of softballs and cherry-picked testimony. While Bill Blair is taking another victory lap, saying the report finds the government was justified in invoking the act, the nuance is that it did so “reluctantly” and because of the failures in every level of government and not because the convoy itself posed a threat to our democracy.

  Yet, Canadian leaders, like Jagmeet Singh, the junior partner in Canada’s ruling Liberal/Socialist coalition, pushed all of these myths and still routinely refers to the protest as a foreign funded insurrection that sought to overthrow the government and install a fascist  dictatorship.

  The convoy is occupying our nation’s capital.

  Donald Trump and members of the Alt-right have endorsed them.

  Foreign money is financing them.

  And, a stated goal is to overthrow our democratically elected govt.

  This is a clear threat to our democracy.https://t.co/z3MxvU3Kww

  — Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) February 7, 2022

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

  Chinese Interference should be the elephant in the room…

  So given all the hysteria from our federal leaders around foreign interference in our democracy, it’s rich that Canada’s own intelligence apparatus found that the ChiComms really did interfere in the 2021 election – and they put their thumb on the scale in favour Justin Trudeau.

  In the hours after the report emerged, Trudeau appeared dismissive,

  “This is not a new phenomenon. This is something that countries around the world have been grappling with for a long time and Canada is no exception.”

  (The PM stopped short of seizing the bank accounts of Chinese nationals with ties to Beijing. )

  All we need now is for the CBC to reframe the CSIS findings as a “conspiracy theory” and we can get back to the hyper-normality that defines our age.

  *  *  *

  Subscribe to the Bombthrower mailing list to get new articles as they come out. You can also follow me on me on Nostr , Gettr, or Twitter. My premium letter The Bitcoin Capitalist covers Bitcoin, the digital assset space and crypto stocks.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 21:00

• Mood In Washington Shifting In Favor Of Jets For Ukraine
  Mood In Washington Shifting In Favor Of Jets For Ukraine

  There’s slow but significantly gaining momentum in the West building toward supplying Ukraine with fighter jets as well as long-range missiles, namely the ATACMS systems (the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System).

  First, pressure is growing on British leadership, with former prime minister Liz Truss joining former PM Boris Johnson in urgently calling for providing fighter jets. She said that Britain needed to “do all we can, as fast as we can” to help Ukraine win, in her first speech since stepping down as prime minister.

  Her remarks before MPs in the House of Commons included an appeal to “do all we can to make sure Ukraine wins this war as soon as possible” which must include an option to provide fighters jets, “otherwise they will not be able to prevail”. Zelensky has all along been pleading with the US and UK in particular to help “close the skies” in providing jets, as well as sending more sophisticated anti-air defense systems.

  

  According to the BBC, “The call was echoed by former PM Boris Johnson during a debate on Ukraine, putting pressure on PM Rishi Sunak.”

  Sunak has stated his position that “nothing is off the table” – including the supply of jets. However, like with the tank issue which was hotly debated over the last months before the trigger was finally pulled, a common agreement will likely have to take shape among NATO powers, given it would mark the biggest escalation of the war to date (among many prior escalations). 

  There’s also the issue of training pilots, which the UK has already set up a program for in anticipation of a potential future move to send jets. The idea is to speed pilots along on NATO-standard aircraft to be ready for such an option.

  As for the United States, the Biden administration has thus far resisted calls from Congressional hawks to “close the skies” with jets and longer range missile capabilities, but according to one powerful lawmaker who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the political winds are blowing in favor of transferring F-16s to Kiev.

  “A senior U.S. lawmaker said during a visit to the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday that momentum in Washington was shifting toward sending the long-range missiles and fighter jets coveted by Kyiv as it battles Russia’s invasion,” according to Reuters, which further writes: 

  Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Biden administration and National Security Council were still split over “how fast and what weapons” to send Ukraine, which wants ATACMS missiles and F-16s.

  “But I’m seeing increasing momentum towards getting the artillery and the planes in,” he told reporters in central Kyiv. “And in any event, we can start training the pilots right now so they’re ready.”

  Washington has provided $24 billion in security assistance since Russia’s Feb. 24 assault but has so far held back from sending planes and long-range missiles.

  McCaul’s Kyiv visit came immediately on the heels of President Biden’s surprise visit to meet with Zelensky, where he pledged a half-billion dollars more in defense aid to the Ukrainian government.

  As for Rep. McCaul, Zelensky handed him a weapons “wish list” – a tactic which Western officials have grown used to from Ukrainian officials at this point: 

  The lawmaker, who met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Ukrainian leader gave him a wishlist of weapons including the F-16s and ATACMS, which he said were intended “to go all the way into Crimea” to hit Iranian drones used in recent air strikes.

  And of course, right on cue, the neocons among the Republicans are speaking up…

  The pro-Ukraine Republicans speak up.

  House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul (R.-TX), visiting Kyiv:

  “[President Biden] needs to get Ukraine the weapons they need to win now, especially ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System)…”https://t.co/inzq3L1Tag #FoxNews

  — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) February 21, 2023

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

  Of course, if that kind of talk is directly backed by the West, it would be a recipe ensuring direct NATO-Russia clash over Ukraine. Already the Kremlin sees NATO as a party to the conflict, having long ago blown past a number of stated red lines. First it was tanks approved only very recently, and jets are likely fast coming next. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 20:40

• ChatGPT Co-Creator Says The World May Not Be "That Far Away From Potentially Scary" AI
  ChatGPT Co-Creator Says The World May Not Be “That Far Away From Potentially Scary” AI

  Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times,

  The co-creator of ChatGPT warned that the world may not be “that far away from potentially scary” artificial intelligence (AI).

  

  Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, said in a series of tweets on Feb. 18 that it was “critical” for AI to be regulated in the future, until it can be better understood. He stated that he believes that society needs time to adapt to “something so big” as AI.

  “We also need enough time for our institutions to figure out what to do. Regulation will be critical and will take time to figure out. Although current-generation AI tools aren’t very scary, I think we are potentially not that far away from potentially scary ones,” Altman tweeted.

  Altman further said that the path to an AI-enhanced future is “mostly good, and can happen somewhat fast,” comparing it to the transition from the “pre-smartphone world to post-smartphone world.”

  He said that one issue regarding society’s adoption of AI chatbot technology is “people coming away unsettled from talking to a chatbot, even if they know what’s really going on.”

  Altman had written about about regulating AI in his blog back in March 2015:

   “The U.S. government, and all other governments, should regulate the development of SMI,” referring to superhuman machine intelligence.

  “In an ideal world, regulation would slow down the bad guys and speed up the good guys. It seems like what happens with the first SMI to be developed will be very important.”

  Microsoft’s ChatGPT AI Faces Criticism for ‘Woke’ Responses to Users

  Meanwhile, there have been well-publicized problems with with Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine in the past week.

  Bing has reportedly given controversial responses to queries, which ranged from “woke”-style rhetoric, deranged threats, to engaging in emotional arguments with users.

  Microsoft noted in a blog post last week that certain user engagements can “confuse the model,” which may lead the software to “reflect the tone in which it is being asked to provide responses that can lead to a style we didn’t intend.”

  According to a blog post on Feb. 17, Microsoft will now limit the number of exchanges users can have with the bot to “50 chat turns per day and five chat turns per session,” until issues were addressed by programmers.

  Musk Calls for AI Regulation at Dubai

  Industrialist Elon Musk, a co-founder and former board member of Open AI, has also advocated for proactive regulation AI technology.

  The current owner of Twitter once claimed that the technology has the potential to be more dangerous than nuclear weapons and that Google’s Deepmind AI project could one day effectively takeover the world.

  According to CNBC, Musk told attendees at the the 2023 World Government Summit in Dubai last week that “we need to regulate AI safety” and that AI is “I think, actually a bigger risk to society than cars or planes or medicine.”

  However, Musk still thinks that the Open AI project has “great, great promise” and capabilities—both positive and negative, but needs regulation.

  He was also critical of Open AI’s direction in a tweet on Feb. 17.

  Musk said he helped found it with Altman as an open source nonprofit company to serve as a counterweight to Google’s Deepmind AI project, “but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft. Not what I intended at all.”

  Musk announced his resignation from OpenAI’s board of directors in 2018 to “eliminate a potential future conflict” with Tesla’s self-driving car program.

  He later wrote in a tweet in 2019 that “Tesla was competing for some of same people as OpenAI and I didn’t agree with some of what OpenAI team wanted to do.”

  Others involved in the project, such as Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, told Time on Feb. 5 that ChatGPT should be regulated to avoid misuse and that it was “not too early” to regulate the technology.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 20:20

• Trump Lashes Out At New York Post Over Profile On Ron DeSantis
  Trump Lashes Out At New York Post Over Profile On Ron DeSantis

  Authored by Savannah Pointer via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The New York Post has come under fire from former President Donald Trump after it ran a lengthy profile of potential 2024 White House candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the weekend.

  

  The profile, which was published on Feb. 18, includes photographs of the governor as a boy enjoying baseball and fishing, as well as a headline with DeSantis’s talking point.

  “People don’t want ‘agenda being rammed down their throats,‘” DeSantis said, according to the article.

  The seemingly positive piece prompted a heated social media remark from the former president and 2024 White House candidate on Feb. 19.

  Trump took a similar path to how he spoke to the American People during his presidency, calling out the news media, saying the article was “fake news” and claiming the New York Post is “dying.”

  “In writer Salena Zito’s fake news’ puff piece’ about DeSantis, which supposedly appeared in the dying New York Post, which is way down in readership just like FoxNews is way down in ratings. Why doesn’t she mention that he wants to cut social security and medicare, loves losers like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, and it getting clobbered in the polls by me?” Trump wrote on Sunday on Truth Social.

  “DeSantis is a RINO [Republican in Name Only] who is trying to hide his past. I don’t read the New York Post anymore. It has become fake news, just like Fox and WSJ!”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 20:00

• Minnesota Bar Owner Faces $350,000 In Fines For Defying State COVID-19 Restrictions
  Minnesota Bar Owner Faces $350,000 In Fines For Defying State COVID-19 Restrictions

  Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Minnesota bar owner lost her business, liquor and food service licenses, and is facing up to $350,000 in fines for violating a governor’s executive order. But the Minnesota Attorney General’s lawsuit doesn’t list any actual harm caused by her actions.

  

  “I didn’t break the law; I defied the executive order,” Lisa Monet Zarza told The Epoch Times.

  Zarza’s attorney, Richard Dahl of Brainerd, Minnesota, did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times. Nor did the Minnesota Attorney General’s office.

  The lawsuit was filed in Minnesota District Court in Dakota County. It alleges that Lionheart LLC, doing business as Alibi Drinkery of Lakeville, Minnesota, opened for business illegally from Dec. 16–30, 2020.

  

  Gov. Tm Walz had ordered bars, restaurants, and other businesses closed to stem the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

  It was one of a series of executive orders issued from March 2020 to June 2021 after Walz declared a “peacetime emergency.” A review of available data by The Epoch Times indicates Walz’s orders likely accomplished nothing toward controlling the spread of the CCP virus.

  Zarza said that she and her business partner had complied with all state mandates up to that point. They closed for the initial two-week period in March 2020 to “flatten the curve.” They offered take-out service and outdoor dining as much as they could.

  Zarza said Alibi Drinkery never reported an issue and was never connected to any COVID cases.

  “We closed exactly how they said,” she said.

  The peacetime emergency declaration, approved by the legislature, allowed Walz to issue edicts with the power of law. One of those was Executive Order 20-99.

  It was issued on Nov. 19, 2020, in response to a spike in positive tests for the virus in the state.

  According to the order, “The virus is everywhere, meaning that every interaction we have with people outside our households poses a risk of transmission.”

  

  The 23-page order declared that previous efforts to control the spread of the virus needed to be increased. Therefore, a mask mandate was instituted, and various organizations such as gyms, bars and restaurants, sports venues, and others considered high risks for spreading the virus were ordered to close.

  She described Alibi Drinkery as a “hometown bar” in Lakeville, a community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. She said she was active in the Lakeville business scene serving on various boards and with the Chamber of Commerce. Alibi Drinkery sponsored sports teams and hosted parties and community events.

  “We were embedded in the community,” Zarza said.

  Zarza said she started in the restaurant business as a 20-year-old. She loves the work, and it has become the only life she has ever really known.

  “I don’t drink, and I don’t do drugs; I run restaurants,” she quipped during a telephone interview.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 19:40

• US Believes Russia Conducted 'Satan 2' ICBM Test While Biden Was In Ukraine
  US Believes Russia Conducted ‘Satan 2’ ICBM Test While Biden Was In Ukraine

  CNN has published a surprising report Tuesday night, claiming based on two unnamed US officials that Russia conducted an ultra-provocative intercontinental ballistic missile test while President Biden was in Ukraine on Monday.

  The sources say the US believes the ICBM test “failed” – however, no explanation or details were given for the claim other than Putin simply didn’t mention the test in his big Tuesday speech in Moscow.

  “Russia notified the United States in advance of the launch through deconfliction lines, one official said. Another official said that the test did not pose a risk to the United States and that the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation,” CNN writes. 

  

  The officials described it as a test of the heavy SARMAT missile – dubbed in the West the ‘Satan II’ – which is nuclear capable. 

  The following is the perhaps dubious “evidence” of the purported test failure as highlighted by CNN:

  It has been successfully tested before and had this one worked, US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would have highlighted the test in his State of the Nation address on Tuesday.

  Instead, Putin made no mention of the launch in the speech that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. He did, however, formally declare that Russia will be suspending his country’s participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, imperiling the last remaining pact that regulates the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.

  If Russia wanted to send a resounding and threatening message, there remains the possibility that footage of the SARMAT missile launch could be released later in the week, assuming it did happen.

  Launch was from Plesetsk:https://t.co/4xt5KVju5U

  — Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) February 20, 2023

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

  Often, though not always, the Kremlin likes to widely publicize its major weapons tests by circulating official video. In some instances, videos are belatedly released. 

  If indeed the Kremlin conducted a ‘Satan II’ missile test with Biden in Kyiv, and releases the video while he’s still traveling in Eastern Europe (currently in Poland), this would without doubt be taken by the West as a huge escalation and direct threat, as it sends a not so subtle and ominous ‘message’ at a moment America’s commander-in-chief is in the region.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 19:20

• California City Council Member Arrested On Voter Fraud Charges: Sheriff
  California City Council Member Arrested On Voter Fraud Charges: Sheriff

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A city council member in Lodi, California, was arrested on election fraud-related charges amid speculation that he resigned from office, according to officials.

  

  The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 16 wrote that Shakir Khan, a Lodi city council member, was charged with falsely filing a declaration of candidacy, three counts of voting or attempting to vote more than once, registering a fictitious person, making or defacing a nomination paper, and a voter registration violation.

  In interviews with local media outlet KCRA-3, Khan denied the allegations. He’s also denied resigning from his city council seat.

  “I did not resign my city council seat,” Khan stated. “I will continue to serve the people that I love in my district and my community.”

  Khan, in the interview with KCRA, suggested that the charges were not merited. “My family and myself, we are going through some hard time right now and we are looking forward to fighting these charges,” Khan said.

  “The presumption of Shakir Khan’s innocence still applies,” his lawyer, Allen Sawyer, told ABC10 last week. “We appreciate the professionalism of Deputy District Attorney Kelly McDaniel, Deputy District Attorney Todd Turner, and Paralegal Macie McKinstry in the handling of this case. Mr. Khan will return to the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Department 6D on February 21, 2023 for arraignment on the information.”

  San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow told reporters last week that a longstanding investigation found that Khan allegedly “attempted to undermine, manipulate and violate one of our most fundamental rights here in our country, and that is the right to free and fair elections.”

  “It appears councilman Shakir Khan has targeted members of his own community, our Pakistani community in the north county,” Withrow stated. “And we are doing everything we can to work with them to make sure that they are protected and that any damage done to them or their families is corrected by this man’s actions.”

  During a search of a business that officials said was owned by Khan, they found 41 sealed and completed mail-in ballots. Khan was, at the time, running for the District 4 seat on Lodi’s City Council.

  “When we saw this, we thought that something was off here and we didn’t know we had a crime at this particular point because there was a recent change in election law and people can turn in ballots on behalf of another,” Capt. Art Harty of the sheriff’s office said during last week’s press conference. Harty said the ballots were found during a 2019 investigation into Khan.

  “There was a lot of weird things we found in the voter rolls,” Harty also told reporters, explaining that someone who was inspecting voter rolls ahead of the 2022 midterms allegedly saw irregularities. “But when she pointed out a particular address in Lodi’s District 4, that’s when it clicked in our heads: ‘Wait, that’s Shakir Khan’s address. That’s the 41 ballots we saw.’”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 19:00

• Which World Leaders Have Met Zelensky In Ukraine?
  Which World Leaders Have Met Zelensky In Ukraine?

  In the lead-up to the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, visits of world leaders have picked up in Kyiv.

  U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday was the latest foreign dignitary to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine. On the visit that had been kept a secret beforehand, Biden reconfirmed the U.S.’ “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”. The country later announced additional military and other aid.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, going off the website of the Office of President Zelensky, he has been more than busy over the past year meeting foreign heads of state or government as well as the leaders of the UN and the EU in the Kyiv presidential palace or – in fewer cases – in Lviv or Odessa.

  As of Feb. 20, Zelensky had received seven visits by world leaders in 2023, among them those from the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Between September and November 2022, Zelensky had received three such visits per month (and none in December), while between April and August, Ukraine had still counted eight high-ranking visitors per month.

  The first visit of foreign leaders to Kyiv had actually taken place on Mar. 16, 2022 – three weeks after Russia’s invasion – by the prime ministers of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia: Mateusz Morawiecki, Petr Fiala and Janez Janša.

  The Ukrainian president has so far received at least one visit from almost all larger European countries except for Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Belarus. Some countries, for example Greece, Estonia and Moldova, decided to send their representative head of state instead of their government leader. Despite this, Estonia is one of Ukraine’s biggest allies and has made a total of four high-ranking delegation visits to Ukraine – as many as Germany, France and the Netherlands.

  Counting all visits by country leaders, representative heads of state as well as ministers, Poland has made the most visits at nine. The country where the prime minister and the president, Mateusz Morawiecki and Andrzej Duda, share power has seen visits made by both to Kyiv as well as Lviv on the Polish border. More visits were made by the country’s ministers of foreign affairs and defense. The next most visits were made by UK officials – three by Boris Johnson, as early as Apr. 9, and one by current PM Rishi Sunak on Nov. 19. The most far-flung visits to Ukraine in the past year were made by the leaders of Indonesia, Australia, Guatemala, Canada and Guinea-Bissau.

  Volodymyr Zelensky has received even more visits from other foreign delegations – political, economic or humanitarian.

  While the president’s deputies and staff do handle some meetings, U.S. parliamentarians like Nancy Pelosi, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Eric Swalwell and Amy Klobuchar have all met with Zelensky in the past year, as have Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, Richard Branson and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. The Ukrainian president is known to have left the country only sparsely since the invasion but has taken part via video link in numerous assemblies of state parliaments and international organizations, conferences, presentations to academics and students or even film festivals. He did travel abroad in the last year twice – to appear in U.S. Congress in December and to the UK, France, Belgium and Poland this February.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 18:40

• Goldman: "No One Is Positioned For A Rally And Everyone Wants It To Roll Over, Rather Than Be Forced To Chase"
  Goldman: “No One Is Positioned For A Rally And Everyone Wants It To Roll Over, Rather Than Be Forced To Chase”

  By Bobby Molavi, Goldman managing director and macro trader

  Equity markets seem to have been aided by a few things: a growing belief that inflation has peaked and the ability of the fed to deliver a soft landing, a more positive tilt around the consumers ability to digest higher rates and higher cost of living, China re-opening and lower geo political tail risks; and the benefit of a mild winter offsetting the structural gas shortage issues faced by Europe.

  Whilst there is definitely pain to bear as we move from the excess liquidity and ‘free’ capital environment post Covid the durability of the global economy in managing this shift has translated to the a much more constructive market reflexivity to a grind higher on terminal rates.

  

  What is interesting is that the investor narrative has generally remained bearish through this rally….yet positioning has quietly re-grossed and is materially less conservative than it was.

  With the benefit of hindsight, we expected many bad things in Q4: European power crisis, rising unemployment, slowing gdp, risk of recession, no China reopening, Corp. margin decline, credit defaults and bankruptcies rising as well as continued geopolitical tensions. None materialized and carry trades performed extremely well In Jan as most market participants sat on their hands. But now there seems to be a growing asymmetry in relation to the next move from here, and it seems to be much more skewed negative today than it was on Jan 1st. More on that later.

  What have we seen beneath the surface. A pain squeeze across global markets as well as a marked shift in leadership. On one hand the ‘generals’ have fallen from grace (FAANG) and on the other the revenge of the old economy has taken hold (absolute and relative Market cap growth across Banks/Industrials/Mining). At the end of day, whether driven by shorts or by under positioning we have seen this ‘squeeze’ dynamic everywhere. GS Prime Brokerage reported the largest short covering in eight years while simultaneously we saw outperformance and near record start of year rallies in Europe and China.

  But by the end of last week, things showed some signs of stalling. It felt like the tone of the market pivoted to renewed concerns around rates, growth and recession. Last week saw the biggest selling by hedge funds in seven weeks, we began to see tactical shorts being reset as well as larger index hedges being laid out and we saw a marked and sizeable turn in relation to non profitable tech, retail favorites and higher beta segments of the market.

  The early start of year rally has cause angst for many reasons:  firstly, no one was positioned for it, secondly no one believes in it, and now everyone wants it to roll over rather than be forced to chase.

  For me, what one client said rang true: “eyes need to remain on China.” While BOC continues to stimulate and market continues to run hot and reopen…there is enough read across to sustain global markets. Less so for US, which now trades on 18.5x but for ‘cheaper’ regions like Europe….where exposure to China has hit 20 year highs…and positioning remains relatively low…there is now a growing underbid emerging.

  For now, the broader market seems intent on clinging onto a more dovish ‘goldilocks’ softer landing narrative irrespective of yield behavior or Fed commentary. We saw hot CPI/PPI prints waved away on ‘January effect’ and the multitude of hawkish fedspeak last week similarly ignored:

  • Barkin – “I think there is a very good case for leaving rates higher for a longer period”,
  • Logan – “We must remain prepared to continue rate increases for a longer period than previously anticipated”
  • Mester – “Compelling Case for Half-Point Hike.”

  Time will tell how long that will last.

  Range of outcomes.

  It feels like we spent most of last year debating inflation and rates and what the new normal would be for yields. It feels like that corridor has narrowed with greater certainty as inflation shows increasing signs of having somewhat topped out. That corresponded with a very dovish tone to 2023 so far, and a material uptick in optimism and soft landing hopes across the markets.

  Now the debate has moved on from how high…to how high for how long. No longer is it about the where rates cap out…we’re roughly there in most peoples mind…but are we going to cap out and then move back to trend (still find it hard to see cuts in early 2024 personally) or do we need to prepare for higher for longer. I think the end of last week was informative…as strong inflationary prints and hawkish commentary led to a rise in conversation around being at 5 to 5.5% not for 3 months but more likely for 3 years. At first glance, this becomes a real concern but equally the longer the market can shrug this off, the more constructive that is going to be.

  Ignored tail risks.

  This is a real head scratcher for me. Throughout Covid, the rebound from Covid and through 2022 and Russia/Ukraine crisis and China/US concerns the markets were extremely reflexive to any headline that prodded a tail risk bruise. 2023 dynamics are notably different. Putin aggressive commentary… market shrugs. US debt ceiling and risks of a 2011 repeat (spx sold off 17%)…market shrugs. Chinese (reputedly) balloons all over American and Canadian skies….market shrugs. Risks around European energy shortage later in the year….that is Q4’s problem. The long and short of it is that we feel like we’re in a very complacent place as evidenced by dramatic resetting of vol lower in Q1 thus far. Things are usually fine until they are not…and I thought it interesting to see rising demand for tail protection at the end of last week.

  Non fundamental flows.

  For me 2023 has been characterized by stalemate. The bulls didn’t get a chance to buy the market and the bears are waiting for the market to correct. Only the hedge fund community and retail community have been active vs historical levels. One participant that has not stood still has been the ‘non fundamental’ community. How to break this down into component parts?

  I see 2 main buckets…..Buybacks, Systematic/CTA. The buyback component has been a growing backstop and tailwind for equity markets in recent times. Authorizations have risen materially and even spread to Europe (~2% equity withdrawal annually) on the back of excess cash creation and a focus on TSR over growth and M&A. But you have to wonder with a risk free 5% for holding T-bills…when will corporates start to think money markets offer greater value than buying back their own stock? The CTA community was arguably the biggest buyer of markets in Jan 2023…as vol reset lower across all asset classes and data came through better than expected the need to unwind shorts triggered a material re-risk. That impulse is slowing and, in fact, is now, a headwind or likely supply source whatever the direction from here. Worryingly on a down tape….we can see over $217bn of supply coming over the month in certain scenarios…not sure who is there to offset that supply. $2 trillion of options rolled off last week and it will be interesting to see how the market digests the removal of that long gamma support.

  

  Micro.

  Have we past the point of where corporates can pass on rising costs to consumers? On the back of CPI and PPI there was renewed focus on corporate forward earnings and margins in light of persistent higher ( and in some cases, rising, costs). Who can absorb these pain points and who is now going to have suffer in terms of volumes, growth or margins as the end consumer begins to push back? Our Strategists’ note this morning points out that a 5% increase in wages could lower the earnings of the STOXX 600 by more than 10%. Combining labour exposure and margin sensitivity, they find that the most exposed sectors are Construction & Materials, Industrials, Travel & Leisure, Autos & Parts and Food Retailers

  The case for Europe.

  I know…I know….the Englishman once again trying to desperately find light in the traditionally dark tunnel of Europe. Yes we have had yet another company decide to ‘evaluate’ whether they want to be listed in UK anymore rather than shift to greener pastures of US (Flutter). That being said, there is as compelling a case for as I’ve seen in quite some time. On a relative basis ownership of UK and Europe remains very very light. As sponsorship for the market changes, UK/Europe are quietly backing back into having a lot of the companies that the market is re-rating back towards the upper tranches of the market cap waterfall (BNP vs Adyen or Glencore vs Iberdrola).

  On a valuation basis, US remains stickily expensive vs history and UK/Europe remains resolutely cheap. On a global asset allocation basis…yes Europe has seen inflows…but for what is a (relative to US) shallow liquidity market…if the heavy pools of capital continue to add exposure here then the impact should be disproportionate. Finally, as a hunting ground for accretion, geographical diversity or growth…I sense that M&A will come (see Vodafone stake building and the various rumours around other UK assets in last few weeks).

  End of day, the European market is up 13% ytd, vs, US at 8%….with rising interest and changing fundamentals, value outperforms growth, so Europe starts to benefit. When you add to mix that US still trading at high multiples in spite of forecasting little to no growth for 2023 while Europe trades below longer term average valuations, has greater exposure to lower rated sectors (value-oriented ones) and Cash flow yields for places like UK at highest level globally at 7.8%. In fact….. Every sector in Europe trades at discount to its peer sector in the US. As Oppy’s team points out, “European consumer staples: have de-rated in recent years, though boast similar earnings growth; Utilities: also at a big gap – US utilities more regulated, but right now European utils have better growth prospects (investment in renewables); Tech: valuations for Europe and US tech are very similar, but growth in European tech better, and more exposed to Asia – Europe tech derives 50% sales from Asia, best play at China reopening; Energy: at huge discount, cash flow yields in European energy stocks very high.” After dealing with one issue or another forever (bank recaps, oil recaps, sov credit crises, lack of tech growth), the relative value for Europe has arguably never been greater.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 18:31

• Here's How Much Bloomberg Terminal Users Are Detached From Reality
  Here’s How Much Bloomberg Terminal Users Are Detached From Reality

  One of the best insights into just how disconnected wealthy folks are from the souring economic reality of high inflation crushing the bottom 90% of households is in the latest MLIV Pulse Survey asking Bloomberg Terminal users ‘at what dollar amount they would need their retirement savings to feel comfortable’. 

  The response: At least $3 million or more to retire with ease, according to the 553 respondents.

  In the US, 2.9% said less than $1 million, 7.6% said more than $1 million, 31.4% said $3 million, 42.6% said between $3-5 million, 13% said $20 million, and 2.5% said more than $20 million. 

  

  Bloomberg noted:

  Most respondents are optimistic they’ll move closer to their retirement goal by ending 2023 with more in retirement savings than at the end of 2022. Last year, inflation and rising borrowing costs hammered stocks, and since bond prices also plunged, the average US 401(k) retirement account was down 20% at plans where Vanguard Group is a recordkeeper.

  But here’s the disconnect between the respondents and everyone else. These folks aren’t in the bottom 90% and might not be suffering 21 months of negative real wage growth, depleted savings, maxed-out credit cards, and increased risk of job loss. 

  

  A recent survey by Bankrate showed one-third of American workers — nearly 36% — don’t have retirement accounts such as a 401(k) or IRA. The survey showed 52% of Americans are behind in their retirement savings.

  And many in the bottom 90% have found themselves working longer as the average retirement age has increased from 62 to 65. 

  Simply, the respondents of the MLIV Pulse Survey are disconnected from reality.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 18:00

• Over 1 Million Gallons Of Contaminated Water Excavated From Ohio Train Derailment Site
  Over 1 Million Gallons Of Contaminated Water Excavated From Ohio Train Derailment Site

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Around 15,000 pounds of contaminated soil and 1.1 million gallons of contaminated water have been excavated from the site of a train derailment earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio, train operator Norfolk Southern said on Feb. 20.

  

  The announcement comes shortly after a state senator warned people living in close proximity to the derailment not to drink or bathe in the water.

  Norfolk Southern said that the excavated contaminated soil and water will be transported to landfills and disposal facilities that are “designed to accept it safely in accordance with state and federal regulations.”

  “Additionally, a series of pumps have been placed upstream to reroute Sulphur Run around the derailment site,” the carrier said. “The affected portion of Sulphur Run has been dammed to protect water downstream.”

  “Environmental teams are treating the impacted portions of Sulphur Run with booms, aeration, and carbon filtration units,” Norfolk Southern said, adding that those teams are “also working with stream experts to collect soil and groundwater samples to develop a comprehensive plan to address any contamination that remains in the stream banks and sediment.”

  The train, carrying about 50 freight cars, was traveling from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 3 when it derailed in East Palestine.

  State officials ordered the evacuation of a 1-mile radius surrounding the crash site shortly after the incident but lifted those evacuation orders after crews burned the chemicals onboard, which included vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, and butyl acrylate, in a controlled release on Feb. 6.

  

  Concerns over Cancer-Causing Pollutants

  The controlled release also sent phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air.

  At the time the order was lifted, officials declared that it is safe for residents to return to the area after monitoring the air and water in surrounding communities and claiming they were not affected.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 17:40

• Explaining The Value Of Labor To Leftists Who Hate The Concept Of Work
  Explaining The Value Of Labor To Leftists Who Hate The Concept Of Work

  Go to any social media feed today and you’ll find an endless array of zennials entering adulthood who are discovering that they are indeed expected to work, struggle, sacrifice, and make their way up the ladder of life like 99% of all human beings.  The next generation is finding out, slowly but surely, that they will not be YouTube celebrities or Instagram influencers or Big Tech executives; they will not be raking in easy money or be showered in gratification.  Many of them have stacked up sizable college loan debts in exchange for degrees with minimal demand.  Even if they have a legitimate goal they will have to work hard to achieve it.  

  Reality is hitting younger Americans like a freight train and they are enraged. In response, many of them are sadly turning to leftist movements like the “anti-work movement” and the “quiet quitting” movement in retaliation.  While the Reddit born anti-work movement has slowly faded in the past six months, the overall agenda continues on in other forms. 

  There has been a rising narrative among young people regarding skilled labor vs unskilled labor.  Their position?  That there is no such thing as unskilled labor and that workers need to be handed a “living wage” no matter their level of contribution.  Either that, or they need to stop working altogether while others pay their way.  If they don’t get what they want, they plan to burn the economy to the ground.

  That kind of sentiment sounds like insanity to anyone that understands free markets (or reality), but to naive young adults with visions of immediate success, it might sound like wisdom.  They have been tricked into thinking that the laws of supply and demand no longer apply to labor, but they do.  Here are some questions any person should ask themselves when they stumble upon that internal existential crisis of career and future.  Are you actually being “oppressed”, or are you being paid exactly what you are worth and it’s making you feel inadequate?  

  How easy is it to replace you?

  Do you work a job that many people can do?  It’s not that hard to figure this out quickly.  Just look at the number of qualified people applying for the same job you have.  If that number is high, then you might be easy to replace.  If you flip burgers or run a cash register for a living, understand that you will have to offer something other than your time in order to secure higher pay and a better position.  This is what is often referred to as “unskilled labor,” because almost anyone can do what you do.    

  How long does it take to train for your job?

  Can a company train a new person for your job in two weeks, two months, two years or two decades?  If the honest answer is two weeks, then you are not in a position to demand a living wage.  Are you a surgeon or a fast food worker?  One involves incredible levels of training time while the other involves none.      

  How much intelligence is required to do your job?

  Brainpower is in short supply these days as public schools slowly erode academic standards in the name of “equity.”  This means that truly intelligent people will be in high demand while the mediocre will be common and battling each other for lower wage work.  Leftists want to change this dynamic by enforcing diversity quotas among employers, but all this will accomplish is companies collapsing sooner rather than later as they take on a bunch of brain-dead charity cases rather than the best people for the job.

  By extension, there are many jobs that require expertise and expertise requires quick learning.  There is no such thing as equality in terms of intelligence; some people are born with it and some people are not.  It might not be fair but it is what it is, and smarter people are more likely to make more money as skilled labor.    

  How big a part does your labor play in the larger process?

  Is your job to fill a basic position on an assembly line?  Or, do you build the entire product yourself?  Do you merely act as a mechanism in a larger process, or is the process impossible without you?  Are you the farmer, or are you the strawberry picker?  Are you an architect, a contractor, an electrician, a brick layer, or just the guy that cleans up the trash after the building is done?  There are levels of importance to various jobs in the process of production.  In other words not all labor is equal in accomplishing the end result, no matter what leftists claim.

  How many people need to strike to make your job valuable?  

  Leftists often make the argument that without labor all other endeavors are meaningless.  That is to say, without the labor of unskilled workers the efforts of business owners, inventors, engineers and managers can never come to fruition.  That may be true, but only if the majority of unskilled workers strike at the same time.

  Look at it this way:  If you strike by yourself, is the company going to panic because you are integral to their operations?  If a handful of your co-workers in the same field strike with you, is the company going to panic?  Or, do thousands of people need to strike for your job to be worth a damn?  If so, that’s not a good sign in terms of your market value.

  Pandemic Inflation And The Illusion Of Labor Shortages

  One major contributor to the spread of the anti-work movement was the notion that labor is in short supply and therefore labor has more leverage.  This is an oversimplification of the situation.    

  What has happened in the past few years is an inflationary deluge; over $8 trillion in covid helicopter money was dropped on the US economy in 2020/2021 alone through PPP loans and stimulus checks, not to mention unemployment checks and moratoriums on rent.  This resulted in a wave of fiat cash hitting the economy all at once.  The retail and service sector exploded with activity as people rushed out to spend, and this generated a need among businesses for more workers.  

  However, these conditions are a short lived symptom of stagflation, not a permanent trend.  In fact, mass layoffs are already taking place in the tech sector and this is just the beginning.  Covid dollars and the savings people stockpiled during the lockdowns have run out and high prices are still here.  The anti-work movement was predicated on the assumption that demand would continue to outpace supply.  It was a dumb assumption.  

  High employment numbers bought with inflation are not reliable nor sustainable.  This is why it’s absurd for Joe Biden and the White House to take credit for the supposed “jobs boom”; all those jobs will disappear as the helicopter cash dries up.   

  Labor Is About Survival

  In the meantime, leftists seem to think they are above work more than they suggest they are misused by work.  Have zennials been born into a time of hardship?  Yes.  Do they have less opportunities than their parents did decades ago?  Probably.  Is this unfair?  No, there’s no such thing.  

  We don’t get to choose the prosperity of the times we are born into.  Some generations are born into great crisis while others are born into great wealth.  Those that are born into crisis have to work more, not less.  In an era of inflation, this means being innovative and becoming a producer.  That’s a lot of effort to adapt to circumstances.  The perpetually entitled are doomed.     

  This is perhaps the first generation in American history that argues they should not have to work at all or that their unskilled labor is just as valuable as the labor of a person with extensive merit and accomplishment.  At bottom, the rules of survival do not care if you feel underappreciated or underpaid according to your concept of self worth.  If you hate a job you can always quit that job, but you will always be paid according to the value you bring to the table.  Only you determine that value.    

  In times like these, the individuals that work hardest to improve themselves and improve their productive value will survive while the individuals that sit around complaining all the time will not.  This is true for people that work for a company as much as it is true for people that work for themselves.             

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/21/2023 – 17:20

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