- The New New Cold War Is Pretty Much The Old New Cold War
The New New Cold War Is Pretty Much The Old New Cold War
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/24/2020 – 00:00Authored by Nicky Reid via Counterpunch.org,
Remember when the Russians were coming? It seems like just last week Vladimir Putin was whistling the Soviet National Anthem just around every corner of main street. After the colossal clusterfuck of Hillary 2016, you couldn’t swing a dead cat in a news room without hitting another crafty Kremlin conspiracy. Those shifty almond-eyed bastards were the secret sauce behind everything that gave neoliberals heartburn; MAGA, Black Lives Matter, Wikileaks, Bernie Bros, Jill Stein, Sasquatch, Tulsi Gabbard, Colin Kaepernick, the female orgasm.
They were behind it all!
Putin was everywhere, like Elvis Presley in a Mojo Nixon song, and he was always up to something new, some dastardly new conspiracy to corrupt our precious bodily fluids that only Rachel Maddow and six permanently anonymous intelligence experts could save us from. Donald Trump was constantly on the brink of impeachment for pissing on a Russian prostitute dressed as Abe Lincoln and wrapped in the Constitution or some such noise. It made sense in the moment, I swear it did! It was a new day in Imperial America, a whole new Cold War was upon us, and Adam Schiff would lead us to the promise land like a liberal Joe McCarthy on a gallant white stead.
Now, Russiagate just feels so two-thousand-and-late.
Schiff has been outed by his own lazy paperwork as a libelous scumfuck just a few lies and a sex crime short of the Donald himself, and Rachel Maddow’s soaring calls to action against the Kremlin menace have taken on the sea-sick patina of Alex Jones in a sporty pant suit. Even the devil himself, Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem so scary anymore. So he declares himself president-for-life and has a few more American sponsored journalists tossed in the dreaded Lubyanka, what else is on? The New Cold War is old news. In post-Covid America, the New New Cold War is where it’s at.
Who needs those vodka-soaked Russkies when you have the Chinese! (Gong bangs in background) A super sneaky, disease spewing people who’s currency is actually worth more than double-ply toilet paper, which is worth slightly more than the Dollar. Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo have hit the ground spewing with a torrential cavalcade of convoluted race-baiting accusations and innuendo about China’s devilish double-dealings, from the bat labs of Wuhan to the rocks of the South China Sea, and Joe Biden and the New York Times aren’t far behind them. Rather than taking the high road for once and denying this bullshit as an excuse for Trump to cover his orange ass on his derelict response to Covid-19, old grabby Joe has taken his usual route, bashing Trump in swing state commercials for not being stupid enough on China. Joe, they promise, could be way more stupid, and somehow, I don’t doubt that for a second.
But as a post-tankie war nerd, I’m left scratching my head.
Those cretins in the deep state put so much elbow grease into creating a narrative that the Soviet Union was rising from the grave like a red star bedazzled Babadook that they were willing to impeach one of their own just because he suggested that Vladimir Putin might not be the next Hitler. But now their willing to just roll over and let Trump have his new bone.
I’d say we’re probably just about thirty days from Tucker Carlson giving John Brennan a hummer on live television while he belches about Chinese hackers and our God-given right to protect the freedom of other people’s seas. As best as I can explain the meticulous madness of these fucking vultures, I would suggest that my dearest motherfuckers take a closer look at the original Cold War, and you’ll find that not much has really changed at all. The scapegoats have shifted but the target remains the same.
Contrary to the Marvel sponsored Captain America mythology of the Evil Empire, the Old Cold War was never about the godless evils of communism. It didn’t even really have that much to do with Russian influence, at least not empirically. Russia has always been a crafty but rickety excuse for a superpower. Truth be told, our countries own propaganda is really the only reason half the world took that tin-plated petrol state seriously to begin with. The true target always was and always will be that geostrategic phantom known as Eurasia. If you want to know what really keeps neocons and their neoliberal siblings up at night, it’s the indisputable fact that a united Eurasian economy that brings together the collective power of Europe and the Orient would crush the Dollar like the toilet paper tiger it is and bury the American Century in its own dust. The moment the Eurozone can get NATO off its ass and realize that the future rises from the east, is the moment the American imperial dream dies a rather quick and anti-climactic death.
Russia has long been the target of choice for the simple reason that it’s the weakest link in the chain. The motherland is the land bridge that brings two continents together, and with the advent of the October Uprising in 1917, America was giftwrapped a perfect theater for instability. The real Cold War began before the First World War had even ended, when the US and it’s sundry allies sent fresh bodies from the trenches to help the Czar’s death squads traumatize the newly Soviet countryside with the White Terror, and that terror never stopped. I was done with those dastardly Bolsheviks the day I read about Kronstadt, but god only knows what kind of republican experiment Lenin and his boys might have cooked up if their new nation hadn’t been born in a bathtub of blood. The Russian people likely never would have welcomed another Czar in the form of Stalin, or Putin for that matter, if they weren’t so damn shell-shocked by American sponsored savagery that they were desperate for any iron man with a Slavic name to save them.
Russia was the perfect enemy because they projected that air of Orthodox stoicism, even while they were crippled and hemorrhaging. But China has always been the true target, the massive competition for Europe’s hand in imperial matrimony. With the worth of Russia’s only cash cow, petrol, spiraling and a new depression exploding from the economic bubble that the Coronavirus burst, America has quite simply run out of time to scapegoat anything but the real deal. Steve Bannon knows it, and his imperial wonk nemesis Bill Kristol knows it too. Evil or not, those twisted fuckers know a thing or two about the deep state’s long game and the long game is either China goes down or America accepts its Karmic fate as their debt-ridden bitch.
Either way, why should an anti-imperialist anarchist like me give a shit? They are all bloodthirsty statist scum after all.
Well, I’ll tell you why. For two reasons.
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The first is the simple fact that I am an American and I feel it is my divine duty as an anti-authoritarian pissant to piss off and smash the authority I live beneath. I’ll leave China to those cyber-punks in Hong Kong or some genderfuck Uighur with a decidedly Oriental manifesto in her burka. That’s not my lane.
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The second reason is the basic strategic fact that as fucked up and debt-ridden as it is, America is still the world’s only truly unipolar superpower. China may look scary from a distance but as I pointed out above, they are a huge country who can barely handle keeping their own police state from falling to shambles beneath their own weight.
China’s best hope for dominance rests in partnership above competition. A Eurasian Century would be multipolar by nature and any anarchist worth a shit can tell you, Balkanize and conquer is where it’s at.
So meet the New New Cold War, dearest motherfuckers, same as the Old New Cold War. Call me a contrarian cunt, but I’ll be agitating for America’s demise in any damn cold war. That’s what I do. Now bring me Tucker Carlson. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to work those tranny-bashing kidneys for long enough.
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- These Are The Cities With The Most Self-Employed Workers
These Are The Cities With The Most Self-Employed Workers
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 23:30As tens of millions of jobs disappeared over the last few months, many found themselves for the first time depending on government unemployment benefits, which right now are the only thing keeping the consumer – the lifeblood of the American economy – on life support. But while some more industrious workers might strike out on their own – operating as sole proprietors or some other pass-through tax classification – many more will likely be forced to take the “freelance” route, which involves many of the same trappings of the sole-proprietor route, with one notable exception: the self-employed freelancer doesn’t make enough to justify incorporation.
Employees who met this classification, including many hourly workers at media organizations and publishers, are particularly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of fortune.
A recent report by Volusion examines where America’s self-employed live, which can help offer some insight into how the spike in unemployment might impact local economies, housing markets, etc.
Read the full report below:
The coronavirus pandemic has cost a record number of Americans their jobs as much of the economy shut down in mid-March. Even as some states start to reopen, many businesses will remain closed or operate in a reduced capacity, meaning millions of workers will remain unemployed.
According to Census Bureau data, there are over 15 million self-employed workers in the U.S., making up about 9.7% of the nation’s workforce. Self-employed workers are especially vulnerable during economic downturns since they do not have the same type of job protections as other workers. The CARES Act provides emergency government aid to workers affected by the pandemic, including the self-employed, who might normally fall through the social safety net. But these funds have been difficult to secure and can have long wait times. Furthermore, confusing messaging around the loans leave many self-employed workers unsure about what the funds can be used for.
The self-employed, which for the purpose of this analysis includes those adults who operate either incorporated or unincorporated businesses, are represented in every industry sector except public administration. Other services—a catchall industry sector that includes, among others, car repairs, barbershops, salons, dry-cleaning, and pet care services—has the largest share of self-employed workers at nearly 26%. Both the Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining industry and the Construction industry have high rates of self-employment, at 24% and 23% respectively.
As of 2018 (the most recent year of Census data available), these three industry sectors accounted for over 5 million self-employed workers, but a combination of non-essential business closures, disruptions of the food supply chain, and a hold on construction work in many states will likely drive these numbers down.
While almost 10% of workers are self-employed at the national level, the self-employment rate varies considerably across cities and states. Montana and Vermont claim the highest percentages of self-employed workers in the country, at 14% and 13.4%, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, West Virginia has the lowest share of self-employed workers, with just 6.3% of workers who are self-employed.
To find the locations with the most self-employed workers, researchers at Volusion used data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The researchers ranked metro areas according to the share of workers who are self-employed. Researchers also looked at the total number of self-employed workers, the median income for self-employed workers, and the median income for all workers.
To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 people were included in the analysis. Additionally, metro areas were grouped into the following cohorts based on population size:
- Small metros: 100,000-349,999
- Midsize metros: 350,000-999,999
- Large metros: 1,000,000 or more
Here are the metropolitan areas with the largest percentage of workers who are self-employed.
Read more on: Volusion
- Israel Had Foiled Major Qassem Soleimani Plot In Region: Ex-IDF Chief Details
Israel Had Foiled Major Qassem Soleimani Plot In Region: Ex-IDF Chief Details
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 23:00The former Chief of Staff for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), General Gadi Eisenkot, commented on the 20th anniversary of the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which took place on this date in 2000.
During his interview with the publication, Israel Hayom, the ex-IDF chief said that his country managed to foil a major plan by the late Quds Force commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Major-General Qassem Soleimani, in Lebanon and Syria.
IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, slain in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. The former IDF chief stated that General Soleimani was planning to build airbases in Syria, and brought 100,000 Shiite youth from Pakistan and Afghanistan to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, but he claims that the late Quds Force commander was unsuccessful.
He said that “there were major goals for Soleimani in the Middle East, among which was maintaining the rule of Ayatollah and Iran as a strong and advanced country, achieving regional hegemony in the Middle East, and obtaining nuclear weapons.”
“Ultimately, the best thing happened to Israel when the Americans eliminated him,” the former IDF chief said in the interview.
Despite Eisenkot’s claim, Israel continues to heavily target Syria each month with airstrikes on what are perceived to be Iranian positions inside the country.
Hook Says Soleimani’s Death Helps Iraqis Limit #Iranian Influence https://t.co/9gUrshjS0w
— Asharq Al-Awsat English (@aawsat_eng) May 23, 2020
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Most recently, outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett claimed that the Iranian forces were withdrawing from Syria; however, this was refuted by Iranian officials and military personnel.
Furthermore, they pointed out that the Iranian forces on the ground in Syria are in fact military advisors that were requested by the Syrian government.
The Iranian officials added that these advisors would remain in Syria until the government no longer needs them.
- COVID Sparks Sexbot "Revolution" As People Ditch Tinder
COVID Sparks Sexbot “Revolution” As People Ditch Tinder
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 22:30About two weeks into lockdowns (so about late March), we said sex with strangers via popular online dating apps would become a distant memory for some as virus fears would pull back on sexual desires. Though we did make a strong point how the sex industry was about to explode:
“As Americans are in mass quarantine and ordered to avoid social gatherings and other people, the good old days of logging into Tinder, Bumble, and or Grindr could be over for now – due mostly because, having sex with strangers could result in a contraction of the virus.
“This is why the rise of the sex doll industry could be imminent as millions have been forced by the government to practice social distancing to flatten the curve.”
Back then, we pointed out how sex robot company RealDoll, also known as Abyss, was promoting its “Platinum Grade Silicone” dolls as “antibacterial” and “safe” for use during the pandemic.
Now, another sex doll company, Sex Doll Genie, has reported, via Daily Star, that demand soared during the pandemic.
Janet Stevenson, the owner of the doll company, said: “We have lots of products in stock, but we can’t work fast enough to keep up with demand.”
“We are hiring as quickly as we can and have created several new roles in fulfilment management and customer support in both the US and Europe.”
Sex Doll Genie saw a 51.6% jump in orders from single men in February and March, with a 33.2% increase YoY from couples in April.
The co-founder of the company, who goes by the name Amit, told Daily Star, next-generation sexbots will soon be available to customers that include breathing and human-like heartbeat.
“For one of the brands we have now, it’s called AI AI-Tech, who have taken the next leap and have added some AI to it.
“There is one coming out by the end of this year where you can hear the heartbeat and hear them breathe.
“I haven’t seen them used on a person yet, they are still in production, but we are getting to the point where we can call them a sex robot, but technically they are sex dolls as well.
“I’m waiting for a way you can just plug in your Alexa or Siri into your doll, and your doll will just start talking to you.
“We already have that technology in our pockets, we just haven’t used them for a doll yet.
“These are just plans, nothing official yet, but we’re tinkering along with how we can put dolls in a mode where they can just talk to you, or flirt with you, all those romantic things you would expect your doll to do,” Amit said.
Stevenson said: “We are seeing the sex doll industry go through a revolution during the COVID-19 pandemic with a huge increase in orders from both couples and male and single females.”
“Couples who have been quarantined together seem to be much more open to trying something new after possibly experimenting more during the lockdown.
“We are also seeing more single men and women placing orders for the first time; we think this is because they view solo play as a safer alternative to dating apps like Tinder right now.
“What’s interesting about this massive increase in demand is that we are also seeing a changing demographic which is very positive for the sex doll industry and speaks to changing attitudes at home.
“The traditional stereotype of loners choosing sex dolls as a last resort is totally inaccurate.
“What we are seeing now is doll use is going mainstream with men and women both enthusiastic about bringing a doll into their bedroom,” he said.
As the sex doll revolution heats up, it comes at a troubling time when the number of children born in the US hits 35-year low.
We previously noted, Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog, who explained the “ongoing collapse in US population growth:”
“In 2019, US population growth fell to +1.55m or +0.5%…this was due to a trifecta of declining births, lower immigration, and higher deaths than anticipated. However, as with everything “2020”, all three trends are only intensifying to blow away 2019. Births are falling faster and further, deaths moving higher with Corona-virus and drug related overdoses, and immigration nearly non-existent. Thus, US population growth will likely dip to “just” 1 million or +0.3% this year. And while I anticipate (or think it feasible) that immigration could return to 2019 levels eventually, births will almost surely continue falling and deaths rising more than anticipated. The simple outcome of this is an ongoing collapse in US population growth which is far larger than in scope than the current Corona-virus pandemic.”
With people ditching Tinder and other popular dating apps for sex dolls, combine with millennials too broke to have children, now millions more as many were thrown into instant poverty via the economic crash, the most epic baby bust this country has ever seen could be underway. Maybe the Trump administration should start paying people to have sex, just give them more handouts via Cares Act.
- The Spin War: US Military Planners Advise Expanded Online Psychological Warfare Against China
The Spin War: US Military Planners Advise Expanded Online Psychological Warfare Against China
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 22:00Authored by Alan Macleod via MintPressNews.com,
Just three years ago, Americans had a neutral view of China (and nine years ago it was strongly favorable). Today, the same polls show that 66 percent of Americans dislike the country.
As the U.S. military turns its attention from the Middle East to conflict with Russia and China, American war planners are advising that the United States greatly expand its own online “psychological operations” against Beijing.
A new report from the Financial Times details how top brass in Washington are strategizing a new Cold War with China, describing it less as World War III and more as “kicking each other under the table.” Last week, General Richard Clarke, head of Special Operations Command, said that the “kill-capture missions” the military conducted in Afghanistan were inappropriate for this new conflict, and Special Operations must move towards cyber influence campaigns instead.
Military analyst David Maxwell, a former Special Ops soldier himself, advocated for a widespread culture war, which would include the Pentagon commissioning what he called “Taiwanese Tom Clancy” novels, intended to demonize China and demoralize its citizens, arguing that Washington should “weaponize” China’s one-child policy by bombarding Chinese people with stories of the wartime deaths of their only children, and therefore, their bloodline.
A not dissimilar tactic was used during the first Cold War against the Soviet Union, where the CIA sponsored a huge network of artists, writers and thinkers to promote liberal and social-democratic critiques of the U.S.S.R., unbeknownst to the public, and, sometimes, even the artists themselves.
Manufacturing consent
In the space of only a few months, the Trump administration has gone from praising China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to blaming them for the outbreak, even suggesting they pay reparations for their alleged negligence. Just three years ago, Americans had a neutral view of China (and nine years ago it was strongly favorable). Today, the same polls show that 66 percent of Americans dislike China, with only 26 percent holding a positive opinion of the country. Over four-in-five people essentially support a full-scale economic war with Beijing, something the president threatened to enact last week.
The corporate press is certainly doing their part as well, constantly framing China as an authoritarian threat to the United States, rather than a neutral force or even a potential ally, leading to a surge in anti-Chinese racist attacks at home.
Retooling for an intercontinental war
Although analysts have long warned that the United States gets its “ass handed to it” in hot war simulations with China or even Russia, it is not clear whether this is a sober assessment or a self-serving attempt to increase military spending. In 2002, the U.S. conducted a war game trial invasion of Iraq, where it was catastrophically defeated by Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, commanding Iraqi forces, leading to the whole experiment being nixed halfway through. Yet the subsequent invasion was carried out without massive loss of American lives.
The recently published Pentagon budget request for 2021 makes clear that the United States is retooling for a potential intercontinental war with China and/or Russia. It asks for $705 billion to “shift focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a greater emphasis on the types of weapons that could be used to confront nuclear giants like Russia and China,” noting that it requires “more advanced high-end weapon systems, which provide increased standoff, enhanced lethality and autonomous targeting for employment against near-peer threats in a more contested environment.” The military has recently received the first batch of low-yield nuclear warheads that experts agree blurs the line between conventional and nuclear conflict, making an all out example of the latter far more likely.
There has been no meaningful pushback from the Democrats. Indeed, Joe Biden’s team has suggested that the United States’ entire industrial policy should revolve around “competing with China” and that their “top priority” is dealing with the supposed threat Beijing poses. The former vice-president has also attacked Trump from the right on China, trying to present him as a tool of Beijing, bringing to mind how Clinton portrayed him in 2016 as a Kremlin asset. (Green Party presidential frontrunner Howie Hawkins has promised to cut the military budget by 75 percent and to unilaterally disarm).
Nevertheless, voices raising concern about a new arms race are few and far between. Veteran deproliferation activist Andrew Feinstein is one exception, saying:
“Our governments spend over 1.75 trillion dollars every year on wars, on weapons, on conflict…If we could deploy that sort of resource to address the coronavirus crisis that we’re currently living through, imagine what else we could be doing. Imagine how we could be fighting the climate crisis, how we could be addressing global poverty, inequality. Our priority should never be war; our priorities need to be public health, the environment, and human well being.”
However, if the government is going to launch a new psychological war against China, it is unlikely antiwar voices like Feinstein’s will feature much in the mainstream press.
- Billionaires In US Have Grown $434 Billion Richer During Pandemic
Billionaires In US Have Grown $434 Billion Richer During Pandemic
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 21:30While just under 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment since mid March, America’s billionaires are doing just fine – watching their fortunes soar a combined $434 billion during the same period, reports CNBC.
Leading the pack are Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortunes grew by $34.6 and $25 billion respectively, according to the Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality – based on Forbes data for America’s over 600 billionaires collected between March 18 and May 19.
Percentage-wise, Elon Musk’s wealth grew 48% to $36 billion, while Zuckerberg clocked in at 46%. Bezos’ wealth grew 31% to $147 billion. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, saw her wealth increase by roughly 33% to $48 billion. On average, American billionaires saw their net worth grow 15% during the two-month period from $2.948 trillion to $3.382 trillion.
Via inequality.org Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Buffett and Larry Ellison saw combined gains of $76 billion.
That said, looking at YTD paints a slightly different picture:
Because the study timeline captures the stock market bottom and quick rebound, it creates a slightly sunnier picture for billionaires than the full year. For the year, Buffett’s wealth has declined by $20 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, while Gates is down by $4.3 billion. For the year, Jeff Bezos has gained $35.5 billion while Zuckerberg is up by $9 billion. –CNBC
“The surge in billionaire wealth during a global pandemic underscores the grotesque nature of unequal sacrifice,” said Chuck Collins, director of the IPS Program on Inequality and co-author of the Billionaire Bonanza 2020 report. “While millions risk their lives and livelihoods as first responders and front line workers, these billionaires benefit from an economy and tax system that is wired to funnel wealth to the top.”
Still, the pandemic hasn’t been kind to other billionaires – whose yacht upgrades may need to wait. Those in travel and retail have taken a beating. Ralph Lauren saw his wealth drop by $100 million to $5.6 billion, while hotelier John Pritzker has seen a $34 million drop to $2.56 billion. We know, time to get a collection going.
- Flynn Judge Outsources High-Profile Lawyer To Explain Why He Won't Dismiss Case
Flynn Judge Outsources High-Profile Lawyer To Explain Why He Won’t Dismiss Case
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 21:00The Obama-appointed activist judge holding up the dismissal of the Michael Flynn case can’t be bothered – or simply doesn’t have the skillset required, to defend his decision not to grant the Justice Department’s request to drop the case.
In a reminder that the ‘swamp’ has many tentacles, the Post (tentacle-ception) a Saturday report in the Washington Post that District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has retained Beth Wilkinson to represent him after the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered him to explain what on God’s green earth he’s up to, after refusing to grant the DOJ’s request to drop the Flynn case in light of evidence revealing that the FBI obtained a guilty plea as part of a scheme to entrap the former Trump Director of National Intelligence.
Certainly an odd development. Theres no reason Sullivan can’t respond to appeals court order himself.
WapPo:
“A federal judge doesn’t typically hire private counsel to respond to an appeals court”Unsure if the appeals court will allow this.
Full story:https://t.co/70chy4CKsZ
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) May 23, 2020
According to the report, “The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is now examining the judge’s actions and the larger case against Flynn after lawyers for President Trump’s former national security adviser asked the court to force Sullivan to toss Flynn’s guilty plea.”
Wilkinson, known for her top-notch legal skills and get-results style, is expected to file a notice with the court in the coming week about representing the judge. She declined to comment when reached Friday evening. Sullivan also declined to comment through his office.
A federal judge doesn’t typically hire private counsel to respond to an appeals court, and yet so much about Flynn’s case has been a departure from the norm. A defendant doesn’t normally plead guilty under oath and then try to withdraw that admission, as Flynn did. The Justice Department almost never drops a case once it has essentially won a conviction, a signed guilty plea, as Attorney General William P. Barr ordered earlier this month. –Washington Post
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Wilkinson notably represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh amid accusations of sexual assault during his nomination, as well as a Clinton lawyer during the investigation into whether she mishandled classified information by using a home-brew server.
Apparently, Sullivan needs Wiklinson’s help to explain what he’s up to – and why he isn’t simply the deep state’s bitch.
That order from the court very specifically called for the judge himself to explain his reasons.
He’s hiring a lawyer to explain to the Court of Appeals why he won’t dismiss the case?
— Brian Cates //Flynn & Breitbart’s Army! (@drawandstrike) May 23, 2020
- Ukrainian MP Found Dead With Gunshot Wound To The Head
Ukrainian MP Found Dead With Gunshot Wound To The Head
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 20:30Ukrainian MP Valery Davydenko of the Dovira faction was found dead in his office bathroom with a gunshot wound to the head, according to a post by MP Ilya Kiva on his Facebook page and confirmed by local media.
“His body with a gunshot wound has just been found in the office of an MP Valeriy Davydenko. The circumstances are being investigated,” he wrote.
According to the Ukrainian Truth news agency, a weapon was found near the body.
“The body of MP Valeriy Davydenko was found in the toilet in his own office with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. An investigative police group is working at the scene,” said Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko, who added “Police and prosecutors will check all possible versions of the tragedy.”
Davydenko was a defendant in several corruption cases – including the theft of funds from the country’s Agriculture Fund. In February, 2014, Davydenko and Borys Prykhodko – another MP from the Dovira faction, were accused of embezzling US$75 million while Prykhodko was the First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Following Davydenko’s death, ex-People’s Deputy Ihor Mosiychuk called for the immediate arrest of Prykhodko, who he called the “accomplice in the theft of the agrarian fund.”
- Did Jack Dorsey Just Issue A 'Mea Culpa' To All Twitter-Banned "Conspiracy"-Peddlers?
Did Jack Dorsey Just Issue A ‘Mea Culpa’ To All Twitter-Banned “Conspiracy”-Peddlers?
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 20:00Did Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey just, sheepishly, issue a ‘mea culpa’ to all those innocent (mostly conservative) voices he has silenced in the last few years who dared to question the “Russia, Russia, Russia” narrative, the “Biden did nothing wrong” stories, the “Comey is an American hero” facts, and, of course, the “COVID started in a wet market” orgy of lies.
In a tweet, the outspoken provider of safe-spaces, retweeted an essay by Charles Eisenstein entitled “The Conspiracy Myth” which appears to go against everything Twitter has done.
So, we ask in all seriousness, why did Dorsey – who has shown himself, via his actions, to be an enemy of any non-establishment-sanctioned narrative with his suspension and banning of any tweets or twitter-ers that dare to offer alternate views – retweet an essay that raises doubts about the over-arching threat of “conspiracy theories” to snowflakes, promotes the idea of exploring all sides of an argument before dismissing it, and most ironically, rails against “information suppression” and centralized decisions based on someone’s “trustworthiness”?
Read the essay for yourself (emphasis ours):
The Conspiracy Myth
The other day I was amused to read a critique of The Coronation in which the author was absolutely certain that I am a closet conspiracy theorist. He was so persuasive that I myself almost believed it.
What is a conspiracy theory anyway? Sometimes the term is deployed against anyone who questions authority, dissents from dominant paradigms, or thinks that hidden interests influence our leading institutions. As such, it is a way to quash dissent and bully those trying to stand up to abuses of power. One needn’t abandon critical thinking to believe that powerful institutions sometimes collude, conspire, cover up, and are corrupt. If that is what is meant by a conspiracy theory, obviously some of those theories are true. Does anyone remember Enron? Iran-Contra? COINTELPRO? Vioxx? Iraqi weapons of mass destruction?
During the time of Covid-19, another level of conspiracy theory has risen to prominence that goes way beyond specific stories of collusion and corruption to posit conspiracy as a core explanatory principle for how the world works. Fuelled by the authoritarian response to the pandemic (justifiable or not, lockdown, quarantine, surveillance and tracking, censorship of misinformation, suspension of freedom of assembly and other civil liberties, and so on are indeed authoritarian), this arch-conspiracy theory holds that an evil, power-hungry cabal of insiders deliberately created the pandemic or is at least ruthlessly exploiting it to frighten the public into accepting a totalitarian world government under permanent medical martial law, a New World Order (NWO). Furthermore, this evil group, this illuminati, pulls the strings of all major governments, corporations, the United Nations, the WHO, the CDC, the media, the intelligence services, the banks, and the NGOs. In other words, they say, everything we are told is a lie, and the world is in the grip of evil.
So what do I think about that theory? I think it is a myth. And what is a myth? A myth is not the same thing as a fantasy or a delusion. Myths are vehicles of truth, and that truth needn’t be literal. The classical Greek myths, for example, seem like mere amusements until one decodes them by associating each god with psychosocial forces. In this way, myths bring light to the shadows and reveal what has been repressed. They take a truth about the psyche or society and form it into a story. The truth of a myth does not depend on whether it is objectively verifiable. That is one reason why, in The Coronation, I said my purpose is neither to advocate nor to debunk the conspiracy narrative, but rather to look at what it illuminates. It is, after all, neither provable nor falsifiable.
What is true about the conspiracy myth? Underneath its literalism, it conveys important information that we ignore at great peril.
First, it demonstrates the shocking extent of public alienation from institutions of authority. For all the political battles of the post-WWII era, there was at least a broad consensus on basic facts and on where facts could be found. The key institutions of knowledge production — science and journalism — enjoyed broad public trust. If the New York Times and CBS Evening News said that North Vietnam attacked the United States in the Gulf of Tonkin, most people believed it. If science said nuclear power and DDT were safe, most people believed that too. To some extent, that trust was well earned. Journalists sometimes defied the interests of the powerful, as with Seymour Hersh’s expose of the My Lai massacre, or Woodward & Bernstein’s reporting on Watergate. Science, in the vanguard of civilization’s onward march, had a reputation for the objective pursuit of knowledge in defiance of traditional religious authorities, as well as a reputation for lofty disdain for political and financial motives.
Today, the broad consensus trust in science and journalism is in tatters. I know several highly educated people who believe the earth is flat. By dismissing flat-earthers and the tens of millions of adherents to less extreme alternative narratives (historical, medical, political, and scientific) as ignorant, we are mistaking symptom for cause. Their loss of trust is a clear symptom of a loss of trustworthiness. Our institutions of knowledge production have betrayed public trust repeatedly, as have our political institutions. Now, many people won’t believe them even when they tell the truth. This must be frustrating to the scrupulous doctor, scientist, or public official. To them, the problem looks like a public gone mad, a rising tide of anti-scientific irrationality that is endangering public health. The solution, from that perspective, would be to combat ignorance. It is almost as if ignorance is a virus (in fact, I have heard that phrase before) that must be controlled through the same kind of quarantine (for example, censorship) that we apply to the coronavirus.
Ironically, another kind of ignorance pervades both these efforts: the ignorance of the terrain. What is the diseased tissue upon which the virus of ignorance gains purchase? The loss of trust in science, journalism, and government reflects their long corruption: their arrogance and elitism, their alliance with corporate interests, and their institutionalized suppression of dissent. The conspiracy myth embodies the realization of a profound disconnect between the public postures of our leaders and their true motivations and plans. It bespeaks a political culture that is opaque to the ordinary citizen, a world of secrecy, image, PR, spin, optics, talking points, perception management, narrative management, and information warfare. No wonder people suspect that there is another reality operating behind the curtains.
Second, the conspiracy myth gives narrative form to an authentic intuition that an inhuman power governs the world. What could that power be? The conspiracy myth locates that power in a group of malevolent human beings (who take commands, in some versions, from extraterrestrial or demonic entities). Therein lies a certain psychological comfort, because now there is someone to blame in a familiar us-versus-them narrative and victim-perpetrator-rescuer psychology. Alternatively, we could locate the “inhuman power” in systems or ideologies, not a group of conspirators. That is less psychologically rewarding, because we can no longer easily identify as good fighting evil; after all, we ourselves participate in these systems, which pervade our entire society. Systems like the debt-based money system, patriarchy, white supremacy, or capitalism cannot be removed by fighting their administrators. They create roles for evildoers to fill, but the evildoers are functionaries; puppets, not puppet masters. The basic intuition of conspiracy theories then is true: that those we think hold power are but puppets of the real power in the world.
A couple weeks ago I was on a call with a person who had a high position in the Obama administration and who still runs in elite circles. He said, “There is no one driving the bus.” I was a little disappointed actually, because there is indeed part of me that wishes the problem were a bunch of dastardly conspirators. Why? Because then our world’s problems would be quite easy to solve, at least in principle. Just expose and eliminate those bad guys. That is the prevailing Hollywood formula for righting the world’s wrongs: a heroic champion confronts and defeats the bad guy, and everyone lives happily ever after. Hmm, that is the same basic formula as blaming ill health on germs and killing them with the arsenal of medicine, so that we can live safe healthy lives ever after, or killing the terrorists and walling out the immigrants and locking up the criminals, all again so that we can live safe healthy lives ever after. Stamped from the same template, conspiracy theories tap into an unconscious orthodoxy. They emanate from the same mythic pantheon as the social ills they protest. We might call that pantheon Separation, and one of its chief motifs is the war against the Other.
That is not to say there is no such thing as a germ — or a conspiracy. Watergate, COINTELPRO, Iran-Contra, Merck’s drug Vioxx, Ford’s exploding Pinto coverup, Lockheed-Martin’s bribery campaign, Bayer’s knowing sale of HIV-contaminated blood, and the Enron scandal demonstrate that conspiracies involving powerful elites do happen. None of the above are myths though: a myth is something that explains the world; it is, mysteriously, bigger than itself. Thus, the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory (which I will confess, doubtless at cost to my credibility, to accepting as literally true) is a portal to the mythic realm.
The conspiracy myth I’m addressing here, though, is much larger than any of these specific examples: It is that the world as we know it is the result of a conspiracy, with the Illuminati or controllers as its evil gods. For believers, it becomes a totalizing discourse that casts every event into its terms.
It is a myth with an illustrious pedigree, going back at least to the time of the first century Gnostics. Gnostics believe that an evil demiurge created the material world out of a preexisting divine essence. Creating the world in the image of his own distortion, he imagines himself to be its true god and ruler.
One needn’t believe in this literally, nor believe literally in a world-controlling evil cabal, to derive insight from this myth — insight into the arrogance of the powerful, for example, or into the nature of the distortion that colors the world of our experience.
What is it that makes the vast majority of humanity comply with a system that drives Earth and humankind to ruin? What power has us in its grip? It isn’t just the conspiracy theorists who are captive to a mythology. Society at large is too. I call it the mythology of Separation: me separate from you, matter separate from spirit, human separate from nature. It holds us as discrete and separate selves in an objective universe of force and mass, atoms and void. Because we are (in this myth) separate from other people and from nature, we must dominate our competitors and master nature. Progress, therefore, consists in increasing our capacity to control the Other. The myth recounts human history as an ascent from one triumph to the next, from fire to domestication to industry to information technology, genetic engineering, and social science, promising a coming paradise of control. That same myth motivates the conquest and ruin of nature, organizing society to turn the entire planet into money — no conspiracy necessary.
The mythology of Separation is what generates what I named in The Coronation as a “civilizational tilt” toward control. The solution template is, facing any problem, to find something to control — to quarantine, to track, to imprison, to wall out, to dominate, or to kill. If control fails, more control will fix it. To achieve social and material paradise, control everything, track every movement, monitor every word, record every transaction. Then there can be no more crime, no more infection, no more disinformation. When the entire ruling class accepts this formula and this vision, they will act in natural concert to increase their control. It is all for the greater good. When the public accepts it too, they will not resist it. This is not a conspiracy, though it can certainly look like one. This is a third truth within the conspiracy myth. Events are indeed orchestrated in the direction of more and more control, only the orchestrating power is itself a zeitgeist, an ideology… a myth.
A Conspiracy with No Conspirators
Let us not dismiss the conspiracy myth as just a myth. Not only is it an important psychosocial diagnostic, but it reveals what is otherwise hard to see from the official mythology in which society’s main institutions, while flawed, are shepherding us ever-closer to a high tech paradise. That dominant myth blinds us to the data points the conspiracy theorists recruit for their narratives. These might include things like regulatory capture in the pharmaceutical industry, conflicts of interest within public health organizations, the dubious efficacy of masks, the far-lower-than-hyped death rates, totalitarian overreach, the questionable utility of lockdown, concerns about non-ionizing frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, the benefits of natural and holistic approaches to boosting immunity, bioterrain theory, the dangers of censorship in the name of “combatting disinformation,” and so forth. It would be nice if one could raise the numerous valid points and legitimate questions that alternative Covid narratives bring to light without being classed as a right-wing conspiracy theorist.
The whole phrase “right-wing conspiracy theorist” is a bit odd, since traditionally it is the Left that has been most alert to the proclivity of the powerful to abuse their power. Traditionally, it is the Left that is suspicious of corporate interests, that urges us to “question authority,” and that has in fact been the main victim of government infiltration and surveillance.
Fifty years ago, if anyone said, “There is a secret program called COINTELPRO that is spying on civil rights groups and sowing division within them with poison pen letters and fabricated rumors,” that would have been a conspiracy theory by today’s standards.
The same, 25 years ago, with, “There is a secret program in which the CIA facilitates narcotics sales into American inner cities and uses the money to fund right-wing paramilitaries in Central America.”
The same with government infiltration of environmental groups and peace activists starting in the 1980s.
Or more recently, the infiltration of the Standing Rock movement.
Or the real estate industry’s decades-long conspiracy to redline neighborhoods to keep black people out.
Given this history, why all of a sudden is it the Left urging everyone to trust “the Man” — to trust the pronouncements of the pharmaceutical companies and pharma-funded organizations like the CDC and WHO? Why is skepticism towards these institutions labeled “right wing”? It isn’t as if only the privileged are “inconvenienced” by lockdown. It is devastating the lives of tens or hundreds of millions of the global precariat. The UN World Food Program is warning that by the end of the year, 260 million people will face starvation. Most are black and brown people in Africa and South Asia. One might argue that to restrict the debate to epidemiological questions of mortality is itself a privileged stance that erases the suffering of those who are most marginalized to begin with.
“Conspiracy theory” has become a term of political invective, used to disparage any view that diverges from mainstream beliefs. Basically, any critique of dominant institutions can be smeared as conspiracy theory. There is actually a perverse truth in this smear. For example, if you believe that glyphosate is actually dangerous to human and ecological health, then you also must, if you are logical, believe that Bayer/Monsanto is suppressing or ignoring that information, and you must also believe that the government, media, and scientific establishment are to some extent complicit in that suppression. Otherwise, why are we not seeing NYT headlines like, “Monsanto whistleblower reveals dangers of glyphosate”?
Information suppression can happen without deliberate orchestration. Throughout history, hysterias, intellectual fads, and mass delusions have come and gone spontaneously. This is more mysterious than the easy conspiracy explanation admits. An unconscious coordination of action can look very much like a conspiracy, and the boundary between the two is blurry. Consider the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) fraud that served as a pretext for the invasion of Iraq. Maybe there were people in the Bush administration who knowingly used the phony “yellowcake” document to call for war; maybe they just wanted very much to believe the documents were genuine, or maybe they thought, “Well, this is questionable but Saddam must have WMD, and even if he doesn’t, he wants them, so the document is basically true…” People easily believe what serves their interests or fits their existing worldview.
In a similar vein, the media needed little encouragement to start beating the war drums. They knew what to do already, without having to receive instructions. I don’t think very many journalists actually believed the WMD lie. They pretended to believe, because subconsciously, they knew that was the establishment narrative. That was what would get them recognized as serious journalists. That’s what would give them access to power. That is what would allow them to keep their jobs and advance their careers. But most of all, they pretended to believe because everyone else was pretending to believe. It is hard to go against the zeitgeist.
The British scientist Rupert Sheldrake told me about a talk he gave to a group of scientists who were working on animal behaviour at a prestigious British University. He was talking about his research on dogs that know when their owners are coming home, and other telepathic phenomena in domestic animals. The talk was received with a kind of polite silence. But in the following tea break all six of the senior scientists who were present at the seminar came to him one by one, and when they were sure that no one else was listening told him they had had experiences of this kind with their own animals, or that they were convinced that telepathy is a real phenomenon, but that they could not talk to their colleagues about this because they were all so straight. When Sheldrake realised that all six had told him much the same thing, he said to them, “Why don’t you guys come out? You’d all have so much more fun!” He says that when he gives a talk at a scientific institution there are nearly always scientists who approach him afterwards telling him they’ve had personal experiences that convince them of the reality of psychic or spiritual phenomena but that they can’t discuss them with their colleagues for fear of being thought weird.
This is not a deliberate conspiracy to suppress psychic phenomena. Those six scientists didn’t convene beforehand and decide to suppress information they knew was real. They keep their opinions to themselves because of the norms of their subculture, the basic paradigms that delimit science, and the very real threat of damage to their careers. The persecution and calumny directed at Sheldrake himself demonstrates what happens to a scientist who is outspoken in his dissent from official scientific reality. So, we might still say that a conspiracy is afoot, but its perpetrator is a culture, a system, and a story.
Is this, or a deliberate conspiratorial agenda, a more satisfying explanation for the seemingly inexorable trends (which by no means began with Covid) toward surveillance, tracking, distancing, germ phobia, obsession with safety, and the digitization and indoor-ization of entertainment, recreation, and sociality? If the perpetrator is indeed a cultural mythology and system, then conspiracy theories offer us a false target, a distraction. The remedy cannot be to expose and take down those who have foisted these trends upon us. Of course, there are many bad actors in our world, remorseless people committing heinous acts. But have they created the system and the mythology of Separation, or do they merely take advantage of it? Certainly such people should be stopped, but if that is all we do, and leave unchanged the conditions that breed them, we will fight an endless war. Just as in bioterrain theory germs are symptoms and exploiters of diseased tissue, so also are conspiratorial cabals symptoms and exploiters of a diseased society: a society poisoned by the mentality of war, fear, separation, and control. This deep ideology, the myth of separation, is beyond anyone’s power to invent. The Illuminati, if they exist, are not its authors; it is more true to say that the mythology is their author. We do not create our myths; they create us.
Which side are you on?
In the end, I still haven’t said whether I think the New World Order conspiracy myth is true or not. Well actually yes I have. I have said it is true as a myth, regardless of its correspondence to verifiable facts. But what about the facts? Come on, Charles, tell us, is there actually a conspiracy behind the Covid thing, or isn’t there? There must be an objective fact of the matter. Are chemtrails a thing? Was SARS-COV2 genetically engineered? Is microwave radiation from cellphone towers a factor? Are vaccines introducing viruses from animal cell cultures into people? Is Bill Gates masterminding a power grab in the form of medical martial law? Does a Luciferian elite rule the world? True or false? Yes or no?
To this question I would respond with another: Given that I am not an expert on any of these matters, why do you want to know what I think? Could it be to place me on one side or another of an information war? Then you will know whether it is OK to enjoy this essay, share it, or have me on your podcast. In an us-versus-them war mentality, the most important thing is to know which side someone is on, lest you render aid and comfort to the enemy.
Aha — Charles must be on the other side. Because he has created a false equivalency between peer-reviewed, evidence-based, respectable scientific knowledge on the one hand, and unhinged conspiracy theories on the other.
Aha — Charles must be on the other side. Because he has created a false equivalency between corporate-government-NWO propaganda on the one hand, and brave whistle-blowers and dissidents risking their careers for the truth on the other.
Can you see how totalizing war mentality can be?
War mentality saturates our polarized society, which envisions progress as a consequence of victory — victory over a virus, over the ignorant, over the left, over the right, over the psychopathic elites, over Donald Trump, over white supremacy, over the liberal elites…. Each side uses the same formula, and that formula requires an enemy. So, obligingly, we divide ourselves up into us and them, exhausting 99% of our energies in a fruitless tug-of-war, never once suspecting that the true evil power might be the formula itself.
This is not to propose that we somehow banish conflict from human affairs. It is to question a mythology — embraced by both sides — that conceives every problem in conflict’s terms. Struggle and conflict have their place, but other plotlines are possible. There are other pathways to healing and to justice.
A Call for Humility
Have you ever noticed that events seem to organize themselves to validate the story you hold about the world? Selection bias and confirmation bias explain some of that, but I think something weirder is at work as well. When we enter into deep faith or deep paranoia, it seems as if that state attracts confirmatory events to it. Reality organizes itself to match our stories. In a sense, this IS a conspiracy, just not one perpetrated by humankind. That might be a third truth that the conspiracy myth harbors: the presence of an organizing intelligence behind the events of our lives.
In no way does this imply the New Age nostrum that beliefs create reality. Rather, it is that reality and belief construct each other, coevolving as a coherent whole. The intimate, mysterious connection between myth and reality means that belief is never actually a slave to fact. We are facts’ sovereign — which is not to say their creator. To be their sovereign doesn’t mean to be their tyrant, disrespecting and over-ruling them. The wise monarch pays attention to an unruly subject, such as a fact that defies the narrative. Maybe it is simply a disturbed trouble-maker, like a simple lie, but maybe it signals disharmony in the kingdom. Maybe the kingdom is no longer legitimate. Maybe the myth is no longer true. It could well be that the vociferous attacks on Covid dissent, using the “conspiracy theory” smear, signal the infirmity of the orthodox paradigms they seek to uphold.
If so, that doesn’t mean the orthodox paradigms are all wrong either. To leap from one certainty to another skips the holy ground of uncertainty, of not knowing, of humility, into which genuinely new information can come. What unites the pundits of all persuasions is their certainty. Who is trustworthy? In the end, it is the person with the humility to recognize when he or she has been wrong.
To those who categorically dismiss any information that seriously challenges conventional medicine, lockdown policies, vaccines, etc., I would ask, Do you need such high walls around your kingdom? Instead of banishing these unruly subjects, would it hurt to give them an audience?
Would it be so dangerous to perhaps tour another kingdom, guided not by your own loyal minister but by the most intelligent, welcoming partisans of the other side?
If you have no interest in spending the several hours it will take to absorb the following dissenting opinions, fine. I’d rather be in my garden too.
But if you are a partisan in these issues, what harm will it do to visit enemy territory? Normally partisans don’t do that. They rely on the reports of their own leaders about the enemy. If they know anything of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s or Judy Mikovitz’s views, it is through the lens of someone debunking them. So give a listen to Kennedy, or if you prefer MD’s only, to David Katz, Zach Bush, or Christiane Northrup…
I would like to offer the same invitation to those who reject the conventional view.
Find the most scrupulous mainstream doctors and scientists you can, and dive into their world. Take the attitude of a respectful guest, not a hostile spy. If you do that, I guarantee you will encounter data points that challenge any narrative you came in with. The splendor of conventional virology, the wonders of chemistry that generations of scientists have discovered, the intelligence and sincerity of most of these scientists, and the genuine altruism of health care workers on the front line who have no political or financial conflict of interest in the face of grave risk to themselves, must be part of any satisfactory narrative.
After two months of obsessively searching for one, I have not yet found a satisfactory narrative that can account for every data point. That doesn’t mean to take no action because after all, knowledge is never certain. But in the whirlwind of competing narratives and the disjoint mythologies beneath them, we can look for action that makes sense no matter which side is right. We can look for truths that the smoke and clamor of the battle obscures. We can question assumptions both sides take for granted, and ask questions neither side is asking. Not identified with either side, we can gather knowledge from both.
Generalizing to society, by bringing in all the voices, including the marginalized ones, we can build a broader social consensus and begin to heal the polarization that is rending and paralyzing our society.
* * *
Is this a new mission statement for Twitter 2.0 – allow adults to be adults, erase the nanny-statism, and offer the world a platform to exchange ideas freely?
- Elite US Marine Unit Conducts Live-Fire Drills In Persian Gulf "Message To Iran"
Elite US Marine Unit Conducts Live-Fire Drills In Persian Gulf “Message To Iran”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 19:30Days ago we took note of Secretary of State Pompeo’s somewhat rare epic ‘regime change tweet tirade’ which included no less than nine fiery statements coming in minutes aimed at ‘rogue regimes’ Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.
Though some pundits have noted the administration is looking for a “distraction” and way out of the nation’s corona-crisis, perhaps eager to claim an easy ‘victory’ prior to November on the foreign policy front, it does look as if things in both the Persian Gulf and even Caribbean (where 5 Iranian fuel tankers are inbound to deliver gasoline to Maduro’s Venezuela) are heating up and set for violent showdown.
Amid an exchange of heightening threats and counter-threats between Tehran and Washington, Fox News reports that an elite US Marine unit is conducting ongoing ‘live-fire’ drills in the Persian Gulf. This is a clear “message to Iran” reports Fox’s Lucas Tomlinson.
US Marines in live-fire drills in Persian Gulf, via FOX. “In a message to Iran, U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship does some target practice in Persian Gulf with the USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit,” Thomlinson writes, also publishing rare photos of the late night operation.
He further describes: “The live-fire training began on same day U.S. military warned Iran to keep back 100 meters from its warships after harassment by small gunboats from Islamic Revolutionary Guard last month.”
US Marines in live-fire drills in Persian Gulf, via FOX. Days ago, on May 19, the US Navy issued an alert which Reuters described as “aimed squarely at Iran”.
It warned that all ships in the gulf must stay at least 100 meters away from U.S. warships or risk being “interpreted as a threat and subject to lawful defensive measures.”
“Armed vessels approaching within 100 meters of a U.S. naval vessel may be interpreted as a threat,” the official maritime alert said.
Reuters noted further, “The Pentagon has stated that Trump’s threat was meant to underscore the Navy’s right to self-defense.”
This was after multiple filmed incidents involving Iranian naval ‘fast-boats’ in high-risk maneuvers near American ships, aimed at harassing the US presence.
Via Task & Purpose: “The US is using AC-130 gunships to blow targets out of the water in a clear message to Iran.” As we’ve underscored before, a number of indicators suggest we are in for another hot ‘tanker war’ summer in the Gulf, akin to last year’s tit-for-tat escalation.
But this time around the potential for a major conflict is even more likely, given the US killing of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January, which has significantly raised the stakes.
- Master Of Puppets: Bitcoin Cuts The Strings
Master Of Puppets: Bitcoin Cuts The Strings
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 19:00Authored by J.D.Salbego via CoinTelegraph.com,
The centralized financial system has compromised itself several times during the last two decades alone, and now it’s time for a serious change!
image courtesy of CoinTelegraph
Did you notice the song that Christian Bale’s character was jamming out to in his office when his partner came in to pull the money in The Big Short? Well, it happens to be my favorite metal band of all time: Metallica. And that song is called “Master of Puppets.” It’s almost ironic that as I was writing this article on the real truth behind what’s currently happening with the collapse of our financial and economic markets and calling it “Master of Puppets” — well, this movie scene popped in my mind.
Yes, The Big Short is about the big 2008 financial crisis caused mainly by none other than the United States Federal Reserve. Spoiler alert! This will be one of the last times you read about any type of “correlation” here in this article.
Master of Puppets is Metallica’s third album, released in 1986, and it is probably the greatest metal album of all time. I still listen to it almost weekly. It’s great for working out or getting pumped up before a business meeting.
Anyways, back to the master. The curtain has been removed and the truth revealed: money is created out of thin air, and the banks and Wall Street are bathing in it.
To be very clear, there was a major and historical financial crisis by orders of magnitude already about to explode, and the COVID-19 pandemic just brought the economy to its knees a tiny bit quicker.
At a crucial intersection of events in time that couldn’t have been more bluntly shoved in your face, 16 million people in the U.S. lost their jobs (and it’s almost 36.5 million now.) And like a drunk driver recklessly running a red light at an intersection, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had the highest gains since 1938. All while the Fed was printing 4 trillion U.S. dollars out of thin air.
Where’s the correlation? Whoever can find it will prove reincarnation exists, as they must be J. P. Morgan himself, reincarnated in the flesh — only 100 years even more crafty and conniving. And the government and the Federal Reserve say Bitcoin (BTC) is backed by thin air?
Our economy and the Federal Reserve is built on sticks (debt), and remember what happened to that little piggy that didn’t use bricks? Let’s hope the strings become severed from the puppet master and like a bungee cord slap back into its face with the inertia and momentum of more than 150 years of control, lies and manipulation.
The amount of truth that’s starting to become available and acknowledged by the general public about our governments and financial institutions is alarming, and hopefully this will be a stepping point into a new paradigm or, what I like to say, a “new world order.”
The Fed and the government’s economic strategy is just putting an already used Band-Aid (quantitative easing and debt monetization) on a gunshot wound. It’s not fixing the real problem. And for obvious reasons.
The U.S. has for years substantially spent trillions of dollars more than it brings in. To date, the debt owed by the federal government is over $25 trillion. Even more unfathomable to see, with some very complicated calculations, is that it’s looking like an estimated, or near, amount of $100 trillion will need to be printed (out of thin air), or what the Fed likes to call “increase the monetary base,” in order to bail out and keep institutions afloat.
This would then create the ripple effect of causing global economies to reach hyperinflation such as has been never seen before. That’s called a lose-lose (or no-win) situation caused by none other than our government, the banking system, Wall Street and their combined mismanagement of our economies.
Understanding economics and monetary policies can be complicated for many, even myself, but it’s not complicated enough where I will not speak up and just sit here as the blind sheep being led by the wolf in sheep’s clothing to my bitter end.
To clarify, as it’s important: Bitcoin will never be a replacement for a nation’s central bank currency or new digital currency that’s in development now. It’s more the digital gold of the 21st century and onward.
But most importantly, and much like the U.S. fighting for its freedom and control from an unfair controlling centralized system such as England, it was the first to step in thousands of years of oppression to launch a revolution.
Like Joan of Arc or Che Guevara, who became martyrs for the better of society, Bitcoin itself has taken the beating from its first inception — including being declared a national security issue — but it was so powerful in igniting a revolution that it withstood all the hardships and persecution that the governments and central banks cast upon it. So, what it serves to be is the Medal of Honor for this new paradigm shift of the people’s money, leading the future of money with a more transparent, fair and peer-to-peer monetary system.
The more we talk about this, the more people may eventually get it — I hope. The general public should really try to understand this. It’s all credits and debts and leveraged positions and margins.
Remember that incredible luncheon scene in The Wolf of Wall Street where Matthew McConaughey’s super Wall Street broker character educates a young and hungry rookie broker, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, breaking down how the real system works? Matthew McConaughey, with a straight face and twist of sarcasm, says, “Fugayzi, fugazi. It’s a wazzy, it’s a woozy. It’s fairy dust. It doesn’t exist. It’s never landed. It is no matter. It’s not on the elemental chart. It’s not f—— real.”
Just so you know: This system doesn’t just apply to brokering trades on the stock market. It applies to all the banking, monetary and financial systems around the world.
Fairy dust old money is just a hierarchically controlled propaganda belief system.
Blockchain-based new money is the P2P, fair and transparent people’s-money.
That’s exactly right. Thank you, Martin Scorsese and your screenwriters, for this brilliantly creative scene. Yet it’s fair to say that this part of the scene was definitely outshined by the more memorable “rookie numbers” part.
But as history has continuously proven to us, unfortunately, much of the population takes comfort in the machine (the “master”), no matter the consequences. As some say, “Ignorance is bliss.”
Maybe they were so caught up in the genius writing and humor from Scorsese and these two brilliant actors that they missed it. I know I almost fell out of my chair laughing.
So, as the banker artistically creates his leveraged position out of thin air, like abstract images flow out of the tip of Dali’s paintbrush — or Scorsese’s brain to film — I ask you: Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?
Finally, the cat is out of the bag, though unfortunately only hindsight is 20/20, and time will tell what changes actually occur after this mess. Hopefully it’s different this time.
As says the famous “possible quote” of Henry Ford (most people don’t know the real facts behind that quote) that was paraphrased by congressperson Charles Binderup on March 19, 1937, in the House of Representatives:
“It is perhaps well enough that the people of the nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Want to know how the banking system really works? Here it goes:
You don’t deposit cash at a bank. You actually just lend it to the bank, and when you go to draw on that account, you are just creating a transaction inputted on a digital ledger. You are not actually drawing out your original money. The banks then charge you fees to actually lend them money as well in the form of monthly account fees, overdraft fees and all the other small print fees that sneak in.
When the bank deposits money in your account in the form of a credit — for instance, if you buy a house — it’s not an actual credit, it’s really a debt that it repackages and calls a mortgage by leveraging its position and creating a profit margin for the services of lending you part of your own money back that you originally gave it, as well as all its other customers’ money. There is only one form of real money in this transaction, and that is the money that you originally gave the bank. It’s basically holding a lien over you and on your new house with the money you and its other customers let it borrow, which it turned around and let you borrow again and charged fees on it. All it did was “artistically” create a leveraged position and profit margin by creating a credit and debt out of thin air.
The stark reality is that there really is no money. This centralized system is just conjured up credit, debt and margin entries on a centralized ledger that’s agreed upon (consensus) by a centralized group of participants.
- Bankruptcy Tsunami Begins: Thousands Of Default Notices Are "Flying Out The Door"
Bankruptcy Tsunami Begins: Thousands Of Default Notices Are “Flying Out The Door”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 18:30Two weeks ago, when showing the uncanny correlation between defaults and the unemployment rates, we predicted that the number of Chapter 11 filings that is about to flood the US will be nothing short of biblical.
All that was missing was a catalyst… and according to Bloomberg that catalyst arrived in the past week or so, as retail landlords have been sending out thousands of default notices to tenants, who in turn have experienced a collapse in foot traffic, sales and cash flow due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and are simply unable to pay their debt obligations.
According to Bloomberg, restaurants, department stores, apparel merchants and specialty chains have been receiving notices from landlords – some of whom have gone as long as three months without receiving rent.
“The default letters from landlords are flying out the door,” said Andy Graiser, co-president of commercial real estate company, A&G Real Estate Partners. “It’s creating a real fear in the marketplace.”
Pressure from default notices and follow-up actions like locking up stores or terminating leases was cited in the bankruptcies of Modell’s Sporting Goods and Stage Stores Inc. Many chains stopped paying rent after the pandemic shuttered most U.S. stores, gambling that they could hold on to some cash before landlords demanded payment.
The stakes are enormous, and landlords are suffering, too. An estimated $7.4 billion in rent for April hasn’t been paid, or about 45% of what’s owed, according to a recent analysis by CoStar Group, which also found that just a quarter of of expected rent payments have been received by landlords.
“If the landlords don’t put a pause on their actions, you’re going to see more bankruptcies.”
The question then becomes who will bail out the landlords, and whether their creditors will be just as generous in accepting forbearance.
That said, receipt of a default notice don’t necessarily mean a retailers will get booted anytime soon, especially since there is nobody waiting in line for the real estate: some landlords are merely sending letters to preserve their legal rights while discussing the situation with tenants, and to assure their spot as a prepetition creditor once the default tsunami begins in earnest.
One such company, Simon Property Group Inc., says it’s in active negotiations with merchants at its malls, and has been taking their tenants’ financial status into account. “The bottom line is, we do have a contract and we do expect to get paid,” said CEO David Simon during the company’s May 11 earnings call.
“The landlords do have the legal contract,” said Green Street Advisors senior analyst, Vince Tibone. “However, from a practicality standpoint, a lot of these retailers are on the brink of bankruptcy and simply cannot pay right now.”
However, as noted above, landlords are of course still stuck with their own bills – including bank debts which they’re expected to pay. On Thursday we reported that US malls are in a crisis which started in January as vacancies hit a record high.
And earlier Friday we reported that US retailers have accounted for the bulk of defaults over the past two months, as they were forced to temporarily close stores in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Retailers Neiman Marcus Group, J.Crew and J.C. Penney have already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month in the United States. But the real bankruptcy wave was just waiting for the unspoken covid-related grace period to end, and for the default notices to start flying.
The letters began arriving in March and early April, “but the rate of such notices picked up materially in late April and early May,” Stage Stores said. Some landlords began locking the company out “and threatened to evict the debtors and dispose of the in-store inventory.” The company also said that “responding to and managing these default notices and related litigation outside of Chapter 11 would have been a monumentally difficult task.”
“It’s not like there’s a lot of investors out there looking to buy retailers in a Chapter 11,” said Grasier, adding “Landlords and retailers need to really come together and realize that this a shared pain.”
Some landlords get it, according to Tom Mullaney, managing director of restructuring at real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Retailers he represents are getting default letters that are understanding and sympathetic; other landlords strike a more combative tone.
What’s more interesting is the action, or lack of it, by the landlords afterward, Mullaney said. “In a lot of cases, the letters that are being sent aren’t being followed up on,” he said – the landlords are simply preserving their legal rights. Maybe they just don’t have the fund to retain lawyers?
Others, meanwhile, are just taking the law into their own hands: some property owners have run out of patience and have locked out Mullaney’s clients. “The environment is getting pretty testy and emotional on both sides of the table,” he said. “The only thing worse than being a retailer right now is being a retail landlord.”
- Questions Over Chinese Influence Emerge After Biden Charitable Organizations Refuse To Disclose Funding
Questions Over Chinese Influence Emerge After Biden Charitable Organizations Refuse To Disclose Funding
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 18:00Following his departure from the Obama administration in 2017, former Vice President Joe Biden established three charitable organizations; the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, and the Biden Cancer Initiative.
And as the Washington Free Beacon notes, many of Biden’s nonprofits have become landing spots for his former – and potentially future – White House aides.
The Penn Biden Center, which had a “soft opening” in March 2017 and officially opened its doors in February 2018, has served as a national security council-in-waiting for Biden, employing his top White House foreign policy advisers Colin Kahl, Michael Carpenter, and Jeffrey Prescott. –Free Beacon
Yet, when asked about their sources of funding, the Biden entities have been anything but transparent. For example, when the Free Beacon asked a Biden Center spokesman about its funding, they said it was “a question for my colleagues at main university.” Penn spokesman Stephen MacCarthy simply blew off multiple requests for comment, as did the Biden campaign.
The Biden Cancer initiative, which had $2.1 million in assets in 2018 before suspending operations last year, similarly declined to provide a list of donors.
And the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware has also refused requests for transparency by the Free Beacon.
What we do know, however, is that the University of Pennsylvania received a 300% increase in donations since the Biden Center’s soft opening – from $31 million in 2016 to $100 million last year, according to records from the Department of Education. The largest contributor? China – which contributed $61 million in gifts and contracts between March 2017 and the end of last year. In the preceding four years – before the Biden Center opened, Penn took in just $19 million from China.
The donations included a $502,750 “monetary gift” in October 2017 from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, a Chinese government agency that helps administer the regime’s “Thousand Talents Plan.” Federal prosecutors claim the program is linked to Chinese espionage operations at American universities and have prosecuted academics for hiding their involvement in it. Other contributors included China’s Zhejiang University, the China Merchants Bank, and the China Everbright Group, a state-owned investment group, according to federal records. –Free Beacon
Is this why Joe Biden has been soft on China?
Or was Biden downplaying China due to the $1.5 billion private equity deal his son Hunter inked in 2013, weeks after the two Bidens flew to China on Air Force Two?
Back to the lecture at hand, many of the Chinese contributions to the University of Pennsylvania were listed as coming from “anonymous” donors – which experts have called an “easy tactic” which allows the Chinese to penetrate the US education system.
“Anonymous giving to universities is an easy tactic the Chinese Communist Party can use to further its pernicious influence in American universities,” said Indo-Pacific studies fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, Michael Sobolik.
Between March 2017 and the end of 2019, Penn received $21 million from China spread across 23 anonymous gifts. In the preceding four years, the university had just five donations from China totaling under $5 million.
“Policymakers should investigate this vulnerability further and take necessary steps to close the loophole,” said Sobolik. “If universities and professors are lax in their reporting, the Department of Education, and when appropriate the Department of Justice, should hold them accountable.”
Government watchdog group, The National Legal and Policy Center, filed a complaint with the Department of Education on Wednesday requesting an investigation into Penn’s anonymous Chinese funding, according to the Beacon, which received a copy.
“Joe Biden’s affiliation with the Penn Biden Center further raises concerns of foreign influence not unlike those raised when the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars in donations while Hillary Clinton was running for president,” reads the complaint, which asks the DoE to “refer the matter to the Department of Justice for civil enforcement in federal court, and seek recoupment of all costs to the U.S. government for investigating and enforcing the reporting and disclosure laws of China monetary gifts and contracts.”
The anonymous contributions could also run afoul of federal law that requires universities to disclose the source of any foreign donation or contract over $250,000, according to the NLPC.
“The reporting and disclosure violations of gifts from China to U of Penn and its Penn Biden Center are both numerous and flagrant,” said Paul Kamenar, counsel for NLPC. “The Department of Justice should take swift enforcement action in federal court and recoup all costs getting them to comply with the law.”
The NLPC said in its letter the University of Pennsylvania and the Penn Biden Center were “particularly vulnerable to China government influences due to the large amounts of China donations and contracts” at the school.
Penn’s investment in the Penn Biden Center has been significant: a luxe D.C. office directly across from the U.S. Capitol Building in addition to employment for Biden’s longtime foreign policy aides; highly promoted conferences featuring Biden conversing with foreign leaders; and a total of $900,000 in payments to the former vice president, according to his tax records. –Free Beacon
The website for the Biden Center – which is part of the University of Pennsylvania’s “Penn Global” department – features photos of Biden meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping and other world leaders. It handles the university’s foreign research and outreach programs, which have become increasingly focused on China in recent years, according to the report.
According to the Penn Global website, the university has “over 20 international partnerships with Chinese institutions” and has conducted “over 350 research projects and instructional activities in China.”
In 2015, a $10 million research-matching funding program was launched. The China Research and Engagement fund was designed to fund Penn medical research in China – which has included studies to improve the country’s pork production – as well as aeronautical engineering projects to help China reach its national aviation goals.
You don’t say?
- Silicon Valley Tech Giants Caught Providing Services To Blacklisted Chinese Security Firms
Silicon Valley Tech Giants Caught Providing Services To Blacklisted Chinese Security Firms
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 17:30Remember when ex-Google Chairman Eric Schmidt appeared on CNBC earlier this month for an interview with Andrew Ross “the Sork” Sorkin – an interview that swiftly devolved in Schmidt chiding the Trump Administration for its impudence while defending the longstanding ties between the Chinese Communist Party leadership and Silicon Valley’s elite and warning about the purportedly extraordinarily high costs of ‘economic decoupling’.
Because the downside about decoupling, Schmidt said, is that if China turns elsewhere for ag products and other products, “they’re not coming back” (this as China continues the charade of upholding the trade deal because President Xi needs an excuse to buy US agricultural products without looking weak)
The former Google chairman’s comments on China begin around the 13-minute mark.
In a report that reads like an Intel community plant, largely since it dropped just hours after the US announced plans to add 30+ Chinese firms to a blacklist over their involvement with China’s state security apparatus, CNBC claimed early Saturday morning that Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon have all been caught providing tech services to several companies that were added to a US blacklist last year by President Trump over allegations that they helped Beijing build the security apparatus use to imprison 1 million Muslims in Xinjiang.
Top10VPN, a site that reviews virtual private network (VPN) services and researches topics on privacy, said in a report that it had identified U.S. technology giants that provide “essential web services that power these companies’ websites.”
CNBC reached out to the U.S. firms named in the report as providing such services to the blacklisted Chinese surveillance companies. None were immediately available for comment.
In October, some of China’s most valuable surveillance artificial intelligence firms were put on the U.S. Entity List, a move designed to restrict their access to American technology. That is the same blacklist that Huawei sits on.
Washington alleged that “these entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups” in China’s Xinjiang region.
The territory has made headlines for its detention and “re-education” camps that reportedly hold an estimated 1.5 million Muslims, many of them for violating what Amnesty International describes as a “highly restrictive and discriminatory” law that China says is designed to combat extremism.
Even more bizarre, the US companies provided mostly basic services like website and email hosting, raising questions about why these Chinese firms even needed these American partners in the first place.
According to Top10VPN, some of the services provided by U.S. tech firms include hosting the surveillance firms’ website and emails to authentication methods.
The head of research at the cybersecurity firm that leaked the report to CNBC said that by providing these “essential” services, the US firms helped their Chinese customers develop “highly invasive surveillance products”…kind of like most free-to-use products released by Google and Facebook?
“Through providing essential web services to these controversial companies, U.S. firms are playing a part in the proliferation of highly invasive surveillance products that have the potential to undermine human rights around the world,” Simon Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN, said in the report.
Aside from the big names mentioned above, a number of other smaller US firms were named. Top10VPN said it compiled its report via a combination of techniques including analyzing traffic between certain sites for these Chinese companies.
Top10VPN said it identified that U.S. firms were involved using a combination of public tools, examining source code of websites and analyzing traffic to those sites.
The company alleged that Amazon and Google are providing web services for Dahua Technology and Hikvision, two Chinese blacklisted companies. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s services are reportedly being used by SenseTime and Megvii, two of China’s most valuable artificial intelligence start-ups.
A number of other U.S. technology companies were named, including website authentication and encryption companies Digicert, Lets Encrypt, Entrust and GeoTrust. Domain name hosting firm GoDaddy was on the list as well as cybersecurity company Symantec, which is now known as NortonLifeLock. Stackpath, which works on the delivery of internet content, was also named.
Twitter and Facebook were also named as providing content delivery network services to Hikvision.
CNBC has reached out to all the American firms that were named to request for comment on the report. Symantec declined to comment, and CNBC did not hear back from the rest of the companies.
China’s surveillance firms have been caught up in the tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The administration of President Donald Trump has carried out a campaign against Chinese firms, with Huawei being the most high profile target, that aims to cut off their access to American technology.
But Top10VPN’s Migliano claimed the company’s report shows a relationship still remains between the U.S. and China’s firms.
“Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to decouple the American and Chinese technology sectors, the continued presence of American companies in more discreet settings shows that cooperation between the two remains,” Migliano said.
This is just one more thing to keep in mind next time you see an executive from a big tech firm criticizing President Trump while defending China and the WHO.
- The Economic "Reopening" Is A Fake Out
The Economic “Reopening” Is A Fake Out
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 17:00Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
How does one define an economic “reopening”? I think most people would say that a reopening means that everything goes back to the way it was before the crisis; or at least as close as possible. Most people would also say that a reopening is something that will last. Simply declaring “America has reopened” while keeping many restrictions in place in certain parts of the country is a bit of a farce. And, reopening with the intention of implementing lockdowns again in a matter of weeks without explaining the situation to the public is a scam of the highest order.
For example, states like New York, California, Illinois and New Jersey have extended their lockdowns; with LA’s extension remaining ambiguous after they initially declared restrictions for another 3 months. New York’s lockdown is extended to the end of May (so far). This is the case in many US states and cities, while rural areas are mostly open. This is being called a “partial reopening”, but is there a purpose behind the uneven approach?
As I predicted in my article ‘Pandemic And Economic Collapse: The Next 60 Days’, the restrictions will continue in major US population centers while rural areas have mostly opened with much fanfare. The end result of this will be a flood of city dwellers into rural towns looking for relief from more strict lockdown conditions. In about a month, we should expect new viral clusters in places where there was limited transmission. I suggest that before the 4th of July holiday, state governments and the Federal government will be talking about new lockdowns, using the predictable infection spike as an excuse.
This is happening in Northeast China right now – another resurgence has occurred and 100 million people are now subject to quarantine restrictions. China’s reopening is barely two weeks old, and concerns of infection “flare ups” were widespread when the announcement was made. Now the mainstream media seems to be confused; is China open, or locked down? Of course, we may never know how bad the problem is and was in China as their numbers have been shown to be utterly rigged and suppressed from the beginning, but the point is that the phrase “reopening” is meaningless there, just as it will be meaningless here in the US.
This is part of the plan. The farce of reopenings does indeed have a purpose. I discuss this in great detail in my article ‘Waves Of Mutilation: Medical Tyranny And The Cashless Society’ published in April. The globalists are clearly the only beneficiaries of this event; with a world-wide surveillance state now openly on the table along with an accelerated shift into digital currency systems, the globalists are either taking advantage of this crisis to push their agenda, or they ENGINEERED the virus and caused the crisis to push their agenda.
In white papers published by globalists at the Imperial College of London as well as MIT, the plan is openly admitted. They suggest using “waves” of economic openings and then lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. The timelines seem to vary, but in general the models call for a one month open, two months closed cycle. The goal is to deliberately increase infections every couple of months in specific regions of a country, then declare economic shutdown and quarantine measures once the spread reaches a certain level; this is meant to continue until a vaccine is developed, which could take years.
When the globalists at MIT say “We are not going back to normal”; this is what they mean. Right now, the general public (at least in some parts of the country) is cheering the reopenings, but what they don’t realize is that the reopenings are an illusion. Restrictions are going to remain in place in many states and cities, while they will be lifted and then re-instituted in others. In fact the situation is going to become much worse over time, by design.
The next lockdown, whenever it is announced, will be absolutely devastating to the US economy which is already in a downward spiral. The mitigating factors will be how effective central bank stimulus is at stalling the freefall (not very effective so far). Other factors include the percentage of small businesses that survive the first lockdown and how many jobs those businesses can bring back to the economy. The first lockdown may be survivable for a large percentage of Americans and businesses; the second lockdown will financially destroy all but the most prepared. And make no mistake, there WILL be many more lockdowns over the next couple years.
In the meantime, international banks like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan have seen to it that small businesses are hit hard by the crisis by funneling bailout money and paycheck loans to their larger clients over the smaller businesses that the money was intended to go to. Of the 300,000 clients of JP Morgan that applied for an emergency loan through the government bailout program, only 18,000 actually received one and many of these clients were NOT small businesses.
If the cycle of lockdowns continues, small businesses will be wiped off the map. The elites have rigged the economic game; they control where every dollar of the bailout money goes, and many of their corporations are the only institutions that are equipped to survive the onslaught. Some of these companies will go down, but in the long run the goal, in my view, is total centralization of production and distribution.
This is exactly what happened during the Great Depression when JP Morgan and other major banks devoured thousands of small local banks across the country and removed them as competitors from the system. After the depression, banking was completely centralized into the hands of a select few mega-companies. Today, they are attempting to erase all localized small business competition to international corporations.
Taking over the business infrastructure of entire nations and removing all independent competition is only one incentive for the lockdowns to continue. There is also the process of acclimating the public to the idea that lockdowns are the “new normal”. While I do see resistance in certain parts of the world, including the US, many countries in Asia and Europe have witnessed a rather sheepish response to the idea of medical tyranny. I also see an immense wildfire of unconstitutional legislation and illegal state measures being rolled out in the US while the public is distracted by financial circumstances and the virus threat.
Certainly, it appears that most Americans hate the lockdowns. But will they be fooled by the “reopening” into complacency for the next several weeks while the government gets ready to hit them with the next round of restrictions? Will they be so caught off guard they won’t know how to react? Imagine the economic devastation of just one more nationwide lockdown event? It will be carnage, and a lot of hope within the population will be lost.
This will lead to two possible paths: Submission, or rebellion. Either the majority of the American people will accept the lockdowns as a new fact of everyday life, or they will become so enraged by the destruction of their economy that they will revolt.
If the intent is to keep the cycle going until a vaccine is introduced as elitist publications assert, then we have a LONG way to go and this first lockdown was child’s play compared to what comes next.
The excuse for the wave model will be that they need to control and slow the spread of infection over time to avoid overwhelming our medical infrastructure. But this makes very little sense to me at this stage. Perhaps within the first month or two of the pandemic this was somewhat logical, so that we could gauge the threat of the virus. What we know right now is that the virus is at least three times more deadly that the average annual flu; which is something to be concerned about, but not something we should be destroying our economy over.
Frankly, there’s no logic to the wave model unless the agenda is to destroy the economy. If the goal is to continue infecting the population until everyone has developed an immunity or a vaccine is offered, then why not simply remove all the lockdowns permanently and get it over with now? This would result in far less deaths in the long run compared to economic collapse. If the goal is so-called “herd immunity”, then we can achieve that much faster through viral transmission than waiting years for a vaccine that may or may not work.
But the elites don’t care about “herd immunity”; what they care about is is control. The vaccine narrative itself is a form of control. You have to wait for the establishment to save you. You have to wait for them to allow the economy to be opened, even for a short period of time, so that you can then be allowed to work or run your business. You have to wait for permission to live your normal life. And, if the elites get their way, you won’t be given permission until you accept immunity passports, tracking apps and a vaccine.
I will be covering the vaccine issue in a future article, but the underlying message that the public is hearing daily is that you no longer have the power to make decisions for yourself, you must wait for instructions. While the coronavirus is something that should be taken seriously (to a point), the wave model is not an acceptable solution to the problem.
And while many conservatives are looking to Trump to obstruct lockdowns in the future, I would recommend they not hold their breath. Trump has flip-flopped many times on these issues, including his position on whether or not lockdowns should be left to the states. With a cabinet overflowing with globalists and banking elites, I would not put much hope in intervention from the White House.
Do not be fooled by the reopening. It is not real because it is not meant to last. It is a steam valve to calm public outrage and to condition us to periodic tyranny. The elites believe that we will eventually acclimate to lockdowns as long as we have a reopening to look forward to a couple months down the road. They believe that our tendency to rebel will be suppressed by false hopes that the next reopening will be a permanent reopening. They believe that after 18 months or more of the wave model we will be so desperate for normalcy that we will do anything to get it, including willingly giving up every last ounce of freedom we have left. This is the true purpose of the pandemic.
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- Tracking The Recovery: What Real-Time Data Says About The State Of The Global Economy
Tracking The Recovery: What Real-Time Data Says About The State Of The Global Economy
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 16:32Where we are in a nutshell: in the past 8 weeks there has been a 38 million rise in US unemployment coupled with a $10 trillion forecast loss in global GDP through 2021; this however has been offset by $4 trillion of asset purchases by central banks resulting in a $15 trillion surge in global equity market cap.
But now that with every passing day more of the global economy is reopening as the coronavirus crisis fades away (at least until a second wave emerges), what investors and ordinary people care about is not where we are but where we are going. To answer that question, here is an detailed overview of the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy through various real-time, high frequency data compiled by JPM as it appears right now, weeks if not months before it makes it into official “adjusted” economic reports.
First, a snapshot of COVID-19 infection count and regional spread:
The latest data on-ground mobility data suggests that there is a long way before normal.
While air traffic is dismal, here too there a slight rebound in mostly non-commercial flights; commercial air traffic remains a disaster, however.
While credit card spending has seen a modest rebound, and consumer activity is clearly starting to recover, restaurant bookings in the US remains dismal.
Some more snapshots of consumer activity looking at retail traffic, footfalls and deliveries.
While hotel, box office and transportation use remains dismal, supermarkets are going strong. Unfortunately for those who believe Facebook that ad spending has normalized, they are in for a shock.
The labor market, unfortunately, remains an unmitigated disaster:
Both industrial and manufacturing activity in the US has been crippled, but it is starting to rebound.
So how about China, after all it’s supposedly all “fixed” now. Unfortunately, the real-time data paints a vastly different picture.
While coal consumption has recovered, power use in the epicenter of Hubei province, remains roughly half of normal.
In Europe, it’s – as usual – a tale of two halves: the northern nations where things are largely normal, and the Mediterranean states where the pain is largely concentrated.
Finally, some mobility charts, first in the UK…
… and then Europe.
- Portuguese Enjoy "First State-Sanctioned Beach Day" Since COVID-19 Outbreak Started: Live Updates
Portuguese Enjoy “First State-Sanctioned Beach Day” Since COVID-19 Outbreak Started: Live Updates
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 16:28Summary:
- Beaches reopen in Portugal as lockdown slowly eased
- Kuwait raises fine for not wearing facemask to 16k
- WaPo cites study claiming 24 states at risk for ‘second wave’
- Italy ways reopening different regions at different speeds
- Many more young people dying in Brazil, developing world vs. US
- PM Johnson pressured to fire top advisor for ‘violating’ quarantine rules
- Japan to completely lift state of emergency nationwide on Monday
- Cali court upholds state order to close churches
- Brazil, Russia in No.2, No.3 spots after US
- Russia case total tops 335k
- New York reports fewer than 100 deaths for 1st time since March
- Long Island might reopen as soon as Wednesday
- Nearly 9% of prisoners in Michigan test positive
* * *
Update (1415ET): While millions of Americans spend MDW trapped inside, the Portuguese are enjoying their first weekend back at the beach.
Reuters reports that families and friends flocked to the country’s beaches with surfboards and picnic baskets in tow on Saturday for the first “officially state sanctioned beach weekend” of the year.
Portugal, with its 10 million pop., reported just 30,500 cases, and 1,300 deaths. In both cases, it’s outbreak wasn’t nearly as devastating as neighboring Spain.
Portugal’s state of emergency began on March 18, and after six weeks, the government started lifting restrictions in 15-day intervals earlier this month.
Beachgoers interviewed by Reuters claimed that “most [people] are behaving” though, of course, they managed to find someone who went on the record with their worries about the possibility of the lockdown being reimposed in June.
“It’s so great to see the sea and get some sun after two months,” said Catarina, who arrived to Carcavelos Beach, half an hour from Lisbon, at 9 a.m. with her husband and daughter.
But despite her relief, Catarina wasn’t sure this newfound freedom could last long.
“Most are behaving … but there are a lot of groups, and that’s what causes contagion, isn’t it? I don’t know, by next month I think we’ll all be back in our homes,” she said.
The government, for its part, has promised to continue with the reopening so long as the numbers keep falling. So far, instances where lockdowns have been reimposed are rare – but it has happened.
* * *
Update (1300ET): As the outbreak in Iran wanes, Gulf States, including tiny Kuwait, are having a surprisingly hard time keeping the virus from spreading, despite strict curfews and mandatory mask laws. On Saturday, Kuwait recorded 900 new cases of the novel coronavirus, raising the country’s infection tally to 20,464, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported. The Health Ministry also announced 10 more deaths from COVID-19, raising Kuwait’s death toll to 148. Meanwhile, not wearing a facemask is punishable by jail, or a fine up to $16k.
Meanwhile as the number of new cases in Italy ticked higher, the government is weighing whether the next phase in Italy’s relaxation of emergency measures may proceed at different speeds in various zones, with some northern areas temporarily excluded from a reopening.
* * *
We begin what looks to be a dreary Memorial Day Weekend with a new study amplified by the Washington Post claiming that roughly half of US states actually remain at risk for a serious rebound, as critics seize on the jump in new cases seen in Texas as justification that the state re-opened too early, even as the measures remain broadly popular within the state.
Georgia, too, has largely avoided the disastrous consequences promised by Dr. Fauci and many of the doctors and scientists regularly appearing as ‘independent analysts’ on MSNBC and CNN (while the doctors and scientists on Fox News largely praised what has turned out to be a winning political gamble by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
A new model produced by researchers at Imperial College London estimated that the “R” figure – an estimate of the rate at which the virus is spreading in a given county or state – is above 1 (meaning the virus is still expanding) in 24 states. As some might remember, Imperial College’s models have already been proven to be flawed (not just incorrect, but critics have taken issue with certain parameters they argued were unrealistic).
Even WaPo acknowledges that the risk of a second wave of infections projected by the model fails to factor in social distancing, the wearing of masks, and other factors that might impact the spread of the virus. As Nicolas Kristof said earlier this week, “epidemiology is full of puzzles”.
In New York, Gov Cuomo announced during Saturday’s press briefing…
Holding a briefing with updates on #Coronavirus. Watch Live: https://t.co/6om3Qm8ZCA
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 23, 2020
…that for the first time since March, his state has reported fewer than 100 virus-linked deaths, with 84 confirmed over the last 24 hours. That’s compared with 109 yesterday, as hospitalizations and ICU admissions also continued to decline.
“It’s a sign we’re making real progress and I feel good about that,” Mr Cuomo said, adding that earlier in the crisis a doctor had told him “if you can get under 100, I think you can breathe a sigh of relief.”
Cuomo said during the briefing that Long Island – ie Suffolk and Nassau Counties – could start reopening as soon as Wednesday as he pleaded with more younger people to get tested.
Over in the UK, where lockdowns have been much more strictly enforced than in the US, PM Boris Johnson is facing pressure to fire one of his most trusted advisors, Dominic Cummings, after Cummings purportedly violated the lockdown rules (according to reports in the famously pugnacious British tabloid press) to visit his parents. Cummings insists that he acted “reasonably” and didn’t violate the rules.
With Japan’s state of emergency nearing its end as the number of new coronavirus cases dwindles to mere dozens per day, scientists are wondering how PM Shinzo Abe managed to reap so much success with so littler effort. After imposing the order months after the rest of the US, Europe and China, Japan’s “State of Emergency” was always fairly lax since the constitution can’t prohibit businesses from operating or Japanese people from leaving their homes.
According to Japanese media reports, Abe is planning to lift the last remnants of his state of emergency order, which mostly affected the country’s worst-hit areas like Tokyo and nearby prefectures, as well as Hokkaido.
Per the Japan Times:
After observing the situation over the weekend and hearing opinions from health experts, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will formally decide what to do with the emergency for Tokyo and Hokkaido, as well as Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures, the last remaining areas under the measure among the country’s 47 prefectures, officials said Friday.
As a reminder, here’s how Japan’s approach compared with the US and Europe:
No restrictions were placed on residents’ movements, and businesses from restaurants to hairdressers stayed open. And even as nations were exhorted to “test, test, test,” Japan has tested just 0.2% of its population — one of the lowest rates among developed countries. Yet the curve has been flattened, with deaths well below 1,000, by far the fewest among the G7 nations. While the possibility of a more severe second wave is ever-present, Japan is set to leave its emergency in just weeks, and likely to exit completely as early as Monday.
As Japan prepares to exit its state of emergency and shift its focus to reviving its moribund economy and preparing for next year;s “2020 Games”, China reportedly confirmed zero new coronavirus cases for the entire mainland yesterday, according to data released Saturday morning in Beijing. This is the first time the country hasn’t reported a single new case – foreign or domestically infected – since the beginning of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, officials in Wuhan told Reuters that the CCP had conducted 1.5 million coronavirus tests on Friday, a staggering number, putting the city well on its way to testing all 11 million residents over an outbreak that local officials insist involved just 6 cases.
As we noted yesterday, Brazil is now home to the second-largest outbreak besides the US, though, given the lax containment measures applied across the country and the fact that testing is only just ramping up, many suspect that the real total probably is far higher than that of the US.
In the latest sign of just how devastating the outbreak has become in Brazil, where health-care resources are being increasingly stretched, and in some areas – particularly in Amazonas, where reports of mass graves and corpses languishing in homes and on sidewalks have made their way into the western press, just like the stories of the dead bodies littering the streets in parts of Ecuador.
After surpassing Russia yesterday, Brazil and Russia now hold the No. 2 and No. 3 spots for most confirmed cases:
One indication of just how widespread the virus has already become in Brazil is the surprising number of young, healthy people who are experiencing severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, and often resulting in death. The rates of healthy young people succumbing to the virus are much higher in the developing world, where access to potentially life-saving care is more limited, as WaPo reported
In Brazil, 15% of #covid deaths have been people under 50 -a rate more than 10x greater than in Italy or Spain. In Mexico, nearly 25% of the dead have been between 25 & 49. In India, officials reported this month that nearly half of the dead were <than 60. https://t.co/48lJM6rL5y
— Athalia Christie (@AthaliaChristie) May 23, 2020
Circling back to the US, as President Trump called for all states to immediately allow the resumption of church services, a federal appeals court on Friday declined to lift California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s temporary restrictions on in-person church services during the coronavirus pandemic, with the court ruling they did not selectively target religious activities. We suspect a more conservative federal judge will reverse this ruling somewhere along the line.
As we pointed out earlier this week, thanks to Brazil, the US is no longer the biggest contributor to the number of new cases reported each day.
Source: CNBC
As we also reported yesterday, Dr. Birx said the Washington DC metro area has the highest rate of infected people in the country, the latest example of how the coronavirus can be confusing. Washington DC and the surrounding area have imposed some of the tightest and longest restrictions in the entire country, yet the rate remains the highest, much lower than the rate in Georgia, which has aggressively reopened.
District of Columbia (including northern #Virginia and two #Maryland counties) is the top metro area hot spot, according to Dr. Birx. Also concerned about Chicago.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 22, 2020
“A dramatic decline across the states” in percent positive per state, says Dr. Birx. #CoronavirusUSA pic.twitter.com/qTWnkLepxc
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 22, 2020
The coach of Georgetown men’s basketball team, Patrick Ewing, has tested positive for the virus, the schools said.
Finally, in Michigan, nearly 9% of prisoners in the state DoC system have tested positive for the virus already, with thousands of tests waiting to process.
- Trump: "I Have A Chance To Break The Deep State"
Trump: “I Have A Chance To Break The Deep State”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 16:10In an exclusive interview set to air Sunday, President Trump tells Sharyl Attkisson that he believes he is making inroads in draining the Washington swamp.
“If it keeps going the way it’s going, I have a chance to break the deep state. It’s a vicious group of people.”
– President Trump on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson”
Also in the interview:
-
The president calls churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions “essential services” and says they must be allowed to open
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Sharyl asks if someone review his tweets before he sends them out
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Trump weighs in on the biggest strength and weakness of Joe Biden
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He talks about the latest allegations about FBI misconduct and spying on his campaign
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Sharyl ask about mixed messages the government is sending on the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine
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She also asks President Trump how he can press to investigate allegation about Biden and Ukraine— without appearing to be doing the same thing Democrats did to him in 2016.
-
- Heat Wave To Hit California As Power Prices Set To Soar
Heat Wave To Hit California As Power Prices Set To Soar
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/23/2020 – 15:45Southern California is descending into an inferno once more, the third one of the year, with elevated temperatures through the end of next week, reported LA Times.
Eric Boldt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS), said temperatures along the coast are expected to be in the mid-70s for much of the weekend. He said the mercury will jump significantly on Monday, some areas could see triple-digit highs, including San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, and Inland Empire.
Boldt said the heatwave will likely peak Wednesday but linger through the week:
“These high temperatures are going to continue pretty much through next week,” he said. “We might see a little relief toward Friday and Saturday, but it seems like the rest of May is going to be warm.”
For much of Southern California, temperatures will be above normal through the weekend into early next week.
NWS Los Angeles reports temperatures in the region will be around the mid-80s on Memorial Day, with cities more inland, such as Pasadena could see 90 degrees. For desert regions like Palm Springs, the mercury could climb to triple-digits next week.
Get ready for period of hot weather across much of SW Cal next week. Hottest areas will be interior locations including the Antelope Valley where an Excessive Heat Watch has been issued valid from Tue afternoon thru early Thu eve. Triple digit heat expected. #cawx #Socal #LAheat pic.twitter.com/qi7lfWLzJw
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) May 23, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Down the coast, the weather service issued an excessive heat watch for Coachella Valley, San Diego County Deserts and San Gorgonio Pass, indicating that triple-digit highs are expected next week:
…EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING…
* WHAT…Dangerously hot conditions. High temperatures 104 to 109 degrees Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday will be the hottest days with high temperatures of 108 to 112 degrees expected.
* WHERE…Coachella Valley, San Diego County Deserts and San Gorgonio Pass Near Banning.
* WHEN…From Tuesday afternoon through Friday evening. * IMPACTS…Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for sensitive groups and those working or participating in outdoor activities.
🔥 Hot weather incoming next week 🔥
A long-duration heat event is in store for the valleys and deserts next week, with Tue-Thu as the hottest days. The lower deserts could see highs up to 113 degrees on Wed/Thu.
Stay cool and hydrated, especially if you will be outside! #cawx pic.twitter.com/xY0gYoHaan
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) May 22, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
SoCal folks will have to flock to the coast to get some relief for the next seven days. Some beaches in Southern California have opened up with new social distancing rules (and by the way, some residents are not happy).
Rising temperatures are expected across the state through end month
Average temperatures are going to be way above normal for much of the lower West Coast into the first week of June.
A surge in temperatures suggests western cooling degree day (CDD), a measurement designed to quantify the demand for energy needed to cool buildings, is expected to jump above trend on May 24 and peak on May 28, returning to below-average trend in the first week of June.
Rising western CDD means average daily electrical load and hourly load forecasts for Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), which includes Northwest Power Pool, Southwest Reserve Sharing Group, Rocky Mountain Reserve Group, California-Mexico Power Area (without Mexico), are expected to see above-trend demand as people turn on their air conditioners.
Energy demand is set to skyrocket in the West because of the incoming heatwave — power prices will do the same.
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