- Escobar: The Empire's Revenge – Set Fire To Southern Eurasia
Escobar: The Empire’s Revenge – Set Fire To Southern Eurasia
Authored by Pepe Escobar,
The collective cognitive dissonance displayed by the pack of hyenas with polished faces driving U.S. foreign policy should never be underestimated.
And yet those Straussian neo-con psychos have been able to pull off a tactical success.
Europe is a ship of fools heading for Scylla and Charybdis – with quislings such as France’s Le Petit Roi and Germany’s Liver Sausage Chancellor cooperating in the debacle, complete with the galleries drowning in a maelstrom of hysterical moralism.
It’s those driving the Hegemon that are destroying Europe. Not Russia.
But then there’s The Big Picture of The New Great Game 2.0.
Two Russian analysts, by different means, have come up with an astonishing, quite complementary, and quite realistic road map.
General Andrei Gurulyov, retired, is now a member of the Duma. He considers that the NATO vs. Russia war on Ukrainian soil will end only by 2030 – when Ukraine would basically have ceased to exist.
His deadline is 2027-2030 – something that no one so far has dared to predict. And “ceasing to exist”, per Gurulyov, means actually disappearing from any map. Implied is the logical conclusion of the Special Military Operation – reiterated over and over again by the Kremlin and the Security Council: the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine; neutral status; no NATO membership; and “indivisibility of security”, equally, for Europe and the post-Soviet space.
So until we have these facts on the ground, Gurulyov is essentially saying that the Kremlin and the Russian General Staff will make no concessions. No Beltway-imposed “frozen conflict” or fake ceasefire, which everyone knows will not be respected, just like the Minsk agreements were never respected.
And yet Moscow, we got a problem. As much as the Kremlin may always insist this is not a war against the Slavic Ukrainian brothers and cousins – which translates into no American-style Shock’n Awe pulverizing everything in sight – Gurulyov’s verdict implies the destruction of the current, cancerous, corrupt Ukrainian state is a must.
A comprehensive sitrep of the crucial crossroads, as it stands, correctly argues that if Russia was in Afghanistan for 10 years, and in Chechnya, all periods combined, for another 10 years, the current SMO – otherwise described by some very powerful people in Moscow as an “almost war” – and on top of it against the full force of NATO, could well last another 7 years.
The sitrep also correctly argues that for Russia the kinetic aspect of the “almost war” is not even the most relevant.
In what for all practical purposes is a war to the death against Western neoliberalism, what really matters is a Russian Great Awakening – already in effect: “Russia’s goal is to emerge in 2027-2030 not as a mere ‘victor’ standing over the ruins of some already-forgotten country, but as a state that has re-connected with its historic arc, has found itself, re-established its principles, its courage in defending its vision of the world.”
Yes, this is a civilizational war, as Alexander Dugin has masterfully argued. And this is about a civilizational rebirth.
And yet, for the Straussian neo-con psychos, that’s just another racket towards plunging Russia into chaos, installing a puppet and stealing its natural resources.
Fire in the hole
The analysis by Andrei Bezrukov neatly complements Gurulyov’s (here, in Russian). Bezrukov is a former colonel in the SVR (Russian foreign intel) and now a Professor of the Chair of Applied Analysis of International Problems at MGIMO and the chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy think tank.
Bezrukov knows that the Empire will not take the incoming, massive NATO humiliation in Ukraine lying down. And even before the possible 2027-2030 timeline proposed by Gurulyov, he argues, it is bound to set fire to southern Eurasia – from Turkey to China.
President Xi Jinping, in his memorable visit to the Kremlin last month, told President Putin the world is now undergoing changes “not seen in 100 years”.
Bezrukov, appropriately, reminds us of the state of things then: “In the years from 1914 to 1945, the world was in the same intermediate state that it is in now. Those thirty years changed the world completely: from empires and horses to the emergence of two nuclear powers, the UN, and transatlantic flight. We are entering a similar period, which this time will last about twenty years.”
Europe, predictably, will “whither away”, as “it is no longer the absolute center of the universe.” Amidst this redistribution of power, Bezrukov goes back to one of the key points of a seminal analysis developed in the recent past by Andre Gunder Frank: “200-250 years ago, 70 percent of manufacturing was in China and India. We are going back to about there, which will also correspond to population size.”
So it’s no wonder that the fastest-developing region – which Bezrukov characterizes as “southern Eurasia” – may become a “risk zone”, potentially converted by the Hegemon into a massive power keg.
He outlines how southern Eurasia is peppered by conflicting borders – as in Kashmir, Armenia-Azerbaijan, Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan. The Hegemon is bound to invest in a flare-up of military conflicts over disputed borders as well as separatist tendencies (for instance in Balochistan). CIA black ops galore.
Still Russia will be able to get by, according to Bezrukov: “Russia has very big advantages, because we are the biggest producer of food and supplier of energy. And without cheap energy there will be no progress and digitalization. Also, we are the link between East and West, without which the continent cannot live, because the continent has to trade. And if the South burns, the main routes will not be through the oceans in the South, but in the North, mainly overland.”
The biggest challenge for Russia will be to keep internal stability: “All states will divide into two groups at this historic turning point: those that can maintain internal stability and move reasonably, bloodlessly into the next technological cycle – and then those that are unable to do so, that slip off the path, that bloom a bloody internal showdown like we had a hundred years ago. The latter will be set back ten to twenty years, will subsequently lick their wounds and try to catch up with everyone else. So our job is to maintain internal stability.”
And that’s where the Great Awakening hinted at by Gurulyov, or Russia reconnecting with its true civilizational ethos, as Dugin would argue, will play its unifying role.
There’s still a long way to go – and a war against NATO to win.
Meanwhile, in other news, Hegemon hacks are spinning that the North Atlantic has relocated to South China. Goodnight, and good luck.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 23:40 - Job Recruiter Warns Tech Layoff Cycle "Not Done Yet"
Job Recruiter Warns Tech Layoff Cycle “Not Done Yet”
The biggest threat to the US economy is a credit crunch in regional banks with the possibility of spillover into commercial real estate. This issue is exacerbated by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening to tame the hottest inflation in four decades, increasing the likelihood of an economic downturn. Consequently, due to the mounting uncertainty, one job recruitment firm warns the layoff cycle is far from over.
On Monday morning, Yahoo Finance Live’s Julie Hyman asked RecruitGyan Founder and CEO Neha Naik, “Where do you think we are in the layoff cycle?”
Naik responded, “We are definitely not done yet. I definitely think there is more to come, and it’s primarily because – not just recession – but there was overstocking of workers during the pandemic.”
She said, “All the companies are getting rid of employees they overstocked in the last two years — and obviously with the upcoming recession — tech companies have a couple of choices: first is to increase prices, second is to sell more services, and or third is to layoff employees to maintain profit margins.”
Naik pointed out that founders and officers of tech companies are paring down risks amid “the upcoming recession.”
Watch the full interview.
“Tech companies are making it their goal to not let [layoffs] affect their DEI strategies,” RecruitGyan CEO Neha Naik says. “On the other hand, there still remains to be interview bias, pre-screen bias, and just bias in terms of how people will perform based on backgrounds…” pic.twitter.com/cVzbHJpck9
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) April 24, 2023
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So far this year, 608 tech companies have laid off 173,880 employees. And judging by Naik’s interview with Yahoo, that number might steadily increase through the year’s second half.
Naik noted her firm can still place tech workers from top firms in 6 to 9 weeks.
While the economic storm clouds gather, expect even more tech layoffs in the months ahead.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 23:20 - Remote Work Is "Bulls**t", Says CRE Billionaire Sam Zell
Remote Work Is “Bulls**t”, Says CRE Billionaire Sam Zell
Real estate mogul Sam Zell told an audience of New York University graduate students that remote work is a “bunch of bullshit” and they should dismiss the idea of working from home, according to commercial real estate news website GlobeSt.
“One of the biggest lies in the world is that people working from home are more productive than people working in the office,” Zell told the audience at NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate’s annual REIT Symposium, held at NYC’s Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, on Wednesday.
“You have much less productivity if you’re working from home in your pajamas with three little kids running around than if you’re in an office,” he continued.
When asked about the current state of the office market and the impact of work, Zell provided this answer:
“I wouldn’t want to be an owner of a lot of Class B offices right now.”
The billionaire made it clear that remote work trends are temporary:
“On the first day of Covid, nobody was in our office. Six months later, everyone was in our office—and they have been for over two years.”
He said many professional skills critical for young people are developed in office environments, and working from home stymies that.
“There’s an enormous difference between a Zoom board meeting and a meeting in person.
“A Zoom board meeting is a board meeting where everyone sits and listens to recitations. An in-person meeting is where the real discussion takes place.”
Zell’s view on remote work is biased, considering he’s made much of his fortune in the CRE space, and remote work has led to rising vacancy rates and sliding property value.
The gold-standard measure of office occupancy trends is the card-swipe data provided by Kastle Systems. The average office occupancy nationwide is around 46%, still well off the highs from pre-pandemic levels.
We have cited the regional bank turmoil as likely going to have spillover effects in the CRE space — especially the office sector. JPM, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs have all joined the gloom parade, warning about impending CRE turmoil.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 22:40 - Montana Transgender Lawmaker Censured For 'Hateful' Comments
Montana Transgender Lawmaker Censured For ‘Hateful’ Comments
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A transgender lawmaker from Montana has been censured in the House after the individual made “hateful rhetoric” while debating a bill ending transgender procedures for minors.
A transgender individual shows a testosterone ampoule at a hospital in Santiago, Chile, on Jan. 8, 2020. (Claudio Reyes/AFP via Getty Images) The SB 99 bill, also known as the “Youth Health Protection Act,” bans minors in the state from receiving surgical procedures, puberty blockers, and hormones.
“The only thing I will say is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, said during the House debate on Tuesday, referring to the chamber’s opening prayer. Zephyr is the first transgender lawmaker in the history of the Montana Legislature.
House Majority Leader Sue Vinton called Zephyr’s comments disrespectful. In the evening, the Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers, demanded that Zephyr be censured for “attempting to shame the Montana legislative body and by using inappropriate and uncalled-for language during a floor debate.”
“This kind of hateful rhetoric from an elected official is exactly why tragedies such as the Covenant Christian School shooting in Nashville occurred,” the caucus said in an April 18 press release.
“Combined with former Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Nelson’s recent calls for ‘jihad’ and a ‘fight to the death’, there is unmistakable evidence of a desire for some to engage in violence over political beliefs. This must stop.”
On Thursday, Speaker Matt Regier did not allow Zephyr to speak against a bill that sought to define male and female in binary terms in the state code. On Friday, Zephyr was once more prevented from speaking on a bill that sought to block minors from seeing porn online.
Regier’s decision to prohibit Zephyr from speaking was taken after consultation with other lawmakers, according to The Associated Press. Though Democrats raised objections, the decision was eventually upheld in party-line votes.
Protecting Minors
SB 99 seeks to “prohibit certain medical and surgical treatments to treat minors with gender dysphoria.” A person is prohibited from “knowingly” offering medical treatments to a minor to address the child’s perception that their gender or sex is different from their birth gender or sex. Such treatments include surgical procedures, puberty blockers, and doses of testosterone or other androgens.
Physicians or health care professionals who violate these rules will be deemed as having engaged in “unprofessional conduct.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 22:20 - Majority Of US Voters Think 'Cheating' Affected Outcome Of 2022 Midterm Elections
Majority Of US Voters Think ‘Cheating’ Affected Outcome Of 2022 Midterm Elections
According to a new poll, 60% of US voters say it’s likely that ‘cheating’ affected the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections, while 35% of voters don’t think cheating was a factor in some races, Rasmussen reports in a Thursday poll.
Of the 60% who said yes, 37% of them said it was ‘very likely’ the case.
Good Morning !
60% of all Likely U.S. voters think it is likely that cheating affected the outcomes of some races in last year’s midterm elections and 62% say it is likely that state and federal officials are ignoring evidence of widespread election fraud. https://t.co/guF7GCiewp pic.twitter.com/rPrIoGxy61
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) April 23, 2023
By party, 48% of Democrats think cheating was a factor in the 2022 midterms, compared to 78% of Republicans.
62% of those polled also say they think the government is likely “ignoring evidence of widespread election fraud.”
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The survey of 915 likely US voters was conducted on April 17-19, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports, and has a margin of error of +/- 3%, with a 95% level of confidence.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 22:00 - Ghost Particle: A Neutron That Could Solve The Mystery Of Existence
Ghost Particle: A Neutron That Could Solve The Mystery Of Existence
Authored by Sumaya Hazarika via The Epoch Times,
“Truly the universe is full of ghosts, not sheeted churchyards specters, but the inextinguishable elements of individual life, which having once been, can never die, though they blend and change, and change again forever.”
– H. Rider Haggard
When we think about the universe, it simply seems vast with boundless space filled with large and minute particles unknown to human beings. Undoubtedly, there is a lot that we have come to understand about our planet, the universe, and also ourselves, but what if everything we know is only a fraction of the vastness that is the universe?
The study of “ghost particles,” or neutrinos, must make scientists feel the same way. We know everything and nothing at the same time. The ultimate paradox.
A neutrino, as the name suggests, is electrically neutral and a fundamental particle, which means it is not composed of other particles like electrons, quarks, antiquarks, etc. Because of its small mass (earlier considered to be zero), neutrinos have a very weak gravitational interaction making it able to pass through normal matter unimpeded and undetected.
Multi-wavelength compilation image of Kepler’s supernova remnant, SN 1604. (NASA/wikimedia)
They are the most abundant particles in the universe that least interact with any other matter.
To think about it, we are living in a world of countless trillions of neutrinos that can pass through us like we don’t exist. The combination of this ghostly presence and the important role they play in our universe is what’s captivating our physicists.
Proposed in 1930 and later verified in 1950, a neutrino is a cosmic mystery to scientists (pdf) even decades after its discovery, as to:
How much mass do they have? How many varieties of neutrinos exist? Do they have any magnetic properties? Are neutrinos their own antiparticles (antimatter)?
In their latest book, physicist Alan Chodos and science journalist James Riordon explore this perplexing particle.
“Ghost Particle: in search of the elusive and mysterious Neutrino” (2023) discusses the particle’s past and current discoveries, while they suggest it’s not just physicists who await those answers.
Riordon says “neutrinos are incredibly important both for understanding the universe and our existence in it.” In simpler words, neutrinos can reveal how matter evolved from simple particles into more complex ones, creating everything around us.
Are Neutrinos Their Own Antiparticles?
Every single property discovery of neutrinos has been baffling and also intriguing for our researchers, the biggest being, whether the ghost particle is its own antimatter.
If we are to believe in the Big Bang theory, the explosion should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, i.e the counterparts of electrons, protons and so on. Essentially, when matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate each other suggesting that our universe should be empty, but, evidently, that’s not the case. In contrast, the universe is filled with a lot of matter and a little antimatter, for reasons unknown.
Physicists are still trying to understand the manner in which neutrinos interact with other particles, which is a challenge, as the particle has neutral charge with very low mass.
Why Are Ghost Particles a Topic of Interest?
The same property of neutrinos that makes them difficult to detect, i.e their weak interaction with surrounding particles, interests physicists, as this feature can be useful in probing environments that other radiations such as light or radio waves cannot penetrate.
Another important role of a neutrino is in observation of supernovas, a luminous explosion of massive stars.
The core collapse phase of a supernova is highly energetic, and so dense that no known particle is able to escape its core front, except for neutrinos.
Neutrinos also have a crucial part to play in the research of “dark matter.” Its significance in probing cosmological phenomena is considered exceptional, and is thus a major focus of research in astrophysics.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 21:40 - Global Military Spending Hits All-Time High As World War III Threats Persist
Global Military Spending Hits All-Time High As World War III Threats Persist
Whether it begins in Eastern Europe or the South China Sea, World War III threats are mounting with each passing week. The latest data shows global military spending increased for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high. The surge in European spending primarily drove this increase due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Global defense expenditures increased by 3.7% in real terms to a record high of $2.24 trillion in 2022, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) wrote in a report.
The sharpest rise was 13% in European arms budgets, the largest increase in 30 years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has spurred many surrounding countries, as did ones in Asia due to rising tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, to increase spending.
Some of the sharpest military spending increases in Europe were in Finland (36 %), Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%), and Poland (11%) — many of these countries are near Russia. The largest increases globally also include Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Source: Bloomberg “The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,” said Dr. Nan Tian, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
“States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future,” Tian said.
SIPRI estimated that military aid to Ukraine from the US was around $19.9 billion, which accounted for a 2.3% increase in total US military spending last year. The US is still the world’s biggest military spender, nearly reaching $900 billion in 2022 (Maybe $1 trillion soon?). China is the second largest military spending, then Russia.
Combine the military spending of the three largest arms spenders US, China, and Russia, and they all accounted for 56% of global expenditures.
Surging military spending is a symptom of an increasingly insecure world.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 21:20 - Tucker Carlson Fired By Lachlan Murdoch; Here's What We Know
Tucker Carlson Fired By Lachlan Murdoch; Here’s What We Know
Update (2114ET): After an entire day wondering why in the hell Fox News would can the highest-rated cable news host in the world, ever, the New York Times comes out with this;
Who:
The decision to let Mr. Carlson go was made on Friday night by Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox Corporation, and Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News Media, according to a person briefed on the move. Mr. Carlson was informed on Monday morning by Ms. Scott, another person briefed on the move said.
Why?
[T]he power that Mr. Carlson, 53, wielded outside Fox News could not insulate him from a growing list of troubles inside the network related to his conduct on and off the air, some of which had been grating on Mr. Murdoch and his father, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, who co-founded the network in 1996, according to the two people with knowledge of the company’s decision.
…
The host, a polarizing and unpopular figure at the network outside of his own staff, was exposed as part of a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems as a bully who denigrated colleagues and sources, often in profane and sexist language, and called for the firing of Fox journalists whose coverage he disliked. He has also drawn condemnation from the right and left for his role in fostering a revisionist account of the assault on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
So he was mean to people?
We also know that last week, Tucker attacked Big Pharma in one of his monologues.
3 days ago: Tucker’s opening monologue calls out mainstream media’s role in pushing the Covid vaccines despite their high risk for serious side effects and death
Today: Tucker is no longer with Fox
This is the power of Big Pharma pic.twitter.com/r5fVaZJt3d
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) April 24, 2023
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Fox fires @TuckerCarlson five days after he crosses the red line by acknowledging that the TV networks pushed a deadly and ineffective vaccine to please their Pharma advertisers. Carlson’s breathtakingly courageous April 19 monologue broke TV’s two biggest rules: Tucker told the…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 24, 2023
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Oh, there’s more:
One early point of contention was Mr. Carlson’s 2021 documentary, “Patriot Purge,” which advanced the conspiracy theory that the attack that day was a so-called false flag operation designed to discredit the former president and his political movement. Lachlan Murdoch was said to have been caught off guard by the program, which also led two conservative Fox News contributors to quit in protest, Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes.
In March, Mr. Carlson edited down tens of thousands of hours of footage from the attack given to him by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and used them to falsely portray the rioters as people Mr. Carlson called “mostly peaceful” onlookers who had innocently ambled into the Capitol. The broadcast drew a rebuke from Senator Mitch McConnell, who is a friend of Rupert Murdoch’s and said Mr. Carlson had drawn “offensive and misleading conclusions.”
So he showed the public the January 6th footage and dared question the event.
There are few people in media who have their own independent following loyal to them.
Tucker is one of them. If he goes to an independent platform, his audience will be even bigger and his voice more influential.
Fox needed Tucker way more than Tucker needed Fox.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 25, 2023
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The Times also says that one of Carlson’s former producers said he ran a “toxic” workplace.
And yet, is any of that worth giving up tens of millions in Tucker-related ad revenue? It seems that if you routinely question the regime, it is.
This was Tucker Carlson Tonight’s last moment.
Eating pizza with the hero delivery man who stopped a car jacker.
I can’t think of a better way for the greatest cable news show in history to end.
pic.twitter.com/cfzNZ6QY4l— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 24, 2023
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* * *
Tucker Carlson, the highest rated cable news host in history, is out at Fox News. The news comes days after the network cut ties with host Dan Bongino 48 hours after the network settled with Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” reads a statement from the network, which thanks him for his service “as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
Carlson’s executive producer, Justin Wells, is also out at the network according to Semafor.
According to the statement, Carlson’s last show was Friday, April 21st as he continued to dominate, and his slot will now be filled by ‘an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”
TV RATINGS: Fox News was #1 in total viewers in cable news on Monday April 17, led by these hours:
1. @TuckerCarlson
2. @TheFive
3. @seanhannity
4. @jesseprimetime @PeteHegseth
5. @BretBaier
6. @maddow
7. @Gutfeldfox
8. @OutnumberedFNC
9. @DanaPerino @BillHemmer
10.… pic.twitter.com/FlYDu6zPHu— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) April 19, 2023
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Full statement from the network (emphasis ours),:
FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.
Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.
FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the free ad- supported television service FOX Weather. Currently the number one network in all of cable, FNC has also been the most watched television news channel for more than 21 consecutive years, while FBN ranks among the top business channels on cable. Owned by Fox Corporation, FOX News Media reaches nearly 200 million people each month.
From 8pm to 9pm on Fox, there was extreme, even fundamental, disagreements between Tucker and Hannity on those key issues – the kind of internal debate unthinkable on any other network: in lockstep.
I’d wager the new 8pm host will be far more aligned with Hannity: standard GOP.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 24, 2023
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Shares of 21st Century Fox dropped like a rock on the news, and is now sitting at January lows (the drop in FOXA’s market cap is around the same as the settlement with Dominion).
One of Carlson’s last monologues at Fox…
Were Carlson and Bongino sacrificed as part of the settlement?
And where to next?
Rumble..?
Twitter…?
ZeroHedge?
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 21:13 - Antony Blinken And The 'Made Men' Of The Biden Administration
Antony Blinken And The ‘Made Men’ Of The Biden Administration
Below is my column in The Hill on the recent disclosure that the organizer of the infamous “Russian Disinformation” letter on the Hunter Biden laptop was prompted by then Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken. He is, of course, now our Secretary of State and he follows a pattern of the “made men” of the Biden Administration.
Here is the column:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken would really, really prefer to talk about grain in Ukraine this week. But many people are less interested in what Blinken is doing as secretary of state than in what he did to become secretary of state.
This week, Blinken was implicated in a political coverup that could well have made the difference in the 2020 election. According to the sworn testimony of former acting CIA Director Michael Morrell, Blinken – then a high-ranking Biden campaign official – was “the impetus” of the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was really Russian disinformation. Morrell then organized dozens of ex-national security officials to sign the letter claiming that the Hunter laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Morrell further admitted that the Biden campaign “helped to strategize about the public release of the statement.”
Finally, he admitted that one of his goals was not just to warn about Russian influence but “to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election.”
Help it did. Biden claimed in a presidential debate that the laptop story was “garbage” and part of a “Russian plan.” Biden used the letter to say “nobody believes” that the laptop is real.
In reality, the letter was part of a political plan with the direct involvement of his campaign, but Biden never revealed their involvement. Indeed, over years of controversy surrounding this debunked letter, no one in the Biden campaign or White House (including Blinken) revealed their involvement.
Of course, the letter was all the media needed. Discussion of the laptop was blocked on social media, and virtually every major media outlet dismissed the story before the election.
That was also all Biden needed to win a close election. The allegations that the Biden family had cashed in millions through influence peddling could have made the difference. It never happened, in part because of Blinken’s work.
Once in power, Blinken was given one of the top Cabinet positions. He was now one of the “made” men of the administration.
He was not alone. The 2016 election was marred by false allegations of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. Unlike the influence peddling allegations made against Biden, the media ran with those stories for years. It later turned out that the funding and distribution of the infamous Steele dossier originated with the Clinton campaign. The campaign, however, reportedly lied in denying any such funding until after the election. It was later sanctioned for hiding the funding as legal expenses.
Those involved in spreading this false story were rewarded handsomely. For example, the second collusion story planted in the media by the campaign concerned the Russian Alfa Bank. The campaign used key Clinton aide Jake Sullivan, who went public with the entirely false claim of a secret back channel between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Sullivan was also a “made” man who was later made Biden’s national security adviser. Others who were implicated in either the Steele dossier or Alfa Bank hoaxes also later found jobs in the administration. The Brookings Institution proved a virtual turnstile for these political operatives.
Many signatories on the Russian disinformation letter continue to flourish. MSNBC analyst Jeremy Bash signed the letter and was put on the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board. As with Sullivan, it did not seem to matter that Bash had gotten one of the most important intelligence stories of the election wrong.
Former CIA head James Clapper was referenced by Biden on the letter and was also a spreader of the Russian collusion claims. Despite those scandals and a claim of perjury, CNN gave him a media contract.
They are all “made” men in the Beltway, but they could not have succeeded without a “made” media.
These false stories planted by the Clinton and Biden campaigns succeeded only because the media played an active and eager role. In any other country, this pattern would fit the model of a state media and propaganda effort. However, there was no need for a central ministry when the media quickly reinforced these narratives. This is a state media by consent rather than coercion. The Biden campaign knew that reporters would have little interest or curiosity in how the letter came about or the involvement of campaign operatives.
If Republicans did not control the House of Representatives, the Morrell admission would never have occurred. The Democrats repeatedly blocked efforts to investigate this story and the influence peddling allegations. Even this week, some Democrats called it a “tabloid story.”
Given the career paths of figures such as Blinken and Sullivan, there is a concern that other officials may see the value in “earning their bones” as “made” men and women. There is now a senior IRS career official who is seeking to disclose what he claims was special treatment given to Hunter Biden in the criminal investigation.
While the 51 former intelligence figures were eager to raise Russian disinformation claims before the election, most have become silent.
After all, the letter served its purpose, as Morrell indicated, “to assist [Biden] in winning the election.”
After the false stories planted before the 2016 and 2020 elections, the question is what is in store for 2024?
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 21:00 - Total Ban On G7 Exports To Russia "Simply Not Doable" – Japan, EU Officials Say
Total Ban On G7 Exports To Russia “Simply Not Doable” – Japan, EU Officials Say
As expected, an initiative by some leading Western allies in the Group of Seven (G-7) to ratchet the economic war on Moscow further – to the point of enacting an outright ban on all exports to Russia – has failed before it so much as got off the ground.
The move came as the US-led economic war has clearly failed to stop Moscow’s war machine in Ukraine, and as the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the European Union are looking ahead to their major summit set for May in Hiroshima.
On the table is a draft statement to implement a complete export ban on Russia, replacing the current sector-by-sector sanctions regime which critics have said leaves gaping holes for the Kremlin and sympathetic countries (or at least more neutral, like India or Brazil) to exploit. It’s expected to contain limited exemptions, such as for medicine and food items.
On Monday the Financial Times is citing officials who say the significant policy shift will be a no-go for key countries that must sign off: “But representatives from Japan and EU countries suggested in a preparatory meeting last week that such a move would not be feasible, according to three people briefed on the discussions,” the report indicates.
“From our perspective it is simply not do-able,” one of the officials told FT. Importantly, all 27 members of the European Union would have to agree to the sanctions before it could be passed, making it extremely unlikely, despite the ten packages which have already been passed (and were subject of intense wrangling and whole countries, like Hungary, being exempted for some sectors like energy).
However, some aspects of the draft statement which are expected to carry at next month’s G-7 summit include efforts to uphold current sanctions, tightening measures that restrict “evasion and circumvention” of sanctions and punishing countries “willfully supporting the financing of Russia’s war.”
Source: Bloomberg The Miami Herald reported last week that “So far sanctions have almost halved the value of E.U. and G-7 exports to Russia, with limits on everything from electronics to luxury items.” It remains “That still leaves $66 billion worth of goods from Europe, the U.S., Canada and Japan going in, according to the Geneva-based Trade Data Monitor.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 20:40 - Transgender Teacher Spoke About Wanting To Shoot Students, Parents Accuse District Of 'Cover-Up'
Transgender Teacher Spoke About Wanting To Shoot Students, Parents Accuse District Of ‘Cover-Up’
Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
It took three weeks for parents to discover that a transgender middle school teacher in Florida confessed to a guidance counselor that the teacher was having “bad thoughts” of self-harm and shooting students.
Fox Chapel Middle School in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 20, 2023. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) Now parents are demanding answers, accusing the district of a cover-up, and petitioning Florida’s governor to remove certain members of the Hernando County School Board as well as the superintendent.
Ashlee Renczkowski, a biological male who presents as a female, is the teacher who allegedly made the comments while at the school on March 24.
Kerry Thornton is an assistant principal at Fox Chapel Middle School in Spring Hill, Florida, which is part of the Hernando School District.
According to a report filed with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office by Fox Chapel School Resource Officer Brian Timothy, Thornton alerted Timothy the afternoon of March 24 that Renczkowski “had just made concerning statements about self-harm and then possibly making statements about shooting students.”
Thornton had visited Renczkowski in the classroom and asked how the teacher was doing, according to Timothy’s report. Renczkowski replied, “Not good, I’m having bad thoughts.” Thornton radioed for guidance counselor Kimberly Walby and brought Renczkowski to Walby’s office.
Social Media Triggers
In Walby’s office, Renczkowski spoke of “a social media post where people were talking negatively” about Renczkowski’s “sexual orientation,” according to Timothy. He also said that Renczkowski was triggered by social media posts critical of the “sexual orientation and lifestyle” of Renczkowski’s wife, Fawn Renczkowski, who also teaches at the school.
Thornton and Walby advised the school resource officer about Renczkowski’s comments.
Renczkowski told Walby about wanting “to shoot some students” because they weren’t performing to their ability, according to the police report. Walby then said Renczkowski recanted the statement. But Walby also “began to reiterate that she has short-term memory issues” and was “starting to second-guess the conversation” when it came to “details and the order of events,” according to Timothy’s report.
Renczkowski also admitted to owning three handguns.
Sandra Hurst, the mental health coordinator for the Hernando School District, traveled to the middle school and met with Renczkowski to conduct a threat assessment. Both Hurst and Thornton agreed that Renczkowski was not an immediate threat to students and therefore could not be involuntarily committed under the Baker Act, but the sheriff’s office did send an officer to Renczkowski’s home that evening to collect the firearms, which Renczkowski surrendered without issue.
In his report about the incident, Timothy said that after meeting with Renczkowski, Hurst “advised that a plan will be devised to meet with Ashlee prior to her returning to work with students. The school principal and Safe Schools was made aware of this incident.”
Parents didn’t learn about the incident until a local reporter named Tom Lemons broke the story on April 7.
An April 17 news release from the district indicated that Renczkowski was not at school March 27–29 but returned to work on March 30. Renczkowski was then teaching in the classroom until April 13, when the Florida Department of Education intervened to have Renczkowski removed.
The Epoch Times contacted Renczkowski for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
‘Respondent May Be Seriously Mentally Ill’
To provide “clarification,” Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis issued a press release on April 12, saying “the investigation revealed that no criminal offense(s) occurred; therefore, no arrest(s) could be made.”
Deputies also determined that “the individual did not, at that moment, meet the required criteria for involuntary commitment under the Baker Act.”
But Nienhuis also said, “In an abundance of caution, the HCSO petitioned the court for a temporary Risk Protection Order,” which the court “granted immediately.”
Banners at Fox Chapel Middle School in Spring Hill, Fla., on April 20, 2023. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times) In an April 13 statement, HCSD Superintendent John Stratton said the district was going to “take a hard look at all the actions that were taken on that day, and in the days following the incident, and determine if any steps were missed.”
“As is our longstanding practice, while the matter is under investigation, the teacher will be removed from all student contact,” Stratton assured. No return date has been set.
In response, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) issued its own press release, informing the public that it was only after the DOE expressed concern directly to Stratton that he chose to remove Renczkowski from the school.
In an April 17 news release, Stratton again said that “the district’s threat assessment was conducted by trained Safe Schools staff and the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office” and “all investigating agencies agree the teacher did not meet criteria for imminent harm to self or others.”
However, according to the risk protection order obtained by The Epoch Times—“served upon the respondent” on March 28, signed by Renczkowski, and “filed in open court” on April 10—it was determined by the HCSO that “the Respondent may be seriously mentally ill or may have recurring mental health issues.”
Renczkowski was ordered to immediately surrender all firearms, ammunition, and “any license to carry a concealed weapon or firearm,” and the document further ordered that Renczkowski may not possess, purchase, or receive any firearm or weapon for one year.
Parents Want Answers
In the wake of the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, many Fox Chapel parents are afraid. They’re frustrated by the lack of transparency and dismissive responses from the school district.
Now, a new petition alleges that “the delay in notification was due to a ‘cover-up’ that involved District administration and ranking members of the School Board and other agencies.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 20:20 - Which Countries Are Granted The Most New Patents? (Spoiler Alert, Not USA)
Which Countries Are Granted The Most New Patents? (Spoiler Alert, Not USA)
Every year, the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) tracks hundreds of thousands of patents across industries.
These patents grant their inventors exclusive intellectual property rights over their creations. They encourage new ideas, spur scientific development, and lead to new technologies and entire sectors being born.
However, the number of patents granted varies greatly across nations. When viewing the origin of each patent’s applicant, we see a handful of countries dominating certain industries.
In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Jacqueline Ann DeStefano-Tangorra uses 2021 WIPO data to showcase which countries were granted the most new patents, along with their sector categorizations.
Countries with the Most New Patents
In 2021, out of 1,608,375 patents across multiple fields, 87% were granted to innovators from just six countries.
Applicants by Country Granted Patents (2021) % of Total 🇨🇳 China 607,758 37.8% 🇺🇸 United States 286,205 17.8% 🇯🇵 Japan 256,890 16.0% 🇰🇷 South Korea 156,972 9.8% 🇩🇪 Germany 69,672 4.3% 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 20,009 1.2% ❓ Unknown 24,677 1.5% 🌎 Other Countries 186,192 11.6% World Total 1,608,375 100.0% After rapidly increasing its patent output in recent years, China topped the chart in 29 out of 36 total fields including computer technology, electrical machinery, and digital communication. The Chinese government’s focus on innovation led to the nation’s applicants receiving 38% of the 1.6 million patents granted in 2021.
The United States—home to the world’s largest tech companies—came in second with 286,205 granted patents by origin. The U.S. also topped four fields of its own: medical technology, engines and turbines, basic communication processes, and unknown (for inventions that can’t be assigned to a specific field).
Not far behind is Japan with 256,890 granted patents. It dominated the other nations in the fields of semiconductors, optics, and furniture and games, cementing its well-earned reputation of technological innovation.
“Unknown” origin applicants, for which the nationality or country of residence couldn’t be determined for the inventor(s), accounted for 24,677 of granted patents.
The Origin of New Patents by Field
When assessing which technological fields inventors are pursuing in 2021, it’s not unexpected that digital and electrical technologies are in the lead:
Rank Main Field of Technology % of Granted Patents 1 Computer technology 10.3% 2 Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy 6.6% 3 Digital communication 6.5% 4 Measurement 5.9% 5 Medical technology 4.8% 6 Transport 4.5% 7 Civil engineering 3.7% 8 Other special machines 3.6% 9 Audio visual technology 3.3% 10 Semiconductors 3.3% 11 Machine tools 2.9% 12 Chemical engineering 2.8% 13 Handling 2.7% 14 Optics 2.6% 15 Pharmaceuticals 2.4% 16 Materials, metallurgy 2.4% 17 Control 2.4% 18 Mechanical elements 2.3% 19 Telecommunications 2.3% 20 Furniture & games 2.3% 21 Basic materials chemistry 2.3% 22 Engines, pumps, turbines 2.2% 23 Biotechnology 2.1% 24 Organic fine chemistry 2.0% 25 IT methods for management 1.9% 26 Macromolecular chemistry, polymers 1.7% 27 Other consumer goods 1.7% 28 Environmental technology 1.6% 29 Thermal Processes and apparatus 1.6% 30 Surface technology, coating 1.5% 31 Textile & paper machines 1.5% 32 Food chemistry 0.9% 33 Basic communication processes 0.6% 34 Analysis of biological material 0.6% 35 Micro structural & nano technology 0.2% 36 Unknown 0.003% There are also many patents granted mainly in infrastructure-related fields, which have become all the more important following the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing focus on trade.
These include medical technology, transport, civil engineering, and semiconductors.
A Tech-Savvy Future
The number of patents granted in 2021 is a testament to the growing importance of innovation around the world.
While a select few nations have dominated the patent landscape so far, there are many others making significant contributions to innovation and intellectual property.
As technology continues to advance and the global economy becomes more interconnected, the importance of intellectual property rights will only continue to grow.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 20:00 - Pfizer Quietly Financed Groups Lobbying For COVID Vaccine Mandates: Fang
Pfizer Quietly Financed Groups Lobbying For COVID Vaccine Mandates: Fang
Authored by Lee Fang via leefang.substack.com,
In the midst of a contentious debate about Chicago’s plan to force employers to require their workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Karen Freeman-Wilson, president of the Chicago Urban League, appeared on television to dismiss complaints that such rules would disproportionately harm the Black community.
“The health and safety factor here far outweighs the concern about shutting people out or creating a barrier,” Freeman-Wilson said on WTTW in August 2021.
Earlier that year, her group had received a $100,000 grant from Pfizer, the manufacturer of one of the most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, for a project to promote “vaccine safety and effectiveness.” Although the Chicago Urban League is not normally shy about disclosing its corporate donors, the support from Pfizer is not listed in the “partners” section on its website. The drug industry funding likewise went unmentioned during the interview.
Pfizer’s grant to the Chicago Urban League was one of many that Pfizer made to nonprofits and trade organizations. Pfizer doled out special funding to groups across the country that lobbied in favor of government policies to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.
The extensive list of those with funding from the pharmaceutical giant includes consumer, doctor, and medical groups, as well as public health organizations and civil rights nonprofits. Many of those groups did not disclose the funding they received from Pfizer while they were advocating for policies that would force workers to get the vaccine.
There were several different and sometimes overlapping vaccine mandates in the country. At the federal level, President Joe Biden issued an executive order, which was ultimately struck down in court, mandating vaccinations at all employers with 100 workers or more. A number of state and local governments forced public employees to get vaccinated and tried to force private-sector employers to follow suit. And many large employers required their employees to get vaccinated without any prodding from the government.
Critics of these employer mandates have noted that the majority of the proposed mandates, including Biden’s, made no exception for individuals with natural immunity through prior infection. Proponents of the mandates claimed that the vaccines would prevent transmission of COVID-19, an argument that lacked sound scientific basis at the time and has further unraveled.
“You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,” Biden falsely claimed in July 2021, as his administration and local governments were preparing mandate orders. Rochelle Wallensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, similarly stated that vaccinated individuals “do not carry the virus.”
But it wasn’t just these unsupported claims by leading government officials that shaped the groundwork for COVID-19 mandates. A coalition of highly visible groups backed by Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry provided much of the lobbying support for coercive vaccine policies. Here are the most important examples:
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The National Consumers League, a century-old corporate watchdog group, announced support for “government and employer mandates requiring [COVID-19] vaccination” in August 2021, during roughly the same period in which it accepted $75,000 from Pfizer earmarked for “vaccine policy efforts.” The organization is also led in part by Andrea LaRue, who serves as an NCL board member. LaRue’s work as a highly paid contract lobbyist to Pfizer, focused on vaccine policy, is not disclosed by NCL’s website.
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The Immunization Partnership, a Houston-based public health nonprofit, lobbied publicly against Texas legislation in 2021 designed to prevent vaccine passports and municipal vaccine mandates. The Immunization Partnership claimed that the bills “erode the vital role of our state’s public health and medical experts in combating this pandemic.” The partnership did not disclose that it received $35,000 from Pfizer that year for “legislative advocacy.”
Subscribers to Lee Fang can read the rest by clicking here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 19:40 -
- Office Buildings Are Emptying In Major U.S. Cities Like Houston, Dallas, New York And San Francisco
Office Buildings Are Emptying In Major U.S. Cities Like Houston, Dallas, New York And San Francisco
For anyone looking to keep their finger on the pulse of how commercial real estate is holding up, look no further than major U.S. cities like Houston, Dallas, New York And San Francisco.
Those were the four cities mentioned in a new Yahoo Finance report detailing how landlords are “having a tougher time filling their empty office buildings with new tenants”, citing data from CoStar and JP Morgan.
The glut is a result of overbuilding while interest rates were lower, the report says, noting that Houston and Dallas “put up more new office space between 2010 and 2021 than all regions except New York”. Even more alarming is the fact that they have “millions more square feet under construction”, Yahoo says. And despite discounting, vacancies are now highest in those two cities compared to any other metro area.
Houston and Dallas had 18.8% and 17.2% of office space vacant at the end of last year, respectively. The national average is 12.5%, with New York, San Jose, San Francisco, and Chicago posting vacancy rates of 12.3%, 12%, 16.4%, and 15.1%, Yahoo wrote.
APOLLO: “Data from downtowns show that cellphone activity in San Francisco is at 31% of pre-pandemic levels.
New York is at 74%
Chicago is at 50%
Boston is at 54% ..… This has implications for retail, restaurants, and office.” [Slok] pic.twitter.com/6Zk7apNspI
— Carl Quintanilla 🔥 (@carlquintanilla) April 24, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The vacancies in Houston and Dallas come not only despite aggressive discounting, but even as both cities have had better luck with employees returning to the office than other cities. For example, worker attendance was 60% in Houston and 50% in Dallas, as of the first week in April 2023. Those figures are higher than cities like New York and San Jose.
About $1 billion in outstanding commercial mortgage backed security loans in Houston, secured by office properties, are coming due this year, Yahoo writes. Dallas faces and aggregate of over $1 billion in maturities by 2024, as well.
Itziar Aguirre, CoStar’s director of market analytics for Houston, commented: “Refinancing risk over the near term is high and it’s gonna be really tough because interest rates are so high. There’s gonna be a lot of foreclosures. I think there’s gonna be bankruptcies. There’s gonna be a lot of distressed sales.”
You can read Yahoo’s full report here.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 19:20 - New Report Exposes Growing, Billion Dollar Budget Fiasco In Illinois' Free Medicaid Program For Undocumented Immigrants
New Report Exposes Growing, Billion Dollar Budget Fiasco In Illinois’ Free Medicaid Program For Undocumented Immigrants
Authored by Mark Glennon via Wirepoints.org,
How can it happen that an annual program would cost 94 times times what Illinoisans were told it would cost just three years ago – $188 million in its first year? With subsequent extensions it now costs nearly $1 billion per year and growing, money the state doesn’t have.
A better question: How could it not happen, given the abject disregard for cost of the program and Illinois’ routinely scandalous budget process?
And wait ’till you hear the excuse for the fiasco from Gov. J.B Pritzker’s administration.
Here’s what happened: In May 2020 Illinois, became the first state to provide Medicaid for undocumented seniors. The coverage was “tucked in near the end of the 465-page budget implementation bill that passed the Illinois General Assembly late Saturday night,” as reported by the State Journal-Register at the time. That’s how Illinois’ budget is routinely implemented. A budget plus an implementation bill, usually totaling at least a thousand pages, is put up for a vote with only hours of review.
The program would cost just $2 million per year, the bill’s sponsor said at the time. That’s Delia Ramirez, a Chicago Democrat in the Illinois House at the time. Pritzker signed the bill without any cost estimate by his office. That’s all we knew at the time.
But the cost of the program blew though the appropriation for it even within the first month of implementation and soared beyond all subsequent estimates and appropriations. That’s according to a closed-door presentation by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to lawmakers last month that became public last week.
For the year from March 2022 through February 2023, cost of care for the 65 and over age group was nearly $188 million, which is 94 times what Ramirez claimed.
Since then, the state expanded the program twice, lowering the age limit to 55 in 2021 and 42 a year later. The cost estimates of those expansions also shatter estimates made along the way. Now, the expanded program is estimated to cost $990 million for the fiscal year that starts July 1. That’s an increase of $768 million over this year, which was the first full year under the expanded program.
No portion of that cost is reimbursable by the federal government.
More details are reported in a particularly good column by Capital News Illinois.
The problem and the cost uncertainty are still growing, largely because nobody really knows how many illegal immigrants are here and millions more enter the country every year.
Undeterred, House Democrats recently filed House Bill 1570 to further expand free health benefits for undocumented immigrants by adding ages 19-41 to the program.
Why was the report exposing this discussed only behind closed doors last month in the General Assembly?
I have found no excuse.
Is anybody being held accountable?
Certainly not Ramirez.
She got a promotion from voters who elected her to the United States House of Representatives in 2022.
How about Pritzker?
Pritzker’s office has given two answers, the first of which is to blame legislators. His office says they didn’t prepare their own cost estimates before the program became law because it was a lawmaker-driven initiative. Republicans have complained that the program was never vetted in committee before being added to the budget, but that apparently didn’t concern Pritzker.
Pritzker’s second answer is a doozy, essentially saying, “How dare you you question us about budgeting. We Democrats are great with budgets.” Specifically, here’s what Pritzker’s press spokesman, Jordan Abudayyeh, told CapitalFax:
The Republicans said it’s time we have some adults in the room when it comes to budgeting. To be clear, the only lawmakers with a proven record of balancing the budget and improving state finances are Governor Pritzker and the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly. The Governor just proposed another balanced budget that invests in education, healthcare, and communities. The credit ratings agencies have so much trust in his track record that after his proposal the state received two credit upgrades.
Let’s review some history. Who eliminated the bill backlog that reached $16 billion left by the Republican governor? Democrats. Whose prudent fiscal decisions led to eight credit upgrades? Democrats. Who paid additional pension payments? Democrats. Who invested hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild our human services infrastructure after the Republican budget impasse? Democrats. Who rebuilt the rainy day fund to nearly $2 billion? Democrats. Who balanced the budget four years in a row? Democrats.
The budget, of course, isn’t remotely close to being balanced for other reasons, as we’ve often explained.
But even if it were, the Pritzker Administration apparently wants us to accept that unbudgeted spending should be overlooked because of its supposed budget prowess.
Pritzker’s office says there is about $300 million available to cover the $768 million increased cost for the coming year over the current year. Where the difference will come from remains to be seen.
Illinois House Republicans, at a Thursday press conference, called for a moratorium and an audit on the program. They complained bitterly about how the program and each extension were slipped into other legislation with no review. “Zero transparency, zero accountability, zero public input,” said Assistant Republican Leader C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville),
The Republicans noted that the additional pressure on Medicaid from the program and its expansions is happening at the same time the state is expected to lose $760 million in special Medicaid federal funding for its own citizens that was provided to states during the pandemic.
Davidsmeyer indicated that he fears the pending, further expansion of the program to younger age groups will again be stuck into a budget bill or some other massive omnibus bill at the end of this legislative session, without real review.
“The sad fact is Illinois has become a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants,” he said.
“The State of Illinois gives them free healthcare benefits, driver’s licenses, mortgage and renters’ assistance, as well as other taxpayer-funded benefits. All I can say is ‘If you build it, they will come.’”
And “cost be damned,” he might have added.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 19:00 - Chinese Foreign Minister Reminds West Beijing Will "Never Back Down" On Taiwan
Chinese Foreign Minister Reminds West Beijing Will “Never Back Down” On Taiwan
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reaffirmed in Friday remarks that China would “never back down” on the issue of Taiwan – a warning to the West which came during a speech focused on China’s central contributions to the global economy.
“The Taiwan problem is at the core of China’s core interests,” Qin said near the end of the speech. “We will never back down in the face of any act that undermines China’s sovereignty and security. Those who play with fire on the question of Taiwan will burn themselves.”
Getty Images via AFP He also addressed recent and ongoing accusations that China is seeking to change the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait. “It is not the Chinese mainland but the Taiwan independence separatist forces and a handful of countries attempting to disrupt the status quo,” he asserted.
Over a month ago his words were even more forceful, and aimed directly at the United States. He said in early March, not long after taking charge as China’s foreign minister at the end of December, that “If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there surely will be conflict and confrontation.”
But on the other side the West isn’t ready to back down from supporting Taiwan security and sovereignty either, seen especially in EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell’s controversial call for the bloc’s navies to patrol the the Taiwan Strait. He published the words in a French weekly, Journal Du Dimanche, on Sunday.
Borrell wrote that the self-ruled island “concerns us economically, commercially and technologically” – and urged for European navies to ensure its protection. He said, “That’s why I call on European navies to patrol the Taiwan Strait to show Europe’s commitment to freedom of navigation in this absolutely crucial area.“
As for Beijing, it has spent years warning the West not to “play with fire” regarding the status of the self-ruled island. Officially, China’s policy is to see peaceful reunification via political means, but sees Washington’s frequent high level contacts with Taipei’s leadership as interference.
Chinese state-owned Global Times has specifically responded to Borrell’s plan as follows: “If European warships still want to show off their might in the Pacific today, the result would only be an embarrassing failure.” The CCP mouthpiece added: “For the People’s Liberation Army, which has powerful strength to defend its homeland, facing European warships that come to provoke and show off is not even worth raising an eyebrow. We advise them not to bring shame upon themselves.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 18:40 - Senators Question Feasibility Of EPA's New Vehicle Emissions Standards
Senators Question Feasibility Of EPA’s New Vehicle Emissions Standards
Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times,
Lawmakers questioned the feasibility of new vehicle tailpipe emissions proposals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which the agency predicts will lead to the mass adoption of electric light- and medium-duty vehicles within a decade.
The April 18 hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee.
Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey (D-Mass.) lauded the proposals, which the EPA released on April 12.
He suggested that the new EPA standard for light-body vehicles “could be expanded upon,” saying that over $135 billion in spending last Congress was being used “to build America’s electric vehicle future.”
“Strong proposed regulations are critical to driving climate progress forward, but they are more doable than ever, thanks to the billions in clean vehicle investments passed by Congress,” Markey said.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) speaks during a press conference in Washington on Sept. 10, 2020. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network)
Describing the advantages of stricter regulations, he argued that “those benefits are a bonanza of benefits to our climate, to drivers, and to our health.”
“We need to make sure they also benefit Union-American workers,” he added.
Lummis Questions Mineral Sourcing
Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) voiced skepticism regarding the EPA’s vision.
Lummis asked one expert witness, Kathy Harris of the Natural Resources Defense Council, whether focusing on tailpipe emissions alone ignored greenhouse gas emissions from the rare earth mining needed to produce electric vehicle batteries.
“There have been many studies that have shown that electric vehicles today, from well to wheel, are still cleaner than compared to a gasoline vehicle,” Harris responded.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) meets with the media in Washington on Nov. 9, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
The Wyoming senator also ran through a list of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, pointing out that China, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo dominate production and downstream processing.
“Do any of these countries have anywhere near the stringent environmental regulations the United States has?”
“I cannot speak to that today,” Harris said before apologizing and correcting herself: “Not to my awareness.”
“I have a rare earth mine in my state that has been trying to open for over ten years and still doesn’t have the environmental permitting to open,” Lummis said.
A staffer for Lummis told The Epoch Times that the lawmaker had in mind the Rare Element Resources Bear Lodge Project.
Soil containing various rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, China, in a file photo. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“There is no way that the standards and the materials needed to produce and manufacture in the United States can happen in ten years, and to ramp up the supply even in foreign countries that have far lower environmental standards, not to mention human labor standards—this is not possible to do,” Lummis said.
‘Not Even a Consideration for Trucking’
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) questioned another expert witness, Andrew Boyle.
Boyle is co-president of the trucking company Boyle Transportation and first vice chairman of the American Trucking Associations, a trade group representing the trucking industry.
Boyle had earlier testified to the risks of a rapid push for electric-powered trucks because of their current technological limitations.
“A clean diesel truck can spend 15 minutes fueling anywhere in the country and then have a range of about 1,200 miles before fueling again. In contrast, today’s long-haul battery-electric trucks have a range of about 150 to maybe 330 miles and can take up to ten hours to charge,” he said.
Cramer asked Boyle about the cost of insuring a large electric truck.
“It’s hard to tell because the consumer-facing EV product is so much further ahead,” Boyle said.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol Building on Oct. 06, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
He told the senator about what he sees as the negative consequences of another recent EPA decision—namely, granting California a waiver for its clean vehicle regulation, which would mandate that all drayage trucks purchased in the state be zero-emission starting in 2024. Old trucks would be grandfathered in by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
“If the power and the infrastructure’s not available, it’s not even a consideration for trucking, yet California wants to make it effective next January, that’s the only choice—no diesel trucks,” he said.
“We have the cart before the horse right now.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 18:20 - Anger, Pushback As Russia's Lavrov Chairs UN Security Council Meeting
Anger, Pushback As Russia’s Lavrov Chairs UN Security Council Meeting
There were fireworks at Thursday’s United Nations Security Council meeting chaired by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Already tensions are high in the UNSC due to Russia’s chairing the council for the month of April (based on the scheduled monthly rotation).
Lavrov told the council that the world has become a more dangerous place, possibly more so than at the height of the Cold War. “As was case in Cold War, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold,” he said.
Via AFP The meeting which Lavrov chaired was titled the “Maintenance of international peace and security,” but came under criticism by those countries opposed to the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. Western diplomats had complained upon Russia’s April 1st takeover of the lead seat at the UNSC that it must be an “April Fool’s joke”.
In the Thursday address, Lavrov accused the US and its allies of “abandoning diplomacy and demanding clarification of relations on the battlefield.”
But the response of Western allies in the UN was fierce. Olaf Skoog, European Union representative to the UN, said that “Russia is trying to portray itself as a defender of the UN charter and multilateralism. Nothing can be further from the truth. It’s cynical.”
He added that “We all know that while Russia is destroying, we are building. While they violate, we protect.”
Additionally UN Secretary-General Antonio took a swipe at Lavrov and Russia, saying it’s the invasion “causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people” and fueling “global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Tensions between major powers are at an historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation,” Guterres warned – at least seeming to agree with Lavrov on the extreme dangers of the times.
But it was the US’s Linda Thomas-Greenfield that pushed back hardest, calling Lavrov “hypocritical”…
“Our hypocritical convener today, Russia, invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, and struck at the heart of the UN Charter. This illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most shared principles – that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Likely these tensions at the security council will continue so long as Russia is chairing the meetings, also making for awkward business even when Russia-Ukraine is not the topic at hand.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 18:00 - David Stockman On Why Decades Of Inflationary Finance Are Finally Coming Home To Roost
David Stockman On Why Decades Of Inflationary Finance Are Finally Coming Home To Roost
Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,
Eventually, the inflationary credit emitted by the Fed works its way through the global economy and comes home to roost in the form of reduced domestic output and rising prices.
In this regard, there is no more powerful tell than the round trip of the PCE deflator for durable goods during the past 28 years.
As shown in the chart below, prices for durable goods, which are now mostly manufactured abroad, plunged continuously and by a staggering 40% between early 1995 and the Covid-Lockdown bottom in Q2 2020. There is no broad-scale deflationary gale quite like it in all of recorded history.
PCE Deflator for Durable Goods, 1995-2022
What caused it, of course, was a one-time arbitrage of labor and other local production costs on the massively expanded global supply chain enabled by modern technology.
Again, however, that wasn’t a wonder of capitalism alone. What drove the global supply chain deep into the interior of China and other ultra-low labor cost venues was the Fed’s lunatic inflation-targeting policies—originally de facto under Greenspan and then eventually (2012) official under Bernanke.
The truth is, when Mr. Deng declared that to be rich was glorious and opened China’s great export factories, sound money in the US would have resulted in a continuous deflation of the drastically swollen US cost and price level that had emerged from the Great Inflation of the 1970s.
Obviously, Alan Greenspan, the once and former champion of the gold standard, was having none of it. Had he permitted the nation’s swollen cost structure to deflate in order to keep domestic production competitive, he would not have been the toast of the town in Washington. He would have been vilified by the politicians because the indicated cure of soaring interest rates and shrinking domestic credit on the free market would have made financing the giant Federal deficits which emerged in the Reagan era well nigh impossible.
So Greenspan pretended to be the champion of sound money by taking credit for a phony gain he was pleased to call “disinflation”. The latter amounted to deliberately depreciating the purchasing power of savers and wage earners, but just not quite as rapidly as during the worst days before Volcker.
Needless to say, in a globalized economy inflationary money is quite the trickster. In the initial instance it led to the massive and relentless off-shorting of production, and the re-importing of the same goods produced abroad via the cheap labor being requisitioned from China’s vast interior rice paddies.
Inflation of the dollar came back as deflation of durable goods prices!
It also allowed the Fed to claim that it had vanquished inflation and that its altogether new challenge was the madness called “lowflation” or too little inflation. That’s truly when the Keynesian central bankers lost their minds.
Alas, the trouble with “lowflation” is that it was a one-time aberration, not a permanent or sustainable condition. As the above sharp hook in the chart attests, the sub-index for durables is now up by 15% from the bottom, even as the global supply chain continues to contract owing to the exhaustion of cheap labor in China and badly lagging political patience with free trade in the US and throughout the west.
Not surprisingly, therefore, the deeply embedded inflation that has has been fostered by the Fed and its fellow-traveling central banks is now proving to be far more stubborn than our Keynesian money-printers ever anticipated; and far more vicious that the clownish perma-bulls of Wall Street ever imagined.
Here is still one more reminder. We have long-argued that the proper approach to fashioning a “core” inflation gauge is not to arbitrarily drop items out of the price basket like food, energy and now shelter, too. Take that far enough and inflation drops to zero because you are no longer measuring anything that even remotely resembles the general price level.
By contrast, the trimmed mean CPI is just the ticket because each month it drops out the high and low 8% of items, respectively, but these are never the same components. So you are smoothing the monthly perturbations, not eliminating great gobs of the price structure.
In any event, the chart below presents the 16% trimmed mean CPI on both a year-over-year basis (purple line) and a monthly annualized basis (black line).
16% Trimmed Mean CPI, Y/Y Change Versus Annualized Rate of Monthly Change, 2018-2023
In short, decades of inflationary finance are coming home to roost. The Fed is not in charge of the cycle and it’s not over-doing its belated attempt to permit interest to return to some semblance of rationality relative to the underlying rate of inflation.
So now would be a good time to duck and cover.
They say that the Fed always breaks something but that is only partially true. What it actually broke was the money and capital markets long ago, and now there is only more demolition to come.
* * *
The truth is, we’re on the cusp of an economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/24/2023 – 17:40
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