• Germany Outraged Over "Unjustified" Russian Tit-For-Tat Sanctions On Berlin Officials
  Germany Outraged Over “Unjustified” Russian Tit-For-Tat Sanctions On Berlin Officials

  Germany has expressed outrage over what it says are “unjustified” sanctions leveled by Russia on Tuesday in response to prior German punitive sanctions against Kremlin intelligence officials over the alleged state-sponsored poisoning of opposition activist and political figure Alexei Navalny.

  The AFP reports on the tit-for-tat measures:

  The charge d’affaires at the German embassy in Moscow, Beate Grzeski, was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry and informed that “countermeasures in the form of travel bans against German state institutions have been ordered”, the source said.

  

  The German government source added: “While this past pattern of Russian countermeasures is known, they remain in the view of the German government unjustified,” according to AFP.

  “We continue to call on Russia to clarify the use of a chemical weapon on Russian territory against a Russian citizen,” the official said. “Russia has shown no willingness to do so.”

  Russia’s foreign ministry earlier said it considers the initial German action to have been the unnecessary start of the “confrontational” tit-for-tat, which had been imposed in October. Here’s the latest Russian statement announcing the new travel ban aimed at German officials:

  “The countries that initiated this measure presented no evidence either to the Russian authorities, in defiance of repeated requests dispatched to them, or to their own partners in the EU.

  Under the veil of secrecy the EU Council adopted a hasty confrontational political decision running counter to the international legal prerogatives of the UN Security Council and the Helsinki principles of non-intervention in the internal affairs, cooperation among states and diligent compliance with obligations assumed under international law. The concrete names were selected arbitrarily to match the EU Council’s decision in question,” the Foreign Ministry said.

  The EU officials targeted by Russia have yet to be named by the Kremlin, but the Swedish and French embassies were notified that the expanded list includes members of their government as well.

  Meanwhile there are now bizarre claims that Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent, was actually stealthily placed in Navalny’s underwear before he fell ill on a Russian flight on August 20. 

  Why would FSB poison a marginal opposition figure, botch it so that he survives, & then get easily caught? Easier ways to kill someone if they want to. Perhaps it’s a Mafia-esque warning shot to people like Navalny they accuse of working w/ Western intel. Thuggish, but plausible.

  — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) December 21, 2020

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  This is said to be based on an inadvertent phone “confession” made by one of the Russian intelligence agents said to have been involved in the plot.

  Navalny has been recovering in Germany after he was flown out of Russia by an emergency medical transport following his dramatic collapse and going unconscious on the Russian commercial flight.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/23/2020 – 01:00

• 2020: The Year The Church Was As Sharp As A Two-Edged Marshmallow
  2020: The Year The Church Was As Sharp As A Two-Edged Marshmallow

  Authored by Rob Slane via TheBlogMire.com,

  Read Part1: The Year We Lost The Plot here…

  Read Part 2: The Year We Let Ourselves Be Infantilised And Dehumanised here…

  Read Part 3: The Year We Sold Our Liberties For A Medical Tyranny here…

  It is a curious fact that the Bible contains the phrase “Fear not” many times, whereas the word “nice” is never used (except of course in some of the really marshmallowy modern translations). Some websites tell us that we are exhorted not to fear 365 times, which would be lovely for someone making a book titled, “Round the year with no fear” – but alas it is not so. There aren’t 365. Nevertheless, however many times the phrase or sentiment is used, it is precisely that number more than the number of times the exhortation to be nice is used.

  Yet, you’d hardly know it to look at the state of many churches at the moment. There seems to be an overwhelming emphasis on being “nice”, which generally means never saying anything provocative or dangerous or which could be seen as being judgemental. Yet when along came a virus, fear seemed to be in plenteous supply.

  

  I must admit to being more than a little stunned by the reaction of many churches this year. Whatever calamities befall us in life, Christians are exhorted to overcome by seeing them as a “light momentary affliction,” which is “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (2 Corinthians 4:17). This does not mean never fearing. Rather, it means that we are to overcome that fear through faith. So in Psalm 91, the Psalmist can say:

  “You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.”

  And he says this not because he’s a stoic, but because he’s just said this:

  “I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

  True belief in the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ is supposed to equip the Christian to overcome fear. Yet it has seemed to me that the reaction of much of the church to a coronavirus with an Infection Fatality Rate of around 0.2% – 0.26%, has really been no different to that of the non-Christian. What could have been a glorious time for the church to shine, with national leaders exhorting the nation to repent, exhorting people to overcome their fears by embracing the Gospel of the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, became a non-event.

  But this is not the half of it. Fear of the virus has shaped the way many have responded to the most astonishing powers over churches for eight centuries. You have to go back to 1208 to see such a closure of churches, which was done by a Papal Interdict (interestingly enough on 23rd March – the same day as Lockdown began) which lasted for six years.

  Not quite six years this time, but a third of a year no less! And no, the state did not close churches during the Spanish Flu, yet when a virus of less than a tenth the lethality of Spanish Flu came on the scene (and far, far less than this for under 60s), the church largely rolled over. What was most incredible, was the lack of crying out to God for deliverance. And here it matters not whether people thought the Plague had come to town, or that the reaction to the virus was massively disproportionate, the response should have been the same: much anguished and fervent prayer for deliverance, which is the pattern set out in Scripture, and is how our ancestors would have reacted.

  I understand there may have been nervousness back in March, when some feared we were about to see a sort of Plague coming our way. However, at the very least the churches could have said to the Government, “Okay, you’ve said three weeks and we’ll hold you to that. But if you cannot come up with an evidence-based justification as to how opening churches and letting healthy people gather together is detrimental, we’re going to defy you and do it anyway.”

  Defiance? Hardly! Not only do the majority of the churches in the country seem to think the state has absolute jurisdiction over the church (it doesn’t), but they have allowed it to reshape the way they worship, including singing, the covering of faces with bits of cloth, and the ceasing of physical gatherings and physical fellowship. The irony of course is that this is done ostensibly in obedience to God, yet the Bible commands us to worship God together physically (Hebrews 10:25); to cultivate fellowship together physically (Acts 2:42); and to sing loudly (eg. Psalm 47:1).

  Many churches have kidded themselves that this can all be done remotely, over Zoom. Well, no. If God says we are to gather physically together, sing together, and have close fellowship together, it’s very likely that if these things are not done for months on end, you are going to find churches emptying and fraying at the seams. Furthermore, many of the things which have been foisted on us by state diktat have amazingly been turned into expressions of how we are to love our neighbour. Take masks. Back in March the state told us repeatedly not to wear them. Then in July, when the epidemic was over, they told us to wear them. And many in the church not only went along with this unscientific drivel, but the likes of the Archbishop of Canterbury turned it into an expression of how we are to love one another. Before 2020, the idea that a state mandate could be connected with Christian love would have seemed faintly absurd. But it it seems that Government has now acquired the Power of Love, to add to its many other astonishing powers!

  2020 has exposed a feebleness and a hollowness at the heart of many churches, as well as a lack of proper theological framework with which to look at the whole Covid situation and frame a response to it. Instead, many churches have let the likes of Johnson, Hancock, Whitty and Vallance do their thinking for them, implementing whatever hairbrained schemes these people come up with to perpetuate the fear and hysteria which they have stoked up all year long. I suspect that many of those same churches will be wringing their hands next year, as the policies they failed to challenge throughout this year come to home to roost and we see untold misery coming upon millions, with the poorest suffering most.

  The result of all this is that the church is being decimated, and the watching world has not exactly been given a wonderful lesson about how faith in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords can help us become “more than conquerors”. If the church is to recover from this – which I have no doubt it will in time – a lot of very serious questions need to be asked, followed by repentance, followed by a massive work of reformation.

  The feebleness must go. The hollowness must go. The niceness must go. The paltry theology must go. The marshmallow must go.

  None of what I’ve said above is nice. Then again, it wasn’t meant to be. But it was necessary.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/23/2020 – 00:05

• US Navy Patent Describes EM Drive For "Flying Triangle" Craft 
  US Navy Patent Describes EM Drive For “Flying Triangle” Craft 

  There is potential for conspiracy gold in a 2018 patent filed by aerospace engineer Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, who works for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, a research organization within the Navy that specializes in electromagnetic drives and superconductors. 

  The patent (US10144532B2) describes “a craft using an inertial mass reduction device comprises of an inner resonant cavity wall, an outer resonant cavity, and microwave emitters. The electrically charged outer resonant cavity wall and the electrically insulated inner resonant cavity wall form a resonant cavity. The microwave emitters create high-frequency electromagnetic waves throughout the resonant cavity causing the resonant cavity to vibrate in an accelerated mode and create a local polarized vacuum outside the outer resonant cavity wall.” 

  

  The shape of this plane is one that resembles a flying triangle. 

  

  In August of 2019, The Drive filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Navy to shed more light on the patent. While it’s still unknown if those requests have been answered, further investigation through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Public Patent Application Information Retrieval database revealed that superconductors and the electromagnetic field generator, may in fact, already be in operation in some manner.

  If the technologies described in the patent are already operational, does this mean the Navy is building UFOs?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 23:45

• The Top 'Owners' Of America's President-Elect Joe Biden
  The Top ‘Owners’ Of America’s President-Elect Joe Biden

  Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

  Some of the top owners of America’s President-Elect Joe Biden are entirely secret because a corrupt U.S. Supreme Court, in the infamous 2010 Citizens United case, encouraged not only corruption but corruption that’s entirely secret or “dark money.” 

  

  However, most of the individuals who purchased Biden to become the U.S. President did so under the previously existing laws, which require public reporting of their donations.

  Here, then, are the top ten publicly known donors to the Biden campaign, but these are all via some sort of Political Action Committee or PAC, and therefore most are in conjunction with other billionaires and centi-millionaires, instead of entirely solo donations:

  Top Contributors, federal election data for Joe Biden, 2020 cycle

  totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

  1. Bloomberg LP [Michael Bloomberg] $56,796,137

  2. Future Forward USA [largely Dustin Moskowitz] $29,917,229

  3. Priorities USA/Priorities USA Action [Hillary backers] $25,841,199

  4. Asana  [Moskowitz & Rosenstein] $21,937,902

  5. Sixteen Thirty Fund [dark money] $19,874,655

  6. Democracy PAC [George Soros] $19,000,000

  7. Senate Majority PAC [Democratic billionaires] $12,371,874

  8. American Bridge 21st Century [largely Soros] $10,260,573

  9. Paloma Partners [Donald Sussman] $9,016,248

  10. Euclidean Capital [James Simons] $7,006,805

  Source: OpenSecrets

  The 11th-largest (which will now be shown) happens to be not Democratic billionaires but Republican billionaires. However, Michael Bloomberg, the former Republican Mayor of NYC, was Biden’s largest donor, and therefore could also be considered to be a Republican donor to Biden’s campaign.

  Defending Democracy Together [Republican billionaires] $6,776,862

  In other words: the distinction between Republican billionaires and Democratic billionaires is no longer quite clear. Although the manicured PR for each of the two major Parties accentuates the ideological differences between the two, those differences have greatly decreased, except that on the U.S. Supreme Court the Republican ‘Justices’ are far-right (extremist conservatives) whereas the Democratic ‘Justices’ are centrist (liberals). None are, at all, progressives. Progressives don’t exist on that Court. The numbers and natures of that Court’s unanimous decisions make clear that no leftist jurist (progressive or otherwise) sits there. Whereas some billionaires are centrist and others are far-right, none are any sort of leftist. Nor does any leftist candidate for national political office receive any donation from any billionaire but only from poor and middle-class donors. Both of America’s Parties represent mainly the interests of billionaires, and this has been documented in the only scientific studies that have been done of the subject. America is an aristocracy not a democracy.

  In addition to those and other donations that were made either entirely or mainly by particular billionaires, Biden’s campaign utilized “bundlers,” or well-connected wealthy individuals who invited other well-connected wealthy individuals to their private fund-raising parties for Biden’s campaign; and the list that the Biden campaign assembled of all its bundlers who raised at least $100,000 for the campaign will be presented here.

  However, first will be noted the hostile reader-comments reactions when the early version of this list – which then was of bundlers who had raised at least $25,000 for the campaign – was made public at the Democratic Party website which is written and run by Taegan Goddard, “Political Wire,” which headlined on 27 December 2019, prior even to the earliest of all the state primaries and caucuses, “Biden Discloses His Bundlers”, and the 36 reader-comments there were overwhelmingly hostile, such as “Gee Taegan, could you make it seem any more suspicious and improper?” 

  Those readers were angry that a Democratic Party news-site would publish an indication that their Party utilizes the same corrupt practices that the Republican billionaires’ Party does. They weren’t grateful for the non-partisan information they had just received, but wanted it not to have been made public. No other news-site did publish it — only Goddard’s site did.

  And, when, at the end of all of the campaigns the Biden organization issued its legally obligatory final financial reports, on 1 November 2020, neither Goddard nor any other news-site published it: “Once burned, twice shy,” and Goddard didn’t want to get “burned” again.

  *  *  *

  On 27 November 2007, C-Span showed a Joe Biden Town Hall. A brief clip from that was posted online as “User Clip: Joe Biden 2007, Money in Politics”, and here’s my transcription from what I consider to be the most revealing (about Biden’s values) part of it:

  

  Source: c-span.org

  27 November 2007, Iowa Town Hall

  (0:40-) “People who accept money [from lobbyists] aren’t bad people. But it’s human nature. You go out and bundle $250,000 for me, all legal, and then you call me after I am elected, and say “I would like to come and talk about something.” You didn’t buy me, but it’s human nature, you helped me. I’m going to say, “Sure, come on in.” … What it does mean, it means that the front of the line is always filled by people whose pockets are filled, people who are special interests. Most of you are no part of any special interest.”

  He went on there to promise that if elected President he will change that, by campaigning constantly (AFTER winning the Presidency — not BEFORE) against the corrupt system which had made him President. He thinks that his audience will believe in the tooth-fairy, if only he tells them that the tooth-fairy exists and that he’s it. The deceptive irrelevant line from all of the corrupt candidates is the same: “I’m the most electable one!” But corrupt people constantly lie, and nobody is actually certain whom the “most electable” one is; but that’s really not even the question here. What the Democratic primaries are actually about isn’t about beating Trump. He’s not even a candidate in the Democratic primaries. They’re not about ‘beating Donald Trump’, but instead about whom the person will be that’s going to be running against Trump in the general election. The primaries won’t be selecting the next President. They will only narrow the field of contenders, to two. Which two? That’s the question here.

  Of course, lots of Democrats think that any Democrat will be better than Trump. And lots of Republicans believe that Trump is better than any Democrat.

  Biden was talking there regarding not the billionaires but the merely wealthy and well-connected individuals who had raised in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for him — each one of them.

  The billionaires aren’t in “the front of the line,” nor even in any “line”; they are instead maybe visitors for private meetings with the President, or else on the phone with him, or else (if the matter is illegal) maybe sending one’s private agent to meet privately with that billionaire’s private agent. This is how the business of the U.S. Government — the business of America’s ‘democracy’ — is getting done, nowadays. My own guess is that the two biggest owners of Joe Biden now are Michael Bloomberg (representing mainly the financial industries or “Wall Street”) and Bernard Schwartz (representing mainly the military industries or “MIC”).

  As for any mere voter, that person gets his or her ‘news’ from corporations that are owned by and/or serve the billionaires (such as Bloomberg or Schwartz or Bezos or Musk or etc.), and gets his or her views from that ‘news’, so is less than being a pawn on the American chessboard, where that aristocracy are  the ‘king’. The country is jointly controlled by the Republican billionaires and the Democratic billionaires.

  A reasonable expectation would be that Biden will serve the billionaires, though his rhetoric will be phrased to be acceptable to the voters. So, that will be no basic change. America will remain an aristocracy, no democracy.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 23:25

• First Evidence of Microplastics Found In Human Placentas
  First Evidence of Microplastics Found In Human Placentas

  For the first time ever, microplastic particles were detected in the placentas of unborn babies, according to researchers who warn these “potentially harmful (plastic) particles is a matter of great concern.”

  The study, published in the journal Environment International and titled “Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta,” found microplastics in four placentas of women who had pregnancies and births. 

  

  Researchers noted microplastics were found on both the fetal and maternal sides of the placenta and in the membrane within which the fetus develops.

  A dozen plastic particles were found in the four placentas, mostly 10 microns in size (0.01mm), meaning they were small enough to travel through the bloodstream and were analyzed to have come originally from packaging paints or polymers and personal care products.

  “In total, 12 microplastic fragments (ranging from 5 to 10 μm in size), with spheric or irregular shape were found in 4 placentas (5 in the fetal side, 4 in the maternal side and 3 in the chorioamniotic membranes); all microplastics particles were characterized in terms of morphology and chemical composition. All of them were pigmented; three were identified as stained polypropylene a thermoplastic polymer, while for the other nine it was possible to identify only the pigments, which were all used for man-made coatings, paints, adhesives, plasters, finger paints, polymers and cosmetics and personal care products.”

  Antonio Ragusa, director of obstetrics and gynecology at the San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome who led the study, told The Guardian that “it’s like having a cyborg baby: no longer composed only of human cells, but a mixture of biological and inorganic entities.”

  Researchers concluded: 

  “Due to the crucial role of the placenta in supporting the fetus’ development and in acting as an interface with the external environment, the presence of potentially harmful plastic particles is a matter of great concern. Further studies need to be performed to assess if the presence of microplastics may trigger immune responses or may lead to the release of toxic contaminants, resulting in harm.”

  In August 2019, high levels of microplastics were found in the Alps to the Arctic. Another report has shown these harmful plastics were turning up in human stool. 

  What’s clear is that the world could have a plastic problem where babies are born pre-polluted. Still, more studies need to be conducted to prove nanoparticles of plastic are dangerous for humans. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 23:05

• A Detailed List Of US Regime Change Policies Packed In With Pandemic Relief
  A Detailed List Of US Regime Change Policies Packed In With Pandemic Relief

  Authored by Alexander Rubinstein & Jeb Sprague via The GrayZone.com,

  The longest piece of legislation in United States history, containing both a coronavirus relief package and the annual omnibus spending package, quickly passed through Congress on December 22, with little opposition. While technically separate bills, the omnibus and stimulus were debated and passed together, at the same time.

  The massive piece of legislation – a staggering 5,593 pages in length – lays bare the priorities of the US government, prioritizing regime change in foreign nations and the imperatives of empire over the basic needs of Americans. In just a few hours, it passed through the House of Representatives by 359-53, and through the Senate by 92-6.

  While the US public was forced to grovel for months for a $600 direct payment, the same piece of legislation pumps billions of dollars into “democracy programs” – US government code for regime-change operations via civil society NGOs – and foreign military assistance. The measly $600 survival checks pale in comparison to the massive foreign spending on regime change and titanic allocations to prop up US-friendly authoritarian militaries.

  

  On so-called “Democracy Programs” alone, the legislation appropriates $2.417 billion, and $6.175 billion on the “Foreign Military Financing Program.” Another $112.9 million is appropriated for “International Military Education and Training.”

  $6 billion more is allocated toward the domestic procurement of US Air Force missiles and US Navy weapons of war. This is in addition to the $740 billion defense bill passed earlier in December.

  By contrast, the stimulus package comes at a value of $900 billion, with the largest portion devoted to business bailouts. The Federal News Network reports that the $1.4 trillion omnibus includes $671.5 billion allocated to “base defense spending,” with another $77 billion going to “overseas contingency operations.”

  Stimulating regime change and intervening in the Global South

  The legislation stipulates: “$300,000,000 shall be made available for a Countering Chinese Influence Fund to counter the malign influence of the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party and entities acting on their behalf globally.”

  In Hong Kong, where CIA cutout the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has given financial support to activist groups leading riots that rocked the city for months on end, the United States is now devoting $3 million for local destabilization efforts, including “internet freedom,” activists’ legal fees, and “democracy programs.”

  Similarly, the legislation devotes $8 million to NGOs for activities in Tibet or to support the Tibetan government-in-exile. It appears that, every fiscal year between 2021 and 2025, it allows for the additional appropriation of $8 million per year to support Tibetan communities in Tibet, as well as $6 million per year to support them in Nepal and India, and another $3 million per year for “Tibetan governance.”

  The bill also allocates $3.3 million for the US government-backed media outlet Voice of America, and $4 million to the similarly operated Radio Free Asia every year between fiscal years 2021 and 2025, in order “to provide uncensored news and information in the Tibetan language to Tibetans, including Tibetans in Tibet.”

  In perhaps the most bizarre appeal to a regime-change activist lobby, an entire section of the bill is devoted to defining US policy “regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.”

  

  The bill also directs the secretary of state to establish a US consulate in Tibet.

  Meanwhile, aid to a number of countries is conditioned on their taking part in Washington’s economic aggression. For example, $85.5 million in assistance to Cambodia is contingent on it “taking effective steps” to enforce “international sanctions with respect to North Korea,” and “assert[ing] its sovereignty against interference by the People’s Republic of China.”

  

  As for Latin America, the legislation stipulates that “not less than $33,000,000 shall be made available for democracy programs for Venezuela.” By contrast, the legislation appropriates $461.3 million for Colombia, a country which has seen massacre after massacre and scores of political assassinations — with more than 290 human rights activists killed in 2020 alone.

  While 20 percent of the funds are not releasable until Colombia shows it is “taking effective steps to hold accountable perpetrators of gross violations of human rights in a manner consistent with international law,” given Washington’s record in the country, it will likely give the green light regardless of the facts on the ground.

  Globally, $70 million is made available to support “internet freedom,” with an additional $2.5 million potentially available “to surge Internet freedom programs in closed societies.”

  Meanwhile, a Ronald Reagan-inspired program aimed at expanding US influence and the “war on drugs” in the Caribbean, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, is being given a $74.8 million injection.

  The combined Corona Package/Omnibus includes $74m for the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.

  The CBSI w/its roots in the Reagan founded CBI is an important mechanism for the “war on drugs” & gains US influence in security agencies across the region.

  Pg.184 of my recent book: pic.twitter.com/4CP8Lnfm8v

  — Jeb Sprague (@JebSprague) December 22, 2020

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  In Zimbabwe, where former President Robert Mugabe passed away in 2017, the government is still not off the hook. The legislation states: “The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director of each international financial institution to vote against any extension by the respective institution of any loan or grant to the Government of Zimbabwe.” This language is aimed at depriving the cash-strapped African nation of international relief.

  $15 million is going toward “democracy programs” in South Sudan, while $60m is being repurposed away from the “Global War on Terrorism” and “made available for assistance for Sudan”.

  In central Africa, $325 million is being earmarked for assistance to Congo, with some part of this appearing to be intermingled with “peacekeeping” operations.

  The phantom Russian menace

  With $453 million appropriated for assistance to Ukraine, $290 million for “countering Russia,” $173 million for NATO, and $132 million for NATO ally Georgia, the legislation comes close to appropriating a billion dollars toward new cold war policies against Moscow.

  The rationale for this spending may be the re-emergence of an old menace; a hint buried more than 5,000 pages into the document states that it is US policy “to not recognize any incorporation of Belarus into a ‘Union State’ with Russia, since this so-called ‘Union State’ would be both an attempt to absorb Belarus and a step to reconstituting the totalitarian Soviet Union.”

  

  In one striking example of how hell-bent the legislation’s authors are on regime change and confronting Russia, the following phrase appears verbatim nine times: “The Government of Belarus, led illegally by Alyaksandr Lukashenka.”

  The legislation also demands a report from the director of national intelligence, the secretary of state, and the secretary of treasury that identifies all of Lukashenka’s assets and those of his family, plus “identification of the most significant senior foreign political figures in Belarus, as determined by their closeness to Alyaksandr Lukashenka.”

  The insistence on such information seems aimed at fast-tracking a list of entities to impose sanctions, in an effort to destabilize the country and make it ripe for a takeover by the US- and EU-backed opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskay, whose name appears six times in the legislation.

  Along with detailed attention on cyber activities in Belarus, the bill explains how US officials will put together a comprehensive strategy and cost estimate for carrying out various operations aimed at the country, one of which includes: “Expand independent radio, television, live stream, and social network broadcasting and communications in Belarus to provide news and information, particularly in the Belarusian language, that is credible, comprehensive, and accurate.”

  Middle East madness

  As the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden has promised not to condition aid to Israel in any circumstance, including potential annexation of the West Bank, Congress has rushed to pump the apartheid regime full of fresh cash.

  Of the $6.1 billion appropriated for funding foreign militaries, a whopping $3.3 billion – more than half – “shall be available for grants only for Israel,” and must be “disbursed within 30 days of enactment of this Act.”

  

  Additionally, it appears that $500 million is appropriated for “Israeli Cooperative Programs,” which includes weapons procurements.

  While it is difficult to interpret different allocations and far-distanced portions of the legislation going to the same target, one thing is clear: loads of money has been appropriated to a far-away apartheid state, as Americans remain unprotected from rent-related water shutoffs under the legislation.

  Meanwhile, any aid to the Palestinian Authority will be held up if its officials initiate or support any kind of investigation at the International Criminal Court (ICC) that seeks the prosecution of Israeli nationals for crimes against humanity.

  In neighboring Syria, which has been constantly bombed by Israel since the outbreak of the foreign-backed proxy war against the country’s government, Congress has appropriated $40 million toward” non-lethal stabilization” – in other words, destabilization assistance.

  While the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has largely been defeated, $710 million to counter the group remains “available until September 30, 2022”.

  Iran, meanwhile, is mentioned 22 times in the legislation.

  The ‘”Afghanistan Security Forces Fund” of $3 billion will “remain available until September 30, 2022,” and is geared toward the “security forces of Afghanistan, including the provision of equipment, supplies, services, training, facility and infrastructure repair, renovation, construction, and funding…”

  

  The legislation also appropriates $250 million to reimburse the governments of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman on border security spending, with $150 million going to Jordan, a geostrategic lynchpin that shares a borders with Iraq, Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian West Bank.

  Another $241.4 million of appropriations through the “Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs” will be made “available for assistance to Tunisia.”

  Egypt’s military, notorious for its repressive crackdowns on dissent, is due to receive a colossal $1.3 billion, according to the guidelines established in the Camp David Accords.

  While US citizens continue to suffer the economic fallout of haphazard government shutdowns that have been largely ineffective in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Congress poised passed a greatly reduced stimulus packaged alongside a massive handout to corporate America and its foreign client states.

  Now it is up to the outgoing president – ironically notorious for his ‘America First’ rhetoric – to sign the legislation into law. Reports indicate he intends to do just that.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 22:45

• One Bank Asked Its Clients Where Bitcoin Will End 2021: Here's What They Said
  One Bank Asked Its Clients Where Bitcoin Will End 2021: Here’s What They Said

  As Deutsche Bank’s chief credit strateigst, Jim Reid, writes, “central banks have driven us here and in turn have also driven Bitcoin to the spectacular year.”

  It’s also why in an addendum to his latest monthly survey, Reid explicitly asked Deutsche Bank’s clients around the globe where they thought bitcoin would end 2021.

  Here are the answers: a vast majority think it goes higher with only 27% thinking under $20,000 in 12 months. 41% think between $20-49,999 in various buckets with 12% thinking over $100,000.

  On an average basis, survey respondents think it will be over $40,000 by then, nearly double current levels.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 22:25

• Orange County Cities Join Sheriff In Opposing Order To Release Inmates
  Orange County Cities Join Sheriff In Opposing Order To Release Inmates

  Authored by Alex Murashko via The Epoch Times,

  Cities throughout Orange County, California, are standing by Sheriff Don Barnes as he fights a court order demanding the release of 1,800 prisoners from county jails.

  

  In a Dec 11 court order, Barnes was told to pare down Orange County’s jail population as the centers grapple with rising COVID-19 infections. But the region’s top cop is challenging the order, and refusing to release the inmates.

  On Dec. 21, more cities joined a movement to support Barnes’ decision. During special city council meetings, the cities of Irvine, Mission Viejo, and Westminster voted unanimously to file legal briefs supporting Barnes’ challenge. The cities joined Newport Beach and Yorba Linda, which filed briefs on Dec. 18.

  “Public safety has always been our top priority,” said Mission Viejo Mayor Brian Goodell in a press release announcing the city’s decision.

  “Our City Council wholeheartedly supports Sheriff’s Barnes’ appeal to keep these criminals off our streets and his plan to appropriately respond to coronavirus issues in the jail system.”

  Other cities set to hold special meetings on Dec. 21 to discuss the issue included Dana Point, Los Alamitos, and San Clemente.

  “The COVID-19 pandemic is serious and presents a risk, but that risk does not outweigh the necessity of holding dangerous offenders in custody,” Barnes said recently. “We cannot start 2021 with a court-ordered crime spree.”

  Judge Peter Wilson’s 32-page ruling on Dec. 11 stated that Barnes’ “deliberate indifference to the substantial risk of serious harm from COVID-19 infection to … medically vulnerable people in [his] custody violates their rights under the California Constitution.”

  Wilson also stated in the ruling that Barnes’ action and inaction showed “conduct that may unnecessarily expose inmates in his custody to significant risks to their health and safety.”

  Opponents to Wilson’s order said the greater safety risk would be to release criminals in jail for crimes such as murder and pedophilia into the general public.

  “This is extremely alarming for all of us in any city that we live in,” said Westminster Police Chief Mark Lauderback, who spoke before the council’s vote.

  “When you’re being told to release a large number of inmates who should be doing time in serving their sentence, and they are going to be released early, it’s very alarming.”

  He called for an effective alternative that would help curb COVID-19 numbers in jail while keeping the public safe.

  “Yes, we have a pandemic going on; yes, it is very scary for everybody in the medical field and a society to be living with such a medical nightmare; but doing this without actually taking a look at the consequences of the actions of the judge, I think we need to find a better solution,” Lauderback said.

  The Garden Grove City Council also moved to support Barnes.

  “If forced to comply with the court order, we are aware you will need to release approximately 1,800 inmates, which both you and the Orange County District Attorney have stated unequivocally poses a significant risk to public safety,” Garden Grove Mayor Steve Jones said in a Dec. 18 letter.

  “Specifically, you identified that of the 700 inmates considered medically vulnerable under the Center of Disease Control and Prevention’s Guidelines, 59 inmates are incarcerated for murder, 39 inmates for attempted murder and 90 for child molestation.”

  The mayor’s letter said that there have already been significant impacts on public safety related to the release of prisoners by Orange County and the state related to COVID-19. More than 22,000 inmates have been released by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation since the pandemic began.

  “The release of so many prisoners in such a short time frame is straining state and local law enforcement who are not only addressing traditional law enforcement issues but responding to law enforcement issues associated with the pandemic,” Jones wrote.

  On Dec. 18, Orange County recorded its first COVID-19-related inmate death when Eddie Lee Anderson, 68, died about a week after testing positive for COVID-19. The Theo Lacy Facility inmate was transferred to a hospital on Dec. 13 for treatment.

  According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, 1,512 inmates have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. The sheriff’s website indicates that as of Dec. 21 there are currently 835 inmates with the disease.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 22:05

• US Announces Sanctions On Assad's Wife & Even Her British Family Members
  US Announces Sanctions On Assad’s Wife & Even Her British Family Members

  With apparently little else left to sanction in Syria, the United States is now going after Bashar al-Assad’s wife and even extended family members which have long resided in London.

  A Tuesday statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated the US is imposing sanctions on Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad, blaming her in part for prolonging the war and blocking a peaceful political settlement through her charities and civil society organizations. 

  

  Of course, in Washington-speak “stalling efforts to reach a political resolution” means simply that Bashar Assad has refused to step down and flee the country, which would ultimately put the secular Baath state in the hands of the jihadi fanatics.

  Pompeo’s statement specifies that “The Department of State today is imposing sanctions on Asma al-Assad, the wife of Bashar al-Assad, for impeding efforts to promote a political resolution of the Syrian conflict pursuant to Section 2(a)(i)(D) of Executive Order 13894.” It adds that “Asma al-Assad has spearheaded efforts on behalf of the regime to consolidate economic and political power, including by using her so-called charities and civil society organizations.”

  Recall that just before the war in Syria got started Asma was widely praised in the West for her beauty and philanthropy, even being profiled in a glowing Vogue magazine piece headlined “A Rose in the Desert” (March 2011). More recently the Syrian first lady has survived breast cancer, and is said to have fully recovered.

  Hey, remember when @vogue gushed over Asma Assad, “A Rose in the Desert”? #SyriaStrikes #SyriaAirstrike pic.twitter.com/JizH4yMNmO

  — Patrick Poole (@pspoole) April 7, 2017

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  But the US is now going so far as to sanction members of her family, some of which have lived in England for decades, foremost among them Bashar’s father-in-law, the respected Syrian-English cardiologist Fawaz Akhras: 

  “In addition, we are sanctioning several members of Asma al-Assad’s immediate family, including Fawaz Akhras, Sahar Otri Akhras, Firas al Akhras, and Eyad Akhras as per Section 2(a)(ii) of EO 13894. The Assad and Akhras families have accumulated their ill-gotten riches at the expense of the Syrian people through their control over an extensive, illicit network with links in Europe, the Gulf, and elsewhere,” the US statement reads.

  Asma’s father has long been a cardiologist at Cromwell Hospital in South Kensington, London along with running a private practice.

  The family has been in Britain so long that Asma was born and raised there by her Syrian parents before marrying Bashar.

  

  But now Washington is going after them, apparently blaming even relatives outside of Syria for fueling the war. The irony is tragic and thick, considering just who it is that Washington has been supporting throughout the conflict.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, in a recent address to Syrian lawmakers in Damascus, President Assad launched into a surprisingly blunt and cogent diatribe against Neoliberalism:

  Assad owns the libs: “Liberalism is about turning people into animals”. NATO is using neo-liberalism and a form of subterfuge against eastern nations. We have proof. pic.twitter.com/PAvfERefqo

  — Syrian Girl 🎗️🇸🇾 (@Partisangirl) December 21, 2020

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 21:45

• COVID Package Allows Feds To Increase Foreign Worker Hiring As Millions Of Americans Are Jobless
  COVID Package Allows Feds To Increase Foreign Worker Hiring As Millions Of Americans Are Jobless

  Submitted by PlanetFreeWill ,

  The COVID spending bill passed Monday allows federal bureaucrats to increase the amount of foreign labor they hired as millions of Americans are jobless due to the economic contractions caused by COVID-19 and government lockdowns.

  On top of all the handouts to foreign governments and other waste of taxpayer money, a provision in the 5,593 page bill allows the Department of Homeland Security and Labor Department to “increase the total number of aliens” hired under H-2B foreign visas.

  

  According to the bill, the foreign hiring can take place if the “needs of American businesses cannot be satisfied in fiscal year 2021 with United States workers who are willing, qualified, and able to perform temporary non-agricultural labor.”

  

  As Breitbart’s John Binder highlights, this is could exacerbate the trend of DHS allowing employers to over-hire foreign labor under the H-2B visa program that has been shown to drive down American wages:

  DHS Secretaries over the last four years have repeatedly allowed businesses to import more H-2B foreign visa workers above the annual cap of 66,000. Continuation of the policy would come as 24.5 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. About 17.8 million of those are jobless.

  The H-2B visa program has been widely used by businesses to drag down the wages of American workers in landscaping, conservation work, the meatpacking industry, the construction industry, and fishing jobs, a 2019 study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds.

  When comparing the wages of H-2B foreign workers to the national wage average for each blue-collar industry, about 21 out of 25 of the industries offered lower wages to foreign workers than Americans.

  As shown in the table below, the H-2B foreign labor disproportionately effects the construction, fishing, meatpacking, and plumbing industries:

  

  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 10.7 million Americas unemployed in the month of November.

  Perhaps some of the hundreds of millions of dollars being sent to foreign governments to secure their borders could have been allocated to training Americans for the types of jobs that will undoubtedly be replaced by the cheap labor.

  But no, that actually would have made this bill a “stimulus package” and not the special interest smorgasbord the American people were handed from the blind signatures of their “representatives.”

  1/4 This is the spending bill under consideration in Congress today. I received it just moments ago, and will likely be asked to vote on it late tonight. It’s 5,593 pages long. I know there are some good things in it. I’m equally confident that there are bad things in it. pic.twitter.com/SoWXnEWYfV

  — Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 21, 2020

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 21:25

• Barstool's Dave Portnoy Raises $2 Million To Help Struggling Restaurants 
  Barstool’s Dave Portnoy Raises $2 Million To Help Struggling Restaurants 

  Famed Boston-based pizza reviewer and stock pumper Dave Portnoy has spent the last couple of years reviewing a slice of pizza from mom and pop restaurants. 

  Portnoy’s YouTube account called “One Bite Pizza Reviews” has hundreds of videos of him reviewing pizza slices from small shops up and down the East Coast, mainly in the Northeast. 

  Even during the pandemic, Portnoy continued the pizza reviews though being on the ground and seeing the first-hand devastation of government lockdowns and restrictions have had on small businesses, more specifically the restaurant industry, forced him to launch a fund to save dying eateries. 

  Called the Barstool Fund, more than 31,600 Barstool supporters have raised $2 million and supported three restaurants so far. 

  

  On the Barstool Fund’s website, Portnoy goes on a rant about how “no one in the government seems to care” about small businesses. 

  He said the government has “no plan, no relief, no bailout” for mom and pop shops. 

  Portnoy said Marcus Lemonis told him, “to put his money where his mouth is,” referring to supporting small business. He said he started the fund, and Barstools will donate $500k. 

  Portnoy said his Barstool Fund “isn’t the best plan” – indicating that the “best plan” is for the government to bail out these mom and pop shops before they lose their livelihoods. 

  Portnoy lays out a set of rules for restaurants that want to access his fund. One of the major requirements is that they must be paying their employees. From there, he said a deal can be worked out with the shop as to how much money they need every month. 

  We assume some of Portnoy’s newly minted stock market millionaire followers on Twitter can spread the wealth to help the cause. 

  Fox News’ Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Portnoy about the Barstool Fund. 

  As we must remind readers, it’s not the virus pandemic that is killing small businesses, it’s the government enforced lockdowns and restrictions. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 21:05

• Either The US Leads On Crypto, Or China Will
  Either The US Leads On Crypto, Or China Will

  Authored by Bill Zeiser via RealClearPolicy.com,

  Even casual viewers of cable news are familiar with commercials featuring actor William Devane – usually golfing or horseback riding – exhorting them to invest in precious metals. Lately, Devane has been joined in this pursuit by financial educator Robert Kiyosaki, creator of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series. The prevalence of these ads should not be surprising. In these volatile times, the Trump administration has spent big and printed money. (The United States is not alone in borrowing and printing its way out of this pandemic.) There is no reason to expect different behavior under Joe Biden.

  

  It’s no wonder that alternative stores of value are flourishing.

  Days ago, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin reached yet another all-time high, just as it became clear that a Biden-Harris administration was a fait accompli. But while Bitcoin is the best-known digital currency, it is only a small part of a technological shift that could satisfy our demand for safer, cheaper, and faster ways of doing business in times of crisis and disruption. Bitcoin’s underlying technology, blockchain – a sort of shared, secure ledger of transactions between networked computers – has applications ranging from supply-chain management to securing international payments. It could be “a game changer for the global economy,” according to JPMorgan Chase. In fact, the investment giant started using its own JPM Coin in October to move investor money across its global financial platforms. Consulting firm Gartner forecasts that the business value-add from blockchain will blow past $3 trillion by the end of this new decade.

  The industry powering all this change, however, is finding it harder to stay in the United States due to Washington’s dysfunction. Silicon Valley start-ups are investing billions in research and development, but there is still no clear set of rules to help them bring products to market. Congress has punted on writing a regulatory framework, and the country’s oversight agencies are – as usual – fighting over turf.

  Experts say that this “regulatory chaos” is suppressing American innovation while other market centers like Britain and Singapore have quickly updated their rules to lure American blockchain developers away, while Beijing scrambles to establish tech dominance.

  Roslyn Layton of the American Enterprise Institute sent the Senate a blunt message this month: regulators, lacking guidance, are killing innovation. China could soon overtake us, she warned, unless the Senate holds Biden to his promises of “technocratic competence” and firm economic competition with China.

  At least eight regulatory agencies are fighting over who gets to play U.S. crypto cop.

  Without any direction, regulators “copy-paste their bureaucracy on anything that moves,” Layton observed. The Securities and Exchange Commission is applying archaic 1930s rules that “never imagined blockchain solutions,” comparing all digital assets to securities no matter how they are designed or used.

  Critics like Layton point to China’s new “digital yuan” – the country’s sole legal cryptocurrency – as a disturbing signal that the Chinese are gaining on us. The People’s Bank of China formally issued it in October and has enticed 2 million Chinese to bid on U.S. $10 million worth of the official token, says Wayne Brough of the Innovation Defense Foundation. Big American companies including Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Subway have embraced China’s new currency. France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Japan are developing central bank digital currencies of their own. Brough frets that through inaction, the U.S. will “blunder our way out of winning a race that we were born to win.” 

  George Nethercutt, former Republican congressman from Washington State, warned in The Hill that Washington’s neglect could create “a needless trainwreck.” China and Singapore are paving the way for their own blockchain industries, he wrote, “while the U.S. is struggling with a coin shortage, stimulus check complications, and an obvious dearth of understanding on Capitol Hill about what a cryptocurrency even is.” This is “embarrassing” for the most technologically developed country in the world, he lamented.

  Layton and Nethercutt point the finger at outgoing SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, who, Layton said, made “a deliberate lack of regulatory clarity” the “cornerstone of his crypto policy approach.” Clayton demonstrated “no understanding for the need for a regulatory framework” with his “notoriously guarded approach” to blockchain solutions, Nethercutt added, “significantly constraining American innovators.”

  Clayton empowered the SEC by treating any digital asset as a “security,” justifying enforcement actions with a 1946 Supreme Court ruling. Clayton’s SEC lowered the boom on “utility tokens” – a core feature of business software using blockchain – according to Layton, even if they “had no resemblance to investment contracts.” This treatment extended to utility token XRP, the third-highest-valued cryptocurrency in the world, used by American developers like Ripple and R3 to power the kind of payment systems that JPMorgan has already rolled out. Just by putting this token under “a bewilderingly persistent enforcement threat,” the SEC hurt every developer on the XRP ledger. Clayton preserved his own agency’s power “but steadily eroded U.S. leadership as the best place to do business.”

  It remains to be seen what Biden thinks of Clayton’s view of unlimited power over digital assets, or whether Biden’s promise of bipartisan cooperation will extend to ending the regulatory chaos.  Republicans have spent the last four years slashing regulations and reining in the administrative state and should understand that China can’t be allowed to win the crypto race. Senate Democrats on the Banking Committee like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown should remember that a president of their party, Bill Clinton, enacted the regulatory framework for e-commerce in 1997. It created millions of American businesses, reaching tens of millions of customers, and spawned a long list of occupations that had never existed before.

  Coming together to vet Biden’s SEC pick on crypto policy and move the country closer to a clear set of rules would be a win-win for both parties and for the U.S. economy. Our competitors abroad can never beat us on innovation – unless we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 20:45

• Mobile Home Frenzy: RV Shipments Soar 43% In November
  Mobile Home Frenzy: RV Shipments Soar 43% In November

  America’s RV craze continues.

  According to the RV Industry Association’s survey of North American manufacturers, all-towable RV shipments soared 46.3% in November to 38,485 from 26,297 a year earlier,  All motorhome shipments rose 20.3% last month to 4,028 from 3,347, and total RV shipments grew 43.4% in November to 42,513 from 29,644.

  As Americans can no longer afford to buy “stationary” homes, they are increasingly moving to mobile variants (or perhaps they just want to be able to scatter at a moment’s notice), and so far this year through November, all-towable RV shipments totaled 353,109 compared to 334,792 from the previous period, a 5.5% Y/Y growth.

  

  All motorhome shipments totaled 36,921 compared to 43,762, for a 15.6% decline. Total RV shipments totaled 390,030 compared to 378,554, an increase of 3.0%.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 20:25

• New "Squad"-Member Jamaal Bowman Says Capitalism Is "Slavery By Another Name"
  New “Squad”-Member Jamaal Bowman Says Capitalism Is “Slavery By Another Name”

  Authored by Annaliese Levy via SaraACarter.com,

  Democratic New York Congressman-elect and new member to the “Squad” Jamaal Bowman said he believes the U.S. system of capitalism is a form of slavery.

  

  In an interview Monday with The Root, Bowman said, “I believe our current system of capitalism is slavery by another name.”

  He continued:

  “We’ve moved from physical chattel enslavement and physical racial segregation to a plantation economic system. One that keeps the majority of Americans unemployed, or underemployed and struggling just to survive, while the power elite continues to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few, and allow large corporations to pretty much run the world as multinational corporations.”

  “The pandemic has revealed it. With almost 300,000 dead from the pandemic, disproportionately Black and brown, and Jeff Bezos is the first $200 billionaire. In the next six years, he might become the first trillionaire. That’s slavery by another name. It’s a system that’s not working, so we need a new system.”

  Bowman, who is set to be sworn into Congress on Jan. 3, has been very vocal about the need for a new system and has criticized Obama for not being radical enough.

  “I don’t think Obama is the standard we should be striving towards,” Bowman said.

  “I think the Squad is more of a standard we should be striving towards because I think the Squad is more responsive to what’s happening today in our streets. I think Obama represents a certain demographic of the Democratic Party, but the Democratic Party is a big and diverse tent. “

  “I think the Squad and myself represent more of what’s happening right now in the party, on the ground, in the streets—particularly with parts of the community that we haven’t always engaged very well.”

  The Squad is the informal name for a group of four progressive women elected in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

  Bowman tweeted Dec. 16 that he was “so proud to be entering congress to fight with my sisters for the American people,” referring to The Squad.

  I’m so proud to be entering congress to fight with my sisters for the American people. Their leadership is why I’m here. They organize, strategize, mobilize and fight for us every second of every day. Looking forward to the 117th Congress. It’s about to be on! https://t.co/bQyboHiQp2

  — Jamaal Bowman (@JamaalBowmanNY) December 17, 2020

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 20:05

• Trump Kicks COVID Bill Back To Congress; Demands $2,000 Stimulus, Shreds Lawmakers Over Mountain Of Pork
  Trump Kicks COVID Bill Back To Congress; Demands $2,000 Stimulus, Shreds Lawmakers Over Mountain Of Pork

  President Trump appeared to threaten to veto the COVID-19 stimulus package that Congress passed almost 24 hours earlier, telling lawmakers to boost checks for Americans to $2,000 as well as “get rid of wasteful and unnecessary items” in the spending bill

  Trump said “throughout the summer, Democrats cruelly blocked COVID relief legislation in an effort to advance their extreme left wing agenda and influence the election…”

  “it’s taken forever” to get a package and the bill passed “is much different than anticipated.”

  “It really is a disgrace,” he added.

  Then reeled off a list of disgusting ‘pork’ (read the details here) that has been piled into this record-breaking 5,593 page bill.

  As Axios notes, many of the items Trump listed, such as foreign aid, which were not related to COVID-19 are not part of the coronavirus relief package. These form part of the government funding bill, which was passed alongside the coronavirus relief package.

  Then he took a shot at Biden and the election

  “Send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done.”

  Watch the full statement here:

  pic.twitter.com/v9Rdjz6DNu

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2020

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  ..and the market is not happy…

  

   

  Get back to Mrs.Pelosi!

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 19:46

• Israeli Submarine 'Openly' Crosses Suez Canal Toward Persian Gulf As Iran Tensions Soar
  Israeli Submarine ‘Openly’ Crosses Suez Canal Toward Persian Gulf As Iran Tensions Soar

  Israeli media is widely reporting early this week than an Israeli submarine in an unprecedented move has openly traversed the Suez Canal en route to the Persian Gulf as a show of force “message” to Iran.

  On Tuesday The Jerusalem Post detailed that “An IDF Navy submarine crossed the Suez Canal last week as a direct message to Iran, Kan News reported Monday evening.” The report said further, “Arab intelligence officials reportedly confirmed to Kan News that the Israeli submarine crossed the canal toward Iran visibly above water, in an act meant as a message to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.”

  Israel will not allow the threats of Iran to intimidate our country. This IDF Naval submarine crossing the Suez Canal with Egyptian clearance sends a clear and direct message to the Ayatollah and Iran. We will beat you back.https://t.co/crTbmcxvOF

  — Benjamin Anthony (@BenAnthony1948) December 21, 2020

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  Egyptian authorities gave approval for the provocative Suez crossing, and the submarine also later passed through the Red Sea without incident.

  While the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it never comments on such military operational maneuvers, despite the traversing being done essentially out in the open, the submarine appears headed toward the Persian Gulf, which would constitute a huge threat and significant escalation from Tehran’s perspective.

  “According to Arab intelligence that confirmed the reports, the submarine passed the Red Sea and was making its way toward the Persian Gulf, in what they believe was meant as a direct threat to Iran,” The Jerusalem Post report continued.

  הצוללת הישראלית בדרך לאיראן – חשיפת כאן חדשות | גורמי מודיעין ערביים: צוללת של חיל הים חצתה את תעלת סואץ באופן גלוי ובאישור מצרי, לכיוון המפרץ הפרסי. הגורמים העריכו שישראל ניסתה להעביר מסר לטהראן. מצה”ל נמסר שהם לא מתייחסים לפרסומים מסוג זה @kaisos1987 #חדשותהערב pic.twitter.com/T67OG9QrMw

  — כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 21, 2020

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  Both Israel and the United States seem to be coordinating a message of deterrence to the Islamic Republic, given also on Monday the US Navy announced publicly that its nuclear submarine USS Georgia is currently transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the vital Gulf narrow waterway where Iran’s IRGC frequently patrols

  Israeli submarine route as presented in the initial Kan News report:

  

  Iran’s leaders have of late issued repeat threats saying they are poised to take revenge against those responsible for the assassination of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh outside Tehran on November 27.

  It was later revealed that a satellite-controlled machine-gun with “artificial intelligence” was used in the attack, which Iran has blamed on Israel, likely with US intelligence assistance.

  JUST IN: #USNavy‘s #USSGeorgia transits #StraitofHormuz with cruisers #USSPortRoyal and #USSPhilippineSea. Georgia’s presence in @US5thFleet demonstrates the fleet’s ability to operate wherever international law allows. #forcetobereckonedwith

  DETAILS ➡️ https://t.co/PObIHE2XC6 pic.twitter.com/ys8cBbnm7k

  — U.S. Navy (@USNavy) December 21, 2020

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  The region is also on edge as it’s less than two weeks until the first anniversary of the US assassination by drone of IRGC Quds Force chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport on Jan. 3, 2020. For this reason US forces in the region, especially stationed on Iran, remain on high alert.

  The US Navy also late last week engaged in joint war drills with Gulf allies in the area (the Arabian Gulf is a reference to the Persian Gulf):

  “We will continue to enhance the abilities of our combined, joint force to decisively defend against maritime security threats.”

  Saudi, U.S. Forces Conduct Joint Aviation Integration Exercise in Arabian Gulf.

  FULL STORY➡️ https://t.co/QcJw2K1Qpc pic.twitter.com/jEZ2uj8yvt

  — U.S. Navy (@USNavy) December 21, 2020

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  It remains unclear whether the Israeli submarine will actually enter (or perhaps has already) entered the Persian Gulf alongside the US allied submarine.

  If so, Israel certainly won’t advertise it at that point, or disclose the underwater vessel’s whereabouts. The IRGC would consider it a hostile enough act to respond, potentially setting off a chain of escalation leading to all out war.

  @USNavy photos of the day: @USNavy and Saudi forces train in #US5thFlt, #USSJohnPaulJones live-fire and #UNREP with #USNSWallySchirra and Sailors stand watch aboard #USSJohnSMcCain. ⬇️ info & download ⬇️: https://t.co/5ktXf4POdT pic.twitter.com/Lay2Me13Wi

  — U.S. Navy (@USNavy) December 22, 2020

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  Crucially all of this build-up in tension also comes as President-Elect Joe Biden has vowed to restore US participation in the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA).

  Iran has said if the US comes back with no additional conditions or any attempt to renegotiate, Tehran will return to the deal “within an hour”. President Trump has meanwhile strongly signaled he intends to derail any such future Biden efforts to restore the deal. Currently this is being done through ratcheted up sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 19:45

• We're On A Highway To Hyperinflation
  We’re On A Highway To Hyperinflation

  Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

  Well, here we go again.  The U.S. House of Representatives just passed a $900 billion stimulus package, and we are being promised that it will provide a real “boost” to the economy.  Of course we were told the exact same thing about all of the other “stimulus packages” that have been passed since the beginning of the pandemic.  Most importantly to many Americans, $600 stimulus payments will soon be sent out directly to the American people.  If you are married and have three kids, you will get a total of $3,000, because each member of your family is counted equally for this round of stimulus payments.

  

  But it won’t just be U.S. citizens that will be receiving free money.  According to Michelle Hackman of the Wall Street Journal, families of illegal immigrants will now be eligible as well…

  Family members of unauthorized immigrants are now eligible to get stimulus checks under the $900 billion deal reached last night. That eligibility is retroactive, so adults excluded last time could get up to $1800 now

  In addition, there is a tremendous amount of pork in the spending package that the House just authorized.  The following comes from Zero Hedge…

  And now, on to the pork… which includes billions to foreign countries, US military weapons purchases which go above and beyond their budgets, $40 million for the Kennedy Center, and nearly $200 million so that federal HIV/AIDS workers overseas can buy cars and car insurance, among other things.

  Not surprisingly, the bill passed the House by a vote of 359 to 53.

  I would like to applaud the 53 members of the House that tried to stand up and do the right thing, because this bill should have never been passed.

  It is being reported that the bill was 5,593 pages long, and our representatives were only given a few hours to read it…

  Several members of Congress are taking to social media to complain about the handful of hours they have to read the 5,593-page spending bill.

  Early Monday afternoon, the behemoth piece of legislation was uploaded, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled a vote for the evening.

  It is going to take weeks before we learn all of the insidious things that were snuck into this bill, because that is how long it is going to take for ordinary citizens to read it.

  As for members of Congress, I doubt that any of them will ever end up reading the entire thing.

  Our system of government is so broken, but most of the population doesn’t seem to care.

  And most Americans also don’t seem to care that all of this ridiculous spending is literally destroying the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.

  You see, the truth is that we don’t have 900 billion dollars to spend on a stimulus package.

  Instead, the federal government will have to borrow 900 billion new dollars that the Federal Reserve creates out of thin air.

  Needless to say, injecting 900 billion more dollars into the economy is going to be yet another massive shock for the money supply.  Even without this new stimulus package, M2 has been rising at an exponential rate since the start of the pandemic due to all of the previous stimulus packages that Congress approved and all of the “quantitative easing” that the Federal Reserve has been doing.

  

  Prior to 2020, we had “inflation”, but now we have definitely entered a “hyperinflationary” phase.

  In the short-term, $600 payments will help ease the economic suffering of tens of millions of Americans.

  But in the long run, we are going down the exact same path that Venezuela, Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic went down.

  As I have explained to my regular readers repeatedly, just about everyone in Venezuela is a millionaire today, but just about everyone is also living in poverty because their money is almost absolutely worthless.

  Unfortunately, most Americans are not interested in discussing the inflationary impact that all of this reckless spending is having.  Instead, social media is full of angry comments about how these $600 stimulus payments are not nearly large enough.

  Just check out what some of the people on Twitter are saying…

  Eli Yudin: Members of Congress got paid $130,000 to spend 9 months arguing about whether we deserve $600

  Robert Reich: People are starving and the GOP has the nerve to hand over a one-time $600 check, as the Pentagon spends $2 billion a day. The cruelty is staggering.

  VeBee: You and I : $600 … No thank you! Sudan : $700,000,000…HELL NO !

  @BlessUSA45: Leader of both party’s celebrating while laughing their asses off at us because they actually believe we are delighted to get our 600 dollar check from them.

  @marie32318459: “i am very proud of this deal, because we came together, BI partisan” this is unacceptable. 9 MONTHS, getting paycheck after paycheck with American tax dollars and then come up with this “spit-in-the face” 600$ and they actually congratulating each other on this?
  #eattherich

  Allegedly Legendary: @SpeakerPelosi Americans need monthly cash assistance for all, #Med4All and a real plan to get people back to work. Not a $600 dollar one-time check. You’ve given tax cuts in the billions and bailouts but don’t help the American people. #StimulusChecksOrStrike

  This is one of the big problems that happens once you start cruising down the road to socialism.

  People always want more.

  And actually Joe Biden is promising much more “stimulus” once he gets into the White House.

  Giving people free money is a fast way to win votes, but it is also going to destroy the value of our currency.

  If M2 continues to rise at an exponential rate, what do you think that is going to do to the cost of living in this country?

  We all know the answer to that question, and if our paychecks do not keep pace that means that our standard of living will be going way down.

  I have been warning that our financial system is headed for an epic meltdown, and now it is starting to become a reality right in front of our eyes.

  Throughout human history, once currency devaluation reaches an exponential phase things always have ended badly.

  And now it is our turn.

  We’re on a highway to hyperinflation, and our maniacal free spending politicians are behind the wheel.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 19:25

• Rich Americans Scramble To Move Money Ahead Of Biden Tax Hikes
  Rich Americans Scramble To Move Money Ahead Of Biden Tax Hikes

  One of the big reasons for the market’s post-election rally is that because Republicans actually did much better than many expected in congressional races, eliminating the threat of a major tax hike. The results – which saw Democrats lose seats in the House and fail to win a majority in the Senate – suggested Biden would be unable to fulfill campaign promises to raise trillions of dollars in new revenue from the wealthy. And yet, it is these same rich who are now scrambling to make large transactions before the end of the month according to Bloomberg, as they try to get ahead of moves next year by Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress to raise taxes or close loopholes.

  To be sure, looking at the latest PredictIt odds for a Democratic sweep in the GA runoffs should make the case for higher takes even more remote: after hitting a post-election high in the low-30s, the odds have dipped to a 2 week low.

  

  Yet rich people, perhaps having learned from previous polling fiascos, aren’t taking chances and as Bloomberg reports, some financial advisors say they’re busier than ever in the last weeks of 2020, especially with helping clients transfer wealth to the next generation tax-free while they still can.

  Meanwhile, appraisers who are crucial for valuing assets used in these estate planning strategies, “have been inundated.” According to the report, requests for property appraisals have quadrupled at New York firm Miller Samuel Inc., President Jonathan Miller said. By late November, he had to start turning away clients.

  “We physically can’t handle all the year-end deadlines at this point,” Miller said. “We started doing this after the Thanksgiving holiday and it’s been extremely frustrating.”

  To be sure, while a wholesale rollback of Trump tax cuts is unlikely , tax changes are still possible in 2021, and the Biden administration could also try to close the many loopholes that make the U.S. estate and gift tax easy to avoid. “I can see a situation where Treasury issues regulations that make it more difficult to do effective estate planning,” Berger said.

  The estate tax is especially sensitive: as part of Trump’s tax law, the amount the wealthy could pass to heirs without paying the estate and gift tax was doubled to $11.58 million for individuals and $23.16 million for couples this year. That and other provisions of the law expire in 2026, giving the rich another reason to make moves sooner rather than later.

  Before the election, “so many clients had already started looking at gifting strategies,” said Lisa Featherngill, head of legacy and wealth planning at Abbot Downing, a unit of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. “We’re telling them don’t take your foot off the gas.”

  The reason for the rush to get affairs in order before year end is the threat that tax changes under Biden could be retroactive to the beginning of 2021 even though many advisers are now telling clients that seems less likely, with tax hikes occurring in 2022 if they happen at all.

  Even so, Laura Zwicker, chair of the private client services group at Los Angeles law firm Greenberg Glusker, told Bloomberg said she’s busier “than I have ever been” with a surprising number of new clients coming in the weeks after the election looking to finish transactions this year.

  “Estate planning is emotional,” Zwicker said. “Clients want to take advantage of the current law, which many have internalized as having been in place forever.”

  There is another reason for this scramble to frontrun a possible change in regulations: clients are acting out of “an abundance of caution,” said Susan Hartley-Moss, a partner at Cerity Partners, who heads the firm’s trust and estates planning division. “A really smart adviser would advise you, ‘Hey, let’s not take any chances. Let’s use up the remainder of your $11.58 million. You don’t want to risk it.”

  Advisers say the pace of work this month is similar to the rush at the end of 2012, when Americans raced to complete transactions before the estate tax exemption was scheduled to drop in 2013. That change was averted by a last-minute deal.

  Separately, as we reported previously, Biden has also called for much higher tax on capital gains, including those from sales of businesses. Advisers say that has prompted some clients to try to sell businesses or investments in 2020, locking in rates that are unlikely to fall but could rise in the years ahead. Many millionaires will also face higher state and local taxes in 2021, with states like New York facing severe budgetary shortfalls.

  That said, not every adviser agrees it’s necessary to pay extra in 2020 to avoid hypothetical tax hikes in the future, since deferring taxes still has financial advantages. But for some clients, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know,” Berger said.

  For some, the year end rush is not driven by worries about tax changes in 2021, but merely the pursuit of usual end-of-year planning moves designed to lower their tax bills. The pandemic and Covid-19-related legislation like the CARES Act offer the chance to make these strategies more lucrative.

  For example, the charitably inclined have the unprecedented ability to offset 100% of their taxable income with donations in 2020. To take full advantage, donors need to make much of their gifts in cash — a sticking point for those who prefer the bigger tax breaks provided by gifts of appreciated stock.

  Some other ways Americans can lower their taxable income is by not taking required minimum distributions in 2020 from individual retirement accounts. Losses from businesses or this year’s volatile stock market can also offset other income, lowering tax bills or letting clients convert traditional individual retirement accounts to Roth IRAs without paying more than usual.

  Still, with 2020 almost over, “There is a race to the finish line,” Hartley-Moss said.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 19:05

• "You Met Me At A Very Strange Time In My Life"
  “You Met Me At A Very Strange Time In My Life”

  Authored by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,

  As we near 2021, I offer a primer on where we stand demographically heading into the new year…

  To begin, I’ll divide the world into two roughly equal groups, consumers and non-consumers, using the World Bank gross national income per capita.

  “Consumers” are half the worlds population, have average income per capita above $4,045…enjoy 80%+ of the income, savings, access to credit and likewise consume 80%+ of the worlds exported commodities and 80%+ of the worlds energy. They have average income of $12,000’ish. Consumers include:

  • 83 High Income Nations ($12,536+) – EU, US/Canada, Japan, Australia/NZ, Saudi Arabia/UAE, S. Korea, Taiwan, Israel

  • 56 Upper Middle Income Nations ($4,046-$12,535) – China, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Iran/Iraq, Indonesia, Argentina, Thailand, Colombia/Venezuela

  “Low or Non-consumers”, the other half of the worlds population, have average income per capita of a few hundred dollars to $4044…earn less than 20% of world income, savings, access to credit and consume less than 20% of all exported commodities and burn less than 20% of global energy. They have average income of about $1,200 a year…10x less per person among non-consumers than the average “consumer”.

  • 50 Lower Middle Income Nations ($1,036 to $4045) – India/Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Vietnam, Ukraine, Honduras/Nicaragua/El Salvador, Bolivia

  • 29 Low Income Nations ($1,035 and below) – Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, N. Korea, Madagascar, Chad, Uganda

  Critically, as you read through this and see large scale present and future population declines among the consumer nations…you will note that while there is growth among non-consumer populations, it is more typically on a 1:1 basis…meaning the decline of one “consumer” is being met with the replacement of one “non-consumer”…each replacement resulting in something like a 90% decline in consumption capability.

  First, a look at the head waters of global demand…annual global births. The yellow shaded area in the chart below shows global births peaked at approx. 135 million annually in 1989…and have not likely ever returned to that high water mark. Although UN expected 2020 births to surpass the 1989 quantity…when the UN releases its next updated report, births will have been adjusted down by millions to reflect the reality demographers have been witnessing, putting births well below the 1989 peak. And in 2021, the dearth of global pregnancies in 2020 will turn into one of the largest birth dearth in history.

  Family formation and resultant births is the greatest force in creating growing demand (inflation). UN data shows that annual “consumer” births (blue line, below) have declined by 18 million from the 1989 peak back to the same number of births as were seen in 1950.  A full roundtrip, with 4 decades of rising births followed by 3 decades of declining births. These consumer nation numbers are generally inclusive of the births to immigrants within the consumer nations…absent that, the decline would have been much steeper. Low consumer nation births (yellow line) have risen by the same quantity as consumer nation declines. Both are expected to maintain their current trajectories…Low consumer births continuing to replace consumer births 1:1.

  For those paying attention, inflation (as represented by the Federal Reserve set Federal Funds Rate) has been declining nearly in tandem with the declining consumer nation births, and global debt has blasted off inversely…with the impact of pulling demand forward against a future with organically declining demand. The question here, how would an ever smaller future of consumers pay off or outgrow ever more debt???

  

  Narrowing in on high income nation births versus low income nation births…Not hard to see where this is going.

  

  Given 30 years of declining consumer nation births, no surprise the childbearing population among consumer nations is now in decline versus ongoing growth in the low consumer nations childbearing population.

  

  Below, checking the year over year change of the high versus low consumer populations. The acceleration and deceleration of the “consumer” childbearing population (essentially mirrored by the Federal Funds Rate), note the apex of growth among low consumer nations has come and gone. Declining consumer nation childbearing populations and decelerating childbearing growth among low consumer nations is all we can expect from here.

  

  And the demographic flow through means the apex of the 0-65 year old consumer nations population has just been reached, and continued declines are to be expected from here. Again, the consumer declines are anticipated to be offset by low consumer population growth (much of the anticipated growth to be significantly longer low consumer nation lifespans leading to larger elderly populations…while growth among low consumer younger populations decelerates).

  

  Again, checking the year over year change that is now turned to consumer nations secular depopulation and decelerating growth among low consumer nations.

  

  To round out the picture, 65+ consumers versus 65+ low consumers.

  

  Year over year change in consumer vs. low consumer 65+ year old populations.

  

  USA

  Births

  Despite all the US population growth and immigration, the US has only marginally exceeded the 1957 peak in annual births in a single year, 2007. And since that dual peak in 2007, births have again fallen by nearly 700,000 (-16%) fewer births annually. However, the imminent 2021 Covid-19 induced waterfall event in births will see 1+ million (-26%) fewer births than the ’57/’07 dual peaks. Among major influences on the birth rate is the Fed’s FFR% and asset purchasing resulting in large asset inflation essentially punishing young adults whom have few to no assets. Expenses rising  well ahead of incomes. Resultant lower marriage rates, births are an outflow of Federal Reserve policy.

  

  Below, a simple birth to debt ratio to gauge the creation of all that debt against the future responsible for outgrowing, repaying, and/or servicing that debt. The curve of falling births and exploding debt has gone parabolic.

  

  Working Age Population

  To wrap it up, check the 15 to 64 year old population (blue line) versus those employed among the same age group (green line). Shouldn’t be hard to see the decelerating population growth and the even faster decelerating employment growth.

  

  Same population/employment as above but adding in the Federal Reserve set FFR% and expansion of Federal Reserve balance sheet (QE)…and the impact of those policies to encourage greater federal debt.

  

  The Federal Reserve is tasked w/ stable prices (lol) and full employment.  Below, you can see the means to achieve full employment has been ever lower interest rates, more QE, to encourage ever higher debt fueled economic activity.

  

  But if you add in the Wilshire 5000 (representing all publicly traded US equities), you can see quite clearly the primary winner of each progressive “full employment” cycle are not the employees but a shrinking percentage who hold a fast growing percentage of assets.

  

  Housing

  I’d be a bit remiss not to take a peek at housing. Below, annual change in the working age population (white line), 30 year fixed mortgage rate (grey line), and housing permits (blue line). What is taking place now has never happened as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate setting and QE have pulled the 30 year fixed mortgage rates to record lows…while housing permits are being issued far in excess of the declining population of potential buyers.  All this while the elderly population, with the highest homeownership rates, turn to net sellers as they downsize or leave inherited properties to their heirs. In all cases, a surge of housing units is coming for a declining basis of buyers.

  

  Looking a little closer at the same data as above, from 2000 to present.

  

  Debt n Demographics

  Quick review of US marketable public debt (red line), vs. Intragovernmental debt (debt held by SS trust funds, etc.), and Federal Funds rate. Essentially all debt issued from here forward will be marketable as the demographically driven IG rolls over to net declines. The US will be more reliant on foreigners, the Federal Reserve, and institutional buyers than ever before. This while the US government can afford essentially no higher interest payments than the present ZIRP induced reality.

  

  Checking the annual change in marketable (red columns) vs IG (blue columns) debt, likewise change in 0-60 (green line) vs. 60+ (yellow line) year old US population, and again the Federal Funds rate.

  

  For those curious to see the relationship of lower rates and ZIRP (black line) to encourage soaring debt; below are total US debt/GDP (blue line), Federal Government debt/GDP (red line), and the resulting heavens bound Wilshire 5000.

  

  US Treasury Bonds

  Below, Federal Reserve held US Treasury debt (yellow line) versus foreign holdings (black line). With so much more demographically driven issuance to come and so few buyers willing to buy US debt anywhere near current rates…the only natural buyer is a buyer whose motivation isn’t profit but control. I’ll bet the Fed isn’t about to play the QT card again.

  

  Comparing the soaring Federal Reserve held Treasury’s to the largest holders of US debt; China, Japan, and the “BLUICS” compilation (Belgium, Luxembourg, UK, Ireland, Cayman Island, Switzerland). Despite running large dollar trade surplus’, foreigners no longer recycle their excess dollars into Treasury’s. But they must go somewhere…equities, precious metals, but perhaps particularly Bitcoin?

  

  Only ongoing net buyer of US Treasury bonds are shadow banking nations with access to central bank swap lines rather than dollar based trade surplus’.  

  

  Short and long of it…US is in a demographic driven decline, the federal government is committed to growth at all costs, the Federal Reserve is tasked with ensuring US Treasury bonds are not traded at “free market valuations”.  And perhapsmay Bitcoin is the best way to short America?!?

  Bitcoin

  Finally I mention Bitcoin and just show it versus the Federal Reserve’s combined holdings of Treasury’s and Mortgage Backed Securities, plus the operations undertaken leading to an ever larger balance sheet. The flood of $’s and removal of large scale quantities of assets are pushing asset prices higher but the combination of cheap interest rates (are boosting long term capacity) while only offering short term boosts to demand, are pushing commodity prices ever lower. Make of this what you will.

  

  Anyway, about now the nature of 2020, 2021 should be more clear…this is no typical business cycle or pandemic. Decades of demographic deceleration and now outright demographic declines are at the heart of central bank ZIRP/NIRP, QE, and soaring debt. Demographics are destiny and by now is should be clear there is no means to ever outgrow this debt. This appears to be the initiation of a global reset, de facto or otherwise.

  To wrap it, at the conclusion of Fight Club, after having killed his alter-ego & arranged for the destruction of all global credit records…Ed Norton says, “You met me at a very strange time in my life” as the credit records are all destroyed.  I believe the world is equally living a dissociated reality but will soon become painfully self aware of the truths we have so long disavowed.

  

  Enjoy the clip…Fight Club

  *Population data from UN World Population Prospects 2019.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/22/2020 – 18:45

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